Lord Cavendish Returns (12 page)

He
glanced at her and shook his head. His years of experience with the
Star Elite immediately kicked in and he began to assess their
situation. It was evident that he was at a disadvantage on two
counts because not only did he have Arrabella with him, but he was
also unarmed. If they wanted to get out of the crypt, they had to
enter the ante room where anyone could be lying in wait to greet
them.

With a
shake of his head, he mentally cursed his own stupidity. He gave
her a warning look and put his finger to his lips.

“
Let me go first,” he whispered. “Stay right where you are. I
am going to go into the ante room to see if anyone is
there.”

Arrabella fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Is all of this
subterfuge really necessary?” She couldn’t see the problem with
just opening the door and walking into the room. Why was he being
so cautious? What did he know that she didn’t?

“
We don’t know who locked that door, or why, but if someone
locked it by accident, why would they have come back to open it
again several hours later? Think about it Arrabella, if someone had
opened the door intending to come down into the crypt, why didn’t
they wake us up?”

Arrabella frowned at that and studied his back as he squatted
down and peered cautiously into the room. She couldn’t quite work
out what, or rather who, he expected to see in the ante room but
was unsurprised when, seconds later, he eased the door slowly open
and vanished into the room and found it empty. Arrabella realised
that she was all alone in the dark and, in spite of his orders,
lurched toward the warmth and safety of the room. She didn’t bother
to look behind her to see if anyone was standing on the steps. She
daren’t, just in case someone was there. Instead, she hurried into
the room and slammed the door closed behind her. The click of the
locks turning beneath the iron key she twisted was a boon to her
ears and she slumped against the door with a sigh of
relief.

“
What?” She demanded when Harper sighed loudly. Her defiant
look challenged him to scold her for her haste, and he
did.

“
Anyone who is lurking in the church has just been alerted to
the fact that we have left the crypt,” he replied dryly.

“
I don’t care,” Arrabella declared firmly. “I am cold. It is
late, and time to go home.”

He
couldn’t argue with that. His suspicion that the church was also
empty was confirmed when he completed a quick, yet thorough,
search. Minutes later, he escorted her outside and was relieved to
find the horse and curricle exactly where he had left them and he
wasted no time escorting Arrabella over to the waiting
transportation.

“
Can I have those?” He nodded to the heavy keys that hung from
Arrabella’s hand and took them off her before he handed her into
the conveyance.

“
What do you want them for?” She glanced at him and read the
look on his face. “Please tell me that you do not intend to come
back here later,” she muttered when he settled down onto the seat
beside her.

She was
more than a little unnerved by the fact that darkness had fallen
outside while they had been trapped. Was she ever going to see
light again? She jumped when the gentle touch of his hand on her
waist drew her closer to his warmth and she settled against him
with a grateful smile that was dimmed a little by his sudden
evasiveness.

He
wished that he had thought to bring a blanket or something but as
they had headed out in the morning, when the sun had been shining
brightly, he hadn’t considered that one would be
necessary.

He smiled wryly and gave her a strange look before he dropped
his head to hers and whispered in her ear. “I need to make sure
that
we
didn’t
lock someone in the crypt, that’s all.”

Her eyes
grew wide and she stared at him in horror before she turned to look
behind them at the dark shadow of the church door. “You are going
back in there alone?”

“
Why? Do you want to come with me?” He was only half-joking.
He had done far worse during his time in the Star Elite, and rather
relished the challenge of coming face to face with the idiot who
was playing silly devils with doors and scaring Arrabella. Still,
he didn’t actually go so far as to say so to Arrabella.

“
Not likely. If I were you, I would wait until morning. Leave
them in there for a few hours. They won’t think being locked in
there is such a good idea if they experience it for themselves for
a bit.” Her cold statement was accompanied by a large shudder that
ran through her when a cool evening breeze chilled her flesh in
spite of his warmth.

“
Come on, let’s get you home. Then I will decide whether to
come straight back here or leave it until morning.”

She
glanced across at his now familiar chiselled features and smiled at
him when he glanced down at her with one brow lifted in silent
enquiry. “What do you want to do about the records?”

“
Well, I think that we have to go back. But –,” he lifted a
hand when she took a breath to object, “- I don’t mind going back
there alone to finish searching those boxes if you really object to
going back down there.”

Arrabella thought about that for a moment. “I have no
objection to going back down, but don’t mind admitting that it
would be immensely reassuring to know that someone was holding the
door open for us.”

Harper
sighed. He didn’t like the thought of them going back into the
crypt without a third person to keep watch at the top of the stairs
either, if he was honest. “Would you come with me again tomorrow?
It means that we have to go back down into the crypt, but we will
make sure that we go armed with a lot of candles and have the
cleaning ladies stay behind to hold the door open for
us.”

Relief
swept through her but she couldn’t make out if it was because he
still wanted her to help him, or whether she had a very good excuse
to see him again.

“
I think that is an excellent idea,” she replied with a firm
nod of approval.

The
amiable silence that settled over them as they rode through the
night lasted all the way to the vicarage. A wave of disappointment
swept through her when he handed her down from the curricle but
immediately released her and stepped back. She didn’t know what she
had been expecting, and tried to keep her disappointment hidden
behind a smile while took his pro-offered elbow and allowed him to
lead her to the front door of the vicarage.

She had
never realised before just how romantic the garden was in the
moonlight. The gentle rustle of the rose bushes released the
fragrant scent of the cabbage roses which mingled with the sweet
fragrance of sweet peas that lined the pathway and gave the
atmosphere a heady feeling of being embraced. The moon chose that
moment to peek out from behind the rain clouds and bathe the garden
in a silvery haze that made it look like a magical kingdom and she
turned to him with a smile.

“
Beautiful,” Harper whispered. Although his gaze was on the
garden, he meant the wonderful woman beside him.

Arrabella merely sighed and threw the front door a reluctant
glance. She knew it would be highly improper to invite him into the
house given that she had no chaperone, but the invitation hovered
on her lips anyway.

“
Goodnight, Arrabella,” he murmured quietly. Her softly
rounded cheek glowed pale in the moonlight and gave her an ethereal
look that made him want to touch her just to make sure that she was
real.

“
Goodnight,” she replied. Her heart began to thump heavily
beneath her breast as she watched his head slowly lower toward
hers. At first she thought he was going to kiss her cheek but, at
the last moment, his head turned and he drew closer to her parted
lips instead. The soft brush of his firm lips against hers captured
her sigh of pleasure but, regretfully, his kiss only lasted a
heartbeat before his head lifted so he could study the classical
lines of her face.

He
couldn’t help it. He knew that he should move away but couldn’t
seem to break free of her tempting warmth. Somehow, over the last
few hours, she had laid claim to his senses and refused to
relinquish her hold, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted her
to.

“
Until tomorrow then,” he whispered and placed a gentle kiss
on the back of her hand.

“
Until tomorrow.”

Their
eyes locked. Neither of them seemed willing, or able, to break the
spell that had woven so carefully, so very easily, around them.
Harper had no idea what had just happened this afternoon but knew
with absolute conviction that the woman before him had suddenly
become very important to his future. He wasn’t going to leave until
he knew that she would be alright until he could be with her again.
That thought was enough to make him glance around the garden again,
but this time study it a bit more carefully.

“
Where does your housekeeper live?”

Arrabella pointed to a small house on the edge of the woods
to the left of the property. “Over there. She will call by first
thing in the morning.” She had no idea why she had told him that
but she didn’t have any hesitation in trusting him with the
information.

His next
words prompted her into motion. “I will wait until you are
inside.”

With a
guilty start, she mumbled an apology and pushed the door open
behind her. She felt such a fool. All the time she had been staring
at him with doe eyes, waiting for his kisses, he had been politely
waiting for her to go inside so that he could leave. After one
last, lingering look at him she slowly closed the door.

She
slumped against it to wait for her beating heart to settle into its
normal rhythm. The sound of soft tapping behind her broke the
silence in the hallway and made her squeal in alarm. She didn’t
stop to think and yanked the door open, unsurprised to find him
still on the doorstep.

Before
she could speak, he stepped across the threshold and captured her
head in his palms. She barely had time to draw breath before his
lips descended on hers and swallowed her gasp of surprise. There
was little she could do except clutch at his shirt and hang on for
dear life. A small voice warned her that she should draw away; they
were all alone in the house and she barely knew him, but she
couldn’t find the will, or the strength, to deny him anything. She
felt plundered, branded, and deeply shaken by the wobbliness in her
knees by the time he released her.

“
Lock the door behind me,” he growled before he turned around,
stepped outside, and closed the door behind him.

She
stared blankly at the closed door and wondered what on earth had
just happened. The loud taps on the door broke her out of her
trance and she suddenly remembered what he had told her. She slid
the iron bolt home with a heavy thump, and raced into the sitting
room where she knelt on the cushions of the window seat to watch
him climb aboard the curricle. He glanced at the house as he turned
the carriage around and lifted his hand as though he could see her.
She waved back and remained where she was until he had disappeared
from view.

It was
only when she climbed into bed later that she realised that not
only was she still smiling, but she hadn’t bothered to light a
candle and wasn’t all that worried about the darkness any
more.

Harper
was half-way home by the time he realised that he should have
checked for intruders before he left her. If he hadn’t been so
bemused by their kiss he would have remembered to protect her
properly. It was an amateurish mistake to just drop her off at the
door and then leave her. His vicious curse broke the silence and he
briefly contemplated going back to check the doors and windows from
the outside, but he didn’t want to scare her if she was still up
and about. Still, his conscience wouldn’t settle until he knew that
she was safe. Without further thought he clicked the horse into a
trot.

It was
nearly midnight by the time he had stabled his horse and returned
to the vicarage on foot. The house was encased in darkness, but he
knew from past experience that it didn’t mean that there was no
threat of danger. Now that he was there, although he couldn’t see
anything untoward, his gut instinct warned him that danger was
afoot.

Why had
someone seen fit to lock them in the crypt only to let them out
again? Were they trying to warn him off attempting to find the
information he was after? Had it been carefully orchestrated to
frighten them away from Moldton church? If so, why? Had the
Cavendish brothers got anything to do with it? He quickly dismissed
that thought as ridiculous. They had come to him with the
information about his birth right; there was no earthly reason why
they would try to stop him finding proof of their claims. Had the
incident been something to do with Arrabella? He quickly dismissed
that possibility as absurd. Nobody as beautiful and kind as
Arrabella would ever have enemies. It just wasn’t in her nature to
annoy people. Right now, he simply had no idea what to think. One
thing he did know was that the urge to protect her was so strong
that he couldn’t ignore it.

It was
why he found himself standing in the middle of the night watching
the vicarage when he should have been in his nice warm bed fast
asleep. He leaned back against the thickest tree he could find and
settled in to wait.