My Lord Viking (19 page)

     
She smiled and rounded the top of the stairs.
 
“You are learning the cant of the Polite World with great speed.”

     
“I never thought I would need to learn English a second time.”
 
He chuckled, and she saw the flash of the moonlight against his teeth.
 
“Actually a third time because Jack has taught me some phrases that he has warned me not to speak in your hearing.”

     
“Although he probably has.”

     
“True, but he says a gentleman never speaks so to a lady.”

     
“A gentleman?”
 
She crossed the room slowly.

     
“He recognizes that once many men acknowledged my leadership.”

     
She halted in midstep.
 
“He knows the truth?”

     
Again Nils laughed.
 
“No, but a servant learns young how to discern between his peers and those you would name the peerage.”

     
Her lips twisted in a wry smile.
 
That was true.
 
Jack had shown respect to Nils from the day they rescued him on the shore.
 

     
“Are you going to stand there staring at me as if I had just come in on this beam of moonlight?” Nils continued.
 
“Or will you come over here and sit with me?”

     
“I intended to ask Olive if she needed anything before I went to—before I went to sleep.”
 
She hoped the shadows hid the heat on her face and that he had not noticed her hesitation over the common saying.
 
Yet every word they exchanged seemed somehow so intimate that she feared saying “bed.”

     
“She seems quite set if her soft snores are any indication.”

     
“Yes.”

     
Nils held out his hand.
 
She could not resist the offer to discover if this was the direction her heart wanted her to go.
 
Putting her fingers on his wide palm, she let him seat her beside him in the puddle of moonlight.
 
She leaned back against the bench behind them and gazed up at the moon as he did.
 

     
“The moon is one thing that is unchanged,” he said quietly.
 
“I have watched the moon from this shore, and it looked as it does tonight.”
 
Without a pause, he added, “Did you enjoy your visit from your
Randolph
tonight?”

     
“Are you spying on me?”

     
He laughed, his breath brushing her hair like the whisper of a caress.
 
“I amuse myself by watching the comings and goings on this estate.
 
Once, I would have watched to gauge the strength of the defenses of this house.
 
Now I simply watch to keep myself from going mad with boredom.”

     
“Mayhap I can find something to entertain you.”

     
“I doubt you mean that as you said it, Linnea.”
 
His finger twisted in her hair.
 

     
“That is true.”
 
She unwound his finger from her hair.
 
When his finger crooked over hers, she looked up into his eyes, but they were lost in the darkness.
 

     
He lifted her finger to his lips.
 
When his tongue brushed its tip, she closed her eyes and swayed toward him.
 
Being delighted by his bold ways was stupid, but she did not care.
 
She wanted to enjoy this.
 

     
Footsteps pounded up the stairs.
 

     
Linnea pulled back as Jack came around the top of the steps.
 
The lad’s grin broadened when he saw her sitting beside Nils.

     
“‘Tis good that I took an extra piece of this excellent chocolate cake,” he said, setting a platter on the table.
 
He handed Nils a piece of cake, then offered one to Linnea.
 

     
She shook her head.
 
“I am not hungry.
 
I will leave this dessert to the two of you.”

     
Jack took a hefty bite of his serving as he went back and sat on the top step.
 

     
“What is that?” asked Nils, leaning forward.
 
He pointed toward the window with his fork.
 

     
“It is a fork,” Linnea replied.

     
He tapped her nose with his finger and laughed.
 
“I am quite aware of that after our lesson.
 
I meant
that
.”

     
Looking out the window, she saw a flash of light close to the ground.
 
“I suspect it is night owls on their illegal errands.”

     
“Owls with illegal errands?”

     
“Night owls is the name given to the smugglers who bring brandy and other things from
France
.”

     
“But
England
is at war with
France
!”

     
“Yes, that is true, but that makes the profits for the night owls even greater.”

     
He scowled.
 
“Those men have traded their honor and their obligation to their leaders for gold.”

     
“I have seen their lights for as long as I can remember, although Papa tries to keep them from coming ashore here.
 
When I was a child, I believed that the lights came from fairies dancing along this shore.”

     
“Fairies?”

     
“They are but a legend.
 
The stories describe them as small women with wings.
 
They are tiny enough to hold in your hand, but they are exquisitely beautiful.”
 
She leaned back against the bench again and smiled up at the moon.
 
“On nights like this, they come out from beneath the flowers and fronds where they have slept the day away.
 
They dance on the moonlight and drink cups of sweet dew.
 
Elusive, they must grant anyone who captures them one wish.”
 
Laughing, she added, “I used to hunt for them when I could sneak out of the nursery.
 
I never caught one, needless to say, and Papa dressed me down for being out where I might have encountered a band of smugglers.”

     
Nils took a bite of his cake, being careful to balance it on the fork.
 
“But you still believe in the fairies?”

     
“Not as I used to.
 
Then I was certain all I needed to do was lift the correct leaf, and a fairy would be waiting for me.
 
Now I only hope one might be.”

     
“So you could have a wish come true?”

     
“Mayhap.”
 
Linnea smiled.
 
“To be honest, I would be so astonished simply to find one that I doubt if I could decide what to wish.”

     
“I know what I would wish for.”

     
“To go home?”

     
He nodded, his gaze growing distant.
 
“Although I spent years in training in
Jutland
, I grew up along a fjord overlooking the northern sea.
 
Those steep walls of stone were as much of a challenge to me as finding a fairy was to you.”

     
“But I suspect you had better luck with achieving your goal than I did.”

     
“I first climbed to the top of the cliffs when I was not quite eight years old.”

     
“You must have been so proud.”

     
“I was, but I also was not sure what I should do next to prove I deserved to be trained as a warrior.
 
The summer days that far north lasted for more than a week.
 
During that time, a boy could find all sorts of mischief to get into.”

     
“As I nearly did here while searching for fairies.”

     
“But now you know the lights on the shore are not dancing fairies, but smugglers.”
 
He sighed.
 
“And I know what I must do next.”

     
“Find the knife.”

     
“Find the knife and return it to my chieftain.
 
Nothing must deter me from doing that.”
 
His voice grew grim.
 
“Nothing.”

Ten

     
Linnea paused on the steps when she heard wheels on the drive leading up to the house.
 
Setting her basket down, she rushed to embrace her mother as she alighted from the carriage.
 
She wondered if she had ever been so happy to see her mother.
 
Papa might be an expert on financial matters, but Linnea needed her mother’s counsel now.

     
Lady Sutherland wore her iron-gray hair in a tight bun, but a few strands always fell down along her cheeks as if to acknowledge her warm heart.
 
Raising a household of boisterous children and succeeding in finding matches for all of them had added lines to her face, but all those wrinkles were forgotten when she smiled.
 
She nodded to the tiger and motioned for the packages to be carried into the house.
 

     
“Papa will be so glad you are back,” Linnea said, laughing.

     
“I was gone but two days, and the staff know well how to handle all the preparations for your sister’s wedding.”

     
“But Dinah keeps asking Papa questions he deems beyond his knowledge.”

     
Lady Sutherland laughed.
 
“That sounds like your sister.
 
She cannot believe that anyone would consider anything else as important as her coming nuptials, for it is the only thing filling her head.
 
You are like your father, so you find it difficult to let one thing become so important that it outweighs everything else you are involved with.”

     
“I try.”
 
She
did
try to think of other matters than Nils’s quest, but usually succeeded only in thinking of how she delighted in his kisses that she should not be enjoying.

     
“I trust you will not be so witless when your turn comes to be wed.”
 

     
“I hope not.
 
Where is Great-Uncle Roger?”
 

     
“He would not be budged from his hearth for what he said was just another wedding.”
 
Her mother laughed.
 
“That from a most confirmed bachelor who seems to be afraid that nuptials may be infectious.”
 

     
Linnea chuckled a she picked up the basket she had been taking to the water pavilion.
 
Olive had brought some clothes from the attics, so Nils would have something to wear when he went to
London
.
 
They needed to be remade to fit him and updated so he would not look out of place.
 

     
Lady Sutherland climbed the steps.
 
“Let me calm your sister.
 
Once her wedding is past, I believe you and I should talk about matters of your future.”

     
“Yes, Mama.”
 
Linnea did not let a frown form on her lips, although she had no interest in discussing any part of her future that might involve Randolph Denner.
 
Her shoulders sagged as her mother went toward the door.
 
Randolph
had been pleasant enough to have as a friend, but she could not imagine him as her husband.
 
To think of him kissing her with the fire that she had discovered on Nils’s lips...No, she could not imagine it.
 
Randolph
was too restrained.
 
Something about Nils’s uninhibited determination to see his quest through to its conclusion was intoxicating.
 

     
Telling her mother that was impossible.
 
Lying to Mama was just as appalling an idea, however.
 
She started to follow her mother, then paused when the sound of a fast-moving horse came up the road.
 

     
“Will Martin ever learn any common sense?
 
Riding neck-or-nothing is going to get someone hurt,” Lady Sutherland grumbled.
 
“Oh, my!
 
‘Tis Lord Tuthill.”

     
Linnea closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
 
Having
Randolph
call at the same time her mother was talking about Linnea’s future was not at all a good thing.
 
Mama was as tenacious with her goal of finding all her children spouses as Papa was with his business dealings.
 

     
A not-so-gentle jab by Mama’s elbow in her back sent Linnea forward a step as
Randolph
slowed his horse by the front steps.
 
She waved away the dust that followed
Randolph
’s wild ride and coughed.
 

     
“Ah, just the one I wished to see,”
Randolph
crowed as he took her hand and squeezed it.
 

     
“Do speak with Mama while I—”
 
She coughed again.

     
“Lady Sutherland,”
Randolph
said in the same cheerful tone, “this is a double delight.
 
I had not thought you were expected home until Tuesday.”

     
“Today is Tuesday,” Mama replied.

     
Randolph
laughed.
 
“So it is.
 
I have quite lost track of time with these trips to and from
London
to finish the work on my father’s estate.
 
I have made what I am glad to report is my last trip to Town for a while.”
 
Turning to Linnea, he compressed her hand again.
 
“I will be able to devote my time to other things now.”

     
Wanting to tell him that she did not like being addressed as a “thing,” she said only, “I am glad to hear that onerous task is done,
Randolph
.
 
It must have been wrenching and so sad for you.”
 

     
“Yes, it was not easy.”
 
He gave her a sideways glance.
 
“It would have been much easier to bear if I had known my future was set as well as my past.”

     
Linnea drew her hand out of his.
 
How dare he speak so in front of Mama!
 
“Your future might be settled for you in less time than you expect,” she returned, furious.

     
“Linnea—”

     
“Do not lather me with excuses for your tasteless comment.
 
I liked your father very much,
Randolph
, and I do not like hearing him dismissed so out of hand.”

     
“I did not mean to suggest any disrespect to my father or to you.”

     
“Then you would be wise to select your words with more care.”

     
The ruddy tint of embarrassment climbed up from
Randolph
’s stylishly high collar.
 
He looked to her mother for assistance.

     
“My dear young man,” Mama chided with a wag of her finger, and Linnea knew he had been wrong to try to get her mother to overrule her, “you should know by now that Linnea can be most stubborn when someone tries to back her into a corner.
 
You would be wise to grant her some time to consider your suit.”
 
Kissing Linnea on the cheek, she added, “After you have finished speaking with your caller, do come in and have tea with me, my child.
 
I am eager to hear how you have kept yourself busy while I was away.”

     
The color in
Randolph
’s face darkened to a shade that was not good for his well-being.
 

     
Linnea wanted to assure him that her mother liked to take tea alone with her children whenever possible, but that would make
Randolph
feel even more like an outsider in the Sutherlands’ tight family circle.
 
It must be lonely in his isolated house.
 

     
Instead, she handed her basket to Jack, who had come to get
Randolph
’s horse.
 
“Olive is waiting for this,” she said, hoping Jack understood what she could not say in front of
Randolph
.

     
“Yes, my lady.”
 
He lowered his eyes, but his face was stained nearly as red as
Randolph
’s.
 
With guilt?
 
Or was he simply trying not to chuckle about the secret they were keeping from the man everyone assumed would soon be her husband?

     
“What is wrong with everyone here today?”
Randolph
grumbled as Jack led the horse toward the shade.
 

     
“Wrong today?” she asked, not sure how to answer his question.
 
“I was not aware that anything was amiss.”

     
“Mayhap because you are acting more strangely than anyone else.”

     
“As I said, I was not aware of that.”
 

     
“You could start by explaining why you are having a stableboy take something to your maid.
 
Does he always run errands in the house?
 
I thought you had footmen for such tasks.”

     
“Olive isn’t in the house.
 
She is out in the garden.”
 
When his eyes slitted, she hurried to say, “We were going to take advantage of the sunny day to do some sewing.”

     
“For Lady Dinah’s wedding?”

     
She laughed.
 
“It is a bit late for that.
 
Her wedding is at the end of the week.
 
Mama would be outraged if everything was not ready.
 
I fear our sewing will be far more prosaic.”

     
“Then you need not hurry away.”

     
Linnea motioned toward the bench set by the driveway.
 
“Shall we sit?”

     
“Here?”

     
“Or in the garden.”

     
“Yes, that sounds better.”
 
He held out his arm, and she put her hand on it.
 

     
When he led her toward the water garden, her feet faltered.
 
She shook her head when
Randolph
again asked if something was wrong.
 
Searching her mind for any excuse to go to a different part of the gardens, she could not devise one before he led her down the steps toward the pavilion.
 

     
“This is nice,” she said, sitting on a bench that had no view of the door into the pavilion.
 

     
“Closer to the pool—”

     
“Dinah is fond of taking Lord Simmons there.”

     
That was an inspired response, she realized, when he frowned and grumbled something under his breath.
 
His irritation was not focused on her, but on Lord Simmons.
 
Although she had seen that
Randolph
was not fond of her sister’s fiancé, she had never guessed that he disliked the man so deeply.

     
When he sat on the bench, she edged farther along its length, keeping her hand between them.
 
When he put his over it, she hoped he did not hear her sigh of relief.
 
She would gladly let him hold her hand if it prevented him from drawing her closer.