“How badly are you hurt?” She touched her palm to his forehead and then slid her hands along his big body, only getting as far down as his neck and shoulders before he cried out in obvious pain.
“Ow. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but don’t touch me. It hurts too much.”
“Oh, dear.” She rolled him onto his back and quickly covered him with her blanket. “Let me fetch Throck. He’ll carry you–”
“No. Just leave me right here. I’ll manage on my own. Do you know how humiliating it was to be carried in here by that beast?”
“Don’t call him that. He saved your life.”
“You saved me. He carried me around naked. Where are my clothes? I want them back.”
“Fine. I only took them to wash them. They ought to be clean and dry by now, assuming Throck didn’t toss them in the pig trough to hide them from my uncle. Your shirt is not salvageable. It’s torn and bloodied. I’ll give you one of my father’s old ones.”
“But I want my trousers. And my boots. And my knife.”
She nodded. “I’ll see to all of it at once. But you must tell me, where did you hide?”
“In the tall clock at the end of the hallway.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I wouldn’t have thought to look in there.”
“That’s the beauty of it, no one does. They’ll look right at the clock, but their brains don’t think beyond wondering if the time is accurate. It just stands there in plain sight, pendulum swinging. Your uncle’s men just kept walking past it.”
“I didn’t know the wood panel behind the pendulum could be opened. How did you know it could?”
“It’s my business to know such things. Are you going to give me my trousers?”
Chapter 6
Gideon was bored and on edge by the fourth day of his confinement. He was still too weak to do any serious investigating, but was mending well enough to want to get out of bed and walk around. Clovelly was a beautiful town along the Devon coast. The sea, the hills and cliffs, and the meadows surrounding it were quite spectacular. He hadn’t minded camping out in the caves and waking to the gentle lap of water as the waves washed onto the sandy shore.
Genalynn was keeping to her morning routine of walking into town to buy supplies. Throck always went with her to carry them back for her. She was wise to keep to her routine, for he knew her uncle was having her watched.
He looked forward to the day he could return to his mission. He needed to regain his strength as fast as possible. The weapons he’d been assigned to track down and impound may have already been shipped to Ireland. He hoped not. Genalynn and Throck had been watching the ships as part of their daily treks into Clovelly. By their account, it appeared her uncle had been concerned enough by Gideon’s presence to delay his treasonous plans.
Gideon hoped this was the situation. He had yet to find out who had supplied the weapons to Viscount Winthrop and who in Ireland they were bound for.
“Good morning, Genalynn,” he said as she walked into his chamber carrying a breakfast tray. He smelled eggs and sausages, and his stomach growled in response. She’d also carried in some freshly baked bread. The steam was still rising off the loaf, it was that fresh. “You spoil me. I may never want to leave here.”
“But you will. This is no place for you to be.”
When he sat up, she placed the tray across his lap and settled into the chair beside him to watch him eat.
He dug in, for he was regaining his appetite and was hungry to the point of ravenous. “It’s no place for you to be, either. Come back to London with me when my mission is over.”
She frowned at him. “Why do you ask me this every day? Are you not tired yet of my rejection?”
“No.” He devoured his eggs, finished with the sausage, and sopped up the drippings with the bread, practically licking his plate clean. Ravenous is how he felt about Genalynn as well. “I’ll never tire of you. I’ve told you that. Why don’t you believe me?”
“Because you are too handsome.”
He looked up, surprised by her comment. “Is that all? Is this your only reason? What do my looks have to do with whether I’m telling you the truth or not?” But he eyed her with amusement. “I’m