by Laura Landon
He wended his way through Rouen’s cobbled streets, then turned toward the harbor. The smell of the sea grew stronger and his heart pounded more heavily. He checked the pistol in his pocket.
They were almost there. He looked over his shoulder at the seven kegs in the back of the wagon. Hannah and Lydia were hidden in the two nearest him. Austin, Culbertson and Morgan in the next three. And the two barrels nearest the opening were filled with maggot-ridden garbage and human refuse they’d taken from heaped garbage containers and slop pails in half the alleys of Rouen. The stench was atrocious.
Gabriel prayed if they were stopped, the French soldiers wouldn’t have the stomach to look any further than the first two barrels.
He turned a corner and made his way closer to where the Silver Star was docked. It was early afternoon and the wharf was a hive of activity, with dozens of ships preparing to sail.
His heart pounded. He only had to get them aboard and they’d be safe. Faraday promised that as soon as they arrived he’d raise anchor and set sail.
Gabriel moved at a slow, steady pace until the Silver Star was in sight. It wouldn’t be long now. He was glad. It had been more than an hour since he’d sealed the lids, and even with the air holes they’d punched in the sides and bottoms of the barrels, he knew they must be uncomfortable.
“We’re almost there,” he said to the kegs behind him. “There are four soldiers up ahead. Relax, and don’t make a sound.”
The horses kept their pace, making their way through the crowded lane until they reached the gangplank that rose to the deck of the ship. The minute he pulled back on the reins, half a dozen sailors from the Silver Star shuffled down the gangplank, pushing two four-wheeled carts.
Gabriel climbed down from his seat, clutching his cane in his hand and pulling his cap low over his brows. He’d let his beard grow and didn’t think it was likely anyone would recognize him now, but perhaps if they had a description… Perhaps if they were watching for someone with a limp…
He made his way to the back of the wagon, keeping an eye on the soldiers. One group stood around two brightly painted doxies working the docks, looking for a quick coin. Another few sat on crates, watching the loading and unloading of cargo with halfhearted enthusiasm. He gave them a second glance and breathed a sigh of relief that none of them seemed interested enough to walk toward him.
He and one of Faraday’s sailors climbed onto the back of the wagon while the other sailors rolled the first cart into position. The first keg was the heaviest and they struggled to move it. When they rolled it to the cart, the lid came lose and some of the putrid slop sloshed over the side and ran down the side of the barrel. Bloody hell, but the smell was pathetic. His stomach lurched and he slammed back the cover.
“We’ll dump it as soon as we get out to sea,” he said beneath his breath.
“Maybe we should leave it behind on the cart as a little parting gift,” one of the sailors answered and they all smiled.
When the first barrel was on the cart, they went back to get the second. Before they had it loaded, a voice stopped them.
“Halt!”
Gabriel slowly reached into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the gun hidden there. He cautiously lifted his head and turned his gaze to six French soldiers walking toward them.
“What do you have there?”
The soldier who’d asked the question was the only officer in the group, a captain. He walked with a strut and a puffed out chest. When he stopped beside the wagon, he cocked his head as if the decoration on his uniform should impress them. Gabriel’s instincts warned him to be wary.
“It’s slop. The English sea captain has been hired to take it to the Channel and dump it.”
The officer laughed. “That is ridiculous. Why would anyone pay someone to haul away their slop?”
“Don’t ask me,” Gabriel said, shrugging his shoulders as if the answer didn’t concern him. “All I know is that I was hired to deliver these seven barrels of slop to the English captain so he could take them out of Rouen and dump them into the Channel.”
The French officer stared at Gabriel with a frown on his face, then placed his hand on the pistol at his waist. “You know what I think, monsieur? I think you are lying. I think you do not have slop in these barrels, but something else that you don’t want us to see.” The French officer pointed to the barrel they’d already moved to the cart. “Open it.”
Gabriel stepped forward. “It’s slop. Can’t you smell that it is?”
“What I smell could be in the bottom of your wagon to make us think the barrels are filled with slop. Open it!”
Gabriel stepped back with a shake of his head. “You’ll regret it. The smell will make you sick.”
The captain pointed to the barrel and gave Gabriel a final order to open it.
Gabriel placed his hands on the lid and pulled. “It’s stuck.”
“Help him,” the captain ordered the nearest sailor. Together they pried until the lid was partially off.
“We almost have it,” Gabriel announced proudly. The rank odor of rotten garbage and human refuse already filled the air and the captain reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to cover his nose.
With a hard tug, Gabriel removed the lid, and at the same time slammed his hip against the side of the barrel so the rancid slop sloshed over the edge.
“Damn you!” the captain bellowed as a wave of the horrific-smelling refuse splattered down the front of his neatly pressed uniform. “Damn you! I should have you—”
“A thousand pardons, Captain, but it was stuck. I didn’t mean to be so careless. It was an accident, I assure you. The barrels are filled with slop as I said they were.”
Gabriel pasted an apologetic look on his face as the French captain’s uniform dripped with the maggot-ridden, foul-smelling slop. “I will try to be more careful with the next barrel, Captain. Perhaps this one will not be so difficult to open.”
“No! Get out of my sight. Then get this plague-infested wagon out of here.”
The captain spun around to the soldiers who were having as hard a time as Gabriel keeping a straight face. “Make sure this imbecile gets these barrels loaded, then get him the hell out of here. Escort him out of the city and make sure he never comes back.”
“Yes, sir,” they each said, struggling not to laugh as their commanding officer held his wet, smelly uniform away from his body and staggered down the dock.
Working as quickly as possible, Gabriel helped the sailors from the Silver Star load the kegs onto the two carts and take them up the gangplank. The French soldiers followed Gabriel onto the deck of the ship, but kept a safe distance from the barrels. When the kegs were unloaded, the soldiers motioned for Gabriel to return to the wagon.
He knew the soldiers wouldn’t leave until he did, so with only a cursory nod to Captain Faraday, he walked back down the gangplank and climbed aboard the wagon. With a smart slap of the reins against the horses’ backsides, he drove away from the Silver Star. Two soldiers rode escort until he was far away from the city and…
…from Lydia and the ship that could take him home.
CHAPTER 19
She was going to die.
Darkness surrounded her. Heavy, dank air engulfed her until she couldn’t breathe. She tried to convince herself the keg where she hid was the inside of a small curricle traveling through Hyde Park on a cloudy afternoon. But the longer she was there, the smaller the barrel seemed, the more confining. She gasped to take a breath but couldn’t fill her lungs. She was suffocating.
She coiled into a tighter ball and clamped her hand over her mouth to stop the scream she felt building inside her.
Dear God, let it be over. Let them be safely aboard the ship soon. Let Gabriel lift the lid so she could see. So she could breathe. So she could fall into his arms.
The wagon stopped.
She heard Gabriel’s muffled voice and counted to ten. Then twenty. Then higher. It wouldn’t be long now. Her hea
rt raced in her breast. Excitement rose to a fevered pitch.
The wagon shifted and she knew Gabriel had gotten off. Then it shifted more and she envisioned Gabriel moving the other barrels. It wouldn’t be long now.
Finally, her barrel moved and she knew she was going aboard the Silver Star.
For what seemed an eternity, she remained quiet and scrunched in the barrel, waiting for someone to lift the lid. Finally, someone turned her barrel. Pried off the lid.
Even though the sun was hidden behind a wall of clouds, the sudden brightness hurt her eyes.
“Liddy?” a voice said from above her. “Are you all right?”
It was Austin. She tried to stand but couldn’t. “I can’t move, Austin. My legs won’t work.”
Her brother laughed and reached in to help her. He picked her up as if she weighed nothing and held her close. When her legs were steady beneath her, he lifted her out of the barrel.
She looked around to find Gabriel. She just needed to see him. Just needed to make sure he was all right.
“Oh, Liddy,” Austin said, swinging her around in a circle. “We did it. Gabe’s plan worked.”
She looked around again.
Hannah was out of her barrel and sitting on a crate, fanning her face. Geoffery was engaged in a serious conversation with Captain Faraday. And Austin still held her around the waist, supporting her as if he was afraid she’d fall.
But Gabriel wasn’t anywhere in sight.
Her breathing raced, her blood roared against her ears, her legs went weak beneath her. And the Silver Star rocked as the sailors released the vessel from its moorings and it sailed out to sea.
“Where’s Gabriel, Austin?”
“Don’t worry about Gabe, Liddy.”
“Where is he?” she asked again, frantically combing the deck for sight of him.
“Austin?”
Austin anchored his hands at her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Gabe will be all right. He’ll get to us somehow.”
She couldn’t believe what he’d just said. “He’s still back there?”
Lydia ran to the starboard side of the ship and stared toward the harbor. “How is he going to get out of France?”
“Liddy, don’t.”
“Tell me! How is he going to get home?”
“Captain Faraday had one of his men hide a small boat down the coast. We’re going to sail a couple of miles downstream and wait until midnight. If Gabe can get to the boat in time, he’ll row out and meet us.”
“But the French have every inch of coastline guarded. He’ll never make it past them without getting killed.”
“If anyone can make it through French lines, Gabe can.”
Every nerve in Lydia’s body trembled. She didn’t want him to risk his life for them – not again. Didn’t want him to be a hero. Didn’t want to learn to live without him – not again. She wanted him here, safe, with her.
“What if he can’t get to us by midnight?”
“Then he’ll go inland. Captain Faraday will return in two weeks.”
“But they’ll be waiting for him. By then they’ll know what he’s done.”
“Liddy, stop.”
Austin held up his hand to silence her, then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. For a long time neither of them spoke. When he did, his words chilled her to her bone.
“How’d you let this happen?” he whispered.
Lydia stiffened against him.
“Gabe told you he couldn’t marry you. Nothing has changed. Father signed an agreement with the Duke of Chisolmwood that you would marry his son. You don’t have a choice in this.” Austin swiped his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Neither does Gabe. Neither of you did from the beginning.”
“Why? Because Gabriel doesn’t have a title?” She hardened the look she gave him. “Because you don’t think he loves me?”
Austin gave a harsh laugh. “Hell. Anyone with two eyes can see he loves you. But love isn’t enough. It never has been.”
“Why, then?”
“Don’t, Liddy.”
“Why!”
Austin couldn’t hold her gaze. “There are reasons. I’d give anything if you and Gabe hadn’t been caught in the middle of this, but you’re the ones who will pay.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, because she didn’t.
Austin ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “I know you don’t. You have to marry Culbertson. It’s been arranged. Gabe can’t marry you. It’s not possible.”
She staggered away from her brother and leaned against the ship’s railing. The French coastline was behind them, growing more distant by the minute. She searched for a small boat sailing toward them, a boat carrying Gabriel. But she saw nothing. Only the vast expanse of water, land and sky. Without Gabriel anywhere in it.
Hannah came to get her and she followed her maid to the cabin the captain had readied for her. She went through the motions, giving Hannah her dress to wash and press so she could put it on again after her bath.
They’d wait until midnight.
She smiled when Austin came to get her for the meal the ship’s cook prepared for them. She pushed the food around on her plate while carrying on a semi-coherent conversation with the Marquess of Culbertson. Then, she pleaded exhaustion early with the promise to go right to bed and get a good night’s sleep.
The minute the Marquess of Culbertson left her at her cabin, she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and made her way back on deck to watch for Gabriel.
They’d wait until midnight.
She stood in the shadows for hours as she watched out to sea. She concentrated on the direction from which Gabriel would most likely come toward them, but the beautiful French coastline held no promise.
Her fingers and toes grew numb from not moving, her cheeks and nose tingled with the cold, and still she kept her vigil. She had until midnight.
The full moon cast a huge, white glow upon the water. She prayed he’d sail through the light so she’d see him coming. She swore if he came back to her she’d never let him out of her sight again.
The minutes went by, turning to hours. She stared until her eyes burned and she couldn’t feel her legs beneath her. And still she watched.
At first she didn’t realize the small speck on the water might be him. But as he came nearer, she recognized the boat and the man in it. A lump formed in her throat and she blinked fast to keep the tears from falling.
The lookout signaled that Gabriel had been spotted and there was a scurry of activity on deck. Lydia pressed herself into the shadows so she wouldn’t be seen.
Captain Faraday rushed out of the wheelhouse, still buttoning his coat.
Austin ran up the stairs from below with Culbertson close behind him. They all raced to the starboard side of the ship to help Gabriel aboard.
At last a half dozen sailors lowered ropes and Gabriel climbed the ladder.
His progress was slow. As soon as he made his way over the ship’s railing he clutched his thigh. A gasp caught in her throat.
Captain Faraday and the Marquess of Culbertson shook his hand and Austin clasped his fingers atop Gabriel’s shoulder. They talked softly and Gabriel leaned against the railing to take the weight off his leg. He was in pain. She knew it without seeing him take a step.
She stood in the shadows and watched Austin take him to his cabin. Tears ran down her cheeks, burning her skin and causing the ache in her head to worsen.
When she was certain she wouldn’t be seen, she swiped at the tears that refused to stop and stepped out of the shadows.
Into the Marquess of Culbertson’s arms.
___
Gabriel awoke from a dead sleep and knew without looking that someone was in his cabin. Whoever it was hadn’t made a sound, yet he knew they were there.
Close.
Watching him.
After all the years he’d spent in intelligence, it was something he sensed.
He opened h
is eyes and slowly turned his head to the side.
She stood still, dressed in white, hair cascading around her shoulders, her arms hanging casually at her sides.
“Liddy?”
He started to rise, then dropped the covers back over him. He could hardly stand in front of her naked.
She walked toward him, her bare feet making no sound on the smooth wooden floor. When she reached the side of his bed, she stopped but didn’t speak. After several long seconds she breathed a heavy sigh that shuddered in the silence and reached for the belt at her waist to pull it loose. She pushed the material from her shoulders and let it fall to the floor.
He stared at her in confusion and when he opened his mouth to speak, she placed her fingers against his lips to quiet him.
In the tension-filled silence, she lifted the edge of his covers and climbed in next to him.
“Liddy?”
“Shh,” she whispered. “Words have no place between us. Not tonight.”
She rose above him and kissed his lips. Her kiss was gentle and he answered her tender entreaty with all the emotion he possessed. She cupped his cheeks in her palms and kissed him again, then lay down beside him.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She nestled against him, forming to every curve and hollow. With his chin resting against the top of her head and one of his hands cupping her breast, they lay cradled against each other.
The hours went by far too quickly. He didn’t want this night to ever end, but knew it would.
Before he was ready to give her up, she separated herself from him and slid out of bed. She picked up her robe from beside the bed and put it on.
She was ready to leave him but he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to let her go. He wanted to reach for her, to pull her back to him and hold on tight. But that wasn’t possible and he knew it. Chisolmwood had purchased her for his son and he was powerless to prevent it from happening.
She took a step away from him then another until she reached the door. “Gabriel?” she whispered with her hand on the latch. She didn’t turn around. It was as if she didn’t have any more courage than he did when it came to doing what they both knew they must.