Page 15 of The Heir's Fortune
“Very well, but you should probably be quick about it.”
“Why do you hate my brother?”
Madeline started, jolting backward.
“Do we need to talk about this now?” she asked, and Cassandra nodded.
“Before we find this treasure. It’s important. You’re my best friend and he’s my brother and I always feel that there’s this tension there between the two of you.”
Madeline sighed and waved her hand. “Very well. But I’ll be quick. I do not hate your brother. But I also do not trust him. Not after what he did to you.”
“That is in the past, Madeline,” she said with exasperation. “I have told you that. All has worked out as it should.”
“You are a better person than I am, Cassandra.”
Cassandra stood. “You know that is not true. We should continue, but I do ask you to promise me this – do not hold this against Gideon anymore. Not for me. He’s a good person, and he’s changed. I want us to find this treasure as a unified group.”
“While we are following behind at a distance?” Madeline asked, lifting an eyebrow.
She looked up at the retreating backs of the men, worried that they were going to lose them, but before she could do so, they heard a cry echoing through a window from the house – the cry of a baby.
Cassandra looked up at the high window of the nursery with despair, obviously torn between soothing her baby and continuing their quest, but Madeline waved toward the house.
“Go.”
“I do not want to leave you.”
“I know, but your baby needs you. I’ll follow the men and leave clues along the way so you can follow.” She spied the rowan tree beside them and inspired, snapped a branch off. “I’ll scatter the rowan berries along the path.”
“Very well,” Cassandra said. “You best go – hurry!”
Madeline nodded, squeezing Cassandra’s arm before lifting her skirts and taking off down the path after the men, who had disappeared from her vision. They were headed over the rise, toward the road beyond which would lead them through the ruins and closer to the treed area of the property. From listening to Gideon and Lord Covington as they reviewed the map, she knew that they had determined their starting point, and from there, they would use the compass to follow the route.
She was so forward-focused while keeping up her pace, dropping berries, and not making too much noise, that she wasn’t as in tune with the surroundings behind her as she should have been.
Which was why she didn’t see them until it was too late.
A hand slapped over her mouth, her arms were pinned behind her back, and she was lifted off the ground without warning.
And no matter how hard she tried, she had no chance of fighting back.
Gideon’s heart was racing.
Today could be the day that all he had been working toward for the past few years could come true.
“Thank you for doing this with me,” he said to Devon, who looked at him with surprise as he strolled down the path with that carefree way of his, hands in his pockets, lips pursed as he quietly whistled.
“Of course. Our companion appears to be equally pleased to accompany us.”
They looked down at Scout, who was trotting along beside them as though he knew exactly where he was going and how important this mission was. He looked backward every now and then as though searching for something — or someone — but Gideon couldn’t see anyone nearby.
“Here we are,” Gideon said as they neared the end of the cleared walking path, “the edge of the property, where the path meets the woods.”
He pulled the compass out of his pocket, holding it out in front of him.
“I believe we are to travel due north.”
Devon nodded, his jaw ticking, the only sign as to how much he was also anticipating what they might find.
