Riley's Sleeping Beauty

by Sherryl Woods

  CHAPTER FOUR

  It was the most difficult phone call Riley had ever had to make. How was he going to explain what had happened to Abby to her family? How would they ever forgive him for being so reckless, for not protecting her every second she was under his care in Mexico?

  He thought up a dozen excuses for waiting, then chided himself for delaying the inevitable. He finally forced himself to pick up the bedside phone in her hospital room. After several false starts with the hospital operator, the call to Arizona finally went through. Receiver in hand, he paced up and down beside Abby’s bed as he waited for someone to pick up.

  Fortunately it was calm, unflappable Mrs. Dennison who answered. She’d always had a soft spot in her heart for Riley, and she was also the least judgmental person he knew. In some ways that made it even harder to break the news.

  “Riley, what a surprise! I thought you and Abigail would be way off in the middle of the rain forest by now. I didn’t expect to hear from you for ages. Are communications there more advanced than I thought?”

  “They aren’t and we were,” he said and then couldn’t think how to go on.

  “Dear, is something wrong? You and Abby haven’t had a fight, have you?”

  “Actually there was a bit of an argument,” he admitted, wondering how she’d guessed. He couldn’t recall ever fighting with Abby before this. She’d always been so easygoing, so amenable to anything he suggested. Her brothers used to say that Abby would follow Riley into the fires of hell, if he asked. They had meant it as a joke. Right now it didn’t seem nearly so amusing.

  He gazed down at her bruised body and sighed. “But the argument wasn’t the worst of it.”

  “Riley Walker, stop mincing words and get to the point. Is Abigail all right?”

  Finally turning his gaze from Abby’s pale face to stare out the window, he forced himself to admit, “She’s in the hospital, Mrs. Dennison. She’s unconscious.”

  “Oh, dear Lord in heaven,” she murmured, part exclamation, part prayer. “What happened?”

  “It’s a long story, but the bottom-line is that she and our guide were attacked by thieves looking for information on the Mayan treasure. Abby got the worst of it. The doctors didn’t think her head injuries were that severe, but she’s not coming around. I thought maybe you or Mr. Dennison or someone from the family ought to be here for her. I’d be happy to make the arrangements and to pay your expenses.”

  She was silent for so long, he was afraid she’d fainted. “Mrs. Dennison? Are you okay? Is someone there with you?”

  “I’m fine, Riley. I was just trying to think of what would be best for Abby. You say the doctors don’t think her injuries are life threatening?”

  “That’s what they say. It’s just that she’s not responding to treatment. They can’t explain it.”

  “Riley, what was the fight about?”

  He couldn’t imagine why that was important. “Does that really matter?”

  “I have a feeling it does.”

  “I wanted to send her home,” he admitted.

  “And she wanted to stay.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What’s the rest of it? Were you with her when she was injured?”

  He had known that sooner or later the truth would come out. He’d hoped for later. “No. She was furious with me. She ran off. Fortunately, she wasn’t alone. She had talked our guide into going with her.”

  “Oh, my. She must have been upset.”

  He didn’t need reminding. “Look, Mrs. Dennison, I could call her fianc;aae, if you think she would prefer that.”

  “No, don’t do that,” she said at once, an odd note in her voice. “I’ll speak to Martin myself. I doubt if he will want to drop everything and fly to Mexico. He never approved of her going in the first place.”

  That was news to Riley. “Martin didn’t want her to make this trip?”

  “He thought it was inappropriate given their engagement. Unfortunately, Martin tends to be a bit stuffy. Just between you and me, I think he is all wrong for Abby, but I haven’t been able to get her to admit it. I was so hoping...”

  “Hoping what?” he asked warily.

  “Nothing, dear. I’m sure whatever happens will be for the best. Let me talk to Mr. Dennison and the family and we’ll let you know later this evening if one of us will be flying down. In the meantime, you give her a kiss from me and one from her daddy and tell her she is to get well at once.”

  He grinned at Mrs. Dennison’s firm tone that implied such an order would be promptly followed by the dutiful Abigail. Apparently she had no idea exactly how willful her daughter had become. He wondered if she would be as taken aback by that as he had been.

  “I’ll tell her,” he promised. “I’ll speak with you later on, then.”

  “Riley?”

  “Yes?”

  “Take care of yourself, too. Don’t go blaming yourself for this. Abby wanted this trip more than anything.”

  He smiled. “Thank you for saying that.”

  “I’m not just saying it, young man. It’s the truth. From the day she got her very first postcard from you years ago, she wanted nothing more than to share one of your grand adventures. She called them quests.”

  “Obviously she spent too much time reading about King Arthur and Lancelot. That must be how she got all those idiotic notions. What I’ve been doing is not nearly so romantic.”

  “You’d never be able to convince her of that. You’ve given her the opportunity to do what she’s always wanted, and we’re all grateful for it. She’s been doing what’s right for the rest of us for far too long. It’s about time she had some pleasure of her own.”

  “But because of me...”

  “Because of you, for the past few weeks she’s been happier than I can recall in a very long time. She loved planning for the trip. She could hardly wait to get on the plane. You’ve given her a great gift.”

  She hung up before he could contradict her, before he could confess how miserable he was that he had spoiled Abby’s happiness by threatening to ship her home again. He didn’t deserve her comfort.

  As he slowly replaced the phone’s receiver, he thought of everything Mrs. Dennison had said. The most surprising of all had been her comments about Martin.

  He gazed down at this woman he’d known for most of his life and wondered if he really knew her at all. “So,” he said softly, “you defied your fianc;aae to take this trip with me. I wonder why, Abby?”

  * * *

  “Why, Lady Abigail?” Riley Walker murmured, looking very nearly as bemused as Abby felt. “Why would you allow such a thing? You cannot convince me that you encourage such attention as a matter of habit. You have every appearance of being a true lady.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving. Isn’t that so?”

  He scoffed at that. “Tell me why you would permit such a kiss. Why would you like to appear less than innocent?”

  “I can’t explain, I’m sure,” she replied, wishing he would simply kiss her again and forget all of these troublesome questions.

  The deliberate attempt to ruin her own reputation had clearly backfired. There was no sign of an irate Earl of Drake. Rather there was simply Abby and her suddenly tumultuous emotions having to face the clearly stunned Earl of Wilton, who—if she’d understood the intent of his question—appeared to be questioning her morals. She couldn’t imagine why he was looking so distraught. Surely it wasn’t his very first passionate kiss.

  She, however, had only dreamed of being kissed like that. And as vivid and richly imaginative as those dreams had been, they had not even come close to the reality. She was quite prepared to experiment again, just to determine if this one time had been a rare, never-to-be-repeated occurrence. She regarded the Earl of Wilton hopefully.

  He, to her chagrin, backed away a step, almost as if she were wielding a hot poker. “You are a most unusual woman, Lady Abigail. I could have sworn you to be as innocent as a babe, but your reaction gives me caus
e to wonder.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. Her gaze narrowed. “What is it you are suggesting, my lord?”

  “There are those who, for their own amusement, might like to see me entrapped by a lady’s wiles. There could be wagers placed in the betting halls even as we speak. Could it be that they have used you as the enticement?”

  Abby was shocked speechless. “You cannot possibly... How dare you, my lord!”

  “Oh, I dare quite a lot,” he said in a low, seductive purr that made her blood run hot. “Perhaps you would care to see just how far I am willing to carry this nonsense.”

  He reached for her far less gently than before and pulled her into an embrace that shocked her with its intimacy. “My lord,” she protested just before his lips closed over hers once more and stole her breath and her reason.

  She was just discovering that the first kiss had been no fluke, that in fact it had been mild mannered compared to this one, when the Earl of Drake finally, belatedly, made his entrance. Though she knew any continuation of this folly wasn’t wise, she found she regretted the interruption more than she could say.

  “Lady Abigail!” The earl’s cry was the sound of a shocked, wounded animal. “What disgrace is this? And you, Wilton, have you no sense of decency? No sense of shame? Do you think nothing of destroying a fine lady’s reputation, or is it only your own pleasure that counts for anything?”

  Abby felt heat climbing into her cheeks under her fianc;aae’s disapproving glare, even though his reaction was precisely what she had counted on. “I am dreadfully sorry, my lord,” she whispered. “I cannot say what came over me.”

  To her dawning sense of horror, the Earl of Drake merely waved off her apology. “My dear, you are not the one at fault here. As anyone who knows you could tell, it is clearly this cad, Wilton, who is to blame for this.” He scowled at the younger man. “There is nothing for it but to arrange a duel. I would not be half a man if I did not defend my lady’s honor against a scoundrel like you.”

  Abby regarded them both with distress. “You cannot mean this, my lord. I won’t have it.”

  “Drake is quite right, my lady,” Riley said, giving his adversary a mocking smile. “A duel is necessary for the honor of all involved.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, this is ridiculous. I thought such things had been outlawed. Besides, this is as much my fault as the Earl of Wilton’s,” she declared, scowling at her fianc;aae. She had never considered that things might go this far. “Can’t you just break it off with me? Declare I am unsuitable and that you are well rid of me? No one needs to be any the wiser about the precise reasons.”

  Both men regarded her with expressions of astonishment. Riley Walker, whose wits she had already discovered to be quite sharp, apparently figured out what she was up to first. She saw the dawning awareness in his shrewd, considering gaze. The Earl of Drake, however, was too busy sputtering about the idiosyncracies of foolish women.

  “She may have a point,” Riley told the Earl of Drake. Now his mocking smile was turned on her. “Perhaps she is not worthy of all this fuss and bother. At the very least if we duel, one of us will lie wounded at the end. I do not intend that to be me. Why not save yourself the pain and further embarrassment by cutting your losses now? No one knows of this incident except ourselves. Explain to any who ask that you have reconsidered the merits of such a match. There will be no scandal, no ruin for the lady and no messy, or quite possibly fatal, injuries.”

  “You sound as if you have considerable experience in this area,” the Earl of Drake said, his expression grim. “But I can see the sense of your plan. Very well. I shall work out the details with your father, Lady Abigail. We shall speak of this no more. I would advise you, however, to stay far away from young Wilton here or face the consequences of a true scandal. Others might not be so generous with their forgiveness as I.”

  “You are most gracious, my lord,” Abby said demurely, trying to keep any hint of relief from her voice or her expression. “I will most certainly take your advice to heart.”

  When Drake had taken himself off, already looking rather pleased with his display of generosity, Abby finally allowed herself a small, congratulatory smile. One fianc;aae duly dispatched. The night’s work had been well done. There was just this one unfinished piece of business. She gazed cautiously at the Earl of Wilton.

  “Thank you for seeing the sense in my proposal,” she said. “There was no need for bloodshed over something so innocent. Now, I believe it best if I do go inside before there is the very talk we sought to avoid.”

  She had taken no more than a single step when his lordship’s fingers grasped her wrist and stopped her in midstride. His grip didn’t loosen even after she had paused.

  “Not quite yet, my lady,” he said in a lethal tone that she found most worrisome. The expression in his eyes was fierce and altogether forbidding.

  “My lord?”

  “We have a few things to discuss, I believe.”

  “None that I can think of, my lord,” she stated emphatically.

  “Then you are quite wrong. Drake may have seen the sense in forgetting this incident because it suited his cowardly purposes, but the reality is that the end to your engagement will cause quite a bit of speculation. Given the length of time you and I have been absent from tonight’s festivities that speculation may well center on me and whether I have caused the ruination of yet another innocent woman.”

  He actually sounded a bit distressed by the possibility. Abby hadn’t considered that he might find such talk hurtful. She had guessed he would be used to it. “I apologize for that, my lord.”

  “Do you really?”

  At his skeptical tone, her gaze shot to his. “Of course. I never meant to do you any harm.”

  “Only to use me, was that it?”

  Abby felt another flush of embarrassment steal into her cheeks. It was true. She had only been thinking of herself and extricating herself from that damnable betrothal to Martin Henry, the Earl of Drake.

  Riley Walker, the Earl of Wilton, regarded her with what might have been a touch of admiration. She found that look extremely disconcerting. Shouldn’t he have been thoroughly disgusted with her just as Drake had been?

  “You might have rid yourself of one fianc;aae tonight, Lady Abigail, but it would appear you are about to be saddled with another.”

  She stared at him in shock. “What? Surely you are not suggesting...”

  “Ah, but I am. If we are to avoid a scandal completely, it seems that I must step in to claim your hand.” He held up the one he’d been holding and brushed a kiss across her knuckles as if to seal the claim. “We will tell the world that our passions simply got the best of us the very moment we met and that true love could not be ignored.”

  “But that’s a lie,” she declared, even as her heart thundered.

  “Is it? I wonder about that. Perhaps you are too inexperienced to understand what happened between us tonight, after all. I, however, am not. I think you will make a most challenging wife, my lady.”

  Panic streaked through her. This was untenable. She did not wish to marry anyone, least of all a man who made her feel all quivery inside, when she needed most to be strong and capable.

  “But I do not wish to marry you, my lord,” she protested. “I do not even know you.”

  “There will be time enough for that,” he said, bestowing a winning smile on her. “The rest of our lives, as they say.”

  She regarded him with astonishment. “You would be willing to take such a risk?”

  “As you were well aware when you chose me for tonight’s game, I will dare almost anything, my lady. I think we may be most suited on that score, don’t you?”

  Abby was about to mount an even stronger protest when she considered what she would be getting with a man like Riley Walker, the Earl of Wilton. He was an adventurer, a man with a brave heart, a man of powerful passions as she knew only too well. Perhaps it would not be so bad to share a life with
a man such as this. Surely his shipping interests would require him to travel extensively. She would at last be able to see the world she had thought beyond her reach.

  “You will continue to travel to the Continent, my lord? You will not give up those daring adventures for which you are renowned?”

  “Would that be your wish, my lady?”

  “No,” she said emphatically. “My wish would be to accompany you.”

  He laughed. “Impossible. The places I go, the things I do are not always fit for a lady. You will have more than enough to do seeing that our children are well-fed and happy and seeing that I am contented.” There was already a lazy, contented sort of possessiveness in his expression as he added, “I am a very demanding companion.”

  Abby reacted with dismay. It sounded no better at all than the life she would have shared with Drake. Were all men such dolts when it came to seeing that women could be their equals in adventure?

  “I’m afraid I must decline, then, my lord,” she said with a surprising amount of regret. “Such a dull life does not intrigue me in the least. If that was what I wished, I would have married Drake.”

  “Oh, I assure you, Lady Abigail, there is no comparison between myself and Drake,” he said with a touch of amusement. “As for our life together, it will be anything but dull. I am quite sure you will see to that without half trying.”

  “But...”

  “No, my lady, it is done. I will speak to your father before the day is over tomorrow.”

  “He will never permit it. Never!” she said, though she wasn’t sure of any such thing.

  The Earl of Wilton seemed amused by her vehemence. “When the choice is disgrace for his beautiful daughter? Of course, he will agree.” He met her gaze evenly, a warning in his. “And do not think that your tricks will work so easily on me. I am not as readily fooled as Drake. No, my dear Lady Abigail, it appears we are quite stuck with one another. I daresay, given time, we will even come to enjoy our fate.”

  * * *

  “Never! Never! Never!” Abby had repeated the same word endlessly ever since that fateful night at the Foxworths’. Unfortunately no one seemed to be listening.