Page 16 of A Fearless Heart
Here she was, having unlocked a private room and invited him into it, and then she asked him to remove some of his clothing… Of course he’d think she was offering something else, something she didn’t fully understand but a man like him certainly would. And then Cady would be not just ruined, but destroyed. And what would happen to her then? God, why was she eternally foolish? Why had she not foreseen this and taken steps? She could have been smart and careful, instead of acting like someone too pigheaded to live…
Amid the flood of thoughts, Cady recognized the familiar dreadful feeling welling up. It was like being caught at the very edge of a maelstrom, seeing the inevitable doom, and yet not being able to steer free of it. She stood up quickly and stepped back, trying to control her body, if not her mind.
“Please leave,” she said.
Gabe half reached for her before abruptly stopping. “I offended you.”
“You didn’t.” Cady found it difficult to speak over the rising sense of panic in her chest, the feeling that her heart was about to shudder to a halt. “But you need to leave. Now. I have to be…”Safe, she was about to say, but she couldn’t say that to a man she barely knew. “Just leave.”
His eyes narrowed in concern. “Are you feeling well?”
“Perfectly well,” she lied. “But it’s very important that I be undisturbed…starting this minute.” She put on a bright, brittle smile, the smile she used in the drawing room. “I advise you get some rest. And don’t resume your duties tomorrow if you feel ill.”
“Yes, my lady.” He went to the door they’d entered from, but hesitated at the threshold, casting a concerned glance over his shoulder. “If there’s anything I can do…”
“No. Thank you.” Cady kept the smile plastered on her face until he was gone. God how she hated every time the fear took over, rendering her weak and shaky and so certain that she was about to die. This wasn’t even the first time that happened in the past week, and yet it still struck with all the force of a sudden thunderclap.
Raising her hands to her face to wipe at the tears already forming, Cady saw something out of place and went still.
Her hands werecoveredin something.
She gasped, in her heightened distress first taking the stain for drying blood.
But no. It wasn’t that at all.
Cady’s more analytical side asserted itself. She cautiously lifted her hands, examining the stain more closely, then sniffing delicately. The substance was far too dark for blood, and it smelled wrong. How did it get into her laboratory, onto her hand? She tipped her head, confused by this very unexpected thing, like finding a butterfly in a snowstorm. The puzzle was so odd that it actually snapped her away from the spiraling horror she had been falling into.
She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together thoughtfully. The stain on the pads of her fingers was slick and sooty. She frowned. On a hunch, she reached for the cloth that she’d first used to clean the cut on his head. That too was streaked with the black substance.
Cady put the evidence together and arrived at the inevitable, if nonsensical, conclusion. Gabe Court couldn’t be over thirty, and he didn’t seem like a vain man. Yet, for no discernible reason, he’d dyed his hair.
Chapter 9
Once outside the house again, Gabe took a deep breath. He wasn’t prepared for what just happened in that room…or maybe Pollack hit him harder than he thought, knocking him off his game.
When Arcadia had leaned over him at one point during her ministrations, he got an absolutely first-rate, front-row view of her breasts, visible past the neckline of her gown, and he was simultaneously hit with the scent of witch hazel. He wouldn’t be able to smell witch hazel for a long while without that memory rushing up.
The woman had mistaken his reaction for one of pain when she touched a wound. In fact, someone could have been amputating Gabe’s leg just then, and he wouldn’t have cared. But when Arcadia pulled back, it was clear that she had no idea what happened, and that if he even hinted that he’d seen more than he should, she’d be mortified. He scrambled to get an expression on his face that wouldn’t offend her, and just in time.
He got his libido under control and managed to ask a few questions that should lead her to give him some more information, and trust him as an ally. He even got her to agree that it would be a much better idea if she gave him instructions in person for the more important gardens.
Inquiry, curiosity, sympathy. All emotions agents used in getting people to trust them. And it had all been so easy for Gabe, almost as if he really did care about her feelings. Which of course he didn’t, especially not when she confessed how that shit-sack Pollack actually thought he couldmarryher. As if he was a match for such a lovely woman…
Anyway, everything had been progressing very well indeed, and then she got that strange look on her face and abruptly ordered him out. Gabe tracked back over their conversation. Had she said something she shouldn’t have, given him a clue she hadn’t meant to drop? Or hadhesaid something to alert her?
No, they hadn’t been talking about anything of substance then. She’d simply been wrapping his arm with the gauze, showing more openness than at any point before.
Was that it? She’d just been reacting to him? Gabe smiled, thinking that he’d certainly reacted to her. Though his impulse wouldn’t have been to leave. He would have much rather stayed to see where things might have gone…
Then he shook his head. Idiot. Arcadia was a lady, and an inexperienced one. Of course she’d recoil from physical desire—she would have been taught to fear it. But he could shape that impulse, and soon have her reacting very differently, as long as he used every opportunity he had to get her alone.
A little part of him didn’t like the plan. It was heartless, and even mean to manipulate and seduce her like that.
Gabe shoved that thought back into the place in his mind where he kept everything that wasn’t directly related to his assignment. He had a directive: find the poison, find the poisoner. Nothing else mattered. Not even Arcadia Osbourne, with her big, innocent eyes and her soft laugh and the touch of her fingers on his skin.
He gave another shake of the head, annoyed at himself for allowing the woman to affect him at all. It was just because he’d spent so long trying to figure out how to get close to her that when it happened he needed time to adjust. But the plan would still work. As someone who’d fought real battles, Gabe was used to adjusting the plan. Soldiers who couldn’t adjust to new factors tended to die.
Well, even soldiers who did know how to adjust died. He’d lost several good friends thanks to Bonaparte’s ambitions—a wiser man would have found another way to occupy his time when it was so clear that the wars in Europe would last a while. But being the youngest son, Gabe didn’t have the luxury of choosing another occupation. His eldest brother, Gerald, would inherit nearly everything, his next older brother, Gilbert, had sensibly decided on a career in the church, and that left the army for Gabe.
