Harlequin Historical November 2015, Box Set 2 of 2

by Lynna Banning

  There was a sudden explosion overhead, the promised fireworks shattering in a thousand glittering ruby-and-emerald shards. In the burst of light, she glimpsed Luis’s face, distorted beyond recognition.

  She had a sudden thought, something from one of the novels they had read on the long voyage. She pulled off her necklace, her distinctive cameo on its thin gold chain. She dropped it on a low, flowering bush, praying that Sebastian would look for her, find it and realise she had not left the ball willingly. That she realised his warnings were all too real.

  She stumbled deliberately at the edge of the gravelled walkway, trying to slow him down. Luis cursed and yanked her up roughly. Mary managed to step on the hem of her gown, tearing part of the lace flounce and leaving it behind as well.

  ‘Damnable slow, puta,’ Luis growled. ‘Do you want to be the reason I’m forced to hurt my sister? Hurt you? I am not a monster.’

  He yanked so hard on her arm that Mary cried out at the hot jolt of pain. ‘I can hardly run! I’m wearing dance slippers. And why should I co-operate with a brute like you?’

  ‘I said to shut up!’ He swung around, and in a split second Mary saw his fist come up in a flashing, pale arc towards her jaw.

  It was the last thing she saw before a burst of white lights—and then darkness.

  * * *

  The elaborate fireworks of the royal party had already begun when Sebastian arrived. He had intended to be there much earlier, to snatch a quiet moment with Mary, to make her see how he really felt about her, that he could not live without her any longer. That the past was gone and he had to make her see that.

  A packet of delayed letters from London had reached his lodgings just as he tied his cravat. One of them had an account of some Doña Carlota’s new dealings, some of her letters purloined before they could reach her Spanish family—doings that affected all the English in Brazil. He had to protect Mary even more now.

  That knowledge lay on his mind heavily as he hurried up the steps of the Huelgos villa. The orchestra played a waltz as the fireworks shot overhead, their explosions almost drowning out the music. The faces of the crowd were turned up to watch, the sparkling lights gleaming on their jewels, their fine silks and gold embroidery. All the luxury seemed almost unreal after what he had read in the letters.

  He did not see Mary among them.

  ‘Lord Sebastian!’ he heard a woman cry. He spun around to find Teresa Fernandes hurrying towards him though the crowd, not paying any attention to the protests around her as she bumped into them. Her dark hair was tousled, her cheeks bright pink, not her usual Continental elegance at all. He felt a surge of concern.

  She grabbed his arm, her hand tight on his sleeve. ‘Lord Sebastian, please, you must help. He will catch me again and Mary—Mary...’

  ‘Senhorita Fernandes, please, you must slow down and tell me what has happened. I assure you, you are safe now. I have come to find Mary, but it seems she isn’t here yet.’

  She shook her head and sucked in a deep breath. ‘My brother was so angry before we came to the ball. I didn’t want to travel with him, but he insisted, he said he had to talk to his—his friends. I just saw him with Mary and then they were gone! As soon as I could get away, I ran outside to look for her, but I could see nothing. I found this...’ She held out a shaking hand to show him a pendant on a broken gold chain. ‘She was wearing it earlier.’

  ‘Where exactly did you find it?’ Sebastian demanded. The broken links looked as if they had been snapped and he couldn’t help but envision them breaking around Mary’s delicate neck. He clenched his fist, knowing he had to be cold, to get his anger under control if he was going to help her now. It was a battle, just like the ones he had faced as a soldier, but with even greater stakes.

  ‘On the pathway that leads out of the garden, into the hills,’ Teresa said, her voice thick. ‘I fear my brother has been meeting some of his friends there, in some of the caves. They want to talk about finding a way back to Lisbon.’

  A way back to Lisbon—even through the French. ‘What else was she wearing?’

  Teresa blinked hard, as if her mind was too full of fear to remember anything else. Then she shook her head hard. ‘I—A pale silk gown. Blue, maybe? With lace flounces. So pretty. What if—oh, Lord Sebastian, I fear my brother is no longer in his right mind! He is being driven by the thought that his home has been stolen from him. What if he has hurt her? I knew he was planning something tonight. It is all my fault.’

  ‘Senhorita Fernandes, you must help me now,’ Sebastian said firmly. He saw Nicholas Warren through the crowd and waved him over. He came quickly, his freckled face full of concern for Senhorita Fernandes—and for what he also knew was happening in secret with the royal family. ‘I am going now to search for her. Mr Warren will help you here, you must find Miss Manning’s father and have him put together a search party from here. I promise, I will find her and keep her safe.’

  Teresa nodded, swallowing hard. ‘I am sorry, Lord Sebastian.’

  He left her with Nicholas, and hurried out the garden pathway where Teresa said the necklace had been found. There was nowhere Luis Fernandes could hide from him. And if anything had happened to Mary, he knew there was no place where he could hide from himself. He had put her in danger, not kept her safe enough, when he knew what was happening behind the scenes here in Rio.

  But he would find her now and make sure no one hurt her again.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Mary slowly blinked her eyes open. They felt gritty and heavy, as if glued down, and for an instant she couldn’t remember anything. She could just feel a cold hardness beneath her, chilling through her thin gown.

  She sat up slowly, carefully holding her head between her hands, which were bound in a light cord. To her shock, she found that she was stretched out on a stone floor covered with a layer of sand, her silk skirt streaked with dirt, her bare arms cold and aching, as if bruised. Images flashed through her mind—fireworks, gold and green in the night; swirling dancers; Teresa across the room, her face written with desperation.

  Then it all came back to her, like that burst of light from the fireworks. Luis had kidnapped her from the ball. He had knocked her unconscious and brought her to this place. But where was she? What had he hoped to achieve from such a desperate act?

  She felt so dizzy, her head aching and throbbing. She blinked her eyes, trying to erase those flashing lights so she could study her surroundings. It was very dark around her, the only light a filter of moonlight from an opening high above her head, but gradually she could make out rough stone walls that pressed close around her. It looked like a cave, surely one of the looming structures she had glimpsed on her carriage drive with Teresa.

  She shivered with a sudden jolt of fear, but she pushed it away, determined to get away. She seemed to be alone now, surrounded by silence, and she had to use that time.

  Mary pushed herself carefully to her feet, swaying dizzily. She held her breath, wondering wildly if Luis still lurked there somewhere in the darkness? Would he hit her again? Worse—what if she couldn’t find her way out of that place?

  She forced that panic away. Fear would get her nowhere. She had to stay calm, assess the situation in a rational manner. She had watched her father do that for years when faced with diplomatic crises.

  She knew she had to get away, to find Teresa and make sure her friend was safe, to warn her father and Sebastian. That thought gave her a renewed burst of strength. Yes, she had to find Sebastian. First, she had to free her hands. She quickly found a stony, sharp protrusion on the wall and rubbed the cords against it until they frayed enough to free her. There were small cuts on her skin, but she pushed away the sting.

  She took another few steps, then was able to push herself faster. She made out the stone walls around her, which narrowed, then became wider, stone pillars rising in the dis
tance.

  Finally, she caught a glimpse of a faint gleam of light in the distance, brighter than the starlight from the opening overhead. She rushed towards it, hoping desperately it was not some kind of mirage. Her thin slippers caught on the pebbles under her feet, making her stumble.

  At last she tumbled out of the cold, damp darkness of the cave into the night. She found herself on a narrow pathway high above the sea. Below, she could see the house, still lit up for the party, bobbing lights in the hills in the distance. She heard a shout, an echo, as if someone was calling a name. Her name?

  In a burst of hope, she started to run down the winding path, uncaring of her aching feet. ‘I’m here!’ she shouted.

  Until suddenly her path was blocked by a large, solid shadow stepping in front of her on the path. Luis.

  He gave her a terrible smile, a ghost of the smiling grin he had used so often. Mary felt her heart lurch with panic. She backed up, pebbles tumbling down the path towards the sea.

  ‘I am afraid I can’t let you go quite so soon, my dear Senhorita Manning,’ he said brightly.

  Mary tried to back away further, but she found herself backed into a stand of coconut trees. She dared not take her attention from his face, from any waver that might warn her he was going to hit her again.

  ‘I don’t know what you hope to accomplish by keeping me here,’ she said, trying to stay calm. His eyes were so very cold, so flat; she knew he was seized by his cause and did not care who he hurt now. ‘You will be followed here and I can’t help you any more. I have no power in this quarrel, I barely even know the Braganzas and care nothing for their quarrels.’

  ‘But your father does,’ Luis said, still so calm. ‘As does your admirer Lord Sebastian. His family has long been involved in Portuguese dealings, where they have no business. He has been rather a nuisance ever since he took over his brother’s place in the English delegation. Lord Henry Barrett was so much more—amenable to other viewpoints.’

  Mary was aghast. Lord Henry, Sebastian’s brother, who had once been talked of as a possible suitor for her, had been well known for his promising future career in diplomacy. Was he a spy of sorts? ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They said he would soon be posted to Portugal and he was more interested in feathering his own nest as well as helping us. It was most disappointing when he died. Lord Sebastian has made things much more difficult.’

  ‘Then what is it you want Lord Sebastian to hear so very much?’ she demanded. She slid around deliberately so he watched her and did not see the approaching lights.

  Luis frowned. His handsome face was so distorted, he looked like an entirely different person. ‘I will do anything to return to my home! You English—you are only after your own ends, Portugal means nothing to you.’

  ‘You will do anything—even bully your own sister? Kidnap an innocent woman?’

  ‘You are hardly an innocent, Senhorita Manning. You are the daughter of Sir William Manning, one of the architects of this removal to Brazil. You must know more than you would like to pretend.’ She glimpsed a kindling of anger deep in his eyes, a flicker of light.

  She saw the lanterns moving closer up the hill, heard a shout. Time was running out. She suddenly shoved Luis, hoping to catch him by surprise. He stumbled back and Mary took off running as fast as she could.

  ‘I am here! Help!’ she screamed.

  But she did not get far. He regained his balance and caught up with her quickly. He grabbed her hard around her waist, swinging her off her feet. Mary screamed again, twisting around to claw at him, pull his hair. Anything to get away.

  ‘Puta!’ he shouted. He dropped her hard on to the path.

  For an instant, all the breath was pushed from her body. She rolled away, ignoring the pain of the pebbles under her thin gown. She saw him grabbing for her and screamed again.

  Suddenly, he was gone. She pushed herself up and saw through a blurry haze that Sebastian had found her at last. His face was a mask of fury in the moonlight, as he hauled Luis off her and hit him in the face. The two of them were a mere blur as they fought their way across the pathway, Luis slamming Sebastian into a tree only to be shoved away.

  Mary scrambled to her feet, glancing around desperately for a weapon of her own, something to bash Luis over the head with, but there was nothing. Only boulders too large for her to grasp. She peered over the edge of the pathway, praying the lights were closer. ‘Help!’

  But there was no one close enough to hear them. There was only the smell of blood and sweat heavy in the warm air, the sound of shouts. She pressed herself close to the boulder, staring in growing horror at the scene before her.

  ‘I will never let you hurt another woman,’ Sebastian said roughly, out of breath, as he pinned Luis’s arm behind his back, driving him to the ground. ‘Never come near Mary again!’

  ‘She is not important, she never was,’ Luis said with a terrible laugh. ‘Nor was my sister. Women are never important, they never see—you are a man, you must know. If she had died, I would have been happy!’ His free hand suddenly shot out and grabbed a rock. As he swung it up towards Sebastian’s head, Mary screamed, terrified.

  Sebastian ducked and the weight of his body made Luis fall forward. There was a sickening crunch and for an instant she couldn’t see what had happened. Then Sebastian staggered to his feet and Luis was crumpled on the ground.

  Sebastian straightened away from Luis’s body, his face streaked with dust and blood in the faint light. He stepped towards her, his hand held out.

  ‘Darling Mary—are you hurt?’ he said, his voice rough.

  Mary sobbed as she took a stumbling step towards him, hardly daring to believe he was real, that she was safe.

  Before she could touch him, to hold on to him and know he was really there, Luis rose up with a great roar, like a demon night creature. He lunged towards them, a blade raised high against Sebastian’s back. Startled, Sebastian ducked to one side, pushing Mary out of the way. Luis tumbled past him, falling into the darkness below the pathway with a horrible shout that echoed into silence.

  Mary choked on a sob. She ran into Sebastian’s arms, hiding her tear-streaked face against his shoulder. She held on to him tightly, fearing he would vanish in an instant. That this silence, this peace, was false.

  ‘You found me,’ she said, holding on to him as if he was a beautiful dream, sure to slip away into the strange nightmare that had been this night. All foolish arguments seemed like nothing; the past was gone. All that mattered was now, that he was there with her.

  ‘I found you, my darling,’ he whispered against her hair, holding her close. ‘I was so afraid I would lose you all over again.’

  ‘You could never lose me, Sebastian, not now.’ Mary held on to him. She suddenly felt so weak, so exhausted. She shivered and Sebastian quickly removed his coat and wrapped it close around her. It was wonderfully warm, smelling of him, and he seemed to be all around her, keeping her safe.

  The shouts seemed closer, the swaying lights in the night glowing like stars. ‘We are here,’ Sebastian called back. He wrapped his arms around Mary, helping her down the pathway. ‘Don’t look back, my dearest,’ he whispered.

  She did not look as he led her past Luis’s crumpled body and yet it was all still there in her mind. The terrible fear of being alone in the darkness. The coppery smell of blood and fear. And the knowledge of her own strength, which she did not even realise she possessed before.

  Would she ever be free of it again?

  * * *

  Sebastian cradled Mary close in his arms as he carried her along the shore path. She had fallen into an exhausted sleep, her head heavy on his shoulder. She was alive, safe. But his heart was far from at peace. She had been led to that terrible place because of him, because of all the secrets that had lain between them for too long.

  T
here would be no more secrets, ever.

  Mary was surely the bravest person he had ever known. She stood up for her family and friends, facing danger with a stout heart, and he loved her more every time he saw her. Loved her in a way he had never thought possible. She brought a light to his life he’d never had and his heart was full with her. With her smiles and laughter. Those had come far too close to being extinguished tonight.

  He kissed her forehead gently and she sighed and shifted in his arms. She looked like an angel in the moonlight, his angel. He could not put her in danger any longer.

  ‘No more secrets, my darling,’ he whispered. ‘That I promise you.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Sebastian paced the corridor outside Sir William Manning’s library, his hat in his hand, far more nervous than he had ever been before a battle, or even before beginning his diplomatic work. He was going to ask Sir William for his daughter’s hand in marriage—and he could only pray the man would say yes.

  It seemed like the most monumental moment in his life.

  The door opened and one of Sir William’s young secretaries came out. ‘You may come in now, Lord Sebastian,’ he said, before hurrying away with an armload of papers.

  Sebastian took a deep breath and stepped into the room. He had been there before, of course, for his work, and it looked no different. A desk piled with papers and books, the window open to catch a warm breeze from the plaza outside. Sir William rose from his seat and held out his hand.

  ‘Lord Sebastian,’ he said with a small half-smile. ‘I believe I can hazard a guess why you are here today.’

  Sebastian had learned a great deal about how to read people since he had taken up a diplomatic career, but he feared he could not quite read Sir William’s smile. Was it of welcome? Or would he toss him out on his ear? Sebastian could not quite blame him if he did. He knew he had to prove himself worthy of Mary now.