Robert approached the Admiralty with no expectation of a warm welcome. After all, apart from his scars, he had no proof of where he’d been and what had happened to him. But to his astonishment, none of the senior officers expressed any doubts about his story, which even in his own ears, sounded more and more unlikely with repeated tellings.

He received a hero’s reception and was quickly ushered in to make his report to the Sea Lords. He spent hours recounting his experiences and imparting what intelligence he could share about the pirates infesting the South American coast. In the end, only Silas’s influence managed to extricate him from the labyrinthine corridors of Somerset House and back out into the rainy afternoon.

His exhaustion upon returning to the closed carriage demonstrated more than anything else how right Morwenna was to suggest a stay in the country. That, and his prickling resentment of the prying looks wherever he turned. He and Silas had had to leave Nash House through the back gate to avoid the crowds on the front steps, and people had pointed at Silas’s carriage as they’d driven through London. Inside the Admiralty, he’d caught the clerks’ barely concealed curiosity as he was ushered from office to office.

Clearly the news of how he’d turned up to spoil his wife’s engagement party was all over Town. He couldn’t blame people for their interest. Good God, if he wasn’t its cause, he might even enjoy the scandal. But after his long imprisonment, all those avid, interested eyes made his skin crawl.

“Well, thank God that’s done.” Silas stretched his long legs into the well between the seats. “You should be officially out of the navy after New Year, and you’re on leave until Christmas.”

“Thanks to you.” Silas had seen Robert’s discomfort with reliving his ordeal, and had taken charge of most of the meetings. “They’re even going to pay me for while I was away. You were masterly negotiating that.”

“So they damn well should, after the sacrifices you’ve made for your country.”

“I wasn’t sure I’d receive such a good hearing.” As the coach lurched into motion, Robert placed his—well, Silas’s—hat on the seat. “You have to admit it’s an outlandish story. I could have been sitting on a tropical island with a dusky maiden on my knee, instead of locked up in a foul cell the size of a cupboard. How could they know otherwise?”

“Nobody who looks at you could question that you’ve been to hell and back.” Silas smiled, his quirky features alight. “At least you kept your temper.”

“It was a close-run thing.”

“By heaven, I know. And despite the country being at peace, they weren’t too eager to let you go.”

Robert shrugged and glanced out the window. He struggled not to shrink from the noise and activity filling the streets. Had he ever felt at home in this teeming city? After such a restricted existence, London struck him as nothing but chaos and cacophony. “I doubt I’m fit for command.”

“It’s early days yet. Compared to the wild-eyed savage who invaded my house last night, you’re almost civilized.”

“Thank you,” Robert said drily. He reached up to pull the blind over the window. He felt like every eye in the city focused on him.

“They’ve left the way open, if you change your mind and decide to pick up your career.” Silas pulled down his blind, too, enclosing them in a private space.

Robert was shaking his head. “I’ve already lost too much time with Morwenna and Kerenza. I’m not signing up to do anything that takes me away from them for years on end.”

“Well, I can’t say I’m sorry.” Silas’s voice lowered into seriousness. “We’ve missed you like the devil. And never mistake how Morwenna grieved for you. Don’t be fooled by what you saw last night. She’s been loyal to you since you left.”

His wife had stayed faithful to him. The knowledge filled him with poignant gratitude. And wonder that she’d kept so steadfast, when all hope was gone.

“Do you think I don’t know that? Morwenna and I will work everything out.” He hoped to hell he wasn’t being fatuously optimistic. He and his wife had made a good start, but he didn’t fool himself that making a life together after so long apart would be easy—or quickly resolved.

“I hope so. You’ve found yourself a grand girl there, and losing you broke her heart. When she accepted Garson, it was very much as second best. Which is a pity for the poor devil, because he was in love with her.”

Poor devil, indeed. Robert was surprised to feel a moment’s pity for his rival. “I don’t care. She’s mine. She’s always been mine.”

“Delighted to hear it.” Silas’s hazel eyes held no hint of his usual humor. “If you want some advice from an old married man, make sure she knows you feel that way. It’s been a damnably lonely wait for her, and I doubt she’s ready to take anything for granted, least of all that you still love her.”

“I do.” He was surprised how easily the declaration emerged. Discussions with his brother had never ventured into such profoundly emotional territory before.

“I know.” Silas’s lips curled in a smug smile, visible through the gloom.

A thoughtful silence descended, underscored by the patter of rain on the carriage roof. Last night, this hiatus would have been uncomfortable. Brimming with the powerful responses that his return had stirred up. Powerful responses Robert hadn’t felt able to deal with, not if he wished to preserve an ounce of pride.

Silas was right. He’d come a long way in a short time. God bless Morwenna. What little peace he’d found since returning, he owed to her.

A desperate longing, so powerful he could taste it, overtook him. He loved his brother. He always had. And he looked forward to getting to know him all over again. But right now, he ached to see his wife.

Robert had joked about taking her in the carriage as they rolled away from the Admiralty. It didn’t seem such a joke anymore. When everything overwhelmed him, only the hot, wet grip of her body set the world turning in the right direction. He was likely to become a rapacious satyr before he was done.

The prospect of getting her to himself, away from the hurly-burly, was the promise of paradise. And he’d finally meet his daughter.

His daughter!

It was too much to comprehend, when he’d spent so long hardly daring to believe he’d see his next sunrise. An embarrassment of riches to a man who had once thought a crust of bread the height of luxury.

“With your permission, Morwenna and I plan to go up to Woodley Park.”

“To see Kerenza?”

“Yes.”

Silas smiled. “She’s just like you. Without her, I don’t know how we’d have survived losing you.”

“So you don’t mind?”

“If you go to Woodley? Hell, no. It’s your home as much as mine.”

Not true. But nice of his brother to say so, nonetheless. “Thank you.”

“Getting away from London will do you good.”

“I feel I’m deserting you.”

Silas sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Being with a loving family asks too much of you right now. I understand—at least as much as someone who hasn’t suffered as you have can understand. I saw your face when you came in last night. That crowd nearly undid you.”

Robert’s lips twisted in self-derision. “I’m better than I was, thanks to Morwenna. Give me a year or so, and I might even get back to normal.”

“There’s no rush,” Silas said calmly. “You’re home, and heaven has granted us the chance to see you again. We can sort everything else out as we need to. The main thing is to return you to health and happiness. And if my sparkling company isn’t the answer, I can bear it.”

“Thanks, old man,” Robert said. He realized with a surprise quite how careful his family had been with him since he’d returned, and he was devilish grateful.

“I’m damned proud of you, Rob.” Deep feeling thickened Silas’s voice. “I’m proud of your brilliant naval career, and that you had the good sense to marry that fine woman, and that you have such a cracker of a daughter. I’m proud that you managed to get through your imprisonment, mostly in one piece. And I’m bloody beside myself with pride that you didn’t punch that officious Admiralty pen-pusher on the nose this afternoon.”

Robert gave a grunt of grim amusement that hid how his brother’s heartfelt declaration had moved him. There was no man he admired more than Silas. It was a shock to hear that Silas admired him in return.

“I came damned close.”

“Believe me, I know. When that pompous idiot said you hadn’t been working for the navy when you were in jail, and therefore shouldn’t receive your back pay, you looked ready to box his ears.”

“He nearly didn’t make it out of his office.” The brothers shared a glance of perfect understanding. “Vile worm he was.”

Silas looked thoughtful. “You know, it’s too early for you to make any decisions, but have you given consideration to your future? You and Morwenna are more than welcome to make your home at Woodley. The house is so big, we could set you up in private quarters in the east wing. And Kerenza would enjoy growing up with her cousins.”

“Thank you, Silas,” Robert said. “But I’d rather go out on my own. And I hope Kerenza will soon have plenty of brothers and sisters to keep her company.”

“Hmm,” his brother said, as if he understood exactly how mad Morwenna and Robert were for each other. Damn Silas, he probably did. There had never been anything slow about him. “That means you have plans?”

If only Silas knew how many lonely hours Robert had devoted to counting the mistakes he’d made and how he’d remedy them, if heaven ever offered him the chance. The miracle was that he’d lived to see a time when he might achieve what he wanted. “Of course.”

“So if you’re not coming to live at Woodley Park—and I think you should take my offer seriously—do you want to go back to the Portsmouth house? I know you and Morwenna are fond of it, but if you want a big family, it will rapidly become too small. Now you’re leaving the navy, there’s no need to live so close to port.”

“I think...” Robert paused. Odd that even with his brother, he felt shy articulating his amorphous hopes for the rest of his life. “I think I’d like to buy a small estate somewhere and farm. I’ve got prize money and my legacy from Papa. I’d like to give Kerenza and any other children we have a life like the one you and I had growing up. Loving parents. Freedom to discover who they are. All on a smaller scale than Woodley Park, obviously.”

“So you really do want to drop anchor?”

“And never leave home again. Yes. Although I imagine Morwenna might fancy coming up to London occasionally, having had a taste of excitement this season.”

Silas was shaking his head. “You know, I wouldn’t bet on it. We had to drag her here kicking and screaming, and while she’s borne it all with a good grace, she’d jump at the chance to become a farmer’s wife.”

“I hope so. Although if she wants to come to London, I’ll damn well see she comes to London.”

“You seem to have sorted out your priorities.”

His lips twisted. “It’s an ill wind that blows no good, brother. Five years of imprisonment gives a man plenty of thinking time.”

“I’m glad. I know you love Morwenna, but I couldn’t help feeling you loved the navy more.”

Robert bristled and glared at his brother through the shadows. “That’s a damn rotten thing to say.”

“No need to fly up into the boughs, old man.” Silas paused. “And for what it’s worth, I don’t feel that’s true since you came back.”

Robert sucked in a sharp breath. Silas’s accusation wasn’t true, had never been true. But if he must, he might admit that he could see why his brother had reached that conclusion. “I’d die for my wife.”

Silas’s smile was wry with understanding. “I think she’d much rather you lived for her.” He made a conciliatory gesture. “And I might have an idea about that.”

“Oh?”

“The Devon estate I inherited from Uncle Frederick needs a manager...”

Robert’s hand sliced the air. “Silas, I appreciate what you’re doing, but I don’t need your charity.”

Silas’s short laugh was dismissive. “Don’t be so bloody stiff-necked, and hear me out. I haven’t been to Belleville in years, but I remember it as a very pleasant situation with a sea view. Just perfect for all those children you’ve set your heart on.”

“Silas...”

His brother ignored him and plowed on. “The estate has rather slipped off my list of concerns in recent years, and when the tenants left a month ago, the report I got back from my agent is that it’s fallen into sad disrepair. The bones of the place are good, but the fabric needs some work. A nice little manor house, big enough for a growing family. Good land, if gone to the dogs. Half a dozen tenant farmers who are badgering me to address the problems the last people left behind.”

“So why don’t you?”

“I am. I’m asking you to devote some of that famous naval efficiency to turning the place around. You’d be doing me a favor.”

“I’m not sure...” Although despite the way Silas’s offer made his pride prickle, he was powerfully tempted. The prospect of getting his hands on a neglected estate and turning it into a home made his mind whirl with possibilities.

“It would work for you, too, give you a chance to see if you like the rural life. I know you’ve got a lot of romantic notions of life on the land, the way landlubbers have romantic notions about the sea. But you’ve been in the navy since you were eleven. Try it, see if you can straighten out the estate for me. Then if you like the place and the family is happy there, I’ll sell it to you. The land’s not entailed, so it’s mine to dispose of as I wish.”

“That’s very generous of you.”

“Not at all. By all reports, you’ve got your work cut out. But I think a challenge will keep you interested while you’re finding your feet back on land.”

Robert frowned thoughtfully into the gloomy interior. Could this offer at least a temporary solution to what he did with himself, now he left the navy?

It was odd how few regrets he’d felt when he resigned his captaincy. Since he was a boy, the navy had been his mistress, the perfect place for him to exercise his odd assortment of skills. He’d never wanted any other career.

Like all the Nash offspring, he was clever. He’d shown a precocious gift for mathematics, so he’d taken to navigation with an ease that had astonished his tutors.

He’d also been a lad who hungered for action and adventure. And yes, perhaps less admirable, he could admit now that he’d had a yen to cover his name in glory.

Today, on the other side of his ordeal in South America, he acknowledged how trivial that desire for fame had been. Now he just wanted to retire into obscurity and build a life with the people he loved.

The irony was that, as the admiral who had interviewed him pointed out, once the details of his escape got out—as they invariably would—he’d be famous all over again.