Free I Kissed an Earl: Pennyroyal Green Series by Julie Anne Long Page B

reaction to my brother Jonathan was rather striking. You said he could have been Mr. Hardesty’s twin. Jonathan looks very much like Lyon. And Lyon disappeared at night a year ago. And the woman who allegedly broke his heart is Miss Olivia Eversea.”
    “The Olivia,” the earl repeated darkly, after a tick of silence. She heartily approved of his tone, because she could never say Olivia Eversea’s name in any other way.
    “I tried, mind you, to tell my brother Jonathan what I learned from you about Le Chat. And his reaction told me I shouldn’t attempt to tell my father. Because I can tell you this: no one in my family will believe me. No one listens to me. They’re all very fond of me, of course, but I’m not certain they see me as needed. So why would they believe a woman? Why believe me, especially in light of my so-called rash behavior? Someone needs to find Lyon before you do, Captain, because I know how you intend to deal with him. And if I told you about my suspicions, Captain…would you allow me aboard your ship? Of course not. You are my best hope, Captain Flint, for finding Lyon and saving his life…from you. Furthermore—”
    “There’s a ‘furthermore’?” His voice was utterly inflectionless.
    “—I’m not a child. I’m a lady born of one of England’s finest and oldest families, and I daresay even you know how to behave in the presence of a lady. Regardless of the inconvenience I’ve caused you, I’ll thank you to remember whatever manners you’ve managed to feign to date, because the ones you’re exhibiting do you no credit and merely reinforce the prevailing opinion, Captain Flint, that you are a savage.” She delighted in giving the S a serpent-like sibilance. “The measure of a gentleman is how he behaves when he hasn’t an audience to witness the beauty of his manners. And I wouldn’t expect you to understand this, my lord, but centuries of fine breeding have ensured that I need not, as you say, exert myself if I choose not to. Only the likes of you equate the actual need to work with virtue. It is in fact due to the work of my ancestors that I no longer need to, and my family considers this a mark of honor.”
    During this, he moved only once: to blink. As though she’d flicked water into his eyes. After that, his eyes remained unnervingly vivid and disconcertingly, dispassionately interested. She was done.
    But he was quiet for such a long time after she stopped speaking that the fury animating her drained away for lack of a target. She felt hollow, spent, a cocoon abandoned by the caterpillar. A puff of air would carry her off.
    He seemed thoughtful.
    “And you honestly believe based on your younger brother’s resemblance to Le Chat and the name of his ship that your brother—Lyon, is it?—is a notorious pirate?”
    Well, anything he said in that particular tone of voice was bound to sound ridiculous. So she didn’t reply.
    “And you intend to do…what? Stop me from bringing your brother to justice?”
    He was perilously close to mirth. Or hysteria. Something she wouldn’t appreciate, she was certain. He issued his words with great care and control.
    She simply straightened her spine. She would not confess to the fact that she hadn’t thought quite so far as that. But she excelled at thinking on her feet. Or rather, she preferred to think on her feet, for it was the one way she could coax excitement from the routine of her life.
    “Consider that you might be able to use me for bait on your stops in search of my brother, Captain Flint, if my brother is indeed Le Chat. You may be able to flush him out if you send word ahead that I am accompanying you. And yes, I fully intend to warn him of your presence…once you lead me to him. For if he is indeed Le Chat, I am certain all is not what it seems. Lyon is not a vicious pirate. So may the better player win.”
    Good heavens. What an array of expressions chased each other subtly over his face in the long silence that