Invitation to Passion (34 page)

Sarah stood before her, careful to avoid the vomit lying at her feet.

“I did not make you marry Charles. No one did.” Maddy could barely lift her head, could barely breathe; her body was no longer her own as it floated above her. These were the effects of the opium in her bloodstream no doubt. “You could have married Richard.” Maddy knew it was unwise to provoke Sarah while she held a pistol but she could not hold her tongue. “You could have married Richard when he asked you. Don’t blame me for your cowardice.”

Sarah laughed gaily. “You stupid girl.” She leaned in until her face was so close, Maddy could see the madness hidden deep within her eyes. “You never met my father. He beat me until I agreed to marry Charles. He would not contemplate me marrying a second son. So I envisaged a way to satisfy my father and get Richard. I’d marry Charles and then kill him. Then Richard would sweep in and marry me, so in awe of my sacrifice for my family.” She grabbed a handful of Maddy’s hair and pulled her head back. Her scalp was on fire but Maddy would not give Sarah the satisfaction of crying out loud. “How was I to know it would go wrong? You, a silly country bumpkin, infatuated by a man who barely noticed you, ruined everything.”

“I’m not as inconsequential as you think. He loves me. I believe he has always loved me.”

Sarah called her the foulest possible name. “
Loves you?
You really don’t know him very well, do you? Oh, he might love you now, but for how long? Has he not told you of his romantic history? Richard falls in and out of love with each change of the seasons.”

Maddy licked her lips, her head still held in Sarah’s tight grip. “Then why do you want to marry him, if his heart is so fickle?”

“Because the heart must be fed and I love him. And as long as he’s married to me, that is all I need. You, however, don’t even understand the man you’re married to. I don’t think you know what true love is either, or else you would not have run straight into Christopher’s arms.”

She briefly closed her eyes against the painful truth of Sarah’s words. “You’re wrong. I love him so much I was willing to give him up, to give him grounds for a divorce, so that he could marry the mother of his child,” she choked out. “That’s why I left the park with Christopher. I was going to ask him to pretend to be my lover, so Richard could divorce me. Then Richard would have been free to marry the mother of his child.”

Remorselessly, Sarah tightened her grip on Maddy hair and pulled Maddy’s face closer. “Think on this as Samuel rogers you.
Fool.
There is no child. I’m not pregnant. I had hoped that Richard would carry on his affair with me, and I’d fall pregnant before he noticed. Now, I’ll just have to have a terrible accident and lose the baby. Maybe I can blame Timothy Chesterton for that too.”

Maddy’s heart ripped in her chest. All of this was for nothing. She’d been ready to walk away for a non-existent child. Maddy lost her grip on her temper and spat directly in Sarah’s face.

Sarah reared back cursing, raising her hand to strike Maddy across the face. Maddy didn’t care; she was in so much pain. Seeing Sarah’s anger was worth a slap. Before she could strike, a loud clapping startled them both. Sarah spun round with a gasp.

“Bravo, Maddy. Learning there is no child makes what I have to do so much easier.”

Maddy tried to lift her head, as she recognized that voice. Her gaze reached out across the stone floor hoping it wasn’t a hallucination. Inside the door stood a vision of beauty, his hair a dark golden brown in the flickering firelight, his eyes full of tender mercy as he took in her condition. However, when he turned his head to look at Sarah, even Maddy shivered at the wrath filling his eyes.

Maddy held her breath as Sarah looked toward the chaise lounge where she’d left the pistol, only to breath a sigh of relief when she heard Richard ask, “Looking for this?” Sarah’s pistol was now in his hand. “Move over into the corner.” When Sarah stood defying him, Richard said in a voice filled with coldness, “I won’t ask again. I’m at the point where I don’t give a damn what happens to you.”

Sarah must have believed him because she moved like a docile lamb.

Richard was at Maddy’s side in an instant, and he crouched down to undo the chains round her feet. He didn’t say anything to her, or ask her if she was injured, he merely focused on giving her her freedom. She wondered if he hated her for running away.

Maddy licked her dried cracked lips. “Samuel, that is Christopher, is somewhere in the ruins.”

Once her legs were free of the shackles, Richard stood and stretched up to free her arms. “I know. Rufus is searching for him.”

“Samuel went to investigate a noise. He could be back any moment.” She couldn’t hide the panic in her voice. Then she gave a cry of pain as her arms, free of their bonds, flopped uselessly to her sides. The blood rushed back into her limbs and she would have collapsed if Richard had not caught her.

“Easy, love.”

Maddy’s heart sang, he’d called her love. “I’m so sorry.” And she finally let the tears fall.

Richard gathered her close. “Shush, not now, Maddy. We still have to escape.”

Richard tried to drag her upright but her limbs, long held in shackles, together with the effects of the opium, meant she couldn’t seem to find her feet. She slumped back on to the floor. “It’s fine, Maddy. We will just have to wait for Rufus and his men to find us.” As he talked, Richard shrugged out of his coat and helped her pull it over her, covering her nakedness.

His touch was soothing and gentle. However, he avoided her eyes. They sat together on the ground, hugging each other.

It must have been no more than a few minutes later when the door opened to show Rufus standing in the entry, but something was wrong. He stood at the entrance, unmoving, and as silent as the grave. Richard cocked the pistol he held and gave Maddy Sarah’s gun. “Keep it hidden but trained on Sarah.”

Richard stood and moved to put Maddy, who still lay on the ground, behind him, just as Rufus was pushed further into the room, with Samuel behind him.

“I see we are all here then, how nice. Richard, throw your weapons toward me. Sarah, check him for any other hidden arms, such as knives.”

Maddy gritted her teeth as Sarah searched Richard thoroughly, her hands lingering a little too long, but she was surprised at Sarah’s silence. She did not mention the pistol Madeline was holding. What was she up to?

Richard’s two pistols and a wicked looking knife littered the floor.

Once Samuel was satisfied all weapons were accounted for, he said, “Rufus, kindly walk to the shackles where you, Richard, are to chain him.” When Rufus did not move, Samuel yelled, “Now, or Maddy dies.”

Richard ensured he was blocking Maddy from Samuel’s line of fire. “If you shoot Maddy, I’ll kill you even if it’s with my bare hands. Your pistol has only one shot.” Richard prayed it would be enough. Samuel merely picked up Richard’s gun from where it lay on the floor. “I now have two shots.”

“You’ll need three hands, for if you shoot Richard and Maddy, I shall kill you. Then where will your revenge be?”

“Do you really think I care if I live or die? All I care about is that you lose your precious sister. That will be my revenge. To take someone
you
love, just as you took Christopher Hale from me.”

Rufus looked at Samuel. “Can you live with her death on your conscience? Maddy was never involved in this. Hale was hardly blameless, he had tried to rape and kill me. He also killed my father-did you know that? I find I was totally justified in sending him to face his Maker.”

A flicker of doubt flashed across Samuel’s face. Rufus continued, “You deserve to die too and you know it. You knew Hale was killing those boys you sodomized and tortured.”

Samuel’s lips parted in surprise. “I didn’t know you knew about that part of our little games.”

“When I hand you to the magistrate, you’ll hang.” Rufus added, “And I will be there to watch.”

“We shall see. Now, if you don’t want Maddy, dear sweet, Maddy, touched by my hand, then you’ll do what I say.”

“Or simply kill me instead.”

“Don’t provoke him, Rufus. You must survive. You have a wife-a wife who could be with child. They need you.” Maddy pleaded with her brother.

“I need you, Maddy, and you could be with child” Richard said quietly. “Rufus, do as he asks.”

“
No!
” Maddy screamed even as Rufus made his way toward them and the discarded shackles. Without thinking, she found the strength to lift the pistol hidden beneath the coat she was wearing and she fired it at Samuel. She had no idea if she had hit her target. Her actions had taken the last of her strength and she flopped to the floor unable to move.

Samuel screamed an obscenity and lunged at Maddy, his gun raised. She’d wounded him, shot him in his stomach, but he was charging forward like a rampaging bull. Rufus picked up the shackles and threw them at him just as Samuel was raising one of his pistols. The heavy metal hit his gun hand and Samuel’s shot went wide. With a roar, Rufus was on him, his hands round his neck, strangling the life out of the perverted monster.

Madeline must have fainted because when she came to she was being carried in familiar strong arms out through the dank, cold stone corridors of the ruin until she found herself in the fresh air. She breathed in deeply, the chilly night reviving her a little. Night had fallen and there were many people milling around.

She was safe.

“Daniel, take Maddy up to the house and ask Meg to take care of her. I’ve got to go back and help Rufus.”

“Take my men with you,” and with that Daniel mounted his horse and held out his arms to receive Richard’s precious bundle. Richard couldn’t bear to think about what may have been done to Maddy. To see her chained, naked, her skin glistening with that putrid oil had been too much. He’d never known such rage. He’d almost broken down and cried at the agony and humiliation he’d seen written on Madeline’s face.

Rufus better have killed Samuel by now or by God he’d rip him limb from limb.

As he made his way back through the maze of corridors, the coldness fed his anger. Sarah. What was he to do with Sarah? She’d not told Samuel about the hidden gun. Why?

He couldn’t believe how the woman he once thought he had loved had duped him. He’d brought Sarah into Maddy’s life. If not for Sarah, Madeline, would never have been taken. She would not have fled the park, and would not have tried to sacrifice their marriage for a child who had never even existed.

Richard all but drove his wife into Samuel’s arms and he’d never forgive himself.

He kept imagining what Samuel must have done to her. He had heard what Samuel and Hale had almost done to Rufus. His stomach churned and he fought down the bile. Had he saved her from that most foul fate? Christ, would she forgive him if Samuel had, he could not say the words rape or sodomize, let alone think of them either.

When he got back to the dungeon, the door was wide open and Rufus sat slumped on the floor next to Samuel’s inert body.

Rufus looked up at him with tears streaming down his face. “Did you see the state of her? I wish I could kill him ten times over.”

Richard struggled to swallow. He needed something to focus his rage on. “Where’s Sarah?”

“She fled while I was killing Samuel. She won’t have got far, we have all the exits covered.”

Richard held out his hand. “Come on, let’s see if she’s been rounded up. I want to leave this place now and never come back. Daniel’s men can take care of the body.”

Rufus took his outstretched hand and rose to his feet. “I can’t face her.”

“Who, Sarah?”

He shook his head. “Madeline. I have failed her.”

“We have both failed her. I failed her worse than you. She was my wife and I was so busy protecting another woman whose evilness I didn’t see right in front of me. God help me if she doesn’t forgive me.”

“She will forgive you, Richard, because she loves you.” He embraced Richard and whispered, “But she will need time to heal. What if she’s been…”

“Don’t say it, don’t even think it. She’s still our Madeline and we both love her. We have to be strong for her.” At Rufus’s raised eyebrows, Richard added, “I think I’ve always known my destiny was with Maddy by my side. I just didn’t understand the emotions entangling me. My upbringing didn’t teach me about real abiding love.” Richard cleared his throat. “Maddy’s my soul mate. I’m so goddamn thankful she honored me with her friendship and now I hope to earn her heart too.”

“It takes almost losing the woman you love to understand how empty you’ve been without the one person who completes you, doesn’t it?” Rufus clapped him on the back.

They walked back up through the crumbling ruins, and as they meet Daniel’s men at the entrance one of them shoved Sarah at them. “We caught her trying to slip away. What do you want us to do with her?”

Rufus asked Daniel’s men, “Does Deal have a gaol, a place where we can lock her up? She masterminded her husband’s death.”

Sarah pleaded with Richard, “May I have a private word before they take me away?”

Wary of any tricks, Richard walked a slight distance from the rest of the men. “Well?”

“They will hang me and you know it. I saved you back there. I could have told Samuel that Madeline had my gun hidden in the coat, but I didn’t. Surely that must count for something.”

Richard wanted to hit someone. Sarah
had
helped them. “Even if I wanted to help you, I can’t. You can’t kill a Marquess and get away with it.”

“No one knows of my plot except you and your band of merry men. If I promise to go to America and never return, will you help me escape?” Her eyes welled with tears. “Charles was no saint either, and you know it. I killed him for…”

Richard pushed her away. “Don’t say you killed him for me. You did it for yourself. You used me to get you with child, hoping to claim the estate after Charles’ death. What would you have done if the child had not been a boy?” He looked at her with repugnance, his eyes widening. “You would have ensured you had a boy.
Any
baby boy would have done. If you didn’t have a boy, you would have substituted another woman’s child. Would you have killed the mother to keep the scandal quiet?”