Pleasing the Pirate: A Loveswept Historical Romance (15 page)

He’d sent his men ahead to ensure the place was well protected. If Grant followed them, Phin would know it.

* * *

As the carriage passed out of the dock area, Mairi wanted to ask Phin where they were going, but she pressed her lips together because she had no wish to converse with him. It seemed that no matter how their conversations began, they ended up in a disagreement and she had no wish to clash verbal swords with him at the moment.

As she watched the scenery roll by and the houses go from fetid tenements to grand mansions, to smaller but still impressive town houses, she nursed an unexpected pang of homesickness. She was so weary of things being packed so tightly together. Of humanity living one on top of another.

The carriage slowed and stopped before a newer-looking town house.

It was a charming redbrick, two-story home with red and white potted flowers leading up the steps to a white front door. The door opened and an older man stepped out. Behind him came a woman, her gray hair pulled into a high bun, her skirts homespun.

Phin climbed out of the carriage and turned to help her down.

“Mairi McFadden, meet Mrs. Martha Horton and her husband, Joseph Horton.” He nodded to the man who was dragging their baggage off the carriage. Joseph Horton grunted an acknowledgment.

Mrs. Horton looked her up and down, her expression serene, but Mairi felt certain that she wasn’t so keen on their sudden appearance.

“I’ll prepare the red room,” she said abruptly.

“The peach, if you please, Mrs. Horton.”

Mairi jerked her gaze to Phin, astounded that he would even care or know the difference between the rooms in this house.

“My apologies, Mairi mine, but I have some business to take care of. You’ll be in the capable hands of Mrs. Horton who will show you to your room.”

She wanted to ask a hundred questions, but Phin disappeared around the side of the town house. Mairi looked at her surroundings. Across the street was a park where people strolled. On the other side of the park were more town houses and down the way appeared to be a small shopping district. It was quaint, quiet and leagues from the Coxswain. It was also leagues from where Grant and his men were seen. If Phin wanted to capture Grant, why would he take her away from her brother?

She followed Mrs. Horton’s rigid back into the house. She barely had time to admire the tall windows that looked over the park or the brightly painted interior, which was furnished with exquisite pieces of furniture. She wasn’t up on the latest furniture makers, but she knew enough to know that the pieces in this house were quite expensive and well taken care of. Again, another side of Phin of which she hadn’t been aware.

Once in the peach room she was left in the hands of a very young maid named Rebecca who opened the heavy peach and cream curtains, letting the sunlight in and highlighting the dust motes that danced about the room.

“I apologize that the room has’na been aired,” Rebecca said as she swatted at the motes in front of her nose. “We was’na expectin’ you, you see.”

Mairi smiled thinly, embarrassed and nonplussed that Phin had not announced their arrival earlier than pulling up to the front door.

“Do you know ’ow long you’ll be stayin’, ma’am?”

“I’m afraid that would be something you would have to ask Mr. Lockwood.”

Rebecca blinked as if that was not at all the answer she’d been expecting, then curtsied. “I’ll bring ye a tray of food just as soon as Cook prepares it.”

Left to her own devices Mairi took in the large bedroom done up in, yes, peach, with heavy white and gold-leafed furniture. It was a woman’s room, to be sure. Very sumptuous and elegant. Whose room was it? Well, no one’s, if Rebecca was to be believed, because it hadn’t been aired out in ages.

Where exactly were they? Whose home was this? Who were the Hortons? And how was Phin connected to all of this?

Drawn to the high windows that let in the slanting evening sun, Mairi peered out. It was a
magnificent view of the back garden. Flowers, identical to the ones on the front steps, dotted the green landscape and lined the paths. It was a surprise and a delight to view something so beautiful and green among the smog and debris of London. What a beautiful, serene garden. An island of calm amid the chaos of the city.

Her wandering gaze fell upon a woman lying on a lounge chair on the patio right below Mairi’s window. She was thin, but Mairi could tell she would be tall as well. A blond braid draped over her shoulder and as Mairi studied her, Phin appeared to kneel before her.

The woman gave a start then smiled widely, holding her hand out to Phin, who took it and kissed her fingers. He said something and she laughed.

As if the scene weren’t already shocking enough, a small child, no more than three years of age ran into Mairi’s line of sight. Phin watched the child, a little girl with nearly white blond hair, as she ran around on the grass chasing what looked like a butterfly. Nearby a maid hovered, watching the girl carefully. The woman on the lounge chair watched as well but not with the smile Phin did. She kept sneaking looks at Phin and she never removed her hand from his, as if she were clinging to him.

Feeling like a voyeur, Mairi stepped back and sat on the edge of the bed, more perplexed than ever and feeling as if she’d witnessed something she should not have.

Who was that woman?

Phin’s wife?

And if so, was that his daughter as well?

The next morning Mairi awoke to light shining through the crack in the curtains and a tray of hot chocolate and crisp toast waiting for her.

She pushed the bedsheets off and stood, stretching her sore muscles.

Munching on the toast, she moved to the window and drew back the curtains. She half expected to see the lounging woman, but of course the woman wasn’t there. Who was she and who was the little girl? Since she’d seen no one but Rebecca she had no answers. Did she want answers? Did she want to become even more enmeshed in these people’s lives?

She brushed the crumbs from her hands, frustrated that she was here instead of looking for her brother. That she was intrigued by the people here when she should be thinking of the people waiting for her back home.

After a light knock on the door Rebecca entered and curtsied. “I’m here to help you dress, miss.”

“Dress?” Mairi had the gown she’d brought from Scotland that she wore yesterday. She’d made a decent attempt at cleaning it and mending it so it looked halfway presentable. She had Ezra’s clothes, which would be entirely unacceptable to wear here, and the three gowns Gabrielle had loaned her, all of which were too formal for day wear.

“Master Lockwood has instructed me t’bring ye a gown. It will take a few alterations to fit ye properly, of course, but I think it will do nicely.”

For the first time Mairi noticed the white, flower-sprigged gown draped over a chair. With it were all the accouterments—the shift, stays and petticoat.

“Oh. Of course.” She made it sound like she and Phin had already discussed this because she wasn’t willing to admit how confused and out of place she felt at the moment.

She allowed Rebecca to dress her and apply a needle to shorten the hem and bring in the waist so by the time she was finished the dress fit perfectly. Mairi wasn’t used to being waited on. Before the uprising she’d enjoyed her life as the daughter of a laird. She’d had her own maid who helped her dress in beautiful gowns. But things had changed. The uprising had occurred. There were no more maids and certainly no beautiful gowns.

Rebecca left without indicating if Mairi should go downstairs or stay in her room. She’d already eaten breakfast so she assumed there would be no breakfast served in the dining room. And she felt like a prisoner in this room even though she was never once told that. With determination she stepped out into the hall. There was no one to stop her, no guard on her door as there had been at the Coxswain. Even so, she looked up and down the hallway before determining her course of action. Now that she was actually out of her room she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself.

Find Phin?

Or escape?

She paused in thought. And where would she go? Back to the Coxswain? To Grant? Like Phin, she had no idea where Grant was and she was reluctant to find him without the information he required. Deep inside she feared this man her brother had become. What would he do to her if she didn’t give him what he wanted? The worst he could do was not return to Scotland, which he’d already threatened if she didn’t give him the information.

Mairi headed toward the stairs but was stopped by the patter of tiny feet behind her. She swung around to find the child she’d witnessed the night before. She was a tiny thing, no more than three years of age with bright, almost white hair pulled back. Or it had been pulled back. Now half of it was falling out. The ribbon that probably had at some point been tied into a pretty bow was hanging over one eye. She came to a halt in front of Mairi and peered up at her with the prettiest gray eyes.

Gray eyes.

Blond hair.

It didn’t take much deduction to realize that this child was Phin’s.

Something painful twisted in Mairi’s stomach.
Oh, stop being a numpty, Mairi. Phin probably has children scattered throughout the kingdom. It makes no difference to you or your plans
.

“Good morning,” she said to the little urchin.

The child blinked. A maid rounded the corner looking flustered and irritated. “There you are, you little minx.” The maid’s eyes widened when she spotted Mairi. “My apologies, miss. I hope she wasn’t bothering you.”

“Not at all. How can someone so charming be a bother?”

It sounded as if the maid snorted, but if she did, she covered it well by bending down and picking up the little girl. “This one’s a charmer all right,” she said, jiggling the girl until she giggled. She looked at Mairi again with a frankness that was surprising coming from one so young. Of the children Mairi knew, most were shy around strangers, but not this one.

The maid carried the child off, whispering in her ear and making the little girl smile. Mairi stood there for quite some time staring down the empty hallway with a peculiar emptiness inside her.

Eventually she found her way downstairs. Mrs. Horton was in the entryway dusting. Ezra was slouched on a bench, picking his fingernails with the tip of a very sharp-looking knife. He clambered to his feet when he saw Mairi.

“M’lady.”

“Ezra. What are you doing here?”

Ezra shot a quick look at Mrs. Horton, but she continued dusting. “Cap’n asked me to stay. In case you needed to go out or something.”

“Ah. So you’re to be my escort or my guard?”

His brows furrowed. “M’lady?”

“Never mind. I’ll not be going anywhere today so you may rest easy.”

“Yes, m’lady.” He lowered himself to the bench and resumed picking at his fingernails.

Frustrated and disgruntled, Mairi made her way to the back of the house. So apparently she was a prisoner here as well as at the Coxswain. At the Coxswain she could understand why she had a guard. It wasn’t the safest establishment. But here? True, danger came from unexpected places, but she wasn’t certain she needed a guard here.

Mayhap the guard wasn’t for her, but rather to catch her brother should he come for her. That made much more sense.

She stepped outside and into the back garden. It was just as beautiful from this level as it had been from her bedroom window. There was no mystery woman, just a few birds chirping in the trees.

She looked up at the high walls surrounding the garden, at the tall trees, at the pretty white and red flowers. It was all so beautiful, but a prison was a prison. How was Grant supposed to find her here? And how was she supposed to find the information he needed if she constantly had a guard on her?

Although with that last thought she felt a wee bit of relief. If she had a constant companion in the form of Ezra then she would not be able to snoop for Grant. Surely he couldn’t blame her if she couldn’t find the information he needed.

She looked over her shoulder to see Ezra standing at the window watching her. No, Grant couldn’t be angry with her for something that was out of her control.

The terrace doors opened and Phin stepped out to stand beside her.

“I know you have your own intentions when it comes to Grant yet I can’t understand how keeping me imprisoned in this home will help you find my brother.”

“Why do you believe you’re imprisoned?” He sounded surprised.

She waved her hand toward Ezra, who was no longer standing at the window. “I have a guard.”

“For your safety.”

She snorted and turned to face him. “Let’s be honest with each other, Captain. Ezra is here in case Grant comes looking for me.”

He tipped his head but didn’t verbally acknowledge her statement. “You’re free to come and go.”

“So you’re saying that if I walk out that front door no one will follow me?”

“No. If you walk out that front door Ezra will follow you to make certain you are safe.”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you afraid I will run away to Grant?”

“Do you know where Grant is?”

“No. Do you?”

“Nay.”

“I can’t let you capture him, Captain.”

“And I can’t let you take him back to Scotland.”

“I’m running out of time.” She couldn’t stop the tremble in her voice. Phin caught it, too, and his gaze sharpened. The breeze kicked up. What had once been cool was now chilled and she shivered.

“What do you mean you’re running out of time?”

She didn’t want to tell him about MacGowan because it humiliated her that the only man who wanted her did so only so he could steal her land. It was enough that Phin knew she needed Grant to keep the land functioning.

“What do you mean, Mairi?”

“I promised my people that I would find their laird. I have limited funds and resources to do such a thing and I need to return before the first snowfall.” She didn’t want to think how little food they had. Not nearly enough to get them through the winter. “I need to get home and I need to get home with Grant.”