by Mari Carr
She giggled. “So you held me against my will and questioned me relentlessly for nothing.”
“I don’t recall it being against your will,” he muttered, but when she merely raised her eyebrows, he shrugged. “It would appear so.”
She fell silent, unable to shake the idea that something was bothering him and keeping him here at the Grange beyond his promise to her.
“Why were you traveling to the Grange in the middle of the night if not to look for smugglers? Alex and Erin weren’t expecting you until this afternoon.”
He sighed. “I’m certain you will discover the truth soon enough. I’m searching for someone.”
“Who?”
“A woman. She disappeared several nights ago from an estate not far from here.”
“And you know her? She’s a friend?” Hayley felt foolish for the slight pang of jealousy she felt.
“She is.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? We’re wasting time. We’ll cover more ground if we split up.” She walked quickly in the direction of the woods.
She hadn’t taken two steps before Jack grabbed her around the waist and turned her to face him. His eyes were dark with concern. “You’ll leave this alone. Alex and I are organizing a search party and the last thing I need is for you to go missing as well. Leave this to the men.”
She narrowed her eyes and removed his hands from her waist. “The men? And why would I leave something so important to a bunch of arrogant males? I’m just as capable as you of searching in these woods. I spent most of my time last summer in this very area searching for another lost woman—Erin. I know every tree, cave, cliff and hiding place.”
He started to protest, but she cut him off. “And don’t tell me the terrain is likely to be different in the future because you and I both know that’s a lame excuse. I know how your mind works. You think it’s your job to keep women safe from all danger, but I’d be willing to bet it’s a man’s fault this woman has vanished in the first place.”
He winced. She’d scored a direct hit.
“I don’t intend to be kept in a little box, Jack. I want in. So either include me in your search party or watch as I organize my own—comprised of only women.” Pleased with her threat, she smiled before turning toward the Grange, jogging once more.
Somehow he retrieved his horse, mounted and caught up to her more quickly than she thought possible. As he rode beside her, he reached down with strong, quick hands and pulled her up in front of him on the saddle.
“What do you think you are doing?” She struggled to escape his grip. His action brought back the image of the man in her dream, grabbing her from behind, pulling her on his horse. Her stomach lurched at the frightening feeling, so she began to fight in earnest.
“Stop struggling. You’re upsetting the horse.” His deep, familiar voice calmed her and she shoved the bad dream from her thoughts. “That’s better. I don’t believe we finished our conversation. You have a rather annoying habit of walking away in the middle of a discussion.”
“Sorry,” she said sarcastically, regaining her composure. “I thought we had completed our negotiation.”
“On the contrary, we’ve only just begun.”
“There’s nothing more to discuss, Jack. I meant what I said.”
“Fine, Hayley. Have it your way. We’ll finish this conversation later.” If he had his way, they would never continue it. He didn’t intend to involve her in a potentially dangerous situation. Wilshire was conducting a search of his own and Jack didn’t want to think of what would happen if the horrible man found Julia first or, heaven forbid, Hayley.
“In the meantime, it would be best to take our time returning—until we’re dry. It wouldn’t be wise for us to return to the Grange until we do. Alex is rather suspicious as it is.”
“Suspicious of what?”
“Of this.” He turned her so she was sitting sideways on his lap. He moved so quickly, she didn’t have time to reply before his mouth was on hers in a hard, passionate kiss. He struggled to cool the liquid fire that pulsed through his body at the sweet taste of her lips. His hands stroked her back, arms, shoulders and neck. His cock had been hard since she’d disrobed on the shore. The cool water of the sea had done nothing to abate the fire in his blood.
“Stop,” she whispered against his lips even as she began to return the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Make me.” He took her earlobe in between his teeth. Her hot breath on his neck caused a delicious tremor down his spine. Placing his hands under her shirt, he lightly stroked the skin at her tiny waist, desperate to see if it was a soft as it had looked.
“No.” Hayley struggled to remove his hands.
Jack began to wonder about her reluctance to be touched as he recalled her similar reaction in the cabin. Removing his hands from her waist, he continued his gentle kisses. Her hands dropped down to his waist, tightly gripping the muscles of his abdomen. He couldn’t decide if she was pulling him closer or pushing him away. Every move she made was a contradiction. She was unperturbed by his kisses, yet terrified by his touch.
Curious and unwilling to frighten her, he softened the kiss and broke away. For a split second, he saw something that looked very much like terror in her eyes before she shuttered it away and resumed her cool composure.
The sound of an approaching horse distracted them. Jack hoped the coming rider didn’t see their embrace. “I find it difficult to keep a proper distance from you, Hayley. Perhaps I’m not the most suitable escort after all.” Then after a pause, he added, “I’ll aspire to do better in the future. You have my word.”
He shifted her astride the saddle and turned Lancelot around to face the approaching rider. He was surprised to see his valet approaching from the direction of the Grange.
“Do you know who he is?”
Jack nodded. “Yes, I do.”
Templeton pulled up next to them. His valet quickly and none too subtlety took in their appearances before speaking with a distinctly amazed tone. “Sir? Um, pardon the intrusion.”
“Templeton, is anything wrong?”
His valet, slack jawed, continued to stare at Hayley. “Well, sir. Er…” Again, Templeton glanced pointedly at her.
Jack was amused by Templeton’s nosiness. “I beg your pardon. Allow me to introduce you. Templeton, this is Miss Garland, a guest at Fernwood Grange and an old friend of the marchioness. Miss Garland, this is my valet, Templeton.”
“Pleased to make yer acquaintance, my lady.”
Hayley smiled. “Nice to meet you. I suppose you’d like to speak to Jack, I mean, Captain Campbell, in private. I’ll just be running along.”
She attempted to dismount Lancelot, but Jack tightened his arm around her waist preventing it. She gave him a questioning glance over her shoulder.
“Anything Templeton has to say to me, he can say in front of you. As your escort, I would be remiss in my duties to allow you to return to the house alone.” He would also be damned if he would let his valet see his beautiful redhead running down the beach in her clinging, damp breeches. Templeton was already ogling her, oblivious to his rudeness.
His redhead? When did he begin to think of her as his?
“It’s not far,” she answered shortly. “I did, after all, make it here on my own without any calamity befalling me. If you’ll just let me down—”
“No.”
“Jack Campbell. Let me down. Now! You can’t keep trying to boss me around. I ran down here on my own and I can return on my own. I am a big girl.”
“I was following you, therefore, you were not alone. You will stay and I’ll take you home.” His grip around her waist tightened as he spoke. He would broach no further discussion on the matter.
Her face flushed with anger. He doubted anyone had ever tried to control her and he suspected he’d pay severely for his highhandedness later. Before she could continue to berate him, he turned to his valet, who seemed to be enjoying the interchange. Jack never allowed anyo
ne to question his authority. This didn’t bode well for his reputation.
“What brings you here, Templeton? I trust all is well?” He expected the man to report that something had happened to his luggage—Templeton wasn’t a very good valet—or perhaps some problem had arisen at the shipping company. Templeton was supposed to have arrived the day before.
“Well, Cap’n,” Templeton glanced at Hayley. “I arrived less than half an hour ago with your trunk. I went to the Homestead afore I came here as I knew you was headin’ there. Didn’t like the thought of you goin’ there by yerself as I figured yer uncle might do you in or somethin’.” Templeton chuckled at his jest.
Jack raised his eyebrows impatiently. Templeton’s laugh quickly turned into an embarrassed cough. Hayley turned to look at him curiously, but she said nothing.
“Poor timing and circumstances with my uncle sent me here earlier than I intended. My uncle was not of a mind to allow me to spend the night. Was anything amiss at the Homestead?” He was concerned that Templeton had sought him out rather than wait for him at the Grange.
“Apparently, the earl told the constable that you was responsible for Lady Julia’s disappearance.”
“What do you mean responsible?” Jack knew his uncle, uncharacteristically upset by Julia’s disappearance, was blaming him, but Jack hadn’t taken his angry words seriously. The man was clearly out of his mind.
Apparently, his rash visit to the Homestead had given his uncle a scapegoat. What he couldn’t understand is why the old man would bother. He’d only recently returned from London and any number of people could vouch for that. The night Julia had gone missing, he’d had dinner at his club with Ben, then gone to a gaming hall to finish making a deal with a prospective buyer for the goods he had brought in from Portugal. There was no way he could have played a role in her disappearance.
He’d said as much to Wilshire during his brief visit two nights earlier, but the earl’s grasp on sanity was slipping. He’d even accused Jack of killing his wife, Helena, who had died in a fall down the stairs a month ago. The accident was made even more tragic by the fact Helena had been seven months pregnant at the time.
Unable to discover anything about Julia’s possible whereabouts or why she would have run away, he left while his uncle was still deep in the throes of a rage. He shuddered to think what Wilshire had done to Julia to cause her to run.
“Mrs. Smythe said you left afore she could talk to you. Said you and the earl got into a terrible row. Not like that’s anythin’ different.”
Jack had hoped to speak with Mrs. Smythe, the earl’s housekeeper. The only reason he’d felt relatively safe leaving Julia to the earl’s care was because of the housekeeper’s presence in the house. She had been very kind to him during his brief, but painful, stay at the Homestead as a child. Shuddering slightly at the memory, he pushed the thought away.
“Did Mrs. Smythe know why Julia ran away?”
Templeton, struggling to keep his nervous horse still, finally gave up and dismounted. The mare he’d borrowed from the marquis’ stable obviously didn’t like being in such close proximity to a warhorse like Lancelot.
Looking up at him, he related Mrs. Smythe’s tale. “She said the earl kept the girl locked up in that room of hers after her sister died. She ate all her meals on a tray as he wouldn’t let ’er even go in the dining room. The evenin’ she went missin’ a maid hepped her undress and settle in for the evenin’. Mrs. Smythe said the earl drunk hisself into a stupor pretty near on every night.” Templeton paused, attempting to keep the horse calm. “Housekeeper said she always waited for the earl to fall asleep before retirin’ in case he tried to hurt the poor little lady. When the house got quiet, she turned in. Didn’t hear nothin’, but when the maid went up next mornin’ to wake her, Lady Julia was gone.”
The idea of Julia being locked in a room for weeks on end made his blood run cold. He’d been in Italy when he received word of Helena’s death. Alex had made mention of the fact no one had seen Julia since her sister’s death this morning. Obviously, all the neighbors suspected she’d been in mourning. How long had Julia been trying to escape?
“Did she pack a bag or take anything with her?” Jack wondered if the unhappy girl had returned to her family in London, although he suspected only a catastrophe would prompt Julia to return to her parents. He’d never met two colder people.
He had asked the Parkers to take Julia back shortly after his return from the war. He cared deeply about the young girl and thought perhaps her family, a titled one would want to raise her and give her a season in London, especially when he informed them of the earl’s tendency toward violence. It was too late to help Helena, but he wanted to see Julia safely out of Wilshire’s clutches. Jeffrey Parker informed him he didn’t have the time or funds to attempt to make a silk purse of a sow’s ear and all Julia was good for was to be a companion to her sister, the countess.
Parker, destitute due to gambling debts, had offered Helena’s hand in marriage to the earl. His uncle had paid a pretty price for the sixteen-year-old girl. If Julia did turn up on their doorstep, Jack had little doubt her father would return her promptly to the earl—for an additional price. While Helena lived, the earl ignored Julia and, as a result, she was free to roam the countryside at will. Wilshire, desperate for a son in order to displace Jack as his heir, put all his hopes in the young, beautiful Helena.
If only he’d come straight home when he’d learned of Helena’s death. Wilshire had done something to make Julia run and the thought made his stomach churn uneasily.
“According to Mrs. Smythe, Lady Julia didn’t take nothin’ but the clothes on her back and her favorite red cape—the one you give her last year for Christmas. I hepped the other servants search the surrounding area for a bit agin this mornin’, but we didn’t find her.”
“Where was my uncle?” The earl was not taking the disappearance of his ward lightly.
“He left to see the local magistrate afore I got there. Mrs. Smythe thought that was right surprisin’ since he hadn’t been outta the house since the countess died. Said she was worried he might convince the magistrate you did have somethin’ to do with her ladyship goin’ missing. Wanted me to warn you he may come here to make trouble for you. She’s right worried about you gettin’ arrested.”
Jack shrugged off the idea of an arrest. “Mrs. Smythe is likely correct. It’s only a matter of time before the earl shows up here, but I think there’s little reason to be concerned about an arrest.”
“Mrs. Smythe’s worried that the poor lass may do herself in, if you take my meaning, said the girl was fair distraught after her sister died, not at all like her usual sweet self,” Templeton replied sadly. “Mrs. Smythe sent me straight here, so as I could warn you what the earl was up to. Mrs. Smythe thinks it’s disgraceful the earl’s blamin’ you for the little lady’s disappearance. Everybody knows you’d never harm a hair on that sweet miss’s head.”
“Why would the earl think you helped Julia run away? The earl is your uncle, right?” Hayley had been so quiet during Templeton’s story; Jack had forgotten she was there.
“The relationship between my uncle and I has always been, what I believe you would call, strained.” At Templeton’s snort, Jack narrowed his eyes at his valet. “Actually, we hate each other. He views me as his greatest enemy and it would give him pleasure to cause me trouble—anyway he can.”
“His enemy? Why?” Hayley was clearly intrigued.
“Because I am. I have been since birth.” His vague answer sparked her curiosity even more.
“But why have you always been his enemy? Why would he accuse you of taking this Julia? Who is she to you or to him?”
“Lady Julia is my uncle’s ward and he suspects I took her because I would do anything to protect her from him—even kidnap her.”
“Sir, sorry to interrupt, but I really think we should get back to the house. Lord Dorset wants a word with you in case your uncle and the magistrate show up.”
Alex knew Jack had no idea where Julia was as he’d briefly recounted the earl’s angry reaction to his visit last night over brandy while Hayley and Erin were reminiscing in the next room.
Over a year ago, Julia had shown up at the docks with bruises on her arm. Jack had threatened to remove her from the Homestead, but Julia, sobbing, begged him to forget about it. She would never leave Helena alone and Jack was powerless to take the unfortunate countess away from Wilshire without facing prison.
He’d sent one of his own men, Josh Harrison, to the earl’s house to secretly keep watch over Julia. Harrison had managed to be hired on as a footman. In addition, Jack remained in contact with Mrs. Smythe, who also tried to protect her. Unfortunately, neither Josh nor Mrs. Smythe knew why Julia had run away.
Wilshire, upon his arrival at the Homestead two nights earlier, accused him of killing his wife, so she couldn’t give him an heir. He had accused Jack of plotting to steal his money and estate, of trying to destroy him by taking the only woman he’d ever loved. At one point, he called him Jonathan, Jack’s father’s name, and threatened to kill him again if he didn’t leave.
With Julia missing and the earl unable to answer his questions sensibly, he’d left. It was his conversation at the edge of his uncle’s property with Harrison that had caused him to leave the Homestead so late and in the midst of the storm. Josh had been removed from his duties as footman shortly after Helena’s death and moved to the stable as a groom. Unsure what to do next, Josh had decided to wait for Jack’s return, while guarding over the young girl from a distance. Jack assured Josh the fault didn’t lie with him. In his heart, Jack knew the blame rested squarely on his own shoulders. Now, somehow, he would make it up to Julia. If only he could find her.
Chapter 9
Jack’s arm around Hayley’s waist tightened so sharply, she was afraid he would break her in half. “Jack.” She gripped the muscle in his forearm in an attempt to loosen his hold.