Mr. Helgate burst out laughing. “If he doesn’t want you, lad, you can room with me.”
“No,” Mortimer said. “I’ll take him.”
“The offer stands.” Mr. Helgate motioned to a drawing room with windows that overlooked the beach. “How about some tea or sherry? I have bread and cheese if you are hungry.”
Louisa’s ears perked up. “Sherry shall be wonderful. Leo will have some tea.”
“Sister!” Leo protested.
“What? You don’t believe I would actually give you sherry? Would you rather have some milk?”
He scrunched up his nose. “Fine, I shall have tea. Only children drink milk.”
Louisa shook her head at his distaste. “I’m not a child, and I still enjoy milk.”
“To sleep. There is a difference.”
She caught the duke’s curious look. He must be recalling the first night they met. She hadn’t been in bed when he snuck into her chamber like a burglar. Come to think about it, would he have rummaged through her drawers if she’d been sleeping? Just where had he thought she was on discovering her gone? Clearly the bed had been unmade.
He must have guessed at her thoughts because his lips suddenly curved, not quite a smile, but close to it.
This sly duke.
She wouldn’t be surprised if she’d walked right past him that night without realizing. A rather unsettling thought. But then, was a person’s presence ever so tangible that one could sense it without seeing them? Had the hair on the back of her neck prickled at some point that night? She couldn’t recall. But at that moment, a shiver traced down her spine.
Mortimer.
You are a dangerous, dangerous man.
*
Oliver averted hisgaze and stepped to the windows overlooking the ocean. A slight breeze from an open one carried in a salty freshness, cutting through the sweetness of Lady Louisa’s scent—but only for a moment. Soon, as if defying the wind itself, it fused with the crisp sea air, teasing him before the next gust granted him another fleeting breath of relief.
When it had started, he couldn’t say, but somewhere between Ashford and Brighton, he’d begun noticing a faint trace of her. Soft at first, but as time wore on, it grew bolder and impossible to ignore. It was something inviting. Something intoxicating. Something undeniablyhers.
Disarming.
He should have been able to ignore it, yet every time, it caught him off guard.
Helgate poured them each a glass of sherry and quickly disappeared before returning with young Leo’s tea. A wry curve tugged at Oliver’s mouth as Leo accepted the cup, his posture resembling that of a king more than a child.
The sweetness grew stronger.
His gaze shifted to Lady Louisa.
She had settled herself with her hip resting against the windowsill beside him, sipping her sherry, lost in the view. He let out a low breath. There was no escaping this. He still couldn’t tear his thoughts away from the impossible reality of the moment. That she was here. Lady Louisa. With him. The entire scene seemed like a dream.
“So, you wish to approach the Fury brothers,” Helgate said as he poured himself a sherry and joined Oliver.
He wrenched his gaze away from Lady Louisa and nodded his head. “Yes.”
It was no secret that the Fury brothers ran the criminal side of Brighton. One wouldn’t think that Brighton would have such a thing, but it was the main route for most of the smugglingoperations in England. It was also close to several coastal towns and estates where nobles took to during the season. The Furys were no secret.
Unlike theotherorganization.
However, few dared to utter the Furys’ names. Their power ran too deep in these parts. Bastard sons of the late Duke of Crane, they were the half-brothers to the current duke, though, if the whispers held any truth, there was little love lost between them.
“Just who are these men?” Louisa asked, looking at them. “They sound rather fascinating. All mystery and intrigue.”
