Chapter 26
“Luke, keep calm,” Danielle lectured, pulling him into the room.
“You,” he accused, taking over the momentum and hustling her against the nearest wall. He caught her up, jerking her into his arms.
He fell upon her, pressing his face into her neck. She embraced him, tears flooding her eyes.
“M’étoile,” he whispered against her skin, “m’étoile. God, I’ve missed you. Are you real?”
“Oh yes,” she said, laughing through her tears. “I am real. And I missed you, too. I’m sorry I was petulant in the letters.
I missed you from the moment you left Ivy Hill.”
“I deserved petulant letters. I deserved far worse.”
But now he was kissing his way up her neck, crushing his lips to her skin; hands prowling, feeling every part of her. He came
to her mouth and devoured it, kissing her so hard her head knocked against the wall. He made a sound of distress but didn’t
stop; he cushioned the space with his hand. The kiss was unending. Dani roamed his body with hungry hands, assuring herself
that he was whole, and hale, and here.
“But did you just,” he panted, “did you simply . . .” another kiss, “were those two guards just knocked unconscious by you and that nun friend of Elise Crewes’s?” Another kiss. “Is that what happened? The two of you saved me?”
Danielle nodded, not wanting to engage her lips in anything more than kissing him.
Luke pulled away. “But why, Princess? Why? What in the bloody hell are you doing in France?”
Danielle blinked up, trying to see his face in the dark room. “I came to rescue you.”
“Rescue me?” he repeated, sounding disbelieving, and accusing, and furious.
She nodded and captured his mouth again. He kissed her back, but only for a second. “But how did you—?”
“Stop,” she said. “No more questions. I came for you because I wanted to help you. Your letters were like a road map to how
I might do it. We need only to reach you in time. Which we have.”
Remembering his surrogate father, she slapped her hands on his chest. “Have you recovered Mr. Welty?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding vigorously. “He’s alive, thank God. And we have him. We hid him inside a trunk and hauled him through
a servants’ door.”
Relief washed over her. He’d done it. He’d rescued his father. And the man was alive.
Luke was saying, “I came back for—” And suddenly he stopped. He studied her. “When you say, ‘We need only reach you in time,’
who do you mean? Tell me it’s not simply you and the nun, running about this castle alone. Tell me you have an army with you,
Danielle.”
“First of all, Sister Marie is very fierce, a trained fighter—actually more like a warrior than a nun. And she’s taken a vow
to protect my family. Killian would not have left me alone in the castle without her.”
“Killian Crewes is here?”
“Yes, of course. And Lord Fernsby is here. Sister Marie, who you’ve met. And my brother, Prince Gabriel—or Gabriel Rein, as
he prefers to be known. Oh Luke, I cannot wait for you to meet him. And his wife, Lady Ryan. But I digress. There were only
a handful of days between when your last letter arrived and the night of this ball. I went to Killian and Elise and I told
them in no uncertain terms that I would come for you.”
“Come for me,” Luke repeated, dumbfounded.
“Of course. And, God love them, they did not try to dissuade me. Well, perhaps Killian was reluctant, but he saw that I could
not be swayed.”
He kissed her again, going deep, using his entire body to press her against the wall. Danielle absorbed the kiss, gobbling
up the force of his passion. I love you, she thought, I love you so much. She’d intended to tell him the moment she saw him. But that moment was riddled with fear, and guards, and Sister Marie lying
in wait with a blunt object. They were finally alone, but he had so many questions.
“You are brave,” he said between kisses, “you are so unspeakably more than I’ll ever deserve,” another kiss, “you are too beautiful—too precious—to be slinking about this wretched pile, whacking
guards on the head, binding unconscious men and . . . and rescuing me.”
She giggled. “Was this not your original plan? Wasn’t I meant to come to this castle and be ‘dangled’ before this Frenchman?”
“Never say it,” he rasped. He scooped his hand beneath her bottom and lifted her.
Dani hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. He pivoted, pressing his back against the wall and sliding downward.
He landed on the floor with her facing him in his lap.
Her skirt billowed around them. Dani clasped his shoulders and laughed.
“You coming here was not a plan, Danielle,” he said, “it was a maddened detour from one of my fevered nightmares. I thought
of it before I’d met you—hell, it was before I considered anyone but myself and Linus. I would never put you in harm’s way.
I would never drive you past this smoldering castle in a locked carriage, let alone lure you inside on the night of a French
bacchanal. I’ll have words with Killian Crewes for bringing you—”
“Stop,” Dani said, putting a hand over his mouth. “First, I believe Killian would lecture you for the same reason. He was
given no choice but to accompany me or to see me cross the Channel alone. I was always coming for you.”
“M’étoile.” He kissed her palm and tugged her hand from his mouth. He dropped his head against the wall and looked to the ceiling. “I am the savior,” he told her—a vow. “Have you not read the papers? I rescue people. Except when I don’t. Except when they drown instead.”
“Not this time,” she said softly.
“I love you,” he said. His voice was matter-of-fact. He said the words to the rafters.
Dani’s stomach flipped, and flipped, and she would’ve been dizzy if she hadn’t been seated in his lap. And so very happy.
She grabbed his face with both hands.
“I love you,” he repeated, looking her in the eye. “I’ve so many regrets in this life—profound regrets—but not telling you
this before I left Eastwell Park is chief among them. I wanted to write it in my letters, but—”
Dani kissed him, rising up to claim his mouth. “I love you, too, Captain Bannock,” she breathed. “I love you so much.”
“Look,” he said, holding up his left hand. “The ring you sent.”
“Oh, it fits,” she enthused, taking his hand, spinning the ring on his finger. “I did not wear mine because Surcouf must believe
me to be unattached.”
Luke froze. “I beg your pardon?”
“When you dangle me before the comte, I cannot wear your ring.”
“Why did you think I needed to be rescued here, Danielle?” he asked. “Were my letters so desperate? Did I sound out of my
depth? Our rescue mission was challenging, but—”
“I am meant to be a fail-safe,” she said. “Against the French captain.”
“Oh no,” he said. He jostled her, pressing his back against the wall and sliding up. “I will deal with Surcouf, you and the
nun will . . .” He set her on her feet and steadied her.
“Yes,” she countered.
“No. What was your plan with the nun?”
“There was no plan beyond recovering you and your friend and meeting the others at our rendezvous point.”
“What’s the rendezvous?”
“It is a fork in a stream in the woods. The stream branches off a river that flows through . . .” She faltered. It was so
very odd to say it.
“That flows through your land?” he provided.
“I know the spot. The river is shallowest there. You’ll be difficult to track if you wade in the water for a mile or so.
My rendezvous point is an abandoned hunting lodge, also on your land.
The men I hired are on their way now with Linus.
The two points are not far. If I can get you and the nun to an outside door, do you think you can make your way to the stream without me?
I’ll finish here and be a half hour behind you. ”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “We will not leave here without you. I came here—I raced across the English Channel and across France—to confront the French captain with you, Luke. I’ll not go until we’ve done
it.”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “Out of the question. I’ll find an unobserved door to the outside and shove you and the nun through
it. You will leave this place and wait for me with the others.”
“I will not do,” she said.
“You will.”
“Stop.”
“What do you mean, ‘stop’?” he demanded. “Stop making sense? Stop protecting you and your future? There is no scenario in
which I parade my wife in front of the French sadist who keelhauled my crew and who’s held an old man captive for a year,
Danielle—none!”
“It was your original plan.”
“As I’ve said, that was not a plan, it was a revenge-fueled nightmare. And it was before I knew you! Now I know you—and, what’s
more, I bloody love you. If you’ll have me, I have every intention of returning to storybook Kent with you, of making a go of life at Eastwell. No part of this plan involves you spending one second more in this bloody castle. And by no means are you to go anywhere near Vincent
Surcouf.”
“Fine,” she said, “we’ll leave here and go to the meeting point. You, and Marie, and me. The others will find their way to
the stream and together we’ll collect your friend at the abandoned lodge.”
Luke was shaking his head. “I’ve unfinished business, Danielle. Please, do not fight me on this, it’s not revenge so much as justice, and I must see it through. I’m confident in my ultimate success. It won’t take long. A half hour behind you, as I’ve said.”
“No.”
“Yes,” he said. Then he snatched her hand and jerked her against him. He kissed her hard and deep and pulled away. He reached for
the door and eased it open, peeking out.
“Ready?” whispered Marie from the corridor.
“Aye,” said Luke. “There’s a servants’ door to a small garden at the end of this corridor. Can you and Danielle make your
way there, slip into the garden, and climb the wall? She’s told me your rendezvous point. She’s described you as a warrior
and, after seeing the condition of the two guards, I’m inclined to believe her. Do you think you can make it to the rendezvous
point at the stream?”
There was a pause. “Highness?” Marie asked Dani.
Dani’s mouth fell open. She’d not expected such loyalty. “It’s alright, Marie,” Dani told her. “Arguing with Luke only wastes
precious time. He’s made up his mind to stay back.” Silently she added, We will find another way.
“Yes,” Luke was saying. “It would be imprudent for me to escort you myself, our trio makes no sense. A musician, a princess,
and a nun? Instead, I’ll follow behind and make sure you clear the garden. When you’re safely over the wall, I’ll finish my
work here and then meet you at the stream.”
“Yes, alright,” Marie said, “if the princess agrees.”
“The princess,” Luke ground out, “agrees.”
Danielle eyed him, saying nothing. He crushed her to him once more, and she fused her body to his, breathing his smell, absorbing the strength of his arms. Then he set her away from him, ducked out the door, and looked right and left. When he saw no one, he ushered Danielle out.
“Go,” he said.
“Are you well, Highness?” asked Sister Marie.
“So very well,” Dani said, catching herself with a hand to the door facing. “To the garden wall. I believe that’s where we’ve
been dispatched.”
“After you,” the nun said lowly, not looking back.