Mark of Caine Trilogy: Book One: Hidden in the Shadows (Victorian Villains) (4 page)

“Oh, I see.” Laura nodded. Still clutching
his hand, she turned to Mrs. Sutherland. “As he has come such a long way, I
should like to show Mr.
Caine
the garden,” she said.
“I think he would enjoy walking the hedge maze. There is time while we wait on
father’s reply.”

“Hedge maze?”
Tanner raised a brow at Matron, an indulgent smile playing over his
lips.

Mrs. Sutherland leaned in,
sotto voce
. “Miss Mayhew is referring to
a maze we have maintained in the garden beyond the wall. I believe it is quite
old, dating back to Elizabethan times. The institution was built on the site of
a fourteenth century manor house. The maze hedge is all that remains of that
estate.”

Tanner turned his gaze to Laura. “I should
enjoy seeing your hedge maze very much. When may we begin?”

“There is no time like the present, sir,”
Laura said. “In fact, there is not a moment to lose.”

§

THE DEFORMED left side of his face was
presented to Laura. He looked like a gargoyle about to carry off his prey.

But the man was not a gargoyle. Unless she
very much missed her guess, Tanner
Caine
had been
sent by Queen Victoria. The dark, unusual man following her into the garden was
a professional assassin. Not sent from her father to bring her home, a macabre
ruse that was doomed to fail. Laura knew full well that Sir Horatio Mayhew was
hard at work on the Continent saving his own hide. As far as Horatio was
concerned his daughter could rot in Gateshead. Mr. Tanner
Caine
was obviously unacquainted with the ruthlessness of the very rich and powerful.

He is
not what I expected at all
, she mused. Not one of
the queen’s usual fat and florid gentlemen in Her Majesty’s Service. This one
actually looked dangerous. Laura had never set eyes on him before. Where did he
come from?

His principal asset was undoubtedly his
appearance. Mr.
Caine
was frightening at first
glance. Mrs. Sutherland was disturbed, despite her best efforts to conceal it. It
was likely the man believed his affliction protected him from becoming intimate
with his marks.

Perhaps it worked on some. Laura thought it
only heightened his desirability.

Tanner
Caine
had
been marred by a deformity. The left side of his face was pulled down causing
his eye to droop and his mouth to curl to one side. The defect would make him
difficult to know for it intimidated one from making further inquiry.

Fortunately, Laura did not have to rely on
words to read what was in a man’s mind.

THE GIRL led him across the manicured
garden and through a gate in the stone wall. Beyond was the hedge maze just as
Laura Mayhew described. An eight-foot-high meticulously clipped hedge of
geometrically perfect right angles.

She hesitated at the entrance. Tanner
wrenched on his collar, already feeling the sides of the thick green foliage
closing in around him. He’d never liked confined spaces and the thought of
entering the maze, wandering with no escape, trapped—was suffocating.

“Are they watching us?” Laura Mayhew said,
looking in the direction of Gateshead.

“There was no one in the main hall. One of
the orderlies might have seen us come out to the garden but there was no one
else about. Why?”

“You shall know soon enough. Follow me.”

TANNER CAINE followed the girl into the
maze, walking the narrow grassy path. She led him down dead end after dead end,
until he began to think she was doing it on purpose to confuse him. At each
corner there was either a bench or a piece of statuary to act as markers but
Tanner lost his bearings almost immediately. He was having trouble breathing in
the confined space. Laura darted ahead of him, rounded a corner, and suddenly disappeared
from sight.

Grinding his teeth, he ran after her until
he was deep inside the maze. He pressed his arms out on either side of him,
feeling the springy leafy walls close, too close.

Tanner slowed his step, controlled his
panic and listened for his quarry. He drew in a deep, silent breath and glanced
at the sky to reassure him of space. Then he exhaled slowly and examined the
ground for her tracks. Her movements were light but her footprints were left on
the dewy grass and these he followed.

At the end of the path, the hedge appeared
to come to a dead stop, but then he saw her foot prints had made a sharp right
turn. Sure enough, the maze continued in a narrow concentric pattern. It was
like being trapped in a green, smothering cage. Tanner wiped the sweat that was
pouring down his brow, and yanked again on his collar, trying to draw breath.

He bent over, resting his hands on his
knees and closed his eyes. Tanner drew in a long breath and then exhaled.
She would not best him.
He would not be
beat so easily. Remembering his mission, he straightened and moved noiselessly
around the corner of the hedge.

Laura Mayhew had her back to him and seemed
uncertain how to proceed. He caught her by the arm and whirled her around to
face him. “What in hell do you mean running off like that?”

Her eyes were wide with surprise but she
quickly collected herself. “You know why.” The girl hissed with fury and
struggled to free herself of his grip. “There is no mystery about it. You are
not from my father. You are not here to bring me home.”

Tanner wrenched her close to his chest to
control her thrashing. Without thinking, he reached down and smoothed a strand
of copper hair from her forehead. “Am I not?” he said seductively. “Then why am
I here?”

Her breath came in rapid puffs and her eyes
turned on his, pleading. “To kill me,” she whispered. “You are here to kill
me.”

TANNER CAINE’S dark, forbidding stare was
unreadable. Laura tried to intuit what he was thinking but his masculinity intruded
on her concentration. He held her pinned to his broad chest, gripping her wrist
in one of his large hands and his other arm was fastened around her lower back.
She had never been in such close physical contact with a man before.

What she felt in his arms was as she
feared. Mr.
Caine’s
manner had become cold and
impersonal—the soul of an assassin. Strangely, this was the crack in his armour
she had been seeking. If she could fight down her panic and go quiet within,
she could read his thoughts.

Laura closed her eyes.

A conflict was raging within him. Tanner
Caine
was a man divided, torn between a powerful desire for
something that Laura could not make out and his duty.

And then she saw a message ... a string of
words ... seen as clearly as jewels in a crown.

Startled, Laura stared into her assassin’s
troubled eyes.

“There is something wrong. You do not want
kill me.”

The look on his face was one of horror. He
dropped her wrist as though burned and flung her away from him. Laura stumbled
back.

“I don’t know what you talking about,” he
snarled. “I am here to bring you home to your father.” Tanner crossed his arms
over his chest. “Have you told anyone else what you suspect about me—Dr.
Rutledge for example or Mrs. Sutherland?”

“No. I was curious to see what you would do
first. My father did not send you and when Dr. Rutledge receives confirmation
that the letter is forged, he will have you shown off the property. You did not
plan on my refusing to go with you.”

“If I were an assassin, I would not wait
for your permission. I would strangle you here out of sight from everyone. Your
body would not be discovered for days behind this hedge.”

Laura swallowed. For all her bravado, Tanner
Caine
had the upper hand and she did not want to die
in the hedge maze. “It was risk drawing you here, I know. I remind you that you
are not immune from prosecution. You will face the hangman—assuming you care
about your neck; I doubt you do—but I daresay your employer would not
appreciate the scandal. I am gambling on the attempt on my life being made on
the journey to Dorset.”

“You seem to have it all worked out. But
you are mistaken. I am here to help you.”

This second denial took Laura by surprise. Coupled
with the precognition that Tanner
Caine
did not
want to kill her, Laura was beginning
to doubt her judgement.

“Regardless of whether your offer to help is
genuine,” she said impatiently, “you are not who you say you are!
That
much is a fact. Mr.
Caine
, you did not come from my father. I haven’t had any
visitors in over a year. They are preventing people from coming to see me; they
are afraid of what I might tell them. Who sent you?” she demanded.

“As I have said, I am acquainted with your
friend Clara Hamilton. Her new husband, Branson, is my stepbrother.”

Laura pressed her fingers to her lips and
frowned. “But he is a Hamilton is he not?”

“He was adopted by Hamilton as a boy. We
were separated for many years. Mrs. Hamilton has put her faith in me; I would
advise you to do the same if you wish to leave this place.”

She hung back. “How do I know you are
telling the truth? I have no way to confirm your story. Clara never mentioned
that Branson had a brother.”

“Ah, let’s see ... I attended Clara and
Branson’s wedding. She wore a gown of yellow and white silk, the main object of
which was to hide her seven month pregnancy. ”

Laura clapped her hands over her mouth to
smother her laughter. “I suspected as much, but then Clara was never discreet
about her feelings for Mr. Hamilton.”

“Having met the lady, I am not at all
surprised.” He forced a smile. “Mrs. Hamilton is aware of my purpose in
visiting you. She asked me to mention our connection in order to reassure you.”

“How did Branson and Clara meet?”

A flicker crossed his face, the slightest
hint of a slip up. Laura seized upon it. “You don’t know, do you? If you are
who you say you are
,
you would know the answer.”

“My God, we don’t have time for this,” he
ground out. “Clara is concerned about you. She said if you were not mad before,
you surely would be if you stayed much longer at Gateshead. I offered my help
to get you out.”

“I am sorry, Mr.
Caine
,
but it will not do. Too much time has been lost to mince words. We only have a
few minutes before I am called back. I will not deceive you and you must not
deceive me. Come, let us shake on it and be completely frank with one another.
The brother you claim to have recently recovered is Clara’s
cousin
, Branson Hamilton. Theirs was an
arranged marriage. They are not related by blood. Branson’s stepfather was
Clara’s uncle.

“If you were indeed her friend as you
claim, you would have known about the relationship, but you did not. I believe
you were present at her wedding; that has the ring of truth to it.” She
narrowed her eyes, thinking his story through. “But you were an unexpected
guest. You were not sent for by Clara or her cousin, Branson.”

“Was I not?”

They stood facing each other.

Caine’s
eyes were black and unreadable but he was angry—Laura could almost
taste his fury. It was in the air between them, like the acrid smell of hair on
fire. Tanner
Caine
wore his anger like a suit. His
rage was a storm boiling beneath his olive skin and black flashing eyes.

He did not frighten her but then Laura did
not frighten easily. She was not proud of this quality. She considered it a
weakness and the source of her downfall. Arrogant independence, recklessness,
and a determination to have her own way had landed her in trouble on more than
one occasion, until at last her fearlessness had landed her in Gateshead.

“Shall we do this all afternoon?” Laura
asked. “Shall we fence with the truth, pretending we don’t know why you are here?
I will not say the words
for
you, Mr.
Caine
. You must have the courage of your convictions
to look me in the eye and tell me who sent you and why.”

His expression changed again in really the
most baffling way. Laura could not keep up. She went quiet within, trying very
hard to penetrate his shell without success. Finally, she decided to ask him
out right.

“Have you been sent from Queen Victoria to
kill me?”

He met her eyes. “I have not. But you are
right—your father did not send me and Clara Hamilton knows very little about my
mission. I could not tell you the truth before this. My orders are confidential.
I have been sent by Princess Louise to get you out. No one can know about this.
There must be no connection between what happens here today and the Crown.”

“Louise...? It was Louise...!” Laura buried
her hands over her face, overcome by emotion. Her friend had not forgotten her.
It all made sense now—Tanner’s strange behaviour, his secrecy and brash
falsehood—he had been sent by a Royal, but not the Royal she had anticipated.

“I swear I will not breathe a word of this
to anyone. This is a miracle! Then you believe me—how did you hear the story?
Did Louise tell you herself? I knew she would do something to help me if she
could. You don’t look like one of Queen Victoria’s men—”

“I was hired through a private firm in
Baker Street. All of our dealings with the Princess were handled through correspondence
that was burned as soon as it was read. I believe your story, though I’ve only
been given a rough sketch of it. I am here to help you and Her Royal Highness where
I can. The letter was not as effective as I’d hoped, but it bought us some
time.”

Tanner
Caine
pulled a bundle of clothing from the leather satchel that was slung across his
shoulder.
 
“I have brought a nurse’s
uniform—a disguise to get you out of here. You’ll act as my escort and show me
off the grounds.”

“I shall be recognized.”

“The wimple will conceal your hair. Keep
your face down. We’ll take the side path around the building and avoid the
front entrance. My horse is tethered at the edge of Bracknell Forest. It can be
managed without raising the alarm. I know what I’m doing, Miss Mayhew. I’ve
done this before. Have no fear.”

A shout was heard coming over the high
hedge border. Mr.
Caine’s
coal black eyes widened.
“Shit!”

“What is it?”

There arose another shout. “Miss Laura, where
are you?”

“We’ve been found out. Rutledge must have
discovered Sir Mayhew was not in Dorset. This changes everything. We shall have
to move fast. Quickly! Remove your dress.”

Tanner watched as Laura’s fingers fumbled
with the buttons of her bodice. She opened the plain gown and removed it
without a blush of shame. She was not wearing a corset. Quite possibly the hospital
could not run to the expense. Or perhaps it was for the protection of the
patients who would try to strangle themselves on the laces.

He distracted himself with this
speculation, even as his eyes moved over her shapely form. She was not tall,
her legs were not long, but she had a sprightly sexuality, innocent and yet
there was something about Laura Mayhew that beckoned. There was a duality in
her nature and Tanner could not pinpoint its source. She was not what she
appeared to be. Her beauty made it hard to think clearly in her presence and
his lack of focus disturbed him.

The strap of her undergarment was loose and
slipped from her shoulder as she bent to step out of her skirt. Tanner caught
sight of a pert, round breast. His cock stiffened. Heat flooded his face. Good
God, he exercised better self-control with Prince Edward’s randy whores.

“Would you like some privacy,” he asked,
unconsciously lifting his hand to hide the left side of his face.

“Inmates are accustomed to undressing in
front of strangers. There is no place for feminine modesty at
Gatehead
Asylum. In any case, there isn’t time.”

When she looked in his direction, it was he
who felt uncomfortably exposed. She seemed to see all the way inside him. His
entire life was reflected in Laura Mayhew’s ocean green eyes.

Her arms were slim and pale, almost
translucent; her skin put him in mind of the inside of an oyster’s shell. He’d
never seen anyone so beautiful and her perfection made him self-conscious of
his imperfection for the first time in many years.

She was unnaturally thin; the bones of her
shoulders were sharp under the thin cotton slip.