by Meara Platt
“Have the authorities caught the blackguards?”
He frowned. “No, and they’re not even looking for them.”
“They’re not? How can it be? I’m sure they’d be easy to find if anyone bothered to look. Those men were obviously in your cousin’s employ.”
“Forget about Desmond and his alehouse scum for now. Sit down, Lily. There’s something else I wish to discuss with you.”
He nudged her onto the sofa and drew his chair closer before settling his large frame in it. Ewan had a way of swallowing up a room with his presence. Perhaps it was just the way she perceived him, big and strong and gallant, though he was rough around the edges. Gruff beard, hard muscles, thick hair too long to be considered fashionable, dark and dangerous eyes.
Really hard muscles.
“I’m listening, but forgive me if I appear a little foggy-brained. I’m worried about Ashton. He’ll do what your grandfather demands, but how can I be sure it will be enough? Do you think he’ll cause Ashton more harm?”
Those glorious muscles of his stiffened, and his frown deepened. “I’ll take care of Ashton. I have friends in Scotland who will undertake to finance his explorations if the Royal Society won’t.”
“Truly? All the way to Madagascar?” She wiped her damp cheeks against the handkerchief Ewan offered since hers appeared to be lost for good, and then looked up and gazed at him in wonder. “His lemur research is vital to—”
Ewan let out a soft growl and shifted closer. “He’ll have funds enough to sail the world if he wishes it. Enough to take you with him.”
“Oh, he does wish it! He’ll be so pleased. With the funds, of course. I don’t think he’ll want me around, not after the difficult straits I’ve put him in with your grandfather and the Royal Society.”
“Do you want to be around him, lass?”
“We do work well together, but as I said, he’s quite miffed about what I did. And I’m more interested in baboons than lemurs, though none of it matters since my parents aren’t willing to let me out of the house. I doubt they’d be willing to send me off to the swamp plains of Africa, or to Madagascar, or anywhere in the world.”
“Even if you were to marry Ashton?”
Despite her misery, she laughed in surprise. “Why on earth would he wish to marry me? Ewan, I can’t thank you enough for helping me out with your grandfather. Not only for Ashton’s sake, but for my own. I was feeling beyond awful for what I’d done. Foolishly, carelessly sending off that missive exposing your grandfather as a heartless, old man.”
“That’s what he is. Everyone knows it.”
“Still, it wasn’t my place to shout it to the world. Everyone’s suffered for it.”
“Life isn’t perfect, Lily. It’s a work in progress. Mistakes are made, but sometimes they turn out for the better. This past week has opened my eyes to my own mistakes.”
She tipped her head toward him. “What mistakes?”
“Lass, I’m far from perfect. I’ve made plenty of them.”
She bit the side of her cheek to keep from proclaiming that it wasn’t so. He was perfect. Logically, she knew he wasn’t. No one was. But her heart thought otherwise.
“I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my father’s wishes lately. Boredom does that to a man, forces him to reflect on matters he’d rather suppress. My father sent me here to patch family relations, not to prolong the bitterness. Yet all I’ve done since my arrival is to fan the flames of the Cameron feud.”
“How so?”
“By resenting the old man, threatening bodily harm to my cousins—”
“They were beastly to you and Meggie.”
He folded his arms across his chest, his expression pensive. “They weren’t always this way. In truth, we spent some enjoyable summers together in the Highlands when we were young. Their father was alive then, and though he wasn’t as strong-willed as my own father, neither was he a man easily pushed around by anyone, not even my grandfather.” He paused and grinned at her. “Or as you affectionately call him, DG.”
She winced at the remark. Not that she truly felt remorse, for he was a mean old man, but she had been raised to respect her elders and she’d been utterly disrespectful toward him.
“Everything changed when their father died. Desmond and Evangeline were taken into my grandfather’s home.”
“Where he proceeded to do what he does best, manipulate and control.”
Ewan nodded. “Though for the past year at least, they’ve been living on their own in a townhouse purchased by Desmond. Perhaps he tired of always being under the old man’s thumb. After all, a golden cage is still a cage. I think I can patch things with them, Lily. I may not be able to save the old man, but my cousins are young and I might yet sway them.”
“Do you think that’s what your father had in mind when he asked you and Meggie to come down here? Not only to patch things up with your grandfather, but to rescue your cousins?”
“Aye, lass. I’m sure of it. I just wish I had realized it sooner. He must have regretted doing nothing for them after their father died. Not that there were any outward signs of their ill treatment. Quite the opposite, they were given every material advantage, best clothes, best schools, best society. But he knew the ogre his father was and did nothing to protect them from the more insidious abuses. So, will you help me?”
She nodded. “Of course, but what can I do?” Other than make rash decisions that create messes.
“I was hoping you’d help me come up with a plan.” He rose with only a hint of discomfort from his injury and drew her up beside him. “Lily, how do I honor my father’s wishes and make us a loving family again?”
“I don’t know. Why look to me?”
“Because you’re the only one I trust to help me. You’re clever and honest.”
She shook her head. “A little too honest, at times.”
“You’re gentle and kind, and having been raised in a loving family, you’re the best person to teach us about bestowing love on others.” He cast her a sloppy grin. “No matter how despicable those others might be.”
Her stomach was fluttering again, but when did it not when Ewan was about? She loved the soft way he was now looking at her. “I’ll give it thought.”
“Thank you, lass. I’m in your hands. I’ll do anything you ask.”
Kiss me.
But she was an utter coward and would never reveal how she truly felt.
CHAPTER 10
“SHAVE? YOU WANT ME to shave my whiskers?” Ewan ought to have known better than to ask for Lily’s help. She was young and bookish, and she must have been speaking to Meggie about his damned beard.
“And you’ll need a new wardrobe.” And speaking to Eloise about his need for fashionable clothes.
“Anything else?” he asked, not bothering to hide his irritation. No wonder the lass had asked to meet him for a ride in Hyde Park. She’d said it was to see how Hades behaved when saddled, but he now understood the real reason. The little bluestocking wanted him out in the open where he would be forced to behave while she spouted her ridiculous advice.
They had started out riding as a group, he and Meggie joined by Lily, her twin sister, and their cousin William, a young man who seemed to find Meggie infinitely delightful and entertaining. He’d have to watch that lad. If he was thinking about Meggie the way Ewan was thinking of Lily, he’d skin the young bounder alive.
Lily cut through his thoughts with her gentle laughter. “Can you blame William for being infatuated with Meggie? She looks beautiful in the green velvet riding habit, which you paid an arm and a leg for, by the way. Worth it, don’t you think?”
At the moment, he and Lily were alone on this cool but gloriously sun-filled, afternoon, the others having gone ahead to introduce Meggie to more Farthingales who happened to be out riding in the park. Jasper, as ever, trotted alongside his horse, gazing up at Lily with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and tail feverishly wagging in adoration. Not that he blamed Jasper.
Lily had him panting as well.
She looked sinfully innocent in black velvet, the soft fabric hugging her sensual curves and driving him insane with her every casual movement. He had an overpowering itch to run his hands up and down the lush velvet, slowly strip it off her slight frame, and warm her naked body with his tongue and fingers.
Lord! He was going directly to hell, no bloody doubt about it.
“Ewan? Are you listening to me? What do you think of Meggie?”
“You’ve done a nice job with her, Lily. It isn’t just about her new clothes. She’s no longer a weepy little thing who’s afraid of her own shadow. You’ve set the example, shown her how to be strong and trust in herself.”
She laughed. “Do go on. I’m liking this conversation very much. I didn’t know I was quite this fabulous.”
You are. “I was complimenting Meggie,” he teased, “not you. You’re an annoying little bluestocking who’s trying to turn me into an English gentleman.”
Her eyes rounded in mock horror. “Perish the thought! I don’t wish to change you. However, your table manners need a little polish. Your manners in general, in truth. Quite a bit of polish.”
“Sounds like you don’t care for me as I am.”
“I do, very much. But the point is to make others like you. Your cousins, to be precise. They won’t listen to you unless they respect you. Remember what Evangeline said about you at Madame de Bressard’s? She was wrong, of course. You’re not crude or boorish at all.”
His fingers tightened on Hades’ reins. “Lass, you’re swelling my head with such compliments.”
She let out another merry laugh. “Don’t be angry. I have given your situation serious thought. You won’t get anywhere with your cousins unless they think of you as their equal. Having been raised as Sassenachs, and therefore shallow, they will not be persuaded unless you become one of their ilk. To do that, you must fit in with the upper crust. Can you dance?”
He thought about the last clan gathering that dissolved into little better than a drunken brawl. All because of that large-breasted wench... Lord, how was he to know that she was married? “Highland reels. Nothing you would deem proper.”
“Um, I see.”
He certainly hoped she didn’t. Lily was too innocent to understand about such things as lust or casual desire. Lily was a deep, abiding love sort of girl. He hoped she wasn’t in love with that self-absorbed wanker Ashton.
“And you can’t read very well, but that’s not your fault. Indeed, you seem to have as much sense as most highly educated men I know. Certainly more sense than most of the men in my family,” she muttered more to herself than to him.
“Lily, I can read.”
“Not well enough to pass as an educated man.” She cast him another one of those sympathetic glances that only served to rankle him. “But as I said, no one faults you for—”
“Lass, you’re wrong.” He took the reins of her little mare and turned her about.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you back to Eloise’s. She has an excellent library.”
“Yes, but—”
“Pick out whatever book you like.” He didn’t know why her good opinion was so important to him. It just was.
They rode in silence to Chipping Way, and when they reached the Dayne townhouse, he handed their reins to Eloise’s stable boy and started for the house. Watling met them at the door. “Good day, Lord Carnach.”
However, when he attempted to lead them into the salon, Ewan stopped him. “Library first.”
If Watling seemed confused, he didn’t show it. “As you wish, my lord. Shall I take Jasper? I think he’ll be more comfortable in the garden. No tables or delicate teacups for him to knock over out there.”
Ewan grinned. “Aye, good idea.”
Once alone with Lily, Ewan took her hand and led her to the well-stocked bookshelves. “Ewan, you don’t have to do this.”
He turned away abruptly, grabbed a particularly dense-looking text, and selected a page at random. He began to read aloud. In Latin. He then translated the words.
She leaped to his side. “Let me see that.”
“Well?”
“I don’t understand. That first day, when you fished the MacLaurin book out of the puddle, you had such trouble sounding out the words.”
“The title was smudged. I couldn’t make it out. That’s all.”
“Um... I see,” she said again, her brow furrowing in an adorably puzzled expression. “I’m so glad. It makes my job that much easier.”
“Lass, let me make one thing clear to you. You’re not going to turn me into a perfume-drenched society dandy.”
“Ewan, let me make one thing clear to you. Perfume aside, I am going to do it. I must. You need to be accepted into society. Your very life depends upon it.”
***
Ewan was glowering at her again.
Lily didn’t mind. At least he wasn’t storming out of here with rifle in hand, ready to meet his doom at the hands of his cagey cousin, who deemed him a threat to his inheritance and would kill him at first sight. Desmond was scared of him, and men who were scared took desperate actions, those actions encouraged by Despicable Grandfather. The old rotter was treating his grandchildren like pawns on a chessboard. Ewan had to convince his cousins that they had to unite to defeat him. “We’ll start tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I hear the ladies returning from their ride. Are we done here? Good. I think I’ll join them.”
She started past him, her head held high and fingers crossed that he wouldn’t see through her bluster and bravado. He reached around her and shut the library door, pinning her against it as he set his hands on each side of the door and leaned in close so that their noses... and lips... were almost touching. Oh, crumpets. Speaking of noses, she inhaled his scent as she took a deep breath. He smelled nice. Horse and leather and pine trees nice.
“You think I’m a man in need of civilizing?”
She let out a small eep. “Yes, a little. Only a little. On the more trivial subjects such as fashion, etiquette, and dance. Not the important ones. You seem to have mastered those. You’re awfully close, Ewan.”
“I know.”
She licked her lips.
He groaned. “And you think you’re just the woman capable of civilizing me?”
She wasn’t certain, but she relished the opportunity to mold this raw being into a sophisticated man of substance, a man worthy of inheriting his grandfather’s title, a respected duke of the realm. It couldn’t be very hard to accomplish. He already had the substance. He merely lacked the air of elegance. Well, he was elegant, if one dismissed that gruff, protect-my-woman arrogance about him. Not that she would ever dismiss it. She loved that about him.
Had she thought loved?
She meant like. She liked that about him.
Love could never factor into the Ewan equation.
She wished he were not standing so close, staring at her with his smoldering, dark eyes.
“You’re eeping again. I’ll take that last eep as a yes.” His expression was even darker and more dangerous than the smolder in his eyes. “I won’t make it easy for you, Lily. I’m not some lump of clay—”
“Of course not.” Had he just read her mind? How did he do that? “You’re not lumpy at all. Quite the opposite. You’re hard and muscled. Goodness, I couldn’t get my hands around your biceps if I tried. It’s awfully warm in here. Don’t you think so?”
“No.”
“Hot, actually. May I go now?”
He nodded but didn’t move away.
She put her hands on his chest to nudge him away. A mistake. Unbidden, her hands slid up his chest and circled the nape of his neck. “What are you doing, Lily?”
“I’m not sure. I think I’m about to kiss you again.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” he said, drawing her up against his body and closing his mouth over hers before she had the chance to reconsider. His mouth
felt warm, delicious. She yielded to his exquisite conquest. He felt her slight surrender and deepened his kiss.
All of her senses exploded at once, as did her bodily organs, every traitorous, last one of them, exploding again and again in volcanic turmoil as his lips explored hers with possessive urgency and his big hands roamed everywhere they shouldn’t be. Not that she was complaining. She wasn’t at all.
He cupped a hand over her breast and teased her nipple with his thumb.
“Hot, sugared crumpets,” she whispered. “What are you doing to me?”
He answered with the hot dip of his tongue between her lips, an exquisite invasion that shattered her resistance... again, not complaining. Not resisting either. No. Not a whit.
She arched into his hand, loving the feel of his fingers teasing her hardened bud against the fabric. She wanted to feel his rough fingers on her skin. “So many damned layers,” he murmured, kissing her again, his tongue parting her lips with ease, plunging deep into her mouth, soft and deep, in a rhythmic urgency that annihilated her resistance, what little she’d had to begin with. Assuming she’d ever had any desire to resist him.
Blood rushed to her head in a pounding roar. “Oh, my goodness. Ewan, please. More.”
The pounding persisted.
Ewan drew away with a slow, tortured groan. “Damn it,” he said under his breath, “someone’s at the door.” He waited for her to regain her composure, a task made impossible while he stood so close, the male heat radiating off his body and wreaking havoc with her senses. He—the villainous epitome of male perfection—stood beside her, completely unaffected, as though they hadn’t been swallowing each other’s tongues or pillaging each other’s bodies a mere moment ago.
Blessed saints and burnt crumpets. That was far too much fun to be anything but sinful.
“Open up, Lily.” She recognized Dillie’s voice on the opposite side of the door.
Still a little dazed, she reached for the knob, but Ewan stopped her. “Take a deep breath. A few deep breaths to calm yourself.”
“I hate you. You know that, don’t you?”
He grinned. A smug, dominant baboon male grin.
