Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [36]
He’d been acting like a fool for the past seven years, seeking his own ends regardless of who got hurt, since he only intended that person to be himself. But he couldn’t help thinking that kissing Tabitha Eckles was not one of his less intelligent actions.
At least it didn’t feel unintelligent an hour later, as he prepared for a day of standing about waiting for Kendall’s guests to arrive, wasting time if the primitive tracks this blighted country called roads hindered their progress. Kissing lips as soft as the rose petals she smelled like could never be a mistake.
A thrill ran through him at the memory, and he drew the razor away from his throat before he slit it.
Shaving himself was one more thing he had to get used to. Until his disgraceful actions came to light in a scandal with the impact of a broadside from a seventy-four-gun ship of the line, Dominick had enjoyed the luxury of a valet who shaved him, kept him supplied with starched neck cloths, and cut his hair. He was getting used to doing these things for himself, except for the hair. That he left to nature.
And consequently Kendall’s powder.
He grimaced at his reflection, knowing the dark locks would soon be pale from Letty’s ministrations with the powder pounce. An hour ago, he’d used his hair to shield Tabitha from view of the three fishermen as he’d touched his lips to hers with no more pressure than a feather fallen from a white heron’s wing.
The action left her speechless, not angry, as Dominick had feared. It left her dazed, judging from the way she didn’t smack him, and the way she picked up her bag and headed for the village without a word, her cheeks as rosy as the sunrise, her eyes misty.
It left Dominick far more shaken than he expected.
Than he wanted.
Wooing her to encourage her to step onto his side was a matter meant for the good of many. Finding himself drawn to her more than he was ever drawn to any pretty female looked like danger to him.
“Though not as dangerous as that frigate.” He scraped the last of the foaming soap from his throat and pressed a cloth steeped in warm water against his face and neck. “It shouldn’t be this close in.”
But he’d heard of ships sailing right into bays and up rivers to inspect American vessels and take men aboard. The fishing boat seemed to have gotten away, lucky fellows.
Too lucky.
Dominick removed the towel from his face and frowned at his reflection. “I don’t like it one bit.”
One week, three men disappeared, while a British naval vessel cruised off the coast. The next, three blithely sailed away from a frigate that had looked determined to stop them at all costs. The fickle Navy? One British captain scrupulously honest and another one not?
Dominick needed to learn the identity of the men aboard that fishing boat. That should be a fairly easy task. He knew the location. Others would know whose jetty lay there. And Tabitha had been in the vicinity two weeks in a row.
He flung the towel into the basin and began to don his hateful uniform. Even though Tabitha Eckles had been on the beach this morning when the frigate fired and two weeks ago when three young men disappeared, that was not reason enough to think she could possibly be involved. She was a midwife. She traveled about at all hours of the day and night. And she hated the British.
Or claimed to.
Claimed too much dislike too openly?
“Now you are being a fool.” Dominick stamped his foot into shoes that looked more suited to a ballroom than a seaside village mayor’s house. But he liked the stockings Kendall provided for the visit. Instead of plain lisle cotton, they were silk—rather expensive accessories for a merchant and small plantation owner to provide for a mere servant, and a bondservant at that. Kendall’s land and business must be prosperous.
Or he received money from a less legitimate source.
“You’re suspecting everyone these days. And that’s no way to find real answers.”
He had less than three weeks to find those answers before the first scheduled rendezvous with his uncle