For Love of the Earl (26 page)

She shook her head.
 

"No, but I did catch rides on hackneys unseen."
 

Alec raised an eyebrow.

"How you were able to do that is something I wish to know more of.
 
Perhaps, it is a topic for later discussion?"
 

"Perhaps."
 

This time Nathan audibly groaned.
 

"Could we please get off the ship today?" he asked, gesturing toward the grappling lines.
 

Alec grabbed her about the waist.
 

"Are you ready, love?
 
I'll be right behind you."
 

Sarah nodded and reached for the line.
 

She had seen the way the men had moved their hands along the rope, one after the other, using one foot to hold the rope as the other close over top to push the body along.
 
She took a moment to allow her breath to settle, her mind to focus, to concentrate on the swing of the rope as the ship rocked.
 
And then she reached with one hand as her feet slid along the rope.
 
When the deck fell away behind her, she kept her eyes riveted to the ship across the span of water, noticed the darkness of the wood.
 

"Almost there, love."
 

Alec's voice was closer than she had expected, and the sound of it sent a jolt of courage through her.
 
She looked to her side and saw him hanging just as she was on the grappling line next to hers.
 

"Alec, can you promise me something?" she called back.

"Anything."
 

"I would very much like a bath after this."
 

She heard Alec's chuckle across the wind.
 

"Of course, my lady.
 
You may have a bath."
 

When the ship came into view beneath her, she felt a slight giving of the fear that had gripped her in silence since she had grabbed the grappling line.
 
Hands reached for her and helped her down from the line.
 
As soon as her feet touched the deck, she spun back to the railing, watching as other men helped Alec off of his line.
 

And then she was in his arms, and he held her with such strength and gentleness that she feared she would cry from the simple joy of it.
 

"Thank you for not leaving me," she said, a distinct catch in her voice.
 

"I could never leave you," he said, and his words sent a shiver through her that no touch ever could.
 

"Promise," she said.
 

"I promise."
 

"When did this happen?"
 

Sarah's head snapped up, and she looked over her shoulder.

"Nora?"

She blinked, not believing that the infallible Miss Quinton could be standing before her.
 
Nora turned toward her as she had asked the question of Nathan, who appeared to have just come on board himself

"Yes, my lady?" Nora said, bowing to her.
 

It was then that Sarah saw that Nora was dressed as a sailor in trousers and jacket.
 

"Nora!" Sarah said, the shock sounding in her voice.
 
"Are those comfortable?"
 

Nora grinned.
 

"Extremely.
 
I would advise you to try it sometime."

"Do not get any ideas, Lady Stryden," Alec said from over her head.
 

"Perhaps just once."
 

"Perhaps never," he said, moving slightly to bow to Nora.
 

"Miss Quinton, it's a pleasure to see you again."
 

"Ah, that's Mrs. Black, actually," Nathan said, looking down at Nora.
 

Alec stopped mid-bow, and Sarah felt her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline.
 

"Mrs. Black?" Sarah asked and turned to her half-bent husband.
 
"When did this happen?"
 

Alec straightened and shook his head.
 

"How would I know?
 
I've been with you the whole time."

"Would you two mind going below decks now?
 
It is you these Frenchies are after."
 

Reginald Davis appeared between them as he made his way toward the quarterdeck and the wheel.
 

"Prepare to shove off," he called, and Sarah looked up to see sailors high in the riggings, moving like spiders across a web.
 

"A bath," she said as Alec led her below.
 

"A bath," he said, "But first we need to make it to shore."

~

Alec could finally move again.
 

When he had realized they were being rescued, something in him had frozen, stuck on a single idea, a single thought that would not jar loose in his mind.

He just needed to get to Sarah.
 

And now that she was here, standing in his arms, he could finally function like the trained spy he was.
 
Keeping his arm about Sarah's shoulders, he moved to the staircase leading up to the quarterdeck.
 
He followed in Davis's path to the bridge, bringing Sarah inside with him.
 
The wind still brewed even though the storm seemed to have blown itself out, and he wanted Sarah to be protected at least for a bit from the elements.
 
Once inside the bridge, he helped Sarah remove the make shift belt and return her skirts to their proper place along her legs.
 
He could admit that he had taken slightly longer than necessary to get the nearly destroyed fabric back into place if only to give him a few more minutes of admiring his wife's shapely legs.
 
There would be plenty of time to admire them later, and right now, he had to do whatever Davis told him to do to get them safely back to shore and into the protection of a crowd.
 

Davis barked orders to his sailors on the bridge.
 
Some scurried below decks while others ran out to the quarterdeck to relay orders to the men in the rigs.
 
Alec watched as the grappling lines were released, the ropes falling away, and the ship that had been their prison drifting into the darkness.
 

"We didn't get to say goodbye to the captain," Sarah whispered, but he heard the derisive note in her voice.
 

"Perhaps we'll call on him at some point in the future.
 
When our countries are not at war.
 
What say you?"
 

Sarah laughed.

It was soft and non-committal, but it was a natural laugh.
 
One pulled out without much thought as to what she was doing.
 

Everything inside Alec stopped moving, arrested by the sound of that small, weak laugh.
 
He couldn't breath.
 
He knew he had known how only moments before, but right then, he couldn't have drawn breath if it were the one thing that could get them back to shore.
 

Sarah finally turned to look at him, and she must have seen something in his face, because a concerned expression spread over her features, and she lifted a hand to cup his cheek.
 

"You do make me laugh, Alec Black.
 
I've just never let you hear it."
 

Her words were still whispered, but she could have been shouting for that was how loudly he heard them.
 

He made his wife laugh.
 

He had heard it with his own ears, and it was a sound unlike anything he had heard previously.
 
It was magical and light.
 
It was beauty and miracles.
 
It was exactly what he had been waiting to hear for four long years.
 

"Thank you," he said, although he wasn't sure why he was thanking her.
 
She couldn't possibly understand what her laughter meant to him.
 
And indeed, she frowned.
 

"I don't know why it's so important to you that I laugh, Alec.
 
Do you think we could talk about that later?"
 

Alec felt the numbing sensation spread through his body once more.
 
Sarah never spoke about things, at least not to him, and suddenly, it sounded like the most important thing in the world to do just then.

"Perhaps after a bath, my lady," he said, feeling the smile move across his face, watching her returning smile as she gazed up at him.
 

In the weak lantern light of the bridge on the ship that was meant to save them from the damned French, in the middle of the English Channel with the rocky seas threatening to overturn them at any moment, Alec fell in love with Sarah all over again.
 
And it was the second best moment of his life.
 
Second only, of course, to the first time he had fallen in love with her, in a duke's garden under the light of a midnight moon.

"My lord, are you implying that I am in current need of bathing?
 
How dare you make such an implication to a lady?"
 

He admired her attempt to sound high brow when she was covered from head to tattered slippers in salt water and muck.
 
Alec stepped back and gave a gracious bow.
 

"I do beg your pardon, my lady.
 
How uncouth of me to make such a comment about your person."
 

Sarah laughed, and this time, it was solid and sure, a noise so profound, Alec laughed in return.
 
It wasn't until Sarah was resting peacefully in his arms once more that he realized people were watching them.
 
Nathan and Nora to be exact.
 
Nora stood with the regal and unmoving pose of a trained servant while Nathan rudely stared at them.

"I'm glad to see you two have managed to find a way between your differences," Nathan said.
 

"I do not think there were any differences between them, Mr. Black," Nora returned, "I think it was just a matter of understanding properly what one was saying to the other.
 
It can be quite difficult you know."
 

Alec went to nod and then stopped.
 

"About this Mr. Black and Mrs. Black thing, would you care to explain?"
 

Sarah's head nodded against his shoulder.
 

"I think an explanation would be wonderful."
 

Nathan shrugged.
 

"There isn't much to explain.
 
You were missing.
 
Sarah ran off after you.
 
We had to try to find you to save you from whatever trouble it was you found yourself in, and in the course of events, we ended up married to one another.
 
Is that about how it went, dear?"
 
He directed the last part to Nora, who nodded.

"Yes, I do believe that quite sums up the matter.
 
Will we be in dock soon?
 
We need to get these two out of these wet clothes or it will be the death of them."
 

Alec felt a slight bit of reassurance at Nora's motherly tone, but this again stopped him.

"Where's Samuel then?"
 

Nathan smiled.
 

"He's been sent off to Great Aunt Lydia."
 

Alec felt the blood drain from his face.
 

"Dear God, man, he's going to return with all kinds of bravado notions in his head."
 

Nora smiled at him.
 

"So I have heard, and I cannot wait to see the outcome."
 

Sarah moved against him.
 

"And what of Jane and Richard?"
 

Nathan looked at Nora.
 

"Well, they are on their wedding trip, you see.
 
In the port of Dover."
 

"And we would be their servants," Nora supplied.

"Quite the ruse then, I see," Alec said, his arm unconsciously tightening around Sarah.
 
"Do we have any cover to keep us from detection once we return to shore?"

Nathan shook his head.
 

"The plan is to generally keep you in a large crowd until we can safely return to London.
 
We will be traveling by ship to Liverpool first as a distraction.
 
We hope to lose anyone that would continue to follow you.
 
We hope this entire ordeal will be enough to convince certain persons that you are not worth kidnapping again."
 

"I beg to differ on that point, brother.
 
I think I am definitely worth kidnapping," Alec said, mock indignity in his voice.
 

"I would second that," Sarah said.

Nathan only raised an eyebrow.

"Get ready, laddies and lassies," Davis called over to them.
 
"We'll be making the pier in due course, and then ye'd best get off me ship."

Alec looked at Nathan.
 

"Wherever did he learn to talk like that?"
 

Nathan shrugged.
 

"Who knows where Davis picks things up?"
 

The four of them made their way back out to the quarterdeck and down to the level where the gangplank would lead them to the pier.
 
Alec had carefully looked over himself and Sarah.
 
He quickly tied the scarf that they had used as a belt around Sarah's head to give her some level of camouflage, but he had nothing for himself.
 
He looked at Nathan.