LITMIR.BIZ

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anything to affect him this much. Not since his mother’s death, some few months after Nina’s desertion. It had been an untimely death that he knew had been hastened by Nina and her high-and-mighty family’s cruel treatment of him.

      An owl hooted in the trees to his right, and Jed shifted around in his saddle, his sea-green eyes searching the inky darkness for a glimpse of the night bird that sounded so alone. As alone as he would feel if he allowed himself that luxury, which he would not.

      Nothing stirred in the cluster of young oaks that grew behind the hedge of hawthorn. Yet he had no doubt that the creature was there, among the dense growth of late spring, watching him. If he was capable of reason, would he think Jed was a fool to have come all this way from America with only the content of one vague and confused letter to go on? Then, even as Jed watched, he saw the dark spread of the owl’s wings as it swooped from the highest treetop, across the greening open field, in search of small prey.

      If only his own life were so simple. He would like to be able to swoop down on Nina, take what was his and go. But even though twelve years had passed since the last time he’d seen her, she could still manipulate him by saying only what she wanted him to know and nothing more.

      His gaze flicked across the sky, where the half-moon was partially obscured by gauzy iron clouds. Find her he would, no matter what the cost. He must succeed in what he had come to England to do. There was no reasonable alternative.

      Over the course of the past twelve years, he had faced worse odds and won. Jed had started his nautical career as a cabin boy at the age of seventeen. He was now co-owner of a thriving shipbuilding firm, master of his own ship, and master of his own life.

      Or so he had thought until he received the letter from Nina some two months ago. It was then that he had learned she’d left Bar Harbor with his unborn child inside her. Pain sliced through him, and his knees gripped the horse more tightly, causing it to prance beneath him. Deliberately, calling on the strength and determination that had sustained him all these years, he forced himself to relax those muscles and the ones in his shoulders and prodded the animal on.

      He would find Nina, and his son. Nothing, not even her cruel theft of the boy’s childhood, would prevent him being a better father than his had been to him.

      The night closed in around him as his mind centered on that one most important need, using it to block out any thought of possible failure. Again he went over the minimal clues he had to help him locate her. He knew that Nina’s name was now Fairfield and that she had borne him a son. Little else had been said, other than that she was finally telling him about the child out of a need to salve her own conscience. It didn’t even enter his mind that the claim might be false. Some inner sense, the same one that forewarned him of a squall before it came, told him she was telling the truth.

      Jed’s lips tightened. How very like Nina to say she was telling him in order to salve her conscience. She had always acted to preserve her own pretty hide. His chest tightened as he remembered the ache her rejection had brought. It hurt all the more because of the fact that he had actually believed she loved him. Why else would a girl from one of the foremost families in Maine show an interest in him? He’d lived in a hovel not far from the docks. After his father left them, he and his mother had subsisted on the meager income she earned from doing laundry and mending, and whatever he might bring in from laboring on the local fishing boats.

      Only fate could have brought Jed into contact with the fragile and darkly lovely Nina. One day when the housekeeper had fallen ill, Nina had gone to the market with her maid. The handle of her basket had broken, and Jed had stopped to help her retrieve her purchases. Their hands had inadvertently brushed. Their eyes met. After that, there had been no holding back the force of their youthful desire. He’d actually believed she loved him, until there came a time when he went to their meeting place night after night, with no sign of Nina. In desperation, he had finally gone to her home. The harried housekeeper had given him an impatient look and informed him that Miss Nina had been married the previous day and was at that moment making ready to board a ship that would take her to the estates of her husband, Squire Fairfield, in England. So shocked had he been that Jed could only back down the steps in disbelief when she closed the door in his face. Clearly Nina had cared nothing for him, for never had she even hinted at any of this. In a short time, his devastation had turned to rage, and he’d vowed never again to allow himself to look to any woman for anything other than physical release, and never to one of Nina’s social class. They cared for nothing beyond their own comfort and position.

      His devastation had come to the point of near madness when his mother died, some few weeks later. That had been when he signed on as cabin boy for a voyage that was to take him from Bar Harbor and the pain of his life.

      During the ensuing years, he’d learned much about the world, including the fact that the only person he needed was himself. It was a lesson he would not soon forget.

      Yet Jed knew that in this instance there was one great obstacle in his path, despite his self-reliance and determination to find his son. He had no access to the very society he scorned. His confidence in himself and his abilities would not gain him entry to the salons and morning rooms of London society. And that was where he must certainly begin his quest. But how?

      He pushed aside this core of doubt, prodding his horse to a faster pace. He had no intention of returning to his ship at Westacre, where its cargo of cotton was being unloaded, without his son. He’d not told his first mate, David Orsby, the details of his quest, but he had informed him that he might be gone for some time. David had shrugged, saying he would do whatever Jed asked of him, and that the crew would wait, because they were well paid.

      Jed turned his attention to the road ahead. He had just rounded a sharp bend when he took note of the vague shape of a coach up ahead. He shifted his mount to the far side of the lane, which was wide enough for both his horse and the vehicle. As the clouds passed away from the moon, casting more light down upon the scene, he paused.

      The halted carriage swayed wildly ahead of him, and the four matched black horses danced in the harness. Atop the conveyance, two men struggled violently. Surely one of them must be the driver, Jed thought as he dug his heels into the bay’s flanks and it started forward. At that moment, from inside the carriage, he heard the sound of a woman’s scream.

      Jed rose in the saddle and slapped the reins against the horse’s rump. His urgency was immediately transferred to his mount, for it reared up and ahead at the same time. They were near to traveling at a gallop when he drew the horse alongside the swaying coach and pulled himself up onto the platform.

      For a moment, he hesitated, as he studied the grappling men. Then one of them cried out, “Please, help me, sir!” That was all Jed needed to help him decide which was defender and which attacker. The taller of the two turned, as if meaning to jump from the vehicle, just as the other finished calling out to Jed. But he had acted too slowly to protect himself, for Jed grabbed him by the back of his coat and spun him fully around. The man swung wildly, and Jed ducked. He countered the blow with one of his own and sent the thug reeling over the side of the coach.

      The other man, whom Jed was now certain was the coachman, flinched as another scream sounded from inside the carriage. He looked to Jed with eyes rounded in panic. “We must help my lady.”

      Jed pointed to the fallen man, who lay still upon the ground. “Watch him. I will see to her.”

      Without waiting to see if his order was obeyed, Jed leapt over the side of the vehicle and reached for the elaborately emblazoned door. As the woman cried out again, he reached into the belt of his breeches and withdrew his pistol. Then he was inside.

      A man’s voice addressed him immediately. “Blazes, Lloyd, let’s be off, shall we?”

      Both tone and inflection proclaimed this man a member of the upper class. At that moment, Jed had little time to wonder why a gentleman would be accosting a woman in her coach. He took in the fact that this man was so busy wrestling with the pile of blue silk skirts and other female apparel he held that he had not even bothered to see who he was addressing. Jed could only assume there was a woman beneath all that tangle. He was assured that this was true when an arm

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