When A Rogue Loves A Woman Read online

  When a Rogue Loves a Woman

  Rogues of Redmere Book Two

  Samantha Holt

  Contents

  1. Chapter One

  2. Chapter Two

  3. Chapter Three

  4. Chapter Four

  5. Chapter Five

  6. Chapter Six

  7. Chapter Seven

  8. Chapter Eight

  9. Chapter Nine

  10. Chapter Ten

  11. Chapter Eleven

  12. Chapter Twelve

  13. Chapter Thirteen

  14. Chapter Fourteen

  15. Chapter Fifteen

  16. Chapter Sixteen

  17. Chapter Seventeen

  18. Chapter Eighteen

  19. Chapter Nineteen

  20. Chapter Twenty

  21. Chapter Twenty-One

  22. Chapter Twenty-Two

  23. Chapter Twenty-Three

  24. Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Other titles by Samantha Holt

  Author’s Note

  Copyright 2017 ©Samantha Holt

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Art by www.promoforauthors.com

  Edited by Cat’s Eye Editing

  Proofed by Destini Reece

  Chapter One

  “How dare you?”

  Lord Nathaniel Kingsley did not bother turning to face Patience. He saw from the corner of one eye the clenched fists pressed to hips while she glared at him. He thrust a fork into the hay and dropped it from one pile to another. A hiss of breath escaped her. Somehow, he kept his lips compressed.

  “Well?” she demanded.

  He gave her a sideways look, prodded the hay once more and slowly set the fork against the wall of the stable. The pungent scent of manure mingled with the fresher and more pleasant fragrance of fresh hay. The sheep that had been tucked comfortably in the stall seemed to take an interest once Nate turned and nudged against the metal gate holding her in place. Nate rolled his eyes and opened the gate to allow the sheep to trot out and stand by his side. The creature nudged him then stood faithfully at his feet like a loyal dog awaiting her owner’s command.

  Patience peered at this spectacle, one brow raised.

  “What can I do for you, Patience?” Nate asked.

  He brushed his hands down his breeches. With a break in the weather, he had taken the opportunity to ensure the sheep’s lodgings were clean. The stable hands would do it normally but the sheep liked his company and, well, he had to admit the damned sheep was growing on him.

  The sheep gave him another little nudge.

  “What is it doing?” Patience blurted.

  “She just wants attention. Ignore her.”

  “But...but she’s just standing there, like...like a pet.”

  He gave a lopsided grin. “Well, she is. Sort of.” The sheep had adopted him on one of their late-night trips to bring in the goods their smuggling ring had shipped from France. It had taken a strange sort of liking to him and insisted on following him everywhere. Only in the past few days had he persuaded the thing that coming into the manor house was not at all acceptable.

  “You have a pet sheep?” She peered at him as though he had grown two heads.

  He shrugged. “I suppose so.” He began rolling down his sleeves.

  Patience glanced at his bare arms. A hint of color rose on her cheeks. He tried not to grin.

  The petite woman was hardly the sort he cared to make blush but seeing as she was on the warpath, he suspected keeping her on edge would not hurt.

  Nate stared at her expectantly, arms folded. “I would urge you to make haste with your criticisms, Patience. I’m a busy man.” He kept his lopsided grin in place as her fierce gaze raked his ruffled appearance. “You were about to get angry with me, I believe.”

  She lifted her chin. The sheep gave him another nudge. She glanced at the patient creature. “Does it have a name?”

  “Not yet.”

  No one could quite agree on what a pet sheep should be called. Someone had suggested Lamb Chop which was not at all acceptable whilst others had wanted to call it something cute and fluffy. Nothing seemed quite appropriate.

  Patience inhaled a long, audible breath. Patience, it seemed, did not live up to her name. It only made this all the more amusing, and what else did he live for in life but to be amused?

  He saw her throat bob and she folded her arms over her chest—a chest that was quite ample for a petite woman. There was not much to be admired about Patience. She was small, but not in that sweet way that made a man want to bundle her up and protect her. Her shoulders were wide and her arms filled out the shirt she wore quite amply. She was, he supposed, what one would describe as robust. Of course, the breeches she wore did not help to make her look any more feminine.

  “You should not have told your brother we were engaged.”

  He kept his expression placid and forced his gaze away from her breasts. “But we are.”

  “We certainly are not.”

  “We will be man and wife within the next few days. You might as well accept it.”

  She thrust up her chin and he took the opportunity to inch closer. Her countenance hardly wavered. Normally, he’d expect a little tremor. Not of fear, of course, but of something else. Women often trembled in his presence. Then they usually drew in a breath and color seeped across their chests and into their cheeks. Since the age of five and ten, that had been happening. But not this time. Not with Patience.

  “I have no intention of being engaged or married to you, real or not,” she declared. “I intend to travel to Falmouth alone. Why my brother saw fit to ask for your help, I do not know, but I am here to tell you that your assistance is not needed. You can stay here with your...” she waved a hand, “pet sheep, and leave this mission up to me.”

  He stepped closer. Patience had to lift her chin higher to maintain eye contact. Her brother, an agent for the crown, had asked him for help with his mission and Nate fully intended to fulfill that favor. After all, the man had helped them several times with keeping the customs men off the scent of their smuggling escapades. Nate and his brother along with two other men ran quite the operation, and it was bound to draw attention at times. When Jacob Grey had asked him to help and watch over his sister, he could hardly refuse.

  “Ridiculous.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Ridiculous?” The word had come from her so suddenly. She must have been musing their sudden connection, just as he had.

  She pressed her lips together briefly. Jerking her head up, she kept her gaze steady. “Yes, ridiculous. this whole scenario is ridiculous. You should never have told your brother about the farce in which my brother intended you to take part and you should never have agreed to it in the first place.”

  “My brother needs a little shocking every now and then, and your brother asked a favor of me. How was I to refuse?”

  “Quite easily.” She rested her hands back upon her hips. “Here, I shall show you.” She coughed and dropped her voice in an intimation of a man’s. “Jacob, unfortunately I must decline. Your sister is quite up to performing this task on her own and I am not at all suited to it. I humbly apologize.”

  Nathaniel laughed. Patience did not look amused. Her brother, unbeknownst to her until
yesterday, had asked him to help on a mission. It was known to only a few people that Jacob Grey worked for the crown. With Nate’s experience of smuggling spies in and out of France alongside their smuggling escapades, he was one of the few. Alongside Jacob’s sister, they were to track down a French woman who had information on Napoleon, and it meant pretending they were married. A harder task than he had first assumed, it seemed.

  “You really think I am not suited to coming to Falmouth with you and protecting your honor?”

  “Of course I do not. I’m not sure you know what honor is! The chances are, if anyone catches wind of us together, my honor shall be well and truly gone.”

  “It seems your brother does not think so.”

  “My brother hardly knows what he is doing. He must have struck his head after falling from that horse.”

  “He broke his leg, Patience, not his head.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  Jacob was now bedridden after a fall and had been unable to fulfill his duties. With Patience’s other brothers off at war, there was no one else to help him—apart from Nate.

  “Face it, you are stuck with me. I shall not let you go to Falmouth alone and I certainly shall not pull out of a gentleman’s agreement.”

  Patience snorted.

  “You do not think me a gentleman?” He smiled.

  “I would wager there are many women who do not.”

  “And you are one of them.”

  “I only know what I am told.”

  That did not surprise him. He could hardly claim to know Patience any more than she knew him. They saw each other at church occasionally and offered polite commentary on the occasional social event. Her father had been a well-respected retired General and, even after his death, his family attended most of the important events in the area. So Patience could not know him properly. But she would know of the gossip that followed. Gossip that was not always unfounded. Hell, why should he care what the old women of the village had to say about him? He gave no apologies for enjoying his life.

  “Perhaps you have been told wrong,” he reasoned.

  “I have been told you are a rogue.”

  He chuckled. “And perhaps you have been told right. But rogue or not, I intend to see this through. We will go to Falmouth, I will pose as your husband, and we shall find this French woman.”

  “What do you know about finding French women?”

  He bit back a laugh. “A lot, I can assure you.”

  Patience made a disgusted sound. “You must tell my brother you cannot do it. Surely you have other...things to do? Balls to attend? Animals to hunt or something?” She glanced at the sheep. “A sheep to shear?”

  The sheep seemed to take a disliking to this and took two steps forward. Nathaniel clicked his tongue and the animal came back to his side.

  “I find myself completely at your disposal.” He took one final step closer--one that brought them almost toe to toe. Her nose lined up directly with his chest, forcing her to crane her neck. “Surely you have other things to do? Embroidery to finish? Piano practice perhaps?” He ran his gaze over her person and a tiny shudder wracked her at his perusal. “Dresses to try on?”

  She thrust back her shoulders. It was likely not the first time someone had commented on her masculine clothing. Most of the locals simply considered her a little eccentric and turned a blind eye but there were still a few who made remarks about her attire. He paid little attention to the snide words. It was unusual indeed for a woman to wear men’s clothing but in their small part of Cornwall, there were enough unusual characters to fill a lunatic asylum and generally Cornwallians rather treasured their oddities.

  “As you can see, I have no need for dresses, and I certainly do not play piano or embroider.”

  “Imagine my surprise,” he drawled.

  “This is not about me, this is about you.” She unfolded her arms and jabbed a finger in his chest.

  Surprisingly hard.

  “You must tell my brother you cannot do this and you must tell your brother we are not engaged before word spreads. I am certain you would be loath to find yourself married to me because you decided now was a fun time to tease your brother.”

  He rubbed the spot she had jabbed. “My brother already knows.”

  “He does?”

  “Yes,” Nate said with a deliberate slowness that sparked a fire in those amber eyes. “I told him that I was merely to pose as your husband for a short while in Falmouth, where no one would know me as the Earl of Redmere’s brother and I would be under no obligation.”

  “You told him of the mission?”

  “I told him enough. He knows I’m helping the crown. Believe me, if anyone can keep such a secret, it’s my brother.”

  Patience nodded slowly.

  If anyone was considered stalwart and honorable, it was his brother. The small collection of people who knew of the smuggling ring he had established a few years ago still thought of him as a good man. Those who did not know of it, thought him the best of men regardless. He was generous and kind to his tenants.

  “You will not withdraw from this will you?”

  “Absolutely not. I am a man of my word.”

  She glared at him for several moments but he refused to move or look away. The fierce look from the petite pale-haired girl would intimidate many a man.

  He had to wonder where she had perfected it but he supposed growing up with four brothers had helped that. However, it would take more than a glare from a plain girl to force him into submission. He was rather looking forward to this mission. After all, it would give him a chance to escape the wedding preparations while his brother and fiancée arranged a great society wedding fit for an earl.

  Patience huffed. “Very well, I shall speak with my brother. He will soon see the folly of his ways. You can expect word from him before long and you can go back to attending your sheep.” She swiveled on her heel and stepped toward the entrance of the barn.

  “Will you be the one bringing word?”

  Patience paused and eyed him. “Not if I can help it. With any luck, we shall hardly need to hold a conversation again.”

  Wry amusement pulled at his lips. “I look forward to seeing you again, Patience.”

  “You won’t see me again, my lord. Good day.”

  She strode away. If the ground had been hard, her boots would have made delightful stomping sounds but alas the previous day’s rain had left it too wet.

  Nate laughed.

  Chapter Two

  Patience huffed out a breath before she stepped into the house. Damn that man. Damn, damn, damn. This was her one chance to prove herself to her family and Nathaniel Kingsley was ruining it.

  She shut the door behind herself and paused to listen to the tick of the Grandfather clock in the hallway. Hunting down Lord Nathaniel Kingsley had taken longer than she’d hoped and she was late for supper. Not that her mother would mind but with her brothers gone and Jacob laid up in bed, she felt it was her duty to continue the family tradition of always being rigidly on time.

  Grimacing at the silent house that had once been so full of life before her brothers had grown and joined the war, she shucked off her muddy boots and made her way to the drawing room in search of her mother.

  Pushing open the door to the drawing room, she found her mother in her usual corner, right by the window where the light was just right for painting. The scent of oil paints struck her instantly. Cordelia Grey had retained the honeyed fair color of her hair—a shade the same as Patience’s though now peppered with a few streaks of white. Paint smudges covered her mother’s cheeks and her fingers were tinged green, resembling long sprouting vegetables.

  It was a sight Patience was used to. Her mother had painted for as long as she could remember, tucked up in the corner and creating scenery after scenery. It seemed at times that Mama preferred paints and oils to her family. She supposed it was her mother’s way of dealing with an all-male family. Even with Patience’s presence, she
would hardly claim to add anything feminine to their life.

  She waited in the doorway, unwilling to disturb the long brush strokes and careful attention until the right moment. One wrong word or footstep and it would throw her mother off her stride and upset her. Her mother tilted her head, leaned into the painting and dabbed just so before turning her head toward her daughter.

  “Are you late?”

  Patience nodded.

  “It doesn’t matter you know, my dear. It is only the three of us after all, and Jacob will be staying in bed for the foreseeable future. You need not be so rule-bound.”

  She lowered the brush into a jar of water and swiped her hands down the apron covering her simple muslin gown. Built much like Patience, yet with a lot more height, her mother’s face radiated a sort of warmth that always made Patience want to fling herself into her arms. But she was a grown woman and grown women did not want embraces from their mothers, particularly not when their brothers would tease them mercilessly.

  “You’re going to Falmouth I hear?”

  Patience nodded. Alone, if she had anything to do with it. Though perhaps she would not mention that fact to her mother. She might not be the most traditional or even protective of mothers but she had a few standards and would not want scandal.

  Patience could hardly care less about scandal. There was none to be had anyway. She was of good breeding but hardly nobility and no one in Falmouth would recognize her, she would be certain of that.

  “Make sure you pack a good wardrobe,” her mother said. “There may be opportunities to dine and dance.”

  “I hardly think I shall be dancing and enjoying myself, Mama. This is an important mission.”

  Her mother’s smile took on a wistful air. “I know, my dear. I am sure you shall relish every moment. It is about time you had some adventure. But do be careful. Your escort is not the most gentlemanly of men.”

  “I hardly think I need concern myself with him.”

  As if Nathaniel Kingsley would be interested in her! A short, sturdy, barely pretty woman. Oh no, he would have far more exotic women in mind for his conquests. Not that it mattered as they would not spend time together. Patience would make sure of that. A quiet word with Jacob and all would be resolved.