Page 62 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge

Chapter Twenty-Two

Harlow woke with a smile, despite the soreness in her muscles and other delicious places. She waited as she’d done the day before, for some feeling of regret but was met with nothing but disappointment that she would need to wait the entire day to be with him again.

One thing was for certain, she was going to marry someone soon. She couldn’t imagine going back to the life of a spinster after Reese had shown her how exciting intimacy could be.

She practically floated down the stairs to the breakfast room, excited to see the man responsible for making her feel so satisfied. She only faltered slightly when she found the room in the same state as she had the day before, without the earl.

She greeted the countess with a smile and took her seat. A footman covered her lap with a napkin and set a plate before her as another footman did the same for the woman seated at the end of the table.

“Are we not going to wait for Lord Breckenridge?” she asked. She knew Reese had hidden away the day before so not to deal with his mother’s schemes, but she’d thought he’d cast that plan aside so as not to abandon her.

“The earl is not in residence so we will eat without him or starve.”

Harlow blinked at the woman who had taken a knife and fork to her meal.

“Is he walking Belle early this morning?” Belle had not returned to the house after Harlow had let her out earlier that morning.

“No. He’s gone to Inverness on business.”

“Oh, I see,” Harlow said, though she did not see. She’d found the night before to be wonderful, and he was avoiding her yet again. No, even worse, he wasn’t even in the castle. He’d left her here.

She wanted to think it was his mother he was evading, but why would he have gone so far away that they wouldn’t even have their nights alone?

After breakfast, Harlow walked along the garden path with the dog, as the countess disliked all things outdoors. Belle slunk along beside Harlow as if she missed the man as well.

“He just left us without so much as a note or a word of goodbye.” Harlow twisted her mouth to the side. “I suppose he might have said farewell to you for you would have likely been out when he left.”

She wondered if speaking to a dog was a bad sign. When Belle whined, she thought maybe it wasn’t so bad if the dog spoke back.

“I miss him too,” she said. “When he returns, he and I must talk.”

Belle’s scruffy ears perked up and she launched toward the steps that went down to the ocean.

“Belle! I said talk not walk.” But that only hurried Belle along faster. Soon she was gone down the stairs. Harlow stood at the top looking down at the stone steps leading down to the beach. They were still damp from yesterday’s rain. Harlow had never traversed them without Reese to assist, but the earl wasn’t there and if his dog got hold of something on the beach and became ill, Harlow would feel quite guilty for not braving a flight of stairs to keep it from happening.

Looking over her shoulder she took the first step and then the next. She’d turned to the side so there was more space for her foot and was going step by step. At this pace it might take all day for her to get down to the sand, but she was making progress.

When the dog began barking in earnest, Harlow winced. What creature had the dog cornered and what damage could be done? In a hurry now, she’d turned to pick up the pace, but slipped, her previously injured ankle holding firm but she was unable to gain traction. She stumbled down three steps and reached out to catch herself on the railing, but the wood couldn’t hold a grown woman moving at such a rate of speed.

She found herself falling. For a moment she seemed to hang in the air, but then her body slammed against a rock and then another. She reached out, grasping for anything to stop her descent to the roaring waves and jagged rocks below.

Gripping onto a ledge, she found herself hanging and swinging in the breeze. Sparing a glance down, she regretted it instantly when she realized if she let go she would fall to her death.

Her kid gloves had provided some protection from the stone edge, but they were not made for their grip. She was slipping, and she was not strong enough to pull herself back up. Looking straight ahead toward the cliff she saw a wider ledge that housed a few nests of mud and grass.

She hoped she would not dislodge any inhabitants, but it was her only chance. With her final bit of strength, she swung over to the ledge and landed with an umph.

The shorter ledge was tilted away from the stairs, but was deep enough that she could sit or even lay down if she needed to. She hoped she wouldn’t need to.

*

Reese urged his horse faster. It was growing dark and he wanted to be home in time for supper. Not only because he was near to starving, but because he wanted to apologize to Harlow for having left her without a word.

He’d no sooner arrived in Inverness than he realized he shouldn’t have come.

After his bad dreams where Harlow left him to marry another, Reese had fallen asleep again only to be haunted by Merrick. While he wasn’t able to do anything about Harlow, he thought he might be able to exorcise the ghost of Merrick if he could help catch the man.

But Reese was no longer an agent, and his being seen there could very well hamper the mission for the other agents to find Merrick. So he’d left to return home.