‘I was always going to leave,’ he said, watching her flinch. ‘What happened between us at Vauxhall was a temporary diversion. You must never forget that. You will find that it changes the way you think of me. It will be easier that way.’
He had expected there would be tears. If there were, she was too proud to shed them in front of him. Without another word or a look in his direction, she stood and walked back into the house, closing the door behind her rather than slamming it.
* * *
He was leaving.
Not today, or tomorrow. But it was clear that the time in Vauxhall, which had been a profound experience for her, had meant little or nothing to him. He was casting her off after a few kisses, pretending that he felt nothing for her. Perhaps she was as naïve as he thought she was. But she was sure there was something more between them than the diversion he deemed it.
She had known it since the kiss he’d claimed was to stop her hysterics. A man who did not care would have slapped her, or at least given her a good shaking and a whiff of hartshorn. He had kissed her because he’d wanted to, the same as he had done at Vauxhall. And now he wanted to pretend that it would be as easy to end it as it was to start.
Hugh was just the same, claiming he wanted to forget what had happened when, actually, he had attempted to take revenge as soon as Liv was safely out of the way. It made things doubly dangerous for Michael that she had revealed her feelings for him at breakfast by using his proper name.
Everyone seemed to think she could take it all back and return to the way things were before she had met Michael Solomon. Perhaps she should try. Then she would not feel like a fool when she looked at Michael, nor would Hugh have reason to kill him.
She walked slowly up to her room, trying to imagine a life without Michael in it. He had been with her only a few weeks. Surely he was not indispensable. She had survived before without him. Without chess and conversation. Without laughter at Gunter’s. Without kisses in the dark.
She had been going blindly forward towards her imagined happy marriage to Alister, sure life would be better than it had been here. But the last time he had taken her away from the house he had frightened her nearly to panic and had not even noticed. And the closer they’d got to elopement, the more nightmares she’d had.
Hadn’t Michael told her that her choice was unworthy? Perhaps if Hugh had said something more than no and allowed her to go about with Alister, she’d have given him up years ago.
Instead, she’d had to meet a true gentleman to learn the difference between a man who was wrong for her and one who was right. She smiled. She knew what she wanted; now she simply had to convince Michael.
When she arrived at her room there was a letter placed squarely on the pillow of her bed. She frowned, knowing it was probably a note from Alister, outlining his next attempt at taking her away. It had no direction on the outside, or any other indication of the sender. It was sealed with red wax stamped with a rose and not the A signet she had seen hanging from the fob of Alister’s watch chain.
She cracked the seal and unfolded the paper to see the words.
STAY AWAY FROM SOLOMON
She stared at the single line, printed in a large childish scrawl, and felt the room begin to tilt under her. The ink was red as blood, spattered in gory spots at the bottom of the page where a signature should be. The pen had gouged the paper on the downstrokes, making a series of open wounds.
Her breath was coming quickly, leaving her dizzy, and she grabbed the bedpost, eyes closed, gulping air until the urge to faint had passed. It was only ink. She, of all people, knew the difference between drying blood and an attempt to frighten.
‘Molly!’ She shouted for her maid, relieved to make a noise in anger, rather than the smothered scream of her dreams.
‘My lady?’ The girl was there in a moment, eyes wide with fear at the sight of her mistress, still pale and clinging to the furniture.
‘Where did this come from?’ She shook the paper in the air.
‘A lady on the street,’ the maid whispered. ‘She handed it to me and said it was to come to you and no one else.’
‘A woman?’ she said, surprised.
The girl nodded. ‘Did I do wrong? I thought it might be from Mr Clement.’
She was not even supposed to know about Alister. But Liv should have known it was impossible to keep a real secret from one’s maid. ‘You did nothing wrong,’ she said, pleased that she was able to gain control and keep her voice steady. ‘Describe the woman, please.’
‘I do not know,’ Molly said with a worried shake of her head. ‘I met her on the way back from a visit to my sister at Enderland’s manor. Yesterday was my half day.’
Liv nodded encouragingly.
‘She was cloaked, even though the day was warm. I think her hair was dark, but I am not sure.’
‘Not sure.’ She made one frustrated circuit of the room, then tossed the paper into the fire, watching it catch on the banked ashes and wither to nothing. ‘If you see her again, do not accept any more notes from her.’
‘Very good, my lady.’
Liv waved the girl away with a swish of her hand and stared at the ashes, thinking. Though Michael had said nothing of it, it appeared she had a rival for his affections. He was not married, she was sure. Nor was he seriously engaged. He had been far too honourable in their dealings so far for her to believe that he would play another woman false.
But the letter had decided her course of action. If she let things go back to the way they had been before she had met him, she would be all alone. And he would be lost to some dark-haired beauty with a hot temper.
She would prove to Hugh and Michael how wrong they both were. Hugh had given up trying to control Peg once she was married. If Liv could tie the knot before her brother realised it, he might have to concede. And if she wanted that marriage to be with Michael Solomon, she would need to get him alone and thinking about something other than the performance of his duties.
She smiled.
Perhaps it would be better if she forced him to do his job. If she ran, he would chase. It was what he was paid to do. Once he caught her, there would be the long hours together as he tried to bring her home. In that time, she would make him see the wonderful future that was possible if he would see her as a woman and not a responsibility.
She had but to choose the place, the time and the reason. She had promised that she would not decamp for at least a week, but promises were made to be broken. She must give it enough thought to have a decent plan.
* * *
Six days later, Liv placed a packet under her pillow, scrawled a note to Michael and then donned her simplest gown and walked out through the front door of the house, towards Scotland and freedom.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘What do you mean, she is gone?’ Michael ran a clawed hand through his hair, baffled as to how things could have spun from his control without his noticing.
For nearly a week Liv had been as obedient as he could have hoped. She had greeted him politely when she had come into the garden to feed the dogs, but she had made no more attempts to engage him in conversation. Nor had she flirted with him or made any effort to contact Alister Clement.
If he was honest, it was a little insulting. He had told her to forget about what had happened in Vauxhall, but he had not thought she would do it so easily. He’d put his best effort into the kisses he’d given her, and her response had kept him awake at night in his empty house, imagining an impossible future with her in it.
It enraged him to think that, after what they had done together, she was still able to think of Clement. She had promised him a week of peace. Instead, she had used the distance he’d placed between them to plot with her lover in secret. And he had been working so hard at staying out of her way and maintaining control over his unruly emotions that he’d let her trick him.
&nbs
p; ‘Damn the woman!’ he exploded.
The maid jumped in terror.
‘What time did you miss her?’ he demanded, changing his tone to something less likely to frighten the girl to silence. ‘No one is blaming you for this, mind. I just need all the information I can gather to find your mistress and bring her home.’
‘I went to wake her this morning, and she was nowhere to be found,’ Molly the maid said, near to tears. ‘I came to the room at nine, as I always do. And put her to bed at midnight.’
‘Very good,’ Michael said in an encouraging tone. ‘And does the Duke know she is gone?’
‘He did not come home last night,’ she said.
Michael breathed a silent sigh of relief. It would be better for all concerned if Liv was back in the house before the Duke turned up. ‘And you saw no one, other than Lady Olivia? There was no sign of Clement?’
‘None,’ the girl said. ‘But she left you a note.’
He held out a hand, snapping his fingers impatiently.
It was a single piece of elegant lady’s stationery, folded and sealed with his name on the outside. On the inside was a single line.
Please take care of my dogs.
That was as clear a message as she needed to send. She had run off with Clement again and did not intend to be back. But how had he got a message through to her? Michael had been watching the post and Liv had not been out of the house since their trip to Vauxhall. He signalled to the maid again. ‘Take me to her bedroom. We must search for clues to her whereabouts.’
It took less than a minute to find the bundle under the pillow on the bed. He unfolded the scrap of the mail coach schedule, wrapped around a silver brooch formed in the shape of a rabbit. He scanned down the list of stops on the schedule until he came to the Silver Hare.
The packet was small enough to be pitched unnoticed over the fence or slipped into a basket of groceries and had she bothered to separate the two items he’d not have made the connection between them. All in all, it was a clever way to get her to where she needed to be.
He dropped the clues into his pocket and ran for the stairs, calling for the same fast horse that he had taken north the last time he had caught her. Then he set out for Scotland.
The inn he was heading for was two stops further than they had made it thus far, and an overnight stay was inevitable. But it was not too late to keep her from sacrificing her virtue to bind Clement to her, once and for all. He would ride out and save her...
He flinched. His thoughts had drifted to what might happen afterwards. Would there be another night of lying next to her, just out of reach as his body hardened and hers shuddered on the brink of climax? Perhaps, for the return trip, he could procure a private carriage where they might be alone for hours and hours.
He had told her that there was no future in what they had. If he meant to get her back home safely, he had best stop thinking about illicit liaisons. He must not put his wants and desires above those of his employer.
But what if the desires of his employer were not in the best interests of Olivia Bethune? If she was correct and Scofield was trying to kill him, it would not be right to leave the woman he...
He stopped himself and took a deep breath to clear his head and block the words he had been about to think. He was very fond of Liv, nothing more. All the same, he did not want to leave her in the care of a murderer, just because the man was paying him to keep her at home. First, he would get her away from Clement. Then he would find a new, safer place for her to live.
That decided, he spurred his horse in pursuit.
* * *
It was much easier to get away from her brother when she did not have Alister helping her and it amazed her that she had not tried it before. She waited until five in the morning, when the night guard was ending his shift. Then she put on her simplest gown and went down the back stairs to the kitchen. She made an excuse to the scullery maid who was building up the fire, telling her that she was going to see if Cleo was whelping.
Then she borrowed a maid’s cloak from the pegs by the door and grabbed a basket from the table. In this simple disguise, she walked through the unguarded gate like a maid on her way to the greengrocer.
As she passed out onto the street she felt a thrill of freedom that she had not felt on previous elopements. No matter what happened later today, she had finally done something for herself. It made her happy in a way that each successive escape with Alister had not.
What did it mean when one was happier alone than with the man one intended to marry? It seemed that she should have sent Alister away some time ago. Just as Michael had said, her feelings for the man she thought she loved were nothing more than habit.
What she felt for Michael Solomon was something quite different. Now that she was alone, she had choices. She could search out her sister and ask for protection. Or she could continue on her journey, confident in the fact that Michael would come to bring her home. But there was no choice really. She would be catching the mail coach as planned. Even if she was dragged back and locked in her room for the rest of her life, she would have a few precious hours unchaperoned with Michael and that was worth any risk.
She walked through London until her feet ached and she had reached the Swan with Two Necks, then bought passage north. She made sure to lower her hood and smile at the ticket seller. If Michael was not able to find the clues she had left for him, she would be remembered here and he could pick up the trail and follow the coach road.
* * *
The ride to the Silver Hare took almost a full day, and she was more than a little tired when the inn came in sight. It was well past supper and she had eaten little more than a bun she had purchased before setting out. Her stomach was growling and her body was weary with the jolting of a coach that was not nearly as well sprung as the Scofield barouche.
When the coach pulled to a stop in the yard, she hopped out and signalled to the driver that she was going no further. She had no luggage to ask for, other than the empty basket she had taken from the kitchen. It would have been nice to have packed a bit of bread and cheese, but she had been too excited to eat and had not thought it necessary.
She entered the tap room and looked around her, tired and confused.
‘Lady Olivia Bethune?’ The innkeeper stepped forward to greet her.
‘Yes,’ she said softly, surprised that the man knew who she was.
‘You are expected,’ he said with a nod and a smile. ‘There is a private dining room reserved for you, and a room upstairs, if you would rather go straight to bed.’
‘Dinner would be lovely,’ she said, praying that these courtesies had been arranged by the man she expected.
‘The gentleman is waiting for you in the dining room,’ the man supplied, gesturing towards a door at the back of the room.
‘Of course,’ she said, and allowed him to lead her.
When she arrived at the dining room he was standing with his back to the door, warming his hands by the fire. He did not need to turn for her to know who it was. She could feel the rush in her blood at the sight of him, his broad shoulders and narrow waist, and the golden blond hair that she had imagined in candlelight on the first day she’d seen him, napping in the garden.
But, even beyond that, there was the same inappropriate tugging feeling in her heart, as if she belonged standing at his side and not observing him from a distance. It was unwise to feel such things when she was not sure that he could feel them in return, but she could not seem to help herself.
‘What are you doing here?’ she said once they were alone, trying to sound impatient rather than relieved.
‘I am doing what you want me to,’ he said, turning to face her. ‘I have come to take you home.’
‘What have you done with Alister?’ she said, wishing that her voice sounded more convincing.
‘I did not do anything to
him,’ he said with a smile. ‘According to the guard I set on him the last time you eloped, he is still in his rooms on Jermyn Street.’
‘You are watching Alister?’ she said, shocked.
‘It is easier to predict these outings when the one who organises them is under observation,’ he replied. ‘But he did not plan this particular trip, did he?’
She shook her head.
‘Where did you get the rabbit brooch?’ he asked. ‘It was a very clever touch.’
‘From my sister’s jewellery case,’ she said, smiling. ‘I wanted to choose something that Molly would not immediately recognise.’
‘Well done,’ he said with a nod. ‘And of course, since it is too late to return home, I have had to reserve a room for you.’
For us, she thought urgently.
‘What were your plans, upon taking this trip?’ he said, folding his arms in front of him like a stern schoolmaster in front of a wayward student.
She thought for a moment and was surprised by the answer that was now clear in her mind. ‘At first, it was to have you chase me. You said there would be no more conversations between us, and that I should treat you like I had all the other guards and ignore you. But I do not feel the same way about you that I did the other guards. I could not ignore you, even if I tried.’
His expression softened. And then he said, puzzled, ‘At first?’
‘The further I got from home, the more sure I became that leaving was the right thing to do. The memories there...’ She closed her eyes and took a breath. ‘I have nightmares about Father, and sometimes, thinking of Hugh, I get so frightened that I can hardly breathe.’
‘In time, it will grow easier,’ he said, sounding sympathetic.
Harlequin Historical September 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 Page 16
