Johanna Lindsey (33 page)

“Yes. And you fell right into that. If you hadn’t touched her—you know, I actually had hoped you wouldn’t. I was so sick at heart. You were my best friend! I was to make you think you killed me and then disappear for the rest of my life. I didn’t mind disappearing so much. My father was going to send me money after he got his accounts settled. And I wasn’t really ready to marry Eleanor yet, so although I knew I would lose her because of it, I wasn’t heartbroken over that.”

“She was.”

“Yes, I know, and so was I later, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The morning of the duel, I had a leather pouch of blood I was supposed to break, to make my death look real. That was Juliette’s idea.

She supplied it. I wasn’t going to fire at you at all. But you!” Giles burst out. “Standing there obviously not going to shoot at me, either. That was ruining the plan.”

“You fired at me,” Sebastian reminded him.

“I had to, but you know I’m an excellent shot. I only nicked your arm to lower it so you’d at least be pointing your damned pistol at me. But bloody hell, you actually did shoot me!” Giles tore open his shirt to show Sebastian the scar.

Sebastian wasn’t impressed. “Not severe enough,” he said.

Giles stared at him incredulously for a moment, then said calmly, “Actually, it did nearly kill me.

She didn’t get me a doctor. And my father wasn’t there, because he was hiding in France until it was all over. Juliette couldn’t have cared less if I died at that point. She’d played her part as the grieving widow.

She merely had Anton get me to the coast and put me on a ship back to France.”

“Bloody hell, that’s where I remember him from. He was your second at the duel, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, he was one of her lackeys.”

“So my being disowned was a minor consequence to you?” Sebastian said, and there was nothing calm about his tone now.

Giles cringed and replied quickly, “Nothing that occurred back then was minor to me, but you haven’t heard the last of it yet. I don’t remember much of that trip back to France. I was dumped on the docks, since the captain didn’t want me dying on his ship. An old woman found me, promised to fix me up if I married her and worked her farm. I’ll be deuced if I know how she pulled it off, but I did end up married to her, and she did patch me up.”

Sebastian had heard enough. He stood up and started to approach Giles. Giles read him correctly and started backing away.

“One,” Sebastian said in a cold, hard voice, “you had ample opportunity to tell me what was going on before anyone could harm your father.”

“So you could do what? You didn’t have the blunt to pay off my father’s debts, I certainly didn’t, and those men really were going to kill him if they found him before he had their money.”

“So instead of letting my father know that his foolishness had progressed to that point—and don’t for a minute think that my father wouldn’t have gotten him out of that mess if he’d known—he had to perpetrate this cruel deception instead? You should have told me, Giles!”

“You don’t know how much I agonized over that, how many times I convinced myself that something could have been done. But he was convinced that your father wouldn’t bail him out again.”

“But it was all right if my life was ruined?”

“I didn’t know about your being disowned, not until several years later. My father never mentioned it. I did keep in touch with him, you know. When I confronted him about it, he swore he hadn’

t expected that either. And you weren’t ruined. I saw you a few years later, here in France. I was tempted to hail you, but since you appeared well and quite prosperous, I slithered off. That did end my worst agony for a while. You were always the question mark that weighed on my conscience until that day.”

“Appearances are deceiving, Giles.”

“Nonsense. I had no doubt that you would fare well, I just needed confirmation. You were always resourceful. There was nothing you couldn’t do if you set your mind to it. I idolized you. I wanted so much to be like you, but I just couldn’t cut it.”

“Two,” Sebastian said, “you not only ruined my life, you ruined my father’s.”

“The hell you say!” Giles gasped. “I have checked on our families. My father did stop gambling.

With the money your father gave him to assuage his guilt, he managed to invest a little, has learned from his mistakes. But everyone at home is hale and hardy—”

“Good God, are you really that much of a fool? Did you find out in your ‘checking’ that my father has been estranged from his own mother since the duel? Did you find out he’s also been estranged from your father? They haven’t spoken in all these years! And although Juliette did end up married to my brother, she’s made his life miserable.”

Giles had paled. “God, no, I didn’t know any of that.”

“Then you’re as much a failure as an investigator as you are as a friend!” Even John blanched over that slur, but Sebastian wasn’t finished. “What have you done all these years other than hide?”

“I’ve been raising my son,” Giles said quietly.

That gave Sebastian pause. “You had a son with that old woman you married?” he asked incredulously.

“No. I married Eleanor.”

D
ID YOU HAVE TO KNOCK HIM OUT AGAIN?” John complained. “His tale was just getting good.” Sebastian didn’t reply.

“Should I wake him?” John asked.

“Go ahead, but if his jaw isn’t broken this time, I’ll just have to try again.” John winced and left Giles where he was on the floor. “I know what you’re thinking,” John said after a moment. “He’s been happy all these years, married to the woman he loved, enjoying a son, while you’ve merely been amassing a fortune—”

“Do not trivialize the harm he’s done!” Sebastian cut in with a snarl. “I’m not the only one who was affected by what he and his father did.”

“He gave up the life he knew to save his father’s life,” John pointed out. “Some people might consider that noble.”

“Noble?” Sebastian snorted. “He pursued no other avenue of recourse. He went along with Cecil’

s ridiculous plan, and the results were mind-boggling. And all the while he assumes everything is just fine, that no one else lost a bloody thing, all because of his sacrifice. By God, what sacrifice did he really make? He’s gone on with his life and even found peace and joy in it.” Giles groaned, sat up, locked his gaze on Sebastian across the room. “Did you have to hit me again?”

“The other option was to cut your throat,” Sebastian said simply.

“Quite right,” Giles said with a wince. “But you know, if I had known of all these repercussions—”

“You would have done what? Shown up to prove you weren’t dead? I’ve news for you, friend.

That wouldn’t have bridged the gap between my father and me. Your courage should have come before that duel, before you let your father tear so many lives apart.”

“God, Sebastian, I’m sorry. But the only alternative I saw at the time was to let my father die. I couldn’t do that. I’m not proud of my part in this, and I’m ashamed that my father’s weakness has hurt so many people. He’s safe now, but you know I’ll never forgive him for what he set in motion. I really don’t care if I ever see him again.”

“Just finish your story while I’m still willing to listen to it.” Giles sighed. “There isn’t much more to tell. The old woman died three years later, leaving me her farm. I was accustomed to the life of a farmer by then, even enjoyed it, if you must know. But I had begun to regret losing Eleanor, realized too late just how much I did love her. She was never far from my thoughts. I finally contacted Eleanor. I simply couldn’t help myself. She ran off to be with me. We were married in Scotland.”

“So that note from her cousin about her death was a lie?”

Giles turned away, said with a catch in his throat, “No—that was true. She wanted to stay in Scotland. She liked it there, didn’t take to the idea of being a farmer’s wife. So we stayed with her cousin, but Harriet lived so bloody far from any towns! Eleanor died in childbirth, before I could get back with a doctor. I came back to the farm here with my son, have been here ever since. Ironically, the farm isn’t too far south from here. I was selling my crop in a town nearby when I first heard of The Raven quite a few years ago.”

“Is that why you’re here? To hire The Raven?”

“Actually, if I’d known sooner that you were The Raven, I would have come to you sooner. And yes, I did think of hiring you, when I first heard about you. I was actually saving up for it. Didn’t think I could meet your price, though.”

“To do what?”

“To find you for me. I’ve wanted to make a clean breast of it for a long time now. Then when I saw you a few days ago in Le Havre and had it pointed out that you were him, well, that bowled me over, ’deed it did. And there you have it, all of it.”

“And eleven years too late.”

“But this will reinstate you with your father, won’t it?”

“I think it’s too late for that. The rift between me and my father is too deep now. But before I find out for sure, I need the inconsistencies cleared up first.”

“Such as?”

“Such as why Denton married your father’s accomplice and why she’s been making his life miserable ever since.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Nothing, but I bloody well don’t like loose ends. And I’ll never get the answers from her. I’ve already tried that, just to hear lies.”

“I’ll leave in the morning,” John offered, “to find out what prison her brother is in. He appears to be our last—”

“Pierre Poussin is in prison?” Giles cut in.

Sebastian nodded. “According to Denton, Juliette arranged that. We’ll all leave in the morning.”

“We?” Giles asked.

“You don’t think I’m letting you out of my sight until this is over, do you? My last option still remains with you.”

“Which is?”

“Why, your death, of course. Having already paid the price for killing you, there isn’t much incentive for me not to kill you a second time, is there?”

“Bloody hell,” Giles mumbled. “I can think of one. Your namesake. My son.” Sebastian threw the now empty brandy glass at Giles’s head. “You named your son after me?!

Why?”

“For the obvious reason. You may not like the way this has played out any more than I, but I still consider you my best—”

“Don’t say it, don’t think it. If we are going to get through tomorrow without any bloodshed, don’t ever mention it again.”

T
HE PRISON LOOKED LIKE A MEDIEVAL FORTRESS in the middle of nowhere with a village grown up around it. As they rode closer, it merely looked like a dreary square stone edifice with no ornamentation, just two stories high. But high walls surrounded it, and guards stood at the only gate, barring entrance.

Finding out that Pierre Poussin had been sent here had been easy. Getting in to visit him proved to be more difficult. Not because visitors were allowed in only at certain times, but because Pierre was ill.

“You are welcome to wait,” the guard told them in a friendly manner. “There are rooms at the tavern. They will welcome the business. But, truthfully, the doctor does not expect Poussin to last the week.”

“What bloody rotten luck,” John said as they nursed ales at a table in the tavern that night. And then he asked Sebastian, “Will you employ stealth or brute force?”

“Eh?” Giles injected. “Did I miss something? Are we going to wait this out or not?”

“Not,” Sebastian said. “I’m not going to let the man die without talking to him first.”

“I see I did miss something,” Giles said. “If he doesn’t recover, how the deuce do you expect to get around that?”

“By getting him out of there, of course.”

“Oh, of course!” Giles exclaimed sarcastically. “Why didn’t I think of that? Perhaps because that implies—” Giles paused, abashed as he realized, “Oh, I see, stealth or force. You’re used to this sort of thing, are you?”

Sebastian didn’t reply. While Giles had been behaving as if the last eleven years had been erased from their memories, Sebastian had erased nothing. So he spoke to his ex-friend as little as possible.

Every time he tried to get beyond his own anger, to consider all the other circumstances, he couldn’t get past one glaring point. Giles had suffered not at all for what he’d allowed to happen, while everyone else involved had suffered too much. Deep down he might be glad Giles was alive, but that emotion was behind his shell, remaining there unexamined.

John spoke up when it was apparent Sebastian wouldn’t. “We’ve done this a few times before, yes. Though those targets were able to assist in their own extraction.” And to Sebastian, “You’ve considered that? That you might have to carry Poussin out?”

“Yes. I noticed the mortuary at the end of the village, though. I’d say they need a few new employees.”

“Ahh, quite right. That will do it.”

“Do what?” Giles wanted to know but was ignored.

“We’ll wait until after the changing of the guard at midnight,” Sebastian continued. “That will give us the ‘notification’ that a body needs extracting, delivered by one of the guards on his way home, and the new watch won’t have heard yet that Pierre died.”

John nodded. “Much cleaner than bashing in heads on the way in.” Giles sat back with a glower. “And what will I be doing while you two do whatever it is you’re talking about?”

“John is sitting this one out,” Sebastian replied. “You’ll be coming with me. There is risk involved.

If we’re caught, John will know what to do, whereas you’d just sit out here crying in your cups.”