Dare to be Mine (17 page)

Grabbing her to him for one last kiss,
Daniel willed his strength into her. His gray eyes spoke of promise, of
rapture. And suddenly Elyssa dared give hope to the gloriously beautiful man
who was smiling warmly at her. "I shall do whatever is necessary, Daniel.
Good night, my darling."

Daniel watched her departure up the
stairs, a satisfied smile on his handsome face at the thought of how easily
Lady Elyssa Fredrickson was making his goals that much more attainable. A small
niggling stab of guilt mingled with the unfamiliar feeling of an overwhelming emotion
he'd never known. Daniel frowned as he struck his fist against his chest,
willing his heart to stop the traitorous rush of what he feared might actually
be love.

  escaped her lips and
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CHAPTER 8

The next morning Elyssa dressed
nervously, dreading the coming confrontation with Percy. The last time she'd
seen him he had angrily ordered her presence gone as a result of removing her
wedding band for a short period of time. Glancing down at the small scar on her
right hand, Elyssa recalled the similar mark Daniel was cursed with on his
palm. His wicked words came back to mind,
Tell
me you can look at that and ever forget that my blood runs through your veins.

Her heart skipping a beat at the thought
of Daniel, she finished dressing and headed downstairs. Percy would still be
having breakfast, though he would undoubtedly forgo his normal routine of
ignoring her presence to interrogate her over Daniel's confrontation.

Once downstairs, Elyssa was greeted by
the maid. She ate very little, for her appetite was rapidly diminishing.
Surprisingly, Percy was nowhere to be seen, and Elyssa would have assumed he
simply didn't want to see her face, but his place was properly set and awaiting
his arrival. It was quite unheard of for Percy to remain abed this late. He was
normally wont to rise with the sun. Perhaps he was feeling ill this morning.

Elyssa finished breakfast without
interruption. Neither Percy nor Daniel made an appearance and Elyssa didn’t
know if that was good or bad. Going back upstairs, she stopped at the door to
Percy's bedroom. She knocked softly, but there was no response. Knocking again,
she called Percy’s name.
Nothing.
Placing her ear
against the door, Elyssa didn’t hear a sound. Her fingers shaking, she dared
open the door and stepped quietly in.

The sight that met Elyssa's eyes sent
shivers down every nerve ending in her body. The hair on her neck prickled, her
eyes widening in shock. Her mouth opened in disbelief.

Downstairs in the study, Daniel heard
the eery scream and came to his feet at once. He rushed out escaped her lips and
edhi him and of the room, easily
passing the butler as he took the stairs two at a time. Daniel ran down the
hall and into the room where Elyssa stood with her hands covering her mouth.

His eyes widened at the sight of his
father, lying cold and dead upon the floor, a pool of blood all about him from
a hole in the side of his head. Elyssa's slippers were touching the edge of the
bloody mess and Daniel jerked her back from the horrendous scene.

His own heart was beating furiously and
Daniel wondered what had happened. Had his father taken his own life? If so,
the weapon would surely still be clutched within his hand, but there was no gun
anywhere to be found. Percy had obviously been murdered.

Elyssa's uncontrollable cries gradually subsided
after Daniel took her into her room and removed her bloodied slippers. He left
her side only to give instructions to his father's valet to see that the
authorities be contacted. The man was visibly shaken, confessing that he'd
knocked on the locked door earlier, but the earl had yelled at him to go away,
and that he would be down soon.

The doctor was likewise summoned, and
after checking Elyssa's well being, left some laudanum to help her rest. She
was still shaken to the core, and Daniel feared she would never be able to
forget that horrible sight. He cursed
whomever
had
killed his father in such a manner. Not so much for the loss of his hateful
sire, though the lack of caring left Daniel feeling more than a little guilty.
But for the regret Elyssa would now most likely feel. She was sensitive, and
would probably feel partially to blame. She might even want to end things with
Daniel if she was unable to deal with Percy's violent death.

Daniel had his work cut out for him
where Elyssa was concerned, and once again he cursed his father for being the
bastard he'd always been.

Three days later a small funeral was
held. Percy was buried next to Daniel's mother on the outskirts of the lovely
gardens. A dreary rain began to fall during the brief ceremony. There were
roughly thirty people in attendance, though Daniel knew most of them were there
purely out of curiosity rather than to convey any true sympathy.

Daniel stood beside Elyssa, hating the
toll this was taking on her. He imagined she rather felt guilty for not giving
a damn Percy was dead, for Daniel himself felt the same way. It was all he
could do to refrain from comforting Elyssa in front of everyone. He wished he
could put his arms around her. Console her. Plunder her sweet mouth, and Daniel
cursed himself inwardly for his untoward thoughts at such a time.

The puffiness about her eyes was finally
disappearing, her tears of guilt all spent over the past few days. Elyssa stood
in a foggy haze, feeling as if she were the one responsible for Percy’s death.
That she had only days past confessed to Daniel's accusation that she wished
Percy dead left Elyssa feeling such remorse, she didn't know how she would ever
overcome the guilt. Daniel had been somewhat helpful the last day or two, doing
his best to set her mind at ease.

Though he had despised his father,
Daniel never wished for such a terrible thing to happen. He too shouldered the
blame for Percy's untimely death, and vowed that he would see the murderer
behind bars before it was all over with.

Elyssa's parents had come to the
funeral, begging her to come back home with them until her spirits were
sufficiently recovered enough to return to Greystone. She declined, however,
not wishing to leave Daniel. Although Percy had never made her feel overly welcome
at Greystone, it was her home after all. After spending the night, her family
returned home.

Daniel decided he would remain at
Greystone until business decreed otherwise. He assured Elyssa he had no
intentions of leaving her side anytime soon.

Days blended into weeks and after
roughly a month, Daniel had managed to revive some of Elyssa's former radiance
to her smile. The authorities hadn't a clue to the murderer nor could they
determine a motive, and it was clearly not Percy's son nor wife, for their
innocence seemed a certainty. The entire mansion and surrounding estate had
been searched for clues, but nothing was found. Elyssa and Daniel were assured
the case would remain open until solved. That had been the last word they'd
heard from the authorities.

Daniel took Elyssa to the cliffs one
day, knowing it was one of her favorite spots on the estate. He thoughtfully
had the cook pack a basket and made an afternoon out of it. It was cold
outside, but the thick blankets beneath them, and one atop them, kept the
couple warm enough.

"Do you believe in the haunting of
the cliffs?" Elyssa questioned, valuing Daniel's opinion, for this had
been his home much longer than it had been hers.

"Absolutely," he replied
easily, his amused smile divulging his true feelings on the ghostly legend.
Elyssa playfully slapped him on the chest.

"You think me silly for wondering,
don't you?" she asked, leaning her head against Daniel's chest. tears falling unhindereds second

"No,"
came
the low, soft reply as he pulled Elyssa halfway atop himself. "I think you
utterly beautiful." His lips softly kissed the corner of her mouth.
"I think you sweet beyond belief." His hand reached down to cup her
shapely bottom.
"Seductive beyond imagination."

"Oh, Daniel, I have missed your
nearness," she confessed as her lips covered his, and Elyssa became dizzy
from the long forgotten sensations he was evoking deep within her. Daniel
pulled her beneath him, the half empty picnic basket forgotten and overturned.
He stretched out his legs, his elbows on either side of Elyssa's head.

She gazed longingly up at the dark gray
eyes staring back at her, hooded by long dark lashes. She reached up to trace
the sensual lips whose expert scorches she had nearly forgotten over the course
of the past weeks. She pulled loose the thin ribbon holding his dark hair and
reveled in the feel of it coming to rest against her face just before he kissed
her shamelessly.

Elyssa felt guilt in the revelation that
although Percy's death was a horrible dreadful thing, it might be possible for
she and Daniel to actually be together. She was liberated from the fear of
never having him as her very own, though for now she would be wise to keep
wearing the black mourning clothes for a while longer. Propriety deemed that
she display her grief for the detestable period of a year, but living in the
secluded countryside, Elyssa had no intentions of wearing black for the next
several months in honor of a man that had detested everything about her.

The servants might raise an eyebrow or
two, although there were so few, and they were all aware of the situation
between their employer and Elyssa, she doubted they would blame her at all over
forgoing the normal dictates of a hypocritical society.

After their long awaited bout of
lovemaking, Elyssa lay on her side, her back fitted snugly against Daniel's
hard chest. She smiled at the intimate caress of his fingers on her breasts,
loving the feel of him against her body. Elyssa turned toward Daniel as his
fingers became more insistent. His rakish smile was unrelenting and she gasped
aloud in pleasure at his ministrations. He whispered erotic nothings into her
ear as his slow, steady rhythm plunged him deeper and deeper until Elyssa's
soft cries mingled with the cold wind, Daniel joining her just after.

Daniel gazed down fondly at the
beautiful woman beneath him, wondering just how it was that his every attempt
to seduce her, to bring her further beneath his spell only backfired. He was
sinking into an abyss he'd unwittingly created, and although the thought tears falling unhindereds second
alarmed Daniel, he couldn't deny the pleasure he continued to find with Elyssa.
He had wanted her so badly these past weeks, had been yearning to hold her, to
make love to her. It had been a matter of self-will to wait and allow Elyssa to
get past the guilt at being with him since his father's mysterious death.

It had been impossible within Greystone,
for the few servants that were employed seemed to always be skulking about when
you didn't want them to be. He'd had to deny any stolen kisses, any forbidden
touches, for fear the servants would misread Elyssa's feelings for him and
start rumors.

The next day Percy's lawyers came to
Greystone for the official reading of the will. Only Daniel and Elyssa were
present, for there were no other living relatives or close friends. The last
will and testament was quite simple, embarrassingly so. A generous sum, though
a mere pittance compared to the whole of Percy's wealth, was left for Elyssa,
plus a monthly bank allowance to be given her for the remainder of her life or
until she remarried.

Daniel was stunned to hear the
unexpected declaration that Greystone Mansion and everything within it, plus
all his monies and businesses, were left to his only son and heir, Daniel
Charles Fredrickson. The shock and disbelief left him breathless, for Daniel
would never have believed that after all the hateful words and threats, his
father was actually leaving him everything he deserved by right of his birth.

Having done their duty, the attorneys
bid them goodbye, assuring Elyssa they would see that she received her monthly
allowance with no problems. The lump sum bequeathed to her in Percy's will was
already available at the bank, and Daniel assured them he would aid Elyssa with
anything she needed.

The men gone, Daniel looked at Elyssa
with a surprised look on his face. He'd gotten what he'd come back for.
His inheritance, all of it, but for the paltry sum given to Elyssa.
He felt guilty and feared Elyssa would be heartbroken that she'd been left so
little. But he had promised himself while still in Paris, had given his word to
his mother at her grave, that he would rightfully regain what was his from the
scheming woman who had trapped his father into marriage. He'd planned to do
whatever it took, no matter the cost, for it had become a personal vendetta
after receiving word of his father's opportunistic wife through correspondence
from trusted friends.

Elyssa's sweet smile dragged heavily on
his heart, for her happiness for him was evident. Rather than becoming the
upset angry woman he feared she would, Elyssa was instead a graceful young
lady. She leaned over to kiss him, her arms wrapping lovingly about him.
"Darling, I am so happy Percy left your inheritance intact."