Page 27 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge (Safely in Scotland #3)

H arlow woke with a smile, despite the soreness in her muscles and other delicious places. She waited as she’d done the day before, for some feeling of regret but was met with nothing but disappointment that she would need to wait the entire day to be with him again.

One thing was for certain, she was going to marry someone soon. She couldn’t imagine going back to the life of a spinster after Reese had shown her how exciting intimacy could be.

She practically floated down the stairs to the breakfast room, excited to see the man responsible for making her feel so satisfied. She only faltered slightly when she found the room in the same state as she had the day before, without the earl.

She greeted the countess with a smile and took her seat. A footman covered her lap with a napkin and set a plate before her as another footman did the same for the woman seated at the end of the table.

“Are we not going to wait for Lord Breckenridge?” she asked. She knew Reese had hidden away the day before so not to deal with his mother’s schemes, but she’d thought he’d cast that plan aside so as not to abandon her.

“The earl is not in residence so we will eat without him or starve.”

Harlow blinked at the woman who had taken a knife and fork to her meal.

“Is he walking Belle early this morning?” Belle had not returned to the house after Harlow had let her out earlier that morning.

“No. He’s gone to Inverness on business.”

“Oh, I see,” Harlow said, though she did not see. She’d found the night before to be wonderful, and he was avoiding her yet again. No, even worse, he wasn’t even in the castle. He’d left her here.

She wanted to think it was his mother he was evading, but why would he have gone so far away that they wouldn’t even have their nights alone?

After breakfast, Harlow walked along the garden path with the dog, as the countess disliked all things outdoors. Belle slunk along beside Harlow as if she missed the man as well.

“He just left us without so much as a note or a word of goodbye.” Harlow twisted her mouth to the side. “I suppose he might have said farewell to you for you would have likely been out when he left.”

She wondered if speaking to a dog was a bad sign. When Belle whined, she thought maybe it wasn’t so bad if the dog spoke back.

“I miss him too,” she said. “When he returns, he and I must talk.”

Belle’s scruffy ears perked up and she launched toward the steps that went down to the ocean.

“Belle! I said talk not walk.” But that only hurried Belle along faster.

Soon she was gone down the stairs. Harlow stood at the top looking down at the stone steps leading down to the beach.

They were still damp from yesterday’s rain.

Harlow had never traversed them without Reese to assist, but the earl wasn’t there and if his dog got hold of something on the beach and became ill, Harlow would feel quite guilty for not braving a flight of stairs to keep it from happening.

Looking over her shoulder she took the first step and then the next. She’d turned to the side so there was more space for her foot and was going step by step. At this pace it might take all day for her to get down to the sand, but she was making progress.

When the dog began barking in earnest, Harlow winced.

What creature had the dog cornered and what damage could be done?

In a hurry now, she’d turned to pick up the pace, but slipped, her previously injured ankle holding firm but she was unable to gain traction.

She stumbled down three steps and reached out to catch herself on the railing, but the wood couldn’t hold a grown woman moving at such a rate of speed.

She found herself falling. For a moment she seemed to hang in the air, but then her body slammed against a rock and then another. She reached out, grasping for anything to stop her descent to the roaring waves and jagged rocks below.

Gripping onto a ledge, she found herself hanging and swinging in the breeze. Sparing a glance down, she regretted it instantly when she realized if she let go she would fall to her death.

Her kid gloves had provided some protection from the stone edge, but they were not made for their grip. She was slipping, and she was not strong enough to pull herself back up. Looking straight ahead toward the cliff she saw a wider ledge that housed a few nests of mud and grass.

She hoped she would not dislodge any inhabitants, but it was her only chance. With her final bit of strength, she swung over to the ledge and landed with an umph.

The shorter ledge was tilted away from the stairs, but was deep enough that she could sit or even lay down if she needed to. She hoped she wouldn’t need to.

*

Reese urged his horse faster. It was growing dark and he wanted to be home in time for supper. Not only because he was near to starving, but because he wanted to apologize to Harlow for having left her without a word.

He’d no sooner arrived in Inverness than he realized he shouldn’t have come.

After his bad dreams where Harlow left him to marry another, Reese had fallen asleep again only to be haunted by Merrick. While he wasn’t able to do anything about Harlow, he thought he might be able to exorcise the ghost of Merrick if he could help catch the man.

But Reese was no longer an agent, and his being seen there could very well hamper the mission for the other agents to find Merrick. So he’d left to return home.

Every mile he grew closer to home, the more he wanted to see Harlow and apologize for leaving her without a word.

Surely his mother would have something to say about him running off without word of his plans to return. He’d face her if it meant spending the night with Harlow. He’d tried once again to put distance between them only to be pulled back to her like metal filings to a magnet.

When he took the hill that gave him his first glimpse of Slains Castle, he almost thought it was aflame at first. But then he noticed it was only that light came from nearly every window.

The reflection of flames on the stone were coming from torches. At least three of them flitted about the garden.

“What the devil?” he whispered as he urged his horse into motion again.

Upon pulling up his mount in front of the castle, no one seemed to give the master of the house a bit of attention.

He waved down a young boy who worked in the stable.

“What has happened?”

“’Tis the lady, my lord. She’s missing.”

“Which lady?” Reese demanded. It shouldn’t have mattered. Even if it were his mother, he would be concerned. Or he thought he would. If given enough time.

“The young one.”

Harlow was missing? Had she left to go home? Perhaps in light of staying there with only his mother for company she’d given up on her quest for vengeance and returned to London. But she would have needed funds. And a carriage.

“Are any of the horses or carriages missing?” he asked the lad who was taking his horse away.

“Nay, my lord. All’s accounted for ’sept this gent. And now he’s home too.”

It didn’t mean Harlow didn’t leave, but if she had, she’d gone under her own power so she couldn’t have gone far.

Rather than speak to the lad about the situation, Reese made for the stairs. He found the inside of the castle as active as outside. He spotted someone who might be able to share the details.

“Finch.”

“Oh, my lord. I’m that glad ye’ve returned. Lady Harlow is missing. Last anyone saw her was this morning after breakfast. She went out to the gardens with Belle and didn’t return.”

“And Belle?” he asked because if the dog was missing as well, at least he knew Harlow wasn’t completely unprotected.

“She showed up alone by the kitchen door this afternoon.” The man pointed toward his study where Belle liked to nap. “She’s fine, but I wish she could talk for she might have seen something.”

Reese nodded.

“We only noticed Lady Harlow wasn’t in the house when she didn’t come down for supper. A maid took a tray up to her as we figured she’d be hungry for missing the noon meal. But she wasn’t in her room.”

“My mother?”

“She’s in the solar. She’s not seen the lass since this morning.”

Reese hurried toward the solar to find his mother sitting by the window with her needlepoint in hand, though she wasn’t actively working on it.

“What did you do?” he accused when she turned to him.

“Me? Why would you think I did anything to the lass?”

“I don’t think ye did anything to her. But did ye say something to make her want to flee Slains? If you were pestering the woman about marriage again, I’ll put you out on your ear.”

“It is nice to see how much trust and love you have for me, Son.” She rolled her eyes.

Reese had no patience for sarcasm or dramatics.

“Mother.”

“I didn’t say anything. We spoke at breakfast, and I don’t even recall what the topic was. Just pleasantries. Nothing about marriage.”

Reese didn’t know if he believed that for it seemed to be the only thing the woman could talk about of late. Still, he didn’t think Harlow would leave because his mother pressured her about marriage. Lo was made of sterner stuff than that.

She wouldn’t be reckless enough to set off on foot, no matter how mad she may have been. Which meant she didn’t leave.

“If she didn’t leave, she is still on the grounds.”

“Unless someone took her,” his mother mentioned with genuine worry.

Reese wasn’t one for mathematics but even he knew the odds of Harlow being kidnapped twice in shy of two months was unlikely. Merrick didn’t know she was at his home. He probably thought her dead. Which means he wouldn’t have come looking for her.

Reese would start with the most rational place she could be. In the garden. As he descended the stairs, his stomach twisted with worry. The fact that Harlow hadn’t returned to the house by now meant she wasn’t able to. Which meant she was injured, or…

He shook his head. He’d not allow that thought to take root. He was going to find her and she would be fine. She had to be.

Yet even as he headed down the main corridor, he knew it was not a good sign that Belle had returned alone.

Stopping in the study he saw the dog lying in front of the unlit hearth. As if waiting for him. Her head picked up when he entered the room.

“She’s been worrying by the door, but every time we leave her out she runs for the steps to the beach and then comes right back.” Finch shrugged.

Reese cocked his head, knowing his dog was bright and knew not to go down to the beach without him.

“Was Belle wet when she showed up at the kitchen?” Reese asked the butler, having had an idea.

“Aye. I guess she was. She must have been down…” He turned to Reese with wide eyes. “Ye don’t think the lass went down to the beach by herself, do you? We’ve not checked there. She’s never gone down there without you.”

Reese cut through the drawing room to the terrace.

He crossed the lawn to the stone steps that led down to the beach.

It was too dark now to see down to the shore but he knew the tide would be coming in.

He recalled seeing her lying on the sand with the waves crashing around her legs and worried he’d find her in the same state as before. Or worse.

Taking a lantern from Finch, he started carefully down the steps. He paused at the third landing where the stairs turned, for the banister was missing.

His heart nearly came out of his throat to see the splintered wood. If she’d fallen from here she would have surely landed on the large boulders strewn across that part of the beach.

“Oh, dear,” Finch said.

“Harlow!” Reese shouted. His stomach twisted when the only answer to his call was the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. He set the lantern down so he could cup his hands around his mouth and yelled again. “Harlow!”

He tilted his head, listening. He thought he heard her voice, but wasn’t sure if in his worry, he’d imagined it.

He went down another flight of stairs and called, “Harlow!”

Please answer , he begged. But there was no response.