“I was at Viscount Langdon’s estate in Essex for nigh on two decades. And,” Gus said defiantly, “I’d have been there still if he hadn’t sold off his stables and then died. The old staff left when the viscount’s younger brother gained the title.” Anger etched his words and his black eyes hardened. “Alex’s uncle dismissed the lot, questioned their loyalty. Hmph.” He snorted. “More like didn’t want to cover their wages.” He spat on the ground. “But when the viscount’s stables were full, he had the best stock there is, none better than during my time. That I saw to. Ask anyone in the area. You’ll get your references.”
“I will,” Garrett murmured, suppressing his surprise. Viscount Langdon? She was the daughter of a viscount? Breeding there indeed. He had pegged her right. Langdon. Lady Alexandra Langdon. He ran the name over in his mind, yet it meant nothing to him. But he had been absent from society for over two years. He would have Brandon investigate the family, see what he could learn of them and their circumstances.
Why had the stables been sold? And what of this uncle? Why had Alexandra fled? Gus’s answers created more questions, but Garrett didn’t dare prod more for fear of rousing Gus’s suspicions. Besides, he was pressed for time. Alexandra should be ready any minute, and she wouldn’t like him interrogating her uncle.
Gus ran a hand through his mop of wet hair and straightened his shoulders. “But I know my stock. Know my job.”
“I’m counting on it,” Garrett replied. “Give me a day to get a letter of introduction to my secretary. He’ll fill you in on what the job entails and give you an advance on your wages to cover transportation and other necessary expenditures.” His eyes narrowed. “There will be no drinking on the job. What you do on your own time is your own business. How soon can you be ready to work?”
Stunned, Gus opened his mouth and then closed it. He cleared his throat and swallowed a few times. They both ignored the sheen of moisture clouding his bloodshot eyes before he looked away, blinking furiously. After a moment, he straightened up, squared his sodden shoulders, and faced Garrett with a level stare. “Yesterday, Captain.”
Garrett lips twitched. “Sir will do. A week should be early enough.”
“Right, Captain.”
Garrett raised a brow. The man appeared to take orders about as well as Alexandra. No surprise there. He crossed to Gus, offering his hand. Gus stared at it for so long that Garrett wondered if he had sprouted a sixth finger.
Finally Gus wiped his hand along his good leg before planting it firmly in Garrett’s and lifting his eyes to meet his gaze.
A glimmer of hope had seeped into his expression like a flicker of light, and Gus gripped his hand like a lifeline. The war had wounded countless soldiers, but the loss of a limb wasn’t the worst they had suffered. The loss of dignity was far graver.
The career soldier was dismissed as lower class, little better than an unsavory felon. In the Crimea, those in command also treated the foot soldier as less than human, no more than cannon fodder, sacrificed to the whims of their aristocratic officers. The army was not a lucrative profession, and when soldiers returned home, no responsibility was taken in caring for the veterans, wounded, crippled, or otherwise.
Garrett’s lips pressed into a firm line. He couldn’t change centuries-old practices or prejudices. However, as an earl he wasn’t completely without recourse, nor was he without resources. He had plans, and these plans needed workers to implement them. Recalling his stepfather’s lecture at Warren’s, his jaw clenched. The business venture did have the additional benefit of driving his stepfather mad. All the more reason to carry it out.
During Garrett’s two-year absence, his stepfather had neglected the upkeep of his estates. Tenants weren’t properly cared for, rents went uncollected, and positions were vacated when salaries went unpaid.
When not drinking himself into oblivion, Garrett had spent his time traveling between his estates and cleaning up after his stepfather’s penny-pinching incompetence. This purpose had provided the tenuous link that had kept him planted on the safe side of the line he had walked between life and death.
He tightened his clasp of Gus’s hand. He couldn’t save all the veterans who returned to lost lives, but by God, it felt good when he saved one more.
ALEX STOOD IN the doorway, unnoticed by both men as she blinked to clear her blurred vision. She had returned to hear Kendall discussing the letter of introduction that he planned to write to his secretary. As he’d spoken, her heart had stopped. Good Lord. He had offered Gus a job.
He didn’t know the man, but what he did know of him did not provide a stellar job recommendation. Despite her efforts to mask Gus’s condition, the stench of cheap gin betrayed him. When Kendall hadn’t contradicted her excuse for Gus’s state but rather offered to escort Gus to his room, she had latched onto his offer, ignoring her stab of guilt. But the sight of Gus tore at her, warring with her memories of the boisterous, laughing man she had known.
Gus had taught her to ride her first pony, slipped her sweets for the mares, and hefted her onto his shoulders while he fed the horses. It was difficult to reconcile herself to the loss of this man when she, too, had lost so much. She had also turned her back on Gus because he needed the one thing Alex couldn’t provide. He needed a job, a means to earn a decent wage. But with the loss of his leg, no one would hire him.
What made Kendall different?
More important, what did he expect in return?
She glowered at Kendall as he shook Gus’s hand, but Kendall’s earnest gaze and Gus’s stunned expression gave her pause. Something unfurled in her chest, like a bud opening. Fearing it was her traitorous heart, bleating like the proverbial lamb before the slaughter, she pressed her hand to her chest.
Yanking her arm down, she retreated a step. She was not her mother. Gallant gestures and charming words would not lead her astray. She refused to care for a gambling rake who tossed down a fortune with a flip of a card, who seduced young women, dueled with their husbands, cheated on their wives…Alex stiffened, aware she had tangled up Kendall with her father. Kendall had no wife to cheat on—yet.
She gave her head a sharp shake. Kendall had a mistress. She didn’t wish to remember Kristen, but she did. She loves me. She cursed the tight band squeezing her chest each time the words replayed in her mind.
Well, Kristen can have him.
Kendall stepped away from Gus and caught sight of her. When he smiled, she forgot every thought in her head but one.
Good Lord, did the man have to be so handsome?
Kendall had discarded his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. She swallowed at the sight of his bared forearms and the patches of his wet linen shirt that clung to his taut, muscular-toned body. He stood in sharp contrast to Gus and those poor men whom she had read to at the nearby Chelsea Hospital during her visits to Gus while he recuperated, continuing to do so at the request of one of the hospital benefactresses. Kendall’s physique was a far cry from the gaunt, battered bodies of those men. Spiraling heat curled around her body.
She might be an innocent, but that didn’t mean she was ignorant. This man pulled at her. He had since the first moment she had seen him at Hammond’s. It took every muscle in her body for her to resist responding.
Thankfully, she was a practical woman. It was one thing to admit to a physical attraction but another thing altogether to act on these feelings. That she would not do.
She deserved better.
Once she fulfilled this bargain with Kendall, she would be able to pursue her own plans—and those plans would enable her to be an independent woman, reliant on no man.
Chapter Nine
A LONG while later, once again settled in Warren’s carriage, Alex peered out the carriage window, oblivious to the passing sights. It was impossible to focus on anything when every one of her senses was alive to the man sitting beside her. The scent of his cologne, masculine and subtle, tangled around her. The sight of his strong, firm thigh but a few inches from hers caused her
pulse to race. She could reach out and touch him if she dared.
Damn him for taking her appearance as a gentleman for permission to sit beside her. He was too close. Every so often, the carriage hit a bump in the road and she was jostled against his side before she could brace herself or move away. Since admitting her attraction to the man, his proximity was unwanted, unacceptable…and…well, she didn’t like it. She added brazen to his growing list of faults.
As the passing miles grew, so did her annoyance. Her practical side suggested she move, but her stubborn side rejected the notion. Relinquishing her seat would cede an unspoken battle of wills. That she refused to do. Besides, she hated riding backward.
She pressed her lips together and tipped her head to peer at him from beneath her lashes. Then she jerked her head up, her whole body stiffening.
He was laughing at her! She glowered at him. “What exactly do you find so amusing? And please do not tell me it is this situation.”
“And what if I do?” His lips curved, laughter brimming in his eyes.
Mentally she scribbled idiot to her list of his faults. “Because I really don’t want to lose my money. Unlike you, I have need of it.”
He cocked a brow. “How does my amusement jeopardize your financial situation?”
“Our agreement was for payment rendered in assisting you with finding the men trying to murder you. It will be difficult for me to collect if I kill you first.” She gave him a sweet smile, pleased with the flicker of surprise that crossed his handsome features before he masked it with a grin.
“I see your point.”
“I’m glad that you do.”
He waited a beat before commenting. “You could move to the other side, you know.”
“If you were a gentleman, you would already have done so.”
“You forget, Mr. Daniels, for today, you’re a gentleman as well.”
“How am I to remember that with you opening doors, assisting me in and out of the carriage, and carrying my luggage?”
He nodded. “More good points. May I offer my most sincere apologies. Very rude of me to so forget myself.” In contrast to his words, he looked totally unrepentant. “I believe this is the first time I’ve ever had to excuse myself for good manners.”
“I’m sure you’re better versed in apologies for your breach of them.”
“I have a few well polished. About my behavior, from now on I promise to let you open all doors, heft your own luggage, and let you assist me in and out of the carriage.”
His obvious amusement was infectious, and she smiled in response. “Very funny.”
“I’m known to be sometimes,” he said.
The timbre of his voice sent shivers down her spine. “I’ll have to take your word for it. Are you also known for your charity?” At his raised brow, she continued. “What you did for Gus, it was very kind. Thank you.”
His humor fled. “You mistake charity for business. He needs a job, and I need a stable manager. Similar to the two of us, Gus and I came to a mutually beneficial agreement. No charity taken, none given.”
She blinked at his curt response. It was the Kendall of old, the man she had first encountered in Hammond’s card room. Hard and inscrutable. She wondered what nerve she had probed. “Most people wouldn’t hire Gus because of his leg.”
“Most people are idiots.” He shrugged. “I’m not most people.”
“No, you certainly are not.”
“And being in my presence has never ruined anyone, so it’s quite all right for you to sit beside me.”
His abrupt shift in topic surprised her. While she wanted to view arrogance in his refusal of her gratitude, she admired his astute understanding of Gus. Gus would never have accepted the job if he believed it to be doled out as charity. Such an offer would have insulted him, further crippling the man. Like most people left with nothing but their pride, Gus equated charity with pity.
Clever man, Kendall.
However, he was wrong about the risks of being so near. It was dangerous. But she had already acknowledged some risks were worth taking. “Good, because I hate sitting backward, and I have no intention of being ruined.”
“Mmh, at least not until we know each other better.”
Startled, she shook her head at the wicked gleam in his eyes. “I pity the innocents you and Lord Warren encountered. While I do believe you’re above ruining them, I’m certain you broke your share of hearts.”
“I’m sure I was forgotten when the next fop dribbled a few pretty words at them. Empty heads have short memories.”
Forgotten? She doubted it. He was the very definition of unforgettable. But his words rankled. They were an insult to her sex, and she felt honor bound to protest. “We must run in different crowds. I’ve found most young women to be immune to insincere flattery from the empty-headed rakes who spout it. It’s hard to take a man seriously when his cravat is tied so tight that he can’t turn his head. It makes him look like a poker-faced stork.” She gave him another sweet smile, which belied the cut of anger in her words.
He raised a brow, and once again studied her like some unfamiliar specimen. This habit of his was beginning to irritate her.
“Does this mean no man has ever seduced you with flattery?” His voice had dipped to a low, husky murmur that coursed through her in a warm wave.
She cursed the limited confines of the carriage and her body’s reaction. “I didn’t realize we were discussing me.”
“We are now. No other woman interests me as much.”
Disarmed by his answer and the half smile curving his lips, she didn’t know how to respond. She refused to believe he spoke in earnest but couldn’t fathom what game he played. “I’m no different from most women. A finely tuned compliment is appreciated, but flattery with the aim of seduction is not.”
“Are you sure you speak for most women or for yourself?”
She was not sure of the hidden insult, but she feared he’d insinuated she was a frigid prude. She straightened and peered down her nose at him, speaking as if to a child who needed the simplest explanation clarified. “As I said before, perhaps we don’t move in the same circles. Perhaps the type of woman you cultivate is more receptive to your games of seduction. But I assure you, a well-bred young woman is not.” Her pitch rose at the end, annoying her. She shouldn’t let the man know he got under her skin.
He once again gave her that infernal appraisal of his.
“Another good point. But I’m relieved to know, considering our close working relationship, that you are immune to seduction through any flattery on my part.” He paused a moment and when he continued, his gaze touched on each body part he referenced. “I’d hate my compliments on the lovely color of your eyes, or the golden hue of your hair, or the softness of your skin to be misinterpreted as a means to seduction.”
She blinked, swallowing to put saliva back into her suddenly dry mouth.
What had been her point?
Her body felt lighter and she jerked back when it leaned toward his. She shifted into the corner of the coach, away from him. “Yes, well, of course not.”
Kendall laughed. The sound was rich and appealing and it softened the hard contours of his face, warming them and making him years younger. He sat back. “Good. That should make things so much easier between us.”
“Yes, it should,” she muttered and turned toward the carriage window, hoping she voiced the truth.
Chapter Ten
GARRETT grinned at Alexandra’s profile. He’d been dismissed, but he was too intrigued with their discussion to take offense.
So, the lady believed herself immune to seduction?
He refused to believe she was so innocent as to be blind to the danger in her words. He had yet to refuse a challenge, and he had no intentions of ignoring this one.
This was a call to arms with a different set of weapons. In the art of seduction, he possessed well-honed artillery, a full arsenal at his disposal. All had been tried in battle and none foun
d wanting. If memory served him correctly, his conquests had succumbed with little protest. If memory served him further, his victories had been celebrated to both party’s mutual satisfaction. And he had an excellent memory.
Admittedly, two years had passed since he had utilized his talents to seduce a woman. He might be a bit rusty, but like riding a horse, one never forgot how to do so, nor did one forget its pleasures. The ache in his loins and his growing awareness of Alexandra made him realize it was time to end his abstinence. When he had told her that no woman had ever interested him more, he had spoken the truth.
She fascinated him. She was a mixture of innocence and practicality. He didn’t usually dally with innocents, but Alexandra might be the exception to his rule. After all, she wasn’t a well-cosseted, shy debutante. She was independent and strong-willed. To use her words, she took risks worth taking. She could handle his siege and make her own decision to surrender—or not. If her passion in bed was as strong as that outside of it, her surrender would be sweet indeed.
He settled back in his seat, aware a smug smile curved his lips when he heard the first shouts in the distance. He was instantly on alert, all his senses alive.
Sliding forward, he reached into the pocket of the door to snatch the pistol within. Alexandra jumped when he leaned across her and whipped the window curtain closed after surveying the scene outside. Two men approached on horseback. “Get down,” he hissed.
She cried out when he grabbed her arm and dragged her to the carriage floor with him. They were squeezed together, the space coffin sized.
“Stop the carriage! Stop if ye value yer lives!” An explosion of gunshots accompanied the demands.
He heard Alexandra’s sharp intake of breath.
He thrust the pistol into her palm, pointing it to the floor, closing her fingers over the butt when she didn’t immediately grip the handle. He tossed aside the carriage cushion to retrieve a second gun he had stored in the compartment beneath. Alexandra tugged on his jacket as he checked his weapon.
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