My Lady Quicksilver

She licked her lips, her tongue wetting his own. A groan echoed in his throat and he took a deep breath and pulled away. The world spun. When he met her eyes, they held the same unfocused breathlessness he himself felt.

Slowly, her pupils focused on him. “I won’t let you be hurt,” she said, swallowing hard. Her voice strengthened. “No matter what I have to do.”

The edge of ruthlessness was so at odds with what he’d known of her, yet he could remember the dark shadows in her voice the other night when she lay in his arms and told him of her life. Rosa was sunshine and smiles, yet an edge of hardened steel existed beneath the exterior. She had known pain and she had survived it. As she looked up at him, he realized then that he had underestimated her.

She would do whatever was necessary to protect him.

He saw in her eyes the truth of what she wouldn’t tell him, the truth she wouldn’t let him tell her. Fear wouldn’t allow her to give voice to it, yet it existed between them, as heady as opium.

Lynch nodded slowly and stepped away, her hands falling helplessly from his coat.

“I have something for you,” she murmured, her pulse still throbbing in her throat. Reaching down, she drew a leather mouth mask out of her reticule. “I know someone who makes them and I bought as many as I could while Perry and I were out…shopping.”

Easier to speak of this than everything that remained unsaid. His gaze cut to her face, noting the stiffness of her shoulders. Something had changed between them that night they’d been taken to Undertown, and though self-doubt told him it was because of what he’d almost done to her, his gut clenched with instinct. It had happened before that; the moment she told him he couldn’t kiss her again, the moment panic had edged its way across her face.

For so long he’d been afraid to let another woman close after Annabelle’s betrayal. It had hurt so badly, though the ache of it was like an old scar now. He’d never wanted to feel that way again.

Somehow Rosa had gotten beneath his skin. He hadn’t even realized what was happening until it was too late. And now he was falling for a woman who was afraid to love him back.

Oh, yes, he recognized the deliberate distance she kept between them. The only time she’d ever come close to revealing herself—that secret core she kept hidden—she’d been in his arms and his bed, and neither of them had been focused on speaking.

He knew she had secrets. He simply didn’t care.

The taste of her fear rode over his tongue, despite the weak smile she flashed him. If she wanted to pretend that nothing had happened, then he would let her—he had to. Anything else would only prolong the pain of his death if he couldn’t figure out a way to give the Echelon what they wanted without betraying Mercury.

So he didn’t push her to face this fear. He didn’t ask what it was that she was keeping from him. Instead, he took the half mask in dubious fingers and examined it. “What is it?”

A small round disk centered over the mouthpiece, bound with mesh that roughened the pad of his thumb as he scraped it over it.

“It’s a filtration mask. It helps those suffering from the black lung, or other lung diseases, to breathe without the choke of London air.”

“You think it will stop the bloodlust from effecting me?”

“I don’t know. It might. It’s supposed to filter out all noxious gases and pollutants.”

She knew. Knew the fear that lurked in his own heart. The vulnerability should have concerned him—he hated having anyone know his weaknesses—but Rosa was different. He trusted her implicitly, despite the secrets that lurked between them. This meant more to him than any gift. “Thank you.”

“I have three more.” The look in her eyes told him she knew exactly what he was thinking. “One each for Perry and Garrett and one left over for whoever you feel needs it.”

“Byrnes,” he said instantly. “He’ll be leading the outside contingent.”

Footsteps intruded. “I heard my name,” Garrett announced, striding out of the shadows and into the light, his attention focused on his cuff links. He straightened them and looked up, light gleaming off his chestnut hair and the stark white shirt beneath his black coat.

One would think a member of the Echelon had arrived; from the pristine folds of the white scarf dangling around his neck to the crisp white gloves Garrett tugged into place, he looked like any other dashing young rake.

His body was focused however, stillness radiating through sleek muscle. A weapon at Lynch’s side and one he had to trust enough to use. Garrett would survive, he had to believe that. Lynch couldn’t protect them all, especially not when this time he was the one who needed help.

“Where’s Perry?” Garrett asked. “Still trying to figure out which end of the dress goes where?”

“Oh, I managed,” Perry drawled, from the top of the stairs.

Even Lynch’s eyebrows shot up when he saw her. Languidly waving a fan, Perry slid her blood-red skirts into her other hand and started down the stairs. Her natural predatory grace made it seem as though she were stalking them, a small triumphant smile on her painted lips as her blue eyes locked on Garrett.

“Do you think I’ll do?” she asked in a surprisingly girlish voice as she reached the foot of the stairs. Glancing at Garrett beneath her lashes, she gave a little twirl that flared the skirts around her trim ankles.

At his side, Rosa pressed her gloved hand to her lips and coughed. Lynch looked down sharply. That had sounded suspiciously like a laugh. When he saw the smile she couldn’t quite hide, he raised a questioning brow.

She tilted her head toward Garrett, who was frozen in the act of straightening his coat.

“Well?” Perry repeated, coming to a halt, with her red skirts wrapping around the bottom of her legs and an excited, breathless flush in her cheeks.

Garrett cleared his throat. “Good God. Mrs. Marberry you work wonders.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Rosa replied. “Perhaps you’re not giving Perry her dues. It seems she’s been hiding more than a knife or two under that body armor all along.”

The color drained out of his second’s face. A dawning suspicion began to grow on him and Lynch glanced between the pair of them. Rosa’s face came into view as she straightened his coat and she winked up at him as if she knew precisely what he was thinking.

“Don’t ruin it,” she mouthed silently.

“Quite,” Garrett said in a crisp, distant tone that sounded not at all himself. His eyes were wild. “Shall we?”

* * *

Light gleamed over the heavy Grecian columns that supported the opera portico. Dozens of brightly dressed ladies littered the marble stairs that led to the doors, fans fluttering like ghostly wings in the night.

Lynch stepped out of the plain black steam carriage, raking the crowd with a ruthless gaze. Blue bloods thronged all around him, some of them casting curious glances at the carriage as if wondering what he was doing there. He’d earned a knighthood over twenty years ago for finding the kidnapped cousin of the queen, but he rarely moved amongst them. They might call him “sir” to his face, but they still considered him little better than a rogue. Indeed some of the younger members of the Echelon didn’t even bother with the “sir,” too young to remember a time when he’d walked amongst them with the same rights and dues as they owned.

He offered his hand to Rosa. Her glove rested on his, then she slid down from the carriage with effortless grace, fanning herself. The bored expression on her face perfectly matched every other lady there, as though they didn’t dare reveal too much emotion for fear of appearing gauche.

Her eyes however raked the crowd with the same attention to detail as his—almost as if she were looking for someone. Lynch slid his hand into the curve of her back and urged her toward the opera house, bending low to murmur, “Don’t be nervous. I won’t allow anything to happen to you.”

“I know.”

Her spine was steel, reluctance tight in each muscle beneath his fingertips. “Do you expect your father to be here?”

Rosa stopped in her tracks. “How did you—” Then she stopped and he had no difficulty deciphering her thoughts.

“I know he’s of the Echelon. And I know he hurt you. One of these days, you will tell me what he did—” At the sudden jerk of her head, he lifted a soothing hand. “But not now. Just rest assured that you will come to no