A Winter Scandal (21 page)

“He isn’t doing it for me.”

“For who then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, as long as he is doing it, I suppose that is what matters.” Thea jammed the knitted cap down over her wild tangle of curls and turned to Lolly, who sat on the hearth, watching them. “Be sure my brother gets that note tomorrow—well, I guess it’s
this
morning. I trust we shall return with Matthew.”

“Yes, miss, I pray you do.”

Thea picked up the baby’s basket and the blankets she had stuffed inside it and started for the door. Gabriel opened the door and followed her out, picking up the lantern as they went.

He once again attached the lantern to the curricle and went to his horses to give each of them a pat and a few words. Climbing into the vehicle beside Thea, he took up the reins, and they started off into the night.

Gabriel kept the horses to as fast a pace as was safe on the snowy road. Thea pulled up the heavy, fur-lined lap robe high around her, tucking it in on the outside. Her other side was flush against Gabriel—for warmth, she told herself. It was perfectly true, but she could also not help but be aware that his muscled leg pressed against hers. And that, she told herself sternly, was an utterly inappropriate thing to be thinking about at a time like this.

She fixed her attention on the road in front of them, peering through the falling snow. The circle of the lantern lit only a small area, and there was little to see but the falling flakes. Thea hoped that the horses would be able to stay on the road. Their pace was perforce slow, but before they had gone far down the road, Gabriel pulled the team to a stop and handed the reins to her, then jumped down and took the lantern from its hook. He carried it over to the side of the road and held the lantern up as he stared at the ground.

Thea could see that the snow was different there, far less deep and smooth—as though, she realized, the snow had been trampled and chopped up sometime recently, then a layer of snow had fallen on top of it, leaving odd valleys and peaks. There, at the edge, was a darker pile, just beginning to be covered by snow.

She leaned forward. “Is that—”

“Yes. Horse droppings.” Gabriel turned and hurried back to the carriage to rehang the lantern and hop in. He took the reins back from her and slapped them over the horses’ backs, continuing to talk with an undercurrent of excitement in his voice. “It appears to me that a horse was tethered there for some time tonight—just as it would be if the fellow tied his horse out on the road and walked in to grab the baby. Quieter that way, I’d guess, and no one would see a horse waiting in front of your house and think it odd and come to investigate.”

“Then we are on the right road.”

He nodded. “I think so. Carrying a baby is bound to slow him to some extent, not to mention the fact that he was on foot till he got here, and I dare swear his horse cannot match my pair. We should make up time on him. The problem will be making sure we catch it if he’s turned off. I don’t want to run past him.”

They were alone on the road in the snow, which was growing increasingly heavier. Thea thought of Matthew, wrapped in his blanket, carried by some stranger through this night, and her heart clutched in her chest. She prayed that whomever they were pursuing had thought to wrap an extra blanket around the baby.

The team forged on through the night as the snow grew deeper around them. Since Gabriel had to keep all his attention on driving through the treacherous conditions, Thea kept a sharp lookout on either side of the road, watching for some sign that the kidnapper had passed this way or that he might have turned off the road. The quiet, broken only by the sound of their passing, and the blur of the falling snow were enough to lull her into a daze, and Thea kept having to blink and shift around in her seat to maintain a sharp focus. It began to seem as if they had been driving through this cold, isolated landscape for hours, as if they might continue to do so forever.

“Gabriel, look!” Thea shot straight up, pointing out the right side as the lap robe slid unheeded down from her shoulders.

“What?” Gabriel hauled back on the reins.

“I’m not sure. But the snow was disturbed back there.” She was already scrambling out the side of the curricle, and Gabriel quickly followed her.

Picking up her skirts, she ran through the snow to the spot she had seen a few yards back. She stopped and looked down at the area of churned snow. Gabriel stopped beside her.

“I think the horse stumbled here,” he said, excitement tingeing his voice. “Probably not enough to fall, or at least not more than to his knees, but he is struggling. And look, there’s only a light dusting covering it all. I don’t think it has been very long.”

“Oh, Gabriel!” Fear choked her voice. “It has been so long already. And he is so little!”

Gabriel took her arm, his grip hard and strong. Thea turned to look at him. A hard, bright light burned in his eyes. “We shall get him back. He is going to be all right.”

Though she knew he could not promise that, his words reassured Thea. She swallowed back her fear and gave him a tight, hard smile. “Yes, we will.”

The light of the lantern picked up the other horse’s tracks now, at first faintly, then more and more clearly. The gap between them was narrowing. Thea clenched her hands together tightly in her lap as the team labored on. The snow grew deeper, their pace slower. Thea could feel the tension mounting in Gabriel’s body beside her. Finally, he climbed down, taking the lantern, and went to the head of the team. He stroked their heads, murmuring to them, then hooked his hand in the harness and urged them forward, the lantern bobbing in his other hand.

They could not continue like this long, Thea knew. How could the kidnapper still be running? Where did he intend to go? It was impossible to tell where they were in the darkness and snow, but she felt they must be some distance still from Bynford, the next village on this road. Had the man managed to reach there? Would they be able to get that far? She could not imagine what they would do if the horses stopped, unable to plow on through the snow.

In the still night, Gabriel’s sharp exclamation carried back to her. She straightened, peering out. Gabriel let go of the horses and carried his lantern to the left side of the road. He stepped off the road, and in the light of his lantern, Thea could see tracks leading off the road in front of him. He whirled around and came back at a run, sending snow spraying around him. He led the horses off the road and onto the lane.

Since the lane was somewhat sheltered by a hedge on one side, the snow was not as deep here. Gabriel returned to take up the reins again, urging his team to a last hard effort. The animals responded, picking up their pace. The hedge ended, and the snow became deeper again, but still they plowed through it. Finally, up ahead, at the farthest limit of her vision in the snow, Thea saw a small, dim glow.

“A light?” she asked, peering forward just as Gabriel slapped the reins and let out a cry, urging the team forward.

Gradually the light resolved into something faintly glowing and square in the midst of a low mass. A window, she thought, in a small house. The team pounded forward, the sound of their hooves muffled by the snow. Now Thea could see a dark lump of a figure trudging through the snow around the side of the house. The shape turned and let go of the load he had had in his hands. It was logs, she saw as they fell, bouncing and rolling, disappearing in the soft snow.

The figure turned and began to run clumsily back around the house. Gabriel pulled the team to a stop and jumped down from the curricle. He took off after the man, snow spurting up behind him. Thea scrambled down and started after him. Ahead of her, she saw Gabriel take the man down in a flying leap.

At that moment, Thea heard the thin, high wail of an infant. She turned and ran toward the house.

Twelve

T
he snow seemed to drag
at Thea’s feet, slowing her steps. She slipped and fell, but scrambled back up and ran on. She flung open the door, revealing a small room. A lantern sat on the rough table to her left, and a fire had been started in the fireplace, casting a ruddy glow. A few feet from the fire was an armchair, and in it lay a squirming, kicking bundle, issuing forth a high-pitched, exhausted cry.

“Matthew!” Thea ran over to the chair and picked up the blanket-wrapped baby. He had kicked off most of the heavy outer blanket around him, and his own smaller knitted blanket had been worked into a wadded-up ball on his stomach. His face was screwed up in fury, his eyes squeezed shut and his mouth wide-open. He was trembling, though Thea was not certain whether it was from the cold or from his own panicked crying. As soon as Thea picked him up, murmuring soothing words, his crying hiccuped and stopped. He drew a shaky breath, his eyes opening to look at Thea, and a long shiver ran down his body. He began to cry again, but this time more softly and plaintively, shuddering out his breaths.

“There, there, hush now, I’m here. Gabriel and I have you now. It’s all right.”

She continued to murmur, holding him close and stroking her hand over his head and down his back. His head was hot and damp, as it got sometimes when he cried. She kissed him, and then she realized she was crying, too, the tension and fear of the last few hours seeping out of her in slow, silent tears. Matthew laid his head against her chest, letting out a little sigh as his crying sputtered to a halt.

The sharp report of a gun sounded outside, and Thea jumped. Gabriel! Wrapping the baby up again in the blanket and setting him down, Thea grabbed the poker from the fireplace and started for the front door. She was almost there when Gabriel appeared in the doorway. His eyes went to the poker in her hand, and a grin crossed his face.

“Don’t hit me. I’m unarmed.”

Even as he spoke, Thea dropped the poker in relief and flung herself across the room, throwing her arms around his neck. His arms went just as tightly around her, and he lowered his head to rest it against hers. They simply stood, clinging to each other, until at last the baby’s crying pulled them from the moment. Gabriel’s arms loosened around her, and Thea turned to go to the baby.

“Is he all right?” Gabriel asked, closing the door and following her.

“I think so. He was unhappy, but he didn’t look as if he had been harmed.” She picked Matthew up and the baby stopped crying almost immediately. Thea turned back to Gabriel. “What happened? I heard a gunshot.”

“He got away from me. We were wrestling about in the snow, and he grabbed one of those logs he’d been carrying and sent my hat flying.”

“Gabriel!” Thea’s eyes flew to his head. The hat he had worn earlier was gone. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. But he stunned me long enough for him to run away. By the time I managed to go after him, he was on his horse. I fired at him, but with that snowstorm, I hadn’t a prayer of hitting him.” Gabriel paused, looking disgusted. “I didn’t even get a good look at him. It was dark and he was bundled up, with a hat and some long, knitted scarf tied around his face. All I am certain of is that it was a man and he is smaller than I.”

“I’m sorry he got away, but we have Matthew back, and that’s what’s important.”

Gabriel nodded. “I have to see to the horses.” He frowned. “I don’t think we can make it back to Chesley tonight. The team has reached their limit, and the road is just getting worse. The snow is still falling. We can’t risk getting stuck or breaking a wheel, not with the baby along.”

“No, you’re right. We were lucky to be able to make it this far. But what about your horses? Will they be all right?”

He nodded. “There is a shed behind the house. That was apparently where the kidnapper kept his horse. There’s even a goat and its kid out there. The building is small, but they’ll fit, and there’s hay and a water trough. It won’t be quite what they’re accustomed to, but they should do well enough.”

“Good. Then at least there will be milk for Matthew. I shall see what else is here.”

Thea turned to explore the cabin. A door led into a small chamber, which contained a bed, a chest, and a small washstand with a mirror. She was pleased to see that the chest contained a few towels and sheets. At least she would be able to clean up and put new sheets on the bed.

She returned to the main room. Besides the chair in front of the fireplace, there was also a square, scarred wooden table and two chairs, as well as a low stool. On the counter was a jug of water, and a round loaf of bread wrapped in a towel. A door so low that she had to stoop to pass through it led into a small, dark room that was two steps lower than the floor of the house.

She brought the lantern closer and saw that it was a small pantry built out from the rest of the house. It was no more than a few feet square, with a roof that slanted down steeply from the cottage wall. The outer three walls were made only of planks, so it was much cooler than the rest of the house. Clearly it served as a place to store food, and Thea found a small jug of milk as well as a slab of bacon, a hunk of cheese wrapped in cloth, and a healthy piece of cold cooked roast. The kidnapper had obviously made sure he would not lack for sustenance.

Matthew was growing fussy, alternately sucking on his fist and rubbing his eyes against her shoulder. Thea kissed his head, saying, “Not sure whether you’re sleepier or hungrier, are you, young man?”

She brought out the jug of milk and poured a bit into a cup she found in a cabinet, then tore off a chunk of the bread and sat down at the table to feed Matthew. Pulling off little pieces of the bread, she dipped them into the milk and popped them in the baby’s mouth. Obviously hungry, Matthew gulped them down.

Gabriel came inside carrying the baby’s basket from the curricle, still stuffed with the extra blankets. A smile crossed his face. “Looks as though you have mastered the art of feeding him.”

Thea laughed and glanced down at the baby, whom she had tucked against her side, one of his arms pinned against her body and her arm looped around his other arm. “Yes. Mrs. Brewster showed me how to hold him—and I have had a bit of practice now. But I still have to be careful if it’s something he doesn’t want. I received a whole mouthful of mashed peas down my front yesterday.”

Gabriel set down the basket and went to the fireplace. He stirred up the flames with the poker and stripped off his gloves to hold his hands out to the fire. “It’s still snowing. I think the horses will do well enough in the shed. I rubbed them down as best I could and put out some hay.”

“Good. We appear to have plenty of food in here, as well.”

He came over and squatted down beside her, reaching out to take Matthew’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. “And how are you, Master Matthew?”

“Eating like a trooper,” Thea responded, smiling. “Honestly, he seems to be all right. The thief had the baby wrapped in an extra blanket, so I have to be grateful to him for that. And though Matthew was screaming madly when I came in, I think he was only scared and unhappy, not hurt.”

“He doesn’t feel as though he has a fever.” Gabriel stroked his finger over the baby’s soft cheek, and Matthew responded with a wide-mouthed grin that spilled his milk and bread back out onto his chin. Gabriel chuckled and stood up, pulling back on his gloves as Thea wiped the baby’s chin. “I should bring in the firewood he dropped in our struggle. We shall need more than is sitting by the hearth.”

Thea nodded. As Gabriel started to move away, she reached out impulsively and caught his hand, bringing it up to her cheek and leaning against it. “Thank you.”

He bent over her and laid his lips tenderly upon her forehead. Then, giving her hand a squeeze, he left. Thea continued to feed Matthew. The room was warming up now, so she shrugged off her cloak and pulled the knit cap from her head. Gabriel made several trips bringing in more wood, and by the time he finished and dropped the bar down across the door to shut out the cold, as well as intruders, Thea had changed the baby, sending up silent thanks that she had thought to bring some of those necessary cloths with her.

Gabriel pulled off his many-caped driving coat and laid it over one of the kitchen chairs to dry. He settled down in the chair beside the fire and offered to hold the baby. Thea smiled her thanks and handed Matthew to him. Sitting down on the hearth next to the chair, she allowed herself to simply luxuriate in the heat for a moment. She looked over at Gabriel. Matthew’s head was bobbing sleepily, and finally, with a sigh, he laid his head down. His big blue eyes were still open, but his stare was becoming glazed, and Thea felt sure that within a few minutes, he would be asleep.

She stretched and sighed, leaning back against the rock wall beside the fireplace.

“Tired?” Gabriel asked.

Thea nodded. “It’s been quite a night. I’m happy and exhausted—and still my nerves are humming too much to be sleepy.”

She pushed back her hair, which spilled down over her shoulders in curling profusion. She had not plaited it before she went to bed as she usually did, and in all the rush and excitement, she had left it as it was. The damp weather had turned it into corkscrews. Thea divided her hair as best she could without a comb or mirror and began to braid it.

“No,” Gabriel said softly. “Don’t do that. Leave it that way.”

Thea raised her brows at him. “’Tis a mess. I look positively wild.”

He grinned, and a light sparked in his black eyes. “Maybe I like you positively wild.”

For some reason, his words reminded Thea of her actions the afternoon before, when he had touched her so intimately and she had responded with a shattering rush of pleasure. Color rose in her cheeks and she jumped to her feet, letting go of her hair. “I—I think I shall wash up a bit.”

“There’s a washbasin here?”

“Oh, yes, we have all the amenities,” she tossed over her shoulder as she walked away, pleased that she managed to keep her voice light and seemingly unconcerned.

Inside her was another matter entirely. There she was a fizzing mass of emotions. Thea had been shaken by the events of the night, her nerves stretched almost to the breaking point, then flooded with relief at finding Matthew alive and unharmed. She felt at once vulnerable and amazingly strong, vital and surging with life even as her legs still trembled, weak and watery as if she had been ill.

Thea went into the bedroom and closed the door. Taking out a towel and a rag, she poured water into the basin and began to wash. Her gaze kept straying to the bed beside her. She tried not to think about their sleeping arrangements, but that effort proved to be remarkably unsuccessful. What was going to happen tonight? Gabriel would be a gentleman, she told herself. He would sleep in the other room, no doubt. But she could not help but wonder whether she really wanted him to.

That she would even consider such a thing took Thea’s breath away. What was the matter with her? What had happened to her over the last week? She was the vicar’s sister, for heaven’s sake! She was virtuous; she lived as she should and did the things that she ought. She followed the rules.

Or at least she always had until she met Gabriel. Thea did not even want to think about all the conventions she had flouted since he came along. Still, she could not blame it all on him. He had provided the temptation perhaps, but every step she had strayed off the path had been willingly taken. The confusing tumble of sensations and emotions in her now was hers, not anything pushed on her by anyone else.

Thea could not help but think of all the years she had lived without feeling any of the things she had felt yesterday afternoon—the hours and days and months she had passed through without tasting the sweetness of Gabriel’s kiss or the pleasure of his hands on her. She wanted … oh, she wanted so much more than she had ever known. All her life, she had been plain. Ordinary. But when Gabriel kissed her, when his arms went around her and his body pressed into her, she exploded with beauty. She felt anything but ordinary.

She turned away, knotting her hands together and pacing about the small room. It was foolish to be thinking this way. Nothing was going to happen between them. Just because they were alone here together … just because circumstances had thrown them into a situation where it would be easy to give in to temptation, it didn’t mean that they were going to do so.

Afraid that her thoughts might show on her face, Thea decided to change the bed linens, too, before she returned to the other room. Finally, with no reason left to linger in here, she squared her shoulders and stepped out into the main room. Gabriel was slouched in the chair by the fire, his long legs stretched out in front of him and his dark head resting against the back of the chair, his eyes closed. Matthew lay on his chest, peacefully asleep. Thea came to an abrupt stop, an almost painful sweetness clutching at her chest.

Gabriel’s eyes opened, and a sleepy smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “I think we can put him to bed,” he said in a low voice.

Thea nodded and went to the baby’s basket to take out the extra blankets and set them aside. Gabriel carried the baby over to the basket and bent to lay him down inside.

Thea let out a gasp. “Gabriel! You’re hurt! There’s blood on your head.”

He straightened, his hand going to his head. “Oh, that. It’s nothing. I told you, he gave me a thump with one of those logs.”

“You said he’d hit you,” Thea retorted in some exasperation. “You didn’t say you were bleeding.”

“I didn’t really know it.”

She took his arm and pulled him over to the table. Pushing him down into one of the chairs, she held up the lantern to take a closer look at his head.

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t look too serious, just a scrape rather than a cut. But I should clean it.”

Thea poured water from the jug into a bowl and dipped a rag in it. Squeezing out the rag, she dabbed gently at the wound. Gabriel winced, but remained still. The blood remained stuck in his hair, so she held the wet rag against his head, letting it soak. She could not ignore how close she was to him. She could feel the warmth emanating from his body. The side of his head was at the level of her breasts, and without thinking, she ran her other hand over his tousled curls. Gabriel stiffened, and Thea felt the sudden surge of heat in him. Quickly she dropped her hand away, embarrassed by her action, and finished wiping the wound clean.