Grace’s heart leapt. “Gastric has found something—he’s calling us and the other dogs. As happy as he sounds, it must be the children. He rarely gets that excited about a hare or field mouse.”
“Thank God Almighty. I pray it truly is them.” Wolfe caught her by the hand as if it were the most natural thing to do, tugging her along as he took the lead toward the sound of the dogs. “What if they try to slip away or hide?”
“My dogs will think it a wonderful game and give chase. If it’s Connor and Sissy they’ve found, we’ll not lose them again.”
“I pray you are right.” Wolfe caught her up in his arms again just as she slipped on some wet stones. “Take care, my Grace.”
“MyGrace?” She tried to play off his awkward endearment as a jest, giving him a means of escape.
He held her there for the longest moment, staring into her eyes as if willing her to hear his innermost thoughts. “Yes.MyGrace—if I have my way about it.” Then he set her back on her feet and held her hand just as tightly as before, and they took off again.
If he had his way about it.Hopeful giddiness bubbled through her, making her catch her breath.My Grace,he had said—and oh dear heavens, the way he had said it. But now was not the time to dwell on what the future might hold. They had to find Connor and Sissy. Only then would her excitement be complete.
Chapter Nine
“Those sly littleimps,” Grace said as they scrambled across the rocky yet more even ground alongside the stream. “I wager they’ve hidden in the deepest part of the gully, where the stonemasons and gardeners get the gravel and boulders for the estate.” She skipped faster, taking the lead while still tugging Wolfe along by the hand.
She amazed him. He had never known a woman with the grace and speed of a deer, the tenacity of a hound on the scent, and the cunning of a wily huntsman. More importantly, she showed a genuine affection for his brother and sister, as if they were her own. He agreed wholeheartedly with his little brother—Lady Grace was beyond compare.
“Thank you for helping,” he said as they jogged along, “and thank your wonderful dogs too. I shall buy them every soupbone in Binnocksbourne. All of you have made this day so much easier to bear.” This precious woman had no idea how much he appreciated her in every sense of the word.
“Connor and Sissy are my friends.” She scrambled across a slippery span of rocks with the agility of a river otter. “I couldn’t imagine not helping ensure they are safe.”
And that was just one of the many differences between Grace and the difficult family to which his well-meaning father had leg-shackled him. The scene at breakfast had as much as decided Wolfe that no matter the cost, the engagement to Lady Margaret had to end. He refused to submit his younger siblingsto the machinations of the cold-hearted women any longer. Once the Longmortens were gone, his only issue would be gaining Connor’s forgiveness for pursuing Lady Grace, since Connor had already declared his love for her. Wolfe prayed Grace would give him a chance to prove he wasn’t the aloof, beastly duke she must surely think him to be.
As they crossed the rugged ground, helping each other whenever they stumbled, the vastness of the Broadmere estate impressed him. “How the devil did those two cover so much ground?”
“They are children, and from what little you told me, I imagine they were very angry. We must climb out of the ravine here because it narrows too much up ahead at the stream’s level. We can descend again a bit farther down the way.” Grace let go of his hand and climbed the much steeper embankment on all fours, granting him a most pleasing view of her shapely behind. “Think back to when you were that age,” she called back to him. “Whenever you became angry, were you not filled with boundless energy to fight your foes?”
“I was in boarding school at their age, and if I caused a tenth of the mischief that those two wreak, the headmaster would have beaten me bloody.”
Grace halted so fast, he nearly collided with her. She turned and stared at him, her expression a heartwarming mix of rage and compassion. “That is despicable. Promise you will never send Connor to such a place. Promise me, this very instant.”
“I will never send Connor to such a place,” he said, vowing so much more to her but afraid to say it aloud. Now was not the time. “Nor will I send Sissy away. I swear that as well.”
Gastric bayed again, louder and more frantic. The other hounds joined in, adding a racket of sharp, high-pitched yips.
“They sound different now.” Wolfe helped Grace scale the remainder of the embankment, and they turned toward thesound. “Why is the pitch of their barking so different?” The worry in her eyes concerned him.
“They want us to hurry. Something is wrong.” She shoved through the remaining snarl of vines and grasses walling off the ravine, then took off at a hard run, loping across the meadow’s grassy hillocks. She split the air with a sharp whistle, and soon, both horses joined them. “Stay close, Pegasus, and keep Barberry close as well.” She pointed at a break in the overgrowth. “There. We can get to the rock gully through there.”
“Connor!” Wolfe powered the bellow with all his worries and fears. “Sissy!”
“Brother!” Sissy’s tearful whimper made them maneuver the steep wall of the gorge even faster. “Connor and Galileo are buried in a hole. I can’t dig them out.”
“Dear God, do not let it be so.” Wolfe barreled down the last of the incline and charged across the rocky ground. Sissy cowered against the opposite wall of the small quarry. Connor’s dog, Hector, frantically pawed at a pile of fist-sized stones. Terror clenched icy fingers around Wolfe’s heart at the sight of a pale, little hand barely reaching out of the darkness of a small hole where the rocks rested against the embankment. Connor was indeed buried—but at least he was alive.
Grace reached for the little girl, giving the child a reassuring smile. “Come to me, Sissy. Your brother will have Connor and Galileo rescued before you know it.”
Sissy dove into Grace’s arms, clutching her as she sobbed against her shoulder. “I told him to let me get Galileo out of the cave, but he said it was too dangerous.”
“He was protecting you,” Grace said, patting the overwrought child. “That is what brothers do. Now, we must be brave while Wolfe digs him out.”
“Can you please still hold me?” the little girl asked with a pitiful sniff.
“Of course I can still hold you.” Grace hugged the child closer and gave Wolfe a look that assured him she would watch over Sissy while he did his best to free his brother.
He took hold of Connor’s hand, thankful that it was warm with life. “Are you hurt?”
