Runaway Lady

Runaway Lady
Claire Thornton

‘I will hire you only on condition that you promise to do everything in your power to protect me. ’ With his curved Turkish sword, and dark, brooding looks, Harry Ward is a formidable adversary. Lady Saskia van Buren’s life is in danger, so she has fled to London and hired him as her protector. But she soon finds herself longing for more than safety in his arms…Unknown to Saskia, Harry believes she’s a Dutch spy – and he intends to bring her to justice. Only he’s torn between duty and desire, and will do whatever it takes to keep Lady Saskia safe – even make her his convenient bride. . .

He gradually sensed she was nolonger completely asleep, but norwas she awake. She was lost in adreaming state between the two.

Her movements had the languor of sleep, but there was no doubt what she wanted when she searched for his mouth with hers. He took her head between his hands, meaning to ease her gently away, but in the end he was too weak-willed to do anything except help her find her target. So she kissed him again. Every part of his body thundered with arousal, but he allowed himself to respond with only the tenderest touch of his mouth against hers. He wanted to taste her. But she thought she was lying with her husband.

‘Saskia?’ he murmured, his voice tight with strain. Perhaps he could wake her just enough to get her safely back to her half of the cloak.

‘Harry?’

He went absolutely still. Her voice had been low and husky, but he was certain she’d called him by his real name. Surely her Dutch husband hadn’t also been called Harry?

Claire Thornton grew up in the Sussex countryside. Her love of history began as a child, when she imagined Roman soldiers marching along the route of the old Roman Road which runs straight through her village high street. It is also a family legend that her ancestors were involved in smuggling, which further stimulated her interest in how people lived in the past. She loves immersing herself in the historical background for her books, and taught herself bobbin lacemaking as part of her research. She enjoys handicrafts of all kinds, and regularly has her best ideas when she is working on a piece of cross-stitch. Claire has also written under the name of Alice Thornton. She can be contacted via her website at www.clairethornton.com.

RUNAWAY LADY features characters you will have already met in Claire Thornton’s City of Flames trilogy.

Novels by the same author:

RAVEN’S HONOUR

GIFFORD’S LADY

MY LORD FOOTMAN

and in the City of Flames series:

THE DEFIANT MISTRESS

THE ABDUCTED HEIRESS

THE VAGABOND DUCHESS

RUNAWAY LADY

Claire Thornton

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

RUNAWAY LADY

Chapter One

Cornwall—Sunday, 9 June 1667

The sound of footsteps on the gravel path six feet above her head was Saskia van Buren’s first warning that she and Anne were not the only ones taking advantage of the warm evening. Both women fell silent as the murmur of conversation grew louder. A few seconds later Saskia recognised the voices of her aunt and the man who’d been introduced to her as her aunt’s secretary. They were speaking softly, but the urgency in her aunt’s low voice demanded attention.

‘Now Saskia’s here we don’t have to wait. They can both die before the twenty-second of June,’ said Lady Abergrave.

‘It might be more discreet to continue with our original plan, my lady?’ Tancock suggested. ‘Wait for Mistress van Buren to return to Amsterdam before we act?’

‘No, this way is more certain. There is always the risk that Saskia might challenge any will Benjamin makes in my favour. It’s best for her to have a fatal accident now.’ Lady Abergrave’s voice was chillingly practical. ‘She said herself she means to revisit her childhood haunts. No one will be surprised if she falls on the rocks. And no one will be surprised if Benjamin, grief-stricken at the death of his sister, also has an accident. Such tragedies are not uncommon. Grief makes people careless of themselves.’

Shock held Saskia motionless as she listened to her aunt plot her death. Surely she’d misheard. But she saw horror dawning in Anne’s eyes, and knew she hadn’t misunderstood. She gripped the younger woman’s arm in warning and emphatically mouthed the word quiet. Anne nodded jerkily.

As long as they made no sound they should remain undetected by Lady Abergrave and Tancock. Trevithick House was built on an area of high ground that sloped steeply down to the river. The house and gardens were surrounded by a retaining wall of Cornish slatestone. Inside, the garden the wall was only four feet high, but it plunged down more than twelve feet on the side facing the river. Saskia and Anne were sitting on a bench cut into the foot of the wall on the river side. They’d only be discovered if Lady Abergrave or Tancock leaned over the wall to look straight down.

‘Particularly when the bereaved man already has a broken leg,’ Tancock said drily. ‘Sir Benjamin’s death will take a little more planning than Saskia’s, but it won’t be difficult. You will receive much sympathy from your friends at the loss of your only remaining blood relatives.’

Beneath her hand Saskia felt Anne begin to shake uncontrollably. She tightened her grip, willing Anne to remain silent. Her own emotions were already locked deep inside her in that place she sent them when disaster threatened.

‘Edmund’s death was a disaster.’ Lady Abergrave’s voice hardened with bitterness as she spoke of her dead son. ‘But these are necessary. You must do it yourself.’

‘Of course. There will be no mistakes.’

‘Good.’ Lady Abergrave’s tone softened into something almost coquettish. ‘You will be well rewarded… my friend.’

‘My sweet lady. My only ambition is to see you restored to your rightful position.’

Saskia heard the crunch of their footsteps on the gravel as they resumed their promenade around the garden. Until a few minutes ago she would never have dreamed her aunt could be capable of such a heinous plan, yet she didn’t doubt her aunt meant everything she’d said.

Isabel Trevithick had been the younger sister of Saskia and Benjamin’s late father. She’d been a beauty in her youth. Many men had vied for her hand, but she’d married the second Earl of Abergrave. After his death, she had become the guardian of their son, Edmund. In her position as mother and guardian of the young earl she’d had wealth and influence, but Edmund had been a sickly child. When he’d died the title and inheritance had passed to a distant male relative who’d made only minimal provision for Lady Abergrave. Now the older woman had neither a home nor money of her own. But her late husband had been Benjamin’s guardian and Lady Abergrave had assumed the same role. After her son’s death she’d brought her remaining retinue, including her stepdaughter, Anne, to live in Benjamin’s house.

Saskia had been well aware her aunt resented her reduced circumstances, but until a few minutes ago she’d assumed Lady Abergrave meant to restore her fortunes through a second marriage. Only yesterday her aunt had been flirting with the local magistrate, yet even then Lady Abergrave must have been plotting murder.

Fury surged through Saskia. She started to spring up, intending to seek out and confront her aunt—but almost immediately her anger was overtaken by the terrifying awareness that the first loyalty of every servant in the house was to Lady Abergrave. Saskia’s father had died when Benjamin was sixteen, and her brother had been taken from Trevithick House to live with Lord and Lady Abergrave in Gloucestershire. The old family servants at Trevithick had received pensions under her father’s will. None of the present household remembered Saskia from when she’d lived at Trevithick before her marriage. They all treated Lady Abergrave as if she was the mistress of the household, rather than her nephew’s guest. Saskia didn’t dare trust any of them.

Anne opened her mouth to speak. Saskia shook her head, afraid they might be overheard. She glanced both ways and then pulled Anne to her feet and all but dragged her across the path and into the shelter of the band of woodland separating the house from the river.

‘What are we going to do?’ Anne whispered desperately.

‘If we could only get Benjamin out of the house…’ But Saskia dismissed the idea before she’d finished the sentence. Her brother’s broken leg was in splints and his bedroom was on the first floor. They’d never be able to get him out without attracting attention. And if Tancock and Lady Abergrave discovered them, Saskia knew her fate—and Benjamin’s—would be sealed.

‘I have to get help.’ Saskia gazed intently at Anne, trying to gauge the girl’s mood. ‘Will you come with me?’

‘I…what will be best? I don’t want to leave Benjamin.’

‘Nor do I. But unless I go now, he’ll be in deadly danger. Do you understand?’ Saskia had realised what was implicit in Lady Abergrave’s conversation with Tancock. ‘As long as I’m alive, there is no benefit to my aunt if Benjamin dies before his twenty-first birthday, because in that case our father’s will leaves everything to me—and my own will is already written and it does not leave anything to her. It is only if I die first and then Benjamin that Aunt Isabel will gain this estate under our father’s will.’

‘I hate her.’ Anne sounded steadier. ‘From the first moment she married my father I have not liked her. Tell me what to do.’

‘Wait a while and then go back into the house without drawing attention to yourself. Follow your normal routine, but retire to bed as soon as possible. Don’t mention me or draw attention to yourself in any way.’ Saskia spoke swiftly as she tried to imagine all eventualities. ‘If anyone asks you about me, act as ignorant and confused as the rest of the household will be when my absence is discovered. But if someone does remember we came for a walk together, say we separated because I had a headache and wanted to sit quietly. If you have a chance, tell Benjamin I will be back with help, but only when you are sure no one will overhear.’

Anne nodded jerkily. ‘Be careful.’

Saskia pulled the girl into a brief hug. She didn’t want to leave Anne behind, but Lady Abergrave had nothing to gain from harming her stepdaughter. Most of the time she barely noticed her. It was Benjamin who was in deadly danger while he was in Lady Abergrave’s power.

Saskia moved cautiously through the woodland sloping down to the river, all her senses attuned to her surroundings. Every tiny snap of a twig beneath her feet sounded like an explosion to her oversensitive ears, but she heard nothing except the normal rustles of small animals in the undergrowth. To her relief, the small quay below the house was deserted. Almost as important, water was still rising on the incoming tide. She untied one of the small boats, climbed in and began to row upstream. She knew she needed to make good progress before the tide turned against her.