I’m ready to rest on my laurels. I’m not fool enough to try to man a ship with a bad leg. Pirates fight like trapped badgers, and I’d be dead in six months.”
“His Royal Highness told me that you and the Duke of Ashbrook were responsible for dismantling a number of ships involved in the slave trade. A disgraceful, disreputable business.”
“Yes.” Griffin hated to think of those particular ships. What they found there made them sick at heart, even after he and James sent the human cargo back to their own shores with a heap of gold coins and the slavers’ ships to boot.
“You’ll need something to do,” the viscount said. “I’ve a judgeship open. Justice of the Peace for Somerset. You can do that.”
“Something to do,” Griffin echoed. “Why, aren’t gentlemen supposed to do nothing, Father?”
His father raised an eyebrow. “I busy myself.”
“In fact, we rarely saw you, if I remember correctly.”
“My work is important. The nobility of this land stand at the monarch’s shoulder to rule with him, and beside him. But I do wish I had seen more of my children.”
“I can’t see myself a judge,” Griffin remarked. “From criminal to justice overnight? It doesn’t seem possible. I know nothing of English law.”
But his father grinned. “You were captain of a ship for over a decade, Son. There must have been many a sticky situation for which you acted as arbiter. The prosecutor for the Crown will inform you of the relevant laws.”
“Ah.”
“You can begin on Monday. There’s a backlog of cases, since Pursett died last month. I’ve been dragging my heels about appointing another justice.”
“Monday!” Griffin exclaimed. “Where does this court meet?”
“A mere half hour from Arbor House,” his father said, a distinct note of satisfaction in his voice. “We’ll have the formal investiture, such as it is, at eight in the morning, and you can begin listening to cases at nine.”
“Nine in the morning? The same morning?”
His father looked at him. “There are men sitting in jails across the county because no one has been sworn in to listen to their pleas.”
Griffin suddenly broke out in a howl of laughter.
“What?”
“There’s the father I remember. You always had a way of pointing out the right and moral way to do things, Father. In your eyes, there was never a different way.”
“I hardly think—,” the viscount began.
“It’s all right,” Griffin said. “I’m old enough. I ran off and became a criminal under all that pressure, but I believe I’m old enough to live up to your expectations now.”
“Are you saying that you took up a life of piracy in reaction to my—to me?” His father looked horrified.
“Absolutely not.”
The viscount lapsed back into the corner of his carriage, looking shaken. Griffin had always been a good liar, and clearly that hadn’t changed. It was not easy to be raised by a nobleman who put his duty before his family. But it did explain why his son became a criminal famous through three seas, if not seven.
Not that it’s an excuse, Griffin thought to himself. Just an explanation.
In fact, it was time for amends. Likely he would be in the courtroom at 8:00 a.m. on Monday.
But at the moment . . . there were different amends that he had in mind.
TWELVE
Phoebe had rarely been so horrified as the moment when she realized that one of the gardeners—stuffed into livery for the occasion—was ushering not just Griffin but also Viscount Moncrieff through her front door. She had been sitting in the drawing room, sipping a glass of sherry and trying to distract herself from the kind of heated images that, she was quite certain, no proper lady would ever entertain.
She had been failing miserably, immersed in an absurd fantasy in which she happened on Griffin while he was bathing, when she startled back to attention as the door opened—and she heard the aristocratic tones of the viscount.
Terror struck her heart. She was wearing a transparent dress, with little more than a ribbon keeping her nipples from the open air.
She started to her feet too late.
Griffin was at the drawing room door, tossing his greatcoat behind him to the footman. He surged into the room, brewing with energy.
Phoebe’s heart sped up and her whole body tightened.
He froze for a moment and a look flashed through his eyes, too quickly for her to read. Was it shock? Surely it wasn’t horror. Though perhaps one didn’t expect one’s wife—
When had she become such a worrier? She pasted a smile on her face and