“Actually, I was looking for my stepmother, who went to explore quite fifteen minutes ago...”
To her surprise, he seemed to understand her unease.“Yes, it’s a rum sort of place, is it not?I was just going to step downstairs and have some supper.Perhaps your stepmother is there.I don’t believe there are any other public rooms.”
With some relief—for he seemed to be a very comfortable, unthreatening sort of young man—she closed the bedchamber door and walked with him.Which was when she realized he was limping.
“Are you injured, sir?”she asked in quick sympathy.
“Oh, not anymore,” he said cheerfully.“They’ve been happily digging shrapnel out of my leg for weeks, but apparently it is all removed now.I wanted to go back to the Peninsula, but the doctors have insisted on two weeks more rest.”
“Here?”she asked, appalled.
He grinned.“Lord, no, but since the doctors didn’t define what sort of rest they meant, I’ve been trying out driving my brother’s curricle about.I got lost taking the back roads to Hawthorn Court.”
“Why, so did we!”
Delighted by this coincidence, it took her some time to notice that there were more voices in the common room downstairs.As one, they paused, leaning over the balustrade to see those gathered below: a well-dressed man in an exquisitely cut coat, a boy of around fourteen, similarly dressed, and another man who appeared to be a servant.They were all talking urgently in French when Mrs.Rains came barrelling in from the kitchen bearing a tray which she slammed down on the nearest table in order to glare up at Lily and Lieutenant Meade.
“What the devil are you doing there?”she demanded angrily.
***
JACK HAD FOLLOWED THElights from the beach, at first from mere curiosity about the nature of “free trading,” and then with the suspicion that more than mere brandy was being smuggled here.With his suspicions confirmed by snatches of French on the breeze, and the fact that three of the party he had followed did no actual work, he slipped back around the corner of the inn to decide what to do about it.
Encountering another body there, literally underfoot, scared the life out of him, and he reacted from pure instinct.Having never indulged in any physical violence more dangerous than punching his pillow, he had no plan and no real intention to hurt.His main concern was silence, though even as he acted, it struck him that if this was one of the smugglers or their allies at the inn, then he was already caught.His physical strength was largely untried and unknown.
And the fellow wriggled like a desperate eel.
As Jack tightened his grip, imprisoning the sneak’s body with his own, grasping the small hands against the wall, clamping his hand across the mouth, which seemed very low down, he realized two things very quickly.This was not a fellow at all—she had far too many curves and skirts, and her perfume was inexplicably familiar.He leaned his head to the side to let the light from the front of the house touch her face above his hand, and relief and pleasure reacted without permission.
Tabitha.He didn’t know if the word was on his lips or merely inside his head.It was just so unexpected and so wonderful that it seemed the most natural thing in the world to kiss her.
Only it wasn’t, of course; it was entirelywrong,and the kiss was as fleeting as it was stunning.The flutter of her parted lips was indescribably sweet but barely more than an impression as he freed her at once.Her hands fell to her sides, and he ached for the loss of her soft, luscious curves against him...
She blinked and pushed around him to see what was going on in the yard.
Abruptly, reality rushed back on him, and he peered over her head.The pack ponies were being led toward the outbuildings, leaving only the two men he had overheard speaking French, and the boy who accompanied them.The innkeeper’s wife was all but dragging them inside.
Jack moved back several yards, drawing Tabitha with him.
“What on earth are you doing here?”he demanded.
“Staying at the inn, of course.You?”
“I followed the lights from the coast.”
Her lips twitched and she remembered to drawl this time.“So did we.No wonder the wine is good.The brandy will be excellent too.”
“It could well be more than that,” he said.“I don’t suppose you know the way to the nearest town?”
“Don’t inform on the Gentlemen.It will make you unpopular, and it will upset supplies for the rest of us.”
“You don’t understand.They’re not just smuggling brandy.They’re smuggling French people.”
It was too dark now to see her face, but he heard her intake of breath.“With what purpose?”
“Who knows?Spying at a guess.Sabotage.”
“Oh dear...Thatwouldbe a much bigger problem.But how do you know they are French?”
