Just This Once (37 page)

She knew no resentment, no bitterness, of
her fate. Josie was too much a survivor and realist for that. But
there was immense relief and joy to know that she had indeed had
people and a place, those to whom she belonged, if only she’d
known....

“If only we’d known...” Alicia murmured,
tears in her eyes when Josie related, at their urging, an overview
of her own past, a sketch of her life—sparing them, for now, the
harshest details.

“My dear, dear child, this pains me more
than I can say. You never should have had to know such hardships.”
The Duke spoke hoarsely and passed a shaking hand across his brow.
Instantly, Josie was sorry she had told him any of her past at all.
But she was so tired of secrets.

“We’ll make up for lost time,” he went on,
before she could speak. “There is so much to say, to know. You must
return tomorrow, and dine with us. We’re eager to meet Lord
Stonecliff, to know both of you better.”

At his mention of Ethan, Josie gave a start.
A glance at the darkening sky beyond the window revealed the
lateness of the hour. And the gold clock on the mantel read nearly
five o’clock!

She jumped up from the sofa. “I must be
going. Forgive me for having stayed overlong!”

“Child, you have stayed
away
overlong. You cannot now stay long enough to suit Alicia and
myself.”

Her heart trembled as she saw the film of
emotion in the Duke’s eyes. “You will return tomorrow?”

“Yes, oh, yes.”

His shoulders relaxed at her reply and he
nodded in relief. But Josie suddenly noticed just how weary he
looked, how the afternoon’s excitement and revelations had
exhausted him and seemed to deepen the lines etched beneath his
eyes.

“I’ll send for the carriage and see
Josephine on her way,” Alicia said quickly, her anxiety mirroring
Josie’s as the two girls exchanged glances. “You must go upstairs
and rest now, Grandpapa. I won’t be long.”

When the carriage came, Josie stared
wonderingly into her sister’s face. Her sister! She felt like
shouting with joy. Instead she reached out impulsively and hugged
this gentle girl who had welcomed her so openheartedly into her
life. “You’ll come back t-tomorrow?” Alicia asked eagerly. “Perhaps
we could walk in the park? I d-don’t go out much in society, as I
told you. It’s my stammer. People sometimes stare, or whisper. But
we could ride, if you like.”

“I’d like that very much.” Josie glanced
down at the opal-and-pearl brooch she now wore proudly upon her
gown, and then at the matching ring Alicia had slipped onto her own
finger. Jewels that had both belonged to their mother.

“I called your ring ‘my treasure’ all this
time I had it. Because it was a clue, you see, it was precious to
me. But now—now, Alicia, I truly have something to treasure.”

“And so do I.” Alicia clasped both her hands
and smiled through a fresh shimmer of tears. “So do we all.”

Neither of them saw the shadowy figure
detach itself from the corner of the building as the Duke’s
carriage clattered away, carrying Josie toward Mayfair. And neither
of them saw that same obscure figure cross the street and climb
into another carriage, which immediately sprang off after the
Duke’s in brisk pursuit.

* * *

When Josie sailed into the town house in
excited search of Ethan, she was greeted by Edward, a footman, who
informed her that his lordship regretted he must be away on
business until later that night, but that he had left her a
note.

“Will you be dining at home, my lady?”

“What? Oh, yes, Edward, I will.” She
struggled through her disappointment to answer distractedly as she
tore open the missive he handed her from a silver tray.

Ethan’s business regarding a seat in
Parliament would keep him away until sometime this evening—but he
wanted her to know that the meeting with Grismore was scheduled for
the following day. He loved her, he wrote, in his firm, elegant
black scrawl. And he would show her exactly how much when he was
finally able to return to her from his damned round of
meetings.

Grismore—tomorrow! Josie ignored the nervous
flutters in her throat. It was time to get it over with, she told
herself. She would pass inspection—for Ethan’s sake, for both of
their sakes, she would have to!

She ran lightly up the stairs, wondering how
she could possibly wait another few hours to tell Ethan her
news—that she had discovered who she was, that she had a
grandfather and a sister living right here in England. She glanced
down at her brooch once more, elated that now she could show it to
him and wear it openly, that she could let the world know it was
hers. No more hiding, no more wondering, no more searching...

She gave a little skip as she started down
the corridor to her room, her lips curving in a smile of
anticipation.

Suddenly a door flew open beside her. She
glanced up, expecting it to be a housemaid, finished dusting one of
the guest bedrooms, but instead a brawny figure lunged at her. A
hand squashed her mouth, iron arms clamped around her in a death
vise.

Before Josie could even try to scream, she
was plucked from the corridor and dragged into the empty room. The
door was kicked shut.

In total darkness she heard a laugh.

“Josie, honey, you didn’t think I’d let you
run off and leave me now, did you? Honey, I missed you somethin’
fierce. And I’m going to show you how much. I’m going to show you
so you’ll never forget.” Snake Barker chuckled in her ear.

And then something struck her over the head
and there was blinding pain and blazing dots of light, and then
nothing but cold—blizzard-white icy cold that snapped at her bones
and dragged her down, down, down into a chilly river of
blackness.

S
he swam dizzily up
out of pain and cold and darkness. Everything hurt. She couldn’t
open her eyes. The sound of rain beat against a window. Such a hard
sound. Lightning flashed, hurting her closed eyes.

What’s happened to me? Josie wondered
groggily, and then she heard a door open, heard voices and the
scrape of booted feet, and memory rushed back—and with it fear.

“Well, lookee here. She’s comin’ to. She’s
breathing hard now, not like before. So she’s awake, boys. Snake,
bet you twenty dollars she knows we’re here.”

Deck’s voice. Josie tried to hold herself
motionless, tried to slow her breathing. But suddenly she felt
someone standing over her, and sensed Snake’s presence the way she
might sense a wolf baring its fangs in the dark.

“Wake up, Josie girl.” Pain wrenched through
her head as he knotted his hands in her hair and pulled.

Her eyes flew open. With a snarl she lunged
at his arm and tried to break his hold, but he only laughed. He
held her down with his free arm, and pulled harder.

“You been a real bad girl, Josie. I had to
come all the way across the whole Atlantic Ocean to git you. And
Deck here was sick the whole way. It warn’t too enjoyable, thet
trip.”

“I wish your ship had sunk,” she gasped,
tears stinging her eyelids even as she fought not to give him the
satisfaction of showing how much he was hurting her.

Snake roared with laughter and the others
joined in.

But to her relief, he abruptly let go of her
hair. “You’ll wish it even more, honey, by the time I’m done with
you.”

There was a cruel glint in his eyes. Josie
remembered that glint all too well.

“Meantime,” he said curtly, “we’ve got some
business to talk over. There’ll be time for fun and games
later.”

She struggled up to a sitting position on
the bed. Her head ached. What had he hit her with? Gingerly, she
touched her fingers to the back of her head and winced at the
tender bump.

For a moment Josie just stared blearily at
the four of them, crowding around her in that dark, cramped room,
rain spattering the window, a jumble of noise coming from somewhere
beyond the door.

Where was she? How had she come here? And
did anyone at the town house know she was gone?

She was in a small, moldy-smelling room,
which seemed even smaller with Snake and the boys in it. An inn,
she guessed, and not one that served the aristocracy, but one for
the masses, those too poor for clean, well-aired sheets and
wholesome food. What furnishings the room contained—the bed, a
three-legged stool, a grimy bureau—were cheap and garish. There was
an ugly stiff brown quilt on the bed and torn red muslin curtains
at the window, a bare floor that looked as if it hadn’t had a good
scrubbing in decades, and a paraffin lamp in a tin holder, which
sent out a sickly yellowish glow that made Snake’s fair hair look
pale and greasy as butter.

“Something tells me this isn’t the Grand
Hotel.”

“Not by a long shot, honey. Welcome to the
rookery.”

Snake’s grin couldn’t have stretched any
wider if he’d just filled his belly with a slab of Texas beef.
“You’re in a corner of London where no one who don’t live and
belong here will ever find you. There’s miles of alleys and
gambling dens and brothels between you and that fancy house you
been staying in, and every bit of it’s crawling with rats—not to
mention thieves and beggars and murderers who’d likely slit your
throat just to get their hands on that pretty bauble you’re
wearing. Not to mention that shiny gold ring.”

Before Josie could move, Snake clamped his
fingers around her wrist and tugged off Latherby’s gold ring, then
ripped her opal-and-pearl brooch from her gown.

“No, you bastard! Give it back!” She hurled
herself at him and tried to wrest the brooch from his grasp, but he
flung her back onto the bed.

“This here is just the start of what you owe
me, Josie girl. You took our loot, remember? And all them fancy
jewels from the stagecoach passengers? Hell, I figger it’s up to
you to pay me back. For starters”—he nodded at Deck, who reached
into his vest pocket and drew out a gray cloth pouch—“we cleaned
out all the fancy jewels we could find in your bedroom—and in
Savage’s, too.”

As Josie stared in horror, Deck fished out
the ruby necklace she’d worn to Lady Tattersall’s dinner party,
dangled it in the air a moment, then with a grin fished out the
matching earrings and a gold stickpin of Ethan’s.

“These and the rest’ll fetch a good price,
but not near enough to pay back what you owe. It’s going to take a
hell of a lot more than money, and more than baubles to pay back
what you owe, honey.”

Josie barely heard the veiled threat in his
words. Revenge, that’s what Snake wanted. More than riches. His
power over her, his ability to cause her pain and suffering, that
would be the only payment that would satisfy him.

But she was far more concerned with the
pouch Deck was now dropping back into his pocket. Those rubies had
belonged to Ethan’s mother. He’d entrusted them to Josie. And when
Ethan returned home, he’d find her gone.

What if he saw that the jewels were gone
too—as well as his own valuables?

Would he think she’d stolen them, and run
off? That everything between them had been a lie?

“You have to let me out of this place.” It
wasn’t a question, it was a demand she threw at Snake between
gritted teeth.

“I don’t
got
to do nothin’, Josie
girl,” Snake growled, and grabbed her wrist once more. “And you’d
best learn to quit all that back talk.”

She glanced toward the window. The darkness
of night now blackened the small slit of sky visible through the
curtains.
Had Ethan returned from his meetings?
she wondered
desperately.
Did he know yet that she was gone?

She couldn’t bear to think of how he would
feel when he noticed all of the jewels that were missing as
well....

“It’s not me you want, Snake.” She jerked
free of his grasp, then pushed her hair back, trying to speak
clearly despite the pounding in her head, and the fear that tasted
like sand in her throat. She forced herself to look into his wide,
smarmily handsome face, hoping she appeared calmer than she felt.
“It’s money you want. Money to make up for the loot I stole. More
money than these jewels are worth, money enough to buy you anything
you want. I can get it for you. Take me back, and I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Snake jeered, his mouth
twisting with contempt. “You’ll ask Savage to hand over a bag of
gold? Or write out a bank draft? Just like that? You must think I’m
a damned fool, Josie.” Suddenly he leaned down and gripped her by
the shoulders, wrenching her forward so sharply, her head
snapped.

“I ain’t. I got a better plan, one thet’s
goin’ to pay you back and that son of a bitch would-be husband of
yours too. And it’s going to make me rich.”

“It won’t work, Snake, whatever it is. Ethan
will find you and—”

“Find me, will he? Not till I’m good and
ready to be found. Not till I’ve set my trap for him and he walks
right into it, just like a squirrel tumbling down into a snake pit.
Snake pit, honey, get it?” He burst into ugly laughter, and
Spooner, Noah, and Deck joined in. They stood in a ring around
Josie as she stared from one to the other of them with growing
dread.