Authors: Beth Trissel
The
older woman sank onto a stool.
“What have you incited now, sir?”
“Nothing,
” Will
fervently
hoped
.
“Surely envious women will only go so far?”
H
eads shook
, worry writ on every face
.
“Whatever happened to proper chaperones?” his grandmother bemoaned.
“What, indeed.
”
Charlotte
fixed
her attention
on Paul.
“Julia
was with you last I saw
.
Did she say where she might have gone
?”
Paul
lifted
his
shallow shoulders
and let them drop
.
“She www
––
was sad.
I
ggg
––
gave her a
sss
––
soda.”
Will
s
tudied the twitch in his
reluctant
gaze
.
“Then what?
”
Paul
clamped
his thin
lips together,
a mulish set to his jaw.
“PPP
––P
retty Julia’s
sss
––
safe,” he sputtered,
and stabbed
an accusing finger at Lyle.
“From him.”
“What the––”
Will
began, and broke off.
He
forced himself to speak
calmly so as no
t to rattle the unstable youth
, but it took every ounce of fortitude
he possessed
.
“Lyle hasn’t
seen her since this morning.”
“He
lll
––
lies.
YYY
––
You said.
”
“
Not this time
, he isn’t
.
What do you know about
her
?”
Paul
slid h
is eyes everywhere except at Will
.
Father
Seth
laid
a firm hand on Paul’s
arm.
“If y
ou know something about the young lady
, you must say
.
The Bible commands us to speak the truth.
”
Paul’s poi
nted face flushed
.
“I
ddd
––
did!
She’s OK!”
The little weasel.
Will had had enough
,
evidently at the
exact
instant
Lyle arrived at that
same
decision.
Swooping
at Paul,
Lyle grabbed
him
by his scrawny elbows
and ripped
him
up
off the floor
.
He dangled him
helplessly
.
“Where have you put he
r, you
lying
toad
!”
F
urther reddened
,
Paul
kicked
helplessly, but
refused to answer, only saying,
“WWW
––W
here you
ccc
––
can’t find her!”
Will
had never
felt so desperate
in his life
.
He
pushed a
way
the horrific image
of
Julia locked inside
a coffin-
like
chest
.
Praying
P
aul
had
at least
a basic grasp of her need for oxygen
, he
rounded on the young
delinquent
.
“Tell us or
I swear
I’ll thrash you myself.”
Paul narrowed outraged eyes at him.
Gra
ndmother Nora
thunked
the floor w
ith her cane
.
“That wi
ll not be necessary, William.”
She stood, leaning
on her
stick
,
and cocked
her head at the youth
dangling
in Lyle’s grasp
like a rat
.
“You have put this young lady
throu
gh Lord only knows what
ordeal and upset us all. Worse
.
Y
ou’
ve interfered with the play.
If you do not come forth at once with her whereabouts you shall not be in it.”
For the first time
since the questioning began
in earne
st, Paul appeared truly alarmed
.
He stilled
,
and Lyle lowered him to the f
loor so that he stood chin to chin
with the indignant woman.
H
e worked his
angular
jaw back and forth
.
“No play?”
She
regarded him as a monarch might
an unruly serf.
“Not unless you produce Miss Morrow
at once
.”
“MMM
––
Miss Maury,” he dissented
.
“Miss Maury is long dead.
”
“NNN
––N
o,” Paul sputtered
.
“SSS
––S
he’s in the attic.”
“
Captain
Wentworth
!
You damn scoundrel!
”
Julia froze in mid-step, her
gloved
hand in Cole’s, as
Cameron’s
voice
boomed through the merry assembly of bejeweled ladies and impec
cably cloth
ed gentlemen.
Somewhere between
the time Cole had thrown Cameron
out of Foxl
eigh and
the
zenith of the
ball, he must have found a tav
ern and wet his wounded pride.
The poetic side
of the Scotsman
she’d witnessed
was gone, replaced by unve
iled belligerence.
He
lurched, red-faced, through the appalled gathering.
Musicians seated up on the landing
overlooking the
great
hall
,
bro
ke off in the middle of a lively
English dance.
Silk g
owns swirled to a halt as
graceful dancers paused
in long promenading lines
.
Women covered parted lips with their
fans and men frowned
.
Some stepped protectively in front of their
feminine
partners.
Cole
dropped his eyes to
Julia’s, steel in their
brown
depths, and calmly said,
“Pray excuse me, dearest
.
It would seem I am summoned.”
With a reassuring squeeze, he released her hand and started toward Cameron.
The duchess narrowed
her glittering gaze at
the Scotsman
reeling
thro
ugh the
parting dancers
.
“
Begone
sir.
You
r vulgar behavior disturbs
my guests.”
“Not until I’ve had satisfaction from your lout of a son!”
The maj
estic woman held her head high.
“You dare c
all him a lout, you drunken oaf.
”
“‘Tis a
pity women can’t
be challenged.
”
Cameron clumsily
drew his sword
. The finely honed blade glinted evilly in the dazzling room as he
wove
d
angerously
close to the scattering assembly.
Cole interposed himself
between
his mother and the drunkard
.
“I assure you, sir, you are
in
far
less danger
from me
than this lady
.
She
regrets the demise of
a
torture
chamber for such as you
.
”
“Really, Cole,” the duchess
reproved him
.
H
e flashed
his mother
a devilish grin that sparkled in his eyes
.
Steel sang as he
drew
his sword from the emblazoned sheath that h
ad been his father’s. Motioning
everyone back, he swi
ped it, whistling, at Cameron.
Bo
ttle-green buttons flew from the weaving man’s
coat
and
hit the polished floor with a ping, then rolled across the wood
.
“Bloody hell!” Cameron bellowed.
Cole spoke coolly,
“
The next slice will cut flesh.”
“Damn r
ight
––
yours,
Captain––
” Cameron grunted, and lunged.
Cole stepped
asi
de.
T
he incensed man barreled past him and collided
with a
low
table.
The fine furnishing top
ple
d to the floor, smashing crystal
goblets
the
guests had set aside
.
Cameron wound up
alongside
the wreckage
, waving his sword overhead.
Titters of amusement rippled thro
ugh the incredulous onlookers.
“Ludicrous!” one
gentleman guffawed
.
Cameron clamored to his feet, h
is coat flapping open,
and
turned
on Cole
.
“Fight
!
Y
ou coward!”
Cole regarded him with catli
ke disinterest.
“For that
, I must have an opponent.”
“You’ve got one,
lad
die
!”
Cameron
rushed
at him
like an enraged bull
.
Cole’s
expression was one of
polite disdain.
No animal lust lik
e Cameron’s, just simple scorn.
Steel struck sparks
as he
swung his sword
with effortless skill
.
Cameron staggered back
under the f
orce of Cole’s
well aimed
blow.
F
ire in his bloodsho
t eyes, he sprang forward
again
and swung
hard
.
With
a
twist of his
blade, Cole disarmed him.
He sent Cameron’s
sword
clattering to the floor.
Cole
caught
it up
in his other hand
and aimed both lethal points
a
t the red-faced Scotsman.
“Do you insist on first blood or shall we stop now?”
As d
runk as he was, Ca
meron could see the biting metal
at his throat.
“I concede,” he spit out.