A Reckless Encounter

d, she snapped, “Yes, it was done ten years ago, by God, and now he wants to avoid justice!”

“Please,” he said, almost desperately. “I don’t need to know any more. I just have to take you with me.”

“Don’t you want to know why? Don’t you want to know the kind of man you’re helping escape justice?”

Lord Easton appeared in the doorway, his tone mild as he said, “Really, Miss St. Clair, you aren’t helping yourself with this hysteria.”

“Hysteria, my lord? It’s not hysteria to tell the truth, is it? Or perhaps you think it is. Why don’t you tell him why you’re doing this?”

“Harvey needs to know only to follow orders, not to think for himself. It’s much more profitable for him that way.”

It dawned on her now that this was no rescue, or random visit. Harvey was working with Easton! Somehow, and for whatever reason, they were in collusion and she was fated to suffer for it.

Drawing on a reserve of strength she hadn’t known she had left, she faced Easton coolly. “I see. Very well, my lord. If I’m to leave England I will do so. I should like, however, to choose my destination, as you offered me last night.”

“That can be arranged.” He regarded her with a faint smile. “As long as it is across an ocean. France is out of the question, for it’s much too close.”

“I’ll return to America. You were right, of course. It is my home and where I belong. The air there is so much more clean and fresh.”

He looked amused. “I agree with your rather unsubtle views. London society does have a habit of tainting the air. But be that as it may, time is fleeting. Dover is at hand, my dear, and so, it seems, are you. By this afternoon, you should be on a ship bound for America, with a tidy little sum in your purse to make your way easier.”

“You mean to purchase my silence. No, your money is not needed,” she said quietly, “for I will not accept payment for the lives of two people I loved. You may be able to send me away, but you are not able to buy redemption in whatever form it is that Lord Moreland wishes.”

Shrugging, Easton said, “Think what you will, my dear. But be forewarned. Should you ever return to England, there will be no other offer of freedom. Stronger, shall we say, more drastic methods of dealing with you will be taken.”

Celia recognized the foolishness of more defiance at this point, not when she was faced with a man who had no compunction in making dangerous threats.

“I understand completely, my lord,” she said with a lift of her chin, but her eyes shot defiance at him, and she was so angry she quivered with it.

Damn him! And damn Moreland, who had already cost her so much. Now it seemed that he intended to keep her from his son, though he’d had no qualms about taking her mother from her. And she was supposed to leave quietly, like a whipped cur slinking away, was she?

Oh, no, she vowed silently. It will not be that easy to rid yourself of me!

But now she must give the appearance of acquiescence to his demands, so she complied with Harvey’s hesitant plea that she cooperate, though she gave him a glance of such scalding contempt that he visibly shrank with dismay.

“It’s not such a bad thing,” he said to her when Easton left to make the arrangements and they were alone again. “And America is your home.”

“You disgust me, sir,” she said quietly, and refused to look at him when he swore at her.

“No, damn you,” he snarled, and reached for her arm when she turned her back on him, all pretense at cordiality vanished. “You’ll not look at me as if I’m some St. Giles beggar, by God! Look at me. Yes, dammit, if you must fear me it’s better than contempt! Do you think this is what I want? Do you think this is my idea? It’s not. But I’m trapped as surely as you, and you have to know that.”

“No, you don’t have to do this, Sir John. You could set me free. He’s gone. It would cost you nothing and give you back some self-respect.”

He laughed harshly, released her arm and ran a hand through his hair so that it stood up on his head in golden tufts. “Cost me nothing? My dear Celia, it would cost me everything. You have no idea…No, you cannot know what it is to always be on the fringe of things, and to risk it all for the sake of coin. It’s the only currency that makes a difference, and without it…without it, self-respect is worthless.”

“We have widely different views on that, it seems.” She put a hand on his arm, saw the start of surprise in his eyes as she said softly, “I am much like you. You must know I came here with nothing, but I’ve been given so much. So much, that I didn’t fully appreciate it until recently. My cousin has been so generous, and I’ve come to realize that there’s much more to life than wealth. Or even vengeance.”

Hazel eyes narrowed at her, and his mouth thinned. “We have different standards, it seems. It may be enough for you to live on the kindness of others, but it’s not what I want. I’ll do what I have to do to get what I want.”

“Including betray a friend?”

“You’re very lovely, but I’ve never thought of us as friends.”

“I meant Northington. Is he not your friend?”

Harvey’s mouth twisted. “Northington is very much his own man. We game together and have been known to go wenching together, but he’s not what either of us would call my close friend, no. Perhaps we were once closer, but that was before the Peninsular Wars, before he left and came back a different person.” He shrugged, regarding her thoughtfully. “He came back to find his brother dead and his uncle dead, his father the new earl—and himself in line for the title. I would have been ecstatic. Northington was not. He seemed to consider it a tragedy, a curtailing of liberty and his own plans. Christ, I would give ten years of my life to have the same opportunity, yet he treats it with cavalier disdain, as if he detests every moment of it.”

“Perhaps he does.”