A reluctant grin tugged at his mouth. He would have sworn she’d taken her first sip of the strong liquor not five minutes ago—and had barely gotten it down. Between that, and the way she’d faced down the robbers before crossing the tidal flats, no doubt half-blinded by the elements and nearly frozen to death, all while expertly managing an obviously terrified mare--he was forced to admit the lady had grit.
That only made her slightly more palatable.
“Lord Randall, I’m told there’s a witness who places you at my brother’s apartments the night he perished.”
He said nothing.
“Well? Is that true?” she demanded, sounding exasperated.
“Yes.”
“Aha. So you admit it.”
He spread his arms wide. “I was made aware that my sister’s intended was well into his cups and making a bloody—” He broke off, seeing her stiffen at his rough language.
He reminded himself the dead man was her one and only brother, and regardless of how he personally felt about him, she had apparently cared for the cur. Nothing else explained her dogged pursuit for answers regarding his death.
Not to mention, despite her acerbic ways, she was a lady, born and bred. He reined in his tongue. “He was in his altitudes. I saw him safely home, and then I left.”
She studied him as if attempting to see into his mind. Her question, when it came, wasn’t unexpected but it still gave him a jolt. “Lord Randall, did you kill my brother?”
“No.”
“Did you, in any way, contribute to his death?”
“Again, no.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it and nibbled on the inside of her cheek as if she contemplating a new way to phrase her query in hopes he might implicate himself.
Finally, she shot him a peeved look. “I do not believe you. In fact, I find the very notion of you assisting my brother in any regard entirely implausible.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Do you?”
“Yes. You made it quite clear what you thought of Gaston.”And me.The silent, accurate accusationhung in the air between them. “Despite the fact you were soon to be linked with him by marriage, you showed him no charity during the months preceding his death, practically going so far as to give him the cut direct on more than one occasion. And now you expect me to believe thatyou, out of the kindness of your heart, delivered him safely home rather than leave him to his own devices while in a state of supposed inebriation?”
He sent her a cold smile. “I do not care what you believe, Lady Montrose. I merely thought to answer your question, as you came all this way, and it seemed a shame to send you back with nothing to show for your efforts.”
She blinked rapidly, apparently at a loss for words.
“Now, then. Have you made arrangements for yourself for the night?”
Her blinking ceased. “I beg your pardon?”
“Overnight accommodations. You can hardly expect to stay here.”
“For your information, Iexpectedto return to the Pilgrim’s Rest Inn tonight, led by my guide and accompanied by you. And my chaperone, of course.”
He arched his brows and scratched the side of his nose in a deliberately obtuse manner. “Well, neither of those things is going to happen, as you can clearly see.”
Some of the wind appeared to go out of her sails, as if it had only just occurred to her that her plans for this night’s venture would not proceed as she had foreseen.
“And,” he continued, “As the weather makes your return to the mainland tonight impossible, I suppose that leaves us only one option. When the storm subsides,” assuming it did subside before dawn, "I shall deliver you to the inn at the wharf.”
She gasped and pressed herself into the chair well, as far as the structure would allow. “Don’t be absurd. I can’t possibly go to aninn, at this time of night, alone. To suggest so is simply…simply…unthinkable. Have you no honor, Lord Randall?”
“HaveIno honor?I beg your pardon, madam, butyouare the one who arrived onmydoorstep, uninvited, unannounced, unchaperoned. Whatever were your parents thinking, allowing you to travel all this way on your own?”
She sniffed and looked uncertain for the first time since her arrival. Worse, her chin quivered, ever so slightly.
