Olympia chuckled. "No offense, my lord, but you are remarkably easy to seduce."
His smile vanished. "Only by you."
She was vaguely startled by his sudden mood shift this time. Probably because she herself was feeling so relaxed and content. She met his single-eyed gaze and once again she had the sensation that some inner veil had been momentarily pulled aside. She found herself peering past the calm facade he presented to the world into the tempestuous depths of his passionate soul.
"I am pleased to hear that, Jared, because it is the same with me," she said gently. "You are the only man I have ever wanted in this fashion."
"We are well and truly wed now," he said very quietly, as though sealing an invisible pact. "There is no going back for either of us."
"I understand. That is what I was trying to tell you earlier."
"Ah, yes. Your little lecture on how we are stuck with each other and must make the best of the situation."
She flushed beneath his mockery. "I was only trying to put a practical face on the matter."
"Leave the practical and the mundane to me," he said. "I am very good at handling that sort of thing."
Olympia frowned. "It is very odd, is it not?"
"What?"
"That you are so very clever with practical matters when it is obvious that you are a man of strong emotions. Your powers of self-restraint are most impressive, my lord."
"Thank you," he said. "I do try to control myself for the most part."
She smiled approvingly. "Yes, you do. And you are successful a great deal of the time. Jared?"
"Hmm?"
She touched the black band that secured his velvet eye patch. "You have never told me how you lost the sight in your eye."
"It is not a very edifying tale."
"Nevertheless, I would like to hear it. I want to know everything about you."
Jared laced his fingers through her hair. "I have two cousins, Charles and William, who have spent a great portion of their lives living up to the family reputation."
"What do you mean?"
"They are likable enough, but they are reckless, rash, and a damn nuisance for the most part. When they were fourteen and sixteen, respectively, they decided to engage in the free-trade. They fell in with a smuggler who was doing business with the French."
"What happened?"
"I learned of their plans on the very night they were to begin plying their new trade. My father and uncle were in Italy on some hare-brained venture. My aunt came to me. She begged me to see to it that Charles and William did not get hurt."
"How old were you?"
"Nineteen."
"So you… Did something go wrong that night?" Olympia asked uneasily.
Jared's mouth curved in disgust. "Of course something went wrong. Things usually go wrong when any of my family hatch one of their idiotic plans. In this particular instance the problem was the captain of the vessel which had brought the smuggled goods across the channel."
"What did he do?"
"After my cousins had unloaded the ship and gotten the goods safely stowed ashore, the captain decided he no longer required their assistance. Nor did he wish to split the profits with two young boys. He decided to take possession of the goods and leave no witnesses."
Olympia stared in horror at Jared's sightless eye. "He tried to kill them?"
"I arrived just as he was about to shoot Charles. My cousins had no weapons. I had brought along my father's dagger." Jared paused. "Fortunately, he had taught me how to use it. Unfortunately, the ship's captain had had more experience than I in knife fighting. He took my eye with his first lunge."
"Good lord," Olympia whispered. "It must have been a very near thing. You could have been killed."
Jared lifted his gaze from her hair to her face. He gave her a strange smile. "But, as you see, I was not. And neither were my cousins. All's well that ends well, siren."
Olympia hugged him fiercely. "You must not take such chances ever again, Jared."
"I assure you, I have no particular liking for such situations," Jared muttered. "I certainly do not seek them out."
Olympia held him closely. "Jared, whenever I think of what that night cost you—"
"Do not think of it." Jared framed her face with his hands. "Do you comprehend me? Do not think of it and do not raise the subject again."
"But, Jared—"
"Olympia, it is finished. It was finished fifteen years ago. This is the first time I have spoken of the matter to anyone since the night it happened. I do not wish to speak of it again."
She touched his hard jaw with gentle understanding. "He died, didn't he? You were forced to kill that man who tried to murder you and your cousins. That is why you do not wish to speak of what happened that night."
He silenced her by putting his fingers against her mouth. "Not another word, siren. No good can come of it. Nothing can change what happened. It is best left in the past where it belongs."
"Yes, Jared." Olympia fell silent. She rested her head against his shoulder. Her mind swirled with visions of how terrible that night had been for Jared.
He was an intelligent man, she thought, a man of strong emotions and refined sensibilities. Such a man could not escape unscathed from an act of violence. The worst scars would always lie beneath the surface.
Jared stirred. "About Robert."
Olympia frowned as her thoughts immediately shifted back to the present. "Yes, poor Robert. Perhaps it is time we discussed what happened at Vauxhall Gardens tonight."
"There is actually not much to discuss, Olympia."
"On the contrary. We must reason out who kidnapped him and why. I know you do not think much of my theory about the Guardian being after the Lightbourne diary, but I really do feel you should consider the possibility."
"Damnation." Jared sat up reluctantly, adjusted the opening of his breeches and rested his arm on one upraised knee. He pondered Olympia's concerned face for a long moment. "Just what do you think is going on here? Do you actually believe that some ghost from the time of Captain Jack is hanging about, searching for the treasure?"
"Do not be ridiculous." Olympia pushed her hair out of her eyes and fumbled with her wrapper. "Of course I do not believe in ghosts. But it has been my experience that there is usually a grain of truth behind even the most bizarre legend."
"No one is after the secret of the Lightbourne diary except yourself, madam."
"What about Mr. Torbert?" she demanded.
"Torbert undoubtedly knows that you are investigating an old legend, but he cannot know which one. Furthermore, I do not believe that he would resort to kidnapping. He is not short of funds. And he is certainly not the Guardian."
Olympia thought about that. "Well, I grant you that he does not appear to be the sort who would be involved in a legend."
"An astute observation," Jared said dryly.
"But whoever took Robert tonight must have had a reason for doing so."
"Of course he had a reason and it was no doubt a very simple one. Money."
"Money?" Olympia gazed at him in dismay. "You mean someone knows about the three thousand pounds I received from Uncle Artemis's shipment of goods?"
"No," Jared said quite forcefully, "I do not." He got to his feet and drew Olympia up to stand in front of him. "Olympia, I do not believe that whoever kidnapped Robert was after your three thousand pounds any more than he was after the diary."
She searched his face anxiously. "Then why would anyone bother to kidnap Robert? He is not connected to a wealthy family."
"He is now," Jared said simply.
Olympia was stunned into momentary silence. She swallowed quickly. "Your family?"