“That’d be me,” Sterling replied, some split-second impulse stopping him from offering his name. "I asked after a guide at the Pilgrim’s Rest. They sent me here and said to ask for Jack.”
He sat a little straighter on his stool and swiveled to face Sterling. “In that case, a pleasure to meet you, fine sir. I take it you seek a knowledgeable guide to lead you safely across the tidal flats?”
“Not exactly, Jack. As I understand it, several nights ago, you agreed to lead my late cousin’s widow to the island and then see her safely back.”
“Let me think…” He broke off, frowning as if searching his mind. “Mayhap I did. I can’t rightly recall. Sorry.” With that, he tossed back the remainder of his ale, dropped a few shillings atop the bar, and started to rise. “Well, then, I’d best be—”
Sterling clapped Jack on the shoulder and urged him back onto his stool. Firmly. “Think again. Blond haired, blue eyed, rather…determined?”
Jack squinted, as if trying to recall.
As if any man alive would forget Annabelle.
“Oh, yes. Now that you describe her, I did encounter such a client.” His expression hardened and turned defensive. “I tried to talk her out of the endeavor, mind you, a’cause of the foul weather. But your…er…cousin’s widow wouldn’a hear of delaying her journey.”
Sterling could easily imagine. “Be that as it may, I understand you ran into some difficulty.”
Jack nodded. “That we did, sir. A ruffian—”
“Tworuffians.”
“If you say so, sir. I did not wait around to see.”
“Lady Woodville was quite clear on the number.”
He sniffed. “As I said, I saw what looked to be a robber coming toward us and wasted no time turning my mount. I urged—no,begged—both ladies to follow me, for their safety. One of them listened, and the two of us made a run for it.”
“Did Lady Woodville listen, Jack? Did she follow you?” he asked in a deceptively soft voice as his stomach fisted into an angry knot, picturing the scene anew. Annabelle facing down two gun-toting villains alone, while the man tasked with protecting her, and the chaperone responsible to guard her reputation, fled.
“As to that, she most certainly did not. Her chaperone had more sense. Your cousin’s widow, sir, she was right foo…er…brave,I meant to say. Braveand ratherfoolhardy, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
Sterling agreed with the man, wholeheartedly, but that was not the point. “And yet you left her in your dust.”
He gave Sterling a gravely offended look. “Now see here, Lord Randall—”
“Ah.” He sent the guide a cold smile. “So youdoremember a few things?”
“I beg yer pardon?” It was clear Jack had lost the thread of the conversation.
“You first claimed you barely remembered your client and her companion, and yet now you recall the name of the man to whom you were meant to deliver the ladies.”
The guide said nothing, just frowned down at his empty stein.
“I digress,” Sterling continued, his tone magnanimous. Inside he seethed. Fighting the urge to grasp the man by his throat and shake him ’til his teeth rattled out, he ordered himself to focus.“Following your abandonment of my cousin’s widow, I assume you at least escorted her companion, Miss…er…”
“Dunn.”
“That’s right. Miss Dunn. I assume you escorted her back to the inn?”
He nodded, his expression a bit too exuberant. “I did, indeed. And I urged her not to return to London, though she bid me deliver ‘er to Berwick the followin’ day and I did so.”
Sterling arched a brow. “Let us return to the part where you urged hernotto return, Jack. What, precisely, did you say?”
“I told her that her ladyship was more’n likely fine and would be back in a day or two when the weather improved.”
“Did you?” Sterling etched amazement in the two syllables.
Jack turned instantly wary, as if he realized he’d walked into a trap.
