“I did. And I know Windsor-Clive set a bounty on their heads. No one in your family could be involved, Raj. At least not at first. He needed to be away from Cornwall before anyone could deal with him. People already suspect you from the last time your families tangled. It would be too obvious if the lackwit disappeared from Polruan or Swain Cove. He was going to have her taken one way or another. I made sure she was safe.”
Zachary Windsor-Clive, the adult son of Rajesh’s wife and Ben’s sister, attempted to assault her the night Rajesh met Charlotte. She employed as a governess to Zachary’s younger half-siblings. It hadn’t gone well for Zachary when he and Ben clashed not long before Ben and Jemma’s wedding. Everyone in the Forde Abbey undercroft knew Zachary wanted revenge for being thwarted several times.
“Where is he?” Ben snarled.
“Three doors down.” Keith lifted iron keys from beside him on the cot upon which he sat. Ben was quick to grab them before kissing Jemma again.
Ben released her, and Rajesh reached to embrace her, drawing her farther away from Keith. Ben instructed Rajesh, “Take her away from here.”
It was Ben’s turn to draw a pistol, checking he’d loaded it. No one doubted it was. Ben hurried from the cell while Rajesh, Jemma, Lydia, and Keith followed. The others didn’t notice how Lydia and Keith observed one another.
“Lady Lydia, I suspected you knew the way in. I suppose my sister showed you.”
“She did.” Lydia notched up her chin, defiance oozing from her.
He’d returned to Forde Abbey and made it his home once more nearly eighteen months before, when he inherited the title from his father. But he’d been away as much as he could during that time, still sailing but limiting most of his voyages to the English Channel instead of across the Atlantic. When he was in residence, salvaging his family’s estate engrossed him. His father left it in shambles and near bankruptcy. It was what drove Keith to remain a privateer. He couldn’t afford to quit.
“Let’s be away from here.” Keith offered his arm as Ben’s voice echoed in the empty dormitory. His curses and threats rang in the air. They took the last step when a shot pierced the air. Lydia tried to twist toward the sound, but Keith steered her out of the former monks’ quarters. It had served as his dungeon many times, but it was somewhere he loathed to linger. It unnerved him how unbothered Lydia appeared within a space that made his skin crawl. It relieved him to step into the library, having found the hidden latch several months after taking up residence again in his ancestral home.
“I still am not satisfied with your explanation.” Rajesh glowered at his friend as Ben and Jemma practically ran to the chamber Jemma occupied for two days before Lydia, Ben, and Rajesh arrived.
“Zachary Windsor-Clive was as much a menace as his father. He would have done unthinkable things to Jemma if he’d found someone else to take her. He already had two other men waiting if I failed. I learned of his plan by chance. I had no time to tell you, and I couldn’t reach Ben or Theo before the bastard intended to strike. The only reason he hired me was because I said I could get him the gunpowder.”
Lydia listened as Keith explained his rationale, and she had to admit she could understand. Rajesh confronted Zachary’s father the previous year about the senior Windsor-Clive’s insistence that Rajesh knew about the smuggled gunpowder Ben’s family made. The English East India Company had a monopoly on saltpeter exported from Bombay. Ben’s older brother, Steven, devised a formula to make saltpeter at their home in Bedruthan Steps. The Windsor-Clives were heavy investors in the East India Company and couldn’t afford for the Company to lose its stronghold. The Cornish and Dorsetine smugglers traded the gunpowder to the English navy and army, who fought Napoleon and the Americans along the west coast near Canada.
“I’m glad the bastard is dead,” Rajesh declared. “For what he planned to do to Jemma and for what he attempted to do to Charlie while she was governess to his brothers and sister. It was Ben’s right, but I wish I’d had a turn before he shot the blighter.”
“I doubt this is done, Raj. They might be gone, but the Company isn’t. They know about the smuggling. I’m certain of it, so they won’t stop as long as you and your family continue to sell gunpowder. They employed Theo and Will too long for them to forgive this. Your father already died for it.” Keith looked at Lydia but continued to speak to Rajesh. “They nearly killed your wife and cousin. They’re watching both your uncles. They’re doing the same to Ben’s family. It’s a tangled web you and Jemma created by marrying a brother and sister, because now you’re doubly connected to the Pedricks. They won’t kill Steven because they want his knowledge. But they will kill whoever gets in the way of their profits. They’re targeting the women. Lady Lydia will be next.”
Lydia watched heat flare in Keith’s eyes as he swept his gaze over her while he spoke. Their gazes locked as he made his last pronouncement. It wasn’t an idea foreign to her. She’d already thought about it several times since learning about Rajesh’s wife, Charlotte, and her encounters with the Windsor-Clives. Charlie was safe, and now so was Jemma. But she wondered when it would be her turn. Zachary wasn’t a stranger to her.
“Lyddie.” Lydia tore her gaze from Keith and looked at her cousin. “I’ll walk you home.”
“I need to do something before I go.” Lydia swiveled on her heel and hurried from the library before either man could stop her. She gathered her skirts and ran up the stairs. She had only one destination in mind. In the early years after Kelsey’s death, she’d been too grief stricken to want to enter her friend’s chamber, but she’d had to pack away the dead girl’s belongings. She hadn’t been back to the chamber since that dreadful day, but she had a dream the previous night. Kelsey appeared often during Lydia’s slumber, but this time, her friend urged her to search the abandoned chamber. She slipped into the room and turned the key in the lock.
She hurried to the armoire and pulled it away from the wall. Empty, it was far easier to move than it had been when Kelsey was alive. It used to take both of them to maneuver it. The enormous piece of furniture scraped along the floor, making Lydia wince at its volume. She hadn’t moved the monster when she’d packed away its contents, so no one had disturbed it in years. As it came away from the wall, something landed on the floor. Lydia looked down and found a book at the armoire’s feet. She stooped as someone jiggled the doorknob. She glanced at the portal before scooping up the book. She flipped it open and immediately recognized Kelsey’s neat script. The date at the top of the page clued Lydia to it being her friend’s diary. She was quick to move the massive wooden piece back into place as Keith knocked and called out to her.
Lydia looked around, knowing she couldn’t smuggle the journal out without Keith seeing it. She was reticent to hand it over until she knew there was nothing in it Kelsey didn’t want her brother to read. She scurried to the bed and tucked it under the mattress before she unlocked the door.
“Yes.” Lydia cocked an eyebrow as though Keith disturbed her in her own chamber.
“Why must you be so defiant when I’m not stopping you from anything?” Keith gazed down at her. His blond hair laid across his shoulders. Coupled with his impressive height and muscular build, he looked more like a Viking than a duke. It was clear how he’d earned his moniker as the Blond Marauder. He looked like he’d come to pillage and plunder—her. The heat returned to his gaze, catching her off guard. A flutter took root in her belly as her skin heated. He was still the most handsome man she’d ever seen, and she’d seen him frequently in the time since he returned to Forde Abbey. But they’d never once spoken before that day.
“I sneaked into your home and now you find me in your sister’s chamber with the door locked. I expect that bothers you.”
“You expect wrong, Lady Lydia.” Keith pressed on the door, but only hard enough for Lydia to know he wished for it to open. He watched as her deep inhale expanded her chest, pressing her breasts against the neckline of her gown. They were far too enticing, just like the rest of her. He’d seen her walking on the beach from his chamber window. He’d watched her on Sundays as her family rode past on their way to church. He’d noticed her in the village when he took his horse to the blacksmith or needed to visit the milliner to sell some of the textiles his ships brought in. He knew she’d seen him, too. He’d recognized her curiosity, since it matched his.
“You’re not bothered that I know secret ways into your home or that I come and go from your sister’s chamber as I please?”
“No. But you aren’t leaving yet.” Keith stepped fully into the chamber and closed the door.
“Rajesh won’t?—”
“He knows I’m up here. And he knows, despite what happened with your cousin, I won’t harm you. There are things even I won’t do, and I most assuredly don’t defile women. What I want to know is why you’re here.”
“I had a dream last night, and it made me miss Kelsey even more. I just wanted to come to where I can feel her spirit.”
“You feel her spirit?” Keith swept his gaze around the room. He’d jested with Jemma when she arrived two days earlier and a draft wafted around their ankles. He’d claimed it might be Margaret Gwyn, his ancestor whose husband was granted a title and the lands by the Crown. Since moving back in, he’d often felt an unsettled presence, but he’d never known what it was. He’d wondered if it was his father’s ghost come to haunt him, but it didn’t feel malevolent enough for the dead duke.
