The Prince of Ravenscar (37 page)

Leah slapped him again. “Are you telling me the truth? Was it really the prince who hired you?”

“Oh, aye, missis, 'tis the truth, I swears it on me ma's grave.”

Roxanne looked from Manners to Leah. She began to laugh. “You were pleasant for perhaps twenty minutes, Leah. I believe that might be a record. It was difficult for you, wasn't it? Have you got what you wanted? Manners is blaming the prince? For kidnapping me, his one true love? Such a puzzle that is, don't you think? Will you leave us alone now? Will you leave Ravenscar, filled with news for Richard?”

Leah turned on her. “How dare you say—”

Still laughing, Roxanne turned on her heel and the room, sending Tom back to protect Manners from Leah. It was certain Leah did not believe Richard had hired Manners to kidnap her, else she wouldn't have slapped him. So who had? At the moment, it didn't matter.

Roxanne was hiccupping when Devlin caught her at the top of the stairs.

He took both arms in his hands, shook her slightly. “What is this? Pouffer told me you went off with Leah. What happened? Why are you laughing like this, like you feel so much pain you can't help but laugh because there's nothing to be done?”

She said on a sigh, “It is Leah. She believes the prince is enamored of me, and yet Manners claims the prince had me kidnapped. It is all so ridiculous, you know.” She swallowed another laugh, looked him right in his dark eyes. He knew her well, and in such a short time, and he accepted her, loved her. Roxanne took his face between her hands and kissed him hard.

Devlin said, “Open your mouth, sweetheart.”

She opened her mouth and poured herself into a kiss that nearly made her teeter herself off her heeled slippers with delight.

“That's better,” he said into her mouth, his hands stroking up and down her back, then bringing her closer.

He pressed his forehead against hers. At the sound of Leah's voice, he said, “Do you think that voice comes from a stray nightmare?”

“I now understand why the prince hired Manners to kidnap you, Roxanne. You have played him false with his nephew. His
nephew
! The prince is proud, I have been told, and he is well used to violence, all know it. Did he not kill his first wife because she betrayed him?”

Roxanne smiled at him.

“I counsel you to take care, Roxanne. It appears the prince doesn't wish to have you around, either. Who knows what he'll do to rid himself of you.”

She waved at Devlin. “I think I would prefer to have this one, since he's the heir to a dukedom, not a miserable merchant.”

“You'd best take care, Roxanne. After he tosses up your skirts, he'll leave you. He keeps a score of mistresses, all know it. You have no morals at all. I am ashamed to be your sister.”

Before Roxanne could leap on her, Leah brushed past her and went down the stairs, never looking back.

“Am I deceived in you, Roxanne? Are you a lady of low moral disposition?”

His voice, his words, calmed her instantly. She smiled at him. “Well, how can I be certain when I have never before had to examine my moral disposition?”

He kissed her again. “Perhaps you are skilled at deception? Is your sister right? Have you decided to leave Julian and come to me? Ah, imagine his rage.” He kissed her again, then once more.

“I fear,” Roxanne managed, when he raised his head for a moment, “that my sister is again herself. What's sad is that it is not a surprise.”

“No, her display of finer feelings did not last very long. A pity, but in the long scheme of things, who cares? I daresay we shall never have to see her again. Do you mind if she is not invited to our wedding?” Devlin kissed Roxanne again, picked her up, and carried her down the corridor to his bedchamber.

He stopped cold, cursed. “There are servants everywhere, probably behind every door and around every corner. No, I'm not jesting. Haven't you noticed that Julian has more servants than he knows what to do with? You want to know why? I'll tell you. If anyone is in trouble, if anyone can't find a way to feed himself, or his family, Julian hires him, and when he is not here, Pouffer is to hire those in dire straits.” Devlin touched his forehead to hers. “Do you think her grace is behind that door to my right? Is she tapping her foot, wondering if I am a dishonorable sot because we are not yet married and I want to strip you naked and kiss every white inch of you?”

He cursed. “I suppose Julian is right. We must wait, that is, if you agree to wed me. Get me out of my misery, Roxanne, agree to marry me, or shoot me. Before you answer, allow me to tell you the reason I want you around me is that I love you to the breadth and length of me. You fill me with joy, Roxanne. My life is yours, and my happiness. Ah, the children we will have. Say you will be my wife, my countess.”

S
ophie was sitting on the carpet in Julian's estate room, laughing as she lightly rubbed Oliver's soft ears. She looked up at Roxanne, who was pacing. “Married to Devlin—this is wonderful. I am so pleased for you. Who would have guessed, since you've been a self-proclaimed spinster whose only goal was to see me well placed, so filled with common sense I feared you would collapse under the weight of it. But no longer.”

Roxanne said, “No more mistresses for him. He fancies we can all be friends. That is something I must consider carefully, and probably with a great deal of humor. Yes, he's all mine.” She paused, frowned, and sank down on the carpet beside Sophie and began to lightly pat Beatrice's belly. “I suppose we will take one of her pups, too. No, don't growl at me, Cletus, I'm not hurting your one and only love. Oliver, why are you growling? Are you jealous?”

Sophie smiled. “Julian is convinced Cletus is the father, but I wonder. Oliver has been prancing about lately, looking quite proud of himself. Both he and Cletus are very possessive. Would you look at Hortense, all by herself in the corner.” Sophie rose to fetch Hortense and held her on her lap.

Roxanne said, “Devlin told me the plans for our smuggling adventure. He believes I will quite enjoy myself. He insists we both cover ourselves with black and wear masks.”

“I only wish Julian would stop worrying that something will go wrong. Nothing can go wrong, I have told him over and over. I mean, the dastardly Richard knows nothing about it, nor does anyone else, save the four of us.” She frowned. “Still, everyone hears everything in the palace.”

Roxanne said, “There won't be a moon, so that is good. You're right, what could possibly go wrong?”

T
here was a storm coming, Julian could taste it, but he wasn't going to call off this last smuggling run. A storm kept curious men in their homes, huddled near a fire. It was past midnight, the wind was high, black clouds scuttled across a black sky, obscuring the stars. Sophie strode like a boy at his side, wearing a black cloak over a dark gown with no petticoats beneath. She was not, however, wearing a mask.

Julian, too, was wearing a thick black cloak. He took her hand, guiding her toward the cave.

“Don't worry about Roxanne, Devlin will take care of her. They will meet the boat on the beach and direct my men onto the river route to the cave. You and I will wait here for them and direct the unloading.”

He looked at her shadowed face. “You are grinning, I know it, Sophie. If there were any moon at all, I would see your face glowing with excitement.”

“Do you know me so well, Julian?”

“Well enough. You have been my constant companion for—how long is it now, Sophie?”

“All my life?”

“I could have fathered you.”

“You were that precocious?”

“Perhaps not quite, but still—”

She dropped his hand and stopped. When he turned to her, Sophie sent her fist into his belly. He whooshed out a breath, grabbed for her, but she danced out of his reach.

“No, don't you touch me, you baboon. If you ever again mention the years between us—the
great
number of years that separate us—I will hurt you so badly you will be on your knees, moaning. Do you understand me?”

He stared at her, and Sophie knew he was staring, even though she could barely see the outline of his face.

“Did you really tell Devlin you wouldn't bed a woman until you were married to her?”

If he was surprised she knew this, he didn't let on. He supposed he was getting quite used to there being no secrets between Roxanne and Sophie, as there were no secrets between him and Devlin. “Yes, I said that.”

“Why?”

“Because a lady, a virgin lady, deserves more than a clandestine mauling.”

“Well, that is something. On the other hand, you wouldn't conduct this mauling in public.”

“Don't you make sport of me, Sophie Wilkie, you know very well what I mean.”

“Why do you call it mauling? When you kiss me, I never think of mauling.”

“Very well, an unwed lady doesn't wish to have her purity in question before she is wed.”

“Purity,” she said slowly, savoring the word. “Is that why a lady shouldn't seduce a gentleman before marriage? She doesn't wish to soil his purity?”

He had the insane desire to laugh, to kiss her silly, and perhaps teach her a little bit about lovemaking, but the wind was whipping about outside, it was cold, and his men would be coming soon with the smuggled goods.

“Come,” he said.

She began walking toward the cave, aware he was right behind her. She could hear his steady, calm breathing. She intended to seduce him tonight, in the cave, not that she knew the first thing about seducing a man, but she was her mother's daughter, with her rich and devious imagination. Yes, she would spread her black cloak on the sandy ground. Once all the goods had been stored, all his men had rowed back down the river to the channel and back to the ship, Devlin and Roxanne were safely away back to Ravenscar, she would jump on him, and—
hmmm.
She was so excited she wanted to shout with it.

They heard the loud report of a gun and froze. Julian cursed, shoved her down, whispered against her mouth even as he held her down, “Don't move.”

He left her on her knees, her head down, her black cloak wrapped around her, her heart pounding hard, suddenly scared to her toes. The adventure had turned into something else.

Julian made his way, silent as a shadow, weaving in and out of the thick maple and oak trees, to the river's edge. They were only twenty yards from the mouth of the cave. He stood in the shadows, staring downriver.

Another shot, then half a dozen more. He heard a man shout something, then another several shots.

How had anyone found out about this?

He saw her running lightly toward him, a black shadow weaving in and out of all the other shadows. She was at his side in the next second, breathing hard. He leaned close. “We're going back to the cave. You will stay in there, safe, and I'll try to find out what's happening.”

He led her to the entrance, pulled aside the branches. “Get inside. Don't make any noise, all right? I'll come to you as soon as I can. You know where the lantern is. If you light it, make certain you keep it partially covered. Everything will be all right.”

“Of course it will be all right, because you will make sure that it is,” she said, and the certainty in her voice made something deep inside him expand with pleasure. He touched his fingers to her face, then he was gone.

Sophie heard him piling more branches to cover the cave opening. She quickly lit the lantern and placed it beneath a narrow ledge to hide most of the light.

She straightened, looked around, crept to the entrance of the cave, and listened. She heard more shots. Was that a man yelling? Had someone been hit? One of his men? Julian?

Her blood ran cold. She desperately wanted to run out of the bloody cave and see what was happening, but she wasn't an idiot. If she left the cave, she might cause more danger for Julian or Roxanne and Devlin.

She waited, the hardest thing she'd ever had to do in her life. Time passed, but how much, she didn't know.

It had to be excisemen, and they'd been told about tonight's smuggling run. But who had informed on them? Had Leah somehow overheard them? She didn't think so. But who?

She thought of Roxanne and Devlin down at the beach. She closed her eyes and prayed with all her might, promising God more good works than a single person could accomplish in a lifetime.

Her heart jumped into her throat when she heard a man's voice outside. It was Julian, whispering for her not to worry. When he came into the cave, she ran to him, stroked her hands down his arms, his chest. She dropped to her knees, her hands on his legs. He grabbed her hands, hauled her back to her feet. “Sophie, I'm all right. Now, listen to me.”