Ravished (6 page)

"Nonsense. I am not interested in your past, sir." Harriet made a desperate effort to keep her voice very cool and extremely firm. She did not dare look back over her shoulder as she hastened across the sand. "It is no concern of mine."

"In that case, I must warn you that you should never have summoned me in the first place," he murmured with silky menace. "I fear I cannot be separated from my past. Where I go, it goes. The fact that I am in line for an earldom is extremely useful in getting people to overlook my past on occasion, but there is no denying I cannot shake it entirely. Especially here in Upper Biddleton."

Harriet glanced quickly over her shoulder, frowning intently at the veiled emotion she sensed in his voice. "Does it bother you, my lord?"

"My past? Not particularly. I long ago learned to live with the fact that I am perceived as a fiend from the nether regions. To be perfectly frank, my reputation has its uses."

"Good heavens. What uses?" Harriet demanded.

His expression hardened. "It serves to keep me from being pestered by marriage-minded mamas, for one thing. They are extremely cautious about throwing their daughters in my path. They are terrified that I will shamelessly ravish their fledglings, have my wicked way with them, and then cast the poor things aside as soiled goods."

"Oh." Harriet swallowed.

"Which they would most certainly be," Gideon continued evenly. "Soiled, that is. It would be quite impossible to put a young girl back on the Marriage Mart after it got around that she had ruined herself with me."

"I see." Harriet coughed a bit to clear her throat and hurried forward a little faster. She could feel Gideon behind her, although she could not hear his footsteps on the packed sand. The very silence of his movement was unnerving because she was so vividly conscious of his size and presence. It was, indeed, like having a great beast on her heels.

"In addition to not pestering me with their young innocents," Gideon continued relentlessly, "not a single parent in recent memory has attempted to force me to make an offer by employing the old trick of accusing me of having compromised his daughter. Everyone knows such a ploy is highly unlikely to work."

"My lord, if this is your unsubtle way of warning me not to get any such notions, you may rest assured you are quite safe."

"I am well aware that I am safe enough, Miss Pomeroy. It is you who should exercise some caution."

Harriet had had enough. She came to a sudden halt and whirled around to confront him. She discovered he was almost on top of her and she took a quick step back. She scowled up at him. "Is it true, then? Did you cast aside the previous rector's daughter after getting her with child?"

Gideon studied her gravely. "You are very curious for someone who professes no interest in my past."

"You are the one who insisted on bringing it up."

"So I did. I fear I could not resist. Not after it became obvious you had already heard the tale."

"Well?" she challenged after a taut moment. "Did you?"

Gideon quirked one heavy black brow and appeared to give the matter serious consideration. His eyes burned with a cold fire as he gazed down at Harriet. "The facts are exactly as they were no doubt related to you, Miss Pomeroy. My fiancée was with child. I knew it when I ended the engagement. She apparently went home and shot herself."

Harriet gasped and recoiled another step. She forgot all about the cavern full of stolen goods. "I do not believe it."

"Thank you, Miss Pomeroy." He inclined his head with mocking politeness. "But I assure you that everyone else certainly does."

"Oh." Harriet recovered herself. "Yes. Well, as I said, it is no concern of mine." She spun about to hasten toward the cave entrance. Her face was flaming. She should have kept her mouth shut, she told herself furiously. The whole situation was unbelievably embarrassing.

A few minutes later Harriet breathed a sigh of relief as she reached her goal. The dark opening in the cliff wall loomed dimly in the mist. If she had not known precisely where it was located she would have missed it in the fog.

"This is the entrance, my lord." Harriet halted and turned once more to face him. "The cavern the thieves are using lies some distance inside this passageway."

Gideon gazed at the opening in the cliff for a moment r and then set down the bag he had carried. "I believe we will need the lamps now."

"Yes. One cannot see a thing once one is more than a few steps inside the entrance."

Harriet watched Gideon light the lamps. For all their size and power, his hands moved with an unexpected grace and deftness. When he held one of the lamps out to her, his eyes caught hers studying him. He smiled without any sign of real warmth. The scar on his face twisted evilly.

"Have you started to have a few second thoughts about going into the caves alone with me, Miss Pomeroy?"

She glowered at him and practically snatched the lamp from his hand. "Of course not. Let us get on with it."

Harriet stepped through the narrow entrance and held the lamp aloft. Tendrils of fog had drifted into the cave and caused the lamp to throw strange shadows against the damp rock walls. She shivered and wondered why this passage seemed so extraordinarily eerie and forbidding this morning. She reminded herself that this was certainly not the first time she had been alone in it.

It was the viscount's presence that was making her nervous, she decided. She really must get a firm grasp on her imagination.
Stick to the business at hand
, she lectured herself silently.

Gideon came up behind her, moving with his noiseless, gliding tread. The glow of his lamp added to the bizarre shadows on the walls. He looked around, his face set in disapproving lines. "Have you been in the habit of entering these caves alone, Miss Pomeroy, or do you generally have someone accompany you?"

"When my father was alive, he was usually my companion. He was the one who instilled an interest in fossils in me, you see. He was always an avid collector and he took me with him on his explorations from the time I was old enough to walk. But since he was carried off by the fever, I have always gone exploring alone."

"I do not think it a particularly sound notion."

She slanted him a wary glance. "So you have said. But I assure you my father and I learned to explore caves long before we moved to Upper Biddleton. I am an expert. This way, my lord." She walked deeper into the cave, chillingly aware of Gideon hard on her heels. "I trust you are not one of those people who become unsettled in confined areas such as this?"

"I assure you, it takes a great deal to unsettle my nerves, Miss Pomeroy."

She swallowed. "Yes, well many people do have a problem in caves. But the passage is actually quite comfortably wide, as you can see. It does not get much narrower than this even at its smallest point."

"Your notion of comfort is somewhat different than my own, Miss Pomeroy." Gideon's tone was dry.

Harriet glanced back and saw that he was having to stoop and angle his massive shoulders in order to get through the passage. "You are rather large, are you not?"

"A good deal larger than you, Miss Pomeroy."

She bit her lip. "Well, do try not to get stuck. It would be very awkward."

"Yes, it would. Especially given the fact that this portion of the cave is obviously flooded when the tide is in." Gideon examined the dripping rock walls. A small, pale crab scurried out of the glare of the lamplight and darted into the shadows.

"All the lower portions of these caverns along the base of the cliffs are filled with seawater during high tide," Harriet said, moving forward again. "That should be extremely useful information for you to utilize when you plan how you will apprehend the thieves. The villains are, after all, only around late at night and only when the tide is out. Any scheme constructed for catching them will need to be based on those facts."

"Thank you, Miss Pomeroy, I shall bear that in mind."

She frowned at his sarcasm. "I was merely trying to assist you in this matter."

"Hmm."

"Need I remind you, my lord, that I am the one who has been observing the villains? It seems to me you should be glad of the opportunity to consult with me on how best to go about laying a trap for them."

"And I would remind you, Miss Pomeroy, that I used to live in this district. I am well aware of the terrain."

"Yes, I know, but you have no doubt forgotten a great many small details. And due to my extensive explorations I am something of an expert on these caves."

"I promise you, Miss Pomeroy, that should I need your advice, I will request it."

Irritation overcame Harriet's wariness. "You would no doubt enjoy somewhat broader social acceptance, sir, if you would contrive to be more polite."

"I have no particular interest in expanding my social life."

"Apparently not," she muttered. She was about to say something more on the subject when she skidded on a stray bit of seaweed that had been left behind by the departing waters. She slipped and reached out to catch herself. Her gloved hand slid along the slimy wall without finding purchase. "Good grief."

"I have you," Gideon said calmly. His arm circled her waist and pulled her securely back against his broad chest.

"Excuse me." Harriet was suddenly breathless as she found herself locked to Gideon. His arm was like a band of steel, hard and utterly unyielding.

She could feel the solid, muscled outlines of his chest against her back. The broad toe of one of his massive boots had somehow wedged itself intimately between her feet. She was acutely conscious of the pressure of his thigh against her buttocks.

When she took a deep breath she caught the warm, masculine scent of his body. It was richly laced with the smell of damp wool and leather. She tensed instinctively at the unaccustomed sensation of being held so close to a man.

"You must exercise more care, Miss Pomeroy." Gideon released her. "Or you will surely come to a bad end in these caves."

"I promise you, I have never been in the least bit of danger in these caves."

"Until now?" He gave her a bland look of inquiry.

Harriet decided to ignore that. "This way, my lord. It is only a little farther now." She straightened her pelisse and the skirts of her gown. Then she took a firmer grip on the lamp, held it boldly aloft, and strode forward into the bowels of the cave.

Gideon followed in silence, only the play of light and shadows on wet stone giving any indication of his presence. Harriet did not venture to say another word about plans and schemes for apprehending thieves. She led him along the gradual upward incline of the sloping passageway until they reached the point where the seawaters did not lap during high tide.

The cave walls and floor were dry here, although a bone-chilling cold permeated the atmosphere. Harriet automatically studied the rocky surfaces as the lamplight struck them. Her customary enthusiasm for fossils got the better of her.

"Do you know, I found a wonderful fossil leaf embedded in a stone here in this portion of the cave." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Have you by any chance read Mr. Parkinson's articles on the importance of relating fossil plants to the stratum in which they are found?"

"No, Miss Pomeroy, I have not."

"Well, it is the most amazing thing, you know. Similar fossil plants are found in exactly the same strata throughout England, no matter how deep the strata happen to be. It appears to be true on the Continent as well."

"Fascinating." Gideon sounded amused rather than fascinated, however. "You certainly are passionate on the subject."

"I can see the subject of fossils is of little interest to you, but I assure you, sir, that there is much about the past to be learned from them. I, myself, have great hopes of someday discovering something of importance here in these caves. I have made several intriguing finds already."

"So have I," Gideon murmured.

Unable to decide just what he meant by that remark and not at all certain she wished to know, Harriet lapsed back into silence. Her aunt had assured her that she tended to bore people who did not share her enthusiasm for her favorite subject.

A few minutes later she turned a corner in the passageway ahead and halted at the entrance to a large cavern. Harriet stepped through the opening and held the lamp higher to throw light on the array of canvas bags that sat in the center of the rocky floor. She looked at Gideon as he followed her into the chamber.

"This is it, my lord." She waited with a sense of expectation for him to appear properly astounded by the sight of the stolen goods stacked in the stone chamber.

Gideon said nothing as he moved farther inside. But his expression was satisfyingly serious as he stopped near a canvas bag. He crouched beside it and untied the leather thong that closed it.

Harriet watched as he held his lamp higher to peer inside the sack. He studied the contents for a moment and then plunged his gloved hand inside. He withdrew a beautifully chased silver candlestick.

"Very interesting." Gideon watched the light gleam on the silver. "Do you know, when you told me the tale of this cavern yesterday, Miss Pomeroy, I confess I had a few doubts. I wondered if you were perhaps indulging an over-ambitious imagination. But now I have to agree there is something illegal going on here."

"You see what I mean when I say the items must be from some other locale, my lord? If something very fine such as that candlestick had gone missing around Upper Biddleton, we would have heard about it."

"I take your point." Gideon retied the thong and rose to his feet. His heavy greatcoat flowed around him like a cloak as he moved to another sack.

Harriet watched him for a moment longer and then lost interest. She had already given the goods a cursory examination when she had first discovered them.

Her main interest, as always, was the cave itself. Something deep within her was certain that untold treasures lay in wait here in this place, treasures that had nothing to do with stolen jewelry or silver candlesticks.

Harriet wandered over to take a closer look at an interesting jumble of rock. "I trust you will deal with the villains quickly, St. Justin," she remarked as she ran her gloved fingers over a faint outline embedded in the stone. "I am very eager to explore this cavern properly."