by Cheryl Holt
“I’m betting she’s down on the beach.”
“Yes, I’m afraid that might be the case.” The beach was full of a thousand hazards: the tide, the waves, the cliffs, the rocks. Any calamity could have befallen her. “I’m terribly sorry about all of this. What should I do?”
“I guess we’d better mount a search.”
He hurried out into the hall to confer with the butler. Shortly, there was a bit of commotion and the sound of rushing feet as plans were voiced and people began to implement them.
After several minutes, Alex entered again and held out his hand to her.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“The butler will muster all the footmen. They’ll bring lamps and candles and meet us at the cottage. Let’s walk through the woods. We can look for her on the way.”
“I don’t think she’s in the woods,” Abigail said.
“She’ll be somewhere though.” He was annoyingly relaxed and not anxious in the least. “We’ll find her.”
“You’re so calm.”
“She’s a child, and children get lost occasionally. I can’t tell you how often I snuck off when I was a boy. There’s reason to fret, but not to panic.
She stood and came over to him. She’d been a governess for ten years, and this was the worst debacle suffered by one of her charges. Any other employer would have fired her the moment she mentioned Millie was missing, and she’d been missing for many hours. Abigail had been so negligent.
Why, oh, why hadn’t she reacted sooner? If Millie had been hurt while Abigail was dawdling, she’d never forgive herself.
“Are you angry with me?” she asked.
“Angry? With you? No. Why would I be?”
“You can fire me if you want. I certainly deserve it.”
“How do you figure you deserve it? My insane ex-wife pays an unauthorized visit to her daughters. She upsets them beyond measure and one of them runs away. You weren’t even present when it transpired so how is that your fault? I ought to locate Eugenia and take a switch to her.”
“You should take a switch to both of us,” Abigail miserably said.
He chuckled and pulled her into his arms so he could brush a kiss across her mouth.
“She’ll be all right,” he murmured. “Don’t be scared.”
“I am scared.”
“I refuse to have a dire ending. I’ve had an entire decade of bad luck, but recently—since I met you—my luck has been changing. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel to have my bad streak commence again.”
A man cleared his throat, and she jumped, her cheeks flaming bright red. The butler was there with an impassive expression on his face.
“Would you like the servants to walk over, Master Alex? They can look for her in the forest on the way. Or should I have the carriage and the gig prepared? Would you like them to drive on the road? They might stumble on her there.”
“No, I’ll wager she’s down on the beach. We’ll gather at the cottage, then comb the inlets together.”
“Very good, sir.”
The butler spun away, and for an instant his censorious gaze landed on her. Alex noticed, and he grinned and winked.
The butler’s footsteps faded down the hall, and she whispered, “I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.”
He leaned nearer and whispered too. “You’ll have to wed me now. If you don’t, the servants will eat you alive.”
* * * *
Alex didn’t know what made him glance up the rock cliff behind him.
He’d been searching forever, trying to surmise how far a nine-year-old girl could travel if she was afraid or distraught. How far might it be until she was too exhausted to continue?
He’d insisted to Abigail that Millie was hiding, but with there being no trace of her, he was starting to wonder if she might have suffered an accident. Would she have waded out into the ocean? Might she have drowned?
The sun was setting, and it was chilly, and he couldn’t bear to imagine her spending the night out on her own. Especially if she was injured. What if she was hurt? What if she believed no one was hunting for her? Or that no one cared?
He stared up, thinking he should climb to the top so he could take a last scan of the area before it was too dark to see. To his stunned surprise, a pretty pair of blue eyes stared back at him. She was on a ledge about halfway up.
“Millie!” he said. “There you are, you scamp! We’ve been looking everywhere.”
“Hello, Mr. Wallace.” She appeared glum and dejected.
“You must have heard me calling for you. Why didn’t you answer?”
She scowled down at him as if it was the stupidest question ever. “I didn’t answer because I didn’t want you to find me.”
“Well, that’s just ridiculous. You’ve given your sister and Miss Barrington a terrible fright. Let’s get you home so they know you’re all right.”
He gestured for her to descend, but she shook her head.
“I can’t. I tried, but it’s too steep.”
“Stay there then. I’ll help you.”
He studied the cliff, checking for the best route, then he scuttled up to where she was nestled against the rocks. The spot wasn’t that high, but it would probably seem that way if he were nine. He eased down next to her, his legs dangling over the edge, and he dawdled for a minute to enjoy the view. A schooner was drifting by, and he could just discern its sails on the horizon.
“I wish I were on that ship,” he told her. “I love to be out on the water.”
“Have you ever been on a big ship like that?” she asked.
“Yes. I journeyed across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you ever hear the story? I landed myself in a jam here in England, and for my punishment I had to depart for a long time.”
“All by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Were you sad to be away?”
“Very sad, but it forced me to realize that I took my home for granted. I didn’t cherish it as much as I should have.” The silence played out, then he casually said, “Mary tells me your mother visited this morning.”
She stiffened, but finally admitted, “Yes, she did.”
“Would you like to talk about what happened? It must have been horrid for you to hide like this.”
For an eternity, she was quiet, struggling to devise a reply. They were protective of their mother and secretive about their relationship with her. They rarely mentioned her so he had no idea what they actually thought.
He nudged her with his elbow. “You can confide in me. If she was awful to you, I should know about it. It’s my duty to keep you safe. I don’t like to suppose someone was mean to you, and I didn’t stop it.”
“If she said something bad about me,” she started, “it’s not true. I always try to be good.”
“Of course you do,” he agreed. “You and Mary are very, very good.”
“It’s hard to behave all the time, but I try.” She gazed up at him, her Henley blue eyes riveting. “You won’t send me away from Mary, will you?”
“No, I never would. Who claimed I might? Your mother?”
“If I couldn’t be with her, she’d never manage on her own. I watch over her, and I make sure she washes and finishes her lessons and says her prayers. If she had to carry on without me, she’d never remember. Then she’d be in trouble too.”
“You’re not in trouble, Millie. Neither is Mary.”
“You wouldn’t whip me or lock me in the poorhouse, would you? Mary would be so upset, and I hate to have her worry.”
A muscle ticked in his cheek, and a furious suspicion dawned. Eugenia had to obtain permission to speak with her daughters, but it had never occurred to him to have a chaperone in the room when they were together. He couldn’t guess what Eugenia discussed when no one was listening. Obviously, she’d been terrorizing her daughters.
&n
bsp; “I will never send you away,” he insisted.
“What if I made you angry? Mother told us she made you angry once, and you sent her away. She says you’ll do the same to us. But if you kicked us out, where would we go, Mr. Wallace?”
“You silly goose. I was so eager to have you move to Wallace Downs that I went to a courthouse and had a judge issue a decree so you have to stay with me forever.”
She frowned. “You did that?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to live with my mother!” she suddenly, vehemently declared, and she burst into tears. “And I don’t care what she thinks about it. She’s cruel and unhappy, and she drinks alcohol, and I don’t like Bertram, and it’s…it’s scary there and there’s never any food or coal for the stove and we’d be cold and hungry and we wouldn’t have new dresses or shoes or petticoats and Miss Barrington is my favorite person in the whole world and I’d never see her again.”
The deluge of words exploded out of her, and she collapsed into a ball of weeping misery. His heart broke a little as he pictured her sitting alone all day and fretting over such a stack of painful grievances. Eugenia must have threatened her unmercifully.
He pulled her onto his lap and cradled her to his chest, stroking a soothing hand up and down her back, and he realized he’d never previously comforted either girl. He’d always looked at them and seen Hayden Henley whom they resembled exactly, and he’d be vividly reminded of how they’d wrecked his life.
Yet they hadn’t wrecked anything. Eugenia and Lord Henley had done the wrecking. The twins were victims, just as he’d been a victim. Why couldn’t he ever recollect that he was an adult and they were children? He had a powerful obligation to them and needed to be kinder.
When he’d returned to Wallace Downs from his exile, he’d been bitter and determined to show that nothing mattered to him. Millie and Mary had been at the top of that list, and his disregard had been exacerbated by Camilla who’d loathed them and hadn’t felt he should have sought custody from Eugenia.
But their condition had been so squalid that he’d had to intervene. After they’d arrived and had been installed at the cottage, Camilla had constantly advised him to ignore them, to not let them interfere with his routines or plans. Why had he heeded her?
The Special License he’d requested that would allow him to wed Abigail immediately had been delivered shortly before she’d appeared at the manor with the news that Millie had vanished. He decided he would proceed the next day, and he wouldn’t tolerate any protests from her.
He would stop being such an apathetic, indifferent ass and would begin acting as a guardian should act. He would bring the twins over to the manor, would build a family with them, and would provide some of the stability and nurturing he’d never received from his own parents.
Abigail was so fond of them, and they liked her too. She would be able to help him fix many of the wrongs that had been inflicted through his disinterest and lack of attention.
Millie cried until she was limp and exhausted. He drew her away from his chest and said, “Look at me, Millie. This is important. If you ever forget, or if you start to think it isn’t true, I want you to ask me to repeat it.”
“What is it?”
“You and Mary could never make me angry. I will never send you away, and I will never separate you from your sister.”
“Swear.” She sounded stoic and very grown up.
“I swear. I will never kick you out, and I will never, ever, never let you live with your mother. Despite what she claims, she could never convince me, and it will never happen.”
“All right,” she murmured, but she shuddered. He was quite sure she didn’t believe him so he would have to prove he was sincere. Hopefully, she’d trust him someday.
“Would you like it,” he inquired, “if I didn’t permit your mother to visit anymore? She doesn’t have to. I thought you and Mary liked seeing her.”
“Mary and I don’t like it, and it would be fine if she never came again. She’s so mean, and she says terrible things to us.”
“I wish you’d told me that.”
“We didn’t know if we should.”
“In the future, you have to promise you’ll tell me secrets. If you don’t, I can’t protect you. Or if you’re afraid to tell me, you can tell Miss Barrington.”
“I like Miss Barrington.”
“So do I.”
“Will you… might you…marry her?”
“I’m certain of it.”
She smiled a tremulous smile. “I would like that. She’d stay with us then, wouldn’t she? If she married you, she’d have to stay at Wallace Downs.”
“She’ll always stay.” He stared out at the horizon. They’d been talking for so long that it was nearly dark. “We should get off this cliff. I need to get you home to your sister.”
“And to Miss Barrington?”
“Yes, we’ll get you home to both of them.”
He stood her on her feet, and he had her drape herself across his back. Then he climbed down with her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist.
Once they were on the ground, he didn’t release her, but he kept her right where she was, holding tight all the way.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Abigail opened the door to the twins’ bedroom and tiptoed in.
They had separate beds, but they’d crawled into the same one and were nestled together like two puppies. She tugged up the quilt and tucked it over them.
It had been a nerve-wracking evening as servants had searched the woods and beach, calling for Millie, looking under logs and in streams and waves. When Alex had marched up with her hanging on his back, Abigail had suffered relief so powerful she’d staggered over to the sofa and sat down. Her knees had been that weak.
The remaining hours had passed in a blur. She’d fed and bathed Millie while listening to her tale of how she’d climbed up on a ledge and hadn’t been able to climb down.
The most disturbing part had been when she’d eavesdropped on the twins as they’d quietly talked about their mother.
We don’t ever have to leave Wallace Downs. Mr. Wallace promised. He said Mother can’t take us away from here—despite how she pretends. He would never let her.
Abigail wondered what other falsehoods Eugenia Pennywhistle had whispered to them over the years. Evidently, she’d been filling their heads with lies to the point where they’d been terrified every second.
There was no doubt the woman had personal problems, and she was bitter over being divorced. Yet at the earliest opportunity, Abigail planned to have a lengthy discussion with Alex. Continued contact wasn’t helpful, and she intended to suggest Mrs. Pennywhistle never be allowed on the premises again.
She crept out and trudged to her own bedroom. She’d just been in the kitchen and had taken a hot bath in Faith’s bathing tub. Ready to retire herself, she was wearing only her robe, her hair down and brushed out, her feet bare and chilly from crossing the cold floors.
After Alex had returned with Millie, she hadn’t had much of a chance to chat with him. He’d left to gather the servants and smooth over matters at the manor. She’d been certain he’d reappear once he was finished, but he hadn’t, and she was bothered by his absence.
But as she entered the room, she was carrying a candle and she was temporarily confused. Another candle burned on the dresser, and she frowned and glanced around.
He was stretched out on her bed, and he’d made himself comfortable. His coat and boots were off, his shirt untucked. He’d brought a bottle of wine upstairs, and he was drinking a glass. As she walked in, he downed the last of the contents and set the glass on the nightstand.
She wanted to order him out, but she was so glad to see him that tears flooded her eyes.
“Where have you been?” he murmured. “I didn’t think you’d ever get here.”
“How long have you been waiting?” she asked.
&nb
sp; “Too long.”
He held out a hand, and she didn’t hesitate. It would be wrong to join him. It would be insane to join him. It would be a sin to join him, but she didn’t care.
She went over, and he clasped her wrist and pulled her onto the mattress. He rolled them so he was on top of her, and he smiled with what had to be genuine affection. It washed over her like cool rain.
She simply didn’t believe a man could look at a woman as he was looking at her and have it all be feigned. He seemed delighted that she’d arrived and even a tad besotted.
Could it be? Could Alex Wallace be besotted?
She’d tell herself yes. She’d ensnared him and he was infatuated, and whatever feelings he’d developed for her, hers for him were ten times worse.
He was handsome and masculine, rich and educated. He’d traveled the world, had seen sights and enjoyed adventures she couldn’t envision. She was lucky that he’d noticed her, thrilled that he’d noticed her.
He began kissing her, tentatively at first, then more deeply and passionately. She leapt into the fray with incredible relish, and shortly they were going at each other like a pair of cats trapped in a sack. She couldn’t get close enough to him, couldn’t hug him tightly enough.
She felt as if they’d been through a disaster, that they’d survived a shipwreck or an avalanche. If he released her, she might plunge beneath the surface and never rise again.
Gradually, he slowed and drew away. They shifted so they were nose to nose.
“Gad, what a horrid day,” he said.
“I agree.”
“Don’t you dare scold me for sneaking in.”
“I won’t.”
“I couldn’t bear to spend the night alone.”
“Neither could I,” she admitted.
“Did the twins ever fall asleep? I have no idea how you could get them to relax sufficiently that they’d nod off.”
“It took forever to calm them. Mary was the most distressed. She doesn’t like them to be apart.”
“In all the years they’ve been here, this was the only occasion I’ve ever seen one without the other.”
“What did Millie tell you about why she ran off?” Abigail asked. “Did she explain what actually happened with her mother?”
