The Vanishing at Loxby Manor, Abigail Wilson [best value ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Piers angled his chin. “Then tell me this, Tony. When Kendal was flat on his back in the garden, I ran across a particularnote—the one you delivered, no doubt.” Piers couldn’t stop a slight smile. “Within the text were the words loyalty pledge. I saw something similar in a book my father keeps hidden in our library. Perhaps you can save me the trouble of ferretingit back out. What does the term mean within the Gormogons?”

“You opened Kendal’s letter?”

Piers lifted his eyebrows. “The one Hugh brought you, correct?”

Tony slapped his leg. “Dash it all, Cavanagh! You were always too clever for your own good. Listen, you two, you can stopyour games. I’ll tell you what I know, but it isn’t much.

“I joined the group on a whim. Actually, Hugh got me involved. I had a little trouble with a lady friend of mine, you see.”He adjusted his collar. “I agreed to pledge myself to the betterment of the society and my troubles went away. Simple as that.”

“How did you pledge yourself?”

“Each Gormogon member holds a damaging secret provided to them by a new member. Except for me, because I was the last oneto join our small party. Avery holds my pledge and Kendal has Hugh’s. I know that. The secret has to be of great importance,evidence that would cost the person his livelihood, standing in society, or worse. Avery is my ‘secret bearer.’ If I betraythe group in any way, he can choose to expose my secret.” Tony ran his hand along his forehead. “Which is entirely possiblesince I’ve told you both all of this.”

Piers shook his head. “With my father a former member and my brother involved, you can hardly be found liable.”

I leaned in. “What if a person wants to join, and they don’t have a secret?”

Tony dipped his chin. “Everyone has a secret.”

My chest felt heavy, and I looked away, a mix of shock and embarrassment pumping through my veins. Tony was right in a way.Even I had a secret.

I only hoped one of the gentlemen didn’t see through the unease crawling across my face. To my great relief, neither saida word. That is, not until Piers and I were alone in the curricle on the road back to Loxby.

He slowed the horses to a walk, then halted them altogether beneath the sweeping branches of a nearby elm. He said nothingat first.

The sun had only intensified over the hour we’d been at Grovesly, and I retrieved my fan from my reticule. “Why have we stopped?”

“You looked a little green back there.”

I gave a rather unconvincing laugh. “I don’t know what you mean.”

A knit formed on his brow. “You’re a puzzle to me in so many ways, Charity. You always have been. When you were young, I thoughtyou quiet and shy, then came to learn you were full of imagination and curiosity. You were the only one who would listen tomy lectures about the plants in the garden. You came nearly every afternoon to visit Seline, yet more often than not I foundyou wandering my garden alone. Were you always waiting for me?”

My face felt impossibly hot. “You know I was. You were a breath of fresh air for a young lady exhausted by the tedious instructionsof watercolor. I will never be an artist.”

“And then we met that day on the eastern slope. You remember, you told me you’d escaped your governess. I can still see every detail of what you wore, how your arms swung at your sides. You’d found an orange, if I remember right, and you vowed to grow a tree from one of the seeds. You were relishing every minute of freedom. I was intrigued. I was lost.” He looked up. “I’d never felt anything like it before.”

“That was the day you gave me one of your flower drawings for the first time.”

“We had precious little time to make sense of what happened between us. And then you were gone, and my entire world turnedupside down.”

I glanced up. “And then you wrote that letter.”

“Yes, I did.” He swallowed hard. “After everything that happened with Lord Kendal, I believed at the time it was best if Iremoved myself from your life. Your brother certainly thought so. But I want you to know, now I understand what a terriblemistake that was. I fear your adjustment to Ceylon could not have gone smoothly. Seline read me your first few letters. ThoughI struggled to do so, I could not hear you in them. They felt like nothing but empty words.”

He ran his hand down his face. “Earlier today I saw you flinch when Tony mentioned secrets, and I shan’t pry; however, I wantyou to know that I will always stand your friend.” He shook his head. “I guess what I mean to say, rather badly mind you,is that I have no intention of abandoning you again. We practically grew up together. I’ll always care for you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Like a sister?”

He chuckled beneath his breath. “All right, not precisely like a sister.”

Everything I thought I knew, all my plans, all my intentions fell about me like frozen rain, little ice pellets that scattered on the flagstones in all directions. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone my story, but Piers wasn’t just anyone, was he?

As if he followed my thoughts, he slid his hand closer to mine on the bench, carefully extending his pinky finger beneathmine. I couldn’t speak or move.

A subtle gesture, but the ramifications were endless.

My heart quivered as a delicate gust of wind sent my bonnet ribbons fluttering across my gown.

Piers knew me better than anyone, but I couldn’t focus, not with his hand so utterly warm against mine. My head swelled withdizziness, my mouth went dry. He wanted me to take his hand. But I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it.

What if I panicked? What if I pushed him away when I needed him the most? I lowered my head as the true depths of my fearsand isolation took shape in