LITMIR.BIZ

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faint ringing of the bell sounded below. “Someone is here, your ladyship,” Dodd said.

      “Do not answer.” She held out her hand to Miss Bunsby. “The key.”

      “She has hidden the key, your ladyship,” Dodd said irritatedly. “My set is below stairs.”

      “Uppity baggage you’ve got here,” William said.

      Miss Bunsby scorched him from head to toe with disapproving eyes. “I am Anne’s governess.”

      “And I am her mother,” Katherine snapped. Below, the bell rang incessantly. “You will bring me the key, get your things and leave this house at once.”

      “With all due respect, your ladyship has tried that before.”

      “I shall have you thrown bodily into the street!”

      “Keep your voice down. You’ll wake Lady Anne,” Miss Bunsby hissed.

      Katherine turned on Dodd. “Answer the bloody door and kill whoever is on the other side. And bring your keys.”

      “You mustn’t do this,” Miss Bunsby said firmly as Dodd hurried away. “What will she think when you tell her you’re returning to the ship? Anyone can see you’re in a state, your ladyship. Please—wait until morning when you’ve calmed yourself.”

      William grabbed her by the arm. “Best show me where that key is—”

      “Unhand me!”

      “—then I’ll escort you out, bags or no.”

      As if the devil himself were orchestrating some hellish play, Captain Warre strode down the hallway with Dodd on his heels. “I’ll be bloody damned if I’ll let you return to that ship,” he said to Katherine, pointing that finger at her. “What in God’s name do you hope to accomplish by this?”

      Miss Bunsby was still trying and failing to pull herself from William’s grasp.

      “Sailing back to the Med and having done with all this nonsense,” William told him. “Perhaps you have a mind to join us?”

      “William,” Katherine said sharply.

      Captain Warre looked at him. “You’re drunk, Jaxbury.”

      “Perhaps.” William shrugged a little. “Wouldn’t get in her way if I was you.”

      “Make her see reason, your lordship,” Miss Bunsby begged. “Do not let her wake Anne for this.”

      Captain Warre glared at Katherine. “Is what happened with Winston what’s prompted this? For God’s sake, the man would proposition a stone if he could figure out how to get his cock inside it. It’s nothing to take personally.”

      “Mama?” Anne’s faint cry came through the locked door.

      “Now you’ve done it,” Miss Bunsby whispered harshly.

      “Mama?”

      “Get the key.” Katherine’s voice was ice.

      William released Miss Bunsby, who disappeared into an adjoining room and returned seconds later with the key. Katherine snatched it from her and shoved it in the lock with shaking fingers. Like night settling over the city, reality slowly chilled her temper. Behind her, Miss Bunsby and Captain Warre and William crowded in.

      “Your ladyship, please,” Miss Bunsby begged.

      She shut the door in their faces and went into Anne’s room alone.

      “Mama?”

      “I’m here, dearest.”

      “I heard shouting.”

      Katherine went to the bed and gathered Anne in her arms, suddenly fighting back tears. “A small disagreement. Nothing to worry about.” She imagined the servants streaming into Anne’s darkened room in the middle of the night to pack her things, waking Anne to dress her quickly and whisking her away to the ship...

      What on earth had she been thinking?

      “Is something happening?” Anne asked.

      “No, sweetling. I’ve just returned home later than expected.” She smoothed Anne’s hair from her face and held her close, breathing in her comforting little-girl scent. No sound came from the hallway now. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

      “It’s all right, Mama.” Anne sighed. “I had such fun today. Do you think Lord Deal will really take us in his phaeton when we get to Scotland?”

      “I’m sure he will, darling.” Anne had loved the phaeton ride they’d taken with Lord Deal earlier a bit too much, but it was the first time Anne had laughed since leaving the ship. Just like her grandpa, she’d wanted to go faster and faster. It made Katherine want to take her in a phaeton every day, just to see the light on her face.

      Katherine’s chest felt so tight it was hard to draw breath. She would do anything for Anne. Anything in the world.

      Even marry?

      “Miss Bunsby says a phaeton is dangerous, but I think it is such fun.” Anne snuggled against Katherine’s side. “Miss Bunsby always worries.”

      “I know she does.” And thank God for it. Katherine had come so close to failing Anne again with her impulsive decisions. So close. But this was the end.

      Tomorrow she would go before the committee. There was a small chance they would simply dismiss the bill as ridiculous and allow her to keep her birthright. But more likely, they would exact some kind of price in exchange for dismissing the bill. They wanted to control her, and they thought they knew how to do it.

      Marriage. The word ripped her like a cannonball tearing through wood. Everything inside her rebelled at the idea of willingly entering captivity again.

      But the time was past when she could simply abandon whatever could not be had on her own terms. For Anne’s sake it was time to accept what needed to be done in order to keep Dunscore and secure Anne’s future.

      If they wanted her to marry, then she would—but she would bloody well do it on her own terms.

       CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

      “‘LADY DUNSCORE HAS become a dire threat to London male ego at large. Recommend gentlemen button coats in public. Lady Dunscore’s threat expanding in scope—seems a matter more suited to the army.’” Admiral Wharton looked up from the letter and glared at the committee. “That, your lordships, is the kind of report Captain Warre, Lord Croston, has seen fit to give us.”

      James looked from the committee toward Katherine and knew it was only by the grace of God that she was here and not sitting in gaol, which was exactly what the admirals would have ordered if she had attempted to follow through with her plan last night.

      Thank God—thank God—this would end today.

      All nineteen lords to whom the bill had been committed for consideration were gathered around the table, backlit by a tall bank of windows that arched all the way to the high-vaulted ceiling. Others crowded into the room—the Scottish contingent of peers, a few lords he knew were hopeful they might somehow secure Dunscore for themselves and a handful of members from the Commons. Jaxbury had been summoned as a witness, along with several others of the Possession’s crew.

      Against a side wall, standing a foot shorter than the paneled wainscoting, Holliswell, the greedy bastard, watched the proceedings stone-faced.

      From the committee’s table, Edrington raised a brow at Admiral Wharton. “Pray, what did you expect Croston to learn from his assignment? That Lady Dunscore was pirating barges on the Thames?”

      Wharton shot James a thunderous look, and James nearly smiled. “We do not perceive Lady Dunscore to be a threat to His Majesty’s realm at this time,

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