Page 34 of When a Duke Loves a Woman
“I feel a need to make it up to you some way, as I’m becoming quite the bother.”
“You will owe me. We’ll figure out exactly what when we find her.”
“I don’t generally go into a situation without knowing the cost.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she settled back. “Then find her on your own.”
The devil of it was that he could probably find Lavinia on his own, but it would take considerably longer as he didn’t have Gillie’s resources or know all the people she knew. It was also much more enjoyable searching with her at his side. “I’ll trust you to be fair with your demands.”
She smiled, a victorious, seductive, wily smile that caused heat, desire, and longing to thread their way through his entire body and into the depths of his soul. “Ah, you silly man.” She slapped her hands on the table. “I’ll let Jolly Roger know I’ll be leaving for a bit.”
He furrowed his brow. “Jolly Roger?”
“My head barman.”
“His name is Jolly Roger?”
She shrugged. “So he says. That’s something else you have to consider. She could change her name, move elsewhere. Just because she asked someone to bring her here doesn’t mean she stayed. People escape their circumstances in all sorts of ways.”
He understood that. But he wanted to locate her before her brother or the men he’d hired did. “Still I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try to find her.”
“Very well. Give me a few minutes.”
He watched as she walked toward the bar. Unlike the women who worked for her, she didn’t sway her hips provocatively or offer cheeky grins. Here and there, she offered a word, placed a hand on a shoulder, or picked up an empty glass. Her movements reflected a smoothness, a casualness, a naturalness that indicated she’d done them all a thousand times, more. They adored her, these men and women who came in here for a chance to relax at the end of a hard day.
It was an odd thing to realize he was beginning to adore her as well.
She couldn’t believe she was going to take more time away from the tavern in order to help a duke, but he’d sounded so sincere in his need to find this woman that how could she not do what she could to assist him in his efforts? When she reached the bar, Jolly Roger was nowhere to be seen. “Davey, have you seen Jolly Roger?” she asked one of the bartenders they’d recently hired.
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Back in the kitchen.”
But when she walked into the kitchen, the only person she saw was Robin, sitting at the large oak table, slurping down his soup. “Robin, have you seen Jolly Roger?”
“Yeah. He’s down in the cellar with Cook, helpin’ her pick out the best sherry fer tomorrow’s soup.”
She was glad to hear he was finally remembering to put hish’s to use, but what he’d said made no sense. She furrowed her brow. “I beg your pardon?”
“They go down there every night ’bout this time. She don’t know nuffink about sherry, ye see, so he has to help her find the best one. That’s not easy to do. Takes ’em a long time usually.”
Customarily Jolly Roger took some time now and then in the evening to go outside to puff on his pipe for a while. She allowed her customers to smoke their pipes inside the taproom, but not her employees. She hadn’t known about him helping Hannah select sherry for her soup, hadn’t even known sherry was going into the soup. “Thank you, pet.”
He gave her a salute before going back to his dinner. She crossed over to the cellar door, surprised to find it closed. Opening it, she stepped inside. They must have only brought in one lamp because no light radiated up. She started down, heard a laugh and a snicker, and stopped in midstride.
“Do you like that?” Hannah asked seductively.
“I’ll give you twenty minutes to stop.”
Hannah’s laugh was filled with joy, humor, and teasing. “Oh, Rog, you’ll never last that long.”
She heard her cook whisper something else but was unable to distinguish the words.
“Ah, you saucy wench,” he growled.
Gillie crept back up the stairs, closed the door, and leaned against it. Jolly Roger was smitten with Hannah? How had she not seen that? She was grateful Robin was no longer around. No doubt he was making his way through the taproom, hoping to find some odd jobs for tomorrow. He liked running errands for people, and her brothers—although none were visiting tonight—were good about hiring him to deliver messages and such.
Sitting at the table, she drummed her fingers on the wood and waited, finally hearing footsteps on the stairs echoing up from the cellar. Hannah had been correct. He’d lasted only about half of the twenty minutes. When the door opened, they walked through it and both came up short at the sight of her sitting there. She pushed to her feet and arched a brow. “Did you find the sherry you were looking for?”
Jolly Roger turned so red she thought his face was on the verge of exploding. He cleared his throat. “Damn. I forgot the bottle. I’ll go down and fetch it.” He disappeared back the way he’d come.
