Heartbreak and Honor (23 page)

Chapter 26

Alexa whipped around, tramping Jules’s toes in her haste and almost falling.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped, trying to regain her balance and stamping his foot once more.

A strong hand at her elbow steadied her. “Careful, there.”

Humor feathered the edges of Lucan’s mouth and eyes.

Laughing, their sweet faces scrunched with glee, György and Lala bolted down the steps.

In the doorway beside a beaming butler, Father and Edeena stood smiling.

Not caring she would soil her coat, Alexa knelt and opened her arms. Her brother and sister crashed into her, nearly tumbling them to the ground.

Again, Lucan’s strong arm kept her upright.

He’d arranged this, though how he convinced her father to leave Scotland for London would make for interesting telling.

Tears clouding her eyes, she smiled her gratitude. “How? When?”

György pointed at Lucan. “His grace let us ride in his carriage all the way from Scotland.”

Lucan extended his hand. “Here, let me help you. We shall go inside, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Several curious spectators paused to gawp. Best to continue the reunion indoors.

She accepted his help then lifted Lala onto her hip. “Yes, let’s do. I have so many questions.”

“I lost a tooth. Now I be talkin’ like Lala.” György grinned and exposed the gap in his upper teeth as they climbed the risers.

She wrapped her other arm around his shoulder. “I’ve missed you. How have you been?”

He scampered the last two steps and opened his arms wide. “We be sailin’ on a big ship to America.”

“America? Why?” She met her father’s understanding gaze. So far away. She mightn’t ever see them again. “You love Scotland.”

Alexa tossed Lucan a bewildered look. What did he know of this nonsense?

“We shall discuss it once we’re settled in the salon.” His lips bent into a smile, and he clasped György’s hand. “Do you like hot chocolate and biscuits? I bet I can get Cook to find some.”

György nodded enthusiastically.

A few minutes later, after Alexa hugged her parents and brother and sister again, Jules led the children to the kitchen for the promised hot chocolate, and Houston delivered a generously laden tray to the salon.

The butler removed her redingote while she curiously peered around the functional, though inarguably, austere-in-its-maleness, room. The plain, heavy furniture reflected Lucan’s stark taste.

Beeswax, linseed oil, and the aroma of burning wood lent a hospitable ambiance to the chamber. A family portrait provided a hint of color amongst the neutral browns and grays. From the bright canvas, Lucan peered at her, a glint of mischievousness in the depths of his youthful, pewter gaze.

He didn’t seem to prefer bright hues or embellishment as she did. Another incongruity between them?

“Would you please, Alexa?” Indicating the service, Lucan then prodded the fire with a poker, encouraging the flames higher.

“Of course.” She poured coffee into the four eggshell thin teacups. A smile quirking her lips, she raised the pot. “Most un-English-like.”

Everyone chuckled, and the tension eased a trifle from Father’s and Edeena’s features. Although, Edeena still gingerly cradled her cup and saucer as if afraid the china would shatter merely from being touched.

Offering her father a plate of assorted biscuits, Alexa’s nerves unexpectedly overcame her. As much as she wanted to know the truth of how she came to be with the Highland travellers, part of her longed for the blissful ignorance that had protected her these many years.

“Mr. Faas—”

“Please, Yer Grace, call me Balcomb.”

Lucan inclined his head a degree. “Balcomb, the tickets are in my study.
The
Morning Star
—” He twisted to address Alexa. “She’s part of Stapleton’s Shipping and Supplies fleet which Lady Sethwick owns. Of course, you remember her from your stay at Craiglocky Keep.”

“Yes.” Alexa managed a partial nod.

Lucan had purchased the tickets? Why?

“As I was saying,” Lucan brushed a shortbread crumb from his leg, “
The
Morning Star
sails with the tide two nights hence.”

She sucked in a startled breath and, hands shaking, set her teacup aside, the china clanking until she brought it under control. “That soon?”

“
Aye
, Tasara.” After exchanging a glance with Edeena, Father abandoned his cup too. “His grace has generously paid for our passage to Boston and given me a letter of reference for a position at Lady Sethwick’s shippin’ office there. He also be insistin’ I accept a sum from him so we,” he glanced to Edeena, “can begin again in the colonies.”

“But why are you leaving the travellers?” Alexa gestured to Edeena, then Father. “You’ve only known the black tinker’s way of life. I thought you loved it.”

She swallowed the grief tearing at her throat. She’d borne the banishment from her clan, but her family moving to a different continent?

To never see György or Lala again?

“Times are changin’, lass. It be harder and harder for the tinkers to find places we be welcome, and harder yet to earn coin. Speakin’ of which,” he gave her a sheepish half-smile, “Jamie forced me to accept the reward money from yer uncle.”

“Why?” She pushed a stray lock of hair off her forehead.

“He said he and the brethren be owed it for keepin’ silent. Ye
ken
travellin’ be a hard life and a thousand pounds, well,” Father shrugged his thin shoulders, “I
canna
begrudge Jamie for bein’ a bit greedy.”

Alexa couldn’t either. Many a traveller took advantage of opportunities when presented. Knowing Father hadn’t sought the money for himself did much to heal the rift in her heart.

“Within our tribe there be more and more discord. We not be the first family to leave, lass.”

“I know.” But America? Why so blasted far away? “Why don’t you stay in England? Or better yet, I have an inheritance. We could live on that.”

“
Nae
, lass. I make my own way, ye
ken
that. In America, we’ll have opportunities we can never hope to have in Scotland or England. Lala and György can make somethin’ of themselves there.”

Hope lit his tired features, revealing the handsome man he’d once been before a lifetime of want and hard work ravaged his face and body. Father rose and looked toward the entrance. “With yer permission, Yer Grace, may I shut the door?”

“By all means.” Lucan took Alexa’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

Searching his eyes, she pressed a palm to her stomach. “Do you know what this is about?”

“I do. He told me last night when they arrived, but you should hear it from him.” He squeezed her hand again.

Father stood before the fireplace, and hands clasped behind him, stared at the carpet, the lines of his face deepening as he furrowed his brow and flattened his mouth. He struggled to form the words, as she wrestled with the urge to flee the room.

At last he regarded her. “It be true ye be found in the forest. But, what I haven’t told ye, haven’t told a soul, except the duke and Edeena recently, be that Forba found ye hidin’ inside a hollow log, beaten and bleedin’.”

Why would someone assault a toddler?

“I became worried and went searchin’ for her.” Pausing, he scraped a hand through his hair, an untamed look in his eye. “I came upon her tryin’ to defend herself, and ye, from a monstrous brute. A small knife meant for cuttin’ plants be all she had.”

Lucan patted Alexa’s hand before standing. He strode to the bell pull and a moment later, Houston entered.

“Yes, Your Grace?”

“Please bring a bottle of Scotch and four tumblers.”

“At once.” The butler remained stone-faced at being asked to procure spirits at half past ten in the morning.

When the door closed behind Houston, Father resumed his tale. “He charged me, knocked me to the ground and nearly choked my life from me before Forba bashed him in the head with a rock.”

Edeena looked around nervously, as if afraid Father would be overheard.

He flicked Lucan an uneasy glance. “I swear he would have killed me if she hadn’t acted quickly, Yer Grace.”

“I don’t doubt it in the least.” Lucan returned to his seat beside Alexa. “Are you all right? I know this must be trying for you.”

His presence gave her strength. She needed to know everything. She nodded. “Yes. Go on, Father.”

“We stuffed his body as far into the hollow log as we could, intendin’ to return at night and bury him. Only we never returned. The
bairn
be delivered while we be away, and when Jamie saw ye, lass,” Father
gestured at Alexa, “even though we told him we found ye alone, he gave orders to break camp immediately.”

“Jamie be no man’s fool. He
ken
somethin’ be afoot and feared for the safety of his people.” Edeena ducked her head at her boldness before taking a careful sip of coffee.

“
Aye
, and when he asked why I be bloodied and my clothes torn, I lied, claimed to have slipped and fallen. Easy enough to do in the Highlands.”

Drawing in a steadying breath, Alexa wet her lips. “And this man, do you have any idea who he was?”

“
Aye
, by accident, I stumbled across the bugger at Dounnich House. Forba hadn’t killed him, only knocked him unconscious.”

“Good God.” Alexa couldn’t suppress the shudder ravaging her at the mention of the Blackhall fortress or the brutes who imprisoned her.

Lucan boldly draped an arm across her shoulders. The heat of his fingers radiated through the fabric, branding her as his.

“His name?” She’d already guessed what Father would say.

“Angus Blackhall.” Father
shook his head and stared into the distance. “He remembered me, after all those years, and must have realized exactly who he’d captured. Though his clan be under attack, he headed straight for the staircase, the bloody sod.”

Would Angus have killed her if he’d known her identity earlier?

A sinister grin skewed her father’s mouth. “Me and the other travellers ensured he didn’t make it to ye, lass.”

Alexa calmly took a drink of her coffee. Not the reaction a peeress should have if she’d heard her father confess to killing a man, but she wouldn’t feign faintness or upset she didn’t feel.

More of a wild beast than civilized human, Angus Blackhall’s violent ending didn’t produce an ounce of remorse in her. Taking another sip of the dark brew, she hid a grimace. A mite too strong for Alexa’s taste, she added a dab more milk to her coffee. “Why didn’t he search for me?”

Father shrugged. “I
canna
say for sure. There be dozens of black tinker tribes, and we always be movin’. Besides, I be guessin’ he didn’t want whoever hired him to kill ye to know he’d failed all those years ago.”

That
sent a frisson of dread sluicing through her. Now chilled, despite the cheery fire cavorting in the hearth and the hot coffee warming her, Alexa relaxed into Lucan’s heat, grateful she’d chosen to wear a long-sleeved wool spencer over her gown.

“Blackhall didn’t tell you who hired him? Not a hint?” Lucan withdrew his arm and bent forward, anticipation radiating from his taut form.

Alexa felt strangely bereft without his arm’s comforting weight.

“There
nae
be time for an interrogation, Yer Grace. Ye be there and
ken
it be chaos in the beginnin’. But I would bet he told someone else. His kind be braggarts.”

“That might explain Harrison’s knowledge of my captivity.” Premonition scratched her sharp talons down Alexa’s spine.

Lucan nodded and rubbed his nape, his face settling into harsh lines. “Yes, it’s quite feasible he knew someone there. His stepsister is Scots after all.”

“But . . . wouldn’t that mean he also be aware she’d been abducted?” A puzzled frown wrinkled Edeena’s plump face as she looked from person to person.

“
Aye
, it—”

A brisk rap interrupted Balcomb and preceded Houston’s entrance, bearing the requested spirits in one hand, and guiding Lady Middleton with the other. “Sir, Lady Middleton has arrived.”

“Forgive me for calling unannounced, Nephew, but I have urgent news.” She faltered upon spying Father
and Edeena.

Cautious around gentry and noblemen, and hesitant of her reception, they eyed her uncertainly.

“Houston, please leave the Scotch beside the tea.” Lucan indicated an empty spot atop the tea table.

“Shall I pour you each a finger’s worth, Your Grace?”

“No, that’s not necessary, but please fetch my grandaunt a teacup and tumbler too.”

That did earn a subtle eyebrow and lip twitch from the butler. “Indeed.”

He faced Alexa’s father. “Mr. Faas, your children would like permission to visit the coach house next door. They’ve been extended an invitation to play with a litter of six-week-old beagle pups. Naturally, Jules will accompany them and keep them from harm and mischief.”

Poor Jules, playing nursemaid. Not what he’d expected today when he’d agreed to act as chaperone.

Father smiled. “
Aye
, they would enjoy that. Thank ye.”

With a regal nod of his head, the butler slipped from the room.

Lucan strode to his aunt. “Grandaunt Kathryn, this is a surprise.”