Company Of Rogues: A Shocking Delight Part 44

"I suppose it is. There are aspects to life here that are from olden times, but don't let it worry you. We're generally perfectly civilized."

Lucy slid her journal beneath her spare s.h.i.+ft in the drawer. "I overheard something up at Crag Wyvern. About some smugglers near Purbeck mistreating a woman because her husband defied them."

"Tom Merriwether's boys," Amelia said, pulling a face. "A horrible gang. I wish Lloyd-he's the riding officer-would put an end to them instead of hara.s.sing peaceable people here."

"Peaceable criminals?"

"Well, they are! For more than fifty years a Captain Drake has ruled the Dragon's Horde here, ensuring no harm done to anyone."

"Life and death?" Lucy asked.

"Sometimes they need bringing into order . . . but David will be cross with me for talking of such things."

"If I'm to live here, I have to know."

"That's what I thought."

Lucy turned to put away the last of her clothing.

"Does it bother you?" Amelia asked.

Lucy turned. "What?"

"The Freetrade. Visitors here are odd. Some disapprove, but most think it exciting and many hint for sources of cheap brandy and such."

"I can't like the illegality, or the barbarity."

"Nothing here is barbarous, I a.s.sure you."

"I suppose I'll learn the local ways."

"It's lovely that you're so sensible, Lucy. I was worried that David would bring back a fancy London fas.h.i.+onable who'd turn her nose up at everything. What's it like, living in a city?"

That seemed an impossible question to answer, but Lucy did her best. Her accounts of shops and street lighting were greeted like stories of dragons and fairies.

"Have you never been to a city?" she asked at last.

"No further than Honiton or Axminster," Amelia said. "There's never been any need. But I would like to see London."

"You could return with me for a visit."

"You're going back?"

"I must. My father marries soon, and there will be arrangements to make."

"For your own wedding."

"Yes."

Lucy was realizing that David should return with her. He needed to ask formally for her father's permission. It wasn't necessary since she was of age, but he'd want to do it and her father would certainly expect it. They could attend her father's wedding together, and be together for the first reading of their banns. That would mean traveling together, and not having to be apart.

"Then I'd love to return with you," Amelia said. "What fun!"

The vision of an intimate journey shattered, but it might be better. Amelia would be a testament to propriety. "Would your parents permit it?"

"I don't see why not."

"You'll need to be careful when there."

"Is it very dangerous?" Amelia, too, looked as if she thought danger could be exciting.

"In some places, but I was thinking of the heart. You might fall in love with a London man, or a lord whose home is in Scotland."

Amelia laughed. "I'd never do that. I'll marry close to home."

Lucy remembered once saying something similar. "Love can be a complication."

Amelia studied her. "Is your loving David a complication? This must be very different to what you're used to."

"Yes and yes, but love is compensation enough."

"Love and family," Amelia agreed, standing. "There's family everywhere here, on all sides. Kerslakes, Bubbingtons-that's mother's family-and even the Clysts and their connections."

"I'm not accustomed to that."

"You'll find you like it overall. There are always the difficult ones and the dirty dishes, but family is wonderful."

When they went downstairs David came into the hall to meet them. "All settled?" he asked Lucy.

"In your old room."

She realized that room hadn't only been a boyhood sanctum, but his until last year, when he'd become the earl.

She took his hand. "We'll make a lovely and loving home, David. We will. Even a garden and roses."

He raised her hand and kissed it. "We can try. I doubt we can manage an orchard, though. Come, let me show you the one here."

No one seemed to object, so Lucy went happily with him back out through the front door and around the house.

Chapter 33.

She found not just a flower garden, but also herbs and some fruits and vegetables. He led her over to a patch of raspberries. He picked some and offered them in his cupped hand.

Lucy took one and ate it, sweet and warm from the sun. "I've never tasted any as good."

He poured them into her hand and she ate them as they followed a path between plants large and small. Some she knew, but most she didn't.

"We have a garden at home, but grow few vegetables."

"Surrounded by shops and markets, what point would there be?"

"Amelia would like to come with us to London."

"Don't let her pester you."

He took her hand and led her beneath a fragrant honeysuckle arch to a deeper part of the garden. "Come and be kissed beneath a cherry tree." They went through a gate. "Not much is edible yet, but there are cherries." He reached up for a bunch.

She took them, smiling. "I like this."

"Being plied with fruit?"

"Courting. We are, aren't we? Strolling together in the gardens, nearby but out of sight, as we learn one another and learn to please one another."

"Courting. Inside out again, but yes, sweet. I remember thinking I'd like to bring you here and pick cherries for you. And see you here in springtime with blossoms in your hair."

They came together for a kiss as natural as breathing. When they parted she said, "It won't always be sunny and mild."

"No," he agreed, but puzzled.

"I was simply reminding myself not to be entirely bedazzled." She popped a cherry in her mouth and savored it. "You were going to tell me secrets, David. Let's get it over with."

"Like a trip to the dentist?"

"It feels very like, yes."

He led her to a wooden bench and they sat beneath an apple tree. The small fruits were only tiny promises, but she'd be here in autumn to taste them when they were full and ripe. Yet still she felt his doubts and even reluctance.

"If the secrets belong to others," she said, "if it would be dishonorable to share them, then don't. Even a husband and wife can sometimes keep secrets like that."

"I'd rather you know everything before you commit yourself."

"I'm committed. Nothing can change that."

"Rash woman."

Then, suddenly, she knew.

Pieces fell into place.

His sober tone now, s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversations overheard, the encounter with Saul Applin.

"David, are you Captain Drake?"

He blinked once, but she saw the answer before he said, "I knew you were too clever to be safe."

"What does that mean?"

"The pressing reason I've been trying to break free of you, Lucy Potter, is that I knew from the first that I'd never be able to fool you over anything."

"Of course not, and I should have realized sooner. That's the dragon!"

"What?"

She took his hand. "David, earl, and dragon."

"You always make sense, love, but at the moment you remind me of Clara Fytch."

"I've come to see three parts to you-David, the earl, and another part I haven't understood that I called the dragon. Now I see what it is. aDrake' is another word for dragon, isn't it?"

"Yes, and as I've told you, the dragon is dangerous."

"To men like Saul," she said.

"And to men like Lloyd."

"You wouldn't kill him, would you?"

"No," he sighed. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because that's a relief, but also because this is the final piece of the problem. The key. I thought you were reluctant to marry me because of the madness in your blood, but that was solved. And that I wouldn't like Devon, but I know I can come to like it. Then perhaps because of the danger from smugglers. But it was because you're the smugglers' leader. Though I don't see exactly why that's an obstacle."

"Perhaps I thought you might object to being married to a criminal? I was convinced at one point that you'd report me to the magistrates. You seemed ardently against the Freetrade."

"I was. I am. It undermines law and order and damages legitimate trade. But I'd never betray you."

"I know that now. But, Lucy, I could get caught. Probably as earl I'd escape prosecution, but if anything went that badly wrong, I could be killed. You'd not only be a widow, but one entangled in scandal."

"You will not be killed. You will not. But I don't understand. Why do you have to be Captain Drake?"

"Inheritance. The bane of my life. As Mel Clyst's son, the mantle fell on me. Though he indulged my interest in smuggling and let me take part, he never wanted me deeply involved. He was pleased to see me in the gentry with an honest job. He'd trained his nephew John Clyst from a young age to take over, but in the run that went wrong Mel was taken and John was killed. There was no one else to hold the Horde together and prevent chaos."

"That was more than a year ago, though, wasn't it?"

"Nearly two years ago, but finding a subst.i.tute wasn't urgent until I took on the earldom, and since then I've been rather busy. It's no easy matter. Most smuggling masters are simple men, but that's why there's so often poor organization and wanton violence. To keep order and prosperity, Captain Drake has to have a range of qualities from administration to the ability to enforce stern discipline."

"A clerkish dragon, or a dragonish clerk."

"He must also be accepted by the Horde. Mel inherited from his father, and he treated John as a son. That's the best way. If he'd married an ordinary woman, his son or sons would have been natural heirs. But he fell in thrall to Lady Belle."

"That's a harsh way of putting it."