Page 44 of The Rebellious Countess
“I can do it.”
“Of course you can,” she replied, but she knew he couldn’t. He was badly beaten from his head to his toes, and everywhere in between, the pain evident in his grimace. He staggered to his feet but she was there for him, under his arm and guiding him away from the carnage they had created.
Elias looked over at what she now recognized as the body of a French officer in the military, her knife in his neck. “Is that your work?” He asked.
She didn’t want to look, but she supposed she had to face what she had done. “Yes.”
The dead man’s eyes were open, his jaw slack and his arms spread wide from his body. The pistol lay on the ground less than a foot away. It was hard to imagine the menace she had seen on his face moments earlier. His sheer determination to end Elias’s life was an image she would never forget.
Elias stopped for a moment, placing his large body in-between her and the dead man, and looked down into her eyes. Even though one of his eyes was completely swollen shut, the other looked at her in a manner he had not done before. “Thank you.”
Her eyes filled. Her hands began to shake. “For killing a man?” she croaked over the emotion tightening in her throat and looked away.
His hand raised to her chin and turned her head, forbidding her to look anywhere but into the depths of his mossy green gaze. The sincerity she saw was the same as she had witnessed on their wedding day. Solemn in nature, truth in volumes, as he wiped away tears she hadn’t realized had fallen. “For saving my life.” He kissed her forehead, and she wished he’d kissed her lips.
His large body swayed and she let her emotions fade into oblivion as she wrapped her arm around his waist once more to guide him to a fallen tree where he could sit and she could tend his wounds.
“We’ll need his gun to see this through,” Elias told her.
“You’re expecting more trouble?”
“We are English citizens in France. I expect those two won’t be our last battle.”
“You are in no shape to battle.”
“I’ve been in worse. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You can barely stand.”
“Enough, Máira. In an hour I’ll be as good as new, and I will get you somewhere safe where you can wait until after I recover the earl.”
She wanted to argue but knew better. Having five sisters taught her to recognize a losing battle. Robina, the youngest Blair sister, shared the same tranquil and friendly nature as Elias—docile and calm with a witty quirk of the brow—until she wasn’t happy. Thoughts of Elias aboard theMaribellecrashed into her thoughts like the angry waves that had battered the ship. He’d been angry at her, but more importantly, he’d been angry at himself and nature for endangering her safety. It had been the same look he’d held when he’d killed the man mere moments ago. Every thought had been to protect her.
When in battle, he was a completely different creature. Initially, she’d believed she’d been duped; when she woke up to find this imposing man aboard theMaribelle, she shouldhave recognized the duality of his nature. The autocratic figure in front of her was like Robina when she was told she must dress for an occasion and put on proper shoes. As a child, she’d resisted with every bit of her will. Robina had been of the mindset that a stiff upper lip wouldn’t get her as far as a stiff uppercut of her fist. There had been several instances when their nursemaid had to hold Robbie still while Máira slipped a gown over her head and shoes onto her feet. Robbie’s fist were weapons of mass destruction. They landed blows on any chin in the vicinity if she was in a mood, and then she would present herself in public as the ever-obedient, contrite little girl.
Like Robbie, Elias was congenial in polite society. A gentleman who would recover her package and grin a devilishly forward smile as if he knew her every thought when she’d stuttered a shythank you.
Take the man out of the pomp and circumstances of their courtship and put him into a mission to save another, however, and the docile man she’d known, rarely appeared. Yet somehow, she found she loved this strong, powerful, and utterly ruthless side of him more. He commanded respect without the obvious station of a gentleman dressed in his finest attire. Even off ship, most men stepped out of his path to avoid his raw masculinity.
But there was something else she liked even more when she was with Elias. She liked what she became while with him. She liked this new fierce side of her personality. She had done what she needed to do to save him. An intensity she’d never known she possessed came to life when she was in his company.
Still…now was not the time to poke the injured beast, because whether he realized it or not, Elias needed her to see his mission through.
Twelve
My Lord Duke,
Sir Elias Maximilien Allistair Drake is the captain of the Maribelle, with a healthy reputation as a ruthless privateer. The ship left English soil out of the port of Dumfries the morning after your sister’s wedding. Sir Drake does fit the description of the man who married Miss Máira Blair, and he was last seen leaving port with an unconscious woman over his shoulder who was said to be his bride. He was en route to Le Conquet, France, with a hull full of Scotch.
I further learned that Sir Drake is the son of Thomas Jefferson Drake, a spy for the Crown, who married a French woman. Her identity is unknown, but Mr. Drake was murdered ten years ago by none other than Maximilien de Danton, a general for Napoleon. Rumor has it the general has been estranged from his daughter since then, and that his daughter, who is currently a widow, was married to an Englishman. I’ve been able to locate one sailor who swore the Englishman the French general’s daughter married was none other than Thomas Drake. The couple owned a pub in Le Conquet, and the widow is currently the sole proprietor.
I will be leaving for Le Conquet, France, on the morrow, and will advise you of my findings at the soonest date possible.
Your faithful servant,
Mr. Johnathan Payne
—A letter from Bow Street Runner, Mr. Johnathan Payne, to Nashford Harding, the Duke of Ross, who hired him to locate his sister-by-marriage, Miss Máira Blair.
