The Smuggler's Captive Bride Read Free Page A

to the floor and bent down behind the bar to pick it up. “I’ll take ye up there now, m’lord.” He bustled out from behind the bar, his shoulders hunched. “I know ye’re anxious for a reunion.”
    Wanting to see how badly Ernest wanted him gone, Hamilton said, “I ought to eat first.”
    “No!” Ernest turned on him, then tried to smile. “Not here. In yer room. I’ll bring up a meal to yer room.”
    “Ernest …” Hamilton drew out his name in warning.
    “Where’s yer valet? Is yer horse in the stable?”
    Hamilton watched Ernest sweat and contemplated the situation. Ernest would have to be dealt with, but Ernest and his family had been the innkeepers at the Bull and Eagle for two hundred years.
    Ernest would be waiting when Hamilton walked down the stairs once more.
    Laura Haver was his first priority. She didn’t know it yet, but she was going to tell him every bit of information she knew. He would work on her. Hell, he looked forward to working on her. Decision made, Hamilton answered Ernest. “I walked over.”
    “From the manor?” Ernest’s eyebrows lifted so high they would have touched his hairline, if he’d had one. “Didn’t ye know to look for m’lady here first?”
    “We haven’t been speaking.” It wasn’t a lie. He could scarcely talk to m’lady when no m’lady existed.
    “A tiff already?” Ernest clucked his tongue and bent down and rummaged under the bar. “But an evening visit such as this will cure that honeymonth uncertainty. Here” He handed Hamilton a dusty bottle of wine. “‘Tis one of my best. Share it with her tonight.”
    Hamilton took the bottle, looked up the stairs, and for the first time allowed himself to wonder what Laura would do when he knocked on the door. She didn’t plan on him arriving to claim his “bride,” but … his vision blurred in a sudden flush of heat. He’d caught her at last. He’d have to question her about her presence here, and he knew from experience she was stubborn, bad-tempered and determined.
    He might have to question her all night.
    He looked at the bottle in his hand. She might need to have her tongue loosened with an application of truth medication, and if that didn’t work, he might have to seduce her — for the good of his operation, of course.
    He grinned. The little fool had played right into his hands.

 
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     

     
    LAURA LISTENED as the two men spoke in the taproom below. It was probably nothing, probably the first of the villagers arriving for an ale, but the events of the night had made her wary, and she slipped over to the door and laid her head against the boards while straining to hear.
    The knock on the door made her jump backward, stumbling on the thin carpet that covered part of the floor.
    “M’lady?”
    Only Ernest called her by that title. “What?” she called, and her voice quavered.
    “‘Tis Ernest, m’lady, with a surprise for ye.”
    “What kind of surprise?” She feared suspicion colored her tone, but Ernest sounded as cheerful as ever.
    “‘Tis something to warm yer bones.” Metal rattled against metal. “Shall I unlock the door and pass it through to ye?”
    She stared in horror at the metal lock. She’d thought herself inviolate in here, and now Ernest announced he had another key. Should she fling her weight against the door and block it? She looked down at herself and at another time, she would have laughed. “Bird-bones,” Ronald had called her, and “Shorty.”
    Should she start pushing furniture against the door? Her gaze swept the room. No, she wouldn’t be able to move big enough things fast enough. And why was she worried, really? As far as she could tell, Ernest had been totally trustworthy, keeping the secret she’d entrusted to him with perfect consideration. Only the events on the cliff and those voices below colored her suspicions of him.
    “I’ll open it,” she called. She wanted to retain control of access to her room, and not have Ernest