Page 75 of Her Tempting Traitor
Yes, therehadbeen a reason they were here, hadn’t there? Lurking out here, in the dark of night, in the shadows of the elephant barn—Elizabeth! Elizabeth was inside, and Gabby needed to examine her! With Sir Dickie’s pronouncement, the only way she could examine the elephant was?—
Should you not be counting?
Oh dear.
Um.
How long had passed? Seventeen, eighteen seconds?
Gabby pushed away from the wall and patted at her hair, wondering how disheveled she looked.Twenty-three, twenty-four.
Who knew it was possible to fook up against the wall like that? In such an…anenergeticway? She supposed she should be pleased Cassian’s seed wasn’t dripping down her thighs at this moment, but she could confess a feeling of…well,abandonmenteach time he pulled his cock from her to spill outside her body.
Thirty-seven?
Forty-two?
How much time hadpassed?
Oh dear.
Gabby took a deep breath, pressed a hand to her bosom—as if that could control her breathing—and pushed away from the wall. While she hadn’t exactly excelled at counting, Gus and Cassian were depending on her. If she dallied too long, Gus’s pocket watch would tell him the hour had passed and he would worry.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to count to fifty, slowly and steadily.
There. She blinked up at the glow of the moon behind the clouds. That should be the full amount of time, shouldn’t it?
She stepped around the corner of the barn before she could talk herself out of it. Committed now, she tried for a nonchalant stroll while also kicking as much gravel as possible, so the guard would turn toward her.
“Halt! Who goes there?”
Oh good, it had worked. It was young Carter. And wasn’t he taking his job just a little too seriously?
“Hello there!” she announced cheerfully, trying for a light tone; trying to sound like a brainless ninny, and not a wanton intellectual who’d just been thoroughly tupped up against a wall like a harlot. “Nice evening, is it not?”
“Is that ye, Miss Butcombe?” Carter called, lowering his rifle. “Ye’re out late.”
“Yes, Sir Dickie asked me to take a look at that infection on the poor zebra’s leg.” She was close enough now to see the man, one of the younger guards.Good. “I passed the stables on the way back—and goodness, the braziers must be burning hot tonight.”
“What?” the man blurted, stepping toward her.
Shrugging, she pretended to pass by on her way toward the manor. “I could smell the smoke from the braziers all the way in the ungulates’ enclosure.”
“But—there’s no braziers!” Carter took a few aborted steps in the direction from which she’d come. “It’s the middle of summer!”
“Oh, thatisright,” she giggled—actually giggled—as she waved dismissively and sauntered toward the gardens. “I wonder why it smelled of smoke, then?”
“Fire,” the guard announced, almost to himself. Then with another yell of, ”Fire!”he ran off around the corner of the elephant barn.
In a moment, Gabby darted to his abandoned post and wasn’t at all surprised to find Cassian there already.
“Here,” he muttered, thrusting a dark lantern at her. “Just a sliver of light, please.”
She took it and fiddled with the mechanism, but when she looked up, he was watching her in bemusement.
“What?” she whispered.
“Smoke? Braziers?” His lips curled as he leaned forward and claimed her lips for a quick kiss. “Perhaps yewouldmake a good spy.”
