He got up briskly and returned to the cupboard.Though he was prepared to at least try to shut his ears, it seemed silence had fallen in the chamber next door.They must be asleep.He resumed his fingertip search around the walls.
He had just found a knobble in the wood of the ceiling, almost at the juncture with the back wall, when he heard the first swish of another movement and stilled.
It seemed to come from the other side of the cupboard wall.He held his breath, listening intently, and it came again, a definite, deliberate scratch.He placed his hand over the place the sound seemed to come from and scratched back in the same simple pattern.The scratch came again.
“Tabitha?”he whispered.“Are you in the cupboard?”
“Jack.”There was amused laughter, even in her breath, and in spite of everything, it made him smile.
“I think I can make the panel open.May I try?”
There was a pause.Perhaps she was looking back at Lily in bed, or at her owndéshabillée.In the dark cupboard, his face heated.
“Try,” she whispered.
He found the knob again and pulled and pushed at it until quite suddenly, the whole back panel slid silently aside, and he was gazing at Tabitha in the candlelight.Tabitha with her luxurious hair loose about her shoulders, wearing a light dressing gown tied around the middle.She was flanked by two hanging gowns and travelling cloaks, and her cupboard door was closed.
Swallowing the sudden lump in his throat, he pointed out the knot in the ceiling and stepped back.She walked into his cupboard, and then into his chamber and closed the cupboard door.
“I don’t want to wake Lily,” she murmured.“But, Jack, what on earth...?”
“I think they hide in this room and use the cupboard entrance to rob the guests in the other.”
“That makes alarming sense.”She gazed around his room.“It explains why my room is aired and relatively clean and yours has not been touched in months.What a lucky escape to have you here.”
“You were probably safe anyway tonight, what with the brandy and the Smiths.Otherwise, they would have found somewhere else to stash me.”
She brushed past him and sat on the bed.“Your sheets are damp.”
“I know.I intend to sleep wrapped in my coat.And hat.”
Her eyes danced in the candlelight, and it felt like physical pain.
He lowered himself carefully onto the bed at a decent distance.“I need to tell you something.”
“About Smith?”
“I’ll follow him, make sure his presence in the country is known, along with the means.”
“Is that safe?”she asked, frowning.“If he is a foreign spy...And there are three of them.”
“It turns out I am good at hiding,” he said ruefully.“I have not been honest with you and I want to be.”
“You are going to tell me whether your name is De’Ath, or Johns, or something else altogether?”
“It’s De’Ath, that much is true.John is my middle name and as a child I was known as Jack.My full name is Rudolph John De’Ath, and I am the seventh Duke of Isbourne.”
Her eyes widened.She jumped to her feet, took a couple of paces toward the cupboard, and swung back before he could wipe the shame and pain from his face.Unexpectedly, she strode back and threw herself onto the bed beside him.
“You reallyhavebeen escaping, throwing off the traces.”
“I have.I had to, just once.”
“Especially if you were expected to tie yourself in marriage,” she said shrewdly.“Were you coming to Sark when we first met?”
“I was thinking about it, wondering if I could introduce myself as a stranger to discover the lady’s true thoughts, or if I could divine them better as myself.”
“And what ofyourthoughts?”
