Then he broke away and left the room. She followed him slowly down the stairs and out to the porch where he was mounting his horse, a party of five of his volunteers ready to accompany him. She offered him the stirrup cup.
“Will you pray for me?” he asked her curiously.
“Yes, with every fiber of my being!” she whispered.
He smiled. “I will find Damien for you. And I will correspond as regularly as I can. Take care, my love,” he told her. He bent and kissed her. She closed her eyes and felt his lips upon her own, and then she felt the coldness when his touch was gone.
At last he rode away, and she stood on the porch and waved until she could see him no more. Then she turned and fled up the stairs and back to her room.
But the room, too, had grown cold. She started to cry, and then she found that she was besieged by sobs. They seemed to go on and on forever. But then her tears dried, and she told herself with annoyance that she must pull herself together. Her fears were irrational. Eric would come home, and nothing would go wrong. They would ride out the storm; they would survive.
He would come home…
And when he did, she would find a way to earn his trust again. She would find a way to tell him that she loved him.
Eric had been gone two weeks when Cassidy came to her in the parlor to tell her that she had a visitor. Cassidy’s manner made her frown and demand, “Who is it?”
He bowed to her deeply. “Your father, my lady.”
“My father!” Stunned, she stood, knocking over the inkwell she had been using as she worked on household accounts. Neither she nor Cassidy really noted the spill of ink.
“Has he come—alone?” she asked. The coast was dangerous for Nigel Sterling now. He had been out on the river, the last she heard, with Lord Dunmore—and Robert Tarryton.
“His ship rests at the Cameron docks. A warship.”
She understood why Sterling hadn’t been molested upon his arrival. Biting nervously into her lower lip, she shrugged and sank slowly back to her chair. She had no choice but to see her father. She wondered if Cassidy realized it.
“Show him in,” she told Cassidy.
He cast her a quick, condemning glance. He didn’t understand.
Anger rose quickly within her. Couldn’t Cassidy, and the others, understand that she simply wanted to save the house?
They hadn’t managed to fight Sterling and his warship!
She wasn’t going to beg Cassidy to believe in her or understand her. She stared at him and waited. He turned sharply on his heel and left the room. A few moments later her father entered. He came into the room alone, but even as he stepped in, she heard a commotion beyond the windows. Amanda hurried to one of the windows and looked out. A troop of royal navy men were assembling on the yard.
She turned around to stare at her father.
“What are you doing here?”
“Ever the princess, eh, daughter? The supreme lady. Not “Welcome, Father,” or ‘How are you, Father?’ but ‘What are you doing here!’ Well, your highness, first I shall have some of your husband’s fine brandy.” He walked to a cherrywood table to help himself from the decanter. Then he sat comfortably across the desk from her. “I want more information.”
“You must be mad—”
“I could burn this place to the ground.”
“Burn it!”
“Your husband’s precious Cameron Hall?” Sterling taunted.
“He’d rather that it burned than that I give anything to you.”
“Why, daughter! You’ve fallen in love with the rogue.” Sterling set his glass sharply upon the desk, eyeing her more closely. “Then let’s up the stakes here, Highness. I have Damien. I’ll torture him slowly before I slit his throat if you don’t cooperate.”
She felt the blood rush from her face. The pounding of her heart became so loud that it seemed to engulf her. “You’re lying,” she accused him. But it had to be true. It had been so long since she had heard from her cousin.
Sterling sat back confidently. “The fool boy was in Massachusetts, harrying the soldiers straight back into the city of Boston. He was captured—he was recognized as kin of mine. Out of consideration for my service to the Crown, the officer in charge thought that the dear boy—my kin, you realize—should be given over to me. I greeted him like a long-lost brother—before tossing him into the brig.” Sterling stared at her, smiling, for a long while.
