Lord Sebastian's Secret

by Jane Ashford

  “What’s this?” Sebastian said. He bent and picked up a cloth bag from the turf. Opening the drawstring, he looked inside. “Bread and cheese,” he said. “And apples. Some kind of picnic?” He looked puzzled.

  “You’ll pay for this, Hilda,” Georgina said as she tramped down the slope.

  “Where are you going?” said Sebastian.

  Too impatient to follow the long zigzags of the downhill trail, wanting something to fight, Georgina pushed through a thick line of bushes. Between one step and the next, the ground fell away beneath her, and she plummeted into an unseen crease in the earth. Twigs and brambles scraped her hands and arms as she flailed for purchase. The earth was damp and slippery, the slope nearly vertical.

  She bounced and slid, cracked her head on a protruding stone, suffered a deep scratch on the back of one hand, and finally came to rest precariously with one foot wedged into a vee of branches above her head, the other dangling free, her shoulders barely supported by a tiny ledge. There was still vacant space below; she couldn’t see how much. She reached up to try to free her leg, and slipped a little, pulled by the weight of her long skirts. If her perch gave way, she feared her trapped leg would crack. Searching for well-rooted plants, she gripped a bush in each hand and held tight.

  “Georgina!” shouted Sebastian from above. Not for the first time.

  “I’m all right,” she called. “Or…not quite.” Stupid, stupid, she thought. Why hadn’t she looked where she was going? And where had this wretched ravine come from? She’d ridden by here a hundred times and never noticed it. Peering up in the dimness, she saw that it was completely overgrown. It was also only about six feet wide at her level. Impossible to see from the top. Her shoulders slipped again. A lance of pain shot through her leg. She couldn’t help but cry out.

  “Georgina!” shouted Sebastian again.

  “I’ve hurt my leg,” she told him. “And I’m wedged in. I can’t move.”

  “Don’t try,” he replied. “I’ll come for you.”

  He said it with utter conviction, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, unquestionable. And Georgina understood in that moment that he would always come for her if she was in trouble. Full bore. Without hesitation. She had to blink back tears. She hadn’t known when she accepted him what a stalwart man he was. She hadn’t understood her own good fortune.

  A shaft of light lanced down as bushes were ripped away above. It widened, and then she could see Sebastian peering down at her. He looked intent and capable and perfectly confident. “I’ll climb further up so I don’t jostle you loose,” he said, and disappeared.

  A moment later, she heard branches creak and snap. A loud crack and protracted slide elicited a curse. “Are you all right?” she called.

  “Perfectly,” he replied, a little breathless.

  There was a good deal more crashing, the noise of a large creature forcing his way through heavy undergrowth. Then Sebastian emerged from the gloom not far away. Fortunately, it seemed that the bottom of the gully was just a few feet below. His head was nearly even with hers when he squelched through the mud toward her.

  He took in her position with one evaluating glance. Stepping close, he leaned against the earthen wall and set his shoulder under hers. It was like a bulwark. The sense that she might fall at any moment and break her leg disappeared. Georgina relaxed against that solid support. Their cheeks brushed. His breath warmed her skin. If she’d been less uncomfortable she would have turned her head and kissed him.

  Sebastian reached for her trapped foot.

  Georgina repressed a groan as he grasped her leg and tried to work it free from the crossed branches. It was tightly wedged by the weight of her body. Every movement hurt.

  “I’m going to lift you a little,” he said. He pushed one arm between her and the ravine wall and held her with it as he pushed upward with his shoulder.

  Georgina couldn’t hold back a groan as the movement pulled at her leg.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’m afraid it’s going to hurt a bit more now.” With his free hand he shifted her trapped limb. “Can you bend your knee?”

  Jaw clenched against the pain, she did so. He guided her leg out of the trap.

  “There we are.” He eased her down until he held her. “Sorry,” he said again.

  Georgina rested her head on his chest. “Don’t be silly. You’ve saved me from the consequences of my own carelessness.”

  Despite the unfortunate situation, Sebastian enjoyed the way she nestled trustfully against him. He reveled in the feel of her body in his arms, the tumble of golden hair against his coat. Then she moved, and he saw the bloody scratch on her hand. He had to get her to safety. He surveyed the terrain—upward, from side to side. “I can’t carry you up this wall,” he said. The climb down had been more a series of slides and grabs. “I suppose we’ll have to wait here until your sisters come back.” He chafed at the inaction. Georgina’s leg needed immediate care. “I still can’t think what could have happened to them.”

  Minutes ticked by. Georgina rested in Sebastian’s arms. Finally, though, she had to speak. “I’m not sure they’ll be back anytime soon.”

  “What?” He gazed down at her.

  “I believe Hilda is playing a prank.”

  Sebastian looked around at their constricted surroundings.

  “She wouldn’t have expected me to fall, of course,” Georgina added. “I’m sure she didn’t know about this gully either. But she may plan to leave us out overnight. The bag of food left here makes me think so.” She noticed that he had the bag tied to his back by the strings.

  “Why would she do such a thing?”

  “Because she is incorrigible,” exclaimed Georgina. “And to hurry things along.”

  “Things?”

  “The wedding. She has this idea that all her problems will be solved once we are married.”

  Sebastian could sympathize with the idea, if not understand how it applied to Hilda. The feel of Georgina’s body in his arms was rousing all sorts of inappropriate yearnings.

  “It’s outrageous.”

  That seemed to sum it up. More minutes dragged past. There was no sound of returning horses from above. Sebastian shouted anyway. To no avail.

  “Do put me down,” said Georgina. “You must be getting tired.”

  He was. And it was true that he couldn’t hold her indefinitely. But he couldn’t just set her down in the mud oozing around his feet.

  “We’ll try moving along and hope it opens up a bit,” Sebastian said.

  The gully was too narrow to walk straight down. He had to edge sideways, shoving through the tangled vegetation with the back of one shoulder, taking care not to bump Georgina’s injured leg as he slithered onward. He didn’t always succeed, and her stifled gasps of pain distressed him. How long could this crevice go on?

  Quite a way, seemingly. The mud clung to his boots, weighing them down, making each step a greater effort. Twisted brambles caught at his coat and breeches. His arms began to burn. When no way out appeared, he tried to turn back. The declivity had grown so narrow that he barely managed to edge around. He pushed back the way they’d come, but the combination of snarled vegetation and an incline he hadn’t noticed much going down defeated him. It was as if the brambles and twigs reached out and shoved him backward. There was no choice but to go on.

  After another exhausting turn, he slogged forward. The tiny ravine twisted to the right, then left, the sides remaining nearly vertical. Sebastian pressed on, growing more and more tired as the minutes passed.

  Just when he thought he’d have to take a rest, and had begun to search for a less muddy spot to set Georgina down, he broke through a heavy screen of branches into a more open spot. Here, the gully widened into a roughly circular area perhaps twenty feet across. The thick mud was interrupted by a pool of water, thickly edged by bracken. Stag
gering forward, Sebastian placed Georgina gently on a bed of moss near the wall. He put the bag of food beside her. Then he stood for a while panting, thoroughly winded.

  “Can we get out from here?” asked Georgina. She gazed upward uneasily.

  Sebastian shook his head. This slope was more difficult, not easier. It was undercut, as if some great hand had scooped inward at the bottom of the circle, forming a kind of dome in the rock. The shape made one think of raging flash floods. Thankfully, this was not the season for heavy rain. They were not likely to be swept away by a sudden rush of water.

  The leaves were a bit thinner in the opening above, lightening the green dimness. He stepped to the other side of the space. Here, the ravine narrowed once more, and the brambles closed in. He shoved a little way onward. It seemed the same as what they’d already traversed except for a towering pile of deadfall nearly blocking the gully further on. This was probably the cause of the circular space where Georgina rested. Suppressing images of raging whirlpools, Sebastian paused to scrape most of the heavy mud off his boots with a split branch. Then he gathered a great armful of dry wood and returned. It was chilly here deep below ground level. He needed a fire to keep her warm. He would have to explore further, but for now there was no obvious escape.

  He came back to face Georgina’s anxious gaze. “So far it looks the same ahead. I’ll push on a ways in a bit. We’ll rest a while here first.”

  Quickly evaluating the small space, Sebastian found a good place for his fire. He dropped the wood and pulled some withered grass from under the stone overhang. Assembling a structure of tinder and twigs took only a moment. He lit the grass with the flint and steel he always kept in his pocket and made sure the wood had begun to catch before lifting Georgina and placing her between the flames and the wall. She would stay dry here except in a torrential rain, and the arching rock would reflect the heat of the fire. Nodding his satisfaction at the arrangement, he looked up to find her staring at him.

  “How do you know just what to do?”

  “Military training,” he responded. “A soldier never knows when he might have to be self-sufficient.” He’d added his own hands-on learning and experiences to the army’s information. He enjoyed riding into wild country and using his own efforts to ensure survival.

  “It’s… You’re amazing.”

  Though he was warmed by the admiration in her eyes, Sebastian had to shrug. It was all easy enough. Nothing like wading through a pile of books in a few days, as he had seen her do. “I should take a look at your leg,” he replied.

  Looking apprehensively down at her scuffed boot, Georgina nodded.

  Self-consciousness descended as Sebastian pushed back the folds of her skirt and began to ease the boot off. “Sorry,” he said when a groan escaped her.

  “It’s all right.”

  He had to tug, and he hated to hurt her. But if her foot and leg were swelling, it would only be worse later on. He took the last bit swiftly, to get it over, and there was her lovely leg revealed. Sebastian controlled his reactions. She was hurt. He was here to take care of her, to help her.

  He didn’t try to remove her silk stocking. To do that, he would have to venture into dangerous areas, and he could only stand so much. He took hold of her foot and gently probed the delicate bones. There was no break that he could discern. Same with her ankle. He let his hands move up the swell of her calf, his fingers careful and sure.

  “Ow,” said Georgina when he was midway to her knee.

  He found swelling all around her leg there, but no break in the bones. Probably bad bruising and twisted muscles. “Just a strain, I think. Where those branches caught you. Hurts like the dev—a great deal, I imagine.”

  She nodded. “It feels better without the boot, though.”

  Sebastian continued his examination as far as her knee and found no more damage. His hands wanted to continue; he sternly forbade them.

  Georgina nearly forgot the pain as she was flooded with memories of the way his fingers had gone further on a previous occasion. She was sorry when he let go.

  Sebastian sat back. “Rest is the best thing for it. Anything else?”

  There was a bump on her head, but it only hurt when she pressed it. “Just scratches.” She held out her hand, exhibiting the deepest. Three lines of angry red ran from her wrist to her knuckles, ornamented by blotches of green from the vegetation. “It was the brambles, I think.” It was nothing, really. But she couldn’t resist being taken care of a bit more, since he took the task so seriously.

  Sebastian took her hand and examined it. “Not deep. That’s good.” He pulled out his handkerchief and went over to kneel by the pool in the middle of the space.

  When he didn’t move for some moments, Georgina said, “What’s wrong?”

  “I want to see if there’s a spring.” After another interval, he nodded. “Yes, a tiny one.” He wet the handkerchief. “That means the water runs through the rock. Which is good news as we’ll have to drink it. At another season, it would be full of God knows what from upstream.”

  Returning to her side, he began to bathe the scratches with the wet cloth. The cool water was wonderfully soothing. Georgina watched his face—intent, assured, so handsome. It was clear he had no idea how incredible he was.

  “There’s a scratch on your forehead, too.” He wiped the handkerchief gently across her face.

  Alarmed, Georgina lifted her other hand to check.

  “It’s nothing,” Sebastian assured her. “It’ll heal up in a day or two.”

  Their eyes met from a distance of inches. Even in the dim light, his were so intensely blue. Firelight flickered orange on his skin. She would only have to lean a little forward, Georgina thought, and their lips would meet.

  Tearing his gaze away, he drew back. He looked around as if seeking a change of subject. “There’s some bracken,” he said. “It makes a tolerable bed.”

  The last word seemed to hang in the air between them, like a signpost to uncharted realms. Georgina became acutely aware of her position, lying before him with her skirts hiked up, her leg bared, as if she was offering herself to him. Once in her head, the idea was riveting. They would certainly be here through the night.

  Sebastian swallowed. “I’ll fetch some,” he added. Standing quickly, he shoved his wet handkerchief back in his pocket and moved away from her.

  Georgina sat up. She ought to push her skirt down, she thought. Every tenet of her upbringing said so. Wasn’t it interesting how all that training could go flying away in the presence of one certain man? She’d never felt such an urge around any other. But with Sebastian… She watched him bending, slicing through stems with his pocketknife, and straightening with an armload of bracken. Every movement of his tall figure was strong and sure. She wanted those exceedingly competent hands on her again. She wanted his kisses. She wanted what came after.

  What would he think if she hiked her skirts a little higher, unfastened a button or two of the bodice that suddenly felt madly constricting? He turned toward her. Georgina caught her breath. Almost as much as she wanted those other things, she wanted him to think well of her. She pushed her skirts down.

  Sebastian moved back and forth with piles of fronds, forming them into a pallet beside Georgina. He built up the fire and fetched more dry wood from the deadfall. They ate some bread and cheese. As darkness deepened, the circular space began to feel like a little room, illuminated by the flames reflecting off the stone walls.

  Chores finished, Sebastian sat down on the other side of the fire. A fraught silence fell over them. Georgina was searching for something to say when she was distracted by rustling from the dark depths of the gully. It was pitch-black in that narrow crevice. Anything could creep up on them. “I don’t suppose we need worry about bears or wolves,” she said. “No, of course not. There aren’t any large animals around here.”

  “And it wou
ld take an exceptional wolf to climb down those walls,” replied Sebastian with a laugh.

  “That is not funny,” said Georgina, immediately imagining such a wolf.

  “Sorry. You’re right. There’re no beasts like that in this part of the country. Foxes and badgers, perhaps. And I can certainly hold off a fox. Not so sure about a badger.”

  This time, she laughed.

  “They’re fierce creatures,” Sebastian assured her. “My brother James tried to make friends with a badger kit once, and he was chased off by its mother and nearly mauled.”

  “This is not what I want to hear while sitting at the bottom of a crevice in the dark,” Georgina informed him.

  “Sorry. Of course it’s not.” He looked contrite. “Most animals are as reluctant to encounter you as you are them.”

  “What about the others?”

  “What others?”

  “You said ‘most animals.’ So the others…?”

  “Oh, you mean the snakes and such?”

  Georgina nearly jumped to her feet despite her injured leg. “Sebastian!”

  “Only joking. It’s too cold for snakes to be active.”

  Georgina crossed her arms over her chest. She’d never been able to overcome her strong dislike of snakes and spiders. “You might have said there weren’t actually any snakes,” she said with a shiver.

  Sebastian pulled off his coat and held it out. “Here. You mustn’t get chilled.”

  “I can’t take your coat.”

  “Of course you can.” He slid closer to put it around her.

  Georgina leaned back into the circle of his arm as he settled the coat about her shoulders. His amazing competence and complete lack of fear were so comforting. She didn’t want him to move back. She was filled with gratitude, as well as a spreading warmth, when he stayed. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here,” she said.

  “You’d manage. You’re up to anything.”

  She could feel his voice rumbling in his chest where it rested against hers. She was touched by his confidence in her, no matter how misplaced. “No, if I’d been alone or with someone else…anyone else, I’d be so afraid now. With you, I’m not afraid at all.”