Pleasing the Pirate: A Loveswept Historical Romance (14 page)

Damnation!

“We need to find her,” he said to Sebastian with more urgency.

Sebastian shot him a strange look. “Do you think McFadden has her?”

Phin started pushing through the crowd, ignoring the disgruntled mutterings of the people he jostled. The more he tried to get through them, the thicker the crowd became and the slower he moved until his heart was nearly pounding out of his chest. What if he lost her? What if he missed his opportunity to capture Grant?

He came upon the three women and grabbed Gabrielle’s arm. “Where’s Mairi?”

She looked up at him, startled. “The last I saw she was following you.”

Phin cursed and looked around again. She was too short, damn it. He would never find her in this crowd.

“What’s wrong?” Emmaline asked.

“I’ve lost her.”

Emmaline knew him well enough to know that this was more serious than he was saying. She nodded then turned to her husband, Nicholas. “You and Sebastian fan out in this direction.” She pointed one way then the other. “Phin and I will go in the other directions.”

If her sudden command of the situation seemed odd, no one commented on it. Then again, this was Emmaline and everyone knew if a calm head was needed Emmaline would
supply it. Phin was feeling far less than calm at the moment. All he could think was that if Grant found his sister, they were halfway out of the city by now, taking Phin’s very life with them. But there was more to it than that. There was a hollowness inside him at the thought of losing Mairi.

He pushed his way through the crowd, stopped, stood on his toes and looked. Push, stop, look. He had no idea how long he’d been doing this and he was almost to the perimeter of the crowd when he spotted something off to the side. A flash of skirt, a movement where there shouldn’t have been movement.

He moved faster, but it felt as if he were swimming against the tide. Bloody hell, didn’t these people have somewhere to be? Why were they all standing around talking?

He found her around the side of the building in the shadows. Someone was holding on to her wrist and she was trying to tug free.

A fury so fierce and potent grabbed ahold of Phin. He snatched Mairi’s captor by his collar and yanked him away. The man grunted and threw a punch, but Phin was much faster, much lighter on his feet and was expecting the punch. He easily dodged it then struck him in the ribs with a right hook, quickly followed by a snap punch to the nose. The last hit had the man falling to his knees, then struggling to his feet to stagger away, holding his ribs as he stumbled into the dark.

A shout came from somewhere behind him and a quick look ensured that his men were in pursuit of the bastard. Relieved, Phin centered his attention on Mairi.

Her hand covered her mouth. Her eyes were wide, her face pale.

“Are you all right?” Phin shook his hand out, grimacing at his sore knuckles.

“I—I’m …” She looked to where the man disappeared, her expression confusing him. She didn’t appear traumatized. Then again, this was Mairi. She’d yet to act the way he thought she should act.

“Who was that?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She was still peering in the direction in which the man had disappeared.

“What did he say?”

“He didn’t have time to say much.”

He looked at her closely, at the lack of fear, yet her hands were shaking. “Was he sent by Grant?”

She jerked and those wide eyes trained themselves on him, but he saw the truth in them.
That man had been one of Grant’s men.
Hell and damnation
.

If his men didn’t catch the man, he’d ruined his chance of capturing Grant. He’d let emotion overrule reason, had reacted without thinking when he saw Mairi being manhandled by the big brute. He should have stepped back, should have waited and watched and followed them, then grabbed Grant.

The two men who had given chase returned, winded and shaking their heads. Phin wanted to punch something he was so angry. He quite possibly had just made the biggest mistake of his life. A mistake that might cost him his life.

Mairi picked up her skirts and made her way toward the front of the building, where the crowd had thinned considerably. Phin followed, cursing himself the entire way. His plan had worked beautifully. They’d flushed Grant out—or at least had flushed his man out—and Phin had let him slip away.

Sebastian, Nicholas, Nathan, Emmaline, Gabrielle and Claire were all there waiting on them. Gabrielle and Claire flanked Mairi while Emmaline and the men eyed him.

Too furious to say anything, Phin didn’t even stop to talk to them but headed toward the carriage. He climbed in and looked out the window, his jaw tight, while the others climbed in after him. The ride back to Sebastian’s was tense and silent.

They both declined the offer for drinks at Sebastian’s and rode the carriage back to the Coxswain. ’Twas an entirely different ride than the last one they took back to the inn, that was for sure.

“My apologies,” Phin finally said.

Mairi glanced at him.

“I had no idea he was Grant’s man or I would have …” Would he have allowed the man to take Mairi away? At the time all he could think was that Mairi was in danger and he needed to save her. Had he known it was Grant’s man could he have stood back and let it play out? Let him take her away from him?

Did it matter? He was tasked with bringing Grant in. If he failed, he would lose his life. The concept was simple.

He should have allowed the man to take Mairi away and followed behind.

Phin closed his eyes and leaned his head back. There had been few times in his life that he’d felt true fear. For the most part he’d lived his life as he saw fit, damn the repercussions. But
tonight he felt frightened. First when Mairi went missing and right now at the thought of his body dangling from a rope because he’d failed in this one duty.

Now what?
Well, he needed to find another way to flush Grant out and he needed to make certain the crown didn’t know of this debacle. He could rely on his friends’ silence but he had to think fast on what his next move would be. Time was running out.

The carriage pulled up in front of the Coxswain, but before Phin could move Mairi spoke softly from the shadows.

“Are you using me so you can capture Grant?”

He collapsed back in the seat and waved away the boy who opened the carriage door for them.

“I overheard you talking to Sebastian during the dinner party,” she said.

No use denying it, then. Damnation. He’d thought she was with the other women. Never had he thought she would wander around the house alone. This explained her strange behavior ever since then. She’d heard and she’d been shocked. Most probably angry as well.

“Yes,” he finally said.

A soft sigh came from the far corner. Her disappointment struck him like a blow. It made him feel small and cruel. Like he’d kicked a defenseless kitten.

The carriage door was opened again, this time by a different boy hoping for a farthing for his efforts.

“Leave us,” Phin commanded.

“No.” Mairi picked up her skirts and pushed past him. She was out of the carriage before he could stop her.

He hurried after her as she swept into the Coxswain. A few men turned to watch her. It wasn’t every day that an elegantly dressed beautiful woman entered such a decrepit establishment. Eyebrows rose. Men called out to her from the other end of the room. Phin scowled at them.

Mairi marched through, apparently oblivious to the stir she caused. She picked up her fine skirts and gracefully made her way up the stairs as if they weren’t the rickety steps of a dilapidated pub but the elegant steps of Kensington Palace. For someone who claimed she never wore such finery she certainly knew how to wear it and how to act the part of a fine lady.

He followed her up the stairs and into the bedchamber.

“Mairi …” He didn’t know what he was going to say, what he should reveal.

She whirled around. “You
English
. You disgust me. You dress up in your fine clothing. You dance, attend operas, eat copious amounts of food and pretend you are better than everyone else.”

“Now wait a minute—”

“No,
you
wait a minute.” She advanced on him, her face flushed with anger, her whiskey-colored eyes snapping fire. She pointed her slim finger at him. “You’re no better than the lot of them. My people are starving under your king’s care while you throw more food away than we get in a week. I have women and children who would be glad of the chance to eat your scraps, who go cold in the winter while your women purchase fabric that costs a year of our income. You gad about London while your brothers ravish my land. And
you
. You use me to capture my brother for the bounty he will bring you because you want more. More, more, more. That’s all you English think of. Nothing is ever enough for you.”

She poked that finger in the air with each point she made, her face becoming alarmingly red, her Scottish brogue more and more pronounced. And as her anger surged, so did his. By God he’d saved her from being kidnapped, he’d holed himself up in this hovel with her, tortured by her presence night after night. He’d fed her, clothed her, introduced her to his
friends
. Yes, he led a good life, but he also led a harsh life and if there were times he enjoyed the excess of his countrymen who could blame him?

“I am charged by the king to bring your brother in,” he said, effectively silencing whatever she was about to say next and disabusing her of the notion that he was merely doing this for the blunt it would bring him.

“It matters not
why
. You used me.”

“Yes, I used you.” No reason to prevaricate. She’d heard what she heard and it had been no lie.

She looked at him with those big, luminous eyes full of hurt and he forced himself to harden his heart against her. The fact remained that Grant needed to be captured and Mairi’s feelings could not be taken into account. He’d been a fool the past few days, mooning after her like a lovesick fool, but no more.

“I despise you,” she said.

He lifted an eyebrow, refusing to acknowledge how much her words slayed him. “I’m a
pirate, Mairi mine, what did you expect?”

“We’re leaving.”

Mairi looked up at Phin as he strode through the door.

“Where are we going?” she asked with little emotion.

He was so weary of her apathy.

“Bedford Square.”

She turned back to the window that she’d been staring out of for hours. In the vain hope that her brother would somehow climb through as he did the last time?

“Best wishes on a safe journey, then.”

“You’re coming with me,” he said.

She put her chin in her hand. “I’m not.”

“You’ll not win this fight, Mairi mine.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I’ll call you as I please and you will go where I tell you.”

“I believe, sir, that you have this all wrong. I’m paying you to find my brother and you have not fulfilled your end of the agreement. It seems you have no inclination to fulfill your end of the agreement, as you have admitted you were using me to flush out Grant.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Surely you don’t want to broach the subject of our agreement, do you? Because, Mairi mine, you haven’t paid me anything as of yet.”

A fierce blush crept up her cheeks yet she looked at him with an implacable expression. “And I won’t. I declare our agreement void.”

He grinned. He enjoyed this repartee immensely and was pleased that he had shaken her out of her lethargy. “Oh, you do, do you? And why is that?”

“Because you care nothing for me or my people or what Grant represents to us,” she cried as she stood to face him. “You have no wish to bring my brother to me. You want to hand him over to your king.”

“Your brother is a traitor,” Phin said softly.

“You don’t know him. You know nothing about us.”

He noticed she didn’t deny his traitor accusation. “He didn’t fight against the English?”

“Of course he did. Our very way of life was threatened and he fought against our oppressors as you would if the situation were reversed.”

“A very noble man, your brother.” His words dripped sarcasm.

“He
is
noble in his heart.”

“A noble man would not side with England’s enemy and blatantly partake in a plan to bring England down.”

“Turning him in will do nothing for your country,” she said softly. “Allowing me to take him home will save so many people.”

“He has to be brought to justice.”

* * *

Mairi made sure to voice her displeasure at their impromptu trip without uttering a word. Her silence hung inside the carriage like a thick storm cloud.

Phin didn’t bother trying to converse with her.

A trip to Bedford Square certainly wasn’t on his list of things to do, but something had to be done about their living arrangement. He had assumed that they would be in London a short time—a few days at most—but that hadn’t happened. Living so close to her, cooped up in that small room for hours on end was wearing on him. He hadn’t slept well since anchoring the
Wanderer
in the Thames.

Lying on that cold floor, listening to her breathe, roll over, sigh, was torture. Thoughts of closed-in carriages, of the wonderfully erotic kiss they’d shared, left him uncomfortably aroused most of the night to the point that his hand had hovered over his erection too many times to count. But he hadn’t relieved himself and that had caused even more problems.

He needed to get Mairi out of the Coxswain and to a place much more suitable. A place where they each had their own bedchambers far from each other.

He’d never brought a woman to his house before. Most of his men didn’t even know where he lived. His visits were sporadic and usually secret. But in this he had to make an exception. For his own sanity if nothing else.

Bedford Square was still in London but leagues from the squalor of the Coxswain though
not quite near the opulence of St. James, where Sebastian lived. It was a place of the in-between. Where rich, but not titled, merchants lived. Where intellectuals and well-known artists lived. His house certainly wasn’t as grand as Sebastian’s but was comfortable enough and much better than the Coxswain.