Haunted by the Earl's Touch - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,83
rock dropped on her chest. She gulped in air. She was taking a risk, staying here with him. ‘About what happened at the mine...’
He lifted his head to look down at her. ‘It’s over, Mary. There’ll be no more running away. You belong to me now. You swore it and I will not permit you to go back on your word.’
Something he had said didn’t make sense. Idly, she placed the flat of her hand on his chest, felt the rough hair and the solid muscle beneath. Heard his quick inward breath as he sank back into the pillows. ‘Don’t do too much of that, sweetheart. I don’t think you will be ready for me again tonight, and, as demonstrated, I don’t have a great deal of control when it comes to you.’
Nor she when it came to him it seemed. But... Her brain tumbled like a well-oiled lock. ‘I didn’t run away at the mine.’
‘Don’t lie to me, Mary. I found you on the road, remember?’ The rasp was back in his voice.
She rolled on her side, pushing away, so she could see his face, watch his reaction. ‘I’m telling the truth.’
He raised himself up on his elbow and pushed the hair back from her face, staring down into her eyes. ‘And I am basing my judgement on experience, sweet. You tried to buy a ticket in St Ives. You walked the path on the cliff. And then there’s tonight. Why would the afternoon at the mine be any different?’
‘Because I say so.’ The look of doubt on his face stirred anger in her breast. ‘If I am to trust you, surely you must also trust me.’
He opened his mouth to argue.
‘I do not deny those other occasions, but... Oh, what is the use?’
She flopped over on her back and stared up at the canopy. He would never trust her. And she would never trust him. Because she knew what she’d heard. You stupid little fool. His words. Even if it wasn’t his voice. People sounded different under different emotions. It could have been him. Yet what could she say? Accuse him of trying to kill her now, when they seemed to have agreed to a truce? With their wedding in the offing there was no need for him to be rid of her. He’d have his title and his wealth.
He leaned over her, turning her face towards him. ‘All right. Tell me.’
She looked up into his eyes, at the frown, at the jaw already set in uncompromising lines, and knew that, having started down this path, she could not now back away. She had to say something. Come close to the truth, see his reaction.
‘I went exploring and got lost.’
The frown deepened. ‘How could you get lost?’
‘I spoke to one of the boys, working further along one of the tunnels. Then I followed what I thought was candlelight.’
His expression lightened. ‘And ended up outside?’
She nodded. ‘I thought to go back to the entrance.’
‘On the road you were heading downhill. Away from the mine.’ He let go a deep sigh. ‘As I said. It’s over. Let us move forwards from here.’ He looked so disappointed she wanted to cry.
‘Someone pushed me down one of the old shafts,’ she blurted out.
He sat bolt upright. ‘What?’
Well, that certainly had his attention. She looked down at where his fist was bunching the sheets. ‘Someone shoved me from behind.’ Much as he had shoved her that day on the cliff, now she thought about it.
‘Are you telling me the truth?’
She looked straight into his eyes, held his gaze steady with her own. ‘That is what happened. That’s why I was heading away from the mine.’ The fear from that day rose up and tightened her throat. ‘I was lucky. My bonnet strings tangled with the ladder. I was able to climb out.’
‘Your bonnet?’
He sounded incredulous. He would sound that way if he was the one who had pushed her. ‘Too bad for you I didn’t die,’ she said. ‘It would have solved all your problems.’
‘Too bad indeed,’ he said drily. ‘You tell a wild story, Miss Wilding. I am surprised you aren’t blaming your disappearance on sightings of a ghost or some sort of hobgoblin.’
‘A human hand pushed me, not a ghost.’ You little fool.
He glared at her, his mouth a thin straight line. ‘Clearly I should not have let you go to the mine. You are not to be trusted to behave like a sensible woman and stay with your party.’