Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 06 (2 page)

The young beauty spotted someone in the crowd behind him and her eyes lit up like stars fallen from the skies. For a moment Gregory was a little put out, hypocritical though it may be. But relief chased those feelings away. He wouldn’t have to worry about pursuit from this quarter.

8

Love in Exile

“Hello, Anderson,” Wolf Tarrant said, and Gregory couldn’t hide his surprise.

Kensington was nowhere to be seen, and it was clear that Wolf’s presence around Miss Thomas was proprietary. Things had changed a great deal in his prolonged absence.

Miss Thomas scooted up to Tarrant’s side and tucked her hand around his arm.

“Several of us attended a lecture at the Royal Society last month, Mr. Anderson, that was based on your latest pamphlet from the Pacific.”

Lady Randall moved to stand next to her niece with a subtle shake of her head.

Miss Thomas let go of Tarrant reluctantly. It was amusing how alike the two women were in looks and temperament. There was affection between them, but clearly Lady Randall wasn’t too happy with the chit’s obvious favoritism. Through it all Tarrant remained cool and distant, but his eyes followed Miss Thomas as she stepped around her aunt and put some distance between them.

“Did you?” Gregory replied, bringing everyone back to the conversation.

“Oh, yes,” Lady Randall answered. “We were quite popular because we knew you personally.” She laughed. “Although I must say Dr. Appleton was disappointed to find out that we were woefully ignorant of your research.”

“Anderson?” Gregory felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and Ian Witherspoon was standing there, grinning at him.

“Gregory!” Ian laughed. He threw an arm around his shoulder and hugged him. “It is you! Did you come all the way from the South Seas to wish me well?”

Gregory laughed with him. “Hardly. I’m here to study the mating patterns of the native English aristocracy,” he joked.

One of the only Englishmen who could look Gregory in the eye walked up and glared at him. “Don’t even think about setting up an observation post at our house, Anderson,” Derek Knightly growled. “I shall have to skin you alive and eat you like one of your islanders.” Ian pulled away from Gregory to stand next to Knightly and Gregory was struck again by Ian’s blond elegance against Derek’s dark, ruffian good looks. He was a bit surprised to see the two still together after Witherspoon’s marriage.

“Well, I’m told I taste rather good,” Gregory replied benignly, and most of the men laughed. He belatedly realized that Miss Thomas and Lady Randall were still standing there and he blushed.

Miss Thomas smiled wickedly at him and then turned hot eyes on Tarrant, who just motioned behind her. A young gentleman stood there, mouth agape. He was flanked by Jason Randall and Tony Richards. Miss Thomas sighed like the put-upon heroine of a gothic novel. “I suppose you’re here to claim a dance?” she asked with ill-disguised irritation. She looked at her dance card. “Mr. Rutherford? Is that right?”

“Very,” Jason Randall growled warningly.

Miss Thomas ignored Randall as she curtsied with a polite smile and held out her hand to her poor unwanted dance partner, who stumbled through an apology, although Gregory wasn’t sure for what, and led her off. Gregory watched with fascination as she 9

Samantha Kane

turned to look longingly at Tarrant, who was watching her like a bird of prey seeing his latest meal stolen away from under his nose.

“Hello, Anderson,” Tony said warmly. “It has been too long.” He shook Gregory’s hand with affection. “We have all followed your journeys with great interest.”

Just then the Earl of Wilchester walked up with yet another stunningly beautiful woman on his arm. Good lord, had Englishwomen gotten more attractive since he’d left? Or was he just starved for anything English? That thought was a little depressing, since he himself was barely considered English by most of his countrymen.

“Anderson,” the earl said with a nod in his direction. “Good of you to come on such short notice. I hope your voyage home was a good one?”

Gregory bowed slightly. “Yes, thank you, sir. Fair weather and calm seas.”

“Good, good,” the earl said with a polite smile. He turned to his nephew and the smile grew to one of genuine affection. “I am returning your bride, Ian. She could not be parted from you any longer.” As an afterthought he turned back to Gregory. “So sorry, Anderson. You haven’t met my dear niece, have you?” His affection for the young woman on his arm was obvious. “My dear, let me introduce you to the famous Mr.

Gregory Anderson. His father was the renowned naturalist Gordon Anderson, who sailed with Captain James Cook. And his mother was a native of the Friendly Islands.

He is,” he looked at Gregory as if for confirmation, “a bit of a famous naturalist himself these days, eh?”

Gregory merely smiled politely. He knew lineage was important to these people, the ballroom filled with the cream of the English aristocracy. He should be used to feeling like the ill-bred oddity among them, a curiosity his father had brought home from his explorations. But his stomach felt uneasy, and his smile was forced.

Mrs. Witherspoon held out her hand shyly, a blush staining her cheeks, nearly drowning out the freckles there. “How do you do, Mr. Anderson?” she spoke softly. “I have heard so much of you from Ian and Derek, and Very could not stop talking about the lecture she attended last month.” If possible her blush deepened. “I am sorry that I couldn’t attend with her.” Her dark auburn hair flamed in the candlelight and she bit her lip nervously as if expecting a setdown. From him? Could she not see him in the dim light of the ballroom? He was hardly one to criticize.

Derek stepped forward, a scowl on his face, and Gregory remembered what she had just said. She had heard so much about him from Ian
and
Derek. He shook his head with a small laugh. What on earth had happened to prudish England while he’d been gone? Derek’s scowl deepened and Gregory looked over to see Ian and the earl glaring at him. He realized he’d been silent too long.

He stepped forward and took Mrs. Witherspoon’s hand in his, smiling broadly before he politely kissed it.

“I am not sorry,” he told her firmly, “because now I shall be able to bore you at length in person with my latest discoveries.” She smiled timidly at him. “My congratulations on your marriage, madam. I wish you good luck.” He looked askance at 10

Love in Exile

Ian and then Derek, and turned back to her with a commiserating shake of his head.

“You shall need it.”

She laughed then, a trill of feminine delight that made Derek’s eyes darken as he looked at her with pride and possession. Gregory was so shocked at that look he gaped in astonishment.

Ian stepped up and took her hand from Gregory and placed it on his arm. “Thank you, uncle,” he said, the same pride and possession in his voice that Gregory had seen in Derek’s face. Mrs. Witherspoon gazed up at Ian with adoration, and then bestowed the same look on Derek. Gregory could almost feel how much she wanted to grasp Derek’s arm as well. The earl cleared his throat, breaking the spell.

“Yes, well, that’s an excellent idea, Anderson,” he boomed a little too loudly.

“Sophie and Ian must have a reception for you. It is the perfect introduction for Sophie as a hostess. Now that you are no longer in mourning for your brother, my dear, you can have a small fête.” Mrs. Witherspoon paled noticeably.

“I’m not sure I’m up to anything grand, Mrs. Witherspoon,” Gregory rushed in to say. “I’ve only just returned home to England, and am having a bit of a time reacquainting myself with the customs here.” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “We wouldn’t want the native to forget his manners in front of society, would we?”

Mrs. Witherspoon’s brow furrowed as she regarded him soberly. “I am quite sure that we have no need to fear any such thing, Mr. Anderson,” she assured him quietly.

“And were a slip to occur, handsome and brilliant will often overrule manners.” She looked tellingly at Derek, who shrugged innocently.

Gregory was amused by the byplay. “Yes, well, you are too kind, Mrs.

Witherspoon.”

“Hmm,” she replied with a smile. “Sometimes I think so, too.”

Her sly candor delighted Gregory. Where had Ian found her? Ian
and
Derek, he amended.

Just then Brett Haversham walked up. “Good God, Anderson!” he cried. “What ill-tide brings you back to our shores? Old Nick must be skating on the ice.” Gregory shook his hand, looking at the petite woman on his arm. She had wildly curling dark hair surrounding a sweet face with eyes as full of mischief as the dancing Miss Thomas’.

On her other arm was a tall, gorgeous, redheaded man. He had a regal bearing, an amused expression, and blue eyes that Gregory thought he could get lost in. Brett turned to them both. “Let me introduce you to my—” He stopped suddenly and cleared his throat, blushing. “That is to say, may I introduce the Duke of Ashland and his wife?”

Gregory could only laugh in utter delight. Oh, yes, he was going to enjoy this new England.

11

Samantha Kane

“So then Ian and Derek and Sophie were married,” Simon told him as they stood on the balcony with Daniel in the cool evening air enjoying a drink and a respite from the heat of the ballroom.

Gregory had been here for over an hour already, but the time had flown by as he caught up with old friends and made new ones. He’d never been so relaxed before at a social gathering. But he’d been insulated tonight from the malicious Hardingtons in attendance, surrounded by people who seemed to accept him as one of them. It was a new and exhilarating experience. Not even during the war had he experienced this level of acceptance from his fellow soldiers. But then again, he’d been caught up in his own dramas then, and may not have noticed their sympathies.

“No, no,” Daniel corrected Simon. “Technically, Ian married Sophie. But you are forgetting that Valentine and Kurt married Leah before Ian and Sophie were married.”

Gregory looked at them both incredulously. “Valentine and Kurt are married as well? Together?”

Daniel nodded with a wry grin. “Yes, so be careful. This happiness seems to be contagious.”

Gregory waved his drink at Daniel and then Simon. “But the two of you have not been afflicted?”

Simon snuggled up to Daniel’s side and laid his head upon the shorter man’s shoulder. “Who’s to say we’re not very happy together?” he twittered in a grating falsetto.

“Me,” Daniel replied with a shove, and Simon just laughed as he danced out of reach as Daniel tried to cuff him on the head.

Gregory was amused by their antics, but his attention was snagged by a couple inside the ballroom. He could see them through the open French doors. They waltzed by oblivious to everyone around them, or so he thought. But as they danced by the door they both turned and their eyes met his. They had arrived a short time ago, before Gregory had stepped out. He’d watched them as they descended the stairs into the ballroom. She was small and dainty, with generous breasts. Her hair was blonde, that gorgeous shade of yellow that only Englishwomen seemed to be able to grow. Golden and buttery, it cascaded around her head in a riot of natural curls, similar to Gregory’s.

But hers looked as if it would be soft and smooth to the touch. The pale blue of her dress only seemed to highlight the pale perfection of her skin. Her face was a delectable little heart, sharp chin and round cheeks with a tilted nose and wide, innocent eyes.

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Love in Exile

Her husband, for Gregory had no doubt that’s who he was, was tall and well built.

He looked like a Corinthian, perhaps. Light brown hair, almost a dark blond, was cut close to his head in a fashionable Brutus. The hair that brushed along his wide forehead drew Gregory’s gaze to his face. He had brows lighter than his hair above eyes small and wide-set with a slight uptilt to them. His face was long, as was his nose. The bridge was thin and the end sharp. It was a very English nose. Gregory got the impression that he smiled often. Together the man and his wife seemed so…English. And yet there was something exotic about them. Was it the way they moved, so in tune with one another?

Each touch was a caress, each look was filled with longing. What was it he found so intriguing about them?

He watched as a tall, elegant man approached them and they stopped dancing.

With a start, Gregory realized it was Hardington. He watched the husband shake his head and he and Hardington exchanged what looked to be unpleasant words while his wife moved to stand behind him and looked out at the balcony, at Gregory.

“Hello? Gregory?”

Simon’s amused voice brought Gregory out of his reverie and he realized that he was openly staring, and that the couple stood in the doorway, staring back, Hardington gone.

“Ah, I see you’ve noticed Nat and Alecia.” Daniel’s voice dripped with wry amusement. “Would you care for an introduction?”

“You know them?” Gregory asked, unable to look away. Were they looking at him as hungrily as he was looking at them? He’d been desperately hoping to find someone while he was here in England. It had been so damn long since he’d fucked someone who was more than a warm body. He wanted intelligent conversation, lusty appetites, witty remarks, hungry mouths and hands. He wanted to be explored, discovered, plundered. He wanted someone to make him theirs if only for a short time, until he left again. Because he would leave. He didn’t belong here any more than he belonged in his mother’s land.

“Yes. We all know them.” At Simon’s offhand remark Gregory tore his gaze from the couple and glared at Simon.

“What does that mean?” His angry question surprised him. Surely he didn’t think he was the first man to draw their eye? He wasn’t the kind that tempted people from the straight and narrow. Only intrepid souls who had ventured into passion’s dark waters before came his way. He was too different, an outsider, a stranger, a curiosity to be studied and examined before putting it back on the shelf.

“Not apparently what you think.” Daniel spoke calmly, his smooth voice soothing Gregory’s confusing anger. “They are simply our true friends here in London.” Gregory raised a brow inquiringly. “Surely you know that the liaisons among our friends are not accepted. They maintain a subdued presence in society, but everyone knows what is really going on. Very few cut them directly. But most people maintain a wary, 13