Eight Hunting Lyons (The Lyon’s Den Connected World)

Chapter Ten

L i-Na’s breath was short, and it had nothing to do with the climb.

She’d almost kissed him! He was so handsome there beside her as the setting sun stroked his face in colors. But mostly, it was his gentleness that drew her. He never pushed, never rushed, and never bragged about himself the way the men at the Lyon’s Den did.

That intrigued her, this quiet tiger man. That attracted her as well because one’s heart could only be heard in stillness. And right now, her heart was saying, Him, him, him!

But she hadn’t kissed him. She’d thought about it. And for the entire climb up the cliff, she’d imagined it. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’d kissed only one man—the eldest Zhong boy—and the very next day, she’d been sold to a slaver and brought to England.

She knew the dangers of kissing, and so she’d held herself back, but in her mind’s eye they had stayed down below and kissed until the stars came out overhead. Her gaze drifted to where Lord Daniel now stood on the top of the cliff, his hand outstretched to help her climb the last few steps until she stood level with the castle. She smiled at him, as a way of thanking him. Maybe as a way to entice him to kiss her because she could not stop thinking of it, but his attention was turned away.

Stepping around him, she followed his gaze to a woman leaning against a Brougham carriage. Even from this distance, Li-Na noted her delicate features, her stylish gown and hat, and that she was thoroughly distressed as she read a letter, then folded it up only to open it again.

Lord Daniel turned back to Li-Na. “How are you feeling? Are you strained from the day’s work? You must not be used to climbing up and down a cliff.”

“I am well,” she said. She kept her voice even, but already her mood had deflated. Disappointment apparently followed imagined kisses as much as real ones.

“Shall I escort you to the castle? Or would you mind waiting a moment while I speak with Nessie? I don’t want you walking back there alone. Not in the dark.”

It wasn’t dark yet, though the light was fading fast. “I will wait,” she answered, her gaze going back to the woman.

He nodded and extended his arm to her. She touched her fingers to his forearm at the furthest distance possible. They had been nearly chest to chest on some parts of the narrow climb, but now the addition of another woman had her stretching the distance between them. And when they were within a few feet of her, he dropped his arm completely.

“Nessie, you’re here late.” He stepped forward and kissed her on the cheek.

“Stefan wanted the outing,” the woman answered as she gestured back toward the castle. There, at the base of one of the walls, a boy was climbing on a broken section of wall.

“Good God,” Lord Daniel gasped. “Stefan! Keep back from the top. That’s not stable!”

“He knows,” the woman said. “He said he wanted to examine the mortar.”

“He can look at it from the bottom. And in daylight.” He took a breath, likely to call the boy back, but the woman stopped him with a quick gesture.

“Wait a moment. I…” She glanced awkwardly at Li-Na. “I wanted to show you this.” She handed Lord Daniel the letter.

He took it while Li-Na tried to shrink away. In London there were always shadows or side paths, but here she could do nothing but stand still with her head bowed. Meanwhile, Lord Daniel frowned.

“I need light,” he said as he gestured to the carriage lantern. “Or to go inside.”

“I thought you would join me for dinner,” the woman said. She spoke to Lord Daniel, but her gaze drifted back to Li-Na.

“Of course,” Lord Daniel said, his words muttered as his attention returned to the letter.

A crash startled them all. It was a distant kind of sound—a loud thud felt as much as heard, followed by the higher notes of shattering parts tumbling around. Everyone looked up as a low whistle carried to them over the wind.

Everyone saw the boy standing half high on the wall as he looked down the opposite side. The lady jolted.

“Stefan! Stefan, answer me!”

“I’m fine, Mama.”

“No, you’re bloody well not,” muttered Lord Daniel as he started forward. “Come down now!” he bellowed.

But in this, Li-Na was the fastest of them all. She had been watching the boy, memorizing his place on the castle wall, and wondering if she could climb up there as well. She knew he was inspecting something. She’d been watching when he straightened up before the thud, his hands pulled to his chest as he peered over the edge. He had pushed something off the wall and watched it shatter.

“I will get him,” Li-Na said. “Boys like to drop things. I will see that he comes down safely.”

“No,” Lord Daniel said as his longer legs quickly caught up to her. “You haven’t any more idea what’s safe than he does.”

She slanted him a look. “I have spent many hours climbing around after boys.” The Zhong daughter had trailed after her brothers as much as possible, which meant that Li-Na had done the same.

“He knows better,” Lord Daniel said with a grumble.

She snorted. “All boys know better. Few boys think better.”

He sent her a glance, his lips curving into a grim smile. Meanwhile, the woman called from behind them. “Daniel! Daniel, let her do it. I can’t get the lantern lit.”

He turned to look behind him, frustration on his face.

Li-Na kept moving forward, her pace slowing so she didn’t trip on the uneven ground. “I will see the boy safe. You can get us better light.”

She watched as he quickly scanned the area from the boy climbing down, the rocks on the path, and Nessie as she strained with the carriage light. In the end, he gave her a quick nod.

“Don’t climb, step carefully, and bring him straight to me.” His words held the low growl of an irritated tiger. She did not envy the child, but she was curious to see how the tiger managed an unruly boy. Meanwhile, he turned back toward the carriage. “Step down, Nessie. I’ll do it.”

Li-Na quickly made it to where the child would come down. He could have made it by the time she arrived, but he was moving slowly, no doubt already knowing he was in trouble. She smiled up at him.

“Did it break as you expected?” she asked.

His eyes widened at her question, then he shook his head. “I thought it would split when it landed on the other rock, but it didn’t. It just landed in the dirt. But the other rock shattered beneath it. It went everywhere.” Then he looked to his left and pointed. “Can I show you?”

Meaning, could he delay facing the tiger? “You know you cannot.”

His face tightened, but she knew he understood his fate. The resignation was clear in his shrug. Finally, he made it to her side, and they headed back. Meanwhile, Lord Daniel’s conversation could be heard clearly over the wind.

“Do you believe it? He’s your father. Would he do that to you?”

“He’s always said I was too weak. That it’s my fault Joseph’s the way he is.”

“But that doesn’t mean he’d take the children from you.”

“Maybe not Joseph,” she said, her voice cracking on the name. “But he would Stefan.” The lady’s voice grew more distressed. “He has spies here in Cornwall. They tell him everything I do—everything that Joseph does—and he blames it all on me.”

The boy’s steps slowed, and Li-Na adjusted to his pace. Like her, he wanted to listen to the conversation. Unfortunately, it was too late. Lord Daniel gestured to the child’s mother to be silent, then stepped forward, his hands on his hips with the letter clutched in one fist.

“Stefan. Were you throwing rocks off my wall?”

The boy slowed to a stop beside Li-Na, his eyes wide.

“Best go forward,” she whispered. “Stand tall as he speaks to you.”

The child took three more steps until he stood in front of Lord Daniel.

“Well?” Lord Daniel asked.

“I threw a rock off the castle wall.”

“Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have tumbled off with it. Someone else might have been hurt below.”

“I was careful. No one was about.”

“And the shattered pieces no doubt damaged the castle further.”

The child didn’t respond, but his hands tightened into fists where they were pressed to his sides. Li-Na knew the gesture. He was controlling himself, keeping his words inside with effort. Lord Daniel must have seen it too because he arched his brows.

“You have something to say?” he challenged.

“I was careful,” the child repeated. “And the wall will need to come down anyway when it’s time to rebuild.”

Silence as the two stared at one another. In Li-Na’s mind, she saw Lord Daniel as a tiger looking down into a pool of water. Did he see his own reflection there? Or a fish he was ready to snatch and eat?

“Is that all you want to say?” Lord Daniel pressed.

The boy lifted his chin. “And it’s my castle. You rent it from me.”

A light went on in Li-Na’s mind as she finally understood who everyone was. This boy was Stefan, the new Earl of Walden. And the lady was his mother, the dowager countess, Lord Daniel’s sister-in-law. Now their familiarity made sense.

“And you think you can destroy it just because it’s yours?”

The boy shrugged, the answer as loud as any declaration. Of course, he could do what he wanted with what was his.

“It’s not your son’s? Or his son’s?”

The boy couldn’t be more than twelve years old. What child thought of his children then? Obviously not this one. He shook his head. “It’s mine.”

“It’s not. It’s the earldom’s, held in trust for you as you hold it in trust for the next generation.”

“But I’m the earl .”

“And how can you be an earl, Stefan, if you haven’t the least idea what it means?” He squatted down until they were face to face. “Do you have a responsibility to the land, to the castle over there, and to the son you will eventually have who will grow up to care for this place as you do?”

Li-Na watched Stefen chew on this information. It was a difficult concept for a child, but one she understood from her education in China. Man served nature in harmony with its rhythms. It was painted over and over in their art. She had not seen such a thing in England where landscapes were ignored in favor of huge oil canvases of people in stiff poses.

“Have you nothing to say to that?” Lord Daniel continued.

The boy shook his head.

“Well, you better find an answer because I’ll expect it of you tomorrow when we go about looking at your castle and figuring out how to keep other blocks from falling down.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good man. And now I have another question for you.”

To the side, the boy’s mother released a heavy sigh. “Can we not discuss this over dinner? I’m exhausted.”

Lord Daniel grimaced. “Yes, of course. Let’s get the ladies inside.” He turned to Li-Na. “Do you need to change your clothes before we leave? Are you too wet from the sand?”

Li-Na frowned at him. “I am dry.”

“Good. Then up you go,” he said as he opened the door to the carriage.

“What?”

“Inside.” He turned and gave his hand to his sister-in-law to help her climb in. “Stefen, do you go inside with them or up top with me?”

The boy jumped up onto the driver’s bench before his uncle had finished the question. And then Lord Daniel turned to her.

“Miss Li-Na?”

“You want me to ride in the carriage and then dine with you?”

He nodded. “That had always been the intention, you know. Didn’t I tell you that you were supposed to stay at the manor home? Dinner with the family was always my plan.”

Was this a strange Cornish custom? “Why would a servant dine with the family?”

“Because you’re not a servant, Miss Li-Na. You’re a guest.”

“Good God,” his sister-in-law huffed from inside the carriage. “Don’t blame her for being confused. You haven’t even introduced us!”

Shock flowed across Lord Daniel’s face. “I do beg your pardon. Miss Li-Na, please allow me to introduce my sister-in-law, Countess Walden. Nessie, this is Miss Li-Na.”

“The artist,” the lady said, the two words tainted with jest.

“The bookkeeper,” Li-Na said firmly.

“The guest ,” said Lord Daniel.

“The hungry guest,” quipped Stefan.

Obviously, the boy wanted to eat.

Seeing Lord Daniel’s determination, Li-Na ducked her head and climbed into the carriage. It was only after the vehicle began to move that she realized the problem.

Dealing with Lord Daniel had been difficult enough. Now she was face to face with his sister-in-law. And the female tiger could be more cunning than the male.