Behind the Mask (68 page)

He completed his song with an elaborate run and a final high chord. Lifting his fingers from the keys, he turned to look at Abbi. “You really are full of surprises,” she said.

He laughed. “Yes, I am.”

She loved seeing him so happy. “That was beautiful,” she continued. “I didn’t recognize the melody.”

“I doubt you’ve heard it before.” He smiled humbly. “I came up with that one on my own. I played it a thousand times in my mind when I was alone on the mountain.” He looked down almost shyly, then he stood and pulled her into his arms. “I love you,” he whispered, guiding her into a simple dance step, humming the song he’d just finished playing. They danced for several minutes before coming to a stop, silently holding each other.

“Are there still ghosts in this room?” he asked.

“I believe your music has driven them away. You’ve given this room some life, and now I can come here and remember something that brought me happiness.”

“Good,” he said gently.

“Where did you learn to play?”

“My mother. She too was very gifted, just as your mother. Perhaps our children shall inherit their talent.”

“Perhaps.” She smiled.

Slowly he brought his face close to hers, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. But the kiss was interrupted when the door burst open. “Cameron, my boy,” Marta said with urgency, “there’s a carriage approaching. I’ll see to everything here. You hurry along.”

“Thank you, Marta.” He placed a kiss on her cheek and then took Abbi by the hand and pulled her into the hallway. Breaking into a run, he led her up the stairs while she lifted her skirts and followed, gripping his hand tightly. As they reached the top of the stairs, they heard the front door open below, but without being noticed, they slipped into her room where a lamp had been left burning.

Cameron leaned against the door while Abbi rested against him to catch her breath. They laughed until he kissed her again. She untied his cravat and unbuttoned his waistcoat while he continued kissing her. Then he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed. She threw back the covers and kicked off her shoes. Then he kissed her again. He was just beginning to really enjoy himself when a knock came to the door.

Cameron felt Abbi’s heartbeat quicken as she looked down at him, whispering fearfully, “I forgot to lock the door.”

The knock came again and Abbi called out, “Who is it?” as she efficiently rolled onto her back, pushed Cameron’s head below the sheet, and pulled it up to her chin.

“It’s Aunt Ramona,” came the reply.

Abbi glanced down at Cameron’s jacket and waistcoat on the floor just as the door came open and Ramona pushed her head inside.

“I was only wondering if you were feeling any better,” Ramona asked.

“Oh yes, I’m fine,” Abbi replied.

“Are you certain?” Ramona furrowed her brow. “You sound, well . . . breathless. Are you certain you’re all right?”

Abbi could feel Cameron’s face pressed against her side. She could tell he was fighting to avoid a snigger, which made Abbi unwillingly chuckle as she reassured her aunt, “I’ve never felt better.”

“You seem in good spirits anyway,” Ramona smiled, apparently not noticing anything out of the ordinary. “Yes, good spirits. Good night then,” she added and slipped quietly back into the hallway.

“Good night,” Abbi called out. When she was sure the woman was gone, she darted across the room, locked the door, and jumped back into bed.

“Yes,” she said, “normal courting and marriage must be terribly dull.”

“Indeed,” Cameron laughed and resumed their kiss, relishing the intimate borders it lured them beyond. Each time he shared such an experience with Abbi, he marveled anew at the bliss and beauty she brought into his life. She was heaven in the midst of hell. And when he was with her this way, thoroughly captivated by this most sacred and extraordinary aspect of all that they shared, he could push away his every fear and worry and allow himself to fully absorb his reasons for believing miracles were possible. He felt deeply grateful to know that she was his wife, that he’d been given the opportunity to make their union right before God. Now he could only pray that God would see fit to allow him to live long enough to truly share his life with her. He was sick to death of running and hiding, of living in fear, of bringing worry and uncertainty into Abbi’s life. And he hated having to wonder if the opportunity to be with Abbi this way would ever come again before his own life ended.

Abbi lay with her head on Cameron’s shoulder long after the passion between them had subsided. She lifted her head to look at him in the soft glow of lamplight, touching his face in an effort to silently express how very much she loved him. She smiled as he pushed her hair back from her face. She bent to kiss him but stopped when a light knock came to the door, followed by Georg’s voice in a loud whisper, “It’s me.”

“Just a minute,” Cameron said and hurried to pull on his breeches before he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

“Forgive me,” Georg said, “but I need you for about an hour.”

“It’s all right. Just give me a minute.” Cameron turned to grab his shirt, leaving the door open, where Georg waited.

While Cameron pulled on his boots, Abbi said, “You’ll make certain he comes back safely, won’t you, Georg?”

“Actually,” Georg drawled with hesitance, “I won’t be coming back with him. I have some other things to attend to after.”

Cameron leaned over Abbi to kiss her, saying with conviction, “I’ll be back by midnight. I promise.”

Abbi glanced at the clock to see that it was just past ten-thirty. “I’ll be waiting,” she said. “Be careful.”

The men left the room and closed the door. Abbi sighed and wished she could keep herself from worrying while she counted the minutes until midnight.

Just before midnight, Cameron rode into the stable where Georg had left a single lantern burning low. When Georg returned, if the lantern was out and moved to a different hook, he would know Cameron had come back safely. Their business had gone well this night, and it was one more step that brought him closer to his goal. He dismounted and led the horse into an empty stall after he’d removed the saddle. He was reaching for the lantern to douse it when a voice from the darkness made his heart threaten to stop beating.

“I had a feeling if I sat here long enough, I would see you.”

Cameron fought to maintain his dignity even while he wondered if this was the end for him. He wished that he could shrink back into the shadows and make some futile attempt to conceal his identity, but he knew his face was clearly visible in the light. He stepped back and turned, forcing himself to breathe as he saw the Captain of the Guard step out of the shadows from the other side of the stable. The sword and pistol at his sides prompted Cameron’s life to flash through his mind. Their eyes met for a long, silent moment while Cameron concluded that perhaps an attempt to keep this encounter casual could work in his favor.

“Hello, Lance,” he said.

“Hello, Cameron,” Lance responded in the same cool tone.

“I’d like to say that it’s good to see you again after all these years, but . . . under the circumstances . . .”

Again there was silence until Lance said, “You really are alive. Even seeing the evidence for myself, I find it difficult to believe.”

“Sometimes I have difficulty believing it myself,” Cameron said, not bothering to expound on his personal torment related to such a comment. “But I can assure you that you’re not looking at a ghost.”

More silence tempted Cameron to shout at the man, but he kept his voice steady as he asked, “So, are you . . . here to arrest me, or what?”

“If I were, I can assure you that I would not have come alone. I’m relatively certain you wouldn’t go without a fight.”

“Then why this late-night vigil, Captain? Surely you couldn’t have been
too
certain I would show up here tonight.”

“I had a late visit with my stepmother after she returned from town. But maybe coming to see her was just an excuse; maybe it was intuition. I noticed Georg leaving with someone; I had a hunch who.”

“And your purpose for acting on this hunch?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out. Maybe I wanted to see for myself that you were really alive. Maybe I wanted to prove that I could do my job well enough to track down such an elusive criminal. Or maybe I just wanted some evidence that Abbi’s commitment was not based in futility.”

“Maybe it is,” Cameron said, hating the way Lance had struck a sensitive nerve. He was also taken aback to realize that Lance had figured out a great deal more about what was going on than Cameron had ever believed. The very idea was disconcerting at best. Hoping that some honesty and respect might serve him well, he added, “I’ve asked myself a thousand times if she would be better off with you.”

Lance’s voice was almost tender as he said, “She loves
you
. That is readily evident.”

“When was love ever enough?” Cameron retorted. “I love her too, but as you can see, the life I’ve given her is
far
from enough.”

Silence fell heavily while Cameron attempted to determine if he should feel threatened by this encounter. He finally had to ask, “So . . . is this visit simply preliminary to my imminent arrest and execution? Or did you come to chat? What should we talk about? Love, perhaps? We
are
after all, in love with the same woman.”

“A woman who is
your
wife.”

“For as long as I can manage to stay alive. The odds are not necessarily in my favor, as your visit has just proven.”

He sensed the other man’s mind working before Lance said, “You see her every night, don’t you.”

Cameron took in the underlying message and weighed his response carefully. How could Lance not feel disconcerted to realize that while Abbi was spending her days pretending to be engaged to him, she was sharing her bed with Cameron? As always his greatest concern was Abbi’s position in all of this.

“Not
every
night,” he said carefully. “I asked her to lie to you because there was simply no other way. You can’t blame her for that. The situation I have put her in is deplorable. Whatever you feel compelled to do to me, Captain, I beg you to keep her and that baby safe.”

“I would do everything in my power to protect her
and
the baby. But it is you who have the greatest power over her. It is you who holds her heart.”

“You must hate me for that.”

“No,” Lance said, “not for
that.”

Cameron sighed, knowing well what he meant. He had no desire to talk about it, but he sensed that Lance did. “What went wrong, Cameron?” Lance sounded both sad and mildly upset. “Before you and Gwen got married, the two of you were always talking, laughing together. I’d always wished she would talk to me that way.” His eyes became hard. “You should know that I told her not to marry you.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t think the two of you were well matched at all.”

“You were right. Apparently you saw something I was too blind to see.”

“She insisted it would make her happy, and I wanted her to be happy.” Lance’s voice turned bitter. “But Gwen came back from the honeymoon less happy than I had ever seen her, and she died with a knife through her heart.”

Cameron responded with acrid sarcasm. “So, it’s a natural assumption that once I exchanged vows with her, I firmly set out to make her miserable and see her to a tragic end.”

“I’m just asking what happened, Cameron. What changed?”

“I
can
answer that question, but I don’t know if you’re ready to hear it. Perhaps it’s better that you keep her on the pedestal where you’ve placed her. Perhaps it’s better that you remember her as she was before her marriage to me ruined her life.”

Lance seemed to be weighing such an option before he said, “I need to know.”

Cameron sighed. “I’m not sure I have time to give you a fair explanation. I’m late.”

“Stop avoiding the point and just tell me.”

Cameron exhaled and looked the other way, trying to think of the most succinct and diplomatic way to give a truthful answer. “She married a name, Lance, and once she had it, she very quickly put an end to the tireless efforts she had put into acquiring it. You and I both know that the marriage had been arranged from our youth, and she took great pride in uniting our families so gracefully. With the way our fathers had cared for each other, it all made a very neat package. But the name I gave her died with her, and it does not rest in peace.”

Lance looked stunned and doubtful. “Surely she could not have been so . . . harsh.”

Cameron let out a caustic chuckle. “You did not know her well enough to have any idea
whatsoever
of how harsh she could be. You want the truth? Fine, I’ll tell you the truth. Whether or not you believe me is up to you. However much you may have cared for and revered her, the private life she led was despicable. She gave her favors to more men than I can count. She was a whore and she . . .”

Quicker than Cameron could consider taking back the word, Lance drew his sword and pressed it to Cameron’s throat. He lifted his hands and forced a cool voice. “Very impressive, Captain. She’s been dead four years and you still jump to defend her honor. Go ahead. Arrest me and have me executed. You can give the order. How convenient for you to be in such a position. Since you’ve become so comfortable with my being dead, maybe seeing me shot through the heart with your own eyes will make it possible for you to remember her the way you want to.”