For Love of the Earl (11 page)

Sarah looked at him, her eyes deep pools in the lantern light.
 

"I beg your pardon?" she asked.

Alec shifted onto his side, coming up on one elbow.

"As a child.
 
What was your favorite thing to do?"
 

Sarah blinked, and then she said, "Eat."

A laugh slipped from Alec's mouth before he realized she was serious.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly before she could retreat.
 
"I didn't realize-"

"It's quite all right, my lord," she said, and he thought she would berate him, but her expression was one of mocking cynicism.
 
"Not all of us are born to the life of leisure young Master Black had as a child.
 
Some of us 'ad to earn our keep," she finished in an unrefined accent.
 

And then she smiled.
 

And Alec nearly died.

He would have found it humorous seeing as how he had survived up until now only to have his wife's playful smile slay him in the end.
 
He recovered quickly though, not wanting to lose this mood.
 
Not wanting to lose Sarah.
 

"Well, I beg your pardon, miss," he said with equally as drawn out polished tones, "I did not realize the caliber of the present company.
 
I do hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me."
 

Sarah frowned.
 

"Why should I forgive you?
 
It would do no good.
 
You would still be the same arrogant, immature earl I have had the unfortunate circumstance to be wed to for the past four years."

Now he frowned.
 

"Unfortunate circumstance?"
 

Sarah rolled her eyes at him.
 

"We were forced to wed, Alec.
 
What part of that circumstance seems all right to you?
 
Surely, you have not enjoyed being wedded to a shrew like me."

Alec took offense at that.
 

"How do you know how I feel?
 
And I believe we have already concluded that I do not think you a shrew."
 

Sarah blinked at him, her eyes vacant as if she were absorbing everything and letting nothing back out in return.
 

"What was your favorite thing to do as a child?" she asked, avoiding his question.

Alec lay back down, taking the opportunity to move just a little bit closer to Sarah.
 

"My favorite thing to do as a child was to follow Nathan around," he said, referring to his older brother.

Sarah did not say anything right away, and when she did, she was hesitant.

"What was it like?" she asked, "Growing up with Nathan being a..."

"Bastard?" Alec supplied, turning his head on the pillow.

Sarah looked at him and nodded.

"Yes, a...bastard."

Alec shrugged.
 

"I don't know.
 
Nathan was just Nathan.
 
It was not as if I knew then difference when I was eight and just wanted him to teach me how to catch trout from the streams."

Alec looked back at the ceiling, casting his memory back on his boyhood.

"Nathan had always been there.
 
There was never a time when I didn't have a big brother, so I never really thought about him as being anything other than that.
 
My big brother."
 
He scratched the back of his neck where the rough fabric of the pillow irritated his skin.
 
"But I suppose it was rather odd that Nathan could not go to things that I could."
 

"Things?"
 

Alec shrugged.
 

"You know, like picnics and races and country parties, and-" he stopped so abruptly he nearly swallowed his tongue.
 
He looked at Sarah from the corner of his eye, but she seemed to be merely looking at the same boards he had been.
 
"You know, things such as that."
 

Sarah nodded but did not offer further input.
 
Alec nudged her with his elbow.
 

"What about you?
 
How did you survive the dodgy halls of St. Mary's?
 
I've heard a thing or two about the young Sarah Beckham.
 
Care to share a tale or three with me?"
 

Sarah looked at him briefly before returning her gaze to the ceiling.
 

"No, I would not," she said flatly.

Alec was not deterred.
 

"All right, how about I share one then?
 
As you so graciously shared the tales you had heard of me, it would be remiss of me as a gentleman not to reciprocate."

Sarah swung her gaze back him.
 

"Whatever do you mean?"
 

"Did you really release a flock of hens into the nuns' cloister during prayer?"
 

Sarah sat up nearly hitting her head on the ceiling.
 
She turned to him, her nostrils flaring.
 

"Who told you that?" she asked, her voice even and strong.
 

Alec smiled.
 

"It's classified.
 
And how about the poor priest?
 
What was his name?
 
Something saintly like Timothy James or James Timothy or some such thing.
 
Did you cut off the back side of his robes while he delivered the homily at mass one day?"

Sarah's mouth dropped open.
 

"I wouldn't have suspected you of wanting to see a clergyman's freckled white arse, but there are things about each of us that the other never really expects, true?"
 

Sarah's mouth snapped shut.
 

"It wasn't freckled," she said and lay back against the bunk.

Alec smiled at the ceiling and put his arm behind his head.
 
It was at that precise moment that the boat took a sudden dip, and Sarah rolled against him.
 
He moved quickly, capturing her back in his arms.
 
She did not fight him, and it surprised him.
 
She simply lay against him, her head resuming its place on his chest.

Alec's hand traced lazy circles on her back, enjoying the feeling of warmth that spread from her body into his fingertips.
 
They were silent then, and Alec felt Sarah breath in and out.
 
It was possibly the most comforting sensation Alec knew.
 
His hand moved against her back before settling along the curve of her hip.
 
He held it there, feeling the draw of her breath.

"Alec?" she asked, and he thought of how fragile her voice sounded.

"Hmm?" he said in response.
 

"I didn't-" she said but then stopped.
 

Alec looked down at her in time to see her nervously lick her lips.
 

"I didn't," she continued, "I did not do what I did that day because I thought you were dying."
 

She swallowed, and he felt the movement against his chest.
 
He knew she was speaking about the hut, but he didn't want to press her.

"I beg your pardon?"
   

"I mean," there was more nervous lip licking, "I did think you were dying and I thought if I...you know...you would warm up and not...die."
 

Alec didn't say anything.
 
Could not say anything.
 
His hand slid up her back, cupped the back of her head, and drew her back so that she could see his face.
 

"What do you mean you didn't do what you did because I was dying?"

Sarah's expression was unreadable.
 
If there was one thing about his wife that made her a good spy, it was her incredible ability to become a blank slate at a moment's notice.
 
And now she used that ability to keep her husband at bay.
 
To keep Alec out.
 
He did not like it.
 
He prodded incessantly.

"What do you mean, Sarah?
 
What do you mean
you
did it?
 
It was me who-"

She cut him off, "No, it was me, Alec.
 
I started it."
 

He blinked, feeling a sudden rush of anger well up inside of him.
 

"You started it?
 
You made me believe for two days that I had taken advantage of my wife when you were the one who had started it?"
 

Sarah pulled back, trying to free herself from his grasp, but he would not let her go.
 

"I'm beginning to realize we have a problem when it comes to understanding each other, my lady.
 
Now would you care to elaborate on that statement?"
 

He saw the flash in her eyes that told him she was trying to figure a way out of it.
 
She was trying to find a way to not tell him the truth.
 
And suddenly, he wanted to know the truth very much.
 

"Sarah," he said.

"Well..." she began.

CHAPTER FIVE

Somewhere in a hut in Southern England, probably on a road to Dover

Two days ago

The thud of Alec's body hitting the dirt floor made Sarah cringe.
 
She stumbled more then ran to where he had landed and fell on her knees beside him.
 

"Alec?
 
Alec?
 
Oh, please God, say something.
 
Alec?"
 
She picked up his head and cradled it in her lap.
 
His hair was soaked, and his lips were a cruel shade of blue.
 
Her stomach rolled at the sight, and the room began to spin, but she gripped her courage and turned back toward the door.
 

"A fire, please, I beg you.
 
He's too cold.
 
He might die.
 
Please."
 
She was begging for the first time in her life, but she didn't care.
 
Alec couldn't die on her.
 
He couldn't leave her.
 

Sven with the gold teeth smiled harshly.
 
"I'm afraid there will be no fire.
 
The smoke may draw a crowd.
 
And we wouldn't want that, would we?"
 

Sarah couldn't answer him.
 
Her tongue was suddenly too large for her mouth and air wouldn't go down her throat to her lungs.
 

"Besides, the ride on top of the carriage was a punishment for causing a stir in our pleasant journey.
 
I will not be giving comforts to him now after he has betrayed my trust."
 
Sven put his hand to his chest and bent in a mocking bow.
 
"I will leave one of the horses in here with ye.
 
'Haps the animal's body heat will help."
 

Sven walked out of the hut into the still pounding rain.
 
Sarah shivered at the sound of it seeping through the deteriorating thatched roof.
 
She turned back to Alec, but he was no more awake now then two minutes before.
 
She stroked her hands across his cheeks hoping to draw blood to the surface to heat his skin.
 
But his lips.
 
His lips were terribly blue.
 
She rubbed her fingers across them, but they were still that cruel blue when her fingers moved away.
 

A horse neighed in her ear, and Sarah jumped almost dropping Alec's head back on the floor.
 
She looked up as a horse nose nudged her head.
 
She scooted away from the animal, dragging Alec with her.
 
The horse was amplified in the small space, and Sarah felt her courage wavering.
 
She pushed Alec a little further away from the horse and gently placed his head on the floor.
 
She looked up at the ceiling as more rain fell.
 
Nothing dripped above Alec's head, so Sarah stood up, maneuvered her way around the horse, and stood in front of the open door.
 

Sven stood in the rain with the other three men that were their captors.
 
Sarah had seen none of their faces except Sven's, and they all wore identical dark greatcoats.
 
The rain ran off their coats in rivers, and their wide brimmed hats threw off waterfalls.
 

"Excuse me," Sarah yelled through the noise of the downpour that had been raging all night, the long night that had seen Alec strapped to the roof of the carriage, the long night that had seen Sarah nearly shredding her gloves in anxiety.
 
Alec had been tied to the goddamn roof and all because he'd knocked Sven into the wall with a well placed fist to the face when Sven had said something less than complimentary about her.
 

And now was not the time to think about what that had meant.
 
Alec, her sudden knight in shining armor like something from a fairy tale.
 
Orphans did not believe in fairy tales.

"Excuse me!" Sarah shouted, sounding hysterical even to her own ears.

Sven turned around.
 

"The earl isn't waking up."
 

Sven nodded once and turned back around.

Sarah marched out into the rain, grabbed Sven and swung him around.
 

"He is not waking up, you bastard!"
 
Sarah grabbed handfuls of Sven's greatcoat and shook him, venting all the anger that was welling up inside of her.
 

Someone grabbed her from behind and flung her down into the deepening mud.
 
Her face landed in an inch of water, and she gagged as mud went in her mouth and up her nose.
 
She coughed hard as someone else hauled her to her feet.
 
They started dragging her before she could get her feet under her to walk.
 
They threw her into the door of the hut, and she bounced, colliding with the unnerved horse.