Page 45

“E VIE ?” H E WHISPERED AS SHE shook her head again, as if trying to compose herself.

Maybe he should kiss her, as he had wanted to on the road, to still her hysterics?

Kissing is always a good idea. He slowly lifted her chin with his bound hands and claimed her soft lips.

He leaned into the kiss, wishing to wrap her in his arms, to run his fingers through her hair.

Her breathing relaxed, along with her body.

That was too easy. Perhaps a second kiss was necessary to be absolutely certain her hysterics would not return. He deepened the kiss.

He should pull back. He needed to. With a grunt he pulled back, her thick lashes fluttering open and her green eyes focusing on him, clear and desperate. “Evie Poppy Larkby, you tell me right now what is amiss. It must be dire for you to come find me.”

“Oh, Bash.” She rested her head on his shoulder, nestling into his side. “I cannot bear to tell you this, but you are right in assuming that the situation was dire to force my hand in such a manner.”

“Did Sir Josiah approach you?” He clenched his teeth. “Is that why you were hiding in London? Was he so aggressive in his determination to see you as his bride?”

“No.” She turned to him, taking his tied hands with her bound ones, the concern in her expression stirring him. “I am here because your grandmother needs you.”

He blinked, drawing back as a stab of guilt plagued his stomach. He had not even thought of her being the reason for Evie’s appearance. “What happened? Is she …” He dipped his head. “Is she—”

“She is with us yet. Indeed, she was well when last I saw her, but your cousin was disappointed in her recovery and that she was attempting to give her home and fortune to me. She said she always intended to take care of your bride if you ever wed, as Alden would have just gambled it away.”

He shook his head. “That does not surprise me. She has always said that she would see to my bride’s dowry so that I might marry however I liked.”

She lifted her bound hands to her heart. “What a sweet romantic. I only wish that I was not the cause of your cousin’s ire.”

“Ire?” Bash drew back. “What has my cousin done? What did Alden say to you to cause you to race across England?”

“Oh, Bash. We did everything to stop him, but he contested the will and cast Grandmother Larkby into the asylum in London. He had her declared unfit, therefore allowing him rights to seize her fortune as the so-called rightful male heir.”

“He what?” He rose, pacing the room, longing to face Alden and beat him for his vindictiveness toward a loving woman. “He tossed our grandmother into an asylum?”

She nodded. “Nothing would alter his choice. I told him I would take her to my townhouse, but he would not relent.”

“The viper.”

“He is indeed. We must not allow him to steal her future from her.” She rose and studied the bars and jabbed them with her shoulder, as if searching for a weakness … or expressing her frustration with the situation. “We have to get out so we can free her.”

“Come. I should have done this before I kissed you.” He nodded to the ropes tying her hands and set to work on loosening the knots.

“Once we get off this ship, we are going to do nothing. It is too dangerous for you to come. I will go for her.” He tossed aside the rope and nodded to his own hands as she silently worked them.

After freeing him, she knelt by the bars, studying them. “No. I have a plan, and you are going to need me.”

He squatted beside her and slid his hands down her arms, intertwining his fingers with hers. “I already need you, and I fear that should anything happen to you, I could not survive it.” He lifted her hand to his lips, kissing the top.

She smirked and jerked her hand out of his. “You are not going to make me bend to your will every time we disagree by kissing me, are you?”

He grinned. “It has served me well in the past, and you seem to like it just as much as I do.”

She whipped off her hat and batted him on the arm. “Well, stop it! We need to think.”

“Do you really wish me to stop kissing you?”

Her cheeks flamed, and she pulled her hat back over her ears. He laughed. Apparently she did not. He stood with her, drawing her toward him. “Since we agree that ceasing kissing is not the answer, how about another kiss to settle the matter of my only kissing you when we disagree.”

“You are full of nonsense.” She shoved past him and craned to look at the bars up top. “We will make things right—together—as the lady and her highwayman.”

Bash shook his head at the thought of Evie in his clothing riding alongside him as if to battle. “You can hardly be serious. This is your plan? To ride in with me, pistols drawn, after we somehow escape this ship?”

“Grandmother is of strong mind, and next to you, who would dare to question us?”

“My cousin would dare. He has abandoned her in the asylum, no doubt hoping for her death. He is no fool. He will have the staff alerted that she is an escape risk. They will be on guard. I cannot allow you to take such a risk, with you appearing in public dressed as a man. A judge might see you locked behind the very doors from which we are attempting to free Grandmother.”

She rested a hand on his chest, stilling his argument. Did the little minx know how her touch swayed him? Of course she knew.

“Don’t you think this is why you became the highwayman? This is why you have all those skills as a guard and as the Prince Regent’s right-hand knight?” She gritted her teeth. “I know it might take some time, but would the Prince Regent help us?”

“He is preoccupied at the moment with another matter. He would help, but it would take time to see Grandmother free, and that is something that we do not have, with her delicate health.”

“Then we best leave now and fetch her out.” She squatted again and removed a knife from her boot, wedging it into the hinge, popping up the head, and removing the pin.

Bash’s jaw dropped at her ingenuity. “How did you know how to do that?”

“Book research. It’s a good thing Sir Thomas didn’t think I’d be armed beyond the obvious weapons in my harness.” She handed him the knife. “I cannot reach the top. Do you think you can manage?”

He grinned, removed the pin from the hinge, and eased the door from the frame. “You are so brilliant I could kiss you.”

“All this talk of kissing when we should be escaping,” she scolded halfheartedly.

He grasped her hand, and they darted out from the brig. “We have darkness on our side but not time. We will be out of the River Thames too soon. Are you strong enough to swim?”

She nodded. “Especially now that I won’t be tangled in my skirts like last time. I may have to lose the coat though, because it is so heavy.”

“You will need it when we fetch out Grandmother.” He slid it off her and donned it himself, chuckling at the shortened cuffs. “Follow me. If I stop, so do you. If I tell you to jump off the side, you do it. No questions asked. Understood?”

“I thought you said no questions?”

He rolled his eyes and lifted his finger to her soft lips before clasping her hand.

They took care not to make excessive noise as they wove through the hull.

Cargo groaned and creaked with the gentle lapping of the River Thames.

With tonight’s wind, they had precious little time, and without Evie’s quick thinking, he would have been far longer in getting them out.

Boots on the stairs had him jerking her to his side, but the sailor only fetched a rope and darted back up without glancing at the brig. Bash felt her sigh. He closed his eyes and listened. They were never going to have a better time than when the crew was distracted in leaving the docks.

“On three,” he whispered, holding up his fingers and ticking off the count. He led the charge up the stairs. As he’d hoped, the sailors were too busy with their tasks to see them as they sprinted for the railing. He swept her into his arms and leapt over. Shouts sounded as they struck the water.

He hoped she was holding her breath as he released her legs while still keeping one arm about her waist, kicking as they swam under the water. They broke the surface, both gasping.

“You fine?” he managed as they swam for the shore.

She nodded, teeth chattering.

Even in the summer, the Thames was chilly and smelled horrible, with unmentionables floating past. She followed him, stroke for stroke.

She had not exaggerated her talent with swimming and did not complain.

By the time they reached the stone steps at the river’s edge, the crew had lowered the rowboat and were in pursuit, taking care not to shout and alert all of London to their presence.

It was early yet, and they might still be recaptured without anyone else being the wiser.

Bash grasped Evie’s hand, and they scrambled up—Evie’s feet slipping against the slime that caked the first few steps.

“Just a little farther and we can escape them.” He helped her over the river wall, and they raced for the alley, winding through the streets of London until at last he dared to stop to gain his breath.

He bent over his knees, and Vivienne leaned against the side of the building, panting.

She had lost her hat in the water, and with her face clean, there was no hiding her feminine features.

He scooped up some dirt and ran it over her jawline.

“Vile!” She pulled away from him.

“What? You’ve done it before.”

“With known soot. This is alley sludge.” She wrinkled her pretty nose but did not wipe it away. “It smells horrible.”

“All the better to play the part of a London thief.” He reached into his pocket and drew out his black oversized kerchief, tying it about her head to hide her brilliant hair.

“Are you still determined to rescue Grandmother with me? If we get caught, everything I’ve worked for as a yeoman is gone, which doesn’t matter as long as my grandmother is safe, but you, dressed as the highway robber from the newssheets?

You would be tried, and God help me if you were taken from this earth too soon.

My own life means little if the ones I love are gone, when I could have prevented their loss. ”

“The ones you love?” she whispered.

His gaze held hers. “Yes. Most ardently.”

“I feel the same way.”

His lungs squeezed. He had hardly dared to hope that she loved him. He cradled her face with his palms. “You do? Really?”

She smiled up at him. “I have lived most of my adult life without the love of a parent. But when you and your grandmother found me, you both offered me something my heart has been desiring for years. Grandmother has become the mother I always wanted … and you, you have become the dearest person in the world to me. You both are my family now. I would not be so bold to admit my affection for you if I did not think there was a danger to this night.”

He drew her chin up, searching her wide green eyes. “Do you not know by now how much I adore you, my sweet wife?”

She shook her head.

“Evie, would I have married you to save your reputation if I did not hold you in regard?”

“Tess said much the same thing, but I will answer you as I did her. You are a yeoman—a knight. You are bound to be chivalrous to a fault.”

“Kiss me.” Her breath caught, but he caught the flicker of desire in her eyes.

“Don’t you think there has been enough kissing in one night between two people who were only supposed to be pretending affection, Bash?”

“Kiss me, Evie, and see that my lips will tell the truth.”

“To kiss a knight is a proposition that I find I cannot refuse.” She rose on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms about his neck, lifting her lips to his.

He lifted her from the ground, their lips parting and breath mingling before he set her down. “What do you know from my kiss, my lady?”

She ran her fingers through his short locks, which were quickly growing back.

“That you are trying to sway me with your wiles,” she whispered into his ear.

“And it will not work.” She spun away. “Grandmother gave me the love that I lost. I will not turn my back on her now, even if it seems senseless to enter an insane asylum to rescue her. So you will either allow me to join you, or I shall stumble along behind in an attempt to distract the guards to allow you inside to rescue her.”

He grunted. “I suppose there is no way I can dissuade you from this once your mind is made up.”

“You do not stand a chance, even with those kisses of yours.” She grinned. “Love is stronger than fear.”

“It seems that it is also stronger than sanity.”