Ravished (39 page)

"Yes, indeed, Harriet." Effie gazed around in satisfaction. The St. Justin townhouse was full to overflowing. "A terrific crush. It will be in all the papers in the morning."

Felicity smiled at her sister. "I think we can safely say that you have acquired whatever social polish you needed to avoid embarrassing St. Justin in public. No one can say he has not married a suitable hostess."

Harriet made a face. "I do not want any of you to think I did this on my own. The truth is Lady Hardcastle organized the entire thing. I am just exceedingly grateful that everyone who was invited accepted the invitation."

"And a few more besides," Felicity observed. "No one could resist. You and St. Justin have taken the
ton
by storm. He is viewed as a long-suffering romantic hero and you are the lady who loved him in spite of his murky past. It is a tale straight out of a gothic novel."

"I do not know about a gothic romance," Effie said, "but there is no denying the two of you are definitely in fashion at the moment. It was the perfect time to give a soiree such as this."

"That is what Lady Hardcastle said," Harriet said. "Personally, I shall be glad when it is all over."

Two very familiar, very handsome young men appeared and started toward Felicity and her relatives.

Harriet leaned toward Felicity. "Here come the Adonis Twins."

Felicity smiled her charming smile. "They are an attractive pair, are they not? It worries me that they do everything together, however. One wonders how far they take it."

Effie frowned severely. "Felicity, really."

Harriet stifled a giggle as the two young men approached. She waited until everyone had exchanged greetings and then she slipped away, knowing she would not be missed. The Adonis Twins had eyes only for Felicity, and Harriet had more interesting things to pursue.

Gideon and his parents were on the far side of the packed drawing room. They were talking to a couple. Harriet did not recognize them. Probably more of Lord and Lady Hardcastle's many friends.

The room had grown very warm. Harriet fanned herself rapidly for a moment before deciding to step out into the garden for a breath of fresh air. Several people nodded to her in a friendly fashion as she made her way toward the door.

A few minutes later she found herself out in the hall. Owl was supervising the vast array of footmen who were scurrying about with trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. He gave Harriet a gloomy nod.

"Is all going well, Owl?" Harriet inquired.

"We are in command of the situation at the moment, madam. But the crowd is larger than expected. One can only hope we will not run out of champagne."

"Dear me." Harriet was alarmed. "Is there a possibility of that?"

"There is always a possibility of disaster at this sort of affair, madam," Owl said. "I shall do my best to avoid it, of course."

"Of course."

Harriet started down the hall toward the back door, but changed her mind when she suddenly realized that one of her garters seemed loose. She decided to go upstairs to the privacy of her own bedchamber to retie it.

At the top of the stairs she turned left and went down the hall. There was no doubt about it. The garter was definitely coming undone. Her stocking was starting to slip. Thank heavens she had noticed the problem in time. It would have been extremely mortifying to have one's stocking fall to one's ankle in the middle of one's first soiree.

The hallway seemed darker than usual, Harriet noted with a frown. Someone had snuffed some of the candles in the wall sconces. Owl was no doubt attempting to economize.

She opened the door to her bedchamber and stopped short when she saw that it, too, was in darkness except for a candle on her escritoire.

Harriet knew she had not left a candle burning on the little desk. She started forward with a frown, wondering if her maid had lit the taper.

Then she saw the hunched figure bending over the open drawer. In a flash she realized what was happening. It was the drawer where she kept her fossil tooth.

"Stop, thief!" Harriet yelled.

She rushed forward, brandishing her only weapon, her fan. "Stop this instant. How dare you?"

The shadowy figure jerked upright. He slammed the drawer shut and whirled around in a crouch to face Harriet. The candlelight revealed the scrunched-up features of Mr. Humboldt.

"Damn and blast," Humboldt hissed. He sprang toward the door, knocking Harriet to one side.

Harriet fell to the carpet and fetched up against the bed. She flung out a hand and encountered the chamber pot. She grasped it and tried to get to her feet.

"What the devil is going on here?" Gideon roared from the doorway. "Damnation,
Harriet
."

At that instant the fleeing Mr. Humboldt ran straight into the immovable object that was Gideon. Gideon caught him by the scruff of the neck. He flung the little man aside. Humboldt crumpled to the carpet with a groan.

"See to him, Dobbs." Gideon took two long strides across the room, bent down, and scooped Harriet up into his arms. "Are you all right?" he demanded harshly.

"Yes, yes, I am fine," she gasped. "Thank goodness you caught him. Gideon, I believe he was trying to steal my tooth."

"More likely he was lookin' for your jewels, Lady St. Justin," Dobbs said from the doorway. "Sneaky little devil. He even looks like a thief, don't he? Not that you can always tell by their looks, mind you. But this cove could certainly pass for a member of the criminal class."

Gideon turned around with Harriet in his arms. Harriet glowered down at Mr. Humboldt, who was sitting up slowly on the carpet.

"Really, Mr. Humboldt. How could you stoop so low?" Harriet demanded. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Humboldt groaned and looked sulky as Dobbs yanked him to his feet. "I was just wandering around and I got lost in here. I certainly was not attempting to steal your ladyship's jewels. What would I want with jewels?"

"If you were looking for jewels, which I doubt, you probably intended to sell them to finance your fossil collecting habit," Harriet declared.

Humboldt glared at her. "That is not true. Very well, if you must know, I heard rumors to the effect that you had found something interesting in the caves of Upper Biddleton. I did not believe them, of course. Explored those caves myself years ago quite thoroughly and I know there is nothing of great importance left in them. Nevertheless, I wanted to see if, by the merest chance, you might have stumbled across something."

"Hah. I knew it." Harriet shook her head in disgust and looked at Gideon. "I have been telling you all along that fossil collectors are an unscrupulous lot, my lord."

"So you have." Gideon looked thoughtful. "Are you quite certain you are unhurt?"

"Quite certain. You can put me down now." Harriet straightened the skirts of her gown as Gideon slowly lowered her to her feet. Her garter had come completely undone and her stocking had fallen to her ankle. "How did you manage to get here in time?"

"I assigned Mr. Dobbs to keep an eye on the crowd this evening," Gideon explained. "If you will recall, we invited every suspicious person on my list. I decided not to take any chances."

Harriet smiled brilliantly. "What an excellent plan."

"It was, until you took a notion to go dashing upstairs at the wrong moment," Gideon retorted.

"Well, it only goes to show you should have kept me informed, my lord. I have told you that often enough. One would think you would learn."

Gideon's brows rose. "One would think so."

Harriet's eyes widened. "I just realized something, my lord. Mr. Humboldt was not on our guest list."

"No, he was not," Gideon agreed. "Which only goes to prove that my mother's observations about guest lists was correct. At a crush such as this, anyone who is suitably dressed can get inside, if he is clever."

The conversation at the breakfast table the next morning centered on the capture of Mr. Humboldt.

"It will certainly guarantee that your affair will be the talk of the Town today," Lady Hardcastle told Harriet with an amused look. "Everyone will be saying that once again Lord and Lady St. Justin have managed to provide their guests an extraordinary bit of entertainment. Just imagine. The two of you captured an infamous thief right at the height of the soiree."

"It is in all the papers this morning," Hardcastle announced from the other side of the table. He was midway through a stack of newspapers. "Excellent accounts of the whole thing. They are saying Humboldt is the master thief behind a series of burglaries that have taken place during the past several months."

"And St. Justin is a hero for having set the trap that caught him," Harriet said, sending a look full of glowing admiration toward Gideon. "Do the newspapers mention that?"

Gideon glowered at her from the far end of the table. "I trust not."

"Oh, yes. It's all here." Hardcastle put down one paper and picked up another. "They are calling you gallant and clever, my boy. And they describe how you saved your lady from the murderous thief."

"Wonderful," Harriet exclaimed. "I am so glad they got the story right."

Gideon eyed her laconically. "Mr. Humboldt was fleeing for his life when he ran straight into me, my dear. I did not see him attempting to murder anyone. You were the one who looked dangerous. I shall never forget the sight of you with that chamber pot in your hand. Quite alarming."

"Yes, well, I assumed he was after my tooth," Harriet explained.

"The conclusion Mr. Dobbs has reached is that Humboldt had long ago run out of funds to support his museum," Gideon explained. "He apparently resorted to theft in an effort to finance the purchase of more fossils."

Harriet nodded. "A fossil collector will resort to anything when he gets desperate. Poor Mr. Humboldt. I do hope they will not be too hard on him. In a way I can understand his motives."

"At the very least your reputation as a hostess is now firmly established," Lady Hardcastle said with satisfaction. "The
ton
fears boredom above all things and you have provided them with yet another exciting spectacle."

Harriet was about to reply to that when Owl walked in with the morning post on a silver salver. The letter on top was addressed to Harriet.

"Good heavens," Harriet said as she slit the seal. "It is from Mrs. Stone. I wonder if something is wrong."

"No doubt someone has died a miserable, lingering death or an epidemic has hit Upper Biddleton," Gideon said. "Those are the only sorts of events that would inspire that old biddy to write a letter."

Harriet ignored him, scanning the contents of the short note. She shrieked in dismay as she realized just what she was reading. "
Bloody hell
."

The earl and his wife looked at her with concern.

"Is something wrong, my dear?" Gideon asked calmly around a mouthful of bacon.

"
Everything
. " Harriet waved the letter at him. "The most horrible thing has happened. I was afraid of this."

Gideon swallowed his bacon, still unperturbed. "Perhaps you should tell us the contents of the message."

Harriet was so stricken, she could barely speak. "Mrs. Stone says that she has reason to believe another fossil collector has begun exploring my caves. She saw a man on the beach the other day and the next time she caught sight of him, he was carrying a large piece of stone."

Gideon put down his toast. "Let me see that letter."

Harriet handed him the note. "This is a crisis. Someone else may have found the bones that go with my tooth. I must return to Upper Biddleton immediately. And you must send word to someone at Blackthorne Hall, sir. No one else is to be allowed into my caves."

Gideon scanned the note. "I did not realize Mrs. Stone could read and write."

"She has been housekeeper to two rectors," Lady Hardcastle observed. "She has no doubt learned something over the years."

"Either that or she dictated it to someone in the village," the earl said. "It is done all the time."

Gideon put the note down on the table. "I shall send word to Blackthorne Hall, my dear. Anyone who is hanging about the caves will be advised that he is trespassing. Will that satisfy you?"

Harriet shook her head quickly. "That is all well and good, my lord, but I feel I must return at once. I want to assure myself that no one has found the remains of my creature."

"I do not think it is necessary for you to return in person to protect your precious fossils," Gideon began.

"Well, I do." Harriet leaped to her feet. "I shall go upstairs and pack at once. "How soon can we leave, my lord?"

Gideon gave her a quelling look. "I have just said there is no need to rush back to Upper Biddleton."

"Oh, but there is. You have now seen for yourself just how unscrupulous these fossil collectors can be. If someone has found my cave it will do absolutely no good to simply warn him off. He will find a way to sneak back. I know he will."

Hardcastle nodded soberly. "Once a collector has the scent of old bones, it's bloody difficult to put him off it. One can only hope he has not yet discovered Harriet's particular cavern."

Harriet gave her father-in-law a grateful look. "Thank you for understanding, sir. You see, St. Justin? We must go back immediately."

Lady Hardcastle smiled at her son. "There is no reason the two of you cannot go back to Upper Biddleton for a few days and see to this matter. Your father and I will stay here."

Gideon held up a hand in surrender. He looked down the table at Harriet, his gaze indulgent. "Very well, my dear. Start packing."

"Thank you, Gideon." Harriet rushed toward the door. "I shall be ready within the hour."

The coach pulled into the forecourt of Blackthorne Hall shortly after nine in the evening. Gideon knew that fact frustrated Harriet. She wanted to head straight down to the cliffs and actually suggested doing so with the aid of lamps. Gideon put his foot down on that outrageous suggestion.

"No, you are not going down to the cliffs in the middle of the night. Your precious caves can wait until morning," he informed her as the Blackthorne Hall staff hastened to prepare bedchambers and unload the luggage.