Snowy Night With a Stranger Read online

  “I can assure you, Selby, I will not trespass on your hospitality a moment longer than necessary,” Ned said, rising gracefully to his feet. He turned to Belton. “Are you intending to join the search for your fiancée, Belton? I have a mind to join them myself.”

  “There’s no call for that,” Godfrey said. “It’s none of your business, Allenton.”

  Ned shrugged. That was a matter of opinion. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen.” He offered a nod of a bow and left, leaving the door open. The salon was still deserted, quiet and peaceful, but the sounds from the rest of the house, shouts and slammed doors and running feet, were far from tranquil.

  So he knew what he was looking for. A lockbox, and quite a large one at that. And it was a reasonable assumption that Selby kept it somewhere in the library. It would be a lot easier to locate than a single sheet of parchment, that was for sure. And he had little doubt that even without the key Georgiana would be able to open it. It seemed entirely feasible that lock picking would be one of her more unconventional talents.

  He hovered by the half-open door, hoping for a clue as to where Selby hid the box. Through the narrow aperture he could just make out Selby bending low by the bookcase on the far wall, but he couldn’t see what he was doing; his bulk blocked the view. However, he knew a lot more now than he had done earlier. Georgie had been right in her assessment of Selby’s first action.

  Ned strolled out of the salon to join the frenzied throng in the hall. The other guests were gathered in a chattering knot by the open front door, peering out at the white landscape as if they could conjure the missing woman out of the snow. Dark figures dotted the parkland, searching for some clue. Ned smiled to himself and went upstairs, confident that his own disappearance wouldn’t be noticed for some time.

  The corridor outside Georgie’s bedroom was quiet, although her door stood open, the room in disarray as if ransacked. He moved quickly past and, after a covert glance around, opened the door to the attic staircase and slid inside. He made his way up the narrow stairs, opened the door at the top and stepped into the gloomy space.

  He whistled softly as he made his way to the chest that blocked the door to Georgie’s eyrie. Jacobs had presumably escorted Georgiana to her hiding place when she made her final move. He shoved the chest aside and tapped once at the door, whispering, “Georgie” against the keyhole.

  The door opened and her face appeared, eyes glowing, lips parted. “Come in.” She grabbed his arm and hauled him inside, closing and locking the door. “I can hear the kerfuffle even up here,” she said. “What’s happening?” She was laughing with a curious mixture of excitement and anxiety. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be not to be able to see what was going on.”

  Ned leaned against the closed door. He could feel her tension, like a spring ready to snap, and he controlled his own impulse to sweep her onto the bed, instead saying in measured tones, “Everything is going exactly as you planned, Georgie. I’ve seen the will in Selby’s hand and—”

  “Where does he keep it?” she broke in, clasping her hands against her skirt as if it was the only way to keep them still.

  “In a lockbox somewhere in the library. I have an idea of where, but I’m not certain. I will find it tonight,” he said calmly. “I don’t count lockpicking among my talents, but I’m hoping you do.”

  “Oh, yes, with the right tool,” she said almost impatiently. “It seems to have stopped snowing.”

  “Yes, it has, and by the time Selby’s army of searchers has combed the surrounding land they’ll have cleared a fair path for us,” he said. “We’ll get the will tonight, and we’ll be on our way at dawn. We can’t go in the dark, however tempting it might be.”

  “No, I suppose not.” She sounded doubtful. “It would be better though to have most of the night behind us by the time they discover you’ve gone too.”

  “But foolhardy nevertheless,” he insisted quietly. “I understand your impatience, love, but sometimes it’s best to err on the side of discretion.”

  Georgiana nodded. She had been gripped by this almost febrile excitement since she’d heard the first sounds of the discovery of her absence. It was partly a terrible dread that she would be discovered and it would all be over, and partly the heady thrill at the whole daring escapade.

  Ned smiled. “I have a foolproof way to ease your impatience,” he said, reaching for her, drawing her toward the cot. “I hope this doesn’t creak too much.” He fell back on the bed, pulling her down on top of him. “Would you be interested in trying this very pleasant activity from a new angle, ma’am?”

  “Oh, most definitely,” she said, lying long against him, bracing herself on her palms as her mouth hovered over his. “I am always open to furthering my education, my lord.”

  -o-O-o-

  An hour later Georgiana woke from a doze wondering where she was. Her clothing was in disarray, she appeared to have lost her stockings and garters, her underclothes existed in memory only, and she appeared to be alone.

  She struggled up on the narrow cot and saw Ned standing at the dormer window, struggling to open it. Relief washed through her and she lay back again, covering her eyes with her forearm as she waited for reality to reassert itself. A blast of frigid air completed the process and she gave a muted yowl of protest, sitting up again, pushing her skirts down over her exposed limbs.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Checking the weather,” he said, closing the window again before turning to look at her. He smiled. “How deliciously abandoned you look. Can you organize your thoughts sufficiently to talk about our destination when we leave here tonight?”

  “Alnwick,” she said. “I have to get the will to a solicitor before anything else. It must be secured.”

  “And then?”

  “I don’t know.” She pushed her tumbled hair away from her eyes. “Where were you going?”

  “Ah, well, that’s it,” Ned said, coming over to the bed. He sat down on the edge and reached for her hand. “I have some business I have to attend to. A mite awkward, I suspect.”

  “Oh?”

  “I was going to Hartley House to spend Christmas,” Ned explained. “Before I was first ambushed by an enterprising reiver, and then benighted by a blizzard.”

  Georgiana nodded. “You would know the Hartleys, of course. They’re your closest neighbors.”

  “Yes.” He hesitated. “I’ve known Sarah Hartley since we were children.”

  Georgie looked at him sharply. She heard something in his voice. “And?” she prompted.

  “And I was on my way to spend Christmas at Hartley House and renew a long-ago proposal of marriage to Sarah,” he said, a fingertip tracing a pattern in her palm.

  Georgiana grinned. “I wish you luck with that,” she said. “But I do hope you haven’t set your heart on it. I’d hate to see you disappointed.”

  He enclosed her hand tightly in his, said sharply, “What do you mean?”

  “Only that Sarah has been affianced to a lieutenant in the Black Watch these last five years and the marriage is to take place in the summer. He’s been in the Peninsula with Wellington and they have had so many put-offs, but at last it looks as if she’ll be wedded and bedded by the middle of June.”

  Ned shook his head in astonishment. “Why on earth didn’t Hartley tell me?”

  “Did you tell him the main purpose of your visit?” Georgie asked, regarding him with her head to one side, the smile still on her lips.

  “Well, not in so many words.” Ned shook his head again. “I understood from Rob that Sarah was still unmarried, and I thought…oh, what a coxcomb.” He laughed in self-mockery. “I thought she had been pining for her long lost love, and I felt in honor bound to renew my proposal. And,” he added ruefully, “I thought she would make a perfectly fine wife, and we would rub along quite comfortably together.”

  “And you were prepared to settle for that?” Georgiana sounded incredulous.

  He lifted her han
d to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Until I met you, yes.”

  “And now?” Her eyes gleamed.

  “And now I see no reason why we shouldn’t between us own everything between the coast and the Pennines,” he declared with a chuckle. He was laughing, but his eyes were not as they held hers. “I love you,” he said simply. “I’ve never felt anything like this before. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I can’t imagine my life without you.”

  Her green gaze was curiously soft and tender as she looked at him. He still held her hand and her fingers moved against his palm. “Is that a proposal, Lord Allenton?”

  “It would appear to be,” he replied with a half smile. “I’m not in the habit of making them, so it may lack a certain je ne sais quoi.”

  “Oh, I think it will do very well,” Georgie said, kissing the corner of his mouth. “I love you, Ned Vasey.”

  He gathered her into his arms. “Then this, ma’am, is a contract we should seal with a kiss.”

  Chapter Nine

  Ned spent the remainder of the day with his fellow guests, none of whom seemed to know what to do with themselves. The Lord of Misrule was absent for the main part, appearing briefly at luncheon, and vanishing soon after. Parties of men continued to comb the surrounding area and returned with nothing. Godfrey Belton hovered, casting a malevolent eye over everything in sight and Ned in particular, and as the afternoon drew in, consternation among the guests grew.

  “It’s such a worry, Roger,” Mrs. Eddington said when she could catch her host. “Georgiana is such a little thing. She couldn’t possibly survive a night outside. What are we to do?”

  “I’m doing everything I can, Bella,” Selby said, trying to mask his irritation with an anxious headshake. “My men can’t continue to search in the dark. We have to hope she’s found shelter in a cottage somewhere. The people around here wouldn’t turn her away.”

  “It’s all we can pray for,” the lady said with a heavy sigh. “But I’ll not sleep easy tonight, thinking of her out there in the cold.”

  “It was her own decision,” Godfrey growled from the sideboard where he was refilling his glass of port. “If she was fool enough to risk her life, then on her own head be it.”

  “Good God, Belton, you can’t mean that,” exclaimed one of the gentlemen, sounding genuinely shocked at this callous statement. “She’s to be your wife.”

  “Aye. The poor girl must have been out of her mind to do such a thing,” put in another of the guests. “She’ll need some careful attention when she comes back.”

  “Oh, she’ll get that all right,” Godfrey muttered with a baleful stare at Ned, who ignored him, concentrating instead on an out-of-date copy of the Gazette.

  Dinner was a wan affair and the party broke up early. Selby and Belton went to the billiard room and Ned remained in the salon with the pile of ancient periodicals until Jacobs came in to see to the fire and the candles.

  “We will be needing the horses just before dawn, Jacobs,” Ned said in a conversational tone without raising his eyes from the print.

  “Right y’are, sir.” Jacobs continued to stoke the fire as if nothing had been said. He left soon after and Ned stayed a while longer before going into the hall, as if on his way to bed. He could hear the click of the billiard cue as he paused outside the room, and the low rumble of voices. There was nothing he could do until Selby and Belton had gone to bed. His only fear was that Selby would take the lockbox to bed with him. But there was no reason for him to do that.

  Ned hesitated on the landing, tempted to go to Georgiana in her attic, but he resisted the temptation. It was too risky while Selby and Godfrey were still up. Selby might take it into his head to visit his guest with a renewed demand for the undertaking to pay for a useless piece of land, and would certainly find it strange if Ned was absent from his chamber at this time of night.

  He rang for Davis and chatted with him as the valet helped him prepare for bed. Davis was full of the servants’ speculation as to Lady Georgiana’s whereabouts. “Just between you, me an’ the gatepost, m’lord, none of us is really surprised that Lady Georgie’s up and gone. Too good by half she is for those what she’s intended for. Beggin’ your pardon for speaking out of turn, sir.”

  “I know nothing about it, Davis,” Ned said carelessly, settling down in an armchair by the fire with a glass of cognac and a periodical. “That will be all, thank you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Yes, sir.” Davis bowed himself out and Ned settled down to wait, confident that when questioned in the morning about Lord Allenton’s absence, Davis would have nothing pertinent to say.

  After a while, he rose and went to the armoire for his portmanteau. He couldn’t be burdened with too much luggage, but there were some things he had to take. A change of clothes, money, a few precious personal belongings, and, of course, his pistol.

  When the clock struck three, he left his bedchamber and went soundlessly downstairs to the library. He locked the door behind him. At least there would be some warning of a potential intruder. The room was in darkness except for the ashy glow of the fire’s embers and he lit the candle on the mantel before going to the bookcase on the far wall where he had seen Selby that morning. At first it looked to be a perfectly ordinary bookcase. Somewhat dusty volumes lining the shelves, the spaces between the shelves all a uniform size, the books neatly arrayed in alphabetical order.

  Ned stood and looked at the bookcase. He cleared his mind and let his eye roam along the shelves. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but it had to be there. And then he saw it. In the middle of the bottom shelf the spines of the books seemed very close together, with no space even to push a piece of paper between them. He couldn’t see how anyone could have fitted them in so tightly together.

  He knelt on the floor and reached to remove one of the books, only to realize that they were not books. It was a solid slab of wood on which a line of book spines had been stuck, covering every millimeter of the slab. It would certainly fool a casual glance, and how many people, anyway, got down on their knees to examine the contents of the bottom shelf of a tall bookcase?

  Ned ran his hand over the block that was the width of half a dozen books. About the size of the lockbox, he reckoned. He removed the books on either side of it and felt around. He slipped his flattened palm below the shelf, which lay only a half inch above the floor. And then he felt the catch, embedded in the wood. He pressed it to no avail. He tried sliding it with equal futility. He only had touch to guide him; there was no way he could see what he was doing. Impatience was giving way to desperation as he fumbled around, trying to slide it to the left, then to the right. He slid it to the left again and magically the block became a door that sprang open in front of him, revealing a deep space recessed into the wall behind the bookcase.

  It contained only the lockbox, pushed to the rear. Ned edged it out. It wasn’t particularly heavy but the padlock looked sturdy enough. It was to be hoped it wasn’t beyond Georgie’s skills. Once she’d opened it and extracted the will, he would return it to its hiding place, assuming, of course, that he could manage the right trick to close up the shelf again. The longer it took before Selby realized the will was missing, the better start they would have.

  -o-O-o-

  Georgiana paced the small attic chamber as she had been doing all evening. She was in an agony of impatience, hating the fact that she could do nothing further to help herself in this business now. She had to leave it in someone else’s hands, and she was not accustomed to sitting on the sidelines. She had always taken care of things herself, relied only on herself, and now she was helpless, dependent entirely on Ned.

  She knew he couldn’t do anything until he was certain everyone was in bed and asleep, but he seemed to be taking an eternity. She had everything ready for the journey. Her treasure trove, a change of clothes, her own jewelry. All she could do was wait, and it was the hardest thing she could ever remember doing.

  At last she heard
a low whistle and flew to open the door. “Oh, you have it,” she exclaimed in a whisper. “Oh, you’re so clever…. Where was it?” Even as she spoke she was tugging the lockbox out of his arms.

  Ned let her take it, following her back into the small chamber, locking the door behind them. “It was in some kind of safe in the bookcase,” he said. “It was easy enough to find but I had the devil’s own job getting the safe itself open. Can you manage the padlock?”

  “Let’s see.” Georgiana set the box on the table and examined the padlock, frowning. Then she reached up to her head and withdrew a hairpin from the tight knot of curls on her nape. She pulled the lamp closer and fitted the hairpin into the lock.

  Ned leaned against the wall, his arms folded, watching her. The tip of her tongue peeped between her teeth as she worked intently, her finely arched brows drawn in a fierce frown of concentration. When the hairpin broke in the lock, she cursed under her breath and Nick grinned despite the tension. It was a reiver’s curse, nothing of the lady about it at all.

  She took another hairpin and began again, a light dew of perspiration misting her brow. Once or twice she wiped her palms on her skirt. And then there was a click and she said, “Got you, you bastard.” She looked up at Ned with a radiant smile. “Success.”

  “Well done. Let’s get the will and I’ll put the box back where it came from.” He lifted the lid and took out the topmost sheet of paper, guessing that the will had been the last thing Selby had touched in the box.

  “Is that it?” Georgiana demanded impatiently. “Let me see.”

  “Patience, child,” Ned teased lightly, laying the sheet open on the table and smoothing it out with his hand. “Why don’t we look at it together.”

  “I can’t help being impatient,” Georgiana said, bending over the document.

  “No, of course you can’t.” Ned kissed the top of her head as he leaned over her to read for himself.

  The reassuring red seal of the lawyer’s certification was stamped deep into the thick vellum. They both read in silence and then Ned straightened and said briskly, “That seems to be in order. Put it away and I’ll take the box back.”