Reckless

Chapter 21

He stood on the town house steps and gave Stinton his orders. "Try to find Baxter. If you do find him, stay with him, but don't let him know you're around. Whatever you do, don't lose him."

"Aye, m'lord. I'll do me best." Stinton, still perched on the hackney box, tipped his hat respectfully. "I'm right glad the little lady is safe. Got plenty of bottom, she has, if ye don't mind my sayin' so."

Gabriel winced at the slang but forbore to give Stinton another lecture. There was no time. "I shall tell her ladyship you have great admiration for her courage," he said dryly.

"Yes, sir, plenty of bottom. Just like I said. Don't meet many ladies of her stamp in my business." Stinton slapped the reins lightly and the carriage rolled off down the street.

Gabriel went back inside the house, closed the door, and took the stairs two at a time to' the upper level. His mind was whirling and his body was still pulsing with tension. He strode down the hall to Phoebe's bedchamber door and then paused, his hand on the knob. He realized he was not quite certain what to say to her.

She had chosen him.

As long as he lived he would never forget that moment when he had found Phoebe dangling from a rope of bedsheets, suspended between the two men who wanted her.

She had chosen him.

The realization roared through him like fire. He had never even told her that he loved her, let alone admitted to her that he trusted her. Yet she had chosen him, trusted him, not her golden-haired Lancelot.

Gabriel twisted the knob, opened the door, and walked softly into the room. He stopped short when he saw Phoebe standing in front of her dressing mirror. She was admiring herself in the gaudy crimson dress he had purchased for her from a whore.

"Gabriel, thank you so much for this gown. I always sensed that I could wear red, even though Meredith insisted it would be awful on me." Phoebe whirled around, her eyes alight with excitement. "I cannot wait to wear it to a soiree. I vow there will not be another woman dressed in such a fashion."

"I think that's a reasonably safe assumption." Gabriel smiled slightly as he took a close look at the gown. The cheap, shiny, crimson material was so bright it lit up the room. Deep ruffles edged the scalloped hem, which exposed far too much of Phoebe's legs. Huge black lace flowers that barely concealed her nipples decorated the exceedingly low neckline.

"I wonder if that redheaded woman at the Velvet Hell would give me the name of her dressmaker," Phoebe mused. She turned back to the mirror to adjust the tiny sleeves of the gown.

"We'll never know, because you are most certainly not going to ask her." Gabriel reached out and caught hold of her shoulders. He swung her back around to face him. "Phoebe, tell me everything that happened tonight. I know it was Alice who had you kidnapped. What did she say to you?"

Phoebe hesitated. "She was going to hold me for ransom."

"She wanted money?"

"No. She wants The Lady in the Tower."

"Good God, why?" Gabriel asked.

"Because Neil wants it and she will do anything to get revenge on him. He did not keep his promise to marry her, you see. He left her in hell while he went off to the South Seas. She will never forgive him."

"Damnation," Gabriel whispered, trying to sort it all out. "There have been two people, not one, after the book all this time."

"So it appears."

"It was probably Baxter who searched my town house library before our marriage." He searched her face. "Why in God's name were you climbing down those sheets into Baxter's arms?"

"1 was trying to escape. I didn't know he was in the alley until I had started down the side of the wall. Gabriel, what is this all about?"

"Revenge, I think. But there's something more. Something to do with that damned book." Gabriel forced himself to take his hands off Phoebe's bare shoulders. He paced across the room to the window.

"It always comes back to The Lady in the Tower, doesn't it?"

"The thing is," Gabriel said, thoroughly frustrated, "the book simply isn't all that valuable. It's not worth this kind of trouble."

Phoebe considered that for a moment. "Perhaps it's time we took a closer look at it."

He glanced around sharply. "Why? There's nothing unusual about it."

"Nevertheless, I think we should look at it again."

"Very well."

Phoebe crossed the room and took The Lady in the Tower from the bottom drawer of her wardrobe.

Gabriel watched as she put the book on the table and leaned over to examine it closely. Candlelight gleamed on her dark hair and lit her intelligent face. Even in a whore's red dress she looked like a lady. There was an innate, womanly nobility about her that no gown or circumstance could alter. This was a woman a man could trust with his life and his honor.

And she had chosen him.

"Gabriel, there truly is something different about this book."

He frowned. "You said it was the very one you gave to Baxter."

"It is, but something has been done to it. I believe the binding has been restitched in places. See? Some of it look's new."

Gabriel examined the thickly padded leather covers. "It was not this way when you gave it to Lancelot?"

Phoebe wrinkled her nose. "Don't call him that. And to answer your question, no, it was not this way. The stitching was uniformly old when I gave it to Neil."

"Perhaps we had better have a look beneath the leather."

Gabriel took a small penknife from Phoebe's escritoire and carefully slit the newly stitched leather. He watched intently as Phoebe lifted one edge. She peeled it back slowly to reveal soft, white cotton.

"What on earth?" Phoebe cautiously lifted aside the cotton.

Gabriel saw the gleam of dark moonlight, diamonds, and gold, and knew at once what he was looking at. "Ah, yes. I wondered what had become of it."

"What is it?" Phoebe asked in amazement.

"A necklace I had made up in Canton using some very special pearls." Gabriel lifted the glittering thing out of the book. "With any luck there will be a matching bracelet, a brooch, and a set of earrings."

"It's beautiful." Phoebe stared at the gems. "But I have never seen pearls of that color before."

"They're very rare. It took me years to collect this many of this quality." He held the necklace close to the candle flame. The diamonds sparkled with an inner fire, but the pearls glowed with a mysterious dark light. It was like looking into an endless midnight sky.

"I thought at first they were black pearls," Phoebe observed. "But they are not black at all. It's almost impossible to describe the color. They are some fantastic combination of silver and green and deep blue."

"Dark moonlight."

"Dark moonlight," Phoebe repeated in wonder. "Yes, that's a perfect description." She fingered one gently. "How extraordinary."

Gabriel looked down at her candlelit skin. "They will look magnificent on you."

She looked up quickly. "This necklace truly belongs to you?"

He nodded. "It did once upon a time. Baxter took it when he attacked one of my ships."

"And now you have it back," Phoebe said with satisfaction.

He shook his head. "No. You found it, my sweet. As of now it belongs to you."

Phoebe stared at him, obviously flustered. "You cannot mean to give me such a gift."

"But I do mean to give it to you."

"But Gabriel—"

"You must indulge me, Phoebe. I have given you very little thus far in our marriage."

"That's not true," she sputtered. "Not true at all. Why, just this evening you bought me this beautiful gown."

Gabriel looked at the awful gown and started to laugh.

"I fail to see what is so amusing about this, my lord."

Gabriel laughed harder. A fierce joy crashed through him as he gazed at Phoebe in her cheap, gaudy dress. She looked so incredibly lovely, he thought. Like a princess out of a medieval legend. Her eyes were huge and luminous and her mouth promised a passion that he knew belonged only to him. She was his.

"Gabriel, are you laughing at me?"

He sobered quickly. "No, my sweet. Never that. The necklace is yours, Phoebe. I had it made for the woman I would someday marry."

"The fiancée who betrayed you in the islands?" she asked suspiciously.

He wondered who had told her about Honora. Anthony, most likely. "At the time I had it fashioned, I was not engaged. I did not know whom I would marry," Gabriel said honestly. "I wanted to have a suitable necklace to give my future wife, just as I wanted a suitable motto for my descendants."

"So you invented the family jewels, just as you did the family motto." She glanced at the necklace and then back at him. "I'm certain you mean well, as usual, but I do not want such a spectacular gift from you."

"Why not?" He took a step toward her and stopped when she retreated an equal distance. "I can afford it."

"I know you can. That's not the point."

He took another step forward, crowding her back against the wall. He clasped the necklace around her throat and then braced his hands on either side of her head. He kissed her forehead. "Then what is the point?"

"Damnation, Gabriel, do not try to seduce me now. 'Tis not a necklace I want from you, and you know it."

"Then what do you want?"

"You know very well what I want. I want your trust."

He smiled slightly. "You don't understand, do you?"

"What don't I understand?" she breathed.

"I trust you, my sweet."

She gazed up at him, her eyes full of dawning hope. "You do?"

"Yes."

"In spite of all our little misunderstandings?"

"Maybe because of them," he admitted. "No woman who was deliberately trying to deceive me would make such a hash of it time after time. Leastways not a woman as clever as you are."

She smiled tremulously. "I'm not certain that is a compliment."

"The problem," Gabriel said, his voice roughening, "is not whether I trust you. What has torn my guts apart for days is that I didn't know whether you would continue to trust me."

"Gabriel, how could you think I would lose my faith in you?"

"The evidence was mounting against me. I did not know in the end if you would choose to believe your golden-haired Sir Lancelot or your increasingly short-tempered, overbearing, dictatorial husband."

Phoebe slowly twined her arms around his neck. Her eyes gleamed with love and mischief. "I could say that I came to a conclusion similar to your own. After all, surely no man who was out to charm and beguile me into trusting him would have been so appallingly heavy-handed."

He smiled ruefully. "You think not?"

"Let me put it this way. I was not certain if Neil was the victim of a misunderstanding, but I have never doubted you, Gabriel. I knew which man to trust tonight when I found myself suspended between you and Neil."

Gabriel was exultant. "What gave you the clue?"

Phoebe brushed her lips lightly against his. "Neil made the mistake of playing the chivalrous, gallant knight right to the very end."

"I heard him," Gabriel muttered.

"You, on the other hand, were acting much more like a genuinely frantic husband trying to save his wife. In that moment you did not even try to charm me. You were far too desperate to think of such a ruse."

Gabriel eyed her with a disgruntled expression. "I suppose that is true enough."

Phoebe laughed softly and reached up to frame his face between her soft hands. "I believe, my lord, that in all the ways that truly count, we do trust each other."

At the sight of the tender warmth in her eyes, an aching hunger seized Gabriel. "Yes. God, yes, Phoebe."

With a low exclamation he scooped her up and carried her over to the bed. The crimson skirts of her tawdry gown billowed around his boots as he covered her body with his own.

Phoebe's eyes were brilliant as she looked up at him through her lashes. Gabriel thought he would drown in that gaze. He kissed her with a desperate passion. His tongue surged into her mouth in an act of possession that presaged the even more intimate one that would soon follow.

"I will never be able to get enough of you," he whispered thickly. He lowered his head to taste one rosy nipple that had been revealed by a shifting black lace flower.

Phoebe arched herself against him with a sensual generosity that seared Gabriel's already inflamed senses. He tugged the bright crimson gown down to her waist so that he could savor the sight and feel of her breasts. Phoebe opened his shirt and twisted her fingers gently in the hair on his chest.

"I love you," she said against the side of his face.

"For God's sake, don't ever stop loving me," Gabriel heard himself plead in a tortured voice he hardly recognized. "I could not bear it."

He pushed the red skirts up over her thighs so that they bunched at her waist. The cheap satinet gleamed as richly as Italian silk in the candlelight. He looked down at the soft curls that shielded her softness and closed a hand over them for a moment. She was already damp.

Phoebe shivered at his touch. He could feel the rising heat in her. He could also feel his manhood straining against his breeches. He reached down to unfasten his clothing, freeing his shaft.

"Gabriel? Aren't you even going to take off your boots?"

"I cannot wait that long for you." He moved between her soft thighs and fitted himself to her. "Hold me and do not let go. Ever."

He eased himself carefully into her hot, snug passage. He felt her tighten around him as he lowered his head to recapture her mouth. Her arms wrapped him close and her legs gripped him. She gave herself up to him and Gabriel was overwhelmed by the gift.

He drove himself deeply into her as if he could somehow become a part of her.

And for that moment out of time, he was.

Phoebe stirred a long while later. She was conscious of Gabriel's strong, warm thigh lying alongside hers. His arm curved around her. She realized he was awake.

"Gabriel?"

"Ummm?"

"What are you thinking about?"

He squeezed her gently. " 'Tis nothing, sweet. Go back to sleep."

"There is not a chance of that." She sat up abruptly. The crushed satinet of her crimson gown made a rustling noise. She glanced down in horror. "Oh, no, Gabriel, look at my beautiful dress. I hope it is not ruined."

He folded his arms behind his head on the pillow and eyed the gown with amusement. "I imagine it was constructed to withstand rough treatment."

"Do you think it will be all right?" Phoebe scrambled off the bed and slipped the gown down over her hips. She stepped out of it, shook out the folds of the crumpled satinet, and studied the dress with an anxious gaze.

"I think it will survive. If it does not, I shall buy you another."

"I doubt if we shall find another one in this beautiful shade of red," Phoebe said wistfully. She spread the gown out carefully on the foot of the bed. "It's a little rumpled, but otherwise intact."

Gabriel's gaze slipped over her body, which was clad only in her thin chemise. "Do not concern yourself about the dress, Phoebe."

She straightened and glanced at him, her eyes searching his face. "What were you thinking about, Gabriel?"

"It isn't important. Come back to bed."

She sat down on the edge of the bed instead. "Tell me. Now that we have declared our trust in each other, we must tell each other everything,"

Gabriel winced. "Everything?"

"Absolutely."

He smiled. "Very well. I suppose you will find out sooner or later, anyway. I was thinking about the best way of setting a trap for Baxter."

Phoebe stilled. "The way you did the last time?"

"Not quite." Gabriel's mouth hardened and his eyes went cold. "This time he will not escape."

A tiny shiver went through Phoebe. "How will you do it?"

"He does not know we have discovered the necklace inside The Lady in the Tower" Gabriel said slowly. "I have no doubt but that he will make another try to get his hands on the book. I am thinking of making it easy for him."

"You intend to capture him when he makes his next try?"

"Yes."

"I see. How do you plan to lure him into this trap?"

"That's the difficulty."

Phoebe brightened as a thought struck her. "I know how we could lure him into this trap of yours."

Gabriel cocked a brow. "Yes?"

"Use me as bait." Phoebe smiled triumphantly.

Gabriel stared at her. "Have you gone mad? That is absolutely out of the question."

"But it would work, Gabriel. I know it would."

He sat up, swung his booted feet to the floor, and stood. Hands on his hips, his shirt hanging open, he leaned over her with an expression as forbidding as midnight. "I said," he repeated evenly, "that using you as bait is absolutely out of the question. I meant it."

"But Gabriel—"

"I do not want to hear another word on the subject."

She glared up at him. "Really, Gabriel. That is going a bit too far. It was only a suggestion."

"A damned ridiculous suggestion. Don't even think of mentioning it again." He walked over to the table and stood gazing down at The Lady in the Tower. "I need to find a way to make Baxter believe the book is vulnerable."

Phoebe considered that. "You could arrange for it to be sold."

"What did you say?"

"If Neil thought we had sold the book, he might try for it when it was transferred to its new owner. It would be vulnerable then."

Gabriel's smile was slow and wicked. "My dearest wife, allow me to tell you that you would have done very well hunting pirates in the South Seas. That is a truly brilliant notion."

Phoebe was filled with an elated warmth. "Thank you, my lord."

Gabriel began to pace the room, his face intent. "I suppose we could arrange to sell the book to our old friend Nash. His insistence on doing business in the middle of the night might be extremely useful. If Baxter thought the book was being taken by carriage along a lonely country lane at midnight to be delivered to an eccentric collector, he might try his hand at a little road piracy."

"You mean he might try to waylay the carriage?"

"Precisely. We would, of course, be ready for him."

"Yes, indeed." Phoebe was filled with enthusiasm for the project. "I could wear men's clothing and pretend to be the agent hired to take the book to Nash. You could be disguised as the coachman. When he stopped the carriage, we would be ready for him."

Gabriel came to a halt directly in front of her, clamped his hands around her shoulders, and hauled her up off the bed. "You," he said, "are not going to be anywhere near that damned book when Baxter makes his try. You will not be involved in this scheme in any way whatsoever. Understood?"

"Gabriel, I want to share this adventure with you. I have a right to do so."

"A right?"

She glared up at him mutinously. "The Lady in the Tower belongs to me."

"No, it does not. I took it from Baxter after I attacked his ship. It's mine by right of the law of the sea."

"Gabriel, that is not a valid argument, and you know it."

"Then I claim the bloody book as part of your dowry," he growled. "There. Does that satisfy you?"

"No. I still insist on being part of this plan to trap Neil."

"You may insist all you like. I will not allow you to be put in danger." He kissed her roughly and set her aside. "Now, then, I must think some more on this. Your idea of selling the book is sound, but I'm not certain I like the notion of trying to trick Baxter into waylaying the carriage. Too many uncontrollable elements in the situation."

Phoebe glared at him resentfully. "Well, don't expect me to come up with any more brilliant notions. Not if you intend to keep me from sharing in the adventure."

He ignored her. "Yes, I like the idea of selling the book." He paused by the table, picked up the knife, and began cutting through the stitching of the back cover binding. "Perhaps to someone else besides Nash, however. A book dealer here in London might work."

"That's true," Phoebe agreed, unable to resist working on the plan even though she was annoyed at being told she would not be allowed to help implement it. "Neil might believe he could steal it rather easily from a bookshop."

"We could let it be known through the gossip mills that you have decided to sell the book because you have become superstitious about it."

"It would be easy to get such gossip out. Mother and Meredith could handle that part for us."

"It just might work." Gabriel had finished cutting through the back binding.

Phoebe watched in fascination as he peeled the leather aside. He reached into the cotton padding and removed a handful of glittering stones.

"We would make the transaction in broad daylight," Gabriel continued. "The bookshop owner would be warned in advance. He would be told that I will be watching the shop, waiting for Baxter to make his move."

"I could help you keep watch," Phoebe said quickly.

"Not a chance, my sweet." Gabriel opened his palm and revealed a bracelet, earrings, and brooch that matched the necklace. "I shall ask your brother to assist me. And perhaps Stinton."

"Oh, very well." Phoebe folded her arms beneath her breasts. "Honestly, Gabriel, I do hope this is not an indication of how you intend to conduct yourself in the future. I do not want to be shut out of all the adventures."

He smiled faintly. "I give you my word, I shall endeavor to occupy you with other sorts of adventures, my dear."

"Hah."

He chuckled softly. "Trust me."

Phoebe pursed her lips. "You will need a cooperative bookshop owner."

"Yes."

"Someone who will be willing to go along with your scheme. Not every shopkeeper would want his establishment set up as a target for a thief."

Gabriel frowned thoughtfully. "True enough."

Phoebe paused delicately. "I have a suggestion."

He glanced at her curiously. "Yes?"

"Why don't you ask your publisher, Lacey, if he will let his bookshop be used for this purpose?"

"That old sot? I suppose he might be persuaded to go along with the scheme."

Phoebe slanted Gabriel an assessing look. "I am sure he could be persuaded."

"What makes you so certain of that, my dear?" Gabriel's eyes gleamed in the shadows.

Phoebe tore her gaze away from his and focused on her bare toes. "There is something I have not had an opportunity to explain, my lord."

"Is that so?" He crossed the room and wrapped one hand around the bedpost. "And what would that be?"

Phoebe cleared her throat, very conscious of him looming over her. "I kept meaning to tell you, but somehow the opportunity never arose."

"I cannot believe that, my sweet. We have had ample opportunity to discuss the most intimate matters."

"Yes, well, the truth is, I was not precisely certain how to bring up the subject. I knew you would not be pleased, you see. And the longer I kept it from you, the more I feared that you would think I had deliberately deceived you."

"Which you most certainly had."

"Not really. I just didn't mention the matter, if you see the difference. The thing is, you told me at the beginning you had a distaste for deception. And you already had such difficulty trusting me and it all got increasingly awkward. And on top of everything else I did not want my family to discover my secret and you have been on extremely close terms with them lately. You might have felt obliged to tell them what I was doing."

"Enough." Gabriel shut off the flow of words by clamping one hand gently over her mouth. "Suppose you allow me to make this latest confession easier for you, madam."

She gazed up at him over the edge of his hand and saw that his eyes were gleaming with laughter.

"Now, then." Gabriel removed his hand cautiously from her mouth. "Let us come at this from a slightly different tact. What do you think of The Reckless Venture, Madam Editor?"

"It is incredibly wonderful, my lord. I loved it. The first-print run will be at least fifteen thousand copies. And we shall increase the price, too," Phoebe said gleefully. "People will be standing in line outside of Lacey's shop to purchase it. All the circulating libraries will want copies. We shall make a fortune—" She broke off abruptly and stared at him in shock.

Gabriel leaned against the bedpost, folded his arms across his chest, and smiled his dangerous smile.

"You knew all along?" Phoebe asked weakly.

"Almost from the beginning."

"I see." She peered at him closely. She could read nothing in his expression. "Would you care to tell me precisely how annoyed you are to learn that I am your editor and publisher, my lord?"

"I believe I would rather show you."

He swooped down on her, tumbling her onto her back. He caught her up and rolled with her across the rumpled bed until she lay on top of him.

Phoebe was breathless. "I do hope you won't think you can use this technique in future to influence my opinion of your work."

"That depends. A desperate author will do almost anything to get his books published. Would this technique of influencing you be successful, do you think?"

"Very likely," Phoebe murmured.

"In that case, you may definitely expect me to use it frequently."