“Where they put all bad men like me. Move back so I don’t hit you.”
Chris stepped back and as she did so, she could see the sweat rolling off his face and dripping into his soaked shirt collar. On impulse, she picked up the bucket of water, cold from the underground well, and threw the contents on the back of his head.
Tynan gasped at the shock of the water, then turned on her in anger.
Chris backed away from him with a little giggle. “I thought you needed cooling off.”
“Not from you I don’t. I don’t need anything from you.” He began to advance on her.
Chris put her hands behind her back, a big smile on her face and started moving away from him into the trees. “I didn’t mean anything, Ty. Truly I didn’t.”
“You never mean anything, do you? You didn’t mean anything in the forest either, did you, when you nearly drove me crazy?”
“Did I?” she asked innocently. “But last night you didn’t seem too upset when you saw me with another man.”
“That weakling? I’ll worry when I see you with a man.” There was a hint of a smile on his lips as he moved toward her, deeper into the shadowy forest.
Chris found herself up against a tree and she made no effort to move as Tynan came nearer her, but she had a look of mock fearfulness.
He caught her about the waist and began to rub his sweaty face against hers. He hadn’t shaved that morning and the sharp whiskers were scratching her skin. She squealed for him to stop, tried to get away from him, but he held her tight. Still struggling, she managed to get out from between him and the tree and start running. She took only a few steps before he caught her, pushing her down on the ground and continuing to rub his face about her neck and cheeks.
Chris was squealing with delight when he suddenly stopped.
She looked up at him, smiling, as he got off of her, his face solemn. “Get up,” he said.
She held up her hand for him to help her and, reluctantly, he did so. She tried to stand close to him for a moment but he didn’t allow that. Silently, she turned her back to him so he could button her dress.
“Stay away from me, Chris,” he said. “You’re playing with my life and I don’t like it.”
She turned to face him so that his hands were on her shoulders. “I was wrong to go off and leave you. I should have stayed by you at the picnic. I was wrong and I want you to please forgive me.”
He stepped back from her. “It’s better that we stay apart. In fact, I think it’s better that we call off this entire masquerade. I thought it might be all right since you’ve done this sort of thing before, but I don’t like it. Tomorrow I want to take you back to your father. After I deliver you to him, you can come back if you want. It won’t matter to me because you’ll no longer be my responsibility, but I can see right now that this won’t work. Go back to the house now and get cleaned up and pack. I’ll do what has to be done here.” With that he turned and went back into the sun to slash at the weeds.
Silently, Chris started walking back to the house.
Chapter Fourteen
As Chris neared the house, she saw Owen getting into a carriage and driving away. Lionel was attacking a young tree with a dull axe, Unity and the luscious Pilar were hanging clothes on the line and, with Asher away for the day, Chris was alone in the house.
She washed and changed her dirty dress and began to think about the fact that tomorrow she’d be going home. She wasn’t even going to argue with Tynan about staying at the Hamilton house. Perhaps it wasn’t any of her business to try to find out what Owen was doing to his nephew—if he was doing anything at all.
As she struggled with the buttons on her dress, she remembered that she was alone in the house and it occurred to her that now she had the chance to look into Owen’s office.
She went up the stairs outside her bedroom and opened three doors before she found Owen’s office. It was packed with papers, and there was a big oak filing cabinet in the corner. She had no idea what she was looking for but perhaps she could find it in there, or maybe she could at least find out what Owen knew about the Eskridges.
She had just opened the filling cabinet and seen a fat folder with the name of Diana Eskridge on it when she heard voices on the stairs—and one of them was the voice of Owen Hamilton.
Chris’s heart began pounding as she looked for an escape route. There was only one window in the office and it was open. Without even looking outside, she stuck her leg over the casement and climbed out. The door to the office opened just as she pulled her skirt out of view.
She was standing on the smallest of ledges, about the width of a drain pipe, and below her was nothing for three stories.
She flattened her back against the wall of the dormer that contained the window to Owen’s study and held on with her hands behind her.
“That trip was particularly foul,” a voice Chris didn’t recognize, coming from inside the office, was saying. “Are you sure you have all the information? It’s him?”
“Without a doubt. When I tell you all the trouble I had getting this, you’ll believe me. Samuel Dysan is the name, isn’t it?”
Chris leaned toward the window. There was something about the way they were talking that made her want to hear what they were saying.