“Unlike what you may believe, Mr. Redmond, I have no wish to see Miss Jones hurt in any way. I am an old friend of her family’s, and I did what I thought was right. Whether or not you might agree is another matter, but I feel justified in the decisions I have made. All may not have ended as I would have supposed, but Miss Jones now has all she needs to return to where she is happy.”
“Back to America.”
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “Away from London, at any rate.”
“All I need to know is how she is leaving London,” he said a bit desperately. “To which port would she travel? And how?”
“I can tell you that she has enough funds to sail from London,” Lady Alexander said. “Seeing how easily she took to sailing on our voyage to England, I would have to guess she is at London’s port.”
David eyed her critically, wondering if she would steer him incorrectly, but for once her gaze was more open and honest than it had been before. At this point, he did not have much choice but to trust her.
“Thank you, Lady Alexander,” he said, with the slightest of nods as he nearly tripped in his haste to run down the stairs back to his carriage while still acknowledging the woman, who watched him with something akin to mirth in her gaze. “Thank you very much.”
The carriage conveyed him as far as London Bridge, where he called the driver to halt and then ran out to look over the port. The sight in front of him made him cringe. The docks were full of hundreds of ships of all sizes, people bustling everywhere like ants below him. How in the world he was ever supposed to find Sarah amongst all of the crowds, he had no idea. But he had to try.
David continued on foot as far as he could, craning his neck this way and that, as though he might become lucky and spot her amongst all of the people, ships, and wares around him.
But of course, it could never be so simple as that.
He found a man, a sailor-looking type, and tugged on his sleeve to capture his attention. “Where would the passenger ships be?”
“There aren’t many around here, mate,” the man said, but then pointed down a ways. “Try down that way, over where you can see the docks converging. There are a few smaller ships there. But it’s getting late in the day. If you haven’t booked passage yet, you may be out of luck. Look for a benevolent captain.”
“I’ll do that,” David said as he continued on his way to where the man pointed, running now as he attempted to push his way through the crowds as politely as possible.
David wasn’t sure how many times he collided with someone, was cursed at, or became lost through the bustling port, but finally, he came to where there were, as the man had promised, small ships lined up haphazardly. He wished Clarence or Berkley were here with him. Somehow they would know exactly what to do, who to ask, or how to find Sarah within this mess.
David, however, had no idea. So instead he just approached one ship after another, asking of its destination and whether there was a young woman by the name of Miss Jones aboard. He had asked seven different captains with no luck until the eighth finally had a question for him—“To where do you think she’s headed?”
“South, likely, if she’s sailing. Brighton? Plymouth?”
The man nodded. “There’s one leaving to Plymouth in a couple of hours—The Marjorie, she’s called, after the captain’s lost love. It’s about a half-mile down, but you better hurry.”
David profusely thanked him before taking off at a sprint, spotting the vessel, as it was slightly bigger than the others around it.
Two members of the crew were just beginning to untie the ropes at the docks when David raced up to it.
“Do you have a Miss Jones aboard?” he asked, his breath coming in huffs between words. The men looked at him as though he had gone mad, but he persisted, asking once more. At the very least, his question had halted them in their actions.
“Pretty little thing?” the one asked with a smile that, while certainly not malicious, caused David to want to lean over and wipe it off of his face.
“You could say that,” he said.
“Aye, I believe she’s aboard,” the sailor answered, “But you’re out of luck, chap. The ship is sailing and the captain ain’t going to want to wait any longer.”
“Thank you,” David said with a cordial nod as though he was going to adhere to the words and he began walking away, although noting that the gangplank was still down, when he came close enough he ran aboard.
“Hey!” the man yelled, but David didn’t wait in his urgency.
“Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?”
The man who came out of the shadows had long dark hair, and was, David could admit, a good-looking man. The top of his shirt was open to reveal a dark chest, and David instantly bristled at the thought of Sarah spending any length of time on a ship with this man—never mind that it wasn’t entirely his decision as to what she did or didn’t do.
“I’m looking for a woman who I believe is a passenger—Miss Sarah Jones.”
The captain crossed his arms over his chest.
“Why should I give you any information about one of my passengers?”
“Please,” David said, trying to appeal to the man’s understanding side. “I have to find her before she leaves London, or I may never see her again.”
“Perhaps that’s what the lady wants.”
“I just need to speak with her.”
“We are setting sail,” the captain said with a shrug. “If you’d like to stay on board, then you best buy your passage.”
David looked around him, at the two sailors who were ready to throw the last remaining rope on board, the small plank leading down to the dock, and the river before them.
If Sarah wasn’t on board, he would regret this decision for the rest of his life, but at the moment, he had no other option.
“Very well,” he said. “How much?”
The captain grinned, clearly seeing the opportunity for an easy extra passage. When he named his amount, David rocked forward.
“For a short sail? Even if I wanted to pay you that much, I do not have it on me, man,” he said, and the captain shrugged, as though he was glad he at least had tried.
“What do you have then?”
David rifled through his pockets, finally bringing out a fair amount of notes, which the captain looked over.
“Good enough,” he said. “I’ve one berth left. Doesn’t look like you have much to pack away.”
The man laughed heartily, and David attempted to swallow his impatience.
“Where is she?”
“I’m not sure I know of who you’re talking, mate.”
David brought a hand to his forehead. He’d been had. He should have known. Damn, but he had been a fool. He looked behind him, seeing the port was now retreating into the distance.
It was too late. He’d not only likely lost Sarah forever, but now he was bound for bloody Plymouth.
He turned back around to tell the captain exactly what he thought of his deception but was halted in his tracks when he saw a woman’s silhouette before him, her face obscured by the setting sun behind her. But he would know that shape anywhere.
“David? Whatever are you doing here?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sarah could hardly believe her eyes. David was here, on The Marjorie? How he had even known where to find her, she had no idea. And now he was on the ship, which had set sail but moments ago. She could hardly process everything as he crossed the deck to her, taking her hands in his.
“Sarah, thank goodness I found you,” he said with a sigh.
“David, the ship is leaving!” she exclaimed, looking back at the shore, which was beginning to recede into the distance.
He shrugged. “I do not altogether care—not as long as you are aboard. Now, had I been tricked, as I initially thought I was—”
The captain snorted behind him, and David turned a glare upon him before returning to Sarah.
“I do not suppose there is
somewhere we could go where we could be… alone?”
“Not really,” the captain said behind them, clearly enjoying their exchange. David sighed in acceptance of his presence.
“Sarah, you cannot leave England—not yet.”
“Whyever not?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. She wanted to be angry with him for following her, but the truth was she couldn’t help the relief that flooded through her at the realization that he was here, that she had another chance to see him, despite how angry and upset she was.
“Because Torrington—” he began but then shook his head. “No. No matter what Torrington said, I would be here regardless, pleading with you to remain.”
He paused, looking down and then up at her again, desperation within his wide eyes.
“Because I love you. Truly I do, they are not just words, Sarah. This is my soul speaking to you.”
“You… you love me?” she repeated, her words just above a whisper, and he nodded, leaning into her, his forehead coming to touch hers so that only she could hear what he had to say.
“I love you with more strength than anything I’ve ever felt before,” he said, searching his mind for the right words. He was far from any poet, and he was well aware that his charm typically stemmed from his physical appeal—he could smile and wink like the best of them, knew all of the lines to attract a woman. But that was not what would convince Miss Sarah Jones of his true feelings.
“Sarah…” he began, struggling but persisting. “Before I met you, I was certainly not a man any would recommend any reputable young woman to tie her name to. I’ve been irresponsible—foolish, really, in my acceptance of my role as a rake. Sure, I had my fun, but I’m also aware now I likely hurt more women than I made happy. The truth is, I really didn’t care about anything—I didn’t think there was anyone or anything to care about. In turn, I had no real relationships, no one who truly cared for me. Hell, I was gone for three days and no one even noticed!”
As though she sensed his need to say all he had planned, she simply held onto his hands as he spoke, her steady, even gaze upon him.
He took a deep breath.
“And then there was you. You who took care of me, who gave me more of yourself than I ever deserved. You had faith in me when I had no faith in myself. You shared your secrets with me, gave me your heart and your thoughts. I appreciated that more than you could ever know. I just… didn’t use the right words to tell you how much you meant to me.”
He closed his eyes tightly before opening them and fixing them upon hers. His green stare warmed her to her very soul, and Sarah mused that she could spend the rest of her life lost in the depths of those eyes.
“Sarah, I know you hate London. I understand that. It’s where my life is at the moment, but it doesn’t have to be. I have nothing holding me there. I can go anywhere in the world you wish to go. We can live in the English countryside. I can’t promise it will be much as I have no idea what my father will allow me after the breaking off of my apparent engagement to Lady Georgina, but I will find a way to work, whatever that may be. We can live in another country. We can sail all the way to America, if that is where your heart is. For my heart is with you, and, as long as you accept it, that’s where it will follow.”
Her eyes began to water now until tears slid down her cheeks, which he reached out and caught with his index finger.
“Don’t cry, Sarah,” he pleaded. “Please don’t cry.”
“These are happy tears,” she whispered, and that seemed to somewhat relieve him. “I am so sorry, David, for everything I was upset with you about, for what I accused you of. Instead of being angry with you, not trusting you, I should have simply asked as to whether or not you were truly going to marry Lady Georgina. I should have known you well enough to be aware that you would not willingly enter into marriage, especially to a woman chosen by your parents.”
She laughed through her tears at that, and David managed a slightly chastised smile.
“Fair point,” he said.
“I was so upset, I let all that I felt cloud my judgment—as well as the feelings I held for you,” she said. “Just now I was looking out over the river beginning to retreat behind us, and all I could think of was the fact that you were out there, somewhere, with no idea as to where I was or where I was going, and we would never see one another again. And I knew then, that my heart was out there, walking around with you. I was so disappointed in what I felt were the ultimate betrayals on all sides that I acted rashly and nearly lost everything.”
“So… does that mean you love me too?”
“Oh, David, I love you more than anything in this entire world, and yes… I will stay with you. You are home now,” she said with a choked sob, and he picked her up and kissed her soundly, twirling her around the deck as he did so, much to the enjoyment of the crew and the few others on board who applauded them and emitted some hoots and hollers.
When he finally released her, she kept her arms about his neck as she looked up at him.
“However did you find me?”
He laughed then. “Dumb luck, for the most part,” he said, “As well as an encounter with Lady Alexander.” She bit her lip at his words, but then he explained the situation and the fact that Lady Alexander had, actually, pointed him in the right direction, and she softened somewhat.
“Oh, David, I have so much to tell you,” she said, but David held up a finger.
“And I you,” he said. “But first, and most importantly—I spoke with Torrington.”
“Oh no,” she said, not wanting to hear another word, but David forged ahead.
“He had no idea that he had a daughter, Sarah. He loved your mother and was devastated when she left. What the Countess told you—that was her own maliciousness. Torrington has no ill will toward you, and, in fact, wants to meet his daughter, the daughter of the woman he loved.”
“You cannot be serious,” she said, stunned.
“I absolutely am.”
“I suppose,” she said slowly, “I have already agreed to return with you, so you have no other reason to convince me of such.”
“And I wouldn’t lie to you, I promise you that,” he said, looking around him now, noting that the crowd had finally drifted away, leaving them alone, and he took her hand to lead her over to the railing.
“Are you cold?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“Not in the least.”
“Very good, as I have nothing to offer you to keep you warm,” he said, laughing, then sobered for a moment. “I wonder whatever my poor carriage driver shall do. Return home, I suppose?”
She looked at him incredulously. “You had no idea you were boarding a ship, then, did you?”
“No,” he shook his head. “I boarded the ship just in time, and your captain over here,” he pointed his thumb behind them. “Refused to allow me on without passage—a grossly inflated passage, I’ll add.”
“Oh, David,” she said, covering the laughter about to emerge. “I am sorry to hear it.”
He shrugged. “It was worth it. So, before we get any further, we should probably decide—where are we off to?”
Sarah looked west into the distance, where her former home had awaited.
“I thought I wanted to return home, back to America,” she said, then turned her face back toward him. “But the truth is, I wasn’t running toward home, I was running from here. I thought that you had betrayed me with Lady Georgina. I thought Lord Torrington had betrayed me by turning me away, just as he had my mother. And I thought that Lady Alexander had betrayed me, pretending to be close to me just so that my aunt could use me.”
“What?”
“I told you, there is lots to explain,” she said with a hand on his arm. “But I was wrong. About all of it. Yes, of course, there are the Countesses of Torringtons in the world, and women like my aunt, but there are also good people here, truly good people—I have you, and I have three women who will be there for me no matter what is to come. I think, David�
� I think I would like to stay. But not in London. Outside the city, if we can?”
“Wherever you’d like, my lady,” he said with a mock bow, and she swatted him.
“I am far from a lady.”
“Yet you are the best woman I have ever known.”
She stood on her tiptoes then, reaching up to him, and he bent to meet her.
“So… what are the berths like?” he asked, and she bit her lip, wanting to laugh at him.
“They are fairly small—and not at all private,” she said. “Luckily for you, Plymouth is not far.”
Suddenly he looked rather concerned. “Where we will have to book a return ticket… and yet I’m afraid I am somewhat short on funds now.”
“I hadn’t yet paid for my passage back to America,” she reassured him. “It will be enough to cover our passage home.”
“I cannot allow you to pay for us.”
“I don’t think you have much choice,” she said with a bit of a laugh, to which he sighed and placed his hands on his hips.
“Very well,” he acquiesced. “It will be a loan.”
“Very well, but in reality, it’s to Lady Alexander, not to me,” she said, then smiled at him wickedly. “And perhaps I could be talked into staying for a night or so.”
“If you insist,” he said with a mock sigh this time, and she laughed at him, then sobered as she studied him.
She thought of all she knew of him, then of all of the warnings with which she had been provided. Never did she think that David Redmond would be a man to give up all that he had loved, for not only a woman, but for her specifically. She knew many would tell her she was a fool, that she should never trust him, but she knew, deep within her heart, that he would never betray her. He had done so much for her, and even when she hadn’t believed in him, he had held onto his love for her and had literally searched London until he had found her. She would never have imagined there was a man in the world who would do such a thing for her, but there was—and she had found him.
He held her tight against him, as though if he let her go he might lose her again, but then a voice came from the berths below.
Lady of Charade Page 21