A Risk Worth Taking (32 page)

“But we can’t—”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean we can’t lie together. That I cannot hold you in my arms. That we cannot wake up together so you are the first sight I see when I open my eyes. But we will wake up in my bed. My bed is better. Your bed is too short for me to sleep comfortably.”

She followed him to his room and lay down in the center of his bed. He lay down beside her and pulled her close. This was the way he always wanted them to be.

“I was so certain we had made a babe,” she said, breathing a shaky sigh.

She shivered in his arms and he held her tight. This was the only way he knew to take away some of her disappointment. “We will. In time there will be a babe.”

“When I was young, I overheard Cook tell our upstairs maid that it only took once. We’ve done it so often, I was sure…”

Griff smiled and kissed the top of her head. “It sometimes only takes once. But mostly, couples have to try more often before a babe is made.”

“But I was so sure. I didn’t want you to go through such torture for so long.”

He tried not to laugh but couldn’t help it. “Don’t worry about me enduring such torture. Worry more about how I will survive not touching you for the next few days.” He brushed a stray lock of hair that fell to her cheek. How had he thought he could keep from loving her? He knew now how impossible that would have been. “Are you in pain?”

She shook her head.

He kissed her gently on the forehead. “Good. Now go to sleep.”

She breathed a contented sigh. He thought she’d smiled and wondered what she was thinking, then suddenly realized something he should have known long before now.

That it would be more possible to live without air to breathe than without her love.

Griff dropped to the ground and handed his reins to one of his stable hands before making his way to the house. He’d left Anne early, kissing her when she awoke, then telling her to go back to sleep. He’d gone out to see if he could find Jack Hawkins but had come up empty-handed, as always. This morning, at least, his shadow did not stay quite so hidden. Once Griff thought he’d even seen Jack’s outline.

“Is your mistress up?” he asked Carter, shrugging out of his coat.

“Yes. She’s waiting breakfast for you.”

Griff walked to the chair where she sat and kissed her on the lips. His body reacted to the way she returned his kiss.

“How was your ride?” she asked when he’d filled a plate and sat down at the head of the table.

“Fine. It’s a beautiful morning.”

“Did you find him?”

Griff’s fork stopped midway to his mouth. “What makes you think I was looking for someone?”

“Because you look for him every time you go out. He’s why I cannot step foot out of the house.”

Griff finished the eggs on his plate and spread warm jam on a piece of toast. He decided it would be futile to try to keep anything from her. “No. I didn’t find him, although today I spotted him. He’s becoming more careless.”

“Or he is tired of playing his cat-and-mouse game with you.”

“Perhaps.” He pushed his empty plate away and lifted a cup of tea to his lips. “This will be over soon.”

“And then what? Will I be a widow?”

“No,” he answered, though not as confidently as he wanted. “I will know what this is all about.”

“I received a note from Lord Brentwood. He’s going to call on us again today. I think he intends to make another offer for the land.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Are you considering selling now?”

“No.”

“Good.”

She smiled. “Would you have let me if I really wanted to?”

“The land is yours. Freddie left it to you.”

“But as my husband, you now control everything I have.”

“The land is yours. You can do whatever you want with it.”

“Then I will keep it. There is something that is not right about the land. Something we don’t know yet. Why would Freddie go to such lengths to have something so desolate? And why is Brentwood so desperate to possess it? Why has he offered to pay such an extravagant amount for something he claims as worthless? I think there is a secret there
that we have to uncover. Something that could even be illegal. There were tracks all over inside some of the caves.”

Griff frowned. “What do you mean, tracks?”

“Footprints and tracks, as if someone had slid something heavy around inside them.”

Griff stamped down another stab of worry. “Stay away from there, Anne. The caves are dangerous. We’ve already discovered that.”

“No more dangerous, I think, than Brentwood. Perhaps they are connected somehow.”

“Don’t meet with him unless I am here, Anne. I don’t trust the man.”

“Neither do I. For some reason, he—”

“Excuse me, sir,” Carter interrupted from the doorway. “But Hodges says he needs to speak to you concerning a matter of importance.”

“Tell him I’ll be right there,” Griff answered, and got up to leave. “I’ll be back before Brentwood comes.” He kissed her lightly on the lips.

“Good,” she said. “I don’t like being alone with him.”

Griff gave her a last smile, then walked out the door. He was going to have to settle the matter with the land once and for all today. Brentwood was undoubtedly someone who refused to give up until he had what he wanted.

Griff walked across the yard, already forming in his mind what he would say when they met with Brentwood later.

Griff pulled his mind back to the problem at hand. “Is something wrong, Hodges?”

“Yes, sir.” The groomsman twisted his hat in his hands. “I found something you need to look at.”

Hodges walked to the carriage house. Griff followed.

Hodges had taken care of every Covington horse, carriage, and wagon for as long as Griff could remember. The post had been his father’s before him, and he had already been an expert when he stepped into the position.

Hodges stopped before the carriage. “I discovered this when I inspected the carriages like I have every day since the accident. It must have happened during the night. There was nothing wrong with this carriage yesterday.” He pointed to the vehicle’s underside.

Griff knelt down to look. Someone had nearly sawed through the main frame that supported the carriage. There was another cut in the crossbar that held the horses in place. From the way the two pieces had been sawed, they would not have snapped immediately but would have held together until enough speed pulled against the wood and weakened it. Even if the carriage was traveling no faster than the regular rate of speed, there would be no way for any driver, no matter how cautious, to control the vehicle. It was guaranteed to overturn.

Griff felt his temper snap. “Saddle me a fresh horse, Hodges.” Griff checked to make sure the pistol in his jacket pocket was loaded. “Send word to Lady Anne that I had to leave for a while but will return as quickly as possible.”

The minute Hodges brought his mount from the stables, Griff swung into the saddle.

“Do you need someone to go with you, sir?” Hodges asked.

“No. I need to handle this on my own.” Griff turned the black stallion away from the stable, then stopped. “If
something happens to me, send someone to London to get Lord Covington. He will know what to do.”

Before Hodges could answer, Griff slapped the reins against the horse’s flanks and rode toward the grove of trees where he’d last seen Hawkins. He had no doubt he would find him there. This time, only one of them would ride away.

G
riff slowed his mount when he neared the grove. To the untrained eye, Jack’s movements had been so minute that no one who wasn’t looking for him would have realized he was there. But Griff knew, just as he knew Hawkins had watched him every day since he and Anne had come to Covington Manor.

Just as he’d watched him in London.

Griff reined in his horse and stopped in the open meadow. He was out of firing range. If Hawkins wanted him dead, he would have to come closer to kill him.

“Hawkins! I know you’re there. We’ve played this game of yours long enough. Come out and face me. Let’s get it settled once and for all.”

Griff waited. The blood pounded against his ears as he watched for some movement in front of him. His horse pranced nervously beneath him as if he understood the danger. Griff gripped the reins tighter to hold his stallion steady.

The seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness. Griff reached for the pistol in his pocket, then stopped when Hawkins stepped out from the grove of trees.

“How long have you known I was here?” Hawkins asked, taking a few steps closer, but not enough for either of them to get off an accurate shot.

Griff dismounted and stepped around his horse. “You followed us from London.”

Jack Hawkins laughed. “I guess I’m not as good as I thought.”

“You’re good,” Griff said. “You should be. We both learned from the best.”

Hawkins took a few steps closer, then planted his feet wide apart and loosened the buttons on his jacket. Griff saw the pistol Hawkins had in the belt at his waist.

“I didn’t get a chance to express my congratulations on your marriage.” Hawkins’s hands hung loose at his side, his pose calm and relaxed. “You have a lovely bride.”

“I won’t let you hurt her. I’ll kill you first.” Griff watched him make a slow circle to his left, moving so the sun was behind his back and shone in Griff’s eyes.

“Is that what you think? That I want to hurt her?” He took a few steps closer and closed the gap between them. “Because of what happened to my brother?”

Griff didn’t answer him.

“What if I told you I had nothing to do with what’s happened to you so far?”

Griff paused. “I’d want to know why you’ve been following me. What was so important that you followed me here?”

“I need to prove to you that I can be trusted. I need to clear my name.”

Griff looked at the man he’d spent nearly two years fighting beside, trusting to watch his back and protect him. There’d been a bond that had connected them. “You think you need to clear your name?”

“Yes. The name my brother disgraced. I have a responsibility to my family.” Jack lifted his shoulders a little higher. “I am a cousin to the Earl of Stratmont.”

“You are a cousin to Stratmont?”

“Yes. My father was the late earl’s youngest brother.”

Griff understood Jack Hawkins’s concern. If his brother’s activities were made public, the scandal would no doubt ruin Stratmont’s reputation.

“Thankfully, my brother didn’t use our family surname, Hawkins, but chose a fictitious name. He lived and died as Nigel Stoneworth. That’s the name you knew him by, Griff. He was one of the spies we executed at the end of the war.” Hawkins turned to face him straight on. “I can’t let you think I am like him.”

Griff didn’t say anything. He waited to see what Jack Hawkins would do.

“When Fitzhugh discovered that Nigel was my brother, I knew that you knew, too.”

“Why didn’t you tell us when it happened?”

A smile lifted the corners of his mouth but didn’t come close to reaching his eyes. “What would your reaction have been? What reaction would I have gotten from Fitzhugh and every man in intelligence?”

“They’d have sympathized with you and felt a deeper admiration for you—”

“Perhaps to my face,” Hawkins interrupted, his voice stronger and more forceful than before. “But behind my back they would have wondered what kind of man could stand by and watch his brother be arrested and tried for treason without lifting a finger to help.”

Hawkins paced a few angry steps, then stopped. “Then the doubts would have started. They would have watched every move I made. They would have watched for any sign that I was a traitor, too. Rumor and speculation would have followed me wherever I went.

“I’m not like you, Blackmoor. I didn’t want to put my military career behind me. I don’t have an estate waiting for me at home. I intend to make intelligence work my career. But how long do you think even Fitzhugh could have defended me once the questions started? How long before it would have been impossible for him to trust me with anything more important than escorting the general’s wife to and from an occasional social affair?”

Griff released a deep sigh. “So you said nothing. You suffered in silence when your brother faced a firing squad and was executed.”