“Do you have an engagement, my lord?” she asked civilly.
“I will be joining your brother in Enfield this night.”
She blinked at him, her only show of surprise. Then she thanked the footmen and dismissed them. “Does Oliver know you’re joining him?”
“No, but since he has previously invited me, and my leg is feeling much better—”
“After your fireside rest at the inn,” she interrupted dryly.
He gave a slow nod. “So I will join him. Since the townspeople had such a reserved reaction to the earl, I decided I should see why.”
“A reserved reaction,” she mused, resting her chin on her palm, a touch of sadness in her eyes.
“If he changes his ways soon, they will attribute his behavior to youth, and forget it.”
“I hope so.” Now she eyed him, wearing the faintest hint of a lovely smile. “Will you be able to tolerate a group of such young men?”
“You forget I am a sergeant in the dragoons. I see such young men every day, and I mold them into the soldiers they need to be.”
“But Oliver doesn’t need to be a soldier.”
“He needs to become a man. There are some similarities.”
She bit her lip, resisting a smile, he knew. She would continue to resist everything about him until he made her see that it was futile. He was ruthless in pursuit of a goal.
“Take care,” she said, when he rose to his feet. “The roads are winding, and you do not know them well in the dark.”
“Concerned for me, Cecilia? You would think if I broke my neck, you would be well rid of me.”
Instead of smiling, she paled and put a hand to that locket she always wore.
“Forgive me,” he said. “That was dark humor of the sort not used among ladies.”
“But used among soldiers,” she murmured.
“We talk often of death, as if we might keep it away with words alone.”
Her gaze remained troubled. He couldn’t put the image of her out of his mind on the ride into Enfield. Was there something wrong he didn’t know about?
He found Appertan and his friends at the same coaching inn taproom, and they were already in full drunken splendor. Several loose women had wisely been brought in to focus their merriment. Michael remained on the fringes, assessing each young man, and several not so young, old enough to know better but obviously hanging on to the coattails of the foolish earl. Michael felt decades older than most of the young pups.
Appertan noticed him at last, and after a weary roll of his eyes, sent over a drink. Soon, he was introducing Michael to the other men, and they all began to ask for bloodthirsty stories of fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan. He obliged them with a few, and even Appertan looked impressed. But it was difficult to talk of that time, when his regiment had been sent back to Bombay after the taking of Kabul, and those left behind were slaughtered a few years later while fleeing Afghanistan through winter mountain passes.
If Fenton, the man who’d attacked Cecilia, had been there, he’d made a quick departure before Michael could see him. As it was, Rowlandson seemed to have forgotten Michael’s threats and acted as if they were old friends.
One by one, Appertan’s compatriots either sank beneath a table or disappeared into a back room, where they gambled over card games and dice. Appertan himself kept studying Michael as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t make up his mind. At last, he brought a brandy to Michael’s table, plopping it down until it sloshed over on his hand. He laughed and licked it off, seating himself as if he were a sack of grain ready to spill open.
Michael silently saluted him with the brandy and tossed it back in one swallow.
Appertan laughed, then rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “So did m’sister send you to be my nanny for the evening?”
“No, in fact, she was concerned this might not be a good idea.”
Appertan sipped from his glass, nodding as if in deep contemplation, when he was probably so drunk he had to take time to formulate words. “It’s a good thing you’re here,” he mused, wiping at a spot of port on his chin. “If Cecilia is in fear of her life, I should keep an eye on you.”
Michael reminded himself that the other man was drunk. “What do you mean by that? Is someone threatening my wife?”
“I don’t know. Are you?” Appertan hiccoughed and chuckled.
