Ravished by the Rake (Danger and Desire 1)

Half an hour later they returned to the library. ‘We’ll go down, shall we?’ Alistair said ‘It isn’t fair to ask them to haul a big dinner for two up all these stairs.’

She was feeling far too happy to mind the studious way the footmen ignored the fact that Alistair had appeared, apparently out of nowhere, and the smooth way in which Gilbert announced that a dinner for two was even now in its final stages of preparation.

Alistair’s valet came in as they were settling in the salon to wait for the meal to be served. ‘A package has arrived for you, my lord. It seem to have been delivered after your departure from London and they had it sent down, post haste, in case it was urgent.’

Alistair turned the small parcel over in his hands. ‘A London post office stamp and no seal impressed in the wax. I wasn’t expecting anything.’ He opened it, shedding several layers of brown paper and stared at what was revealed. ‘Dita, look at this.’

It was the small oval box that she had given him. ‘Open it,’ she urged and he slid back the lid to reveal the Noah’s Ark animals still packed tight inside. ‘Is it the same one?’

In answer he turned the lid over and showed her the initials, AL. ‘I marked it.’ He took out the little carvings and shook the box. A few grains of sand fell out. ‘It has been wet—see the stains on the wood?’

‘But how?’

‘I left it on the table in the cuddy. I had been showing it to Mr Bastable before dinner. It could have escaped the wreck and been washed out and on to a beach somewhere. But who would know to send it to me? And why anonymously?’

They eliminated everyone they could think of by the time dinner was announced. ‘All the survivors took ship back to the mainland and no one on the islands would know it was mine.’

Dita twisted the miniature figure of Noah in her fingers. ‘Averil?’ They stared at each other, silent with the weight of speculation. ‘I felt that she was still alive,’ Dita murmured at last.

‘A mystery.’ Alistair took the scrap of wood from her and put it back safe in the box. ‘We have had our miracle—perhaps, after all, against all the odds, Averil has experienced one, too. We can only wait and see.’

They were sitting at a small oval table, close enough to touch. Dita looked up and caught the butler’s eye. ‘Gregory, would you all kindly leave us for a few minutes?’ They filed out, expressionless, and she got up, walked around and placed her hands on Alistair’s shoulders from behind, bending down to rest her cheek against his.

‘It is a miracle, isn’t it?’

He put up his hands to capture hers. ‘A miracle that we’re alive, that we’re together, that we love each other. Every day from now on is going to hold that magic for us.’

‘And every night,’ she whispered in his ear.

‘Oh, yes, my love. Believe it. Every night.’