“I know you won’t.”He grinned briefly, like the sun coming out, before sobering once more.“It will be a hard life.A lot of hard work.There is so much to be done.The security and well-being of this entire village and all the surroundings lands falls on us.I cannot lie, it’s not always an easy burden to bear.”
“Then it’s fortunate you finally found someone to share the weight,” Gemma said pragmatically.“Nothing in my life that is truly worthwhile has come easily.It turns out that I thrive with a lofty goal to work toward.And I achieve what I set out to.Look at me now!I put this plan in motion to catch a duke…and here you are.”
“Thoroughly caught,” Hal agreed, husky and low, his gaze dropping to her lips.
“And I’ll never let you go,” Gemma whispered with a smile before she dragged his head down for a kiss.
“Oh dear,” came a quiet, amused man’s voice from behind them.“I suppose this means I have my answer.”
Hal and Gemma sprang apart, panting.
The Earl of Stonehaven came forward, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his aquiline nose.He was dressed for Town, right down to a walking stick and a business-like leather portfolio, more formal than Gemma was used to seeing him, and the guilt-inducing thought came to her that perhaps he had taken special care with his manner of dress in anticipation of acquiring a fiancée this afternoon.
Instead, he’d found her in another man’s embrace.
Lady Jersey, the queen of Almack’s patronesses and arbiter of propriety in the Ton, who had once dubbed Gemma “The Most Shameless Hussy of Her Generation,” would have been surprised to see the way Gemma flushed and stammered now.
“Oh!Lord Stonehaven!You’ve returned.I wasn’t expecting, that is, I knew to expect you a week ago, and when you never arrived?—”
“I was rather delayed by my dealings with the Royal Geological Society,” Stonehaven broke in, with gentle insistence.“And no explanations are necessary on your end.In fact, I would rather not hear any details, if it’s all the same to you.”
“I’m terribly sorry,” Gemma said, wringing her hands wretchedly.“You’re absolutely lovely, any woman would be proud and pleased to marry you.The fact that I wasn’t is only proof that you’ve had a lucky escape.”
“You are very kind, but I am not surprised.I am, perhaps, a bit dismayed to discover that I was holding out more hope than I was aware of, even though I knew what your answer was likely to be.Indeed, I was on the point of sending a letter instead of returning to be refused in person.”
Bewildered and almost awe-struck at the man’s philosophical acceptance of the situation, Gemma said, “That’s odd.I had no idea myself what my answer was going to be until a week ago.”
“Ah, but I had some knowledge that you were not privy to,” Stonehaven confessed.“For one thing, I recognized your companion, there, from our school days at university.And I kept it from you, which was unworthy of our friendship.I do apologize.”
“Damn it all,” Gemma burst out.“Dideveryoneknow except me?”
Both men exchanged slightly panicked glances, and Gemma rolled her eyes.“Never mind.Not the issue.What was the other thing?”
“I beg your pardon?”Stonehaven’s brow furrowed.
“You said ‘for one thing’ you knew Hal was a duke,” Gemma said.“What was the other thing?”
Stonehaven’s brow cleared.“Ah.If you’ll forgive me.This information is intended for Havilocke.”
With that cryptic remark, the earl brandished the leather portfolio he was carrying.Hal took it from him with a bemused look at Gemma, who shrugged and pressed closer to get a view of the contents.
Untying the portfolio’s leather straps, Hal removed a sheaf of papers and spread them across the bar.It mostly read like gibberish, technical language Gemma didn’t recognize, except a few words that popped out at her here and there.Words she’d learned recently.
Bedrock.Metamorphic.Exposure.
“Is this…a geological survey?”she asked.
“Of the Duke of Havilocke’s lands,” Stonehaven confirmed, excitement bring a flush to his high cheekbones.“And you will never guess what I found.”
“Oh God.”Hal began to laugh.“Never tell me you discovered a fault line of some kind.A network of caves under the manor house, which mean it could collapse into the ground at any moment!”
“No!At least, I did find caves, but they’re no threat to the house, or any part of the estate.In fact, they may well be the saving of it.”
“What do you mean?”Hal demanded, his hands going white-knuckled where they gripped the edge of the bar.
“Look at the last page,” Stonehaven suggested, his lean, intellectual face alight with the fire of discovery.“I found an unusually large, unusually fine exposure of mica schists in the caves on the eastern edge of your property.With a little careful rock breaking and searching of the surface and drainages, I found…well, see for yourself!”
He held out a gloved hand, in the palm of which were a collection of small, dark stones.
