by Wendy Vella
He looked from her down to the driver who waited at the base of the stairs, and then he nodded.
“Yes, a very merry party, Miss Belmont.” His voice was flat and serious and his eyes were now leveled on Claire.
“That will be all now, Toddy, as you can see I am no longer alone,” she said, dragging her eyes away from his to address the driver. Toddy gave her a bow, and in seconds, was in the seat and driving the carriage away.
“May I be of assistance, Lord Kelkirk, Miss Belmont?”
“Not at this moment, Wernham, thank you,” Simon said. “If you will just give us a few minutes of privacy, I shall let you know if you are needed.”
The butler closed the door quietly, and Claire now stood on the doorstep alone with Simon.
“You’re pale, Claire. Why?”
She closed her eyes as he brushed the pad of his thumb beneath them. Unlike her, he liked to touch and be touched–put a hand on a friend’s shoulder or place a kiss on a cheek. Simon Kelkirk liked people to know he cared about them. Claire didn’t want his touch because she needed to keep herself in control, and his kindness would prevent that from happening. Taking a step back, she said, “There is nothing amiss, my lord. I simply wish to make another journey. Now if you will excuse me, I must be on my way.” Turning away, she walked calmly back down the stairs, and then, picking up her bags, she started towards the gates. She had been fooling only herself by thinking she would reach them.
“You think I will just let you walk away from me with your luggage, alone, without either a carriage or servants?”
“Yes,” Claire said, trying to shake off the hand he now had wrapped around her arm. “You are neither my husband nor brother. Therefore you have no say in what I do, so please release me, Lord Kelkirk.”
They were still partially hidden from the road, but Claire knew that if someone moved close to the fence, they would be seen. Therefore it was imperative she made her escape soon and hire a hackney before someone recognized her.
“If you do not give me some answers soon, Claire, I will pick you and your luggage up and carry you into my carriage and drive around until you talk to me.”
She needed to remain in control; if she did, there was a chance she could walk away from here without him. “I would ask that you simply turn your back and let me walk away, my lord. Will you do that? Because I must leave for somewhere at once, as there is not a moment to lose.” Claire had managed to keep her voice calm while her heart thumped loudly in her chest.
“No, Claire, I cannot do that.”
She couldn’t outrun him, and there was no way she could manipulate him, as he was too clever for that. So what was she to do? Claire thought about the child who was reliant on her arrival in Liverpool as she looked at the man before her. She knew he was a good man. Yes, they always appeared to be at odds with each other, and in truth, that was mostly her fault. No one was closer to Eva and Daniel than he, and that was testament enough, surely. She had precious minutes to make a decision before someone saw both of them and her bags, so, taking a deep breath, she said what she had to. “I-I need to do something, alone. It will harm no one. I will return to London soon in perfect health, my lord.”
“No.” He said nothing further, just the one word, yet she heard the strength behind it, and she knew her quest to leave alone was slipping from her grasp.
Claire rarely stuttered when she spoke, nor did she ever physically reach for another person in support, yet now she did both. Dropping her bags, she reached out to him with one hand. “P-please, Simon, I must do this …th-thing. I’m begging you to walk away.”
He caught her hand and placed her palm flat on his chest. She felt him through her gloves–the solid planes of his chest and the steady thud of his heart. A yearning grew inside her. The need to close the distance and rest her cheek on that broad chest was almost overwhelming. “And where will this thing take you?”
She thought briefly of saying nothing further. Then she thought of lying. But neither option would get her where she wanted to go, so she decided on the truth. “To Liverpool. I-I need to get there, my lord, as soon as I can. The matter is extremely urgent, and no one can know I am going–not even my family. Please let me leave. I must, as there is so much at stake…”
Simon could feel the tremors running through Claire’s body. The hand beneath his shook, so he pressed it harder into his chest. What the hell was going on, and why was she here on Daniel’s doorstep when he and his family had left for Stratton thirty minutes earlier?
“Claire, you have no driver. Therefore, I surmise you are to take this journey on a stagecoach or in a hired carriage. You also have no maid, which is not only dangerous but foolhardy for a gently bred woman with little experience of how life outside her world works.”
“I must go, Simon.” Her words were a plea. “Please, I am to harm no one or…or undertake anything illegal.”
He snorted. “I know enough about you to know that, Claire, but I still cannot let you go alone.”
“Oh, but I must–”
“However if you need to go, then I shall take you.”
That surprised her. Her mouth opened and closed. She dropped her eyes to his chest and then lifted them again. “No. I just need a carriage, and then I can get there myself.”
“I will not let you travel alone to Liverpool, Claire. So you let me take you there, or I take you back to your brother.”
He was standing so close to her, he could see the little flecks of green in her eyes and the dark smudges beneath. She was exhausted. Tiredness had made her shoulders slump with fatigue and given her a vulnerable air he had never seen before.
“You would do that? Take me back to my brother if I do not let you accompany me?” Her voice trembled.
“I would, and not because you believe me capable of nefarious deeds, but because you are exhausted and vulnerable and obviously about to do something that involves secrecy and evasion but more importantly, is forcing you to lie to your family.”
“I must-”
“I am your friend, Claire,” he interrupted her again. “I want to help you, and helping you is not sending you off to Liverpool in a carriage alone.”
She bit her bottom lip, which drew his eyes to her mouth. He’d often wondered what she would taste like. Sharp and tart or sweet and alluring.
“I-I…”
“Claire, will you let me help you…please? It is obvious to me that you need someone to support you at the moment, and I know you well enough to realize that if I returned you to your brother, you would just find another way to do whatever it is you are doing.”
Her lashes fluttered closed briefly, almost as if the effort to keep them open was beyond her. “I’m afraid to involve you in this, my lord, as I fear it may go badly.”
“Are you sick?”
Her brow wrinkled as she looked up at him. “Sick? No, why would you ask that?”
“You were upset and scared when you ran into me in that lane, Claire. I thought of many reasons for you to be there, and that was one of them.”
“Will you believe me when I tell you I am not sick?”
He searched her eyes and saw the truth, and the feeling of relief almost made him lightheaded. “I believe you. However if you are not ill, then you went there to meet someone.”
He saw his words confirmed in her eyes.
“Let me go, Simon, please.” The whispered words were a desperate plea he steeled himself to ignore.
“Sorry, but I can’t let that happen.” Taking the hand off his chest, he picked up her luggage and led her back to the house.
“Wernham,” he said through the closed door, knowing the man was on the other side. “I have changed my mind,” he said as it opened and the butler reappeared. “Will you please rouse my driver from your kitchen, where he is indulging himself in cake, and have him bring my carriage around at once. I no longer wish to walk and will be escorting Miss Belmont home, as she has missed the duke and duchess’s departure.”
“At once, my lord.”
“Simon, please.”
He wasn’t sure what she was trying to say, as she did not complete the sentence, but her eyes begged him to understand.
“Claire. I give you my word that you will get to Liverpool as soon as possible. However, I will need to know why, and that I am not placing you in danger before I do so. Firstly, however, I must notify–”
She grabbed the lapel of his jacket with her free hand. “Don’t tell, Mathew, please. He thinks I am with Eva and Daniel.”
“Have a little faith in me, woman.” His voice was gruff as he led her down the stairs to await the carriage. “I don’t like deceiving your brother, but for you, I will do so, or at least until I know what this is about.”
She didn’t speak again, and their ride arrived minutes later. He quickly helped load her luggage and then urged her inside. Following, he shut the door behind them and pulled the curtains closed. “I do not want anyone to see you alone with me when you are meant to be with Daniel and Eva.”
She nodded.
“I must stop at my house and collect a few things, Claire, and change carriages.”
She nodded again but remained silent, and he wondered if she was too scared to speak or too tired. What the hell is going on? Fear and anxiety were written in every line of her body. She was coiled so tightly, Simon wondered if she would shatter if he touched her. She looked broken, and he had never seen her this way before. He’d believed her when she’d said she wasn’t sick, yet whatever this was about was serious enough to make the indomitable Miss Belmont vulnerable.
He remained silent as they journeyed through the streets of London but kept his eyes on her, while hers remained on the hands that were clenched in her lap. She looked the elegant society lady she always did. Her dress was soft and hugged her lovely body, and her bonnet framed her face, yet if one looked closely enough, one would see the desperation.
His house was close, and they were soon pulling up outside. Moving to the edge of the seat, he took her hands, forcing her to look at him. “I want your word that you will sit here and await my return, Claire.”
“I promise.”
“If you run, I will follow, and you will not be pleased to see me when I catch you.”
“I have promised, my lord,” she snapped, making him smile. It was good to see a glimpse of the woman he knew so well. On impulse, he kissed her cheek and then left the carriage.
He ordered Merlin to have his traveling coach brought around and to be ready to drive him to Liverpool. Ben would sit beside him, and both would be armed. Simon wasn’t sure why he wanted his two best coachmen with him. Perhaps because Claire was to be inside. He ordered it to be loaded with food and blankets. After telling his staff he was leaving for a few days, he then broke his valet’s heart, telling him he would not be required for the journey.
“But your neckties!”
“I can tie a bloody knot, Sully. I am not a complete imbecile.” Simon pulled some papers and money out of the locked drawer in his desk, then tucked a pistol into the top of his boots.
“But your boots, my lord–who will clean them?”
“No one, and all who see me will wonder at the capabilities of my valet,” Simon said, trying to think what else he would need. The problem was he didn’t know what was a foot. Therefore he had no idea what to expect or, indeed, what to prepare himself for.
His valet whimpered as Simon grabbed the neckties off him and stuffed them into the case. “You have no brush,” Sullivan said, scampering across the room to grab one.
Taking it, Simon hurled it into the bag beside the neckties. “Now be quiet and fasten that bag. I must leave at once.”
Sullivan muttered of dire circumstance such as missing buttons and dirty cuffs all the way to his front door, which Simon opened and closed firmly in his face.
Claire had not moved and did not utter a word as he opened the door and held out his hand.
“Come, we need to change coaches for the journey.”
They traveled in silence until London was well behind them. He’d thought to give her time to get her thoughts together and feel comfortable in the carriage with just him for company. Hell, he needed the time to think about the change in his circumstances. This morning, his most pressing worry had been whom he would fence with, now Daniel was away. Looking across the carriage, he wondered again what this was all about. Claire wasn’t the sort to take risks or break rules. He’d never seen her
do anything even remotely scandalous until that day in the lane when she’d lifted her skirts and fled from him. Sensing his eyes were on her, she looked up.
“You will have to tell me soon, Claire, as I will not leave you alone until we return to London. I will be present when you reach Liverpool and be with you as you do whatever it is that you intend to do. In fact, you will probably come to think of me as your shadow until I have you safely returned to the bosom of your family.”
“I doubt I will ever again be comfortable around my family, my lord.” He watched as she slowly unclenched her fingers after speaking these ominous words, and then, pushing the curtain aside, she looked through the windows. “Do you think we could open them now?”
He did as she requested and then sat back and waited. She fiddled with her gloves, smoothed her skirts, and finally, she took off her bonnet and placed it on the seat beside her. He knew she wasn’t deliberately trying to delay telling him. She was simply gathering her words.
“I would firstly like to thank you, my lord, for taking me in your carriage when you had no idea what I was undertaking or why. I fear few people would be so generous.”
“Do you know, Claire, I believe that is the first compliment you have ever paid me.”
That produced a small smile, but she did not comment. Instead, she began her story.
“I do not need to ask that you keep what I tell you a secret, because soon you’ll understand the gravity of the situation.” She didn’t speak in the confident, haughty tone she saved especially for him. Her words were husky, almost as if her throat was raw. “The day before I ran into you, my lord, in that lane, I had received a note telling me my brother Anthony–he’s–”
“I know about Anthony, Claire.”
She nodded. “The note stated that Anthony had left something in France and I was to go to Tuttle Lane and meet someone there to collect it.”
“However you ran into me, and that put an end to that.”
She nodded again before continuing. “Do you remember the day you and Eva brought Georgia to visit with me?’
This time, Simon nodded.
“My brother intercepted a note meant for me whilst you were there, and that is why he did not rejoin us.”
Simon said nothing as she fell silent again, her fingers beginning to pleat the skirts of her smooth dress. He was good with silence. He’d had plenty of practice in his youth, and he had soon realized it made people uncomfortable–so uncomfortable, often they uttered the first things that came into their heads, which, in some cases, were the last things they wanted anyone to hear.
“The note said I was to be given another chance, and that Anthony had a child and I was to go to Liverpool to collect it, and if I did not go within the time they stipulated, then it would be abandoned. I have to call it…it, as I have no idea whether it’s a boy or girl.” These last words tumbled out in a breathless rush and they left Simon sitting in stunned silence.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A myriad of scenarios had run through Simon’s head since he had found her on the steps of Daniel’s house, yet none of them had come close to this. He’d had her fleeing from a man her brother had wanted her to marry, and then, on the other hand, fleeing to a man her brother disapproved of. Neither of these had sat well with him.
“And you are going to get the child?” Simon questioned her.
“Yes, because my mother and Mathew will not.” She lifted her chin, and he saw the determination. She would go to Liverpool even if s
he had to ride all the way by donkey.
“And you went to that lane to see these people who have the child, just as you are now to go to Liverpool on your own, with no support, and presumably a vast amount of money tucked away on your person?” Simon hadn’t meant to raise his voice, but he couldn’t believe anyone would attempt anything so foolish alone.
“I had no other choice, can’t you see?” Her hands clenched into her skirts in agitation. “I will not let my niece or nephew be abandoned on the streets of Liverpool. If need be, I will take him or her and disappear to one of my brother’s estates. However I will do this for Anthony, as he would have done for Mathew, were their roles reversed.”
“You were going to travel by stagecoach or hired carriage for a three-day journey to Liverpool,” Simon continued, undaunted by the fact she was upset. Bloody little fool–anything could have happened to her even before she’d left London if he hadn’t intercepted her. “You were to stay with the other travellers dressed like that?” He pointed to her clothing. “Christ, Claire, I had thought you a woman of sense. It appears I was wrong.”
She leaned towards him, her eyes shooting sparks. “Don’t insult me, my lord. I have an old cloak and bonnet to change my appearance. Furthermore,” she added as he scoffed loudly, “I am doing what the circumstances necessitated I do. Should I perhaps have asked my brother’s coachman to drive me, or perchance the butler to book me a ticket on the stage to Liverpool?”
“I do not know Mathew well, Claire, yet he does not seem an unreasonable man. I’m sure he felt he was making the right decisions for his family. Did you try to talk this through with him? What of your mother? She would want to know if Anthony’s child was alive, surely.”
Pain flashed across her face. “My mother does what my brother tells her to, and as he does not believe there is a child, Lord Kelkirk, neither of them will take steps towards checking the validity of the claim. Mathew refuses to see reason. Therefore, he has forced me to take action.
