My Lord Deceived (15 page)

“Where is your
mother?” Jonathan asked. He glanced around the empty room
cautiously as though he expected her to pop out from behind the
chair. It was too early to be in bed and he was fairly certain that
she hadn’t been in the tavern.

“She has gone
over to Hester. Today is Wednesday, and the night that they usually
spend together gossiping and the like,” Kat replied with a sigh.
Right now she wanted to be alone to gather her thoughts but, on the
other hand, she never wanted to be alone again. Once again, when
she had needed him the most, he had magically materialised out of
thin air. She frowned at that thought and turned to stare at him.
“Were you following me?”

“When will your
mother be back?” Jonathan countered evasively. “I don’t want to
leave you alone. Brian won’t pose a problem to you tonight, but I
think that given your fright, it would be best if you sit with
someone for a while.”

“I am fine,”
Kat assured him. “I have been on my own before. Mother won’t be
long now because we have market again in the morning.”

“How do your
wrists feel now?”

“Much better
thank you. I think the rum helped,” she admitted with a rueful
smile. She was aware of the inner warmth left behind by the amber
liquid and made no apology for having downed it so quickly.

“I will wait
until your mother returns,” Jonathan declared with a sigh. Right
now, he didn’t want to go over what he did for a living. This was
the first time that he had been alone with Kat; really alone, and
he didn’t want to waste a minute of it talking about the dark and
dangerous things he did with the Star Elite. He firmly pushed all
thoughts of French spies and smugglers to one side, he watched as
Kat took a seat in a chair before the fire before he took the seat
opposite. They sat in companionable silence for several
moments.

“Can I get you
a brandy?” Kat looked up at him. She immediately wished she had not
made the offer and carefully kept her expression blank while she
waited for his answer. She mentally cursed herself for being
several types of fool and studied the room around them while she
waited for his reply. Thankfully, it looked like her mother and
Billy had cleared up before they went over to Hester’s, and had
left no trace of the family’s sideline.

“I am fine,
thank you,” Jonathan sighed as he leaned forward to place some more
logs on the fire. He glanced down at the box at the bottom of the
basket but paid no attention to it. All thoughts were firmly locked
on the woman seated opposite.

“Thank you for
coming to my rescue tonight,” Kat murmured when the silence had
started to grow uncomfortable between them. “But you still haven’t
told me what you were doing at the back of the tavern.”

Jonathan smiled
ruefully at her. “I was aware that I hadn’t been around to escort
you as I promised I would. I was a little late today so decided to
watch you from the alleyway, just to make sure that you were
alright.”

“Where did you
learn to fight like that?” She whispered with a frown. Norman’s
comments from earlier came back to her. “I take it that you were in
the army?”

“Yes, I was,
but I came back to England and was recruited into a different
division. I am still in the army - sort of.”

Kat frowned at
that and wondered how anybody could still be ‘sort of’ in the army
in the middle of a war. It just didn’t make sense. She took a
breath to ask him when he began to speak.

“I was enlisted
to join a special unit and am still part of it.” He held up a hand
to keep her quiet when he read the questions in her eyes. “I cannot
tell you any more than that right now.”

“It is
responsible for you being able to fight like that. The army and the
special unit,” Kat remarked carefully. She wondered why he felt the
need to be so secretive.

This is war,
Kat, if he is telling the truth, he isn’t going to tell you
military secrets,
she thought to herself and lapsed into
silence.

“I need you to
tell me something, Kat.”

She struggled
not to squirm under the intensity in his gaze and reluctantly
waited.

“Does Brian
have any relatives who are likely to be angry about the outcome of
tonight’s skirmish?”

Kat thought
about that for a moment and felt the wave of relief wash over her
that he hadn’t asked her about potential smugglers in the area.

“Not really. I
am not sure who his associates are other than the three you met
tonight. I don’t think he has any uncles or anything like that who
are all that bothered about him to be honest.”

“I want you to
start to let Harry escort you home if I am not around to help,”
Jonathan drawled moments later. He lifted his gaze from his boots
and gave her a direct look. “Just in case I don’t arrive in time, I
don’t want you to have to walk alone at night for the time being.
At least until I decide what to do about Brian and his
friends.”

“What are you
going to do about Brian and his friends?”

“I don’t know.
I cannot help but think that going into the army is the right thing
for him. The army needs all of the recruits it can get at the
moment, and he is the perfect candidate. Colin is out of action
right now,” he admitted ruefully, and without any trace of regret.
“But they all have far too much time on their hands. If they are
sailors, then they should join the navy. However, whatever I decide
they should face, I do have to tell the magistrate, Mr
Hamilton-Smythe about their assault on you tonight. They have
attacked you and caused you injuries, however minor, and they need
to be brought before the magistrate for a stern ticking off, if
nothing else.”

“But if they
aren’t going to be arrested or charged with anything, how do you
expect to get them there?”

Jonathan smiled
secretively and glanced back down at this boots. “I have my ways.
They will receive the stern ticking off they deserve for their
behaviour tonight, and will be given the option of the army or the
navy in lieu of a sentence. One or the other is their fate, of that
I have no doubt.” The confidence in his tone assured her that he
had already discussed the matter with the magistrate, Mr
Hamilton-Smythe who was going to put the offer forward as an
alternative to being arrested.

Kat stared at
him with a mixture of worry, shock and awe. He sat and discussed
the fate of four boys as calmly as he would discuss the
weather.

“You can’t
press gang them,” Kat gasped, horrified at the thought of anyone,
even Brian and his friends, being forced into the navy.

“They are going
to have a choice, jail or service.” Jonathan’s cold voice made her
shiver. “At some point in the future they will undoubtedly to pick
on a woman who doesn’t have such stalwart defenders as you if they
remain free to wander the streets. What then? I have a duty to
protect everyone within the village. I would be a terrible Lord
indeed if I allowed Brian and his friends to continue to run riot
throughout the village. The next time, their victim may not be as
lucky as you.” He knew that he didn’t need to spell out what they
would do. From the look of fear still evident on Kat’s face, she
already knew.

He reluctantly
eased out of his seat moments later with a sigh, and moved to kneel
at her feet. Her hands were cold and he took a moment to encase
them carefully in his. He glanced down at their entwined fingers
while he tried to find the right words to say. Strangely, he had
never struggled with words before whenever he had conversed with
anyone, especially women. Yet with Kat he felt uncomfortably
tongue-tied.

“I have to make
sure that you are safe,” he said honestly. “If I do miss you; if
business at Dentham Hall makes me run late and I don’t catch up
with you in time to escort you back from the field, or from work at
the end of the evening, then I need to make sure that someone in
the village will look out for you.”

“I think that
after tonight, nearly all of the village will watch over me,” Kat
sighed. She had been very aware of the looks that had passed
between the villagers when Jonathan had escorted her out of the
tavern. There would undoubtedly be a load of gossip in the village
tomorrow as people retold the story about how Jonathan had become
involved in a fight with Brian. Unfortunately, his protect concern
toward her in the tavern afterward would raise questions about
their relationship.

Her thoughts
immediately turned to the smuggling that was rife in the village
and she wondered whether the others would want Kat and her family
to continue to be involved. She mentally sighed and considered the
easy familiarity in which he sat in her nondescript fisherman’s
cottage. He was undoubtedly used to glittering ballrooms and the
luxurious confines of Dentham Hall, not a three up, three down
cottage in coastal Cornwall, yet he sat beside the fireplace with
her as though he had known nothing else.

She abruptly
turned her thoughts away from what it would be like to be married
to him and being able to share their evenings by the fire. The
knowledge that he wasn’t likely to stay in the village for long
rose to the forefront of her mind and she closed it out with a
shudder. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him what he did
when he went away for so long, but then remembered his careful
reply that he had ‘responsibilities’, and considered that for now,
she was better off not knowing.

The rattle of
the front door heralded the arrival of Agnes and Billy, who slammed
to a stop when they caught sight of Jonathan before the fire.

“What
happened?” Agnes gasped. She stared almost accusingly at Jonathan
when she caught sight of the bandages on Kat’s wrists.

“Brian Meldrew
and his friends,” Jonathan replied dourly. “They caught her when
she was on her way to work.”

“Where? Why
didn’t you call me? I was only at Hester’s,” Agnes demanded. Her
hard stare turned from Jonathan to Kat before it returned to
Jonathan.

“You were
busy.”

“I escorted her
home and have kept her company because I don’t think she should be
alone right now. She needed a few minutes to gather herself,”
Jonathan replied gently. “She was a bit shaken from her ordeal, but
otherwise has been checked over the doctor who has decreed there is
no more damage than a few bruises, this time.” His last words fell
like rocks into the room.

“Thank heavens
for that,” Agnes gasped and slumped into the chair beside Jonathan.
It was clear that she had temporarily forgotten who he really
was.

“She needs to
have someone with her whenever she walks around at night,” Jonathan
sighed. “I am going to be here whenever I can, but I have some
business to conduct and cannot always guarantee being able to get
away on time.”

Agnes seemed to
realise that she was slouched next to the lord of the parish and
immediately sat bolt upright and stared vaguely around her as
though she was not quite sure what she should say, or do.

“Oh, that is no
problem. I can do it, or I am sure that Mr Peat from next door will
be more than happy to help out.”

“Mr Peat is an
old man, and no match for Brian and his associates. I am going to
talk to Mr Hamilton-Smythe, and inform him of the assault and
recommend a quiet word in their ears but, until that happens Kat
shouldn’t walk around at night alone. I would also recommend that
you and Billy exert a little caution too.” He added pointedly. He
heard Billy’s gasp and turned to offer the boy a smile of
reassurance.

Kat’s eyes met
and held her mothers and a silent communication passed between
them. “I am perfectly capable of looking after myself,” she snapped
impatiently. It irked her that Jonathan seemed to consider her a
weak female who was completely incapable of being able to function
without a man at her side. Still, the incident in the field the
other day warned her that it wasn’t only the nights that posed a
problem to her, but she wisely kept that thought to herself.

“I know, Kat,
but these boys need to be dealt with by someone who isn’t going to
pat them on the head and send them on their way again. I have a
duty to everyone in the village to ensure that they can continue
about their business, day or night, without falling foul of Brian
and his little gang.”

When he put it
that way, she really couldn’t object to his need to look after the
community. She carefully kept the small pang of hurt off her face
at the realisation that his only intention was to help the village,
and pushed out of her chair. She knew it was bad manners and she
should really wait until Jonathan took his leave but, at that
moment, she desperately needed to contain the bittersweet hurt that
blossomed to life within her.

“If you don’t
mind, because I am not needed at work tonight, I think I will take
advantage of an early night.”

“Are you sure
you are alright?” Jonathan asked with a frown of concern. “Do you
want me to send for the doctor again?”

“I am fine,”
she assured him with a smile. “Just a little tired, that’s
all.”

“Well, I need
to go now myself. I have a couple of calls to make.”

It was on the
tip of her tongue to ask if those calls had anything to do with
Brian, but kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t really in a position to
ask the man about his business matters.

“Come and see
me out. I should like a private word with you, if I may?” He cast
an askance look at Agnes, who nodded absently. She was clearly
still grappling with the news of the attack, and Jonathan’s
presence in her sitting room.

Kat watched
Jonathan ease the door closed beside them and turned toward
him.

“Thank you for
everything you have done tonight. It was very good of you to step
in and get involved like that.”

“I am glad I
was there,” Jonathan replied, aware of the sudden distance between
them and at a loss to find the cause. “Just promise me that you
won’t leave the house tonight.”