“No,” he admitted. “I have always lived a life of privilege, Katherine. I believe I was as outraged as you when I first knew there were smugglers in this area. I set out to find them, and did better than I hoped for one night. They found me, as they found you tonight. Fortunately, most of them felt kindly disposed toward me, especially the servants from the Abbey who are of their number. After they had finished talking to me, I had agreed to be their interpreter with the French captain who puts in here. And I discovered on my first encounter with him he was driving an impossibly hard bargain with these poor folk. Before I knew it, I was far more than the mere interpreter. I was accepted as the leader of the group. I do not have the heart to abandon them. They need the money that these runs bring them.”
“And you enjoy the danger and excitement too,” Kate said.
He grinned. “Yes, I do,” he said. “You are quite right. And you must not betray us, Katherine. Not them, anyway. Betray me as your kidnapper, if you must, and I shall fight my own case before a magistrate. But leave these people be. Think of all the wives and children who will suffer if their menfolk land in jail, never to return to them again.”
“Ohhh!” Kate beat the air at her sides with her fists. “Why do you always do this to me? I know you are wrong. I know there are all sorts of arguments that could be used against you. What would happen to law and order, for example, if everyone could choose which laws he was justified in breaking? Why can I not argue against you?”
“I think because you have a kind heart,” he said with a smile.
“A bleeding heart is what you mean,” she said. “One should not feel kindly disposed toward lawbreakers. And you. You seem quite determined to put your neck in a noose.”
“By no means,” he said. “Come, Katherine. Let us sit down for a while and you shall tell me of the danger you came to warn me of tonight. Will you spread your cloak on the sand? I am afraid I have none.”
“Oh.” Kate’s eyes widened as he took the cloak from her shoulders and spread it on the sand of the cave floor. She had totally forgotten. “That man was after you. He was at the cottage.”
“What man?” be asked, indicating with a sweep of the hand that she could sit down.
“Sir Harry Tate,” she said. “He is one of the guests at the Abbey. And he knows you. He met you, he said, at Mr. Dalrymple’s home. And Mr. Dalrymple is at the Abbey too.”
“Yes,” be agreed. “Charles Dalrymple and I were at Cambridge together. And I recall meeting Tate.”
“He knows where you are living,” Kate said. “And he came to the cottage tonight. I saw him talking to Mr. Evans just before I was caught and brought here. I was creeping around to the back of the house in the hope of getting to you before be did.”
He seated himself beside her and reached out to take one of her hands. “You are incredibly brave, Katherine,” he said. “You came tonight to warn me that Tate was after my blood? Why might it not have been a social call?”
“Because I heard him this afternoon behind the lodge planning to come here late tonight. And he was going to use Josh to help him. You must be careful of whom you trust, Nicholas. What has happened to Sir Harry? Maybe he has hidden somewhere and has witnessed everything that has happened tonight.”
He squeezed her hand. “Do not worry about Tate,” he said. “You saw him outside the cottage? Talking to Evans? I have a loyal follower there, you know. Evans quite convinced the man that I was not at the cottage and never have been. And he watched him ride for the Abbey again.”
“Are you sure?” Kate asked. “I do not trust the man. He appears to be lazy and bored, but I have the feeling that he is very alert and very clever behind the facade. He is dangerous. Dangerous to you. I am sure of it. I wish he had not come. He was not invited, you know. But he was visiting Mr. Dalrymple and came here with him.”
“Has he been molesting you, Katherine?” he asked with a smile.
“Only with insults,” she said. “Nothing to worry about. I have as ready a tongue as anyone. He will not get the better of me with words, never fear. I really do dislike him intensely.”
“Do you?” he said. “Poor man. I pity him. And do you dislike me intensely too, Katherine? I seem to remember that you were quite out of charity with me the last time we met.”
“Well, I really should dislike you,” she said candidly. “But you are so like a child that needs to be protected. You seem to have no sense of danger at all.”
“And you wish to protect me from harm?” he asked.
“Stupid, is it not?” she said. “I should be cheering the hangman on.”
“Will you let me kiss you, Katherine?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I think I need to be held close to you. I am feeling decidedly agitated. I do wish I had never met you, you know.”
“No, you don’t,” he said, putting one arm around her shoulders and drawing her against him, “any more than I wish I had never met you. Despite the fact that you have a habit of coming into my life at the most awkward moments. There is a very strong attraction between you and me, Katherine Mannering.”
She was not given a chance to reply. His mouth came down on hers, open, light, teasing, and she reached for him with both arms, turning toward him so that her breasts came against his chest.
He raised his head. She was aware in the dim, flickering light of the lamp, of very blue eyes looking at her through the slits of his mask. “Is your mouth sore?” he asked.
She shook her head and tightened her hold of his shoulder to bring his mouth back to hers. His kiss had not lost its magic. It was as wonderful this time as it had been the last. She relaxed against him and gave herself up to sensation as his tongue explored her lips, the flesh behind, and the cavity of her mouth. He took her hands when they would have moved into his hair and placed them against his chest. She accepted the invitation, unbuttoning the shirt beneath his open jacket and spreading her hands over the warm, lightly hairy surface of his chest. His hands had released the untidy knot of hair from the nape of her neck and were now unbuttoning the back of her dress.
His mouth moved away from hers to kiss her eyes, her temples, her ears, her throat, her breasts, which were at least free of her dress and shift. Kate moaned and pushed against him. He was sucking on one nipple and she threw back her head and gave herself up to raw sensation. And then his face was above her again, his eyes gazing deeply into hers, and one strong arm supported her as he lowered her down onto the cloak. Kate reached up for him.
Somehow his coat and his shirt were gone and she reveled in the feel of her naked breasts against his chest and finally in the heavy weight of him pressing her against the sand, his hands in her hair, his mouth deeply embracing hers again.
