Chapter Sixteen #2
“Why, yes. Of course,” Lady Paula said, giving him a smile and lifting her hand from his arm. “I’ll visit the refreshment table for a glass of sherry.”
“I’d be happy to bring you a glass of sherry.”
“That would be nice,” she said, her eyes glittering. “I’ll wait for you at the table, with the other players.”
“I’ll only be a moment.”
Meeting Elizabeth at the door, Gabriel took her arm and led her aside to a quiet corner. “You look lovely this evening,” he said in a low voice. “I confess, I wish we were still on that picnic on my estate.”
“Thank you, Gabriel,” she said, smiling up at him.
“I would much rather be at your estate as well. This is a very insular group of ladies who seem intent on gossiping in front of the fire while sipping wine or sherry—or talking about the latest fashions—rather than going out for a brisk walk or discussing a good book,” she said with a sigh.
“I understand.” He smiled. He was tempted to whisk Elizabeth back to his estate in the morning rather than staying for the ball tomorrow night.
And then what?
It was a question he didn’t want to answer. At least, not yet.
“It seems that the seats for whist have been assigned, and Lady Paula is my partner. I wanted you to know I will miss pairing with you.”
“I understand. Truly, I do,” she said, giving a little shrug. “Thank you for letting me know.” She pasted a smile on her face, aware that Lord Pervis Ashbourne was making his way toward them. “It seems I am to be partnered with Lord Pervis once again.”
Gabriel noticed the color drain from her face as Ashbourne approached.
“Miss Vickers, it seems once again we are partners. May I bring you a glass of wine or sherry from the refreshment table?”
“Thank you, Lord Pervis. Wine, I think,” Elizabeth said.
“No need to thank me. It’ll be my pleasure,” he said, giving a curt nod to Gabriel before walking away.
“I’ll be here if you need me,” Gabriel whispered, giving her hand a light touch with his.
“Thank you. I’ll be fine. What do they say? Oh, yes. May the best team win,” she quipped, although her smile did not reach her eyes.
Once the games began, Gabriel quickly realized that Lady Paula’s desire to win was genuine. He even caught her sneaking a peek at the cards of the person next to her when they accidentally revealed them during breaks in play.
“It’s a shame the king won’t be able to come to Bath this week,” she said out of the blue, just as he was about to play an ace of spades.
The other couple looked at her in total confusion.
After seeing her looking at their cards, Gabriel recognized it as a hint that Lord West was about to play a king.
Irritated with her obvious display of cheating, he took his hand off the ace and fingered a three of spades instead, laying it down and losing the trick to their opponents.
He detested cheating. Excuses aside, it lined up next to lying, which was a terrible offense in his book. If the woman was going to cheat, he would make winning impossible.
When he laid down the ace two turns later, she stared at him in disbelief.
“You should have played that card earlier, my lord,” Lady Paula scolded in her annoying, shrill voice.
“You’re right, of course. It’s too bad the king hadn’t already been played.
” Was she mad because he didn’t go along with her cheating?
He didn’t like cheaters, and worst of all, he’d already had to put up with her throughout that excessively long lunch.
Now, having to sit with her again just added to his complete disgust with her.
“I’d heard you were a very good card player,” she said, pouting. “But we stand to lose.”
As she glared at him, giggles sounded behind him, from the other side of the room.
He recognized that lyrical voice. Glancing over the tall head of his table opponent, he spotted Lord Pervis urging a giggling Elizabeth out the door of the room.
She was leaning against him. Gabriel knew something was off.
With one turn left in the game, he laid down his remaining card and said, “Excuse me. I’ll be back soon.
” With that, he left the table and followed Ashbourne and Elizabeth from the room to a dark space behind the red-carpeted stairwell.
As he left the room, he heard Lady Paula’s shrill voice declare they had won the last trick.
“No, I’d rather you not kissssss me,” Elizabeth said in a slurred voice, trying to pull out of Ashbourne’s grasp.
“Nonsense. I know you want me to. Besides, how can you expect me to resist those luscious lips?”
Gabriel saw a red mist before his eyes as rage coursed through him. Barreling into Ashbourne, he grabbed the shorter man’s collar and yanked him away from Elizabeth, lifting the man to be eye level with his own six-foot-five-inch height.
“You’re going to regret that, Ashbourne,” Gabriel said, slamming his fist into the man’s face and sending him sprawling. Picking him up off the floor, he punched him again, this time in the gut.
“How dare you?” Ashbourne sputtered, staggering away quickly as Gabriel moved in to punch him again.
“How dare you?” Gabriel said, his voice steely as he grabbed Ashbourne again. “Touch her again, and I’ll make sure you’ll need extra help to crawl away.”
“Ga-Gabriel… What isssss wrong?” Elizabeth slurred as she stumbled back against the wall. He thought he smelled the distinct almond scent of laudanum on her breath.
Gabriel flung Ashbourne away and turned to Elizabeth. Holding her waist, he tilted her chin up to his gaze.
“Are you all right?” Even as he said it, he knew she’d been drugged. He could tell by how dilated her pupils were. And how she looked at him with an unfocused gaze. “What the hell did you give her, you bastard?” he growled over his shoulder at Ashbourne.
“Nothing! It was laudanum. And only a few drops. Just to make her relax. She was so bloody stiff,” Ashbourne sputtered, as he picked himself up and tried to straighten his clothing.
“You’re lucky I don’t notify the authorities, you blackguard,” Gabriel spat as he tucked Elizabeth firmly against him, moving her away from the alcove where Ashbourne had cornered her.
Ashbourne lurched away, rounding the corner, where Gabriel heard him mutter to a footman that he would no longer need him as a witness. Nor would he pay him for it.
Gabriel stilled and held his finger over his lips, signaling for Elizabeth to listen. She stood still.
Son of a bitch! Ashbourne had planned to compromise her and be “discovered” to ruin her reputation and force a marriage upon her.
“Never mind,” he heard Ashbourne yell at the man. “And you,” he said heatedly, to someone who had appeared in the adjacent hall, where Gabriel couldn’t see. “The man has always come to the rescue of those people whom I deem need to pay a price for their insolence. He broke my nose.”
A familiar, shrill voice answered, “Well, it seems we’ll have to use plan B.”
“Did you hear that?” Gabriel asked Elizabeth. He knew it was Lady Paula, and he vowed to get to the bottom of whatever was afoot. He’d not see anyone compromising Elizabeth.
“No.” She giggled, poking her finger in his belly. “What did you hear?”
“Never mind—come with me. We need to get you to your room, love,” he said. Holding hands, they walked up the steps. Luckily, most of the help seemed to be elsewhere. Probably in the kitchen, eating, he thought. He checked the hall before crossing it to her door and stepped inside with her.
“Oh, my! You are in my room, Lord Gabriel… I…I mean Lord Handsome.”
She giggled so much that she swayed into his arms. The scent of honeysuckle wafted up, and he tugged her closer.
He wanted to kiss her…again. But she had just fought off—or swayed away from—Lord Pervis, who had planned to compromise her.
The bastard hadn’t wasted any time cozying up to Elizabeth and trying to marry her fortune.
He was starting to move away and leave her to sleep off the drug when he heard footsteps outside the door. Then he heard a key move in a lock and pulled her behind the drapes. “Shh!” he whispered.
When she opened her mouth to say something, he covered it with his, sinking into the taste of the wine on her lips.
Her hands slipped around his neck and tugged him closer to him.
Vaguely, he heard the person at the door mutter about getting the right key and walking away.
But he couldn’t tell whose voice it had been—only that the key they’d brought didn’t fit.
If they’d been caught, he would have had to marry her. But for some reason, the thought of marriage didn’t upset him as much as it might have a week ago.
When had this woman become so important to him that he would risk his neck for her?
Gabriel opened his eyes to the early morning sun streaming through the window and the familiar sounds of the staff moving about, tending fires and other chores.
He hadn’t intended to stay in Elizabeth’s room, but when he tried to get her to bed, she had insisted he lie next to her.
He’d planned to settle her in and leave, but gave in to her sweet pleas to stay for just a few more minutes.
It’ll just be for a minute or two, he had told himself.
He knew he had to leave now, and quickly.
Elizabeth’s sleeping form was curled against his shoulder, with her hair fanned out across the pillow.
He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’ll see you later, my beautiful American princess, but I need to leave before I’m discovered.
” Alice would surely be on her way. He opened the door and glanced back at Elizabeth.
“I’ll get us out of here as soon as I can.
” He knew he could never let her out of his life…
not now. She had already burrowed her way into his heart.
As he left her room, he pulled a pick from his pocket and locked the door behind him.
Walking down the hall, he headed to Ashbourne’s room to see if he was there, using his pick to open the door.
Inside, he saw the man sprawled across his bed, snoring.
Gabriel wrestled with the temptation to harm him.
Finally, he whispered to himself, “No. There will be a right time and place to get revenge,” and gently closed and locked the door behind him.