Page 58 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

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It took them more than an hour to reach the point where a piece had fallen off the cliff.

Or a piece was too generous a word. Where a giant chunk of white chalk the size of a house had broken off and now blocked the beach. It must be the rain last night that had loosened the chalk.

Robert jumped from his horse and ran to the debris, frantically looking for any signs of Jo. He screamed her name over and over as he started digging through the chalk. He broke his nails and scratched his fingers in the process but could not feel it.

“Robert, Robert,” Thornston called behind him.

Robert felt his friend’s hand on his shoulder but shook him off. He needed to find Jo. If she was trapped under the debris… if she did not survive…

“Robert,” Thornston told him more persistently. “Look at the tracks on the other side.”

The words penetrated Robert’s dazed mind, and he was able to see what Thornston was pointing at. There were tracks on the other side: Two leading away and one leading to the debris, indicating Jo had opted to turn around rather than risk climbing over them.

The heavy fear lifted off him so suddenly that he felt weightless for a moment.

Of course she had not climbed over it. Jo was smart. She would not risk ending up in a second landslide by climbing over it… which was exactly what Robert was doing at the moment, he realized.

He hurried away from the debris, dragging Thornston with him, and then mounting his horse without a word.

When he found Jo, he would… They needed to talk. They both needed this marriage to work. He could not sit by in silence and let it wither away because he was scared to have an uncomfortable conversation.

They started to make their way back and were able to join the main road via Ovingdean. She must have opted to go to Newhaven and then found someone to give her a ride there. Part of Robert’s mind knew that he could simply wait for her at the house, but he would not be able to sit still until he knew she was safe.

He kept urging the horse forward and ignoring Thornston’s knowing smirk. They had to see her soon; they must meet whichever vehicle she had hired.

But no. After more than two hours they found her walking along the road from Newhaven. Robert had told himself that he was not afraid anymore. His haste had nothing to do with panic and everything to do with Jo being his responsibility since she was his wife. He would have done the same for anyone else that he cared about, he told himself. Once again, relief washed over him though when he had visual confirmation that she was unharmed.

Without thinking, he jumped from the horse when she was thirty feet away and ran to her and gathered her in his arms.

“Jo,” he mumbled against her cheek.

He felt Jo shiver against him and then put her arms around his shoulders. They remained like this for a while, before Robert gently set her down.

“I was so afraid. We saw the place where the cliff had fallen. I wanted to dig through it, but Thornston said he could see your tracks on the other side of it,” Robert rambled as he squeezed her hand tightly, then spontaneously drew her into an embrace again.

“I walked back to Newhaven when I saw that it blocked my path back,” Jo explained with her mouth pressed against his collarbone.

Robert did not want to examine why this felt so good. It would be the same with everyone else. Perhaps he would not have embraced Thornston or Xavier as tightly if he had feared for their life, but it would be the same feeling he told himself even as he was unable to release her.

“Thank Heavens, nothing happened to you,” Robert mumbled against the top of her head.

Jo gently extricated herself from Robert’s hold to greet Thornston, who had taken the reins of Robert’s horse and was quietly observing them from a distance.

He made no flippant remarks, which Robert was thankful for.

“I am sorry,” Jo said as she turned her attention to Robert. “I just…” She sighed and looked away. The water was gleaming far below them in the late afternoon sun. “I just needed to clear my head.”

“I am sorry too,” Robert mumbled, so Thornston could not hear them. “I should have granted you more time to adjust… after what happened.”

They looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment. Jo’s eyes were soft yet searching. He remembered the look from the first night they met in the Thistleworth garden.

“Let’s… let’s talk about it back at the house,” Jo muttered and Robert nodded.

Jo sat in front of him on the ride back to the house. Robert placed an arm around her and held on tightly – so that she would not fall, obviously. He was allowed to relish the feeling of her soft form against him and the way the curve of her bosom grazed his thumb with the motions of the horse. He could not focus too much on it though; riding with an erection was not pleasant. It was almost a relief that Thornston was there, but only almost.

Robert was growing a bit tired of his friend’s teasing smile. Luckily, Thornston said goodbye to them at the gate.