For Love of the Earl (9 page)

"And now, French hands want you?"
 

Alec stared at her as the images that question suggested floated in his head.
 
Sarah blushed, and Alec thought he could probably savor her embarrassment, but for some reason, it tasted sour.
 
So he continued on in a rush to let her awkwardly worded question slip by unnoticed.
 

"Yes, but for what is the real question.
 
And why go through all this trouble to get me to Dover?"
 

"There can't be anything going on in Dover.
 
This place is filled with agents.
 
Your father said so."
 

"He did?" Alec asked.
 

Sarah nodded.
 
"The morning you left I went to his house to look for you.
 
At breakfast, he said nothing could be going on in Dover because there were so many agents here."
 

Alec felt a familiar dislike grip his stomach.
 
"I'm glad to hear that my sudden departure did not cause you such anxiety as to upset your appetite."
 

Sarah opened her mouth, but her eyes darted quickly to the side.
 
Alec felt the hairs on the back on of his neck rise.
 
Sarah was hiding something.
 

"My appetite is not the point, my lord," Sarah said to the wall behind him.
 
"Why is Dover important?
 
Why did they bring you here?"
 

The door swung open then, and Sven walked in carrying a basket covered in a dirt smudged cloth.
 
He flashed his gold teeth.
 

"To trade the earl, of course," Sven said, answering Sarah's question.

Alec had the sudden urge to say
I told you so
to Sarah, but he thought she would find such a gesture immature as well.
 
So he settled for crossing his arms over his chest in victory.
 

"You see, my lady, I'm being paid a handsome sum to bring his lordship to the docks tonight."
 
Sven set the basket on the one chair in the room that was nailed to the wall because it was missing a leg.
 
"Please enjoy your breakfast.
 
You will not be eating again for some time, I'm afraid."
 
He shrugged as if the gesture would make everything better.
 
"I just haven't the quid to waste on you lot."
 
He adjusted his overly large coat, adding another smudge of grease across its lapels if that was even possible.
 
He then ran his hands over his hair, smoothing it down from the receding hairline.
 

He smiled then, flashing his gold teeth once more.
 
"Cheers, mates," he said, and then he left.
 

"Who would pay money for you?" Sarah asked, her tone leaving no question as to what she thought of such an impossibility.
 

Alec felt his momentary victory crash into oblivion as the reminder of a much bigger defeat swamped him.
 

The door swung back open suddenly, and Sven poked his head inside.
 

"That would be the Comte de Montmartre.
 
He's going to keep you hostage, so more spies will come to rescue you.
 
And then he'll just keep adding to his collection until he breaks the English spy network or is given an obscene amount of money for your release.
 
It really is quite the scheme.
 
I wish I would have thought of it."
 
He made that shrugging gesture and slipped back through the door, closing it behind him.
 

"Well, I guess that explains everything," Alec muttered.
 

"Bloody hell," Sarah said.
 

CHAPTER FOUR

On a ship bound for France

April 1815

"So you don't really prefer brunettes?"
 

"Where the hell did you hear that?" Alec nearly squeaked.
 

He lay on the bunk, his hands crossed over his stomach, Sarah lying in the exact same position beside him.
 

Alec felt Sarah's shrug against his shoulder.

"It's a rumor that I heard."
 

"From where?"
 

"Everywhere, really.
 
I mean, it's common knowledge that the Earl of Stryden likes brunettes."
 

"I do not like brunettes.
 
Who started that rumor?"
 

"You did," Sarah mumbled.
 

"How?
 
When? What are you talking about?"
 

"Lady Cavanaugh.
 
Countess Delinger.
 
The Duchess of Creedin."
 

"All right, you can stop now.
 
And I may have shown some interest, but I did not demonstrate a preference."
 

"You had lengthy affairs with all three of them."
 

"I did not!" Alec really did squeak now, and he bit his tongue as punishment.
 
Earls did not squeak.
 

Sarah's head turned toward him, and her hair brushed the side of his face.
 

"You did, too.
 
You even got Lady Cavanaugh with child.
 
It's rather unfortunate that she miscarried.
 
I'm very sorry about that."
 

Alec sat up to lean over Sarah.
 

"I did what?"
 

"Lady Cavanaugh.
 
Your affair resulted in a child."
 

"It did, did it?
 
What else did I do?"
 

"You attempted to steal away the countess to Gretna Green for a quick marriage, but she objected on the grounds that she wanted her mother at the ceremony.
 
And the duchess, well," Sarah turned pink.

"What the hell did I do with the duchess?" Alec asked between clenched teeth.
 

"I think it would be easier to say what you didn't do with the duchess."
 

"What?"
 

"She likes to...speak on the subject of your..." Sarah's eyes moved over his shoulder, "sexual prowess."
 

"I never laid a finger on the Duchess of Creedin.
 
How can she speak of my-" his throat abruptly closed as Sarah's eyes made their way back to his.
 
He suddenly couldn't talk about his sexual prowess to a woman he had only recently thoroughly enjoyed for the first time.
 
"Speak of my...you know."
 

He lay back down, keeping his eyes on the ceiling above the bunk.
 

"You really never touched her?" Sarah asked softly.
 

Alec shook his head.
 
"No, I never touched her.
 
And I never tried to take Countess Delinger anywhere, let alone Gretna Green.
 
And Lady Cavanaugh was my...partner, I guess you would say, before the War Office had me marry you.
 
We never did anything that would cause her to become pregnant."
 

Sarah turned her head, making her hair crackle.
 

"You mean all of those stories were made up?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."
 

"And you don't prefer brunettes?"
 

"I prefer you, if that matters at all."
 

"Oh," Sarah said but didn't elaborate.

Alec felt his frustrations take on a whole new level, and he wasn't at all certain that that was a good thing.
 

"But what about...well...that one time...when..." Sarah said.
 

Alec turned his head to stare at her.
 
She was blinking profusely at the boards of the ceiling.
 

"What one time?" Alec asked very softly, suddenly aware that they were having a pivotal conversation, one that could result in Sarah taking a swing at him, one that could result in Sarah never believing him when he said he loved her.
 

One that would result in Sarah never laughing with him.

"It was a few months after we were married.
 
Lady Cavanaugh and you were...in the library."
 

"Whose library?"
 

As soon as the words had left his mouth he realized his mistake and could have gratefully bitten off his own tongue not to continue in this conversation.
 
But Sarah stared at him now, her eyes suspiciously moist.
 
Oh God, don't let her start crying.
 
He would be doomed if she started crying.
   

"There was more than one library?"
 

Alec turned onto his side, laying one arm across Sarah, not quite tucking her against him, but also not letting her move away from him.
 

"There were various libraries, but they were not in the way I think you mean."
 

"The one at the MacDonalds' country party in Stirling.
 
That library."
 

Alec felt the muscles along his spine quiver.

"Yes, that library.
 
Will you believe me if I tell you about that library?"
 

Sarah nodded, and her hair crackled some more.
 
Alec reached up and brushed it away from her face, carefully tucking it behind her ear.
 

"Okay, love.
 
I believe it was raining that night."
 

~

The MacDonalds' manor house just outside of Stirling, Scotland

A few months after they were married

Alec clapped his hand over her mouth as the thunder shook the house down to its foundations.
 
The jagged paths of lightning continued to flash as their brilliance etched patterns in his eyeballs.
 
The storm must be directly on top of them for the lightning to be followed so closely by the thunder.
 

Lady Cavanaugh shook in his arms.
 
Luckily his hand had been quick enough, and he had caught her scream before it had ricocheted down the hall to the salon where the other guests of the MacDonalds' country party were being force to endure a musicale by the tone deaf Beverly cousins.
         

He slowly moved his hand away from Lady Cavanaugh's mouth now and pushed her down the hallway toward what he hoped was the library.
 
He counted the doors and stopped so abruptly at the fifth one down that Lady Cavanaugh nearly fell over.
 

"Why must I do this?
 
Why couldn't you have asked your wife?" she whispered fiercely at him.
 

Alec tried the knob of the door and found it turned easily in his hand.
 
He would remember to thank his brother later for his excellent talent with locks.
 

"Because my wife hasn't the experience at this yet.
 
She's only been at it a few months."

A sharp gasp from somewhere behind them sounded like a firework going off in a church service.
 
Alec spun around, Lady Cavanaugh doing the same and almost sending both of them falling.
 

A young woman in a pale pink gown stood a few feet away from them, lightning playing across her horror stricken features.
 
Her little pink mouth formed an "O" of surprise, and the sausage curls framing her delicate, child-like face trembled.
 

Alec still had his hands on Lady Cavanaugh's shoulders, so he pulled her against him and ground his mouth down on hers.
 
Her lips tasted like sawdust, and he suddenly very much wanted to see Sarah.
 
So he ended the kiss more forcefully than he intended, but he doubted their youthful watcher would notice the awkwardness.
 

"Perhaps, you can be next, my lady," Alec grinned and winked at the girl while giving a most gracious bow in her direction.
 

The young woman grabbed her chest and leaned heavily against the wall seeming to have lost all support in her legs.
 

Alec pulled Lady Cavanaugh into the library, just barely keeping himself from slamming the door on their innocent intruder.
 
He leaned back against the hard wooden panels instead of bashing his fists into them.
 
Tales of his haltingly dreadful kiss in the hallway were going to be created, edited, modified, exaggerated and twisted so that by the time they reached Sarah they were going to have Lady Cavanaugh half naked in the hallway with his trousers undone and nearly to his knees.
 
Hell, he may even have the lady up against the wall ready to-

Alec propelled himself away from the door, no longer interested in wallowing in the self-pity created from all of the horrible stories he knew his wife was bound to hear.
 

"That was really rather clever of you, Alec, but your wife-"
 

"I know," he cut her off.

"She's very new at this," Lady Cavanaugh persisted, "And she may not be as adept at keeping up appearances if she is suddenly confronted with rumors of this incident."
 

Alec paused to look at her.
 
He had not been thinking of it along those lines.
 
He had only worried that Sarah may think he did not, in fact, love the woman he was married to.

"I will be sure to educate her on the matter," he said, forcing the thought of embracing another woman and having to explain such a thing to his wife.
   

Alec moved toward the large windows behind the only desk in the oddly small library.
 
Alec had expected the library to be larger in a house such as this.
 
A manor house should have an extensive library, he thought, but since Alec really never spent time in any library, including his own, he really didn't know if his thoughts were accurate at all.