The Devil Rogue (20 page)

What was he going to do with her now?

5

Villarreal / The Devil Rogue
                                     

Chapter
1
1

HER FATHER HAD
been the one to cut her
arm
, and he was the one who had done this to her tonight
.

Ian rose from the bed,
went to the wash basin and soaked a cloth with cool water
.
Returning to
Miss Hopkins –
Angela
, he bathed her face,
washing
away the
tears and
dried blood
.
It wasn’t as bad as it had first appeared, with several scratches and a small cut on her forehead just under the hairline
.
The area around both
eyes w
as
black and blue and
there was split on the side of her swollen upper
lip
. H
is biggest concern
, however,
was the large purple bruise on her right side, and
the sounds of
her labored breathing
.
He feared she
may have a
broken rib or two.

With a tenderness he hadn’t realized he possessed, Ian stroked the side of her face with the pads of his fingers, gently moving aside a strand of hair that had fallen across her forehead
.
She looked so pale and fragile, like one of the porcelain figurines in his mother’s favorite parlor
.
His huge bed seemed to swallow her up, making her seem smaller than she was
.
It was where he’d wanted her all along, but under much different circumstances.

The family
physician
finally
arrived, banishing Ian from the room
.
Ian
grudgingly complied,
only to
find himself
stand
ing
in the hall, staring at the closed door
.
He needed to speak with Angela’s maid, Rosemary
.
There was so much more to this story than he ever suspected
, and he was determined to get some answers.

Ia
n was about to send for Rosemary
, when she rush
ed
down the hall toward him.

“My lord,”
she
said breathlessly
.
“I heard about Miss
Angela
.
I-is s
he all right?”
Her expression was fraught with worry
as her gaze darted to the closed door
.

“I don’t know yet
.
The doctor is with her now
.
I would
have
a word with you, Rosemary, if you’ll come with me
.
” Ian
t
urn
ed
in the direction of the study
.

Rosemary
hesitated,
star
ing at the door for a moment, but then
followed quietly
behind him
.

Ian
motioned for
Rosemary
to sit in one of the chairs placed near the hearth,
s
eating himself
in the one opposite
.
“Tell me about
Miss Hopkins
,”
he said
.
“And no more lies, if you please.”
His voice was dark and smooth, belying the undercurrent of
fury
running
through his veins.

“Y-yes, my lord, no more lies, indeed,” Rosemary
said grimly
. “It’s about time, too, that someone should know what a monster that man is.”

“
By ‘that man’ I take it you mean her father?
”
Of course, the
suspicion
was already there
, but
Ian
wanted to hear it from Rosemary.

“
Yes
.
” Rosemary took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. “
Ever since her mother died when she was young, he has treated her with nothing but cruelty
.
I don’t know why, but it’s as if he
loathes
her very existence.”

“At the ball tonight, we overheard rumors of marriage of
fers, and then a man named Ward
l
e
y confronted her
.
He told her of his visit with her father some time ago,
that his
offer
of marriage had been
refused on the grounds of ungentlemanly behavior.”

“Oh, my
–
Ward
l
e
y
.
I remember the fellow
.
H
e was young and handsome and kind
.
Miss Angela
seemed to like him, but then he stopped coming around
.
She
was quite disappointed.”

Ian pushed aside the spark of jealousy that arose, unbidden, at the idea that Miss Hopkins had attracted the attention of such an acceptable suitor
.
“Were there others?”

Rosemary
paused to
th
ink
for a moment
.
“Yes, there were, as a matter of fact
.
There were
t
wo
others
who
had come to call on her
.
” She frowned. “
T
hey also ceased their attentions
.
But t
here were never any marriage offers she or I knew of, my lord
.
”

“I believe her father, the baron, had much to do with
that
.
Did he hit her often?”

Rosemary
’s lips thinned at
his bluntness
, her gaze sharp and assessing. Then she gave a
short nod
as though she’d weighed and measured him, and found him to be someone worthy of her trust – worthy of
learning
her beloved mistress’s darkest secrets.
“
He didn’t hit her often, but when he did, it was bad.”

The pride in her voice showed when she said, “Miss Angela
never backed down from him
.
Most of the time, she was defending one of the staff
from his violent temper
–
or myself from his lecherous advances
.
She was very protective of us all, you see
.
We – the other servants and I,
always
felt horrible about it, but we couldn’t
convince her to
stop speaking out in our defense.”

Ian felt sick.

“Her first day here, she tried to accept the blame for something
on behalf
of the servants
,
”
he said softly.
“She expected to be punished.”
He
expelled a
harsh
breath
.
“Those scars on her back
. . .
how did she get them?”

Rosemary swallowed
, pausing
before she
answer
ed
.
“It was before I started working there
.
S
he wouldn’t talk about it.
Eventually I discovered what happened
from the other servants.
”

“Go on.”

“Miss Angela
was only
about
ten
or eleven
years
old at the time, poor thing
.
Her father had been drinking heavily, flying into one of his rages
.
He
’d
made up some reason why she needed to be punished
.
”

Tears wet
Rosemary’s
cheeks as she related the gruesome story
.
“He took a whip to her, my lord, and then locked her in the broom c
upboard
for two days without food or water
.
”

Ian swore a foul oath.

“
It was horrible, the way the servants told it
.
She almost died from the infection
.
Her father refused to send for a physician
.
He said he wasn’t about to spend good money on the whelp.”

“
Jesus.
”
Ian had
certainly misjudged
Angela
Hopkins from the very beginning
.
She had suffered nothing but cruelty and abuse most of her life, and he
’d
just added to it by being completely
misinformed about her.

“Those beautiful dresses of hers
,” Rosemary said softly, “
she designed them and sewed them herself, you know
,
with
only
a little help from me
.
But it was her talent, mostly, that had half the
ton
envious of her wardrobe.”

“What happened to her gowns
– the ones in the trunk? I now know they weren’t destroyed by mold.”

“She suspected her father cut them up
just
to spite her
.
She said it was his way of having the last word
.
There has always been something peculiar about his treatment of her
.
How can a parent hate their own child
?
”

“
I suspect s
he
i
sn’t his daughter,” Ian
said flatly
.
“It could explain many things
about her life
, and I intend to get to
the
truth
of it all
.
There are
matters which
need to be rectified
.
The first is
that I shall be marrying Miss Hopkins as soon as she sufficiently recovers.”

“Marry her, my lord?” Rosemary asked incredulously
.
“
But, w
hy would you do that?”

“Honor, Rosemary
.
I may be known as
The Devil Rogue
, but I still have a sense of honor
.
I have never destroyed a woman’s reputation
–
until now.”

The doctor discreetly clear
ed
his throat
from the doorway
,
interrupt
ing
their conversation
.
Ian
stood, motioning for
him
to enter.
“Come in, Dr. Winters.”

“May I check in on her,
then,
my lord?” Rosemary asked, her anxiety returning.

Ian turned to the doctor, “Well?”

With the doctor’s
nod
,
Rosemary gave a quick curtsy and then
rushed from the room toward the stairs
.
“Thank you!”
she cried over her shoulder.

Ian went to the sideboard.
“May I offer you a drink
?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“How is she?”
Ian asked
, handing
Winters
one of the
filled
glasses.

“She’s been badly beaten,
that much you know already
.
What
I’m not sure
about, is whether
I want to know the details
.
” Winters
paus
ed
to take a drink from his glass
.
“
She’s fortunate in that h
er ribs are
n’
t broken, but they
’
re
severely bruised
. It
will cause her an extreme amount of pain
.
I wrapped them and cleaned her other wounds
.
She has a few minor scratches that won’t leave any scars.
”