Free Merline Lovelace by Untamed Page A

went upstairs to fetch her shawl. Hattie wasn’t in the room, Barbara saw with a dart of annoyance. Nor had she turned down the bed or laid out a nightdress. Wondering what the woman was about, Barbara draped the elegantly fringed Norwich shawl over her elbows and descended the stairs to find her absent maid in the hall, engaged in conversation with the lieutenant.
    Their discussion broke off with Barbara’s arrival, and her somewhat tart suggestion that Hattie might attend to her duties sent the maid on her way. Not without a last adoring look at her lieutenant, though.
    “You’ve made a conquest,” Barbara commented as they stepped out into a night bathed in bright moonlight. “The woman quite worships you.”
    “She would worship anyone who rescued her from the brute she was in service to.”
    “Hattie says you shot him cleanly between the eyes.”
    “Since I was aiming for his shoulder at the time,” he said dryly, “I don’t take a great deal of pride in the hit.”
    “What’s that? I was given to understand you rangers are all crack shots. Was I wrong to trust you to keep me safe during the journey to Morgan’s Falls?”
    “Not at all. Until I hear your business with my mother, though, I make no promises for the return trip.”
    The threat came accompanied by a smile, but it was still a threat. The view of the moon above the river could wait, Barbara decided. Coming to a halt, she faced the lieutenant.
    “Very well, sir. The long and the short of it is that my brother was unjustly convicted and transported to Bermuda, where he rots in the prison hulks. I need five thousand pounds to free him. I came to play on our admittedly loose connection to your mother and borrow or beg the money from her.”
    She thought he might gape in astonishment at her outrageous demand. Or perhaps make a show of sympathy for her brother’s plight. She did not expect him to slap his leg and burst into laughter.
    “You thought to put a hand in my mother’s pocket and pluck out five thousand pounds? Damnation! I wish I had been present to hear her response.”
    “She has yet to give it to me,” Barbara informed him icily.
    Still chuckling, he shook his head. “You should have told me what you were after. I would have warned you. My mother is the shrewdest horse trader and financier west of the Mississippi. If she gives you five thousand pounds, you’ll pay it back with interest, I assure you.”
    No, Barbara would not.
    She was tempted, so very tempted, to stalk inside, march up the stairs and retrieve the document hidden in her valise. Lieutenant Morgan would find little to laugh about then. Only the certain knowledge that he would challenge the contents of that paper in court and tie up his mother’s inheritance for years kept her from doing just that.
    Harry didn’t have years.
    “Tell me again how it is you’re related to my mother?” Zach asked when he’d recovered from his mirth.
    Barbara wove once more the same web of truth and lies she’d spun for Louise Morgan.
    “So the two of you share no blood tie at all.”
    “That is correct.”
    “Thank the Lord for small blessings,” he muttered.
    Barbara went stiff as a poker. “I understand you might be reluctant to acknowledge the connection, sir. You’re a barrister, after all. And a military officer. Your family is much respected in this area. I, as you’ve just learned, am the sister of a convict.”
    “We’ll get to the matter of your brother in a bit,” he promised. “My most pressing concern at the moment is making sure there’s no obstacle to collection of the debt you owe me.”
    “What debt?”
    “You promised to recompense me for the cost of the second canoe.”
    She’d forgotten about her rash offer. He had not. Smiling, he curled a finger under her chin and tipped her face to his.
    “I’ve been waiting for the right time to collect on the debt. I’m thinking this is it.”
    Barbara sucked in a swift breath. Evidently Zach Morgan had