Liberty Hill (Western Tide Series) Read Free Page B

Running ships out of San Francisco would take Flynn & Flynn, which was aptly renamed after Emmett Brennan’s death, to an entirely new level. Why not profit from the gold that was already dug out of the ground?
    His father, however, had refused. California gold was alluring, but it was a brief and passing phenomenon. “Flynn & Flynn does not gamble. Silk, opium, and tea are the only dependable treasures of the trade industry,” Banning decreed. “This gold is but a passing fancy. Soon there will be nothing left and California will be naught but an empty land full of abandoned towns, whiskey bottles, and ghosts. We Flynns stick to where the trade winds are always certain to blow: across the Atlantic and over the Indian Ocean.”
                Perhaps Banning was afraid of risk, but Lucius Flynn had found an alternative to becoming a bored, fat tradesman. California was his opportunity for adventure, for the pursuit of wealth under his own conditions.
    He was getting married, and along with a wife, he was acquiring the Brennan fortune. Indeed, it was enough money to double his father’s trade, which was what his father intended. But it was also enough to purchase Lucius Flynn’s independence, and it was high time he was free of his father’s rule.
    He would go west, lest he regret it for the rest of his life.
     
    Evelyn was shocked from sleep. At first she was not certain the sound had not come from within a dream; but she waited, and presently she heard it once more.
    Someone was rapping on the door.
    She expected her servant, Beatrice, to enter, for rarely anyone but Beatrice came to call. But it was not her servant who opened the door. It was Lucius, dressed in yesterday’s clothes.
    Candleless, his features were vaguely apparent in the dim light of dawn. The vision startled Evelyn, for she had not been alone in a room with him since they were children, and she could not imagine why he would come to her now, in this early hour. Since her father died, they had seen little of one another. Banning Flynn had taken her in as his ward, and she spent most of her time alone or with Beatrice, reading, playing piano, and taking walks, while Lucius spent his days at the docks with his father, and his evenings at various pubs and clubs, playing cards and flirting with women.
    Their schedules did not allow for one another, which was strictly intentional, so the sight of him now was unnerving, the imminence of their wedding all too uncomfortable.
    What in heaven’s name was he doing here?
    Evelyn drew her blankets closer, pulling them to her throat. With one hand she attempted to correct her nightcap, painfully aware of her disheveled appearance, for Evelyn Brennan made certain she was never seen unless she was scrupulously put together.
    “My God,” she exclaimed. “Did you just get in? It is nearly morning.”
    Lucius coughed.
    “I had some business to attend to in town,” he replied.
    He winced against his own lie, but convinced himself it was only a bit of an evasive truth. He did not see Evelyn’s eyes roll, as she was well aware of what sort of business Lucius conducted in the darkness of night. As justification for her suspicion, she took a deep breath and caught scent of Lucius’ recent activities.
                “Lord, you reek of brandy and perfume!” she declared, perhaps a bit too loudly. She was not wounded, only greatly perturbed.
                What had her father been thinking when he agreed to this betrothal? Lucius Flynn was bereft of all decency, yet Lucius Flynn was the husband her father had chosen for his only daughter. The sense of the match, if there was any at all, completely eluded her.
                Lucius stopped, unsure of how to respond. He lifted the collar of his jacket and sniffed. Penelope and the German woman- damn, what was her name?- had entered the room along with him, their smell plastered to his clothing.
                “Sorry about