For the Love of a Soldier (14 page)

The career soldier was dismissed as lower class, little better than an unsavory felon. In the Crimea, those in command also treated the foot soldier as less than human, no more than cannon fodder, sacrificed to the whims of their aristocratic officers. The army was not a lucrative profession, and when soldiers returned home, no responsibility was taken in caring for the veterans, wounded, crippled, or otherwise.

Garrett’s lips pressed into a firm line. He couldn’t change centuries-old practices or prejudices. However, as an earl he wasn’t completely without recourse, nor was he without resources. He had plans, and these plans needed workers to implement them. Recalling his stepfather’s lecture at Warren’s, his jaw clenched. The business venture did have the additional benefit of driving his stepfather mad. All the more reason to carry it out.

During Garrett’s two-year absence, his stepfather had neglected the upkeep of his estates. Tenants weren’t properly cared for, rents went uncollected, and positions were vacated when salaries went unpaid.

When not drinking himself into oblivion, Garrett had spent his time traveling between his estates and cleaning up after his stepfather’s penny-pinching incompetence. This purpose had provided the tenuous link that had kept him planted on the safe side of the line he had walked between life and death.

He tightened his clasp of Gus’s hand. He couldn’t save all the veterans who returned to lost lives, but by God, it felt good when he saved one more.

A
LEX STOOD IN
the doorway, unnoticed by both men as she blinked to clear her blurred vision. She had returned to hear Kendall discussing the letter of introduction that he planned to write to his secretary. As he’d spoken, her heart had stopped. Good Lord. He had offered Gus a job.

He didn’t know the man, but what he did know of him did not provide a stellar job recommendation. Despite her efforts to mask Gus’s condition, the stench of cheap gin betrayed him. When Kendall hadn’t contradicted her excuse for Gus’s state but rather offered to escort Gus to his room, she had latched onto his offer, ignoring her stab of guilt. But the sight of Gus
tore at her, warring with her memories of the boisterous, laughing man she had known.

Gus had taught her to ride her first pony, slipped her sweets for the mares, and hefted her onto his shoulders while he fed the horses. It was difficult to reconcile herself to the loss of this man when she, too, had lost so much. She had also turned her back on Gus because he needed the one thing Alex couldn’t provide. He needed a job, a means to earn a decent wage. But with the loss of his leg, no one would hire him.

What made Kendall different?

More important, what did he expect in return?

She glowered at Kendall as he shook Gus’s hand, but Kendall’s earnest gaze and Gus’s stunned expression gave her pause. Something unfurled in her chest, like a bud opening. Fearing it was her traitorous heart, bleating like the proverbial lamb before the slaughter, she pressed her hand to her chest.

Yanking her arm down, she retreated a step. She was not her mother. Gallant gestures and charming words would not lead her astray. She refused to care for a gambling rake who tossed down a fortune with a flip of a card, who seduced young women, dueled with their husbands, cheated on their wives…Alex stiffened, aware she had tangled up Kendall with her father. Kendall had no wife to cheat on—yet.

She gave her head a sharp shake. Kendall had a mistress. She didn’t wish to remember Kristen, but she did.
She loves me
. She cursed the tight band squeezing her chest each time the words replayed in her mind.

Well, Kristen can have him
.

Kendall stepped away from Gus and caught sight of her. When he smiled, she forgot every thought in her head but one.

Good Lord, did the man have to be so handsome?

Kendall had discarded his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. She swallowed at the sight of his bared forearms and the patches of his wet linen shirt that clung to his taut, muscular-toned body. He stood in sharp contrast to Gus and those poor men whom she had read to at the nearby Chelsea Hospital during her visits to Gus while he recuperated, continuing to do so at the request of one of the hospital benefactresses. Kendall’s physique was a far cry from the gaunt, battered bodies of those men. Spiraling heat curled around her body.

She might be an innocent, but that didn’t mean she was ignorant. This man pulled at her. He had since the first moment she had seen him at Hammond’s. It took every muscle in her body for her to resist responding.

Thankfully, she was a practical woman. It was one thing to admit to a physical attraction but another thing altogether to act on these feelings.
That
she would not do.

She deserved better.

Once she fulfilled this bargain with Kendall, she would be able to pursue her own plans—and those plans would enable her to be an independent woman, reliant on no man.

A
LONG
while later, once again settled in Warren’s carriage, Alex peered out the carriage window, oblivious to the passing sights. It was impossible to focus on anything when every one of her senses was alive to the man sitting beside her. The scent of his cologne, masculine and subtle, tangled around her. The sight of his strong, firm thigh but a few inches from hers caused her pulse to race. She could reach out and touch him if she dared.

Damn him for taking her appearance as a gentleman for permission to sit beside her. He was too close. Every so often, the carriage hit a bump in the road and she was jostled against his side before she could brace herself or move away. Since admitting her attraction to the man, his proximity was unwanted, unacceptable…and…well, she didn’t like it. She added brazen to his growing list of faults.

As the passing miles grew, so did her annoyance. Her practical side suggested she move, but her stubborn side rejected the notion. Relinquishing her seat would cede an unspoken battle of wills. That she refused to do. Besides, she hated riding backward.

She pressed her lips together and tipped her head to peer at him from beneath her lashes. Then she jerked her head up, her whole body stiffening.

He was laughing at her! She glowered at him. “What exactly do you find so amusing? And please do not tell me it is this situation.”

“And what if I do?” His lips curved, laughter brimming in his eyes.

Mentally she scribbled
idiot
to her list of his faults. “Because I really don’t want to lose my money. Unlike you, I have need of it.”

He cocked a brow. “How does my amusement jeopardize your financial situation?”

“Our agreement was for payment rendered in assisting you with finding the men trying to murder you. It will be difficult for me to collect if I kill you first.” She gave him a sweet smile, pleased with the flicker of surprise that crossed his handsome features before he masked it with a grin.

“I see your point.”

“I’m glad that you do.”

He waited a beat before commenting. “You could move to the other side, you know.”

“If you were a gentleman, you would already have done so.”

“You forget,
Mr.
Daniels, for today, you’re a gentleman as well.”

“How am I to remember that with you opening doors, assisting me in and out of the carriage, and carrying my luggage?”

He nodded. “More good points. May I offer my most sincere apologies. Very rude of me to so forget myself.” In contrast to his words, he looked totally unrepentant. “I believe this is the first time I’ve ever had to excuse myself for good manners.”

“I’m sure you’re better versed in apologies for your breach of them.”

“I have a few well polished. About my behavior, from now on I promise to let you open all doors, heft your own luggage, and let you assist
me
in and out of the carriage.”

His obvious amusement was infectious, and she smiled in response. “Very funny.”

“I’m known to be sometimes,” he said.

The timbre of his voice sent shivers down her spine. “I’ll
have to take your word for it. Are you also known for your charity?” At his raised brow, she continued. “What you did for Gus, it was very kind. Thank you.”

His humor fled. “You mistake charity for business. He needs a job, and I need a stable manager. Similar to the two of us, Gus and I came to a mutually beneficial agreement. No charity taken, none given.”

She blinked at his curt response. It was the Kendall of old, the man she had first encountered in Hammond’s card room. Hard and inscrutable. She wondered what nerve she had probed. “Most people wouldn’t hire Gus because of his leg.”

“Most people are idiots.” He shrugged. “I’m not most people.”

“No, you certainly are not.”

“And being in my presence has never ruined anyone, so it’s quite all right for you to sit beside me.”

His abrupt shift in topic surprised her. While she wanted to view arrogance in his refusal of her gratitude, she admired his astute understanding of Gus. Gus would never have accepted the job if he believed it to be doled out as charity. Such an offer would have insulted him, further crippling the man. Like most people left with nothing but their pride, Gus equated charity with pity.

Clever man, Kendall.

However, he was wrong about the risks of being so near. It
was
dangerous. But she had already acknowledged some risks were worth taking. “Good, because I hate sitting backward, and I have no intention of being ruined.”

“Mmh, at least not until we know each other better.”

Startled, she shook her head at the wicked gleam in his eyes. “I pity the innocents you and Lord Warren encountered. While I do believe you’re above ruining them, I’m certain you broke your share of hearts.”

“I’m sure I was forgotten when the next fop dribbled a few pretty words at them. Empty heads have short memories.”

Forgotten? She doubted it. He was the very definition of unforgettable. But his words rankled. They were an insult to her sex, and she felt honor bound to protest. “We must run in different crowds. I’ve found most young women to be immune to insincere flattery from the
empty-headed
rakes who spout
it. It’s hard to take a man seriously when his cravat is tied so tight that he can’t turn his head. It makes him look like a poker-faced stork.” She gave him another sweet smile, which belied the cut of anger in her words.

He raised a brow, and once again studied her like some unfamiliar specimen. This habit of his was beginning to irritate her.

“Does this mean no man has ever seduced you with flattery?” His voice had dipped to a low, husky murmur that coursed through her in a warm wave.

She cursed the limited confines of the carriage and her body’s reaction. “I didn’t realize we were discussing me.”

“We are now. No other woman interests me as much.”

Disarmed by his answer and the half smile curving his lips, she didn’t know how to respond. She refused to believe he spoke in earnest but couldn’t fathom what game he played. “I’m no different from most women. A finely tuned compliment is appreciated, but flattery with the aim of seduction is not.”

“Are you sure you speak for most women or for yourself?”

She was not sure of the hidden insult, but she feared he’d insinuated she was a frigid prude. She straightened and peered down her nose at him, speaking as if to a child who needed the simplest explanation clarified. “As I said before, perhaps we don’t move in the same circles. Perhaps the type of woman you cultivate is more receptive to your games of seduction. But I assure you, a well-bred young woman is not.” Her pitch rose at the end, annoying her. She shouldn’t let the man know he got under her skin.

He once again gave her that infernal appraisal of his.

“Another good point. But I’m relieved to know, considering our close working relationship, that you are immune to seduction through any flattery on my part.” He paused a moment and when he continued, his gaze touched on each body part he referenced. “I’d hate my compliments on the lovely color of your eyes, or the golden hue of your hair, or the softness of your skin to be misinterpreted as a means to seduction.”