Harlequin Historical September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: The Lone Sheriff\The Gentleman Rogue\Never Trust a Rebel (22 page)

Some regulars from the crowd half dragged, half carried the injured away.

The man returned to his table, but he did not sit down. He finished the porter in one gulp and left more coins beside the empty tankard than were needed for payment. He lifted his hat and then his eyes finally met Emma's across the taproom.

Within her chest her heart was still banging hard against her ribs. Through her veins her blood was still rushing with a shocked fury.

He gave her a nod of acknowledgement and then turned away and walked out of the place, oblivious to the entire crowd of customers standing there slack-jawed and staring at him.

Emma stared just as much as all the others, watching him leave. And even when the door had closed behind him she still stood there looking, as if she could see right through it to follow him. Six months in Whitechapel and she had never seen a man as strong, as ruthless or as invincible.

‘Don't think he'll be having any trouble for a while,' said Nancy, who was standing, hands on hips, bar cloth in hand, watching.

‘Who is he?' Emma asked in soft-voiced amazement.

‘Goes by the name of Ned Stratham. Or so he says.'

Emma opened her mouth to ask more, but Nancy had already turned her attention away, raising her voice loud and harsh as she called out to the taproom audience, ‘Show's over, folks. Get back to your tables before your chops grow cold and your ale grows warm.'

Emma's gaze returned to linger on the front door and her thoughts to the man who had just exited through it.

Ned Stratham.

A fight seemingly over a pint of spilled porter. And yet Emma was not fooled, even if all the others were.

Ned Stratham did not know anything about her other than she served him his dinner and porter. He was a man who had barely seemed to notice her in the months he had been coming here. A man who kept to himself and quietly watched what unfolded around him without getting involved. Until tonight.

It had not been fighting in any sense that a gentleman would recognise, it had been raw and shocking and, if she were honest, much more effective. It followed no rules. It had not been polite or genteel, nor, on the surface of it, honourable or chivalric.

‘Backlog of chops in the kitchen, Emma,' Nancy's voice interrupted.

Emma nodded. ‘I am just coming.'

Seemingly a taproom brawl over a clumsy accident and yet... In her mind she saw again that blue gaze on hers, so piercing and perceptive.

‘Emma!' Nancy yelled again. ‘You want it in writing?'

Lifting her tray, Emma headed for the kitchen. Ned Stratham's table had been nowhere near Black-Hair's and any man who could tumble a disc over his knuckles had no problems with balance.

And she knew that, despite his method, what Ned Stratham had just done was chivalric in every sense of the word. She knew that what he had just done was save her from Black-Hair.

* * *

Ned Stratham saw the woman again a week later on his visit to the Red Lion. His meal had been delivered by the other serving wench, but it was Emma who came to collect his cleared plate and empty tankard.

Her dark hair was clean and pinned up, her pale olive skin clear and smooth, unmarked by pox scars. Her teeth were white and straight. She was too beautiful for Whitechapel. Too well-spoken, too. It made her stand out. It made her a target for men like the dark-haired chancer last week. He already knew that she wore no wedding band upon her finger. No husband. Unprotected in an area of London where it was dangerous for any woman, let alone one like her, to be so.

‘Do you wish another pint of porter, sir?' Her voice was clear, her accent refined and out of place on this side of town.

‘Thank you.' He watched in silence as she shifted his plate, cutlery and tankard to sit on her empty wooden tray. But once the table was cleared she did not hurry off as usual. Instead she hesitated, lingering there with the tray in her hands.

‘I did not get a chance to thank you, last week.' Her eyes were a dark-brown velvet. Warm eyes, he thought as he looked into them. Beautiful eyes.

‘For what?' he asked.

‘Spilling your drink.'

‘A clumsy accident.'

‘Of course it was.' She smiled in a way that told him that she understood exactly what he had done. The hint of a dimple showed in the corner of her mouth.

It made him smile, too.

She was always polite and professional, and friendly with it, as if she genuinely liked people. But unlike most other serving wenches he had never seen her flirt with any man, even though that would have earned her more tips. She did her job with a capable efficiency and sense of purpose that he liked.

He turned his gaze to focus on the tumble of the small pale-ivory token across his knuckles. No matter how beautiful she was, there was a part of him that wanted her to just walk away as she had done all the other times, to attend to other punters on other tables. There were things on his mind more important than beautiful women. Things he had spent a lifetime chasing. Things upon which he had to stay focused to bring to fruition. He did not want distractions, not of any kind.

And the truth was he had not wanted to intervene last week, but he could not have just sat there and turned a blind eye while a woman was forced against her will, whatever the level of it. He had known men like the black-haired tough all his life. What started out as ‘fun' soon escalated to something else.

He watched the rhythmic smooth tumble of the token over the fingers of his right hand. It was a movement so long practised as to no longer be a trick but a reflex, a part of himself.

‘I will fetch your porter.' He didn't look up at her but he knew she was still smiling. He could hear it in her voice.

Ned said nothing more. Just kept his focus on the token, effectively dismissing her.

He heard her turn and walk away. Shifted his eyes momentarily to her retreating figure, to the soft sway of her hips. The smallest of glances; no risk to the ripple of his fingers that was as instinctive and easy to him as breathing. And yet, in that moment, for the first time in years, he fluffed the move like a novice. The token tipped from his hand, straight off the table, landing edge up on the floorboards to roll away with speed.

His heart skipped a beat. He was already on his feet and following, but the token was way in front and heading for the crowded bar. But Emma, as he'd heard her called, reached a foot forward and, with the toe of her boot, gently stopped it, balanced the tray on her hip and retrieved it from the floor.

Ned watched as she rubbed the token against the bodice of her dress, dusting off the dirt that marred its smooth pale surface. Her gaze moved over the worn ivory, studying it.

She turned to him as he reached her.

Their eyes held for a tiny second before she passed the token to him.

‘Thank you,' he said.

‘For what? I trust the inadvertent and clumsy tread of my boot did your property no harm.' Her eyes held his.

He couldn't help himself. He smiled.

And so did she.

Her eyes watched the token as he slipped it safely inside his jacket. ‘What is it?'

‘My lucky charm.'

‘Does it work?'

‘Without fail.'

Her eyebrows rose ever so slightly, but she softened the cynicism with a smile that did things to him that no other woman's smile ever had. It kept him standing here, talking, when he should have walked away.

‘You don't believe me.'

‘A lucky charm that works without fail...?' She raised her eyebrows again, teasingly this time. ‘Perhaps I should ask to borrow it.'

‘Are you in need of good luck?'

‘Is not everyone?'

‘Emma!' Nancy shouted from the bar. ‘Six pints of porter here!'

‘Ned Stratham.' He did not smile, but offered his hand for a handshake.

‘Emma de Lisle.'

Her fingers were feminine and slender within his own. Her skin cool and smooth, even within the warmth of the taproom. The touch of their bare hands sparked physical awareness between them. He knew she felt it, too, from the slight blush on her cheeks and the way she released his hand.

‘Emma!' Nancy, the landlady, screeched like a banshee. ‘Get over here, girl!'

Emma glanced over her shoulder at the bar. ‘Coming, Nancy!

‘No rest for the wicked,' she said, and with a smile she was gone.

Ned resumed his seat, but his eyes watched her cross the room. The deep red of the tavern dress complimented the darkness of her hair and was laced tight to her body so that he could see the narrowness of her waist and the flare of her hips and the way the material sat against her buttocks. There was a vitality about her, an intelligence, a level of confidence in herself not normally seen round here.

He watched her collect the tankards from the bar and distribute them to various tables, taking her time en route to him. His was the last tankard on the tray.

‘What's a woman like you doing in a place like this?' he asked as she set the porter down before him.

Her eyes met his again. And in them was that same smile. ‘Working,' she said.

This time she didn't linger. Just moved on, to clear tables and take new orders and fetch more platters of chops.

He leaned back against the wooden panelling on the wall and slowly drank his porter. The drift of pipe smoke was in the air. He breathed it in along with the smell of char-grilled chops and hoppy ale. Soaking up the atmosphere of the place, the familiarity and the ease, he watched Emma de Lisle.

He had the feeling she wouldn't be working here in the Red Lion for too long. She was a woman who was going places, or had been to them. Anyone who met her knew it. He wondered again, as he had wondered many times before, what her story was.

He watched how efficiently she worked, with that air of purpose and energy; the way she could share a smile or a joke with the punters without it delaying her work—only for him had she done that. The punters liked her and he could see why.

She didn't look at him again, not in all the time it took him to sup his drink.

The bells of St Olave's in the distance chimed eleven. Nancy called last orders.

Ned's time here for tonight was over. He drained the tankard. Left enough coins on the table to pay for his meal and a generous tip for Emma de Lisle, before lifting his hat and making his way across the room to the front door.

His focus flicked one last time to where Emma was delivering meat-laden platters to a table of four.

She glanced over at him, her eyes meeting his for a tiny shared moment, and flashed her wonderful smile at him, before getting on with the job in hand.

He placed his hat on his head and walked out of the Red Lion Chop-House into the darkness of the alleyway.

I trust the inadvertent and clumsy tread of my boot did your property no harm.
He smiled. Emma de Lisle was certainly one hell of a woman. A man might almost be tempted to stay here for a woman like her. Almost.

He smiled one last time, then set off through the maze of streets he knew so well. As he crossed the town, moving from one parish to the next, he shifted his mind to what lay ahead for tomorrow, focusing, running through the details.

The night air was cool and his face grim as he struck a steady pace all the way home to Mayfair.

Chapter Two

‘I
s that you, Emma?' her father called at the sound of her key scraping in the lock. She could hear the wariness in his voice.

She unlocked the door and let herself into the two small rooms that they rented.

‘I brought you a special supper—pork chops.'

‘Pork?' He raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘Not usual for there to be any pork left.'

There had not been. Pork was expensive and the choicest chop they offered. It was also her father's favourite, which was why Emma had paid for them out of her own pocket, largely with the generous tip Ned Stratham had left, the rest covered by Nancy's discount. ‘Happy Birthday, Papa.' She dropped a kiss to his cheek as he drew her close and gave her a hug.

‘It is my birthday? I lose track of time these days.' He sat down in one of the spindly chairs at the bare table in the corner of the room.

‘That is what happens with age,' Emma teased him. But she knew it was not age that made him forget, but the fact that all the days merged together when one just worked all the time.

She hung her cloak on the back of the door, then set a place at the little table, unwrapped the lidded plate from its cloth and finally produced an earthenware bottle. ‘And as a treat, one of the finest of the Red Lion's porters.'

‘You spoil me, Emma,' he chided, but he smiled. ‘You are not having anything?'

‘I ate earlier, in the Red Lion. And you know I cannot abide the taste of beer.'

‘For which I am profoundly thankful. Bad enough my daughter chooses to work in a common tavern, but that she would start drinking the wares...' He gave an exaggerated shudder.

‘It is a chop-house, not a tavern as I have told you a hundred times.' She smiled. Although the distinction made little difference in reality, it made her father feel better. But he would not feel better were he to see the Red Lion's clientele and her best customers. She wondered what he would make of a man like Ned Stratham. Or what he would say had he witnessed the manner in which Ned had bested five men to defend her.

Her father smiled, too. ‘And I suppose I should be heartily grateful for that.'

‘You know the tips from the chop-house pay very well indeed, much better than for any milliner or shop girl. And it will not be for ever.'

‘Perhaps not,' he said thoughtfully.

‘No perhaps about it, Papa,' she said sternly. ‘Our savings begin to grow. And I have made an application for a position in Clerkenwell. It is not Mayfair, but it is heading in the right direction.'

‘Managing a chop-house.'

Managing a tavern, but she did not tell him that. ‘One step at a time, on a journey that will eventually lead us back to our own world.'

He smiled. ‘My dear girl, have I told you that you are stubborn as a mastiff?'

‘Once or twice. I wonder where I might have acquired such a trait? I do not recall my dear mama having such a defect.'

He chuckled. ‘Indeed, I own the blame. The apple does not fall so very far from the tree.' He gently patted her hand. ‘Come, take a seat. You must be tired after working all evening.'

Emma dropped into the seat opposite. ‘Not so tired at all.' And although her feet were aching it was the truth. She thought of Ned Stratham and the interaction that had passed between them earlier that evening and smiled. He was a man without an inch of softness in him. Probably more dangerous than any of the other men that came to the chop-house, and the men that came to the Red Lion were not those anyone would wish to meet alone on a dark night. Definitely more dangerous, she corrected, remembering precisely what he had done to Black-Hair and his cronies. And yet there was something about him, something that marked him as different. Pushing the thought away, she focused her attention on her father.

‘How were the docks today?'

‘The same as they ever are. The good news is that I managed to get an extra shift for tomorrow.'

‘Again?' The fatigue in his face worried her. ‘Working a double shift is too much for you.' Working a single shift in a manual job in the London Docks' warehouses was too much for a man who had been raised and lived as a gentleman all his life.

‘What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,' he said. ‘Do not start with your scolding, please, Emma.'

She sighed and gave a small smile. It was his birthday and she wanted what was left of it to be nice for him. There would be other days to raise the issue of his working double shifts. ‘Very well.'

‘Fetch your cup. I shall propose a toast.'

She did as he bid.

He poured a dribble of porter into her cup. Raised his own tankard in the air. ‘God has granted me another year and I am happy and thankful for it.' But there was a shadow of sadness in his eyes and she knew what he was thinking of. ‘To absent loved ones,' he said. ‘Wherever Kit is. Whatever he is doing. God keep him safe and bring him home to us.'

‘To absent loved ones,' she echoed and tried to suppress the complicated swirl of emotions she felt whenever Kit's name was mentioned.

They clunked the cups together and drank down the porter. Its bitterness made her shudder. Once it had been champagne in the finest of cut-crystal glasses with which he made his birthday toast and the sweetest of lemonades, extravagantly chilled with ice. Once their lives had been very different from the ones they lived here.

As if sensing her thought, he reached his hand to hers and gave it a squeeze. Her eyes met his, sombre for a moment with shared dark memories, before she locked the memories away in the place they belonged. Neither spoke of them. It was not their way. She forced a smile to her face. ‘You should eat those pork chops before they grow cold.'

‘With pleasure, my dear girl.' Her father smiled in return and tucked into the meal with relish.

* * *

Across town the next day, within the dining room of a mansion house in Cavendish Square, a very distinguished luncheon was taking place.

The fireplace was black marble, carved and elaborate. The walls were red, lined with ornate paintings of places in Scotland and overseas Ned had never been. Above the table hung an enormous chandelier from which a thousand crystal drops danced and shimmered in the slight breeze from the opened window. There were two windows in the room, both large, bowed in style, both framed with long heavy red damask curtains with fringed swags and tails. Both had blinds that were cream in colour and pulled high.

Out in the street beyond, the sky was bright with the golden light of a summer's afternoon. It glinted on the silver service and crystal of the glasses on the polished mahogany table stretched out like a long banqueting table from kings of old. Enough spaces to seat eighteen. But there were only five men dining from the sumptuous feast. Seated in the position of the principal guest was the government minister for trade. On his left was the minister's secretary. Directly opposite the minister was the biggest mill owner in the north and one away was a shipping magnate whose line was chief to service the West Indies and the Americas. A powerful collection of men, and seated at their heart, in the position of host, was Ned Stratham.

He fed them the best of fine foods and rich sauces prepared by a chef who had once been employed by the Prince Regent. He ensured that his butler and footmen were well trained enough to keep the men's glasses flowing with expensive French wines. A different one suited for each dish.

Ned knew how to play the game. He knew what was necessary for success in business and influence over policy.

‘I can make no promises,' said the minister.

‘I'm not asking you to,' replied Ned.

‘And the source of the figures you quoted?'

‘Sound.'

‘You really think it would work?'

Ned gave a nod.

‘You would be taking as much a risk as us, maybe even more so as it is your money on the line.'

‘Maximum gain comes from maximum venture.'

‘If the vote were to go against us and the bill fail...'

‘You would survive it.'

‘But would you?' the minister asked.

‘That's not your problem.' Ned held his gaze while the seconds stretched, until eventually the minister for trade nodded.

‘I will set the necessary mechanisms in motion tomorrow.'

‘Then, we're agreed.' Ned held out his hand for a handshake.

The minister swallowed. A shadow of unease shifted through his shrewd eyes. It was one thing to say the words, but another to shake on it. A handshake for men like him placed their honour on the line.

There was a silence that was awkward for them all save Ned. He took a sort of wry pleasure in such moments; using gentlemen's discomfort of him and his dubious breeding to his own ends.

The other three looked nervous, waited to see what the minister would do.

Ned kept his gaze on the other man's. Kept his hand extended. Both were steady.

The minister smiled and finally shook Ned's hand. ‘You have convinced me, sir.'

‘I'm glad to hear it.'

* * *

It was after six by the time the luncheon finally ended and four of the most influential men in the country left Cavendish Square.

The butler and two footmen returned to the dining room, standing with their backs against the wall. Faces straight ahead, eyes focused on some distant point. Ned marvelled that gentlemen discussed the details of confidential business before servants, as if they were not men, as if they could not see or hear what was going on. Ned knew better. He never made the same mistake.

He sat alone at the table, the wine glass still half-full in his hand. The sunlight which streamed in through the windows lit the port within a deep ruby-red and made the monogram engraved on the glass's surface sparkle—S for Stratham.

The minister had squirmed, but in the end the deal had been done. It would be good for much more than Ned. He felt a sense of grim satisfaction.

The butler cleared his throat and came to hover by his elbow. ‘More port, sir?'

‘No, thank you, Clarkson.' Ned wondered what Clarkson would do if he were to ask for a porter. But gentlemen in Mayfair did not drink porter. Not in any of their fancy rich establishments. Not even in their own homes. And Ned must keep up the guise of a gentleman.

But porter made him think of Whitechapel, and the Red Lion...and Emma de Lisle. With those perceptive dark eyes, and that vitality and warm, joyful confidence that emanated from her.

He glanced out of the window, at the sunlight and the carriage that trundled past, and felt the waft of cool air break through the cigar smoke that lingered like a mist within the dining room.

He had other business to attend to. But it didn't have to happen tonight.

Ned set the fine crystal goblet down upon the table. Got to his feet.

The butler appeared by his side again.

‘I'm going out, Clarkson.'

‘Very good, sir. Shall I arrange for the carriage?'

‘No carriage.' Not for where Ned was going. ‘It's a fine evening. I'll walk.'

Ned went to change into his old leather jacket and boots.

* * *

The heat from the kitchen mixed with that that had built up in the taproom through the summer's day to make the air of the Red Lion stifling. The chop-house's windows and doors were all open, but it made little difference.

Nancy had taken advantage of the heatwave and had her staff carry some tables out on to the street, so that the chop-house's customers could sit out there in the cool shade and drink their beer.

‘Three pitchers of ale!' Nancy yelled and Emma hurried to answer.

Emma could feel the sweat dripping down her back and between her breasts. Never had a shift seemed so long. Her legs were aching and her feet felt like they were on fire. She lifted the tray, tried to blow a hair away from where it had escaped her pins to dangle in her eye and made her way across the taproom, hurrying out of the doorway, just as Ned Stratham was coming in.

She collided with him, almost dropping the tray. It was Ned who steadied it, stopping the slide of the pitchers and the ensuing disaster.

‘Ned Stratham,' she said, and inside her stomach felt like a flock of starlings taking off from the fields as one to swoop across a sunset sky. ‘Two nights on the trot? This is a first.' Sometimes weeks passed between his visits.

Those blue, blue eyes met hers and held for a second too long. ‘You've been counting.'

‘As if I would have time to be counting.'

She saw the hint of amusement in his eyes as he moved aside and let her pass through.

Emma did not look back. Just got on with serving the tableloads of customers that were outside in the alley. But all the while she was conscious that he was inside. Too conscious. She smiled wryly to herself and got on with clearing the outside tables before returning to the taproom.

There was not a seat to be had inside. Ned was leaning against the bar, comfortable, already sipping a porter. He looked unconcerned by the crowd, by the heat, by not having a chair or table.

‘Six porters, two small beers and a stout, Emma!' Paulette shouted and thumped the last of the tankards down on the wooden counter beside Ned.

Emma continued her quick pace to the bar and, while unloading her tray, slid a glance in Ned Stratham's direction.

‘Busy in here tonight,' he observed.

‘There's a schooner in at the docks. We've had the full crew in since lunchtime.'

‘Good business.'

‘But bad timing. Tom did not come in today. Nancy is in the kitchen, cooking in his place.' She started loading up the fresh porters while she spoke.

‘Bet that's made her all sweetness and light.'

‘You know her so well.'

With impeccable timing, Nancy's face, beet-red with heat and running with sweat, appeared at the hatch as she thumped three plates down. ‘Three mixed grills!' She flicked a crabbed gaze in Emma's direction.