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Authors: Hannah Howell

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BOOK: If He's Dangerous
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“You have far more patience than I, Your Grace.”
“Research requires it, and an acceptance that, at times, you might follow the wrong path.” He frowned when someone rapped on the door. “Come in. Ah, Max, what is it?”
“You have company, Your Grace,” Max announced. “The widow Benton and her daughter.”
The duke looked horrified. “Tell them I am not here.”
 
“Your Grace, they have come because last week you had me tell them you were not here, but that you would be here now and they were to come back today.”
The duke's shoulders slumped and he nodded. “Do remind me never to do that again, Max.” He stood up. “Well, I had best go and play the host for a while. How long?” he asked Max. “Ten minutes?”
“A half hour, at least.”
“Purgatory,” he grumbled and started out the door.
“Do you intend to greet your guests looking like that?”
The duke looked at his ink-stained vest, shrugged, and combed his fingers through his hair. “She is the one who keeps coming to my home. She can take me as I am.”
The moment the door shut behind her father and Max, Lorelei laughed. “Poor Papa. The widow makes no secret of the fact that she would very much like to be his fourth wife.”
“Would you mind?”
“If she caught him in her net? Yes, but only because she would make him utterly miserable and he has already suffered a miserable marriage twice. He married when he was only fourteen, his bride the same age as he. She saw the marriage as her path to all the delights in London, Paris, and anywhere else she could spend buckets of his money. He just wanted to stay here. She gave him three sons and three daughters and died. His second wife, my mother, loved the country and he was, for a short time, very content, according to Max, but Mama died bearing twins. His third wife entrapped him, easily getting poor Papa into a compromising position that honor demanded he marry her. She, too, wanted to play the duchess all about London.”
 
“What happened to her?”
“She died in a carriage accident shortly after giving Papa his thirteenth son. She was running away with an artist.”
 
The first thought that went through Argus's mind was that one obviously did not have to be a Wherlocke or a Vaughn to end up in a miserable marriage or be left behind. He and Olympia had suffered badly during their parents' miserable marriage, but Lorelei and her siblings had been blessed with one constant in their lives—the duke. Argus's constant was Olympia and, with that thought, he was back to being frustrated and angry at being left behind.
Lorelei watched as Argus got up and strode to the large windows that overlooked the garden. Something in the tense way he held himself told her he was troubled. She could think of many reasons why he would be, but wished he would simply tell her what troubled him. Biting back a sigh, she got up and walked over to stand beside him.
“They should be back before dark,” she said, gambling that he was worried about his family.
“I should be with them,” he said, his anger at being left behind roughening his voice.
“You could not and that must be accepted. You still have your ribs tightly wrapped and bouncing about on the back of a horse could end with you being more a burden than a help to them. They can hunt him down as well as you can.” She was a little startled when he whirled around to face her, his expression tight with anger as he grasped her by the shoulders.
“
I
need to be the one to find him,” Argus said, giving the core of his anger and frustration voice. “
I
need to be the one to catch him, to face him as a whole man instead of the shivering, beaten, half-starved creature he made me.”
Lorelei reached up to stroke his cheek. “And so you will once you have healed more. You would not be able to accomplish what you want if there was a fight and your injuries caused you a loss of strength and agility at the wrong moment, would you? If you want him to see you strong, to see you as a real threat to his life, then finish healing.”
Argus placed his hand over hers. She spoke to him much as Olympia did, not really tempering the truth with pretty words. He liked that, liked it far more than he should. He also liked the way she was looking at him, a warmth in her gaze that drew his mouth down to hers, despite the warning bells clamoring in his head.
The moment his lips touched hers, Lorelei locked her arms around his neck. This time she knew there would be an abrupt end to their kiss for they were standing in her father's library, but she saw no reason not to take what little he could give her. She savored the taste of him, shivered with the strength of the desire he stirred within her as he stroked the inside of her mouth with his tongue. Daringly, she returned that caress with her own tongue and he groaned softly, a faint tremor rippling through his body. His hold tightened briefly, and then he began to caress her.
Lorelei was no longer shocked by the touch of his hands on her backside; she just pressed closer to that hard ridge pushing out the front of his breeches. She murmured in disappointment when he moved his mouth off hers, but then sighed with pleasure as he began to kiss her neck. It was not until he dragged his hands up her body and caressed her breasts that she stepped out of the sensual fog he put her into, but only for a moment. Her surprise at such an intimate caress was washed away by the pleasure that rushed through her body, a pleasure that increased tenfold when his warm lips touched the swell of her breasts above the neckline of her gown.
He turned and pressed her up against the wall as he continued to stroke and kiss her breasts. When he tugged the neckline of her gown down to free one, then licked the hard tip, she almost screeched from the pleasure of it. She thrust her fingers through his hair and held on as he suckled her, each pull of his mouth tightening the knot of desire low in her stomach.
And it all came to an abrupt end. She was released, her gown hastily put right, and Argus already several feet away before she cleared her head enough to know that she had been pushed away—again. Anger bubbled up inside her, but before she could say anything, she heard her father's voice and had to grit her teeth tightly to fight down the blush that threatened to flood her cheeks.
 
“That was a very childish thing to do, Your Grace,” said Max as he opened the door to the library and let the duke walk in.
“I suspect it was,” replied the duke. “And no surprise about that as I learned it from Cornelius.”
“Papa, what did you do?” asked Lorelei, pleased with how calm her voice sounded.
 
“He kept coughing each time she tried to speak to him,” replied Max. “The woman did not stay long, for I suspect she thought he had the ague or the like and feared catching it.”
Lorelei did not like the way both her father's and Max's gazes narrowed briefly as they looked at her and then glanced at Argus. She had the distinct feeling that they guessed that she and Argus had not spent the time alone just talking or looking for names in the reams of paper her father had. Neither of them said a word, however, so she began to relax, and smiled over her father's trick to be rid of the woman.
“She will be back,” she said.
“I fear so, but not too soon, I hope,” said her father.
They worked for a little longer, searching for names, but Lorelei finally slipped away. She was not surprised to look out the window once she reached her bedchamber to see Argus striding toward the gatehouse. She supposed she ought to be grateful that he had retained enough sense to hear the approach of her father and Max, but she was only slightly so. She was getting very tired of being all stirred up and then tossed aside.
 
 
Roland stared at the door for a moment after it closed behind Sir Argus Wherlocke. “Tell me, Max, did my daughter look as if she had done more than talk while I was gone?”
“She did, Your Grace, as did Sir Argus, although an admirable attempt was made to hide the fact,” replied Max.
“Should I interfere?”
 
“Not yet, Your Grace. Wherlocke men have good reason for being hesitant about marriage. From what I read in your papers after he arrived at the gatehouse, Wherlocke and Vaughn marriages usually end up as a complete and miserable disaster. I suspect he has a deeply bred fear of that honorable institution. It will sort itself out, for he is besotted with our girl. He just needs to accept that.”
“Fair enough. I thought he was, too, but a father worries. I have no doubt she wants him and I did not wish to see her hurt.”
 
“Even fathers cannot always stop that, but, this time, if I judge that man right, she will end up quite happy.”
 
 
Argus was still cursing himself for an idiot as he walked into the gatehouse. He had been pressing a duke's daughter against a wall as if she was some common trollop and nearly got caught doing so by that duke. Insanity had obviously taken root in his mind. Or his groin, he thought with a touch of self-disgust.
He stepped into the parlor and quickly pushed aside all thoughts of Lorelei and how sweet her skin tasted, as well as how close he had come to finding himself dragged before a vicar. His family had returned, and, by the look on their faces, they had either failed to find anything or there was some bad news. He poured himself a brandy and sat down next to a slightly pale Olympia.
“Not successful?” he asked.
 
“Aye and nay,” she replied and sipped at her own brandy. “I know what the fool looks like as well as his trained dogs. I also know that he has something to do with that house but is not the owner. His contempt for the place was there, but no sense of ownership. It was what else we found when we got there. There was a body there.”
“One of his men?”
 
“Sadly, no,” replied Iago. “An old woman. According to Squire Dunn she was a wandering herb woman who was not above making potions that had nothing to do with healing.” He briefly related all the squire had told them of Old Belle. “She was a very angry ghost, but, fortunately for whomever ends up living there, she could not stay. She was shot between the eyes and just left there, so the one who shot her must have felt there was little chance of her being found.”
“She must have been the witch Charles claimed he was going to bring,” Argus said. “He was going to try and get the woman to spell my gift out of me and put it in him, or some such nonsense.”
“She was fool enough to demand the money he owed her, telling him it was not her fault he had lost his prisoner, and then he shot her between the eyes. I would have thought belief in witches and spells had died a quiet death.”
“I do not think Charles believed in it all, but someone wished to try it.”
“We also discovered that the house is owned by a man Mr. Wendall and he lives in London, as does his solicitor. Dunn did not know who the steward was or even if there was one, for the only purpose the property is put to is to bleed away all profit from the lands and rents.”
“I will have my people look for him,” said Leopold. “The squire said he thought the man's Christian name was Henry, so I will add that with a caveat about it being just a guess.”
“And once I have time to think over all I learned, I may uncover something else I did not see clearly, not right away at least,” said Olympia.
For over an hour they discussed what little had been learned until Olympia suddenly excused herself. Argus hurried out of the room after her, catching her part the way up the stairs. “Are you unwell?”
Olympia looked at him and smiled sadly. “Nay, just weary. I find the cruelty one man can inflict upon another very hard to bear at times. It also made me think on the past, on the tales of those unlucky ancestors who were taken up as witches. I cannot help but wonder if attitudes have really changed all that much and it makes me sad. My fury at Cornick also tired me. If he had been within my reach I think I would have tried to kill him with my bare hands.” She kissed his cheek and started back up the stairs. “I will recover. Do not worry o'er me.”
Argus shook his head and began to return to the parlor, to his cousins and the brandy. He did worry about Olympia, for a woman should never have to see such things, but she was too strong a woman to hide behind the protection of the men in her family. He also worried about himself. He was losing all control when it came to Lorelei, he could not find his enemy, and his enemy could well be a threat to his whole family. Stepping into the parlor, he went right to the stock of brandy. It was, perhaps, time to drown a few of his troubles.
Chapter 9
Argus breathed a sigh of relief as Max removed the binding from around his ribs. “It is good to have that off.”
 
“Do not celebrate yet. I may have to wrap it back around you,” said Max. “It is only because you whined so that I agreed to take the wrapping off today. Nor can you now leap on a horse and gallop round the countryside.”
As Max pressed the area around his ribs, the bruising there now a sickly fading yellow color, Argus prepared himself to hide any pain he might feel. To his surprise he felt very little. He followed all Max's orders, turning, bending, coughing, and taking deep breaths, but suffered little or no pain as he did so.
“It appears that you are a fast healer or your ribs were not as badly damaged as we had thought they were. Rest, drink, and a lot of food did not hurt, either,” added Max as he assisted Argus back into his shirt.
“I am healed then.”
“You are better. No more than that. You should not do anything too tiring or exert yourself too vigorously for at least another week. I cannot see inside you so I cannot say with a certainty that you are completely healed. If your ribs were badly cracked you should not be feeling as good as you appear to be. I will say that much. Yet, the bones could also have merely healed just enough to end the pain and give you a greater ease of movement, so take care. The fact that the ribs were injured at all means that the bones there will be weaker for a time yet. The healing needs to go a lot deeper than it has had time to.”
Argus nodded. Being cautious was a great deal better than being unable to do anything. Now he could more fully aid his sister and cousins in finding Cornick. Now he might not be so confined that he found it almost impossible to avoid the temptation Lorelei constantly provided by her mere presence. Now, a little voice in his head whispered, he could give in to cowardice and run.
 
It was humiliating, but he had to admit that that little voice was right. Having Lorelei so close all the time had brought his control to the breaking point, something he did not like at all, for he prided himself on his control in all matters. With Lorelei, all he wanted to do each time he saw her was pull her into his arms. He could now put some real distance between them.
“Thank you, Max.” He grinned at the man. “You have proved to be very skilled at doctoring people.”
“With so many young boys to watch over, that should come as no great surprise.”
“Why does the duke take in so many when he already has seventeen of his own?”
“His Grace cannot abide to see a child in need. Nor can he abide the thought that, for lack of funds, a child of his family might go without a full education. I consider it a good thing for another reason. It ensures that the younger Sunduns and all their young kin are not little more than strangers. They are family.”
“Yes, that is a good thing. Olympia said that Squire Dunn grew up with His Grace and his boys run free here. Family, not simply relations.”
Max nodded as he pulled a fine silver watch from his pocket. “I must leave now, for His Grace has a meeting with his steward and I need to make certain he recalls it.”
 
As soon as Max left, Argus tried another series of movements just to see at what point his ribs protested what he was doing. There were not many twinges of pain, but he made careful note of each one. He was not sure how long it would take to end the threat Cornick presented, and he had no intention of doing anything that would destroy what healing had occurred. He then finished dressing and went to see where his family had wandered away to.
He found Olympia sitting in the parlor, sipping tea, and staring out the windows. For just a moment, she looked sad. Argus moved toward her and that look abruptly disappeared as she turned to greet him.
“So, are you now unwrapped?” she asked.
“Yes, but Max has warned me that I should be cautious in what I do. I may not have been as damaged as was first thought, but he is right when he says that, once injured, the bones will remain weak for a while.” He sat down beside her and asked, “Are you well? When I first entered you looked very pensive, or sad.”
“Pensive, of course,” she said so quickly that Argus knew she was lying, but he decided not to press her on the matter. “This is a very troublesome business.”
“Very. It does not help that we can find no information on Cornick. I have to think that what information I found before was set out for me to find.”
 
“It still makes no sense that we can find nothing. The duke appears to have information on everyone.”
“True. Leopold was fascinated.” He exchanged a quick grin with her. “Where are the others?”
“They went into the village. They claimed they needed a few things, but I suspect they have gone to listen to the talk in town, gather some gossip, and ask some questions. Before they left, Leo sent word to his people about Wendall, the man who owns the house where you were held prisoner.” She shivered.
“That is over, Olympia. Firmly in the past,” he said quietly. “I am healed now and Cornick will pay for what he did.”
 
She briefly clutched at his hand. “I know. Him and whoever that
we
is. I pray, for the sake of the youngest members of our family, that Cornick and his ally, or allies, are but a very small group of idiots. And, what happened to you proves just how far they are willing to go to get what they want. That terrifies me.”
“I, too, hope that we are dealing with a very small, very secretive group. I am also hoping that someone in the government is behind it, for their knowledge of the various gifts within our family is limited to those of us who have worked for them.”
 
“Ah, there you are,” said Leopold as he strode into the room, Iago and Bened right behind him.
Argus watched as the men helped themselves to some wine. “Anything happen in the village?”
“In other words, did your spying gain you any information?” said Olympia.
Leopold sprawled in a chair facing Argus and Olympia and grinned at her. “The duke is loved by all, but a few quietly admitted that they speak first to Max if there is a problem they need tended to,” he replied as Iago and Bened sat down. “A few also complained that a certain widow is making a complete fool of herself over the man, for he has had three wives and does not want another. Nor does he need one for he has thirteen sons. There were even a few who thought that, while it was true that he did not need or want a wife, he should perhaps get one anyway for he is only six and forty.”
Argus choked on his wine and grimaced when Olympia slapped him on the back. “Well, I suppose that could be true for Lorelei told me that the man was married when he was fourteen and a father by fifteen.”
 
“Obscene if you ask me,” said Iago. “He was naught but a child himself at the time.”
“True,” agreed Leopold. “And even, what? Two and thirty years ago having someone so young get married would have been considered unseemly. However, until the current duke, the Sunduns had great difficulty producing sons. There was great rejoicing when a second son was born to the old duke, but the heir died and left behind only two daughters. The duke raised them.”
 
“Fascinating,” drawled Olympia, “but just what does all that have to do with our troubles?”
 
“It has something to do with us, in a small but important way. Every man, woman, and child on Sundun lands knows they must alert the ducal household to any stranger who is doing more than simply riding through on the way to somewhere else. That there is someone out there whom the duke sees as a threat.”
“And you believe they will do that?”
“I do. The duke's people are loyal to the bone. I found no lies when they spoke of him, not even a hint that someone was merely saying what they thought I wished to hear, all the while quietly seething with anger. The duke settles all problems quickly, keeps his people housed comfortably, fed well, and working so that there is a coin or two for spending. He also tends his lands well and keeps his rents reasonable. And, even better, when he does make an appearance, he speaks to all he meets and knows all their names, their children's names, and so on.”
“Astonishing. One has to marvel at his prodigious memory.”
“Quite. It also seems that he has a lot of men working here who are named Gregor. Seven of them I believe. Their grandfathers settled here about sixty years ago. All Scots. The accents are still very thick.”
“Stap me, the Sunduns were sheltering Mac-Gregors while they were still a proscribed clan. That could have caused them a great deal of trouble, what with all that Jacobite business.” Argus shook his head. “But no word of any strangers yet.”
“Nay,” replied Leopold. “And no word from my people yet, either.”
“These people have covered their trail very well.”
“It would seem so, but my people are very good.” Leopold sighed. “Unfortunately, good or not, such things take time. The fact that there is a chance someone in the government is behind this means it might take even longer. Caution must be taken so as not to alert the ones behind this. It would help if we could get information on that fool Cornick,” Leopold muttered. “I do not know how you could have found anything about him to prove he was either good or bad. Whatever was shown you is long gone. And, yes, I had my men go through the papers you told me about, but they found nothing. They must have been taken and whoever did so was very good at his job.”
“This just keeps getting worse,” said Olympia. “All that you are saying points to someone with a very long reach and power. Government.” Leopold nodded and she frowned. “And the part of the government where falsified papers and ones who can steal things from people without even disturbing the dust on the desk are easy to come by, causing no hard questions or raised eyebrows.” She looked at Leopold. “The part of the government all of you work with.”
“I know. And that is why it will be difficult to quickly get the answers we need, but we will get them. My superior is enraged that there is even the hint of one of his people being behind this. He understands all too well that, if our family is put in danger, especially by his own people, he will rapidly lose the Wherlockes and Vaughns as tools he has found very useful in the past.”
They talked over what other things they could do to try and get Cornick until Argus's head began to pound from the strength of his frustration. He needed some air, he decided, and left the house, stepping out into the back garden. A stone bench was placed beneath an old tree and he sat down there, resting his head back against the gnarled bark on the thick trunk.
 
There had to be something he was missing, something that would help them catch Cornick and whoever was behind his acts. Argus knew Charles had talked a great deal during the violent visits he had paid him, but, unfortunately, the sound of fists pounding on his flesh made most of what the man had said indecipherable and hard to recall. He did not want to think about his time in that cold, damp prison, but it was time to do so. Argus was determined to pull all memories of his captivity out of hiding.
“Are you certain there is a spirit out here?” asked a sweet, lilting voice that yanked Argus out of his dark thoughts.
He looked through the dappled shade of the tree he sat under to see Iago, Lorelei, and her little cousin standing near a thick brick wall at the back of the small garden. They all stared at a small doorway set into the wall. All except for Lorelei's young cousin, who seemed incapable of looking anywhere but at Iago. Argus was not sure how his cousin endured it.
“Aye,” replied Iago. “I can see her even now, sitting right in front of this wall, facing us.” He pointed to a place a foot or so to the right of the small door.
“Is she clear to see? Her gown and all? Her face?” asked the young girl, surreptitiously stepping closer to Iago as she stared at the place he had pointed to.
“She is a bit misty, Miss Lilliane,” Iago replied. “I think she has been here for a very long time.”
“Why does she not go to heaven?”
“I have found that a spirit lingers because the person it belonged to felt there was something that needed to be done yet, something that needed to be finished. When that is done, most of them fade away.”
“I was hoping we might see something, even if it was but a shadow.”
 
“I think, Lilliane, I would rather not see too many ghosts,” said Lorelei as she subtly hooked her arm through her cousin's and pulled the girl close to her, away from Iago. “I also think it is about time for your dancing lesson. You had best get back to the house.”
For a brief moment the girl hesitated, and Argus almost laughed at the sight of her being torn between two desires. Then she made a hasty curtsy and fled to the house without a backward glance. Argus decided he could stop hiding away now and stood up.
BOOK: If He's Dangerous
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