by Eva Devon
“No.” Adam’s voice was soft but strong.
She made no reply, not wishing to argue. They saw each other but little, and she didn’t wish to spend time in ill discord.
Sensing her unease, Adam segued away from that particular line of conversation. “What is it exactly that you wish for your ship?”
Here it was. Time to ask her grand brothers for help. So, she stood straight, and without a blink of the eye, she stated, “I’d like you to insure it, and I’d like to include it in your fleet so that we have some protection. As of right now, we’re completely independent.”
“And while independence can be wonderful, it can also be dangerous,” Alexander observed.
“Exactly,” she said. “And I do think that the Duke family could help Cleo and me a good deal. And if I’m going to rely upon it at all, I might as well get some benefit from it.”
“Agreed,” Alexander said.
“Agreed as well,” said Adam. “But you’re not doing anything scandalous, are you? Nothing that you shouldn’t?”
“What?” she queried. “Like freeing slaves from slavers? For that’s a scandalous business. . . And an honorable one too.”
The jest was not meant to be funny, and none of them took it to be so. She was reminding her brothers that they had caused fury in many quarters by liberating cargo. For slaves were not considered to be people but things, and it was exactly what the Duke brothers had done for years.
They still did it in certain areas of the globe with Rafe and James.
“You’re not part of the molasses to rum to slaves triangle, is what Adam means,” Alexander said softly.
“Do you take me for some sort of disgusting, rat-faced. . .”
“No, no, no,” Alexander said. “But we have to know what we might be involved in.” He cleared his throat. “He might also ask if you’re in the opium trade.”
“The opium trade?” She swung her gaze from brother to brother. “My God, what sort of people do you think Cleo and I are? Wild pirates ourselves, who could compete for scandal like Bluebeard? Sailors who make their profits off the backs of miserable people?”
“One never knows, which was why I had to ask. I’d be a bounder myself if I didn’t,” Adam said gently.
She gave a tight nod at that. In truth, after a moment of anger, she admired him for demanding to know what sort of businesswoman she was.
“You aren’t exactly usual,” Alexander reminded her.
“Nor are you,” she pointed out.
“None of us are,” said Adam. “Thank God for it. And my new family isn’t either.”
“Mmm,” she said over the rim of her snifter. “Your new family?”
“Yes.” Adam’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “They’re really quite fascinating.”
“You both keep saying that,” she said. “I can’t possibly believe that I’ll like them.”
“Come to dinner and find out,” Adam encouraged.
“Better yet stay,” Alexander enthused grandly. “I truly mean it. I think it’d be marvelous to make Lord Eversleigh squirm.”
“That captain is truly your brother-in-law and brother to a Duke?” she asked, still amazed.
“Yes,” said Alexander ruefully. “And he could use a little bit of needling. I do try, but it gets a bit overwhelming, and it does make my wife unhappy when I do it.”
“So you’d like me to do it for you?” she surmised with a wink.
“I wouldn’t mind,” Alexander confessed.
She laughed. “And why would I do this?”
Alexander waggled his brows. “Because you’ve never given me a Christmas present, or a birthday one for that matter.”
“That is through no fault of my own,” she protested with no hint of grudgingness. “But I suppose if you want to think of all the Christmases and birthdays that we’ve missed, this could be a collective present. And it might give me a great deal of joy to do it. It might be quite fun to watch that handsome devil deal with someone like me.”
Adam pinned her with a questioning stare. “Handsome?”
“Yes, he’s handsome.” She shrugged. “There’s no point to denying it, is there?”
“No,” Alexander agreed carefully. “There is no point, but please don’t have an affair with him.”
“Why ever not?” she asked, delighted that she could make her own brother squirm a bit.
“Oh, bloody hell,” drawled Adam. “Don’t even say such a thing, Alexander. Why would you put that idea into her head?”
“Into my head?” she repeated, surprised either of them might think she was so easily influenced. “I would never do such a thing unless I truly wished it.”
“Well, luckily, you’ll never truly wish it, and he certainly would never countenance it,” Adam said flatly. “He can’t stand Americans. He can’t probably stand women like you either.”
“Women like me?” she repeated.
Adam blew out a breath. “Yes.”
“What?” She furrowed her brow and turned to Alexander. “I thought you said that I would like his sister. Is she not like me at all, then?”
“First,” Alexander said. “To business. There’s no question, of course we’ll insure your ship as long as you’re up to nothing nefarious.”
“Second,” Alexander continued. “You must come and stay with us a while, for we barely know you at all. Please don’t go hieing across the world without at least getting to know our acquaintance a little better.”
Adam added, “Besides, you’ve got nieces and nephews to meet.”
“My God, do I?” she gasped.
Alexander quirked a brow. “Indeed, you do.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “You truly need to read your dispatches. I wrote you so in the last letter.”
“I don’t know if I’ve gotten it,” she confessed. “You know how it is with these ports of call. Sometimes letters arrive in the Duke offices around the world, and sometimes I forget to check.”
“For God’s sake, woman,” groaned Adam. “What’s the point in being part of our family if you don’t check to see if we’ve written you?”
She frowned. It was hard to admit the fact that she still sometimes didn’t think she was part of the family. Same with Cleo. They often felt as if they were the forgotten members of the Duke clan.
“Certainly, I’ll come to dinner,” she rushed, hoping not to address his question. “I can’t promise Cleo will come. But I, for one, wouldn’t miss it. The entertainment should be good if there are to be as many aristocrats as you say. Shocking aristocrats is one of my favorite things to do.”
“Not too much,” Adam warned. “My wife is pregnant.”
“Is she? How wonderful,” she said, with genuine happiness for her brother. “Congratulations.”
He beamed. “Thank you.”
Alexander cleared his throat, “I think you needn’t cosset your wife. She would be able to handle the shock of our sister very well, indeed.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Well, I suppose so. She’s had quite enough to deal with, with the rest of the Eversleighs.”
“Is she an Eversleigh too?” Calliope asked, stunned by the drama of it all.
“No, she’s not,” Adam explained. “She’s basically an adopted Eversleigh. Her entire family died in a rather terrible accident just the year before.”
“Oh,” she said sympathetically. “So she’s known a bit of tragedy. That is sad.” Calliope took a sip of her brandy and continued, “But life is full of those things.”
“Hell’s bells, Calliope,” Alexander ground out. “You make it sound as if getting the plague was as normal as catching a cold.”
“It is,” she said without apology. “Tragedy happens every day.”
Adam closed his eyes for a moment as if bracing himself. “Please don’t say such a thing to my new wife.”
“I shan’t,” she promised. “I vow to be kind to her. I never am unkind to people who’ve suffered.”
“Just to us, then?”
Adam drawled.
“You deserve all the unkindness possible in the world,” she teased. “For you are a bunch of silly boys who’ve been treated like—”
“Like bounders!” countered Alexander. “Like bounders. Our father treated us like bounders.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Yes, but at least he treated you like something, and gave you a home to live in.”
Alexander sighed. “I can’t argue that,” he said. “Now, let us promise to get on for just a little bit. At least for one dinner.”
She smiled. “I think I can manage one dinner after so long apart. Likely, we’ll be long apart again.”
“I’m glad you’ll stay,” Adam said.
“And I,” she said, surprised at how much she meant it.
“Now come here, sister. I want a hug.”
“Hug?” she announced. “Never. Well, I suppose one wouldn’t hurt overly much.”
Chapter 3
Captain Lockhart Eversleigh, youngest brother of the Eversleigh family and the last in line to the dukedom, had dedicated his entire life to duty.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
When he was a boy, he’d been quite carefree. In fact, he had never given duty a single thought. But one event had changed everything.
Even now, as he took his rapier down from the wall, wiped it with a linen cloth, and turned to the dueling strip at The Rapier Club, he could feel it in the pit of his stomach, that distant call of a day that had destroyed his inner sense of well-being.
That day when his eldest brother, that magnificent young man, had died. It was difficult sometimes to let the sharp pain of it go, but he could still remember the way he had worshiped his eldest brother, the way his other brothers had worshiped him too.
The tragic death had put a rift in the family and had never really gone away, and yet they’d all done the best they could.
They’d each struggled with it in their own individual ways. His older brother Jack had done everything he could to be a decent duke, but he’d also been a terrible rake.
Charles had been absolutely tormented, and his sister, Gemma, had been a bubbly, carefree figure, determined to throw herself into society.
He, well, he’d joined the army, and what an eye-opening thing that had been to perform his duty to the empire, and Hail Britannia. He’d traveled all over the globe.
Anywhere the British had their empire. He’d seen things most people could never even imagine. And there were many days when he had to close his eyes and will himself not to think.
Of course, the danger of closed eyes was that one could envision the past with sharp clarity, but if he did not press his lids shut from time to time, he could not count or breathe or cause himself to still.
So, he spent much of his time doing exactly what he was doing now.
He practiced constant activity.
To be still was to risk danger.
To do anything outside the bounds of duty was to risk even worse danger.
Therefore, he did not allow himself to contemplate anything beyond what he was supposed to do or how he would manage it. Truthfully, he loathed London, but London was where his family was, and he loved his family. With difficulty, he managed to stay, even if it did drive him mad.
The trivialities of all the ton people he was surrounded with were disheartening. But Charles, Jack, Gemma, and his mother were all marvelous specimens of people.
Unlike that young woman he had met just a few hours before. She was clearly not the best sort.
No, and it made absolute sense that she was a Duke. One of that dratted, terrible American family that had managed to weasel its way into his.
He eyed his blade, longing to skewer someone.
Time had allowed him to tolerate Adam and Alexander. They were people he could get on with, but he never admired them.
He couldn’t. Not since they were part of a country that had rebelled from the importance and greatness of England.
Had they not realized what a wonderful thing they had?
No, clearly not.
They’d felt the need to separate. To break the English family, so to speak.
They were not capable of dedication and loyalty.
They had to go off and be rebellious idiots.
Tony, the recent Duke of Ayr, cleared his throat and playfully jabbed the pointed tip of his rapier at him.
“Hell’s bells,” Tony sallied. “You do look as if you are lost in terra incognita. Has someone stolen your wits?”
“They have not been stolen,” Lock stated, annoyed he’d been so entirely distracted with thoughts of her and her family. “Merely bludgeoned. I had the most terrible encounter with a young woman this morning.”
“Oh, indeed?” Tony queried. “A terrible encounter was it? That’s why you’re spending so much time thinking about it, eh? Must’ve been a terribly unattractive girl.”
“No,” he protested quickly. “She was not, and she was not a girl. I’ll tell you that much.”
“Oh?” Tony waggled his brows, taking a practice swing with his rapier. “An old trout, then?”
Lockhart frowned. No, she had been a woman to her core, of that he was certain, there was nothing silly or girlish about her, nor was she an old trout. He would have guessed that she had only entered her early twenties, and yet she was incredibly empowered for one so young.
“I think you liked her,” Tony ventured, moving with the grace of a dancer towards the dueling strip.
“I did not,” Lock replied tightly. “I thought her horrid.”
Tony nodded. “Which is, of course, why you’re spending so much time thinking about her.”
Lock ground his teeth then reminded, “You know that a horrible encounter can take up a great deal of one’s attention.”
“Oh, of course. Of course,” Tony agreed, his lips pursed in exaggerated consideration. “As we do like to spend time thinking about awful things. Yes, such a wise tack.”
Lock swallowed back a growl of frustration and said calmly, “I am merely thinking about how I can avoid her in the future.”
Tony peered at him, testing the weight of his rapier. “And why would you need to avoid her if you had such a random encounter with her?”
Lock leveled Tony with a resigned stare. “Because she’s family.”
Tony stared for a long moment then guffawed with amusement. “Bloody hell, my friend. You’re in deeper trouble than even I thought.”
“I am not,” Lock gritted.
Tony smirked. “If you say so.”
Lock blew out a heavy breath. “She’s the sister of Alexander and Adam Duke.”
Tony only grinned anew, his eyes flashing with amusement.
“Oh dear, you’re in for it, then, aren’t you, old boy?”
“Now, why the devil would you say that?” Lock burst out. “I have absolutely no interest in those people, the Dukes, at all.”
“But you do, old boy, you do,” Tony riposted bluntly. “Those people drive you mad, and being driven mad can be quite fun. I think you need to be driven a bit mad every day. It would be good for you.”
Lock narrowed his eyes. “I do not need to be driven mad. I like to keep my feet firmly upon the ground.”
“And that is a tragedy, my friend. . . To keep your feet always on the ground. I think you could do with a bit of flying.”
Lock clenched his jaw, desperate not to let his depth of feelings on the subject show. “People who fly, inevitably end up falling, and the thud can be absolutely fatal.”
“No sense of adventure in you at all.” Tony shook his head. “How is it that you spent so much time in so many parts of the world?”
“I was making sure all those parts of the world ran smoothly,” Lockhart pointed out. “People who like adventures don’t do that sort of thing. Generally, they’re the ones causing trouble.”
“Not true. Not true,” Tony corrected. “I have spent a great deal of time traveling this world, not trying to smooth thing
s over. I like to cause a good deal of trouble, but trouble is a matter of opinion. Don’t you think one man’s trouble is another man’s salvation?”
Lockhart gave his friend a skeptical stare. He didn’t see the world in such gray tones as Tony. “I cannot say, but in this. . .” He hesitated. “I think she’s a. . .”
Tony leaned forward, dark brows lifting. “Yes. Do tell, do tell.”
Lock blurted, “I think she’s a pirate. She did get quite indignant when I said so, but the way she was dressed indicated a certain wildness.”
“One must never judge a pirate by the way they’re dressed,” Tony pointed out quite seriously. “Look at my father. His hats were bigger than anybody’s, and yet he was a pirate that one could like without being worried about being skinned alive. Most cannot say the same.”
“True, but he’d still blow a ship to bits, would he not?” Lock challenged.
“Yes,” Tony agreed, grinning. “He would. He did have a bit of a reputation, as did I. But we don’t discuss those sorts of things now. We keep those delicately tucked under our rug, so to speak.”
Lock snorted. “More fortune to you. My family flies our scandalous banners proudly, apparently. Look at them. Marrying Americans. Getting involved with mad sailors. I have no wish to add another seafaring person to my acquaintance. And yet, it seems that I must.”
“Why must you?” Tony asked, shoving a lock of dark hair back from his face. He eyed the dueling strip as if he longed to get to it, but he listened all the same.
Lock took stock and realized that the best thing he could do would be to get to practice. Still, he couldn’t stop himself confessing, “Well, if she’s the sister of Adam and Alexander, then surely, I’ll be forced to have dinner with her.”
“Now, why would you be forced to have dinner with her?” Tony stepped onto the dueling strip and took a few guided paces. “Surely, you could just go off to the country, could you not?”
He frowned.
“I am not going to turn tail and hide to avoid a young woman,” Lock retorted boldly. “I would not have her thinking that I was afraid of her.”
“Afraid.” Tony arched a brow. “Aren’t you? Just a bit?”
“Never,” he stated.