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“It is a little like being a prisoner.” Marina could see at once the words didn’t help matters. James’ handsome features darkened a little. He checked over his shoulder that the butler was not paying attention then walked toward her, gently cupping her face with his hands. Marina couldn’t keep the smile off her face at this action. It was a surprisingly gentle touch.
“For now, stay here, please,” he whispered before moving his lips to hers. Marina was ready to argue. She had planned on doing so and on pointing out that over the last three days she had done little but loiter around the house, bored out of her mind. The best parts of her day were the night, for James had developed a habit these last three nights of coming to sleep beside her in bed.
This is what a marriage should be like with this intimacy.
Yet any argument she wished to make with James faded as his lips pressed to hers in a kiss. At once, it was heated. Marina forgot the thoughts that troubled her so much, thinking only of James’ kiss before he backed up.
“Michael is investigating the letter. Soon enough, we’ll know who this man is, and you can go where you like again. For now, stay here.” James kissed her lips one last time, silencing her before she could argue, then he was gone, slipping away from the room and out the front door to the horse that awaited him.
Marina moved to the open door, leaning on the frame and watching him part. As much as she was excited by their growing intimacy, she knew it could not be the summary of her life. She needed other relationships too.
Walking to the side of the hall as the butler closed the door, she reached for the silver tray deposited there, searching through what letters she had. There was one from her mother, one she hoped would issue an invitation to visit, but no such invitation existed.
It seems my father is determined to keep his distance for now.
Biting the inside of her mouth to stop herself from sighing or bemoaning his coldness, she turned to the second letter on the tray. This one was from Caroline, who longed to hear Marina’s news since the ball. She wished to hear of the threat over Marina’s head too, and if they had discovered any more about the letter.
Slowly placing the letter down on the silver tray, Marina looked at the door. Caroline’s house was only a short distance away, perhaps a ten-minute coach ride but no more. Caroline was such a dear friend too, with a house full of people Marina could trust; she doubted James could object to such a small visit.
“Mr. Pitt-Rivers? Could you order the preparation for the carriage for me please?” Marina asked, calling to the butler who was busy tidying the hall. “I’d like to go out for a short while.”
At first, the older gentleman looked ready to object, clearly knowing about his master’s orders.
“It will be a very short trip,” Marina assured him.
“Of course, Your Grace.” He bowed with a smile and hurried to prepare the carriage.
A few minutes later, Marina was ready for her outing with a spencer jacket on her shoulders and a bonnet on her head. Pulling on thin white gloves, she stepped up into the carriage, aware that the driver moving toward the coach did not appear the normal man. He was far younger, taller, and broader in figure too.
He seems more like a boxer than a driver!
He seemed to have a hurried conversation with the butler before he stepped up, asking Marina where she wished to go, then he moved to the front of the carriage to steer the horses to their destination. Parting from the house, Marina pressed her face to the window, looking back toward it.
Surely James will not mind such a short visit… will he?
A minute later, she realized how absurd such an objection was. She was not going to live her life according to James’ orders, no matter how much she now respected him and the decisions he had made with his life. She couldn’t be a prisoner and had to find a way to live that she was comfortable with.
A doubt had seeded itself in the back of her mind, a doubt that they would never find the man who sent that letter. If it was intended merely to scare, then the gentleman who sent it never wished to carry out his threats. Marina was quite safe, even if she dared to escape the house walls.
The carriage had turned a couple of roads when she abruptly felt the driver urge the horses faster. At the sudden increase in pace, Marina was tossed into the back of the carriage bench. She rubbed a sore spot in the small part of her back before sitting forward, ready to call out to the driver to ask what was wrong.
Peering her head through the window, she saw why the driver had acted so suddenly. At the sight, her lips parted.
No… it cannot be.
There was a horse rider following them closely as they rode down the quiet road alongside Hyde Park. He wore a mask over his face, and in his hand, he was lifting a pistol and pointing it directly at the carriage.
CHAPTER15
Marina threw herself back in the carriage as a shot rang out. The bullet splintered the side of the wood, fracturing the carriage wall high over her head. Breathless, Marina scrambled to the other side of the coach, feeling it rock from side to side dangerously as the driver picked up speed.
A second shot rang out, and this one brought them to a hasty halt. Judging by the cry of the horse, the frightened neigh that sounded more like a scream, the assailant had struck the horse with one of his shots. The carriage skidded on the cobbled road, the halt an ungainly one. The horses continued to neigh as Marina was tossed from the carriage bench by the sudden halt.
Pressing herself on her hands and knees, she looked to the carriage door, watching as it was flung open. The sight that greeted her froze her to the spot. The masked man had acted quickly to reach her so fast. He was tall, though not as tall as James, his belly rather protruding through the tightly fitted black frock coat he wore. In his hand, he held the pistol, but it was not pointed at her.
Abruptly, he reached forward for her, the black mask he wore covering his entire face and shifting around a pair of cold blue eyes.
“No!” Marina leapt back, scrambling toward the other side of the carriage, but there was no door here through which to escape, only a window, and it would take too long to squeeze through such a gap.
