Cast in Ice by Laura Landon Page A

lifted, and the backs of his fingers skimmed her cheek. His gaze locked with hers and he refused to free her.
    Spikes of emotion shot to every part of her. Her heart raced in her breast. Her blood pounded in her ears. A steady strumming sound echoed in her head. She’d never felt like this before. Never felt such a lack of control. Never experienced anything quite this powerful.
    She breathed several rapid breaths. The air rushed from her lungs. Her mind screamed for him to step away from her, but he didn’t. And instead of finding the courage to push him away, her body wanted to move closer. She wanted to close the space that separated them, and press her body to his.
    She prayed he didn’t know the thoughts that were waging war inside her, but the furrows that deepened across his forehead told her he read her mind as if every thought she’d battled had been exposed and made available for his perusal.
    “I think you are correct, my lady,” he said in a voice that was a low, threatening whisper. “I believe I might be a danger to you. Just as you are a danger to me.”
    His knuckles softy skimmed her cheek again, then he dropped his hand and stepped back to let her pass.
    Winnie moved around him and walked to the kitchen door on legs that trembled beneath her. She stumbled into the safety of the warm, secure kitchen, and pressed her back against the closed wooden door.
    Going to The Dove was dangerous, but it was a risk she had to take to avoid a scandal from which her family would never recover.
    Allowing Nick Stillman anywhere near her was equally as risky. Because this risk had far more dire consequences. Because it wasn’t only her reputation she might lose.
    But her heart.

CHAPTER 6

    Nick climbed the steps that led to his uncle’s townhouse and knocked. He was long overdue from his promise to visit Lord and Lady Rummery, but the urgent message he’d received that morning prompted him to drop everything and make time to call on them.
    It had been three months since his cousin’s best friend, Jenny Belden, had died. Perhaps his aunt and uncle finally realized that their daughter wasn’t handling her friend’s death as well as she pretended to. Perhaps the hints he’d made for them to pay closer attention to Lizzy had done some good.
    Lord Rummery’s butler answered the door and showed Nick to a room.
    “Nick,” his uncle said when he entered the blue salon where Nick had been shown. “I’m so glad to see you. Lady Rummery will be, too. She just remarked this morning that it had been an age since you’ve dropped by.”
    “I wanted to come earlier, but I’ve been busy.”
    “I know,” Lord Rummery said, stepping to a table with several decanters on it and pouring brandy into two glasses. “I get regular updates on how in demand Wallace’s brigadesmen are, and what an excellent job you’re doing. Were you one of the brigadesmen involved in the First National robbery?”
    Nick took the glass his uncle offered him and sat in the chair opposite him. “Yes,” he said when he was seated. “Although I wasn’t the only one tracking the thieves. There were several of us.”
    “Not several, according to the papers. There were only three of you, but the reports never mention any names. And it took you less than twenty-four hours to figure out the identity of the thieves, as well as where they were hiding. Brilliant work, Nick. Brilliant.”
    Nick couldn’t help but smile. Apprehending the thieves wasn’t really all that brilliant. The four men who’d robbed the exchange weren’t the most intelligent thieves they’d ever encountered. They left enough clues that his uncle could have found them.
    “But that’s not what I want to talk to you about,” Lord Rummery said.
    Nick waited. He would let his uncle say what he intended in his own time.
    “Actually, there are two reasons I wanted to speak to you.” Lord Rummery took a sip of his brandy, then set the glass down on the table beside him.