As soon as Cam stepped through the door leading to the beachhead, he saw that the light he’d glimpsed from his window was a lamp. The next thing he noted, and what made his heart leap into his throat, was Lord Paley, shoving Gemma, her hands tied behind her back toward the sloping chalk cliff where she’d found the fossil they knew now was the Beauchamp Lizard.
Not wanting to alert the other man to his presence, he waited while Gemma questioned him about his role in Sir Everard’s murder. He wasn’t sure if she was stalling until someone came to save her, or if she simply sought to understand the man’s motive.
Either way, he used the time to his advantage, searching for and finding a large enough stone to cause the other man damage if Cam were to strike him with it. He clutched it in his hand while Paley continued to talk, until he saw him shove Gemma to the ground. And he knew he had to act.
As quietly as he could, he walked across the rocks toward the far side of the shore, and when Gemma saw him, he indicated that she should remain silent. She gave a slight nod, and he continued.
But something must have warned Paley because he turned around, and to Cam’s horror, when he rose to his feet he was holding a pistol in one hand. A pistol he aimed at Gemma.
“Oh look, it’s the debaucher of innocents come to rescue his false bride,” Paley said with a sneer. “Do come closer so that I may greet you properly, Lord Cameron.”
“Don’t hurt her, Paley,” Cam said, suddenly wishing he’d gone back for Benedick’s help when he saw Paley had Gemma. “If you hurt someone, make it me. Don’t hurt her. You haven’t harmed a lady yet. Don’t start now.”
“How would you know?” Paley scoffed. “Just because I murdered Sir Everard, that doesn’t mean he was the extent of my criminal career. Not all of us are bound to some outdated code of honor where women are concerned. I had hoped you were one of us, but then you fell prey to this hussy’s charms. It will never cease to amaze me that otherwise intelligent men so often find themselves tied up in knots over something that can be had for a few bob on the nearest street corner.”
“Either I’m an innocent or a hussy, Lord Paley,” Gemma said boldly. “Make up your mind. I cannot be both.”
Cam bit back a curse at her taunt. She was going to get herself killed.
“She’s not worth it, Paley,” he shouted, desperate to take the man’s attention off Gemma and onto himself. “Don’t waste your shot.”
But Paley had already turned to face his prisoner. “You are bold for someone on the other end of a pistol, Miss Hastings,” he said coldly.
“Because I have more courage in my little finger than you ever will, you murderer,” Gemma shouted. “If you were any sort of collector you wouldn’t have to steal to get what you wanted. In fact, you would have—”
To Cam’s horror, Paley made a growling sound and raised his hand to fire.
Even as he watched, Cam ran as fast as he could toward the other man and a shot rang out in the night, followed closely by another.
By the time he reached where Gemma and Paley struggled on the ground, he found them both covered in blood.
Furious, he pulled Paley off her and raised his fist to punch the man, but somehow Gemma’s voice penetrated the red fog of his anger.
“Cam! Cam! He’s hit already.”
And to his shock he realized that Paley was indeed the one who was bleeding.
He turned to Gemma. “Are you hit as well?” he asked as he shoved the other man to the side. “I heard two shots.”
“No, I’m not hit,” she said with a shake of her head. “But I don’t know who fired the other shot.”
“That was me, I’m afraid,” said a voice from the stairs leading from the top of the cliffs to the beach.
They looked up to see Maximillian Pearson coming toward them, followed close behind by Serena.
Not waiting to greet the man, Cam turned Gemma so that he could remove the ropes binding her hands.
Mindless of the blood on her gown, he pulled her to him.
“I thought you’d be killed, you stubborn girl,” he said as he held her against him with trembling arms. “What were you thinking to taunt him like that?”
“I was thinking that I very much wanted him not to shoot you,” she said against his shoulder. “What were you thinking?”
“Perhaps you can carry on this conversation indoors?” Serena asked from where she stood beside Pearson. “We’ll need to make room for the footmen to remove Lord Paley into the house.”
“Of course,” Cam said, then much to Gemma’s chagrin if her squeal was to be believed, he swung her into his arms and carried her toward the door leading to the tunnel into Beauchamp House.
* * *
Though her bath from earlier was cold by now, Gemma washed quickly in the water and changed into a clean gown before she made her way to the drawing room, where she found Serena, Mr. Pearson, and Cam.
The latter two were sipping brandy, and when Serena offered her a cup of tea, Gemma declined it and turned to the sideboard to pour herself a bit of brandy too.
Not caring about the propriety of it—on a night like this she would do what she pleased—Gemma took a seat beside Cam and curled up against his side, welcoming his arm around her shoulders.
“Lord Paley is being seen to by Dr. Holmes upstairs,” Serena said without commenting on her charge’s boldness. “I’ve sent for Mr. Northman as well so that he may hear the full story of Lord Paley’s misdeeds.”
“I must confess, Lady Serena,” said Pearson with a frown, “I blame some of this on myself. If I hadn’t been so unwilling to speak about what I knew about the Beauchamp Lizard, I feel sure that Paley wouldn’t have felt it necessary to kill Sir Everard over it.”
“What did you know, sir?” Gemma asked, curious now whether, as Lord Crutchley had told them, Pearson had been there the day Lady Celeste found the fossilized skull.
“I was here the day Lady Celeste found it,” he said with a pained expression. “I was … infatuated, I suppose is the word … and I was watching her. I saw her unearth it, with Lord Crutchley by her side. I saw more as well—”
He broke off and Gemma knew he was speaking of the intimacy he’d also seen that day.
“I decided, and I’m not proud of it, but I decided to steal the fossil from her.” Pearson shook his head. “If I couldn’t have her, I would have that damned fossil she was so proud of.”
“So it was your theft attempt that made her decide to hide it?” Gemma asked.
“Yes,” he said with a look of shame. “I did many things I’m not proud of. Then, as well as now.”
“How did you come to be here tonight?” Cam asked. He was grateful for the man’s shot that saved Gemma, but wondered why he’d been here at all.
“I received a note from Lord Crutchley,” he said with a bemused look. “I hadn’t thought of the man in decades. Not since those days when I was so taken with your aunt, Lady Serena. But he was concerned that his godson might be about to do something foolish. He spoke specifically of danger to you, Lady Cameron.”
He turned to Gemma and Cam. “Felicitations on your marriage, by the way.”
Gemma didn’t have the heart to tell him that she and Cam weren’t married just yet, so she simply said, “Thank you,” and Cam echoed her.
There was an awkward silence before Serena leapt into the breach with her usual social aplomb. “Why don’t you tell them what happened when you received Lord Crutchley’s note,” she said kindly.
As if surprised to find her still there, Pearson nodded. “I set out for Beauchamp House at once. I had found Paley to be interested to the point of obsession about the Beauchamp Lizard over the course of the gathering at Pearson Close. And when Sir Everard turned up dead, after boasting about having found it, I had a suspicion that Paley might have been involved.”
He took a deep breath. “I should have said or done something, but you must understand. Tonight is the first time I’ve left my estate in decades.”
Recognizing true contrition when she saw it, Gemma placed her hand over his. “And I am so grateful for it. I have no doubt you saved my life tonight, sir.”
His cheeks colored and he looked at the floor. “Thank you, Lady Cameron.”
The drawing room door opened then to admit Sophia and Benedick.
Unmindful of the others, Sophia hurried to her sister’s side and knelt beside her. “Are you trying to give me an apoplexy?” she asked, taking Gemma’s hands in hers.
Ben, meanwhile introduced himself to Pearson and said, “We had word from Serena that my services might be needed here tonight. Little did I realize that when we ate luncheon with Paley and his godfather he’d attempt to murder Cam and Gemma later in the evening.”
“If you ask me,” Gemma said with a scowl, “Lord Paley doesn’t deserve last rites. He’s already murdered one person and intended to murder me and Cam as well.”
“But that’s the thing about the lord’s forgiveness, Gemma,” her brother-in-law told her gently. “It’s there for everyone. Even the murderers among us.”
He came forward and kissed her on the cheek, though to take the sting out of his words. “I’m glad you’re unharmed.”
As she watched, he placed a hand on Cam’s shoulder. “And you, as well. I would have spent the rest of my days regretting it if our quarrel in the carriage were my last words to you.”
Cam moved to clasp his brother’s hand in his. “But it wasn’t. So you’d better go say some holy things over Paley before he dies of his wounds.”
The brothers exchanged grins and Gemma knew that whatever animosity had been between them was healed now.
When Benedick was gone, Pearson stood. “I will be off then,” he said, clearly a little uncomfortable with the family scene before him.
He was interrupted, however, by the appearance of Squire Northman in the doorway. “I think not, Pearson, if you were here when Lord Paley was shot.”
Realizing that they had a long night ahead of them, Gemma turned to Serena. “I think I will have that cup of tea after all.”