At the graveside, Alexandra knelt and layflowers. How she missed Molly. Samuel said nothing. With a raggedsigh, she rose and looked over her shoulder. Two men, leanedagainst a stone wall that edged the cemetery. One smoked a pipe andthe other looked at his nails, a rake and shovel laying at theirfeet, probably new graveyard workers, waiting for them toleave.
She laid a hand on Samuel’s shoulder. “Iwant to be alone so, I’m going to hike to the cliffs. I haven’tbeen there since I’ve returned.”
He nodded. He liked to have private time totalk to Molly. Her heart heavy, she left using the oppositegate.
Pewter clouds hung low beneath a sunless skyand dense gray fog cloaked several thatched-roof cottages.Alexandra crossed an ancient stone stile and followed a pony trailnorthward to her favorite place. Moisture beaded on her from thesomber mist and she buttoned up her cape to ward off the latespring chill. The path, a rather dubious and uncertain one, led heralong the high bluffs of blood-red sandstone that bordered thedarkened sea far below.
She’d never been skittish about the narrowpath before, but why the sudden wave of dizziness? Her foot slippedon the grassy path and she bent, clutching her knees until thelight-headedness passed. Rising, she noticed the two men from thegraveyard coming toward her. “I’m fine,” she said, waving them off.She wanted to be alone.
But the men didn’t turn back. they kept oncoming.
Never would he have searched in thistail-end of the world, traveling for three days over impossibleroads, reaching the southern coast of England. He pushed his horsehard, leaving the Rutland Coach that broke an axle, and his guards,his father had insisted on far behind.
Weeks had eclipsed and the runners in Londonhad come up with nothing. His father had suggested the maritimeoffices. Night and day, clerks searched records of sea captains.Nothing. Then Nicholas remembered Alexandra telling him, Samuelserved in the Royal Navy. At the admiralty’s offices, a clerkproduced an address for Samuel Elwins, to where his pension checkwas to be delivered located in a village named Deconshire.
Nerves rattled up his spine. Alexandra wasin danger. He had read the papers, and with certainty, so had LadyUrsula Sutherland, recognizing the ship,Santanasshe hadpaid to take Alexandra away. If he could find where Alexandra livedthen so could Lady Ursula. He had to get to Alexandra first.
Deconshire was a sleepy little harborvillage dotted with a row of stone, thatched roof cottages. Heinquired of a village man who directed him to the Elwins home atthe end of town. Dusty from his travels, he leaped off his horse,met an older man, bowlegged from years at sea and setting his pipebetween his teeth.
“Captain Elwins?”
He looked Nicholas up from toe to head. Fromanyone else, Nicholas would have been insulted, but he surmised theold salt knew who he was. “Aye. And what business do you have?”
“I’m Lord Rutland.”
“And?”
Nicholas gritted his teeth. The sooner hegot to Alexandra and shook some sense into her… “I wish to speak toAlexandra.”
The old man let him squirm. “Depends.”
Nicholas’s hands curled into fists. For fourweeks, he had pushed himself beyond human endurance to findAlexandra. No one was going to stop him. “Excuse me.”
“Depends on what your intentions are.”
It dawned on Nicholas, Captain Elwins readthe papers too and had read about his betrothal to Lady Tomkins.Had the sea captain incorrectly surmised, Nicholas was there to askAlexandra to be his mistress?
“Captain Elwins, my request is honorable.I’m asking for Alexandra’s hand in marriage. I’ve torn up half ofEngland and won’t take no for an answer.”
Captain Elwins adjusted his pipe. “I have mypension delivered to an address in London and a friend forwards theallowance to me from there. When I saw how bereaved Alexandra wason her return, I had a hunch there was more to her story. I had mypension delivered to Deconshire…just in case you wanted to findher. Took you long enough.”
“Where is she?”
He pointed the stem of his pipe. “You’llfind her up the line along the cliffs.”
Nicholas sped down the path for a mile withno one in sight, and then Alexandra’s screams ripped through him.He dug his heels in the path, sweating into a full out run. Tworoughs wrestled with her. She clawed at them, slipping inches fromthe cliff’s edge. Two hundred feet down waves thundered againstsharp rocks. Nicholas pitched his full weight into the first man,his inertia and force, pushing the trio away from the rim.
A pistol fired, the ball aimless in the air.A gun sailed over the cliff.
Alexandra scrambled from her captors. Good.Nicholas sprang upon the first one he came to, hit the gaping thugin the mouth. Teeth went flying. The thug crumpled into thegrass.
He’d been looking for a fight. He focused onhis prey. The other man came at him, eyes wild, launching a right.Nicholas ducked, the buzz swept over his head. The thug’s momentumcarried him in a curve, his kidney exposed for the taking. Easyenough, a question of force.
Nicholas hit a short right, a colossal blow,one that would have cracked an oak rafter. The thug stumbled andbent viciously backward from the force of the blow, the breathwhooshing out of him. No doubt, the shock hit the back of his lungslike a million tiny needles, heated red-hot in a fire. The mantottered, and his right leg went stiff. He grew brave, swung aroundon his good leg, plowing at Nicholas like an ox, slamming him inthe jaw. Stunned, Nicholas shook his head.
He wanted to finish this.
He hit the man with a right. All the way upfrom his planted feet, as hard as he could and felt his fist driveright through and beyond it. The thug’s head jerked backward and heflopped into the grass.
