Chapter 32 #3
“I don’t have much room to talk if we’re going to be discussing hiding identities,” I told him with a smile. “And besides, I think I just heard you say that you intended to quit the Nightsworn. Or did I read that wrong?”
“You’re right, as usual,” Lochlan told me. “I’ll just need to find a new occupation.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to work with your mother? She is family.”
“She is. And I’ll probably go visit her. But I’m done feeling used. I just want to be happy.” He stroked his thumb along my jaw. “I’d like to be happy with you.”
My heart began pounding once more. “I’d like that, too,” I whispered. “I just have a hard time trusting people.”
“I know. But I promise I’ll earn your trust again, and I won’t ever do anything to hurt you again.”
I swallowed hard. “I’ll hold you to that, you know.” My gaze fixed on his mouth, and I whispered, “Don’t move.”
Cautiously, I raised onto my tiptoes to press my lips against his.
The sensation was just as spectacular as the first time we’d kissed, and I truly hoped that Lochlan was serious about his intentions to earn my trust again.
I wanted to keep him in my life just as much as I wanted to keep Nora and Papa in my life.
“I love you,” he whispered when I finally broke the kiss. “And I’ll show you just how much in whatever ways you need.”
“You mean you’ll actually bring me breakfasts without stopping to drop off secret reports that get me arrested?”
“Every day if you want.”
“No more joining crime rings and trading in illegal substances?”
“Nope. I’m just focusing on you.” He began to lean back toward me, but the sound of footsteps tramping back over the threshold broke the spell and Lochlan and I sprang apart.
“That wasn’t long at all,” I said, only slightly disappointed that they’d come back so soon.
Nora shut the door. “I got lucky. One of my school carriages was passing and the driver said he’d take Peter the rest of the way, so I let him. I’d much rather talk to you.” She beamed at me. “I’ll have our housekeepers prepare you a room in our estates.”
“What about Lochlan?” I asked.
“I’ll get a room at the Serenade Inn,” Lochlan said promptly. “It’s close, so we can see each other often.”
“Good, you’ll need to be close if I’m going to hire you,” Nora told him in a no-nonsense way.
Lochlan blinked. “Hire…me?”
She nodded. “You need a new job, don’t you? And if you’re trained as a Nightsworn, that will be very helpful.”
“He’s a master of passing encrypted messages,” I offered. “But…you’re not the Employer anymore. What is it you need to hire him for?”
“Oh, this and that.” She flashed a wicked smile.
“I was only ever in this Employer business to find you and Papa. Besides, Frederick and I want to start a family.” Her smile softened so that instead of the Employer, she simply looked like a woman who desperately wanted to become a mother.
“Maybe if we have a boy first, we’ll name him Gil.
I didn’t want to have children until I was done with the Syndicate for good.
It’s too risky of a life, but now I’m free.
” She turned to me. “What about you? Will you miss it?”
“I actually enjoyed the excitement of being a bounty hunter,” I said, rather regretfully. “Every day was an adventure. But I can’t take on any more missions since my identity has been compromised and I’d rather die than take orders from Elvin.”
Lochlan let out a laugh. “I can’t imagine that you would ever be content sitting at home all day.”
“No,” I agreed. “I considered it, but I think after a few days, I’d go crazy.”
There was a mischievous twinkle in Nora’s eye. “Would you be willing to teach?”
“At the school where you teach?” Out of respect for my sister, I tried not to curl my lip in disgust. “Thanks, but I’m not exactly the prim and proper type, and I don’t think you have classes on stealth and disguise or hand-to-hand combat.”
“Not that most of the girls know about,” Nora said. “And certainly not officially. But there are other ways.”
“What are you talking about?”
Nora leaned forward. “I always knew I’d pass on the title of Employer to someone else one day, and I’m not sorry to be done with that, but I have other plans in the works.
I guess we sisters think alike. You see, there are things women can do, and places they can go, that men simply cannot, and some of my students here are perfectly positioned to shape the future.
We don’t always need mercenaries, but we do need spies in high places, and who better than ladies of court? ”
“You must be joking.”
Nora shook her head. “Not at all. The Davenport family built an underground training facility where a hand-picked group of girls train at night. Right now, we have a few instructors who work with the girls, but they’ve wanted a female instructor who can teach them how to fight from a woman’s point of view. ”
“You want me to teach other girls how to be bounty hunters?”
“We want you to train them specifically how to fight when they need to. Like the Nightsworn woman said—I buy my way out of most problems, but not everyone can do that. Those girls need to know how to fight. Now you—you’re a small woman, and unless I miss my guess, you’ve not only fought men larger and stronger than yourself, but you’ve won. We need an instructor like you.”
“How many girls are we talking about?”
“Only a few, usually ten to twelve.”
“Fine, but they had better be the best of the best. And where do these pampered princesses tell their fellow students they disappear to each night?”
“Extra dancing lessons,” Nora said without batting an eye.
Lochlan shot me a knowing look. “That makes sense. After all, the way you fight looks like a dance. It’s beautiful to me.”
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. I had my father and sister back, and Lochlan loved me. I could leave my life as a bounty hunter behind and a new future was taking form. It was still a little uncertain, but at least I wasn’t facing it alone.
For years, I’d only ever run from danger. Now, I could run toward home.