Wicked Deception (21 page)

Eric found his note in the bottom of
his brother’s hessians, admiring the boots until Thor glared at
him. Thane found his note in Nicholas’s shaving kit. Dane was
staring at the stick with interest until he pried the silver tip
off to show it was hollow inside.

He banged the stick on the carpet until
his note dropped to the floor. Gareth realized his inheritance was
in the study and retreated. His note was under the rock upon a
shelf behind Nicholas’s desk.

Thor was grinning and rubbed his hands
together. “Everyone knows what they are to do, then?” He chuckled
as four rousing “ayes” were heard.

~ ~ ~

Lord Rudd was avidly reading his mail
when Lord Dartmouth arrived. The man looked so out of sorts it was
obvious something was amiss. He waited until the butler closed the
study door to fill him in on the latest development. The Countess
went missing.

“
I told you it was a mistake
to get her out of that prison, but no!”Rudd howled in fury, glaring
at his brother-in-law in dislike. “You had to drag her into our
little circle and now what? She knows too much, Phillip! How do you
think we will explain how she is even still alive? She must have
learned of your plans for her! Of all the stupid things you have
done! Now that woman is running amok and is no doubt laughing at us
all!” the Duke raged, too incensed to continue.

“
Lilly couldn’t have known,”
Dartmouth protested, sighed as he realized she had no doubt figured
it out, for she was gone.

“
We have to find her,” Lord
Rudd declared hotly, looking furious as he glared at him. “I don’t
care how you do it, just find the treacherous bitch and kill
her!”

“
Lilly knows she is thought
dead, Your Grace,” he reflected sourly and looked down at his
trembling hands, furious he felt them sweating profusely. “It’s not
likely she is walking about London. She is sure to be recognized
here. I think we must ascertain she’s played us from the very start
and has an accomplice.”

“
Ah, Phillip, you damned
imbecile. She has played you the fool. You told her everything
Farwell could not have known. Now she is out there holding it over
our heads,” the Duke vented. “With Van Ryker dead; we must only
find her now.”

“
I learned she took a mail
coach into London before I left my estate,” Dartmouth offered, and
was grim as he reported where she was taken. “I did some checking
and the building is owned by Iverleigh. The driver waited for her
to return but she never did. He thought it odd she wasn’t there at
the appointed time. She indicated she had to return that night. She
was expecting me to arrive, I surmise.”

“
So, I guess we are to
assume the Countess is working with Iverleigh. We know that cannot
be the case. The man despises her, and she him,” Rudd said quietly
as he rubbed his jaw. “That can only mean she has seen something in
this for herself, Phillip. Why else would she set out
alone?”

“
Why, indeed. I fear you’re
right,” Dartmouth allowed apologetically and stiffened as the Duke
stood and paced about the room, looking angrier than he had ever
seen him.

“
Now, I can only gather she
will contact us with her demands very soon,” the Duke said in
disgust. “And when she does, we will lure her to a location, and we
will see she is eliminated once in for all.”

“
Yes, Your Grace, it sounds
like you have found the means to run the Countess to ground, but on
another matter I would discuss,” he began, and was cut off as the
Duke laughed mirthlessly, knowing what he would say.

“
If this has anything to do
with that Van Ryker woman; I will kill you where you sit, Phillip.
Perhaps if you had not been lusting after Van Ryker’s widow, the
Countess would not have escaped you,” he snarled and tossed him a
disgusted look. “Get from my sight! I pity my sister you, Phillip,”
Rudd raged, watching as Phillip launched himself out of the chair
and obligingly left.

The Duke sat back down at his desk,
reading the letter from an old acquaintance that arrived in Wales
recently to call upon his sister. They discovered Eunice wasn’t
there, had never been there, in fact. He dropped the letter. His
eyes grew cold, his face deathly pale. A trembling hand rang the
bell on his desk.

The butler arrived and bowed. “Yes Your
Grace?”

“
Get my driver,
Thurston.”

Dartmouth evaluated his
situation in one word as his coach moved away from Lord Rudd’s
luxurious townhouse.
Hopeless.
He sneered as he gazed at the throng of coaches he
passed. Wherever Lilly fled, she was carrying all of their secrets
around with her.

He cursed himself once more for getting
her out of prison. She said she could be of valuable assistance to
them in their quest to destroy Iverleigh and Van Ryker. He’d seen
little of it in the months since he took her out of Newgate. She’d
offered nothing except to point out flaws in their
plans.

She listened to him regale her with
what he knew and now she was gone. He knew if Rudd hadn’t already
thought of it; he was as good as dead. Rudd no longer needed him,
if not to rid them of the Countess and blame the murders upon
him.

Rudd had so much money at his disposal
he could pay to have all of this done, Phillip realized, with no
small amount of fear. If Francis learned Eunice was dead, he could
forget getting out of this unscathed. All he could do is hire men
to track down Lilly and pray she told no one of their
misdeeds.

~ ~ ~

The Countess proved to be a demanding
prisoner. She glared at the men who guarded her, her hands upon her
hips, hair hanging to her waist in a white-blonde mess. She
demanded a bath at once, and gave them the name of the emporium
that made her special soap.

Her garments were soiled; she wanted
new ones. Her nails needed buffing; she wanted her nail case. She
was hungry and demanded a fruit tray and caviar. They scratched
their heads and had no idea how to deal with her. They gaped at her
outrageous requests as they kept coming.

She launched each and every demand at
them constantly until they sent word to The Orion at last, unable
to handle her incessant rages when they failed to supply her with
what she requested.

Nicholas grinned at his former lover as
he leaned against the cell, his blue eyes delighted to see her
losing her composure. The weeks of being locked up had proved
helpful to wear her down. She turned her sinfully beautiful eyes
upon him, gave an unladylike snort as she swiveled on her stool.
She gave him her back, pouting in obvious displeasure to see him
outside her cell this day.

“
Darling, are you not happy
to see me? I would have thought you ready to meet my terms. How
disappointing to know you’re holding out on me,” he began in a
cajolingly tone, his eyes like chips of blue ice. “Lilly, you won’t
get a damned thing on that list unless you agree to write down all
you know of Rudd and Dartmouth’s crimes.” He grinned when she
launched into a foul litany on what he could do with her list. “I’m
content to wait as long as it takes, my dear, so why don’t you get
used to your surroundings and quit harassing the men? They will do
nothing for you unless you agree to my demands.”

“
You realize what you ask of
me, Nicholas?” she snarled as she turned to him, her eyes flaring
with anger. “I will be far deader than you’re thought to be now if
I do as you ask. If you think to actually bring down Rudd and the
others you’re more a fool than you look.”

“
I will see you’re richly
compensated, Lilly,” he offered tiredly. “It is far more than you
deserve for what you have done to Gabriel and my wife. I could just
send you back to prison.”

“
If you were going to do
that, you would have, Nicholas, so don’t be simple,” she snapped
and her eyes narrowed. “No, you need me or you wouldn’t have done
all this.” She flung her hand out to indicate the cell around her.
“Rudd has enough money to insure this all disappears very quickly
for him, Nicholas. Don’t you think I didn’t consider extorting him
myself when Thomas stole the evidence from Clarice? If someone had
not shot him; he was already as good as dead. Rudd discovered all
from Yvetta before Thomas died. Look where she went, darling?
Though, I suppose, I should thank the disease-ridden whore for
hanging in my stead, shouldn’t I?” She smiled sweetly up at him
before she frowned again fiercely. “You’re a fool if you think you
can beat the man. He has half of parliament over to tea. If I help
you; I’m no better off than I was before at Newgate.”

“
You will get no better
offer from me Lilly,” he stated coldly, his eyes meeting hers
without a flicker of emotion. “I will give you enough money to get
away from here. You need not fear anything from Rudd.”

“
You haven’t a clue of
anything, Nicholas. So let me explain it to you once more,” she
repeated furiously, her gaze meeting his without a trace of her
former charm. “Rudd owns the courts. He owns the magistrate. He
owns the damned king if you can believe it! Even if you succeed to
see him tried in this, it won’t matter. He will manage to get
vindicated. What then?”

“
He will not get out of
this,” Nicholas snarled, gripping the bars and glared at her in
hatred. “How do you propose he explain all the bodies buried at
Dartmouth’s estate?” He smiled as he saw her pale at his words. “Do
you have any clue how many are buried there, Lilly? Shall I tell
you that Weldon and Billingsley have recently joined them? Farwell
took a nasty turn in an opium den recently too. I think you can see
where you are in this.”

“
He will blame all upon Lord
Dartmouth,” Lilly replied coldly, unimpressed. “Don’t you see how
clever he is, Nicholas? Why do you think he buried them there to
begin with? Really, darling, you should try to keep up. If he kills
Dartmouth now; he has covered himself of everything quite nicely.
You would have been further served to have snatched him instead of
me.”

“
You just write down
everything you learned from Dartmouth and let me worry over it,”
Nicholas snapped, and smiled suddenly. “Then we will see about all
your little requests, sweetheart.” He smiled at her verbal abuse as
he drew away, seeing Tieghan there and joined him out of earshot of
the Countess.

“
What have you learned from
my home?” Nicholas said quietly, his face tense to get word on how
his wife fared in the weeks since his funeral. He was suffering and
it showed.

“
Your wife has not come out
of her room. Your brother’s are waylaying me daily to learn where
you’re hiding, and the Earl has not figured any of it out,” Tieghan
said dryly and grinned as he heard Lilly cursing. “Really,
Nicholas, she is right. You can’t hope to see Lord Rudd pay for his
crimes. Why not just kill him and be done with all of this? The
longer it takes to wear the woman down to agree; the longer your
wife suffers thinking you dead.”

“
I’m doing this my way,”
Nicholas returned shortly, a part of him refusing to believe even
Lord Rudd could weasel out of his trap now. “I just need more
time.”

“
She plays with you,
Nicholas,” he warned softly. “She knows the trouble you took to get
her here. She knows it’s all over once she writes it all down. She
delays just to keep the game going.”

“
She will realize she has no
choice,” Nicholas argued and Tieghan chuckled and shook his
head.

“
She is here, and she is
still alive, Nicholas. All you have done is show her how important
she is to your plans. She will never tell you what you wish to
know,” Tieghan argued stubbornly.

“
She wants something I
haven’t offered then. I will just have to find out what that is,”
Nicholas insisted in determination, his jaw hardening to know
Tieghan was right. Lilly had proved a very patient prisoner; too
patient in his opinion.

Tieghan left him then to go see too
Catherine. He returned to look at Lilly. He was growing tired of
her games. She talked him into corners. She was quite good at this.
He was dismayed to realize Tieghan was right. She was enjoying it
all. He could see it in the little smirk she gave when she saw him
return to her cell.

“
What do you want, Lilly?”
he asked with little humor left. “What will it take to get you to
agree? You have played the game well, but time runs out. Tell me
you will help me, or by God, I will send you back to
Dartmouth.”

Lilly met his gaze and her bravado
slipped a notch to see he was tired of the game she played. She
squared her shoulders as she rose from the stool, her eyes filled
with scorn. “I want two hundred thousand pounds sterling wired to
my account in America. My agent Knowles will give you the account,”
she demanded to his surprise, her eyes tense despite her confidant
tone. “I want your assurances none will know I’m alive once I leave
here, and lastly; I want you to remain dead, Nicholas. The thought
of you being parted from my sister pleases me, given the nature of
our feelings for each other once.”

Nicholas shook with fury. She smiled in
delight seeing his reaction and savored her power over him. He
really was quite simple. What had she ever seen in him? Recalling
his impressive gift below his belt, she chuckled and turned away.
She was hugging herself around the middle, immensely pleased he was
once more backed into a corner.