Page 58 of A Fearless Heart
“For tonight. Any more and I think we’ll both regret it. You seemed quite happy a moment ago. I’d like to keep it that way.”
She wondered how he knew her emotions better than she did. How he’d guessed that pushing her desire too far might easily tip it into panic, tainting the whole encounter with fear and bad memories.
She got her gown back into place, bunching up the stays to bring back to her room with her.
“Where’s my shawl?” she asked, looking around. It was black, and the glasshouse was nearly so. How would she find it?
Gabe dropped to his knees and reached under the bench, returning with the shawl a moment later. “My lady,” he said.
“Thank you. It was my mother’s,” she added in explanation.
She and Gabe slipped out the orangerie once more, and they moved like shadows across the lawn, keeping close to each other, their paces matching.
From far away, the bells of the village church tolled once, the sound faint but clear. One in the morning? That was all? She felt like she’d slipped into a fairy hill and been lost for years.
“One o’clock,” Gabe murmured. “Seems later.”
Cady didn’t reply, but she smiled at how his thoughts echoed hers.
He walked her all the way to the gate of the Italian garden, which Cady could unlock and make her way through to her own workroom, where this whole unreal adventure began.
“You’ll be all right from here?” he asked.
She nodded, getting her key ring from its pocket. What does one say in such situations?
“Cady, I’ll see you tomorrow. When anyone else is around, I’m going to act like all…this…didn’t happen.”
“That would be best,” she agreed, unlocking the gate.
“But we do have more to talk about, so we will need to find time to talk.”
“I’ll come out to the gardens tomorrow morning. I have to give you your instructions anyway. At least at gardening, you’re not an expert.”
That earned her a wry smile.
Then Gabe took her hand and raised it to his lips. “Good night, my lady. I hope you’ll sleep well.”
Cady did indeed sleep well and deeply, dreaming of deep green, sweetly scented worlds.
When she woke in the morning, she could barely believe that it all happened. Her trick in the workroom, Gabe’s confession of why he’d come, and the cathartic, sensual exchange in the orangerie.
She was smiling when she stepped outside the next morning, eager to find Gabe, if only to assure herself he was real.
He was in the sunken garden, but he wasn’t working. He was just standing there.
“Gabe?” she called when she got close enough.
He turned and looked at her, his blue eyes icy and serious. “My lady.”
Her heart chilled a little. Yes, he’d said he was going to act as if nothing happened between them. But only when others were around. Had he changed his mind about her? Did he regret that he’d done what he did? Regret not going further? Did he despise her now? Cady felt a tingling in her arms and legs, a numbness that often preceded an attack.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, though it felt difficult to even get the words out.
“Cady, I got a message delivered early this morning. From London.”
“What’s it about?” He was leaving her. Just after she’d opened herself to him, he was going to abandon her.
“There’s been another murder: Malcolm MacCuley III. The victim was given clephobine.”
