Free For Love of the Earl by Jessie Clever Page A

enough of a glow to make their search easier.   They wouldn't risk a candle.   Someone may stumble upon the library and see the strip of light under the door.   Then where would they be?   Kissing again, probably, and Alec did not feel like kissing Lady Cavanaugh again all too soon.  
    "Do we know what the map may look like?" Lady Cavanaugh whispered.  
    "Not really.   There are some theories that it may be the Irish coastline that we're looking for.   But really, it's anybody's bet."  
    "I don't see someone like the MacDonald betraying England."  
    "Odds are he's not," Alec mumbled with his head under the desk, tapping the sides for hollow spots that might be hidden compartments.  
    "He's not?"  
    Alec pulled his head out from under the desk.  
    "We think he's being conned by the Campbells."  
    "Dirty bastards.   Why are they conning him?"  
    "They need his shipping business as a cover," Alec said, turning around to the cabinets below the looming windows.  
    "How are they using it as a cover?"  
    "The Campbells tell MacDonald that they can smuggle in fine French brandy if MacDonald will allow them the use of his docks, so the ships won't look suspicious.   MacDonald doesn't know that the Campbells are smuggling arms out of England on the ships, arms intended for Napoleon."  
    "And MacDonald is thinking he's just getting some good booze?"  
    Alec turned around and smiled sarcastically.  
    "Exactly."  
    "Treason seems a pretty high price to pay for a fine French stupor."  
    "Especially when it's unknown and unintended treason."  
    Thunder vibrated the windowpanes above Alec's bent head, but when the panes settled back into their places, he became aware of another sound.   Footsteps.   Coming down the hallway.   Lady Cavanaugh apparently heard it too because she was scurrying her way through the maze of odd tables to Alec.   He shut the cabinet he had been poking around in and turned just as Lady Cavanaugh reached him.   He lifted her up on the desk and stepped between her legs, bringing her softly against him.   She wrapped her legs around his waist and put her mouth to his throat.  
    Alec felt the bile rise in his throat, and he swallowed it down, savoring the sour taste it left as punishment.   Lady Cavanaugh was too big, too solid, too not Sarah.   She didn't fit right against him.   Her thick hair was full of static and crackled against his chin.   Alec closed his eyes and pictured someone else, someone smaller, lighter, blonder, to keep his stomach from emptying itself.  
    The footsteps stopped in front of the door.   Alec opened his eyes just as the knob of the door began to turn.   He bent his head into the crook of Lady Cavanaugh's neck but kept his eyes up toward the door.   The tinkling of feminine giggling came through the crack before one dark head popped through followed by the little blonde head of the young woman they had encountered before entering the library.   Alec heard the dark headed one's exclamation of surprise as if she were standing right next to him.   Her startled Oh sounded genuine as if she really didn't expect to find what she saw behind the door.  
    Alec groaned and buried his head in Lady Cavanaugh's shoulder.  
    This caused a twitter to ripple through both girls, and the door shut with a snap.  
    Alec jumped away from Lady Cavanaugh as if he had suddenly learned she carried the Bubonic plague.   Her expression was one of wry understanding.  
    "I'm sorry.   I just...love my wife," Alec said as the air rushed out of his chest.  
    Lady Cavanaugh nodded.  
    "I know.   So does the rest of the ton," she said as her mouth twisted into a smile that revealed her straight white teeth.  
    Alec took a step back and came up against the cabinets behind him.  
    "They do?"   His voice sounded horribly unsettled to his ears.  
    "Of course, they do.   It seems the only one who doesn't know is your wife.   And why is that?" Lady Cavanaugh tilted her head.