Though Kendra could see the rise and fall of his agitated breathing, the Puritan turned back boldly. “Surely thee has no need of gold,” he spat out, tugging his sleeve from the bigger man’s grasp while eyeing his groomed appearance and expensive, tailored suit. “A…gentleman such as thyself.”
The highwayman’s eyes were amber, edged in a deeper hue—bronze, Kendra decided—that now spread in toward the center as his expression hardened. “Your luggage and your cloak, then—seeing as you won’t cooperate.”
He swung his pistol in the coachman’s direction. The driver scrambled down and fumbled with the ropes securing the passengers’ belongings. A shove sent the Puritan’s trunk to the rutted road with a decisive thunk.
“Your cloak.” The highwayman held out his free hand, almost as though he were bored, while his victim struggled out of his plain mantle.
“What about them?” he sputtered, handing it over. His gaze swung toward the Chases.
The highwayman glanced inside and flashed Kendra’s brothers a conspiratorial smile before answering. “They’re friends. Good day.”
“Good day? Good day?” The poor man looked as red as a squalling newborn, and Kendra almost felt sorry for him—until she reminded herself that it was his ilk who had killed her parents during the Civil War.
Her brothers indeed carried pistols—and swords and knives and heaven knew what else—and had the man not been a Roundhead, she was sure one or both of them would have jumped to his defense. But because of men like this one, Jason had been left to raise his orphaned siblings, all of them forced to spend the Commonwealth years in poverty and exile.
She turned to watch the amber man remount and make his way down the road and up the hill toward his cohorts. He’d been superb. Magnificent.
Romantic, she thought on a sigh.
Amber. His clean-shaven, suntanned complexion. His eyes, a deep gold the color of the finest liquor. The black plume on his cavalier’s hat fluttered as he rode, and beneath it he wore a crimped brown periwig that rather reminded her of Ford’s hair. But she was certain the highwayman’s real hair wasn’t brown. Though many men had shaven heads under their periwigs, he wouldn’t. His own hair would be cut short, but not off, certainly—she shuddered at the thought—and it would be golden. Amber.
“Are thee going to let him get away with this?” the Puritan demanded, clambering up and glaring at her brothers with their rapiers at their sides.
One of Jason’s black brows rose, and he spoke for them both. “I expect so.”
The coach lurched and they continued on, but the atmosphere was decidedly strained, and the Roundhead got off at the next stop.
Kendra moved to sit in the now-vacant spot beside Ford. “A highwayman,” she breathed as soon as the carriage resumed moving.
“Why didn’t he rob us?” Caithren asked. “How is it you know him? He called you friends.”
“He uses the term lightly.” Jason’s smile was enigmatic. “We’ve run into him before. But he’s never robbed us.”
“He didn’t look like he needed to rob anybody,” Kendra pointed out. “His suit was nicer than yours.”
He’d looked nicer than Jason all around, she mused. Not that Jason was hideous, but he had the general look of her family, a look she was inured to, to say the least. The highwayman, on the other hand, had looked…exotic. All golden and dressed in black—black suit, black shirt, black boots, black mask—not the look of your typical scruffy outlaw, that was for sure.
Jason shrugged, absently running a hand through his wife’s straight, dark-blond hair. “Almost anyone can afford one nice suit of clothes, if he makes it his priority. You cannot judge a man by his looks, Kendra.”
But she had, of course. Judged him, and liked what she saw.
Jason raised Cait’s hand and brushed a kiss over her knuckles, earning a smile in return. “Perhaps we should turn him in,” he suggested playfully. “This is getting to be somewhat of a nuisance.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Kendra burst out. “He’s so…well…um, he’s obviously a Royalist. He robbed only the Roundhead.”
“There could be a reward for him. And Lakefield House is in sad shape,” Viscount Lakefield, otherwise known as Ford, lamented half-seriously. “I cannot live with Jason forever.”
“Oh, yes, you can,” Kendra said heatedly.
Jason turned to her. “Is it that important to you, then? I didn’t realize your Royalist loyalty ran so deep.”
“Well…it does,” she declared, thinking about the highwayman’s broad shoulders.
“Well, then.” Ford’s deep-blue eyes gleamed with mischief. “I suppose we’ll have to leave him be. At least it provides him with a stake for the card games.”
Jason glared at their brother.
“What?” Kendra asked. “What card games?”
“All highwaymen play cards,” Jason said firmly. He picked up their own deck and shuffled it expertly, then dealt out new hands.
Kendra arranged her cards slowly, her mind not on the game.
She remembered the highwayman’s voice. He’d spoken cautiously, as though he were considering each word. Not like her family. The Chases, as a rule, blurted everything that came into their heads, generally at the tops of their lungs.
“What was his accent?” she asked. “Did you hear it?”
“Scots, aye?” Cait said, exaggerating her own burr. “Though I’d guess he hasn’t been home for many a year. I’m surprised you even noticed.”
When Jason looked up sharply, Kendra pretended to study her fan of cards. He frowned back down at his own hand. “Why do you want to know?”
Why? She could scarcely comprehend such a stupid question. She wanted to know everything about the mysterious highwayman.
“Just curious,” she said lightly, leading with a jack of hearts. “Your turn.”
TWO
THE DUKE OF Lechmere turned out to be everything Kendra had feared and then some. He was the epitome of what she did not want in a husband.
His skin appeared to have never seen the sun. She had no idea what color his hair was, since it was hidden beneath a periwig dusted with enough powder to choke a horse. She suspected he was bald underneath, anyway. His
