Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 03] (49 page)

“But damn it, I tell you, I cannot…”

Daintry, peeking through the narrow opening, was able to see Susan. She stood behind the chair in which Catherine sat, holding a pistol to Catherine’s head. Susan’s hand shook, and Catherine sat very still. Daintry could not see Geoffrey.

She felt Gideon beside her and reached out a hand to keep him from pushing the door open before she realized he had no such intention. Glancing up, she saw that over her head he, too, was peering through the opening, while behind him, Penthorpe danced with impatience. Charley and Melissa stood beside him, their eyes wide with fright, and Daintry knew that all three must have heard Susan’s words as clearly as she had. For once she was grateful for Melissa’s habit of silence, and she nodded approval when Charley put an arm around the younger girl. Now there was only Penthorpe to worry her, but though he was clearly itching to intervene, he seemed no more likely than Gideon to make a hasty movement. Having help from men accustomed to looking before they leapt was clearly an excellent thing.

Geoffrey said, “I command you to put down that gun, Susan. If you do anything to harm Catherine, I will have you clapped into Bedlam. As your husband, I have that power, you know, and in fact, if you actually should be so demented as to shoot her, you will certainly be hanged for it.”

“No, she won’t, Geoffrey,” Daintry said, opening the doors just wide enough so that he could see her, and Gideon behind her.

“What the devil are you doing here!” Seacourt demanded.

“I came to visit my sister. Why else should I come? Oh, don’t lower that pistol, Susan,” she said in the same calm tone she had used before. “Indeed, I can think of no good reason not to shoot her, for you would then be rid of all your troubles at once, you know.” She heard movement behind her and sent up a silent prayer that Penthorpe would not show himself just yet, or allow either of the girls to do so.

Seacourt said, “Good God, don’t encourage her, Daintry! Are you as crazed as she is?”

“Oh, Susan is not insane at all, Geoffrey,” Daintry said, forcing a smile. “Don’t you remember what Lord Jervaulx said at the Assizes? My dear sir, if your wife shoots your mistress in your presence, the courts will assume—as indeed they must, by law—that she acted under your command and control. Therefore, it is not Susan but you who will hang, which is exactly as it should be.” His look of dismayed fury was nearly enough to stir her to tell him exactly what she thought of him, but Gideon’s hand on her arm recalled her to the moment, and she said quietly, hoping to calm her sister, “What brought this about, Susan?”

“He has hidden Melissa to punish me for demanding that he send Catherine away. Oh, Daintry, he has begun to behave as if she were his wife and I one of their servants. Indeed, he gave the house servants leave last night and ordered me to serve her last night in their place, and in front of Melissa, too! I told him I had had enough.” She gestured toward a vivid bruise on her cheek. “This was my reward then, but now …” She hefted the pistol again. “Where is Melissa, Geoffrey?”

Catherine spoke for the first time, her tone a near whisper. “Please, Susan, this is not my fault. Why do you threaten me?”

“Be silent,” Susan said through her teeth. “You came sneaking into my home to seduce Geoffrey with your cozening ways. Mincing around, pretending to be helpful, but in fact taking over my husband, my house, and my child. You made a mockery of my marriage and taunted me in front of Melissa and my servants. It was by your suggestion that Geoffrey made me a prisoner here and has forbidden me to go anywhere with my own child. Indeed, if the truth were known, you are no doubt the reason Melissa is gone now, so do not dare to tell me it is none of your doing.”

“You are demented,” Seacourt said. Then, glaring at Daintry, he said, “And you are, too, if you think any court in the land will believe this to be my doing. There are witnesses, you idiotic girl. You are one yourself, and Catherine and Deverill would have to speak against Susan as well.”

“Catherine will be dead,” Daintry said, “so what she might do does not signify, and if you think I will be a witness on your behalf, you have windmills in your head.” Seeing her sister’s hand falter and knowing Susan could not maintain what must be pure bravado much longer, she racked her brain for a clincher.

It came from an unexpected source. “You have no witnesses to support you, Seacourt,” Gideon said calmly. “I certainly could not swear that you were not responsible for this.”

“Would you lie in your father’s court, Deverill?” Seacourt said with a sneer. “Somehow I doubt that. You, sir, are burdened with too much integrity to lie in any court of law.”

“It would not be a lie,” Gideon said. “You
are
responsible for everything that is happening here.”

“That you are,” Penthorpe said, pushing past Gideon and Daintry to confront Seacourt. “To stand up in a courtroom and say that Susan acted under your mastery would be as simple as breathing, Seacourt, for that is precisely what she is doing. Dash it all, she ain’t a murderess! She’s as gentle and kind as they make ’em, but you’ve dashed well pushed her to this, and so I’ll tell anyone who will listen. But it won’t come to that. Put down the gun, Susan. I’m taking you away from here.”

She looked at him blankly but lowered the pistol. When Seacourt reached to take it, Penthorpe said sharply, “Leave it, you cretin, or by God, you’ll answer to me!”

Seacourt stiffened. “You forget, Penthorpe, that my wife is no concern of yours. You will not take her anywhere unless you want to be landed with a suit for criminal conversation. And don’t think I would not sue, for I’d take great delight in it. Susan, for the last time, give me that gun.”

She looked uncertainly at him, then at Penthorpe.

Daintry said, “Don’t do it. Geoffrey, leave her alone. She is going with us, and this time you will not get her back.”

“She is my wife,” Seacourt said, “and once this nonsense is ended, she will quickly be reminded of that fact. Moreover, your threats are meaningless, since I cannot believe you will, any of you, really encourage her to shoot Catherine.”

“But, Geoffrey,” Daintry said sweetly, “we do not have to encourage or allow it. As I recall, attempted murder is also a hanging offense, so all we need do is say that you had commanded her to kill Catherine but that we intervened in the nick of time to save them both. And there are three of us, you know, so even if Catherine should happen to tell another tale, she will not be believed, not once she is known to be your mistress.”

“That’s utter drivel,” Seacourt exclaimed. He looked at Gideon. “Surely, you will not pretend to support such an absurd accusation, Deverill!”

“No,” Gideon said, smiling at Daintry when she whirled to glare at him, “but Daintry forgets that it is not the least bit necessary to invent accusations against you, Seacourt. There are plenty of real ones that are more dangerous to you at the moment, or have you forgotten the attack on Lady Ophelia’s coach, not to mention the villainous attack on me in London, both of which can be set at your door? I am certain it occurred to you that by eliminating Lady Ophelia you could keep her from altering her will, but what possible reason did you have to eliminate me?”

Seacourt flushed. “You have no proof of that!”

“Do not be so sure,” Gideon said. “Melissa, come here.”

Penthorpe said quickly, “If you truly want the children in this, they are in that little parlor across the way, for I took the liberty of putting them there when it looked like things might get ugly. Do you really want her, Gideon?”

“Melissa?” Susan’s eyes lighted. “You found her?”

“All right and tight,” he said, moving to take the pistol from her slackened grasp, then glancing at Gideon. “Well?”

Gideon said, “No, leave them. The point remains the same, Seacourt, in that they were not alone when we found them, and the rogues who held them prisoner were quite willing, after some encouragement, to chat about activities both recent and past.”

“They did not admit to any attack in London,” Seacourt said confidently, extracting a snuffbox from his waistcoat pocket and helping himself to a pinch as if he had not a care in the world. “Good God, man, as I understand the matter, you had only just arrived in town when that happened. I doubt they will admit to anything at all in the end, for to do so would be to implicate themselves. Moreover, I have done nothing whatsoever myself.”

“Good God, I can’t bear this any longer,” Catherine said suddenly. Avoiding Seacourt’s outraged eye and looking directly at Deverill, she said, “I don’t know about the attack on Lady Ophelia and Daintry though I do believe he may have arranged it, but I do know that just then he wanted not only Lady Ophelia but Daintry out of the way, because he had got it into his head that if both were gone, Susan would inherit all the old lady’s money. And he does torture poor Susan, and God help me, I behaved despicably to her, at first because I thought she was a fool not to try to be exactly the sort of woman he wanted, but later out of a rather odd but increasing sense of power that became nearly overwhelming to me at times. I cannot explain that part of it, but gradually I came to see that she did try to please him, that she tried too hard, and he took advantage of it. He is a cruel man, you know, but he seemed to care for me and I let myself be blinded to reality until today.”

At last, she looked at Seacourt. “Today, when you let Susan believe you knew nothing of Melissa’s whereabouts, even after she threatened to kill me, you proved how truly malicious you can be, and I would rather live in poverty than be thought an intimate of yours.” She looked around at the others. “I know an apology can never make up for all I have done to increase Susan’s misery, but if telling what I know in a court of law will help—”

“Are you mad?” Seacourt demanded.

“Not anymore, Geoffrey. What must I do, Deverill?”

Gideon let the silence lengthen until Daintry thought someone—most likely, Geoffrey—would explode, then said quietly, “It need not come to that. What Lady Susan wants is her freedom and custody of her child. If Seacourt will grant those to her, there can be an end of this business today. No one was hurt, and none of us wants scandal. Do not mistake me,” he added, looking sternly at Seacourt. “The men who held your daughter and Charley will be made to speak if it becomes necessary, and the crimes they committed at your behest—even if only the abduction of the children and the attack on Lady Ophelia’s coach can be proved—are serious enough to hang you. The case is compelling enough without Lady Catherine’s testimony. Do you understand that?”

Seacourt glared at him, then at Catherine, but when she returned his look steadily, his gaze was the first to falter. He turned back to Gideon. “What do you want?”

“Your wife will require your written statement that you agree to divorce her and that you will put forward no claim to your daughter. Any settlement that was made on Lady Susan’s behalf by you is to be considered her money, as is any dowry provided her by St. Merryn. If you will write out such a statement now and make no effort to prevent their immediate departure with us, no more will be said about charges being laid against you. That will hold true so long as you keep your part in the bargain, but any further harassment of her ladyship will free us to pursue whatever course we choose. Do you agree?”

“You leave me no choice, damn you.”

While Seacourt wrote the required document, Penthorpe went to collect Charley and Melissa, and send orders to the stables. Then, while he and Gideon remained to watch Seacourt and to sign the document as witnesses, Daintry took Susan and the children upstairs to collect Rosemary and help pack portmanteaus for Susan and Melissa, while Rosemary did the same for herself. When they returned, they learned that Catherine was also going to leave, and Daintry feared briefly that the woman and her maid expected to go with them, but when they reached the stables, she saw that two carriages had been prepared, the chaise Susan used to pay calls and the traveling carriage used for longer journeys.

Gideon had arranged for outriders to escort Catherine to St. Ives, where she had decided to take shelter with her relatives before deciding what next she would do; and Daintry, watching her being handed into the chaise, went to her and said, “We are much obliged to you for what you did today.”

Settling herself against the squabs, Catherine smiled ruefully. “I am surprised the words don’t stick in your throat, for you must wish me in Hades. I misjudged him, you know, and myself as well, but when it came to the sticking point, I knew I could not side with him. It was all greed, you know. A dreadful thing to admit about oneself, but after a dismally long year in Yorkshire, Seacourt Head and its charming master seemed too good to be true. They were not true, of course, and I know you will think I ought to have intervened when Geoffrey became violent, but the influence I exerted over him was remarkably small.”

“You did send your maid to me that night, didn’t you? I was not certain if you had, or if she acted on her own.”

“Oh, yes, I sent Hilda. Geoffrey had made no secret of the fact that he hated you after that business at the Assize Court, and I had seen him watching you that night like a hawk watching a rabbit. When he did not come to me as he nearly always did, I was afraid he had gone to your room, so I sent Hilda to see. But I own, I never admitted to him that I had so much as suspected a thing, for there was never anything to be gained by taxing him with the dreadful things he did. He only became angry, and today I saw that he could be as cruel to me as he has been to Susan. I knew then that with her gone I’d end up either taking her place as his most convenient victim or being cast off altogether.” She paused, then added thoughtfully, “Don’t let her trust him too far in this divorce business, will you? He will not keep his word.”

Daintry was still thinking of the warning when Hilda came out of the house, escorted by servants with Catherine’s baggage, and Susan, Rosemary, and the two little girls were helped into the traveling carriage. Charley objected at first to being told she was not to ride Victor home, but when Gideon told her not to be childish, she subsided at once and announced that she would help keep Melissa entertained since they would be going by the road, which would take much longer.