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wanting just a taste of her. “Do, Miranda. Believe me.”
    His mouth hovered closer. She gasped and parted her lips slightly. At the last second, he changed his mind. He must not kiss her. He knew better than to kiss a woman when he wanted her this badly. He brushed his lips across her brow. “I’ll keep you safe,” he heard himself whisper, not knowing whether or not he was lying. “I’ll keep you safe.”
    She glided her hands up his chest, pressing closer, skimming his shoulders.
    He hissed and broke away, barking a curse. His shoulder was on fire, and for a moment he saw nothing but a red haze of pain.
    â€œMr. MacVane!” Miranda cried. “What happened?”
    â€œMy shoulder, lass. I was burned in the fire.”
    â€œYou were in the fire?” she asked. “ My fire?”
    â€œAye, lass, if you’re claiming it.”
    â€œLass,” she whispered, wonder dawning on her face. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
    â€œThat depends on what you’re accusing me of.”
    â€œYou’re the man in the flames. You called me lass. You pulled me to safety. Gave me your coat.”
    â€œAye,” he said again, wishing his shoulder would stop throbbing.
    â€œYou ran off to help a small child, and that was the last I saw of you.” She shuddered. “The watchman said you had both perished.”
    â€œThe watchman turned out to be quite unreliable.”
    â€œYou would have come back for me, but you were unable?” she asked, unwittingly making it easy for him to deceive her.
    â€œInjured,” he admitted. “Not mortally, as you can see.”
    â€œThank God. How is the child?”
    â€œRobbie is fine. Some bumps and bruises, a burned hand that’s healing nicely.”
    She subjected him to a wide-eyed, wondering look that made him feel as if he had grown a foot taller. “How grateful his mother must be.”
    â€œRobbie’s an orphan. He had been staying at a flash house, where they were training him as a cutpurse.” Ian decided not to tell her the worst of it, the other things they were forcing Robbie to do. “He ran away from there and was living alone in an abandoned building.”
    â€œHow sad. What will become of him?”
    â€œAfter my assistant, McDuff, tutors him, Robbie’ll be bound for public school, perhaps university.” An old dream flickered in Ian’s mind. A lad like Robbie should live free, racing through Highland dales and shouting with laughter, just as Ian had so many years ago.
    Miranda clasped her hands to her chest. “You kept the child.”
    â€œHe had nowhere to go.”
    She crossed to the door.
    â€œMiranda?” he asked. “Where are you going?”
    â€œWith you.”
    â€œBut you just said you wouldn’t.”
    â€œI changed my mind.”
    â€œWhat made you change your mind?”
    She gave an incredulous laugh. “I have two choices. I can stay locked in this asylum. Or I can leave with a man who not only saved me from a fire, but rescued an orphaned child and is raising him to be a gentleman.”
    â€œSo you changed your mind because of my sterling character?”
    â€œNo.” An unexpected glint of humor winked in her smile. “It was your devastating blue eyes.”
    Her wry statement caught him off guard. He stared at her for a moment, then started to laugh. To his amazement, she joined him. “And of course,” she said, “you’d never lie about something that can be so easily disproved.”
    Dr. Beckworth appeared at the door. “Are you quite well, Miranda?”
    She bathed him in a radiant smile that made the poor man all but squirm with delight. “Oh, indeed I am, Doctor. Surely your patience and care prepared me for a full recovery of my lost memory.”
    It was all Ian could do to keep panic at bay. What was this? She remembered? If so, that meant she realized Ian MacVane was no