The Disgraceful Lord Gray Read online

  ‘It was worth a try.’ He felt Warriner’s hand on his shoulder. ‘Come on. Let’s get those lanterns.’ His friend’s enforced optimism was not mirrored on his face.

  Inside the house, it appeared everyone was back and, judging by the grim expressions, nobody had located her. Someone pressed a glass into his hand. ‘We’ll find her.’ Harriet’s voice, lacking its usual certainty, cut through the silence of the room. ‘Remember, Thea is fearless.’

  She was. She’d been braver than him. And now, thanks to him, she was in danger. His eyes wandered around the room. Gislingham sat with Bertie, utterly distraught. Hadleigh, Warriner and Leatham in the corner, talking in hushed voices. Trying to spare him from hearing the potential truth. Harriet...

  ‘What the blazes!’ Lord Fennimore almost fell over Trefor, who was sat in the middle of the room. ‘Why does that blasted dog always sniff the air?’

  ‘Come here, boy.’ But Trefor refused to budge. His head was tilted back, his shiny black nostrils were twitching and he was inhaling deeply almost as if he was in a trance. ‘Trefor!’ Gray patted his thigh. ‘Come here, boy.’

  Instead of obeying, the dog began to bark. Agitated and pawing the ground, he stared at Gray for several seconds, then he was off like a shot down the stairs, barking all the way. Trying not to hope, Gray followed him to the Viscountess’s sitting room, watched the dog circle the room with his nose to the rug, then sit and whine outside one of the concealed servants’ doors in the panelling.

  Praying for a miracle, he pulled it open. ‘Fetch Thea, boy!’ He watched transfixed as the dog hurtled along the passageway as if he knew exactly where he was going, when Gray knew for a fact neither of them had ever set foot here before. ‘This way!’ he bellowed the instruction to Hadleigh, who had followed them downstairs. ‘Bring lanterns! And guns!’

  Alone, Gray followed his dog, trying not to get impatient each time the animal paused and quietly sniffed the air, instead making a fuss of him while repeating the command, Fetch Thea, in case he got waylaid by any other scent or distraction as he was prone to do. At the boundary of the spitting Colonel Purbeck’s vast estate, Trefor sat, then began to pace a slow circle, his sensitive nose never leaving the ground.

  As the others all arrived bearing light and weapons, and, in the Viscount’s case, canes, he motioned for them to stay well back, not wanting their scents to contaminate whatever trace of Thea’s intoxicating jasmine remained.

  After an eternity, during which Gray’s heart loudly hammered in his head because he was too frightened to breath out, Trefor set off again. He ran for a good quarter of a mile towards the strange house, then Gray watched the animal disappear down what appeared to be a genuine pothole.

  * * *

  Caro froze at the sound of an animal’s whining. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘A fox, I think.’ Or, please God, a dog. A black one with floppy ears and an irritating, deceitful master who Thea had been silently willing to find her since she had been frogmarched out of Caro’s cloying, soulless sitting room. Now that it was dark outside her aunt was becoming more twitchy, craning her ears at every sound and constantly unlocking the heavy oak door, checking outside for her rescuers.

  ‘It’s a long way from midnight. They won’t be here yet. Why don’t you sit down?’ They were apparently coming along the brook, an irony that was not lost on Thea, and would smuggle Caro out on the water. A plan that had been made over a year ago. A plan that had been rehearsed repeatedly. How could such things happen in such a quiet corner of Suffolk and someone with as suspicious a nature as Thea’s not notice? Clearly, she had atrocious instincts all around.

  Caro began to pace again, her finger never leaving the trigger. ‘I hate foxes. I wish the damn thing would shut up.’ Absently she tossed the heavy key on the rickety table where the only lamp burned. The key Thea had been desperate to get her hands on since they had arrived. ‘They’ll be here! It’s more than their scurvy lives are worth to double-cross me! They know that.’ Another mantra the woman kept repeating, as if reassuring herself of her own power. ‘I’ll have the lot of them killed!’ She pulled out the timepiece again, stared at the dial and then snapped it shut, oblivious to the scant few inches Thea had managed to move closer to the table in the brief bit of time. ‘They’ll be here. They’ll be here.’

  The animal whined again and her aunt instinctively started towards the door to investigate, allowing Thea to shuffle closer to the key.

  ‘Not so fast, dearest!’ The barrel raised again as her aunt spotted what she was up to. ‘Sit still and stop being a nuisance, there’s a good girl.’ The key disappeared back into her pocket again accompanied by a smug smile.

  ‘Gray will come for me.’ Despite wanting to hate him, Thea knew that in her bones. ‘His men have probably blocked every road. They will search every property.’ At least that is what she guessed government agents did. ‘They’ll have boats on the water, too. I’ve never seen so many Excise Men.’

  ‘He’ll be too busy clapping your uncle and his molly in irons to give you a second thought and, by the time he does, I’ll be long gone. You were a means to an end, dearest.’

  True, but aspects of his behaviour last night kept niggling. The fervency. The selfless passion. He had thoroughly adored every inch of her and not allowed her to repay him. The intense emotion swirling in those troubled, wolf-like eyes. Almost as if he hated himself for lying.

  Just remember I love you. Always. No matter what. No matter how dire things are or how bad they seem.

  Well, things were about as dire as it was possible for them to be, so dire that she was now clinging on to the pathetic hope that he at least cared enough about her to come looking. In the meantime, all she had to do was stay alive and find a way to get either that key or the gun.

  ‘If Gray doesn’t come, then Mr Hargreaves will. He’s in love with me.’ Seeing as patience, cunning and obedience had failed to give her any chance to escape, she might as well try riling Caro. The woman was already quite irrational. In anger, she might make a mistake and provide an opening. Thea knew only too well how irrationally an angry mind behaved. ‘He told me so only last week at your garden party. He wants to marry me. Which is odd, considering he warms your bed, don’t you think? Perhaps it’s your age that’s putting him off?’ A gentle kick in her Achilles heel. ‘Men always prefer a younger woman. Especially as they all want to sire a son.’

  ‘Shut up!’

  ‘Why? I have nothing to lose, do I? Seeing as you are going to kill me regardless, I might as well be honest in my final hours. I have no cause to spare your feelings now, nor am I particularly inclined to. Let’s face it, you were a means to an end to Mr Hargreaves. He wanted a way to get close to me and your pathetic desperation to be adored by any man in possession of a pulse allowed him to do it. He mentioned he hated your wrinkles...’

  ‘I said shut up!’ Her aunt had stalked forward, the pistol pointed menacingly. Refusing to be cowed any longer, and mindful that she couldn’t make any sort of move glued to the floor, Thea stood defiantly.

  ‘Do you know you’re pitied by all our neighbours? They all whisper about you behind your back. The poor barren Viscountess. How sad. Nothing going for her except that once-pretty face. If only they knew the whole truth. That the only way you could get any man to marry you was by blackmail! Do your loyal men know that? I’ll bet none of them turns up to save you. Why would they? You were nothing but a means to an end.’

  As Caro lunged, Thea went for the gun, holding her aunt’s arm to the side to avoid getting shot. She felt the other woman’s fingers in her hair, felt them twist and pull hard, heard the ominous click before the trigger was squeezed, then saw bright light as her head was smashed against the wall.

  Except the bright light never went. Out of it came Gray. He barrelled into her aunt and sent her sprawling on the floor amid what sounded like frantic barking alongside the ominous gunshot
.

  Thea couldn’t see what happened next through the streaming army that followed him into the icehouse. Lanterns, noise, more barking as she swayed, struggling to focus on the sea of moving faces swarming in front of her.

  ‘We’ve got her!’ A stranger. Her aunt’s howl as she struggled. Muffled as they overpowered her.

  Trefor’s pitiful howling.

  ‘Good grief, is that blood?’ Her uncle.

  ‘He’s wounded!’ Lord Fennimore. ‘Leatham! Get a physician!’

  Finally, the scene came sharply into view.

  Gray. Face down. Unmoving.

  Time stood still.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Thea threw herself on the ground to get to him. ‘Gray! Wake up! Wake up!’ A crimson circle of blood was blooming through his coat at his shoulder. He groaned and it was the most perfect sound she had ever heard. ‘He’s alive! Somebody help him.’

  Two men stepped forward who seemed to know what they were doing far more than she did and reluctantly she stepped back and watched impotently as they gently cut off his coat and turned him around. Twice his eyes fluttered open and twice she watched them close again, his normally tanned face waxy pale.

  ‘Is he dead?’ Please God, don’t let him be dead. Not when it had taken so long to find him.

  ‘Not yet.’ But Hadleigh’s expression didn’t hold out much hope as the man she loved was loaded on to a stretcher and carried away, his loyal dog practically glued to his side.

  * * *

  ‘The bullet has gone straight through.’ Lord Fennimore patted her hand reassuringly on the sofa several agonising hours later. They had locked her out of the bedchamber. For the best, with hindsight, because Thea had been an inconsolable mess.

  ‘Is that a good thing?’

  ‘In my experience, they’re better out than in.’

  ‘But will he survive?’

  ‘He’d better. I’m too old and too busy to command the Invisibles.’ He turned as the lawyer stepped into the room. ‘How’s the patient, Hadleigh?’

  ‘Awake and in high dudgeon. He wants to see you.’ The blond man gestured for Thea to come closer, pointing to his ruined cravat. ‘He demanded it, actually. Quite forcefully. He’s been in a dreadful state since you went missing. Something he will undoubtedly blame himself for when it is me who should shoulder it all. It was my idea to break into the Hall last night. Gray was dead set against it and only came to protect you. It was also my clumsy, disrespectful words you overheard this morning. I was playing to the gallery and had no idea how he felt about you or that you would ever overhear. I apologise wholeheartedly for all the distress I have caused you, Miss Cranford. If it is any consolation at all, I think he loves you.’

  ‘Oh, I know he does,’ said Harriet with a dramatic sigh. ‘The man leapt in front of a bullet meant for her. A true leap of love. He was prepared to sacrifice himself so that Thea lived. As grand gestures go, they don’t get much grander than that.’

  ‘Indeed they don’t. Don’t you remember what I’ve always said? True love is the greatest joy in the world and worth all the hideous turmoil in the long run.’ Uncle Edward gripped Bertie’s hand and the pair smiled a little watery-eyed at one another, still not quite over the trials of the day, but obviously relieved they would not have to stand trial themselves. Lord Hadleigh and Lord Fennimore had given their word. ‘He loves you, Thea. Trust me—nothing else matters more.’

  Thea dashed from her uncle’s sitting room to the bedchamber beyond, emotion clogging her throat as she saw him propped on pillows, deathly pale but thankfully alive. Their eyes locked and then his dropped.

  ‘I’m so sorry. For everything.’

  He reached for her hand and squeezed it hard, reassuring her that he had plenty of life left in him, thank goodness. ‘Don’t be.’ It had been a grand gesture after all. The grandest. The sort that melted away all doubt. ‘Things always happen for a reason, even if the reason for them is not immediately apparent. If you hadn’t lied, then we wouldn’t have fought. And if we hadn’t fought, my uncle and Bertie would have been accused of crimes they didn’t commit and you wouldn’t have caught the true criminal.’

  ‘I don’t care about any of that. All I care about is you... And me. If there is still a you and me.’ He tugged their entwined hands to rest possessively on his chest. Beneath her palm she could feel his heart beat, sure and steady, secure in the knowledge it beat solely for her.

  ‘You lied to me.’

  ‘I had to. That doesn’t make it right. If I could do it all again...’

  Thea silenced him with a kiss.

  ‘You forgive me?’

  Her uncle was right, true love was the greatest joy in the world and worth all the hideous turmoil in the long run. That didn’t mean she couldn’t make him sweat a little. She sat back and disentangled her hand from his. ‘Lord Gray, I have found no reason to reappraise my initial assessment of you. You are a chancer and a ne’er-do-well. A man with scant regard for the proper rules of society. A man who lives wholly in the moment without any thought to the consequences. A disgraceful scoundrel of the first order...and I speak for both myself and Impetuous Thea when I say we wouldn’t have you any other way.’

  She watched her words sink in. Watched him smile that cocky smile he did so well. ‘Then I have a question for you.’

  Her heart danced. ‘What sort of question?’ He was going to propose. She could feel it in her bones.

  ‘An important one...’ As his voice dropped to an intimate whisper, Thea found herself leaning closer. ‘One that frankly terrifies me... One I’ve been running away from for the better part of ten years...but the thing is, I’ve recently had cause to re-evaluate everything I’ve come to believe, face my fears and...’

  ‘And?’ Her lips were inches from his, so close they heated with awareness and longing.

  ‘I was wondering if you would...?’

  ‘Would what?’

  ‘Consider...’ She had dreamed of this moment. A perfect proposal from her perfect mate. ‘Consider making some plans?’

  ‘Plans? Plans?’ His eyes were dancing with mischief, the wretch, because he knew exactly how to vex her. ‘I want more than plans, you scoundrel. At the very least, I want promises. Blood-sworn, granite and solemn promises. Of the forever kind.’

  A wet black nose appeared from nowhere and sandwiched itself between them. Two big, manipulative chocolate eyes gazed adoringly up at them before he wiggled on to the mattress and presented his belly to the ceiling for a rub.

  ‘And I want Trefor. That is not negotiable. And a summer wedding. And babies. Plural. Disgraceful dark-haired boys and fiery redheaded girls. And I want to see some of the world. Have a few adventures. With you, of course. And I want an exercise yard full of horses. And long summer days filled with laughter and long winter nights wrapped in your arms.’

  ‘That’s a great many ands. Is that all of them?’ His finger had begun to wind itself in one of her vertical curls.

  ‘And I’d like to see you naked and cavorting in the brook again, but I’m prepared to make Impetuous Thea wait till you’re better for that one.’

  ‘I might struggle with the brook, but I can’t deny poor Impetuous Thea the rest of her request. Not when she’s been shut in a box for years.’ Despite being pale, weak as a kitten and clearly in no fit state to be indulging in anything energetic, her man always found tremendous joy in the moment. To her delight, he whipped back the sheet and then lay back with a wolfish grin, mirroring his charming mutt’s scandalous pose. ‘For the record, in case there is any doubt whatsoever, I would be delighted to have her vouch for my credentials whenever she sees fit.’ Something she did as soon as he was better. Rather a lot.

  * * *

  If you enjoyed this story read the other books in

  The King’s Elite miniseries

  The Mysterious Lord M
illcroft

  The Uncompromising Lord Flint

  And while you’re waiting for the final book in

  The King’s Elite miniseries

  why not check out

  The Wild Warriners miniseries?

  Starting with

  A Warriner to Protect Her

  A Warriner to Rescue Her

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