Face to Face (The Deverell Series Book 2) (35 page)

It would be worth not giving the man the satisfaction of attempting to understand the gesture of this. The seal was probably nothing more than a jab in warning that now that it seemed Rensdale was a resolved issue not to open the discussion of Varian’s future again. Camden didn’t even know why he bothered trying to pull the man to England. Varian wasn’t malleable.

Camden was standing at the fire, having moved the grate, before curiosity forced him to finish the note.

You knew I would finish this exercise, you bastard. How much you love how well you can read people and toy with them. You knew the seal would bother me and that is why you did it. Bother and make me hopeful when I saw it, hopeful you’d seen reason at last.

It was a damn good thing Camden didn’t burn the letter. The post script laid him flat:
“I have had with me a girl since our meeting in Falmouth last September. Beautiful and of noble birth. There must be rumor of a gently born girl missing from Cornwall a year ago. When you discover who she is, Brian, procure me a special license and come at once. I am getting married. I am coming home. You have had your way at last. Try not to gloat. It will ruin my happiness.”

Camden tossed the letter into the flames and watched it burn. He shouted for his carriage to be brought. It was midnight, but danger was closing in on Varian and the man didn’t know it.

Varian must not have been in port very long if all hell hadn’t broken loose yet. The gossip at Carlton house had been spiced with speculation about the girl, tedious and boring to endure at the time. Clearly, Merry had not been discovered back in England yet. The soldiers who search every ship that docks must not have gotten to searching Varian’s ship. The Merricks, with their myriad of power and connections, had accomplished this from a single request made to the Regent.

Camden hurried into the carriage. There was not a moment to spare. Varian was in London Port, with the most dangerous crime he’d ever committed sleeping beside him in his bed, wanting to marry it no less.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The violent knock on the door roused Merry from sleep. In the open cabin doorway stood a frantic Tom Craven.

“There are soldiers on the ship. They are searching. They are not giving explanation for this invasion. They don’t know who we are, we are safe in that, but they are searching every corner of this ship. The documents with your seal on them are not stopping them.”

Varian absorbed it all calmly, his face impassive, his insides churning. “Where is Indy? He cuts too striking a figure for the soldiers to see him and not to risk having the pieces work together. Make sure the soldiers don’t see him, Tom, if we hope to make through this night without having to go to battle in London Port.”

“He left the ship two hours ago, Varian.”

Varian ran a hand through his tussled hair. At least the boy was gone. A good fortune that. Steadying his thoughts, he said, “Keep them from my cabin. I will be on deck once I have dressed.”

Tom’s good brow rose sharply. “They are searching every corner of this ship, Varian, and you will not stop them. I have tried. The most we can do is make it through this without them figuring out who else we are. It’s a good thing we came into port with legitimate documents. They have managed some protection, some caution with them. The officer inspected them, carefully, with an educated eye. He would have known if they were fiction. When I announced you were traveling with your wife, he permitted me to inform you of this interruption when they would have preferred to break in your door. Forged documents would have brought our ruin. These are not customs agents. We can’t buy off their suspicions. These are soldiers with a very high degree of expertise and fanatical in their whim in carrying out their duty.”

“Tell them that I have my wife and will require time to prepare to receive them. Do it well, Tom, and do it wisely.”

Varian closed the door. He rummaged through Merry’s dresses and pulled out one suitable for her part. She was huddled on the bed with his shirt clutched to her. How the devil would they make it through this? Merry could express a hundred emotions, all at once, with perfect transparency.

“What is going on?” Merry demanded. “What is happening?”

“Little One, there are soldiers searching my ship,” he explained calmly. “They are not aware I am Morgan. They are searching for something other than pirates. I have much to explain to you, Merry. But for now, you must let me deal with them how I need to and be angry with me later.”

Varian pulled her from the bed and handed her the clothes. Merry watched him as he dressed into carefully selected garments which transformed him into the perfect image of a British aristocrat.

Ah, of course, we are in England. He is Varian Deverell tonight
, she thought mockingly, while still alarmed.

Varian unlocked his sea chest, removed the signet ring and slipped it on his hand. She’d seen him use this guise three times, yet she sensed great tension in him, as if this drama were more dangerous than the others she had witnessed. He was worried and he couldn’t conceal it completely from his eyes.

The soldiers worried him when nothing ever worried him.

Merry was almost dressed. “What is wrong, Varian?”

Varian brushed her face with a gentling palm. His black eyes were unreadable. “This is going to be a night of shocks, Little One. Try not to get angry.” He gave her a thorough kiss. “Try to forgive me later.”

While he fastened the last of her buttons, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “What do you imagine I will need to forgive you for, you insufferable man? If you make it through this night without harm, I will be more likely to take you to bed.”

His smile was amused, but his voice was the opposite. “We will see, Merry. We will see.”

That made her eyes widen. He assisted her to a chair, gave her a glass of wine and moved to stand in front of the stern windows. He stood as he was when the knock came.

With just the right hint of displeasure, he said, “You may enter.”

The door busted open with more zeal than necessary. There were six soldiers, the bright scarlet of their coats standing out like warning flags. Varian arched a brow.

Bored and impatient, Varian demanded, “What is the meaning of this intrusion?”

The first thing that broke loose in Merry’s racing thoughts was that the soldiers, even as rude as they had been upon entering, were cautioned at once. They bowed to Varian.

Merry’s round eyes studied the young officer who appeared to be in charge. Fear and worry was what she saw on his face; strange, but that was what it was. He stepped forward with his documents, the gilt buttons and excessive gold lace on his coat telling Merry that this was a rich man’s son, probably a younger son of nobility.

The sharpness in the Major’s eyes betrayed he recognized Varian as someone, because there was prudence and anxiety in him as he crossed the room. Merry noted the office’s fear was a strange thing. It held a hint of derision, even while his manner was correct and carefully so.

He made a bow to Merry. Then shifted back to Varian. “I apologize for this intrusion, Your Grace. We have orders to search every ship which makes port in London, regrettably even yours. We will go about our business as expeditiously as possible, not to impose upon your tolerance more than required. I hope you will accept my apologies for the necessity of doing my duty.”

Your Grace?
Merry’s heart turned over and then began to race.
Your Grace?
Varian had spoken not a word in explanation of himself. This was not one of his fictions. The officer recognized him without introduction to aid him. Recognized him and was not comforted that he did.

Her brain spinning, she recalled in Bermuda Mrs. White had called him Your Grace. Merry had thought nothing of it at the time, another guise, another ruse, but in the
Rose and Crown
strangers had recognized him.

Who was Varian?

She remembered the crest on his signet ring, but she was certain that she had never seen the crest before. She turned her wide eyes on Varian, wishing he would look at her. Who was this man she had fallen in love with?

Varian took a step forward, menacing without effort, and took the documents being offered. He scanned them once with a careless, fast passing glance before returning them.

“You would more likely receive my tolerance,” he told the younger man in a voice of clipped civility, “if your men would immediately remember themselves and cease in their staring at my wife.”

A flush passed over the Major’s face. It was then Merry realized the men were staring at her, with openly speculative eyes that were offensive in their probing. In sudden dismay, she realized why these men were here. They were sent by Lucien Merrick. They were searching for her, and Varian didn’t even know the danger he was in, the danger she had brought to him.

She stood up. “Your men have been an insult to me and I would like them to leave immediately,” Merry said in a voice of straining calm to the young officer.

Her words only increased the Major’s discomfort. “I apologize, Your Grace. You bear a striking resemblance to the description of a woman we have been searching for. Obviously it is a coincidence, but surely you can understand the interest my men have given you, rude and unpardonable though it was.” His eyes were sharp and full of meaning as they fixed directly on her face. “I hope you may forgive us and know we only come to assist and not insult. If there is anything you would like to request of me, I am your humble servant.”

Merry began to tremble fiercely.
He knows. He knows I am Lucien Merrick’s daughter.

“I require nothing except your departure, Major,” she said simply.

He made a bow. “Of course, Your Grace.”

The officer ordered the men out. He was almost to the cabin door when he stopped, and he bent Merry another probing scrutiny. “My orders are absolutely clear, what I must do when I am unsure, Your Grace,” he said to Varian. “I can’t leave. I fear that I must insult you once more and beg for your tolerance and indulgence. I need you to grant me permission to inspect your marriage documents so that I may know that all is as it should be.”

Varian’s laugh was harsh and cutting. “You doubt my word? This is beyond tolerance. I will have your head by morning. Leave.”

The young officer called the soldiers back. “I apologize, Your Grace. You may well have my head by morning. I can’t leave your wife here with you until I am certain this is where she should be. My orders have come directly from the Regent. I must be cautious of whose anger I stir. Careful in the execution of my duty and must suffer your displeasure rather than to fail my Sovereign. I am taking Her Grace with me until these matters are resolved and my regiment will remain aboard your ship until all issues are satisfactorily answered.”

It was the first time Varian had looked at Merry since the soldiers had entered the cabin. His expression was merely amused, but the sharpness of his eyes burned her. “Exactly who are you imagining Her Grace to be?” Varian said, in an only mildly curious manner.

The younger man, for all his earlier caution, lost a measure of that. With shrewd and certain boldness, he stated, “If she is your wife, Your Grace, you would know, just as I do without doubt, who this woman is and why we are here.”

“How dare you!”

The cabin shuddered from the bellow and Merry turned to see the Earl of Camden striding into the cabin.

“Do you dare doubt His Grace’s word,” Camden growled. “Are you reckless enough to doubt mine? Are you foolish enough to insult Her Grace, knowing who her father is? Whatever orders sent you here have changed. You and your Regiment will leave without her. I have just left Carlton House and the Regent. I will not hesitate to return to inform his majesty of this outrage and insult. I will inform the Regent, do not doubt me. Then, I will inform her father of each insult you dared against her this night. I don’t think that will bring a pleasant consequence. However, you can add to your ruin by taking her if you insist. I imagine it should take but days before her father is in London to correct the error.”

The Major was clearly unnerved after the threat of Lucien Merrick leveled at his head, however, he did add if His Grace would permit, he would ring in the morning to inspect the marriage documents.

After the soldiers departure, in the cabin there was a heavy silence. Varian was staring at Merry, his black eyes shed of all inner reflection.

“Do you not think it is time, Little One, for you tell me who you are?” Varian said in an inflectionless voice. “Who is your father that he should possess enough supremacy to use the Regent of England as an errand boy? Those weren’t soldiers of the field, Merry. They are part of the Regent’s private guard. I deserve the truth from you since you risked my life tonight by not telling me.”

“The truth, as you have been so complete in truth with me, Your Grace?” Merry countered furiously. “It’s so ironic, but you will not laugh at this. Is
this
what I am not to be angry with you for? Your noble birth? It means nothing to me. But I doubt who I am will mean nothing to you. It will mean too much. If you don’t like what I tell you, will it matter? You will not like the truth, and I am not certain what your reaction will be so I will not speak it. I don’t want to be the one who speaks the words that will destroy our happiness together.”

It was Camden who answered her. “He is not going to like what you tell him, girl, but not for the reasons you think. Your worry is needless. Would you prefer me to tell him who you are or would you prefer to do that yourself? One of us will, Merry, before I leave this cabin. Not to tell him would be dangerous to us all.”

Light flickered in Varian’s black eyes and was quickly concealed. “You had better tell me who she is, Camden. I think it is past time I know who has been in my bed.”

Varian turned then to look at his friend. What he found on the Earl’s face was unsettling.

“How could you not know who she is, Varian?” Camden barked in irritation. “Look at her. The answer is there in front of you.”