Page 42 of The Captain Claims His Temptress

Her lids hung heavy over her brown eyes and her lips formed puffy wanton pillows.

“We should return to your aunt,” he whispered.

She nodded. At that moment, she might be malleable to whatever he suggested, and so many wicked propositions sat on the tip of his tongue. Before he did anything else libidinous, he grasped her hand and guided her down the stairs and into the main room. His timing was perfect since two wives from their party passed them on the first-floor landing. What a sight the visitors would have witnessed had they arrived moments earlier.

They were almost to the pews where they had left Lady Saxton when Madalene halted mid-step, her eyes wide with something akin to horror. “Heavens, no.”

“What the devil?” he mumbled under his breath.

Calhoun, Sylvia Beaumont, and Miss Arabella surrounded a frowning, foot-tapping Lady Saxton.

Stephen glanced at Madalene. Her swollen lips and flushed cheeks were obvious proof of their recent activities. Lord knows what he looked like. He brushed a hand over his mouth as if the swipe could erase their kisses. Nothing short of beheading could diminish the memory of her soft lips, her scrumptious tongue, her heaving bosom….

Arabella stepped toward him and smirked. He addressed her before she could belittle Madalene with whatever malicious insult she had come there to bestow.

“Miss Arabella, I thought you injured your ankle, but you seem to be walking just fine.”

Her pert nose popped into the air as she threw her shoulders back. “I endured the pain so that I could see the chapel.”

“Arabella is resilient,” said her mother.

Resilient, his arse. The girl was a troublemaking talebearer.

“Eaton, can we speak for a moment?”

Stephen’s heart skipped a few beats at Calhoun’s unsettling scowl.

Reluctant to leave Madalene with her aunt and the hideous Beaumont women, he hesitated before following Calhoun out of the chapel and across the lawn to stand beneath a massive oak. The ordinarily loquacious second lieutenant was too quiet for Stephen’s comfort.

Although he was afraid to hear the answer, he asked, “What is troubling you?”

Calhoun’s shoulders sagged. “I just overheard an unflattering conversation between Saxton, Beaumont, Adams, and Dupont. Saxton is convinced that Myrle and Diggins are up to no good and that you are in league with them.”

“Whatever would give him that idea?” Stephen asked.

“Dupont.”

Stephen snorted. “The man is an arse.”

“Unfortunately, I caught the Beaumont women eavesdropping, so they also know what I am telling you.” Calhoun kicked at a pile of leaves. “Dupont has convinced Saxton that you have something to do with the pirating of his ships.”

“You mean the two ships in the Atlantic?” Stephen snorted and waved a dismissive hand. “Nonsense. Why would he think that?”

“You are the most honorable man of my acquaintance, so I am sure there are reasons for it.”

The confusing conversation was going nowhere. “Reasons for what?” Stephen asked.

“Why the dates you were missing from your post last winter and spring match up with the dates Saxton’s ships were overtaken by pirates.”

Stephen’s mouth opened, but his words stuck in his throat. Dare he confess he snuck away from his peacetime post because his siblings’ lives were in danger? “How could I have been at sea one day and on land the next?”

“You do not need to be at sea to orchestrate piracy,” Calhoun said. “I do not believe for one second that you arranged anything. I am of the opinion that you were dealing with dire family situations, which is why I covered for you with Blythe. But someone else knows you were gone. They have informed Dupont, who has told Saxton.”

His mate had covered for him? Stephen winced. “Would Blythe have said something?”

Calhoun shook his head. “Blythe would confront you himself.”

True. Despite his current frustration with Stephen, the major would protect him with his life. Stephen paced from the oak to the edge of the cathedral, trying to make sense of everything. Myrle and Diggins and their odd request? Adam’s intense dislike of him? Dupont’s accusations that he had something to do with pirated ships? Perchance he needed whatever was in that buried book.