To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

thing Lady Grey hunts anymore is sausages.”
    Abigail carefully bent and touched Lady Grey’s warm head. She made sure to stay far enough away from Sir Alistair so that she didn’t accidentally brush him. The dog licked her fingers with a long tongue. “She’s still a nice dog, even if it’s only sausages she hunts.”
    Sir Alistair turned his head so he could see her out of his good eye.
    Abigail froze, her fingers clutching Lady Grey’s wiry fur. She was so close to him that she could see lighter bits of brown like a star around the center of his eye. They were almost gold-colored, those bits. Sir Alistair wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t frowning anymore, either. His face was still horrible to look at, but there was something almost sad about it, too.
    She drew in her breath to say something.
    At that moment, the outside kitchen door blew open. “Who’s ready for tea?” Mama asked.
    H ELEN STOPPED SHORT at the sight of Sir Alistair kneeling with her children by the hearth. Oh, dear. She’d rather hoped he’d not discover their return until after she’d made some tea. Not only might a meal pacify him, but she could also use a bite or two before confronting Sir Beastly. Shopping was much harder work than she’d first supposed.
    But a respite was not to be. Sir Alistair rose to his feet slowly, his worn boots scraping on the hearth’s flagstones. Goodness! She’d seen him just this morning, but already she’d forgotten how tall he was—how big in general, really, especially standing next to Abigail and Jamie—and how intimidating. That was probably why she was just a little bit short of breath.
    He smiled, and the expression made the back of her neck tickle. “Mrs. Halifax.”
    She swallowed and tilted her chin. “Sir Alistair.”
    He prowled toward her, athletic, male, and rather dangerous. “I confess your presence in my kitchen is something of a surprise.”
    “Is it?”
    “I believe”—he circled behind her, and she twisted her neck to try and keep him in her sight—“that I dismissed you just this morning.”
    Helen cleared her throat. “About that—”
    “I’m almost certain, in fact, that I saw you leave in a carriage.”
    “Well, I—”
    “A carriage I hired to take you away.” Was that his breath against the back of her neck?
    She turned, but he was several paces away, by the fireplace now. “I explained to the driver that you’d made a mistake.”
    “ I made a mistake?” His gaze dropped to the basket she carried in her hands. “You’ve been to the village, then, madam?”
    She tilted her chin. No use letting him intimidate her. “Yes, I have.”
    “And you’ve bought eggs and ham and bread and jam.” He stalked straight toward her, his long stride eating up the few feet between them.
    “Yes, I have.” She shied away—entirely inadvertently! —and found herself against the kitchen table.
    “And what sort of mistake did you tell the carriage driver I’d made?” He plucked the basket from her hand.
    “Oh!” She reached for her basket, but he carelessly held it up out of reach.
    “Tut, tut, Mrs. Halifax. You were about to tell me how you convinced the driver to bring you back here.” He took the ham out of the basket and set it on the kitchen table. “Did you bribe the man?”
    “Certainly not.” She watched him worriedly as he placed the bread and jam beside the ham. Was he angry? Amused? The problem was she simply couldn’t tell. She expelled an exasperated breath. “I told him that you were confused.”
    He looked at her. “Confused.”
    If the table hadn’t been at her back, she might’ve fled. “Yes. Confused. I said I only needed the carriage to do my shopping in Glenlargo.”
    “Is that so?” He’d emptied the basket by now and was examining the contents laid out on the table. Besides the jam, ham, bread, and eggs, she’d purchased tea, a lovely brown-glazed teapot, butter, four nice round apples, a bunch of carrots, a wedge of creamy yellow