“I am not the least bit deceived by that,” she told him. “How dare you confiscate my luggage!”
“Oh dear, I think I’m going to swoon,” Gabe murmured and clutched her as feebly as he could manage while restraining her from running after Ethan.
“Are you indeed?” said a caustic voice from behind. “That’ll be a first, then.” He turned and saw Mrs. Barrow, hands on hips, observing the whole scene. Behind her stood Miss Tibthorpe, and the two boys watching with wide eyes, his dog, Juno, peering between them.
Mrs. Barrow took one look at him and sniffed. “You’d better bring him in to the kitchen, ma’am. He needs cleaning up.” She darted him a look and added, “In more ways than one.”
Ethan returned and tossed him the key. Gabe caught it. He looked down at his stubborn, angry princess and said softly, “Just give me an hour. If you don’t, I will come like this.”
She opened her mouth to argue and he added in a firm voice, “I am not taking no for an answer. I go with you bloodied or I go with you clean, but you won’t leave this house alone and unprotected.”
She scowled at him a moment, then her face cleared and she nodded, as if capitulating. “Very well, I’ll wait. Give me that key and while you’re getting cleaned up I’ll get my luggage ready.” She held out her hand.
For answer, he slipped the key into his breeches pocket. “After we’ve talked this through rationally.”
Callie glared at him. “Don’t you trust me?”
He gave a faint smile. “I told you, those eyes of yours give your every thought away. If you had your luggage, you would leave the moment my back was turned. Shall we go?” He held out his hand as if to usher her to the kitchen.
She gave him an icy look, then, with her little nose held high, she glided past him, the very picture of a royal princess: gracious, dignified—and fuming.
It was all Gabe could do not to snatch her back and kiss the starch out of her. But in her current mood she’d probably box his ears. And quite rightly. He’d been atrociously high-handed. But he couldn’t let her leave. Not without him.
In the kitchen Mrs. Barrow said to the two boys, “Jim, you’ll know where the best pool for leeches is—the one in the hollow behind the copse. You and Nicky take this jar and fetch me some nice big ones. And take that dratted dog with you—you know she’s not supposed to be in the kitchen.”
“Leeches?” Callie exclaimed in repugnance.
“Best thing for black eyes and bruises.” Mrs. Barrow turned back to Jim. “You know how to catch them, don’t you?”
Jim nodded.
“Good lad. Off you go then, boys, and don’t fall in!”
“Nicky can’t go,” Callie said quickly. “He—he cannot swim.”
Nicky’s face fell. “I would be very careful, Mama,” he said in his polite, little-old-man way. “I have never before fished for leeches. It sounds very interesting.” His green eyes beseeched her.
She hesitated. Gabe understood why. He found it almost impossible to resist her when she looked at him with her version of those eyes.
But the events at the cottage had obviously given her a bad fright and she was clearly reluctant to let her son out of her sight.
She chewed on her lip indecisively. Gabe watched. She had no idea how erotic he found it. Even battered and aching, and in a room full of people, his body stirred at her action.
“I would dearly love to experience a leech hunt,” the boy added in a wistful voice. His hands unconsciously fondled Juno’s ears.
“Then you shall go,” Gabe told him. He needed to talk to her in private, about things she wouldn’t want to discuss in front of her son. “Take Miss Tibthorpe with you. She will find it, er, scientifically interesting.”
Miss Tibthorpe looked surprised and faintly indignant, but before she could say anything, Gabe noticed Ethan lounging in the doorway and added, “And Mr. Delaney will go, too, which will set Nicky’s mother’s mind at rest.”
“Indeed it will,” Ethan agreed. “Where am I goin’ again? A leech hunt, is it?” He gave a rueful glance down at his immaculate outfit and gleaming boots. “That’ll be…grand.” With gloomy resignation, Ethan offered his arm to Miss Tibthorpe. She hesitated, then took it, and in seconds the kitchen was deserted.
The princess stamped her foot. “How dare you take over like that! You have no right! It is for me to decide if my son stays or goes.”
“I know, but we have things to discuss. And he’ll be perfectly safe. The pool is just a few minutes away; they’ll be half an hour at most. Let Nicky have his fun. From the sounds of things he hasn’t had much fun in his life. You do keep him wrapped in cotton wool.”
Her eyes glittered. “That’s not fair. I do what I must for Nicky’s own good.”
“I know, to keep him safe. But you can’t keep running.”
