“Harlan.” She repeated the double syllable and decided that it was a rather nice name. “I would ask if it was passed down through the generations, but I know better than to ask the impossible.”
Grabbing a wooden spoon from the counter, Leah returned to the pot and stirred it slightly. It was just starting to heat, the combination of the items inside starting to make her stomach gnaw with hunger. She realized that she hadn’t eaten since before she’d boarded the ship in France. That had been the previous evening, and it was well past the time she normally broke her fast.
“What are you thinking?”
She set the spoon aside and narrowed her gaze. She wasn’t about to admit to any sort of weakness, even if it was just hunger, so she wondered, “I’m curious why you sent the other men away. I thought I was meant to cook for everyone.”
His gaze flickered for a moment. “No. Just you and me.”
She shook her head. “How ever did you manage to provide for yourself before you took on a captive? Or perhaps I’m not the first?”
“You are the first.” His gaze shuttered. “And not exactly a planned one.”
She waited for something further, an indication why she might be held there, but that was all he offered. Deciding that she must not be going to swing the pot at his head, he walked over and sank down at the small, two-seated table. His every movement told her that he was weary. No doubt he’d been awake most of the night. She told herself she shouldn’t care, but empathy shot through her.
Instead of falling into his spell, she remained standing and asked, “Will I ever learn the reasons you absconded with me?”
“Perhaps in time.”
She crossed her arms. “That’s all I’m to gain from you? No explanation at all?”
He watched her carefully. “For now.” His lips flattened into a tight line. “Tell me about your brother.”
Leah remained standing. “Henry is a vicar and the son from my father’s first marriage. He is twelve years my senior.”
“You speak as though there is no love lost between you.”
Leah tried to remain guarded. “We have never been particularly close.”
He continued to regard her steadily. “Then why are you going to Birmingham?”
“I have no other alternative,” she noted softly. “My aunt recently passed, and I was evicted from our home in Calais.”
He slowly leaned back in the chair. Laying his hands on the table, he murmured, “Then it would appear that both of us have had little choice in the course our lives have taken.”
“I doubt that is true,” she countered with a sardonic twist of her lips. “If you are stopping coaches for profit, then I find no glory or pride in stealing. If you are doing it for other reasons you think are honorable, I can assure you they are not. If you wish to pretend you are some modern-day Robin Hood with your band of merry thieves, I would caution you against such foolish deeds in search of such empty notoriety.”
He laughed. “You aren’t the sort of female to imagine such a man as a hero?”
“Hardly.” She rolled her eyes. “I can think of many other ways that might earn more respect without resorting to criminal means.”
He lifted a brow. “That is good to know, Miss Lindquist.” He steepled his hands before him. “I shall take your advisement into consideration.”
She wanted to scoff, because the fact he might absorb anything she said was unlikely. Turning the subject, she said, “You must stop this ‘Miss Lindquist’ nonsense. I have always gone by Leah. I have never been one to stand on ceremony, whether it be friend or foe.”
His eyes glittered beneath his mask, and from this close distance, she could see that they were actually hazel, a soft brown shade tinted with the slightest shade of green about the center. “Very well. Leah, it is.”
Leah.It was a simple enough name, but it hardly suited the complex woman before him. He found it difficult to imagine her living a life so full of knowledge, but yet denied the one thing she most desired—a family. Harlan would never have made it to the age of nine and twenty without his parent’s tutelage. He had been something of a hellion, sowing his wild oats and daring to challenge death at every turn. It was at his mother’s behest that he finally decided to use his efforts for good, rather than pleasure. But there were times, like now, sitting across from a tempting woman like Leah, that he considered falling back into the same routine.
He told himself those days were long past, because he had vowed to his mother, on her dying bed, that he would be the son she could be proud of after she was gone. To this day, Harlan had kept that promise by joining the navy. He’d worked his way up the ranks to captain, earned his fortune by honorable means, and returned to England a decorated hero following the Crimean wars.
Because of his service during those dark days, he was well aware of the poor conditions that most soldiers faced, the ones that had decided to turn to rebellion. He had suffered beside them all, but he’d never blamed his country for the lack of supplies and treatment. The entire world seemed as though it was under one affliction or another. Times were difficult for everyone, but the age of technology was upon them. He could see the hope in a brighter future, but there were some who were disgruntled about the change happening around them and wished to halt the progress.
Hence the reason he was forced to continue this masquerade as a thieving rebel, so that he might protect the England of his birth from those that wished to usurp the rightful authority. As a newly minted queen without a husband to aid her and an heir to offer promise to this wounded nation, times were perilous indeed for Victoria. It was Harlan’s job, and that of his men, to see that they assisted where they could. If that meant donning a mask and riding about the countryside to find the true threat, that’s what they would do.
Harlan returned his drifting attention to the enchanting woman before him. “How is it that you are not yet married?” From the first moment he’d beheld her, it had been difficult to think of little else but her loveliness. That was dangerous in his current occupation. He had to keep his mind focused on the task at hand—uncovering a traitorous spy and foiling a growing rebellion—or risk failure. But he was compelled by curiosity to wonder more about her life before now.
“Perhaps for the same reason I have never been kissed.” Her face instantly turned pink after she made that statement. She must have realized that she’d spoken without considering her words first. “Forgive me, I don’t know why—” She returned to the soup and prayed that he would ignore her error.
