too uncomprehending of the strange behavior of this family. Men drank readily and smoked cigars in front of their wives, trilling laughter sounded throughout the night, children slept draped over their parents wherever they'd fallen asleep, not waking even at the loud laughter.
How many nights had the three brothers sat out on their terrace, listening, giving each other looks of bewilderment?
Now he was to be on the other side of the cove, for the fire?
He must have shown how dismayed he was, because she sidled up to him, a smile playing about her wine- reddened lips—the lips he'd burned to sample when he'd pressed her against the house just minutes ago.
'I'd really like to eat here tonight,' she said.
He shook his head sternly.
'Please?' she asked in a soft voice, making him wonder which was worse—that she could manage him, or that they both knew she could.
She took his hand, easing them back down to the blanket. 'We'll just sit here.' He knew she was manipulating him, but he was also aware she would clasp his arm and mold her body to his as they sat. Withstand the fire; get this attention.
He would win this one.
Leaning close, her breasts soft against his arm, she trailed her hand up to the back of his neck, then made slow, lazy circles with her nails. 'This is not so bad, is it?'
Not with her, but the others had all convened—from nannies to bairns to couples—all lazy on blankets around the fire, with delicacies spread about on china dishes. Though Jane prepared him a selection, and the food smelled delicious, he had no appetite.
Once the children had dropped off—with the wee lass Emily bundled in a blanket and curled over Jane's ankles—and the nannies had retired, more bottles of wine surfaced. The talk grew lively and the language turned frank, even in front of the ladies, evenby the ladies.
Hugh glanced up when he heard Robert say, 'At least Hugh knows what she's like. Imagine if he'd married her without having known her for so long.'
Samantha said, 'Well, I'm sure he knows that Janey's the wildest of the Eight.'
'I am not!' Jane cried.
'Does Hugh know about the Russian prince?' Samantha asked, and Jane gave a self-satisfied smile.
Hugh's no' sure he wants to know about the Russian prince….
But Samantha had already begun. 'Just this spring at a ball, a horrid old lecher of a prince stuck his hand down Charlotte's bodice. Little Charlotte was so mortified! So we all went on the offensive, spreading rumors about his eleventh toe of a male appendage.' Samantha's eyes were glinting with amusement. 'But Jane merely watched from the side like a tigress sizing up prey, waiting for the right moment. I saw the whole thing happening. As he strolled past her, she flashed him a come-hither smile. His attention was so fixed on her that he never saw her foot sweep out from under her skirts to trip him. He crashed face first into the gala-size punch bowl.'
Hugh felt the corners of his lips quirking. Fierce lass.
Belinda added, 'Jane sauntered up to us, brushing her hands off, and remarked'—she mimicked Jane's sensual voice—''Darlings, all men bow before the Weyland Eight. Or they fall.''
Hugh raised his eyebrows at Jane, and the words slipped out: 'They bow, do they?'
'Weren't you listening?' she asked with a saucy grin. 'That, or they fall. And the big ones like you fallhard .'
No bloody kidding.
Everyone laughed. After that, the conversation devolved into a dirty limerick contest. When Hugh found himself on the verge of grinning, he grew guarded. He forced himself to draw back. That's what he did—he was always on the outside, looking in. Always. It wasn't difficult—he was so different from these people, it was like night and day.
Everyone here was so bloody comfortable in their own skin, so settled and sure in their relationships, affection displayed openly, unconsciously. Samantha laughed with her lips pressed to Robert's neck. Belinda and Lawrence held hands to walk ten feet to go retrieve her shawl.
What would it be like if he belonged here, if Jane truly were his? What wouldhe be like without the constant shadow of theLeabhar over him? How he envied this life.
One family so blessed, one cursed.
When he exhaled, Jane absently stroked the back of his neck with her nails, as though she sensed he needed it.
He stared into the fire. Just weeks ago, the woman his brother loved—the only one he'd ever loved—had almost died. Because of Court's brash actions, the two of them had been hunted down by the Rechazado.
Two had followed Annalía's brother to the MacCarrick home in London, and had seized her, dragging her outside. When Court had charged after her, one shoved a gun against her temple so hard she'd been bruised. Court could do nothing to help her, could only grate out a strangled plea to Hugh, who, as usual, had been on the periphery and able to back away.
Hugh had made it upstairs to his room, snatched up his rifle, and drawn a bead from the second-story window. Never had a shot meant so much—he knew his brother would be destroyed if the girl died.
Hugh had succeeded in killing the target in a way that prevented the man from firing, but Annalía had had to crawl away from the dropped body that still clenched her. Before Court could get to her, she'd slipped in the pooling blood, crying softly.
And as he'd seen Court rushing to her, Hugh had been shamed to feel relief—that he himself had never risked Jane. He remembered thinking, 'I'll die before I expose Jane to something like this.'
But he was….
Jane kissed his ear and murmured, 'A hundred pounds and counting. Care to make it two?'
Chapter Twenty-eight
Grey felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up just before the tavern went silent.
He shook his head, grinning into his cup. The unrelenting bastard had just entered the very lakeside tavern where Grey had reposed during the day—and the one he was departing from by ferry as soon as darkness fell.
Grey had already determined his means of a swift exit and slipped toward the side door, but he hesitated in the shadows to get a closer look at his pursuer.
Ethan MacCarrick.Ah, the fiend that fiends feared.
That made Grey want to chuckle.
Ethan's eyes were intent, surveying the scene for threats. His face was set in a scowl, his scar bone white. Grey had always hankered to know who'd dealt Ethan that blow, but Hugh wouldn't speak of the subject and resented being asked about it. Yet Grey knew that whoever had done the job had had skill—Ethan's scar whitened with any expression—and he had done it when Ethan was still a young man.
Backing to a wall, Ethan continued searching the crowd, no doubt for drunken patrons who looked like regulars. Grey knew that they were the gatekeepers—the ones with all the information—because drunks could be remarkably perceptive, and no one was guarded enough around them.
Under Ethan's watchful glare, a patron suddenly bolted toward the door. Within the space of a heartbeat, Ethan had the man by the hair, hauling him outside.
Grey skulked out the back, trailing as Ethan pulled the man into a foggy alley. From a distance, Grey watched him slowly strangling the man with one hand, then allowing him to gasp out words in violent intervals. Grey rolled his eyes. Ethan's style had always been blunt and dependent on power.
When the mark yelled a name that was actually a roundabout lead to him, Grey supposed Ethan had hadsome success with it. After knocking the man flat, Ethan returned to the tavern, inadvertently trapping Grey— the bloody ferryman wasinside , guzzling ale, waiting on Grey to give the word to depart.
Damn it!Although Grey was only a half-hour ferry ride away from Ros Creag, he felt he needed to move quickly. He suspected that Hugh wasn't planning to remain at the lake much longer. Hugh must know Grey would
