“Don’t struggle,” he whispered, close in her ear, “because if you wake that little chit, Zoe, she’ll get worse than Smithers did just now, and I needn’t tell you what will happen to you.” She relaxed in his arms, and he nodded. “That’s better. I’m going to take my hand away. Unless you want me to prove myself, keep that pretty mouth shut.”
He turned her around roughly, and took her measure. His hooded gaze, sliding the length of her, fastened on the diamond, and his eyebrow lifted as his fingers inched toward it.
“Well, well, what have we here, the Shelldrake diamond?” he observed. “This is, indeed, better than I expected. He’s had you. Well, I suppose that was to be expected, but I’ll have this,” he snarled, yanking the diamond free.
Her breath caught as the chain cut into her neck before it snapped. What had he done to Smithers? Her heart and mind were racing. If only Drake would come to her door now.
Please, God, don’t let this be the one night he keeps his distance
. But she couldn’t depend upon anything then but her wits, and in order to do that, she needed to discover what he meant to do next.
“How dare you come back into this house?” she snapped. “There’s a Bow Street Runner right downstairs. He’s been here since you tried to kill Drake, all I need do is—”
“Nooooo, love,” he interrupted, drawing Drake’s service pistol from the holster strapped to his leg. “Your Runner has ‘run’ off to the village with your lover, to see to the fire at the Tinkers camp.”
“Fire? What fire?” She gasped.
“I had to get to you,” he said. “There wasn’t really supposed to
be
a fire, actually, it was only intended as a ruse to bring you to me, but providence designed a better plan. I sent a missive intended to lure you away from the Lair. When the lack-witted groom came back with word that Drake and your Runner were coming instead, I knew you hadn’t even see it, and so I set the fire in earnest to keep them occupied awhile. They went to it, and I came to you.”
“You like setting fires don’t you?” she snapped.
“I was the one who set fire to your cottage,” he boasted.
“
You
? But… why?”
“In order to rescue you, and bring you here, where I could seduce you properly,” he replied, “but Drake got there before me.”
“What do you want with me?” she said steadily. “I’ve never led you to believe—”
“Money,” he blurted. “I should think that would be fairly obvious. “But now I have this,” he concluded, exhibiting the diamond.
“You didn’t have to go to such lengths,” she said guardedly. “I’d have given you money to avoid what you’ve done here if that’s all you wanted—gladly. Let me go. The money isn’t here. Dr. Hale is keeping it for me. I’ll go to him and get it in the morning, I’ll—”
“So that’s where you’ve hidden it away?” he interrupted. “I wish I’d known you would have given in so easily. It would have saved the Tinkers their wagons, and Smithers a knock on the head, not to mention what happened to Drake, all for a measly hundred pounds.”
“How do you know that? I never told you that.”
“I perused your contract right there in that sitting room one night, while you were at dinner. It was important then, but I don’t need it now.” He exhibited the diamond again. “This is worth ten times your piddling hundred.”
“So, you have it. Now what do you intend to do?”
“That depends entirely upon you, Demelza.”
“Why upon me?”
“I need to take you with me… for insurance. Once I’m away, if you want, you may come with me. We could have a good life together on the Continent. If you choose not… well, I’m sure you can see my dilemma.”
“You mean to hold me hostage?” she queried. Her mind was racing. She needed to stall for time. Drake would be back, and there was no question that he would come to her chamber now. But Ellery had that pistol, and he would be walking into a trap. She dared not leave with Ellery, either. Drake would never find her if she did, and Ellery would definitely kill her. He couldn’t let her live. “You don’t need me,” she hedged. “Just take the deuced diamond and go—now, before they return. I will only slow you down.”
“Ahhh, but I do need you, Demelza, even if only… temporarily. Drake and I always share our women. We even shared Eva. I think in all probability, he knew, but what he doesn’t know to this day is that the child she was carrying wasn’t his at all. It was
mine
. Drake was in London for two months when it was conceived. It happened right after he left. She was afraid that after it was born, he would know it wasn’t his, that she wouldn’t be able to pass the bratling off as his heir. Aside from the fact that if it went full term she would have to convince him that it had come on early, there was the matter of our physical differences, Drake’s and mine, they are rather pronounced. Drake is no fool. Once the child grew, he might guess. She dared not take the chance. He had more to offer her than I did. She only meant to eliminate the child, however, not herself. So, the baby in the Shelldrake family crypt is not a Hannaford at all, it’s my bastard. And his five years of grief, his hell bent obsession for a noble death was for naught. If he had gotten his wish and died on the Peninsula, I would have been high in the instep for life. He’d provided for me quite handsomely in his will, you see. That’s how it was supposed to be. As it is now, I’ve had to make other arrangements.”
Melly opened her mouth to speak, but the jiggling door handle pried a scream from her instead.
“No! Don’t come! He’s armed!” she shrilled.
But something planted squarely against the handle delivered a blow that splintered the wood around it. She watched it give, and screamed again as Ellery raised the pistol, aimed to fire.
“Melly, get down—out of the way!” Drake’s muffled voice thundered from the other side, as another blow widened the crack.
She ignored him. Ellery had let her go to aim, and she lunged, grabbing his wrists with both her hands. The pistol fired, but the ball missed its mark, shattering a mirror in the corner of the room, and in the split-second it took him to knock her to the floor, Drake’s foot broke the latch and he careened into the room.
Melly scrambled out of the way and righted herself. All she saw was a blur as Drake tackled Ellery and drove him down. The diamond went flying. Drake wasn’t armed, and she quickly snatched up the service pistol and tossed it through the gaping doorway. Outside in the hall, Zoe stood wailing, wrapped in a carriage robe. Melly had no idea when the abigail had fled the dressing room, but there was no time to puzzle over that then.
She grabbed the branch of candles on the gateleg table and danced around the two men locked in combat on the Persian carpet. Drake was like a man possessed, delivering blow after blow to Ellery’s face, but the steward gave as good as he got, and blood was pouring from Drake’s nostrils. Her heart nearly stumbled to a halt looking on. It was too soon for anything like this after the head injury. He was losing the advantage. Clarity faded from his dazed eyes as he hauled Ellery to his feet, and he staggered just long enough for the steward to deliver a shattering blow to his jaw that sent him sprawling.
Ellery searched the carpet frantically. That gave Melly the opening she needed. As he reached for the diamond, which had fallen to the floor and rolled under the gateleg table in the struggle, she lowered the branch of candles to the back of his head with all her strength, and he dropped like a stone on top of Drake at her feet.
“Come and help me, Zoe,” she charged. Laying the candles aside, she tugged at Ellery’s inert body. “He’s too heavy for me. I… can’t… lift him!”
“Noooo,” the abigail shrilled. “I’m scared o’ it, m’lady.”
“You get in here this minute and help me,” Melly demanded, stamping her foot. “His lordship’s head is
bleeding
!” Aside from the obvious, he had opened his stitches when he fell, and the carpet underneath his head was soaked with blood.
Zoe didn’t comply. Cowering in the shadows, she wailed shrilly, meanwhile shifting from one bare foot to the other.
“Be still!” Melly cried, pounding her thighs with clenched fists. “Stop that sniveling. Go and bring Griggs, then, before the Jack o’ napes comes to and murders the lot of us.
Move
!”
The girl ran off then, her sobs trailing after her, and Melly set the candle branch down beside her, just in case, and tore the blue ribbon from her hair. It would have to do. And she had just finished binding the steward’s wrists together with it, when Griggs burst through the open door, and rolled him aside.
Together, they helped Drake to a sitting position, and she threw her arms around his neck.
“D-don’t, Melly,” he moaned, “you’ll get blood on you frock. I’m… fine.”
“You’re not fine,” she sobbed, turning to the gray-faced valet. “Send for Dr. Hale, Griggs,” she cried. “His eyes are dilated again, and he’s opened the stitches. Ellery did something to Smithers, too. The stars only know what!”
“Smithers is all right,” Drake panted. “I found him wandering about downstairs. Jim knocked him unconscious coming in.”
“And the Tinkers? Was anyone hurt… Rosen…
the children
?” she pleaded.
“No,” he assured her… just two of the wagons. I’m going to replace them.”
“What the deuce is going on here?” said a gruff voice from the doorway. Melly and the valet spun toward the sound. It was Redmond, standing on the threshold arms-akimbo.
“Nice work, Griggs,” he barked, swaggering close. I’ll take charge from here.”
“It wasn’t me,” the valet said. “It was Miss Melly. All I did was help roll the blighter off his lordship.”
“H-how long were you listening outside that door, before you broke through it, Drake?” she murmured, afraid of the answer to that question.
“I heard, if that’s what you’re asking,” he replied, taking her in his arms. “It doesn’t matter. You are all that matters. Once I realized what was afoot here, all I could think of was getting to you, before—”
Her lips on his silenced the rest. There was no more concern over madness, or differences, or anything but that warm, wonderful, heart-stopping, soul-wrenching kiss.
Epilogue
Melly sat on the edge of Drake’s four-poster. He was propped up with pillows in a sitting position. The doctor had come and gone, the Runner had taken his prisoner into the village, Griggs had repaired to his cubicle in the dressing room, and they were finally alone.
“What will become of him?” Melly said, speaking of Ellery.
“There’s enough evidence to see him hang at Tyburn,” Drake said emptily. Running his hand along her arm until it captured hers he lifted it to his lips.
“That distresses you,” she replied.
“What distresses me, is that I put my trust in someone for seventeen years, and couldn’t see that it was all a sham. I thought he was my friend, and all the while—”
She silenced him with a finger on his swollen, split lip.
“Thank you,” he murmured, through another kiss as he clasped her hand again. “Though I hate to admit it, old Hale was right, I wasn’t up to fisticuffs. He would have bested me if you hadn’t swung that candlestick. I saw two of him. I didn’t know which one to hit.”
“His infernal greed gave me the opportunity,” she said. “If he hadn’t bent to pick up that diamond, it might have all ended differently. I shudder to think.”
“Where is the diamond?”
“Safe,” she said, patting the pocket she wore about her waist. “He broke the chain, though.”
“That’s easily fixed. I’ll see to it as soon as I’m out of this deuced bed.”
“That can wait. You’ll stay in that deuced bed until Dr. Hale says you can leave it,” she informed him.
“Oh, I don’t think it can wait,” he said, flashing a lopsided smile that melted her. “It’s your fault you know. You ravished me after all—and on horseback no less—violated me, took advantage of me when I was powerless to prevent it. Don’t you think it’s time you made an honest man of me, Lady Demelza Ahern, soon to be Hannaford, Countess Shelldrake?”
“An honest man?” she said, nonplussed. Was he falling into madness again, just when she thought all that was behind her? He
had
to be mad. Ravished, indeed. Such babbling. Would she never understand this enigmatic, unpredictable, exasperating man?
“Never mind, little witch,” he said, tongue-in-cheek. “One day, when I’ve grown fat and gone bald, and that beautiful, toffee-colored hair of yours has turned to silver, I’ll tell you all about it.
Meet Dawn Thompson
Dawn Thompson is a regular columnist featured in women’s special interest publications world and nationwide for over thirty years, one of which is
Crochet World
, published by House of White Birches, since its inception over twenty-five years ago. She is an award-winning poet, artist, and needlework designer.
A multi-award-winning author, Dawn writes Historical fiction, primarily set in the Regency period. She is a member of RWA, Long Island Romance Writers, Gothic Romance Writers, Hearts Through History, Celtic Hearts, and the Beau Monde. Another of her works,
The Ravencliff Bride,
is a Dorchester Love Spell release for September, 2005.
Dawn lives in Long Island New York with her Tuxedo cat, Shadowfax (alias Miss Fuzz), and Espirit, her scandalous Senegal parrot, an incurable flirt.
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