Lydia shook her head. “No. He wouldn’t dare. My father scared him the most. Uncle Theo’s known for how protective he is of Aunt Vinita and Jemma, but he’s a pussycat compared to my father. A man tried to pull me out to the gardens during my first Season. My father challenged him to a duel to the death. As you know, my father is still breathing.”
“It’s dark. I don’t like the idea of you walking home, even with Rajesh with you. He doesn’t know the land like I do. I’ll take you.”
Lydia shook her head. “There’s a tunnel that runs to the edge of your property. It’ll bring me out in the trees that separate our lands. You know my home is just outside the copse. I can get home without being in the open for more than a couple of minutes. My family can see the trees from the drawing room. They know to watch for me. Rajesh can stay here, and he can leave with Jemma and Ben in the morning.”
“How many tunnels are there?” Keith wondered aloud. He knew of the one from the beach into his home, and he knew about the ones in the library and dormitory.
“Many. The monks used them during the time of Henry VIII when he dissolved the monasteries. They dug them in case they had to flee. I don’t know who re-enforced them or expanded them over the years, but I don’t think they all date back that long ago. There are books in the library about the abbey, but I haven’t seen any that tell who dug or maintained them since then.”
Rajesh and Keith looked at each other, neither appearing eager to accept Lydia’s suggestion. Rajesh spoke up first. “I’d like to have a little more time with you and your family. Aunt Sarla invited me to spend the night.” He looked at Keith, warning in his voice. “I trust Ben and Jemma are safe here for the night.”
“In that case, just give me a couple more minutes in here, please. I’m not ready to go.” Lydia smiled at Rajesh before she looked at Keith. “Goodnight, Your Grace.”
Keith glowered. He thought them well past his formal title. He’d been ready to carry her off and make love to her all night. He didn’t care for the distance she put between them. It stung.
“Goodnight, Lady Lydia, Raj.” He spun on his heel and walked away. It took all his resolve not to look back. And Lydia fought the urge to step into the corridor to watch him.
“What happened between you two? Tell me the truth, Lydia.”
“Rajesh, he kept his word. He didn’t defile me. He wondered why I came here, and I told him. I miss Kelsey and being in here makes me feel better. I had a dream last night that she wanted me to find something. I did.” Lydia went to the bed and withdrew the journal from beneath the mattress. After that kiss, she could almost forget why she’d hidden it. But Kelsey hadn’t revealed herself or her diary to Keith. Her friend only wanted her to know.
“What’s that?”
“Kelsey’s diary. She told me in my dream how to find it. I don’t think she wants anyone else to have it, at least not until I’ve seen it. If she didn’t want me to read it, she wouldn’t have led me here.”
Rajesh looked around the room. “Do you believe she’s abhut?”
Rajesh spent his life in India until his early twenties and was raised Hindu. He was well versed in the Anglican faith and held no objections to it. But his beliefs followed the Hindu teachings. He wondered if his cousin’s dead friend was a restless ghost. People believedbhutwere spirits who weren’t at peace because they’d died a violent or untimely death or were denied burial rights.
“I don’t know. But I sense her with me whenever I come here. She’s never with me off the abbey grounds, except in my dreams. Are you going to tell Keith I found this?” She held up the leather-bound journal.
“No. I don’t think you should take it since it’s his now, but I won’t say anything.”
“I’m certain she wants me to read it, Raj. I can’t come back here to do it.”
“That’s why you agreed to me walking you home. You wanted more time, so you could grab it, and you didn’t want MacNeil to see.”
“Back to calling him by his surname? Are you angry at him?”
“You used his title. He’s a friend, but he’s not as close as he once was.”
Lydia nearly defended Keith, but she opted to remain quiet. She led her cousin to the tunnel and guided him through it, one hand stretched in front of her since they had no torches. She knew her way around by counting her steps. They were soon in the copse of trees. Before they stepped out, Lydia looked back toward Forde Abbey, nearly certain she could see Keith watching them from the front drawing room window.
CHAPTER2
Amonth passed from Keith’s adventure with Jemma and the kiss he shared with Lydia. He hadn’t talked to her since, but he’d seen her daily. His chamber overlooked the beach where she walked every day. He watched her wrap a long piece of fabric over her head on windy days, but it usually sat over her left shoulder. Some days, she wore a long flowing skirt with a hip-length tunic. Other days, she wore the tightly fitted pants he’d learned from Rajesh long ago were calledchuridar. Over them, she wore tunics that came to her midthigh. He only saw her in gowns when she was in the nearby village of Lyme Regis. He’d seen her reading in the garden a week after their brief interlude, but nothing about her posture invited him to approach.
However, as the days drew on, he grew ever more miserable keeping his distance. She intrigued him in ways no one else, woman or man, ever had. It wasn’t just her connection to his sister, though he wanted to learn more about it. It was the intelligence she clearly possessed. She often sat and read on the beach, and he knew she finished books quickly by their different sizes. He was much too far away to see any specific details, but every couple of days, they changed.
He'd resolved that morning to join her on the beach and finally talk to her. He needed to know if their kiss meant anything to her. He needed to know if he pined for nothing. He needed to hear her, to just be close to her. She arrived at the beach nearly the same time every day, so he hurried through the tunnel and out through the cave. He wanted to arrive before her, perhaps making it look like a coincidence. But time ticked by, and she never arrived. He looked at his pocket watch incessantly. After an hour and a half, he turned back to the cave. His heart ached, and he wondered if she knew he was there and avoided him. He sighed as he pressed the latch to enter his library. He recognized the voice he heard immediately, but he hesitated to announce his presence. He waited instead.
* * *
Lydia carriedthe stack of books she’d most recently borrowed from Forde Abbey. The former duke hadn’t cared that she borrowed them at her leisure. He’d laughed at her when she’d asked permission as a child, mocking her since she was a girl who could read. He was a man who refused to acknowledge her royal lineage, adamant it didn’t count for savages. He’d said hateful things that still rang in her ears when she recalled them. It had only made her more determined. Kelsey often helped her pick out books, and they would share recommendations.
For all the old duke’s bluster, he possessed a collection of Indian books that explicitly illustrated various sexual activities for two or more partners. It had titillated the girls at age twelve, but it hadn’t been much later that Lydia’s courses began and Sarla unknowingly explained what Lydia had seen. She never admitted to her mother about the books, but she’d listened to her mother’s advice about the wonders of being with a loving husband and how to avoid men without scruples or intentions of marrying her.
Curiosity brought the girls back to the books more than once, and the images remained etched in Lydia’s mind. The near-acrobatics had played out in her mind every night for the past month. Every dream featured Keith as her partner as they explored her erotic imaginings. They tempted her to revisit the books as she eased into the library. She’d seen Keith on horseback early that morning. He often rode at dawn, his blond hair streaming behind him as the wind caught his locks. He looked at one with the beast, but it only elicited mental pictures of him straddling her.
