The Handmaiden's Necklace. Kat Martin

nodded. “I’m doing my best to like the man, but so far I’m having a devil of a time. There is something about him…. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’ve managed an invitation to join Richard’s hunting party.” Rafe smiled faintly. “Danielle will be traveling to the country, as well.”

      “When is it?”

      “The end of the week.”

      “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

      “What do mean?”

      “I may be on to something. If I’m right, I may need your help.”

      Rafe moved across the room toward Max. “You’ve confirmed the Americans are making a deal with France?”

      “It looks that way. So far I’ve only heard rumors…something to do with a schooner called a Baltimore Clipper.”

      “Indeed?”

      “I’ve got a lead I need to follow up on. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone.”

      “You’ll let me know if there is anything I can do.” According to Max, a man of Rafe’s social standing would be better able to move in upper-class circles, thereby gaining access to the men who were privy to the needed information.

      “I’ll let you know if I need you. In the meantime, you look like you could use some sleep.”

      Rafe nodded, more weary than he should have been. “Good luck, Max.” Rafe headed for his bedroom, leaving Max to disappear as he usually did.

      As Rafe undressed, his mind returned to the earlier hours of the evening and the unsettling events he had seen.

      His arrival at Mrs. Clemens’s home had been early enough to see Danielle with Richard’s children. They were spoiled little wretches, raised without manners, and mostly left to run out of control. Worse yet, from what Richard had said to Dani, he didn’t intend to allow her the slightest say in their upbringing.

      Rafe believed the children would be far better off if Danielle took a hand. She had always been good with youngsters. They had planned to have a large family of their own. At the afternoon tea he had attended, he had watched her with several of the orphans, who seemed to adore her, as he could have guessed they would.

      But Richard seemed too dictatorial to see the good she could do his offspring. It made Rafe wonder…what else would he be unbending about?

      Rafe slid beneath the sheets trying to imagine what sort of future Dani would have with Richard Clemens.

      Rafe wanted her to be happy.

      He had to be certain marrying Richard Clemens would bring her the happiness she deserved.

      Eight

      Dani heard nothing from Rafael. Determined to discover the reason he continued to interfere in her life and hoping she could dissuade him from accompanying them to the country, she had sent a note to where he was staying at the William Penn Hotel. She had requested a meeting, but received no reply and wondered if perhaps he had gone out of town.

      Dani hoped so.

      As she awaited the arrival of Richard’s carriage that Friday morning, she prayed Rafe had changed his mind and would not be joining them, now or any time in the future.

      Aunt Flora had declined to make the trip, but a number of married women would be in attendance so there was no need for a chaperone, and Caro was accompanying her, acting as her lady’s maid but actually there for support. Since Dani had only just met the other women and she barely knew Richard, it was good to have a friend along.

      Richard’s carriage finally arrived for the journey to Jacob Wentz’s country house, nearly twenty miles away. The three-hour ride, Danielle hoped, would give her the chance for a bit of conversation with her fiancé.

      Unfortunately, once they were on the road, Richard slept most of the way.

      They reached the house in the early afternoon, a large stone residence surrounded by acres of rolling green fields and patches of dense green forest.

      “It’s lovely,” she said, staring through the carriage window at the countryside that reminded her a little of home.

      Richard smiled from the seat beside her. “We’ll have to consider buying a place like this for ourselves. Would you like that, darling?”

      She turned to look at him. “I’ve always loved the country.”

      “And it would be good for the children, as well.”

      “Yes, I think it might be.” Anything to get them away from their overindulgent grandmother. Perhaps they would have the chance to be a family after all. The family she never thought to have.

      Her spirits lifted. They went into the residence, a large house with low, beamed ceilings in the main rooms and plaster fireplaces tall enough for her to walk into. There were hooked rugs on the wood-planked floors, and each of the guest rooms had a lovely four-poster bed. When she went upstairs, she found Caro pulling a trundle out from beneath the bed in the room the two of them would share.

      “It’s very nice.” Caro smiled as she glanced round the bedchamber. As she walked over to the open window, a breeze blew fine blond curls loose from their pins and fluffed them around her narrow face. “There’s a lovely view of the garden and the hills at the edge of the valley.”

      Dani walked over to see them. Instead, as she peered out the window, her gaze snagged on the tall man riding up the lane, mounted on a lean gray horse. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew who it was, recognized the confident way he sat his mount, the width and straightness of his shoulders.

      “Rafael is here,” she said softly, drawing Caro’s attention.

      “The man on the dappled gray horse?”

      She swallowed. “Yes.”

      Though Dani had told her friend a good deal about him, Caro had never seen Rafael. He drew closer, his face coming partially into view.

      “Oh, my…”

      “Exactly,” Dani said. There wasn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t be impressed by Rafael. Aside from his dark good looks and impressive, broad-shouldered physique, there was simply something about him, the way he carried himself, the way he looked at a woman, giving her his complete attention as if she were the only female in the room. Dani watched him continue down the lane until he disappeared behind the high hedge surrounding the garden, riding toward the front of the house.

      “Well, he is here,” Caro said practically. “You will simply have to accept the fact.” She turned away from the window and a bright smile bloomed on her face. “On the good side, you wished to speak to him, discover his intentions, whatever they may be. Perhaps you will now have the chance.”

      Dani dragged her gaze away from the window. “I suppose you are right. He has played the gentleman so far. Since my presence seems to have no effect on him, I shall simply behave the same way.” Still, she wished he hadn’t come, wished that he would turn round and go back to England where he belonged.

      It was late in the afternoon. Danielle was wandering the pathways through the garden, meandering along, in no real hurry to get back to the house when she spotted the duke striding toward her, a determined look on his face. It deepened the faint cleft in his chin, made his eyes look a deeper shade of blue. Her heart stuttered, set up an erratic clatter.

      “I apologize,” he said, stopping on the path directly in front of her. “I’m afraid I didn’t get your note until late last night. Apparently, the desk clerk put it into the wrong box.”

      “I thought that perhaps you were out of town on business.”

      Rafe’s smile softened, lifting the edges of his full, sensuous mouth. It was the sort of smile she hadn’t seen since before that awful night five years ago and it made her heart kick into a higher gear.