Eloisa's Adventure (13 page)

She
nodded but before she could open her mouth to speak, he vanished
into the darkness across the corridor. She stared about her in
consternation before she realised she was alone. She let herself
into her bedroom for the night, and closed the door with a
shudder.

Once
inside the room, she hurried over to the bed. Without a fire it was
cold; too cold to remove her clothing. Shivering, she clambered
eagerly between the sheets and tugged the covers up to her chin.
She had gotten used to the warmth of the fire in the study and was
now painfully aware of just how chilly the rest of the house was.
It took some time before warmth began to permeate her bones, and
she started to feel blessedly warm again. It was only when she was
staring at the canopy overhead that she realised Simeon hadn’t gone
into the room he had said he would use directly opposite. He had
disappeared toward the Dowager’s old rooms instead, and the
servant’s staircase.

Where
was he going to sleep then?

As soon
as he heard the quiet click of the door, and was assured she was
safe for the night, Simeon made his way down the back stairs toward
the kitchen. Not only did he want to conduct another tour of the
house to make sure that everything was alright, but he had the
strangest feeling that he was missing something, only wasn’t quite
sure what that ‘something’ was.

It took
him an hour to complete a thorough search of the servant’s quarters
and kitchens. As far as he could tell, everything was still in its
rightful place. Apart from the fresh food in the pantry, it was
evident that the place hadn’t been lived in for several weeks. A
thin layer of dust covered practically every uncovered surface.
Even the covers that lay over some of the furniture had a thin
layer of dust on them.

He
wandered into the formal dining room. The huge rectangular room
echoed his footsteps as he walked toward the highly polished table
that could seat twenty people with ease. He sighed and stifled a
yawn. Was his imagination was running away with him? He wondered
what the time was and looked at the clock on the mantle at the far
end of the room.

A quiet
sense of satisfaction swept through him as he studied the empty
space where the clock should be. The hairs on the back of his neck
stood on end as he searched the room, but found no sign of the
family heirloom. Not only had the ornate clock been removed, but
two highly decorative silver candelabras that had once sat on
either side of the clock had been purloined too.

His
temper grew when he spied the space on the wall directly above the
sideboard. There had once been a beautiful landscape of the folly
in the gardens hanging there but it too had vanished.

“Where
the hell has that gone?” Simeon growled as he made a large circuit
around the table.

That
particular landscape was huge, and would be difficult for one man
to get off the wall. To carry it through the house would be
impossible without help.

Determined to establish the true extent of the thefts, he
retraced his steps and began a more careful assessment of the
house. This time, when he searched each of the rooms, he did so
with fresh eyes. By the time he reached the door to his bedroom,
his temper was raging. He had seen more than enough to confirm that
someone had been pilfering valuable items from the house while it
was empty.

Not one
of the downstairs rooms had been untouched by thieving hands. Not
only that but no attempt had been made to cover the spaces where
the furniture had been.

Was this
the work of some opportunist thief who had learned of the demise of
his uncle and decided to raid the house at his leisure now it was
empty? Or was the thief someone who was connected to the family?
Someone who felt cheated out of a piece of George’s
will?

Simeon
frowned at that and mentally ran through the family members who had
been a little put out that they had not received anything from
George. There was a cousin, Constance, but she was overweight and
lazy, and by far the very last person who would hurry anywhere,
least of all with a huge landscape tucked under her arm. There was
also his cousin Ivor, but he could barely remember where his own
house was, and lived all the way up in Edinburgh. Even if he could
be bothered to head in the general direction of Mitchelham, he
would struggle to find it – even with the turrets on the skyline to
give him guidance. There really was nobody else in the family who
really knew Uncle George well enough to expect anything; not on the
male side of the family anyway.

When
another yawn escaped him, and was rapidly followed by another,
Simeon finally gave in and made his own way to bed. As he climbed
between the sheets, his thoughts turned toward his delightful
guest. She was wonderful, and intrigued him so much that he knew he
had to find out more about her.

Eloisa
murmured sleepily and rolled over in bed. She felt a cool breeze
tickle her arm and wished that she was somewhere warmer. As sleep
slowly receded, she gradually became aware that she could still
hear the wind howling outside. Rather than ease, they seemed
stronger than ever, which was a little disappointing.

She
frowned when another icy blast swept over her bare skin of her arm.
Sleep began to draw her back under but something urged her to stay
awake. She tried to warn herself that it was just her wayward
imagination, but something urged her to pay attention.

In
search of a more comfortable position, she turned over and yawned
sleepily as she snuggled beneath the covers. The blankets were
tucked under her chin as far as she could pull them. If only that
blasted breeze would just stop, she might be able to warm up a
little. When another breeze swept over her, she scowled deeply. Was
it her imagination or was the cold air stronger across her
arm?

Had she
left her window open? She could have sworn it had been closed when
she had gone to sleep. Surely she would have remembered if it had
been open given how bad the wind was?

Suddenly, the events of the evening slammed all trace of
sleep out of the way. Her eyes popped open, and she stared blankly
at the altered bedroom. To begin with she couldn’t quite absorb
what she was seeing and blinked several times just in case it was
some strange dream. The more she stared and the image remained the
same, the more she realised that this was no dream.

She was
in fact staring at a man; a strange man. He was dressed head to
foot in black. His face was obscured by a large, bushy beard and a
big floppy hat. Not only that but he was standing in front of an
open doorway where there should be a wall.

Her
scream was loud in the silence of the night and was seemingly
endless. The only time she stopped screaming was to drag in another
deep breath. She sat bolt upright and clutched the sheet to her
chest protectively when the man jumped and glanced worriedly at the
door. Everything within her was urging her to leave the bed and get
out of the room, but her limbs refused to move.

She
watched as, faster than a blink, the intruder spun on his heel and
disappeared through a door beside the bed. She watched the door
close behind him and only then launched herself out of
bed.

Simeon
jerked upright in bed when he heard Eloisa scream.

“Eloisa,
what the hell?” he demanded as he burst through the door braced for
a fight.

At any
other time the sight of her standing beside the bed with her hair a
wild cascade of tumbling curls around her shoulders would have been
too much temptation to resist. However, the fear in her eyes warned
him that something had terrified her. He scanned the room for the
source of her distress, but couldn’t see anything amiss.

“There,”
she gasped and pointed with a shaking finger toward the panelling.
“There was a man. He was here; beside the bed. He came through
there.”

Her
breaths came in hiccupping pants. She didn’t seem able to stem her
shaking enough to make sense. Even through the darkness she could
see the confusion in his eyes and knew he didn’t believe her. She
watched as he stalked straight past her and started to push at the
panelling on the wall beside her table. To her consternation,
nothing happened.

“We
checked this earlier, there is nothing here,” he murmured. He
didn’t dare question what she had actually seen, but he had been
the one who had tapped this panelling. It was as solid as the
brickwork behind it. He wondered if she had had a nightmare because
of everything that had happened and had become confused when she
had woken up.

“He was
there, I tell you. He was standing right beside the bed watching
me,” Eloisa gasped.

Now that
her fear had started to subside, anger replaced it. She was
furious, not only at the stranger who had the audacity to invade
her bedroom while she was asleep, but at Simeon, who didn’t appear
to believe her account of what she had seen.

She knew
the stranger had been there. “I felt the chill from the open
doorway on my arm. It is what woke me up,” she snapped. When she
read the doubt on his face, she stomped over to the spot where she
had seen the door.

“Eloisa.”

She
ignored him and began to thump on the panelling. “It’s here, I tell
you. I didn’t imagine it. He was wearing a long black
cloak.”

“What
did he look like?” Simeon asked calmly.

“He was
shorter than you and had a big beard.”

Simeon
frowned at that. He had seen the intruder they had encountered in
the hallway. He too had a beard; a grey one. Had their intruder
gotten back into the house somehow?

“There
isn’t much we can do about it now. Even if we do find the doorway,
neither of us is going to go into any secret corridors right now.
Not with him in the house. I don’t think he is dangerous, but he is
here for a reason,” Simeon sighed.

“I know
you don’t believe me,” Eloisa accused. “But he was standing right
here, I tell you.” She stepped toward him and looked down at her
feet when she felt them become wet.

“Look,”
she gasped and pointed to wet patches on the floor.

Simeon
shook his head as he tried to see what she was looking at, but
sighed when he was unable to see through the darkness. He yanked
the curtains open but still didn’t have enough light.

“Wait
here,” he growled, determined to ease her fears so he could get
back to bed.

“I am
not staying here by myself,” she gasped. “I am not,” she repeated
when she saw him heave a sigh and roll his eyes. “He may come
back.”

“I doubt
it with how loud you scream,” Simeon muttered.

“Pardon?” she asked somewhat hoarsely.

“Nothing. Let’s go and find a light, and quickly because I
want to see those footprints before they dry off.”

“In this
house, that is hardly likely. It’s colder than the graveyard in
here,” Eloisa groused as she rubbed chilled fingers down arms that
were liberally smattered with goose bumps.

“Wait
here,” he snapped at the top of the stairs. “I am just going to the
study –”

“I am
not
staying anywhere in this house by myself,” Eloisa bit out.
She glared at him challengingly, silently daring him to
object.

Simeon
studied her for a moment and suspected that he would have to tie
her up to stop her following him. “Hurry up then,” he snapped, and
raced down the stairs without a backward look.

Encumbered by her voluminous skirts, Eloisa had to take her
time or else fall down the long flight of stairs. She watched him
vanish into the study only to return moments later with a lit
spill. He raced past her and charged back upstairs toward her room
without slowing his pace.

She
sighed and shook her head as she stared into the hallway below. She
didn’t really care where the secret corridor was, or where it went.
She wanted to get out of this house. It suddenly felt so
claustrophobic that she wished that she had never tried to find
refuge here in the first place. Not only did she now have the awful
intruder to deal with, but her host was causing her significant
problems.

Simeon
made her feel things that she should never feel for a man who was
far out of her reach, socially and financially. She had no business
even being a guest in his house. It may not mean much to him, but
her reputation mattered to her. She couldn’t afford to lose it. If
anyone caught her living in the house, even for one night, alone,
without even household staff in attendance, her reputation would be
in tatters, and there would be nothing she could do about
it.

He would
undoubtedly walk away from the situation scot free whereas she
would never recover because she lived locally.

Her
heart ached. She tried to put it down to being tired and worried.
It was well past midnight, and she had just had the fright of her
life after all. However, no matter how much she tried to convince
herself that she shouldn’t feel anything for him, all she had to do
was look at him to know it was impossible to ignore the attraction
she felt for him. As annoying as he could be sometimes, she
suspected that once she was free to leave, she would return to a
life that would never quite be the same again.