Cinders and Ashes (16 page)

She
didn’t add that it was the same way Dominic looked at her when he
wanted to take her to bed.

Amelia’s
heart clenched in her chest with a mixture of longing and dread.
She shook her head sadly. “He doesn’t love me. He might desire me,
but it isn’t love.” Amelia’s voice trembled at the last.

“
Believe me, Amelia, unless Sebastian had every intention of
keeping you, he would not have brought you home with him,” Isobel
announced, grasping her friend’s hand comfortingly. “He may not
admit it outright just yet, but he will.”

Amelia
shook her head. “We have slept together, but I won’t be his whore
and I am not worthy to be his wife. He deserves better.”

“
Have you murdered someone?” Isobel murmured softly,
unsurprised when Amelia shook her head. “Are you already married?”
When Amelia shook her head again, she patted Amelia’s hand before
releasing it.

“
Then unless you have some fatal disease, you are most
eminently suitable for Sebastian. He just has to admit his feelings
to you.” Her eyes caught and held Amelia’s. “The Cavendish men
don’t succumb easily. I had to be practically dead before Dominic
declared his feelings for me.”

“
Dead?” Amelia murmured weakly, looking at the healthy glow of
her friend opposite. She couldn’t imagine Isobel looking anything
less than stunningly beautiful.

“
Sit back and relax. We are going to be a while, and I have a
story to tell you,” Isobel said, and settled back to recount the
events of her own tumultuous journey to happiness with
Dominic.

“
Where the hell are they?” Sebastian slammed the front door
shut again, and stomped back towards the library with a fierce
scowl on his face. “They should have been here hours
ago.”

“
They are in a carriage,” Peter reasoned, shaking his head at
Sebastian’s clear devotion to the mysteriously alluring Amelia. “It
is going to take them longer to get here as they are coming by
road. Just relax, Hughes is driving. He is the most experienced
coachman in the county. They couldn’t be in better
hands.”

Despite
his words, Peter knew he was talking to himself. Sebastian was busy
pacing around the room like a caged lion, muttering dire
imprecations to himself for allowing the ladies to travel alone.
Dominic had taken to staring moodily out of the front windows,
watching the drive avidly for any sign of movement.

Dominic
understood Sebastian’s tension. He knew Isobel well, and her
penchant for going gung ho into dangerous situations. He could
still remember the palpable fear he had felt when they had searched
her uncle’s house in the middle of the night. She hadn’t seemed all
that perturbed by the experience, while he had been left a
quivering wreck.

If
Amelia was anything like Isobel for her adventurous spirit, heaven
knew what they were up to.

“
We’ll give them half an hour. If they are not here by then,
I’m going out to look for them,” Dominic declared, already planning
the lecture he would give his wayward wife the next time he saw
her.

“
Here they are,” Edward exclaimed with a sigh of relief, when
the coach turned into the driveway. He briefly considered making
himself scarce while Dominic and Sebastian berated the women for
their, well, lateness? Shaking his head, he was only glad he hadn’t
got a troublesome female to tie him into knots.

Dominic
and Sebastian had already left the house to stand at the top of the
steps to wait for the carriage to pull to a stop. They practically
bristled with masculine fury.

“
Missed us?” Isobel asked with a careless smile, ignoring her
dark scowl on her husband’s face. Nudging the step down with an
elegant foot, she stepped out of the carriage, dragging the huge
basket of food with her, which she deposited with a thud at her
husband’s feet. “Be a love and take that inside, would you? We have
more.”

She
moved away as Amelia emerged from the carriage, dragging another
heavily laden basket with her.

“
I only put one basket into the carriage this morning,”
Sebastian snapped, not willing to let go of his worry until he had
them safely inside. With the door shut and locked tightly. With him
holding the key.

“
We stopped off in the village. It was market day, so we
bought some more fruit and some wonderful game pies. They smell
just heavenly,” Amelia replied, still astonished at the veritable
feast Isobel had casually purchased in the village. She was certain
they had bought out most of the contents of the food stalls
there.

Copying
Isobel, she pushed the basket at Sebastian, who immediately
relieved her of the heavy burden and followed her as she swept
inside without a care.

He
wasn’t sure whether to be angry or bemused. He had been worrying
himself until he was practically grey, and she had been on a
shopping expedition for food they didn’t need. He should be angry
for the stress and worry she had caused him.

But a
small voice inside reminded him of the dire way she had been
living. He really couldn’t find it within him to begrudge her, if
she wanted to sample the delights of a well-stocked food basket.
There must be foods in there that Amelia had not had in years, if
ever.

His
worry simply vanished as he dropped the basket beside Dominic’s
equally large burden. Instead he watched the ladies remove their
cloaks, discussing which rooms they would open, and which dust
sheets they would remove.

“
Come on then,” Isobel commanded as she marched towards the
main staircase beside Amelia. “Let’s get some of the bedrooms
ready, and then we will eat while we plan where to start the
search.”

Like a
general marching to battle, she motioned towards the stairs leading
the group of bemused men, who followed her without
question.

Together
they opened five of the bedrooms, just enough to be habitable
overnight. The dust sheets had been removed and fresh sheets put on
the beds, before candles were replenished and water jugs
filled.

“
There,” Isobel announced proudly, as they emptied the last of
the baskets onto the kitchen table. There was enough food to
provide them with a veritable feast for the next few days. Amelia
had never seen so much food in all of her life.

“
Let’s eat.”

They had
decided to eat around the kitchen table where it was easier to
clean up, and they could leave the food out until
morning.

Amelia
remembered she hadn’t eaten since an apple in the carriage, many
hours earlier. She tucked in to a piece of pie hungrily, closing
her eyes as the delicious flavour of the meat and gravy exploded in
her mouth.

While
she had learnt to cook passably for herself and Sir Hubert, nothing
tasted better than food cooked well, by an expert. As she swallowed
the delectable pastry, she slowly ran the tip of her tongue around
her lips in search of crumbs and stray gravy, before slowly taking
another bite, her eyes still closed.

Sebastian sat mesmerised, his own food forgotten in his hand
as he watched her. He was aware of the silence that had settled
over the table, but couldn’t drag his eyes away from the sensual
onslaught of watching Amelia savour her pie. He knew she had a
sensual side to her. Despite her newness to making love, she had
willingly given herself over to sensual bliss time and again. He
just hadn’t realised how naturally sultry she was. Without trying,
apparently.

She
simply had no idea what she was doing not only to him, but to every
other man around the table.

Reluctantly he dragged his gaze away from her pink tongue and
alluring lips, to glance at Peter and Edward who were blatantly
watching the siren-like display with rapt attention. Even Dominic
wasn’t immune as he watched, transfixed, as Amelia took another
bite of her pie.

He
jerked and coughed uncomfortably when his wife nudged him with a
scowl. It was enough to snap everyone out of their
trance.

Including Amelia, who opened her eyes and looked down at her
plate, completely oblivious to the effect she had been having on
the male occupants of the table.

“
Pie nice, Amelia?” Sebastian asked, his voice husky with
arousal. He almost groaned when Amelia’s lambent green gaze met
his, and she smiled in supreme delight.

“
It’s wonderful,” Amelia replied, her voice soft. “I had
forgotten how nice meat pie was.”

Sebastian almost groaned as she took another bite,
immediately lost once more in the delicious food. He had never seen
anyone enjoy their food as thoroughly as Amelia. It made him
realise just how deprived she had been over the past few years.
Despite the aching of his erection, couldn’t resent her
enjoyment.

He would just have to watch where he took her out to dine
when they were married
, Sebastian thought
ruefully.
Or else, he would have to take
his sabre whenever they left the house
.
Shaking his head, he turned back to his own food, glad when the
meal was over.

Earlier,
they had each chosen a room to search. After a few instructions
from Sebastian, they set off to carry out their allotted
tasks.

Amelia
was searching the study. It was a relatively small room, sparsely
furnished but comfortable. According to Sebastian, it was
Benedict’s favourite room in the entire house.

She
decided to start at the window in the far corner and move inwards,
across the room. It felt slightly uncomfortable, poking around
someone else’s house, even if they were dead. The only consolation
was the thought that if something was found, it could help capture
the man responsible for injuring Sebastian so brutally.

She
wasn’t certain how long she had been searching, but the sun had
long since faded when she approached the door, frustration gnawing
at her.

“
Find anything?”

She squeaked and whirled in surprise as Sebastian appeared
silently in the doorway. Her hand rose to cover her thundering
heart, and she tried to calm herself as she eyed his masculine
length.
How did he manage to move so
silently?

She
shook her head regretfully. “Not a thing. Just papers and books.
Lots and lots of books,” she murmured, glancing back at the room.
“Are you sure this isn’t the library?” She had tried to leave it as
she had found it, but it was hard to tell with all of the heavy
tomes lying everywhere.

Sebastian chuckled, thinking of the room he had been
allocated. It had been crammed from floor to ceiling with every
kind of book imaginable.

“
Nope. We have yet to search the library. That is something
requiring all of us.” He smiled at Amelia’s low groan, and fought
the urge to slide his arms around her. “Have you seen the
others?”

No
sooner had the words left his mouth than Edward
appeared.

“
Nothing in my room either. Peter is nearly done and hasn’t
found anything yet,” Edward reported, shaking a fine peppering of
dust off his jacket with a sneeze. “’Scuse me,” he mumbled, his
voice raspy with dust.

Sebastian took hold of Amelia’s elbow and gently guided her
down the corridor towards the dining room, looking inwards as they
passed, to find Dominic regretfully shaking his head.

“
Isobel?” Amelia queried, as the lady in question poked her
head out of the morning room, wiping a speck of dust off her
cheek.

“
Nothing in here either.” Isobel shot the room behind her a
dour look, closing the door with a firm click and a
sneeze.

“
The library it is, then.” Amelia’s voice held a tinge of
reluctance that Sebastian quickly picked up on.

“
If you are tired, why don’t you and Isobel call it a night?
We can search in the morning,” he murmured softly, eyeing the dark
circles under Amelia’s eyes with a frown.

“
No.” Amelia shook her head. There was no way Sebastian was
going to pack her off to bed now. “I’ll help search with the rest
of you.” With that, she pushed the sleeves of her dress higher on
her elbows and, after receiving instruction from Sebastian, set
about searching her corner of the library.

There
were so many books residing on the floor-to-ceiling shelving, they
decided to place each book on the floor once it had been checked
thoroughly, until one shelf was empty. They then replaced that
shelf of books before turning to the next shelf up. It was going to
take hours.

The
clock chimed midnight when Sebastian arched his back with a low
groan and looked at the others. Amelia was practically weaving on
her feet. Typically, she refused to admit to her exhaustion and
carried on regardless.

Isobel
was fast asleep in a winged-back chair beside the fire. Edward and
Peter had long since given up caring, and had taken to casually
tossing the books around in the hope something jumped out at
them.

“
Wait,” Amelia exclaimed, moved swiftly across the room.
Quickly she picked up the book Edward had casually tossed onto the
floor. Beside it lay a small, red pouch. Holding both in her hands
carefully, she moved toward the table, clearing enough space to
accommodate the book and pouch side by side.