“Fine, we shall shun the lot.” He swept his hand in the air. “Bugger them all. You never have to host or attend a single event. We shall retire to the country, change our names and the color of our hair, don masquerade masks when we go out—”
She jabbed his side with her pointed elbow. “Will you stop blathering and listen to reason, please?”
“Must I?” Had she eaten berries this morning, or were her lips rosy from the cold? He’d like to taste them to find out.
“Lucan!” Frustration radiated from her.
He exhaled and forced his attention away from the bewitching mole taunting him. “Say your piece, my lady.”
“You must maintain a presence in the House of Lords in order to help those less fortunate than you. You said so yourself. Those born into privilege have a responsibility to help others.”
He lifted her hand and touched it to his mouth. Pressing his lips to her knuckles for an extended moment, he breathed in her refreshing, heather scent. “I know you will lose your inheritance if you don’t marry a Scot, but have you forgotten, my little gypsy, I have Scots blood?”
Alexa whipped her head up, cracking his chin soundly. “How did you learn about that?”
“Ouch.” He grabbed his jaw. “Your uncle told me.”
“Yes, I had forgotten.” Gaze contemplative, Alexa nibbled her lower lip and rubbed the top of her head.
He almost heard the cogs in her brain clacking and grinding as they revolved round and round.
“Mr. Ponsby didn’t say how much Scottish blood my husband needed, only that he has to be Scots.” She squinted at him intently.
Ought to have donned a kilt and tam o’shanter.
Bare arsed in this weather? His ballocks shriveled to prune-sized, like the fruit he’d eaten for breakfast, didn’t appeal.
Alexa poked his arm. “You can prove your lineage?”
Was she considering accepting? Lucan pretended to be put upon. “I suppose, if I must. I can dig through the family archives and find the connection.”
Pages and pages of musty documents. It might take days.
Weeks.
He snapped his fingers. “Or better yet, we shall call on Grandaunt Kathryn. She’ll know. That woman doesn’t forget a thing.”
Alexa clasped his hand tighter. “You must think me horridly mercenary for caring about the inheritance. I don’t want the money for myself, but for the black tinkers and other impoverished Scots.”
“I think no such thing. The law affords women little power or independence, and as my wife, you’d be stepping into a foreign realm. Having your own funds surely must bring you a degree of security and peace.” He brushed her jawline with a bent finger. “Rest assured, I would see you provided your own monies to do with what you will.”
Slumping against the squabs, she shut her eyes, her thick midnight lashes fanning her ivory cheeks. “I’m afraid I’d disappoint you, that in time you’d come to begrudge me. Regret marrying me.”
She spoke softly, and he strained to hear her above the horses’ clopping hooves, the creaking carriage, and the wheels clattering upon the cobblestones.
“Never.” In one deft movement, he lifted her onto his lap.
A tiny squeal escaped Alexa as her eyelids sprang open, and she clutched his shoulders. She twisted to look beyond either window. “Put me down. Someone will see.”
He waggled his eyebrows and gave her a wolfish grin. “Would that make you marry me?”
“No, you dolt.” Her upturned lips belied her name-calling.
Holding her securely around the waist, Lucan hastily lowered both window coverings. “There, now no one can see a thing.”
“And when we emerge with the windows covered?” She gestured at the shades. “No one will speculate as to what transpired inside the carriage? Rumors will abound that we coupled like springtime rabbits throughout Berkley Square.”
He mentally measured the seat. After they married, he might try to persuade her to do exactly that. He might even wear a kilt for the occasion. An avalanche of lust ripped through him. Thank God, Alexa’s thick redingote and his weighty greatcoat hid his giddy member’s reaction.
“Well, I hope by then we shall be betrothed.” He shifted her to reach inside his coat. He withdrew the jewelry box.
Her delicate brows rose as she eyed the petite cube dubiously before lifting her wary gaze. “What have you done?”
Not exactly ecstatic.
“Open it.” He set the violet velvet box atop her lap then set about removing her left glove. “I had it designed for you.”
Alexa tilted the lid and gasped. “A thistle ring? Is this an amethyst?” Emotion clogged her voice. “It’s my favorite stone. How did you know?”
Lucan nodded as he plucked the ring from its nest. “It’s the same shade as your eyes, and it’s set in gold, because you have gold flecks around your irises.”
“I . . . I don’t know what to say, Lucan.”
“Say, yes. You’ll marry me, and together, we shall help the travellers, cock a snook at the upper ten thousand, and live happily ever after like sweethearts in a fairytale.” He slipped the band onto her finger. “I love you, Alexa.”
A tear trickled from one eye as she gazed at him in wide-eyed wonder. “You do?”
He wrapped her in his embrace. “Yes, I do, and I shall do whatever it takes to make you love me too.”
Giving him a tremulous smile, she laid her palm against his cheek. “I already do, foolish man. Why do you think I refused to bring dishonor to your title?” Alexa raised herself up and brushed her lips against his. “I know I’m going to regret this someday.”
“No. You won’t.” Lucan nuzzled her ear, and her breath rushed from her on a sigh.
“It makes absolutely no sense.” She nipped his lower lip before her tongue flicked the edge of his mouth.
Where had she learned that trick?
His manhood surged.
“It makes perfect sense, Kitten.” He skimmed his palm the length of her narrow ribs until he met the fullness of her breast. The plump mound nestled perfectly in his cupped hand. Another errant tremor pulsed in his groin.
“We don’t suit.” She twined her arms around his neck, her breathing soft, wispy pants.
“We suit perfectly.” Lucan grazed her mouth, returning again and again for little tastes of their sweetness and to tease the mole gracing her lower lip, which had driven him mad for weeks.
“See, we cannot even agree in this.”
He rubbed his thumb across her breast’s tip, and she arched into his hand, another sultry moan escaping her.
“Oh, but we do agree in this.” He captured her mouth in a searing kiss, born of weeks of restraint, unprofessed love, and adoration.
No reticent miss, Alexa met his onslaught, their tongues tangling and dueling, raising his passion to a dangerous degree outside the privacy of a bedchamber.
Caught in sensation, it took Lucan a moment to realize the carriage had shuddered to a stop and rocked as the driver and footman alighted.
“We’ve arrived.” He shifted Alexa onto the seat beside him.
Cheeks flushed and lips glowing, she hastily straightened her skirts as he put a respectable distance between them.
“Arrived? Where?”
The door swung open, and she eased forward to peer outside.
“My house. Remember, I have a surprise for you.”
“What kind of surprise?” She peeked at him as she accepted Jules’s hand and exited the carriage.
“Thister!”
Chapter 26
Alexa whipped around, tramping Jules’s toes in her haste and almost falling.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped, trying to regain her balance and stamping his foot once m
ore.
A strong hand at her elbow steadied her. “Careful, there.”
Humor feathered the edges of Lucan’s mouth and eyes.
Laughing, their sweet faces scrunched with glee, György and Lala bolted down the steps.
In the doorway beside a beaming butler, Father and Edeena stood smiling.
Not caring she would soil her coat, Alexa knelt and opened her arms. Her brother and sister crashed into her, nearly tumbling them to the ground.
Again, Lucan’s strong arm kept her upright.
He’d arranged this, though how he convinced her father to leave Scotland for London would make for interesting telling.
Tears clouding her eyes, she smiled her gratitude. “How? When?”
György pointed at Lucan. “His grace let us ride in his carriage all the way from Scotland.”
Lucan extended his hand. “Here, let me help you. We shall go inside, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Several curious spectators paused to gawp. Best to continue the reunion indoors.
She accepted his help then lifted Lala onto her hip. “Yes, let’s do. I have so many questions.”
“I lost a tooth. Now I be talkin’ like Lala.” György grinned and exposed the gap in his upper teeth as they climbed the risers.
She wrapped her other arm around his shoulder. “I’ve missed you. How have you been?”
He scampered the last two steps and opened his arms wide. “We be sailin’ on a big ship to America.”
“America? Why?” She met her father’s understanding gaze. So far away. She mightn’t ever see them again. “You love Scotland.”
Alexa tossed Lucan a bewildered look. What did he know of this nonsense?
“We shall discuss it once we’re settled in the salon.” His lips bent into a smile, and he clasped György’s hand. “Do you like hot chocolate and biscuits? I bet I can get Cook to find some.”
György nodded enthusiastically.
A few minutes later, after Alexa hugged her parents and brother and sister again, Jules led the children to the kitchen for the promised hot chocolate, and Houston delivered a generously laden tray to the salon.
The butler removed her redingote while she curiously peered around the functional, though inarguably, austere-in-its-maleness, room. The plain, heavy furniture reflected Lucan’s stark taste.
Beeswax, linseed oil, and the aroma of burning wood lent a hospitable ambiance to the chamber. A family portrait provided a hint of color amongst the neutral browns and grays. From the bright canvas, Lucan peered at her, a glint of mischievousness in the depths of his youthful, pewter gaze.
He didn’t seem to prefer bright hues or embellishment as she did. Another incongruity between them?
“Would you please, Alexa?” Indicating the service, Lucan then prodded the fire with a poker, encouraging the flames higher.
“Of course.” She poured coffee into the four eggshell thin teacups. A smile quirking her lips, she raised the pot. “Most un-English-like.”
Everyone chuckled, and the tension eased a trifle from Father’s and Edeena’s features. Although, Edeena still gingerly cradled her cup and saucer as if afraid the china would shatter merely from being touched.
Offering her father a plate of assorted biscuits, Alexa’s nerves unexpectedly overcame her. As much as she wanted to know the truth of how she came to be with the Highland travellers, part of her longed for the blissful ignorance that had protected her these many years.
“Mr. Faas—”
“Please, Yer Grace, call me Balcomb.”
Lucan inclined his head a degree. “Balcomb, the tickets are in my study. The Morning Star—” He twisted to address Alexa. “She’s part of Stapleton’s Shipping and Supplies fleet which Lady Sethwick owns. Of course, you remember her from your stay at Craiglocky Keep.”
“Yes.” Alexa managed a partial nod.
Lucan had purchased the tickets? Why?
“As I was saying,” Lucan brushed a shortbread crumb from his leg, “The Morning Star sails with the tide two nights hence.”
She sucked in a startled breath and, hands shaking, set her teacup aside, the china clanking until she brought it under control. “That soon?”
“Aye, Tasara.” After exchanging a glance with Edeena, Father abandoned his cup too. “His grace has generously paid for our passage to Boston and given me a letter of reference for a position at Lady Sethwick’s shippin’ office there. He also be insistin’ I accept a sum from him so we,” he glanced to Edeena, “can begin again in the colonies.”
“But why are you leaving the travellers?” Alexa gestured to Edeena, then Father. “You’ve only known the black tinker’s way of life. I thought you loved it.”
She swallowed the grief tearing at her throat. She’d borne the banishment from her clan, but her family moving to a different continent?
To never see György or Lala again?
“Times are changin’, lass. It be harder and harder for the tinkers to find places we be welcome, and harder yet to earn coin. Speakin’ of which,” he gave her a sheepish half-smile, “Jamie forced me to accept the reward money from yer uncle.”
“Why?” She pushed a stray lock of hair off her forehead.
“He said he and the brethren be owed it for keepin’ silent. Ye ken travellin’ be a hard life and a thousand pounds, well,” Father shrugged his thin shoulders, “I canna begrudge Jamie for bein’ a bit greedy.”
Alexa couldn’t either. Many a traveller took advantage of opportunities when presented. Knowing Father hadn’t sought the money for himself did much to heal the rift in her heart.
“Within our tribe there be more and more discord. We not be the first family to leave, lass.”
“I know.” But America? Why so blasted far away? “Why don’t you stay in England? Or better yet, I have an inheritance. We could live on that.”
“Nae, lass. I make my own way, ye ken that. In America, we’ll have opportunities we can never hope to have in Scotland or England. Lala and György can make somethin’ of themselves there.”
Hope lit his tired features, revealing the handsome man he’d once been before a lifetime of want and hard work ravaged his face and body. Father rose and looked toward the entrance. “With yer permission, Yer Grace, may I shut the door?”
“By all means.” Lucan took Alexa’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
Searching his eyes, she pressed a palm to her stomach. “Do you know what this is about?”
“I do. He told me last night when they arrived, but you should hear it from him.” He squeezed her hand again.
Father stood before the fireplace, and hands clasped behind him, stared at the carpet, the lines of his face deepening as he furrowed his brow and flattened his mouth. He struggled to form the words, as she wrestled with the urge to flee the room.
At last he regarded her. “It be true ye be found in the forest. But, what I haven’t told ye, haven’t told a soul, except the duke and Edeena recently, be that Forba found ye hidin’ inside a hollow log, beaten and bleedin’.”
Why would someone assault a toddler?
“I became worried and went searchin’ for her.” Pausing, he scraped a hand through his hair, an untamed look in his eye. “I came upon her tryin’ to defend herself, and ye, from a monstrous brute. A small knife meant for cuttin’ plants be all she had.”
Lucan patted Alexa’s hand before standing. He strode to the bell pull and a moment later, Houston entered.
“Yes, Your Grace?”
“Please bring a bottle of Scotch and four tumblers.”
“At once.” The butler remained stone-faced at being asked to procure spirits at half past ten in the morning.
When the door closed behind Houston, Father resumed his tale. “He char
ged me, knocked me to the ground and nearly choked my life from me before Forba bashed him in the head with a rock.”
Edeena looked around nervously, as if afraid Father would be overheard.
He flicked Lucan an uneasy glance. “I swear he would have killed me if she hadn’t acted quickly, Yer Grace.”
“I don’t doubt it in the least.” Lucan returned to his seat beside Alexa. “Are you all right? I know this must be trying for you.”
His presence gave her strength. She needed to know everything. She nodded. “Yes. Go on, Father.”
“We stuffed his body as far into the hollow log as we could, intendin’ to return at night and bury him. Only we never returned. The bairn be delivered while we be away, and when Jamie saw ye, lass,” Father gestured at Alexa, “even though we told him we found ye alone, he gave orders to break camp immediately.”
“Jamie be no man’s fool. He ken somethin’ be afoot and feared for the safety of his people.” Edeena ducked her head at her boldness before taking a careful sip of coffee.
“Aye, and when he asked why I be bloodied and my clothes torn, I lied, claimed to have slipped and fallen. Easy enough to do in the Highlands.”
Drawing in a steadying breath, Alexa wet her lips. “And this man, do you have any idea who he was?”
“Aye, by accident, I stumbled across the bugger at Dounnich House. Forba hadn’t killed him, only knocked him unconscious.”
“Good God.” Alexa couldn’t suppress the shudder ravaging her at the mention of the Blackhall fortress or the brutes who imprisoned her.
Lucan boldly draped an arm across her shoulders. The heat of his fingers radiated through the fabric, branding her as his.
“His name?” She’d already guessed what Father would say.
“Angus Blackhall.” Father shook his head and stared into the distance. “He remembered me, after all those years, and must have realized exactly who he’d captured. Though his clan be under attack, he headed straight for the staircase, the bloody sod.”
Heartbreak and Honor Page 23
