When a Scot Loves a Lady (26 page)

“It's been too long, Jin.”

“I trust you are well, Leam?” Jin settled back in a chair, at ease in the sumptuous apartment yet still slightly alien to it. The foreign, aristocratic cast of his sun-darkened features was at odds with his plain clothing, and his light eyes held sharp intelligence. Several years shy of Leam's age, Jinan Seton had had the rule of himself before Leam had even learned English.

“I am as well as can be expected with Colin still nosing into everybody's business,” Leam said, sitting as well.

“Yes. He sent me word shortly before you left London.”

“
What?
”

“Rather, about what?” Yale said, entering. Jin stood but the Welshman waved off the formality and headed toward the sideboard.

Leam shook his head. “Goddamn it, Wyn, did you know Colin had been in touch with Jin already?”

“Did I know that our friend the viscount told a little white lie to get you involved in whatever business Jin has come to chat about with us? No. But I'm not surprised. Colin Gray always gets his man.”

Leam turned to the privateer. “Colin knew where you've been all along?”

Jin nodded. “Apparently he did not share that information with you. He did, however, send me interesting news and told me you would be coming my way.”

“You may as well let Jin tell us, Leam. Colin will find a way to get you involved later if you don't at least appear to be curious now.” Yale filled three glasses with claret and carried them over.

Jin set his on the table. “The Home Office has had word from two separate sources that recently a merchant ship intended for Calcutta disappeared after leaving the port at Newcastle Upon Tyne.”

“Quite close to the Scottish border.” Yale lifted a brow. “Pirates or rebels?”

“As yet the owners of the vessel have not come forward with an insurance claim, so the cargo has yet to be disclosed. The informants seem to think Scottish rebels took it because they believed it carried cargo of particular value.”

“Cargo that could finance an insurrection against the British crown, presumably,” Yale supplied. “Those pesky insurgents. What cargo of that value could be on its way to Calcutta? English woolens seem unlikely.”

“Rather, intelligence on British tactics in Bengal traveling under cover of commerce to disguise it,” Jin replied. “It is sometimes done to protect sensitive information also sent in duplicate on naval ships.”

“Aha.” Yale leaned back in his chair. “This intelligence is something that the French in the East Indies might be happy to have, I take it? What a pretty little circle of amity. Scottish rebels seeking French assistance and willing to trade English secrets abroad to assure that assistance.” The Welshman sipped his drink sparingly now. While working, he rarely indulged.

“Our director asked the Admiralty that I be given permission to board all ships, British and otherwise, in search of information,” Jin said.

“Did the Admiralty oblige?”

The sailor nodded. “The
Cavalier
will pull out of Liverpool next week.”

“I thought you'd quit too, Jin.” Yale eyed him.

“I quit the Falcon Club.” Jin finally tipped his glass to his mouth, a thick ring set with a bloodred ruby winking on his hand. “Not my livelihood.”

“As though you need any more gold. Rich as Midas.”

Jin's lean cheek creased. “Short on funds again, Wyn?”

“Gentlemen.” Jaw tight, Leam stood. “As none of this concerns me, I must take leave of you now.”

“Leam—”

The door clicked open. Kitty entered and glided across the room. The others came to their feet. She held out her hands and put them into Jin's.

“Jinan, it is a pleasure to see you.” Her smile was genuine. “If I had known you were here earlier, I would have sought you out.” She released him.

“Hello, Kitty. How do you come to be in this country?”

“I have come here with my friend, the eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Vale. But tell me, how is your ship?” The thunderclouds sparkled with sunshine in the dim chamber, dancing with affection like Leam had never seen, her complexion high from familiar warmth rather than discomfort. Her elegance was radiant, and it struck him full force in the gut.

It was for another man, and Leam did not like it.

“Very well,” Jin said. “And Alex?”

“Likewise. Serena hopes to deliver an heir for him shortly.”

“You're acquainted with Lord Savege, then, Seton?” Yale asked.

“Mr. Seton and my brother met years ago in the West Indies. We have known each other an age. But how do you all come to be acquainted? Are you sailors, and all along I have thought you indolent town dandies?” Her words teased, but the shine in her eyes dimmed.

“No, that's Worthmore, of course.” Yale chuckled.

“We've a shared acquenntence in Lunnon, maleddy,” Leam said, “He's sent us news o common interest.”

“Really, my lord? What sort of news?” Nothing changed in her tone, but Leam saw the glint of challenge in her eyes.

“Shipping news,” he replied.

“Ah. I see.” With a quick glance she took them all in. “Lady Vale bids me alert you that dinner will be served in a quarter hour.” She flashed Jin a brief smile, curtsied, and left.

Yale settled into his chair anew and took up his glass.

Jin turned to Leam. “Katherine Savege?”

“Well acquainted with the lady?” Yale murmured. “Spent some time drinking rum with her rogue of a brother in the West Indies before Savege settled down to happily-ever-after, no doubt.”

“Something like that.” The sailor's light eyes remained pensive. “Leam, she and her mother play cards often with the Earl of Chance, don't they?”

“I believe so.”

“He is on our list.”

“List?”

“He's a Scot,” Yale murmured.

“Whose list?” Leam insisted.

“The director's, with the Admiralty's input,” Jin replied. “A list of Scottish lords considered ripe for allying themselves with the French.”

Cheroot between thumb and forefinger, Yale lit a taper. “The full truth unfolds. The director wishes Leam to become cozy with these Scottish lords, no doubt.”

“Spies and traitors are the business of the Home Office, not the Falcon Club,” Leam said, hollowness settling into his gut. “But even if that weren't the case, I no longer work for the crown,” he finished slowly, distinctly.

Jin's clear regard never faltered. “Then what are you doing here?”

A younger Leam might have been tempted to say that fate had driven him to the feet of Kitty Savege. But he was no longer that foolish youth, no matter how her presence animated him to jealousy that burned like a branding iron.

Without awaiting a reply, Jin reached into his waistcoat pocket. “I'm off.”

Yale slanted him a grin. “Hello and good-bye. Why am I not surprised?”

“I have business to attend to before hauling out.” Jin dropped a folded paper onto the table.

“The director's list?”

With only a nod, the shipmaster departed.

Leam drew in a slow breath. He headed for the door.

“Don't you wish to see the other names on that list?” Yale asked.

“I wish to go home. I intend to do so tomorrow.” Nothing held him in England. Not a club or Highland rebels or traitorous lords or ships full of secret intelligence. Not even a woman. If an assassin wanted him, he could damned well follow him to Scotland.

I
n the drawing room after dinner Leam informed his hosts of his departure on the morrow.

“
Si vite!
” Madame Roche tut-tutted. “But you have only now returned.”

“Will you be taking Mr. Yale with you?” Worthmore queried dryly.

“I could not leave here in less than a fortnight, sir,” the Welshman said. “The company is far too charming to tear oneself away so abruptly.” He smiled at his hostess. She tittered, and Leam saw in her a reflection of what Cornelia might have become, still beautiful, entirely obsequious.

“A'm expected at home wi' ma family, maleddy.”

“What a fond papa you must be. And how sad that your dear wife could not see her son grow to manhood.” She grasped Leam's hands. “We will miss you dreadfully.” The light, teasing simper, the sweet, golden sympathy—Cornelia would have been this, indeed. He should have seen it at the time. Instead he had been a naïve, besotted fool. And a jealous one.

But the passion of jealousy was in his nature. He could not change that. He could only avoid situations in which he might become slave to it again.

The party broke up and Leam bid them all adieu. Kitty did not speak. Her cheeks were again bright, in her eyes hesitancy. Thoroughly unwelcome.

He went to his bedchamber, lifted the stopper from an overwrought crystal decanter, and poured a brandy. An hour later, drink untasted and fire guttering in the grate, he rose from the chair in which he'd sat motionless, drawn to the window. He parted the draperies.

Moonlight glimmered on fresh snow, the clear sky showing black and silvery. On the lawn, moving gracefully through the garden statuary toward a trio of ancient trees at the edge of the hill, cloak billowing behind her, an angel tread. An angel with wide gray eyes and sweet lips, a clever tongue, and a past of careless encounters with gentlemen Leam did not wish to count himself among, damnation.

He watched her lose herself among the boughs of willow and pine, and despite the warning in the pit of his stomach, could not halt himself from going after her.

K
itty's feet sank into the soft snow, cold and wet but welcome. Anything to distract her.

She mustn't allow herself to feel this way because he was departing tomorrow. He had already left Willows Hall once without notice, throwing her into the acutest kind of confusion that he could leave her like that without even saying good-bye. But even before he disappeared so suddenly, he had been playing least in sight at Willows Hall. He seemed to want nothing to do with her now.

That was for the best. She did not trust him. And now she knew, through his association with Jin, that Lord Blackwood was indeed involved in matters far beyond what it appeared.

Jin was no innocent. Not remotely. Handsome, wealthy, and without any morals that she had ever noticed except a fierce loyalty to her eldest brother, Jinan Seton was not a safe man. Alex did not know Jin from the gaming tables; he had not been born into a gentleman's household. Now he sailed his ship at the behest of the crown as a commissioned privateer. But for over a decade on the ocean, he had been a pirate.

An old willow spread out before her, its boughs thickly tangled with the draping pine beside it. A half moon cast all into bluish silvery relief, picking out every shadow with precision. Kitty went beneath the boughs, the snow thinning on the ground and making way for a soft, soundless carpet of dried needles.

If the earl did business with Jin, she should be glad he was leaving. She couldn't be. When he looked at her she saw both the steel and the heat of desire. She wanted to be desired that way. And the things he had said…

She removed her glove and pressed her palm into the rough bark, shivering beneath her woolen cloak. She mustn't think it. Shortly she would return to London and take up her old life, too cowardly to alter the manner in which she had lived for years. Or perhaps she could wed an older man like Worthmore, or a man of lesser fortune, one who would take her despite all because of her dowry. Or if her mother married Lord Chamberlayne, she might live the rest of her days in her stepfather's and brothers' homes, moving back and forth between them because she lacked a family of her own. Because she had seen to that herself with such purpose and dedication. With such an angry heart.

But now her heart no longer knew anger, and she wanted another sort of life.

A rustling of branches sounded behind her. She whirled about. He stood just within the fall of green and gray, all black beneath the moon, and white.

He came to her while her legs weakened and her breaths fled, until he stood before her. Without a word he parted her cloak and took her waist into his hands. She caught up her breath, gulping air and feeling his heat through his hands and in the space between them. His eyes were so dark, and as they had been at the inn, full of a longing she feared she had already fallen too far into.

Soundlessly, like a vision from a dream, he went to his knees before her. With his hands around her hips, he pressed his face against her waist and seemed to breathe deeply. Then his thumbs curved down the bones of her hips, and he followed them with his mouth.

She turned her head aside, unable to look. “What are you doing?”

“A hardly know.” He spoke low, hushed beneath the winter canopy.

“That is not very encouraging.”

“A'm making luve tae a fair lass.”