Rescued By a Lady's Love (Lords of Honor, #3) (42 page)

Derek tightened his grip on the weapon, as the nauseating acrid scent of fire wafted about his senses. It stole his logic, froze his movements, and kept him captive to the horror of long ago. The gun trembled in his fingers and then fell quietly into a pile of aged leaves. Through the fog of horror, he registered the man stepping outside and looking about.

Swallowing hard, Derek forced back the bile stinging his throat. Memories threatened to transport him back to that terrifying battlefield horror when fire had burned his skin and hands as he’d slapped at the flames in a bid to tamp out the blaze.

“I was expecting your call.” The casual greeting filled the copse and pulled Derek back from the brink of madness. Derek swiftly retrieved the gun and pocketed it. The man spoke with the words of a gentleman, however, the tattered fabric of his garments and the weapon he now waved about spoke an altogether different story.

Then the stranger looked through the thick of the trees and Derek stilled. Could the man see him even now? As quietly as his imperfect limbs allowed, he continued forward. “Come along, Your Grace. Surely you’ll not keep me waiting, not with Miss Bennett waiting so patiently for you.”

And with that, all the battlefield logic and calm deserted him. Derek stepped out of the copse.

The red-haired stranger swung about, waving the gun in his hands. “Do not move,” he cried, shaking that unsteady weapon in his direction. “Do not move unless I say.”

Derek came to an immediate halt. Tufts of smoke spilled from the fireplace and he focused in on this man who’d sought to steal the only happiness he had found. “What do you want?” he asked quietly. In war, he’d learned there were all manner of fighters. There was the ruthless, proficient soldier who could kill on command, without any compunction in the moment. There were fearful, desperate men like his friend St. Cyr had been in his youth. And then there were the skittish fellows with beady eyes, searching all about. Those were the men who inevitably were the first to fall. This man before him now, his eyes aglow with panic, was one of the latter. It was why Derek knew he would survive and this man would inevitably die.

“You know what I want,” the man snapped. “Your family stole something belonging to me and I want it back.”

The weight of the diamond burned heavy in the front of his pocket. What an evil artifact, craved by black-hearted souls like this man and his brother.

“If Miss Bennett had simply turned it over as she pledged then it would have never come to this.”

Tendrils of fear licked at the edge of his thoughts and he forced his breathing into a semblance of calm. “Where is Miss Bennett?” In her innocence, Lily had been no match for this merciless, ruthless bastard. Alone, dependent upon no one but herself, she would have been easy prey for a man such as Holdsworth. Derek swallowed hard, damning himself for not having been more for her, when everyone else had failed her.

The man waved his gun. “We are discussing the diamond.”

Derek leveled the man with a ducal glare that properly cowed him. “Where is she?”

Holdsworth audibly swallowed. “Sh-she is inside and you should be quick. I’ve set a fire.”

A ringing filled his ears and his nose picked up that acrid scent of fire once more. Oh, God in Heaven. He swung a horror-filled gaze to the front door of that thatched-roof cottage. He imagined her as the flames licked at her skin and the air rent with her cries. She would perish in there. Derek fought through the panic that threatened to pull him into an empty vortex.
I love you, you spirited minx. Don’t you dare die.
“Is this what you wish to exchange?” He reached into the front of his pocket.

“Stop!” the man cried. He pointed his gun at Derek and he stilled with one hand tucked inside his pocket.

“Calm,” he said as though soothing a fractious mare. “I have something I think you would care to see.” In one fluid movement he drew forth that diamond then tossed it to the ground.

Holdsworth gasped and let his arms drop to his sides. He staggered forward. His greed was his undoing. With a smoothness better suited to the youth he’d been in battle, Derek shot the man through the heart.

The man’s mouth went slack and then he crumpled to the earth in a noiseless heap.

Heart racing, Derek lurched forward, racing through the remaining distance to the small cottage. He stepped into the entrance and a wall of smoke clouded his vision, blinding him as he searched about frantically. “Lily!” he cried. He limped deeper inside and terror warred with determination. “Lily,” he called again.

A muffled whimper cut through the snapping and hissing of the fire licking away at the mahogany furniture at the front of the parlor. Derek lunged toward that sound, his chest burning from the thick smoke blanketing the room. He staggered to a halt. Lily lay upon a floral sofa with her hands tied before her and her face bloodied and bruised. Oh, God. The sight of her suffering was greater than any flame to have touched his skin. He grabbed for her and catching his breath, swung her into his arms. He grimaced at the exertion of each step as he walked through the room rapidly being engulfed in flames.

He closed his eye a moment, savoring the solid, reassuring weight of her in his arms. When he had her away from here and safe, he was never letting her go. He would beg her forgiveness, and make her his duchess, and give her everything she’d ever deserved of life. “Miss Bennett,” he said hoarsely. “You have always had a flare for the dramatics.”

Her head lolled limp, hanging over his arm, giving her the look of a rag doll.

Oh, God. Do not be dead. Do not be dead. You are happiness and light, and I’ve been a bloody stubborn fool, too blind to see that which was truly before me.
Derek broke through the entrance and sucked in great gasping breaths of air. As the fire raged within the cottage, he limped faster over the cobbled path lined with flowers, away, further away, and then he collapsed to his knees. He dimly registered a tall, slender gentleman breaking through the brush. Shock slammed into him as Harris raced forward. The servant skidded to a halt before him, kicking up gravel and dirt. “Harris?” he rasped. What in blazes?

“Surely you did not believe I would not come to help you?” His butler reached for the burden in Derek’s arms.

At that undeserved devotion, Derek’s throat worked spasmodically. “See to Flora.” Lowering Lily to the earth, he allowed himself to finally look at her. The air escaped him on a slow hiss. The sight of her blackened eyes and bloodied nose gutted him and he leaned over her prone form. “You are not to die, Lily,” he begged, his tone hoarse from the smoke and the desperation cloying at him. “I am nothing without you. And I’ll not have you die because of that blasted diamond.” He tapped her pale, white cheek with his hand once. Twice. And a third time. “Damn it, Lily, open your eyes.”

“She is dead?”

A dull humming filled his ears as agony dragged the breath from his lungs and threatened to suffocate him. It took a moment for him to register that those words belonged to another. He jerked his head about. Flora hovered and her tear-filled eyes remained fixed on Lily.

Derek gave his head a brusque shake. “No.” The hoarse denial exploded from his lips. “I. Forbid. It,” he bit out. He returned his efforts to Lily.
Damn you, open your bloody eyes.
“Do you hear that Lily Bennett? You must stay here with me and Flora. We both need you and I’ll not have you selfishly leave us to our own devices.” He laid his head to her chest. “Please.” The entreaty burst forth as a broken sob
. I cannot exist in a world in which you are not here.
If she left him, all the light would be gone and he’d be plunged into a forever darkness. “I love you.”

A fluttering hand brushed his hair and he jerked his head up. His heart tripped a beat. “Lily?” he demanded hoarsely.

Her lashes fluttered. The ghost of a smile trembled on her full mouth, as she ran her shaking fingers over his cheek. “Derek?” she whispered. He leaned into that butterfly soft caress.

“What, love?” he begged. Whatever she sought, was hers. He would lay the world at her feet if she but let him.

“Y-you are h-hopelessly commanding,” her voice emerged strained. “Do you know that?”

A strangled laugh escaped him as he gathered her close. “I have one more command to issue. Love me, forever.”

L
ily stood in the corner of the chambers she’d occupied at Derek’s home. She stared out the window into the crowded streets below. She traced her fingertip over the windowpane. Lords and ladies moved arm in arm down the fashionable Mayfair Street, while dandies rushed by in their extravagant phaetons. Odd, how all those pillars of the peerage should go about with such an absolute simplicity, when she, Flora, and Derek had been thrust into a hell of Mr. Lucas Holdsworth’s making.

It had been a week since her and Flora’s abduction and in that time, Derek had been perfectly polite and proper and attentive. Yet there had been no further words of love. Lily’s heart caught. She’d begun to believe that command he’d issued outside the blazing cottage had been nothing more than a conjuring she’d dreamed up.

The door opened and her heart started at the precious little child who noisily closed the door behind her. “Are you never coming out, Mrs. Benedict?” she asked without preamble, skipping over to Lily. So wholly innocent, with no mention or talk of the danger they’d faced at Holdsworth’s hands. Oh, at just shy of eight, how much more courageous she was than Lily.

“Hello, Flora,” she began. “I—”

“I asked Uncle Derek and he just grumbled mphpmph.”

Furrowing her brow, Lily stared back questioningly.

Her former charge lifted her shoulders in a little shrug. “
Youuu
know Uncle Derek.”

Despite the misery that had dogged her since that fateful day, a smile tugged at her lips. Oh, how she was going to miss this child. “I do know him,” she said softly. She knew his heart and soul were equally good. She knew he was honorable when most men were not. And she knew when she walked out of this townhouse, her heart would never, ever be healed.

Flora took another bold step closer and leaning up on tiptoe, peered at Lily. “You are not going to l-leave, are you?” And for all the courage in this child, the faint tremor hinted at the little girl who’d known too much loss.

“Oh, sweet.” Her voice cracked and she folded her arms around the child who, with her uncle, had helped put Lily’s broken heart together.

“I say you
must
stay.” She buried her face into Lily’s dress, muffling her words. “My uncle loves you and you should stay and be his wife, and we shall be a family and—”

Tears welled in her eyes and she was never more grateful than for the quick rap at the door. “Enter,” she called out. She could not bear this.

Dr. Carlson stepped inside. His face wreathed, as usual, in warm smile. “Hello, Lady Flora,” he greeted, carrying his doctor’s bag over.

Turning, the girl looked over at him. “Hullo, Dr. Carlson.”

Lily drew back and gave the little girl’s shoulders a slight squeeze. “Dr. Carlson is here to visit with me. I will not be long.” For this home, this life. Any of it. Her heart contracted with grief.

“Oh, very well,” Flora said on an exaggerated sigh and then with the same ease she’d popped in and out since Lily had arrived, she slipped out of the room, closing the door in her wake.

Tears clogging her throat, she looked back to the window.

“You are quiet this day, Miss Bennett.”

Miss Bennett. Yes, there was no such pretense for false names anymore, was there? Lily angled her head and looked at the young doctor as he placed his instruments back inside his black bag after examining her. As his words were an observation more than anything, she remained silent.

“How are you feeling?”

Like my heart is dying. Like I will never smile again.
Blinking back the sheen misting her eyes, she turned. “I am well,” she said softly.

A wry grin curved the man’s lips. “Miss Bennett, as your doctor, I informed His Grace of that truth more than four days ago and he still insists I attend you.”

She chewed her lower lip. Why had Derek not turned her out? Held her responsible for Flora’s abduction? She was just as guilty as the maid, Claudia, who’d disappeared after her role in Holdsworth’s plan, only to be discovered, and sent to a penal colony for her complicity. Surely he saw Lily in the same light.

“The duke is stubborn.”

The windowpane reflected her rapidly blinking visage.

“He has spent years shutting the world from his life.” The doctor pulled on his gloves. “And with his mother’s disdain and Society’s cruelty, well, it is with understandable reasons.”

She wet her lips. “Why are you telling me this?” Lily well knew what had shaped Derek into the man he’d become. He was a hard man who’d not forgive easily.

“He let you in,” the doctor said at last. He held her stare. “And I hope you allow him to stay there.”

Unable to meet his piercing gaze, she looked at her slippers. “I have made mistakes. Unpardonable ones.” Crimes that had nearly cost a little girl her life and, as it was, had irrevocably changed her. Lily curled her toes so tight her feet ached.

The doctor gave her a gentle smile. “None of us are without mistakes.” A knock sounded at the door and Dr. Carlson inclined his head. “If you will excuse me.”

She turned. Derek stood framed in the entrance impossibly elegant and magnificent in his black breeches, black coat, and stark white cravat. Their gazes locked and a wave of hot, indecipherable emotions passed in his eye. He moved his attention to Dr. Carlson.

“She is well, Your Grace,” the doctor said with a smile.

Derek inclined his head. He did not speak until Dr. Carlson had taken his leave. “Lily,” he greeted.

What was she to make of that curiously empty inflection? Did he intend to send her off, in truth? Did he wish to have her remain in the role of governess? Did he want more with her? She smoothed her palms down her skirts “Derek,” she said softly. And because she was too afraid to know that he’d come to his senses and realized the absolute truth, that a whore had no place in his household, but unable to hear him utter those words, Lily cleared her throat. “I have sent a missive to my family.”