Pleasures of a Tempted Lady (15 page)

Will’s brows rose. “A fleet of ships?”

Meg nodded grimly. “I believe there are between fifteen and twenty.”

Good God. “Are all of them engaged in illegal activity?”

“No. He maintains a façade of respectability with the few ships he uses for legal trading at any given time.” Her lips twisted. “The others are either piratical or smuggling vessels.”

“In the West Indies?” Surely if that were true, he’d have heard more about Jacob Caversham by now.

“Only one or two are in the West Indies at a time. The others are scattered around the globe.”

“Does he keep any ships in England?”

Meg frowned. “I was never allowed to go ashore or show my face when we were in English ports. Nor was the crew allowed to discuss navigation in our presence. But I did overhear some of Caversham’s discussions, and Sarah’s cabins usually had a porthole. I was able to teach her some of the geography of the United Kingdom when I recognized certain ports of call where we were anchored.”

“Where?” Will asked, prepared to commit the names to memory.

“Belfast. Bristol. Brighton. Blackpool.” Her lips twisted. “They’ve been easy for me to remember, since they all begin with B—except Glasgow.”

“Have you sailed on any of his other ships?”

“Yes. We moved from ship to ship. When we’d reach a port—one of the ‘B’ ports—we’d always swap ships. He did it mostly to throw the authorities off his scent, but he also wants to keep track of the condition of each of his ships at all times. He loves all his ships equally—each one is special to him, and complete control over each of them is very important to him.”

Will slumped back in the chair, feeling the need for a glass of brandy. He didn’t usually crave spirits, but there had been too many revelations this evening. He rose. “Would you like a drink?”

Her gaze jerked up to him, and she blinked. “I… suppose so.”

“Some claret, perhaps?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ll have whatever you have.”

He nodded tersely and then went to the sideboard to pour their drinks. He returned with a tumbler full of amber liquid for each of them. He sat, swirled it around
in his glass, watching the flames catch and refract on the crystal, and then took a long, fortifying drink.

Lowering his glass, he slid a glance at Meg, who swallowed hers with nary a flinch. He gave her a twisted grin. “Impressive.”

A fine line appeared between her brows. “What do you mean?”

“No sputters, no coughing, and not even a little bit of a gag. Looks like you’ve drunk your fair share of brandy.”

She gazed at the liquid in her glass. “Not brandy,” she said softly. “Rum. Sarah and I did a bit of our own smuggling. It’s a bit different. Harsher, I suppose. This is… fruity, in comparison.”

He chuckled. “That it is.”

After a moment of silence, both of them sipping their brandy, she asked, “Will?”

“Hm?”

“Before we leave London, Jake and I would like to see your house. I mean, if the invitation you issued earlier still stands.”

He blew out a breath and took another long swallow before he answered her. Then he gazed into her eyes. “It does.”

She gave him a small smile. “Thank you. Lord Stratford’s home is lovely, but it would be nice to call on at least one other person before I leave town.”

For the first time in a long while, Meg rose from her chair, extending her long, glorious limbs in a stretch. She walked to the sideboard to deposit her glass, her hips swaying in a delicate motion that mesmerized him.

“You’re more beautiful than ever.”

She froze, her hand still curled around the crystal. Then, slowly, she lowered the glass and turned to face him.

He rose, and his feet carried him to her before he had an opportunity to think about what he was doing.

When they were within arm’s length of each other, she tilted her head up, looking at him, her eyes silver in the fire’s glow.

“Don’t be afraid,” he murmured. “I understand your fear now. But we’ll find a way. I will keep you and Jake safe.”

“Jake and I will be leaving for Lancashire in a few days’ time. We’re not your responsibility.”

“I want you to be.” His voice was little more than a rough whisper.

“Why?”

He reached out and grasped her shoulders. “I want to try it again. I want to be with you. I want… I want to marry you.”

He blinked. Even he hadn’t expected to say that. But through his surprise, he realized it was the truth. He still wanted her in his life. Permanently.

Her eyes widened, and he shook his head at her expression of disbelief. “Listen to me… I still care for you, Meg.”

She licked her lips, a frantic gesture, and her eyes darted to both sides of him as if searching for a route of escape. Her shoulders shuddered beneath his hands before her gaze finally returned to him. “You can’t know that for certain, Will. You don’t know me. I’ve told you this before. I’ve changed. I have Jake to think about now.”

“Don’t hide behind Jake.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Do you think that’s what I’m
doing?” She jerked out of his hold and backed up several steps. “How dare you pretend to know how I feel? I’ve spent the last six years protecting Jake, nurturing him to the best of my ability. And you dismiss all that and say I’m hiding behind him? Damn you, Will Langley.”

Crossing her arms over her heaving chest, she turned away from him and stalked toward the door. Will thrust a hand through his hair. “Meg, stop. I’m sorry.”

He closed his eyes as she hesitated.

“Don’t be angry with me.” He pushed out the words.

“Please. Don’t do this,” she said with her back to him, anger still resonating in her voice.

He shook his head. She was confusing the hell out of him.

She lowered her head into her hands. “This is too much. I just want to survive the next few months. I can’t… I don’t know how to face… you, or these… these
feelings
I thought were long dead boiling up inside me.” He opened his eyes to see her turning back to him, halfway across the room from him. “I have spent so long trying to survive, trying to help Jake and Sarah survive… and I failed with Sarah. I am so afraid I’m going to fail with Jake, too. And if I let these rekindling emotions push aside my concentration on Jake, I fear…” Her shoulders shook visibly now.

“I’m so afraid, Will,” she choked. “I remember you, but I don’t know you anymore. I know myself, and I know Jake, but I don’t know you!”

He strode across the room and pulled her into his arms. “You do know me, Meg. Let yourself know me again.”

She’d kept him—and her family—at arm’s length because she had a single-minded purpose—to keep
Jake away from his father. Will understood that and he respected her for it, but if she let him in, he could help her even more.

He pressed his lips into her hair. Digging deep within, he found the patience that her reappearance into his life had seemed to obliterate. “I’ll wait. I’ll give you time. As long as you need.”

Minutes passed. It was hard to tell how many—Will couldn’t judge the passage of time when he held Meg in his arms. Finally, slowly, her arms reached up and slipped around him, and she laid her cheek against his chest.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He closed his eyes and breathed in sugarcane. He wanted her. But she wasn’t ready.

“I’ll protect you always,” he murmured. “And that’s why I’m coming to Lancashire with you.”

Chapter Ten

A
n unmarked carriage arrived at Lord Stratford’s house late the following morning. Jake had been waiting, peeking out the drawing room’s front window, and he squealed when Will disembarked from the carriage.

“Captain Will is here, Meg! Captain Will is here!”

Meg calmly put her sewing into her sewing basket and glanced up at her sisters and Lady Fenwicke. Serena had been reading a Shakespearean comedy, Jessica was attempting to embroider a scarf, Olivia was writing a letter, and Phoebe and Lady Fenwicke were rifling around in the drawer holding the pianoforte music.

“Well, here it is,” Meg said. “My first outing.”

Jessica snorted. “Not really an outing if you refuse to spend any time outdoors. And it’s too bad, really, because it’s a beautiful day and the trees in Hyde Park have finally decided to bloom.”

Meg just shook her head.

Phoebe sighed. “Jess, you must stop badgering poor Meg to go outside.”

“Someday I will go outside, Jessica,” Meg promised.

“Someday soon, I hope,” her sister said.

A footman came in to announce Will, who greeted Meg’s sisters before turning to her. He held out a gloved hand to her, and she realized he hadn’t removed his hat or his coat. “Are you ready to go?”

She grasped his hand with her own bare one and allowed him to help her up from the chair, smiling at him. “I’m ready.” She slid a glance to Jake, whose brown hair was sticking up at odd angles all over his head. He had a habit of vigorously rubbing his hair whenever he was nervous or excited. “Jake is more than ready.”

He gave Will a brilliant grin. “My tooth is loose, sir. Would you like to wiggle it?”

“Jake!”

He cocked his head at her, frowning. Meg knew what he was thinking: “I said ‘sir,’ just like you told me to.”

“I’m sure,” she said in a gentler voice, “Captain Langley doesn’t wish to be poking his fingers into your mouth.”

Jake ignored her. Instead, he walked up to Will, bared his teeth, and pointed at one in the top front. “It’s that one,” he said, his voice slurring.

Will smiled at Meg, then down at Jake. “I should love to wiggle it.” He reached out, grasped the tooth between two fingers, and moved it back and forth. “It is quite loose. I daresay in a week or two, you’ll have an enormous hole just there.”

Jake smiled, pleased, and Meg took Will’s arm. But as they turned to leave the room, Serena murmured something. Meg turned back to her. “What was that?”

Serena’s cheeks instantly turned a shade of deep pink. “Before you go, there’s something I’d like to tell you. All of you,” she added, glancing back toward the window, where Jessica stood with Olivia and Phoebe.

She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them. “I’m with child,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.

“Oh, Serena!” Jessica exclaimed, slapping her hands to her chest.

Will released Meg, and he went to Serena. He took both her hands in his own and helped her to stand before he gathered her into his arms, then pulled away and kissed her on the cheek. “Congratulations,” he murmured. “Does Stratford know?”

She nodded up at him, beaming. “He does. This time, he was the first person I told.”

Olivia, Phoebe, Jessica, and Lady Fenwicke all hugged Serena. Meg approached them but hung behind Will, feeling unaccountably shy. She knew Serena had suffered a dangerous miscarriage last autumn, and she’d been wanting to have a child badly.

Jessica clapped her hands. “When will the baby be born?”

“Sometime in October.”

“Babies cry all the time,” Jake announced from beside her, as if he were an expert.

“Not always,” Meg said, smiling down at him. “You, for example, were the sweetest, quietest baby ever.” She turned back to her sister. Not knowing what, exactly, to do with her hands, she clasped them in front of her. “Congratulations, Serena. I’m so happy for you.” And she was. If the babe was due in October, that meant she was
already a few months along, and the most dangerous part of the pregnancy, as far as miscarriages were concerned, had already passed.

“Thank you.” Serena dropped Will’s hands and hugged Meg. Meg wrapped her arms around her twin, glad she’d taken the awkwardness away. After congratulating her again, Will, Meg, and Jake finally left the drawing room.

They went down the corridor and exited through the kitchen from the back door, where the carriage had come up into the mews and there was less of a chance of anyone seeing her and Jake.

Will lifted Jake into the carriage, then he handed her up, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him before taking the backward-facing seat across from her and Jake.

Will rapped the ceiling and the carriage started with a jolt. Heavy curtains covered the windows, only allowing in a scant amount of dim light. As Will settled across from them, Meg wondered about the tightness in his expression and the stern press of his lips.

She slid her hand over Jake’s and squeezed. Jake squeezed back and turned to peek out the curtains.

She tensed, then relaxed. Surely it was safe enough for him to look outside. No one would recognize him driving by. Truly, there were only a few people in the world that would recognize Jake, and according to Will, those people were still far away, in Ireland.

Still, she watched Jake for a long moment, chewing her lip.

Will raised a brow at her, but she shook her head. “He’s all right.”

Will nodded but didn’t say anything. They sat in silence for long moments, Meg fighting not to fidget.

“What’s wrong?” she finally asked Will.

In the dim light, she could see his dark brows snap together. “Nothing.”

“You seem very… on edge,” she said.

His lips twisted into a smile that didn’t seem quite genuine. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing at all.”

She didn’t believe him for a second.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at Will’s house in Cavendish Square, but to Meg, sitting in a dark carriage with a very somber Will in front of her, the ride had seemed interminable.

Will gave them another of those false, twisted smiles. “We’re here.”

His voice sounded odd, too.

They’d arrived at the back of the house, and there wasn’t much to see except the white-painted back walls, a pair of tall, narrow windows, and a wide brick chimney. Will helped them out, and keeping Meg’s hand in his own, he opened the back door of the house and entered, Jake following close behind him.

The kitchen was small, but two women were working. One was kneading dough and another stirring a savory smelling mixture on the stove. They both stopped and bobbed curtsies at Will and Meg, with mumbled, “Good afternoon, sir, ma’am,” before returning to their work.