Eloisa's Adventure (8 page)

Simeon
bit back a curse and briefly contemplated whether to saddle the
horse back up and take her into town. However, the storm was still
raging overhead. They would be taking a stupid risk with their
lives to venture anywhere else on a night like this. Taking refuge
in the house was by far the lesser of two evils.

“I am
sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t think I imagined it.”

“It’s not your fault,” Simeon sighed. It galled him to think
that he owned the damned property yet didn’t want to spend the
night there either. This was
his
house. He had the right to stay there if he
wanted to.

“I
definitely saw that shutter move,” she repeated.

“I can
take you to town if it would make you happier. However, I would ask
you to consider that it is dark now and dangerous to be out on the
roads on a night like this,” Simeon said softly. He turned to look
at the house. “There are odd things going on as I have said. I do
suspect that someone else is there, but I just don’t know where. It
is a large house for one person to search thoroughly
single-handed.”

He
smiled at her audible gasp. “I don’t expect you to help me,” he
countered ruefully and watched her heave a sigh of relief. “The
house was built during a time when secret passageways were being
put into almost every nobleman’s house. I am sure there are some in
that house too. Unfortunately, I cannot find them.”

Eloisa
felt as though she had just jumped from the cook pot into the
fire.

“I don’t
want you to take any chances, Eloisa. I am going to put you in a
room that links directly to mine. If we stick together then nobody
can creep up on us. We will be as safe as we can be. At some point,
I am going to have to get a veritable army of people into this
house and sweep through it from attics to cellars. However, I need
to try to find the passageways to make sure that no stone is left
unturned. Until I do, please don’t lean on the walls or anything.
If you fall into one of the hidden passages, I don’t know how to
get you out.”

“Good
heavens above. How on earth do you live here?” she burst out,
shocked that anyone wouldn’t just put the horrible place up for
sale as soon as it was acquired.

“I
don’t,” he replied ruefully. “I have inherited it, remember? I came
here, just for a brief visit, not long after I learned I had
inherited it from my uncle. It was important that I take a look at
what I owned, but I didn’t want to stay a moment longer than I
absolutely had to.”

The
memory of his first night in the property suddenly loomed before
him. He read the fear in her eyes. After a moment’s consideration,
he decided that he had warned her about the dangers within enough
for one night. He didn’t see any point in telling her about someone
trying to smother him in his sleep with his own pillow.

“You saw
someone then,” she finished for him when he lapsed into thoughtful
silence.

“I
suspect that there is someone hiding on the estate somewhere, I
just don’t know where.” Admitting it galled him somewhat, and he
resolved once again to do something to correct that as soon as
possible. “Once I find whoever is here, I am going to have them
arrested for trespassing. If I can find sufficient evidence, I will
have them arrested for the murder of my uncle too.”

“Did
your uncle have any enemies?”

“Not as
far as I am aware,” Simeon growled.

He hated
to admit it, but he didn’t really know his uncle all that well.
George hadn’t gotten on very well with Simeon’s father. As a
result, it had been difficult for Simeon to maintain a proper
relationship with him. He had no idea if his uncle was one of the
most respected people in the area, or the most despised.

“Do you
have a title?” she asked cautiously. “I mean, should I call you ‘my
lord’, or something?”

Simeon
looked at her and smiled. “I think you should call me Simeon given
that is my name. I have a title, but I don’t think it is entirely
appropriate to use it right now.”

“What is
it?” she asked curiously.

She
suddenly felt a gulf of difference open up between them. Although
she knew his first name, and it was just as ordinary as hers, he
had a title, and that was something that set him far apart from
her.

“Lord
Pendlebury,” Simeon declared flatly. “You can call me
Simeon.”

By the
time she thought of something to say, Simeon had stepped out of the
barn but then frowned and turned back to look at her.

“Do you
have a title?” he asked thoughtfully.

Eloisa
slowly shook her head.

“Come
on, let’s get inside,” he muttered. He glared up at the sky and
waited until she drew alongside him before he escorted her to the
house.

Eloisa
had little choice but to follow him.

CHAPTER
FIVE

He
opened a side door and stood back to allow her inside first. She
stepped tentatively through the door and glanced around the
well-worn but tidy kitchen.

It was
cold and unwelcoming.

She
jumped at the quiet click of the door behind her, and turned around
in time to watch her host remove his hat. The pristine whiteness of
his shirt stood out against the darkness within the dingy confines
of the room, but it was his face that captured her
attention.

His
forehead was high and wide and led to an angular face with a
chiselled jaw and square chin. The dark pools of his eyes were
heavily lashed and gave him a look of smouldering sensuality that
made her feel warm and tingly inside. His hair was as black as
midnight, and longer than was fashionable, but his dark sexuality
only emphasised his raw masculine power.

Eloisa
tried to reassure herself that he was her rescuer, and nobody she
should worry about. If it wasn’t for him, she would still be stuck
out in that storm, or could have arrived here alone. That thought
made her close her eyes on a silent prayer of thanks. If there was
one thought that unnerved her more than anything else, it was of
what she could have had to face if she had arrived here by
herself.

She
suddenly wished she hadn’t accepted Mr de Lisle’s offer of going to
the ball or taken up dancing lessons in the first place. If she had
remained at home where she belonged, she would be beside the fire
by now, with Cissy, watching the storm from the warmth and safety
of her own home.

As it
was, she was with a tall, dark and extremely attractive stranger,
in a house that was just as sinister as he was.

“Let’s
see what we can do about getting some light in here, shall we?” He
murmured quietly when she continued to stare at him. As he passed
her, he ran a palm through his hair when his body was teased by the
delicate scent of lavender she wore.

She
stood back to allow him past and watched him move across the room
with the silent grace of a panther. Strength emanated from him so
naturally that she was enthralled by how someone so large could
move so quietly.

Simeon
bent down in front of the fire and quickly lit the logs. He frowned
at the neatly laid timbers before him. He knew he had just found
more evidence that someone had been here. The last time he had been
at the property he had left the fires to burn out. As far as he was
aware, nobody should have been at the house in the three weeks he
had been away. When flames roared heartily in the grate, he stood
and turned to face the room.

God, she is stunning,
he mused as he
eyed the damp ringlets that bumped gently against her pink-tinged
cheeks. Even through the gloom, the shimmer of rainwater on her
shoulders held him captivated. He suddenly had a strong yearning to
light the room, and quickly, so that he could see more of her. The
desperate need to take some air while his body cooled pushed him
out of the door.

“Go and
sit by the fire where it is warm, then you can take that cloak off.
It must be soaked, and will give you a chill if you keep it on,” he
suggested. “I am going to fetch some water from the well. I won’t
be a minute. Don’t go anywhere.”

“All
right,” she murmured reluctantly. She opened her mouth to ask him
where she could go, but he didn’t give her the chance to speak. He
disappeared into the storm before she could even get across the
room. Rather than sit in one of the chairs beside the hearth, she
hurried to the window, but it was too dark to see anything outside.
The only thing she could see was her reflection in the
window.

She
stared at the reflection of her dress in disgust and looked down at
her soiled skirt. It was only when she looked up again that she
became aware she was no longer alone. A scream locked in her throat
when, in the reflection of the window, a second figure appeared on
the opposite side of the room. She spun around with a gasp of
alarm. Her heart pounded in her throat but, to her consternation,
all she found was an empty room. She scoured every nook and cranny,
and even looked under the table, but found no trace of anyone else.
Had she just imagined it? Or had she just seen Simeon outside the
window, and mistook him for a reflection of someone in the
room?

Get a hold of yourself Eloisa,
she
sighed. She closed her eyes and willed herself to calm
down.

It was
only when Simeon re-appeared that she remembered he had a white
shirt on. It was easily recognisable from across the width of the
room. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end when she
realised the figure she had seen behind her had been wearing
black.

“All
right?” he asked as he closed the door behind him and slid the bolt
across.

Eloisa
opened her mouth to speak. What could she say? No, she most
certainly wasn’t alright? I thought I saw someone? If she told him
that, and he asked her for further details, she couldn’t tell him
anything. Now that she came to think about it a little more, the
figure hadn’t had a face. There had been just an outline of a
person dressed in black. If what she had seen had been a real
person, the paleness of their face against the darkness of the
night would have been visible – wouldn’t it?

“Are you
alright, Eloisa?” he prompted as he stalked across the kitchen and
placed the pale on the table with a dull thud.

The
sound of her name on his lips snapped her out of her
daze.

“Yes,
fine,” Eloisa assured him jerkily. “I was just looking at the storm
outside.”

Simeon
bit back a snort of disbelief. He knew she had just lied to him.
Had she been worried about being alone in the house after what he
had said about the place? Had she been trying to see him, to
reassure herself that he hadn’t gone too far away from her, and
frightened herself somehow?

That thought worried him. The last thing he wanted, or
needed, right now was a clinging female to contend with. Not even a
beautiful one like Eloisa. There were more than enough problems in
his life at the moment. He didn’t need to
complicate
He
matters by being far too interested in a woman who was intent
on following him everywhere. She deserved his hospitality and
respectful consideration until the moment she left his house, and
could resume her own life. All he had to do was keep his hands off
her.

With
that thought firmly locked in his mind, he put a pot of water on to
boil. When he turned toward her to suggest that he show her which
room was hers, his words vanished in an instant. It was then that
he realised she was considerably more than his guest.

Their
eyes met across the table, and held for several moments longer than
necessary. Eloisa felt a flurry of something warm and strangely
exciting settle deep in the pit of her stomach. She struggled not
to squirm beneath his intent stare, and wondered what on earth he
was looking at.

She knew
she must look a fright but really, what was he staring at? It was a
struggle not to poke self-consciously at her hair while she waited
for him to speak. When she couldn’t stand the silence a moment
longer, she tipped her chin up defiantly.

“Would
you like a hand with anything?” she asked in a desperate attempt to
get him to look at something else.

Simeon
was so captivated by the way her dress shimmered around her
whenever she moved that he missed what she said. He tried to wrack
his brains to remember what it was, but had no idea.

“Pardon?”

“I asked
if you would like a hand with anything,” she prompted.

“For
now, we need to remain in here. Damn,” he muttered, when he
realised he had left his saddle bag on the stable door. “I need to
go out to the barn. I won’t be a moment.”

“What
for?” Eloisa said without thinking. It was rather rude of her to be
so bold as to ask the man his business, but the last thing she
wanted was to be left alone in this house again.

Simeon’s
brows lifted. A part of him was annoyed that she had the audacity
to ask, but another part of him fully understood her reluctance to
be left by herself. After all, she was in a strange house in the
middle of nowhere. He had been the one to give her a warning that
it wasn’t safe. He only had himself to blame now she wanted to
cling to him.