Tempest Heart - Paula Quinn Page 0,90

them.

“Set a marker of his name in case his sister wants to find him.”

They agreed and took the money, then bid them farewell when they left.

They met the captain and Mary at the doors where they waited. “Where’s the earl?” Tristan asked the captain.

“Jones likely took him out so Rose would not to have to look upon him.”

Harper looked to Rose. “Rose—” the captain began.

“I’m weary.” She cut him off with a tender smile on Mary and then on him. “We will speak on it tomorrow.”

The captain nodded and looked at Tristan. “What about tomorrow? What are we to do with the earl?”

“He needs to be brought before the High Steward. I will bring him or ask Jones—unless you wish to travel to Edinburgh and explain your part in all this.”

Mary shook her head and held on to her husband’s arms. “I will not have him taken from me.”

Tristan nodded. “I will take him myself then.”

Rose didn’t want Tristan to go to Edinburgh with her father. One of them would kill the other on the way. Her father could never defeat Tristan in a fight, so he wouldn’t fight. He was clever and deceived others easily. Could he deceive Mr. Jones?

Heart thrashing, she watched Tristan push open the doors. She breathed in the cool night air to slow and steady her heart. Mr. Jones would never allow her father to escape and kill them.

Tristan whistled into the dark for Mr. Jones, but no answer came.

“Stables,” the captain said and began going that way. The others followed. Rose noted that Tristan had unsheathed his sword.

They reached the stables and discovered Mr. Jones’ and her father’s horses were gone.

The stable hand could tell them nothing save that the “younger” man seemed to be taking orders from the older man.

Forcibly or of Mr. Jones’ own accord? They did not know. Her father was gone.

“We should stay at the manor house for the night,” the captain suggested. “I do not want the women in the open and in the dark with the earl running around.”

Tristan agreed. “What do ye think aboot Jones?”

The captain shook his head. “He has been in the earl’s service for four years. He has never given me reason to believe his disloyalty.”

“Disloyalty to whom?” Tristan asked him.

The captain looked around. “To the earl.” His gaze found Tristan and settled on him. “We should go.”

They hurried back to the manor house and told the earl’s brother what was going on. They would help put the dead outside then lock the house up tight for the night.

Rose waited with Mary and Emma in the manor house’s large sitting room. They spoke about the earl and about Rose’s husband.

“He saved my life, as well,” Mary shared with Emma. “He loves Rose very much.”

Emma smiled. “’Tis an odd match. Rose, you are so quiet while he…father says he has a terrorizing reputation.”

“He is worthy of it,” Rose assured her cousin. “But not with me. With me, he is different. He gave me his tea and bought me a dress.” They talked and giggled, and then worried about the earl.

By the time Tristan returned to her an hour later, she was excited to see him and eager to lock them away from the rest of the world. She wanted to be alone with him to discuss the future, but more than that, she needed his comfort from the day.

When she saw him, her smile began in her soul and reached her eyes as well as her mouth.

Emma showed them to one of the many bedrooms in the house and then left them alone with a knowing smile.

Whatever her cousin thought was going to happen, Rose hoped she was correct.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tristan gazed down at his wife and sank inside her again.

They were both short on strength and weary of mind, but they needed this intimacy and release that only they could give each other. They needed it more than sleep.

He loved her—how she felt beneath him and around him. Running his fingers through her hair, he pulled back her head and ravished her throat, raking his teeth across her flesh, kissing her neck, her chin. Licking her lips and then biting them. “Ye taste fine, love,” he groaned over her flesh and sank deep inside her again. He wanted to throw back his head and howl with pleasure like some feral beast.

She surprised and delighted him by tugging at his hair and pulling him over, landing him on his back. She went with him but slipped

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