He saw her start, and stop, and instantly made amends. "You alarm
yourself without reason, Miss Bishop. Whatever may lie between me
and your uncle, you may be sure that I shall not follow the example
he has set me. I shall not abuse my position to prosecute a private
vengeance. On the contrary, I shall abuse it to protect him. Lord
Willoughby's recommendation to me is that I shall treat him without
mercy. My own intention is to send him back to his plantation in
Barbados."
She came slowly forward now. "I... I am glad that you will do that.
Glad, above all, for your own sake." She held out her hand to him.
He considered it critically. Then he bowed over it. "I'll not
presume to take it in the hand of a thief and a pirate," said he
bitterly.
"You are no longer that," she said, and strove to smile.
"Yet I owe no thanks to you that I am not," he answered. "I think
there's no more to be said, unless it be to add the assurance that
Lord Julian Wade has also nothing to apprehend from me. That, no
doubt, will be the assurance that your peace of mind requires?"
"For your own sake - yes.
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