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He continued to trail kisses along her shoulder. “Elizabeth, don’t you love me?”
“Of course, I do.”
He regarded her with a soft, wounded expression. “It is only a matter of time until we are married—until I have the funds to marry. What does it matter if we anticipate the vows?”
How many women had succumbed to such promises from Mr. Wickham? He was so very practiced in the art of seduction. Elizabeth refused to be his victim. But I must deter him without giving the least suspicion of the disgust he provokes in me.
Mistaking her silence for assent, Mr. Wickham pulled her closer as his hands ranged up her body from her waist to her—
“What is that sound?” she asked suddenly, pushing him away and allowing her very real anxiety at the situation to color her voice.
“What sound?” The man continued to nibble her neck. It tickled, but perhaps some women liked the sensation.
She pushed him away more forcefully. “I heard voices and footsteps! The smugglers are returning!”
The officer cocked his head to one side and listened. “I hear nothing.”
She shook her head frantically. “The sound of the waves has swallowed it up again. But I tell you, the smugglers are coming!” She scrambled for purchase in the sand as she hurried for the exit.
“There’s no cause for worry…” Mr. Wickham reached for her.
She paused and stiffened in her tracks. “The sound comes again!”
“I heard nothing—”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “My family always said my hearing was exceptionally acute.”
For the first time his face betrayed anxiety as his eyebrows shot upward. “They did?”
She edged closer to the cave entrance; Mr. Wickham would not try anything improper on a public beach. “We must leave now before they arrive—or we will be trapped here! They will slit our throats! They will pillage and burn our houses to the ground!”
“I still hear nothing.” Mr. Wickham’s tone was very exasperated as he touched her arm.
“Just the thought gives me such anxiety—such tremblings and flutterings in my heart—oh, my nerves! My nerves cannot withstand it!” Barely evading his hand, she raced to the cave entrance. Let him think me a silly female, scared of nothing and allowing my imagination to run wild. At least I will be a silly female with my virtue intact.
As she squeezed herself through the entrance, Mr. Wickham made a frustrated noise and muttered curses under his breath, but he followed her from the cave.
Once on the beach, Elizabeth raced toward the path that had brought them from the cliff top. Outside the cave, the absence of smugglers would be obvious, and Elizabeth had no desire to discuss it with her companion.
“Elizabeth!” he yelled. “Nobody else is here!”
“They must be in hiding!” she cried over her shoulder, not slowing her pace. “Smugglers are most clever!” It was not necessary that he believe in the existence of the smugglers, only that she believed in them. “We cannot remain. Not one minute more!” Lifting her skirts to her knees, she increased her speed. Perhaps the sight of her legs would distract Mr. Wickham from the absent smugglers. Within minutes she arrived at the base of the cliff pathway. There she paused, not relishing the thought of climbing without a steadying hand.
Unencumbered by skirts, Mr. Wickham reached the path only moments later. Panting hard, he scowled at her. “Stupid girl!” he chastised. “No one was there, and there was no reason to panic.”
If Elizabeth had been in love with the officer, his disdainful tone would have crushed her spirit. Although it would have made it easier to overcome any infatuation with him. Loving a man like Mr. Wickham would probably make her forswear love for the rest of her life. Thank God her heart was safe from him! As it was, his derogatory comments merely heightened her contempt for him.
“I have had enough of caves.” She tossed her head as Lydia might. “Will you assist me in ascending the pathway, Mr. Wickham? Or shall I struggle to climb it alone?”
With a sour expression, the man offered Elizabeth his hand as he climbed onto the pathway. She sighed with relief; apparently, he had forsaken all plans for seduction.
She had discovered his secret cave and emerged unscathed. The day was a success.
***
The moment the door closed behind Elizabeth, a great weight lifted from her shoulders. Safe within Colonel Forster’s house, she could anticipate a few delightful hours free of Mr. Wickham and the need to dissemble. Immediately, she knocked on the door to the colonel’s study and was admitted. The colonel was thrilled by her news about the cave and showed her a map of the coastline so she might pinpoint the location. “This is excellent information, Miss Elizabeth! Quite excellent. I had been dubious whether a woman could be of any service in this endeavor, but you are a credit to your sex.”
Elizabeth bristled. “I would imagine that the army might find women of great usefulness as spies if they deigned to employ them.”
