Kisses and Scandal (A Survivors Series Anthology ) - Shana Galen Page 0,14
and the men who frequented the public rooms were the laborers and tenants of the area.
All in all, it was a respectable establishment, and James didn’t like meeting Patrick and Sean here. He was known in Beckminster, as was every servant at the big house, and he would have rather met somewhere more private. He spotted the other two Irishmen as soon as he entered. They were young and dressed in the rough clothes of laborers. They looked up when he entered, giving James broad smiles, their eyes bright. James joined them after exchanging greetings with the publican.
“Nice of ye to come,” Patrick said.
“I came as soon as I could, so I did. I had to wait until the family retired to get away.”
“Rumor is the family leaves for Town tomorrow,” Sean said, sipping his ale.
James nodded, smiling as the serving girl brought his own pint. She smiled back, and all three waited until she’d moved on before speaking again.
“Ye have to go with them,” Sean said.
James shook his head. “They’re only taking the ladies’ maids and the first footman. They don’t want me.”
“Sean is right. Ye have to go,” Patrick said, leaning forward conspiratorially. “This is our best chance.”
James shook his head. His neck felt stiff, as though a noose had been looped around it. “There will be a better chance when the family returns.”
Patrick’s bright blue eyes narrowed. “That’s what ye said last time.”
“And the time before,” Sean added.
“I’m starting to think ye don’t want this plan to succeed.”
James drank to slake the sudden dryness in his throat. “I’ve done more than either of ye to make sure the plan does succeed. Yer not the ones fetching and carrying everyday.”
“Sure and we’re twiddling our fingers waiting for ye to give us a sign to act.” Patrick mimed twiddling his fingers.
Sean pointed at James. “And every day we wait, opportunities are passing us by. We could be in America by now, living like kings.”
James leaned over the table, speaking low. “Sure and what if we’re caught and thrown in Newgate? What do ye think they do to men convicted of abducting the daughter of a duke?”
“No one would hurt the lass,” Sean said.
“That won’t matter a whit, and ye know it.”
Patrick sat back. “That’s our answer then, so it is.”
“What answer?” James demanded, cutting his eyes to the right and left to make sure they weren’t being observed.
“Ye’ve changed yer mind. Yer no longer with us.”
“I didn’t say that—"
“Ye didn’t have to, man. It’s as clear as the day. I knew sending ye in that grand house was a mistake. Ye must like bowing and scraping.”
“I don’t like it.”
Patrick exchanged a look with Sean. “Maybe ye’ve forgotten what it was like to be put out of yer house, kicked off yer land, watch yer ma and da beg for a crust of bread.”
Sean continued where Patrick ended. “Maybe ye forgot what that tenement in Dublin was like. Our three families, twenty-two people, living in two rooms. No light, no air, no medicine for the wee ones. Maybe ye forgot about Colleen and the day we buried her—”
“Don’t speak of her!” James roared. The chatter in the pub ceased and several men turned to glance at him. James lifted his tankard with a shaking hand and drank. When he lowered it, he smiled and waved a hand. “My apologies, gentlemen. Just a wee bit of excitement here.”
The noise in the pub gradually began to grow, but Sean kept his voice low. “Do ye not want to avenge yer sister, cold and dead in the ground this past year?”
He did. He had. But James was increasingly prone to wonder if ransoming Lady Philomena was the way to go about it. Yes, they could collect a fortune, enough to send back to their families and to buy passage on a ship to America, where they could start over in a land with limitless opportunities. They never planned to hurt Phil. At least James knew Sean would never hurt her. Patrick had a streak of mean in him, but James had thought he could handle Patrick.
But all of this had been before he’d known Phil. She’d been a faceless woman—nothing but a title and a fortune. Now he knew her. He didn’t have to think too hard to remember the feel of her skin against his palms or the scent of her on his fingers. Suddenly, the plan didn’t feel so harmless, so victimless. He hadn’t intended to develop feelings for Lady Philomena,