Wicked Deception (22 page)

“
You go back to Dartmouth
this night,” he said with a scowl and turned away from her. He
didn’t see her horror. She ran to the bars of the cell, her blue
eyes filled with fear.

“
Alright, I will do it,” she
called urgently to his back. The thought of Dartmouth’s sadistic
hands about her throat had finally made her buckle. “Whatever do
you see in my sister, Nicholas? She doesn’t even use her mouth on
you, I’d wager.”

“
Don’t assume to know what
my wife does or doesn’t do with her mouth, Lilly, or anything else,
just write it all down!” he growled and looked at her with
something akin to loathing. “I want it in the morning, or you go
back, so help me God!”

She shrugged as she returned to the
pallet and picked up the journal there, and sighed depressively.
She would miss baiting Nicholas. This time she sparred with him was
priceless but he would make good his threats to send her back if
she continued to play with him. She poised over the page. Where did
one begin? Ah, here we are…

~ ~ ~

Phillip Sutton, the Earl of Dartmouth,
paused as he stepped over the threshold of his home, looking about
with a feeling of unease. It was weeks. Lilly sent no demands to
Lord Rudd for her silence. She’d not contacted him either for that
matter.

In that moment, he knew Iverleigh and
Van Ryker had cleverly tricked them all. With Van Ryker dead and
Gabriel out of town on an estate matter since his friend’s funeral;
he knew not who to blame for his current situation. He smiled
darkly when he thought of Catherine.

How easily his brother-in-law forgot
his promise to give him the woman? He had not. No, Francis hired
men to kill her now. Catherine was to die, Francis decreed.
Dartmouth was furious he wasn’t allowed to do it. Rudd cautioned
they must all have solid alibis when the Van Ryker woman was dead
to appease Iverleigh.

He was ravenous to feel bones break,
feel blood upon his hands. A mist covered his eyes. If he didn’t
kill something soon he would go mad with his rage. He spied the
upstairs maid carrying linens and smiled mirthlessly as he walked
up the stairs and followed her.

~ ~ ~

Catherine rolled over in the
bed and refused to rise at all this day.
That is what the nurse was for
, she
thought defiantly as she stared at the canopy above the bed. She
refused to get up and go about her day as though agreeing he was
gone.

Better to see it all as a bad dream and
when she woke, he would still be there. She longed for the smell of
his infernal cheroots, the sight of his dreaded earring still
dangling in his ear. His penchant for teasing in the worst possible
moments was missed.

Nothing made sense anymore. Worse yet,
she didn’t care. She refused life without him in it. She knew they
were ready to break down the door, getting tired of her silence
when they knocked. She no longer cared as she lay in the dark room.
She could sleep and remember their last night together.

She had taken him back to the very
first time they had met in Clarice’s decadent salon. She changed
that night for him, gave him a new ending to it, one where they
walked out of there together. She sighed as the tears came once
more, and covered her face with the pillow to muffle her
never-ending grief.

~ ~ ~

“
I can take it no longer,
Martha.” Devlin listened to his niece cry through the walls. “She
has to be forced to come out and deal with her life!” He rose from
the rocker where he sat with baby Aidan and handed her the boy
tenderly. “I’m goin’ in!”

Martha smothered a smile as Devlin
walked out of the nursery. Catherine’s Uncle had enough of his
niece’s grieving. If anyone could get through to her, it was him.
The Earl was denied admittance enough of late. Martha was secretly
pleased Catherine rejected the Earl’s overtures now.

It had to take losing Nicholas to make
her realize her true feelings. Martha felt it too high a price to
pay, but her former charge had learned one of the greatest lessons
of all these last months since her beloved husband was
murdered.

She was confidant Catherine would not
do the unthinkable now and return to the Earl. She and Tulley
argued over it. While they agreed the man adored her and her life
would be secure, they differed on the matter of her feelings for
him.

Martha was a believer in what she saw
grow and bloom between Catherine and Nicholas long ago. Tulley was
more pessimistic, saying it was the easier road for her to travel
now that she was widowed with three children to care for. Whatever
her charge did now depended on all of them to stay out of it. They
had all been warned not to interfere. Martha shivered to think of
the consequences.

~ ~ ~

Devlin gave a curse as he received no
answer to his knock. He pushed against the door, putting his
shoulder into it. He gritted his teeth, swore viciously. He drew
back and kicked the door in, splintering the wood as he stepped
through the portal into the dark room.

The door frame crumpled about him. He
stared at her in the dim light from the hallway. “Are ye done
actin’ like a weak-kneed English lassie, Cat?” Devlin asked angrily
as he kicked the door out of his path. “Get out of that bed, or so
help me on your Da’s grave; I will drag you from it!”

“
Leave me alone!” she
screamed, her face ravaged and twisted in grief, her raven hair
wild about her face. “Get out and leave me be! You of all should
understand how I feel!”

Devlin stared at his niece and the
anger went out of him. She didn’t need his rage right now. He tried
to think like his saintly brother James in this situation. He swore
instead and gave it up. He wasn’t James. He stalked to the bed and
stood over her, his green eyes glowing with anger.

“
Are ye done feelin’ sorry
for your lot in life, niece?” he asked with feeling, ripping at the
comforter she buried herself in at his words. “Ye haven’t even seen
your children in a week! While ye lay hear cryin’ for your man;
they are cryin’ for you!”

“
Shut up! Leave me alone!
They don’t need me! What can I do for them now?” she wailed,
fighting to keep the comforter. He had already ripped it from the
bed and tossed it to the floor. “I just want to be with him,
Uncle.”

“
Oh, Cat, now ye don’t
really mean that do ye?” Devlin asked with a scowl, his hands upon
his hips. “Ye might not like me for this, but were goin’ for a wee
bit of a ride!” He grabbed her flailing and screaming, jerked her
from the bed, shocked at how strong she was as she struggled to
remain there.

He tossed her over his shoulder and
carried her from the room. He ignored the faces in the hallway they
passed on his way to the nursery. The brothers watched; the
teacher; the would-be doctor and ship’s cook, and the stalwart
giant. All watched in shock as he carried her to the
nursery.

Devlin set her down and shoved her
inside, shutting the door behind her. He held the door when she
tried to get out, refusing to allow it. He grinned when he heard
her children start to cry within, as if on cue. The struggles
against the door stopped.

He held the door tightly closed,
grinning as he waited. He stayed there for a long while, making
sure she had no way of escaping the children that needed her.
Martha started to cry as she saw Devlin guarding the door. The
others sighed in relief and withdrew to bed.

Devlin stepped away from the door when
he was sure she had at last seen to the care of her children and
chuckled quietly as he went back to his room. He knew James would
have approved.

~ ~ ~

Nicholas stood in front of the cell.
His eyes met Lilly’s somberly. He picked up the journal and read it
all night. Every damning conversation was in the book detailing
their illicit activities.

She raised her eyebrow at his arrival
and rose from the pallet, itching to take a bath. She knew any
demands she made right now would not go over well, so she held her
tongue.

“
I thank you for this
Lilly,” he said gruffly, his blue eyes meeting hers with a touch of
regret. “I have contacted your former agent Knowles and will make
the transactions handling your funds. If all goes as planned, you
will sail to America within the month. The name you’re ticketed
under is Patrice Van Horne, a recent widow. You have a new name,
and a new life. I hope you use this one to a better
advantage.”

Lilly laughed then, a tinkling sound,
making him stiffen as he met her dark blue eyes sparkling with
amusement. She twisted her hair into some semblance of order and
eyed him smugly. She smoothed the rumpled, dirty velvet skirts
around her and eyed him like he was one of her suitors coming to
call upon her. “Do you think I have any regrets, Nicholas? Do you
think that if I could do it all over again, I would not have sought
the things I desired for myself?” she asked with a patronizing
sniff of disdain, walked to the bars of the cell and looked at him
closely. “You never really knew me at all, Nicky. I’m disappointed
in you. You and I have come this far and you still don’t see it, do
you?” she said with a raised, golden eyebrow and chuckled in
delight, seeing him grow cautious, and relishing his obvious
unease. “I will live my life as I see fit, Nicky, and take what I
want from it. If it makes me appear to be evil in your eyes, so be
it. I would rather be the evil witch in this little drama than the
weak little princess in the tower like my sweet twit of a sister.
There are some benefits to being a witch, you see. I may be hated
and I’m feared, but I do so revel in my own power, unlike our
little princess who needs her hero to validate her
existence.”

“
The witch always winds up
dead or alone in those tales, Lilly,” he pointed out with a chuckle
of amusement. She laughed harshly at his words. “We both know how
they all end.”

“
We shall see, Nicky,” Lilly
said with a smile of delight, “for you have provided me with the
means to start a new tale. I do so like new beginnings. I’m not
fond of the name Patrice, however. Might we compromise on that a
bit? I would choose my own name if you don’t mind? I rather like
Victoria.”

“
Once you’re in America, you
can be whoever you wish to be, Lilly,” he said with a touch of
sadness in his voice, his eyes meeting hers through the bars.
“Maybe you will even decide being a princess is not such a bad
thing after all?”

Lilly wrinkled her nose at that and
shook her head, gazed at him with the same provocative look that
set him aflame for years. Her sultry gaze met his through the bars.
Her lovely features hardened at his words. “I was never good at
waiting for the hero to arrive to save me, Nicky,” she confided
softly, her eyes glimmering with some unknown emotion. “I’m much
better at serving my own purposes. I can see that disappoints you,
but have no fear. I shall not come back to shatter your fairy tale,
Nicky.”

Nicholas gazed at her grimly, wanting
to believe her words. He had already set such in motion to see that
Lilly could never return to wreak havoc upon them again. Chumley’s
man in the government would be watching her very closely, even
after she left the country. If she ever came back to London, her
life was forfeit.

“
See that you don’t, Lilly,”
he said warningly, his eyes narrowing and a chill ran down her
spine at his obvious threat. “Gabriel and Catherine deserve their
happiness now.”

“
How do think my husband
would feel knowing his wife is very much alive, Nicky?” She trilled
in amusement, making him question letting her go once more when he
thought of his friend. “You realize the man is an Earl? He will no
doubt marry that little drudge. Bigamist and bastard are such harsh
words, Nicky. Tell me you have thought the matter through? You
conspire to give them a happy ending but we both know it is far
from a legal one. They will both still be married to us,
darling.”

“
Gabriel might not
appreciate it. It wasn’t his choice to make, Lilly,” Nicholas said
softly, his blue eyes meeting hers with a glimmer of what he felt
for her once. “He never loved you as I did.” He turned and walked
away from her cell, leaving her with a sudden lump in her throat.
She watched him go with a sudden wish she was the princess in his
tale and not the witch.

~ ~ ~

Catherine sighed when she thought of
her grief over Nicholas. She felt the pain of it so strong at times
she doubted she could breathe but she could no longer forget that
she still lived. The children in her home needed their mother back
with them. She thought of what Nicholas wanted for her if anything
had happened to him, and her eyes darkened with pain.

She had already decided to return to
St. Bart’s once all could be arranged. Gabriel was still trying to
get her to stay and marry him. She was determined to hammer out
some agreement concerning their son.

Perhaps with Nicholas gone, he would be
merciful and allow her equal time with her child. Her Uncle Devlin
was set to return to Dunleavy now, despite the price on his head in
Dublin. He was determined to be guardian to his nephews.

She could not stay here. Everywhere she
looked she saw Nicholas. She knew the only choice was to take the
children and go back to the island. Tulley and Martha were going
with her. She had not told her Uncle yet, not wanting to put a
damper upon his plans. There was time to tell him when he
returned.