by Candace Camp
“Don’t go yelling now, or you’ll give the game away,” a low, masculine voice murmured in her ear before the hand over her mouth fell away.
“Jack!” Nicola whirled around, delight bubbling up in her. “Oh, Jack!” She threw her arms around his neck and went up on tiptoe to kiss him.
After a long, satisfying moment, his arms loosened around her, and she slid back down and looked up at him, her eyes shining. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you. Hal Falkner’s one of the village men who rides with me. So I asked a favor of him and his wife. The babe’s not sick, just asleep in the room next door.”
Nicola’s eyes widened. “Oh, Jack…” She reached up a hand and smoothed it down his cheek. “I’m glad you did. I have been racking my brain trying to think of a way to see you. But I couldn’t even get word to you if I had thought of a way. That Stone fellow trails me everywhere I go.” She drew a sharp breath. “Oh, my God! He’s probably outside right now, watching the house!”
She started toward the window, frowning, but Jack caught her wrist and pulled her back with a smile. “Don’t worry about him now. He’ll see nothing, standing out there watching this house. I have been here since before first light, and my horse is nowhere around. No one knows I am here except Hal and Maggie, and they certainly won’t be telling him. He won’t come to the door, and even if he did, they won’t let him in.”
Nicola let him pull her back into his arms. “All right. If you’re sure…”
“I am.”
She leaned against his chest, luxuriating in the warmth of his arms and the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too. God!” He squeezed her tightly against him. “It seems like weeks since I’ve been with you. I kept thinking about you, wondering what you were doing, wishing you were with me.” He kissed the top of her head.
Nicola smiled. “Me too.”
“I don’t like being cut off from you. Not even being able to write you a note…”
“I know.”
“Mmm, you smell good.” He breathed in her perfume, nuzzling her hair.
Nicola let out a sigh of pure pleasure as his lips moved down to her ear and trailed slowly over her cheek, velvety and hot. “Jack…”
“How did I live without you all those years?” he murmured. “Oh, Nicola…”
His mouth found hers, and they kissed lingeringly, rediscovering each other as if it had been weeks instead of days since they last kissed. Nicola’s hands slid up Jack’s chest and around his back, caressing the smooth curve of his muscles through his shirt. She thought about slipping her fingers beneath his shirt and touching his skin, and the idea made her shiver with desire. As though he knew her thoughts, Jack’s body surged with heat, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly, lifting her up off her feet. He began to walk toward the bed.
Nicola tore her mouth away, whispering, “Jack! No. What about Maggie and Hal?”
“They won’t be coming in here. And they wouldn’t let anyone else, either.”
“Yes, but they’ll know….”
“Know what?” He kissed his way down her neck.
“That we—that—” She let out a sigh as his lips touched the soft upper curve of her breast.
“Mmm?” He set her down on her feet beside the bed, and his hands slid up her body to cup her breasts. He looked down into her eyes, his thumbs circling her nipples, bringing them to life. He bent to kiss her lips while his fingers caressed her breasts. “That we what?”
“I forget….” Nicola tugged his shirt from his trousers, slipping her hands up underneath the material. His flesh, smooth over rock-hard muscles, seared her fingers. She could think of nothing right now but him—his scent, his touch, the incredible sensuality of his mouth on hers.
They tumbled onto the bed, lost in a haze of passion, the rest of the world receding. Limbs twined together. Hands and lips explored, aroused, soothed. Had an army burst in at that moment, they might not have noticed, so wrapped up in their passion were they.
They made slow, sweet love, kissing, murmuring, taking their time to bring out each ounce of pleasure. Nicola, shuddering under Jack’s skillful touch, wondered if anyone had ever felt the stunning sensations that ran through her now. And when at last their blissful torment had built to its highest peak, release burst through them like a tidal wave, joining them in a dark, mindless pleasure.
Jack lay back on the bed, his heart pounding, sweat drying on his skin, and he pulled her close to him. “I don’t want to let you go,” he whispered.
Tears sprang into Nicola’s eyes, and she snuggled even closer to him, as though she could somehow crawl right through his skin and become part of him. “I don’t want to go.”
“The last few days, all I could think about was you. I didn’t want to. I tried not to. But nothing worked.” He paused, then continued, “What if…what if there were no Jack Moore, gentleman highwayman?”
Nicola’s heart stuttered. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if he disappeared? And then what if one day—not long from now—Gil Martin returned. Older, wiser, back from America. A man with a past and a future, a man no one was hunting.”
Nicola sat up, turning to look down into his face. “Jack, are you serious?”
He nodded. “I don’t want to live like this, hiding, meeting you in secret. I want…I want to call on you. To go riding with you in broad daylight.” He reached up and took a strand of her hair in his hand, twining it around his fingers. “I want to squire you to the opera. Or a play. And I don’t think that The Gentleman can do that.”
“You’re right.” Nicola took his other hand, linking her fingers through his.
“You know, I have been a highwayman only the past few months. Before that Perry and I owned a business in Maryland. I am really a rather dull fellow.”
“What about Richard?”
He grimaced. “I will never beggar him. All I can be is a thorn in his side. It has been amusing, but that hardly seems like enough for a life.” Jack looked at her. “I hated him the most for taking you away from me. Now that I have you again…”
Nicola leaned forward and kissed him. After a few moments, she said, “What are you going to do? Is ‘The Gentleman’ just going to disappear?”
“We are going to carry out one last raid. Day after tomorrow, early in the morning, Exmoor has a wagon leaving the mine. It is going to be carrying a lot of money, more than we’ve ever gotten off him before. He has been storing it in a safe there, afraid to send it for two months because of the damage we’ve done him. He thinks to escape detection by sending it early in the morning and with no guard, disguising it as a common ore wagon. But we have informers inside the mine. So we will be waiting for it.”
Nicola sat up, uneasiness stirring in her. “Are you sure? Must you make a last theft?”
“I could leave it. I told you, I had a business. We sold it, and I have the money. I could set up something here or back in the States. But I want to give the men one last big payoff. It will keep them going for a while. I hate to leave them at the mercy of Exmoor’s jobs again.”
“I see.” It still made her uneasy. But Nicola understood his desire to make sure that his men were taken care of. It was one of the things she admired about him.
“Then The Gentleman will disappear,” Jack said lightly. “After that, I believe that Gil will appear—in London, perhaps? It might be better to have some time between the two events here.”
Nicola nodded. “I am usually in London, anyway. But Deborah wanted me to stay with her through the birth of her child. And I have to stay here for a wedding next month.”
“I don’t think I want to be in London without you that long,” Jack mused. “Perhaps Gil will have to return to his home after all.” He grinned. “At least you’ve fixed up my inheritance for me.”
Nicola rolled her eyes. Then she leaned against him, curling her arm around his waist. “Promise me that you w
ill be careful.”
“I will.” He kissed the top of her head.
“I must leave soon,” she said with a sigh. “Stone will get suspicious if I stay in the Falkners’ house much longer.”
“I know.” He slid his hand down her hair, then touched his lips softly to hers. “I will see you soon.”
“When? How?”
“I’m not sure.” He grinned. “Perhaps I shall simply show up at your front door.”
Nicola left soon after that, blushing a little as she passed through the main room of the house, where Maggie sat, holding her baby and rocking. But Maggie only smiled at her and stood up to walk her to the door.
Nicola turned at the door. “If that man Stone should come here asking about my visit—”
“That one!” Maggie made a disgusted face. “He’ll not learn anything here.”
“Don’t hold back so much that it seems suspicious. You can say that the wee one had an earache, but that I soothed it with drops and now she is all right.”
“He won’t be surprised at our not talking. No one in the village will talk to him. Thinks he can buy us. Get us to betray our own for money!”
“Thank you.” Nicola smiled at the woman and opened the door. “Take care.”
“Yes’m, you too.”
Nicola did not see Stone, but she had little doubt he was there. Hal came up to untie her horse and help Nicola into the saddle, nodding to her and smiling. Nicola thanked him also, then turned her horse and headed into town. She had no desire to see anyone. She only wanted to hug her happy knowledge to herself, to ride home and think about Jack and their future. However, she knew that at any other time, if she had ridden into town on an errand of mercy like this, she would probably also have taken the opportunity to drop by and visit some people—the vicar’s wife, for instance. Besides, it was difficult to resist the impish urge to make Mr. Stone spend even more of his day uselessly.
However, today she did not think she could bear the vicar’s wife, who was sweet but rather dull. She was much too excited for that. So she rode over to the inn for a bit of refreshment and a little chat with Lydia, the innkeeper’s lady. After that, she allowed herself to turn homeward.
The most difficult thing, she found, was damping down her excitement in front of her sister and Richard that evening. She could scarcely go around grinning at nothing without arousing their curiosity, and she had no explanation for her sudden happiness. So she strove all evening to appear calm and unexcited, succeeding above her expectations, apparently, for Deborah worriedly asked her if she was feeling well.
Nicola seized the opportunity to admit that she had a headache and say that she thought she would retire early and put lavender water on her temples. Then she fled upstairs and closed herself in her room, lying down on her bed and at last allowing herself to contemplate the rosiness of her future.
Jack had as good as said that he loved her, hadn’t he? He was, after all, giving up his revenge on Richard in order to be with her. She smiled dreamily, remembering his words about missing her and wanting to be with her. Perhaps he had not mentioned marriage or love, but he was committing himself to her. Surely he must have realized that he had been wrong about her betraying him.
She lay looking up at the tester over her head, imagining introducing Jack to Marianne and Penelope, to all her friends. She chuckled as she pictured Richard’s reaction when he saw him. He would be angry—and perhaps just a tad frightened that Jack might reveal the perfidious thing he had done to him ten years ago. She stopped for a moment, worried that Richard might try to kill Jack to keep him from talking, as he had obviously done with Mr. Fuquay a few months ago. But, she reassured herself, Fuquay would have been able to implicate him in more serious crimes, crimes committed against members of Society—things that would have gotten him ostracized from his own class at the very least. A former stable boy’s assertion that Exmoor had had him pressed into the navy would hardly cause even a ripple among the Ton. And even Richard was bound to have gotten over his jealousy in the past ten years.
A more realistic concern was whether he might connect Jack’s sudden reappearance with the disappearance of The Gentleman. But she did not see how he could be certain of it. Only Perry and the men Jack had brought with him knew that he was one and the same person. The local men—except, now, for Hal Falkner—had never seen him without a mask, according to the town’s gossip. So even if someone could be persuaded to talk, they would not know that Jack was the highwayman. Richard would not have any proof. And suspicions would not be enough to get Jack arrested.
So she settled back into a rosy contemplation of the future.
She remained in her happy state throughout the next day—until late in the evening, when her sister came into her room to say good-night. Deborah looked a little troubled, but shrugged it off when Nicola asked her what was the matter.
But after a few moments of small talk, she said, “Nicola…do you think there are men from the village among the highwaymen?”
Nicola, who had been only half paying attention to her, turned to her sharply at that statement. “What? Why are you asking?”
“Because I heard Richard talking to that fellow Stone.”
“And?”
“Well, I guess it’s not really—I mean, he needs to protect his property and all, but this seems so cold-blooded!” Deborah raised troubled eyes to her sister.
“What seems cold-blooded?” Nicola asked, her nerves tightening in her stomach. “What did he say?”
“They were talking about their plans. It has gotten out, apparently, that Richard is shipping a large amount of money tomorrow morning. But it’s only a ruse. The wagon isn’t full of money. It will be full of men—with guns.” Deborah bit her lip and looked at her sister. “He has put out lies about the wagon carrying a lot of money, and when the highwaymen open the back of the wagon, the men will open fire. They’re planning to kill the highwayman and all his men!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NICOLA FELT AS IF SHE COULD NO LONGER breathe. “They—what? They are going to simply shoot them all down?”
“As many as they can, I suppose,” Deborah answered. “I know that they are criminals, and they have been stealing from us. And if they get caught, most likely they will hang. But at least they will have had a trial first. This…” She shivered. “I don’t know, it seems more like murder.”
“It is murder,” Nicola retorted grimly. “I can’t believe that anyone, even Richard—What am I talking about? Of course Richard would. His money is more important to him than other men’s lives.” Nicola began to pace. “Deborah, we cannot let this happen.”
“How can we stop it?” Deborah asked. “I came to tell you because it bothered me. I mean, what if they kill some of the men from the village? But I don’t know how I could stop it. Richard would not listen to me—nor, I think, would he care for your opinion. Sometimes he seems to unaccountably dislike you.”
“No doubt he does. However, I don’t really need to persuade Richard not to have the men shot,” Nicola pointed out. “He cannot shoot them if they are not there. If they know it is a ruse and do not fall for his bait…”
“You are going to tell them?” Deborah asked, wide-eyed. “But how?”
“I can find them,” Nicola said grimly, starting toward her wardrobe.
“You know who they are?” Deborah asked. “Where they live? How? Richard said that you were thick as thieves with them, but I didn’t believe him.” Deborah frowned, troubled. “They are criminals, Nicky. I know that you are very fond of—of some odd sorts of people, but…I mean, highwaymen! They have been taking money from us for months now.”
“And Richard has been taking money from everyone for years and years!” Nicola snapped back, whipping her nightgown off over her head and pulling on the skirt of her riding habit. “Honestly, Deborah—do you have no idea what your husband is like? Or how people feel about him?”
“What are you talking about?” Deborah asked, paling
.
“I am talking about the fact that Richard is a wicked man! No, I cannot condone their taking money from him or anyone else. But much of the money they have taken goes to people in the village, people Richard has wronged! He squeezes money from his tenants. He is universally disliked. He pays the men who risk their lives down in the mines a mere pittance. He lays them off if they are ill. Have you any idea what it is like to have no food? To watch your children starve? Of course they despise him. Of course they are happy to take his money. They feel as if they are getting some of their own back. Why do you think the villagers protect these men? Hide their identity? They would not do the same if it were Bucky’s money they were taking.”
“No…” Deborah said weakly, staring at her sister.
“I haven’t the time to talk about this now,” Nicola said, finishing up her buttons. “I have to get to them tonight. But promise me one thing, Deborah.” She went to her sister and took her by the arm, staring earnestly into her eyes. “Do not go to your husband about this. Don’t tell Richard that I have gone to warn them. You know that it is wrong of him to kill them in cold blood like that. If he should try to come after me, to stop me—” Her gray eyes blazed.
“I will not tell him,” Deborah promised. “But you will take care…please.”
“I will be as safe as I can.” Nicola turned away to sit down and pull on her stockings and boots. “But I have to slip out of the house unnoticed. I cannot let Stone follow me. Does he watch my movements this late at night? Do you know?”
“I don’t know. Richard said only that he worried about you, that he wanted someone competent to watch over you. You are his responsibility, you know, because you are under his roof. And you are my sister.”
Nicola started to dispute Richard’s motives, but she stopped. There was no point in trying to make her sister see the truth about Richard now, and there was no time for it, either. “I cannot afford to have him follow me tonight. I must make sure he does not.”