Desperately Seeking Suzanna (24 page)

The bottle of whiskey in his hand had grown hot in his grasp. He hadn’t taken a drink since he’d received the news, but he hadn’t set the vice down, either. He may need it later, depending on what he found at his home. He shook his head to throw off the image of Sue in his mother’s clutches as he threw open the front gate of Pemberton House.

Glancing up at the stately facade, he took a breath. He would have to face his father and tell him everything. He’d avoided this as long as he could, but he couldn’t help her alone, couldn’t face this alone and survive it. He knew what he must do, and it began with telling the truth. He rapped the bottle against his father’s front door.

When the door was opened, Holden pushed past the butler, calling, “Father.”

“My lord, if you would be so kind as to wait in the parlor, I will alert his lordship to your arrival.”

“Pardon, but that sounds terribly complicated and time consuming.” Holden turned and called again, “Father!”

“Holden?” Thornwood asked from the landing of the stairs. His eyes narrowed on the whiskey bottle in his son’s hand as he moved toward the stairs. “You’re foxed. And it’s not even three in the afternoon.”

“Damn it all! It’s later than I realized.” Holden took an impatient step to the side before turning back to his father.

“When did you begin the festivities, today?” his father asked with a sneer.

“Do I look festive?” Holden countered.

His father reached the bottom of the stairs and gave his butler a quick nod. “Have some sandwiches and coffee brought to the library. It seems my son needs sobering.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“We don’t have time for sandwiches,” Holden stated as the butler left the hall. “And I’m not foxed.”

His father wrapped his arms across his chest, watching his son. “Why, then, are you carrying a half-empty bottle of whiskey with you?”

Holden frowned at the bottle in his hand in consideration. “Ballast. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is Mother.”

His father’s eyes sharpened. “Have you found her?”

Holden hardened his jaw against the truth and his father’s inevitable reaction. “I never lost her.”

His father shook his head and studied Holden with a frown. The clock across the hall ticked away what could be the last minutes of Sue’s life as he waited for his father’s damn assistance. “Explain yourself.”

“We don’t have time for that now. We must go.” He indicated the door at his back.

“Where is she? What have you done?”

“I’ll explain on the way.”

His father’s eyes narrowed into the same disapproving glare Holden had seen on his face all his life. “On the way to where?”

Holden sighed and gripped the bottle tighter in his hand. “To my home, where you will find Mother, as well as an innocent lady I must protect.”

***

Holden swung open the door of his home. Silence. Where was Sue? If anything had happened to her, if he was too late…

“We will find her, Son. You have my word on it.” His father’s voice grated in a hushed tone as he clasped Holden on the shoulder.

Holden knew it was only a comforting comment and meant nothing, yet he clung to it. Sue must be all right. He would find her. All would be fine.

Just then, his eyes fell to the droplets of red stretching across the main hall. The trail led into the parlor. Blood. He couldn’t breathe. His head whipped to his father in time to see him signal toward the door. Holden nodded, stepping closer to the parlor door with careful steps.

Thoughts of the sight that would soon meet his eyes made his limbs pulse with anger, yet his feet stuck to the floor.

His father gave him a nod of encouragement from the opposite side of the door, his fierce blue eyes narrowing in anticipation.

Every moment he delayed was another moment Sue would suffer at his mother’s hand. There was already blood on the floor. Would she even be alive? He reached for the doorknob with one last steadying breath and threw the door open with an exclaimed, “Sue!”

His mother sat at a small table to the side of the room with a teapot raised in the air, ready to pour.

“Sue—where is she?” His eyes scanned the room, seeing no one else within the walls. “What have you done with her?”

“I don’t know why you’re so upset, dearest boy.” His mother dropped a lump of sugar into her teacup.

“
Sue
Green! Where is she?
” Holden shouted, with another look around the room.

“Calm yourself, Holden. We were just about to have tea. Won’t you join us? And you’ve brought company, I see.” She eyed her husband as he stepped into the room. There was something more menacing than usual in her glare as she said, “Montague.”

Holden moved around the high-backed armchair, and that was when he saw it.

A steady drip of red trailing down the side of the chair. He looked up with dread, seeing Sue as he did.

She was curled into the cushions, so small, so frail. Her cheeks were pale under half-closed brown eyes. “
What
have
you
done?
” he yelled at his mother as he bent over Sue.

“Henrietta, stay where you are,” his father commanded from just inside the door, moving in to control his wife.

“Sue? Sue, can you hear me?” Holden swept a hand over her forehead before catching her chin in his grasp to look her in the eyes. “I’m here now. She won’t hurt you anymore, love. Sue?”

“Holden, I don’t feel very well.” Her voice was thin.

This couldn’t be happening. She had to be all right. He turned her hand over and saw the large shard of glass still lodged in her wrist. With one quick motion, he removed it, which only made her bleed more. His chest tightened. She had to be all right. Tugging out his handkerchief, he wrapped it around her wrist with hasty movements. “You need something to drink. You’ve bled a great deal.”

She nodded, resting her head against the wing of the chair.

He rose to face his mother, moving across the room toward the table in the corner where she was flanked by the columns of closed velvet draperies. His fists clenched at his sides to keep from diving at her to choke the life from her body.

“As I said before, we were about to have a spot of tea when you arrived.”

“Tea? You’ve tried to kill her! You were going to sip tea while she passed from this world?”

“I didn’t lay a finger on the girl. I only tried to keep her from further injuring herself. Tea, dearest?”

“You won’t be serving anyone tea, Henrietta,” his father stated as he loomed over his wife. “You don’t belong here.”

“You think you can lock me away forever? You can’t. I won’t go back!” his mother yelled.

Holden slipped past where his father argued with his wife to reach the tea service. “Sue will need to drink something. Then we shall discuss matters.” In his mind, matters could be summed up with shipping her straight away to a hospital, but he kept his mouth shut about that detail in the plans, for now. He reached for a cup, only to have it pulled from his grasp.

A smile crept up his mother’s face, pulling her skin into harsh lines. “Oh, if it’s for
her
, then you must give her the special tea I made just for the occasion.”

“It doesn’t matter. Just pour something.” With Sue’s life hanging in the balance, Holden was losing what little patience he had.

His mother poured tea from a second pot on the tray and handed it to Holden. “This should…help her rest. She needs her rest.”

His father turned to regard his wife, his face twisting in thought. At least he could keep her cornered until Holden could revive Sue. Once she was safe, then he would deal with the woman.

His father leaned over her chair, staring deep into her eyes as he mused, “I haven’t seen you this concerned with someone’s care since Samuel.”

“Are you accusing me of something, Montague?”

Holden took the cup of tea and returned to Sue’s side. Let his parents argue; he needed Sue to be all right. She had to be. Kneeling beside her, he lifted the cup to her lips. “Have some tea, Sue.”

“
Don’t let her drink that!
” his father bellowed.

Holden pulled the cup away from Sue and looked up. “What is it?”

“Poison,” his father stated, allowing the word to hang in the room like the vile substance it was.

Holden stood, his eyes narrowing on his mother across the room. She’d tried to poison Sue after injuring her? She truly was the horrible person his father had always accused her of being. He flung the teacup to the floor and took a step forward in accusation. “You were going to poison her?”

“Don’t listen to Montague! He’s never understood!”

“Haven’t I, Henrietta?” His father’s lips twisted in what appeared to be sheer hatred for the woman, and Holden found he couldn’t blame him. For the first time in his life, he agreed with his father. “I know what you did all those years ago. I know what you planned here today.”

“You know nothing! Nothing, I tell you!”

Holden moved to pour tea for Sue. Hopefully this pot would have a distinct lack of poison within it. How had he allowed this to happen? His carelessness had almost killed Sue. Never again. He would never be manipulated by his mother again. He would never keep secrets that could hurt another again. Never. His hands shook as he poured the tea. He was such a fool.

“You killed our son, and you thought to do the same again today.” His father’s voice rattled the paintings on the walls.

Holden let him yell. Let the plaster crack in his front parlor and the china rattle in the cupboards. He only wanted Sue to be well and his mother finally gone from his life. His father had been right. Aunt Penelope had been right. And he had been so terribly wrong. He exhaled a fuming breath as he crossed the floor to kneel at Sue’s side.

The argument at his back raged on as he lifted the cup to Sue’s lips. “Drink this.”

She gave him a small nod and grasped the cup with her one well hand.

His mother was still yelling at his back. “I did what was best for this family—a concept you could never grasp, Montague!”

Holden straightened at her words, turning back to her. “Best for this family?” he cut in. “How are killing my brother and forcing me to be raised without a mother best for the family? I am family, am I not? Do you know I’ve taken the blame for being the wrong son left behind my entire life? I’ve spent my whole life running from the mess you made of our family!”

“Samuel was going to hurt you, Holden. You should have seen the look in his eyes.” She shook her head. “You were my baby,” she whispered, wiping a tear from her eye.

His father’s fists balled at his sides. “Killing another child wasn’t going to bring back the stillborn, Henrietta.”

“My actions protected Holden. You can’t deny that,” she argued, looking up at her husband. “You locked me away when all I did was help Holden in the same way I couldn’t help my perfect little baby.”

“Your assistance wasn’t needed, Mother,” Holden snarled at her.

“Is that your excuse now? Did you think this poor girl would kill Holden so you thought to be rid of her first?” His father lifted an arm to indicate Sue.

“You certainly choose villainous adversaries—a seven-year-old boy and a young lady…” Holden shook his head in disgust. How did he ever think to repair a bond with this woman?

His mother’s voice was raised to match his own anger. “This strumpet was going to take you from me. I could see it happening right before my eyes. You’re mine, Holden. Mine.”

“You almost killed Sue!” he roared.

He heard Sue’s intake of breath behind him. At least she was alert enough to listen.

“She already killed Samuel. Why not another? My son, my heir.” The words were torn from his father through a clenched jaw.

“I’ve lost too many children already. I can’t lose you, too.” His mother dabbed at another tear.

“I believe you lost me long ago, Mother. I simply didn’t realize it until this day.” He turned back to Sue, casting his gaze over her pale face. She needed a doctor. Unfortunately she only had him at the moment. His brows drew together as he leaned over her, gripping the back of her chair above her head. He took a small amount of comfort in the fact that she was still breathing. She was still alive.

“She’s the cause of all of it.” Only his father’s soft words could have pulled Holden’s attention from Sue.

He looked around to see his father taking a step toward him with a frown.

“Sometimes what we see with our eyes within seconds takes our hearts a lifetime to comprehend.” He shook his head and stated, “You weren’t to blame for Samuel’s passing.”

“I should have stopped her. You’ve always said so.” Holden cast a concerned glance around at Sue where she rested in the chair before turning back to his father.

“You were a child.”

“If I’d been stronger, like Samuel…”

“No. This was all your mother’s doing. I was wrong to lay this blame on you.”

Holden swallowed any rebuttal he might have made and stared into his father’s eyes. It was five and twenty years too late, but that didn’t matter, not today.

“Isn’t this a lovely tableau of family life,” his mother sneered from the corner. “You’re going to pull this family apart again, aren’t you, Montague? You cannot bear the thought that I love my son as I do. You’re jealous! You seek to take my place with him, don’t you?”

“You have no place with me, Mother. Not anymore. Not after this. I thought your death long ago was a lie, but now I see it was truer than I could grasp. It seems you are quite buried in my mind, and this time you will remain that way.”

“Are you so heartless as to hurt your mother so? I love you, Holden.”

“Your
love
nearly killed someone today!” Holden stepped away from the argument, going back to Sue’s side. The color was slowly returning to her cheeks, but she was far from well.

His father turned back to confront his mother. “Your words are fraught with the same poison you sought to use this afternoon, and I will not hear them. Holden, we should send for the authorities.”

“I think it best for the family name to be discreet about this,” he said, thinking of his cousins’ plans of marriage.