your bed isn’t enough to entice me to France on your behalf.” His eyes blazed with desire, but she saw anger, too.
Evelyn started. She had kissed him—she hadn’t suggested an affair. “I do need your help,” she heard herself cry.
“You are a dangerous woman. Most men are fools. I am not.” Giving her a grim look, he strode past her. At the door he paused. “I am certain you will find someone else to do your bidding. Good night.”
Evelyn was so bewildered that she could not move, not until she heard the front door slam. She collapsed upon the sofa. She had found Jack Greystone. She had dared to kiss him, and he had kissed her back, with fervor. And then he had refused her pleas and walked out on her!
She told herself that she was crying for Aimee—and not because Jack Greystone had had her in his arms only to reject her.
* * *
JACK WAS STILL IN A VERY foul mood. The sun now high, he slid from his mount, tied it to the rail in front of the inn and patted its rump. He had just dropped anchor on one of the beaches below the village of Bexhill, and as it was half past noon, he was late.
The Gray Goose Inn was a dilapidated white stucco building with a shingled roof, a dusty courtyard, and a great many suspicious patrons. Just north of Hastings, set in rolling green meadows, it was his preferred meeting place because he did not wish to pass through the Strait of Dover, just in case he was boxed in there by his enemies. He could outrun a naval destroyer and a revenue cutter, and he had, but there was not a great deal of room to maneuver in the Straits.
He sighed as he entered the dark, somewhat malodorous and smoky public room. It had stopped raining well before dawn, when he had been hoisting sail and leaving the cove near Fowey, but he was somewhat chilled from the entire damp, cold night. At least it was warm inside the inn, but it was a far cry from his uncle’s home on Cavendish Square in London, where he would greatly prefer to be now.
The bounty on his head had begun to truly restrict his movements. He had been amused when he had first learned of its existence a year and a half ago. But instead of meeting his brother and uncle in the comfort of the Cavendish Square townhome, he was confined to a clandestine meeting in the cramped back room of a foul, roadside inn. It wasn’t as amusing now.
Jack had been engaged with smugglers since he was a boy of five years old, when he had insisted on standing watch with the village elders, on the lookout for the preventive men. Nothing had pleased him more than to watch the smugglers drop anchor in Sennen Cove and begin to unload their wares, except when the night was lit up with the torches carried by the revenue men as they rushed down the cliffs and invaded the beach, guns blazing. Casks would be dragged into secret caves, while others were left behind for the authorities. Some smugglers would turn tail and flee, others would fire back at the customs agents. He would join in the fighting—until an adult would espy him and drag him, protesting, away.
At seven, he had been dragging ankers filled with brandy across the beaches at Sennen Cove, as he was too small to carry them upon his shoulders. At ten, he had put out to sea with Ed Lewes as a cabin boy, at the time one of the most notorious and successful Cornish free traders. At twelve he had been a rigger, at fourteen, first mate. At seventeen he had become captain of his own ship, a fore and aft rigged sloop. Now, he captained the Sea Wolf II, an eighty-gallon frigate built just for the trade, her hull so skillfully carved that she cut the water like a dolphin. He’d yet to be caught when challenged.
He had spent most of his life outwitting and outrunning the revenue men, the customs agents and now, the British navy. He was accustomed to the danger and pursuit, and he was thrilled by both. He especially loved being hunted, and then tacking across the wind and becoming the hunter. How he loved chasing his enemies and driving them aground—he enjoyed nothing more.
He was also used to lying low, or going into hiding. He had no intention of going to prison, being transported, or now hanging for the acts of treason he was charged with committing.
He did not think his life would have changed as much, if it were only for the bounty. But both of his sisters had married into the highest echelon of British society, marrying the earls of Bedford and St Just, respectively. And he had become a subject of fascination for the ton.
Gentlemen admired him at their dinner tables, while ladies swooned over tales of his exploits on their shopping expeditions. There was gossip, rampant speculation and even some idolatry. There were a dozen debutantes calling upon his sisters, in the hopes of soliciting his attentions!
As such, the authorities had placed him squarely in their targets. He was, without a doubt, the one smuggler the Admiralty most wished to catch and hang.
He hadn’t been to London in at least six months. His brother, Lucas, was staying at the Cavendish Square flat, and the house was frequently watched. Apparently lookouts were occasionally stationed at Bedford House and Lambert Hall. A few years ago, he could come and go in broad daylight, he could shop on Pall Mall, he could attend supper parties and balls. Even a year ago, he could enter London to visit his sisters, as long as there was no fanfare. Not anymore.
He had a niece and nephew he never saw. But he was hardly a family man.
He had to exercise the utmost caution wherever he went. In fact, he had been as careful when he had ventured to Roselynd last night. He had considered the countess’s inquiries a possible trap. But he had not been followed, and no one had shown up at her door to arrest him while they spoke.
He paused on the threshold of the public room, trying to peer through the smoke, a very dark, partly sexual, tension within him. The Countess D’Orsay was as beautiful as claimed. Curiosity had compelled him to meet her. He had wanted to see if she was such a great beauty—which she was—and he had also wanted to see if she was setting a trap for him—which she was not. But he hadn’t expected her to be the woman he had rescued in France, four years earlier.
And the moment he had recognized her, it had been like receiving a stunning blow to the chest.
He had realized, instantly, that she was the woman who had claimed to be the Vicomtesse LeClerc. He had been stunned, but he had hidden it.
He could easily forgive her that deceit. He did not blame her for hiding her identity from him, although he would have never revealed it had he known.
But he hadn’t ever really forgotten her. She had haunted him day and night for days and even weeks after that Channel crossing.
And now, that old man she had married was dead.
And for one moment, he did not see the dozen men within the tavern he’d stepped into. He could only see Evelyn D’Orsay, with her dark hair and vivid blue eyes, so tiny and petite.
He lived a dangerous life, and his survival depended upon his instincts. They were finely honed from years of outrunning the revenue men, and now, two navies. Every instinct he currently had warned him to stay far from Evelyn D’Orsay.
It wasn’t just that he had found her terribly beautiful four years ago, so beautiful he almost felt smitten at first sight. But when she’d looked at him with her big blue eyes, imploring him to rescue her, she awoke the strongest, most unfamiliar urges in him—urges to defend and protect. It was as if she had endured a lifetime of suffering and hurt, which he must somehow ease. He had been highly affected by her desperation back then. But he had hidden it, taking her rubies as payment for his services. He had remained as indifferent and aloof as possible.
Last night, he had steeled himself against her again.
It hadn’t been easy. He had forgotten how striking she was—how tiny. And the shadows in her eyes remained. When she looked at him, her eyes filled with desperation, he had those same consuming urges as before—urges to protect her from life’s ills. Urges to rescue her. Urges even to hold her tight.
It was absurd.
So while she might be destitute now, he reminded himself that she had hardly had a life of misery—she had married one of France’s premier titles. She had been wealthy for many years. The odd urges he had when she looked at him were senseless.