The Dark Lady (34 page)

Thomas was the kind who howled if he’d nicked a knee or bloodied his hands from a fall. No wonder he’d
chosen to brain her, a relatively clean way to attack someone. “I’m going to leave now,” she said evenly.

Carefully, she inched a foot toward the door, worried he might do something very foolish. “I’m going to the authorities. Then hopefully some modicum of justice might be done.”

Thomas licked his lips, his hands still stretched out, his gaze fixed on her pistol. “I don’t think you will.”

Eva straightened her arm, tempted to become a monster herself and simply caress the trigger. “Why not?”

His pink tongue darted out to lick his dry lips. “Because you came here to discuss your son.”

“You negated such discussion when you attacked me.”

Thomas blew out a heavy breath. His gaze darted from the pistol to her face. “I was hoping to avoid showing my hand.”

That feeling of possibility came back to her. What could he have that was such a great secret he would lock her away or try to send her abroad? She dared not give way to fanciful hopes. “Why?”

“Well, the very nature of the information is incriminating to myself.” Thomas smiled faintly. “Luckily, you will never use it to harm me.”

From the smug gleam in his eyes, she saw that the little power she had was about to slip away, and she couldn’t let that happen. “Out with it, Thomas.”

Thomas lowered his hands. “I want you to give me the pistol.”

This time a laugh poured from her, full bodied with disbelief. “Why on earth would I do that?”

“Because you would do anything to keep your son safe,” he snapped, his face growing rigid with impatience.

Keep your son safe. Terror and hope clutched at Eva
in one swift assault. It was a hypnotic moment, the world stopping with cruel promise. “Adam?”

“Yes,” he said simply. “He’s still alive, Eva.”

Her heart stopped beating at that moment. Everything stilled as an intense longing for her baby swept over. “Don’t lie.”

Thomas shook his head, confidence replacing his earlier wariness. “Why would I lie? Such information would steal the title from me. Why would I give it to you if it weren’t true?”

“To . . . to silence me, to take advantage of this situation,” she said tightly, not daring to let herself begin to believe. Lord, she could not bear it to have Adam taken from her again.

“Yes. That is exactly what I will do. But it is true, Eva.”

It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. No God would offer such impossible hope.

“Believe it,” he urged. “But if you kill me, you will never find him.”

An image of her son danced before her, his small arms reaching up, face back, laughing as he waited to be lifted into her embrace. A guttural hiss of rage ripped from her throat. “What did you do?”

“You never saw the body.” Thomas shifted, squaring his shoulders. “You fainted and they brought the both of you back to the house. He’d been knocked unconscious and had a broken arm.” A faint hint of disgust curled Thomas’s lip. “The driver brought him back, but I stopped him in the stable. I took the boy and hid him, to see if he’d live or not.” Thomas blinked, the muscle below his right eye tightening slightly. “He lived.”

“My God,” she gritted. She couldn’t even imagine what Thomas would have had to do. Loathing filled her. Thomas would have had to carry the little body, place it in some hay-filled basket. Or perhaps he’d just slung
Adam down like a sack. Then he would have had to callously wait and watch through his own nephew’s pain. “Thomas, if one of us is mad, it is you.”

“No.” He took a shaky step toward her. “It was the perfect opportunity to have what I always wanted. What I always deserved.” Thomas’s eyes flared, his gaze sparking with a frightening passion. “Don’t you understand? All my life, I watched. I watched you and Ian fumble at love and Hamilton’s pathetic attempts to be good enough for you both and our father. I was never going to be that fool. I learned after Mother died how important it was not to become attached. Not to care. So I kept myself separate. And when you’re separate, doing what I did is very simple. Easy. No looking back.”

Eva’s insides twisted at his admission. Was that what he had been doing when they were children? Keeping himself distant, so he’d have no conscience in this world? And no affection. He’d closed his heart to any sort of love, so he would never understand the love she felt for Ian or her son. Her heart sank.

Thomas smoothed his trembling hands down his creased waistcoat, the moment of emotion gone. “Money will buy a person anything, Eva, including silence. I paid off the servants who spotted the boy.”

Again her finger itched to pull the trigger and kill him. But she couldn’t. Not while he held her future in his hands. “Where is he?”

Thomas lifted a finger and wagged. “No. He is my one insurance against you. If you do not let me go now, you will never see him again. He will be lost and Lord knows what will happen to a friendless child.” Thomas tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing. “You’ve seen the beggar children on the streets, Eva. What they’re willing to do for a scrap of bread. Can you imagine that befalling your son?”

“What you did to me was unforgivable, Thomas.” Her voice broke in her rage, but she kept on. “What you have done to Adam? You shall burn in the depths of hell forever.”

“The afterlife doesn’t overly concern me.” Thomas stretched out his hand expectantly. “Now, if you would hand me the pistol?”

Eva glared at him, wishing to God she could think of something. Anything to save her from this impossible situation. If she killed the bastard, she would never see her son again. If she gave him the pistol, he would have complete control over her.

Where the hell was Wyndham? He was supposed to have followed her. And his imminent arrival would have been most welcome. He’d promised to be close behind her. But there was no sign of him.

“It doesn’t really seem like much of an exchange,” Thomas said lightly. “The knowledge your son is alive weighed against your little life.”

Eva closed her eyes, her throat closing. The feelings racing through her were the strangest mix she had ever known. Joy. Perfect joy at her son’s survival. She had not killed him. Somewhere out there he was playing a child’s games, laughing a little boy’s laugh, and he would grow into a beautiful man. It was more happiness than she could bear.

But then there was Ian. She hadn’t gone to him for help. She’d cut him from her life brutally. After all he had done for her, how could she have condemned him so harshly?

Even after all she had said, she knew Ian would have been there for her in a moment. Ready to hold her hand, to make her heart feel at ease. To protect her from the evils of this world.

Despite all his faults and his fears, she loved him more
deeply than she could love anyone, save her child. And now she most likely would never see him again.

There was no choice. She had spent the last two years in anguish over her son’s death. Now that she knew he was alive, she could never give up Adam’s safety.

She couldn’t.

There was only one thing she could do. She’d cling to the knowledge that even though her son wouldn’t grow up knowing his true parents, he would grow up.

And that—that was all that mattered.

Eva slowly closed the small distance between them. “I will do whatever you ask,” she said.

“Good.” Thomas grinned. “Now—”

Eva lifted the pistol and rammed the muzzle into his heart, then cocked the pistol.

Thomas let out a squeal of horror. “What?!”

“I will do whatever you ask . . . after you tell me where Adam is.” In that moment, her weapon shoved into Thomas’s flesh, she knew with utter certainty what a fool she had been to send Ian away. She should have kept him at any cost. Love was far too valuable to cast it away as she had. Now there was no turning back. “Tell me.”

“I can’t.”

She shoved the muzzle deeper against his soft muscle. Her finger slid against the trigger, only wanting a little more pressure to do what it was created to do. “Tell me!”

A crash of noise echoed through the small room. The door swung open, letting in a burst of dingy sunshine.

It had to be Wyndham!

Eva’s gaze whipped to the square of light. Her blinded eyes squinted at the figures in the door. Thomas shouted, then reached forward, wrenching her arm and snatching the pistol out of her hands. “I lied, you little bitch,” he hissed.

Eva twisted back to Thomas. “What?”

“The gardener drowned your son in the lake,” Thomas growled. “Dead. Just like you will be.”

A pistol cracked.

Pain tore through her body. White-hot, torturous pain. She screamed and fell to the floor.

Shadowy figures raced into the room.

Through the haze of agony, she spotted Ian, a pistol in his hand.

The room blurred, but she had to say something. Had to get it out.

She heard a snarl and then more shots. Sparks exploded in the dark room.

As he knelt down beside her, Ian’s voice split the space. “Eva!”

Tears slicked her cheeks.

It was over.

Ian’s face, so strong, so determined, hovered over hers, creased with fear. He had come for her.

But now Adam truly was lost forever.

I
an couldn’t tear himself away from the bed.

Each breath she drew in and successfully blew out seemed to sustain him, giving him his own life. There was no peace to her sleep. ’Twas as if the laudanum had returned. Beneath their lids, her eyes flickered.

Every single wince stabbed at his heart.

Christ, how he wished he could force her back to him. To assure her that all would be well. That nothing would separate them ever again. Especially not his own idiocy.

Soft steps lingered in the doorway.

Ian shoved a hand through his hair before turning to see who it was.

Wyndham stood on the threshold, his shirt neck open, a glass of whiskey in hand. “May I?”

Ian wanted to tell him no. He’d felt momentarily betrayed when the spy had conveyed Eva’s meeting with Thomas. But that sense of betrayal had vanished when he realized Eva would have gone with or without Wyndham’s help. Ian’s desire to protect Eva would never cease, but now he would never attempt to stop her from doing as she wished, not when his perverse sense of control had meant he’d almost lost her.

All he longed for was to spend the rest of his life with her, and every day he’d say a damn prayer of thanks to Wyndham.

If not for him, Eva would be dead. But it had nearly killed him. Eva had gone to Wyndham and asked for his help. All because Ian had been a complete fool.

Wyndham sauntered into the room, shadows under his eyes. “How is she?”

Ian stared at Eva, wishing he knew. “She hasn’t woken up.”

Wyndham sat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed. He gazed at Eva. “She will. She’s a strong one.”

Ian opened his mouth to agree. His throat cut off any sound. A tremor shook through him. God, how foolish could a man be? He’d been willing to throw everything away. For what? For someone who had proved a disappointment as a man and as a friend?

Ian curled his hands into fists. It was like waking from a paralyzing dream. The realization that Eva was right. He had tried to put Eva on a high shelf away from love. And he’d chosen pain and guilt over embracing love. Because of his obsession, he’d wanted to treat their love like something to be ashamed of instead of flaunted to the world. That obsession had almost cost him Eva’s life.

“Don’t,” Wyndham’s voice cut in. “I see it on your face. Don’t beat yourself up for the mistakes you made.”

“I almost lost her. In more ways than one,” he whispered. He could still envision it. The look in Thomas’s eyes as he pulled the trigger. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to put Eva’s prone, bleeding body from his mind. “I almost—”

“Yes, almost. But you didn’t. I don’t think you ever truly let her go.”

Ian wiped a hand over his face, his palm coming away slightly damp. Jesus. He was crying. A ridiculous tear had betrayed his usually unshakable nature. “Well, I think I fooled her. I’m sure she thinks I just walked away.”

“We all have paths we must finish when we mourn. You were mourning your mistakes and your friend in the only way you knew how.”

The weight of Wyndham’s wisdom eased his guilt ever so slightly. But not enough. “I very nearly ended up mourning Eva.”

“You have the chance to live free of it.” Wyndham fingered his glass. “Now, if you lose that, then you’re a fool.”

Nodding, Ian reached his hand out and took Eva’s limp one in his. She stirred. Ian tensed, willing her to awaken.

Very gently, her eyes flickered, then opened. For one moment there was a look of peace on her features. Instantly it vanished. She gasped. “I’ve lost him.” A sob racked her body. “I’ve lost him.”

Struck with alarm, Ian climbed onto the bed, gently pulling her into his arms, taking extreme care not to jostle the wound in her shoulder.

Wyndham sat frozen in his chair, completely at a loss.

Ian eased her head back and looked into her pain-stricken eyes. “Lost who, darling?”

She looked away, her whole body shaking violently. “Adam.” She sucked in a jagged breath. “Oh, God, I’ve lost him again.”

Ian took her face gently in his hand and forced her to look back at him. Of course, she was full of grief. Full of wild regret. “No. You have not.”

“Wh-what?” Her deepest blue eyes lit with confusion. Her face twisted. “Thomas said—”

Wyndham cleared his throat. “That sod? He wouldn’t have known the truth if it had bit him in the arse.”

Eva twisted and narrowed her gaze at the earl. She seemed to calm slightly, realizing they were not alone. “I—I didn’t even realize you were here.”

Wyndham smiled, though it was clearly forced. “Ever the sneaky bastard.”

Eva didn’t smile.

Wyndham shifted uncomfortably on his chair.

“We found the driver and the gardener that Thomas bribed,” Ian said gently.

“You did?” Her voice was a gentle note of hope tinged with fear.

“You didn’t think I was just going to stand entirely by, did you?”