Page 44 of Unearthing the Smuggler's Heart
She hitched the skirts up in her fists and scurried up the stairs, trusting that he was following behind her. She continued up at as close to a sprint as she could manage on the steep wooden stairway, and upon reaching the top she turned and pressed her back flat against the wall to await the next instructions from Mathias.
He leaned close to her, so close their noses almost touched, and gave her a slow smile as he turned the knob on the door to a linen closet just to her left. "This will give us the guise of being about official business," he explained, nodding toward the stacks of freshly laundered sheets and towels. "Take a stack."
She released her breath as he grabbed his own, amazed that her heart still raced like this when he teased her. Surely there was nothing at all left that they hadn't shared with one another anymore, and yet, that flirtatious lean in had sent a slew of butterflies straight into her stomach.
She told herself to stop being ridiculous and retrieved a small stack of linens for herself. Surely he was not still flirting with her, anyhow? Why would a man who already had a girl in his bed continue to flirt with said girl? Presumably most men—especiallythe pretty ones—rested on their laurels after claiming the final prize from a woman.
According to the gossip prints in Zelda's shop, many of them ran for the hills directly after the deed, which rather seemed like a waste of a seduction to Jade, now that she had experienced the thrills of the bedchamber. Why would anyone only want to perform the act once? Even if there was no intent to marry the girl, and she knew there rarely was when seduction was concerned, the first time was never going to be as pleasurable as the third...or fifth.
She blushed, clearing her throat and pushing distracting images of the inn's bedroom from her mind, and sank her fingers into the soft fabric held in her arms, willing herself into the present.
Upon entering the hallway on the third floor, two things became immediately apparent. First, from the chiming going on, the dinner hour had arrived. Secondly, far more than one clock was sounding for the occasion. She winced at the realization, turning to Mathias in alarm.
"It's all right," he assured her quietly, nodding toward the bedrooms that made up most of this level. "I know the clock Pauline was speaking of. I will recognize it once we've found it, I promise."
It was quiet on the third floor, mercifully, and they split the rooms in half, entering each and leaving a sheet or a towel, regardless of its necessity, to mark that the room had been checked and cleared of any conspicuous grandfather clocks. There were none, at least not in the bedrooms. There was a clock in the hall, but it was mounted, and upon issuing a questioning look to Mathias, he had shaken his head and assured her that their search was not done.
They were quiet as they re-entered the stairwell and gathered new armfuls of linen.
The second floor would be more challenging. They would need to be speedy to avoid the moving of dinner guests to the drawing room and parlor at the conclusion of the meal. Jade hoped they ate very slowly.
Here the rooms were more varied, and spread out in a maze of turning halls.
"I don't want to split the rooms," she whispered, straightening her back perhaps a bit too rigidly as another maid passed them by, giving a glance that only lingered because it had landed momentarily on Mathias.
He smiled at the maid, making her blush, and rather decisively chose a direction and walked off in it, leaving Jade no choice but to follow.
"Mathias!" she hissed, nearly tripping over her starchy underskirt.
He spun on his heel, hugging his stack of linens to his chest. "That girl is going to say something to someone," he said, as though it had already happened. "It might not be damning, but she will inquire about unfamiliar faces on the upper floors."
"You mean she will be eager to learn the name of the handsome new footman?" Jade replied, sounding a bit more acerbic than she had intended.
He smirked at her, as if to say,Yes, obviously.
The drawing room appeared to their left, and due to its L shape and many windows reflecting the brightness of the final sliver of the sun, they had to step all the way in to survey it.
"Here is a clock," she said, her voice thin with excitement as she hurried to the farthest wall from the door, reaching out to touch the carved edge of a grand mahogany clock with a heavy brass pendulum and a mother-of-pearl face. "Mathias. Come quickly. Is this the one?"
From the bend in the room, where Mathias appeared far behind her, she heard him breathe a heavy sigh of relief. "Yes," he said. "Oh, thank God, yes."
"What do we do?" she asked, searching his eyes for answers. "How do we crack it open without making noise?"
As though to express its disapproval of such a question, the clock released a blasting chime, its musical announcement of the passing time ringing out for such a long time that Jade thought it might stop her heart.
"Blast," Mathias said, though his gaze was trained over his shoulder, not the clock. "I hear them."
Jade couldn't hear a damned thing beyond the ringing in her ears from standing so near that clock, but she felt the panic of impending capture all the same. "What do we do?" she asked, her voice barely a squeak.
Mathias turned back to her, his eyes flashing with that look of seriousness, that aura of authority she had only seen once before, when he'd sent the two men to the shore ahead of theHarpy.
He approached her in long strides, took her stack of linens, and stacked them on the floor with his. He nodded to another door next to the clock, which was either a closet or a portal into an adjacent room. "We hide," he said in a whisper, and just as the doorknob began to turn on the drawing room, he grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her through it.
CHAPTER19
At least it was a large closet, Mathias reasoned. They had enough space to sit down while they waited out the interlopers. Or...were they the interlopers? Yes, he supposed they were.
He shook his head. Linguistics were a thing to ponder at a safer time. Across from him was a shaken damsel very much in need of reassurance. He could see the fearful sheen in those big, green eyes even in the dark of the closet, and reached out to touch her hand.
