Though her response became as feverish as his, something told the man she was an innocent. He leaned away from her and gazed into her flushed face and smoldering blue eyes. She looked so young and pure with those big blue eyes and soft gold hair, but so much a captivating creature on the verge of womanhood. He wanted to learn all about her, not just make an easy and meaningless conquest. She was too unique to treat that way. Yet this was not the time or place to test or enjoy her potent magic. Didn’t this blue-eyed angel realize what she did to a man? Didn’t this flaxen-haired minx understand how dangerous and inviting her impetuous actions were? Didn’t this maiden grasp what she was unintentionally imploring and inspiring him to do? This tempting female and curious situation spelled trouble, big trouble! With a strained voice he almost demanded, “How old are you?”
Leigh’s eyes widened in puzzlement. “Twenty, why?” Did he fear she was too young and naive to be desirable? After all, a man like this could have any woman he wanted.
“Name?” he questioned in that same stern tone.
“Laura Leigh—” She did not finish because a noise caught their attention and both glanced in that direction. It was a carriage, but too distant to hail. He had released her and scanned their dusky surroundings with eagle eyes. “Who are you?” she asked.
With a roguish grin, he replied, “Sir Lancelot, naturally.” He saw her frown at his jest. Clearly this girl was a virginal innocent and she didn’t realize the dangerous flames she was igniting within him. She had that same trusting, but not gullible, air that Joanna had before … He dismissed that infuriating line of thought. He had to end this matter and get out of the light. In a serious tone, he said, “Just a friendly warning, Laura, don’t ever respond to any man like that if you intend to remain pure in mind and body. You’re far too beautiful and tempting to be ignored. Tell your father-”
He sounded almost angry, which was exactly how she felt at his chiding. She interrupted. “My parents are dead, and I’m old enough to take care of myself. In most circumstances,” she added when she saw him shake his head skeptically. “I’m a grown woman, sir, not an inquisitive child.”
He shook his head again and refuted. “You’re wrong, Laura. You are an inquisitive child encased in a woman’s ravishing body. I witnessed how smart and skilled and brave you are, but you clearly lack the experience to deal with what could happen between us … What almost did happen. Be content I didn’t seduce you in that alley, or abduct you to a better place for it. Be glad I’m a gentleman; most men aren’t,” he disclosed with a cocky grin.
Even as she denied his claims, she had the sinking feeling he was telling the truth about himself and her. Embarrassed and dismayed, she reasoned, “If I’m so naive and you’re such a gentleman, you shouldn’t have kissed me like that! What did you expect me to do? Stand quiet and still like a statue?”
At his amused chuckles, she blushed. “I only meant … I was going to say …” she stammered before his intense stare and provocative grin. “Oh, you devilish rake! You know what I mean.”
“You definitely mean you enjoy my kisses,” he mirthfully explained for her.
Flustered and.enchanted, she blurted out, “What woman wouldn’t? But you’re being mean and rude. I don’t deserve that. After all, considering what I just endured, my wits aren’t clear yet.”
“Forgive me for teasing you, Laura, but you’re an absolute breath of invigorating air. I suppose I worded my caution wrong. The world can be a jungle and men can be beasts. Be careful of predators like those who attacked you and of cunning ones like me. In fact, if a carriage doesn’t come along soon, I might change my mind about remaining a gentleman and making my appointment.” He smiled, but they both realized he was only half joking. “If your parents are deceased, who were you to meet at that restaurant tonight? Perhaps a sweetheart, fiancé, or husband?”
After her brazen behavior, she couldn’t allow him to think she was wed or even betrothed. “No, Lord Chadwick Hamilton and friends,” she answered, feeling it unnecessary to further explain herself to a quicksilver stranger on a deserted street in a strange city.
The man was wary and intrigued. Her accent was American. If she was traveling with relatives, they should be with her tonight. His instincts warned him there was something strange about this incident. What was she doing in London, and with a notorious seducer like Chad Hamilton? That connection disturbed him. Nor did he need another beautiful and reckless woman getting him into further trouble! “I’m very late,” he said. “Let’s see if we can find you a carriage in a busier place.” He seized her arm in a firm—but painless—grip and led her down the street, through another long and dim alley, to the next street. They saw a carriage dropping someone off not far away.
Her rescuer yelled to the driver and signaled him. over to them. He assisted her into the seat and gave the driver the name and address of her hotel and paid him. He warned Leigh solemnly, “Don’t ever let me catch you in a secluded area like this again. Next time, Sir Lancelot might not be around to save you.”
He vanished into the shadows before she gathered her scattered wits and stolen speech. She was tempted to order the driver to wait for her, to leap from the carriage, pursue the stranger, and question him. She didn’t even know her champion’s name or where he lived. But he disappeared as mysteriously and suddenly as he had appeared.
The carriage was moving; it was too late to learn his identity and location or to make certain she had thanked him properly for saving her chastity and life. A sigh left her lips as she mused, Just wait until tomorrow, Sir Lancelot; you can’t escape me this easily.
Chapter Two
Despite her dreamy vow, disappointment and emptiness plagued Leigh on the ride back to her hotel. She might never find “Sir Lancelot” again. She wished he had been willing to escort her home—the ride would have given them more time to talk. At least she might have learned his name.
Leigh straightened her cloak to conceal her torn gown. She combed her hair but did not repin it into its neat chignon. She realized the blue aigrette was gone. It was no doubt ruined, so she didn’t need to return to the alley to look for it. She would purchase another when she carried her gown to the seamstress to see if it could be repaired.
The carriage halted at the hotel and she was assisted down by a polite doorman. Leigh was surprised to find there was no message from her stepuncle. She was long overdue to meet him. Perhaps Chad assumed she had decided not to come to dinner or believed his late invitation hadn’t reached her. No matter, she wasn’t in any mood to track him down. She hurried to her room to change clothes.
Leigh summoned the ladies’ maid to help her unfasten the gown. She explained the epsiode to the older woman, who showed genuine concern over her disheveled condition and frightening experience. After the waiting woman left, Leigh washed the dirt from her face, arms, and hands, and soothed the scratches with a healing balm. Nothing could be done for the bruises, which would be darker by morning. She noted several ragged fingernails and fetched a rubbing board to repair them, glad they had not been torn to the painful quicks.
As she worked on her toilette, Leigh’s mind wandered. How amazing it was that she was here now in England, an heiress about to embark on a grand adventure. How magical it all seemed, especially after Sir Lancelot’s daring rescue.
Of course, this was not her first trip abroad. Before Leigh was sixteen, her family had made several voyages to England, where she had gotten to know her grandparents through more than an exchange of letters and her father’s stories. She had loved her grandfather but had not known him well. The only blood relative she had left when her parents died was her mother’s sister in Texas.
Leigh’s aunt had never tried to rule her life. Jenna had allowed her to make most of her own decisions. But Jenna’s new husband hadn’t felt the same; he had wanted her to marry and leave.
Annoyance filled Leigh Webster as she reflected on her last few years in Texas. What if she were still single at twenty? That wasn’t spinisterho
od or a disgrace. She had her own income from her grandfather, she could more than support herself. When news arrived of her enormous inheritance, Jenna’s husband Carl had wanted to sail with her to “protect and chap-erone” her. Leigh had turned him down as politely as possible for her aunt’s sake. She didn’t want Carl intruding on her new life. Nor did she want that obsessive ranch foreman pursuing her. She found it hard to trust a man who was too handsome and charming, too smooth. Maybe that was why she had trouble fully trusting her guardian.
She had met Lord Chadwick Hamilton—with his inherited title of earl—on the last trip in ‘90, shortly after Chad had gone to work for William Webster. The two men had become good friends, and her grandfather—after training him—had allowed Chad authority over most of his business affairs. Perhaps, the blonde decided, because his only son was far away and Chad was filling an emotional emptiness.
Following her parents’ deaths in ‘91 and her grandmother’s in ‘92, William had married Chad’s mother—Lady Fiona Hamilton. Knowing how the loss of her parents had affected her, Leigh understood why her grandfather had sought love and happiness with a new wife and stepson.
Leigh wanted love and happiness and marriage—but only with a special man, a strong and honest one, a man who accepted her with or without beauty, elite status, and wealth. Perhaps she would meet the perfect mate here, as she hadn’t in America.
Leigh knew that special man was not her handsome guardian. Even if he hadn’t already been spoken for, she was hesitant about Chad. She couldn’t put a finger on anything particular, but… But what, Leigh?
During her last visit, her grandfather had revealed affection and admiration for Chad, and faith in him. Her father had also liked and trusted Chad, and was glad the young man took the heaviest business burdens off his aging father’s shoulders. Chad had charmed her mother, too, and had taken both women on pleasant outings. For a time, Leigh had been smitten by the handsome twenty-six-year-old earl whom her family so liked and enjoyed. But that was six years ago, and people did change.
It worried Leigh that Chad wasn’t angry with her grandfather for leaving her almost everything. Most men would be in his place, she thought.
Chad had worked hard for Webster International. William had left his stepson and widow financially and socially comfortable. William had gifted Chad with a townhouse years ago, and he had left his London home to Fiona. From the will, both had been given sufficient—but not overly generous—money for support. Too, Chad possessed a well-paying position as manager of the firm, and Fiona had the beauty and charms to earn another advantageous marriage. Yet, to have so much within his grasp and to watch it go to someone else had to hurt and embitter. Shouldn’t it? she mused. And what of his mother, Lady Fiona Hamilton Webster?
Leigh wished she knew if Fiona had purposely sailed to British India on January eighteenth to avoid the young woman who was arriving soon to inherit most of her second husband’s wealth and possessions. And, she wondered, too, if the widowed countess had wed William Webster out of love. It seemed odd to Leigh that such a stunning, youthful, titled woman would marry an untitled, rather plain man who was so much older and less socially involved than herself—especially one so recently widowed.
Her grandmother had invited Leigh to spend the summer of ‘92 in England, but Sarah had died before plans were finalized. Leigh had been informed of her grandmother’s death, but not invited to the funeral. She had been informed of William’s remarriage but not invited to the wedding. Nor had she received any letters or invitations from Fiona since the woman joined her family. It was as if Fiona wanted William all to herself. If this was so, then her grandfather had obviously complied, for his letters to Leigh had become fewer and farther between and were always about Chad and Fiona. Yet he had invited Leigh to spend her twenty-first birthday with him, and he had left the bulk of his estate to her. Chad had told Leigh that his mother planned to be gone for six months. The blonde was eager to learn if Fiona bore resentment against her. Only time could answer those plaguing questions.
Leigh slipped into a simple day dress that buttoned up the front. She brushed and arranged her tawny locks. She was fine, only slightly injured and very vexed. But she was stimulated by the excitement of the evening, by her unknown champion. And, she was hungry and thirsty. Perhaps, she thought, it wasn’t too late to have something sent to her room.
There came a persistent knocking at her door and she answered it to find Chadwick Hamilton standing there and looking disquieted.
Leigh motioned him inside. His hair was as black as a moonless night, wavy and silky, and brushed away from his tanned face with flawless features. He was thirty-one and six feet tall, with a physique men envied and women craved. Chad possessed a special gaze and grin that could disarm and sway; perhaps that was what unsettled her. Anyone—male or female—would love to have his overwhelming allure. His lordship’s eyes—a rich blue with a tiny hint of hazel—were nearly magical with their power to enchant and entice or to inspire admiration and affection. Chad Hamilton was confident and masculine. Who wouldn’t be with his looks, wealth, aristocratic title, and irresistible prowess Leigh mused? But was there a greedy rogue lurking behind that magnificent Adonis visage?
Chad began talking before she could. “What happened to you, Leigh? At seven, I came to make certain you’d received my dinner invitation. When the doorman said he’d given it to you and had seen you leave in a carriage, I returned to the restaurant. When you weren’t there, I assumed you had made plans with someone else without telling me. Then I realized it wasn’t like you not to send me a message of regret so we wouldn’t keep waiting for your arrival. I came back to the hotel and the doorman said you’d returned not long go and were in your room. Why didn’t you come inside and join us?”
Leveling her gaze on him, she said, “I did get dressed and leave to join you, Chad. But the carriage driver took me to the wrong address and left me there, on the deserted waterfront. There is no restaurant at number six Stams Street.”
The black-haired man looked baffled as he concurred, “Of course there isn’t. It’s at number six Stems Street. Whyever would a responsible driver take a lady to the wharf and leave her there alone? Didn’t you notice a street sign and the deserted area and realize you were mistaken?”
She stared into his inquisitive blue eyes and said, “That’s the address you wrote in your message, Chad. I knew it seemed strange, but I figured that warehouse was owned by us and perhaps you had a surprise party in mind. It happened too fast to think clearly.”
“You were mistaken, Leigh. Is my handwriting that bad?” he asked. “Do you still have the note?”
Leigh walked to the side table and lifted the page. She held it out to him and said, “Look for yourself.”
Chad took it and did so, then remarked, “It says Stems Street, Leigh. S-t-e-m-s.” He spelled it for her and handed back the page. “I’m sorry you misread it, but I’m glad you got home safely.”
Leigh stared at the troublesome word, and saw he was right. “I thought it said Stams, and that was what I told the driver so I guess I’m at fault. But he should have realized I was mistaken. As soon as I got out of the carriage, he took off like an escaping stallion who smelled a branding fire.” She went on to explain what had taken place in the alley—excluding the romantic part about her rescuer from her narrative.
“Heavens, Leigh, are you all right?” he asked. He ran his fingers through his dark hair and sighed deeply. “I should have known something was wrong and searched for you sooner. I never would have forgiven myself if you’d been injured. I should have come to the hotel and escorted you to the restaurant, but I was involved with an important business meeting. I never imagined anything like this happening. I assumed the doorman would get you a carriage—and it’s only a short ride away. You could have been killed or abducted. This is my fault for not taking better care of you. I’m sorry.”
She was touched by his expression and mood. “Why didn’t you call the ho
tel to check on me? They have a telephone in the lobby,” she remarked.
“But the restaurant doesn’t have one yet, so I couldn’t ring you. I thought perhaps you might need a little urging to join us. I know how Louisa and Cynthia make you uncomfortable, and I’m sorry.”
Leigh noticed the lines of worry that etched Chad’s forehead and creased the skin near his blue eyes and sensual mouth. He had apologized twice. She was vexed with herself for ever thinking dark thoughts about him. Chad had been kind, thoughtful, gentle, and protective. His winning smile and mood relaxed her. “It wasn’t your fault, Chad. I don’t know how I misread the address twice, but I’m fine. If that man hadn’t come along, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“Who was he? He deserves a reward for his help.”
“I don’t know. He didn’t give his name. He was in a hurry to make an appointment. As soon as it was over, he found me a carriage and sent me home. I was too upset and mussed to track you down and join you, and it was too late by then.”
Chad embraced her and said, “At least you’re safe; that’s all that matters.” He gazed into her eyes and vowed, “I wouldn’t want anything happening to you. Next time be more careful and observant, my little ward and boss. Please don’t let this happen again. You’ve already scared years off my life.”
“I’ve ruined your evening, Chad. I’m sorry. And I promise I’ll be more careful in the future. In fact, I’ll carry my derringer with me from now on. Uncle Colin gave it to me. The Wild West can be a dangerous place, so he made certain I had protection. It’s small enough to fit into my purse, so I can keep it with me at all times.”
“That’s a wise idea, Leigh. I wish you had been carrying it and shot both of them. How dare they attack you, or any lady!”
Fury darkened his eyes to midnight blue and furrowed his brow.
“They were drunk and restless, Chad. I’m lucky they didn’t harm me, and I had very little with me to steal, just a few pounds and—” Her fingers went to her throat. “My locket!” she cried in panic. “It must have been torn off during the fight. Father gave it to me. I must get it back. Help me, Chad.”
Whispered Kisses Page 3