Read Online Wedded in Sin by Jade Lee - Free Book Online Page B

him. “Nothing exciting to see. Just a gent who got knocked sideways. Happens all the time.”
    A couple people chuckled at that; others just shrugged. But bit by bit, everyone wandered off. He even helped them disburse by waving good-bye. But despite his carefree attitude, Penny couldn’t shake the horror that he’d been knocked unconscious.
    “Surely this can’t be a common occurrence for you,” she said.
    He shrugged. “Me? Never. Well, perhaps a few times when I was younger. Well, more than a few times, in fact. Happened at school all the time. As a rule, people don’t like know-it-alls, and schoolboys hate them more than most.”
    That she believed, both that he had been an annoying know-it-all and that he had received a few knocks on the head from it.
    “But never,” he continued, “in the last few years. Been a paragon of nonviolence ever since I left the army.”
    She frowned. “You were in the army?”
    “It didn’t take.” Then possibly to cover his embarrassment, he pushed up onto his knees then all the way up onto his feet. She stood as well, a hand out to help him if he needed it. He didn’t, and in the end, she let her arms drop uselessly back to her sides.
    “Though,” he continued in the way he had of sometimes nattering on, “I am touched that you were so worried about it. Nice thing to wake up to a woman terrified that you had expired. Most gratifying.”
    “I wasn’t afraid you were dead,” she said. “I could see you breathing.” Her words came out harsher than she had intended because, truthfully, she had been worried. Terrified even. And she wasn’t entirely sure why.
    He glanced at her. “Of course. A most practical woman. I’d forgotten how levelheaded you are in a crisis. Must be because I’d just had my brains knocked sideways.” Then before she could respond to that, he narrowed his eyes and got the thoughtful look that on him could be rather frightening. “But you were worried. Pale, shallow breaths, and your eyes. Miss Shoemaker, your eyes were so wide I believe I could see all the way into your brain.”
    “Don’t be silly.”
    “Not at all silly. It’s a sight that I shall remember all my days. A woman as beautiful as you, terrified for me.”
    She had no answer to that. He thought her beautiful. She shouldn’t be flattered by that, but she was. Lord, she was even blushing!
    “Except,” he continued as he rubbed at his chin, “you saw me breathing, so you knew I hadn’t died. But there was definitely terror on your face.” Then he released a rather dramatic sigh, one worthy of the stage. “Oh, bother! You weren’t afraid for me, were you? You were afraid I had abandoned you.” He glanced about the street, and she could all but see the wheels turning in his head. “You rushed out here searching for me, didn’t you? Certain that I had left without completing my task.”
    She looked away, this time the heat in her cheeks coming for an entirely different reason. Blast him for being so logical and for figuring out exactly what she’d been thinking.
    “Men don’t tend to stick around for you, do they?” he asked, his voice surprisingly gentle even though he was exposing one of her darkest fears. “I shouldn’t let that concern you much. Men, as a rule, are rather stupid.”
    “So you’ll be staying?” she asked, trying—and failing—to make her voice sound casual. “You still intend to take me to this bad solicitor.”
    “Of course! Miss Shoemaker, I might get distracted by urchins spying on intrepid cits, but I never go back on a bet. And you have bet me that I can’t fix your particular problem when I most assuredly can.”
    She exhaled, relief washing through every part of her. “But perhaps we should go another day,” she offered, though every part of her screamed not to. “When your head isn’t so…”
    “Black and blue?”
    “Red and black right now. And it probably throbs.”
    He shrugged. “It does. But here is what I think. We