Page 96 of A Fearless Heart
“You’re leaving entirely?” Cady asked.
“There’s something I need to look into,” he said, sounding slightly distracted. “And it’s not something you can help with, so don’t ask. Besides, I’m not the sort you should be seen with.”
He gave her a swift kiss and then unlocked the door. He slipped through it before she could say anything. Cady locked it behind him, just in case, and then looked at the clock.
Ten minutes.
Ten minutes, when one has nothing to occupy their hands and too much to occupy their mind, is a long time.
Cady paced the room, and checked her hair three times, smoothed her dress, and wondered how she’d got to this point. A month ago, she could not have dreamed that she’d be here in London, having just completed an assignation with a man who made her heart and body sing. A month ago, she was still lurking like a shadow amid the walls of Calderwood, not speaking to anyone she hadn’t known her whole life, and fearful that literally anything might suddenly strike her down.
Gabe’s arrival at the estate upended her whole existence. He’d barely stepped onto the soil of the property before he’d drawn her out of her shell, tamed her dogs, and awakened a passion she hadn’t known she possessed.
And it was all due to a little bottle of poison that she’d mistakenly brewed up in an attempt to cure herself. How many people died because of her fears and her unusual skills in botany and chemistry? Had Gabe guessed what he’d find when he arrived? No, he’d told her that she was a surprise.
But was she the sort of surprise that he liked enough to pursue? Or was their affair just the result of emotions running high, and the fact that they’d been thrown together as Gabe tracked down the person who killed his friend?
Her mood growing tangled and dark, Cady decided that it was time to leave. She unlocked the door, peeked out to see an empty hallway, and then moved out and walked purposefully toward the sounds of laughter and music.
She’d turned a few corners by the time she met anyone, so Cady didn’t have to feign being confused.
“Excuse me, butwhereis the retiring room?” she asked a blue-gowned woman with ash-blonde hair who was approaching from the opposite end of the hall.
The other lady gave her an understanding smile. “Just down the hall and to the left,” she said. “I don’t know why Nyle feels the need to put them so far from the party.”
Cady thanked her and went on, breathing a sigh of relief that no one seemed to care that she was wandering around unattended. When she got back to the more crowded part of the house, she went directly to the foyer and told a footman to call for her coach.
“Already outside for you, my lady,” the footman said with a little bow.
Bemused, Cady followed him to the street, where Jem looked down from his high perch and tipped his hat.
“Evening, my lady. Ready to go home?”
“Yes, please.” Cady looked up at Jem.
“How did you happen to be there even before I called?”
“Mr Courtenay passed by and he mentioned you’d be going soon,” Jem said.
Ah. That made sense. The footman helped her in and Cady was soon speeding away from the party and toward the haven of her townhome. When Jem finally pulled the coach to a halt in front of her door, Rook hurried outside to help her out.
The hour was late, but even after Bond had helped her out of her gown and taken down her hair, Cady wasn’t sleepy. Minnie brought up a tray with chamomile tea, and Cady sat in bed, sipping slowly while she tried to read herself to sleep by going over the more recent edition of theProceedings of the Royal Society for Chemistry, which was not known for gripping prose.
She finally blew out the candle and lay down. She hoped against hope that Gabe might surprise her with a visit, mostly just so she could see him and hold him. But the clock ticked away and no one appeared. She lay wakeful in her bed, staring at nothing, her thoughts a maelstrom. Gabe. The poison. All the deaths. Everything somehow connected, but not in any way she could see.
Sighing, Cady sat up and flipped her covers back. She’d go down to the kitchen and find something to eat. That would give her something to think about and perhaps afterward sleep could come. Oscar snoozed away on a chair by the fireplace, and she cast a wistful glance at the cat. If only she could sleep as easily as he did!
Putting on her slippers and pulling on a silk wrap over her chemise, Cady left her bedroom and moved silently down the stairs. The house was dark and quiet. Perhaps too quiet. Cady felt a little nervous, as though she were an intruder rather than the owner.
On the ground floor, Cady walked to the back of the house, and saw a thin line of light at the bottom of the closed kitchen door. Lord, was someone still up, or up so early, already at work?
Cady intended to march in and tell whoever it was that they needed more rest. No task was so important as to work through the night. She’d turned the knob and got the door open one inch when something stopped her cold.
“I don’t need more people mucking about. This is a delicate situation.”
Gabe’s voice.
Gabe’svoice?
