My Seaswept Heart (42 page)

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To Happy Endings,

Christine Dorsey

Please read on for a peek at the next book in
the MacQuaid Brothers trilogy,
My Heavenly Heart
.

Autumn 1764

Queen’s House, London

“Blast Elizabeth and her confounded romantic
notion of love.”

A grimace accompanied her words as evening
dew seeped through Lady Rachel Elliott’s satin slippers. They were
blue, encrusted with silver lace, and they matched her gown of silk
taffeta. “All celestial blue and star glow,” Prince William, the
king’s brother said, when he saw her earlier. “You look like an
angel.”

“Perhaps, but that was before I overheard
Lord Bingham demand to know his wife’s whereabouts,” Rachel
grumbled to herself as she shifted the wide skirts of her gown to
avoid a flowerless rosebush. Despite her effort a bit of lace
caught on a thorn. She gave the fabric a yank feeling more devil
than angel now. Rachel imagined she looked it, too. Neither the
shoes nor the gown were meant for tramping along overgrown garden
paths and for all the care she took while hurrying through the
arbor, Rachel could tell her carefully arranged and powdered wig
was askew as well.

No doubt about it, her evening was ruined.
And all because her cousin and friend, Lady Elizabeth Bingham
insisted upon continuing her dalliance with Sir Geoffrey... even
though her husband was newly arrived at court.

Rachel paused to get her bearings. Behind
her, aglow with candlelight and warmth was Queen’s House. If she
listened intently, Rachel could hear the melodious strains played
by Queen Charlotte’s band. There was laughter and fun, and scores
of swains, their lips nigh dripping with flattery, awaiting her.
The tug to return was strong.

“Oh...” The sound started deep. in Rachel’s
corseted chest and gritted through her clenched teeth as she forced
herself to turn away and tramp down the grass-covered slope toward
the lake. Wait until she found Liz. She would show no mercy in
reproving her cousin. And if Sir Geoffrey spoke up... well, he
would feel the sharp edge of her tongue as well. Rachel didn’t care
if he was broad of shoulder and handsome of face. She didn’t even
care that his very smile sent Liz into a swoon. There was a time
and place for such affairs. And from the expression on Lord
Bingham’s face when he stormed from the ballroom, it was obvious
this wasn’t one of them.

There were fewer lanterns now that she’d left
the formal gardens. They offered little light and Rachel hoped
she’d be able to find Liz and Geoffrey. “Don’t let them have gone
off to his lodgings,” she pleaded to no one in particular. But
Rachel didn’t think they’d risk leaving the palace this
evening.

“Rachel, I must go to Geoff and explain,” Liz
insisted earlier in the evening after guiding them both into a
small private alcove.

All around them music played, gaiety
abounded, and Rachel’s mind was still on her flirtation with the
king’s brother. It took a moment for Liz’s words to register.
“Explain what?” Rachel asked, but Liz had simply looked at her with
that dreamy expression on her face as if to say Rachel wouldn’t
understand.

And she didn’t. If this was what love did to
a person, Rachel was glad not to be afflicted with the emotion.

Rachel paused when she heard voices over the
gentle swishing of the lake lapping the shore. With a sigh she set
off toward the sound. The grass was taller here, wetting the hem of
her gown even though she lifted it. Why couldn’t the lovers find
somewhere more civilized to meet, for goodness sakes?

“There you are.” Rachel marched toward the
couple when she spotted them standing near the end of the pier that
jutted out into the lake. It was too dark to see the expressions on
Liz and Geoffrey’s faces but Rachel imagined they both were
surprised when she spoke. They separated quickly, though Sir
Geoffrey kept his arm about her cousin’s shoulders.

“What... what on earth are you doing here,
Rachel?” Liz sounded thoroughly flustered.

“I should think that obvious.” Rachel gave an
unladylike snort. “I’ve come to fetch you back.” Rachel addressed
Liz. She decided she didn’t give a fig what Geoffrey thought or
did. And it wasn’t because he monopolized her cousin’s time... time
usually spent with her... since his arrival at court.

“But, Rachel, I told you where I was
going....”

“Yes, you did. And though I thought at the
time it utter foolishness—”

“I fail to see why Elizabeth and my
whereabouts are your concern, Lady Rachel.”

Rachel opened her mouth to tell him what she
thought of men like him but before she could Liz stepped between
them. “Please.” She touched Geoffrey’s sleeve with one hand,
Rachel’s with the other. “Please don’t argue. You’re the two people
I love most in the world.”

Geoffrey seemed to think this admission
called for him to step closer to his beloved.

Rachel only sighed. “I thought you should
know,” Rachel began, “that your husband is looking for you.”

“Albert stopped gaming long enough to realize
I was gone?” Liz seemed to sink back into Geoffrey’s embrace. “Do
you think he suspects?”

“I haven’t a clue.” Rachel softened her voice
and reached for her cousin’s hands. They were cold. “I think we
should go back to Queen’s House. He seemed angry and—” Rachel
paused when Liz made a low, whimpering sound. “Elizabeth, it’s the
only way. I’ll say we were together.”

“You don’t understand.” Elizabeth’s fingers
linked with Rachel’s. “You don’t know what he’s like. If he
suspects something...”

The rest of Elizabeth’s words were cut off
when a shot rang out sending a flock of ducks exploding into the
night sky. It also sent Geoffrey crumbling to his knees.

Rachel’s head whipped round toward the shore
in time to see the man standing there, a pistol in each hand.
“Arthur.” His name escaped her on a gasp as another report sounded.
Rachel felt the jolt of the ball slamming into her cousin through
their linked hands. Then Liz fell forward, the weight of her body
sending Rachel plummeting off the pier into the lake.

Panic seized Rachel the instant she hit the
frigid water. The lake embraced her as surely as if it had
tentacle-like arms, dragging her down. She fought, struggling in
its grip until her limbs grew weak. Screams for help thundered in
her ears but succeeded only in filling her mouth with the foul
taste of death.

She tried to think. It was the heavy gown
that caused her to sink, the silver lace and metal hoops. If she
could only rid herself of her clothing. But it had taken three
maids nearly an hour to dress her and no amount of wriggling could
undo their accomplishment.

She was dying. Her chest burned, the pain
near unbearable. Then suddenly it was gone. So was the frigid water
and the awful fear. All that remained was a slightly dizzying spin,
spiraling her upward. And calm. Blessed calm.

“You’ve done it now. You are an idiot.”

“But how was I to know she’d go after her
cousin? It wasn’t at all like her.”

“Haven’t you learned anything since you’ve
been here? Mortals are full of surprises.”

“Especially this one.”

How annoying they were, Rachel thought as she
tried to ignore the argument. They threatened to ruin an otherwise
wonderful experience. The dark that surrounded her was soft and
soothing. And up ahead a white light shone so blindingly pure and
warm that it should have hurt her eyes. Except that she had no
eyes, or body either.

She simply existed.

Never before had she felt so accepted, so
cared for. Love surrounded her, flowed through her as she drifted
about. Content, though anxious to move toward the light. At peace
except—

“What are we to do?”

“Would you cease your whining? And what do
you mean
we
?”

“Surely you plan to help me.”

“I shall remind you again. It was your
mistake.”

“But I’m merely an apprentice. You were to
guide me. And I only glanced away for a moment.”

“Stop it!” She’d had enough of their
bickering. Of them disturbing her. But Rachel hadn’t meant to yell
at them. Actually she hadn’t yelled. It was as if she communicated
with them on some plane other than the spoken word. Whatever it
was, they both seemed stunned by her scolding. At least they were
silent for a moment. That is until the whiner started again.

“See, I told you she was trouble.”

“You didn’t say trouble, merely
unpredictable, and that I will readily concede.” He sighed “The
question is what is to be done.”

“Done about what?” Rachel decided she must
help them solve their dilemma if she was to have any peace.

“About you, of course.”

“Yes,” the whiner agreed in an accusing tone.
“It wasn’t your time to die.”

“Die? But I’m not d—” Rachel couldn’t
complete her denial. For as difficult as it was to accept... she
didn’t feel dead... in her heart she knew it was true. But where
were the things she’d been led to expect? The host of heavenly
angels? Or, God forbid, the fiery brimstone? And Rachel had another
question. “What happened to Liz?”

“She’s gone on, as has her soulmate
Geoffrey.”

Rachel knew instinctively the spirit meant
gone on toward the light. The radiant light that shimmered just out
of reach. “Then send me on,” Rachel insisted. “I’m ready to
go.”

“If only it were that simple.”

For the first time Rachel felt an inkling of
fear. “You can’t mean I’m destined for... for hell?” At that moment
her soul seemed awash with memories of her life. To Rachel’s
discomfort, some shone less than sterling in the pure light of the
afterworld. There was the time she lied to her mother about how she
scraped her knee. And then there was gossip. She was quite fond of
court intrigue and never hesitated to pass any crumb of information
along to Liz. And she wasn’t very pious. Or charitable. Just last
week she passed by an alms seeker pretending not to see the
wretched man. And then there was—

“Oh, do stop your reminiscing. I don’t care
to review all your misdeeds. Besides, you’re not destined to
eternal damnation.”

Thank God, Rachel thought with a sigh of
relief.

“Precisely. But never mind that now. Didn’t
you hear what Ebenezer said? It wasn’t your time to die.”

Ebenezer? The spirits had names? Rachel
pushed that thought aside. The answer to the problem seemed simple
enough. It wasn’t her time to die, so.... “Send me back to
life.”

“It isn’t that easy.”

Ebenezer agreed. “You’ve passed over.”

“But it was a mistake. You said so yourself.
Your mistake.” Her temper... another of her faults if she were
honest... was upon her.

“I’m only an apprentice.”

Rachel was preparing her next argument, after
all, none of this was her fault, when the other spirit
interrupted.

“There is something we might do.” He paused
just long enough to garner Rachel and Ebenezer’s attention.
“Perhaps if she earned her way back.”

“Of course.” Ebenezer sounded relieved. But
then the whiny edge returned to his thoughts. “Do you think He will
agree to it?”

“We shall see. There are precedents, of
course. We must speak with Him straightaway.”

Rachel felt the force of the two spirits
leaving her. “Wait!” She wasn’t sure she liked this turn of events
any more than she liked the ones that brought her here. “What do
you mean precedents? What must I do to earn my way back?”

Off in the distance near the light she felt
the spirits pause. Then the one who seemed to be in charge
answered. “It’s very simple, actually. You need only save the life
of another lost soul.”