To Tame a Highland Earl (18 page)

Erroll eyed her. “I would think you had had
enough adventure for one day.”

“
I have, but bear in mind,
sir, the only reason Eve ended up in Gretna is because Lord Halifax
was angry with you. That means the duel you fought with him had
nothing to do with us.”

So the younger Miss Crenshaw was giving him a
gentle but firm setback in payment for taking her to task over the
suggestion they consummate their marriage in a carriage. The young
lady had a bit of backbone.

“
I feel certain I could
have caught him long before he reached Gretna had I not
been…indisposed,” Erroll said.

She gave an elegant cant of her head. “Of
course. But you still would have shot him.”

The girl would choose this moment to argue
logic. “Perhaps,” he said, “but we three—we five—wouldn’t have
ended up on this ship.”

She laughed. “I imagine we would have found
ourselves together in some fashion. Eve is quite determined not to
marry you.”

That she was. He clasped his hands behind his
back. “I have a few instructions for you ladies.”

“
Instructions?” the younger
asked, but the elder cast him a suspicious look.

“
You are not to leave this
room. There are no locks on any of the doors aboard ship, so
Oscar,” he nodded toward the brute, who stood nearest the door,
“will remain stationed outside your room to ensure no one
enters.”

“
Or leaves,” Miss Eve
Crenshaw said under her breath.

There it was. “Forgive me, madam, if I am
skittish in regards to your ability to follow orders, but there is
no room for shenanigans on this voyage. I do not wish a repeat of
this morning.”

“
None of these sailors will
try to kidnap me,” she said.

Erroll stopped cold. “No. They would simply
finish the job Halifax started.”

Her mouth parted in a silent gasp.

“
We shall do exactly as you
say,” Grace Crenshaw said. “But how are we to stay in this tiny,
stale room for the next three days?”

“
I will arrange for you to
take walks, but you will be escorted by either Oscar or Lord
Somerset.”

“
What about you?” she
asked. “Surely, you do not plan to abandon us the entire
voyage?”

“
Count yourselves fortunate
I did not abandon you in Gretna Green.”

“
Lord Rushton,” Eve said,
“at this point, you must admit that the three of us are equally to
blame for this mess. It really is unfair to snipe at
Grace.”

Hers was a rational and perceptive response.
Why did that make him nervous? “Not wholly unfair,” he said, “but
you have a point.” Erroll gave a small bow to the younger sister.
“Forgive me, Miss Crenshaw. Now, let us begin anew. This ship is a
collier, a cargo ship, and such vessels are manned by rough
characters. You two ladies are not to leave this cabin without the
escort of myself, Somerset, or Oscar, and only with my permission.
I must know your whereabouts at all times. This, I promise, is for
your safety. Understand?”

Both women murmured agreement, which didn’t
allay his concerns. “I understand this is a cramped space, and will
arrange for two walks a day.”

“
Do you really expect
someone to accost us?” Eve asked.

“
The crew could be
exemplary. But I do not know them.”

“
If we could ask a favor,”
she said. “Does the captain perhaps have any books we might borrow?
It will be difficult doing nothing but staring at the
walls.”

“
That is a reasonable
request.” Too reasonable, in fact. “I will inquire.”

“
May we ask where you will
be staying, my lord?”

“
We gentlemen will sleep
with the sailors.”

Her brow furrowed, but she said nothing.
Surely she wasn’t concerned for their comfort or safety—especially
not his.

“
The ship will make one
stop in Belfast to unload cargo,” he continued.

“
Belfast,” Grace said in an
excited voice, and Erroll realized what she had in mind.

“
Miss Crenshaw—”

Oscar groaned.

“
Too late, my lord.” the
elder sister shook her head. “Grace will badger you into an early
grave if you do not capitulate.”

Not if I’m absent, he thought.

“
Don’t fool yourself into
thinking you can hide from her,” Eve Crenshaw said, clearly reading
his thoughts—or the horror that must be expressed on his face at
the thought of escorting the girl for a day. “You may avoid her
during the trip, but you will have to face her once we dock in
Scotland. You will not escape retribution.”

The younger Miss Crenshaw beamed, clearly not
the least bit chagrined at being cast as a harpy, and said with
even more enthusiasm, “Papa always promised to take us to Belfast,
but he never found the time. Now then, when we arrive, it will take
the better part of the day to unload the coal from the ship. Why
should we rusticate in this room when we can enjoy a day in the
city?”

“
I did not realize you were
acquainted with the coal business,” Erroll said dryly.

“
Am I wrong?” she asked
without rancor.

Sadly, she was not, and he said so.

“
Excellent. We must go into
town. Eve and I require new dresses.”

“
New dresses?” he blurted,
and didn’t miss the hard twitch of perverse satisfaction on the
elder sister’s mouth.

Grace Crenshaw said, “Indeed, Eve’s dress is
torn, and we cannot wear these dresses the whole time we are away
from home. Not to mention, it won’t do for us to arrive at
Ravenhall soiled and dressed in rags.”

They weren’t quite dressed in rags, but
Erroll refrained from pointing that out.

“
What will happen once we
reach Ravenhall?” Eve Crenshaw asked.

“
We will sort out this
mess,” he said.

“
When do you think we might
hear news of Lord Halifax?” she said.

Erroll shrugged. “That depends on how quickly
he dies.”

Her brow furrowed into a ferocious frown. “Do
not say that.”

“
We are deeply gratified
you
were not killed, my lord,” her sister said.

He kept his gaze on Eve. “If I had been
killed, you would be free of me.”

“
I shall be free of you
soon enough,” she muttered.

Erroll couldn’t deny a twinge of frustration
at her staunch refusal to marry him. “There are any number of
ladies who would thrill at the chance to marry me.” Though he
wouldn’t marry a one of them.

“
Of course,” Grace Crenshaw
chimed in. “Any lady would be thrilled to have you as her husband,
my lord.”

Eve Crenshaw rolled her eyes. “I imagine his
title and bank account have a great deal to do with his
popularity.”

“
I beg your pardon,” he
said. “I am a very eligible bachelor.”

“
That does not make you a
desirable husband.”

“
It could,” Erroll said
under his breath.

“
Eve,” her sister said,
“where are your manners? You should not talk so.”

“
Tell me, Miss Crenshaw,”
Erroll addressed the elder, “how do you propose we extricate
ourselves from this new tangle?”

The younger sister waved a pretty hand. “Eve
and I have discussed the situation. Tell him, Eve.”

“
You two discussed it?”
Here might begin his reckoning.

“
You are a fortunate man,”
Somerset said.

“
So it would seem,” Erroll
agreed. “Pray tell, what did you two conclude?”

“
I wish I knew,” the elder
sister muttered.

“
Really, Eve,” her sister
recriminated. “You, sir, were defending Eve’s honor when you
challenged Lord Halifax to a duel. Of course, by the time we return
to England, everyone will know what happened but, as you and I will
be married, everyone will understand what a noble thing you did in
protecting your sister-in-law’s honor. Papa will be quite proud,
Eve’s reputation will be saved, and all our problems will be
solved.”

Somerset laughed.

Oscar muttered something unintelligible.

The elder sister stared. “She almost makes it
sound plausible.”

“
She does,” Erroll
agreed.

“
Of course it is
plausible,” Grace said. “You and I are meant for each other, my
lord.”

“
Meant for each other?” He
blurted, then couldn’t help asking, “Why do you think
so?”

“
For many reasons, my lord.
My beauty will compliment you in such a way that makes the envy of
Society
. This will, of course, guarantee that your heir will
be a testament to you. I am well trained as hostess, so you will
always shone in the best light, and you may rest easy that I will
never take you to task for having a life—which means I would never
embarrass you.”

Like Laura Greenwood had her husband?

“
I am exactly the kind of
wife you need,” she finished.

And she was, he realized in astonishment. She
had all the proper qualities and understood her duty as wife to a
man like him. She only lacked the one basic element he demanded
from his wife: honesty.

This realization—along with the day’s
events—frustrated him all the more. “Forgive me, Miss Crenshaw, we
have all agreed to be friends—” Erroll stopped and looked at the
other two men “—we have agreed?”

“
Indeed,” Somerset
said.

The brute gave a small bow. “As you say, my
lord.”

“
I am gratified you are on
our side, Oscar. You as well, Somerset, but I cannot forget that
Oscar brought me down with one heavy blow. I had not thought I was
that old just yet.”

“
It wasn’t easy,” Oscar
offered in consolation.

“
That helps,” Erroll said,
then returned his attention to Miss Grace Crenshaw. “We have all
agreed to be friends, so I won’t take you to task. But I haven’t
forgotten that you lied about me.”

She shrugged. “It was an innocent fib.”

“
Pray, do not plead
innocence. I dislike fools as much as liars.”

“
I daresay the ladies you
compromised would say you have been less than honest,” she
retorted.

“
They may say what they
will,” he replied. “But I never promised them anything, and they
were not innocents to be
compromised
.”

“
When a gentleman takes
liberties, it is implied that he intends to marry the
lady.”

He laughed. “Is that what your mother told
you? If you believe that then you are naïve .Though I am beginning
to suspect that is not the case.”

“
Sir—”

“
Enough,” Erroll said, in
no mood for further argument.

The full weight of their situation—and the
unexpected knowledge of what he might want in a wife—pounded into
him like Thor’s hammer.

Chapter Ten

Eve lay awake most of the night, the gravity
of her circumstances setting in after the shock and fear of Lord
Rushton���s possible death during the duel had faded. After these
recent events, only one gentleman of character would now consider
her a lady of character: Lord Somerset.

If she returned home unmarried, it wouldn’t
matter to her father that Lord Halifax had kidnapped her, or that
she was guilty of conspiring to kidnap Lord Rushton. Her father
would make a dawn appointment with the intention of killing the
earl.

Eve felt deep in her bones that Lord Rushton
wouldn’t accept the challenge, but she feared her father’s
determination— and his aim. The man, bless his determined soul,
loved her and Grace, and believed with all his might that a woman’s
life could be ruined by scandal. He was more right than she had
ever considered. She had no other choice. She had to accept Lord
Somerset’s offer of marriage.

The unloading of the coal began at dawn and
Lord Somerset informed them that their time to leave would be ten
o’clock. The hour arrived, and Eve was helped up on deck by the
viscount.

She pulled her cloak tight against the spring
chill as she got her first look at Belfast, glistening in the
morning sun beyond the teeming docks. She didn’t see Lord Rushton,
and breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to endure his
company for the day. Lord Somerset grasped her elbow on one side
and Grace’s elbow on the other, and helped them across the deck to
the gangplank.

“
Wait here,” he instructed
Eve, and proceeded down the steep gangplank with Grace.

Eve caught sight of a waiting carriage with
Lord Rushton and Oscar standing beside the vehicle. She had the
ridiculous urge to whirl and flee back to the cabin, but the earl
turned and looked at her. She couldn’t read his expression, but she
knew if she returned to her cabin now, he would believe she had run
from him. It was best she met him head on.

Eve started down the gangplank alone. She
took four steps and slowed when the gangplank lifted with the
rolling sea. For an instant, she feared she would lose her balance
and topple into the murky water without a railing to prevent her
fall. She took another cautious step and looked up to find Lord
Rushton hurrying up to her.

He reached her side and grasped her arm. She
was chagrined to have to lean into him for fear of stepping too
close to the edge of the gangplank as it lifted and then fell with
another gentle swell. He led her down the gangplank with the steady
legs of an old seadog and they reached the wooden dock without
mishap.