Page 67 of The Forsaken

Their arms came up to the same chandelier, which bathed her skin in a glistening glow.

“You should thank me, you know,” he said when the set brought them face to face. “I’ve saved you again from a bounder who would think nothing of ruining y—”

Andromena laughed.

Finally—her full-bodied, blithesome amusement.

Albeit, at him.

God, she was a scourge upon a man’s pride.

“Yes, how will I ever repay you for saving me from the charming, dashing, not at all uncouth Lord Kilmartin?”

A black curtain of rage fell behind his vision, briefly blinding him. After it cleared, her droll smile remained, mocking him.

“If you knew the sins and crimes Kilmartin is guilty of—”

“Never tell me he’s done something unforgivable, such as plotting to take an innocent lady and ruin her name and thus, any hope of a proper, respectable match with an honorable gentleman.”

His jaw worked.

She wasn’t near done. “As I see it, Edgar, you should be the one thanking me.”

This he had to hear.

“Your rescue on New Bond Street—”

“Ah, you’re calling it a rescue now. That is quite a concession from before.”

“Has made you the number one sought-after bachelor.”

Yes, it had. She had.

“Well?”

Only when she gave him that peevish nudge did it register, she was deadly serious.

“For loosing other flea-brained ladies on me,” Kerr laughed; a real, god’s honest, explosion of amusement. “I think bloody not?”

“Just do not go cursing so in front of them, or you will find yourself gentleman non grata.”

“I’ll be bloody well sure to use it even more bloody often.”

Andromena laughed…as did Kerr. Kerr hadn’t laughed in so goddamned long. Not a sincere laugh. Before now, his mirth was the usual chuckle that came with crude jokes and friend banter.

Which was clearly why time stood still, and he and Andromena found themselves suspended in this singular moment where they were not adversaries but shared in joined amusement. Their chests shook. Their laughter—his graveled and ruined from one sea-fight gone wrong, and hers clear and clean like ocean air—rolled together.

Quiet saturated the air and space between them. Their mirth also died as one.

Kerr and Andromena remained, gazes on one another.

Andromena’s eyes lifted in an unblinking, owl-sized stare.

At some point, the music had drawn to a close.

Andromena closed her eyes slowly. When she opened them, he knew she’d returned from whatever place of madness they’d both briefly landed.

Her countenance grew stricken. “Damn you, Edgar. Just…damn you.”