Dancing With Danger (Goode Girls #3) - Kerrigan Byrne Page 0,64

I have Morley, Pru, Nora, and Titus, and it’s not like you’ll be gone forever. Perhaps I’ll visit you in exotic places?”

Was she truly contemplating this madness? “But our parents...I can’t leave you to face them in the wake of such a decision.”

“I’ll deal with them,” Morley sighed, running an exhausted hand over his face. “Prudence will have my neck in a noose for this.”

Suddenly her heart was pounding. Throbbing. Threatening to gallop away like a herd of stampeding horses.

“Surely you’re not agreeing to this, Morley.” She gestured at Raphael, not trusting herself to look at him. “Have you forgotten he’s a thief? A ne’er-do-well? A profligate libertine I’ve known all of five minutes?”

“A lesser man would be wounded.” Raphael placed a hand over his heart as if she’d pierced it.

“I was once all of those things.” Morley stared hard at the man who offered his heart to her. “I believe we do not have to be what our circumstances would have made for us. We can forge our own path. We can choose to be better.”

“All I want to be is worthy of her,” Raphael said with such vehemence, she found new tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

Morley nodded his approval. “London could be made safe for you... It would take some doing. Some time to change the narrative, to see where the balance of power shifts when all is said and done. Longueville will need seeing to. Leave that to me.”

“Everyone’s gone mad,” Mercy realized.

Including her. Because she was actually contemplating this. Leaving her home. Her twin. Her other beloved sisters and nieces and brothers-in-law.

For the journey she’d always yearned for.

To share with a man who was beginning to mean everything to her.

Felicity drifted forward and enfolded her in an embrace, her body trembling with valiantly unshed tears. “You’re miserable here, Mercy. We all know it. Our parents will return, and you’ll be locked in a battle that will only end in a disastrous marriage or with you disavowed. You’ve always talked of independence. A grand adventure. This might be your one chance to claim it.”

“What will you do? Might you come with us?” Mercy offered.

Felicity shook her head. “Mercy, for once, stop worrying about me. I’m grown, perhaps it’s time I step away from your shadow. I’ll toddle along. It’ll be fine, just...promise me you’ll write. All the time.”

Mercy must have nodded, because Felicity kissed her, then turned to take Raphael’s hand. “And you promise to make her happy?”

He pressed a fond kiss to her knuckles. “It’s all I want, petite sœur.”

“She’s not easy.”

“I’m still right here, I’ll have you know,” Mercy said with no little indignation.

Raphael flashed his most charming, cocksure grin. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Mercy dashed away every tear, not knowing if she was infatuated or infuriated. “You’re getting ahead of yourselves. I haven’t even agreed to go anywhere!”

Felicity and Raphael shared a knowing smile that lit her temper. “What did I tell you?”

Raphael winked and let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Unbelievable!” Throwing up her hands, Mercy marched a few paces away, if only to try to chase her unruly emotions.

“Mon chaton.” Raphael caught her, and the feel of his strong fingers threading with hers stunned her to stillness.

Not just rooting her feet to the ground but weaving something undeniable through the pads of her fingers, threading up the veins in her arm, and pouring into her heart. From there, it pulsed into the rest of her with every beat.

It was him. His name. His face.

The love that shined there when she turned back to find them alone beneath the earth.

“I can’t explain it, after only knowing you such a short time,” he said with the earnestness of a youth shining on the face of a brutal man who’d never been blessed with a childhood. “But I know I’ve always been some sort of empty vessel, and I think I understand why my entire life I’ve never felt whole.” He pressed his hand to her heart, the palm warm as he seemed to savor what he found there. “I am not me. I am we. Us. That feels complete. My heart only seems to beat when you are near. I stand before you. No. I kneel at your feet.”

He hit his knees, pressing his forehead to her fingers as if paying tribute to a goddess. “I am a man stripped of pride and wit. Of everything that gave me power. This is what I offer you. A new start. I’m asking—I’m begging—not