Living in the Pages (Pirates #1.5)

Corset

Lydia Hall had seen a lot of things in her life:

Though she would never dare risk her mother's wrath by losing her virtue, she had witnessed what awaited her on her wedding night far earlier than any other girl she knew.

She had known what it was like to ride a horse before she'd even known the name of the animal—although that may be due to her father's need to be constantly traveling.

She was even sure some sort of doppelgänger had inserted herself in the place of her best friend, Beth Gallagher.

All this she was capable of swallowing. All this she merely blinked her eyes at.

But this? This was too much.

She supposed if it was merely an arrest on its own, she'd have found a way around it. Perhaps called her mother, a terrifying woman in her own right. Neither her nor Beth would have sat in a jail for very long. Lydia hardly even flinched when the constable trapped her hands behind her back. It wasn't even the enormous man with the red bandana wrapped round his head that appeared behind the constable that did her in.

Stone, Beth had called him.

At first glance, he could've been any fisherman or peddler on the street for all the grime and filth that marked his face. But when she forced her eyes past the dirt...He could've posed for a sculpture of Adonis and no one would have known he was of this earth. For that brief moment in which the constable simply stared at Stone, Lydia wondered if he was aware—if anyone at all was aware—of what he could look like if his home were not the streets. She wagered he'd have his choice of any bride if he had been a member of court.

He ordered the constable to let the women go and when the constable said no, it was as if his very essence changed. A smile unlike one she'd ever seen stretched across his face.

It was the viciousness she saw in his eyes, the hardened angles of his face, the almost cruel curl of his lips as he said, "I confess, I was hoping you'd say that," which made her skin crawl and her heart stutter in fear. This was not a Good Samaritan come to save them from the villainous constable. This was not a good man of any kind. Lydia could practically see the blood of others tangible there on his hands.

Then, so quickly it startled a shriek out of her, Stone snatched the constable up by the collar and thrown him into the coach meant for her and Beth. The constable landed so hard on the floor of the carriage that Lydia could hear his teeth rattle, and she flinched in both surprise and empathy, gasping as she saw the man's eyes roll back in his skull.

Stone turned and met Lydia's gaze, that bloodthirsty grin still held firmly in place. It was as if she were gazing into a void, and it froze the very bones inside her flesh. She could not scream, could not breathe, dared not blink. All sounds seemed to vanish as if someone had stuffed her ears with cotton, and she found herself fixed to the spot by his impossibly too-dark brown eyes. Then he turned from her, severing the spell, and leapt into the carriage after the man.

Stone grabbed up the constable's head and slammed it forcefully back onto the floor, resulting in a horrifying crack. Blood seeped out from under the constable's hair, but his eyes blinked open and he began struggling against Stone. This just made Stone smile wider. He reached into his waistband, pulling out a sword and—

"Lydia!"

Lydia wrenched her eyes away from the gruesome scene at Beth's cry. Beth didn't seem so much worried that her arms were still wrenched behind her by a constable as she did concerned for Lydia, as if she knew the steps of this dance and was embarrassed that Lydia seemed to be standing in the middle of the dance floor, completely alone.