The Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale Page A

going to be hung on the grounds that they've
peculiar eyebrows."
    "Why, then? Why did you run?"
    He frowned. "I had reasons."
    "What reasons?"
    "You're a pushing sort, aren't you?"
    She took the rebuff silently. He could feel her gazing at him. The moon hung
low over the mountain, casting long ebony shadows across the silvered grass.
    "Why did you become a highwayman?" she asked at last.
    He smiled into the darkness. "For mischief. For the thrill of it."
    She sat cross-legged, motionless as a statue, still looking at him. S.T.
turned on his shoulder and leaned against the pillar.
    "Did you think it was for my high ideals?" He mocked her with his voice. "The
first time was on a wager. I was twenty. I worsted an excellent fencer, won a
thousand pounds and the gratitude of a lady fair. I could see that it was the
life for me."
    She tilted her head. The moon poured frozen light across her face.
    "And what of you, Miss Strachan?" he asked. "What is your story?"
    "Mine's simple enough." She unbuttoned her waistcoat and pulled it off,
kneeling on the ground to arrange it with her frock coat into a pillow. "I'm
going to kill a man," she said. "And I want to learn how to do it."
    The breeze rustled in the long grass. Nemo finished his dinner, sighed and
heaved himself into a more comfortable position to lick his paws.
    "Any man in particular?" S.T. asked. "Or is it just a grudge against my sex
in general?"
    She stretched out on the grass, propped up on one elbow. Without the tight
waistcoat her feminine shape showed clearly, the slender swell of her hips and
breasts unbound. She pulled the ribbon from her queue and shook down her hair.
"One man," she said. "In particular."
    S.T. left the pillar and lowered himself beside her, sitting cross-legged. He
leaned toward her. "Why?"
    She rested her head back on the makeshift pillow and spread one of her hands,
holding it up and watching as she turned it slowly against the sky. "He murdered
my family. My mother, my father, and my two sisters."
    There wasn't a tremor in her voice, not a trace of emotion at all. S.T. gazed
at her cool moon-washed face. She stared back at him, unblinking.
    "Sunshine," he whispered.
    She lowered her eyes.
    He lay down beside her and took her in his arms; held her tight against him
and stroked her shining hair.

Chapter Six

    "If you're going to do it," she said in his ear, "go on."
    His hand stilled. He took a deep breath, rolled onto his back, and blew out a
harsh sigh. "What do you mean by that?"
    She didn't move beside him. "I don't object," she said. "I owe it to you."
    He stared up at the temple columns, watching the moonlight and shadow. The
slender pillars seemed flawless in the dark: cold-white, beautiful. If they'd
ever had life to them, if they'd ever echoed to the sound of human laughter,
they were silent now. Stone dead and silent.
    "I don't want your rotting gratitude," he said.
    She lay perfectly still, a mirage of the impersonal moonlight, as lifeless as
the ruins. He couldn't even feel her breathing.
    "Then I'm sorry." She spoke suddenly. "Because that's all I have to give."
    He heard the roughness in her voice and turned toward her abruptly, pulling
her close against his chest. He buried his face in the curve of her throat. "For
God's sake. Don't build a wall to keep me outside."
    "I won't build one," she whispered. "I am the wall."
    He cradled her, uncertain of what to answer, how to reach her. "Let me love
you," he repeated. "You're so beautiful."
    "How easily you fall in love." Her gaze moved beyond him to the night sky.
"How many times has that happened before?"
    He tried to marshal his emotions into reasonable order, but a lock of dark
hair fell across her cheek and defeated common sense entirely. He brushed it
away. She made no resistance as he stroked her skin and kissed her gently.
"Never," he said. "I've had women. Lovers. I've never felt like this. I thought
it was love, but it never lasted."
    She smiled,