Behind the Mask (14 page)

Cameron held her hands much longer than necessary, not wanting to allow reality to intrude upon these moments when he’d been justified in holding her so close. As he let go, her hands fell against his chest. Tempted as he was to kiss her, he had to force himself to concede that the justification no longer existed.

Abbi pondered the face before her, attempting to reconcile it with the face that had haunted her dreams. She had difficulty believing it had come to this and wondered how long it would be before he receded into anger and once again sent her home. When he tried to pull away, she grabbed on to him, not wanting to let go of the warmth that had saved her. He paused a moment to look at her thoughtfully, and then he stood and walked away.

Rolling onto her back, Abbi could feel the bruises where she’d fallen, and fresh pain shot from her ankle. She closed her eyes but couldn’t relax, so she opened them again to take in the view. She’d hardly had a chance to observe her surroundings when she’d come here before. Above her was a high ceiling, going to a peak in the center, with polished log beams and high windows on either side. She could hear sounds in the distance, and a few minutes later the man reappeared and knelt beside her. He wore his shirt now, but it was left unbuttoned, showing just a hint of hair on his chest the same color as his beard, only a bit lighter than the dark hair on his head. She also noticed the dogs hovering curiously by his side.

“Your toes look good,” he said after he’d unwrapped her feet. “It’s a miracle.” His tone was scolding. “Next time you go tramping through the snow, you should dress for the occasion. You’re lucky to be alive.”

Abbi wanted to explain but she couldn’t think clearly enough to even form the words. “What are you doing?” she asked, feeling his hands on her tender ankle.

“This has got to be set,” he replied, “or you’ll limp for the rest of your life. Fortunately I’ve had some minimal medical training. We’ll hope it’s enough.”

Abbi remained silent.

“It’s going to hurt,” he added gently. “I mean really hurt.”

Abbi took a deep breath in an effort to prepare for the pain. Cameron braced her foot between his thighs, taking her ankle firmly into his hands. She let out a sharp cry and fell unconscious.

Georg returned to the stable following supper and found the doors wide open. At first he felt certain the wind had caused it, but then he noticed the broken stall and the missing horses. His heartbeat quickened as he rushed back outside. For several long moments he stood in the snow, as if the wind might answer the questions pounding through his head. He contemplated getting on a horse to see if he could find the missing animals, but he couldn’t even see the fence that he knew was directly to his left.

He was still trying to fit it together in his head when a familiar mare galloped out of the blizzard and into the stable. He took hold of the reins, realizing that she had not simply run away. She had been bridled. Georg glanced again at the broken stall, then back to the horse, and finally at the door. Blaze.
Abbi!

Sick with dread, Georg ran through the storm into the house. He nearly bumped into Elsa on the back stairs.

“Have you seen Abbi?” he demanded.

“Not since I prepared her bath,” she reported, picking up on his panic. “When I straightened her room I noticed her cloak and a pair of shoes were gone. I assume she’s left the house. Isn’t she with . . .” she continued, but he was gone.

Georg rushed into the dining room without knocking. A frightened Elsa hurried in right behind him. He ignored Ramona’s agitated expression. “Have you seen Miss Abbi?”

Lance stood uneasily. Ramona and Salina each nervously gripped the table, staring dumbly at Georg. Their expressions made it clear that she had been missed. Only the snow being slammed into the windows by the wind could be heard.

“What is it, Georg?” Ramona asked carefully. “What’s wrong?”

“Blaze has busted down his stall. He’s gone. Right after I discovered that, a mare ran into the stable—bridled but with no rider.”

“What are you saying?” Lance demanded. Elsa gripped the back of a chair with trembling hands.

“I’m assuming she’s gone after the horse, and . . .” he paused with emotion in his voice, “heaven only knows where she is now.”

“We’ve got to find her.” Lance stepped toward the door.

Georg took hold of his arm to stop him. “No one wants to find her more desperately than I do, I can assure you, but there’s nothing we can do until this storm lets up without getting ourselves lost. I haven’t seen a blizzard this bad in years. We’ll send out a search party at dawn. Until then, I think we’d do well to pray.” Georg gazed toward the window, adding in a prayerful tone, “Please God, let her make it through this night.”

The women started to cry and Lance lumbered to a chair, looking as if he’d just been kicked in the chest. Georg knew exactly how he felt. Once the shock and horror had settled enough to have an intelligible conversation, it was decided that Lance would spend the night and set out with Georg and a significant number of his officers as soon as they had daylight to guide them. No one at Albrecht House slept well that night. Each howl of the wind was a painful reminder that Abbi was missing.

Chapter Five

LURED BY OBSESSION

C
ameron felt downright sorry for this girl as her pain dissipated into oblivion. He wished there was something he could have given her to ease it, but nothing was available. At least she was at peace now, but he wondered how she’d feel when she woke up to realize there was no way for her to go home. In truth, Cameron wondered if he could handle the situation himself. A gamut of indistinguishable emotion overcame him as he watched her in the fire’s glow.
She was so beautiful!
And he was so lonely. In awe of the reality, he gingerly touched her hair, watching it fall over his fingers as if it were spun from red and gold silk. He held his breath and touched her face, praying she wouldn’t wake up and catch him behaving like a madman while he soaked up the actuality of human life before him.

Pondering the circumstance of their first meeting, he didn’t know whether to feel terrified or thrilled at the implication of her being here now. Could it be possible? Had she truly been led to him through a dream? Was there some higher purpose in their coming together? Given the recent course of his thoughts, he felt inclined to consider her presence more a curse than a miracle. Perhaps the devil had sent her to torment him, to keep him alive and existing but never truly living.

Cameron fingered the little black pearl hanging on a chain around her neck. He noted its imperfect shape and wondered over its significance. He recalled seeing her wear it when she’d come here before. Again he touched her face and hair with hesitancy while she slept, needing further evidence that she was not just a hallucination. Astounded by her reality, he felt resentful, almost angry. How could saving someone’s life bring such torment? Could he bear having to look at her every day until spring and keep himself in control when he’d been alone for so long?

Cameron knew his weaknesses well, but he felt prone to indulge in them for just a moment longer. With careful purpose he touched his lips to hers, both fearing and hoping that she might awaken and be faced with evidence of his attraction to her. The meaningless nature of such a one-sided kiss shocked him to the reality of such foolish thoughts and behavior. He forced some physical distance from her, getting something to eat and making certain all was in order for the night. Still she slept. He carried her upstairs to the bed and carefully tucked her in to be certain she stayed warm. He stoked up the fire and told himself he should leave her to sleep and he should go back downstairs and do the same. Yet he found himself pacing the room, wringing his hands, muttering to himself that this couldn’t be real, and fearing that if he slept he would wake up to find that it hadn’t been. Compelled to stay nearby, he told himself he should be there to offer reassurance when she regained consciousness. But he couldn’t deny his own need to be close to her, to soak in the evidence of her breathing even while she slept.

Somewhere in the darkest hours of the night, the woman’s peaceful rest passed into a slight delirium. Cameron touched her face to find it hot with fever. As exhausted as he was, he found purpose again in meeting her needs. Ironically, he was now trying to cool her down as he kept wet cloths against her skin and sat near her into daylight, praying her condition wouldn’t worsen. He left only long enough to see to the animals’ needs and his own before he was quickly back by her side. It wasn’t until the sun was moving down in the west that Cameron fell asleep, sitting in a chair by the bed, his head buried against her side.

Georg stood gazing out the window of the little house where he lived behind the stables. Snow continued to fall, though less violently now. He wiped away yet another burst of tears, attempting to accept that Abbi was lost. The odds were high that she was dead. He couldn’t believe it! He’d spent hours looking for her along with the search parties that had left at dawn, spreading out in every direction, combing the woods, the hills, the farms, even the forest.

He couldn’t keep his mind from exploring the bits and pieces of information Abbi had shared that led him to believe there was the tiniest possibility she might be alive. He felt afraid to invest hope in such an idea, when hope was something he’d come to see as fragile and difficult to hold, but how could he not hope that by some miracle she had survived? How could he not want to believe there was a perfectly logical explanation for the timing of her disappearance? Or perhaps a miraculous one. He knew she’d taken repeated rides to a place where she’d said Blaze had shown a bizarre temperament. Knowing horses well, he suspected that only other horses nearby would bring on that kind of behavior. And how could he forget the drawing he’d seen just yesterday? A place she’d seen in a dream, she’d told him. Yet the drawing was so accurate. Was it possible she’d been there? Was this the same place Blaze had been drawn to? Could it possibly be a coincidence? Although Georg had steered the search parties away from the ridge, knowing that its secret must remain concealed, he had checked it out himself without finding any clues. The snow had buried everything. Even so, he couldn’t deny himself the smallest measure of hope that maybe—just maybe—Cameron had found her in time.

As darkness settled again, Georg went into the big house where he found Elsa and his mother crying in the kitchen. Since he’d headed the search efforts and he was the oldest male employee, he took it upon himself to call the household together and lay out all of the facts that he could divulge. “There have been no messages,” he reported solemnly, “or any sign that Abbi has been seen or assisted. I know she rode up the mountainside often, but we’ve searched every possible area, moving out in all directions from the valley with more than a hundred men, and have found nothing. That storm has buried everything. The only possibility of her still being alive is the chance that she lost herself near a mountain home and someone’s taken her in. If that’s the case, they’ll probably be snowed in until spring. The people who live up there are few and far between but there is a small chance.” He tried to make his voice sound hopeful as Abbi’s aunts and the servants watched him fearfully. Even the captain had remained after sending his men away. He met Georg’s eyes with an intensity that made him wonder if Lance’s feelings for Abbi went much deeper than he’d suspected.