To Tame a Highland Earl (25 page)

“
First the revolver, if you
don’t mind.”

He reached with his free hand and disengaged
the weapon from her fingers, then extended the weapon, butt first,
to Lord Somerset, who took it. Lord Rushton released her wrist,
then stepped back and pulled the corner of her towel from her
grasp.

“
My lord!” Eve grabbed for
the fabric, but he cinched the towel more tightly around her with a
hard tug, then stuffed the corner piece between the towel and her
ribs.

Eve shoved him. For an instant, he stood
immovable as stone, then stepped back.

“
What is going on?” she
demanded.

“
Forgive me,” he said.
“Ladies, may I present Ash MacLean. My brother.”

*****

Miss Crenshaw’s brows furrowed in confusion
and Erroll felt as if he’d been hit with a fist in the belly when
she said, “Your brother? But I thought—” She broke off.

“
You thought my brother
perished at war?” he replied smoothly. “That would be my younger
brother, Val. This is my elder brother, Ash.”

“
Elder brother?” Her mouth
parted in surprise and, if Erroll wasn’t mistaken, understanding
flickered across her face. So she was aware that Ash was his
bastard brother.

“
Of course,” she quickly
said.

A long pause drew out.

Ash broke the silence. “May I have my
revolver?” He extended his hand toward Somerset.

Erroll startled. “
Your
revolver?” He
nodded for the viscount to return Ash’s gun, then said to Miss Eve
Crenshaw. “Madam, you are a wonder. I will want to hear the story
of how you managed to disarm my brother and turn his gun on
him.”

“
Just as I will want to
hear how she shot you,” Ash said.

“
If I were you, Ash, I
would be more concerned about the brute in the hallway. If you hurt
him, she will put a bullet through you one way or
another.”

“
Oscar!” Miss Crenshaw
whirled toward the door.

Erroll caught her arm. “You will not venture
from this room nearly naked.”

“
I must see to
him.”

“
Be quick with your answer,
Ash,” Erroll ordered.

“
I only conked him over the
head.”

“
That is only fair,” Erroll
told her. “After all, Oscar did the same to me.”

“
There is no comparison.”
She blew out an angry breath. “I should have shot you.”

“
You did.”

She gave him a withering look. “Yet here is
your brother, committing the same crime.”

“
Not quite the same crime,”
Erroll replied.

Her cheeks reddened. “What is happening?”

“
We were mistaken for a
press gang.”

Eve Crenshaw barked laughter, then clapped a
hand over her mouth.

“
Is something funny?” he
asked.

She shook her head, her eyes wide over the
hand that still covered her mouth.

Erroll suddenly realized why she was
laughing. “There seems to be a great deal of kidnapping going on
these days, wouldn’t you agree, Miss Crenshaw?”

Her eyes flicked to his brother, then came
back onto him, narrowed in warning.

“
Mistook us for a press
gang?” Miss Grace Crenshaw cut in on the byplay. “That is
ridiculous.”

“
Bad luck is what it is,”
Erroll looked at Ash. “The slavers dropped anchor in the cove to
the south. I’m certain they got away.”

“
Damn bastards.” Ash shot
him a dark look. “What are you doing here?”

“
Bad timing. Your sheriff
made sure I knew that. He has a perverse sense of humor, by the
way. He didn’t tell me you were leading this expedition. But come
along. We’ll leave the ladies to dress. Somerset, would you see
them to their cabin when they are respectable?”

“
What would you know of
being respectable?” Eve Crenshaw snapped.

“
Enough to know this does
not qualify.”

“
I want to know everything
that has happened,” she said. “I’ll come up on deck once I am
dressed.”

“
I have had enough
excitement for one evening,” Erroll said. “You ladies will return
to your cabin. We will attend to Oscar and send him along
presently.”

She drew in a sharp breath and he knew she’d
forgotten Oscar. Erroll gave her no chance to further lecture him,
but quit the room with the other men.

After Erroll briefed Ash on the evening’s
events, he finished off the last of the whisky sitting before him
on the table in the galley, and ended with, “The fourth sailor ran
into the trees. If you can locate him before he finds a way off the
island you might learn where Johnson is headed.”

“
One of the sailors is
still here?” Ash demanded. “Damn it, why didn’t you tell me that
earlier?”

Erroll refilled his and Ash’s glass with more
whiskey. “I told your sheriff. He began a search before we returned
to the collier.”

Ash relaxed. “Laine knows what he’s doing. If
the man is still here, he’ll find him.”

“
Why didn’t you have a ship
ready to deal with Captain Johnson?” Erroll asked.

“
I have been on his trail
only two months,” Ash replied. “And received word a week ago that
he had might have returned to Scotland.”

“
You have no idea where he
is headed?”

Ash shook his head. “Could be Ireland, or the
Colonies, even Australia. Laine will search to the south to see if
he stops along the coast.”

“
I cannot send the collier.
They aren’t armed for battle. What of Ramsey? He has that brig he
uses to transport wool. He would love a reason to use those
howitzers.”

“
I don’t want to engage the
pirates on open water.”

Erroll nodded. “But if you can follow him,
you might be able to waylay him once he reaches his
destination.”

“
Hire Ramsey’s ship to
cross the Atlantic? That’ll cost a pretty penny.”

Erroll flashed a smile. “The marquess is a
generous man. He will not want to lose any of our lads.”

“
We saved our lads,” Ash
pointed out.

“
True, but imagine how
heroic we will appear if we save the others as well. How did you
discover Johnson was kidnapping men?”

“
The last six months, over
three hundred men and boys have disappeared between here and Fort
William. It was but a month ago when the sheriff in Fort William
reported that he’d seen the same brigantine three months
past.

“
Just enough time to make
the journey to America and back,” Erroll said.

Ash nodded. “I went to Fort William and spoke
with the harbormaster. We discovered that Johnson had docked the
brigantine there two months ago under the name of Bradley. The
harbormaster distinctly remembered him because his first mate was
the size of two men. On a hunch, I went to Oban. From there I
traveled inland through some of the smaller villages and discovered
a dozen young men had disappeared in the last year. I felt certain
Johnson was our slaver.”

“
He could have made three
runs along the coast in that time,” Erroll said.

“
Five, by my
calculations.”

“
Five? How is that
possible? That would have taken nearly a year. We would have
noticed men missing over that time.”

“
We?” Ash’s brows rose.
“This is the first I have seen of you since you joined the navy
five years ago.”

It was closer to six, if he was honest.
“Neither you or Laine would have been ignorant to a year of
kidnappings,” Erroll said. “Not to mention our father.”

“
We weren’t. This is only
the second run Johnson’s made on Mull. The first was four months
ago. I wrote letters to the Colonies and Australia, but have heard
nothing as of yet.”

“
Seems our pirate is more
expedient than the authorities,” Erroll said.

“
Private enterprise is
always better funded than government.”

“
Is there is a chance Laine
will be able to discover where the slaver took the lads?” Erroll
asked.

“
I plan to find them, even
if that means a transatlantic journey.”

“
It is a shame my father
did not marry your mother,” Erroll said. “You would make a far
better marquess than I.”

Ash grimaced. “I have no desire to hob nob
with English aristocracy.”

“
Ahh, yes.” Erroll nodded.
“There is that.”

Ash shrugged. “A man cannot deny what is in
the blood.”

“
Sassenach blood, eh,
Brother?”

“
Your mother is a good
woman.”

Erroll laughed. “You know perfectly well our
father would beat you senseless if you intimated otherwise.”

“
He treated my mother with
the same respect,” Ash said, to Erroll’s surprise. “But the
marquess always does his duty.”

Erroll shuddered. “I hate that four letter
word.”

“
Every man has duty,” Ash
said.

“
I never cease to be amazed
at how sanguine you are on the subject. Duty forced our father to
marry a woman other than your mother. If not for that, you would be
his heir.”

Ash grinned. “His duty saved me from a
life—well, your life—and I am not sorry for that.”

“
No?” Erroll laughed.
“Despite the fact we got a sister in the bargain who hates us
almost as much as she hates our father?”

Ash grinned. “She hates me far worse than
you.”

Erroll thought for moment. “It is only fair
that you get something from this family in a larger portion than
I.”

“
I have a fair enough
portion.”

“
Certainly the better lot
than I,” Erroll grimaced. “You have enough money to do as you
please and not enough duty to interfere with your
pleasure.”

“
You romanticize the
situation,” Ash replied. “My duty is no less trying than yours. The
difference is, I am not obligated to the King of
England.”

“
King George would beg to
differ.”

Ash’s grin widened. “Let him come here and
try to force the issue.”

Erroll gave him a recriminating look. “That
would mean I would have to work all the harder.”

“
Duty.”

“
You will send me to an
early grave.”

“
You always tended toward
the dramatic,” Ash said.

Erroll eyed him. “You are the third person in
a week to tell me that. I might have to give the matter some
thought.”

“
Don’t tax yourself. You
know how out of sorts you get when you think too hard.”

“
You could not be more
right, and I believe I have reached my limit for one day.” Erroll
saluted him with his cup and drank down his whiskey in one big
gulp. “As you clearly have things well in hand, I will leave you to
deal with the slavers.”

“
Spoken like a true
marquess in the making.”

Erroll couldn’t fault his brother for the
jab. The truth was the truth. “How is our sister, Olivia, by the
way?”

A cloud passed over Ash’s eyes. “She is well,
but she worries night and day about Grant.”

“
The seas are quiet these
days and he is far from any potential trouble in the
Colonies.”

“
The Colonies? I last heard
talk of his ship headed to Constantinople.”

Erroll nodded. “I believe I heard that as
well. But Grant was reassigned to the Sea Dragon with some diplomat
who was sent to America to encourage Jefferson to stay home.”

“
America, eh?” Ash studied
him. “How interesting that Grant was reassigned to a ship that
wasn’t likely to see battle anytime soon. It would seem your
connections in the military are far reaching.”

Erroll snorted. “As much as I would like to
take credit for being in the Royal Navy’s good graces, I
cannot.”

Ash’s brows furrowed, then light dawned in
his eyes. “You don’t mean Val?”

Erroll nodded. “Yes.”

“
But he has been dead for
over a year. When was Grant reassigned?”

“
A month ago, I would
say.”

“
How?”

“
Val called in a very large
favor just before Trafalgar.” Erroll smiled with the memory. “I do
not enjoy the popularity my brother did, so it took more than
asking nicely to ensure Val’s last request was honored.”

“
Last request?” Ash’s blue
eyes bore into him. “It isn’t your fault he died. Val was
determined to become an Admiral without help from the
family.”

“
Then we can blame
ambition; his and Bonaparte’s.”

Ash gave a slow nod. “You tried to have him
reassigned along with Grant.”

“
As I said, I do not enjoy
the same popularity he did.”

“
I suspect the truth is
more along the order of him telling you to mind your own damn
business.”

“
He accused me of trying to
control his life; actually compared me to our father.” Erroll
grimaced. “Can you imagine?”

Ash laughed. “I can. I will be sure to tell
Olivia that Grant was more obedient and did as his elders directed.
Mayhap she will get a little more sleep. Shall I give her your
regards?”

“
Of course.”

“
Will she see you before
you leave Mull? You know she will never forgive you if you do not
visit.”