Up in her bedchamber a few hours later, Sophia opened the window before she prepared for bed.A powerful gust of wind startled her, flinging raindrops into her room.The thick, dark clouds she had seen offshore when they were down on the beach earlier were now letting loose with a torrent.
Mildred had said the folly next door offered shelter, but would it keep her dry and warm in this storm, with the rain coming down sideways from the blustering wind?The girl likely didn’t feel that it was safe to go back to the caves.Sophia certainly wouldn’t.
What could Mildred do instead?Where could she pass the night safely, dry, so that she did not take a chill and become ill?
Before Sophia took the time to find all the flaws in her barely formed plan, she changed into her darkest gown, the one Ruby had carefully washed and repaired from the other night.She removed the white lace cap pinned atop her braids and wasted precious moments looking for her black silk fichu before she remembered she had used it to hold the bandage in place on Fairfax.He or his valet had probably disposed of it.She would just have to do without.
Taking one lit candle and tucking a stub in her pocket, she opened the door to the secret passage beside the fireplace and slipped out of her room.
Chapter 15
Unable to sleep, Vincent stared out the window.The storm rolling inland suited his mood.His middle brother had not lost the ability to rile him despite them both reaching adulthood and more than a quarter century of life experience.If anyone had noticed the slight bruise forming on Wallace’s right cheek, they hadn’t drawn attention to it.
Vincent had certainly enjoyed his share of bed sport with female companions, as had Wallace.Yet this afternoon in the blink of an eye, the very idea of Wallace being intimate with Miss Walden had turned Vincent into a beast on the beach.
In the drawing room after supper, only the tightest of self-restraint kept him standing by the pianoforte instead of crashing his violin over Wallace’s head when he’d encroached on Miss Walden.The fact she had handled him just fine on her own, rejecting his advances and leaving him to his own devices, took away some of the sting of her rejecting Vincent’s attempted proposal.Some.
He’d already stripped down to just his breeches and stockings and dismissed Lawrence for the night.Perhaps the raging storm would help him fall asleep.As he bent to take off his stockings, a flash of movement outside the window caught his eye.
Not lightning.
He balanced his palms on the windowsill and leaned out, heedless of the rain bouncing off the windowpane and hitting his face.There.In the open space between the kitchen garden and the stable were two moving figures.Hunched over against the driving rain, one was all pale grey, with her gown, shawl, and long hair fluttering behind her.He almost missed the other figure, more difficult to see in dark clothing, but it also seemed female.
A ghost and an earthly companion?
Not bloody likely.
Shoving his feet in his shoes and without bothering to put on anything else other than his coat, Vincent made sure his knife and small pistol were in their respective pockets, then opened the door to the secret passageway beside his fireplace and plunged into the darkness, down to the stable.
* * *
“Duck,” Sophia whispered, ushering Mildred into the opening of the passageway that would lead back to the house and up to her chamber.If Sophia had nearly bumped her head in the small space, Mildred was certainly in danger of getting a headache.
Clutching her valise, Mildred ducked and walked into the darkness.
Before she followed suit, Sophia darted her gaze around the stable.Had that noise been one of the horses?Or was someone else here?She thought the coachman slept in the house with his wife, and the two groomsmen slept in quarters up in the loft.They had left one lamp hanging from the top rung of the ladder, shutters partially drawn so it was more a source of shadows than light.
That harsh breath did not sound like it came from a sleeping horse.
Sophia closed the secret door as quietly as she could, scuffed some straw on the floor in front of it with one foot, and took three steps over to the nearest stall.One of the carriage horses, a bay gelding, had thrust his head outside his stall.
Well, that explained why Sophia felt someone had been watching her.
Letting out a deep breath to release her stress from the last hour, traipsing through the dark and rainstorm to find Mildred at the estate next door without falling into the pond and then leading her back here, Sophia reached up to stroke the horse’s velvety cheek.
The horse whickered and leaned into her, demanding a scratch behind his ears.Sophia gladly complied.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
At the rumbling deep voice behind her, Sophia let out a startled yelp and jumped nearly a foot straight up in the air.She spun, one hand on the stall rail to keep her balance, and searched the shadows.
A male figure took a few steps closer.His dark hair, breeches, and coat blended into the shadows, while light reflected off the familiar features of his face and… and bare torso.
Sophia gulped.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Fairfax quietly rumbled.
She held a hand over her pounding heart.“I thought I was alone except for the horses.”
