roared in his ears as he crashed through the door, the force of his attack causing it to shudder in its frame before it flew open, slamming back against the inside wall. The wrought iron lock, weakened from centuries of use, wrenched loose from the stonework and hit the floor with a heavy thud.
Later, he’d recall she’d made a sound, a shocked gasp or a hoarse cry, but at the time he didn’t hear it, because the sight that met his eyes as he loomed in the doorway drove every other thought from his head.
She was dressed in a white gown, her face as pale and stark as the villagers claimed it was. If he’d been in a rational state of mind, he might have recalled they also claimed her hair was a ghostly silvery-white, and nothing at all like the dark mahogany locks crowning this apparition’s head.
But Gideon was far beyond rational thought, and so, when the apparition turned to flee from him in a whirl of white skirts, he did what any man half crazed with shock and fear would do.
He leapt after her.
It wasn’t much of a chase. Gideon caught a fold of her gown, jerked her backward against his chest and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to hold her still. “What do you want?” he bit out. “How dare you enter my home and threaten my family?”
She gasped again, her slender body rigid with shock, but she didn’t speak. Her back was heaving against his chest, but some moments passed before Gideon realized she was so terrified she was fighting for breath, each lungful tearing in painful rasps from her throat.
If the situation had been different, he might have felt some compassion for her, some softening of his heart, but if the last year had taught him anything, it was that he wasn’t the man he’d always believed himself to be. The rumors and gossip and ugliness had turned him into the monster everyone thought him, because he felt nothing but rage.
“I’ve got you now, and I’ll have some answers.” He backed her into the stone wall, then seized her chin in merciless fingers and jerked her head up so he could see her face. “Do you understand me? This ends here—”
He broke off, choking on his words. He didn’t know what he’d expected to see when he turned her face up to his, but what he found landed like a ferocious blow to his gut.
The eyes gazing back at him were dark, familiar, and the lips opening and closing as she struggled for words were the palest pink, not a ghastly crimson. “I-I b-beg…” she tried, but trailed off with a whimper, her body slumping against the wall as panic caught up to her.
It was enough, though. It didn’t take more than those whispered words for Gideon to recognize the same sweet voice that had sung The Irish Maid to Isabella tonight.
Cecilia Gilchrist. He’d attacked Cecilia Gilchrist.
Gideon snatched his hands away from her and stumbled back a step, shame, heavy and bitter, lodging in his throat. How had he not known her? God knew he’d spent enough time gawking at her tonight to recognize the wide dark eyes and dark hair, the narrow shoulders and slight frame. That, and the white garment she wore wasn’t a gown at all, but a night rail.
“I-I beg your pardon, Lord Darlington,” she managed at last, her voice quivering.
She begged his pardon?
Gideon stared down at her, stunned. Her chin rose a fraction, and his chest tightened at the little display of courage, but though her eyes remained dry her lower lip wasn’t quite steady, and she was trembling like a frightened animal.
Good Lord, he must be losing his mind, to have grabbed a woman in such a threatening way. He’d never been so ashamed of himself in his life. He was about to beg her pardon when to his surprise, she spoke again.
“I shouldn’t have come in here.”
Gideon blew out a breath, some of his anger returning. No, she bloody well shouldn’t have gone into Cassandra’s bedchamber. He’d forbidden it, and that should have been the first thought to occur to him when he found her here. Somehow, it hadn’t been, and that only made it worse. “No, you shouldn’t have, so why did you?”
His voice was harsher than he meant it to be, and mortification flooded over him again as she shrank away from him, pressing closer against the wall, and all at once he became aware