every move.
Major Lambert bowed low over her hand one more time and then left. But she sensed they would see him again.
She stood where she was, listening until at last she heard the sound of the soldiers marching away. For a moment, she feared she would collapse. Releasing a deep breath, she turned—and gave a start.
Aidan’s expression was so grim, it alarmed her. He waited for her on the dais. “Come here, Anne.”
She didn’t want to go. And yet she could not be a coward. “You are upset.”
He pointed to a space on the floor in front of him. “Here.”
Anne began walking toward him, feeling much like a guilty prisoner coming before a magistrate. She stopped at the base of the dais.
He stepped down and lifted her face up to him. “Why did you do it?”
She met his gaze. “I wanted to give Deacon a chance to escape.”
“He did.”
“Good.”
His brows came together, and Anne sensed he saw more than she wished he did. He took her hand, his thumb lightly rubbing the inside of her wrist. “But there is more, isn’t there? You were shaking all through lunch.”
“I didn’t!” she said with alarm. “I was so nervous, but I’d hoped he didn’t notice.”
“He didn’t. I did.” He paused a moment, then said, “I won’t let harm come to you. When I tell you to do something, I expect to be obeyed. Do you understand, Anne?”
She looked past his shoulders out the window at the rolling sea. The image of the soldiers searching the beach where she and the girls had been dancing made her tremble.
He pulled her closer. “What is it, Anne? What frightens you?”
Her throat tightened. It almost hurt to speak. “You mustn’t play games with men like Major Lambert, Aidan.” She raised her face to him. “He can do what he threatens. He could have dragged you out of here today and all the way to London. In chains, even. And if you’d died along the road or in prison, well, so be it.”
“Britain is still a nation of laws,” he assured her.
“That are not always followed,” she answered. “Especially when words like treason are bandied about. You aren’t a traitor, are you?”
“Anne,” he said, drawing out her name in a way to let her know she was being ridiculous.
She pulled her hand away. “Don’t patronize me, Aidan. You have patronized me from the first moment we met, and I won’t stand for it anymore. My father died because he believed in those laws. They said he was a traitor, too.”
“What?” Now she had his attention.
She nodded. “He wasn’t a traitor, but a doctor. A good one. I grew up on the coast like this. There was smuggling. One of the local men got caught by the excise men. There was a fight and he was knifed, but not before he killed one of the excise officers. The villager came to my father for help. He didn’t tell Father how he earned his wound, and Father didn’t ask. Instead, he treated the man and would have sent him on his way, except the excise men caught wind of where the smuggler was.”
She rubbed her arms to vanquish the chill of memory. “People are funny, Aidan. You don’t know whom you can trust when something like this happens. Someone told the excise men the smuggler was with my father. I was asleep and there was a loud racket. They broke down the door to our house. The next I knew, they were dragging Father out, while my mother begged and cried for them to let him be.” She frowned at Aidan. “The excise officer was an ambitious man much like Major Lambert. He was proud to deliver my father to London.”
“What happened?”
“Father was tried and found innocent. But it took almost all summer, as the summer passed we became poorer. There were nights when we had so little food, my mother would give me hers and other nights when there was nothing at all.”
“Did he return?”
“No. He became ill in prison and died before he could come home. Mother passed on less than a year later. My parents were very close. They held a great fondness for each other. I don’t think she ever laughed after he left. And it was so unfair because he was innocent. So I’m going to ask again, Aidan, are you innocent?”
Instead of answering, he walked to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Slowly, almost reverently, he kissed her on the forehead.