Within These Gilded Halls by Abigail Wilson

Author:Abigail Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2022-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

I went straight to Lt. Burke’s bedchamber and pounded on the door. Valet or no valet, this couldn’t wait.

Miss Chant would be appalled by my actions if she’d been around, but since our argument, we’d been avoiding one another. She claimed she was far too busy with Vincent even to stop by my room at night; however, I knew the real reason—we both needed some space. Besides, Lt. Burke was proving a far better hunting partner.

I pounded on Lt. Burke’s door a second time. This time harder than the last.

Where was he at this critical moment? I might very well have found the—

His bedchamber door flew open to reveal him in nothing but a night robe. “What the devil?” He closed the door to a crack. “Miss Radcliff, I do hope something as serious as a house fire has brought you to my bedchamber alone.”

I grimaced. How had I forgotten what a stickler for rules Lt. Burke could be? “Hurry and get dressed, then meet me in the entryway room.”

His door didn’t shut. He simply leaned his head against the door.

I splayed open my hands.

He chuckled. “You do realize there are servants you could have sent to fetch me.”

“I guess I didn’t think my actions all the way through, but I assumed a person like you would be up and dressed at the crack of dawn, being a military man and all that.”

He sighed. “I had a long night . . . a lot on my mind.”

I folded my hands across my chest. “Well, I’m sorry to say, but you’re about to have more.”

He tugged the door open another inch, probably to see me better. “Am I?”

An appealing wave of nerves carried me backward into the shadows of the hall, my hand retreating to my throat. “I said the entryway, sir, and dressed. Now hurry.”

* * *

Upward of twenty minutes later Lt. Burke sauntered into the front room, dressed smartly in a dark blue jacket, brocade waistcoat, and black band; however, the memory of him jerking open his bedroom door, his hair a beautiful mess, his chest mildly exposed flashed violently into my mind.

“What part of hurry did you not comprehend?”

He smiled. “This”—he motioned to his morning attire—“takes a certain amount of time.”

I tugged him over to the grand staircase. “I suppose treasure hunters should keep a level of respectability.”

“So it is about the clue.”

“I believe I have decoded it.”

His mouth fell open. “Tell me at once.”

I recounted all I’d learned from the maid. At the close of my speech, his attention darted up the steps with an eager tilt. “You don’t think it’s just right up there?”

My heart ticked to life. “I don’t know.”

Carefully, we ascended the stairs, and once we were certain we were alone, we knelt down beside the darker wood. “I cannot believe Josiah Drake kept the driftwood from that notorious accident. You say Christopher brought it home with him?”

“It did save his life.”

Lt. Burke ran his fingers all over the sanded surface of the step, feeling for a release of some kind.

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