Gentle Rogue Read Free Page B

covered the tightness in that area—as long as the lass didn’t raise her arms, which hiked the sweater up. On her feet were a pair of her own boots mutilated beyond repair, enough to pass for a man’s pair that should have been thrown away years ago. Her sable-brown curls were tucked under a woolen cap, pulled down so low it covered her neck, ears, and her dark brown eyes, too, as long as she managed to keep her head lowered, which she did.
    She was a sorry-looking thing, to be sure, but in fact, she blended in better with this bunch of wharf rats than Mac did in his own clothes, which weren’t fancy, but were certainly of a better quality than anything these rough-looking sailors were sporting—at least until the two upper-class gents came through the door.
    Amazing how quickly the out-of-place could quiet a noisy room. In this case, only some heavy breathing could be heard and—perhaps by a few—Georgina’s whisper.
    “What is it?”
    Mac didn’t answer, nudging her to be silent, at least until the tense seconds passed while everyone took the newcomers’ mettle and decided they’d best be ignored. Then the room’s noise gradually rose again, and Mac glanced at his companion to see that she was still working on being unobtrusive by doing nothing more than staring down at her mug of ale.
    “It isna our mon, but a couple of lairds, by the bonny look of them. An unusual occurrence, I’m thinking, fer such as them tae be coming here.”
    Mac heard what sounded like a snort before the quiet whisper, “Haven’t I always said they have more arrogance than they know what to do with?”
    “Always?” Mac grinned. “Seems tae me ye only started saying such six years back.”
    “Only because I wasn’t aware of it before then,” Georgina huffed.
    Mac almost burst into laughter at her tone, not to mention such a blatant falsehood. The grudge she bore the English for stealing her Malcolm had not lessened any with the end of the war, and wasn’t likely to until she had the lad back. But she bore her aversion so genteelly, or so he’d always thought. Her brothers had been known to rant and rave with some very colorful invectives about the injustices inflicted on Americans by the British, perpetrated by the governing nobility, and this long before the war, whentheir trade was first affected by Britain’s blockade of European ports. If anyone still bore ill will toward the English, the Anderson brothers did.
    So for more than ten years, the lass had heard the English referred to as “those arrogant bastards,” but she hadn’t cared so much then, would just sit back and quietly nod agreement, sympathizing with her brothers’ plight but not really relating to it. But once Britain’s highhandedness touched her personally with the impressment of her fiancé, it was a different story. Only she still wasn’t hot-tempered about it as her brothers could be. Yet no one could doubt her contempt, her total antipathy for all things English. She just expressed it so politely .
    Georgina sensed Mac’s amusement without seeing his grinning face. She felt like kicking him in the shin. Here she was shaking in her boots, afraid even to lift her head in this crowded hellhole, bemoaning her own stubbornness for bringing her here, and he found something to be amused about? She was almost tempted to have a look at those dandy lords, who no doubt must be dressed to the gills in colorful foppery, as their ilk tended to do. She didn’t for a moment think that Mac might be amused by what she’d said.
    “Willcocks, Mac? Remember him? The reason we’re here. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble—”
    “Now, dinna be getting snippy,” he gently chided.
    She sighed. “I’m sorry. I just wish the fellow would hurry up and make an appearance if he’s going to. Are you positive he isn’t already here?”
    “There’re a few warts on cheeks and noses, as I can see, but none a quarter inch long on the lower lip of a short, pudgy,