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wasn’t always my life.”
    “No?”
    “No, indeed.” She forced herself to hold her ground, though she wanted to dart around him and gain some distance. Still, she didn’t move, just held his gaze as she said, “I was raised in Porthollow, on the coast, in as pretty a house as you’ve ever seen, but then my parents died and I had to come here. I still remember the shock, the horror, the fear. It’s not a place for a fancy mort like yourself.”
    “Ah, but you see…” He reached up and touched her cheek. She shivered. She coiled. She couldn’t breathe. He touched her. He shouldn’t. She let him. “I shan’t be here alone.
I
shall be living with
you
.”
    What had he said? Lord, she couldn’t think again. That touch of his hand made her buntlings twist like a pair of wringing hands. Again she seemed to feel a wave of air, a great big rolling one that all but pulled her feet out from under her. Or perhaps that was her grandfather’s invention as it slowly died down, air from beneath the door trying its best to reach her cloak. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, from the other side. Or perhaps that was her heart?
    “I…” She swallowed.
“What?”
    His hand stroked the line of her jaw, the look on his face filled with curiosity as he gently touched her, almost impassively, like a great master might touch his favorite work of art.
    “Your grandfather,” he said softly. “He invited me to stay, in exchange for the half crown I earned selling my clothes.”
    Stay? What was he—
    She stiffened, their bodies brushed and she finally darted around him, her back to the stairs as she said, “What?”
    His eyes looked into her own, the corner of his mouth lifting up as he said, “And I find myself quite looking forward to it.”

Chapter Four
    Stay?
    Was he daft? Had she misheard him? Was his brain more mashed than she thought? What did he mean,
stay?
    But the look in his eyes told her. He meant stay. With them. Share their rooms. Eat with them. Lord,
sleep
with them.
    Suddenly Anna felt like a mouse with a cat’s paw stuffed into its home, a giant black cat with green eyes.
    “You can’t,” she said.
    “I cannot?” he echoed back, one of his brows rising.
    “No. He’s not right in the head—my grandfather, that is. Gracious,
you’re
not right in the head. You, none of you—men that is—are right in the head. What do you mean,
stay
with us? We don’t even know you.”
    He leaned toward her. Gracious, she could all but feel a charge of energy as he drew near.
    “You
could
know me,” he said in a low voice. And now in addition to a paw in the hole, there was an eye looking at her. Two handsome green eyes that made her feel pinned down by that paw. “If you wanted to,” he added.
    “I don’t want to,” she wheezed.
    He took a step toward her. Anna resisted the urge to retreat down a step. “No?” he asked. “Pity, for I don’t believe you have a choice.”
    A gust of air darted again from the room, stirring the hairs on her head and bringing with it the smell of him. She caught the scent of his breath—a minty scent that made her think of the hard candies she used to eat as a child.
    “I’ve a choice,” she said. “I run the household now that my grandfather’s too befogged to take care of himself. And you can’t stay,” she said again.
    “Ah,” he said with a foxlike smile. “But I’m about to make you an offer you cannot refuse,” he said. “Let me stay for a night. If I’m too much trouble, I shall take my leave on the morrow. If, however, I prove to be an exemplary guest, you shall keep the half crown I gave your grandfather
and
let me stay for the duration of my time in St. Giles, for which I shall pay you generously,
after
I have won my wager.”
    Stay for the duration? Was he mad?
    Was she mad for feeling a stab of excitement at such a notion?
    For she was honest enough to admit that she didn’t fear
him
; rather, she feared this… this
feeling
she got whenever he was near. He