Page 57 of Snowbound with the Scoundrel
That distracted her, just like he knew it would.She grabbed his arm, and then he was hurrying through the garden in nothing but his shirtsleeves and gold silk waistcoat.The cold penetrated his thin garments immediately, leeching away whatever body heat he’d had.
Well, at least he’d forced Claire to take his jacket.
Rupert frowned as a cloud passed in front of the moon, casting them into darkness.Unlike the garden path, the snow around the side of the castle hadn’t been cleared and was shin-deep.Rupert’s dancing pumps and silk stockings were already soaked through.He frowned, because Claire was also wearing flimsy dancing slippers.“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered.
The cloud moved on, giving them a little moonlight.“Well, I have a good feeling about this,” Claire countered, pointing up ahead.“There he is.”
Sure enough, he could just make out Higginbotham’s lonely figure, illuminated by a lantern as he plodded down the snowy road.What the devil could the man be up to?It was deuced peculiar…
“Where do you think he could be going?”Claire asked, her voice full of excitement.
“N-no idea,” Rupert said through a clenched jaw, trying to hide the fact that his teeth were starting to chatter.
They walked on for around fifteen minutes, managing to make their way by moonlight.At a bend in the road, Claire ducked behind a tree, then peered around its edge.She seized Rupert’s forearm.“Look!”
Higginbotham had reached the little stone chapel standing in a grove of trees.He opened the door and disappeared, taking the light of his lantern with him.
“Come on,” Claire said, pulling him forward.“Let’s see who he’s meeting.”
Reminding himself that feeling in his hands and feet was more of a luxury than anything else, Rupert stumbled through the snow after her.
The inside of the chapel was illuminated with the soft light of Higginbotham’s torch, which was convenient, as another cloud had passed in front of the moon.They crept up to a window, pressing their backs against the cold stones of the chapel’s wall.Squatting down, Claire crept along until she was directly beneath one of the big arched windows.Rupert tried to follow suit but lost his balance and wound up on his hands and knees in the snow.
She shot him a concerned look.He could just see her mouth form the words, “Are you all right?”in the faint flicker of light from the window.He nodded in spite of the fact that his breeches were now wet and his fingers felt like icicles.
Gripping the window’s lip, Claire slowly raised her head just high enough to peer inside the chapel.Whatever she saw made her recoil.
“What is it?”Rupert whispered.
She lowered her head.“He’spraying.”
“Praying?”Rupert hissed.“In achapel?”Although… come to think of it, that did make a certain amount of sense.
He peeked over the lip of the window to see for himself.Surely enough, there was Higginbotham in the front pew, kneeling quietly with head bowed and hands clasped.
Rupert ducked down again, glanced at Claire, and shrugged.She still had that mulish look about her.“Let’s wait a little while.See if anybody else shows up.”
They waited for around a half-hour, peeking through the window every few minutes to see if anything had changed.Invariably the answer was,it had not.Higginbotham remained in the front pew, going about his devotions, and no mysterious miscreants appeared for a midnight rendezvous.
Right around the time when Rupert was wondering if it was possible to develop frostbite to your “stern end,” the lamplight shifted behind the window.Perking up, Claire peered through the glass.“He’s on the move,” she whispered.“Come on!”
They crept toward the front of the chapel.The area briefly brightened as Higginbotham opened the door and strode out onto the front steps with his lantern.They watched from around the corner as he shut the door behind him, descended the steps, and started back toward the castle.
Claire leaned in.“We’d best wait here a few minutes so he won’t realize he was followed.”
Rupert could see her logic.The problem was, he wasn’t sure his joints were going to be capable of bending if he stayed out here much longer.But protesting would have involved forming words, which he was fairly certain he couldn’t do, so he stood there shivering agreeably until Claire deemed the coast clear.
But as they stood there, the other problem became clear.Higginbotham withdrawing with the lantern threw into sharp relief the fact that the moon was now completely obscured by clouds, and it was pitch black on the road.
They were going to have a deuced time making it back to the castle.
“All right,” Claire said.“Let’s go.”
Rupert started forward and promptly tripped over his frozen foot.Claire grabbed his wrist to steady him.He couldn’t really see her on account of the darkness, but he could hear the disapproval in her voice.“Rupert!Your hand is freezing!”
“S-s-sorry.”
He heard her huff.“Don’t be sorry.But I wish you had said something!”
