Tempting Danger: Sinclair and Raven series

by Vella, Wendy

  Alice dug about in her pockets and found her handkerchief and handed it to the woman.

  “My midwife said he was dead—”

  “Which he had to have been, Meggie. Surely you see that?”

  Peg looked at Alice with sympathy in her eyes. She believed her friend was simply not accepting her child’s death. And this could be true, but if not....

  “Mrs. Adley had that man take him away before I could even hold him. If he was dead, I had a right to at least that, and what of his burial?” Meggie broke down then, and Peg slipped a hand around her shoulders and held her closer. In her arms her babe slept on.

  “Mama?”

  The little girl came to her mother’s side, placing a hand on her leg.

  “Hello, I’m Kate.”

  Kate crouched before the little girl and started talking softly to her.

  “My name is Miss Alice Sinclair.” Alice got to her feet and held out her hand to Meggie. “This is my sister, Miss Kate Sinclair.” She wanted the woman’s last name but wasn’t sure how to get it. Offering her own was the prompt she needed.

  “Meggie Todd.”

  “Peg Todd, her sister-in-law.”

  “And do you ladies live around here?” Alice asked.

  “No indeed, we are from the East Side. Hobby Street, miss. I thought a walk along the fashionable shops looking in the windows would cheer my sister up.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss.” She squeezed Meggie’s hand. “Come, Kate.” She nodded to Peg.

  “You’re thinking about what Nicholas said, aren’t you? How his housekeeper believed the child was alive when it was taken from the mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “You have to speak with him, Alice.”

  “I know, I just don’t want to.”

  “I think you’re avoiding him, because—”

  “Do not add anything to that because. Now we must go to drop off the knitted items to Temple Street, then we can take tea.”

  “Very well, but I know there is something between you.”

  Alice didn’t answer, as their carriage had arrived. She didn’t like to think about having to speak with Nicholas when she’d been doing everything she could to avoid him, but after talking with that woman, she knew she must.

  Botheration.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Nicholas had hoped to speak with Alice today, but she’d run when he’d said hello. Literally run down the stairs, taking the last few in one leap, nearly ending up on her face. By the time he arrived at the front door, the carriage she and Kate were in was leaving.

  She was avoiding him, there was no getting around that fact. He’d not brought it up with her brother, as this was between Nicholas and Alice, but it had to stop.

  Wolf had said she’d gone shopping, so after leaving the house, Nicholas had attempted to find her on Bond Street, but had no luck.

  He’d caught glimpses of her over the last few weeks. In the evenings she’d been elusive. Nicholas would locate her, move to intercept, but when he arrived she’d gone somewhere else. It was like some elaborate chess game and she had all the winning moves.

  Her hearing, of course, gave her the advantage over him. But Nicholas was nothing if not persistent.

  He’d gone to his sister’s house three nights ago, and the family had all been in attendance, except Alice, who had a headache. She’d also not been at Gunther’s eating ices the day he’d encountered them there.

  When he’d seen the back of her head today and felt the frisson of awareness, he’d realized how much he missed her again. Missed her dry wit and laughter. Missed her sweet face and inability to hide her thoughts.

  Nicholas wasn’t quite sure what to do about Alice Sinclair, but he did know he didn’t want her hiding from him.

  Arriving at Temple Street, he knocked on the front door. Since he’d known about this house, and the other near the docks, he’d made sure to check on them regularly so his sister didn’t have to. She had a family; he did not. Of course, that didn’t stop her from coming here, but he gave her reports so she didn’t have to.

  “Hello, Mr. Davey.”

  The couple who ran the small house were good people who had found a home here among the children that came and went.

  “Good day to you, my lord.”

  “Is there tea on offer?”

  “Indeed there is. The kitchens will be quite busy today.”

  “You have other guests?”

  Nicholas rested his hat and gloves on the side table in the small hallway, then headed down to the kitchens with Mr. Davey on his heels. He was sure Lilly would be there.

  “Hello, Mrs. Davey.”

  Round and pink cheeked, Mrs. Davey was as usual wearing her apron and busy baking something. Looking to the small table he’d spent many happy hours at eating delicious food, he found Kate munching on a piece of cake.

  “Where is she?”

  Kate didn’t speak, just pointed upward.

  Got you.

  He ran back up the steps before Alice had a chance to leave, as she’d surely heard his voice. Then took the stairs up to the top story where the children who were sick or needed a warm bed stayed. He found her in the last room off the hallway. Standing in the doorway, he watched her; surprisingly, she hadn’t detected him yet.

  Her back was to him, and he looked at the silky black hair bundled into a knot and the pale skin of her neck beneath. Nicholas didn’t fight the fierce pull of longing.

  Her dress was cream, and a row of buttons ran down her spine. He wanted to place his lips just above them. Taste her skin. She had a body a man would lose himself in. Soft curves that would entice him to explore. He wanted to be that man.

  She was reading a story to Stanley, one of the boys who had injured himself falling down a chimney. Her voice changed with each character, and the boy was snuffling, clearly enjoying the tale.

  Easing back out of the room, he went to the one next door and found it empty. Leaning on the wall outside, he waited for Alice to arrive after finishing her story.

  “Goodbye, Stanley, I shall return to read you the next book soon.”

  She appeared in the doorway, head down, deep in thought.

  “Hello, Alice.”

  Her head shot up, eyes wide.

  “I didn’t hear you?”

  “So it seems. That’s odd, don’t you think?”

  She shook her head as if trying to dislodge something.

  “I—ah, good day to you, Lord Braithwaite.”

  She bobbed a curtsey, then went to walk by him. Nicholas grabbed her arm and nudged her into the room, shutting the door behind him.

  “Not this time.”

  “What are you doing?” She took a large step backward.

  “You and I need to discuss a few things, Alice.”

  She managed a smile of sorts; it was lopsided and nervous.

  “Of course, I would love to discuss... whatever it is you want to discuss. We shall go down and see Kate, then—”

  “I want to talk to you, not Kate.”

  Nicholas stayed with his back to the door deliberately. She’d make a run for it if he moved, and he didn’t want to have to grab her. He would, but this was easier.

  “You’re avoiding me, Alice.”

  “I have been busy and have no reason to avoid you.”

  She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  “Lying is beneath you.”

  “I need to go to Kate.”

  “She’s eating cake and drinking tea, therefore quite happy.”

  Alice backed up a few more steps, then turned and walked to the window.

  “You will break your neck if you attempt to leave via that route.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “I had an enlightening conversation with Kate the other day. Do you want to know what she told me?”

  “No, thank you. What I want is a cup of tea.”

  “She said the part of you that was fun and adventurous has gone into hiding, Alice. S
he said you are now boring.”

  “I was the serious Sinclair. I now am again.”

  “Why?”

  She wanted to answer him, Nicholas knew that, as her top teeth were clamped on her bottom lip, stopping the words coming out.

  “Alice, talk to me.”

  “’Tis a lovely day for a ride. We have been shopping.”

  She looked at his right ear and smiled. It did not reach the depths of her lovely green eyes.

  The few times he’d seen her, if only from a distance, she’d looked sad, and Nicholas hadn’t liked that. It made something inside him ache. Alice Sinclair was a woman of passions, but according to her sister she was now as exciting as a turtle soup. Apparently Kate loathed that particular dish.

  “It’s just about to start raining outside, and in minutes the streets will have turned to slush.”

  “It’s lovely in here, however.”

  “In this room, or the house at Temple Street in general?”

  Her eyes fired to life at his taunts, but she didn’t snap back at him.

  “Do you know what I respected most about you when first we met, Alice?”

  She shook her head.

  “Your forthright manner. It is not often a woman will call me a fool on such brief acquaintance.”

  “I should not have said that, forgive me.”

  Even her voice had changed.

  “I don’t forgive you.”

  “Pardon?” She turned to face him again.

  “Alice, I know a great deal about you. I know about your hearing and I know about your family’s heightened senses. I know you love to read, Kate told me that. I know you have an adventurous spirit and are loyal to your friends, which your brother told me is often your downfall.”

  “I am no longer that person, my lord. My actions have hurt others, so I am attempting to do things correctly. Please allow me to do so. In fact, you should applaud my actions. You told me stop this naive belief that I can simply carry on taking foolish risks and to hell with anyone and anything.”

  “Don’t blaspheme, and I said those word at the time as I was gripped with several strong emotions. Fear and anger being two of them.”

  “You blaspheme!” Her words had a snap to them that pleased him. “And you wouldn’t have said those words if you hadn’t meant them.”

  “I’m sorry if they upset you.”

  “They were the truth, and that is what matters, Nicholas. And you of all people should understand my need to change. My need to fit into society.”

  “Why me of all people?”

  “Your behavior was once not as it should be but is now exemplary... or so they believe. I am attempting to be the same for the time I have remaining in London.”

  He had tried to be on his best behavior when required since he’d changed the way he lived his life. When you were extremely bad, with your reputation in tatters, it took a great deal for your peers to forget or forgive. There were a few who still glared at him, but most had moved on.

  “Who are they?”

  “Pardon?” She’d started pacing back and forth across the room to the window and away.

  “You said ‘or so they believe.”

  “Stop asking me questions.”

  Nicholas just needed to push a little harder; he was sure he’d have a shriek out of her in no time.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “You are making little sense, Alice. I had thought you the articulate sister.” He sent Kate a silent apology.

  “Those women!” she braced her hands on her hips.

  “Which women?”

  “The young ladies who have you on the top of their lists... I shouldn’t have said that,” she added quickly, looking horrified. “Forget my words, please.”

  “Lists?” Nicholas left the door and advanced on her.

  “Never mind. ’Tis nothing, really, forget I spoke. I tend to ramble—”

  “No, you don’t, and don’t take up lying as a vocation, you’re hopeless at it. Your fingers are flicking.”

  She wanted to refute that claim but she was still attempting to be the perfect, well-behaved miss. Of course, she was failing miserably, Nicholas was pleased to note.

  “Now back to these lists. Are you telling me that young ladies actually have lists with the names of men they wish to marry?”

  “No, absolutely not.”

  “I believe we’ve established I am no fool, Alice. Tell me the truth.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Oh dear?” Her head was now tilted slightly to the left.

  “’Tis nothing.”

  “I think it’s definitely something if it made you say oh dear.”

  “It was just something Stanley said. He has an extensive vocabulary when it comes to cursing.”

  “You must be absolute hell to live with,” Nicholas said, awed. He’d not heard a thing. He must remember never to speak of anything he had no wish for her to overhear when she was nearby.

  “How far away can you hear?”

  “A great distance, and now I must leave.”

  Nicholas stepped to the right as she tried to pass him.

  “Move... please,” she gritted out.

  “What will you do if I don’t?” He grabbed her hand.

  “Unhand me.”

  “You can do better than that insipid reply, surely?” Nicholas would provoke a response out of her if he had to stay in this room with her all day.

  “Why are you doing this? You don’t want to spend time in my company, just as I don’t want to spend time in yours.” The words were desperate now.

  “I do want to spend time in your company.”

  “You can’t, not after what I did to you.”

  Now they were getting somewhere. “Alice, you couldn’t make me do something I didn’t want to if you tried. I went in to Bastil’s because I needed to face my demons. You made me do that, and I will be forever grateful, because now I know with a certainty that I will never again gamble within its walls. “

  “You hated the thought of going in there. I saw that on your face. I made you do it.”

  “No. I did it because I needed to.” He took both her hands in his. “At first, yes, I didn’t want to, but then I realized it was time.”

  “I’m sorry, Nicholas. So very sorry for what you suffered because of me.”

  “Good God, will you listen to me, woman.” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently. “You allowed me to face that particular demon, Alice. I feel lighter inside because of it. And I have you to thank for that.”

  “But—”

  “I will never gamble for money again after entering Bastil’s for the last time. I understand that now.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You wound me.”

  “No. I mean I don’t believe you can possibly want to thank me for sending you back into that hell.”

  “I am happier and have been since that night.”

  He saw the hope then as she looked at him.

  “Alice. You helped me. Yes, to enter there was terrifying, but I soon realized that place had no power over me. You and our families helped me to see that.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Wolf was angry with me.”

  “His anger was because of the risk you took going to such a place, Alice. Perhaps he thought of me also, but I have explained to him that I bear no grudge to you for that day, and in fact I am glad I exorcised that particular demon.”

  “Were you.... Did you gamble a great deal?”

  Nicholas loved the feel of Alice’s skin. He touched her cheek, running a finger down the silky surface.

  “Yes. I was a wastrel and a vile man.”

  “Why? You are far from that now.”

  “Thank you, that is a very nice thing to say. I’m not entirely sure I can give you an answer to that, other than I gained my title and the wealth behind it at a young age and decided I was important. I then turned my back on everything my father had
taught me was the right way for a man to behave. I also turned my back on Lilly.”

  “You must be very proud of the man you are now then, as it would take courage to change what you were.”

  He smiled, because how could he not when faced with Alice Sinclair. She saw the positive in every negative.

  “I am a work in progress with much to atone for, but yes, I am a better man.”

  “A good, honorable man,” she persisted.

  They looked at each other for long seconds. He studied every inch of her face as she studied his.

  “I try to be. You make me want to be honorable.”

  “Nicholas.”

  “Alice,” he replied.

  “I don’t think it is wise for us to do that.”

  “Wise, no, inevitable, yes.” He kissed her then. Just a soft, fleeting brush of his lips over hers. Sensation from just that brief contact traveled through his body.

  Easing back, he held her shoulders.

  “We will discuss further what lies between us, but not now. It is enough you are no longer running for the nearest hiding place when I am close.”

  “I promise not to do so.”

  “I am relieved. Now we must go to the kitchens, as I am in need of sustenance. I did not have my morning meal.”

  “What? Why would you not eat your morning meal?”

  She was still taking him to task as they entered the kitchens.

  “Good God, who didn’t eat their morning meal?” Cambridge Sinclair was in the kitchen eating cake with Kate. Toby, the boy the Daveys had found beaten on their doorstep and who now lived here with them, was sitting on the counter, also eating.

  “I didn’t. I had something that needed to be done.”

  “You must be positively weak with lack of nourishment. Eat, Nicholas, quickly.” Cam waved a hand to a chair. “Mrs. Davey, we must have food for Lord Braithwaite.”

  “Hello, Alice, have you come to eat cake also?”

  “Have you left us any?” she said, and Nicholas was pleased to hear her words had some strength to them. Pulling out a chair, he waved her into it.

  “I have baked a second cake, Miss Sinclair. Mr. Sinclair often calls by for a slice.”

  “Are you still playing at being a lady, cousin?”