Sweet Treason (Entangled Ignite) (24 page)

She touched his arm, something like resignation in her expression. “This is Mr. Sutton, Captain. I need you to take him to France without delay. I will pay you anything, Captain. Anything.” She fumbled with the clasp of the brooch pinned to her gown.

“Faugh! I take nothing. I know what I owe you, and I always pay my debts.”

She laughed. “How like a Frenchman to throw my words back at me.”

The Frenchman grinned. “And I leave with you the brandy, eh?”

“There’s no time for brandy tonight. The king’s men may find us at any moment. You must leave at once.”

Oh, the irony was not lost on Ryan. He laughed with full enjoyment of this unexpected revelation, and Emily gave him an uncertain smile.

This was the reason for the excellent brandy in bottles that couldn’t have been bought by her father. The reason for her fierce protection of Oak Hill and her desperation to claim her inheritance. Miss Emily Nevins was proud, competent, strong, and courageous. She was a woman to be reckoned with and determined to do whatever she must to save a farm and the people she loved. She was heroic. She was a smuggler.

She was the only woman he’d ever love.

“You laugh? Are you not disgusted by my deceit?”

“I am delighted, Emmy. You always surprise me.”

Reynard inclined his head toward the skiff. “Come, Sutton. We go.”

Ryan glanced at the skiff and the two seamen who were waiting to return to the schooner, then looked at Emily. She seemed to understand his reluctance and took his hand to pull him along.

The captain had stepped into the skiff, and one of the seamen was preparing to push off into the waves.

He stepped into the bow and turned back to her. Why had she risked it all when everything she’d ever wanted, everything she’d fought so long and hard for, was within her grasp?

Unless…unless she had been fighting for him.

He knew he would he regret it the rest of his life if he didn’t ask one last time. “Emmy, you have a duty and a right to fight for what you believe in. To fail in that is the only real treason. So I’m asking you for the last time, what will you fight for? What do you believe in, Emmy?”

“You. I believe in you, Ryan.”

He held out his hand. “Then come with me, and be my wife.”

He knew a surge of perfect joy when she placed her hand in his. With everything she’d ever wanted within her reach, and moments away, she had finally realized that all she wanted, all she needed, was the token of her past pinned to her heart and her future in front of her. He lifted her over the side and set her down in front of him. The skiff lurched as the oars bit into the water, propelling her into his lap.

He grinned, not a bit concerned when the king’s men crested the bluff and began shouting over the storm and firing musket balls that fell far short. His heart swelled with love when he realized she’d never looked back. Not once. “Well, Mrs. Mutton, I pray you will like the scent of jasmine.”

“Sutton.” She looked up at him, a lifetime of promise in her smile. “The name is Sutton.”

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