Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [108]
Her voice shook. Tears clouded her eyes, and the blazing sunlight showed the bruises of fatigue beneath her eyes and the faint lines at the corners of her mouth and lids. In that moment, she looked drawn and older than her four and twenty years.
Dominick thought her the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He wanted to pull her close and kiss her senseless. Then he would sweep her away to a parson who would marry them despite his redemptioner state, so she wouldn’t even leave him to walk to her home on the outskirts of the village.
“And I didn’t go after you yesterday,” he murmured. “What a fool. Or a coward.”
“You were being the gentleman you are. I told you to leave.” She tasted the strawberry, then popped it into her mouth. “If someone doesn’t pick these today, they’ll be ruined.”
“My practical beloved.” Dominick laughed and rose. He leaned down to take her hands and lift her to her feet. “I seem to do this a great deal. And if Letty weren’t glaring at me . . . Time for that later. For now, my dearest lady, I want to make you promises. But I won’t, if there’s even the slightest hint I might break them. I’ve brought enough dishonor on those I wish to honor most.”
“You need to honor your father first. I understand.” Her lower lip quivered and a tear glistened golden like a topaz on her cheek. “I understand even more now that I know about what happened. So where do we start?”
“Right here.” He gathered the tear on his finger and wished it were a topaz he could keep forever. “If you distract the ladies, I can search Kendall’s study.”
“Is that all?”
Dominick laughed. “I suspect it’ll be more than enough.”
Side by side, they strolled toward the house. Letty and the twins greeted them in the kitchen, with curious looks from the former and snickers behind their hands from the latter.
“Your strawberries are nearly too ripe.” Tabitha spoke a little too quickly. “If you like, I’ll help pick them and prepare them for jelly.”
“No, child, it’ll take all afternoon.”
Tabitha shrugged. “I told Patience and the Parkses I was coming here. Someone will find me if I’m needed.”
“If we’re boiling fruit and sugar,” Letty said, her hands on her hips, “we don’t need you distracted by this male here.”
“I disappear when real work needs to be done.” Dominick kissed Tabitha full on the lips, to give the girls something to giggle and tease about and give Letty cause for a lecture, and beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen.
Outside the door, he leaned his ear against the panel to listen. He was right. Dinah and Deborah were giggling and sighing, and Letty was lecturing.
“He won’t marry you, child. One morning I’ll unlock his door and find he’s discovered a way to escape. And he won’t take the likes of you back to England with him. He’ll break your heart, I can assure you of that.”
“That presumes,” Tabitha drawled, “that I have a heart.”
The women laughed.
Dominick slipped into Kendall’s study. Shelves of books and a massive desk greeted him. With no idea for what he sought, he didn’t know where to start.
The desk made the most sense. But it yielded nothing of importance, with one exception. Ledgers filled two drawers. A swift glance through showed neat rows of numbers, some of them in Dominick’s own handwriting—household accounts and accounts from the plantation further inland. He’d seen these ledgers and knew they weren’t out of order.
Neither was the desk. He found nothing taped to the underside of drawers or the top, and the measurements omitted the possibility of a secret compartment.
Two other drawers yielded quills, pens,