Page 46 of A Remarkable Rogue

The housekeeper turned back. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Was there ever a Mr. Hodges?”

The housekeeper paused. It wasn’t an odd question since all housekeepers were addressed as Missus whether they’d married or not, but itwasone that employers never asked.

“There was, my lady.” She took a slow step back into the room. “My Paul. We were married for two decades before the Lord took him to heaven. We had a lovely child, too, to show for it.”

A child…Sydney’s fingers tightened around the cup. “A son?”

“A daughter named Lucy, ma’am. Beautiful and as stubborn as her father. She has her own wee ones now to fret over.”

Sydney smiled wistfully. “It was a love match?”

“Very much. Both our families were surprised when Paulie asked for my hand. We’d grown up in the same village, and he’d spent every day pulling my braids and tormenting me. But he paid for it.” She forced an exaggerated sigh, yet Sydney could hear the love in her voice. “He paid dearly every day for twenty years!”

Sydney laughed softly, then frowned into her chocolate. “Would you ever consider marrying again?”

“Oh no, my lady! Those days are over for me. But if I were young and lively again, like you, I would certainly consider it.”

Sydney fixed her eyes on the cup. “But to surrender your life again to another’s control…”

Mrs. Hodges snorted. “Says who?”

Sydney looked up in surprise. “Well, the law, for one. And the church.”

“And inmyopinion, neither one has any business governing my marriage!”

Sydney’s eyes widened at the blasphemy of the housekeeper’s comment. Then she shook her head. If only it were that simple. “A husband would have the right to control me and all my property, to make all the decisions in my life, and to do as he pleased. Even if I gave him my heart, to give up my freedom like that…”

Her voice trailed off, and she briefly closed her eyes against the fear of losing herself, of once again being held captive like a bird in a cage.

“If he is the right man, my lady,” Mrs. Hodges assured her gently, “you won’t mind giving up control.”

Sydney wasn’t so certain.

“Although, if he is therightman,” the housekeeper continued, “he won’t try to control you in the first place.”

If only she could believe that! “But how do you know if—”

The brass knocker pounded fiercely against the front door. Its booming reverberated through the silent house.

“Heavens!” Mrs. Hodges startled. “Who on earth could that be at such an early hour and knocking to wake the dead?”

Sydney knew. She jumped to her feet and ran from the room, down the stairs, and into the foyer. Although the kitchen maids would have been stirring downstairs, starting the first fires and preparing for breakfast, the house itself was still closed for the night, her butler and footmen still asleep. So she reached to throw the lock herself as she cast caution aside, grabbed the handle, and flung open the door—

Her heart stopped. “Nate.”

But he wasn’t alone. He stood with his arm around the neck of a young soldier and a pistol pointed at the man’s head.

A blond man wearing all black stood just behind them. Like Nate, he possessed the same confident bearing, muscular build, and imperial air of a soldier. The stranger glanced over his shoulder and kept his hand beneath his jacket on the pistol Sydney suspected was hidden beneath.

But it was the sight of blood that tore a gasp from her. A deep gash bled from Nate’s forearm as he pressed it against the soldier’s neck. Another cut at his temple trickled blood down the side of his face.

Her hand flew up to her mouth. “Oh God, you’re hurt!”

“Let us inside,” he calmly ordered.

Nodding dumbly, she stepped aside to let all three men pass, then followed as they charged through the house. Nate peered into every room they passed. He finally decided on the dining room and pulled the soldier inside.