“So you never met the rest of the family?” A picture—an answer—had formed in Brendan’s mind. He needed Christopher’s words to confirm his suspicions.
Chris smiled then, and leaned back in his chair. “Well, Garnette’s mother was nice enough, and always sent Shannah and Matt with us whenever we’d go on walks or picnics. They were our chaperones. Little Kora was a cute thing, always clinging to her mother. She was shy around me.”
Brendan tried to keep his tone as even as possible. “And Mrs. Marshall wasn’t pregnant that you recall?”
Chris let out a short burst of laughter. “Definitely not! If you’d heard her fret over her three daughters, and how in the world she’d get them safely married off, you wouldn’t even ask. Garnette’s mother was quite vocal about not wanting to risk a fourth daughter.”
The pieces fell into place. Brendan straightened in the chair, his eyes growing wide. He felt like he’d swallowed a stone and it dropped straight to the bottom of his stomach.
Christopher leaned in, concerned. “Bren, are you all right?”
“I have to go.” Brendan barely uttered the words before he flew from his chair and tore up to his room, without aid of the forgotten candle he’d left in the kitchen.
Christopher stood in the foyer holding the candle when Brendan raced down the stairs moments later, fully dressed and struggling to force his arm into his coat sleeve.
“Brendan, what is wrong?”
Brendan didn’t answer—he couldn’t. He hurried to the stables and threw a bridle on his horse, Cinnamon, before pulling himself up on her bare back and racing into the night.
The ride to Shannah’s cottage took only minutes, thanks to Cinnamon’s sure foot and the full moon giving its light. Brendan slid from his horse’s back in the clearing and took the steps to the porch in one leap.
He pounded on the door, heedless of the hour or the fact that the children would be sound asleep. “Shannah! Shannah, open this door!”
Brendan kept hammering on the door until he heard scuffling inside, a dog bark, and saw the faint light of a candle shine through the crack under the door.
“Shannah?” he bellowed again.
The door opened a handful of inches and honey colored eyes peered out at him. “My lord Brendan?” Her surprise was palatable. “What are you doing here?”
He didn’t bother to respond. Instead he leaned as close as the door would allow and whispered, “Why didn’t you tell me that your sister bore my brother’s child?”
CHAPTER 7
Shannah’s entire body went numb. “What do you mean, my lord?” she choked out, hating herself for not being a better liar.
Brendan pushed open the door and strode inside. “Don’t be coy, I’m not in the mood.”
Matt’s dog started barking fiercely from the bedroom doorway. Shannah hushed him with a hand signal. Thank goodness he hadn’t tried to attack the viscount!
Shannah tried a different tactic. “Please, my lord. You’ll wake the children.”
“I don’t care if I wake all Brundidge!” Though in contrast his voice started out as a roar and ended in a fierce whisper.
Shannah almost moaned aloud. What could she say now that would dissuade him? Her mind raced. “You’re mistaken, my lord, about Royce. He’s not Garnette’s child. He’s my own son, not quite two years old.”
His heated gaze swept over her. “Impossible.”
Her chin went up. “It’s true,” she insisted, trying to keep her voice from shaking—but his look had reminded her that she only wore a thin shawl over her worn nightgown, and her body had begun shivering with nerves. “I married quite young, to the blacksmith’s apprentice in town. He died in the fever but left me carrying his child. I bore Royce mere months after burying my husband and my family.”
His gaze glittered in the near darkness. “You have proof of this union, I trust. The hall of records in the village will have recorded the marriage, and the child’s birth.”
“Naturally,” she stammered. “But no one can prove it at this hour.”
“Show him to me, then.” His eyes scanned the room. “Show me your son.”
“He’s sleeping, of course. It’s the middle of the night, my lord.” Miracle of miracles, all of the children were still asleep, though she couldn’t imagine how.
As if to ruin her tenuous stack of lies, Kora started wailing. Shannah moved automatically toward the bedroom, sidestepping the dog without a thought.
“Kora has nightmares,” Shannah explained. “I have to get her before she wakes the others.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when she stepped into their shared bedroom and escaped Lord Brendan’s presence for a few precious moments. She knew there was no way to support her lies, and her mind raced for excuses as she picked Kora up off her sleeping mat and carried her into the main room.
The child provided a wonderful barrier between her and the viscount. Shannah sat in her mother’s chair and wrapped Kora’s blanket around the both of them, as her shawl had slipped down her back.
“Hush, love,” she cooed. “You’re okay now.”
“It’s a monster,” Kora sobbed. “It’s gonna eat me.”
“No, baby,” Shannah said. “There are no monsters. You’re safe now. I’ve got you. It was just a dream.” She started humming Kora’s favorite lullaby to soothe her.
Shannah glanced at Lord Brendan, lurking in the shadows of her home. He stood with his legs braced apart and his arms folded, the only thing that caught the candle’s light was his white shirt. He certainly wasn’t smiling, or his teeth would show.
“No, Mama,” Kora said, demanding her attention. “The monster is still here!”
Mortified, Shannah realized her sister was pointing at the viscount. She hurried to calm her. “No, honey. That’s Lord Brendan. Remember he was here before? He’s not a monster.” I hope.
Brendan stepped out of the shadows slowly, with the grace of a large cat. He knelt by the chair, giving Kora a full view of his face. “See, child? I am no monster. You’re perfectly safe here.”
Shannah offered him a relieved smile over Kora’s head as she felt her sister relax in her arms. She was about to reach for a handkerchief when Kora used the edge of her blanket to wipe her nose. Shannah sighed. Someday, perhaps, her baby sister would learn manners.
But Lord Brendan captured her with his eyes. “Our conversation is not done,” he whispered, his voice hard.
Shannah tried one last approach. “I’ve nothing more to say on the matter,” she told him, her chin going up a notch. “You are my employer, my lord, but my family life is not your business. You certainly have no right to barge into my home in the night and demand painful explanations about my past.”
He growled low in his throat and stood, taking a step back. Kora whimpered and clung to Shannah. So much for his not being a monster.
“It’s all right,” she said to Kora. “Here.” Shannah put the child on her feet and wrapped the blanket around her. “Why don’t you go cuddle with Matt until you fall asleep? I’ll join you in a moment.”
It took another nudge but Kora scurried past Lord Brendan and back into the bedroom. Shannah stood and rewrapped her shawl around her shoulders. As she did so she maintained eye contact with the viscount, so she saw when his eyes raked over her again. His jaw tightened and he took a step toward her.
“You’re a widow, then,” he said. “A married woman who has born a child. According to your own words.”
If Shannah’s chin went up any more her neck would snap. “Yes, my lord.”
He lifted his hand and grasped her shoulder, not painfully but firmly. “Then you know a man’s touch.” His other hand brushed across her cheek.
Utterly at a loss, Shannah didn’t dare move. She simply stared at him, her eyes wide.
Lord Brendan leaned close to her ear. “Your innocence betrays you.” His warm breath swept across her neck. “You’re no more a mother than I am.”
Her quav
ering response came a heartbeat too late for credibility. “I am his mother.”
Lord Brendan lowered his face until their noses almost touched. He tilted his head slightly and his lips barely brushed hers. “Liar.”
Before she could recover, he’d stepped out the door and disappeared into the night.
CHAPTER 8
Brendan paced the length of his study the next morning, his agitation evident in every step. Shannah was late. He looked again at the hands on the mantle clock. Quite late.
His steps faltered as his thoughts paused once again on that almost kiss. Brendan sighed. He didn’t know what had come over him in that moment, he only knew that he wanted to confirm once and for all that Shannah could in no way be the child’s mother.
He should have waited until the daylight hours when they could have a conversation in the safety of his study, fully dressed, not with the light of the candle setting Shannah’s caramel skin aglow. Brendan knew full well he had no business storming in her home in the dead of night, overwhelming her and demanding answers to questions that had gone unasked for too long. But he had done it, rushed off without thinking the situation through, and perhaps made everything worse.
What would she say when she saw him now, if she ever did arrive? Would she give him the set down he deserved?
Or had she taken the children and run away?
Brendan shook his head, his instinct telling him that Shannah would not do something so rash. She loved her family and wouldn’t endanger them in that way.
Was she just so loathe to see him that she was late on purpose?
“My lord?” Justin, one of his groomsmen, stood at the open door.
“What is it?”
“You asked to be kept informed about matters at the coast, sir,” Justin said. “One of the fishermen this morning said he’d seen some suspicious men lurking about.”
Brendan drew himself up. “Pirates?” There’d been increased raids of late, all along Brundidge’s coastline. Brendan personally felt their monarch didn’t pay enough attention to securing the most vulnerable areas, but he was biased because the nearest beach proved to be one of those places.
“He didn’t say that, sir, only that they were strangers to him and his kin. And that they may have been up to no good.”
“Send Dukes and Colton out to have a look around,” Brendan told him. “If these men are still around, I want to know about it.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll do it right away. It would be a shame if we lost another of our young women to those louts.”
Brendan felt his stomach drop as he watched Justin leave. Just a few months earlier, men the locals identified as pirates had kidnapped three local girls and tried to escape with them. Brendan and his men saved two, but the beasts masquerading as men managed to get the third girl onto their ship.
Shannah, walking alone through the woods in the wee hours, would be a prime target for such nefarious men.
What time had the fisherman seen these suspicious characters?
Brendan shouted for Justin to wait, and raced after him.
***
Shannah cursed herself a hundred times for being the fool, which was about all she could do slung across the back of her abductor’s horse. The foul-smelling man had a tight grip on the ropes that bound her hands since she’d managed to slip off the horse and almost escape to the trees twice now.
If they were intent on stealing her away from her family, she wasn’t about to make it easy on them.
Her struggles hadn’t gained her much, except for the ropes rubbing her wrist raw and the jagged cut across her cheek where the fiend had struck her. Her only hope was to delay her kidnappers long enough that someone would find them and rescue her.
Shannah placed the blame for her predicament squarely on her employer’s head. If Lord Brendan hadn’t interrupted her precious few hours of sleep the night before, then she may have heard these men tromping across her path before she stumbled directly into them. But she’d been too tired as she walked to the manor to think clearly.
Her kidnappers hadn’t wasted any time bragging about their plans for her, and Shannah experienced a grim satisfaction when her stomach emptied her meager breakfast onto one of them. That satisfaction hadn’t lasted long, since the same brute she’d vomited on was the one carrying her now. She couldn’t be sure if his horrible smell was all him, or partly her.
Now, though, she’d have no chance of getting away unless he loosened his grip on her, which seemed unlikely. And the gag in her mouth prevented her from crying out with any effect at all.
“We’re not far now,” the one in the lead said. “Soon we’ll have our haul safely away.”
Shannah took immediate offense, not that it did her any good; but to be referred to as haul chafed. She glanced at the bundles the four men carried and knew they’d stolen food and provisions from her neighbors. Was that why they’d come ashore, to pick up supplies? Was her abduction then merely an afterthought?
The leader threw up his hand and everyone stopped. “I hear something,” he whispered.
Please let it be someone to rescue me! Shannah prayed. She’d done all she could on her own.
More hand gestures from the leader and the men fanned out, effectively disappearing into the trees. Her horse’s reins were handed to the leader while its rider slunk away.
Lord Brendan rode Cinnamon through the trees, directly at them. Shannah’s horse reared, nearly dropping her, before the ruffian leader forced its head down again. The viscount pulled Cinnamon up short, stopping directly in front of her captor.
“Release the girl,” he said, “and I won’t let the magistrate string you up with your fellows!”
The man laughed. “Are you going to make me, yer lordship?”
Brendan drew his sword. “I could, make no mistake. But that’s not my purpose.”
His opponent sneered, showing blackened teeth. “Oh? And just what is your purpose?”
“I’m a distraction.”
Shannah twisted to view the movement on her left and was shocked to see one of the groomsmen from the manor dragging her original captor by the scruff. Justin threw the man forward, he groaned but did not get up.
“He’ll live, my lord,” Justin said, a fierce frown on his face. “Though he may regret it.”
More sounds, and Shannah tried to see, but could not get a good enough view from her position. She looked at the leader, whose face had paled considerably. His eyes darted from Brendan to Justin and behind him, to where she could only assume more help had arrived.
“Now, release her,” Brendan commanded, his tone leaving no room for debate.
The fiend let go of the reins but Justin grabbed the horse’s bridle before it could get far. Shannah glared at the leader of villains, certain he’d done that deliberately—he probably hoped to escape while they stopped her runaway horse.
“You’ll also return everything you stole,” Brendan continued. “And you can deliver a message to your captain for me. Tell him to never again darken our shores with his trash.”
He sheathed his sword and led Cinnamon alongside her horse. With one hand, he scooped her up before him and then urged Cinnamon away from the scene. Shannah fought tears of relief until he slowed to a stop.
“Let’s get you unbound,” he said, his voice soft and so close to her ear that she shivered. “My, Shannah, what have you gotten yourself into?”
My Shannah. It startled her how much she liked to hear the words spoken together, by him.
Lord Brendan dismounted and pulled her to her feet, first working the knots that bound her wrists and then pulling away the gag with firm fingers. “Is that better?”
Shannah tried to say yes, but her throat closed up and she started to shake. Without a word Brendan pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. When Shannah’s knees gave out, he sank to the ground with her, never loosening his hold.
“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s the shock of y
our experience settling in.” He kept one arm around her as he shrugged out of his jacket and draped it across her shoulders. “Just try to relax, and know your safe now.”
She nodded, bumping his chin with her head. Her voice shook but she forced out the words. “What will happen to those men?”
Brendan let out a harsh sigh. “I should turn them over to the magistrate, but I’ll keep my word. They did release you, in their way. Besides, I want their captain to receive my message. Their kind needs to know that we will defend our people and property.”
His tone made her shiver for a reason separate from the shock. She could feel the fury bleeding off of him. “Are you all right?”
Brendan laughed. “Listen to you, asking after me when you’ve had such a morning! You are one of a kind, Shannah.”
She didn’t reply, and he didn’t speak again until her shaking had mostly subsided. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.” She pulled back to look into his face, recognizing her mistake almost immediately. They were too close, with his arms wrapped so protectively around her. When he turned his chocolate brown gaze upon her, their noses almost touched. She could feel his breath against her face.
“I should get you back to the house,” he said, his voice husky. “Millie is quite worried about you.”
Shannah tried to nod, tried to be concerned over making her friend worry, but she could only find the strength to keep from staring at his mouth, wishing he’d give her a proper kiss.
“Stop that,” he told her.
She ducked her head in mortification. It was as though he could read her mind!
Brendan stood and lifted her onto Cinnamon’s back before mounting behind her. He urged his horse through the trees in the direction of his home, his arm firmly around her waist.
Shannah used the time to compose herself, to slow her racing heart and try to make sense of her irrational thoughts. She told herself it was perfectly natural to be curious about kissing, and it was only his proximity that caused her to think about it. She’d had a trying morning, after a near sleepless night, and certainly she wasn’t acting like herself.
She hated the idea of making Millie worry, even if it wasn’t entirely her fault. She also knew that Matt and the children would think she’d simply gone to work, and would have no idea what happened to her until she told them. At least that was a relief. Matthew tended to worry, and she didn’t blame him, but she was glad to spare him the concern.
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