"You are as brilliant as he is, Charlotte. You must admit that he played it out perfectly. He left the judge nowhere to turn." Charl snickered. "I suspect the judges all dislike him as much as I do, if he always makes them look like fools when he wins." The door opened. A robe appeared. "Here he comes. I hope that you will be gracious and congratulate him as he deserves." "Without you, me, and Senora Perez, he would have failed. How surprising to find her joining our army.

Thank goodness her husband was so understanding and honorable, that is all I can say." Pen had rather more to say about Senora Perez, and to her, but that was for another day. Today was for joy. Julian stepped across the threshold behind Knightridge. The sight of him had her lightheaded and wobbly. He paused and looked up to the sky. Then he closed his eyes, as if composing himself against the onslaught of a powerful emotion. When he opened them again, he was the Mr. Hampton the world knew. Contained. Cool. Removed. Until he saw her. A burning intensity entered his eyes. It revealed everything he hid in his soul. She saw the agonizing fear he had battled in prison when he assumed he would hang, and also the exhilaration incited by his unexpected salvation. In that moment, she also comprehended as never before his resolve to protect her at all costs, even that of his life.

Ignoring whatever Knightridge was saying to him,unmindful of the eyes that still watched in hopes of more spectacle, Julian strode toward her, opening his arms. She ran to his waiting embrace.

She brought him to her house. He was incapable of refusing.

He had not entirely absorbed the astonishing turn things had taken. The reprieve left him intoxicated with relief. The trial had also rendered him more tired than he realized.

Pen took him in hand. She ordered some brandy be brought, and then gave instructions that a bath be

prepared.

When the brandy arrived, she poured him a good measure, then splashed a bit in another glass. "Promise not to tell," she said. "I feel some need of fortification myself."

The spirits warmed him. They helped tilt the world back upright.

Pen sat on a sofa and sipped. She appeared very contented and happy.

He hoped he did not have to say it, but he thought he should anyway. "I never visited Senora Perez, least of all that night."

"I know that."

"I cannot imagine why she did this. She owes me nothing, let alone a lie under oath."

"Perhaps she is in love with you, and could not bear to see you hang." Pen set down her glass, got up, and came over to him. "Whatever her reason, I am grateful. Tomorrow we will go and thank her. For now, come with me."

She took his hand and led him out of the room.

"Where are we going?"

"Someplace where I can take care of you. Do not object or tell me it is too indiscreet. I am thoroughly

notorious now so I get to be as naughty as I like."

"That is one of the benefits of scandal, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes. I learned that early on."

She brought him up to her chamber. Indiscreet was an understatement for doing so at midday with the

servants' full knowledge. He would remind her about that later. Today there were no rules he was

inclined to obey. The bath had been prepared near the fire in her bedroom. A steaming tub waited on a large oilcloth that protected the carpet.

"My dressing room is not large enough," she explained. "I thought you would want to wash the last week away." He still smelled the prison on him, and she probably did, too. He was not sure that a bath would completely spare him from smelling the odor. It was in his head, along with the misery and despair that permeate such a place.

He sat down and removed his boots.

The latch clicked. He turned his head. Pen had not left. She had only closed and locked the door.

She came up behind him and slid her hands down the front of his coat. "I said I wanted to take care of

you. Did you think that meant like a mother?"

"I hoped more than the bath waited up here."

"Yes, much more. But first I will take care of you in other ways." She slid his frock coat down his

shoulders and off his arms and cast it aside. Her fingers sought the knot in his cravat. He closed his eyes and rested his head back against her breasts. Her circling arms and deft touch aroused him. Desire burst like a torch.

He turned his head and kissed the swell of her breast. With a soft smile, she went to work on his waistcoat.

Every small touch inflamed him more. He began thinking that the bath could wait.

She moved in front of him to loosen his cuffs and collar. She slowly lifted his shirt over his head. She paused.

He looked up at her heavy-lidded expression. Sensual lights sparkled in her eyes. She was enjoying this.

She caught him noticing her looking. A pretty flush reddened her cheeks. "You will have to stand now. Otherwise, I cannot"

Desire still roared in him, fueled by the heady liberation the day had brought. This undressing had become erotic, however, and he did not mind the delay.

He stood. She turned her attention to working the buttons of his trousers. He turned his attention to the way the light from the window made her dark hair shine.

Her hand kept brushing against his erection. Her face flushed more, and she had trouble finishing the task.

"Do you want some help, Pen?"

"No. I can do this." It sounded more like a statement of resolve than of competence. "I have dreamt for days what I would do if I got you back, and these buttons are not going to defeat me."

She managed it. The trousers loosened. She paused again.

"No help at all?"

She laughed. "You could kiss me. That would help enormously. This is harder than I thought. I expected to feel dangerous and seductive, and instead I feel silly and awkward."

He slid his hand behind her neck and drew her toward him. "You are very dangerous, and I am thoroughly seduced." His kiss revealed just how thoroughly. He barely kept from devouring her. As his tongue swept the moist velvet of her mouth, he imagined other velvet depths and fought the urge to pick her up and carry her to the bed.

He did not succumb, in part because he could not walk. During the kiss Pen had pushed down his lower garments, and they bunched around his ankles.

Eyes bright with her own desire, she kissed his neck, and down to his chest. The warm press of her lips created spots of delicious fire.

She eased away. "If there is going to be a bath at all, it should be soon."

She lowered herself to her knees to extricate his ankles and feet from the garments. He looked down at her as she knelt to tend to him. Like a servant to a master. Or a lady to her lord.

It moved him that she would even consider such a pose of submission. She was the daughter of a viscount and widow of an earl. She had probably never knelt willingly to any person except the king. She had not been educated to humble herself in the care of anyone.

He touched her head. "I am honored, my lady."

She looked up and her eyes misted. She turned her head and softly kissed his leg. Then his thigh. Then she kissed him in a way that made his teeth clench.

He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. He walked to the tub and stepped in.

"Is it still hot?" she asked.

"If it isn't, I am, and my body will warm it fast enough."

He began washing, wondering if she even knew what that last kiss had implied.

She knelt beside the tub, no doubt to help him.

"You will get your dress wet."

"I do not think some soap and water will ruin it."

"There is no reason to take the chance." He rinsed his hand and reached behind her. He began unfastening her dress. "If you are going to be dangerous, Pen, you may as well do it right."

She twisted so he could reach better. He sat up in order to deal with her stays.

He gestured to the chair where his garments were lying. "If you take them off over there, they won't get wet."

He also would be able to watch. She realized that as soon as she stepped out of her dress.

She looked quite demure as she set aside the dress. Less so while she released her petticoats. A sensual smile softened her mouth as she let the stays fall.

"I like the way you are looking at me, Julian. I feel very seductive and dangerous now. I want to see if I can be devastating and wicked, too. You must stay there while I finish."

"Trust me, I am incapable of moving."

She deliberately took a long time to remove her chemise. She teased him with a slow unveiling. The fabric inched down the full, creamy breasts he had dreamed of kissing, over the lovely curve of her waist, around her hips, and over the dark hair below. Finally she stood naked except for her hose, a perfect feminine vision, all white and pink and soft.

Her gaze never left him. Her expression revealed her arousal, and other things, too. Triumph at what she was doing to both of them gave her a very worldly air.

She walked over to the tub. She appeared incredibly erotic like that, nude except for the white silk covering her from thighs to toes. The effects of this disrobing collected in him with a ruthless fury. When she got within reach he grabbed her arm and pulled her down so he could kiss her.

She joined him as if it was the first kiss in years. Her response was shy and tentative at first, then impassioned and aggressive. She bent over the tub, hands on its edges, arms flanking his shoulders.

Her breasts hung inches from his face. He kissed each one, then moved his tongue over one tight nipple and his fingers over the other. Her breath quickened the way he loved, then escaped in little gasps. She moved slightly to make it easier. He knew that her breasts were more sensitive when she straddled him or sat, and he caressed and drew gently, the way that gave her the most pleasure.

"That feels so good," she whispered between deep sighs. "At night I would remember making love with you, and I could not sleep." She touched his face, stopping him, and raised it so she could kiss him. "I could have you do that forever, Julian, but I am taking care of you today, remember?"

She straightened and looked down at him. "I haven't finished undressing."

She raised one foot and propped it on the edge of the tub right near his shoulder. With slow, deft hands, she began rolling down her stocking.

There was no reason for that to make him impatient, but it did. He was halfway to madness already, and the descent of that stocking made another restraint break. He circled her hips with his arm and kissed her flank and the outside of her thigh. A glorious passion started breaking in him. A magnificent turmoil of hunger and pleasure and unspeakable need.

She switched legs, raising the other, turning slightly within his arm to keep her balance. This position exposed her as the last had not. He had to clench his jaw to control the sexual lightning that flashed through his mind and body.

He became aware that her hands had stopped at her knee. He looked up at her face. Her expression said that she had noticed he was not watching the stocking at all.

"You are very good at being devastating and wicked, Pen."

"You are quite devastating yourself, my love. And right now you look extremely dangerous, in the most thrilling way." She glanced down to the curls and pink flesh he had been looking at. "Do you want to kiss me there?"

"Yes. Does that shock you?"

"A little. It is not something I have done before." She bit her lower lip and suddenly appeared very young and innocent. "I think that I would like to do things with you that I never did before, Julian."

He finished removing her stocking, and used the time to force some control. He put her foot down and rose out of the water. Not bothering to use the towel, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed.

He reclined beside her, braced up on one arm so he could see how beautiful she was in the soft light streaming through a nearby window. He smoothed his hand over her, marveling anew at how soft her skin was, how silken and warm.

She reached and pulled him down into her embrace, the first happy embrace since that day in Hampstead. Holding her quietly and completely, feeling her skin against his, made his heart ache beautifully. Another sentiment, poignant and exquisite and grateful, joined the powerful chaos that possessed him.

It did not remain quiet long. Demonstrating her new aggression, determined to be devastating, Pen pushed him on his back and kissed him hard. She used her tongue as he had, flicking it over his chest, teasing his skin until his mind was blank to everything except the sensation of her mouth and hands and the sounds of her increasing abandon. Desire urged him to take her, but the hunger for a different possession spoke louder.

He flipped her onto her back. He parted her legs and knelt between her knees. Lids heavy and eyes glazed, she looked up at him.

He bent down and kissed her stomach, and then her thigh. When he raised his head, she was still watching him.

He caressed her thighs. "I have never done this before either, Pen. It is not something I have shared with another."

"I like that," she whispered. "I am glad."