“No, stop!” Minerva’s voice was drowned out, and Abigail’s too. She turned to see Marcus being hauled off the knave on the floor. “Let him go! It’s Roger you should be after.”
But even as she shouted, Roger took advantage of the chaotic shouts and fighting as Marcus struggled and Caleb tried his best to avoid being detained, while also trying to shove Abigail behind him so she would not be hurt in the skirmish.
“Listen to me!” Minerva shouted.
“Min, are you hurt?” Her father’s brow was furrowed in concern as he plucked Abigail out from behind Caleb and came over to Minerva to eye her from head to toe for any obvious injuries.
“We are not hurt, but Roger—”
“What have these men done to Roger?” Her father’s concern for a man who was so undeserving made her want to spit. His gaze roamed, no doubt to find Roger and ask him what was happening.
“That’s just it, Father,” she said, shifting so she blocked his gaze and demanded his attention. “This was Roger’s doing.”
Her father scowled down at her. “What? What do you mean?”
“It’s true,” Abigail said. “Roger held me at knifepoint. He is the one behind the criminal activity—”
“What are you saying?” Her father’s roar was not meant for Abigail, but her sister clamped her mouth shut all the same.
“Father.” Minerva tugged on his arm to get his attention. “Have your men let Marcus and Caleb go. They saved our lives. It’s Roger you should be after.”
Her father blinked down at her once before bursting into motion, shouting for his men to find Roger, who’d disappeared in the hubbub, and ordering those who’d been holding Marcus and Caleb to release them.
“You,” he shouted to Marcus. “I expect an explanation for what was going on in here, including how you let my daughters get involved.”
“Father,” she started to protest. He ought to be thanking Marcus, not accusing him.
He cut her off with a glare that had Abigail reaching for her hand. “Come along, Minerva. Let us fetch help for Caleb.”
Minerva shot one look in Marcus’s direction, and caught his wink before her father spun around to face him.
Abigail tugged on her arm. “Come on, Min,” she said. “There will be time enough for goodbyes later.”
Minerva tore her gaze away from Marcus, but her heart was another matter. Her last glimpse of the man who’d stolen her heart was of him smiling, despite her father’s anger. Somehow, Marcus had managed to look unfazed, if not amused, by the entire ordeal.
She kept her gaze facing forward as Abigail went to one side of Caleb and she went to the other and together they helped him limp toward the shore where officers were still gathering. Sally ran forward, shouting that the doctor was on his way.
Until then, Caleb would be in good hands with her sisters.
There would be time enough for goodbyes, Abigail had said.
Minerva swallowed the ache that crept from her heart into her throat, but she resisted the urge to look back toward the cave where Marcus was giving a detailed account to her father.
Goodbyes weren’t what she wanted.
In fact, that would only make it harder. And with the threat that faced Marcus if he stayed and was recognized, she couldn’t even wish for him to stay.
He’d be gone just as soon as he was able.
And he’d take her heart with him.
Chapter 13
What a disaster.
Marcus stood before Caleb at the now nearly-empty main room of the fort. The remnants of the party that had ended abruptly were still around them, and to his dismay, those who’d remained were the guests of honor.
He’d barely given the old earl and his family and friends a second glance, so it was impossible to say if he recognized them. Or, more importantly, if they recognized him. Since no one had shouted out, ‘Stop! It’s the rightful Earl of Colefax!’ he assumed he was safe.
Even so, he was pushing his luck with each passing moment he stayed on these English shores.
Caleb groaned from where he was sprawled on the floor. The doctor and Minerva’s sister, Sally, who’d assisted in bandaging his leg, were both long gone now after giving Caleb orders to stay off his leg as much as possible in the coming days.
Minerva had also left after checking on Caleb’s welfare. She’d been gone when he’d arrived at the fort after having given the captain his side of the tale.
She was gone, and he suspected she wasn’t coming back. He thrust a hand through his hair as he fought a near suffocating sensation. Like the walls were closing in on him.
Funny. He’d grown used to battling that feeling anytime he was back on these shores. His homeland. But now, his claustrophobia had nothing to do with where he was.
He hadn’t felt trapped or closed in once since meeting Minerva. Everything about her, just thinking of her, made his chest expand and his world feel bigger. Fresher.
She made him feel like a new man.
Caleb eyed him from where he sat on the ground. “You should get out of here.”
Marcus nodded. Caleb might not have known the whole story, but he’d been told enough to know that Marcus avoided being in the same room as the peerage at all costs.
Now, he wasn’t only in the same room as an earl and his family—they were the only other people in the room. Probably out of some misguided notion that their presence was helpful. That their influence might be useful.
Marcus scoffed at the thought. Earls and their like had their uses, his brother Alistair was proof of that, but on the whole, they took themselves and their titles far too seriously.
No title would summon Roger out of whatever hole he was currently hiding in, and their standing around in the aftermaths of a ball was hardly helpful.
He imagined most of the townsfolk had long since gone back to their homes now that the excitement of the day was done. The officers, he knew, were scouring the shoreline for any
