Page 13 of After the Abduction

His uncle’s cool gaze pinned him. “I want you to admit you don’t have everything under control for a change. That you occasionally blunder.”

The fact that Uncle Lew was right didn’t make it any easier to accept. “I didn’t blunder. I did what I had to—found out what Crouch’s men had done with Morgan.”

“For all the good it did.” Uncle Lew pocketed his snuffbox. “If the Navy Board hadn’t told us two months ago that he’d been spotted on a pirate ship, we’d still be thinking he’d gone down on the Oceana.”

Sebastian sighed heavily, then dusted sawdust off his trousers. That was the hardest to stomach—that the kidnapping, the final confrontation with Crouch, all had been for naught. “You’re welcome to go home whenever you wish, Uncle Lew,” Sebastian grumbled.

“Oho, my boy, you will not shake me off that easily, though I daresay you’d like me to trot across the park to Foxglen, so you can throw our guests out on their ears before they start punching giant holes in your paper-thin fabrication.”

“Our guests?” With a snort of disgust, Sebastian tossed down the stock. He’d ruined it, anyway. “You invited them, not I.”

His uncle waved his hand dismissively. “A minor detail. How else could I react, after hearing how you destroyed that poor girl’s life?”

“I was trying to protect her, blast it! I told you—Crouch didn’t just want ransom money; he wanted revenge on Knighton for some business dealings gone sour. That’s why I agreed to Crouch’s terms. He would have had her kidnapped, with or without me.” He shuddered. “And raping Knighton’s sister-in-law would have made a fine revenge.”

“At least you protected her from that.”

“I protected her from everything.”

“Then why are she and her family after your blood?”

The lash of his uncle’s words raised welts on his conscience, exactly as the man had intended. He ignored them. And the image of Juliet’s accusing eyes. Devil take it, he’d done his best under difficult circumstances. He refused to feel guilty about it. “Perhaps they don’t view matters as I do.”

“Can you blame them? When you didn’t bother to tell them any of this? You simply restored her to her relations and vanished, instead of remaining to accept whatever penance they required.”

“A trial? That’s what Knighton would have required, I assure you.”

“Not if you’d offered to marry her and make it right.”

He scrubbed a hand wearily over his face. “Don’t think I didn’t consider it.” Especially after that kiss. “But it was too risky. If they’d dragged me off to hang instead, who’d have been left to search for Morgan and take care of Charnwood? Remember, they had ample reason to despise me, since Lady Helena and Knighton’s friend Brennan were also thrust into danger while I was trying to extricate Juliet from Crouch’s clutches.”

“So you didn’t execute the kidnapping perfectly after all, did you?”

Shooting him a foul look, Sebastian rose and walked to the fireplace, where he crouched to throw a log on the fire. Blast, but it was cold up here and always had been. “I had matters well under control until they showed up. It wasn’t my fault that Lady Helena and Brennan blundered in where they shouldn’t have.”

“And I suppose it’s not your fault that Lady Juliet’s reputation is now on the verge of being ruined by gossip.”

“I had nothing to do with that!” Highly offended, he straightened to face his uncle. “What kind of wretch do you take me for?”

His uncle took out his snuffbox to dip more snuff. “I don’t know. A kidnapper?”

“Very amusing. But I took great care to keep Juliet and her reputation from suffering. I counted on her family keeping the matter quiet, which they did. As for this new gossip, I don’t believe there is any such thing. I’ve seen no mention in the London rags. And after all this time, why would anybody gossip about what happened? Who could know? If there truly is any gossip, it’s probably minor. They’re simply trumping it up to engage our sympathies, make me reveal myself. Which I refuse to do.”

“So you’re going to let her suffer through it on her own?”

Sebastian bristled. “See here, if I learn that there is indeed talk about her in London—which I highly doubt—I’ll do what I can to quell it. But after this matter with Morgan is settled.” He paced before the fire. “It’s not as if I actually did anything to her while I had her in my care; I acted with the utmost propriety.”

“Did you?” Uncle Lew cast him a sly look. “That must have been quite taxing. The young woman is lovely, a temptation to any man with eyes.”

Sebastian struggled not to scowl. It annoyed him that Uncle Lew had noticed Juliet’s loveliness, and his annoyance annoyed him, too. For God’s sake, Uncle Lew was over twice her age. “All the same, I behaved as a gentleman. I have nothing to be ashamed of.” Except for that one kiss. That one perfect, sensuous…

By thunder, why must he keep thinking of it?

“If you’ve done nothing wrong, tell the Knightons the truth.”

“Certainly. Then on Knighton’s way out of town, he can stop by the magistrate’s and arrange to have me carted off to London in chains. I prefer to keep my neck the appropriate length, thank you very much.”

“Surely Mr. Knighton is reasonable enough to understand your desire to rescue your brother.”