“And your fair cousin, of course,” he said, looking at Amanda. “And yet, milady, I’m very curious. What has brought you here? I had the distinct impression that you did not wish to see me again.”
“Did you?” she said, her voice distant and soft. “You were mistaken.” She seemed to shudder slightly, then her smile returned to her features, and she grew animated and her eyes glowed like jewels. Her cheeks were just touched with the rose of a flush, her lips seemed as red as wine, and at that moment Eric did not think that he had ever seen a woman more alluring. He did not just yearn for her with his loins—though that urge lay very strong within him—but he ached to possess her in all ways, to run his fingers through her hair, to feel those eyes upon him with trust and innocence and their touch of the siren too. He wanted to hold her against him, to watch the rise and fall of her breast, to feel the whisper of her words against his cheek.
“Was I mistaken?” he asked her.
She nodded. “I came to apologize. You caught me at a frightful disadvantage. I am grateful, of course. And I’m so very sorry that I was rude. Please, do forgive me.”
“What else could I do, milady?” he replied.
“Pardon me, milady, milord,” Damien complained softly. “I am here too, you know.”
Eric laughed, looking at Damien. He liked the young man very much. He was bold and brash and witty, and yet, beneath it all, he was determined—and talented. Damien had already cast his glove into the fray. Roswell, he had learned, was dealing very closely with the Bostonians. Most men were still eager to negotiate. Damien ran with a crowd that seemed collectively certain that it would come down to a force of arms. Even though Washington spoke carefully, Eric was certain that he, too, thought it would come to bloodshed.
“A thousand pardons, sir. But I’m afraid my keenest interest is in your cousin, Damien. Curious, isn’t it, that a lady should seek out a man in a tavern for an apology.”
She still had her temper, he saw, even if she was trying to hide it. Her lashes were lowered, but he saw the flash in her eyes. When she lifted her head, she was smiling again. “Is it shocking behavior that I should be here? Why, all manner of good men and women come to this place, so I am told. The rooms, they say, are of a far more pleasant nature at Mrs. Campbell’s Tavern, but the food here is fine, the drink palatable, and the company…most respectable.”
“Perhaps. But for a lady of your affluence?”
“But there is a lord of your affluence here.”
“And there lies the difference, Amanda,” he told her flatly.
She flushed slightly but picked up a pewter tankard of ale, which she sipped and smiled. “Ours is a wonderful new world, isn’t that what they say? I am fascinated by it.” Her lashes rose and fell, her smile was compelling. She was flirting with him. Her fingers fell over his like butterfly wings.
He caught her fingers with his own. “You are a loyalist to the core, Amanda,” he told her flatly.
She tried to maintain a smile while she struggled to free her fingers from his grasp. “Milord! Do you mean to say that you are not? Have you then repudiated the king? I had not heard that the staunchest rebels had yet gone so far!”
Only in whispers. But things were moving so quickly. Throughout the colonies, throngs of people had attacked shopkeepers who had failed to respect the boycotts on British goods. Few men or women had been injured, but the goods had been destroyed. And there had been no reprisals. It was all like a gigantic wind, sweeping around them. Rebellion was close at hand.
And he was going off to fight Indians in the west, at Lord Dunmore’s request.
He did not need to answer Amanda because Damien was already doing so. Leaning forward, her cousin spoke to her heatedly. “Amanda, hush! God alone knows who may listen to our words these days! Lord Cameron said nothing about having repudiated the king. Indeed, he is the king’s good servant, leaving his own hearth and risking his own life, limb, and health and fortune to go forth and meet the Shawnee.”
“You should watch for your own life and limb, cousin,” Amanda warned softly.
Damien sat back, staring at her. “What are you talking about?”
She knew exactly what she was talking about, Eric thought. The night became ever more interesting.
“Nothing,” she replied, and turned from her cousin, a charming smile on her lips. “It is whispered that this is where it all takes place.”
“It…all?” Eric queried her innocently.
“The clandestine meetings. The speeches, the—”
“The rebellion, that’s what she means.”
She pouted sweetly. “Amusing, Damien. But so very exciting,” she told Eric.
What a wonderful liar she was, he thought. But it didn’t matter.
“And are you fascinated, Lady Sterling?”
“Incredibly.”
“Is that a loyalist hobby?”
