Chapter 6
It was clear her father and Mrs. Rolf didn’t notice her distracted state over breakfast, and for that she was grateful. While she was well-accustomed to keeping confidences when visiting parishioners on her rounds, never before had she felt compelled to keep a secret from her father.
He’d kissed her.
Rachel replayed the moment in her mind over and over again.
The kiss was arousing, but it was also colored by urgency, telling her without any doubt in her mind that Captain Robin Somerville was Captain Moonlight and further confirmed that Lieutenant Justin Weatherall too was involved.
But the costs of not keeping the secret were worse.
The penalty for being a highwayman was death by hanging and harboring knowledge of such a criminal carried its own punishment.
While the townsfolk of Normanton considered the antics of Captain Moonlight to be amusing escapades, many others did not.
Why did he need her help? He had the entire resources that the Somerville name could muster, not to mention the many former sailors who had returned to civilian life along the Sussex coast.
Her curiosity would have to remain unsated until four o’clock. There was nothing for it but to get on with her day and try to forget the feel of his lips on hers.
As if she could forget.
Today, being Wednesday, saw Mrs. Rolf spend the night with her sisters while her father locked himself away in his study to pray and prepare for next Sunday’s sermon, which meant Rachel could make her rendezvous without awkward explanations.
She brought with her a basket with more eggs, and a bouquet of freshly picked leeks from the garden—a thank you gift for the village teacher.
The front door was slightly ajar.
“Hello?”
There was no reply.
Rachel walked through the front room out to the kitchen and set the basket on the dresser. She cocked an ear and heard a booted foot on the stairs. She exhaled with relief to see it was Robin.
The broad smile she received from him was like basking in the warmth of the sun. She couldn’t help giving him one in return.
“I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
She shook her head.
“Not long.”
He closed the door behind him.
Somehow, he seemed to exert a magnetic pull and she approached him, standing so close she had to look up at him.
“I know your secret,” she blurted out. “You’re Captain Moonlight.”
He didn’t answer, instead closing the distance between them until she found herself in his embrace.
“Do you trust me?” he asked softly. The desire for him she felt that morning returned full force.
“I trust you,” she replied. “Just as you trust me.”
He lowered his head. Rachel anticipated a kiss, but instead his forehead rested on hers. A look of relief flittered across his visage.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I need your help but it’s not without risk. You need to know exactly what’s going to happen, but you cannot breathe a word of this to another living soul.”
“You have my promise.”
“Have you heard of the Anglers’ Arms inn just up the coast?”
Rachel nodded. “I know of it. I’ve never been there, but my father has. He hasn’t said much about it, except that it attracts a rough sort of custom.”
Robin kissed the top of her head and released her from his embrace. He lit a couple of lamps, placing one of them on the table. Rachel watched him set the kitchen fire.
“The owner needs our help,” he continued. “We need somewhere for his daughter to be safe until we…”
Robin glanced at Rachel, then turned his attention to the fireplace. “…we do what needs to be done.”
“There is no need to alter your words on my behalf,” she said. “You’re not talking to a missish ingenue.”
“I know you’re not,” he said. “But I don’t want you in any danger either.
And anything to do with Captain Moonlight is dangerous.
If something should happen to Justin or myself and the authorities discover you had anything to do with this, it would put you and your father in an invidious situation I want to avoid at any cost.”
Rachel listened to Robin give a brief account—a customs man by the name of Jimmy Hall had turned smuggler himself and was not above using violence to suit his ends.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Mary is a fifteen-year-old girl, and Hall has made threats against her to ensure her father’s cooperation. I need you to keep her here overnight while we deal with the matter, but no one must know she is here.”
“She can stay with me in the vicarage—”
Robin shook his head.
“No one, particularly your father, must know. Too many people come and go. We have to get her here unseen.”
Rachel nodded her understanding.
“Just tell me the part I need to play.”
Robin closed his eyes and sighed with what to her looked like relief. Perhaps he thought she would be difficult about it and ask more questions than he felt comfortable giving answers to.
“Lady Penelope worries about you,” she said. “Your absences from the house have been noted.”
Robin grimaced.
“Do you think she knows?” he asked.
Rachel shook her head. “She and Sir Peter have determined it is restlessness after no longer being in command of a ship. It is her ladyship’s sincere opinion that you ought to settle down on your own estate with a family of your own.”
His expression changed—surprise, thoughtfulness and, if she wasn’t very much mistaken, faint amusement crossed his face in quick succession.
“And what was your considered position on the matter, pray tell?”
Was he…? Rachel frowned. Why, he was teasing her!
“Is there a reason why I should be expected to have an opinion?” she asked.
“My sister-in-law thinks enough of your good opinion to confide in you.”
“As do you, I should point out.”
At that Robin burst out laughing.
Then she found herself hauled into his arms for an embrace.
“No wonder I love you,” he said.
Then there was silence save for the crackling of the fire.
Robin’s expression was of surprise, and Rachel suspected that her own expression revealed the same.
“I didn’t mean to say it aloud,” he said softly.
She wriggled to extricate herself from his embrace, but he was stronger.
“Did you mean to actually say it at all?” she griped.
“I did.”
Rachel ceased her struggle.
“I didn’t want to tell you like this, but now the truth of it is out, I’d be a fool to lie to you as well as to myself.
” Robin put a finger under her chin and silently urged her to look at him.
“I’ve fallen in love with you, Rachel, and as soon as I’m free to retire Captain Moonlight, I will court you properly, but… ”
Rachel studied his eyes, searching for the truth in them, since she wasn’t sure she could trust her ears. Those soft blue eyes drew her in until she felt she could see into the very depths of his soul.
He had asked her to trust him and she’d given her word.
She pressed a finger to his lips.
“Then don’t speak the words until you’re free to do so,” she said. “You asked for my help as a friend, and I freely give it. If you’re asking for my heart, then know it has always been yours.”
This time, Robin’s kiss didn’t take her by surprise. She anticipated the softening of his lips against her finger, the press of his arm to draw her closer to him. His lips on hers were soft, yet heavy, sweet but also seared into her soul.
She followed his lead, returning kiss for kiss until desire burned hot in both of them.