you home.” Gabriel led her toward the waiting carriage.
“Gabriel, you forgot this.” He turned to find Byer holding out the satchel.
“Thanks, Tommy.”
Beside him Drusilla shook her head. “Money,” she said, the word dripping with disgust.
Yes, money—Gabriel agreed silently, and the things people would do for it.
Epilogue
Two mornings later they were lazing beneath the blankets, even though they would be leaving for the country today and should have been up and about an hour ago.
They lay side by side on Gabriel’s bed, slick with sweat.
“There,” Gabriel said, turning only his head to kiss her shoulder. “I think I can face hours closeted inside a carriage now.”
Drusilla chuckled weakly. “That’s not very flattering to me as your travel companion.”
“I did not mean you, my dear.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “You’ve never taken a two-day carriage ride with a child before, Dru. Trust me,” he went on before she could reply, “I’ve done it several times with my young brother and sisters, and it is not an activity for the faint of heart.”
“It can’t be that bad, Gabriel.”
Gabriel thought about his mother’s three youngest children—the twins and the heir, all of whom were under the age of five. It wasn’t enjoyable for anyone to be closeted in a coach for hours—but it was especially difficult for little bundles of energy.
“Besides, half the coach is full of toys and books. It will be a delightful journey,” his blissfully ignorant wife said.
It was Gabriel’s turn to laugh. “That just goes to show you how—” A sharp rap on the door interrupted him. “Who the devil could that be?”
Drusilla shrugged. “I don’t know. But it is your room, so you should have to get up.” She stretched and then pulled the covers up to her chin.
“You lazy thing,” he chided, kissing her hard on the lips before swinging his feet to the floor and pulling on his robe. “I told Drake last night that we would leave when we chose to leave and not to disturb us at the crack of dawn,” he said, somewhat unfairly, since bright sunlight was piercing the gap in the drapes.
Parker stood outside in the hall, his expression pained. “I beg your pardon, sir, but this just came for you.”
Gabriel glanced at the note—it was his mother’s handwriting.
“There is a messenger waiting below, sir.”
“Give me a few moments, Parker.”
His butler nodded, and Gabriel closed the door before cracking the wafer.
“What is it, Gabriel?” Drusilla called from the bedchamber.
“A message from my mother.” He unfolded the note: it was brief. He read it once, and then read it again. And then he read it a third time when the words continued to make no sense.
“Good God!” He yanked open the door to find Parker hovering in the hall. “Tell the messenger I shall head over to Exley House directly.”
Gabriel shut the door and strode through the bedroom to his dressing room. He snatched up the buckskins he’d been planning to wear today and turned.
Drusilla was kneeling up on the bed and holding on to one of the posts. “What is it? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It is Eva.”
“Oh no, what? Is she—”
He cursed in every language he knew, allowing himself full rein.
“Gabriel!” she said, her eyes round with shock. “Tell me what has happened?”
“My sister is headed for Scotland with Earl Visel.”
Drusilla’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh no. That is why he didn’t return the night of the ball—he wasn’t going to take me—he was planning to abduct her all along.” She frowned. “But Eva wasn’t at the ball—she was with Melissa in the country. I don’t understand.”
Gabriel laughed. “No, that was where Eva was supposed to be. Now she is with Visel.”
She flung aside her sheet and hopped down off the bed, momentarily distracting him with her fetching body. She planted her fists on both hips and glared. “He is a brute and a liar. You must go after him, Gabriel—but if they’ve been gone—”
“If Eva’s groom is to be believed, they left the night of the Richland ball.” Gabriel laughed, and the sound was more than a little hysterical. “This is—well, this is absolutely bloody unbelievable! Even for Eva this is beyond everything.”
“It’s hardly fair to blame Eva for her own abduction, Gabriel. It is Visel who should be caught and strung up and—”
“It was Eva.”
She cocked her head, her brow wrinkled with confusion. “What?”
“It was Eva, Drusilla. Visel didn’t abduct Eva; Eva abducted him.”
Please read on for a preview of OUTRAGEOUS,
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