Captain Jones's Temptation - Audrey Harrison Page 0,26

broad shoulder, she sighed.

“I do not know what I would have done without having you and Dawson in my life these past years.”

“Now, don’t be getting all maudlin on me. You do as you see fit, but make sure you look after yourself. I do not want to be making broths to sustain an ailing body. You are equally as important as those who surround you, if not more so, my lovely.” Cook gave Esther a final squeeze, but pulled away when the door opened. Turning sharply, she scowled at Samuel. “Have you never knocked before entering a room?”

“Not when I have news to convey that will not wait.”

Cook shook her head, but in one last moment of affection, took Esther’s face in her hands and kissed her forehead. “All will be well. You will see.” Leaving the room, she gave Samuel one more disapproving look before closing the door.

“Does your cook often give out embraces and wander around above stairs?” Samuel was completely unrepentant that he had interrupted a personal moment, but what he had seen did add to his increasing fascination with Esther.

“Only when they are needed. How can I help you, Captain Jones?”

“After having a discussion with Dunn, we’ve decided to send an express and ask for more men. We still think it will be safer to keep the child here. We would be extremely vulnerable on the open road, but we need more men to protect the house and capture whoever is intent on attacking us.”

“I see.”

“No hysterics, Miss Hardy? No scolding me for taking matters into my own hands?”

“That is unfair, Captain Jones. I have never worked against you with regard to Isabella’s safety.”

Samuel could have cursed himself. He had seen how upset she looked when he entered the room. In his usual cold way he had tried to make the situation better, but had made her feel worse. She was trying to be brave, but there was something deeper going on than purely the situation they were facing, and he had no idea what it was.

He had never felt that he wanted to make someone’s anxiety ease like he did with her. It was a strange and worrying sensation. It was a longing mixed with a feeling of helplessness, which did not settle well with a man who needed to feel in control. He failed to realise that Esther felt exactly the same way. All he could understand was that it troubled him that she was hurting, and he crossed the room to her.

He took hold of one of her hands and squeezed it before releasing it. “I apologise. I was trying to take your mind off your troubles by giving you the opportunity to curse me to the devil. I know how much you enjoy it. It was badly done. I am sorry.”

Esther smiled, but it was wan and filled with sadness. “I do not think I have the ability to scold anyone at this moment.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “Oh, excuse my melancholy. I shall rally! My courage is still there, Captain Jones. I am prepared to stand alongside you, armed with one of my uncle’s hunting rifles if necessary.”

Samuel was stunned. Not by her words, as such, but by the fact that he had been struck by an image of her standing by his side in a completely different circumstance. One in which he would be joined to her for the rest of their lives. Marriage. He had avoided it with vigour until this moment.

Shaking himself inwardly, he cursed. The situation must be making him soft or befogged. He did not wish to be shackled to anyone, especially someone who scolded him more often than she spoke to him civilly. That she interested him more than any other woman of his acquaintance had ever done was a thought he forcefully pushed out of his mind. He had never had liaisons with anyone except the few mistresses he had taken; they had been married, because there was safety that way. No one would fall in love and expect him to marry them when they were with someone else, however unhappy they were with their husbands. Now he was considering being married to a spinster. He had been too long away from London. That must be it.

Forcing himself to return to the conversation before Esther thought he was some sort of feeble sap, he smiled at her. “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it is good to know.