Behind her, the door opened so quickly she almost fell back in the house. Instead, strong hands caught her.
“I’ve been looking all over the house for you,” Lord Hope said. “What are you doing out here?”
She tried to pull away, but he held fast to her upper arms. “I wanted some air.”
He looked down at her disbelievingly, and she couldn’t help but notice how thickly his eyelashes rimmed his black eyes.
“In the cold?”
“I find it very refreshing,” she said, pulling at her arms again. “Might I have my person back?”
“No,” he muttered, turning to guide her down the steps, his hand still gripping one of her arms.
“What?” she demanded.
“I’m not letting you go,” he said. “Ever.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s not meant to be,” he said maddeningly as they came to the street. “Where’s the damned carriage?”
“Around the corner; there’s no room for it to stop here. Are you bamming me about not letting me go?”
“I don’t make jokes.”
“That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said, rather too loudly. “Everyone makes jokes, even people with no sense of humor like you.”
He yanked the arm he still held, making her bump into his chest. Hard.
“I assure you,” he snarled into her face, “that—”
But something odd happened then. She felt a shove from behind her, a sharp hit at her side. Lord Hope’s hands tightened painfully on her arms, and she saw that he was glaring murderously over her shoulder.
“What—?” she began.
But he pushed her back and behind him, toward the house’s steps as he took his big knife out from under his coat. “Get inside!”
And she saw, horribly, that the three loitering men were advancing on him. Their leader—the man with the walleye—had a knife in his hand, and there was blood on the blade.
Beatrice screamed.
“Get inside!” Lord Hope shouted again, and launched himself at the leader.
The big man lifted his bloody knife to strike the viscount. But Lord Hope caught his wrist, halting the blow, even as he slashed at the man’s belly. The leader sucked in his belly and skipped back, his shirt and waistcoat in ribbons. A second man, hatless and balding, wrapped his arms about Lord Hope from behind, imprisoning his upper arms. The walleyed man grinned and advanced to strike again. The viscount grunted and wrenched his left arm free just in time, blocking the knife with his arm. The knife blade sliced through his sleeve, and blood sprayed in a thin arc across the street.
Beatrice covered her mouth and sat suddenly on the town-house steps. Black dots swam in front of her eyes.
A man screamed and she looked up.
The balding man had fallen to the ground and was clutching his bloody side. Lord Hope was grappling with the leader again while the third man raised his dagger behind the viscount’s back.
Beatrice tried to scream a warning but couldn’t. It was as if she were in a nightmare. Her throat worked, but no sound came. She could only stare in horror.
The knife descended, but the leader stumbled back under Lord Hope’s ferocious attack, bringing the viscount with him, and the knife missed. Lord Hope suddenly whirled, dragging the leader with him, and shoved the man into the attacker behind him. Both men fell to the ground in a tangle of legs and arms. The leader was bleeding from a terrible cut to his head, and his ear appeared to be dangling.
Lord Hope straightened and advanced on the fallen men with an intent, deadly stride, like a wolf sighting a wounded hare. He wore a warlike grin as he came, savage and gleeful. His great knife was raised, its blade bloody now, too. His bared teeth were white against his swarthy skin. The men on the ground looked more civilized than he.
And then as suddenly as it’d begun, it was over. The walleyed man and his cohort scrambled to their feet, caught the third man with the bleeding side under his arms, and ducked across the street, nearly under the noses of a team of horses pulling a heavy cart. The driver yelled abuse. Lord Hope took one running step as if tempted to give chase, but then he stopped himself. He sheathed his knife with a disgusted look.
He turned to her, his expression still savage, but all Beatrice could see was his left hand, dripping blood to the ground.
“Why didn’t you go in the house?” he demanded.
She looked up dazedly. “What?”
“I gave you an order. Why the hell didn’t you follow it?”
His wound was all she could think about. She raised her own right hand to catch his. But something was wrong. Her hand was already bloody.
“Beatrice!”
She frowned at her hand, confused. “Oh, blood.”
And then the world did a dizzying spin, and she knew no more.
Chapter Nine
“I am the Princess Serenity,” the lady said as Longsword set her on her feet. “My father is the king of this land, but there is an evil witch who lives in the mountains near here. The witch told my father that if he did not pay her a yearly tribute, she would destroy him and this kingdom. My father paid the tribute last year, but this year he refused. The witch sent that dragon to steal my father and bring him to her. When I rode out with a party of knights to rescue my father, the dragon came and killed all save myself.”
Princess Serenity laid a small white hand on Longsword’s arm. “The witch will kill my father on the morrow if I do not rescue him. Will you help me?”
Longsword looked at the dead dragon, at the white hand on his sleeve, and into Princess Serenity’s sea-blue eyes, but he had decided on his answer before she had ever spoken. “I will help you. . . .”
—from Longsword
“Beatrice!” Reynaud yelled again, though he knew she couldn’t hear.
She’d fainted, slumping to her left side on the steps. A palm-sized bloodstain on her right side and back was revealed, and the sight filled him with irrational terror. He’d seen far more blood in battle—had seen horrific wounds, men without arms or legs, bodies blown apart—and not lost his composure. Yet his hands shook as he reached for her. She was as light as a child as he lifted her in his arms. He felt the wet fabric against his fingers; the blood was soaked into her skirts as well, and for a moment he froze, afraid she was dying. Her brown eyes stared up through a mask of blood, dull and lifeless. He was too late.
No. No, this woman could not die. He would not allow it.