“As it was,” he said abruptly, “the Scalbys didn’t like being cast off. They called in their debts. Turned out my father had invested unwisely and too well. They owned almost everything he had. They wanted to own it all. So,” he said briskly, “they insisted on being paid, or they’d simply take all the rest. My father asked for leniency, they denied it. He couldn’t meet them or the world’s eyes after his shame, and so he put a bullet through his own eye.”
Kate flinched.
“Witnesses said my father killed himself after he’d spoken with them, as they left the house that morning, as they were driving away, in fact. His note to me said merely, ‘I’m so sorry. Forgive me. Good-bye.’”
Kate reached to touch him, stopping when she realized it would be intrusive, it was as if he’d forgotten she was there. Nor did she want to recall him to the present. She wanted to hear more, know more, before this rare confiding mood of his had passed.
“I’d been out that morning,” Alasdair said. “I came home to find myself an orphan with heavy debts to pay. The estate was entailed, so I kept it. But there was no money to support it. I started trying to recover it that day. I used my friends’ advice and connections. I left school and shipped abroad.
“Yes,” he added with a wry smile, “my formal education isn’t as good as I’d wish, I’ve tried to correct that, too. I worked very hard after I left school, Kate, with my hands and my brain. I was lucky in my past associations, going to school with the richest boys in the land was a great help. I found work as a clerk, then a secretary, then an overseer. I worked on other men’s estates and plantations, and in their homes and offices. I went on to be a go-between, a cat’s-paw, and finally an agent for friends, enemies, and eventually His Majesty. What money I made I gambled with, but since I hadn’t had much luck, I used wit. And since investing isn’t all luck, I did well with it. In time I regained everything. Except my father’s life, of course. And my honor.”
He looked at her, and she realized he saw her again. He paused, started to speak, frowned as if he was about to say something and changed his mind. “I’m a rich man now, Kate,” he said more easily. “But the other part of the debt I must repay is much heavier and harder to satisfy. I’ve been gathering evidence against the Scalbys for years. My father’s wasn’t the only life they wrecked. They’ve been cruel, intemperate, and depraved. They suck people in and leave them without their money or reputations. They blackmail, too. The only thing more important to them than their pleasures is their fortune. But their name is the most important thing of all to them. Because whatever they did, they did discreetly, and so whatever their reputation, they still have a place in Society. That’s what I want to take from them.
“With all I found, it wasn’t enough to ruin them. Until recently. Now I’ve proof that they were also traitorous. Once the world knows that, they’ll be through, I’ll be done with them, and my father avenged. I want to see their faces when I tell them that, and that’s what I tried to use you for.”
“But you only had to explain and ask for my help!” she cried, “I’d have given it to you, immediately. Of course I would have! Why, I heard all sorts of stories about the Scalbys all my life. Why do you think my parents didn’t insist I see them? In fact, they warned me about them, and said if I saw them, I should keep my head, and my distance. As if I wouldn’t! Some children heard about the bogeymen in their closets. I knew about their reputation. Society forgives what simple country folk do not, you see. I suppose I didn’t tell you that because I was ashamed. They are family, after all.”
He cocked his head to the side. “The scrupulously honest Miss Corbet keeps secrets?”
“Well, of course,” she said, flustered. “Only saints don’t. Everyone has something they don’t want to tell, and if it doesn’t affect anyone else directly, why should they? What a strange world this would be if we said everything we knew or were thinking! I’d never tell poor Sibyl she shouldn’t wear white because it makes her look like a ghost, though she asks me about it whenever she gets dressed. Her mama won’t let her wear anything else, so what good would it do to be truthful? It would only hurt her. If she had a choice, I’d be honest. But she doesn’t. So I’d have mentioned something of what I’d heard about the Scalbys to you before we actually went to visit them. But otherwise, why should I?”
“Why indeed?” he asked. “Kate,” he said suddenly, urgently, gripping her by her shoulders, “you did tell me, discreetly, when you kept saying your family was distant from them and you didn’t care to visit them. I didn’t want to hear it, or I’d have asked more. I have been persistent in my pursuit of your cousins, and not very scrupulous. Unlike you, it isn’t just things I’ve thought.
“I’ve done things I’d rather not talk about. I never debauched anyone,” he added quickly. “All were willing. I’ve had affairs, but affairs of the mind or the body, never the heart. I don’t know if that makes it worse or not. But I’ve never been incautious or intemperate. I don’t have any diseases, no by-blows, no vengeful cheated lovers in my past. I’ve been as fair as I could be with whomever I’ve dealt with, and I’m healthy—in body, at least. Even Leigh has said I’m mad on the subject of my revenge.”
“I don’t blame you,” she exclaimed. “And I forgive you for not telling me all, too, if that’s what’s bothering you. They did a terrible thing to you and you have every right to seek vengeance. I even understand why you thought you had to use me. I’m only sorry you didn’t trust me enough to be honest, but I don’t blame you for that either, or for what happened to me. It was this Lolly person who ordered Sharky and his father to snatch me. I heard them talking about it. So don’t blame yourself anymore.”
“Thank you for forgiving me,” he said, watching her closely, “but that’s not what’s bothering me, Kate. I told you what I was, so you could know me better. No one should make an uninformed decision. You asked me what I want and need and feel. You asked me a question, but before I answer that, I have one question for you.”
“Oh?” she asked, her rapid breathing making her breasts rise and fall. Her eyes were bright again, her lips parted, her head tilted toward him as she waited. “You know what it is,” he said roughly.
She stared at him. It certainly sounded like he was going to propose to her. She thought she might die of expectation. If he asked her, she knew what to answer, because she never wanted to leave him again. “Well, in another man I might know, but I can’t ever predict you, Alasdair,” she said. “And to tell the truth, so much has happened that now I confess I’m muddled and confused. So could you please tell me straight out?”
“It’s past time you were as muddled as I am,” he said, smiling. He was going to say more, but he saw what leapt to her eyes, and pulled her back into his arms.
This time he took his time, fitting her to his body, settling her in his clasp. She went willingly, and was smiling when his mouth touched hers. He nudged her lips open, sliding his tongue between them. She welcomed him, crowded closer, daring to give him back what he’d given her. He chuckled low in his throat, the sound and vibration making her body thrill. His big hand caressed her cheek, her neck.
His lips left her mouth and placed small nipping kisses on her throat before he sought her lips again in answer to her silent protest at his abandonment of them.
Never, never, never, she thought dazedly, never had she known a man’s kisses could turn her inside out like this. She yearned to give him more, be closer still, be part of him. He did his best to accommodate her.
He slid her gown from her shoulder, and when she shivered, closed his hand over her breast, and felt her shiver more. Her breast fit into his hand, the nipple crested. No power on earth could have stopped him from bending his head and tasting the small hot point that had been boring into his palm. It was incredibly sweet, as was the sound of her stifled gasp and tiny moan. Her body tensed, and he knew it wasn’t yet ecstasy, so he put his lips on her outflung neck and murmured all the reasons why this was so good,
for him, and her, for them.
She clung to him and looked down as his mouth found her breast again. His hair was clean and shining, dark as moonlight on still water, soft and clean against her lips. His scent was faint, but sweet and spicy, dizzying as two glasses of hot Christmas punch. She discovered that her breath in his ear made him shudder, and that made her shake. He radiated heat, he made her head spin and her body tingle. Nothing she’d ever known had ever been this exciting.
“Yes,” he murmured as his hand slid to her bottom and pressed her tightly to his yearning body.
She gasped at the unfamiliar feel of his muscular body straining against hers. A woman with three younger brothers had to know what was happening to him. A woman who’d grown up on a farm knew what might happen to her next, too. And a good woman ought to worry. But she couldn’t. This man was Alasdair, and he wanted her. He was experienced and wise, and surely he’d stop this before the unimaginable happened. That would be too bad, she thought, as his lips met hers again.
She was lost in a world of his making, and he was disappearing into a world where only she existed. They heard their own hearts beating, their own breath catching, the blood thundering in their own ears. But then the real world intruded.
“Kate!” Lord Swanson cried.
“Alasdair!” Leigh said in exasperation.
Kate sprang away, saw the two men standing in the taproom, saw the direction of their stares, and gasped. She ducked her addled head and burrowed into Alasdair’s arms as he pulled her close again. He turned her so she could pull her gown up over her exposed breasts, as he mildly regarded their dumbfounded gazes. He didn’t look embarrassed. He ignored his outraged friend and the shocked Lord Swanson. Instead, he turned his full attention on Kate. The look he gave her was suddenly grave, and full of inquiry.
They stared at each other. She’d doubted, but now she knew exactly what he was asking. Her eyes widened. He gave her a small smile, and nodded. A dozen objections rose to her lips, so many they crowded each other out. She stood silent, trying to choose the right one to say first. He was only being gentlemanly, he’d been trapped as surely as Lady Eleanora had tried to snare him when they’d met, he could do better….
And then, in spite of the staggered company watching them, he lowered his head and gave her a long and tender kiss.
Kate was stunned, but after a second, comforted against all reason, and flung her arms around his neck again. When he lifted his head he gazed at her, humor, affection and understanding gleaming in his eyes.
She knew what he’d asked and what she’d answered. The time for talking could come later. Because, Lord! how she wanted this. She closed her dazzled eyes, and nodded.
He grinned.
“Congratulate me, gentlemen,” Alasdair said, smiling widely. “I found Kate, as you see. And being lucky beyond my merits, as you can also see, I’ve found my future wife, too.”
22
“Are you certain about this?” Lord Swanson asked Kate.
They were sitting at a table in the taproom of the Excelsior, apart from the others in the room. The innkeeper, his wife, son, a few excited travelers who had been guests, and the Excelsior’s serving staff, were otherwise occupied, explaining their adventure again to Alasdair, his friend Leigh, some neighbors, and the local magistrate, who’d been rousted from his dinner table to hear the dreadful tale.
This was the first time Lord Swanson had had a chance to speak to Kate alone. She was profoundly embarrassed and looked everywhere but at him. After all, he’d seen her half-naked in the arms of a man, and utterly absorbed in what she was doing with that man. But she discovered that didn’t bother her as much as the thought that he’d seen her naked breasts. In fact, she was glad he’d seen her with Alasdair. It made everything simpler.
“I’m certain,” she answered. “I’m sorry we were seen in such a compromising situation, but not because of the reason for it. He’d just asked me to marry him, you see.” That wasn’t precisely true, but Kate decided to worry about that later. She’d say anything to take that troubled look from her cousin’s face. His brow was furrowed, his eyes concerned. “It was an emotional moment,” she added, because that was certainly true.
“Asked you to marry him! Aha!” Lord Swanson said, sitting back as though that explained everything, which gave Kate a much better opinion of him and his marriage. No wonder the Swansons could put up with their daughters. Kate reasoned a man could put up with almost everything if he still had that sort of reaction remembering when he’d proposed to his own wife.
“He’d just proposed, had he? But had you accepted him?” he asked shrewdly.
She looked at him with new respect. “Not exactly,” she answered slowly, “so perhaps this is for the best then, isn’t it?”
“Only if you want him.”
She smiled because this time at least she could answer the whole truth. “Oh, I do,” she breathed. That sounded so matrimonial she blushed.
“You don’t have to marry him just because we came upon you at an…emotional moment,” Lord Swanson went on doggedly. “You’d been through much. I know you’ve said those dastards didn’t hurt you, but you must have been wild with anxiety and overjoyed with relief when you were freed at last. A person does strange things at such times. I’m not saying Sir Alasdair took advantage of the situation. But I am saying that his reputation implies that he might have, and so neither Leigh nor I would breathe a word of this—or think worse of you—if you were to tell me it was only the excitement of the moment that stirred…other excitement. It happens, Kate. I don’t want you penalized for it.”
“You’re kind, cousin,” Kate said with heartfelt emotion. “But ‘penalized’ is the last word I’d use. It’s Sir Alasdair who might be that. Because, you see, I’ve come to care for him very much.”
He studied her. “Very well. But if you change your mind, there’ll be no harm done, I just want you to know that.”
Her gaze flew to his. “Oh, no! There’d be much harm done! At least, to me!”
Then he smiled and looked relieved at last.
It took another hour to get things sorted out, and then the innkeeper wouldn’t hear of them not staying to dinner as his guests.
“It’ll be raining soon again,” he told them after the magistrate had left with a description of the offenders. “Hear that rumbling? Another storm’s coming, unless I miss my guess. Fact, my feet tell me it’ll be a night of rolling storms. Fine thing to send you out into it without a good dinner after all you’ve done, Sir Alasdair. Or let you leave so sudden, miss, after the fright you took. Nor have a chance to reward you gentlemen,” he told Leigh and Lord Swanson.
“You’re ready to reward the immediate world,” Alasdair told him with a smile, “but your head must ache, and there’s no need.”
“Every need!” Mrs. Babbage exclaimed. “My old man here can rest his head, the cooking’s half-done. We’re a working inn here, sirs, and a fine one, too. We’d like to show you that. And we don’t want you bearing away sad memories of the place, miss,” she told Kate seriously.
“As if I could!” Kate said, smiling up at Alasdair.
“Yes, then we’ll stay,” he told the innkeeper, not taking his eyes from Kate, “but only if you bring us your best wines as well as your best food, because we’ve something extraordinary to celebrate—something much more important than a lucky escape. I’m going to celebrate a luckier capture. I’m to be this lady’s prisoner for the rest of my life. So we’ll have your finest champagne, if you please.”
They had that, and more. They sat and shared toasts with the innkeeper and local gentry who’d come in to hear the exciting story, and then they had a more intimate party, an enormous feast, in the private dining room. Their hosts sent in wave after wave of soups and stews, masses of roasts, shoals of fish, soup dishes filled with custards and jellies, while thunder and lightning harried the night outside their snug parlor.
Lord Swanson had sent word home of Kate’s recovery, a
nd now he sat and expanded in the warmth of relief, made merrier by the fine wines and food, and the laughter of his companions. He’d always thought of Sir Alasdair as a formidable fellow, a man of dark depths and wicked ironies, a man to watch carefully. He’d never been easy in his company. But his niece had wrought a miracle. Because though Sir Alasdair was no less masterful tonight, now he was overwhelming in his geniality. He was gracious, warm, full of charming and clever jests. His voice was deep and rich with affability. Even his craggy face looked milder, and it wasn’t just a trick of the cheery firelight. It was especially so when he gazed at Kate, which he did constantly.
They all dined so well and drank so many toasts that when dinner was finally done they sat like a collection of stuffed ducks, unwilling or unable to rise from the table.
“Look at us!” Leigh laughed. “Gentlemen. Kate, I, for one—because I can’t be two like you and Alasdair”—he grinned at this sally, because he’d had enough wine to think it was wonderfully droll—“suggest we take the opportunity to test the Babbages’ inn further. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve been filleted. Neat as a haddock, not a bone left in my body. It’s the food, the wine, and the result of our frenzied ride here, plus the enormous relief of finding everyone whole and well when we got here, and the further pleasure of discovering how well we could celebrate that…what was I saying? Ah, yes. What do you think of our staying the night and setting out for London in the morning?”
“You may, certainly,” Alasdair said. “I’ll do whatever Kate prefers. She might feel the need of a friendly female to confide in after her adventure. What do you say, Kate? Would you be more comfortable going home? Or would you want to stay on here?”
“Thank you,” she told him with a warm and only slightly woozy smile. “I’d like to go home, to share the good news with my parents. But that home’s too far from here. So I’d just as soon stay on and start back to London in the light.”
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