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He gave the intruders a single, thunderous word.“Begone.’
“Lord preserve us.” The man’s weapon shook. Out of fearful trembling, she suspected, not anger. She squinted and peered around Sebastian’s torso. For heaven’s sake, it was nothing more dangerous than a broom handle.
“What sort of devil be ye?”
“I should be asking you that.”
“’Tis a demon, to be sure,” the woman said. “Naked as sin. Formed like Lucifer ’imself.”
“Get the hell out,” Sebastian said, each word a distinct threat. “Both of you. Or I’ll snap your miserable necks with my bare hands.”
For a tense moment, no one moved.
Finally, the broomstick-wielding man broke the silence. “Have at ’im, Fanny.”
The woman rushed forward, wailing like a Valkyrie and raising a blunt cudgel over her head—one that appeared, from Mary’s eyes, to be a rolling pin.
She thwacked Sebastian in the arm. “Take that, ye foul devil’s spawn. Back to the fire and brimstone with ye.”
Sebastian, clearly unwilling to strike out at a woman, ducked and raised his arms to protect his head. He turned his back to her.
Fanny skittered around him in circles, battering him about the shoulders. “Have that.”Thump.“And that.”Thwack.“I rebuke thee.”
Meanwhile, the man remained in the doorway, apparently content to let his female counterpart do the fighting for them both.
Well, Mary decided two women could play at this game.
She leapt from the bed and launched herself at the woman, tackling her against the wall. “Stop that, you shrieking harpy.”
“Get off me, ye demon’s consort. Cavorting with the Devil in my man’s and I’s bed.”
“That’s no devil.” Mary found the woman’s ear and gave it a tweak. “That’s your master you’re bludgeoning.”
Fanny gasped. She flung aside the rolling pin, and from Sebastian’s pained shout, Mary deduced the thing had bounced off his toes.
“God keep us,” Fanny breathed. “Dick, ’tis Lord Byrne ’imself.”
“Y-yer lordship.” The man in the door—Dick, she supposed—pulled the hat from his head and bowed. “Dick Cross. I’m the caretaker. And this is the missus, Fanny. We hadn’t expected ye. A thousand apologies, milord.”
“A thousand isn’t nearly enough.” Sebastian whipped the quilt from the bed and wrapped it about his hips. “Try multiplying that by a factor of a hundred.”
Dick shuffled his feet. “Ciphering were never my strong point, milord.”
Ignoring him, Sebastian went to Mary. “Are you hurt?”
“No. Not at all.”
He turned to the caretaker and his wife. “That’s a stroke of luck for the two of you.”
“We’ll leave ye alone, then.” Fanny gathered up her rolling pin and inched toward the door, tugging her husband with her. “Ever so sorry to have interrupted yer night of sin.”
“It’s not a night of sin.”
“We’ll leave straightaway and let you be with yer lady of the evening.”
Sebastian puffed with anger. “What are you—”
“Now, now. No shaming from our quarter,” she added. “Only God can judge. Perhaps fornication’s forgiven for the upper classes. Special dispensations from the Church, no doubt.”
