'That was a magnificent performance,' he said, setting down his Hessian boots and tossing his coat across the truckle bed. 'Are you really a sister of the Duke of Bewcastle?'
At the risk of appearing tediously repetitious, Freyja pointed at the door again.
'Out!' she commanded.
But he merely grinned at her and stepped closer.
'But I think not,' he said. 'Why would a duke's sister be staying at this less-than-grand establishment? And without a maid or chaperone to guard her? It was a wonderful performance, nevertheless.'
'I can live without your approval,' she said coldly. 'I do not know what you have done that is so heinous. I do not want to know. I want you out of this room, and I want you out now. Find somewhere else to cower in fright.'
'Fright?' He laughed and set a hand over his heart. 'You wound me, my charmer.'
He was standing very close, quite close enough for Freyja to realize that the top of her head reached barely to his chin. But she always had been short. She was accustomed to ruling her world from below the level of much of the action.
'I am neither your sweetheart nor your charmer,' she told him. 'I shall count to three. One.'
'For what purpose?' He set his hands on either side of her waist.
'Two.'
He lowered his head and kissed her. Right on the lips, his own parted slightly so that there was a shocking sensation of warm, moist intimacy.
Freyja inhaled sharply, drew back one arm, and punched him hard in the nose.
'Ouch!' he said, fingering his nose gingerly and flexing his mouth. He drew his hand away and Freyja had the satisfaction of seeing that she had drawn blood. 'Did no one ever teach you that any ordinary lady would slap a man's cheek under such scandalous circumstances, not punch him in the nose?'
'I am no ordinary lady,' she told him sternly.
He grinned again and dabbed at his nose with the back of one hand. 'You are adorable when you are angry,' he said.
'Get out.'
'But I cannot do that, you see,' he said. 'That grandfatherly soul and his pugilistic henchman will be lying in wait for me, and I will be doomed to a leg shackle as surely as I am standing here.'
'I do not want to hear any of the sordid details,' she said, the significance of his dishabille suddenly borne in upon her. 'And why should I care if they are lying in wait?'
'Because, sweetheart,' he said, 'they would see me coming from your room and draw their own slightly scandalous conclusions, and your reputation would be in tatters.'
'It will doubtless survive the shock,' she said.
'Have pity on me, O fair one,' he said, grinning again-did he take nothing seriously, this man? 'I fell for an old trick. There were the elderly gentleman and his granddaughter-a damsel lovely beyond words-in the parlor downstairs with nothing to do to while away the evening hours, and there was I, similarly employed-or unemployed. It was the most natural thing in the world for the grandfather and me to play a few hands of cards while the said damsel watched quietly and sweetly, always in my line of vision. After I had retired for the night and she came to my room to offer further entertainment-I daresay you have noticed that there are no locks on the doors?-was I to point virtuously at the door and order her to be gone? I am made of flesh and blood. As it turned out, it was just fortunate for me that I was still up and still half dressed and that the grandfather did not wait quite long enough before bursting in, all righteous wrath, with the innkeeper and his ferocious-looking thug in tow as witnesses. It was fortunate for me too that they came rushing into the room in a great zealous body, leaving the door unguarded. I made use of the exit thus provided me, dashed along the corridor as far as I could go, and . . . took the only door available to me. This one.' He indicated the door of her room with a sweeping gesture of his arm.
'You were going to debauch an innocent girl?' Freyja's bosom swelled.
'Innocent?' He chuckled. 'She came to me, sweetheart. Not that I was in any way reluctant, I feel compelled to admit. It is a way some men have of marrying their daughters or granddaughters to advantage, you know-or at least of extorting a hefty sum by way of compensation for lost virtue. They lie in wait in places like this until a poor fool like me happens along, and then they go into action.'
'It would serve you right,' she said severely, 'if you had been caught. I have not the least bit of sympathy for you.'
And yet, she thought, it was just the sort of scrape that Alleyne might get into, or Rannulf before his recent marriage to Judith.
'I am going to have to stay here for the rest of the night, I am afraid,' the stranger said, looking around. 'I don't suppose you would fancy sharing your bed with me?'
Freyja favored him with her coldest, haughtiest look, the one that froze most normal mortals in their tracks.
'No?' He grinned yet again. 'It will have to be the truckle bed, then. I'll try not to snore. I hope you do not.'
'You will leave this room,' she told him, 'before I count to three, or I shall scream. Very loudly. One.'
'You would not do that, sweetheart,' he said. 'You would expose yourself as a liar to your erstwhile visitors.'
'Two.'
'Unless,' he said with a chuckle, 'you were to explain that I must have tiptoed in and hidden myself in the
