Sea of Desire (30 page)

“The spy is a woman?”

“Yes.”

“But what does she have to do with John? His
death was an accident.” Jared’s eyes narrowed. “You told me so
yourself.”

“I thought it best you believed that. I—”

“You thought it best!” Jared grabbed his
cousin by the front of his fancy waistcoat. Seams ripped as he
lifted him till they were nose to nose. “
You thought!
What
in the hell made you think you had the right?” Jared sucked in his
breath. His vision was tinged crimson and he tightened his fists.
“You bastard. Tell me what happened to him.”

The only response from the captain’s cousin
was a strangled plea. Merideth placed her hand on Jared’s arm. She
could feel the heat of his anger, the strength of his straining
muscles. “Put him down, Jared.” At first he seemed not to notice,
but then he jerked his head around toward her. “He can’t answer
your questions when he’s dangling in the air.”

It appeared to take a moment for her words to
burn through the fog of his anger. He loosened his fingers and
Daniel dropped to the floor, falling back against the shelf-lined
wall. He caught himself and straightened, pulling on the front of
his waistcoat and smoothing a trembling hand over his cravat. He
looked up in shock when he noticed the ripped lace. “Was that show
of brute force necessary, cousin?”

“You have thirty seconds to tell me about
John’s death or that display will seem tame in comparison to what I
do to you.”

Daniel lifted his chin in a gesture of
defiance, but Merideth saw the beads of sweat forming on his upper
lip. “Is it any wonder I kept the truth from you?” he said while
fluffing the lace at his wrist.

Jared took a step toward him and apparently
Daniel thought better of even token resistance, for he began his
explanation, speaking quickly. “John was in England, at Penzance
near here. He was visiting a fellow member of the Royal Society,
someone he met while at Oxford. But the visit was a ruse. John was
there to receive information concerning the British peace
initiative and to discover, if he could, the identity of a spy
known to us only as Lady Sinclair.

“She was selling information to both sides,
and by doing so seriously jeopardizing our negotiations with the
French.”

“Keep talking. I’m still listening.” Jared
crossed his arms, in part to control his urge to shake a quicker
explanation from his cousin.

“There isn’t too much more.” Daniel paused,
then quickly continued talking when he saw the thunderous
expression on Jared’s face. “He received the information about
London’s peace plan... from Lord Alfred, I believe.”

“That’s a lie.” Merideth surged forward only
to be stopped by Jared’s hand clamping her upper arm.

“Go on,” he said after giving Merideth a
stern look. “What happened next?”

“I received a post from your brother
mentioning he was staying at Land’s End longer than planned. At
first I believed he had discovered a lead about Lady Sinclair. But
after rereading the letter I changed my mind. He’d met a woman and,
I think, fallen in love with her.”

“What drew you to that conclusion?” Jared
couldn’t help being surprised. His serious-minded brother was much
more at ease with a book or a scientific experiment than with
members of the fairer sex.

“The post referred to her often. He spoke of
her beauty. Called her his angel.”

Jared’s gaze cut to Merideth’s. She returned
his stare with wide blue eyes. Angel eyes. But she said
nothing.

“Her name,” Jared said. “What was her
name?”

“He never mentioned it. I wrote back to him,
urging him to leave England. The longer he stayed on enemy soil,
the more dangerous it became that someone would realize his real
reason for being there.” Daniel sighed, pursing his lips in
thought, then shaking his head.

“I received only one more correspondence from
John... and that didn’t reach my hands till after word of his
death.”

“What did it say?”

“I’ve found Lady Sinclair.”

Jared let out the breath he didn’t realize he
was holding. His eyes blinked shut and he turned to stumble heavily
into the chair by the desk. After a few minutes he looked up. “And
you think Lady Sinclair killed him?”

“I can’t be certain, but yes, I think he
discovered her identity and she killed him.”

“And Lord Alfred?”

“Somehow he knew also. He contacted me in
France.” Daniel paused. “He was desperate for money. So desperate
he would have sold out almost anyone.” His pale eyes rested on
Merideth.

She held his gaze, only breaking contact when
she felt the captain’s eyes upon her too. “This is ridiculous,” she
said. “My father wasn’t a traitor.” Her tone was insistent, but in
her heart she wasn’t sure she spoke the truth. She wasn’t even
certain if the doubt she read in the captain’s green eyes had aught
to do with her father.

Unable to tolerate the accusation in his
expression, Merideth turned on her heel. She was halfway across the
library when the captain’s booming voice made her stop.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She refused to turn around. Closing her eyes,
Merideth said. “To my room. You gentlemen can find your own way out
when you’re finished... ransacking my home.”

Before she knew what he was about, Merideth
felt a hand clamp around her elbow. She tried to wrench away, but
the captain held her firm as he propelled her into the hallway,
closing the door behind them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Merideth
managed as she was half dragged, half prodded up the stairs.

“You wanted to go to your room. I’m taking
you. But hear me well, Lady Merideth. I’m not leaving here without
you.”

“Well, I’m not going with you.” Merideth
broke away from him as they neared her room. Gathering her skirts,
she ran, managing to enter ahead of him. Using the weight of her
body, she tried to slam the door in his face, but with one hand he
thwarted her attempts. “Leave me alone,” Merideth cried, finally
giving up and retreating toward the window.

“Are you the woman?”

He stalked ever closer, his big body
seemingly swallowing up all the space in the room. “Answer me,
dammit. Are you the one?”

“What woman? I don’t know what you’re talking
about.” Merideth tried not to show how frightened she was, but her
sob was self-incriminating.

“My brother’s woman. The angel. Did my
brother love you?”

“No.” Merideth’s back met the solid barrier
of the wall and she stopped. “I never met your brother. I
swear.”

He stood towering over her, his eyes
searching her face; for what, Merideth wasn’t sure. But she didn’t
look away. She couldn’t.

Finally he grabbed her hand, pulling her
toward the chifforobe. “Pack some clothes. I’ll be back
directly.”

“I said I’m not going!” Merideth yelled, but
she spoke to an empty room. He’d already gone, slamming the door.
As Merideth stood, trembling, her balled fist against her mouth,
she heard the unmistakable click of the lock.

“Why in the hell didn’t you tell me this
sooner?” Jared burst into the library in time to see Daniel throw
the last book from the shelves onto the floor.

“I thought it better you didn’t know.” Daniel
turned a calm face up to Jared’s fulminating gaze.

“
You
thought it better!” Jared took a
threatening step forward. “You know who killed my brother and you
thought it better I didn’t know.” His tone was incredulous. “I
should tear you limb from limb for this.”

“If you think that will do any good, go on.”
Daniel glanced around for something else to search. Seeing nothing,
he sank into the closest chair. “No one has ever doubted your
bravery... or your love for John. But there are times both border
on being foolish.”

“What in the hell does that have to do with
you keeping the identity of John’s killer from me?”

“Besides being brave, you’re impetuous and
headstrong.” Daniel held up his hand when Jared would have
interrupted. “And you have a temper that too often burns out of
control. Fine-enough attributes for a privateer... but not for a
spy.”

“Damn if I wish to be a spy.”

“Exactly.” Daniel leaned back in the chair.
“However, if I’d told you about Lady Sinclair’s connection with
your brother, you would have insisted upon storming in and—”

“And what? Ruined our chances of finding the
bitch’s identity? If you recall, that happened anyway.
You
sent me here anyway.”

The shoulders of Daniel’s ice-blue silk
waistcoat lifted with his shrug. “That couldn’t be helped. I needed
an envoy. And as you just pointed out, I didn’t really keep the
name of John’s killer from you. We don’t know who Lady Sinclair
is.”

Jared’s thoughts sprang to Merideth. He
couldn’t help himself. He’d asked her if she was the woman his
brother had loved, and she’d said no. At that moment he believed
her. But did her innocent eyes and fiery kisses sway his
judgment?

His mind’s eye conjured up a picture of her
as she was in Passy. Beautiful, refined, on the arm of a French
dandy. She looked as if she could be very much at ease with
intrigue.

“So you see, I decided not to tell you until
we found who killed him. Believe me, it was never my intent for the
guilty woman to go unpunished.”

His cousin’s words brought Jared back to the
present. He nodded and blew air out through his mouth. “I still
wish you would have told me. I’m not all brass and bluster. There
may have been something else I could have done.” His brow wrinkled.
“The man John was visiting in England... the scientist. Perhaps if
I—”

“I’ve already sent an agent to inquire...
discreetly, of course. He’s apolitical. Too interested in his
inventions to be bothered with anything else. He apparently didn’t
even realize John was missing until he wished to discuss an
invention with him. Besides”— Daniel gave the room one more cursory
glance before leading the way to the hall— “you can’t stay in
England. It will do your brother no good for you to hang.”

What Daniel said was true. But Jared couldn’t
simply leave now that he knew about John. “Don’t concern yourself.
I shall be careful, and when I discover who killed John I’ll—”

“No!” Daniel turned on his cousin. “You will
do nothing of the kind. I told you I’ve made inquiries. There’s
nothing else to be done here. The important thing now is for me to
return to America with word of Dr. Franklin’s progress in France.
And to take the guns and munitions to Charles Town.”

“I can’t just leave.”

“You must.” The flickering light from the
candle he held cast an eerie glow across Daniel’s angry features.
“This treaty with France is what John worked for. He’d want you to
finish what he began. And...” Daniel lifted a finger. As the lace
fell away from his delicate wrist, he pointed at Jared. “I assume
you’re taking Lady Merideth with us.”

“Aye.” Jared’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

The lift of Daniel’s shoulders was nearly
indiscernible. “Perhaps if you weren’t so... blinded by her beauty,
you wouldn’t need ask.”

With that, Daniel settled into a chair and
crossed his slender legs. The soft glow of polished silver twinkled
from the toes of his shoes.

Jared turned on his heel and headed for the
wide, curved stairway. He wanted to protest that his thinking was
perfectly clear when it came to Merideth Banistar, but, Lord help
him, he couldn’t. The sight of her, the smell, the taste had become
an obsession that he seemed unable to shake.

Did it
blind
him to reality? To the
fact that she might be a spy? Might be the infamous Lady Sinclair
herself? He wanted to believe her innocent. But as Jared took the
steps two at a time he knew he would have to find out the truth for
himself.

But how? Torture was out of the question. For
one thing, he didn’t think he could order it done, even suspecting
she might have killed his brother.

The method was obvious.

Seduction.

A campaign of gaining her trust. Of making
her believe he would do anything for her. That might lead him to
the truth. Lead him to his brother’s killer.

Seduction. The very thought made him hard as
he rounded the newel post at the top of the staircase. It scared
him how eager he was to put his plan into effect. Lure the moth to
the flame. But which of them was the moth?