Part 14 (1/2)
Gabriel folded his arms across his chest and frowned in utter puzzlement.
Derek looked at him matter-of-factly, then a sly grin spread across his face. ”What the h.e.l.l have you been up to on that farm of yours out there?”
”You don't want to know,” Gabriel mumbled.
”Oh, but I do. Did you meet a lady?”
”Not a lady. No. A little thief,” he muttered. But if Derek had not hired her and did not know where to find her-then it seemed Sophia was truly gone from his life.
The disappointment nearly stole his breath.
”What did she take?” his brother asked.
He avoided Derek's gaze. ”Nothing of any consequence.” His thoughts returned to the morning he had found Sophia asleep in the barn.
Now he saw that she had played him for an even greater fool than he had suspected. She must have simply answered yes to all his questions; letting him supply his own conclusions, she had merely played along.
But why? And who the devil was she?
Was Sophia even her real name?
”Are you all right?” Derek murmured, watching him with a worried look.
Gabriel sent him a guarded glance. ”Never mind,” he said with a vague shrug. ”It doesn't matter anymore.” He shook his head, trying to clear the little h.e.l.lion from his mind. ”What was the message you wanted to give me?”
He could sense his brother's concern for him, but thankfully Derek did not press the issue nor pester him with prying questions.
He knew him too well to do that.
”This came for you this morning.” Derek reached into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a letter from Lord Griffith, their marquess brother-in-law. ”Griff didn't know where to find you, so he sent it to me and asked that I forward it to you as quickly as possible.”
Gabriel accepted the letter, perplexed. ”Our sister has my address at the farm.”
”Apparently, he's writing to you from elsewhere. See that return address? Lily said that's one of the castles controlled by the Crown.”
”As long as it's nothing to do with their child,” Gabriel answered under his breath. Their sister's first baby was not due for a few more months, but the whole family had been frantically protective over her.
”No, no,” Derek rea.s.sured him, ”Georgiana's been in splendid health. I believe Griff's writing to you in his official capacity as diplomat.”
”I wonder what he wants,” Gabriel mused aloud as he cracked the wax seal on the letter.
”Probably to lure you into some plum post with the Foreign Office. He tried to sign me up, as well, and only let up on me once I got married.”
”No doubt our sister's behind it.”
Derek nodded. Georgie didn't want either of her brothers moving back to India. She was determined to keep the whole family together in England, and if that meant cajoling her powerful diplomat husband to find excellent posts for her brothers, she was not above such machinations.
Unfolding the letter, Gabriel discovered three pages of doc.u.ments attached. ”You were right,” he murmured as he skimmed the letter. ”He says they've got a mission for me.”
”Any details?”
”No. I'm summoned to this castle-he drew me a map,” he added sardonically, showing it to him. ”I am to burn it and this letter once I've memorized the route.”
”How mysterious,” Derek replied in amus.e.m.e.nt. ”What's that other page?”
”Identification papers to get me into the castle.”
”Lord!” Derek let out a low whistle. ”Must have some heavy security in place, whatever's afoot.”
”Griff says he'll fill me in when I get there.”
”Are you going to go?”
”I am intrigued,” he admitted. Indeed, his heart had begun pounding with antic.i.p.ation. This could be a harbinger of the task he had been sent back from the brink of death to fulfill. If nothing else, it would at least distract him from the strange ache of knowing Sophia was gone from his life. ”Do you recognize this coat of arms?” Leaning toward his brother, he showed Derek the stamped seal in the center of the official-looking doc.u.ment granting him pa.s.sage into the castle.
Derek studied it, then shook his head. ”The House of Kavros?” he read aloud, eyeing the heraldic banner above the seal. ”Never heard of it.”
”Neither have I.”
”What are those, Cyrillic letters? Russian? Greek?”
”I have no idea.” Gabriel shrugged and folded the identification paper back up to keep it safe. He turned his attention to studying the little map that Griff had drawn.
”So, are you going to go, then?” Derek prodded with a look that expressed his long-standing opinion that a new post would do Gabriel a world of good.
”I don't think I have much choice, he said. ”Griff's polite to a fault, but these sound more like orders than a social invitation. Yes,” Gabriel said at length with a decisive nod. ”I can at least go and see what they want.”
”Not looking like that!” Derek laughed, glancing at Gabriel's civilian clothes and scruffy jaw. ”You can start by borrowing my razor. Papers or no, they're not going to let you into that castle looking like some sort of highwayman. Thank goodness you stored your dress kit with me before running away to the farm; it saves us a trip.”
”Really, I appreciate your candor,” he said dryly.
Derek flashed a cheeky grin. ”What are brothers for?”
Secluded amid a thousand acres of meadows and woodlands, the ancient castle hulked atop a round hill near the south coast of England. No neo-Gothic showplace but a true medieval fortress, its stark gray stone, smoothed by centuries of wind, had been hewn in defensive lines of rugged simplicity.
After showing the papers Griff had sent him, Gabriel was admitted through the fortified iron gates.
He rode his white stallion at an alert, rocking canter up the long drive that meandered through the property. The castle loomed nearer; he swept over a low bridge.
Again, he had to stop and hand over the papers of entry when he reached the second line of fortifications.
Whatever was going on here, clearly, the government meant business, he mused as he waited for the soldiers at the inner gates to check his papers.
”Will you dismount, please, Major? I'll show you in. We'll see to your horse. They are expecting you.”
Glad that they were satisfied with his doc.u.ments, he swung down off his horse and followed the brisk young officer toward the keep.