The Vanishing at Loxby Manor by Abigail Wilson (grave mercy .TXT) 📕

to cross the meadow, we’d be seen by Avery. With his right hand at my back, Piers motioned me into the dense brush that lay between the rock and the river, and I pushed my way into the brambles. His whispered voice directed me to a small opening on the ground.

There was little room to move, let alone stretch out my feet, so I pulled my knees to my chest and pressed back as far asI could against the cold, hard rock face. Piers was right behind me, forced to slide in close at my side. It took only a momentfor us to realize we might not both fit. He tried his long legs first one direction then the other before letting out a frustratedsigh.

“Perhaps if we stack them just so.” I pointed to the ground. “Here, extend them under mine.”

The moonlight revealed how wide his eyes grew at my suggestion, but I don’t think he knew I’d seen the gesture as his voiceremained a calm whisper. “If you think it best. This is hardly proper, but it’s imperative the group doesn’t know we werehere.”

I shrugged. “Nothing about this night has been proper.”

We scrunched in closer and closer, determined to remain hidden, and though I’d started out on the frigid ground, somehow Iended up in Piers’s lap, his warm arms wrapped around me, a bittersweet breath from the past. I’d made the suggestion withoutreally thinking how utterly close it would bring us and what that might inadvertently ignite.

I’d feared intimacy since the attack, afraid of the pounding race of my heart and the resulting panic as my throat swelledshut. Granted, I’d suffered such an episode only once since the assault, at a dance in Ceylon a few months later, and thefear of its return was stifling at times.

But this was Piers with me now. Nothing was ever the same with him.

I felt his laugh without hearing it. “I can’t say I ever thought I’d be in this position again.”

“Again?”

“Shhh!”

I’d spoken too loudly, but really, what was he referring to?

He guided my ear close to his mouth. “Remember when you hurt your foot that day on the road?”

My heart stopped. “Well, of course I do. How could I forget?”

His body seemed to relax. “You had me a bit worried there. Sometimes I get the strangest feeling you don’t remember anythingabout us.” An awkward pause. “You were in my arms at the gatehouse, I mean. You were cold. Remember?”

“I suppose I was.”

“Things were so different then.” His voice sounded almost melancholy. “We were different.”

I fought against the ache filling my chest. I owed him a great deal for all he’d done for me, but I knew myself too well toallow the conversation to proceed any further. Piers would never understand what transpired a few months after I left forCeylon.

I felt his muscles stiffen. He yearned to know my secret, that hidden piece of me I didn’t share with anyone.

It was in the resulting silence that we both realized the sounds at the abbey had died away, and we were entirely alone. Icrawled from our hiding space and shook off the dust from my pelisse. Piers emerged a few steps behind me, and we made ourway across the meadow to the horses.

I slowed my approach, allowing him to draw up beside me. “What do you think about what our friends said regarding Lord Kendal’scurricle race?”

His voice came out grim. “About rigging it? I’m shocked.”

“I cannot believe Avery would do something so foolish. Not after your family has been through so much.”

Piers let out a long breath. “Neither can I.”

“And the risk to the other driver—Tony seemed to think that possible.”

Piers took a moment to answer, his focus on the far-off trees swaying in the moonlight. “It is concerning indeed, but I wasactually thinking about something quite different.”

We’d reached the horses and I turned to await his help to mount, but he didn’t extend his hands, not yet at least. “What ifSeline was somehow involved in this scheme? She saw the light on the hill that night and knew exactly who would be here. IfAvery can be trusted with his explanation, she came to speak with Lord Kendal.”

My mind replayed every detail of the night in my room. “She did say she had a plan. What if she knew something about Kendal’scurricle race?”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Or she overheard it that night.”

A painful gasp escaped my mouth. “Of course that gives us . . .” I could hardly finish the sentence, my mind awash with theimplications such an idea posed. “A plausible reason for one of our dear friends to wish to silence her.”

Chapter 16

I passed the remainder of the night in a state of fitful agony, the sleep I did manage ruled by dark thoughts. Each memberof Avery’s secret society shared a special relationship with Seline. Though I could no more imagine any one of the four gentlemenharming her, they did have a reason to be concerned about her knowing their secret.

Hugh was clearly taken by her, but he also had the most to lose should the curricle race not take place. His family was inthe basket and he was depending on the money to turn everything around. Both his mother and his sister were counting on him.And then there was my brooch. Piers and I found it on the main road to his estate. Seline must have made her way to Rushridgeat some point.

Lord Kendal’s reputation was as sharp as his temper. Everyone knew he won any contest he entered—at any cost. He’d actuallyput a bullet in his own cousin during a duel, even when his cousin swore he’d delope. Lord Kendal would have no scruples wherethe race was concerned, and he would do anything to ensure his deception remained a secret.

Tony had told me he had money riding on the race as well, and his father was a stickler for rules. He could not chance thepossibility of getting disinherited. He would be left destitute.

Then there was Avery. Confident, affable Avery.