“I would rather navigate on my own,” Kit said. “I daresay I will get there before you two do.”
“Do you care to place a wager on that?” Heathbrook asked Kit.
“Ido,” Giselle said stoutly. “I’m going with Kit. Whichever group gets there first has to buy everyone pork pies at Peter’s Pie Shop.”
Until that moment, Heathbrook had been sure she would choose to go with him, and that the boys would choose to find their way through on their own, but apparently he didn’t know his fiancée as well as he thought. Or his brothers, for that matter, because Zack then declared he would go with Giselle.
“You will go with us, Zack,” Heathbrook said firmly. “You’ll get too tired out with Giselle and Kit.”
“I will not!” Zack crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m going with Giselle.”
“It is fine if he joins us, Heath,” Giselle said softly. “We may all get tired out by the time six hours is up.”
“I won’t,” Zack said with a frown.
“Of course not,” Giselle responded. “But you will come back ifIget tired, will you not?”
Zack tipped up his chin. “Certainly. That’s what a gentleman does, ain’t it?”
“Isn’tit,” Evan snapped, causing Zack to roll his eyes.
Meanwhile, Heath envied the gentle way Giselle was handling Zack. She made it look so easy. “Very well, Zack. Go with Giselle if you wish.” Heathbrook turned to Evan. “Come, let’s head off on our guided tour. But we’ll wait to leave until they do, so they cannot follow us.”
“Wedo not cheat,” Giselle said with a sniff, then set off in what he knew was the wrong direction.
He had to laugh. The two of them congratulated each other on how clever they were as they walked along the pathway, looking at the mildly interesting views.
They made it to the clockwork village, with its miniature millworks powered by a real stream of water, without seeing any sign of Giselle and the other two. Clearly, they were winning, so they stood there a moment trying to figure out how the clockwork village worked.
“There aren’t many people here,” Evan said.
“It’s autumn,” Heath pointed out. “I gather that the attractions are more popular in summer, when they have dances and food and such.”
“With no one around, aren’t you worried about that fellow showing up?”
“What fellow?” Heath asked.
“You know. The one who tried to follow us from—”
“Damn it all to hell!” Heath said, and immediately began running back the way they came. “How could I have forgotten about Jones?”
But he knew how he had. He’d been so caught up in the pleasures of the day, the enjoyment of being with her and the boys in such beautiful weather, that he had let down his guard. He hadn’t once even thought of Jones. Some protector he was.
Evan kept up with him admirably. “Is the chap really dangerous?”
“He could be. We just don’t know for sure.” He got to the entrance, then ran the way the others had gone.
“Kit and Zack are with her,” Evan said. “Surely this Jones won’t approach her when she has two lads in her company.”
Two green lads with no weapons? A man whose motives were murky at best? “We’re better off hoping Jones doesn’t have funds for a ticket.”
And that Giselle might actually evade the scoundrel by going the wrong way in the Labyrinth. Because if anything happened to her …
Oh, God, he had no idea how he would survive that.
Giselle knew they’d gone the wrong way—she’d done it on purpose to fool Heath. The truth wasshewas cheating, too. Because it had never occurred to her dear faux fiancé to ask her if she’d been to the Labyrinth before. And of course she had, weeks before she’d gone to ask for his help in London. So, she knew exactly how to get around the many winding paths to where the end was.
All one had to do was slip through the hedge to the path that led one closest to the end. Which they had done, mere moments ago.