Georgina sat shivering at the bottom of a stairway that led down to someone’s basement. No light penetrated the deep shadows on the last few steps where she hid. The building, whatever it was, was quiet and dark. Quiet, too, was the street this far away from the tavern.
She wasn’t exactly cold. It was summer after all, and the weather here was very like that of her own New England. The shivering must be from shock, delayed reaction—a result of too much anger all at once, too much fear, and one too many surprises. But who would have thought the brick wall would have looked like that?
She could still see his eyes staring down at her from that patrician face, hard eyes, curious, crystal clear, and the color was green, not dark, not pale, but brilliant all the same, and so…so…Intimidating was the word that came to mind, though she wasn’t sure why. They were the kind of eyes that could strike fear in a man, let alone a woman. Direct, fearless, ruthless. She shivered again.
She was letting her imagination run away with her. His eyes had only been curious as he looked at her…No, not only that. There had been something else there that she wasn’t familiar with, or experienced enough to name, something undeniably disturbing. What?
Oh, what did it matter? What was she doing, anyway, trying to analyze him? She’d never see him again and thanked God for that. And as soon as her toes stopped throbbing from that last kick she’d gotten in, she would stop thinking about him, too.
Was James his first name or last? She didn’t care. Those shoulders, God, how wide they’d been. Brick wall was apt, a large brick wall, but lovely bricks. Lovely? She giggled. All right, handsome bricks, very handsome bricks. No, no, what was she thinking? He was a big ape with interesting features, that was all. He was also an Englishman, too old for her, and one of the hated nobles besides, and probably rich, with the wherewithal to buy whatever he wanted and the temerity to do whatever he wanted. Rules would mean nothing to such a man. Hadn’t he abused her outrageously? The rogue, the wretch…
“Georgie?”
The whisper floated down to her, not very close. She didn’t bother to whisper as she called back, “Down here, Mac!”
A few moments passed while she heard Mac’s footsteps approaching, then saw his shadow at the top of the stairs. “Ye can come up now, lass. The street’s empty.”
“I could hear it was empty,” Georgina grumbled as she climbed the stairs. “What took you so long? Did they detain you?”
“Nae, I was waiting aside the tavern tae be sure they’d no’ be following ye. I was afeared the yellow-haired one was of a mind tae, but his brother was laughing sae much at his expense, he thought better of it.”
“As if he could have caught me, great lumbering ox that he was.” Georgina snorted.
“Be glad ye didna have tae be putting it tae the testing,” Mac said as he led her off down the street. “And maybe next time ye’ll be listening tae me—”
“So help me, Mac, if you say I told you so, I won’t speak to you for a week.”
“Well, now, I’m thinking that might just be a blessing.”
“All right, all right, I was wrong. I admit it. You won’t catch me within fifty feet of another tavern other than the one we’re forced to lodge in, and there I will only use the back stairs as we agreed. Am I forgiven for almost getting you pulverized?”
“Ye dinna have tae apologize fer what wasna yer fault, lass. It was me those two lairds were mistaking fer someone else, and that had nothing tae do wi’ ye.”
‘But they were looking for a Cameron. What if it’s Malcolm?”
“Nae, how could it be? They thought I was Cameron from the look of me. Now I ask ye, do I look at all like the lad?”
Georgina grinned, relieved at least on that score. Malcolm had been a skinny eighteen-year-old when she’d been so thrilled to accept his marriage proposal. Of course he was a man now, had likely filled out some, might even be a little taller. But his coloring would be the same, with black hair and blue eyes very similar to that arrogant Englishman’s, and he was still more than twenty years younger than Mac, too.
“Well, whoever their Cameron is, I have nothing but sympathy for the poor man,” Georgina remarked.
Mac chuckled. “Frightened ye, did he?”
“He? I recall there were two of them.”
“Aye, but I noticed ye only had the one tae deal wi’.”
She wasn’t going to argue about it. “What was it about him that was so…different, Mac? I mean, they were both the same, and yet not the same. Brothers apparently, though you couldn’t prove it by looking at them. And yet there was something else that was different about the one called James…Oh, never mind. I’m not sure what I mean.”
“I’m surprised ye sensed it, hinny.”
“What?”
“That he was the more dangerous of the two. Ye had only tae look at him tae ken it, tae see the way he looked over that room when they first walked in, staring every mon there right in the eye. He’d have taken on that entire room of cutthroats and laughed while doing it. That one, fer all his fine elegance, felt right at home in that rough crowd.”
“All that from the look of him?” She grinned.
“Aye, well, call it instinct, lass, and experience of his kind. Ye felt it, too, sae dinna scoff…and be glad ye’re a fast runner.”
“What’s that suppose to mean? Don’t you think he would have let us go?”
“Me, aye, but yerself, I’m no’ sae sure. The mon held ye, lass, like he dinna want tae be losing ye.”
Her ribs could attest to that, but Georgina merely clicked her tongue. “If he hadn’t held me, I’d have broken his nose.”
“Ye tried that, as I recall, wi’out much luck.”
“You could humor me a little.” Georgina sighed. “I’ve been through a trying time.”
Mac snorted. “Ye’ve been through worse wi’ yer own brothers.”
“The sport of children, and years ago, I might point out,” she retorted.
“Ye were chasing Boyd through the house just last winter wi’ murder in yer eye.”
“He’s still a child, and a terrible prankster.”
“He’s older than yer Malcolm.”
“That’s it!” Georgina marched off ahead of him, tossing over her shoulder, “You’re as bad as the lot of them, Ian MacDonell.”
“Well, if ye’d wanted sympathy, girl, why did ye no’ say so?” he called after her before he gave in to the laughter he was holding back.