She added, “I am entirely unknown to the Prince Regent.”
“Well I’m not, because I fished his cousin out of the Atlantic Ocean and treaded water for three days, keeping us both alive.”
“Oh yes. The heroism.”
“Well, some might simply call it swimming. Had you read of the rescue, Miss Allard, before we— Well, before?”
“Apparently I was shown your portrait in the broadsheets, but any memory of this evades me.”
“If there is a more forgettable portrait, I’ve not seen it.”
So much for notoriety, he thought. Of course her life priorities would preclude hero worship. If he admired this about her, he refused to admit it. All that mattered was that she did not know she was a princess and that she did not care he was a hero. Another rule of smuggling: play the hand that you’re dealt.
“Returning to the topic of the betrothal,” she pressed. “So you saved this royal cousin, and Prince George was so very grateful, he bade you marry an unknown woman from Kent? That makes no sense.”
“Actually, he was so very grateful,” and here he spoke in a flat, bored voice, closing in on the juicy carrot, “he granted me a reward. And that reward was property and a manor house.”
“You’ve been given a house by the prince?”
“Yes,” Luke confirmed. “Trust me when I say that no one was more surprised than me.”
He could see the wheels turning inside her head. For half a block, he said nothing, allowing her to think. Both sides of the street were lined with snug dwellings built in the Tudor style, each connected to the next, a ribbon of fairy-tale houses. Old women watched their progress from upstairs windows. A quartet of little boys chased a dog with a fish between his teeth.
“But what house were you given?” she finally asked. Her voice was a little breathless.
“Funny thing,” he said, going in for the kill. “I believe it to be the very estate you’ve just described. Eastwell Park? That’s the property you named, correct?”
“Eastwell Park?”Danielle Allard repeated. She stopped walking. Behind them, an old man on a plow horse was forced to rein wide and clomp around them.
“Good day, Miss Allard,” the man called.
She waved but said nothing.
Someone from a shop doorway called her name and she ignored her. She reached out with both hands and gripped his sleeve.
“Eastwell Park?” she repeated. “The Prince Regent has placed a new owner in Eastwell Park? And it’s you?”
“He has done,” Luke said, looking at her small, gloved hands on his coat. The imprint of her hand seemed to sink to his bone. When she touched him, they were strangers no more. Whether this was useful or an obstacle, he could not say; but he had the errant thought that some line had been crossed.
“But thisisthe very property I described,” she enthused. “This is the vacant house with the dead baron and no heirs. The landlord of Eastwell Park will control the future of Ivy Hill. Forgive me, Captain Bannock, I’ll need a moment to comprehend the fact that the house has been—”
She tried to laugh, but it came out a hitched intake of breath. “That the house will be occupied. It’s actually gone to you. You’re certain? This was the reward from the prince?”
“Yes,” he said. “I am certain.” It was the truth, after all—it felt like a lie, but hehadbeen given the house by Prince George. He met her eyes, and she beamed up with a bright expression of joy and hope that lit her pretty face. Luke squinted against the glow.
“Captain,”she whispered, and the sound of her voice and the look on her face should have made him feel like a savior, but it did not. It made him feel like sludge on the bottom of the Thames. She was light and youth and idealism. He wanted only to bring Vincent Surcouf to the bottom with him, a goal that required no light.
“Captain,” she repeated. She squeezed his arm and leaned, smiling up.
“What are the odds?” he said lightly.
“But this is remarkable news. We have petitioned for this. We were told the property was too expensive to find a buyer, but if Prince George simplygaveitto you...”
“Prince George is very fond of his cousin, I believe.”
“I have a hundred questions about your plans for the estate, but first I must know—why did the Prince Regent combine the reward with me? Withmarriage to me?” she asked.
Two young women bustled around them, unable to hide their stares or giggles.
