“I cannot believe it.”
“You think it an easy matter to expose ourselves like that? There are many who would find us terrifying, and others who would hate us, and seek to destroy us.”
“You were…vulnerable.”
He did look away then. This brash highwayman could not meet her gaze, and he didn’t speak.
Her heart contracted. The trust he’d given her, that all three of them had bestowed upon her, when only an hour earlier that night, she’d had them at the end of her pistol…
“You humble me,” she murmured.
“I don’t want your humility.” His regard returned to her face, and she felt it all the way through her body. “That’s not what drew me to you. Not when we held up the carriage and not afterwards.”
“I’m a very ordinary woman.”
“If you believe that about yourself, then I do have to wonder about your judgment. For in the whole of my six and thirty years, I have yet to meet anyone like you.”
Her lips parted, yet no words came from her. Beneath the fabric of the caraco held to her chest, the beating of her heart thundered.
“Come.” He tilted his chin toward the creek, ten yards away. “You desired to bathe, so let’s get you that bath.”
They continued the short distance in silence. The creek itself was about six feet across. If she waded into it, the water would come only to her knees. Reaching down, she touched the surface of the stream, then pulled back with a hiss at the cold.
“There are no copper tubs filled with heated water out here in the forest.” He chuckled.
She shot him a glance. “Luxury isn’t something I’m used to, but this will freeze me on the spot.”
“Consider it the height of refreshment. Besides, you’re hot-blooded enough to withstand the temperature.”
After sending him a glare, she started undoing her stays, but her hands stilled at the lacings. “I did ask for privacy.”
He rolled his eyes, but turned his back and folded his arms across his chest.
As quickly as she could, she divested herself of her garments. It was a shame that the bodice of her dress was torn, but she had some skill with a needle and could find a creative means of repairing it so the tear wasn’t too noticeable. A new stomacher would hide most of the damage.
How would she pay for the stomacher? Mowbray had given her half her fee upon taking the assignment, yet the other half was supposed to be delivered upon its completion.
Once, she’d taken an assignment acting as “chaperone” for an earl’s daughter, meaning that she was to discretely trail behind the girl at balls while the young lady wore a fortune in jewels. When she first accepted the job, she’d met with the earl in his private study. On his desk had stood a large globe, but it hadn’t been an ordinary terrestrial globe. This one had been of the skies, including stars and planets. The earl had idly spun that globe, sending the firmament spinning.
Jessica felt like that now. As though the heavens themselves whirled around her head. No sense of bearings, no means of finding her way.
Right now, she needed to undress and clean herself up. Especially after last night, when Ezra had spilled so much seed inside her.
“Oh, God.”
“Are you alright?”
Ezra was beside her, his brow creased with concern.
She looked up at him with horror. “What if I’m with child?”
His expression eased. “The only way for a woman to conceive when she lies with a werewolf is if she accepts his mark.”
“His mark?”
“His bite. She permits him to bite her here.” His fingers gently touched her low abdomen. “It prepares her body to accept his seed. Otherwise, there’s no chance of conception.”
“Ah.” Tension seeped from her. She’d never planned on having children. An unwed woman with a child was too vulnerable, too exposed to ostracism, and more likely to fall into poverty. Yet to have a child that could possibly be a werewolf…
