Clare Castle, England, 1803

Arabella rushed down the great oak staircase, a whirlwind of velvet riding skirts, only to draw up short at the sight of her brother entering the hall. She watched him negligently strike his riding crop against his thigh in thoughtful rhythm to his booted step. It was on the tip of her tongue to chide him, for he was late, but he paused a moment, his eyes drawn to the rich medieval trappings of the great hall, and she stood silently watching him. She knew his thoughts, for she had stood many times gazing in awe just as he was doing. It was an impressive chamber with high timbered ceilings that boasted a cavernous fireplace large enough to roast a boar, fifteenth-century suits of armor, both Italian and English, and myriad well-dusted Flemish tapestries. Silver sconces designed for ancient rush-light torches of mutton fat, empty now, but highly polished, were fastened to its stone walls at six-foot intervals.

She watched Adam stop below the painting of the long-dead first Earl of Clare, who had lived not in the thirteenth century, but in the seventeenth, under the reign of William and Mary. She smiled, thinking about Roger Nathan Welles. That earl had been fascinated by the ruins of a Norman castle on a gentle rise of his newly purchased land, and had its great hall reconstructed to its former grandeur according to his own vision. Then, caught up in his own handiwork, and inspired by dubious legends of King Arthur, he had expanded his fancy into a four-towered edifice of soft gray stone dug from a Chicester quarry. The result was perhaps a bit unusual for its time, but nonetheless a home that all subsequent Earls of Clare would have protected with their lives. Happily, their vows were never tested, for the time of civil wars in England was past.

Adam Charles Parese Welles, Viscount St. Ives, had indeed been thinking about the beauty of his home. He was ready for a rest now after two hectic months in Amsterdam, dealing with recalcitrant Dutch shipping merchants, ready for nothing more trying than riding his stallion, Brutus, through the rolling hills that surrounded his home. But he was to leave again, to journey to the Villa Parese, in Genoa. Images of Italy flowed easily into his mind, for there was Ligurian blood in his veins. Whenever he set foot there, he shucked off his English trappings as easily as he did his clothes.

"Adam," Arabella called to him in her exuberant voice, "where the devil have you been? I've been waiting for you for an age. Quickly, love, we are to meet Rayna very soon."

"Rayna?" Adam repeated, his mind still on the letter from his father in his waistcoat pocket.

Arabella frowned at her brother, wondering what he was thinking. She tugged at his coat sleeve and said, "We are supposed to ride with Rayna Lyndhurst, Adam. I told you last night she is visiting her aunt, Lady Turbridge. And she isn't a silly little schoolgirl any longer. She is nearly eighteen and very interested in seeing you again." Arabella paused, wondering yet again if Rayna would recognize her darkly handsome brother. It was six years since they had seen each other. Rayna's family, the Lyndhursts, lived a good sixty miles to the west of Clare Castle, and Viscount Delford, Rayna's father, rarely sought her own father's company. Arabella smiled, not doubting for an instant that Rayna would lose her young heart to her dashing brother, for he was no longer a gangly boy, but a man, a very handsome man. She had been planning this meeting for two months now, for she had decided after long and profound thought that Rayna and Adam were well-suited. She frowned at him, wishing he would show a bit more enthusiasm. He resembled their father so closely it was uncanny, save for his dark blue eyes. Only she had inherited her father's black eyes and dark brows, in startling contrast to her fair complexion and honey-colored hair.

"Quickly, Adam," she said again.

Adam clasped his sister's gloved hands. "I fear I am unable to oblige you, Bella. Please give my regrets to Rayna Lyndhurst. I must leave soon. The Cassandra is sailing on the evening tide, and I must be on her."

The look of dismay in Arabella's dark eyes quickly turned to excitement. So that was it. She felt her blood quicken, and her eyes sparkled. "You've had a message from Father? He wants you in Genoa?"

"Aye, and I'm off as soon as I've seen Mother. Rayna Lyndhurst will have to wait another year or so. Do give the child my regrets." He smiled ironically at his sister, guessing that she had been spinning matchmaking fancies. It amused him, for Arabella was about as subtle as a firing cannon. The two girls had been friends since their years at a young ladies' seminary in Bath, and Adam wondered what tales Arabella had spun about him to Rayna.

"Oh, no," Arabella said. "I will write her a note. I must pack. I will be ready in an hour." First things first, she thought, lifting her heavy riding skirts above her knees and dashing up the stairs.

"Bella."

Adam shook his head and followed more sedately after her. He had been on his way to his parents' bedchamber, the room where he was born twenty-six years before. He passed a pert chambermaid who had offered him more than his breakfast since his return to Clare Castle. He gave her a slight smile, knowing it would never do to enjoy the favors of a serving maid in his parents' home. His father thought the droit de seigneur as distasteful as he did.

His mother was sitting at her dressing table with her maid, Betta, standing behind her. That stern-faced retainer, a woman of indeterminate years, was arranging the countess's hair. "If only," Betta was complaining, "Lady Bella could sit still for but five minutes. That one's more roisterous than a boy."

"We are lucky that she is so naturally lovely," the countess said. "She scarce needs more than five minutes of your assistance, Betta."

"Mother, I must speak with you."

Cassandra heard the tension in her son's voice and swiveled about in her chair. "You may leave us now, Betta," she said pleasantly to her maid.

Betta, curious as always, sniffed and took herself off.

Adam strode to his mother and leaned down to kiss her upturned cheek. "You must tie Arabella down, Mother," he said, frowning. "I've received a message from Father. I am to leave for Genoa within the hour, and Bella is doubtless in her bedchamber hurling her clothes into a valise. There is trouble. What it is exactly, he doesn't say." He grinned crookedly as he handed her a thin envelope. "Perhaps he tells you."

The countess gingerly spread the single sheet of paper before her on the dressing table. "My love," she read silently, "I have asked Adam to come to me. We have lost another ship, perhaps to the Barbary pirates. I hope to know the truth of the matter by the time he arrives in Genoa. If I know my son, he is likely at this moment inching toward the door, ready to be away. Keep Arabella safe with you. With any luck, I will be back in England by the summer, with this damnable business over."

The countess read the letter again more slowly. She smiled at Adam, who was striding impatiently about her bedchamber, just as Anthony had known he would. She dismissed Arabella's most persistent suitor, Vincent Eversley, from her mind as if he had never existed. If Arabella had any interest in the viscount, her feelings would last, and no man, she knew, would ever forget Arabella.

"Well, Mother, does he explain?"

"He says another ship has been taken, perhaps by the Barbary pirates."

"Ah," said Adam, his brilliant blue eyes, his mother's eyes, narrowing thoughtfully. "It makes no sense. We have paid tribute to those damned pirates for more years than I have been on this earth. Were all our men lost? No survivors?"

"Your father doesn't say, my love. We will find out quickly enough."

"We?" Adam repeated, eyeing his mother.

"Have your valet pack for you, Adam. Arabella and I will be ready for your escort in an hour's time. Who is captaining the Cassandra?"

Adam stared, nonplussed, at his mother. "Surely, Mother," he began, disregarding her question, "you will reconsider. Our treaty with the French is tenuous at best at the moment. It wouldn't be safe. Father would be none too pleased if--"

"You are wasting time, Adam," the countess said. "There is much to be done, if we are to make the evening tide."

"But what about Eversley? He is due to arrive tomorrow from London, and he will want to see Arabella."

"I know, dear brother," Arabella said from the doorway. She eyed her brother with open challenge. Really, she thought, Adam was behaving like an anxious father who wished to be rid of his daughter. "And I am all of twenty years old, and on the shelf, growing longer in the tooth by the month, waiting for dear Eversley to pluck me off. Forget him, Adam. He is not at all like you or Father, and I have decided I won't have him."

"Eversley appears to fill all the requirements," Adam said.

"I want a man, Adam, not a sniveling Carlton House fop."

"I doubt you know what you're saying, love."

"That is quite enough from the both of you," the countess said coolly, rising to shake out her skirts. "If you will keep down your gorge, Adam, we can all get ready to sail for Genoa. I understand, Arabella," she continued, turning to her daughter, "that Edward Lyndhurst is to visit his sister, Lady Turbridge, tomorrow, to escort Rayna back to Delford Hall. I will write him a note and let him deal with Viscount Eversley."

Adam saw his sister's triumphant smile, and knew he was beaten. He was pulled from the pleasant fancy of throttling her by the touch of his mother's fingers on his sleeve. "I miss your father, my love. It is time we were all together again."

Adam gave her a crooked grin. "Just when I thought to be free of petticoats, ma'am, you've saddled me with a sister who does not know her place and tries to take mine."

"Like father, like daughter, Adam," Arabella said.

Copyright © 1985 by Catherine Coulter