Page 30 of Along Came a Rogue

“What ’bout you, Major?”

“Me? Barely caught a drop.” Even as he said that, water puddled around his boots. “I’ll be fine.”

With a disbelieving arch of his brow, Hedley tugged at his hat again, then nodded toward Emily. “G’ night, missus.”

“Good night.” Emily returned a jerky nod. “And Hedley,” she added, her voice shuddering as fiercely as the rest of her, “thank you.”

“’Twas nothin’, ma’am.”

“You saved my life,” she whispered.

The sergeant’s grizzled cheeks reddened. “’Tweren’t no effort.”

Grey clenched his jaw at the way Emily sent Hedley a grateful smile. He’d saved her life, too—twice now, in fact—and the brat had yet to thank him. Then again, he thought with chagrin, Hedley also hadn’t admitted that he wanted to ravish her and then leave her.

With a long sigh brought on by fatigue, cold, and immense frustration, he shoved Hedley out the door, then locked it tight in case anyone decided to try to take the rest of their money. He turned around. Emily stood before the fire where he’d left her, still shaking but less violently now, with her hands outstretched to the heat. She was going to be fine.

And now he desperately needed to get warm himself. He frowned at her as he crossed to a wooden chair in the corner and sat to remove his boots. “Better take off that robe, I think.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” With a fierce pull, he tugged off the first boot, the leather clinging stubbornly to his wet foot. “You’re wearing your night rail beneath, aren’t you?”

“But it’s wet, too.”

“It will dry faster without the robe over it.” He scowled in growing frustration, both with her and with the ruined state of his favorite pair of Hessians. He tipped over his boot and frowned as a stream of water poured out of it.

Dropping it to the floor, he made a mental note to make Thomas purchase him a new pair of Hoby’s finest, then reached down for the other boot.

“All right,” she acquiesced hesitantly. “But that’s all I’m wearing, just so you know.”

Damned stubborn woman. She’d nearly died twice in two days, and she was worried about propriety? “Don’t fret, brat.” He tugged off the other boot and glanced up at her. “You don’t have anything I haven’t seen be—”

The boot slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

He stared at her, his lips parting in stunned surprise.

She stood in front of the fire wearing only the wet nightgown, turned sheer from the rain and clinging to her like a second skin, the robe in a pile of wet satin around her feet. In an instant, he took in the full length of her. Wet blond hair hanging down her back, nipples straining like dark pebbles through the white cotton, long legs stretching down from the triangle of curls between her thighs…

…and the small but distinct bump at her lower belly.

“Christ,” he whispered.

The brat was pregnant.

Chapter Six

When he didn’t say anything, only stared at her from across the room, Emily swallowed. She now shook more from nervousness than the cold.

“Grey,” she said softly, folding one arm modestly over her breasts and the other protectively over her belly against the incredulous stare he leveled on her. “I couldn’t tell you when we were at Snowden. I tried in the carriage, but…please understand.”

He straightened on the chair, his shoulders stiffening.

“I found out after Andrew died,” she continued uneasily. Her gaze lowered to the floor because she wasn’t able to bear the stunned surprise on his face, the betrayal in his eyes. “That’s why I couldn’t tell anyone. When the letter arrived from Dunwich’s attorney, then I knew—I knew I had to keep this baby a secret. I had to protect it however I could.”

As he rose slowly from the chair and approached, she drew a deep breath, but her shaking only grew worse.

He stopped in front of her, towering over her by almost a foot, yet she didn’t raise her gaze to meet his, not wanting to see the cold accusation darkening his face. Instead, she trained her eyes on his chest, not daring to raise them. Whatever he thought of her for hiding this secret from him and putting his life at risk, she was certain that it wasn’t charitable.