Yes. He was going to ask her for the sake of his oath. Never thinking beyond the ceremony because his mind refused to dwell on what must follow.
"Liam," she whispered. "Look at me. Look at me."
He couldn"t. There were ghosts in his way, the ghosts of defeat and those he had lost, phantoms of all the things he"d thought he wanted.
But Caroline was not among them. He did not want her. He couldn"t. He knew it with a certainty beyond any he"d known in his life. He could protect her, cherish her, care for her. He could fulfill his vow. But he could never love her.
She wanted something he had forgotten the meaning of, had lost years ago in the tenements of New York.
Caroline moved closer. She put her hands on his chest before he could walk away.
"Kiss me," she said. "Kiss me like you did at Cliff House."
He caught her wrists. "No." It was the only word that would come. "Noa""
"You want her." Her chest rose and fell rapidly. "You want her, not me."
He held her shaking shoulders gently and set her back. He stroked her hair once, only the ghost of a touch, and left her.
He could hear her sobs as he descended the stairs.
Mrs. Hunter was waiting, perched on the settee in the music room. "Go to her, Amelia," he said tonelessly.
"She needs you." She started for the stairs and he stayed her with a gesture. "Keep Caroline inside and admit no one. Do I make myself clear?"
He didn"t wait for her answer. He walked the length of the hall, paused at the door, and slowly opened it.
The sun was beginning to set. Soon it would be darka"a time of oblivion, if he chose it to be. He could go back to the Coast and drink himself insensible, or take his riding horse and Norton and go racing along the beach until they could run no more.
But tomorrow everything would still be as it was.
He started toward the carriage house and had gone only a few steps when a man emerged from the garden shrubbery.
"Mr. O"Shea," he said.
Liam stopped, instantly wary. "Bauer. What are you doing here?"
The investigator was coolly professional as always. "Your man Chen told me you might be here," he said. "I have news that might interest you."
"Out with it, then."
"I"ve located Mr. Sinclair."
Liam took a sharp step forward. "Where is he?"
"I tracked him to Chinatown. He was incognito, but once I recognized him I was able to follow him to one of the primary tong houses."
A cold chill numbed Liam"s body. "And?"
"He apparently met with Yung Po. I don"t know the nature of the conversation, but Sinclair seemed satisfied with the meeting."
Yung Po. One of the most powerful tong lords, a man who controlled a quarter of Chinatown, who dealt in bribery and opium and, most especially, girls to fill the houses of prost.i.tution. Girls Liam"s group had often been able to rescuea"until the last raid, which had ended in near disaster.
A raid that had been foiled by an informant. Until now Liam had suspected one of the group, or someone closely connected.
Perry had never been one of the group, but he"d been close to Liam. Close enough to learn of the raids if he"d been interested enough.
San Francisco was filled with city officials and police more than willing to be bribed to overlook laws broken by men like Yung Po. Some of them profited even more directly by the trade in opium and slaves. Perry was no official, but he had friends all throughout the city. If he had special knowledge he could sell to the tongs for a cut of their incomea"if he were working for the tongs and had promised to get a certain troublesome Irishman out of the way once and for all, it would doubly serve his purpose.
"When did you see him?" Liam demanded.
"Only last night. I couldn"t find you until now. But I talked to a few men in Chinatown, and Sinclair"s met with Po before. He was first seen at the tong house less than a week ago."
Liam closed his eyes. Only a few days before the raid.
"I"ve had men trailing Sinclair," Bauer said, "but he went underground somewhere in Chinatown. It"s very easy to get lost there if you want to disappear. The minute he surfaces again I"ll send word."
As if that could undo anything that had happened. Perry was more than a would-be murderer, more than a man who"d callously court an innocent girl for her fortune. He"d used Mac and then set her out as bait, indifferent to the harm that might come to her as a result. And he"d set himself to profit by the sale of children into lives of s.e.xual slavery.
"Listen to me, Bauer," he said coldly. "I want you to have men watching this house twenty-four hours a day. I don"t care how much money you spend or what steps you take, but I want Miss Gresham safe from him. I"ve given orders that Caroline is not to leave the house. If Mrs. Hunter goes out she"s to be followed."
"As you wish. And when I find Sinclair?"
Liam stared blindly into the garden. "He"s my problem. I"ll deal with him."
"He"s a dangerous man, Mr. O"Shea."
"So am I, Bauer. So am I."
Bauer had the good sense to leave then, melting away without so much as the crunch of a footstep on the gravel path. The chill in Liam"s belly remained long after Bauer was gone, long after Liam retrieved the phaeton from the Gresham groom and drove out the gates.
He knew, now, where he needed to go. He"d done all he could for Caroline, but he had a second responsibility. One he"d never asked for. A woman who"d been in danger three times for his sake, whom he had to make safe in spite of her conniving ways and dubious motives.
He drove into the Grand Court of the Palace and his icy numbness washed away on the fierce tide of an emotion he understood.
It was impossible to be numb in Mac"s presence, impossible to forget he was alive. She flouted him, defied him, forced him to fight. And it was a fight he wanted now, a fight to make his blood beat hard and his wits regain their edge.
Not by a single shift in his expression did he reveal his purpose as he left his team in the care of hotel staff and went in search of the concierge. A quiet word and a sum of coin earned a.s.surances of discretion and privacy.
Then he was taking the stairs two at a time, refusing the sluggish dignity of the elevator, and standing before Mac"s door.
It was locked. He thought better of breaking it down and confined himself to an ordinary knock.
Mac opened the door, took one look at his face, and started to shut it again. He wedged his foot in the door and pushed through. She retreated a few steps and then held her ground, braced like a matador waiting for the charge of a particularly nasty bull.
Liam closed the door behind him and turned the key in the lock. He looked her up and down, taking in the lacy muslin chemise that was her sole garment. His body instantly tightened. He shrugged out of his coat and tossed it over a chair.
"Well, Mac," he said softly. "I see you"re dressed to welcome me."
And if her gaze, brilliant and dark, was anything but welcoming, he knew that was about to change.
Chapter Nineteen.
And the best of all ways To lengthen our days Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear.
a"Thomas Moore MAC KNEW SHE was in trouble. Her mind knew it, anyway; her body had an entirely different opinion.
She"d been expecting this sooner or later, but somehow Liam had still managed to take her by surprise. Here she was, wearing practically nothing and confronting around two hundred pounds of angry male.
Mac backed up toward the bed and felt behind her for the muslin wrapper she"d left there. She tugged it on without haste. He watched every move she made with a dark hungera"hunger made more potent by barely suppressed anger. Heat coiled and pooled low in her body.
"I guess you came here toa to talk about yesterday," she said.
"Talk, Mac? Is that what you think I want?" He grabbed his tie and loosened it with a yank that spoke volumes.
Okay, Mac. You can handle this. She moved to the other side of the bed. "I don"t suppose it"ll do much good to tell you that I didn"t expect Caroline to walk in on us last night."
"No." He hurled his tie to the floor and began to work on the b.u.t.tons of his shirt. "But we do have some unfinished business."
Mac watched his undressing with unwilling fascination. "All I wanted wasa uma to distract youa""
"You succeeded." He unfastened his left shirt cuff.
Only too well, it seemed. Perry had set things up very carefully. Without telling Mac the full extent of his plans.
"I"m sorry it happened that way," she said. "Whether or not you can accept it."
He continued undressing with slow, jerky motions. "Did you know about the wine?"
"The wine?"
"That it was drugged," Liam said.
"Drugged?" She felt a little dizzy and reached for the mahogany bedpost. The wine had been meant as a signal that she wasn"t succeedinga"a signal she"d never given, botched when the waiter had walked in without being summoned.
"The wine was drugged?" she repeated.
He looked up at her, his shirttail loose at his waist. "You didn"t know," he said. "You tried to drink it after I did."
Good grief. Mac had a vague memory of pouring herself some wine, so confused by her own emotions that she"d only wanted to drown them. Liam had smacked the gla.s.s from her hand.
And she"d thought it was out of anger.
"Perry," Liam said, striding to the window. "He masterminded it all. It wasn"t enough for him that Caroline saw us together. He wanted me out of the way, and he didn"t care if you were hurt in the doing of it." He stared out at the city. "I know you met me at the Poodle Dog on his advice.
"But you didn"t know about the wine. Or the carriage. The axle could have broken anytime once we started to race." His fingers worked into fists on the windowsill. "You could have been killed."
"Ia heard of the accident," Mac said, still struggling with shock. "You weren"t hurta"" She moved toward Liam and stopped herself. "You think that Perry set up the accident and this drugged wine, and I was working with him?"
"d.a.m.n it, Mac!" He swung to face her. "He"s used you, deceived you just as he did me. You were a handy tool, no more." He made a low, bitter sound. "I had him investigated before our last expedition, when he began to show interest in Caroline. He wasn"t merely a younger son cut off from his family"s fortune, as I first suspected. He worked for the British government before I met him. As a spya"probably an a.s.sa.s.sin. He had no scruples. I went to Guatemala to warn him away from Caroline."
Mac shivered and sat down on the bed. A spy? It certainly explained Perry"s ability to get information and disappear so effectively. But an a.s.sa.s.sina "I don"t believe it," she said, preparing herself for a hopeless argument. "I don"t believe that he tried to kill you, whatever his past. Yes, I met hima"at the ball. And he was the one who told me about the carriage accident. I don"t know how he found out about it, but he didn"t have to volunteer the information. Especially if he considered me disposable." She concentrated on keeping her words calm and level and logical. "He knew you"d consider the accident proof that he was behind the attempt in the jungle, and he predicted how you"d react. But I chose to trust him. I wish I could give you a better reason than gut feeling and instinct." She waited for the lash of Liam"s scorn and disbelief. "If I thought for a moment that he really meant to hurt youa""
"You"d what?" He examined her face intently.
She swallowed and looked down at her lap. "Isn"t there something else you should be worrying abouta"like who"s really trying to kill you?"
His footsteps whispered on the carpet. "Do you mean the tongs, Mac? You overheard my meeting with Chen in the Gresham library."
"Yes. Enough to know you were on your way to do something dangerous." She sat up straighter, hoping for information. "I know the tongs are criminal organizations that practically run most of Chinatown, buta""
"They deal in human cargo, Mac. Girls brought illegally from China, bribed and coerced into leaving their homes, too young to fight or to know what they"re getting into." He strode across the room and back again with brittle anger. "Children ruined by men who see them as commodities, wh.o.r.es to be used until they die of disease or violence or despair. A very profitable enterprise."
The pa.s.sion in his voice was more eloquent than any mere explanation could have been. Mac was almost humbled by it. This was a part of himself he kept hidden, a part that had revealed itself only in his obsessive desire to protect Carolinea"and sometimes Mac. A part she still didn"t understand.
"Thena that"s what you were doing the night of the ball, wasn"t it?" she asked. "Something to do with these girls. Raids. Saving thema""
"From their masters and from the corrupt outsiders who"d take their own cut of this obscenity. The law is all but useless in stopping it. For a year the band"s been successful. Until the night of the ball, when the raid went sour. When someone betrayed us to the tongs."
The informant. "Then you do have other enemies. These tong peoplea""
"And their ally," he said. "Peregrine Sinclair."
Oh, G.o.d. "Was he part of your group?"
"He wasn"t involved. He didn"t have to be." Liam"s mouth set in a harsh smile. "I"ve had him watched since I returned to San Francisco. He was clever, but not clever enough. My men saw him with one of the foremost tong bosses. He was the one who undermined the last raid. He"s doing the tong"s dirty work for them and for himself at the same time."
Mac closed her eyes. Impossible. That Perry was so utterly villainous, so heartless, so capable of deceiving hera But even if he wasn"t, Liam"s danger had been real, and deadly. He could have died in that carriage accident, or on one of these raids. Cold lightning raced along her nerves.
"Are you finally convinced that your ally is a blackguard?" Liam demanded.
She couldn"t lose faith now. "No."
He slammed his fist against the wall, shaking the light fixture overhead. "He could have killed you without a second thought. You played Perry"s game and helped rob a girl of her innocencea""
"I what?" Mac jumped to her feet. This conversation was moving almost too fast for her to follow, but she refused to be left behind. "You mean Caroline? You never let me get close enough. What happened? Did she finally shatter your image of the delicate, naive Miss Gresham? Did it finally get into your head that no one can protect anyone from life the way you wanted to protect her?"
She regretted her words as soon as she saw his stricken expression.
"I"m sorry, Liam," she said. "Truly sorry. I never wanted to cause you paina""