“I do hope you are right,” Kate said with a frown. “Did you know that there is to be a house party at Barton Abbey next week? Is there any danger of your being recognized by any of the guests?”
“I think not,” he said. “My grandfather did very little entertaining, and when he did, then I was treated as the bastard he thought me. I was not allowed to embarrass polite company with my less-than-respectable presence. Come, Katherine. I shall take you home.” He opened the door and gestured for her to precede him into the narrow hallway beyond.
“Why do you not remove that ridiculous mask, Mr. Seyton?” Kate asked as she passed him. “Surely it is not necessary any longer.”
“On the contrary,” he said with a grin. “I believe I trust you, my dear. But with my life? Forgive me for being overcautious. Besides, this way you will honestly be able to say that you cannot identify me. You will be saved from what you hate to do: lying.”
“Nonsense,” said Kate, standing back so that he could open the door into the small cobbled yard and lead the way to the stable. “I would know you anywhere, sir, with your size and that blond hair. You would have been wise to cover that as well as your face if you wished to avoid recognition.”
He smiled back at her as he threw the saddle onto his horse’s back again and proceeded to make it fast. But he made no move to take off his mask. Soon Kate found herself seated sideways on the horse before him once more, one shoulder leaning heavily against his chest again. This time she did not feel the fear she had felt before, but she did feel embarrassment. They traveled in near-silence. He explained to her that he must travel quietly across fields rather than along roads. It was very probable that the earl already had men out searching for her and for him. Kate’s eyes were not bandaged this time. She used the silence to concentrate on the route they took.
Finally Nicholas drew his horse to a halt not far from the edge of a copse of trees through which they had been moving. Beyond it Kate could see in the moonlight a high stone wall bordering a road. He dismounted and lifted her down to stand before him.
“This wall separates the park of Barton Abbey from the road,” he said. “I dare not take you to the house, Katherine. But I shall see that you do not have to find it alone in the darkness. The main gateway is but a short distance away. The lodgekeeper and his wife live in the stone lodge with their son. Josh is somewhat feeble-minded, I am afraid. But he is good-hearted and totally loyal to those he loves. He will take you to the house. His parents are quite elderly. You must not be afraid of him. He will not harm you. He will do whatever I ask him to do. He is especially fond of me because he was quite devoted to my father. In fact, he has never grasped the fact that my father is dead. He still expects him to return.”
“I am not afraid,” Kate said. “If you wish, I shall walk to the lodge alone. I do not want you to put yourself into unnecessary danger.”
“Danger is part of my life,” he said, flicking her cheek as he had done at the cottage. “And you must certainly not put yourself in any, Katherine. Do not ask any questions of your employer that will make him suspicious. I do not know if he is a dangerous man or not. I would not wish to find out at your expense. It will be best for you to forget about the events of this evening. Pretend that it has all been a dream.”
“What a poor-spirited creature you must think me,” Kate said with some scorn.
“Oh, no,” he said, laying his hands on her shoulders and smiling down into her face. All she could see of him was his teeth. “Never that, Katherine. I wish circumstances were different, my dear. I should like to get to know you better. I will say a personal good-bye to you here. Forgive me, please, for the inconvenience I have caused you tonight. I will not say ‘fear,’ because I know you would be offended at the suggestion that you were afraid at all. Good-bye, Katherine Mannering.”
She saw the flash of his teeth for one moment and then his mouth found hers in the darkness. Kate had a horror of any physical contact with a man. She had had no choice but to endure it for five years. But no longer. Now she was free, and no man would ever possess any part of her body again. She splayed her hands against his chest preparatory to pushing him away. But she did not push. The almost nauseating distaste she had always felt whenever Giles had touched her—though mercifully he had rarely kissed her, preferring to move without preamble to the more personally gratifying stages of sexual contact—was absent tonight, and she paused with some interest to examine this new experience.
Nicholas held her very loosely in his arms. She could have broken away without a struggle at any moment. His mouth was open on hers, and that in itself should have given her the shudders, she thought. But it was not hard, demanding, selfish, as she had assumed all men’s embraces must be. His lips teased hers, tasted them, his tongue flickering across them gently, inviting participation. She did not clamp her lips together when his tongue traced their outline and then pushed gently between. She allowed it to explore the soft, moist flesh behind her lips and moved her hands to his shoulders without realizing she did so in order to feel the firm muscles of his chest with her breasts.
He drew back from her long before she had analyzed in her mind exactly what it was about him that did not disgust her. She even made a little noise of protest when his mouth withdrew from hers, and immediately felt foolish.
“Katherine Mannering,” he said, “I suspect you of sorcery. I almost wish that I really had decided to keep you and take compensation for that large ransom I was to exact for the return of Lady Thelma. You are a very desirable woman. Come, while there is still common sense buzzing in my brain. Let’s get to the lodge.”
He took her by the hand and drew her out into the roadway after looking carefully to right and left to make sure that there was no one about. Soon they were turning into a wide driveway leading to enormous iron gates and a stone lodge beside them. Nicholas tapped on the outer door, opened it, and stepped inside, drawing Kate in after him.
“Lord bless us, it’s Master Nick,” an elderly lady said, taking her hands from a bowl of water and drying them on her white apron. “Is it one of the nights, then?”
Nicholas waved a hand before his lips and the old woman fell silent. An elderly man, was who smoking a pipe, rose from a chair beside a small fire and touched his forelock. “It’s good to see you again, Master Nick,” he said.
That greeting was echoed by another man, who scrambled down a ladder leading to an attic room. This man had a round, ruddy face, with pale, vacant eyes and big, widely spaced teeth. His sandy hair looked more like straw than hair, Kate decided. He was smiling and giggling nervously as he bobbed his head to Nicholas and then noticed her.
Nicholas introduced her and explained that she needed a guide to take her to the house. The sandy-haired Josh shuffled outside to fetch a lantern while Mrs. Pickering, the lodgekeeper’s wife, spoke again.
“There be a dreadful to-do up at the house, Master Nick,” she said, “because a highwayman made off with the young lady here, thinking he had her ladyship. The coast guard be out scouring the countryside. Were it you, sir? I hope the young lady be not harmed.” She gazed severely at Nicholas, whom none of them had had any difficulty recognizing despite the mask, Kate had noticed.
“I am not harmed, Mrs. Pickering,” Kate said, “but will be very glad to reach the Abbey at last.”
“Josh will take you safe there, miss ...er, missus,” Mrs. Pickering said, still wiping her hands on her apron.
Nicholas held out a hand to Kate when Josh returned with the lit lantern. “Good-bye, Mrs. Mannering,” he said. “It has been a pleasure to meet you.” His blue eyes twinkled behind the mask. “And, Josh, if anyone asks you, you have not seen Master Nick this long time. Mrs. Mannering knocked on your father’s door alone tonight. Do you understand?”
Josh giggled. “Never seen you, Master Nick,” he said. “Josh ain’t seen Master Nick this long time. And Josh ain’t seen Master Jonathan this long time. They’ll both come back sometime. Josh’ll wait. Josh ain’t in no hurry. He ain’t going nowhere.” He leered up at Kate and led the way out of the door, which Nicholas held open for them.
Kate smiled fleetingly as she passed Nicholas and followed her guide to a narrow pathway that skirted the closed gate and along the driveway, whose borders of tall elms shut out most of the moonlight that had lit the way across country earlier. She found herself thinking of Nicholas Seyton as she stumbled along in the wake of the springy stride of Josh Pickering, wondering if she were a fool to believe his story. Anyway, she thought, whether she believed him or not, she was fortunate enough to be free again and unharmed.
And her mind would be better employed thinking of a story she was going to tell when she reached the house, if she were given a chance to speak up and was not dismissed in disgrace on the spot. Even though she had been abducted at pistol point, the fact was that she bad been alone with a man for several hours. Kate knew many people who would consider the reputation of such a woman hopelessly compromised. She hoped Lord Barton was not one of them.
Chapter 4
Nicholas Seyton sat in the worn armchair before the fireplace, one booted leg hooked over the arm closest to the fire that Mrs. Evans had lit in his absence. His body welcomed the warmth after the chill of his ride home from Barton Abbey, but he was not really conscious of it. He was feeling depressed.
