The Lady By His Side(97)

“There’ll be a cave in there,” Sebastian said.

“That’s where they hid the gunpowder,” she breathed. “We’ve finally found it.”

She glanced at Sebastian in time to see him grimace.

“We’ve found where it was.” He caught her eye. “Judging by these footprints, they moved the barrels out last night.”

“Still…” She looked at the gap in the cliff face; it was only a yard or so wide with nothing but blackness beyond. “There might be some signs—some clues—inside.” She looked at Sebastian and found him striding past her. She picked up her skirts and hurried in his wake. “We are going to go in and look, aren’t we?”

Sebastian halted and felt her run into him. He swung around and caught her elbows and steadied her. “I will go in and look.” He drew his hands from her and forced himself to rein in the overriding impulse to issue an order. “You need to remain out here.” Translation: He needed her to remain safely on the beach. There was no one near, and who knew what dangers might lurk in the darkness inside?

He’d thought he’d muted his tone to at least reasonably acceptable, but the look on her face—stunned, eyes wide and widening, jaw dropping, mouth agape, disbelief in every line—suggested he’d fallen far short.

For several seconds, she simply stared at him, then, slowly, she started to shake her head. “Oh, no, no, no.”

He felt his jaw set, his features instinctively hardening.

Her mouth snapped shut. Her lips compressed to a thin line, and something fiery leapt in her eyes before they narrowed to sharp gray flints. “No.” She punctuated the emphatic declaration by jabbing her index finger into his chest. Hard. “I am not—I repeat, not—going to be left out here, supposedly in safety, while you go in there to face God knows what.”

Her diction was precise, forceful, with a hint of queenly power; she almost sounded like his mother.

“Besides, you great arrogant oaf”—she stepped close enough for him to see the fire in her eyes and drilled her jabbing finger into his sternum—“if you truly want me to be safe, from whatever I might do as well as all else, then you’ll get it through your thick skull that the safest place for me to be at any time is right by your side.”

Her chin set; her gaze bored into his.

For an instant, they teetered, will against will.

Time froze.

Waves softly shushed on the sand, and high overhead, a seagull wheeled and screeched.

He had time enough to study her face, to sense the temper, the strength, the unbending will behind her demand.

He could crush it; he was the stronger.

But should he?

To have that—that feminine power—on his side, aligned with him through the rest of his life…

What was he willing to pay as the price?

He’d held her gaze throughout, just as she still held his. Neither of them would look away. Back away.

Both of them recognized the significance of the moment; given their characters, their temperaments, it was one they would have had to face at some point, at some time.

Climbing down was not something he did—could do—easily. It took significant effort to draw in a slow breath. He felt his chest rise beneath her finger. Then he fought to unlock his jaw and get his tongue around the words he’d elected to say.

“All right.”

She blinked, just once. Very slowly, she drew her finger back. “All right?” Uttered as if she wasn’t sure she believed her ears.

“Yes. All right.” He bit off the words; his jaw was still clenched. He reached out and seized her still-raised hand. “You can come with me.” He stepped back, swung to face the cleft, and started marching through the sand.

He felt her jerk into motion, then she hurried to keep up with him.

He reached the cleft. It was intensely dark inside.

As they passed through the opening and cool blackness fell over them, he adjusted his hold on her hand. “Stay close. And for pity’s sake, don’t dart ahead.”

His tone made the words an outright order; too bad—he’d bent as far as he was going to.





Chapter 14





Antonia blinked and blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust. The opening in the cliff faced east, and it was afternoon; very little illumination reached into the passageway they seemed to have stepped into. The area in which they stood was wider than the entrance, but her senses informed her the walls and roof were not that far away; it wasn’t as if they stood in a cave.

Sebastian had taken only three paces, then stopped, bringing her to a halt beside and a little behind him.

Now he stepped forward again, slowly.

She remembered and asked, “Do you have your candle and matchbox?”