<<<
He had thought for a few minutes there that he was in luck, that he might catch her alone, in the best possible way. But as he had eased the latch of the door undone, he had heard approaching footsteps. He had barely managed to slip into the store room next to the bathing room in time.
Looking around the door cautiously, he had seen the older woman entering the room. Swallowing curses, he’d settled to wait. Perhaps the older one simply came to speak to her, and would leave soon. The image of what was going on in that room filled his mind. That she was in there, naked in the water, inflamed him. That he had almost managed to enter the room, to trap her in that state, and been thwarted at the last minute drove him to a madness of frustration.
He did not like the fact that he desired her. But if he could entrap her, compromise her, then he might sate that desire, and use her as leverage to gain his other desires as well.
It was an appealing thought. One which would render his other plans unnecessary, and save him effort and money. He would try again, of course. One or the other of his plans would work, before they left this house, he was sure of it. Faintly from the room next door there came the sound of their voices, and of water moving. It seemed that the older one was staying there, rather than simply speaking for a short while and leaving.
He ground his teeth together. He would wait, just in case. But he would go out, and sit in the courtyard, where he had every right to be, as if he was just taking his ease, and watch from there. He slipped out and settled in a shaded spot which hid him from view somewhat, whilst still allowing him good oversight of the bathing room door.
The time dragged, but eventually the door opened. He sighed. Both women emerged. He rose, and slipped quietly away into the house, his determination even more intense than before. He would have her, and everything else he desired, one way or another.
<<<
Two days passed, and the second week of their stay on the islands was ending. It seemed as if they had barely arrived, and yet also as if they had been there for far longer. As the cart took them up the winding ravine road again, Primrose turned to Gabriel with a smile. At first, she had thought that he would be too caught up in the negotiations to accompany her, but he had protested that he could not allow her to go so far with only the guide and a maid. She had not argued – being very glad that he wanted to be with her.
He returned her smile, and his fingers pressed hers, where they lay entwined, covered by the fall of her skirts as they sat on the cramped bench of the cart. Her heart pounded, and she licked suddenly dry lips. What was he thinking? Did he, as she did, dread the time when they would return to London, when this idyll away from society’s judgemental gaze would be over?
The hills passed by, beautiful, and while she studied the plants around her, again asking that they stop to allow her to draw some of them, her mind was whirling. Did he, perhaps, care for her, as she had for him, for so long? More importantly, if he did, was that care strong enough to lead him to stand by it, in the face of society’s disapprobation? Where might their kisses lead, before they were forced to return, to go back to their normal lives?
She had no answers for any of it. For this day, she would try to put that turmoil of thoughts aside, and simply enjoy what came. When they reached the flat area where they had stopped the previous time, the guide drove on, up a further section of road that Primrose had not really noticed previously, which rounded a curve of the hill to reveal yet another breath-taking panorama of the land below. Not much further along, there was another flat area – a little smaller this time, but still furnished with a spring, shade trees, and suitable rocks and fallen logs to serve as seats.
As they set up their picnic area, Primrose noted that, not far from the spring, a narrow path led up into the trees and scrub. She wondered where it went, and what plants and flowers might be found there. Perhaps, after food, she would explore. As they went about their business, another cart appeared on the road, and trundled on past them, going further up the road.
Primrose barely noted it, for she had found a new type of flower, and was completely focused on drawing it. It absorbed her for some time, until Gabriel gently tapped her shoulder.
“You should eat and drink, Lady Primrose, and come into the shade for a while, lest you faint away from the heat.”
She looked up, blinking, and realised that, whilst she had been utterly absorbed, the others had set up everything.
The guide was, as he had the previous time, dozing in a shady spot near his horse, and Mary was waiting to provide her with the food which was laid out on a blanket.
“Oh. Yes. Thank you.”
She rose from the cramped posture she had been in, bent over the flower, and stretched, before following him to the blanket, journal in hand. They ate, and soon, as before, Mary curled up on the blanket and drifted into sleep, leaving them alone. They turned to each other and, without a word spoken closed the distance between them, until their lips met. She sighed, pleasure running through her, and relaxed into his kiss. Time stretched, and the rest of the world seemed impossibly far away. Eventually, they drew apart, and he smiled at her wryly.
“Much as I would like to simply continue kissing you, I do believe that we should explore a little, to find those plants for your father, and to allow you to get more drawing done. That is, after all, what we came up here for. Raphael and Sera would think it very odd if we returned with hardly any new sketches in your journals!”
Primrose laughed, and nodded, acknowledging the truth of his words.
“That is undoubtedly true. Walk with me?”
He rose, and offered her his hand to assist her to stand. Its heat warmed her throughout, and as she reached her feet, she rose further, to bring her lips to his in another gentle kiss.
“Oh! Don’t tempt me so. Gather your crayons and journals, and let us move before my resolve fails me.”
“Perhaps I want your resolve to fail you, Gabriel. But I will behave – for now.”
She gathered the larger journal, her pencils, and the box of crayons, slipping the latter two into her pockets, and they set off, with Gabriel carrying the bag with pots into which plants could be collected. An hour or more passed, with many sweet stolen kisses, even as Primrose diligently worked on her sketches, and chose three plants to take back for her father, before they turned back to the clearing.
Both Mary and the guide still slumbered, and Primrose set down her art materials beside the bag with the plants, and stretched. She looked around, a little discomfited. She needed the necessary – obviously, she’d had too much of the wine with her food. There was no avoiding it. Embarrassment brought colour to her cheeks.
“Ah… Gabriel, I ah, need to go for a little walk by myself.”
“Oh?”
“I… ah… need the necessary. I will just go up that little path a short way, so that I am hidden from view… I won’t be long.”
He grinned, obviously a little amused by her predicament, then bowed, presenting her with a handkerchief.
“In case you need …”
She felt her cheeks turn a far brighter red, but accepted it, and nodded.
“Thank you.”
She turned, and set off up the little path into the trees, looking for a suitable spot. As the trees became denser, she shivered – the shade was cool after the sun, and somehow, it felt threatening, as if someone watched her.
She shook the feeling aside. It was just an ordinary hillside, and she was letting her imagination run wild.
Chapter Fourteen
Gabriel watched as Primrose disappeared up the path. The more time they spent like this, the more sun-drenched kisses they shared, the harder it was going to be to go back to the rigidly constricted propriety of London. And he was mad to think that there was any chance of them continuing this close association once they were back in London. The ton would turn a ridiculing eye upon any such idea.
He settled back to wait for her return, studying the d
rawing she had last been working on – a representation of the panoramic view laid out below them. It was magnificently done, the detail exquisite, and the sense of the vastness of it beautifully portrayed. Gently, he closed the journal, and lay back against the sun warmed rocks, letting his eyes close. Dozing was easy in the sun.
Quite some time passed before he was startled awake.
<<<
Primrose had found a secluded spot under a rock overhang, shielded by a screen of bushes, and taken care of her bodily needs. Now, far more comfortable, she scrambled back up around the rocks towards the path. Where birds had been singing in the trees around her moments ago, now there was only silence.
Leaves rustled, and she thought that she heard the crack of a twig. She shivered. It felt ominous, wrong, that silence. She forced herself to continue, internally castigating herself for imagining things again. She bent, and picked up a fallen branch to use as a staff on the steep downhill section of the path ahead, then continued. The path twisted, and she turned the corner where a gap in the trees allowed her to see the spectacular view below, but all too soon it took her deep into the trees again.
She turned another corner, and stopped, shocked. Immediately in front of her, a man had stepped out from amongst the trees, and blocked the path. Behind her, the sound came of twigs breaking. She lifted her arm, holding the branch, as if to ward the man off – but before she had even finished the gesture, arms snaked around her from behind, trapping her other arm against her side, and the man in front of her stepped closer.
“Behave, and you won’t be hurt.”
At least, that’s what she thought the man holding her had said, for his Spanish was guttural, and his voice deep and rough. But she had no intention of behaving – no matter what he said. Whatever they wanted – and she could imagine some rather unpleasant possibilities - she would escape if she possibly could. He pulled her back against him, and she allowed herself to almost fall with the pull, so that he staggered.
Then, using his moment of instability, she screamed, twisting violently in his grasp, even as she swung the branch at the other man approaching her. He flinched away, and she allowed the movement of the swing to pull her body forward, dragging her almost out of the first man’s grasp. She screamed again, a sound compounded of fear and anger, letting herself spin around, and kicking upward as hard as she could.
The reinforced toe of her half boot connected, with a satisfying thud, with the private parts of the man who had grabbed her, and he collapsed to the ground, screaming in turn, cursing her colourfully in Spanish. She only knew about half of the words… but the rest could be interpreted.
The kick had spun her further, and, more by luck than planning, as she flailed the branch for balance, she struck the other man hard across the face, just as he reached for her. He staggered back, also cursing, and she took the chance to try to slip past him and run. She failed – his hand grabbed her skirts at her waist, spinning her back around him.
Desperation filled her, as she screamed again, beating at his face, the branch having slipped from her grasp as he’d jerked her around.
<<<
Gabriel was on his feet and running before his mind caught up with what he had heard. It was a scream – a very female scream, coming from the general direction of the path which Lady Primrose had taken. Their guide had also lurched awake, and Gabriel heard his footsteps following.
He pounded up the path, his breath coming hard and fast as he heard the sounds of a scuffle above, and then another scream. Even as he ran, his thinking cut in, and he looked around for something which might serve as a weapon. The trail turned around a rocky outcrop, and he scooped up a fist sized rock as he went – it was not much, but, applied in the right place, it would still have an impact.
What terrified him was the thought of what harm might be coming to Lady Primrose – it felt as if it was taking forever to reach the point where that scream had come from. The sounds continued from above, and he drove himself harder up the steep slope, until he rounded another corner, and surged into a shadowed tunnel of trees.
He barely stopped himself in time – for the dimness had limited his vision for a moment. There, before him, a man grappled with Lady Primrose, who struggled in his grasp, beating at his head with her hands, even as the man cursed at her. A red haze of anger filled Gabriel, and he flung the rock, hard, to connect with the skull of her attacker. The man dropped, instantly, unconscious.
Gabriel stepped forward, and gathered Lady Primrose into his arms. It was only then, as he looked over her shoulder, that he saw the second man who lay on the rocky path, curled in a ball and clutching his private parts. For a moment, his mind struggled to comprehend what he was seeing – and then the implications came home to him.
He gently pushed back from Lady Primrose, lifting one hand to raise her chin so that he could meet her eyes.
“Did you…?”
He gestured to the fallen man.
She firmed her jaw, and as she looked at the fallen ruffian, assumed an expression which would have been well suited to giving someone the cut direct in a ballroom. But, even with the tears, there was laughter in the eyes that met his.
“I did. The toes of my half boots are reinforced. He was foolish enough to expect me not to fight. The other one – him, I obviously did not hit hard enough with the branch, for he still managed to grab me as I ran past him.”
Gabriel felt his heart swell with pride, and something more. This remarkable woman, rather than succumbing to hysterics, or fainting, had come to her own defence, had fought her attackers, and done that so well that they had been incapacitated and delayed enough for him to reach her, and deliver the final blow. He smiled and, his fingers still resting under her chin, bent to bring his lips to hers in what felt, to him, like an act of homage.
As he did, Luis, their guide, rushed past him, taking in the scene in a quick glance, and went to the conscious man, who Luis quickly restrained by use of his own belt to bind the man’s hands behind his back. When the man cursed even more, Luis cuffed him across the face, calling for his silence in ferocious words. Then he turned back, ignoring Gabriel and Lady Primrose, and went to examine the one who had been felled by Gabriel’s blow. Gabriel left him to it, his attention totally focussed on the woman he held. She was shaking, and her eyes glittered with unshed tears, as reaction to the events set in, but she did not, even now, succumb to hysteria.
She was magnificent.
“You, Lady Primrose, are a remarkable woman. I congratulate you on the… accuracy… with which you applied your boot. But… how did you learn that particular tactic?”
She laughed – a slightly brittle sounding laugh, but a genuine one.
“I have a brother, who thought it best to teach his sisters some useful things, for, as he put it, it was simply impossible for him to be near all of us at once, to deal with any gentlemen who chose to attempt to take liberties.”
“A wise man, then. I must commend his foresight when I see him next. But come, let us deal with these two, and get back down to where Mary is no doubt in an absolute panic, waiting for us.”
She nodded and, as if only then realising what had been going on around her, turned to see Luis shaking awake the one that Gabriel had felled. He dragged the man to his feet, his hands securely bound behind him, and Gabriel stepped forward to grasp the fellow’s arm firmly. Luis went to the other one, who still cursed and muttered under his breath, and dragged upright – which movement of his lower body brought forth a further stream of profanities in Spanish. Gabriel looked to Lady Primrose with concern, and asked the question which he should have asked sooner.
“Are you hurt in any way? Are you able to walk back down to where the cart is?”
“No, I am not hurt – beyond perhaps a few bruises, and the damage to my pride, that I allowed myself to be trapped so. And of course I can walk – this branch will once again serve its purpose as a staff, rather than a weapon.”
She bent a
nd gathered the sturdy branch from where it had fallen, and followed them as they half dragged her attackers down the path.
<<<
By the time they reached the clearing where the cart stood, the cart horse grazing beside it unconcernedly, Primrose had regained much of her composure. She could feel the places where there would be bruises, and the pulled muscles which had resulted from such sudden and unaccustomed exertions, but she was very grateful that things were no worse. If she had meekly done as they had wanted, where might she have been by now?
However, never had she been so grateful to see Gabriel as she had been when he had appeared behind the man who held her. She was most annoyed with herself for allowing that man to grab her. There were times when she truly hated the requirement for ladies to wear such long and inconvenient skirts! But the way that Gabriel had looked at her… that was worth every moment of fear and discomfort.
Now, as Mary rushed to her, all fussy care, she allowed herself to be led to a rock in the shade, and provided wine and food. Gabriel and Luis were questioning the two men, but Primrose did not try to understand the rapid Spanish – there would be enough time later to discover what they had said, and why they had attacked her. In truth, the reasoning behind it concerned her – because she could not imagine what it might be, or what they might have gained by abducting her.
After a short while, Gabriel and Luis made the men climb up into the bed of the wagon, and bound their legs, also tying them to the sides of the cart, so that they were unable to move beyond a wriggle in place. Then, Gabriel came to her. Just watching him approach made her feel all warm inside.
She should, she realised, thank him for saving her, when she had so carelessly failed to save herself.
A Minx for a Merchant : Book 5: Primrose: Clean Regency Romance (A Duke's Daughters - The Elbury Bouquet) Page 11