Page 57 of Charlotte's Kisses

Leon moaned. “Hell's bells. She will have me pull out its innards.”

And yet he loved her? He had to be under some type of spell.

“And please be sure that Snowball has a good home,” she said.

“I am about to shoot you between the eyes, and you are worried about a lady’s maid, a kitten, and a three-legged goat?”

She was also concerned for Hugh and, truth be told, herself.

“I do not want to die, and I do not believe you want to hurt me. But if you do, I think you will be honorable enough to look out for Lucy and my pets,” she said.

He huffed and raised the pistol.

She held her breath and prayed.

The seconds felt like hours. Her legs quivered beneath her as the pistol shook in his unsteady hand. Meanwhile, she willed him to spare her life.

“Bloody hell,” he said. “I cannot do it.”

She exhaled a whimper of relief.

“Suzy will never forgive me. She will never love me.”

The woman was nary capable of love, but Charlotte would remind Leon of this at a more appropriate time. She needed to get Snowball to safety and save Hugh from whatever horrors he was experiencing.

Locking her gaze with Leon’s, she moved cautiously, as if approaching an injured deer. “I knew you were a good man who would not hurt me,” she whispered.

Unblinking, he stood frozen.

She removed the gun from his shaking fingers. “Tell her you slipped in the mud, and I ran away. Then she might not be angry with you.”

He huffed. “She will never forgive me.”

Probably not. The man needed to find a new woman to pine for.

“Right here.” He pointed at his temple.

Nonplussed, Charlotte simply stared at him.

“Use the pistol and hit me right here,” he said.

“What if I hurt you?”

“I hope you knock me out cold,” he said.

Charlotte closed her eyes, exhaled, and aimed for his forehead.

Thwack!

He grunted.

She opened one eye.

“Harder,” he said.

She exhaled, then cracked him with as much strength as she could muster.

“Fuck.” He dropped onto his buttocks and rubbed his forehead. “That bloody hurt.”