Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,80

been a stranger to blood caused by violence. He’d encountered it so often that he’d become immune to it. After all, a man responsible for the most violent criminals in England couldn’t be so affected, not and maintain control of the work he did.

But seeing Faye wearing the marks upon her person, he realized he wasn’t so indifferent. He wasn’t so very indifferent at all.

She’d come so close to having a blade thrust into her neck.

Bile climbed up his throat, and he swallowed it back.

The cautious, gentle tones he’d attempted, however, weren’t what Faye proved she needed. “Sit,” he urged with a firm insistence.

That managed to penetrate the haze left by her attack.

She gave her head a firm shake. “I r-really am fine, you know.”

“Oh, I do not doubt that,” he said, allowing her to keep her pride. “Even so, sit.”

Removing his jacket, he tossed it down atop her cloak and proceeded to shove his sleeves up.

As he moved around the kitchen, fetching a pitcher of water and a small bowl, he heard the scrape of wood upon the earthen floor, indicating she’d at last dragged a chair out and seated herself.

A heavy silence descended over the room.

It wasn’t until he set his things on the table, grabbed the available chair, and dragged it close to to Faye, that she spoke.

“When that man caught me…” Tynan stiffened. “I was sure someone had already found out my intentions. That they’d already come to silence me,” Faye said softly. She dropped her gaze to her lap.

He’d been right. She’d eventually found a reason to be afraid in these streets, and yet…it didn’t bring any satisfaction. Instead, a vise gripped his heart; it crushed the organ. “Faye,” he began, his voice hoarse, but she continued over him.

“And all I could think,” She raised a stricken gaze briefly to his, before looking at the floor, once again. “was that I’d put your sister at risk by going to your house,” she whispered, and he strained to hear. “I would have been responsible for bringing danger to her door, and I am so very s-sorry.” Her voice broke.

He stared incredulously down at her. She was apologizing to him? That was what she cared about? Not her own well-being or how very close she’d come to losing her life… but how her actions today had put Sara at risk?

“Faye, look at me,” he melded all the gentleness he could into that command. He waited until she lifted her eyes to his. “My sister enjoyed your visit. She is often lonely, and today she wasn’t.” Despite becoming something of a master at wielding his words, he found that they escaped him this time, and he couldn’t bring himself to fully form the thought. Mayhap because he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it…

A little smile teased the corners of her lips. “Never tell me, you, Mr. Tynan Wylie, are saying there was anything good about my coming around today.”

“I’ll deny it to my last breath.” He winked.

Tynan dunked the fabric and wrung it out.

“Do you believe I should stop?” she asked quietly, and he froze in mid-rinse of the cloth.

Today had managed to break through that obstinate wall of determination.

He weighed his words. “I believe it’s dangerous, and I believe being around me is even more dangerous…as you saw tonight. Raise your head a bit. A touch more.” Gently capturing her chin, he helped angle her head and then wiped away the remnants of her injury. He assessed the superficial wound caused by a faint prick that could so very easily have been worse.

His stomach muscles knotted up once more, an increasingly familiar occurrence around this woman.

“What is it?” she asked softly.

He checked the wound further, and as he did, he spoke. “The only threat I pose to Hinton is a perceived one to his new post. The people you will call enemies? They have real secrets to hide, ones they’ll go to any lengths to protect. If they were capable of crimes against children to grow their power, they will certainly not hesitate to cut down a grown woman who would expose them and put their darkest secrets on display for the world.”

They sat again in silence for several long moments as he cleaned the blood from her person, and when he’d finished, he set the rag down and made to rise.

Faye captured his hand, laying her fingers atop his and keeping him there.

“When I learned about what my family did to the Earl of Maxwell,