Teasing Your Wicked Heart

CHAPTER 8

She needed to find some light. The dark was frightening her senseless.

Sarah Jane found one moment of salvation when she eyed a streak of dim yellow light on the far north, under a wooden door.

She scrambled towards the light and grasped wildly for the lever. The door opened to an unfamiliar hallway and she stood still, barefooted, without a single clue to where she was.

"Mathilda," she whispered as she looked from left to right. "Mathilda!" Her whispers grew louder, her heart beating frantically against her ribs.

Her toes curled over the carpeted halls, a spark of recognition allowed her to remember that she wasn't in Thurstason anymore.

Right, Lord Rosenberg had died, and she was now at Kinsmen Place, with Killsworth—the new Lord Rosenberg.

Sarah Jane walked down the hall, thanking whoever had decorated the place for having thought of placing a soft carpet to line the floors. "Mathilda," she called. There was no answer.

Her mind was playing games with her. She was being startled by sights and sounds that she knew weren't there.

Sarah Jane followed the low lights of random candles in the hall and turned frantically towards the corner that would lead her to the staircase.

Her mouth pursed, smacking together to call her companion again. "Ma—"

But she collided with a huge form. She screamed out of sheer white fright. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!"

That was not Mathilda.

"Bloody hell!" A startled curse escaped Anthony's lips, as his own heart slammed against his chest from fright. His hands viciously gripped the railing to keep his footing upright on the staircase.

Her face took an animated expression, as her arms and legs flailed wildly about. She huffed and puffed, with her hands pushing her chest down to stop the laborious heaving.

Her eyes searched the man's face. His expression, she was sure, was as frightened as hers.

"ANTHONY," she fairly yelled.

"Calm down, woman." He took the final step to the upper floor. It was pure luck that he had not stumbled down the stairs in his fright.

His breath settled in one long exhale. "It's only I."

"YES. YES I KNOW."

He wondered if the woman had gone deaf since the last time he saw her.

Anthony regarded her quietly. She looked like she had seen a ghost. She lost her color, looking a bit yellow. Her hair was in disarray, pins sticking from places where it should not.

She was still concentrating on how to breathe. Her chest heaved rapidly, as her hands strained to push her breasts down.

This reaction was probably more than just the surprise. She was actually afraid of something. Had there been an intruder in her room?

"Are you quite all right?" Anthony assessed her, observing her morning frock to be rumpled beyond repair, its ruffles and decorations out of order and probably torn, and he couldn't quite see it, but was that her toes?

Sarah Jane shook her head. "YES. YES."

With raised brows, Anthony focused on the hem of her dress as his hands went around her to reach her back and rubbed soothing circles. "Steady," he murmured.

She couldn't be really walking barefooted in his home. One would think this lady was raised by a pack of wolves.

"I... I AM SORRY I GAVE YOU A FRIGHT." Her breaths came in short gasps as it struggled to slow its erratic rhythm.