The Rest Falls Away (The Gardella Vampire Chronicles 1)

She had to do something. Her fingers tightened in Phillip's grasp, and she looked back up at him. "Phillip… I feel a bit of a chill."

He stopped, as her words had interrupted his, and looked down at her. "Could we… I should like to speak with you on something before we go back inside. I have something I wish to ask you." He released her hands and boldly placed his fingers around her bare arms, gently moving his hands up and down as if to warm her.

Victoria swallowed. She wanted to hear what he was going to say… but how could she listen now?

"Victoria," Phillip had continued to speak, "as I said, I expected it to take me a long time to find the right woman to marry… so imagine my surprise and delight when I realized I'd found her… only weeks after beginning my search. Because, in truth, I had found you long ago."

The cold at the back of her neck was unbearable; it was all she could do to keep from pulling her arms from Phillip's grip and rubbing her nape while dashing off into the gardens below.

For that was where the vampire was.

And how was she going to get away to get there?

"Victoria, will you be my marchioness?"

"Yes, Phillip! Yes, I will… but would you please get my wrap? I am frightfully chilled!" She couldn't help that her voice came out with a panicked note; she had to stop the vampire.

He looked down at her, surprise stamped on his face, as if he didn't quite know how to react.

Victoria had to think: She had accepted his proposal, hadn't she?

"Yes, of course, my lady," he replied slowly, formally. Victoria felt a pit in the bottom of her stomach.

He started to turn away, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back. She flung her arms around his neck and pulled his face down for a kiss, murmuring, "Yes, I will marry you, Phillip. I want to marry you." A great burst of joy flooded her. She was in love, and she was going to marry Phillip!

He kissed her in return, and then she pulled away, the frigidity at the nape of her neck calling her back to duty. "My wrap, please, Phillip, so that we can stay out here for a bit?" She smiled, biting the inside of her lip, silently entreating him to go now so she could slip down into the gardens.

He was smiling too, now, not so formal, and she knew she'd saved that moment… now if only she could save the victim. Go now!

He did, striding quickly from the terrace back into the ballroom, and Victoria barely waited until he was inside before hurrying down the steps into the dark gardens below.

Chapter Ten

Wherein Miss Grantworth Takes Herself Out of Training

When Phillip returned to the terrace carrying Victoria's filmy wrap, she was gone.He stood in the pie-shaped wedge of light that spilled over the stones and looked around to be certain she hadn't moved into a more shadowy corner… but she was nowhere to be seen. The other couples had disappeared. The patio was empty.

Just then he heard a faint scream from down below, in the gardens.

He ran down the steps, her shawl fluttering in his hand, his feet crunching on the pebble-stoned path, spewing up a scattering of stones with each step.

"Victoria!" he called, dashing to the left, where he was sure he'd heard the scream—a sound so faint that if he'd been inside the building for one more moment, he would not have heard it.

Why had she left the terrace? What had happened?

Had someone taken her?

As he rounded a bend in the path, he nearly collided with a figure in skirts. She was staggering, half bent, sobbing, clutching at her gown. Without thinking about impropriety, he grabbed the woman's shoulders. "Victoria?" he said, giving her a soft shake.

She looked up. It was not Victoria but Miss Emily Colton, who had been standing with Frederick Truscott on the terrace only moments before. Her face was a terrified mask, and something dark, like a scratch, marked her neck. She was babbling something incoherent, clutching at him as if she were drowning and he was pulling her from the water.

Phillip was torn. Victoria was still out there, but Miss Colton needed him too. And what had happened to Truscott?

"Come," he said, pulling her after him, back toward the house, calling for help along the way. Over her muffled sobs, he listened fearfully for another cry from the dark.

"Did you see anyone else?" he demanded urgently. "Another woman? Miss Grantworth?"

She seemed to nod, to give an affirmation, but he wasn't certain what she was saying between her sobs and trembling. When they came in sight of the terrace, he gave the woman a gentle push and called for help, then turned and dashed back into the darkness.

"Victoria!" he called. "Victoria!"

He rounded another corner, and nearly ran into her.

"Victoria!" he exclaimed, grasping her shoulders and pulling her to his chest, crushing her there in gratitude that she wasn't the one sobbing, frightened. "What happened? Are you all right?"

She seemed to be breathing hard, but she did not appear to be in any distress, and she disengaged herself from his death grip more easily than she should have been able to. She was looking at him, surprise and something else…

intense… in her beautiful face. For a moment he forgot his worry and just enjoyed the perfection of her countenance—and wondered why her eyes carried such a predatory glint.

"Phillip? I am fine. I am not hurt at all. What is wrong?"

"I heard someone scream, and I thought it was you! You weren't on the terrace when I came back." He realized he'd dropped her wrap somewhere along the way, and he slipped his arm around her waist. After all, she had accepted his proposal. Although it wasn't official, they were engaged. It was proper enough.

"I dropped my indispensable from the terrace, and when I went down to get it, I heard a woman… talking, arguing—she sounded as if she were in danger."

"So you went after her to help?" Phillip wanted to shake her, his fragile love. "You could have been hurt!"

"But I was not… it was Emily Colton. She ran past me. Did you see her?"

"Yes; she is frightened, but appeared to be unharmed. Foolish girl," he said, squeezing her close to him with his arm around her waist. He should have expected nothing less of one who would dress down a young man half again as tall as she was when she was only twelve—her beauty and her boldness, her charm and her tendency to think for herself and not as Society would dictate. No wonder he loved her. "You were brave to go to her aid, but you could have been hurt yourself! You should have called for assistance."

Victoria nodded against him. They were walking up the steps of the terrace, and Phillip was pleased to see that the terrace was still empty. Miss Colton would be taken care of after her fright, whatever it had been—perhaps something as simple as a branch catching at her or an argument with Truscott, wherever he had gone off to—and he and Victoria could stand on the patio alone.