Divine (35 page)

The great room

Duir Cottage

September 22, 2013

Birthday in minus 16 days plus two hundred years

S
unlight pricked Sebastian’s eyelids. For a moment, he floated in nothingness, disoriented, and then all the memories of the previous evening rushed back.

The sword fight, Shatner, ice cream.

Georgiana!

He had
finally
truly kissed Georgiana.

And, even more, she had kissed him back. Shyly admitted he turned her insides melty.

He nearly groaned from the sheer, dizzying happiness of it all.

It lapped through him. Relentless waves.

Kissing her had been . . . so . . . indescribably wonderful.

The taste of her, the feel of her in his arms. All impossibly right.

Grinning, he realized they were still on the couch, Georgiana’s warmth snuggled up against him.

He had a terrible crick in his neck and his arm ached, but the comfort of just holding her, of feeling her arms around him, trusting, loving . . .

Eyes still closed, he sighed and gathered her a little closer to him, bending down to kiss the top of her head, rubbing his hand on her hip—

“So help me, if your hand moves even an inch higher . . .”

A cool, aristocratic voice knifed through Sebastian’s consciousness.

With a gasp, Sebastian jerked fully awake. James Knight sat not three feet away in one of the wingback chairs, nursing a cup of coffee, legs crossed, foot bouncing.

Every inch the bristling nineteenth century gentleman, despite his jeans and t-shirt.

Ruthlessly surveying him, James took a leisurely sip of coffee. Slurping nice and loud.

Waiting for Sebastian to explain himself.

“Knight,” he gasped weakly.

Georgiana stirred against his chest, nuzzled into him and then became more awake. Locked her blue eyes with her brother.

And practically launched herself away from Sebastian. Ending up on the other edge of the couch, face cherry-red.

Now
she blushed.

“J—James,” she stammered. “You made it home.”

“Indeed.” His voice a masterpiece of irony. “As you see.”

James calmly regarded them both, taking another languid sip of coffee. Ensuring the noise was rattlingly loud.

Sebastian was quite sure there would come a time when they would all laugh about this.

Do you remember when James arrived home early and found Georgiana and me in the most compromising situation?

However, given the icy gleam in James’ eye, that moment was still several months away. Maybe a couple years.

Georgiana shot Sebastian a panic-stricken look.

James sipped his coffee. Loudly.

Silence.

“Again, Stratton, I would be interested to know your intentions toward my sister.” Only the tight bouncing of James’ legs betrayed his anger.

A chuckle came from the kitchen.

Sebastian whirled his head around to see Emme leaning against the island.

“James, give it a rest,” she grinned. “Georgiana is a grown woman. She’s twenty-four, for heaven’s sake. Stop being all nineteenth century, aristocratic weird about this—”

“She’s my baby sister, Emme.”

“You didn’t mind her hanging out with Shatner—”

“Shatner was just, well . . . Shatner. But
Stratton
knows better. He is supposedly a man of honor, and I trusted he would behave in a most gentlemanly-like manner—”

“Yes, and you have had little fondness for Shatner.”

“True, but—”

“You
like
Stratton, remember? He’s a good egg, as you keep saying—”

“Agreed, but that doesn’t give him the right to take liberties—”

“Liberties?” Georgiana found her voice. “Heavens, James, what kind of person do you think I am?”

Georgiana scooted closer to Sebastian, wrapping her hand into his, hair golden and mussed from sleep.

She was unbearably beautiful.

“Georgie, you are in no position to be—”

“Sebastian has been a perfect gentleman all week long—”

“
Gentlemen
do not curl up with well-bred young ladies who—”

Emme laughed.

All heads swiveled back to her.

“This is
not
humorous.” James glowered.

“Riiiiiight,” she drawled. “There is nothing funny about this
at
all.” She laughed again.

James glared mock-daggers at his wife.

“What do you want to do, James? Force them to marry? Make her leave us and return to the nineteenth century with him?”

Sebastian blinked, as if someone had flicked cold water on his face. Right. How could he have forgotten.
That
enormous problem still faced them, no matter how much he and Georgiana enjoyed each other’s kisses.

James stared at his wife for a second, scrubbed a hand through his hair. Let out a long breath.

Turned his eyes back to Sebastian and Georgiana.

“Well, what
are
you two going to do about this?”

Georgiana tossed her head.

“There is nothing to
do
, James. This is for Sebastian and me to sort out. So, let’s just leave it.”

James scowled. Emme chuckled.

Georgiana pulled her hand free of Sebastian’s and started combing fingers through her tousled hair. “In other news, Sebastian nearly took a sword to Shatner last night and, obviously given other developments,”—she gestured with her free hand to the space between she and Sebastian—“I finally officially broke up with him, so—”

“Thank heaven! What a relief,” James said with slight burst of air.

Georgiana raised her eyebrow, gathering her long hair and twisting it into a knot on top of her head. “I knew you didn’t particularly love Shatner, but I didn’t realize you were so opposed to—”

“Did you want me to fetch the file, James?” Emme interrupted.

“File?” Georgiana asked.

James nodded.

“Let’s just say that things with Shatner were not entirely on the up and up. He was involved in some fairly dodgy dealings.” James looked back and forth between Sebastian and Georgiana. “That doesn’t seem to have shocked you as much as it probably should have.”

“Gah! I forgot the best part!” Georgiana threw her hands in the air. “Shatner has the Zeus mark tattooed on his arm.”

James hissed in a breath, eyes instantly widening.

“Well, well, well,” he murmured. “
That
certainly makes everything more interesting.”

“Doesn’t it?” Georgiana bounced a little.

Ah, irrepressible Georgie. Nothing kept her down for long.

“What have you found?” Sebastian asked, grasping Georgiana’s hand again. Not wanting to let her go, not caring if James saw the affection between them.

“I knew you were looking into his finances, but didn’t realize you were doing such in-depth investigating.”

Georgiana ran her thumb over the back of Sebastian’s hand.

Over and over. Possessive.

It felt wonderful.

James shook his head. “I didn’t intend to go so deep either, but it was like a collapsing haystack. Every time I grasped a straw, five more would poke out.”

He stood and walked over to the large table, taking the folder of documents Emme handed him.

Curious, Sebastian and Georgiana followed, hand in hand. James spread papers out on the table, digging through them. He pulled out one, studied it, and then handed it to Georgiana.

“Basically, it turns out Shatner is involved in an organized crime ring.”

Sebastian let out a low whistle.

James turned to his sister. “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but dear Shatner never worked with orphanages or anything so noble. Most of his overseas trips involve drug trafficking or arms dealing. He is in deep with some extremely nasty people.”

Georgiana stared at the paper for a moment. Morning sun poured through the large bank of windows, flooding the room with light, turning her hair into a halo.

Sebastian studied her, but she didn’t show any signs of distress.

“But why chase me?” she asked.

“Well, I had tentatively committed to donate a rather large sum of money to his charitable organization . . .” James’ voice drifted off.

Georgiana blinked at her brother, eyes wide in surprise. Sebastian felt momentarily ill. Dearest Georgiana deserved so much more than—

She startled them all by laughing. “That does explain quite a bit.” She continued to smile, though a little wistful.

James cocked a questioning eyebrow at her.

“Heavens, James. You were always worried about nineteenth century fortune hunters but, as it turns out, such behavior isn’t as old-fashioned as one might think. Poor Shatner just wanted to marry me for the money after all.”

James sighed, nodding. “I am afraid that is too true.”

She shook her head, laughing again and then leaned into Sebastian’s arm. “At least I now understand how you have felt, Sebastian. All those women chasing you . . .”

He chuckled and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him. Sebastian had never considered himself to be anything less than a gentleman. But despite her brother’s presence, he wanted to hold Georgiana to him, breathe in roses and sunshine, bask in the wonder of her returned affection.

“All right, but Shatner had the Zeus symbol on his arm. Why that?” Georgiana asked, returning Sebastian’s embrace and snuggling into his side.

James pretended not to notice their casual embrace. “The Zeus symbol is a kind of calling card for the organization. As the king of the Greek gods, Zeus represents supreme power and rule. Something the group obviously aspires to. The symbol appears over and over on their documents. It seems to be a title that is passed along, like being the mob boss or godfather of the organization.”

James turned back to the kitchen table and dug through a few more items, the papers making a swishing sound.

“It is a puzzle . . .” He paused, examining one paper in particular. “Though, then again, maybe not. Look at this.”

He thrust the paper at Georgiana and Sebastian. The letterhead made so much immediately clear.

GLIB was stamped prominently atop it.

“The Gooseberry Brotherhood seems to have been the front for the group.”

“Heavens!” Georgiana gasped, turning to stare at Sebastian. “That is certainly . . . well . . .”

Sebastian nodded slowly. “That does explain quite a bit.”

“It was the Gooseberry Lovers International Brotherhood all along then?”

“That society started by Lord Tangert,” Sebastian murmured. “The fourth original member of the Royal Gooseberry show with the old Lord Stratton, Sir Henry and Blackwell. Though he was tossed out of the organization for being a cheat.”

“Was he?” James asked. “My people have found hundreds of pages of documents, some of which go back over two hundred years. Many bear the Zeus symbol. It seems as if there was a Lord Zeus at least by Lord Tangert’s time, if not even before.”

They all stood, staring at the pile of papers.

“I have a meeting tomorrow in London with investigators,” James said. “They will have warrants for the arrest of all the higher ups in the organization, including Shatner.”

Georgiana nodded. “That is good. And this does help us know where to look in the past too, I suppose.”

“Exactly,” Sebastian agreed. “Though if I remember correctly, Lord Tangert and his younger son were lost in the wilderness of Labrador several years ago . . . well, according to my reckoning of time, that is.”

James nodded, “True. And records going back that far have been vague and short on details. I still have no idea who is behind the threats in 1813.”

“Yes, but now we at least know where to start looking in the past. We start with GLIB,” Georgiana said.

“Who runs GLIB in 1813?” James asked.

“The current Lord Tangert, I believe,” Sebastian answered. “The oldest son of the Tangert who was lost in Labrador. I think I’ve met the man once or twice in London. Seems basically a decent sort—”

“Yes, but then so did Shatner,” Georgiana noted.

They all grumbled in agreement.

“Why does everything come back to gooseberries?” Sebastian asked.

“Wicked little fruit.” Georgiana gave a small laugh.

They all looked at each other for a moment.

“So now what?” James asked.

“We know where to look.” Sebastian shrugged. “Until the portal allows me to return, we hunt here for what information we can find. The Tangert family is a good place to start.”

Chapter 22

The back garden

Duir Cottage

September 23, 2013

Birthday in minus 15 days plus two hundred years

S
ebastian stood in the back garden of Duir Cottage. Alongside the rustling of the old oak tree, he could hear the far off rumble of the motorway, the hum of a car or two along the lane to Haldon Manor.

The sounds of twenty-first century life were ever present. But the sunlight was still the same. Early morning rays slanted across the garden, turning the trees beyond into a golden haze.

James and Emme had left early, heading to London to meet with investigators. Sebastian had come downstairs to see them off. He assumed Georgiana was yet abed.