Harriet's legs circled his waist and her nails bit into his shoulders. She clung to him, lifting herself to meet him with a passion that equaled his own. And she told him of her love as she surrendered to her climax, her body shivering in his arms.

Gideon held her tightly against him until he felt the last of the soft tremors. Then he poured himself into her in a long, long release that seemed to have no beginning and no end.

Gideon awakened shortly after dawn to a world that seemed far more clear and serene than it had in a long while. He lay quietly for a moment, savoring the revelation that had settled itself into his heart during the night.

He loved Harriet. He would love her for the rest of his life.

Gideon turned and reached for her, the words welling up inside him.

She was gone.

Chapter Twenty

Harriet held the lamp aloft and surveyed the cavern closely. To her great relief she saw no signs of anyone having been at work with a mallet and chisel. Whatever fossils were trapped in here were still safely locked in the stone.

Jubilantly, she hung the lamp on the peg in the wall and opened her sack of tools. She was in excellent spirits this morning and she knew it was because she and Gideon were getting along famously these days.

Last night she had felt closer to him than ever before. His passion had been infused with an emotion that definitely went beyond kindness. She did not know if he was aware of it, but she had tucked the knowledge close to her heart.

This morning she had awakened convinced Gideon would soon learn to love again.

The certainty had filled her with such happiness and energy that she had rushed off to work as soon as she realized the tide was out.

Mallet and chisel in hand, Harriet walked to the place where she had recovered the large reptile tooth. She would begin here, she decided. If she was very fortunate there might be more jawbone left. It would help to have a larger section of jaw. She set the chisel to the stone and began chipping gently at the rock.

Perhaps it was the steady ring of metal on stone that prevented her from hearing the man's approach in the passageway outside the cavern. Or perhaps she was concentrating so hard she simply did not pay any attention to the muffled sound of boot steps.

Perhaps she was simply far too accustomed to thinking of these caves as her private domain.

Whatever the reason, when Clive Rushton's resonant voice spoke from the entrance of the cavern, Harriet dropped her chisel with a cry of surprise.

"I did not think it would take you long to return to these caves once you were back in Upper Biddleton." Rushton nodded with cold satisfaction. "I sent the note, of course, not Mrs. Stone. She has gone to visit her sister. Very convenient."

"Good God, you startled me, sir." Harriet whirled around as the chisel fell to the stone floor.

"I knew you would come rushing back here at once if you thought your precious fossils were at risk. There is nothing quite like the avid enthusiasm of a true collector. I, myself, experienced it at one time."

Her fingers clenched around the mallet as she realized Rushton had a pistol in his hand. It was pointed at her. "Reverend Rushton. I do not understand. Have you gone mad? What is this all about?"

"It is about a great many things, Lady St. Justin. The past, the present, and the future." Rushton's eyes burned with a terrible fire. He looked at her as though he were measuring her for a chamber in hell. "That is, my past, your present, and my future. For you, my dear, have no future."

"Sir, put down that pistol. You are mad."

"Some would say so, I suppose. But they do not comprehend."

"Comprehend what?" Harriet forced herself to keep her voice calm. In some vague way she sensed that her only hope lay in encouraging Rushton to talk to her. She did not know what she would do with the time she gained, but perhaps a miracle would occur.

"They do not comprehend all the trouble I went to in order to ensure that my beautiful Deirdre married St. Justin," Rushton said, his deep voice laced with rage. "I had to sacrifice Hardcastle's firstborn son."

"Good God. You killed Gideon's brother?"

"It was so easy. He used to ride along the cliffs every morning. It was a simple matter to startle the horse with a pistol shot one winter's day." Rushton's eyes were suddenly reflective, as if he were seeing something else altogether. "The horse shied, but did not throw its rider. I rushed toward it. Its master saw what I intended. He jumped down from the horse, but it was too late. I was too close."

Harriet felt ill. "You pushed Randal off the cliffs, did you not? You murdered him."

Rushton nodded. "As I said, a simple matter. Hardcastle's firstborn son was already engaged to someone else, you see. He had never shown any interest in my beautiful Deirdre. But the earl's second son had. Oh, yes. St. Justin could not resist her from the moment he saw her at her first ball. I knew he wanted her. How could he not? She was so lovely."

"But she did not love him, did she?"

Rushton's face tightened into a mask of fury. "The little fool said she could not stand the sight of him. I had to force her to accept St. Justin's offer. She claimed she was in love with someone else. Someone she called her handsome angel."

"Bryce Morland."

"I did not know who he was and I did not care." Rushton's face twisted in disdain. "All I knew was that the man was a nobody. And married. To a merchant's daughter, of all things. Obviously he had no money and no title of his own."

"And that was what you wanted? For Deirdre to marry a man of wealth and background?"

Rushton looked astonished. "Of course. She was my only asset, you see. The only thing I could use to buy back my proper place in the world. I should have been a man of wealth and power, you see. But my wastrel father lost everything at cards when I was a boy. I never forgave him for whistling my fortune down the wind."

"So you sought another method of acquiring the wealth and status your father lost at the tables?"

Rushton's gaze darkened. "When Deirdre started to blossom into a beautiful young woman I knew I could use her to lure the son of some great family. Once I was related to people of the proper sort through marriage, I would have access to the power and privilege money buys. After all, I would be the father-in-law. Through Deirdre I would be able to get what I wanted."

"You tried to use your daughter."

"She had a duty to obey me," Rushton said fiercely. "She was far too beautiful to waste herself on a man who could give her family nothing. But I soon made her see reason. I told her she could have anyone she wanted after she was married to St. Justin. She was not stupid. She understood. She said she would marry the devil himself, in order to have her angel in her arms."

"Oh, God," Harriet whispered.

"But then it all went wrong." Rushton's voice rose to a shout of anguished fury. "The little fool gave herself to her lover before she was married off to St. Justin. She got herself with child. Her lover's bastard. She realized she had to seduce St. Justin quickly so that she could convince him the babe was his."

"But her plan did not work, did it? St. Justin knew something was amiss."

"Deirdre was a fool. A bloody little fool. She ruined everything. She came to me to tell me what had happened. She said she was going to find a way to get rid of the babe. But I knew it was too late to marry her off to St. Justin then. She had told him too much. I could not believe she had been so stupid. We quarreled."

Harriet took a deep breath as intuition struck her. "In the study?"

"Yes."

"And you killed her, did you not? You shot her and then tried to make it look as if she had taken her own life. That is why there was no note. She did not commit suicide. She was murdered. By her own father."