Vincent glanced up before returning to his buffing. “I expect that is how it is normally done, now that I try it, Your Grace. In the future, I will know.”
Vincent had discovered quickly that footmen and valets differed in their duties, and a man who excelled in one area might not in the other. Dressing had been a lengthy process, with Gabriel having to give a few lessons. It went without saying that he had to tie his own cravat.
Vincent presented him with his signet ring, then attached his watch to his waistcoat.
“Tomorrow I will not require your services as valet,” Gabriel said. “Instead, I want you to ride into Devon and do a few errands.”
Vincent’s eyes lit with the relief of a young man who much preferred galloping through the countryside to dressing a duke. Amanda had been correct about him. Gabriel suspected that Vincent’s servant days were numbered.
“I want you to buy a county directory,” he explained. “I will need you to find a place where you can read it and find the name of a man. Then I need you to find an inn within easy riding distance of that man’s home.”
It sounded mysterious even to his own ears. It definitely did to Vincent’s, from the brightness it brought to his eyes. Not only riding through the country, but on a mission that sounded secret, at the behest of his master the duke. Adventure called. Vincent would be in heaven tomorrow.
“Discretion is vital. Do not sit with the directory in a tavern where people wonder who you are and whom you seek.”
“Of course not, Your Grace. I am very discreet, as you know.”
I’ve told no one about your odd doings with Miss Waverly, for example. Poor Vincent was probably bursting with the urge to tell someone. Anyone.
“His Grace, the Duke of Brentworth, threatened to have my head if I spoke a word of any of this,” Vincent added. “I respectfully questioned whether dukes had that right.”
Gabriel pictured Brentworth being challenged by this footman who was forgetting his place. “You asked Brentworth that, did you? I am sure that displeased him.”
“I feared it would, but he explained how ordering beheadings was a special right of peerage reserved to dukes alone. A secret one rarely mentioned publicly lest the other peers be jealous.”
Gabriel held back a smile. “Prepare to leave in the morning, then.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gabriel bent and kissed Amanda while she slept, then left the chamber. He hated this day had begun because that meant it would soon end. Then they would be in Devon and they would find her mother and after that—
Mrs. Braddock found him at breakfast fifteen minutes later. She carried a letter. “Express mail for you, sir.”
He recognized Stratton’s hand and opened the letter.
He is using the name Pritchard, and moving slowly, using stagecoaches but staying in fine private chambers at inns. We think he decided to spend his earnings on good beds and food instead of speed. It is all we can do to remain behind him. B says to tell you this man is unlikely to be the collector, so we all surmised the situation correctly. One of us will go to your property when we pass it to see if you left any message.
We think he is armed.
Stratton
How like Stratton to add that last bit almost as a postscript. But after killing two men in duels it was doubtful Stratton gave much attention to a man being armed.
Nor might it matter. Once the dagger was delivered, this man might disappear. Then the only question would be whether the main prize, Yarnell, was armed. Gabriel was prepared for that eventuality, but he hoped it would not come to wielding weapons, at least not when Amanda was present. He did not want her endangered in any way, and he also did not want the last thing she saw him do to be shooting a man.
He tucked the letter away and strode out to speak with the groom. Events would roll forward quickly now.
* * *
That afternoon Gabriel announced they would go bathe in the sea. He had put her in a saddle for the first time in her life the day before, so Amanda was not too dismayed when she learned they would ride to the coast.
Her horse followed Gabriel’s across a field and through some woods. Then they began to ride up a rise in the land. The woods fell away and high grass brushed her legs. Sounds of surf grew louder.
He stopped at the top of a long incline and waited for her to join him. She moved her horse over so she stood beside Gabriel. Once positioned thus, she stopped watching her horse’s neck and her own hands. She looked up. A magnificent prospect greeted her.
The sea stretched out all around, meeting the sky on the horizon. Waves broke on a shallow beach below them.
“It is beautiful,” she said. “Awe inspiring too. One feels very small facing it.”
“Have you ever been on a ship?”
“Never. To bob around out there—it must be frightening.”
When he did not respond, she looked over to see him frowning. “I am sure it is a reaction that passes quickly,” she added.
He pointed to the breaking waves. “Over there, past those rocks, there is a cove. The water there is quiet and fairly shallow. Once we get there I will teach you how to swim. You will not be so frightened of the sea if you know how.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “In one or two days you cannot prepare me in all the ways you think necessary. I have taken care of myself for years, Gabriel. You are not to worry for me, although I love you all the more for it.”
He lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. “Is that what this is, Amanda? Is that what we share?”
She had not even realized she spoke of love. It had simply come out, a natural expression of her heart. “I cannot answer for you, Gabriel. Don’t you know?”
“I know nothing about what it means to love a woman. I only know that I am heartsick at the thought of losing you. I spend hours contemplating and calculating whether I can—”
“You cannot. Even letting me leave England is a compromise. I understand why you cannot. Hearing that you wished otherwise touches me deeply, however.”
“I will miss you, Amanda. I will be distraught.” His blue gaze penetrated to her soul. He appeared distraught already, and vulnerable. “Even the expectation of that loss pains me. I think I will be forever changed because I knew you.”
His words brought her close to tears. Whether he called it love did not matter. He spoke to her more lovingly than any man ever had.
“And I you, Gabriel. Loving you will always be the greatest experience of my life.” She was glad she declared her love clearly here and now, on this hill overlooking the eternal expanse of the sea, long before they parted. Her heart rejoiced at allowing her love to fly free.
He kissed her hand again while he closed his eyes. “I am more honored by your words than you will ever know, darling.”
He conquered the emotion etched on his face. The duke returned. The man who wished to be free of duty retreated. The intensity of the moment passed, but she knew its effects would last forever.
He released her hand and took up his reins. “You may think I worry for nothing, but all the same, we will ride down there and you will swim.”
“Ride down there?”
“Not straight down. The path will angle back and forth.”
“I am not reassured.” All the same she took up her reins and followed him.
She caught her breath when her horse finally came to a stop on the little beach. She looked back at the path they had descended. Not steep, Gabriel had said, but it seemed precipitous. She’d thought it would never end.
Now that it was over, the elation of victory claimed her. She had not fallen to her death down that cliff. She had instinctively leaned back to keep her balance. She might never be a true equestrienne, but she also would not fear horses again. At least not as much.
Gabriel swung his leg and jumped off his horse. He came and lifted her down, then tied the reins of both horses to a log of driftwood caught against the face of the hill.
He bega
n stripping off his clothes. He made quick work of his coats and cravat and began on his shirt. That came off and joined the pile of garments forming on the sand. She took the opportunity to admire his form. Lean and strong at the same time, his body showed the muscles as they moved, corded and relaxed.
He noticed her watching. “Get undressed, Amanda. You can’t swim in that dress.” He sat down and pulled off his boots.
“I suppose not.” She glanced askance at the sea. The waves broke some fifty feet from the shore here, and the water near her looked placid enough, although it eddied forward on the sand almost to her feet.
She released her dress’s fastenings and dropped it. She picked it up and shook it, then laid it on some driftwood.
“The tide will come in before you are done.”
She looked up to see him approaching her. He wore nothing at all now. “I thought I was done.”
“Turn around.” He physically moved her to do so. She felt his hands working the laces of her stays. “Whatever you wear will hold water and weigh you down. So these must go.”
The stays fell on top of her dress.
“Arms up.”
She raised her arms and her chemise slid over her face and joined the dress too.
“I can do my hose.” She moved away and bent to roll down her hose.
“If you hoped to distract me from the swimming lesson, you are close to succeeding.”
She realized the pose she’d struck might have erotic connotations. Since she did not want to swim at all, she took a lot of time with the second stocking.
Suddenly an arm circled her waist. He lifted her off her feet and carried her like a rolled carpet toward the sea. Water sloshed around his legs while she flailed to get free. Then the water skimmed her body.
“It is cold! Put me down so I can walk in and become used to it. I will get shocked otherwise—it is freezing.” She twisted and hit his arm. “Put me down now, I insist—”
“Well, if you insist.” He lifted her, then dropped her. She screamed when she hit the water and the cold closed in around her.
She scrambled to stand and only calmed when her feet hit solid ground. She caught her breath, wiped her eyes, and pushed soaked hair off her face. “That was most unkind.”
“It saved half an hour. Now come here and I will show you how to stay afloat when the water is too deep for you to stand.”
The lesson did not take long. He supported her while she lay at the top of the water. He explained that salt water was more buoyant than lake water, and that the sea itself would help her. Finally he removed his arms and let her float on her own.
“It amazes me that I can do this,” she said. “It is lovely. Calming. I can watch the sky. All of it, it seems.”
“You can move if you want. Just push the water with your hands, one or the other or both.”
She tried with each hand and finally pushed herself in a complete circle. “I expect this is harder out there.” She pointed toward the open sea.
“It depends on the weather and the swells, but, yes, it is harder. Not impossible.”
“Aren’t you going to do it too?”
“I will swim later. Right now, I am enjoying how the water laps over your lovely naked body.”
She shifted her attention from the sky to him. His gaze sent her own to her body. Her breasts rose above the water. Other bits did too. The water reached above his waist, but she knew what she would see if it did not. His expression said it all.
She pulled her legs down so she stood. She walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cool, wet chest. She flicked her tongue at a salty droplet. “I do not think I will be so afraid of the sea in the future.”
He embraced and kissed her. She knew he wanted her, so it surprised her when he set her away from him. “Go ashore and let the sun dry you. I will join you soon.”
She pushed through the water to the shore and sat on the wet, packed sand near the water. She saw him near where the waves broke. His head disappeared for one heart-stopping moment, then showed again beyond that point, swimming out to sea as the waves crashed against him. He did not appear to fear the sea at all. She still did enough to worry about how far out he seemed.
He disappeared again. She looked for him, narrowing her eyes against the glare of the sun. Just as worry set in, he appeared again, his body atop a wave that now bore him toward land. He rode that wave until it broke at the edge of the cove’s pool.
He walked toward her, rising out of the water like a naked sea god, his chest expanding with deep breaths, the water revealing him inch by inch. He shook his head and a spray of water flew from his damp curls.
She wanted to kiss him again. All of him, from the hollows beneath his neck to the knees of his well-formed legs. She wanted to lick his cool skin, then lick again as he warmed.
“The tide is coming in. We should go,” he said as he neared.
She sat, resting her bum on her heels. “No. Not yet.”
He looked at how the water edged right to her before retreating. “We have at most thirty minutes.”
“Then come here now so we don’t waste time.”
“It would be wiser—”
“Now, Gabriel.”
A slow smile broke while he obeyed. He stood right in front of her. “Your tone is that of a field marshal.”
She looked up at him. “You once spoke of seeing me in the clear light of day. There is no clearer light than this, and I will not be denied this rare view of you too quickly.”
“Then I am at your command.”
She raised her arms until her hands rested on his chest. She smoothed her palms down to his ribs and abdomen. She raised up on her knees and pressed her lips to his skin. So cool still. She branded her mind with the fresh taste of him. Of the feel of his muscles and frame. Of how his eyes darkened to deepest blue while he gazed down at what she was doing.
She lost herself in the sensations of touch and taste, the contrasts of soft and hard, of cool and warm. His arousal prodded her and she circled his phallus with both hands and licked there too, taking the tip into her mouth as she did so. Then she released him and embraced his hips. She laid her face against him and allowed her emotions and desire to flow freely, lapping through her like the waves eddying beneath her knees.
He bent within her embrace and kissed her head. “What do you want, Amanda?”
She rubbed her face against him. “You. Now.” Forever.
He knelt with her, then they laid together. The hot sun warmed them and the water flowed around them and they rocked together to the rhythm of the waves.
Chapter Twenty-Four
They dined at sunset on the terrace, sharing a contentment that needed no words. Gabriel thought, as he did often now, that he had never experienced such happiness as he did with Amanda.
As twilight deepened, a small frown formed on Amanda’s brow. She cocked her head slightly. Her eyes lost their brightest lights. “He has returned,” she said.
Gabriel heard what she meant. A horse neared, its sound muffled by the house and breeze. The hoofbeats grew more prominent, then stopped. Beside him, Amanda fixed her gaze on the garden.
Vincent came through the doors, onto the terrace. He stood there like the footman he was until Gabriel called him forward. “Tell us.”
Vincent looked in high spirits. He spoke quickly, punctuating his tale with gestures. “I found him in the directory as you said. The property is in the south of the county, not far from the border. The closest town is Sudlairy, but a better inn can be had at Colton and it is only five miles.”
His eyes gleamed with excitement. Gabriel waited to hear why.
“I visited the property, since I had the time.”
“I did not tell you to do that.”
“No, Your Grace. But there I was, so close, and I thought to take a look.”
“I would have done the same thing,” Amanda said.
“Don’t encourage him.” Gabriel gave Vincent a g
lare appropriate to his disobedience. “As long as you showed unseemly initiative, what did you learn?”
“I do not think it a large property, but there is a good-sized house on it, one that needs tending. It is close enough to the sea that I think the sea air takes its toll. The gate up the lane is rustier than is good, for example.”
“I trust you did not enter that gate.”
“I would have,” Amanda murmured.
“No, Your Grace. I did, however, climb up a section of the wall away from the front of the house, just to see what was what. I was going to go over, but—”
“But you knew that would anger me, I am sure.”
“I would have gone over,” Amanda whispered.
“Yes, of course, Your Grace. Wouldn’t do at all, would it? Also changing my mind was I saw two people outside on the grounds. Wouldn’t do to get caught, I thought.”
“Two people?” Gabriel said.
“A man and a woman. The man was a middling sort of fellow. Not too tall, not too dark or fair, not too fat or thin. He was not too much of anything.”
“And the woman?” Amanda asked.
“A lady, I would say. Fine garments and a very fancy bonnet. They were not together as such. The lady strolled the grounds and the man trailed behind her.”
“Her hair? Her face?”
“Dark hair. Handsome face, from what I could see. Hard to know her age, but older than you, Miss Waverly, I’d say.”
Amanda stood. “It is she, I am sure. At least she is safe still. I am going above to pack a valise. We must leave in the morning at first light.”
Gabriel let her go. “Thank you, Vincent. You have been helpful.”
Vincent cleared his throat. “Um, there is more, Your Grace.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “More?”
“Yes, Your Grace. I rode cross-country coming back. Thought to save a few miles that way. So I rode over the property.”
“I wish you had not.”
“Yes, sir. Well, there were these . . . holes. There’s no other way to describe them. Every now and then, the ground would open up to a big hole maybe four horse lengths wide. I saw three of them, and there may be more. I don’t know if you and the other gentlemen intend to go there at night, but I thought I should mention them.”
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