Tamsin’s auburn brows had looked very skeptical. “Do you think he might be... enjoying a mug of ale from the pub?”
“He’s gone upstairs to plot,” Ruby said firmly. “I know it.”
Alice had snatched a three-quarters-full wine bottle from an abandoned table and thrust it into Ruby’s hands. “Here,” she’d said. “Take this. In case you need to explain why you’re wandering the halls. You can say you’re delivering this to a patron.”
Ruby suspected Alice had a grandiose notion of the level of service offered by this establishment, but she nodded and clutched the bottle to her chest as she headed up the stairs. As she strode down the corridor, she listened hard for Captain Archer and whatever “nefarious purposes” sounded like. She took a rather rash sip of wine from the bottle and shuddered.
Perhaps Captain Archer had come upstairs to meet with a fellow pirate. Or to do away with more unsuspecting servants. Perhaps he’d come to craft a life-sized model of the Scourge of St. Petroc’s and set it in her bedchamber. Perhaps all of his machinations were an elaborate facade to hide the fact that he was wanted by the Crown for a lifetime of unsavory crimes.
At the corridor’s final door, Ruby stopped abruptly.
She’d heard something. She was certain of it—a sort of long, drawn-out squeak. She squeezed close to the door and pressed her ear against the rough surface.
Yes—there it was again. Another squeak, and another, almost rhythmic. And then she heard a familiar low voice emit a strangled oath.
Her jaw dropped, and she clapped her free hand over her mouth.
It seemed she had found Captain Archer. And his activities were not so much nefarious as—
The rhythmic squeaking started up again.
Oh God. Sweet merciful heavens. Her face was on fire and her ear was still pressed to the door.
Had he really taken himself off to the inn in the middle of the day for a liaison? Had that choked-out oath been the sound ofpleasure? Was that what a man sounded like when he was in the throes of passion?
And why, why,whyhad her stomach dropped at the sound?
This had not been a good idea. She was perfectly willing to confront Captain Archer over his schemes and his falsehoods. She wasnotprepared to confront him with his trousers off and in the middle of—the middle of—
Ruby spun hastily away from the door, which turned out to be another critical error of judgment. As she whirled, the wine bottle—unbalanced and still mostly full—slipped from her hand and launched itself full bore at the doorjamb.
Her heart flipped over in her chest as she felt the bottle slide free from her grasp. As she watched in horror, it hit the wooden frame with a heartythwack. She flailed, caught it before it crashed to the floorboards, and held back a little whimper of dismay as vinegary wine sloshed over her glove.
And then, before she could move or think, the chamber door came open.
“Lady Ruby?” Captain Archer demanded. His tone was all incredulity, and his shirt was open at the neck again, baring half a foot of glistening chest. His hair and face were flecked with white plaster dust.
She met his glacial blue eyes and said feebly: “No?”
He looked up and down the corridor, then caught her by the arm and began to drag her inside the chamber.
Ruby dug in her heels, and more wine sloshed across her forearm and Captain Archer’s sleeve. “No,” she said again, “truly, Captain Archer, please permit me to leave you to your privacy.”
“To my privacy?” he said incredulously, and then she was inside the room, the door flung shut behind her. “If you meant to leave me alone, then why in God’s name did you track me down and...”
He trailed off.
Ruby had slammed her eyes closed the moment she’d crossed the threshold, but curiosity overcame her at his extended silence. She cracked open her right eye.
He was glaring at her. His arms were folded across his chest, which caused his pectoral muscles to leap into sharp relief. There was no naked paramour in the room with them, which was something of a relief. On the other hand, the room was covered from end to end with various linens, chunks of fallen plaster, and an extraordinary amount of rope.
Honestly.Rope.It wasn’t even dark out.
“What are you doing here?” he said finally. “Do not prevaricate. I warned you not to leave Pomeroy House.”
“You said it was not safe,” she allowed. “But we brought a pistol. And Vanessa.”
He looked baffled and outraged beneath his plaster dust. “Who the devil is Vanessa?”
