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Miss Pelly, I would have to follow it with a good long session of lovemaking.”
    “As if I’d let you. Do you know you are far too arrogant for your own good?”
    He kissed her again. “Shall we venture into the unknown together, or do you think we should go back?”
    With considerable effort, she pulled away from him. His kisses were like lighting gunpowder within her. “We should return to bed, and tell my father what happened in the morning.”
    She had no intention of telling her father anything, but the earl didn’t need to know that. She had better things to do with her time, and several other guests to observe and maybe approach with her questions. He didn’t need to know that either, as she was certain he wouldn’t approve of her plans. He definitely had his own reasons for being at the house, and she still wasn’t sure what they were, or how they would affect her family.
    He was watching her, so she resolutely turned back to the stairs, and went up them, her skirts caught up in her hand. She almost fell over the heavy stone jar of cider on the top step as she studied the now-closed door.
    “Oh, no.” She rattled the latch but it was clearly locked. “We’re trapped.”
    “Not quite.” She looked down at the earl, who had remained at the bottom of the stairs. “We can attempt to open the secret door, and find out what lies behind it.”
    “Or we could sit here, and wait for someone to notice we’re missing and rescue us.”
    “And be found here together, Miss Pelly? We’d be married by nightfall—if your father didn’t shoot me first.”
    “That would almost serve you right for meddling in matters that don’t concern you, wouldn’t it?” She smiled sweetly at him.
    “Almost, Miss Pelly? As I recall, you are the one set against marriage, not me.”
    She dropped her gaze and studied her feet. “We should try the door and hope it brings us out into the open, so that we can return to our rooms and be perfectly respectable.”
    She walked down the stairs. At the bottom, he caught her elbow in a gentle grip. “What did I say to upset you? Would it really be such a hardship to be married to me?”
    She swallowed hard. “Don’t.”
    “Don’t what?”
    “Make fun of me.”
    “Faith—”
    “I don’t believe I’ve given you permission to use my first name, sir.”
    His grip tightened. “I’ll never hurt you.”
    “And what does that have to do with anything?”
    “I’ll try not to hurt your family either, but I must do what is right.”
    So, he was after someone rather than some “thing,” but in what capacity? It was pointless asking him.
    “Shall we try the door?”
     
     
    Ian sighed, but followed her over to the wall and set the candle carefully down beside it. “I wonder how it opens?” He pushed against the side nearest the crack and felt something give. “Let’s hope it pivots.”
    He shoved harder, using his considerable strength, and the stone shifted backward, letting in a smell of damp and decay that made him recoil. When he straightened, a yawning black tunnel that led downward was revealed.
    “It doesn’t look very safe,” Miss Pelly observed.
    He held out his hand to her. “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the whole time.”
    “Which means we might both fall to our deaths,” she muttered as she clambered across the crates toward him. Ian found himself smiling. She really didn’t allow anything to upset her for very long, and her determination to resist his charm was curiously attractive. If he weren’t very careful, he’d find himself wanting to tell her the truth about everything. He had a sense that if he won her loyalty, she would never betray him.
    She raised her fine blue eyes to his and he couldn’t look away. She was infuriating, but she was the first woman he’d ever wanted to possess completely. Naturally, she was against marriage. It was almost amusing. His mother would’ve told him it was fate laughing at him for his past excesses. Or was it