She hadn’t felt this giddy excitement since she’d been a young woman in China. To experience it now with her tiger of a man in Cornwall seemed bizarre. And yet, here she was, kicking her feet against the stone like a child waiting for a treat. And why was he taking so long?
He came up to the battlement silently. If she hadn’t been watching for him, she would have been startled. He was a tiger who was no longer growling in annoyance. He’d returned to his usual silent grace as he moved toward her.
“I hear you’ve been busy,” he said as he dropped a large cushion down. She’d been leaning back against the battlements, a blanket tucked around her legs as she looked up at the stars. He placed the cushion against the stone walls, settling so that they both could lean against it. But he didn’t sit down. He stood above her, scanning the land around him like a king surveying his land. Then he looked up at the sky before finally turning to her.
“Are you comfortable?”
“Yes. Thank you.” She’d even figured out how to make a hot cup of tea which now rested on the opposite side of her.
“You’ve set the village to talking.”
She nodded. It had been inevitable, but she’d done her best to be friendly and not intrusive. Still, she was about to set backs up even higher.
“I had to check the prices of things,” she said. “Your steward has been embezzling a great deal of money from the estate. He charges you for labor which the people give for free. He charges you for goods at three times the price. I believe he keeps the difference for himself. According to Mrs. Hocking, he has a mistress in Ladock who lives lavishly at your expense.”
“The devil you say.”
She nodded. “I will show you the figures. The amounts are not big one by one, but they add up.”
“How much do they add up? It’s common practice for stewards to skim a little.”
She had heard that was true. Mrs. Dove-Lyon had explained as much when Li-Na had asked about customers who were not titled and yet had plenty of money for the tables. Which meant that Lord Daniel would have to decide how much theft he would tolerate.
“I will show you the figures.” She started to get up, but he held out his hand to stop her.
“No, no. Not now.” He blew out a breath. “It’s the middle of the night, and I have no head for numbers right now.”
It wasn’t that late. She had spent most evenings up here, thinking about the stars, her life, and him. Always him. Such tales she had heard about him. He’d been a rough and tumble boy, always digging into things but somehow never quite as delightful as his older brother. He’d been strong enough to help when fixing fences or digging ditches, but never had the amused indulgence that was given to Peder. Every tale slid into a funnier one about his older brother who had been a scapegrace, to be sure. Mischief incarnate, they said, whereas Lord Daniel had been the one who did the work in his brother’s shadow.
Until he left in search of foreign things: odd pictures, weird statues, and her. They always gave her a side eye and commented that she wasn’t the first odd one to visit—just the first female—and a whole host of implied judgement in that. They assumed she was his mistress, and from what she’d done with him the day before he left, she couldn’t fault them for it.
But was it what she wanted? That was the question that had brought her upstairs at night to look at the stars.
“Were you Baron Easterly’s mistress?”
She jolted at the question. It’d had been spoken in a harsh tone heavy with accusation. And when she didn’t immediately answer, he kept speaking.
“They’re talking about you in London. Lots of betting on who will capture the Abacus Woman now that Baron Easterly has let her go.” The angle of his face kept the moonlight off it, so the words came at her from a dark silhouette against the stars. As if he were a hole in the sky.
It made her shudder.
“Li-Na,everyoneseems to be talking about you. Lies, wild fantasies, impossible stories. What is the truth?”
He was not yelling. That made her safe enough for fury to spark. If he were showing violence, she would run. She would know his true heart and return to London as fast as she could escape. But his words didn’t cut so much as rumble through the space. A tiger growl of anger, but directed at whom?
“What did you expect? You brought a Chinese woman to your castle. I stand out in London where people are used to foreigners. Here? I am as odd as a piskie or a giant.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, but then slowly folded himself down until he faced her. “Where did you hear of piskies?”
“You left me alone here for two weeks. What was I supposed to do in the evenings?”
“Whatever you wanted.”
“I wanted to hear the tales of your people. Mrs. Hocking helped me. We went to the tavern, and I listened to the stories, what I could understand of them. Old Man Rablin talked about your tiny fairies and the great giants.”
“Theytoldyou the stories?”
He seemed shocked that she would be accepted in this place. In truth, she was too. “Mrs. Hocking brought me there. I listened, and I told them the tale of the goddess Yao Ji in return, but I do not have Mr. Rablin’s flair.”