Jaw clenched, Percy spun in another turn. But didn’t answer.
Leo, the blighter, nodded his understanding as he stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankle, waiting patiently for Percy to continue.
Hell, but this was not to be borne. Fear, guilt, and trepidation all warred within him, blustering and whirling about like the tempestuous sea.
“The woman I met last night…”
One of Leo’s blond eyebrows lifted. “The tryst in the gazebo.”
Percy nodded. “That was Miss Heather Morgan.”
Leo spluttered and sat bolt upright. “The hell it was!”
“I spotted her—the woman with the black feathered costume and the ribbons in her hair—just before the unmasking. She was dancing with Hanley. Hell’s tits, Leo, I thought she was a widow. But then I saw her, and when I came home, I saw the streaks of blood…” He cursed once more, recalling the horror and burning shame he’d felt at seeing the proof that he’d taken hermaidenhead smeared on his cock. “She was so sure of herself, so damned seductive. And I…so sodding desperate.”
“Miss Morgan. You had sex with MissMorgan?” Leo scratched at his chin and raked his fingers through his blond hair. “Does she know it was you?”
Percy groaned. “I don’t know. I daresay it’s possible, but we agreed to keep our identities concealed and our masks on during the encounter. And she whispered throughout, as did I.
“But in mere hours our assignment together commences, Leo.” His gut churned and his chest clenched.
“Have you a plan?”
Percy had thought about it in depth, and his options, while plentiful, were reduced to one when it came to both his and Miss Morgan’s honour. After the way he’d been raised, he would never leave a woman to rear a child of his alone.Please let her not be carrying my child. Despite his desire to work, he had more than enough wealth to keep himself and a potential family comfortable for the remainder of their lives.
While he’d despised it at large, piracy had indeed provided an adequate fortune. He’d intended to bequeath it to Miss Lizzy Notley and any other children of Leo and Juliana, in addition to a tidy sum allocated to aiding orphaned children on the streets of London. That, now, would have to change.
Another groan rumbled through his chest, and he rubbed his eyes once more. Even should Miss Morgannotbe pregnant, he would do the right thing.
“Yes, Leo. I have a plan.”
The carriage trundledover the cobblestones, jostling Heather against the squabs. Conflicting emotions waged battle in herheart: anticipation for the adventure and assignment before her, and sorrow at leaving her home, her friends…her plants.
Horses’ hooves thundered along the road, and the carriage’s wheels rumbled as they carried her to her future.
“Stop with those dreadful, unsightly tears,” her aunt, Lady Budford, snapped. “You’ll make Lord Hanley regret his decision if he sees you crying, your face a horrible mottled red. And we cannot have him leaving you behind.”
Heather frowned. “I’m not crying, Aunt. I?—”
“Don’t be impertinent,” she snapped, her grey eyes flashing with irritation. “Your marriage to the earl will provide us with an auspicious connection that will benefit your cousins. You cannot always be so selfish like your mother.” She sighed happily, a small smile quirking her lips. “Oh, it shall be lovely to have you out of my home, Calluna.”
A familiar twinge of pain sliced through Heather’s heart. After her parents’ death, she’d been left upon her aunt and uncle’s doorstep, and while they’d provided her with the necessary items for survival, she’d never once felt welcomed or cared for. She’d never understood the animosity her aunt carried for her mother, but it was shown in every one of her actions toward Heather.
“All those ghastly plants stinking up the house,” her aunt continued. “We’ve at last satisfied the obligation to my dreadful sister and that boring plant lover she married, and we can be free of you.”
“I’m pleased you’re happy, Aunt,” Heather murmured.
Fury flared in Lady Budford’s eyes. “You’d best be pleased, ungrateful girl! I might have tossed you to the streets once you’d reached eighteen, and then where would you be? That’ssevenextra years I’ve kept you housed and fed out of the goodness of my own heart—not that you needed any more food, for pity’s sake. Just look at you,” she sneered.
Heather bit back the retort that threatened to escape. It would do little good to make the woman angrier. Heather knew her aunt was wrong, and that was all that mattered.
At leastsomeonefound her desirable. Heat flared in her belly at the memory of the mystery man the previous night. He’d wanted to further their acquaintance, mayhap engage in another tryst… Her stomach swooped. She’d wanted it as well, but it simply couldn’t work. It was proof, however, that men were capable of admiring her, regardless of her body’s shape or size or the colour of her hair.
Early summer sun glinted off the surface of the Thames, and ships and smaller boats spotted the water. The earl’s carriage rolled along the uneven road, their possessions having been loaded earlier that morning and their staff—including Cordelia—riding behind.
Their equipage rolled to a halt, rocking as the footmen dismounted from the rear. Shouts, lapping water, and the call of gulls rose up from beyond the carriage’s walls, but Heather scarcely heard it for her pulse pounding in her head.
This is it, her heart whispered. Her adventure was about to begin.
