Page 84 of The Rebellious Countess
His mother continued. “What is the meaning of this, Tomás? You are supposed to be at The Happy Hag.”
“It burnt to the ground,” Tomás replied.
Elias spared Tomás a glance before returning his gaze to the man in front of him. “You burnt her tavern?” he accused.
“No.” The man drew out the word as if he were speaking to an imbecile. “French soldiers did.”
“What?” The shock resonating through his mother’s voice made him want to go to her, but at that very moment, he could do nothing but listen as Tomás explained.
“After you left,hecame.” Tomás nodded his head in the other man’s direction and continued, “Then he began asking questions all over town about the Miss.”
“My wife?” Elias clarified.
Tomás moved next to the Englishman. If Elias didn’t know better, he would have thought he was siding with the man, but Tomás had been at his mother’s side since a few days after his father died. He was also the one who’d smuggled Elias to England to live with his uncle. The thought of Tomás betraying Aventine was as foreign as the man in front of him. Still, he kept his guard up and listened for holes in his explanation of events.
“Yes, your wife, and then soldiers came looking for him.” Tomás tilted his head toward the stranger once more. “I had to smuggle him out the back, and when they couldn’t find your mother or him, they burnt it to the ground.” He looked at Aventine, his expression full of remorse. “I am sorry.”
Aventine didn’t miss a beat. “Was it my father?” she asked, her voice as hard as stone.
“Oui.”
That left one question still unanswered. Elias directed his query to the stranger. “Who are you, and why do the French want you so badly?”
“Because he’s the Duke of Harding, my brother-by-marriage.”
“And I’ve come to take my wife’s sister home.” The duke’s jaw tightened as if Elias were the prey, and the duke a starving beast ready to tear his head off with jagged teeth.
Bloody hell.
“I was trying to tell you.”
“My apologies, my dear. I was caught up in my own thoughts of destroying your brother-in-law because I thought he’d accosted you.”
“I believe the opposite is true, and for that?—”
“The opposite is not true and you will not be calling out my husband.” Máira’s voice was made of iron and he had to admire her mettle. The duke was an imposing man that would make most men cower.
“There are things you don’t understand—” the duke started.
“I understand more than you give me credit for, Your Grace.” If her words did not explain exactly what she understood, the slow caress of her breasts against Elias’s arm told the duke exactly what she understood about marital bliss.
The duke’s brow rose in question before his scowled deepened and his angry glare turned once more on Elias. It was Tomás who stopped him from lunging.
“You gave your word you would not ruin her!”
Elias couldn’t help but admire the way the handsome visage of the man was heightened by his desire to tear him limb from limb. He tried to soothe his brother-in-law’s ire. “I did.”
“Father Charles,” the cardinal hissed and motioned for the priest to retreat.
“You are not good enough for her,” the duke ground out, and turned toward Máira. “I’m sorry, Máira. I didn’t want to tell you like this, but they leave me no choice.” He ran a hand through his hair in a manner only a duke could make appear as if he was in a ballroom and not in the middle of fight for a lady’s honor. “He lied about his identity. He is not the Earl of Dorset. He is a privateer and a recovery agent whose loyalty to the Crown is questionable. I left a Bow Street runner, Johnathan Payne, on his ship, and ordered them to the port of Carnac.”
“Peter set sail for another port?" Fury and indignation laced his words. “How dare you order my ship to sail!”
“Your ship was to be burned.”
“What?” A quick nod from Tomás confirmed the duke’s proclamation. His gaze captured his mother’s.
She shrugged as if it was of no great import. “Your grandfather would do it.”
