Page 22 of Exile's Return

She cleared her throat and met his gaze. ‘I know I am indebted to you and whatever you want of me I will give you gladly, but I ask one more thing in return.’

‘That is?’ The man’s mouth quirked at the corners and a seething resentment rose in Agnes. Here she was practically throwing herself at him and all he could do was smile?

‘You assist me with the means to reach Charvaley, in…’

‘Lancashire?’ he answered for her.

‘You’ve heard of it?’

His mouth tightened and he sat back. ‘Yes. What particular means do you have in mind?’

‘Money to buy a passage on the Liverpool coach?’ she suggested, having not considered how one travelled the countryside without the benefit of a private conveyance.

He nodded. ‘I could do that, or…’ he paused, his eyes narrowing.

‘Or?’ she prompted.

‘I could take you myself.’

Agnes’s heart skipped a beat. ‘You would take me to Charvaley?’

‘Yes. That is what you want, is it not?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered, her fingers circling the gold locket. ‘More than anything but why would you wish to go such a distance…for me.’

He studied her for a long moment, the tips of his fingers steepled, as if in deep consideration. He laid the palm of onehand down on the table. ‘I think we should be honest with each other, Mistress Fletcher. We share one thing in common…a mutual…shall we say,dislike…of Colonel Tobias Ashby. I have long-outstanding business with him and you wish to have the children restored to you. We have a common cause…a common enemy.’

The grey eyes took on the sheen of polished steel, and despite herself she shivered. ‘Can I ask what your business with Tobias is?’

‘No,’ he said.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if it involved the death of Tobias Ashby, but something in his hard face warned her not to ask such a question. If she agreed to go with him she was truly throwing in her lot with the devil.

He studied her face without blinking. ‘Are we agreed?’

She opened her mouth intending to say ‘No’, but it was a soft ‘Yes,’ that fell into the tense space between them. Yes, she would go with this strange man. What alternative did she have? None. He sat back. ‘Good, we are agreed. Now eat your supper. We will leave tomorrow morning.’

She stared at her plate, unable to comprehend what had just passed between them. Just like that, he had agreed to take her home, but he still had not named his price. She glanced up at him, but his face told her nothing, and she decided that if this man could reunite her with Henry and Lizzie, whatever he wanted would be a price worth paying.

With her dilemma resolved, she demolished the food put before her.

He watched her as she brushed the last crumbs from her lips.

‘I like a woman with a good appetite,’ he said.

‘I was hungry,’ Agnes said stiffly.

‘Evidently. Now to business, Mistress Fletcher.’

‘Business?’

‘Yes, I need to know a little more about you. What, for example, is…was…your relation to Lord Elmhurst?’

She frowned. Clearly, the man knew more about her than she did of him.

‘I was sister to the late Earl’s wife. My sister Ann and her husband, James, took me in when my brother died.’ She cleared her throat. ‘After Ann died, the children came exclusively to my care and charge.’

‘And now the Earl is dead you say you have lost everything?’