Intimate 02 - Intimate Surrender (12 page)

The second he lifted his lips from Hannah’s, he knew what Thomas meant. He knew that this was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. The minute he ended their first kiss, he wanted to kiss her again—and again. Until he’d found out the truth about Hannah’s past—her
present
.

The fact that she’d lived her life as a prostitute destroyed any hopes for a future with her. She was right. How could he preach morality and righteousness to a congregation of
saints when the woman he brought into their midst was the blackest of all sinners? How could he look his parishioners in their eyes and tell them their shepherd was living with a woman who’d made her living lying with men to whom she wasn’t married? And yet…

How could he survive the rest of his life without her?

He stared at the entrance to the famous Madam Genevieve’s one last time, then turned to walk away from her. Perhaps in time he’d be able to convince himself that he was lucky to have escaped the embarrassment and humiliation of a relationship with her. Perhaps in time he’d realize that her past was too great a barrier for him to breach. And most of all, perhaps in time he wouldn’t be so desperate to discover a way for them to be together.

And yet he knew that would never happen. He’d never be content to live his life without her. He’d always be desperate to find a way for them to be together. And a part of him would die if he couldn’t find it.

The street that took him from Hannah loomed before him with devastating emptiness, but he had no choice but to force his feet to carry him away from her. Their lives were too divergent to find a middle ground. How did he think he could ever expect a congregation to accept her once they found out who she was? And they would. He had no doubt of that. The bad always came before the good.

And what would he do if he were no longer a vicar? It’s what he’d been called to do. What he wanted for his life’s vocation.

He supposed he could always go back to Thomas and live in the dowager house. He could help Thomas run the estates. But he would never be happy doing that. He
needed to do something whereby he could help someone. He needed there to be some kind of purpose in his life. He needed…

He paused. He needed Hannah. But that would never be.

He forced his feet to take the first step that would carry him away from her.

If he hadn’t been so lost in thought, he might have seen the woman racing down the walk, towing a young girl behind her. At the last second, he stepped to the side, but the woman was focused on the path behind her and they collided. The woman fell to the ground.

“Oh, excuse me, ma’am,” he said, rushing to help her to her feet.

The woman scrambled to rise, but she stumbled back to the ground when she tried to put weight on her ankle. “Run, Betty!” she ordered the young girl.

“He’s coming,” the young girl called Betty cried as tears streamed down her face. “I’m scared!”

“Go, girl. It’s that big house right there,” the woman said, pointing to Madam Genevieve’s bordello. “I’ll stop him until you get inside.”

“But—”

“Go!”

“Run, Betty,” Rafe encouraged. “I’ll help your mother.”

The girl looked toward the man racing toward them, then back to the woman on the ground, then turned toward Madam Genevieve’s and ran.

Rafe watched to make sure she was safe, then waited for the man as he raced toward them. It was the same man
Hannah had ordered to leave when Rafe arrived. “Stay down,” he told the woman. “I’ll deal with this.”

Rafe stepped onto the middle of the walk and raised himself to his full height. He knew he presented a forceful figure and thanked the hours of wood chopping for the assistance. He braced his feet wide and glared at the approaching man. “That’s far enough,” he said when the man was near enough to hear him.

The man Hannah called Skinner stopped.

“It’s you again,” Skinner said, glaring at him with fury in his eyes. “This is the second time you’ve come to Madam Genevieve’s assistance. I find that very irritating.”

“This is the second time you’ve bothered Madam Genevieve and her friends in the short time I’ve been here. I find that very disturbing.”

“What you’ll find even more disturbing is what I do to make you pay for sticking your nose into things that don’t concern you.”

“Anything that concerns Madam Genevieve concerns me.”

Rafe hadn’t had the opportunity to study Skinner earlier, but he did so now. The man was truly ugly. The long, jagged scar that ran down his cheek gave his face a permanent sneer. One could become accustomed to that, just as one grew accustomed to a person with a mole or a mark from birth. But the malicious glare in his deep-set, beady eyes was something Rafe doubted anyone could become accustomed to. The man exuded meanness. Cruelty emanated from every pore of his body. Rafe didn’t know how Hannah could call anything associated with him a
misunderstanding
. Or how she could believe she could handle whatever was between them.

“Then you are a fool,” Skinner said, his mouth curling into a snarl.

The smirk on his face fell when the door to Madam Genevieve’s opened and three burly men walked toward them.

“Ah, I see help has arrived,” Skinner said, taking a step back. “But be warned. This is not over. You can tell Genevieve she has stolen one too many girls from me. Her victory will be short-lived.”

With that, Skinner turned and walked away from them.

Rafe watched until the man turned the corner, then looked over his shoulder to make sure the young girl had made it to safety. Hannah stood in the open doorway.

The three men raced to assist the woman who’d fallen, and Rafe slowly made his way back to Madam Genevieve’s. His gaze didn’t leave Hannah.

As he’d done so often when talking to his parishioners, he studied the expression on her face. The look in her eyes. What he saw revealed volumes—including several details he was sure she didn’t want exposed.

Some of what he saw in Hannah’s eyes didn’t surprise him.
Fear
—she had good reason to fear Skinner.
Independence
and
self-reliance
—she’d taken care of herself her whole life and thought she was strong enough to take care of Skinner by herself.
Regret
—she was disturbed to know he’d been involved in the confrontation with Skinner and upset that he’d discovered that she was in danger. But he was past caring. She needed help but thought he was too
weak to help her. She intended to protect him. To shield him as if he were some weakling.

The closer Rafe got to her, the angrier he became. She was in danger, and she would have allowed him to leave her. Her stubborn independence told her she had to face Skinner on her own. Didn’t she realize she wasn’t a match for him? Didn’t she realize the man was capable of anything—even murder?

By the time he reached her, he was livid. What was wrong with her? Did she think that because he was a vicar he was incapable of handling confrontation? Did she consider him a milksop?

He stormed past her and headed toward the room where they’d spoken earlier. “We need to talk,” he said without looking at her.

“I need to make sure Delores is all—”

“Now!”

He threw open the door to the Daffodil Room and waited for her to enter. When she walked past him, he followed her into the room and closed the door. She turned at the decided
thud
when the door slammed shut.

Her gaze narrowed, and he recognized her preparation to form an attack. He couldn’t let her begin first. He couldn’t allow her to take charge of this conversation. He couldn’t permit her to have the upper hand—not when she refused to admit how much trouble she was in.

“You can start by explaining what’s going on,” he said without any pleasantries.

“Noth—”

“That’s not the correct answer. Let’s begin again. Who is Skinner? And why he is threatening you?”

She stared at him for several long moments, then the air rushed from her body and her shoulders dropped. “Please leave, Rafe. Please go home before you get hurt.”

The pleading tone in her voice caused a powerful pull on his heart. “What about you, Hannah? Where can you go so you won’t get hurt?”

“I can go nowhere. I’m where I belong. I’m doing what I need to do.”

“And what is that? What are you doing that has Skinner so irate that he’s resorted to threatening you? Stealing innocent young girls from him to use in your own bordello?”

She stared at him in stunned astonishment. Then the look in her eyes turned hostile. She took one step toward him and stopped. “What kind of person do you take me for?”

“I don’t know, Hannah. You tell me. What kind of person are you to take girls away from Skinner?”

Anger flashed in her gaze. “Why don’t you tell me what kind of person you think I am that I would take innocent young girls away from Skinner and bring them here?”

Hannah’s reply forced him to consider what answer to give her. When he did speak, the tone of his voice was more controlled. “I know you, Hannah. I know you would never deal in children.”

“Do you? How many times did you kiss me without realizing you were kissing a prostitute?”

He couldn’t answer her.

“Go home, Rafe. Go back to your congregation of saints and stop bothering me.”

Rafe knew she intended to say more, but a knock on the door stopped her. The door opened, and an attractive woman a few years older than Hannah entered.

“Everything’s taken care of,” the woman said. “Delores just twisted her ankle when she fell. But she’ll be fine.”

“And the girl?” Hannah asked.

“She’s frightened, but she’s safe.”

“Good. Lord Rafe was just leaving, Dalia.”

Then she turned her back on him.

H
annah listened to the door softly close behind Rafe before she let herself breathe. She needed him gone. Needed him to leave before something happened to him. Skinner was dangerous, and associating with her put Rafe in harm’s way.

Oh, how tempted she’d been to ask for his help. How desperate she’d been to lean on his strength and rely on him to help her. But that wasn’t a possibility. She’d never forgive herself if something happened to him. And something would if he remained close enough that Skinner could get to him.

“I’m not leaving you, Hannah.”

She spun around and faced him. “Go. Please.”

He shook his head. “Not until I know what you’re involved in.”

“This is no place for you. You’re not capable of fighting Skinner. You can’t even imagine how his mind works. He’s evil through and through.”

“But you can understand how he thinks? You believe that you’re a match for him?”

“More than you! You belong in a church preaching to
good
people who are eager to listen to you. Not here, where men like Skinner don’t think twice about sticking a knife
in someone’s back, or cutting a stranger’s throat because they don’t like the way he looks.”

“What did you do to make him your enemy?”

Hannah paused a moment before she allowed herself to smile. “Let’s just say he disagrees with what I’m doing.”

“What would that be?”

“What it is can’t concern you.”

“Everything about you concerns me.”

“No! Forget me. You don’t belong here.”

He shook his head as if he wouldn’t consider what she’d said. As if he was blind to who and what she was because he wanted her to be something she wasn’t. His next question confirmed it.

“What does that young girl have to do with this? Why does Skinner want her? Why do you?”

“Rafe, stop. Go back to Thomas and Caroline. Go someplace far away from me.”

“I don’t want to be any place where you’re not.”

“You have to! You can’t stay here. You’re not safe.”

“Neither are you. Let me help you.”

“No! Go back to your congregation of saints. Shepherd
them
!”

He paused. “I can’t. I don’t have a congregation to shepherd.”

His revelation stunned her. “Why don’t you have a congregation?”

He hesitated for several long seconds. “The reason isn’t important. We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. And I’m not going until you tell me what this is about.”

Hannah studied the determined look on his face and realized how serious he was. “I can have you thrown out.”

“Then you’ll force me to stay outside and pray Skinner doesn’t see me and decide to repay me for helping you take that girl away from him.”

A wave of fear raced down her spine. He would do it. He was naive enough to stand in front of Madam Genevieve’s until she let him in. Or Skinner saw him and killed him. “You’re a fool,” she whispered.

“Thomas used to tell me that quite often when we were younger.”

Hannah squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. She had no choice but to tell him what she was doing—what she’d been doing for several years already.

A part of her was eager to tell him. A part of her wanted to have someone who could shoulder some of the burden. Not that he could do anything to help her. But at least someone would know about Coventry Cottage in case something happened to her. And who better than Rafe?