“Is he the best you could do for a third?” Nicholas asked dryly, indicating the young man. “I don’t go in for hurting children. Can’t you and your red-haired cohort manage without help?”
“You don’t seem surprised to see me, Montieth,” James said evenly.
“Should I be?”
“Why, yes. You left England before the hanging.”
“Ah, the hanging.” Nicholas leaned back, smiling. “Did it draw a big crowd?”
“You find it amusing?” Jeremy demanded.
“My dear boy, all I find amusing is my own stupidity. If I had known this fellow was going to make it his life’s mission to plague me, I’d never have arranged for the guards to turn their backs so he could get away.”
“Bloody liar!” Conrad joined in heatedly. “Those guards were unbribable! I offered them enough to know that.”
“Connie, isn’t it?”
“It’s Mr. Sharpe to you!”
Nicholas chuckled. “You should know money isn’t always the answer. It also helps to know the right people.”
“Why?” James asked softly.
“Oh, never doubt that my reasons were selfish, old man,” Nicholas replied. “Since I wasn’t going to be around to attend the hanging myself, I decided to deny the rest of the populace that pleasure, too. If I could have arranged a postponement until my return, you can be sure I’d have done it. So don’t feel you have to thank me.”
“Let me have him, Hawke.” Conrad’s fury was overtaking him. “She’ll never have to know.”
“If you mean my housekeeper, the old girl’s probably got her ear to the door right now. But don’t let that dissuade you, old man.”
Conrad came out of his chair like a shot, but James motioned him to stop. The captain stared thoughtfully at Nicholas for several moments, probing those honey-gold eyes, and then he laughed.
“Damn me if I don’t believe half of what you’ve said, Montieth.” He was probing Nicholas’ eyes with his own riveting gaze. “But I wonder,” he went on slowly, “what your real motive was. Did you figure if you got me out of the mess you’d got me into, I would call it quits? I wouldn’t have.” Nicholas didn’t answer and James laughed again. “Don’t tell me a man of your nature has a conscience? A sense of fair play?”
“Not bloody likely,” Conrad mumbled.
“Ah, don’t forget, Connie, I wasn’t to hang for what I did to him, yet he was responsible for my arrest.”
“Very amusing,” Nicholas said coldly. “Now may we dispense with these pointless speculations? Play your hand, Hawke, or get out. I have things to do.”
“As do we. You don’t suppose I enjoy hunting you down, do you? It seems that’s all I ever do anymore,” James sighed. “The last six months have been most tiresome.”
“You’ll understand if I don’t sympathize?”
“How much of his lip are you going to take, Hawke?” Conrad growled. “Are you ready to reconsider now?”
“Connie’s right,” Jeremy put in. “I can’t see what Regan ever saw in him.”
“Can’t you, lad?” Conrad sneered. “Look at that pretty face.”
“Ease off, both of you,” James warned. “Regan has more sense than to fall for good looks. She had to have seen more in him than that.”
“Well, he’s certainly not what I imagined,” Jeremy grumbled.
James smiled. “You can’t judge him by this visit, Jeremy. He’s got his defenses up.”
Nicholas felt he’d been pushed far enough. “Hawke, if you have something to say to me, say it. If you want another go at me, get to it. But if you three just want to have an argument over some doxy, you can do that elsewhere.”
“You’ll take that back, Lord Montieth,” Jeremy cried. “She’s not a doxy!”
