Czytaj książkę: «Swept Away»

Contents

Title Page

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilogue

Copyright

Prologue

Julia pulled the cap low on her head, hiding her face in the shadow of the brim, and edged closer to the horse whose head she held. Every muscle in her body tensed, and her eyes were glued to the man strolling down the opposite side of the street. It was Lord Stonehaven, all right. She would recognize that arrogant, muscular stride anywhere.

The horse shifted nervously as her hand unconsciously tightened on the bridle. Julia ran a soothing hand down his neck. The last thing she wanted was to alert Stonehaven. In just a few more steps they would have him. Her eyes went involuntarily to the darkened doorway beyond her quarry. She could see no sign of Nunnelly or Jasper, even knowing that they were there. It was a well-recessed doorway; that was why they had chosen this particular spot for their ambush.

She waited, scarcely daring to breathe. In another moment they would have the man responsible for her brother’s downfall. Lord Stonehaven took one step, then another. Suddenly, without a break in his stride, he stepped out into the street, bypassing the doorway. Julia clenched her teeth against the shriek of frustration that rose in her throat. Damn the man! How did he always manage to thwart them?

She knew it was over, the attempt failed like the other two times, even as the two men bolted out of the black doorway toward their quarry. Lord Stonehaven was simply too good a fighter for them to subdue him without the element of surprise. Nunnelly still had a welt across his forehead from their last attempt to prove it.

Stonehaven whirled as Nunnelly and Jasper charged, and he slammed his walking stick into Jasper’s midsection. The young man doubled over, and Lord Stonehaven neatly sidestepped him and drove a fierce right uppercut into Nunnelly’s jaw. The burly Nunnelly staggered back, dropping the sack that they had intended to pull over Lord Stonehaven’s head. Nunnelly’s feet got tangled up in the sack, and he fell to the street. Stonehaven reached down and grasped the man’s jacket, hauling him up.

“All right, you!” Stonehaven’s crisp voice carried clearly across the street. “I want some answers—now! What the devil do you mean, attacking me? This isn’t the first time, either.”

For an answer, Nunnelly swung at him, but Stonehaven stepped sharply back to avoid it, releasing Nunnelly. Jasper, still bent over from the earlier blow to his midsection, charged the man, but Stonehaven turned and brought his hand down hard on the young man’s neck, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Julia knew she had to do something to help. But she was also aware of how little good she would do her men in a brawl with Stonehaven. If he could deck Nunnelly like that, he would send her flying. So she scrambled up the coach onto the driver’s box, taking the reins in her hands. She slapped the reins noisily, then cracked the whip. Startled, the horses surged toward the men.

Even Lord Stonehaven jumped back at the sight of the coach and four barreling toward them. Nunnelly and Jasper scrambled to their feet and came running. Julia jerked the horses to a stop, knowing that Nunnelly would have a few choice things to say to her about her handling of his prize team, and the two men jumped inside. She slapped the reins again, and the carriage took off. To her surprise, Stonehaven ran after them, reaching up to grab hold of the bar the coachman used to climb up into the high seat. He jumped up onto the step. With his free hand, he reached toward the driver’s box to pull himself up. Panicked, Julia whirled and kicked him hard in the chest. It was enough to break his grip. Stonehaven fell heavily to the street.

Julia risked a look back as the horses charged forward. Stonehaven was slowly rising to his feet, dusting himself off and cursing. She turned back around and devoted herself to controlling four spooked horses. It was not an easy task. Even planting her feet firmly on the floor and standing up to haul back on the reins, she had an uneasy moment when she thought that the horses were not going to respond. It felt as if her arms would be torn from their sockets. Then the lead horses shook their heads and slowed and gradually came to a halt.

Nunnelly erupted from the carriage below. “Jaysus, Mary and Joseph!” he exclaimed, his Irish accent thick in his excitement. “Now what did ye think ye were doin’, Miss Julie?”

He ran to inspect his horses, running a calming hand over them and talking to them in the special low voice he reserved for his animals.

“I was saving your ungrateful skin, is what I was doing,” Julia replied crisply, accustomed to the man’s rough way of talking. She turned and looked behind her. The street stretched emptily into darkness. They had left Lord Stonehaven far behind in the mad rush to escape.

“Sure, now, and it’s glad I am you did,” Nunnelly allowed. “But did ye have to spook the horses while ye were doin’ it? Here, Jasper!” He swung toward his hapless assistant. “Come make yourself useful and take their heads whilst I get up atop. It’s little enough you’ve done tonight so far.”

The young man bristled at the words. “I didn’t see you do aught better!”

“Hush, you two,” Julia sighed. “We all failed.”

“It’s right ye are about that, miss,” the coachman agreed glumly as he swung up into the seat beside her and took the reins. He nodded to Jasper, and the lad let go of the horses and ran to jump up on the step at the back of the carriage.

Nunnelly looked over at Julia in her lad’s trousers, rough shirt and cap. “Thank the Lord he didn’t make it up here, miss, or that would have been the end of all of us.”

“Stonehaven wouldn’t have recognized me,” Julia replied confidently. “He’s never seen me. That time he came to see Selby in the country was when Mama was so dreadfully sick, and I never ventured downstairs.”

“That may be, miss, but your disguise wouldn’t ha’ lasted ten seconds, and he’d ’a’ known ye were a colleen.” He shook his head. “’Tis too dangerous, yer comin’ with us like this.”

“Where would you two have been tonight if I hadn’t come?” Julia retorted. “Besides, it’s my plan. I have to be here.”

This was an argument they had had many times before, and Nunnelly knew he had no chance of winning it. Julia had always been the most headstrong person he’d ever known—man or woman—and she had been able to twist him around her little finger since she was a mere slip of a girl.

Nunnelly sighed and shook his head. “The truth of it is, Miss Julie, it don’t look to be workin’.”

Julia sighed. “I know, Nunnelly. You’re right.”

This was the third time they had attempted to seize Lord Stonehaven, and he had been too quick and too good for them every time.

“He’s a fighter, miss, and a good one. I’ve heard he works out with the Gentleman himself.” His voice deepened in awe as he mentioned the most renowned pugilist of the day, Gentleman Jackson. “It’s strong, he is, and quick. Some of the gentlemen can box, ye see, but in a real fight, they’re more useless than Jasper there. But this one—filthy poltroon though he is—he cuts a fine figure in a fight.” He paused, then added thoughtfully, “There are some men I could get to help. Even he couldn’t take on four or five of us and win.”

“No,” Julia responded quickly. “I don’t want too many people to know about this. You and Jasper are different.” Both Nunnelly and the groom had worked for her family for years. They couldn’t have been more loyal if they had been actual members of the family. “But strangers…it would never do for word of this to leak out.”

“No, miss,” the coachman agreed fervently. He was silent for a moment as they drove through the dark streets of London. They were almost home when he cast a speculative look at Julia and began tentatively, “Maybe we should forget it, miss….”

Julia whirled around, her eyes shooting fire. “What? Forget about Selby? Do you not care anymore about him? Do you not care if his name is cleared or if Gilbert has to live under the shadow of scandal all his life? Don’t you care about getting the man who did it to him? Or are you scared?”

Stung, the coachman replied, “There’s no man alive can call Mike Nunnelly a coward, miss, and get away with it. And there’s no call to be tellin’ me I don’t care about yer brother. It’s jist that I’m thinkin’ of you, Miss Julia. Maybe it’s time ye did something else, time ye got on with your life, thought of marrying and babies and such….”

A lesser man would have quailed before the fierce light in Julia’s eyes. “Marriage? Babies?” she replied scornfully. “Are you saying that I should tend to my knitting and let men do the work? Besides, how do you think I shall get a husband with the world thinking my brother was a…a thief!” Her eyes filled with angry tears.

“Now, don’t ye go tryin’ to change the subject on me. It’s this plan we’re talkin’ about, not your brother, God rest his soul.” The coachman crossed himself and continued. “The fact is, we did our best, miss, and it didn’t work. We’ve been here three weeks now, followin’ him around, watchin’ him go in and out, chasin’ women and playin’ cards and goin’ to that club of his. Why, it’s a miracle to catch the man alone. Always with friends or some fancy piece on his arms—which, beggin’ your pardon, miss, you shouldn’t even be seein’.”

“I know.” Julia’s expression turned thoughtful.

“Three times we’ve managed to take him by surprise and alone, and he’s got clean away, every one. If we don’t be usin’ more men, then what’re we to do? I ask you. It’s suspicious he is now—did ye hear what he said to me? He knows it was us before, maybe not the first time—but some stranger tryin’ to knock ye over the head three times, it can’t be jist bad luck. There’s no sneakin’ up on him again.”

“I realize that. You are right. Obviously this plan isn’t going to work. But I am not going to give up. Not after what he did to Selby.”

Three years earlier Julia’s brother, Selby, had been accused of stealing money from a trust fund of which he was a trustee. The man who had accused him, and who had proven to the world that Selby was guilty, was Deverel Grey, Lord Stonehaven. Though Selby had insisted he was innocent, public opinion had been hard against him. Indeed, the evidence had been compelling, convincing almost everyone except Selby’s wife and sister. In the end, Selby had shot himself while he was alone at his hunting box. People had called it suicide and taken it as further proof of his guilt. Even Phoebe, his wife, thought he had killed himself, driven to it by despair over his inability to make anyone believe him. Only Julia had clung to the belief that the shooting had been an accident, but she had placed the blame for his carelessness on the despair and frustration he had felt. The ultimate blame, she believed, lay with the man who had hounded Selby to his death, Lord Stonehaven.

Julia turned to Nunnelly, her chin jutting out in the stubborn way he knew so well. “We will simply have to come up with another plan.”

“Another plan?” The coachman frowned. “Have ye hatched another one, then?” The workings of Julia’s mind awed—and often alarmed—the stolid Irishman.

“Yes, one just came to me.”

“What is it, then?”

Julia glanced at the loyal servant. There was no way that she could tell him the truth. “Let’s wait and see.”

Nunnelly grumbled at her answer, but Julia ignored him, settling back in the high coachman’s seat and contemplating the dark houses around them. It was a daring plan. But it was, she thought with swelling hope, a plan that could work.

They had been studying Lord Stonehaven for weeks now, and she knew his weaknesses. She would use those weaknesses against him, and this time she would succeed.

She would bring Lord Stonehaven down—by seducing him.

1

“Julia, no! Absolutely not!” Phoebe, Julia’s petite blond sister-in-law, jumped to her feet at Julia’s words, her hand flying to her chest as if to keep her heart from leaping right out of it. “You cannot. You must not. You don’t know what you are saying!”

Julia sighed. She had known that Phoebe would react like this to the announcement of her new plan. Seduction was simply not something a well-bred young lady of 1811 set out to accomplish. “I do know what I’m saying. And I don’t intend to actually sleep with the man.”

Phoebe let out a strangled cry and sank back into her chair. “Julia!”

“I should think that would please you,” Julia stated practically.

“Well, of course I don’t want you to—to—you know—but, Julia, dear, you show such a want of propriety! To even speak of such a thing!” Her cheeks flamed at the thought.

“How else can I explain it to you?” Julia had little use for many of the conventions of Society. Because of her mother’s long illness, she had not made her debut when she should have, and then there had been the tremendous scandal around her brother, after which she and Phoebe had been ostracized by the ton. So she had never lived through a stifling London Season, her every word and action examined and criticized by the leading lights of the fashionable world. That, Phoebe was sure, was to blame for Julia’s lack of conventionality.

Julia knew that it went much further back. Her mother, like Phoebe, had tried to instill ladylike behavior in her daughter, but her sweet nature had never had the iron necessary to win in a battle of wills with Julia. Both her father and brother had doted on Julia, and they had found her bright wit amusing and her courageous spirit admirable. She had been allowed to express herself freely, to study where her curious mind led her, and to attempt whatever physical feat intrigued her. As a result, she had a quick mind and an even quicker tongue, could ride as if one with her horse, could hit a bull’s-eye with both firearm and arrow, and brimmed with a confidence that few women of her age had. The best that her mother had managed to do was to teach her manners, dancing and the obligations of a lady. In public she had learned to curb her tongue and control her actions, primarily so that she would not cause her mother or Phoebe distress.

Phoebe moaned and sank her head in her hands. “Julia, you cannot do this. Selby would be furious with me if he knew! I shouldn’t have let you come to London. I shouldn’t have agreed to any of this. Your first plan was bad enough—kidnapping Stonehaven and forcing him to confess! But this…!”

“Phoebe, don’t fail me now.” Julia crossed the room and knelt in front of the other woman’s chair, taking Phoebe’s hands in hers. Phoebe was as dear and sweet as a woman could be, and Julia understood why her brother had loved her so much, but there were times when Julia wished that her timid sister-in-law had a little more fire in her. “You mentioned the first plan. Remember how you worried and fretted over it? You were afraid that I would get hurt if I went along with Nunnelly and Jasper. You were afraid my reputation would be ruined.”

Phoebe nodded. “Yes. I was cast into despair every time you went out!”

“But nothing happened, did it?” Julia continued. “I came back safely every time, even tonight, and Lord Stonehaven never had the least clue that the lad atop the coach was I.”

“I know, and I thank the Lord for it.”

“Then believe me when I tell you that nothing bad will come of this, either. I told you, I’m not about to let the man have his way with me. I’m simply talking about meeting him, flirting with him, leading him on a little. Encouraging him to talk about what he’s done.”

Phoebe gazed at her doubtfully. “Do you think that will work on a man like Lord Stonehaven?”

“I am certain of it. Look—” she sat down on the floor beside Phoebe’s chair and eagerly explained “—there are two things I learned from following Lord Stonehaven these past three weeks. One was that taking him by force simply will not work. I did not know the man. I assumed that someone who did as foul a thing as he did to Selby would be too cowardly to even resist us. But physically he is strong and, I must admit, quite brave. He did not run from two men, instead he stayed and defeated them!” She could not keep a tinge of admiration from seeping into her voice. “Even tonight, when we were in the carriage and running away, he came after us—knowing that there were three of us. But—” she paused significantly “—the other thing that I discovered about him is that Lord Stonehaven is very fond of women.”

“A roué?”

Julia shrugged. “I don’t know that I would go as far as that. He doesn’t seem to pursue innocent maidens. I have only seen him with sophisticated ladies and, uh, well, women of a certain sort.”

“Oh, Julia…” Phoebe moaned.

“But don’t you see? That will work to our advantage!” Julia cried. “The man has a weakness, and it is women. That is why I realized that if I could get close to him, talk to him, I could worm the truth out of him. Why, you yourself have told me that it is when a man is pursuing a woman that he is most vulnerable, the most eager to please. Doesn’t it follow that that is when he will be the most likely to tell me what I want to know?”

“I don’t know.” Phoebe looked uncertain. It seemed to her that Selby had been at his most vulnerable after they had made love, but she certainly could not reveal something like that to his sister!

“I have found with my suitors that they are amazingly eager to talk, especially about themselves and how clever they are and what great things they have done. They want to impress me. I suspect that Lord Stonehaven is the same way.”

“Perhaps so, but, Julia, I think that you are getting in over your head. You haven’t even made your debut, and Lord Stonehaven is a wealthy man who has been on the town for some years. I am sure he is in his thirties.”

Julia raised her eyebrows and stood up, putting a hurt look on her face. “Are you saying that you do not think I can attract a sophisticated man like Lord Stonehaven? That only those who live in a little town like Whitley are drawn to me?”

Her gentle sister-in-law looked horrified, as Julia had known she would, and she forgot her questions for a moment in a storm of anxiety. “Oh, no, I did not mean that! Dearest Julia, you must know that I would never think you could not attract any man you wish. You are the most beautiful woman I know. Not just in Kent—I am sure that if you had had a Season in London, you would have outshone all the other debutantes.”

Julia smiled. She had not really had any qualms about her ability to attract a man, sophisticated or not. She had merely wanted to distract Phoebe from her worries. Julia Armiger had been assured that she was a beauty from the time she was old enough to toddle. The eager pursuit of her since she was sixteen by every gentleman within the vicinity of their country house had done nothing to disabuse her of the notion. Indeed, looking in the mirror each day was reassurance enough of that. Her figure was tall, slender and high-breasted, the perfect body for the high-waisted, soft, flowing styles that were currently popular. Her hair was a rich auburn, thick and inviting, and her eyes were a vibrant blue, accented by thick lashes. Everything about her face, from her creamy white complexion to the narrow arch of her dark brown brows to the sweet curve of her full lower lip, all combined to create a perfection that would perhaps have been cold if it had not been for the warmth of her smile and the pert little dimple that often creased her cheek.

Julia was not vain about her beauty. She accepted it as a fact, just as she accepted that she could handle a horse or read a book. Her beauty, she had found, meant a great deal more to others than it did to her. Indeed, there had been times when it had been a trial, when she had wished when conversing with a man that he could talk to her about something more interesting than the quality of her skin or the brightness of her eyes. It seemed to her that, in choosing a wife, it would be more important to find a pleasing personality such as Phoebe had than great beauty.

“Do you forgive me, dear Julia?” Phoebe asked with some anxiety, and Julia bent to give her a reassuring hug.

“Of course. I was merely teasing you. You have paid me compliments often enough to turn my head, I assure you.”

Phoebe smiled and relaxed. “Good. What I meant to say was that Lord Stonehaven has had far more experience than you. I am sure that he will admire you the moment he sees you, but it is what he might do that worries me. You intend only to tease him, but he is a dangerous man. An unscrupulous one! Think what he did to Selby, who had been his friend for years. What if you arouse him, and he—he does not behave like a gentleman? What if he—” She lowered her voice. “What if he forces you?”

“I may not have made my Season, but I have had some experience with men. I do not think the ones in Kent are that different from other men. I have always been able to handle my suitors, including the one or two who made less-than-gentlemanly overtures to me.”

Phoebe’s eyes widened. “No! They did? Who?”

Julia chuckled. “Squire Buntwell, for one.”

“Squire Buntwell! That old pudding!” Phoebe exclaimed indignantly. “What would he think a woman like you would want with him? Why, he’s fifty if he’s a day, and married, besides.”

“I don’t think he was overly concerned with what I wanted, only with what he wanted. Anyway, I made it clear to him that he should look elsewhere for his satisfaction.” Julia’s eyes twinkled with laughter as she recalled the incident.

“What did you do?”

“I stamped hard on his instep and punched him in that fat stomach. And while he was doubled over, trying to catch his breath, I told him that if he ever tried it again, I would tell his wife, the pastor and all the gossips in the county. He would be a laughingstock. I think he saw my point.”

Phoebe giggled. “I am sure he did. But I don’t think that would necessarily work with a man like Stonehaven.”

“Perhaps not. However, I can carry Selby’s detonator with me,” Julia said, naming the small pocket-size pistol in her brother’s collection. “I would think that a man’s ardor decreases dramatically when he’s staring down the barrel of a firearm.”

“Julia!” Phoebe looked shocked, but could not keep from bursting into laughter.

At that moment they were interrupted by the tumultuous entrance of a six-year-old boy.

“Mama! Mama! Oh, Auntie, there you are. I was looking everywhere for you. Look what I got!” He held out one grubby hand, palm up, to reveal a prize he knew would be far more appreciated by his aunt than his loving, but strangely squeamish, mother.

“A caterpillar!” Julia cried, echoed somewhat less enthusiastically by Phoebe, and bent down to look at the prize in the boy’s hand. “Wonderful, Gilbert! You didn’t squash it a bit, either.”

Gilbert nodded proudly. “I know. I ’membered what you said, how the green juice was like blood to him, so I didn’t squeeze him.”

“Good lad.”

“Could I keep him?” He looked over at his mother. “Please?”

Phoebe smiled at the boy. Sturdily built, he had an angelic face, with her own light blue eyes and sweet smile, but Selby’s strong chin and jaw. A cloud of bright red-gold curls added to the illusion of a cherub. Phoebe, while she might not share her son’s fondness for worms, snakes and caterpillars, rarely could deny him anything.

“Of course you can, sweetheart. Just make sure to put him in a container, though, or he might frighten the maids.”

“Get Nurse to find a jar for you,” Julia instructed. “And remember, put holes in the top, and a twig and some leaves inside for him.”

Gilbert nodded and bounced out of the room to show his prize to his nurse. Phoebe looked after him with a sigh, her eyes filling with tears. Gilbert, only three years old when his father died, could not even remember Selby. “If only Selby had lived to see him grow up.”

Her wistful words hardened Julia’s resolve. “And he would have lived to see him—if Stonehaven had not hounded him to death. Phoebe, I have to make Stonehaven reveal the truth, don’t you see?”

Phoebe nodded. “I know.”

“If I do nothing, Gilbert will always have to live under the shadow of the scandal. He’ll hear the whispers. People will turn away from him, refuse to meet him or issue him an invitation.” She paused, not adding, “The way they have us.” But Phoebe knew that truth as well as she.

The scandal surrounding Selby and his death had sealed Julia and Phoebe off from “polite society.” Phoebe no longer went to London for the Season. Julia, who had not yet made her debut, had accepted that she never would. The blot on the family name was too great. Even in the small circle of their country acquaintances, there had been those who had cut them. Wherever they went, even church, they saw people whispering and staring. When they had moved to the Armiger London house a few weeks ago, more than one Society matron had looked the other way when she saw them. The memory of the ton was very long.

“No,” Phoebe whispered fiercely. Normally sweet-tempered, a threat to her beloved child was enough to turn her into a fiery avenger. “That cannot happen to Gilbert. We must not let it.” She looked up into her sister-in-law’s vivid blue eyes, and her jaw hardened with determination. “You are right. I was being weak. Of course we must continue to try to prove Selby’s innocence. You do what you must. Whatever it takes.”

Julia grinned. “I knew you would stand firm, Phoebe.” For all her gentle nature and her worries about impropriety, Phoebe alone out of everyone they knew had believed as firmly as Julia herself that Selby was innocent of the accusations and had been as determined to prove it.

Phoebe gave her a quick smile and picked up her sewing again. Then she stopped and looked up questioningly. “But, Julie, dear…how are you going to meet Lord Stonehaven? We don’t go out in Society. Indeed, I am sure that we would not be received even if we tried.”

“No. That is a problem.” Julia did not deem it necessary to tell Phoebe that the kind of woman that she planned to be for Lord Stonehaven would not be one he would meet at Society fetes. It was better if Phoebe did not know quite all the details. “But I’ve been thinking—I believe I can get help from Cousin Geoffrey.”

“Geoffrey Pemberton?” Phoebe’s face cleared, and she smiled. “That’s good. He is a most elegant gentleman, so courteous. I am sure he will know just what to do.”

“No doubt.” Julia did not tell her that she was not seeking her cousin’s advice in the matter, merely his aid in executing her own scheme. She knew exactly how she intended to meet and interest Stonehaven. It was unfortunate that it required the help of some willing male. She was sure that Phoebe would have been alarmed to know that she was seeking out her cousin’s help because he was the least shockable gentleman she knew, and also the laziest. If she kept after him long enough, Geoffrey would eventually give in rather than expend the effort of arguing.

“But, Julia, don’t you think that Lord Stonehaven will be suspicious of your motives, no matter how he meets you? I mean, your being Selby’s sister.”

Julia smiled in a way that Phoebe found a little blood-chilling and said, “Ah, but, you see, I am not going to be me.”

Julia found her cousin alone in his apartments later that afternoon. She had wisely waited until after three to give him time to awaken, eat and get properly dressed for the day, all three occupations that required a great deal of time. When his man ushered Julia into the drawing room, bowing and intoning her name, Cousin Geoffrey looked up at her with a startled stare that reminded her forcibly of a doe spotting a hunter.

“Cousin Julia!” he exclaimed, rising politely and casting a quick, nervous glance around. “What are you doing here?”

“No way to escape, Cuz,” Julia responded cheerfully, coming forward to offer her hand. “Please, sit down. Surely we needn’t stand on ceremony.”

“No. No, of course not. Escape, indeed!” He offered a faint laugh. “As if I did not enjoy your visits to the utmost.”

Julia chuckled. “Don’t lie to me, Cousin. I remember quite well when you told me that you found my visits wearing in the extreme.”