Page 14 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

“You’ll be safer in the country until this matter is resolved,” he said.

“But my shop,” Jeremy protested.

“We’ll have The Brotherhood look after it. I’m sure any number of them would be willing to help. They can spread the word that this was all an attempted robbery and that your shop will be closed while repairs are made.”

“We can finish the work in progress,” the third young man said, rubbing Jeremy’s back as though he were a younger brother and not an employee. “Artie, Timmy, and I are good enough at stitching to finish the work we have and deliver it.”

“Thank you, Jonty,” Jeremy said. He glanced to Derrek, and though Derrek could see how loath he was to leave his business, his life, and everything he knew, he said, “I put my life in your hands. Please keep me safe.”

“I will,” Derrek replied with a nod. He didn’t think he’d ever undertaken a more precious mission in his life.

Five

“We’ve arrived.”

Jeremy was jolted awake from his uncomfortable sleeping position in the corner of a carriage by Derrek’s voice and the quick touch of Derrek’s hand on his knee. He sucked in a breath, embarrassed to have fallen asleep to begin with, and pushed against the side of the seat to right himself.

The interior of the carriage was dim, which was, perhaps, a blessing, since Jeremy was certain he looked a fright, but there was enough light to see that dawn was breaking across the countryside around them.

Or rather, dawn was seeping through the woods where the carriage gradually pulled to a stop. Jeremy scooted toward one of the small windows and moved the shade aside enough to peer out into a world that was as foreign to him as the South Seas.

“Where are we?” he asked, his voice choppy from his rough sleep.

“Somewhere safe,” Derrek said, shifting this way and that to gather up various things that filled the carriage with them, coats, hats, and Jeremy’s valise of tailoring supplies.

“Could you be a bit more specific about the location of our safety?” Jeremy asked, peeking back to Derrek and trying not to be annoyed. He was not annoyed at all, not really, but his deep uncertainty of anything that was not London had him like a vise and made him short and snappish.

Derrek seemed to know where Jeremy’s sharpness came from and chuckled at it. “We’re at an estate called Maidstone Close in Kent,” he clarified.

The explanation didn’t put Jeremy at ease. “You brought me out of London to a remote estate in Kent?”

The carriage jostled as the driver jumped down and the scraping of the young man unstrapping their things from the back of the vehicle followed.

Derrek shook his head. “I’ve taken you to an estate that has been abandoned for many years now,” he said. “Lord Linton, its owner, and his son removed themselves to the Continent two years ago in an attempt to escape implication in wrongdoing that is long since past and forgotten.”

“You’ve brought me to the estate of a criminal?” Jeremy regretted the way his voice rose to a near screech.

Again, Derrek laughed. “You need to have more trust in me, Jeremy,” he said, eyeing Jeremy hungrily as he moved to open one of the carriage doors. “I would never put you in harm’s way.”

It was not lost on Jeremy that Derrek was attempting to flirt with him either to distract him or comfort him. As Jeremy slipped warily out of the carriage and into the cool, fragrant woods with its dawn sounds of birdsong and rustling, he was undecided as to whether the strategy would work.

“Lord Linton is gone,” Derrek went on, moving to the back of the carriage to help the driver bring their things down, “but his nephew, the Earl of Moreland, is not only a member of The Brotherhood, he is a friend. Ashton and his partner, Billy, happened to be at The Chameleon Club yesterday afternoon when I went there searching for where I might hide you until the Conroy matter is settled. They believe, and I agree, that you will be safe in this cottage and that no one associated with Conroy knows where it is or would think to search here.”

Jeremy turned to glance at a small, tidy cottage tucked into a slight clearing in the trees. It must have been some sort of gamekeeper’s cottage, hidden so far in the woods as it was. Its timber frame bore all the quaint distinctions of a bygone age, and yet, even though the windows were dark and the chimney emitted no smoke, it seemed cozy and in relatively good condition.

“We will be safe here, you mean,” he said, turning back to Derrek. “You’ve not brought me out into the middle of the wilderness so that you might leave me alone, have you?”

Derrek’s answering smile was filled with mirth and, if Jeremy dared name it, affection. “We will be safe here,” he confirmed. “I swore to protect you, and that means that I would not abandon you to the wolves.”

“Wolves?” Jeremy asked in a tight voice, turning this way and that so that he could peer into the lightening shadows between the trees.

Derrek laughed outright. “You truly have never been outside of London?” he asked.

“No, I have not,” Jeremy replied a bit curtly. He covered his anxiety by stepping forward to take one of the larger valises Derrek had removed from the carriage and set in the grass, if only so he could feel like more of a man and less of a mouse. “I have seen etchings and paintings, of course.”

“Oh, yes,” Derrek said, barely containing his amusement. “I’ve seen that painting in your bedchamber.” He winked at the driver, who chuckled and shook his head.

“It is not what he implies it is,” Jeremy rushed to defend himself. “I would never…I have not…there isn’t….”

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