Dare to be Mine (32 page)

The thought of Elyssa rotting away in
prison sickened him. She would be abused and fed slop, would be placed in a
small cell crawling with rats and vermin and would end up dead. Daniel would
not do that to her no matter what she'd
done,
and he
hated himself for still caring enough.

Still, the time had come to confront
Elyssa. It was time for her to give him some answers face to face. In fact, a pleased
smile curved Daniel's lips upward, and he wondered why he’d not thought of it
before. Elyssa may be so frightened of going to prison that she would gladly
give up ownership of Greystone to him. Perhaps all would end well after all.

______________________

CHAPTER ">
 

Blake Edmonton came calling the next day
for Sophie.
Though he hated being in close quarters with
Elyssa again so soon, the pretty French cousin had utterly intrigued him.
And if he hadn't been mistaken, she too had felt a certain something for him.
Of course, the way she'd danced and laughed with every man at the ball, Sophie
might have felt a certain something for all the men.

Sophie was excited to hear that the
handsome Blake Edmonton had
come
calling. She insisted
that Annie have him wait in the parlor while she finished getting ready. At
Annie's insistence that Sophie was already dressed and coiffed gorgeously, she
replied that a man should always be kept waiting a good quarter of an hour to
keep him hanging by a rope.

"A string, you mean?" Annie
corrected.

"Yes, that is it. Keep him dangling
on a string." Shooing the maid out, Sophie went to the mirror to check
herself.

Before Annie was able to reach the
downstairs to take Blake into the parlor as ordered, Elyssa passed nearby on
her way to breakfast. She glanced up into Blake's eyes, and surprised to see
him, closed the distance between them and bid him good morning. The awkwardness
was still present between them and Elyssa wanted to get things straightened out
so they might at least be civil toward each other in the future.

"Blake, could we talk for a
moment?"

"Are you certain you don't have to
run off anywhere?" he replied snidely.

Closing her eyes briefly to gain
confidence, Elyssa finally spoke. "Blake, I am sorry you still harbor
resentment toward me for what happened last year. But you don't know my side of
the story and I would like to confide it to you."

"You can't even speak the words,
can you? What happened last year was that a man desperately in love was crushed
beyond belief when his fiancee cruelly left him at the altar before several
hundred guests in humiliation without even knowing why."

Elyssa had never allowed herself to
fully consider the abject embarrassment Daniel had romantic onslaught ignor secondexperienced as a result of her
actions.
Picturing him standing alone and hurt before a huge
audience in all his finery, waiting for a woman that hadn't shown up, tugged at
her heart until Elyssa recalled the very reason he'd deserved being left.

"Daniel was only planning to marry
me for Greystone, because Percy left it to me instead of him. He was using me
all along. When I found out, I could not allow myself to be used in another
loveless marriage. I already suffered that indignity once before and I never
plan to again. The only reason Daniel was upset that day is because his plan
was foiled. He was dishonest with me from the very beginning."

Yanking Elyssa by the arm, Blake pulled
her mere inches from his face. "You listen here, lady, I don't know all
the details about Percy's will, and that is neither here nor there. The fact
is, Daniel was a man in love, whether he wanted to admit it or not. And the
reality that you preferred money and a grand home over the man you supposedly
loved, and refused to share them with him, shows what a shallow willful woman
you really are. I say bravo, he's better off without you."

Crying out at his words, Elyssa snatched
her arm away and backed up a step from Blake. "You are Daniel’s friend and
would naturally side with him, I understand that. But I don't believe my cousin
will want to see you when she finds out just how spiteful you can be."

"I assure you my motives toward
Sophie are purely good and decent." Blake continued, "Good and
decent, two things Daniel had never felt in his life after his mother's death,
and he actually thought he had found that with you."

"I did love him!" Elyssa
insisted.

"Daniel has spent the last year
facing nasty rumors and being shunned by half of London's elite because of what
you did to him. Rumors of abuse or simply being unworthy of love have haunted
Daniel, the shallow minds imagining all sorts of evils as to why you abandoned
him at the altar. There has even been talk that he murdered his father in order
to gain you and Greystone and that all his wickedness didn't even help him in
the end. I don't know why he stays and continues to face it except for the fact
that his entire adult life has been spent that way."

"I didn't realize," Elyssa
replied softly, stunned at Blake's revelation. Before she could say anything
further, Annie approached and asked Blake to follow her into the
parlor, that
Sophie would be down shortly. Leaving Elyssa
with a curt nod, he followed the
maid,
glad he'd given
Elyssa something to think about. romantic onslaughtug">CHAPTER

CHAPTER 19

Sophie had originally planned to leave
after spending two weeks with Elyssa, but her unexpected involvement with Blake
brought about a change in plans. To Elyssa's delight, her cousin was going to
stay indefinitely, or to be more specific, as long as she and Blake continued
getting along so famously.

Elyssa was pleased at least that Blake
had not shared his negative opinion of her to Sophie. The girls talked about
nearly everything und romantic onslaught, y accomplish er the sun, but when Elyssa spoke briefly about her past
relationship with Daniel in vague terms, Sophie had clearly not known any
particulars about Daniel's suffering as a result of the called off wedding.

Blake's words sank in deeper than Elyssa
would have cared to admit.
His accusations that she cared
more about material possessions than her love for Daniel was simply not
correct.
But when he'd voiced it aloud, it had seemed all too true.
Curse the man for making her doubt herself.

It hadn’t been about materialism, it
never had been! It was finding out that Daniel had deceived her. Had never
loved her, but had merely been leading her on all that time. Lulling her into a
false security and making her believe they would share a life together, when
all the time he'd been biding his time. Scorning
her a
fool, no doubt, as she so eagerly fell into his trap of wedded bliss.

How long after the wedding would he have
waited to toss her out? That a woman's possessions became her husband's upon
marriage
was
a dreadful injustice. Besides, Elyssa
would have gladly signed everything over to Daniel after they'd been married.
Even before, had he
asked.
Had he not realized how
completely in love with him she'd been? Perhaps she should tell him that.
Explain things face to face. Surely she owed Daniel that much after everything
he'd endured over the past year at the hands of society's hypocrites.

Maybe she would see him at the Cutters'
ball a week hence. She and Sophie were very much looking forward to the gala,
for it was supposed to be the highlight of the season. They'd bought new gowns
for the special event and of course Sophie would be escorted by Blake. Elyssa
had accepted William Harrison's invitation to go with him.

Elyssa had spotted Daniel a few times
from a distance since her own ball several weeks past. At the opera or the
horse races, and always he'd been with a different woman. Elyssa had never
approached him, in fact doubted if he'd even been aware of her presence, for
each time he'd been too involved with his lady friend to notice. The sight of
Daniel with another woman never failed to feel like a knife through the heart,
yet hadn't she known his rakish reputation from the beginning? And of course he
couldn't be faulted for seeing as many women as he wanted.

In the unlikely event Daniel would show
up at the Cutters' ball, perhaps she would try to explain things to him if he
could be gotten alone for a few brief moments. It would be difficult to escape
William's sight though, for he was a most attentive beau, at times annoyingly
so.

Elyssa decid romantic onslaught"thied to go for a ride alone on
the morning of the ball. She popped into Sophie's bedroom, but her cousin
proclaimed her a crazed lunatic did she expect her to leave the warmth of her
bed to go gallivanting about in the freezing cold on the back of a wild beast.
Laughing in understanding, Elyssa left Sophie to her cozy slumber and proceeded
out to the stables alone. Her steps slowed as she reached the entrance, for she
heard hushed voices in an argument. Remaining just outside, Elyssa inclined her
head in an effort to hear
better
.

"Why haven't things changed
yet?" a feminine voice demanded.

"I am doing my best. Now lay
off!" the male voice responded in irritation.

"What's to delay it? All you have
to do is cut part of the leather strap and let things take care of themselves,
you dolt!"

The words were fuzzy from a distance.
Elyssa thought the male voice belonged to the stable hand, Will, but she didn't
recognize the female's voice. Perhaps she should enter the stable and see for
herself. In truth, wasn't she the owner of the estate? She had every right to
know what was going on.

Instinct bade Elyssa not make her
presence known as of yet, although she did creep quietly inside to get a bit
closer, hiding in one of the empty stalls. While still not perfectly clear, the
words were a bit more distinguishable now, and what Elyssa heard shot a shiver
of pure dread down her spine.

"I didn't kill his bloody father to
have that little bitch get everything! I'm paying you plenty to help me finish
her off, now you'd best get the deed done!"

The voice was unmistakable. Catherine
Edmonton!
Daniel's lover, out to kill her?
Had Daniel
involved her in his schemes to finish Elyssa off, thereby gaining everything
he'd lost in the first place? She supposed it was possible. That way Daniel
would be blameless for either Percy or Elyssa's deaths. Perhaps he even meant
to wed Catherine once everything had been taken care of.

Elyssa rested her head back against the
wall, closing her eyes as she strived to comprehend the sinister plans she'd
just heard. Her head swam dizzily as she thought about the many times Will had
escorted her riding. Had he only been waiting for precisely the right moment to
kill her?
And all for money?

Of course, there was always the
possibility that Daniel was not aware of any of this. That he too had been an
unwilling pawn used in a sick woman's fantasies to trap him into marriage.
Daniel told Elyssa over a year ago that Catherine had been getting into trouble
since she'd first been able to walk. Her family was on the verge of sending her
packing permanently, for she made a continual habit of keeping the Edmonton
name associated with scandal.

Elyssa wanted desperately to stand up
and confront Catherine and Will. Wanted to let them know she'd heard everything
and was turning them into the authorities. But who was to say they wouldn't
kill her right then and there? No, she needed time to think.
To
make a plan.
Should she confide in Daniel or not?
Could she trust him, or would he too just go ahead and kill her where she
stood?

Tears of misery escaped her eyes and
only after Elyssa heard them depart did she leave her hiding place. She quickly
made her way back into the mansion and up to her chambers, trying to decide
what to do. One thing was for sure. She would have to set aside all fears and
doubts before the ball that evening, or everyone would be suspicious. Doubtless
Catherine would be there and Elyssa didn't wish to give her a clue as to her
recent discovery of how truly cunning and evil Catherine Edmonton really was.
It seemed like a nightmare, one she wanted to wake up from, but there was no
mistaking the dark conversation she'd overheard.

She wanted to confide to Sophie, but the
day already promised to be busy getting ready for the ball that evening. Too,
she didn’t want to upset her cousin, or end up getting her involved
unwittingly. Knowing everything could actually endanger Sophie’s life. Tomorrow
would be soon enough to make a decision. Perhaps then she would tell her cousin
the whole sordid story. Elyssa would ask her opinion, although the only logical
thing to do would be to contact the authorities. She should have already, but
the lengthy interrogation would have taken all day. Too, she didn’t want to
miss the opportunity to talk with Daniel one on one should he attend the ball
that night.