“I say we cut and run while the going’s good,” Wes declared from the window seat where he sat watching the falling snow and the possibility of Wickham returning with the magistrate.
“Aye,” Duncan’s one-word response followed.
“They’ll be dead by the end of the week,” Marcus muttered.
“I’ll not have the stain of their blood on my hands,” Darius told the three.
Wes sighed and scratched the back of his neck. “Not five months ago, we were chasing a story around the ocean and kidnapping pirates’ daughters. Why must you always attract the damsels in distress? Why could you not draw the attentions of damsels in desire or at least ones with loose morals who would pay their way out of trouble with their bodies?”
The other two men chuckled. Darius smiled but didn’t answer. He couldn’t put a name to the feeling clutching his heart and squeezing when he thought of Eliza—or even Daniella Germaine, the pirate’s daughter in question, who had essentially been his enemy—in the hands of dogs like his father and his brother. The fact that there were other men who’d come looking for the duke also worried Darius. What if he wasn’t there to protect them? Obviously they had no one else. How could he sleep at night less than a mile away and worry that Eliza and her brood were in danger? Or even shivering to death in their mausoleum?
The easy answer was that he could not.
The hard answer was that he would not.
“They’ll have to come with us.” It was more him speaking aloud than asking the men but they each gave their answers anyway.
“’Twould be asking for trouble,” Duncan said.
“It might cause a fight with more than those looking for money,” Wes pointed out. “What about the men in the village? What would the wives say about the miss’s reputations?”
Marcus guffawed. “Since when did you have a care for a girl’s virtue?”
For a moment Wes displayed a measure of wounded pride but then he laughed along loudly before replying, “These are ladies. They’re different. I can’t seduce and tumble these girls.”
“You better bloody not,” Darius warned him. “If they are under our protection then they are off limits. For God’s sake, the little one can’t be more than thirteen.”
“The elder miss must be at least two and twenty though,” Marcus replied.
Darius didn’t like the speculative gleam in his first mate’s eyes. The other man eyed Darius like a target for cupid’s arrow. “I won’t be laying a hand on any of them either. They will be guests in our home and that is that. We keep them safe for now and stick to our original plan.”
A feminine voice interrupted from the doorway. “We won’t be going anywhere. I have spoken to the children and it is decided that we stay and you go.”
All three men jumped to their feet. Darius tucked his pistol back into the holster at his side and pulled his coat forward to fasten the buttons. “Impossible. Collect what you need and be quick about it.”
“You have no authority here,” Eliza said, her hands back on her hips in the weakest display of stubbornness Darius had ever witnessed.
“I’ll not come back tomorrow to find you all murdered in your beds, or worse.”
A sardonic look stretched her lips as though she thought she had already won this battle. “What could be worse than death?”
Darius raised his brows. “Perhaps raped? Beaten? Broken? While your brothers are forced to watch but are unable to assist?”
She paled and he instantly regretted his harsh tone and vulgar words. His conscience didn’t prickle for long though. “Eliza, we will not leave you here alone, unprotected and freezing. We have guest rooms, fires, food.”
“We have food,” a small voice said as the youngest boy pushed forward from his hiding place behind Eliza’s skirts. Darius would have to remember his presence before there was any further talk of rape or murder.
“Do you have a hare to roast for supper?” he asked the child.
The little one shook his head with a defiance to rival his sister’s but it was the lick of his lips that gave him away.
“How long has it been since you have had a roast hare for supper?”
Little green eyes met his with longing that soon turned to disgust. “We’ve only had revolting vegetables for months but Eliza says they will make us big and strong.” He flexed his tiny bicep but then dropped his arm and shook his head. “But I reckon she lied.”
Darius chuckled. “They will help to make you big and strong but a man needs meat. That’s how you get big muscles.”
The child inched closer. “Do you have big muscles?”
“I do,” he confirmed with a nod, laughter building on his chest.
“Are you really called Darius?”
He nodded again, tamping the humour back down.
“I have something I’m to give you.” Without another word, the boy ran from the room, his stockings slipping on the hall tiles.
“You must leave now,” Eliza told them, walking to the door and holding her arm out. “We do not require your assistance any longer.”
“You would starve them? For what?” Why did she fight so hard against his good intentions? Why did she suddenly look as though he’d backed her into a corner she couldn’t escape from but she would rather die than give in?
“It is improper for us to accept your invitation. We have no chaperone and you are a stranger to us.”
“You knew my grandfather and despite who my sire is, I would never take advantage of a woman under my roof. I have no need to take by force or any other means. You will all be much safer there.” Then a realisation hit him and he stepped back. “Is it because I am a bastard and a ship’s captain? Because I make my money in trade, you would refuse my protection? I assure you I have the means.”
“That has very little to do with anything,” she
