“There’s the little matter of Mr. Zate’s expenses, and my own,” Nils said, not even having the decency to be embarrassed. Not for the first time, Bliss reflected that it was little wonder her mother had run off to America with a man who wrote poetry and played the mouth harp.

Jamie’s look was level and steady, never wavering from Nils’s face. “If you think I’m going to reward you for doing this to me, you’re dead wrong,” he said flatly.

Though he was big and strong, with little reason to fear any other man, Nils retreated a step. He didn’t seem so sure himself now, and his normally ruddy complexion paled. “I don’t see any need to be unreasonable,” he complained, in a near whine.

Clearly, Jamie was a man to press an advantage when he had one. He inclined his head slightly in Nils’s direction and once again prevailed. “You ’aven’t yet learned the meanin’ of the word unreasonable, me friend,” he said.

Intimidated by Jamie, Nils turned his ire on Bliss. She was afraid of her father, with good reason, and her heart surged into her throat at the look in his eyes.

In a lightning-swift movement of his hand, Nils entangled his fingers in Bliss’s hair and pulled hard. “You were never anything but trouble—” he began. “You’re no better than that slut of a mother of yours!”

Jamie’s intervention was as much a surprise to Bliss as it was to her father. A knife materialized in his hand, so quickly that it seemed to appear out of nowhere, and the point of the blade made a nasty-looking indentation at the base of Nils’s throat.

“Unless you fancy comin’ up short a few pints of blood, mate,” he warned, in that dangerous undertone that was rapidly becoming familiar to Bliss, “don’t ever do that again.”

Nils released Bliss, with a spasmodic motion of his hand, and the wicked-looking blade was withdrawn from his throat.

“Now, see here,” protested Alexander, albeit belatedly. “This is a public inn and you, Mr. McKenna, have no right—”

Jamie’s knife made a whistling sound that chilled Bliss to the bone as it flew through the air and landed, with a reverberating thump, squarely between Alexander’s expensively shod feet. Bliss’s knees felt weak, and she sagged onto a bench beside a nearby trestle table, one hand rising briefly to her forehead. Merciful heavens, she’d gone and married a ticket-of-leave man, a criminal.

It did appear that she might have gotten herself into more trouble than she had the wits to deal with.

“Get out,” Jamie said coldly, and no one in the huge and drafty room had the slightest question in their mind who he was talking to.

Nils was clearly enraged, but he gestured to Alexander and, together, they left. It was now completely dark outside, and Bliss knew a moment’s trepidation. Nobody was more aware than she was of how many perils could befall those foolish—or desperate—enough to go abroad at night.