Page 56 of The Hidden Lord
The noise sent a chill through Gabriel that was not caused by the cold sea air. Every instinct he possessed flared to life as he stepped closer to Henri, one hand reaching out to steady her on the narrow ledge. She pulled back, reluctant to accept his help.
“Do not be stubborn, Henri!” Gabriel said sharply with more authority than he had intended. “I need you to stay close to me and follow my lead exactly.”
Gabriel positioned himself between Henri and the cave entrance, torn between his desperate need to uncover the truth about Horace’s death and his growing certainty that he was leading his wife toward a danger neither of them fully understood. But they had come too far to retreat now, and the answers they sought lay somewhere in the darkness ahead, waiting to be discovered by those brave enough—or foolish enough—to pursue them.
Gabriel’ssharp words thundered through her head, the harshness of his tone cutting through the excitement of their discovery and leaving her feeling raw and exposed.
Stubborn.
Was that truly what he thought of her? After everything they had shared, after all the ways she had proven herself as a capable partner in this investigation, did Gabriel see her as an obstinate woman who needed to be managed and controlled?
The hurt that washed over Henri was immediate and profound, made worse by the growing certainty that Gabriel’s concern had less to do with genuine affection for her well-being and more to do with protecting his secrets. He needed her to solve this mystery, whatever personal agenda was driving his obsession with these ancient clues, and he could not afford to have her injured before their quest was complete.
He does not care about me at all,Henri thought with bitter clarity as Gabriel busied himself with adjusting the lantern’s shielding.I am simply a useful tool to him, someone to help him achieve whatever goal he has been pursuing from the beginning.
The realization sent a chill through Henri. Several days into their marriage, Gabriel remained as distant and secretive as he had been when they were strangers. If anything, his walls had grown higher since their wedding, as though the legal bond between them had given him permission to retreat even further into his private world of guarded thoughts and undisclosed purposes.
Gabriel stepped into the cave first, holding the lantern ahead of him to illuminate their path. Henri followed reluctantly, her earlier enthusiasm for their discovery now overshadowed by the growing resentment that had been building inside her for days. The cave was larger than it had appeared from outside, with smooth walls that spoke to centuries of wind attrition and a floorof sand mixed with small stones that crunched softly beneath their feet.
“There,” Gabriel said quietly, raising the lantern toward a section of the cave wall where the light revealed yet another carving. “Another marker, just as we expected.”
Henri forced herself to focus on the discovery despite her emotional turmoil. The carving was indeed similar to the others they had found, featuring the image of a window, a woman and an organ depicted in one of the panes. Letters and numbers were etched beneath. Gabriel was already reaching into his coat for parchment and charcoal, moving with the efficiency that characterized all his professional endeavors.
“Hold the lantern steady,” Gabriel instructed as he wiped the stone with a handkerchief to ensure it was dry before he began the careful process of creating a rubbing of the carved design. “I need to capture every detail.”
Henri took the lantern without comment, though she found herself wondering if Gabriel would have spoken to a hired assistant with more warmth than he showed his own wife. As she watched him work, his complete absorption in the task serving to emphasize how little of his attention she commanded when something truly important required his focus, Henri felt her hurt crystallizing into something harder.
The rubbing process took some time, during which Gabriel maintained the same concentrated silence that had characterized so much of their recent travel. Henri found herself studying his profile in the lantern light, noting the tension around his eyes and the tight set of his jaw that suggested he was wrestling with thoughts he had no intention of sharing with her. Even here, in the midst of what should have been a moment of shared triumph, Gabriel remained locked away in his private world.
When he finally completed the rubbing and stored the parchment in his coat, Henri expected him to share his thoughts about what the new carving might reveal or how it connected to their previous discoveries. Instead, he simply took back the lantern and began examining the rest of the cave with the same thoroughness he had applied to their previous investigations.
“This does not appear to be a final destination,” Gabriel observed after completing his survey of the cave’s interior. “The carving likely points us toward our next location, assuming we can decipher its message properly.”
Henri nodded her acknowledgment of his assessment, though she felt a stab of disappointment that even this professional exchange felt perfunctory and distant. Gabriel was already moving toward the cave entrance, clearly eager to return to safer ground where they could examine their new clue properly, and Henri had little choice but to follow.
The climb back up the steep steps proved even more challenging than the descent, as the continuing mist had made every surface increasingly slippery. Gabriel maintained his position behind her, occasionally offering terse warnings about particularly dangerous sections, but otherwise climbing in complete silence. Henri found his lack of communication deeply frustrating, especially when contrasted with the easy conversation they had enjoyed during the first day of their journey from Yorkshire.
He is already planning his next move,Henri thought as she navigated a particularly tricky section of the carved steps.Calculating how to use this new information to advance whatever agenda brought him to Danbury’s library in the first place. And I am nothing more than an assistant in his investigation.
She was stunned at how much pain she was feeling. The twist of her heart, the agony of being unwanted making the silencestretch between them as they climbed, broken only by the sound of waves crashing against the rocks below and the occasional warning about loose stones or slippery patches.
This was why she had vowed to never relinquish her independence. If only she had not been duped into falling for a set of kind hazel eyes and the glimmer of need she had witnessed shimmering in their depths. Gabriel was completely absorbed in his own thoughts, his attention focused far beyond their immediate surroundings, and Henri found herself wondering if she would ever be granted access to his thoughts.
Uncle Reggie involved me in his Westminster dealings because he valued my insights,Henri reflected with growing distress.He made me feel that my contributions had genuine merit, that my intelligence and political instincts were assets worth cultivating. Gabriel, meanwhile, treats me like a particularly useful reference book. Consulted when needed, but otherwise ignored and forgotten.
The comparison with her great-uncle’s treatment was particularly hurtful because it highlighted what Henri had hoped to find in her marriage. Uncle Reggie had never made her feel like her gender was a limitation or that her perspectives were somehow inferior to those of his male colleagues. With Gabriel, Henri increasingly felt like she was being tolerated rather than truly welcomed as an equal partner.
By the time they reached the relative safety of the clifftop, Henri’s pain had evolved into genuine anger. Gabriel’s continued silence during their climb, his obvious preoccupation with matters he had no intention of sharing with her, and his apparent assumption that she would simply follow his lead without question or complaint had combined to create a resentment that felt alarmingly close to permanent.
As they stood once again among the ruins of Tintagel Castle, Henri found herself questioning not just Gabriel’s treatment ofher, but the entire decision to marry him in the first place. It had promised to be an adventure, an opportunity to forge a genuine partnership with a fascinatingly complex man, and to provide him the solace she had thought he needed. Now it felt like a trap she had walked into with her eyes wide open but her judgment fatally compromised by romantic notions that had no basis in reality.
Gabriel was already moving toward their carriage where their coachman waited, clearly eager to examine their new discovery in better light and comfort, but Henri remained rooted among the ancient stones, staring out at the moonlit sea and wondering if she had made the greatest mistake of her life in agreeing to become Lady Trenwith.
Perhaps,Henri thought with painful clarity,some partnerships are doomed from the beginning, no matter how much one party might wish otherwise.
CHAPTER 18
“He that doubteth is not firm of heart, and wheresoever he rideth or goeth, misadventure shall follow him.”
