Laura had managed to stay afloat for several minutes when she realized the pull of the tide had caught her and was sweeping her away from land. Horror, cold and fear blocked all thoughts but one. What if the tide carried her around the point to be dashed to her death on the rocks? Would they find her floating at the base of the cliff like Mallory andAmanda?
She spat out seawater and yelled. But her faint calls for help hardly made a sound, as she watched the solid lines of the abbey highlighted against the moonlit sky retreat. Thrashing her arms and legs, Laura quickly tired. Would she die never learning why anyone would want to kill her? Who had been in that room? She should have stayed, confronted them. Her chest constricted with small, abrupt spasms as the cold froze her core. Her legs cramped painfully, and she strained to keep them moving, hampered by her hair blinding her and her clothing plastered against herskin.
Laura had no concept of time; everything slowed down. She slipped beneath the surface again. The idea that it would be easy to let go and drift to one’s death began to appeal. Her baby! Forcing her legs to work, she fought her way up. She broke the surface and dragged air into her laboring lungs. Resignation stung at her more than the salt in her eyes. It was hopeless to fight. She might keep herself afloat for a while longer, but she couldn’t swim toshore.
Her fragile strength ebbed away, and her limbs faltered in their struggle to keep her head above water. Her mind wandered as she came to accept her fate. She would drift until she sank one last time. She forced open her stinging eyes. Over the swell of the waves, a blur of lights shone directly ahead. Trying to make out if it was a ship or land, she bumped hard against something beneath the water. The solid mass grazed her side, the flash of pain rousingher.
She clung to the pitted stone against the pull of the tide as her mind cleared. Supported, energy surged back into her limbs. Was it the rocks beneath the cliff? Laura raised her head but saw nothing except the starlit sky above her. She could not be below the cliff, for there was a row of lamplight to her right. The village! She clung to a fragile, desperatehope.
The causeway.
With the last of her energy, Laura clawed at the stone, breaking nails and scoring flesh from her fingers as she pushed her way up. Her knees and toes scraped across its rocky, shell-encrusted edge, her frozen body barely registering pain. She heaved herself over the top and onto the roadway with a weak cry, then crouched on her knees. She swayed on the edge as wavelets spilled over the causeway and threatened to drag her back into the inky sea. Was the tide ebbing or flowing? She wished she’d tried to understand such things. The sea might claim her again before she could reach land. Fear brought her to her feet. As she fought the pull of the water swirling around her thighs, Laura couldn’t gauge the width or direction of the causeway. Any moment she might step off back into the oceanagain.
Fixing her gaze on the abbey tower highlighted by moonlight, she waded forward. Each step was painful, and it was useless to try to hurry. It seemed an age before she felt hard-packed earth beneath her feet, and as she climbed further, the water vanished like magic. She collapsed to her knees with painful sobs. Several minutes passed as she crouched there too exhausted tomove.
Annoyed with herself, Laura pushed to her feet, then bent to pull away the ripped shreds of fine silk and lawn clinging to her legs, which threatened to trip her. She stumbled forward. A refrain kept repeating in her mind. Who wanted her dead? Then another frightening thought. Were they stillnear?
Deep shudders shook her as she staggered along, guided by the dark shapes of trees bordering the road. The salt stung her scratched, bloody legs and feet. A faint glow appeared somewhere along the lane. As she drew closer, she fought to make sense of the shadows and jerked with fear at the muffled sounds, which now reachedher.
Laura rounded a corner of the stables where a lantern’s glow lit her way across the black cobbles. She tottered into the warm stables, which smelled of horse, hay and leather and offered a return to normalcy. She swayed on her feet. A lantern hung from a beam, shining down on a groaning horse. The animal lay on its side with two men bent over it, their voices low. Then Nathaniel chuckled as the white sac containing the foal emerged from its mother. The dogs leapt up and rushed to Laura, almost knocking herover.
“Nathaniel,” Laura whispered, her throat too painful and raw tospeak.
Nathaniel spun around. His eyes widened. “Mother of…” He ran to catch her as her knees gave way. Strong arms caught her up and held her against his chest.Safe.
“You’ll get wet,” she stuttered, relief warming her cold body but failing to quell hershudders.
“What the devil…Laura, what happened?”
He laid her in the hay in the empty stall next to where the groom dealt with the new foal. Nathaniel shrugged out of his coat, and as he slipped her arms into it, she looked down to see that she was almost naked. Her legs were bare and a breast was exposed through her rippednightclothes.
“Laura, for God’s sake, tell me,” he pleaded, his eyes incredulous, his voiceragged.
Laura swallowed; her throat felt like she’d eaten broken glass. She grimaced. “Someone pushed me into the sea.”
“Who? Why?” He shook his head slowly.
“I don’t know,” Laura said, annoyed. She only wanted to lie down somewhere soft and warm andsleep.
Nathaniel turned to the groom. “I’ll leave you to manage here.”
The groom’s alarmed gaze was fixed on Laura. “Of course, milord.”
“Good man.”
Nathaniel hefted Laura into his arms and strode to the house. She shivered uncontrollably as she rested her head against his shoulder. He put her down to unlock the front door, holding her upright with one arm. Then with her in his arms, he climbed thestairs.
“Your prized mare has a foal; you should go back.”
He frowned, his gaze roaming her face. “Isthatwhat you think of me?”
In her chamber, Nathaniel placed her gently on the bed. He peeled her out of his coat and threw it onto a chair. “These wet things must come off.”
He stripped her naked and grabbed a towel, then rubbed her skin vigorously, careful to avoid the cuts and deep scratches. The friction made her skin glow. Her head fell back on the pillow, and she closed hereyes.
Nathaniel examined her body, moving her about with gentle hands. “Nothing worse than cuts and scratches.” He tucked a blanket around her. “Wake up, Laura. You can sleep after you tell me how this happened.”
She gazed at his lean, worried face. “I went down the cellar stairs to look for you. The door was open. When I left the house, someone pushed me into the water.”
