Read Online After the Abduction by Sabrina Jeffries - Free Book Online

you and your family said, convincing you didn’t prove terribly difficult.”
    She flushed. It was true; how readily she’d believed his lies. He’d said what she’d wanted to hear, made her feel what she’d wanted to feel. What she still wanted to feel, truth be told. Although now she knew better than to give in to such uncertain and dangerous emotions.
    “Besides,” he went on, “if Morgan had revealed that he’d been in the navy, it would have made it easier for him to be tracked afterward, wouldn’t it?”
    “Yet he used his real name with the smugglers,” she countered triumphantly. “Obviously he wasn’t too concerned about being tracked.”
    A muscle ticked in Lord Templemore’s jaw. “I’m afraid I can’t explain that. Just as I can’t explain why he kidnapped you to learn some spurious information about the Oceana, or why he went aboard. If you’d care to enlighten me with some theories, I’d vastly appreciate it.”
    That was the trouble—she had none. Nor had Griff. Indeed, it was the primary reason he’d dismissed her concerns so cavalierly.
    “Do feel free to question the townspeople, madam,” heprodded. “They’ll tell you I was here in Shropshire when my brother was consorting with those smugglers. At least until August, when I went to town to see to some matters concerning my pistol designs. But you said yourself that you know I was in town as late as November.”
    An idea suddenly occurred to her. “But how do we know it was really you ? Perhaps Morgan took your place, appearing in public to cover your actions while you went to Sussex. Once you found out about the ship, you told him and he sailed off in it.”
    He gave the heavy sigh of a man much beleaguered by fools. “Why would I leave the brother I barely knew in charge of my estate, so I could go…what? Adventuring? And why on earth would I consort with smugglers in the first place? Or perhaps you think that’s how I came by my wealth? Because if so, then speak to my servants. They’ll be happy to enlighten you about how I did that, and it wasn’t anything illegal, I assure you.”
    He was so fiendishly logical, it annoyed her. His calm words ought to sway her convictions, but they didn’t. Because she knew on some level beyond logic that he was her kidnapper. She just knew it.
    “So, madam, have you any other ‘proofs’?”
    “It hardly matters,” she complained, “since you ignore the ones you don’t like.”
    He flashed her a surprisingly genuine smile. “And you ignore my explanations.”
    Her obstinacy reasserted itself. “Explain this then—my kidnapper knew guns well, just like you. He even recognized a Manton flintlock, though he saw it from a distance.”
    “I hate to disappoint you, my lady, but any military man would. And my brother, as I told you, served several years in the navy.”
    That flustered her. “Still…he excelled at using his own pistol, and I understand that you excel in that area as well.”

    “I see. So you saw him shoot? Was it at a person or a target?”
    Her stomach sank. It was at a sandstone ceiling. Morgan had shot so as to make it crumble right in front of them without the entire tunnel collapsing. His lofty lordship would hardly find that convincing. After all, it could easily have been accidental.
    “Have we come to the end of all your ‘proofs’? Or are there more?”
    His patronizing tone grated on her, but all she had left was the argument he’d find least persuasive. “There is…one more. His scent. And yours. They’re the same.”
    He burst into laughter. “Now that’s rich. We smell alike? I dare say many men do. If that’s your most compelling evidence, you don’t have a nose to sniff on.”
    She stamped her foot. “How dare you laugh at me, you…you scoundrel! After what you did—”
    “I did nothing, Lady Juliet.” Pushing away from the table, he strode up to hover over her, forcing her to crane her head back to look into his forbidding features.