Tonight he would have it out with her, and put an end to a past that would block some sort of future.
And while he wasn’t sure of that future, he had an inkling of what it might hold.
As flimsy as thatmightwas, it held enough substance to impel him forward.
Chapter Six
Later
Only after nighthad descended fully, settling onto the countryside like a black cloak, the stars faraway twinkling pinpricks of light, did Delilah step foot from her caravan.
She was the last of the company to venture out, the distant sounds of revelry told her, even as she felt it in the stillness of camp.
Reputation cast her as the boldest and wildest of the Windermere brood—and her reputation had it half right.
She was bold.
She was wild.
But only recently.
That was what no one truly understood about her. What she hadn’t truly understood about herself until a few days ago…
And again this morning.
And it was Ravensworth—of all people—who was bringing out her true audacity.
She didn’t like it.
That wasn’t precisely true.
She didn’twantto like it—which was an altogether different matter.
Which was why she’d been sorely tempted to stay in her caravan tonight, pretend sleep, and skip the bonfire.
Becausehewould be there.
To call to her boldness and wildness.
But she couldn’t. The pull of a pagan bacchanal on the beach was too irresistible to miss. Already her feet were moving in step to the strains of fiddle music drifting on the breeze.
So it was that soon those same feet were treading down the path from this morning, music and laughter pulling her along, the orange glow of the bonfire growing brighter with every step. She was dressed simply, white muslin shirt tucked into the waistband of a plain homespun skirt with only a shawl to keep encroaching night cool at bay. She’d left her shoes in the caravan.
Dirt and grass turned to sand beneath her bare feet and soon she was ascending the short rise of a dune. She reached the top, and the view opened to her. It was a beach utterly transformed from the one that had been quiet with morning stillness—where she’d held a duke’s clothes hostage and all but begged him to kiss her.
Scattered across the beach were the Albion Players. A grouping over here joined arm in arm as they sang a bawdy sea shanty. The company’s fiddler over there striking bow across strings much to the delight of those inclined toward dancing, trouser legs rolled above knees, skirts tucked into waistbands, allowing bodies freedom to dance and dance and dance. Some arms were linked, others swayed in the air, as feet moved round the bonfire that crackled and roared and spread glorious heat and light at the heart of it all, bright red sparks ascending toward the heavens above.
Here, anyone could be naught more than simple human being, taken by the call of the night.
Here, she was able to see England in a way she never had before. An England free of the rigid mores and rules of theton.
Free.
Somehow, she’d come to inhabit a world where life was fun. She was a Windermere, and true to her birthright she always looked for—and found—the fun. In London, though, fun never felt safe. Fun felt more akin to walking a tight rope at a high altitude, all eyes watching…waiting…hoping for a fall, either from malice or simply for something to gossip about because the boredom ran so deep.
Yet here, on a wild stretch of Norfolk shore, fun was safe.
She was halfway down the sand dune when a hand reached for hers. It belonged to the cook’s son. Lanny, he was called. He couldn’t have more than eleven years on him. On a laugh, she allowed him to take her hand and lead her into the scrum of dancing—bodies carefree and gyrating and sweating. Though a head shorter than her, he twirled her around. On another laugh, she ducked under his arm and her hesitancy fell away as she gave over to the dance that had no set movement or pattern. One’s feet and arms simply followed where the heart and inclination led. Someone shoved a mug into her hand, and she drank deeply of its contents.Mead.On a usual night, it would be too sweet for her tastes, but tonight it was perfect. She took another long swig.
