TWICE A HERO By Susan Krinard

And no more than a duty to Liam, a valuable object he’d sworn to protect, a child he would never recognize as the budding woman she was becoming. Just as he had not seen her today, when she’d tried so hard and with so little success to make Liam notice her.

But Perry saw what Liam did not. He found in Caroline the youth and careless joy so long missing from his life, a joy remarkable in a girl who’d known so little love of the kind she deserved.

Love. What a very odd thing it was. Perry paused to sift his pocket for the keys to his suite, remembering. He’d certainly never expected to discover that tender emotion so late in his checkered career. Love had been rare enough in his ancient, cold, patrician family.

But what had begun as mild flirtation with a young woman eager to hear his tales of adventure had blossomed into something far deeper. And it was Liam’s doing. He’d given Perry an immeasurable gift, and now he obliged his friend to betray him. For Caroline’s sake.

For she needed room to grow, to explore, to know what she wanted of life—all the freedoms Liam would never permit her.

Perry reached his door, shaking his head. Ah, Liam, you blind fool. Love was what Caroline needed, what she must have—the one thing her father’s money could never provide.

God help him, Caroline believed that what she wanted was Liam’s love—that he would love her as a woman. Value her for herself, not an oath fulfilled or some cardboard figurine of a perfect lady. She was too naive to see that was something Liam could never give.

Perry turned the key in the door and walked into his suite. He dropped his gloves on the sideboard in the front sitting room and tossed his hat behind them, nearly covering the photograph that he’d been meaning to put away.

The photograph. Taken in better days, four years ago: two men in the jungle, content in their freedom. The same photograph Rose inexplicably had in her possession.

No. Not the same. And the explanation hardly mattered now. Perry’s attempts to make Liam see reason had failed, but he’d been given another chance. There would be no more room for sentiment. Or clemency.

Perry retrieved a glass and decanter from the sideboard and poured himself a drink, lifting it in a toast.

“To you, Rose MacKenzie, friend of my enemy. May you save Liam O’Shea before it’s too late.”

Chapter Thirteen

Build thee more stately mansions,

O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

HOME.

Liam paused on the flagstone walk just within the fancy ironwork gates and wondered why the word still rang so hollow.

Once it had meant something—a dream and memory to his mother: a prosperous farm in Ireland, security, hope. Then hope had died, and “home” had become a filthy tenement in a new land that didn’t deserve to be called anything but Hell.

Liam was the only one left to keep his mother’s dream. And now “home” was before him, a Queen Anne mansion equal to the city’s best, rising in splendor amid a gated garden handsome enough to shelter and protect a bloom such as Caroline Gresham.

In that it would serve its purpose.

Liam walked to the door and gripped the highly polished brass doorknob, feeling the solidity of it under his palm. If it hadn’t been for Chen’s urgent message, he’d be with Caroline now, attempting to reverse the damage Perry had done during his absence. Caroline would be upset enough when he told her she wouldn’t be seeing Perry before her birthday ball.

If Perry wasn’t a murderer—and Liam had seen and heard enough to seriously doubt it—the Englishman had still betrayed him with his designs on Caroline.

As for Mac… Liam smiled crookedly. She was probably cursing a blue streak at this moment. Not that he could blame her. He’d used her as bait for a trap, and she’d come out of the affair smelling like a rose.

He’d judged her unfairly, photograph or no photograph. Mad she might be, but she was not a traitress. He owed her for that misjudgment, and he intended to repay the debt.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148

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