Strictly Forbidden (33 page)

“Kira, I think we should speak about last night.”

Her heart jumped nearly out of her chest. The sound roared in her ears. Had she misjudged
him last night? The care in his eyes astounded her. Might he actually propose? Kira
held her breath, hoping…

Gavin continued, “There is something I very much want to say—
”

An insistent pounding on the door interrupted Gavin’s words.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered and rose.

With frustration, she watched as he grabbed her fireplace poker and strode cautiously
to the door. Blast it all, who would come to their room at this early hour and in
this rude manner? Why did someone have to interrupt as Gavin was making his intentions
known?

She bit her lip, watching as Gavin eased the door open, ready to strike with the poker
if need be.

To her surprise, Darius stood in the threshold, looking more than a little annoyed.

Unable to believe her eyes, she bounded off the sofa, overjoyed to see him. “Darius!”

He ignored her as he regarded Gavin with a glacial stare. “What the hell are you doing
here with my sister?” When Gavin failed to answer, Darius turned to her. “Unless he’s
married you since I’ve been away, his grace needs to be reminded about proper conduct.”

Kira stood rooted in place and stared at her brother. She couldn’t possibly assure
him that what he feared had happened hadn’t happened. She could not lie to him.

Easing the poker down to the ground, Gavin took Darius’s measure. “If you’re inquiring
why I brought her to Cornwall, the answer is, I did not. She traveled here. I followed.”

“Followed so that you could share the same room?”

“We have an adjoining parlor, Darius,” Kira cut in.

Hoping to change the subject, she cast herself into her brother’s arms. He felt so
good, so much like home.

“You’re safe! Thank goodness, Lord Vance did not kill you.”

“I have not allowed him to get that close.” He eased away from her, still scowling.
“How did you find me?”

Kira didn’t want to implicate Mr. Burgess. Darius would only give him an earful later.
“I’m very smart.”

“Yes, and very cheeky too. You won’t tell me, will you?”

She shook her head.

Gavin approached the pair. “My cousin left London to look for you some weeks ago.
Have you seen him?”

Holding her breath, Kira watched her brother as he scratched his forehead and regarded
the gleaming wooden floor. “He… is with me. I’ll take
you
to
him
soon.”

Visible relief transformed Gavin’s features. “He’s well?”

“Indeed, just a bit… tied up.”

Kira didn’t understand but smiled. James was safe as well. That afforded her so much
relief! “How did you find us here?”

“I’ve been watching Lord Vance and have made a contact inside his household. Early
this morning, my source told me that the Duke of Cropthorne and a foreign-looking
beauty had come to call yesterday. I knew it could be no other.”

“We’ve ascertained that Lord Vance must be dealing in stolen goods of some sort,”
Gavin said. “Has your source been able to tell you what they are?”

Darius’s expression turned grave. “Yes, and it’s very, very ugly.” He turned to Kira,
his face harsh against a wave of fear and anger. “He’s supplying the brothels of London
with virgins.”

Shock scalded Kira. “He—he asked me to elope with him so that he could…”

“Sell you? I fear so.”

“Oh, dear God!” Gavin uttered, echoing Kira’s sentiments exactly.

He glanced at her, and Kira met his gaze. He looked both horrified and concerned for
her. A fist clenched at his side. Did he, maybe, care at least a little?

“I intercepted a letter he was composing to Mrs. Linde yesterday,” Kira heard Gavin
say. “From it, I suspect Vance has two more victims selected.”

Darius nodded. “I know who they are. I think Vance planned to act tonight. That’s
why your visit was ill-timed. Stay away or you will make him suspicious.”

“I did not know. Forgive me.” The words sounded stiff, as if Gavin did not often apologize.

Darius sent him a grudging nod and a glare. “Vance always has a thug or two at his
side, so as much as it pains me to say so, I’ll need your help to catch him.”

“I’ll gladly assist,” said Gavin. “Vance must be stopped. He’s hurt innocents already.”

“Indeed,” replied Darius, glancing at Kira. Then his voice dropped to a whisper intended
for Gavin alone. “And if I find out you’ve touched my sister, I will make you very,
very sorry.”

When Darius said that James was tied up, he’d meant that literally.

Shortly after
packing
their things, Kira left with Gavin, following Darius on a tense journey through the
blossoming countryside. The only talk consisted of last night’s attack by Lord Vance’s
men and the plan they believed the fiend would execute that evening. Neither said
a word of what hadn’t—or had—happened between Gavin and Kira before Darius arrived.
Kira had no trouble believing that if her brother learned that she’d given herself
to Gavin twice without a proposal of marriage, he would do his utmost to kill Gavin—either
before or after he castigated her for her improper behavior.

Within an hour, they arrived at an abandoned shack near Fentlet Manor
Darius
had made use of since leaving the Tall Tree Inn. Kira—and from all appearances Gavin—were
stunned by the sight of James, disheveled and unshaven, slouching in a ramshackle
chair, one wrist bound to the spindle at his side.

“What in God’s name is this about?” Gavin bellowed.

Kira raced to James’s side to untie him. Darius grabbed her wrist and stayed her.

“Mr. Howland suffers from the delusion that if we educate Lord Vance in the evil of
his actions, he will stop his trade.”

“He will!” James insisted. “People want to do the right thing when their errors are
made known to them.”

“That’s mad,” Kira said before she could stop herself.

The look James threw her could only be termed hurt.

Gavin glared at Darius. “Certainly you could have talked some sense into James, rather
than binding him.”

“Surveiling Vance has taken up a considerable amount of my time. I had to choose between
reasoning with your cousin or stopping the cruel rogue. No doubt you understand my
choice.”

“Even so, this is barbarous!” Gavin gestured to James’s bonds. “Release him.”

Darius did not move an inch. “Who will watch him while you and I trap Lord Vance tonight?
Do you think that if your cousin truly wanted loose so that he could preach God’s
word of forsaking sin to Lord Vance that Kira alone could stop him?”

Gavin cursed, then strode to James. “I will speak to him. But he will not remain tied.”

“Start speaking. Mr. Howland cannot have an opportunity to confront our prey before
we do.”

Nodding, Gavin released the ropes about James’s wrists. When the clergyman rose to
his feet, rubbing his offended flesh, he shot Darius an annoyed glare.

“You are not the gentleman I believed you to be.”

James’s insult did not
seem to
bother Darius in the least. “And you lack an understanding of the world that is dangerous.”

Gavin felt oddly glad about the exchange. If Darius disapproved of James as Kira’s
choice of a husband, perhaps there would be no wedding after all. Aunt Caroline would
be happy, scandal would be averted, and Kira and James would be saved from making
the biggest mistake of their lives. Besides, the thought of Kira and his cousin married
truly made him ill.

The sentiment was unfair, Gavin knew. He didn’t want Kira to spend her life as a spinster
dependent
on her brother’s goodwill. He wanted her happiness. But he also knew deep down that
James could not provide her joy. Giving her up while discouraging an unhappy union
with James—those were the right things to do, given the circumstance.

Then why didn’t he feel good about them? Truth told, he felt like a bloody unhappy
bastard.

Darius addressed Gavin, interrupting his reverie. “Come with me. We’ll need to form
a strategy for tonight.”

Gavin hesitated. “Do you mean to leave my cousin and your sister alone, without a
chaperone?”

He knew he was being ridiculous. If anyone was unlikely to improperly touch Kira before
marriage, it was James. Still, the thought of leaving her alone with her fiancé… He
simply didn’t like it. His reaction was foolish, he knew. He’d recklessly come to
regard Kira as his—and he was going to have to stop.

Darius sent him a narrow-eyed stare, hazel eyes giving little away. “Let’s settle
this now.” He turned to his sister. “You two stay here.”

Darius exited the shack. Reluctantly, Gavin followed, glancing at Kira over his shoulder.
Something in his chest flipped when she sent him a tremulous smile.

Though he shouldn’t, he could not resist smiling back.

Outside, Gavin found himself nearly blinded by the spring sunshine as he trailed Darius,
who seemed intent on the shade tree in the distance. It looked like too beautiful
a day for such turmoil. Despite the beauty of the singing birds and fields dotted
with yellow cowslips, he knew this confrontation could not be avoided.

“You sound as if you’re jealous of your own cousin. As if you’re concerned he may
poach on your territory.”

Gavin wanted to tell Darius he was being ridiculous. But the man was right
. H
e didn’t want anyone to touch Kira, despite the fact he had no right or claim to her
himself. The feeling was contrary and irrational, he knew. But it was there.

He said nothing.

With narrowed eyes, Darius approached. “That’s most odd, in light of the fact you’ve
done the poaching. Isn’t that so?”

He hesitated, suddenly very grateful Darius had chosen a spot well out of earshot
from the shack. James did not need to overhear this conversation.

Several retorts sprang to Gavin’s mind before he discarded them. Whatever ills he
had heaped upon himself by seducing Kira, he did not want to compound them by lying
to her brother.

“This is between your sister and I.”

Gavin hoped, more than believed, that his response would mollify Darius.

“You are fortunate, your grace, that I do not have
my
gun
with me
.”

Indeed, he felt lucky when Darius cursed, something low and menacing. Of course, he
deserved that and more for ruining Kira, for being virtually unable to control his
need for her.

“You give every impression of being upstanding and honorable, even morally superior.
Apparently, it is a complete lie, because I’m almost certain you bedded my sister.”

Kira’s brother waited for him to confirm or deny his suspicion. Still Gavin said nothing.
He was nearly as angry with himself as Darius was for treating her so. He cared for
her—he did. But Gavin knew he could not marry her, not without subjecting himself
and his family to the most harmful sort of gossip, not without tearing his family
apart. But most compelling of all was his loss of control when she came near. He was
not a wild man, but she made him that way, hot and lascivious—a true libertine, just
as his father had been. If he married her, he would never know a moment’s sanity again.
And likely, neither would she.

He could eventually become exactly like his father, willing to do anything to appease
the lust, no matter how scandalous. And Gavin could not bear that, nor would it be
right to force Kira to endure it.

Oh, it would not happen in the first ten minutes, maybe not even in the first year.
It had taken a full decade for his father to fall in the thick of madness. But once
he had, he had been lost forever.

With a shudder, Gavin remembered his sire’s wild dark eyes, his shirts smelling as
if he’d laundered them in brandy, the descriptions of his ultimate sin plastered in
the dailies, the disgust on his mother’s face before she died…

God help him. Gavin did not want such a fate.

With no defense against Darius’s accusation, he remained mute, directing his gaze
just over the other man’s shoulder.

“You pompous, lecherous whoremonger…”

Outrage tightened every angle of Darius’s face. Gavin saw the man charge toward him
and did nothing. Whatever punishment Darius meted out, Gavin knew he deserved.

The first blow landed with a solid smack across his jaw, jerking his head to the side.
Gavin rubbed it without complaint. The second blow ploughed through his mid-section.
It hurt like hell, and Gavin struggled for his next breath. After a groan and a few
pain-ridden seconds, he staggered upright and regarded Darius again in silence.

“How could you?” Darius panted, seethed, fists clutched at his sides. “How could you
seduce your own cousin’s fiancée? How could you use an innocent girl who’s been through
such danger and vicious gossip these past months for bed sport?”