For Love of the Earl (2 page)

"And what if he doesn't?"
 

They switched positions.
 

"We pray for a miracle."
 

Sarah swallowed.
 

"How is he going to get to London that quickly?" she asked.
 
"It took us days to get to Dover."
 

The wind blew Sarah's hair over her ear.
 
She reached up to swipe it away and instead connected with Alec's hand, moving to do the same thing.
 
Her eyes found his and locked.
 
She thought maybe she should look away or at least blink, but she just stared at his green, green eyes.
 
Blink, damn it.
 
And finally she did.
 
When she opened her eyes, Alec was frowning, and her stomach flipped in sudden dismay.
 
She tilted her head obediently and waited for his answer.
 

"I think Father may be in Dover already after what Nathan and I learned when we found Samuel."
 

Sarah had nearly forgotten about that.
 
It was true that she had tried to purposely block out some of the events that resulted from Samuel, the infallible housekeeper Miss Eleanora Quinton's son, being kidnapped. But it had been days ago, probably weeks by now.
 
It was getting hard to keep track of time, so she couldn't be sure.
 
Samuel had been kidnapped right after Alec's brother, Nathan Black, had accidentally shot the brother of the man who was a spy for the French.
 
Instead of shooting the spy, Lord Archer, Nathan had in fact shot Frederick Archer, and only learned of the mistake from the infallible Miss Quinton.
 
Which in turn resulted in Miss Quinton and Nathan being shot at and Miss Quinton's son being snatched.
 
When Alec and Nathan had rescued Samuel, they had been implicitly instructed to go to Dover.
 
But then Alec had run off in the middle of making love to his wife, well at least she thought it was the middle because Alec was still dressed when he decided to not finish what he had started, and then she had run after him, and she didn't really know what had occurred after that.
 

And now they were on a dinghy, fighting the Channel to make it to the ship that would carry them to France.
 
Sarah tried very hard to filter the events that had occurred between her husband running off and them ending up in this dinghy.
 
After all, when this was all over, she would go back to being the wife in a marriage that the War Office had forced.
 
And there were some things she just did not want to remember.

Like what it was like to fall asleep in Alec's arms.
 

She didn't want to remember the look in his eyes when –
 

She dug her fingernails into her palms, hoping to draw blood.
 
A terrific wave came over the side of the dinghy, and Alec's grip tightened.
 
It became hard to breathe, but she didn't want him to loosen his hold on her.
 

A sailor behind them shouted.
 
Sarah tried to get the water out of her eyes.
 
The salt stung them, and more water appeared where she had just removed it.
 
When she could finally see, the horizon had been blotted out by an enormous, black hole.
 
But it wasn't a hole.
 
It was the ship.
 
Sarah clenched her teeth even as the blood rushed out of her head.
 
Once they were on that ship, that was it.
 
They were bound then.
 
There was no hope of escape the moment they boarded.
 

A sailor was pulling her up, but Alec had not let go of her.
 
She was torn between the two of them, but Alec won, keeping her anchored against him.
 

The sailor yelled in French, and Sarah only blinked at him.
 
The water surging all around them made it impossible for her to hear him.
 
But Alec responded.
 
Sarah swung her head around to stare at him.
 

Alec spoke French?
             

Of course, he did.
 
It would be ridiculous to think otherwise.
 
He was a spy for the English in a war against the French.
 
Of course, he spoke French.
 
She wasn't sure why she thought she may have to translate for him.
 
It was moments like these that made her detest his effect on her.
 
She was a perfectly competent spy when he was not so close.

Now, Alec was pulling her toward the ship.
 
A rope net had been flung down the side.
 
Sarah stared at it before gazing down at her filthy, ruined dress.
 
How was she supposed to climb that in her current state?

"I'll be right behind you," Alec shouted in her ear.
 

Sarah turned around and feeling not at all like shouting, pointed at her skirts.
 
Alec looked down at them and then back at her face, an expression crossing his features that she had not seen in quite a while.
 

Alec looked positively delighted.
 

Sarah started to raise her eyebrow, but Alec was already bending down toward the hem of her skirt.
 
He reached between her legs and grabbed the back of the skirt, drawing it forward and dragging all the skirts up into the sack created by the back hem of her dress.
 
He shoved the wad of fabric into her hands and smiled wickedly.
 
The water stabbed through the sheer lace of her stockings, but the leers of all the French sailors stabbed even more sharply.
 
She stared at her husband, her skirts in her hands and her legs bared for all the French Navy to see.
 

Alec could not have looked more pleased.
 

Fury swamped her, and her fist came up before she could stop it.
 
Alec avoided it, and the momentum swung her completely around.
 
She would have kept reeling right into the Channel had Alec not caught her.
 

"Easy, love," he said against her ear, as he placed her now uncoiled hand on the rope net.
 
He nudged the back of her thigh with his knee.
 
She lifted her foot, placing it on the net before she regained the sense to strike him again.
 
So they climbed the net, Alec literally on her back, pushing her up the entire way.
 

And she knew she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
 

They reached the deck before she wanted to, and the heat of her husband's body left much too quickly.
 
She stood for a moment, balancing herself with the new rocking motion on this much larger vessel.
 
She realized Alec was frowning at her, but her brain wasn't working any longer.
 
She had been wrapped up in the man she loved for much too long, and when that happened, she turned into a complete mess.
 
Gone was the capable and well-skilled spy for the War Office.
 
In her place stood Sarah Beckham, orphan, incapable of almost nearly everything.

But then Alec reached over and ripped her skirts out of her grip, hastily striking the wet material back down to cover her legs.
 
Her brain clicked back into motion as he frowned more deeply at her.
 
This was delightful.
 
Now he thought she wanted to show all to a bunch of randy sailors.
 
That must be typical behavior for the daughter of a whore.

An officer approached them.
 
At least Sarah figured it was an officer.
 
The sailors were obviously not dressed in uniform as the ship sat in the middle of the Dover port, so she couldn't be sure.
 
But this man walked with an elegant, pompous posture that dared anyone to question his rank.
 

"Bienvenue, mes amis," he said, "Or is it hello, welcome, my friends?"
 

His voice had an odd grating sound that tickled Sarah's ears.
 
She wanted to reach up and scratch them.
 

"Hello is correct.
 
I'm not so sure about the
welcome
part, and the
friends
part is definitely not true," Alec said, smiling through the whole statement.
 
Sarah wanted to scratch her ears again.
 

"Perhaps in time," the officer said, "Allow me to introduce myself.
 
I am Octave Teyssier.
 
I am captain on this vessel.
 
I have had excellent accommodations prepared for your journey to the Comte de Montmartre's chateau."
 
Sarah wanted to scratch her ears at the tone he used to say
chateau
.
 
"I wish you no discomfort, and I assure you, you will be taken care of with our best intentions."
 

Sarah doubted they had the same definition of best intentions.
 
The captain spoke with an odd cadence.
 
Every few words were paused with a strange moment of silence as if the captain searched for the next word.
 

Alec nodded, ever the diplomat.
 
"Merci, beaucoups."
 

"Perhaps you will join me for supper after you have had time to settle in," Teyssier gestured behind him, grandly inviting them on board.
 
Except he was gesturing at a pair of large, scary looking men holding harpoons, so Sarah didn't feel very welcomed.

"I doubt it," Alec said without the slightest infliction to his tone.
 

Someone prodded Sarah in the back to get moving.
 
She started to turn around to give a good scathing admonishment, but Alec was already moving.
 
He grabbed whoever had done the prodding and simply threw him overboard.
 
Sailors everywhere started to move toward Alec.
 
Teyssier raised a hand, and all motion ceased.
 

"The lady is not to be touched, n'cest pas?" he asked.
 

Alec adjusted his jacket and nodded.
 

Teyssier inclined his head in acknowledgement.
 

It seemed words were too volatile at the moment.
 

Sarah stepped forward and slipped her arm through Alec's before he started their own private war on this French ship in the English Channel.
 
After all, the odds were deplorable.

Alec slipped his hand into hers, holding her more tightly against him, and despite how the wind bit at her skin through her tattered dress, despite the steady gazes of the menacing men with the harpoons, despite the fact that their only hope depended on an American's ability to get to the Duke of Lofton in time, despite all that, she felt safe when Alec held her hand.
 

The captain turned away, and Alec pulled her along after the departing man.

"Are you all right?" Alec whispered, his breath brushing against her ear.
 

She nodded, no longer feeling capable of speaking.
 

Watching the man she loved toss another overboard simply because the other had been touching her did things to her insides.
 
Why must he always have this affect on her?
 
Just once, she wished she would keep her composure long enough to show him just how good a spy she really was.
 
Except it never seemed to happen.
 

Soon they were led below decks.
 
The space was tight and smelled too much like feet.
 
She caught a glimpse of the sailors' hammocks, swinging slightly with the rocking of the ship.
 
A few of them were occupied, and the men eyed her like a Christmas Day goose.
 
Her grip on Alec's hand tightened.
 
His other hand came up to cover hers, smoothing away the sudden tension.

They were led down two decks, and the air grew squalid and stank.
 
Sarah swallowed, trying to keep the bile from rising in her throat.
 
The captain must have stopped because Alec stopped, and she nearly ran into him.
 
She pressed tightly to her husband's back, as the passage required them to walk in a single line.
 
She could barely see through the dimness and looked behind her as the hair on her neck suddenly stood up.
 
There was no one there.
 
The ship just stretched into blackness, but she still huddled closer to Alec.

Sarah tried to move her head around the small space between Alec's shoulder and the wall of the passage.
 
She was reminded once again of how broad his shoulders were when she tried to see the captain in front of him.
 
Alec adjusted some, and she finally saw the captain sifting through keys on a long chain attached to his waist.
 

The metallic pinging ricocheted harshly down the passage.
 
Teyssier apparently came to the one he wanted for he stopped sifting and stuck one into a door Sarah had not realized was there.
 
The panel was flush with the rest of the wall, and the poor lighting prevented her from seeing it.

"There you are, the best accommodations on the ship.
 
Except for mine, of course."
 
The captain turned so Alec and Sarah could squeeze by him in the passage, but Alec stopped moving before Sarah thought he should have.
 
She turned about in the small room and nearly ran into the open door.
 
She looked up, down, and side to side.