Ravished by the Rake (31 page)
Read Ravished by the Rake Online
Authors: Louise Allen
It was the small oval box that she had given him. ‘Open it,’ she urged and he slid back the lid to reveal the Noah’s Ark animals still packed tight inside. ‘Is it the same one?’
In answer he turned the lid over and showed her the initials, AL. ‘I marked it.’ He took out the little carvings and shook the box. A few grains of sand fell out. ‘It has been wet—see the stains on the wood?’
‘But how?’
‘I left it on the table in the cuddy. I had been showing it to Mr Bastable before dinner. It could have escaped the wreck and been washed out and on to a beach somewhere. But who would know to send it to me? And why anonymously?’
They eliminated everyone they could think of by the time dinner was announced. ‘All the survivors took ship back to the mainland and no one on the islands would know it was mine.’
Dita twisted the miniature figure of Noah in her fingers. ‘Averil?’ They stared at each other, silent with the weight of speculation. ‘I felt that she was still alive,’ Dita murmured at last.
‘A mystery.’ Alistair took the scrap of wood from her and put it back safe in the box. ‘We have had our miracle—perhaps, after all, against all the odds, Averil has experienced one, too. We can only wait and see.’
They were sitting at a small oval table, close enough to touch. Dita looked up and caught the butler’s eye. ‘Gregory, would you all kindly leave us for a few minutes?’ They filed out, expressionless, and she got up, walked around and placed her hands on Alistair’s shoulders from behind, bending down to rest her cheek against his.
‘It
is
a miracle, isn’t it?’
He put up his hands to capture hers. ‘A miracle that we’re alive, that we’re together, that we love each other. Every day from now on is going to hold that magic for us.’
‘And every night,’ she whispered in his ear.
‘Oh, yes, my love. Believe it. Every night.’
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2011
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Melanie Hilton 2011
ISBN: 978-1-408-92352-8