My Lord Deceived by Rebecca King Page B

holders selling their wares, nothing more. But
there was something deuced odd about what he had just seen. Not
only had the woman not paid for her goods, but most of them were
carefully wrapped. Since when did anyone need to wrap vegetables in
broadsheets?
    Jonathan
scowled and from within the shadows of a stall selling bolts of
cloth, watched Kat as she dealt with a continual flow of customers.
With a curse, he pushed a thin veil of silken material away from
his face in annoyance when his view was blocked, and was astonished
at what he saw. Hers was by far the busiest stall there. People
were coming and going all over, but Kat’s stall had a constant flow
of people who took away baskets of produce at a time and emptied
the table and cart. His gaze locked on her flash of white teeth as
Kat smiled at a middle aged gentleman, and he felt a surge of
jealousy sweep through him at the easy camaraderie between them as
they chatted. Kat handed the man a handful of vegetables before she
followed him around the far end of the stall toward the front of
the cart.
    He hated the
fact that he couldn’t see her and wondered what they were doing. He
couldn’t even see the tops of their heads. Where had they gone?
What were they doing? With a scowl, he shoved the lace out of his
face and headed down the narrow walk way toward Kat and Agnes’
stall.
    “Hello,
Agnes.”
    He frowned when
his greeting made Agnes freeze. The initial look of astonishment on
her face was quickly replaced by nervous hesitation, and he
wondered what she was worried about. As far as he knew he had never
done anything to scare her, or give her reason to be concerned
about him, but her behaviour made her appear almost frightened of
him.
    “How are you
today?” he asked. He tried to keep his voice jovial and
non-threatening but it made no difference to the scared look on her
face.
    “I am fine
thank you, my lord, and yourself?” Her query was accompanied by a
furtive glance around them as though she wasn’t comfortable with
being seen conversing with him. It annoyed him that the woman
seemed to think that he was a nabob who rarely mixed with the
masses.
    “I am very
well, thank you. I see you have done a roaring trade again today,”
he drawled smoothly. He had to dig deep for all of his charm,
especially when he wanted to shake the woman and find out where Kat
had gone with that customer.
    “ What?” Agnes’ eyes grew wide. She physically jumped when she realised that
he was talking about the fruit and vegetables. “Oh, yes, well, we
are always busy,” she replied vaguely.
    “Is Kat not
about?”
    “She has gone
for a break,” Agnes sighed with a frown. She had no idea what the
man wanted with Kat, and made a mental note to ask her daughter
about it later. A quick glance at the packet Billy held was enough
to warn her that they had to be careful. This was the lord over the
parish in which they lived. He had no idea about the smuggling and,
if they were all to maintain their freedom, he could never know
what was going on. Jonathan Arbinger would have no hesitation in
informing the magistrate if he ever got wind of anything
clandestine going on. She tried to conceal her shudder of horror
and shifted to one side. Her movement drew Jonathan’s attention
back to herself when he started to study the area behind her in
search of Kat with far too much intensity.
    “Can I interest
you in some erm –” Agnes glanced disconcertedly down at the empty
table behind her and realised that most of the vegetables were at
the far end of the table, near to Billy, who was only just
completing his transaction “- vegetables,” she finished weakly.
    Jonathan kept
his face bland, and only just stopped himself from scowling. He
could smell a rat when he was near to one, and knew with certainty
that something was definitely going on with the stall. If only he
knew what. He glanced at the tavern across the square and wondered
if that was where Kat had gone.
    “Not