Cam would vow it hadn’t been the farthest thing from Serena and Sophia’s minds, however. But they were discussing Gemma at the moment. And though she might have been flattered by Sir Everard’s and Paley’s compliments, he doubted sincerely she’d considered either of them as potential matches.
“So, we know why this Sir Everard was here in the first place,” Northman said thoughtfully, “but why did he come back? And why the dev—er, deuce, would he wish to go out onto the shore in this weather?”
This time, Gemma gave him a brief summary of their contretemps yesterday, complete with her plans to come back this morning with Cam to retrieve her skull.
“You went back to Pearson Close with him?” Northman asked Cam. “And you didn’t tell him about Miss Hastings and her plans to go back?”
“Of course not. I gave her my word,” Cam said with a frown. “As did Paley.”
“She gave Sir Everard her word but she didn’t mean to keep it, did she?” Northman had turned his gaze on Gemma, who sat up straighter. Cam could practically feel the indignation oozing from her pores.
“He tried to steal my discovery,” she said with ill-disguised hauteur. “And I didn’t give my word, I didn’t have to. He dismissed my claims as if I didn’t even exist. As far as he was concerned, my prior claim didn’t matter. My leaving was enough to convince him he’d won. He was horrid.”
“Seems to me, Miss Hastings, that you had a very good reason to wish Sir Everard dead.”
The room fell silent as everyone stared at the magistrate.
“I don’t think you understand my sister very well, Mr. Northman,” said Sophia coming to stand behind the sofa at Gemma’s back. “She has difficulty killing flies. It would be impossible for her to inflict physical harm on another person. Even one as odious as Sir Everard.”
“And how would she have known he would return in the middle of the night?” Serena said calmly. “He wasn’t supposed to return until later today.”
“I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick, Squire,” Ben said, coming to stand beside his wife. “Gemma didn’t do this.”
Beside him, Cam felt Gemma relax a little at the defense. He wanted to offer a consoling touch but now was hardly the time. Not when all eyes were on her.
Northman, however, had turned his gaze on him and Cam couldn’t help but feel the weight of the man’s speculation.
“You could have killed him, though, couldn’t you, Lord Cameron?” Northman asked thoughtfully. “Mayhap you didn’t care for the way the man insulted your lady. And since you were also in attendance at Pearson’s house party, you might very well have heard him leaving in the middle of the night to return to Beauchamp House’s bit of shore. It would have been easy enough to follow him here and beat him with his own pry bar.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Cam said sharply. “I had no reason to wish Sir Everard dead. I thought he was out of order to refuse Miss Hastings’ claim but that was hardly enough reason for me to murder the fellow. We had a plan to come back this morning and I had no reason to think it wouldn’t work.”
“We don’t even like each other,” Gemma assured the magistrate, focusing on the man’s designation of her as Cam’s “lady.”
When he turned and widened his eyes at her, she shrugged. “It’s true. We’ve done nothing but bicker since we met. I’d sooner expect you to murder me than murder on my behalf.”
She turned back to the magistrate. “Neither of us killed Sir Everard, Mr. Northman,” Gemma said firmly. “Not me, and certainly not Lord Cameron.”
Northman didn’t look particularly convinced, but rose from his chair. “I will have my men remove the body to the doctor’s in town so that he may examine it. Perhaps that will give us more information about the circumstances of the fellow’s demise.”
There was one detail about the body that Cam hadn’t shared with Gemma, and despite knowing she would resent the omission, he said aloud, “There is one more thing about the body, Mr. Northman.” Reaching into his coat pocket, he retrieved the note he’d managed to secrete there while Gemma’s back was turned. “This was beside the corpse. A warning, I believe.”
He felt Gemma stiffen beside him. “Let me see that!” she said sharply. “Why didn’t you show me?”
But Northman had already taken the page—torn from a diary or journal it would appear based on the jagged edge. The magistrate stared down at it and frowned. “You should have told me about this first thing,” he said to Cam.
“I’m telling you now.”
Gemma made a noise of impatience and Northman turned a cryptic gaze toward her. He proffered the page and she all but snatched it from his hand.
Cam knew what it said, but seeing the color drain from Gemma’s face made him realize that whatever his response had been, hers was compounded by the fact that she was its target.
“Stop looking for it or you’ll be next,” she read aloud in a voice that was uncharacteristically shaken.
“Who else knows about this fossil?” Northman asked pointedly. “Besides you lot? And Lord Paley?”
“I have no notion of who Sir Everard might have told,” Cam said with a shake of his head. “He seemed reluctant to speak about it last evening for fear of someone attempting to take it, but to be honest, I have little trust in his discretion. He was a boastful man and I would think it next to impossible for him to keep such a discovery to himself.”
The magistrate nodded. To Gemma and Cam he said, “Don’t either of you leave the county. And since I know the other ladies in this house have fancied themselves to be amateur Bow Street Runners, I will warn you, especially Miss Hastings, not to interfere in my investigation. Leave this business to men who know what they’re about. It ain’t seemly for a lady to get mixed up in this sort of thing.”
Before Gemma could argue, Serena stepped forward and put her arm around Gemma’s waist. “I promise you, Mr. Northman, I will see to it that Gemma stays out of trouble.”
Northman made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a snort.
To Cam, he said, “I’ll be round to Pearson Close later this afternoon to interview the rest of the guests. I’ll thank you not to warn them ahead of time so that they all agree on the same story.”
It was far more canny than Cam would have given the man credit for. He nodded.
And with that, the Squire left, shutting the door behind him.
“I cannot believe we’re being forced to deal with that horrible man yet again,” Serena said, rubbing her forehead. “I love you girls dearly, but could you not have avoided getting involved in murder for this one year?”
Gemma, who seemed to have recovered from her shock over the threat, gave the chaperone an impulsive hug. “I promise none of us did it on purpose. And hopefully this particular misdeed will be solved with little discomfort for you.”
“I’m more concerned about your safety, Gemma,” Sophia said, lines of worry between her brows. “Whoever killed Sir Everard seems intent on warning you against searching for the fossil. I know it’s a waste of breath, but I do hope you’ll heed that warning.”
“But if I simply step away and allow this—this murderer—to steal without any sort of a fight, then what’s to stop him from killing the next time he wants something?” Something about the determination in Gemma’s tone made Cam’s chest tighten. An image of her body in place of Sir Everard’s rose in his mind’s eye and he clenched his jaw.
“Northman will find the culprit,” he told her with a surety he didn’t feel. “You must at least let the man do his job.” Seeing her skeptical response, he continued, “Or, if you are not content to wait for Northman, let me look into the matter. I’m sure I can find out whoever he told about the fossil.”
But instead of gratitude he saw impatience in her eyes. “I am not a child to be placated with promises of sweets. I’m perfectly capable of finding the fossil on my own and when I do—”
She stopped at Sophia’s hand on her arm. “Dearest, you’ve obviously had
a trying morning. Perhaps it would be better to discuss this later, when you’re feeling less distressed.”
At her sister’s words, Gemma’s mulish expression deflated a bit. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m so frustrated. That awful man tried to take what I am convinced is the bequest Lady Celeste left for me, and now some other terrible person has killed him and in the process stolen my fossil.”
She sighed. “And I sound like a monster for speaking so of a dead man. What a wretched person I am.”
“We needn’t attribute saintly characteristics to the dead,” Ben said quietly, laying a hand on her arm. “There’s no shame in recalling them as they were. Nor is there glory in praising them undeservedly.”
Cam was struck, as he always was, by his brother’s ability to say the right thing at the right time.
It was a skill he had never mastered and he was grateful for Ben’s presence here today.
“I’ll go down and sit with William for a bit, I think,” the vicar continued. “It can’t be an easy task to watch over a body in this weather.”
Ben was also a master of understatement, Cam thought on a smothered laugh.
Before the vicar left, however, he gave Gemma a hug. Then laid his hand on Cam’s shoulder.
“I’m here if you need to talk,” he said quietly. “Both of you.”
Sophia took her husband’s arm. “I’m coming with you.”
With a sigh, Serena rose and said, “I’ll go see if cook will send some tea out to them.”
She was careful to leave the door open, however, something Cam noted with a mixture of amusement and resignation.
He was hardly going to attempt a seduction so soon after finding a corpse.
Or at any time with this particular lady, for that matter.
But Gemma’s first words once they were alone told him she was thinking of anything but seduction.
“Where the devil is my fossil?”
Chapter 8
Gemma felt Cam’s eyes on her as she paced from the window to the fireplace and back again.
But she couldn’t help herself. It was impossible to sit still while the most important fossil she’d ever come across was missing. A fossil that had very likely been the cause of a man’s murder.
“Where is it?” she asked again. “Did the killer take it? Or did someone else happen upon it before Sir Everard even returned to the cliff?”
She stopped, some of her frenetic energy dissipating at the memory of the dead man. He’d not endeared himself to her, but he hadn’t deserved to have his life cut short for being boorish. What if he had family?
At that thought, she collapsed into the chair Serena had so recently vacated.
She couldn’t imagine what she’d do if something happened to Sophia. Or anyone she’d come to know and love since her arrival in Sussex, for that matter.
“It seems unlikely that anyone would stumble upon that stretch of shore in the middle of the night by chance.” Cam leaned forward in the chair opposite hers, his elbows on his knees. “We must assume that the killer, very likely someone Sir Everard brought with him, took it.”
She nodded. It did seem the most logical explanation.
“If he brought an accomplice,” she said, “it must have been someone from Pearson Close. One of the other collectors.”
“Or his valet,” Cam said thoughtfully. “He did say that Chambers often assisted him in his excavations.”
“Then we must speak to this man,” Gemma said, her spirits rising at the thought of some occupation to help her find the skull. “I have no intention of allowing a murderer to make off with my skull.”
But Cam was already shaking his head.
“You heard what Northman said. He expressly warned you against looking into the matter yourself.”
Gemma waved that objection away. “He warned me against investigating the murder. Not the missing skull.”
“If you won’t listen to Northman’s caution, then listen to the killer’s,” Cam argued, his expression turning forbidding. “If you need reminding, Sir Everard was bludgeoned to death with his own digging tools. I cannot allow you to put yourself at risk for a similar fate. I won’t.”
“You aren’t the one who decides what I may and may not do,” she said with a glare.
“Now is not the time for stubbornness, Gemma,” Cam said, thrusting his hands through his hair, as if to keep from gripping her by the arms. “Just let me search for it. I promise to report on it to you as soon as I learn anything.”
But she shook her head. “Either you assist me, or I search alone,” she said firmly.
She watched as he slid his hands down his face in exasperation.
“I know you think it’s sheer bullheadedness on my part,” she said, taking pity on him, “but you have to understand that I’ve spent the better part of a year at Beauchamp House with little hope of finding out where Lady Celeste hid my inheritance.”
At his questioning look, she continued. “All of the others had detailed instructions and quests outlined for them. Puzzles and mysteries to solve. But Lady Celeste left my letter unfinished.” Gemma felt her eyes well. “She died before she could complete it. That’s what the note from the solicitor said that accompanied it. So, if she did indeed leave this skull for me—and I am convinced now that she did—then l must be the one to find it.”
Cam’s expression softened and he took her hand. “I know it must be incredibly frustrating for you, but I cannot believe Lady Celeste would wish you to risk your life to find this fossil.”
“No,” Gemma said quietly, “But nor would she expect me to simply cede the field to someone else.
“I must be the one to conduct the search, Cam,” she said. “And if you insist, then you may help me.”
“Help you?” Cam shook his head. “I most certainly will not. You don’t need to be mixed up in this business. A man was murdered, Gemma. It’s not a jaunt to the shore to dig for stones.”
“That’s why you’ll be there.” Really, who would have guessed Lord Cameron Lisle was such a prig?
“To protect me,” she clarified, just in case he hadn’t figured it out. “It’s really quite brilliant. You’ll assist me, and I’ll find the stone.”
“It’s not brilliant at all,” he countered. “If something were to happen to you, Sophia would be livid. And when Sophia is unhappy, Benedick is unhappy. I do not relish a thrashing from my brother the vicar, Gemma.”
“Oh come now. You can’t tell me you’re afraid of your own brother, can you?”
That was a bridge too far, apparently.
“I’m not afraid of Ben,” Cam said in the voice of a man who needed very much to assert his bravery. “I am simply not willing to risk jeopardizing my relationship with him by helping you put yourself in the path of a killer.”
“But I’m sure it would be perfectly rational if you had been the one to discover the skull first.” Gemma rolled her eyes. “Why is it when a man wishes to pursue something, it’s a noble cause that everyone should rejoice over, but if a woman wants to embark on a search for her own property, it’s far too dangerous and she should stay at home and … and…” she searched for the perfect womanly activity to illustrate her point.
“Knit? Cook? Sew? Polish her fossil collection?” Cam asked.
If anything, his attempt at levity made her even angrier. “Any of those things,” she said heatedly, stomping her foot for good measure. “And I will not sit still this time. I will not let my discovery be taken from me.”
To her shame, tears sprang into her eyes. She’d worked so hard to gain recognition in the world of geology, and the excitement she’d felt when she caught sight of the skull protruding from the mud had been like nothing she’d ever felt before. She’d felt in her bones the importance of it. How dare that … that man … attempt to steal it from her.
She gulped back a sob and before she knew what was happening, Cam was on his knees before her, pulling her into his arms and flipping them so that he was
in the chair and she was in his lap.
It was utterly improper, but at the moment she didn’t care for such niceties. Not when he was so warm and strong and it felt so good to be held close.
“Hush now,” he whispered, his breath tickling her ear. “Hush. I’ll help you. I’ll help you find your skull.”
She pulled away a little to look him in the eyes and found something there that made her stomach give a flip. “You will?” she asked, her voice hoarse with tears.
“I will,” he said, and his eyes glanced down at her mouth.
Without conscious thought, she closed her eyes and whispered, “Thank you.”
Then, in what at the time she’d doubtless considered a gesture of gratitude, she kissed him.
* * *
What the devil was he about?
Cam tried to form a coherent thought, but Gemma Hastings in his arms with her mouth pressed against his was far too overwhelming to allow anything to cross his mind but disbelief followed by sheer exhilaration.
It was clear from the tentative nature of the caress that she wasn’t practiced in the art of seduction, but her mouth was sweet and he let her explore a bit before leaning into her, opening his mouth a little, to tease her.
That surprised a soft “oh” from her as she opened her own mouth and he nipped her lower lip before tasting her with his tongue.
She clung tighter, and he felt her hands slip up and around his neck. He smiled against her as she tilted her head and took to the art of kissing as she did everything else.
With unabashed enthusiasm.
Soon they were exchanging bits of dialogue in a conversation only they could understand.
When she made a noise of satisfaction as he caressed her breast, it sent a lick of fire through his veins.
“Gemma, do you know where my…?”
No two people could have leapt away from a kiss faster than they did.
Though her eyes were still hazy with passion, Gemma had jumped to her feet and turned her back to him.
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