want to know what he hid. He would not be able to bear it.
Unbidden, he thought of another woman. Marissa, Archer’s former fiancée. Theirs was an arranged match. Yet she had been a lifelong friend and a confidante. Until he had told her of what he’d done, and shown her his hand, which had begun to change. Her look of disgust and horror, the resentful anger over his “depraved and utter foolishness” burned through him still. “You’ve become the stuff of nightmares, Benjamin.” She’d left him without a backward glance. And now she was dead and gone. Like so many others.
Miranda’s lids lifted, and she looked at him with tender concern. “You’re shivering, Archer. Get under the covers.”
He closed his eyes against temptation. “I’m getting warmed by the minute. I promise.” Still holding onto her hand, he drew it a little closer, next to his heart. “Sleep now. I’m here.”
She closed her eyes on a sigh, her hand relaxing in his. The sounds of the night flowed around him for a moment before her low voice broke over it. “I was a thief.”
Archer tensed in surprise. She had told him. He knew what she had been, of course. It had enraged him when his man of business relayed how Ellis, having squandered the money Archer gave him, had forced Miranda to steal. How Ellis had hidden his misdeeds from him for so long Archer could only marvel, but the news had firmed Archer’s resolve to claim his bride upon returning to London.
“Father taught me. He’s from the streets originally, the Seven Dials. Taught me to talk like one of them, how to act, blend.” She let out a short laugh. “A lifetime of Mother trying to make me a lady destroyed in a fortnight.” He tightened his grip, and her answering smile wobbled. “I started out as a dipper, picking nobs’ pockets while giving them a pretty smile.” Her accent changed when she spoke the language she’d learned to survive. The warmth in her voice turned thicker, yet harder. “Then as a bouncer marking ignorant clerks in jewel shops.” She swallowed hard. “They never thought to look below my bosom to see how busy my hands were.”
Slowly the pad of her thumb ran over his knuckles, and his attention divided between her words and the wonder of her touch. One might think years of wearing gloves would have dampened his nerves to sensation. It only served to awaken those receptors, making every caress, every fleeting pass pure torture. He felt the very moment she tensed, but she only clung tighter as if finding his hand a lifeline.
“In the beginning, I reveled in it,” she said. “Because they were stupid enough to fall victim, not see past a pretty face.” Her brows drew tight. “I hated them as much as I hated myself.”
“If you are asking me to hate you as well, I fear I cannot comply.”
A reluctant smile touched her lips. “No?”
He squeezed her hand. “Never.”
Her smile faded. “That is twice now that I have told you a shameful story of my past. And twice you have reacted without the censure I expected.”
His thumb played along the soft crease of skin between her thumb and forefinger. “And why should I judge you,” he said quietly, “when I have surely done worse.”
“Have you?” she asked in the same tone.
Her eyes were gleaming rounds in the shadows as he spoke. “I have broken just about every commandment, save… five and nine, if memory serves. I’ve always honored my father and mother,” he said with mock solemnity. “And I don’t recall bearing false witness against anyone.”
A smile touched her lips before slipping away. “And murder?”
Settled and quiet on a soft bed with his wife, he saw with cold clarity the faces of the men he had killed. A chill touched his heart. Despite his vocal temper, he had never been a violent man. His parents had taught him the value of life. But that had been before. Victoria’s voice filled his head. Only I know what you truly are. He swallowed, feeling ill. God save him.
“Yes.” And what right did he have being near Miranda? His conscience bid him to flee; his heart held him still. “Though I can say that each time was in self-defense, it does not lessen the fact that I have stolen lives.”
Pearly white teeth gripped the plump swell of her lip as a shiver lit through her. Thunder drummed in the distance, low and rumbling. An age-old, childish