Free Compromising the Marquess by Wendy Soliman Page A

to tell. My sister and I grew up there—”
    “Pardon the interruption, but your parents?”
    “Are both dead.” She spoke the words crisply, discouraging further enquiry. “Beth suffers with a complaint of the lung and her physician recommended sea air. I applied to our uncle for his advice—”
    “Your uncle is your guardian?”
    “Not since I reached my majority. Technically, I suppose Beth is still his responsibility, but in actuality it’s me who looks out for her.”
    “But your uncle still offered you the use of his gatehouse, I collect.”
    “Yes, most kindly he did, and thus you find us here.”
    “Your sister looks remarkably well this evening.” Hal spared her a brief glance as she conversed avidly with Gabriel, eyes sparkling, her cheeks pink with animation.
    Leah followed the direction of Hal’s gaze and smiled fondly. “I rejoice to see such a change in her.”
    “Shall you return to Cinnamon Street soon?”
    Leah hesitated. “Our plans are not yet formulated. I must be sure that Beth is entirely well before I subject her to another winter of damp river fog.”
    “Very wise.”
    “I am not prepared to take any chances with my sister’s health,” she said. Hal was surprised by the depth of his reaction to her determination. “She is all I have left in this life,” Leah added, so quietly that he barely heard her.
    “Then she is most fortunate.” Hal smiled at his enigmatic dinner companion. “How do you occupy your time here in Denby, Miss Elliott?”
    “Oh, I never want for occupation. Mrs. Wilkinson has been kind enough to take us under her wing.”
    “How fortunate,” he said drolly.
    “We came here to the Hall just a few days ago, actually. She was most anxious to see you but apparently you weren’t here.”
    “So Gabriel told me.”
    “Mrs. Wilkinson insists that you to do something about the Boar’s Head. She considers that iniquitous behaviour takes place there.”
    “Really?” Hal quirked a brow. “And what would she have me do about it?”
    “That is a question you ought to put to her.”
    “Since you are one of her disciples, perhaps you will have the goodness to enlighten me.”
    “She insists there is drunkenness and debauched behaviour. She doesn’t think any respectable woman is safe to walk the streets, even in broad daylight.”
    “Mrs. Wilkinson need have no concerns for her own safety.”
    Miss Elliott’s lips twitched. “I gather there was a mill there just the other evening.”
    “Mrs. Wilkinson told you that?”
    “No, but word gets about.”
    “It occurs to me that if the men are fighting one another, they will have no energy left to ravage the town’s women.”
    “Perhaps, but it would ease Mrs. Wilkinson’s mind to hear it from your own lips.”
    “Nothing is likely to ease Mrs. Wilkinson’s mind until we are all living such dull, blameless lives that we are totally miserable.”
    “You consider grown men fighting one another to be exciting?”
    “Absolutely.” He leaned towards her with studied nonchalance. “Would you not like to see for yourself sometime? Only then can you truly judge.”
    “Would you invite your sister to view such a spectacle?” She arched a brow. “How low your opinion of me must be.”
    He bowed his head. “Well said, Miss Elliott.” He touched her wrist. “It was a ridiculous suggestion and one for which you are perfectly entitled to take me to task.”
    “Apology accepted.” She frowned. “If that’s what it actually was.”
    Hal turned, answering a question addressed to him by the lady on his opposite side. He ought to pursue that conversation. He had already spent too long speaking with Miss Elliott.
    “How do you occupy your days here, sir?” Leah asked when he returned his attention to her. “Does organizing your lumber business take up a deal of your time?”
    “It is one of my many interests.”
    “Do you have a ship that transports the timber?”
    “Absolutely,” he said. “Why would