Part 9 (1/2)
”Oh, no,” she amended quickly. ”I eavesdrop on fine ladies' gossip.”
”Aha. Well, I seem to be the only nonscandalous member of our extended family.”
”So far,” she replied with a mischievous twinkle in her dark eyes.
He snorted, but then got distracted, watching her as she licked her lips slowly. She paused as though gathering her courage to ask the next question in this little interview. Gabriel braced for it.
”Was it in India that you got your scar?”
He nodded.
”How did it happen?”
He stared at her for a long moment and then heaved a sigh. ”My cousin the Duke of Hawkscliffe's boyhood chum and longtime friend of the family, Lord Griffith, came to India on a diplomatic mission. He's a high-ranking negotiator with the Foreign Office-what, you've heard of the Marquess of Griffith, too, in all your eavesdropping?” he asked sardonically when he saw how her eyes had flared.
She nodded, wide-eyed.
Gabriel laughed softly and shook his head. ”Well, considering the long-standing family alliance between the Hawkscliffe dukes and the Griffith marquesses, Griff made a point of visiting our branch of the family when he arrived in Calcutta. Which is where he met my sister, whom he ended up marrying, but I digress. To show preferment, Griff requested that Derek and I head up his diplomatic security detail for his mission into the interior. Poor devil had been tasked with trying to keep Britain out of war with the Maratha Empire.”
Sophia was staring at him as if she had seen a ghost. ”You were a-diplomatic bodyguard?”
”On that occasion, yes. I can a.s.sure you my preferred location was the battlefield with my men, but my aristocratic family connections made me a favored candidate to shepherd various important personages around India when they came visiting from London. Simply put, it was my job to make sure they didn't get killed. Stupid bleeders, most of them,” he muttered. ”Like minding children. Tripping about as if they were still in Mayfair. Heedless of danger, insulting the locals without even realizing it.” He shook his head again. ”Griff was one of the few who knew what the h.e.l.l he was doing.”
Gabriel fell silent, staring into the candle's dancing flame as his mind revolved around all that had happened during Griff's mission, and their fateful visit to the Maharajah of Janpur. He shrugged off the past uncomfortably.
That Hindu prince had gone after his sister, Georgiana, and if he had to do it over again, he'd have killed the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d just the same. n.o.body laid a hand on his sister.
”To make a long story short, we encountered opposition,” he said abruptly.
”Someone tried to kill your diplomat?” she murmured, studying him.
”Actually, someone tried to kill my brother.” Of course, Derek had instantly joined the battle to protect Georgiana. If it wasn't for Griff's quick thinking, they'd all have been dead.
He shook his head grimly. ”Derek didn't see it coming. I just reacted automatically. The next thing I knew, I was down. After that, I don't remember much.”
Sophia's eyes were wide, and her voice was barely a whisper. ”You took a bullet for your brother?”
”Actually, it was an arrow,” he said.
”Oh,” she breathed, staring at him in apparent awe.
Gabriel shrugged and looked away, a bit uncomfortable with the flicker of hero-wors.h.i.+p in her gaze. ”Derek would have done the same for me.”
Thankfully, she let that painful thread of their conversation fade and smiled at him after a moment. ”I see now my pulling a knife on you could have been suicidal.”
He scoffed. ”I'd never hurt a woman.”
”I know. But I do apologize for it all the same.”
He smiled wryly at her. ”No matter, Sophia. I've faced meaner enemies than you.”
”I'm sure you have.”
He stared at her, arrested by the subtle sparkle of her creamy skin in the candlelight, and once more felt the drift of his thoughts gliding off in a dangerous direction. He dropped his gaze and pushed his empty bowl away. ”So, what about you?”
”What about me?” she asked guardedly.
”I think it's your turn now to answer some questions,” he declared in a low tone.
She slanted him a dubious look as he rested his elbow on the table and propped his jaw on his fist, studying her with a faint smile.
”Like what?”
Gabriel took note of the nervousness behind her glance. He knew quite well she had been less than forthcoming with him, but at the same time, he sensed that pressing her for answers would only succeed in driving her farther away, and he did not want that.
After all his time alone, he was savoring the warmth of this unexpected bond between them too much to risk breaking it. The connection he felt between them was still too fragile, too new. It really was quite strange. Usually, he despised liars, and he knew she had not been honest with him, but somehow she was different. So, he opted for a gentler approach, and gave her a casual smile.
”What's it like being a Gypsy?”
She let out a small laugh and dropped her gaze with a trace of relief pa.s.sing over her face that she probably did not know she betrayed. ”Not very nice, sometimes, when people a.s.sume you've only come around for the old s.n.a.t.c.h-and-grab,” she shot back with a pointed smile. ”It's most unpleasant to have false tales circulated about one's tribe, you know.”
”Well, maybe you and I can clear up a few of those mistaken notions now,” he suggested.
”Let's,” she agreed with a firm but playful nod.
”Babies,” he said.
”What about them?”
”Is it true you Gypsies steal little children if they misbehave for their parents?”
”Oh, yes,” she averred. ”We use them as our slaves.”
”Horses?” He nodded toward the window through which he had seen the bay gelding first appear. ”Is it true that Gypsies steal them?”
”By the herd.”
”Silk handkerchiefs?” he queried with a mock frown.
”Child's play,” she purred.
Gabriel laughed, dying to kiss her.
She took another sip of wine and gave him a coquettish look askance. ”Come, Major, I'm sure you don't like it when Londoners a.s.sume you're some sort of colonial savage, all for having been born in India.”
”Oh, but I am.”
”A savage?”
”Quite. And you're ruining all my illusions! Surely some of those wonderful tales about Gypsies must be true. At least tell me you all still travel around the countryside selling trinkets and telling fortunes?”