Harriet was about to reply to that when Owl walked in with the morning post on a silver salver. The letter on top was addressed to Harriet.

"Good heavens," Harriet said as she slit the seal. "It is from Mrs. Stone. I wonder if something is wrong."

"No doubt someone has died a miserable, lingering death or an epidemic has. .h.i.t Upper Biddleton," Gideon said. "Those are the only sorts of events that would inspire that old biddy to write a letter."

Harriet ignored him, scanning the contents of the short note. She shrieked in dismay as she realized just what she was reading. "b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l."

The earl and his wife looked at her with concern.

"Is something wrong, my dear?" Gideon asked calmly around a mouthful of bacon.

"Everything. " Harriet waved the letter at him. "The most horrible thing has happened. I was afraid of this."

Gideon swallowed his bacon, still unperturbed. "Perhaps you should tell us the contents of the message."

Harriet was so stricken, she could barely speak. "Mrs. Stone says that she has reason to believe another fossil collector has begun exploring my caves. She saw a man on the beach the other day and the next time she caught sight of him, he was carrying a large piece of stone."

Gideon put down his toast. "Let me see that letter."

Harriet handed him the note. "This is a crisis. Someone else may have found the bones that go with my tooth. I must return to Upper Biddleton immediately. And you must send word to someone at Blackthorne Hall, sir. No one else is to be allowed into my caves."

Gideon scanned the note. "I did not realize Mrs. Stone could read and write."

"She has been housekeeper to two rectors," Lady Hardcastle observed. "She has no doubt learned something over the years."

"Either that or she dictated it to someone in the village," the earl said. "It is done all the time."

Gideon put the note down on the table. "I shall send word to Blackthorne Hall, my dear. Anyone who is hanging about the caves will be advised that he is trespa.s.sing. Will that satisfy you?"

Harriet shook her head quickly. "That is all well and good, my lord, but I feel I must return at once. I want to a.s.sure myself that no one has found the remains of my creature."

"I do not think it is necessary for you to return in person to protect your precious fossils," Gideon began.

"Well, I do." Harriet leaped to her feet. "I shall go upstairs and pack at once. "How soon can we leave, my lord?"

Gideon gave her a quelling look. "I have just said there is no need to rush back to Upper Biddleton."

"Oh, but there is. You have now seen for yourself just how unscrupulous these fossil collectors can be. If someone has found my cave it will do absolutely no good to simply warn him off. He will find a way to sneak back. I know he will."

Hardcastle nodded soberly. "Once a collector has the scent of old bones, it's b.l.o.o.d.y difficult to put him off it. One can only hope he has not yet discovered Harriet's particular cavern."

Harriet gave her father-in-law a grateful look. "Thank you for understanding, sir. You see, St. Justin? We must go back immediately."

Lady Hardcastle smiled at her son. "There is no reason the two of you cannot go back to Upper Biddleton for a few days and see to this matter. Your father and I will stay here."

Gideon held up a hand in surrender. He looked down the table at Harriet, his gaze indulgent. "Very well, my dear. Start packing."

"Thank you, Gideon." Harriet rushed toward the door. "I shall be ready within the hour."

The coach pulled into the forecourt of Blackthorne Hall shortly after nine in the evening. Gideon knew that fact frustrated Harriet. She wanted to head straight down to the cliffs and actually suggested doing so with the aid of lamps. Gideon put his foot down on that outrageous suggestion.

"No, you are not going down to the cliffs in the middle of the night. Your precious caves can wait until morning," he informed her as the Blackthorne Hall staff hastened to prepare bedchambers and unload the luggage.

Harriet gave him a speculative glance as she went up the stairs beside him. "It would not take long, my lord. I could just pop into the cavern for a moment or two and make certain no one has touched my bones."

Gideon dropped an arm heavily around her shoulders and guided her firmly toward the master bedchambers. "It is far too late for such running about. We have had a long trip and you should be exhausted."

"But I am not at all exhausted, my lord," she a.s.sured him quickly.

"Well, I am." He stopped in front of her bedchamber and trapped her against the wall, his hands planted on either side of her head. "And if you are not, you certainly ought to be. Get into bed, madam. In the morning, if the tide is out, you may see to your caves."

Harriet gave a disgruntled sigh. "Very well, my lord. I know I ought to be grateful you have been kind enough to bring me back here so quickly. I realize you were not in any great rush to return to Upper Biddleton. Indeed, it was very good of you, my lord. But then, you are always very kind to me."

Gideon bit back a short oath. "Get into bed. I will join you shortly."

"I thought you were exhausted, my lord."

"Not that exhausted." Gideon reached behind her, opened the door to her bedchamber, and gently urged her inside. He saw her maid waiting for her. He closed the door and went on down the hall to his own bedchamber.

Harriet's words rang in his head. You are always very kind to me.

Kind? Gideon dismissed his valet with a curt nod and started to unfasten his shirt. He caught sight of himself in the gla.s.s on the dressing table. His ravaged face stared back mockingly.

He had not been at all kind to Harriet. He had virtually coerced her into marriage, exhibited her to the ton as if she were an exotic pet, and put her in jeopardy at the hands of Bryce Morland.

In return she had given him her love, helped him restore his reputation, and made it possible for him to mend the breach with his parents.

No, he had not been particularly kind to Harriet. All she had ever really wanted from him was his love, and he had told her he could not give it. Six years ago I forgot everything I knew of love.

What an a.s.s he had been.

Gideon yanked off his boots and stepped out of his breeches. He grabbed his black dressing gown, put it on, and walked over to the connecting door. He waited until he heard Harriet dismissing her maid and then he knocked once.

"Come in, Gideon."

He opened the door and found her sitting up in bed. She had one of her little muslin caps perched on her head and a book on her lap. A candle burned on the table beside her. She smiled her warm, vibrant smile at him as he walked into her bedchamber.

"Harriet?" He suddenly did not know what to say.

"Yes, my lord?"

"I told you once that you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met."

"Yes, I know you did. It was very kind of you."

Gideon closed his eyes in brief anguish. "I did not say it out of kindness. I said it because it was true." He opened his eyes. "Every time I look at you I think of how very fortunate I am."

"You do?" Harriet looked at him in surprise. She put the book down on the counterpane.

"Yes." Gideon took a step toward the bed and halted. "You have given me more than you will ever know, Harriet. And all I have done is take your gifts. I know I have very little to offer in return."

"That is not true, my lord." Harriet pushed aside the covers and scrambled out of bed. "You have given me a great deal. You have made a commitment to me which I know you will always honor. You treat me with kindness and respect. You make me feel beautiful, even though I know I am not."

"Harrieta""

"How can you say you have little to offer? I do not know of any man who has more and who gives it as generously." She came toward him in a soft, barefooted rush, small and sleek in her wispy lawn gown, her cap askew on her thick hair. Her eyes were brilliant and her arms were outstretched.

Gideon reached for her and pulled her tightly against him, inhaling the wonderful, warm, womanly scent of her. "You are everything I have ever wanted." His tongue felt thick and awkward in his mouth. "G.o.d help me, I did not even know how much I needed your love until you gave it to me."

"My love is yours, Gideon. It will always be yours," she whispered against his chest.

"You are very kind to me," he whispered. "More so than I deserve."

"Gideona""

He swept her up in his arms and carried her over to the bed. He put her down on the snowy sheets and came down beside her. He took her into his arms like the precious treasure she was, carefully and tenderly and with infinite grat.i.tude.

Harriet opened for him as she always did, just as a flower opens to the sun. Gideon kissed her mouth, drinking deeply of the taste of her as he sought out the sweet curves of her body with his hands.

She was so soft, so welcoming, he thought. And so sensual. Everything about her inflamed his pa.s.sions. When he felt the edge of her foot sliding down along his calf, he groaned.

"Gideon?"

"I need you," he muttered. He kissed one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, tugging gently on her nipple until she arched hungrily against him.

The depth of her response to him never ceased to amaze and delight him. And it stoked the fires within him as nothing else ever could.

When Gideon could abide the sweet torment no longer, he parted her legs and settled1 himself into the cradle formed by her thighs. He reached down, testing her gently with his fingers, and found her soft, moist heat. She was ready for him. The knowledge sent a rush of pa.s.sionate delight through Gideon.

"Harriet. My sweet, loving Harriet." He covered her mouth again, thrusting his tongue between her lips as he guided himself slowly into her body.

He experienced the shattering pleasure he always felt when he entered her, and felt her closing around him, pulling him deeply into her, giving herself to him. And then he was safe inside her, a part of her at last for one timeless moment.

Harriet's legs circled his waist and her nails bit into his shoulders. She clung to him, lifting herself to meet him with a pa.s.sion that equaled his own. And she told him of her love as she surrendered to her climax, her body shivering in his arms.

Gideon held her tightly against him until he felt the last of the soft tremors. Then he poured himself into her in a long, long release that seemed to have no beginning and no end.

Gideon awakened shortly after dawn to a world that seemed far more clear and serene than it had in a long while. He lay quietly for a moment, savoring the revelation that had settled itself into his heart during the night.

He loved Harriet. He would love her for the rest of his life.

Gideon turned and reached for her, the words welling up inside him.

She was gone.

Chapter Twenty.

Harriet held the lamp aloft and surveyed the cavern closely. To her great relief she saw no signs of anyone having been at work with a mallet and chisel. Whatever fossils were trapped in here were still safely locked in the stone.

Jubilantly, she hung the lamp on the peg in the wall and opened her sack of tools. She was in excellent spirits this morning and she knew it was because she and Gideon were getting along famously these days.

Last night she had felt closer to him than ever before. His pa.s.sion had been infused with an emotion that definitely went beyond kindness. She did not know if he was aware of it, but she had tucked the knowledge close to her heart.

This morning she had awakened convinced Gideon would soon learn to love again.

The certainty had filled her with such happiness and energy that she had rushed off to work as soon as she realized the tide was out.

Mallet and chisel in hand, Harriet walked to the place where she had recovered the large reptile tooth. She would begin here, she decided. If she was very fortunate there might be more jawbone left. It would help to have a larger section of jaw. She set the chisel to the stone and began chipping gently at the rock.

Perhaps it was the steady ring of metal on stone that prevented her from hearing the man's approach in the pa.s.sageway outside the cavern. Or perhaps she was concentrating so hard she simply did not pay any attention to the m.u.f.fled sound of boot steps.

Perhaps she was simply far too accustomed to thinking of these caves as her private domain.

Whatever the reason, when Clive Rushton's resonant voice spoke from the entrance of the cavern, Harriet dropped her chisel with a cry of surprise.

"I did not think it would take you long to return to these caves once you were back in Upper Biddleton." Rushton nodded with cold satisfaction. "I sent the note, of course, not Mrs. Stone. She has gone to visit her sister. Very convenient."

"Good G.o.d, you startled me, sir." Harriet whirled around as the chisel fell to the stone floor.

"I knew you would come rushing back here at once if you thought your precious fossils were at risk. There is nothing quite like the avid enthusiasm of a true collector. I, myself, experienced it at one time."

Her fingers clenched around the mallet as she realized Rushton had a pistol in his hand. It was pointed at her. "Reverend Rushton. I do not understand. Have you gone mad? What is this all about?"

"It is about a great many things, Lady St. Justin. The past, the present, and the future." Rushton's eyes burned with a terrible fire. He looked at her as though he were measuring her for a chamber in h.e.l.l. "That is, my past, your present, and my future. For you, my dear, have no future."

"Sir, put down that pistol. You are mad."

"Some would say so, I suppose. But they do not comprehend."

"Comprehend what?" Harriet forced herself to keep her voice calm. In some vague way she sensed that her only hope lay in encouraging Rushton to talk to her. She did not know what she would do with the time she gained, but perhaps a miracle would occur.

"They do not comprehend all the trouble I went to in order to ensure that my beautiful Deirdre married St. Justin," Rushton said, his deep voice laced with rage. "I had to sacrifice Hardcastle's firstborn son."

"Good G.o.d. You killed Gideon's brother?"

"It was so easy. He used to ride along the cliffs every morning. It was a simple matter to startle the horse with a pistol shot one winter's day." Rushton's eyes were suddenly reflective, as if he were seeing something else altogether. "The horse shied, but did not throw its rider. I rushed toward it. Its master saw what I intended. He jumped down from the horse, but it was too late. I was too close."

Harriet felt ill. "You pushed Randal off the cliffs, did you not? You murdered him."

Rushton nodded. "As I said, a simple matter. Hardcastle's firstborn son was already engaged to someone else, you see. He had never shown any interest in my beautiful Deirdre. But the earl's second son had. Oh, yes. St. Justin could not resist her from the moment he saw her at her first ball. I knew he wanted her. How could he not? She was so lovely."

"But she did not love him, did she?"