“Shit,” she cursed and rolled out of bed. If Derrick were a trap, he was one that she walked into with eyes open. And one that could cost her the Guard.
Chapter 30
THE EARL OF KESMERE
NEW BEGINNINGS
Derrick read the note that Byran and Isabella were delayed another day with guilty relief. He hadn’t meant the night before to go the way it had, and he’d left Rhiol without knowing where he stood with Arinna or where he wanted to. And the morning had given him little chance to figure that out.
An engagement for brunch with a fellow soldier from the Guard, one who’d helped build Derrick’s current network of information, had been made because Byran and Isabella would be gone. He never expected to regret the appointment or to find his attention wandering. Home again to find his houseguests delayed another day, Derrick simply felt happy not to have to face Byran quite yet. Sorting things out with Arinna first would help. But as Derrick considered calling her to see if they could talk, his gaze fell upon an open invitation to a garden party. It was one that he’d accepted, and it was today. He groaned, thought of sending his regrets and finally headed upstairs to find something suitable to wear. If he hurried, he’d not be so late as to be rude.
The summer afternoon buzzed with summer insects enjoying the heat. Lack of sleep and little time to rest combined with the warmth of the day made Derrick regret his decision to attend the event, even if the estate were nearby. For one of the few times in his life, claiming a sudden fit of not feeling well to leave early would be a true excuse. But his promise to stay only an hour dissolved as he entered the garden. Across the scattering of tables, Arinna stood talking to Dame Hife. Derrick’s grogginess evaporated.
He had to give his thanks for the invitation, which kept him distantly admiring her and the gauzy summer dress that showed off her legs. When she glanced over and saw him, she nearly dropped her wine glass as she blushed. Her reaction made him laugh, as well as surfacing nervousness. There was no guarantee she’d be pleased with how things went.
He was still seeking a sense of balance when he approached her with two glasses fifteen minutes later.
“I was afraid you’d have dropped yours by now,” he said, handing her one. She blushed again while taking it. Derrick took it as a good sign that she didn’t throw it at him.
“It is good to see you, my lord earl,” she said, tone too neutral to read. “I thought you had other plans today?”
“I’d nearly forgotten this,” he admitted. “But my plans were just for the morning. Actually Isabella and Byran were to have returned by now and to have come as well, but they were delayed another day.” The words came without effort in contrast to the uncertain energy he felt barely able to restrain. He watched Arinna, trying to read anything in her manner. But unlike most times they’d been together of late, she was closed off from him. No humor marked her face as she barely glanced his way as if politely bored.
“Would you walk with me?” he asked, choosing to rid himself of worry directly. He could still leave. The knot in his stomach certainly added to the excuse.
Arinna hesitated, which didn’t help Derrick’s nerves. But she took his arm, and they skirted around the edge of the garden, barely talking to each other. Derrick nodded instead to other guests he knew, looking for the closest path to somewhere private. When they were finally out of sight of the main gathering, Arinna slipped from his arm and walked ahead. She stopped under an ancient wisteria dripping with flowers. Derrick approached cautiously, feeling as on guard as he did when she held a sword.
“I’m not sorry for last night,” he said without thinking out his words. Now, finally, she smiled at him.
“I really never know what you are going to say,” she said. She met his gaze. “Nor I. But it cannot happen again. We shouldn’t have ...”
She finished her sentence with a blushing smile before looking away with a shrug. It was an expression of unexpected joy, one that he had never seen on her face. Without meaning to, he stepped closer.
“It wasn’t a mistake,” he told her, aware of how she shifted to face him and the tilt to her chin as she looked up into his eyes.
“Perhaps,” she said, but her voice lacked fight. “What we risk, I risk, isn’t merely my reputation.”
There were only a few inches between them. Her gaze brushed his lips before she closed her eyes. His fingers tingled with a desire to touch her. Derrick, at least, had his answer to what seeing her would bring. By the look of it, Arinna felt something similar, even if she fought the idea.
“It is a rumor we started and have lived with for a month. So what if we’ve made it real?” he asked quietly, brushing his fingers along her cheek.
She leaned into his touch. Their lips brushed before a crunch of a footfall on the gravel path nearby caused them both to jump. Derrick stepped back as a young couple, gazes lost in each other, drifted by seeking a quiet nook of the garden. Arinna watched them as they left, amusement and conflict on her face.
“The way this is going, I shall have to not see you at all to avoid doing something immodest.”
“The Captain will be disappointed,” he answered. “As will I. Of course, the other option is to admit we are lovers and see where this leads.”
“Are you saying last night wasn’t a one-time event?” she asked, offering her hand. Accepting it drew him closer again.
“It doesn’t have to be. I don’t want it to be.” He waited.
Arinna gave a slight shake of her head. “You are far more trouble than I expected,” she told him before stepping closer.
Her lips found his. The kiss she offered was hesitant at first but slid into warmth that formed an ache deep in his stomach. She tasted of the summer white wine, and he could smell the wisteria blooms around them, but most of his senses were lost in the warm press of her lips and a kiss that held more than passion.
He held her a moment when it ended, trying not to tremble in some unmanly way. “I think you’ll cause me far more trouble than I you,” he said hoarsely. He really hadn’t expected to feel this way.
It took a few more minutes before they stepped away from each other, Arinna brushing out her dress. He offered his arm so they could walk back to the party together though his pace was slow and the day felt surreal.
“Come to Kesmere tonight?” he asked, adding quickly, “for dinner.”
Her smile had an amused edge. “No Byran?” He shook his head, not ready to think about the conversation he’d need to have with his friend. “I really can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes. I’d love to.”
He kissed her hand before anyone noticed them and then spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to pretend like it was a normal day and that his thoughts were not scattered completely.
By unspoken agreement, they rode to Kesmere in Arinna’s carriage, Derrick tying his horse Cobalt to the rear. They’d barely made it to the main road before the privacy got the better of them. He wasn’t even certain who kissed the other first, but knowing that they had the night ahead, hopefully, many nights ahead, spawned slow, sensual kissing that erased the world completely.
“Perhaps we should rethink this,” Arinna said as his lips slid down her neck. He paused, still too unsure of the situation to trust it as real. “This is not suitable clothing for evening,” she added. Derrick chuckled, his smile taking a wicked turn that made her blush. “You have employees,” she pointed out. “Kesmere is not Rhiol. There will be talk.”
He took her hand, sitting next to her as he tried to slow too rapid a heartbeat. “There already is talk. Besides, you’ve borrowed clothing there before,” he pointed out. Her frown reminded him of whose. “Probably not appropriate,” he agreed.
Byran, Danielle, the rumors she feared, there were problems ahead, ones that he simply didn’t want to acknowledge. Not yet. Not while this was so new.
“Kesmere or Rhiol? I’ll go wherever you want,” he said, instead. “The rest and I admit there are things to be dealt with, can wait a day or tw
o.” He traced a line from her cheek to her lips. “But this isn’t going to be something that will stay hidden. There will be talk.”
He couldn’t bring himself to ask if she could accept that. Instead, he watched her think. “Kesmere,” she said at last. “I’ve seemed to have already thrown good sense to the wind.” He kissed her again.
For lack of anything suitable, she wore one of his shirts in the morning. He admired the length of her legs beyond where the shirt ended very immodestly on her upper thigh. With buttons open to reveal enough of her chest to distract any potentially coherent thought, Derrick simply asked for breakfast to be brought to his room.
“I think I could spend the day in here with you,” he admitted.
She answered first by kissing him. “I thought Byran returned today,” Arinna pointed out after.
Derrick groaned. “I should send word I am ill and to stay away.”
Arinna chuckled. “That could buy us a few days.” She nestled against him. “I’ll come back if you like. It isn’t fair you tell him alone.”
“But that means you are planning on leaving.”
Her laughter rolled deep and made him wish they really could spend the day together as they were, barely clothed and intimate in mood. Instead, within half an hour, Arinna put back on her afternoon dress and took a riding coat to wear over it. She’d sent her carriage home the day before and so borrowed a horse as well to ride to Rhiol through the more discreet trails. She left with a promise to return after lunch. For all the years he’d spent at Kesmere, Derrick had never felt it so empty as he waited.
Byran and his family returned first. Santi and Cerilla spilled to the ground from the carriage, continuing an apparent fight. Isabella stepped down with a sigh and kiss on the cheek for Derrick. Byran rolled out last, squeezing the bridge of his nose as if he harbored the worst headache in the world. Derrick guessed he could have announced he’d married while they were away, and his friends wouldn’t have noticed.
“Drink?” Derrick offered, guiding Byran houseward with a hand on his shoulder.
“Please,” Isabella said.
“How was the trip?” Derrick asked brightly. Byran groaned.
Byran and Isabella had changed and were relaxing in the shade of the garden before Arinna joined them. Seeing her emerge from the back of the estate, Derrick rose to his feet before pausing. He couldn’t remember how he would have greeted her two days before. Arinna tossed him an amused glance before accepting a hug from Isabella and bending to kiss Byran’s cheek.
“My lord earl,” she said as a greeting to Derrick, laughter in her voice. Derrick offered her a chair, using it as an excuse as to why he’d stood. “How was your visit?” Arinna asked.
Isabella sighed as Byran launched into a detailed tirade on children fighting, their demands to ride a horse instead of in the carriage, and restlessness.
“Why don’t you let them?” Arinna said. “Truly, take an extra horse or two and let them swap riding rather than sitting. It sounds like it would be a relief to everyone.”
“I have a mind to make them walk when we leave in three days,” Isabella said.
“Leave?” Arinna asked. “You are going back to the continent already?”
“No. A trip down the coast to see a bit of the countryside,” Byran said with a groan.
“My idea, I admit it. I’m hardly over here. I regret the thought already, dear,” Isabella said to Byran.
“I’m liking the idea of an extra horse,” Derrick said. “I’ll be taking one for myself at least.”
“You are not leaving me in the carriage alone with your offspring,” Isabella said to Byran before he could speak.
“You are going as well?” Arinna asked Derrick.
“They’ve asked me to play tour guide,” Derrick said, holding her gaze a moment longer than needed. He’d forgotten the pending trip until Byran’s return and mention of it. Derrick caught Isabella watching him as he looked away from Arinna.
“You should come with us,” Byran said to Arinna.
“Oh, you do make it sound delightful, but I spoke to Captain Vries while I was at Rhiol. I need to leave for a few days myself,” Arinna replied.
“You should come with us,” Derrick said, repeating Byran’s offer. “It would be expected and would make a good cover. You are gone too much without explanation.”
“Why is it expected?” Byran asked.
“Because they’re dating,” Isabella answered.
Byran froze, narrowed gaze pivoting between Arinna and Derrick. “For real or pretend?”
“For real,” Arinna answered.
“I ask you if anything happened while we are gone, and you shrug,” Byran said to Derrick.
“I didn’t know where to start,” Derrick admitted.
Byran took a deep breath, letting it out as he sat back in his chair. “I already told you my opinion on that. Don’t look so nervous.” He paused. “And now would be the time to offer drinks.”
“You had an opinion on this as well?” Arinna asked.
“He thought it better than some of my other choices,” Derrick told her.
“Well, there is that.” Isabella prodded her husband. “You love them both. You should be happy.”
Byran offered a half smile. Derrick would have thought it sarcastic with everything that had come before, but a light touched Byran’s brown eyes as his gaze moved from Arinna to Derrick. “It will take some getting used to, but I am actually. Drinks?”
“Already arranged. They are coming.” Derrick shook his head at Byran’s insistence. “And who else has had an opinion on us?” Derrick asked Arinna.
“Captain Vries, of course,” she said.
The last month took on a different outlook with her words. “He set us up,” Derrick said, ignoring Byran’s laughter.
“Yes,” Arinna confirmed, then hesitated. Her gaze drifted to Isabella and Byran. “We need to be careful, all of us. What gave Jared the opportunity was started by someone else.”
“The report I found,” Byran said. “The one that started the rumor of you plotting a coup?”
“It wasn’t an accident, Byran. There are too many plots right now in Europe and beyond. Be careful, wherever you go.”
“Are you really gone from Rhiol that much? Where?” Isabella asked at Arinna’s nod.
“We have never stopped fighting the FLF, not outside of Europe. Though for the first time since the war left the continent, I have pulled the Guard back to our borders.”
“Why?” Byran asked, sitting up.
“Because we are spread too thin and pursued the FLF beyond what we can sustain.”
“Not because we are safe. Not because the war is over?” Isabella asked.
“No,” Arinna said quietly. She looked at Derrick, and he read worry in her eyes. He took her hand, pulling her close for a moment.
“There are things spoken of here that you cannot repeat,” Derrick said to Byran and Isabella. “Some of them I should have told you a long time ago.” Apparently, it was going to be a day of confessions.
Chapter 31
CAPTAIN JARED VRIES
FINDING THE ENEMY
Jared and Arinna watched the satellite feed scrolling the image of a landscape of farmlands, rivers, and forests across the main monitor in Guard Command.
“Where is this?” Arinna asked Kehm.
“What was northern Mongolia,” he replied between sips of his coffee.
“Do you want to run recon flights?” Farrak asked. The awe in his voice unnerved Jared. He flicked a glance sideways, seeing Arinna hesitate. She didn’t like it either.
Farrak had been a double agent between Israel and Palestine before the war. There were times talking to him that Jared wasn’t sure if Farrak had known whose side he had really been on. His dark eyes and hair with permanently tan skin reminded him of the Bedouin tribes, but Farrak would only shrug noncommittally at his ancestry. And that was Farrak, nothing fazed him. Jared had never heard amazement or fear fro
m Farrak, not until today.
“Makes me wonder what the FLF must think when they look at pictures of Europe,” Jared said. Arinna glanced at him where he leaned with arms and ankles crossed. Jared refused to be openly awed or intimidated by what they witnessed on the screen. This was the home of their enemy. If anything, Jared was happy they’d finally found it.
“You think they have satellites?” Kehm asked, tensing to attention.
“You think they don’t?” Jared shot back.
Arinna frowned. “If they have this much agriculture and stability, we must assume they have other technology,” she said, agreeing with Jared.
“But most of their weapons have been outdated,” Gabriella countered.
“Because that is what they have a ready supply of,” Arinna said. “When we find wherever they are shipping that much produce too, we’ll have a better idea of what they are capable of. And until then we lay low. No recons. I’m not showing off our planes or letting the FLF know we are close to finding them.”
“Crystal City,” Kieren said.
“That is one of them,” Farrak replied. “At least we are getting close to at least one.”
Arinna dismissed her lieutenants. Jared knew that didn’t include him the same way Kehm stayed in Command while the three walked out talking. Of course, Jared doubted anything would make Kehm leave Command, even an incoming strike.
“If it is FLF,” Jared said, voicing an idea he’d held back. “Until we confirm it, I think we should assume it could be any government. The FLF soldiers couldn’t point to any of the three cities on a map. For all we know, China could still exist.”
“Exactly,” Arinna said. “Come on, we should get going.” She nudged Jared’s foot with her boot.
“Where are you going? Back to Rhiol?” Kehm asked. Jared cocked his head at her.
“No. We are heading out to talk to some of the FLF prisoners, and then we’re flying to Mongolia to do some recon,” she answered.
Jared grinned as he slid to his feet, Kehm frowning at both of them. “I thought you said you didn’t want the dactyls to be seen,” Kehm argued.
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