''But the castle is a very romantic setting,'' he said, patting her hand.
"But in a storm?" she said. "And she is a very young lady, dearest, to be so far from home with only a gentleman for company. They will be forced to marry."
"But that is what you wanted, is it not, dear heart?" he asked.
"Yes, of course," she said. "But not because they have to.Because they wish to."
"I have never known you to have any doubts about your matchmaking schemes before," he said.
"But this is not my scheme," she said. "This is more daring than anything I would have set up, dearest. With Diana it is different. But Angela is scarcely out of the schoolroom.''
"Then I daresay we will just have to have faith in the ultimate triumph of true love," the earl said, leading her onto the floor where new sets were forming.
* * *
Lord Crensford stopped only long enough to don a heavy cloak and to saddle his horse. Then he was galloping toward the castle in a thoroughly reckless fashion, considering the fact that the heavy clouds that had rolled in had made the night so dark that he could scarcely see a foot in front of his horse's nose. But his mother had always claimed that he could find his way to and about the castle blindfold.
The wind whipped into his face and the rain began to fall in large drops that promised a downpour at any minute. Flashes of lightning occasionally lit his way, and thunder rumbled around him.
He tethered his horse almost by instinct in a spot where it was likely to have most shelter from the storm and raced across the causeway just as the rain began to come down in earnest. A quick glance up to the battlements showed no dark figure up there, and another into the dry moat revealed no body—though, of course, it was so dark that he might well have missed something.
"Miss Wickenham!" he roared against the wind as soon as he was inside the courtyard. "Miss Wickenham! Angela!"
What if he were mistaken? What if she had gone somewhere else? What if she was already dead?Floating in the moat at the back, perhaps.
A jagged flash of lightning lit the sky, and the thunder cracked no more than a few seconds later. The rain grew heavier.
"AN-GE-LAAA!"
"Yes," a high-pitched voice replied. "I am here."
"Where?"
"Here."
He followed the sound of her voice to one of the round bastions. He had to feel for the doorway before stepping inside.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"H-here."Hands pawed at his cloak, and then she was inside it and inside his coat, and burrowing against his chest, her arms locking about his waist. "D-don't be angry with me. Don't be angry with me." Her teeth chattered loudly, cutting off the possibility of further speech.
"Whatever do you mean by this," he shouted at her, wrapping his arms about her with unnecessary tightness considering the fact that she could not possibly have been closer to him, "you stupid, empty-headed numbskull? I thought for sure you would be dead. I should throttle you right here and now. I have never in all my life known such a little pest. How do you think I would have felt having to take your lifeless body back home to your mama?"
"Don't be angry with me," she whispered, her head pressed to his waistcoat. "Don't be angry with me."
"You couldn't stay in the ballroom, could you?" he fumed. "You had all those young sprigs sighing over you, but that wasn't enough. No, you had to create a greater sensation. You had to come out here to throw yourself off the battlements because you think that is a romantic way to die. Someone should take a whip to you."
''Don't be angry with me. Don't be angry with me." And as another flash of lightning lit the inside of the tower, and she burrowed her head even closer, "Hold me. Oh, hold me. I-I'm f-frightened of storms."
Lord Crensford, still quivering with mingled anger and relief, searched for and found her mouth in the darkness. He immediately recoiled. What the devil was he about? But it was a warm and soft and trembling mouth, and he saw it and the rest of her white, frightened face in another flash of lightning. He set one hand behind her head and found her mouth again.
"It's all right; it's all right," he murmured against the side of her face a minute or two later, as he.wrappedthe cloak right around the both of them. "You're safe with me now. You don't have to be frightened."
"You aren't angry with me anymore?" she asked, her head finding its resting place against his chest.
"I thought you were going to kill yourself," he said. "I thought you were going to go up there and jump.You foolish, pestilential girl.Why on earth did you come out here? I ought to wring your neck."
"I was unhappy," she said. "I wanted to be alone."
