Mark of Caine Trilogy: Book One: Hidden in the Shadows (Victorian Villains) (6 page)

Her attempts to penetrate Tanner
Caine’s
thoughts were obstructed by a shadow that fell over
his mind. Mr.
Caine
was not the
cause
of the shadow. It was something else. He stood in the shadow
of this other thing ... an object or a person...?

Laura ground her teeth and clenched her
fists. She would have torn her hair in frustration for she could not make out
what it was that held him in shadow.

Her host had vanished, leaving her standing
in the doorway. The forest and freedom beckoned. The birds were singing
,
the air was fresh and warming to summer. The roads would
be dry. She could make good time if she left now. She could surely lose him in
the brambles especially if he was on horseback. It would take Tanner
Caine
several minutes just to get his horse saddled again
and he still hadn’t noticed she wasn’t behind him.

What
do you hesitate?

TANNER MOVED to the back rooms of the
house, feigning preoccupation, anything to put distance on her, if only for a
few moments. He leaned his knuckles on the table and drew in a ragged breath.
His neck was still damp from sweat. The ride had been a torture he did not wish
ever to repeat.

He had been well punished for his sin in
the chapel, if sin it be, the moment she pressed her body against his. For two
hours he’d had to endure, willing his mind to stop thinking about her in the
maze wearing her thin slip. The touch of her skin, the sensation of her lips on
his, how she felt in his arms. This one was not the same as the other women he
had known. This one was so very different.

She
was a girl
he lectured his soul in disgust.
Breasts, legs, hips, cunt—just like every other female he’d ever fucked or seen
naked. This one was prettier than most.

It was not the first time he’d had to get
rid of a woman. A generous sum of pound notes was usually enough to make the
trouble go away. What was one to do with a girl like Laura Mayhew? She had no
price, he could feel that instinctively. She had chosen being shut up in an
asylum over the glitter of court.

No, this girl was on a mission to find a
phantom infant and ask uncomfortable questions in the process. He’d married her,
and though that was a mistake, it did not have to be a fatal one. The charade did
not change his orders or his plan. Consider it a temporary detour, a
distraction on the way to his true purpose in bringing her to Hawthorne.

Tanner straightened, scraped his hair back
behind his ears. He cleared his throat and wiped his upper lip clean of her
kiss. He’d allowed it to linger there too long. The ritual accomplished, Tanner
was restored again to the man he knew himself to be.

To the man he was comfortable being.

He returned to the main hall to find the
door standing open and the girl was gone.

LAURA RAN hard in the
direction of the forest.
Her heart lifted, glad
to be doing something at last to recover the child. If she’d waited for Tanner
Caine’s
help, he’d only have held her back and made her do
as he thought best. He’d done what
Loosey
paid him to
do—he’d got her out of Gateshead, which was the most important thing. She could
handle it from here.

She made for the densest part of the
forest, green-black under brush too thick for a man on horseback to ride
through. The brambles would conceal her. If she could find a safe hollow, she
would spend the night and make her way back to the main road in the morning
where she would catch a carriage to London.

SHE WAS making good progress until the
brambles thickened into twisted, jagged beasts that clawed at her dress and
caught her ribbon, tearing it from her head. Her hair caught and entwined
around sinewy, razor-sharp vine and was ripped from her scalp. She muffled a
scream and twisted away to escape. Another thick limb caught her skirts in its
sharp barbs, and in trying to free herself she found her arms were pinned. The
barbs pierced the fabric to her skin. Panicked, Laura wrenched and tugged, trying
to free herself from a prison that was like cut glass. Every attempt only made
matters worse until terrified, she screamed for help until her throat was raw.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?”

Tanner
Caine’s
deep harsh voice rang out behind her. Laura twisted to see his face. “I am not
doing anything. Can’t you see? I am caught! Don’t just stand there—help me! I
cannot free myself. The barbs hold me fast. Where did you come from? I did not
hear you ride up.”

She was out of breath and sweating. A
trickle of blood ran down her cheek.

“I came from the house looking for you. Why
did you run off? I mean you no harm.”

“I know. I know you are only trying to
help. Please. I’m sorry. I’m bleeding. Help me out of here.”

He did not lift his eyes. He would not look
at her.

Laura felt a cool shiver of death dance
through her veins and she saw the shadow fall between them. She’d made it easy
for
him,
she suddenly thought and steeled herself for
the blow.
The wrenching of her neck or his hand over her
mouth and nose, smothering the life out of her.
He wouldn’t use a knife
or a pistol; her death would look like an accident.

Tanner reached out—Laura flinched.

Then he methodically released one barb
after another until her skirts were freed, and then her arms, and finally her
hair which took the longest as it was severely entangled.

Her legs were shaking when she was at last
delivered from the cruel thorns. Her flesh burned and bled from the sharp nicks
inflicted. Her strength held up only briefly and then gave way. Laura collapsed
against Tanner.

He lifted her in his arms as if she had no
weight at all and carried her from the forest.

“I have to save the child,” she said weakly.
“You would have done the same.”

His face was stone but he held her close
and beneath his shirt she could feel the beating of his heart. It was not from
excitement of the chase, but something else was working inside him, something
she could not understand.

What
did it matter?
Why should she concern herself with
this man? She could not heal him, even if she desired to do such a thing. She
didn’t know anything about him.

TANNER CAINE’S heart was hammering loudly
as he carried her over the threshold. Laura Mayhew wrapped her arms around his
neck, drawing her face under his chin and pressed her lips against his throat.

His breathing changed. Caught, strangled,
and released on a moan. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know. I suppose it is shock. I am
grateful to you, sir. I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused.”

He set her on her feet and stepped back,
watching her. “Where were you going?”

“To London.
You must not take my running away personally. I have to find him.”
Laura dabbed at the blood on her cheek. Her fingers came away crimson. “I was
lady-in-waiting to Princess Louise and her dear friend. In July of 1866, she
wrote me these words:
I sit in my room
and cry. I cannot write and tell you why, there are so many things ought not to
be as they are … I am expected to agree with them and yet I cannot when I know
thing to be wrong.”

“Yes. And what does it mean?”

“I wondered myself. I hurried to Windsor
three months later when she would not reply to my letters. I found her very far
along in pregnancy.” Laura met his eyes steadily. “She made few public
appearances that winter and would not leave the carriage. She did not have a dresser.
Her taste in fashion changed to pleats and frills out of necessity. We hid her
condition for as long as we could.”

“You were unsuccessful.”

“Babies will insist on being born. It was
December. We named him Henry.”

The girl was clearly exhausted and yet
Tanner would not let her rest. “Who delivered him,” he demanded to know.

“I did.” Laura turned away. Her eyes were
sparkling with tears.

“Princess Louise did not tell us this.” He
cleared his throat. Emotion was getting the better of him. “She did not go into
detail as to the reasons for your commitment.”

“That is hardly surprising. When they found
us out, I was declared to be of unsound mind. Baby Henry was taken from his
mother’s arms and sent away and Louise was forced to attend the opening of
Parliament in February. She wore white satin. It was as though his birth had
never happened.”

“If your friend was content to resume her
duties and conceal the facts of her son’s birth, then why weren’t you?”

“That is my only part in this scandal I regret.
The rumours about the pregnancy did not surface at court until a year later and
that was down to me. But by then I had been committed to Gateshead and Louise
was left to battle the dragon alone.”

Tanner stiffened at the insult. “A mother
protecting her children is not a dragon.”

“Perhaps not,” Laura answered listlessly. She
was pale save for the trickle of blood running down her cheek like a tear. “There
was no one to protect Henry. I think of him constantly ... constantly....”

He drew nearer to her. “Does he mean that much
to you? He is not your child, is he?”

She lifted her eyes, aghast. “He is not
my
child, but he is a child! An innocent
baby who has no wish for power or rank, but only longs for his mother’s
arms—yes, he means a good deal to me. For his own dear little self. I will find
him. I must—!”

Her strength gave out. She collapsed in his
arms and he carried her to the front parlour.

LAURA WAS too overcome with fatigue and
hunger to resist. She lay quietly in his arms and allowed him to carry her into
an adjoining room. Tanner set her down on a lounge near the window and drew a
shawl over her. They were in a snug drawing room that faced the front of the
house. The windows were pretty but inadequate for light. Once her eyes adjusted
to the gloom, Laura discovered the room had a large hearth, two walls lined
with books and comfortable furnishings.

Her host’s eyes were dark and hooded, his
expression stern. “You are risking your very life and liberty for this cause.”

“As I daresay you have risked yours for
what you believe in. I am made of the same stuff as you are; I have taken an
oath of loyalty and I must honour it, the same as you. Is that so hard to
believe?”

“I confess it is. You have the face of an
angel; it was easy to be persuaded you had the soul to match. But this story—if
the Princess Louise will not admit to it, then what value is this oath of
loyalty you’ve made? Who does it serve but your own vanity?”

She frowned at him pensively. “I believe I
understand your role in this affair now. You are a soldier for hire. The
princess secured your services to liberate me from Gateshead. You have done
that and far more effectively than I could’ve managed on my own. As your wife,
there is no law that can compel me back to that place. I’m grateful to you, Mr.
Caine
. But your role here is finished. I have only
one concern and that is to get to London and locate Lieutenant Walter Sterling”

“What has he to do with this business?”

“He was Prince Leopold’s tutor. What I am
about to tell you must remain between the two of us. Walter Sterling was Louise’s
lover and he is the father of her child.”

“Good God! You must stop talking this way,”
Tanner said roughly. “You are doing yourself and Princess Louise no favours by
spreading this slander.”

Laura was too exhausted to argue. Her head
lolled back against the lounge and she closed her eyes. “It is not slander, but
for your sake I won’t mention it again. The less you know the better. I got
carried away having a confidante at last. I shall get you into trouble with the
Queen. Forget all of it, forget everything I’ve said. Put it out of your mind.”

“You are bleeding.”

He knelt beside her and cupped her face in
his large hands. Laura opened her eyes as he slid his strong fingers behind her
neck. Her breath caught. His handsome face bent over hers and Tanner ran his
tongue over her cheek where the blood flowed.

She broke free, alarm flooding every nerve
of her body. “What means this?”

“Does it hurt?”

His voice was husky, straining against an
emotion Laura could not identify.

“No, it is better now. Thank you.” Her hand
shook as she lifted it to her cheek, wondering at this strange man. “
A kiss
...? Ah, I see—a
Judas
kiss! When do you mean to betray
me to Queen Victoria? Surely, you’ll not wait to get to London.”

“What makes you think I’ll betray you? I
have my fee from Princess Louise.”

“To earn a larger fee of
course.
I am valuable cargo.”

“That is a sorry opinion you have of your
husband.”

Laura lifted her chin and sought to
penetrate the dark mysteries of his eyes. “Is there someone in your heart and I
am an impediment to your happiness?”

Tanner’s hand lifted to her hair that hung
in knotted curls around her face. He wrapped a strand around his index finger
and absently stroked it with his thumb like a satin scarf.

“There is no one else in my heart or
otherwise. You ought not to have married me, Laura Mayhew. You don’t know
anything about me.”

She propped herself up on one elbow. “Do
you know the story of Snow White? The wicked Queen orders the huntsman to take Snow
White into the forest and kill her but he cannot do it. They become too
friendly with one another on the journey and his goodness prevents him from
taking her life. I have decided you are the huntsman in this story. You will
not betray me.”

“I do not have his goodness. What I am feeling
at this moment—what I would like—
do
not rely on what
you think I am.” His voice held a warning. “Do not put your trust in a romantic
fairy tale, Laura Mayhew.”

“What are you feeling right now?”

She found she was barely breathing. The
connection between them was so strong it was almost supernatural. Laura leaned
over and placed her hand his chest.

He caught her wrist and with gentle force
pushed her back to the lounge. Tanner
Caine
pressed
her down and then his mouth was on hers and he was kissing her as a man kisses
his lover, his wife—his woman.

Laura had never been kissed before, not
even the chaste kiss from a beau in her younger years. The experience had
eluded her, perhaps because her days and nights were spent in attending to the
emotional needs of a princess that left her little time for her own.

She twisted her face to be free of his lips
and his tongue penetrated her mouth and thrust between her teeth alarmingly.

And then it stopped being unpleasant and
frightening and became something different altogether.
A
sensation that was beyond the scope of her experience.

She had made a terrible miscalculation in
allowing him to bring her to Hawthorne where she was isolated and he knew the
terrain and she did not. How did she lose her head so completely? Because
Tanner
Caine
was marred and an outcast, she imagined
he was in sympathy with her. His expression in the distorted light from
Elizabethan glass disfigured him even more.

“Mr.
Caine
, I’m
not accustomed to flirtation or innuendo,” Laura gasped when she could break
free. “I am not a woman of the world of the sort you are familiar with, but I
am not completely ignorant of our mutual attraction.”

“Mutual.” He said the word as though he
doubted her meaning.

“Yes! It was clear from the first that I
could like you quite well. But you must not take liberties.”

“It is too late to turn back, Laura,” he
said thickly. “It is too late. I must have you.”

And then his hands were under her gown,
travelling up her leg and over her belly.

“Tanner!
Mr.
Caine
, no!”
She pushed at his hands, slapping them
away and tried to dislodge him but he was too big and strong. He managed to
restrain her quite easily and Laura grew frantic, wondering what he meant to do
next. “What do you mean it is too late?”

His breath came in suppressed gasps as
though he had run a great distance. And travelled one too—the man who had met
her in the solarium at Gateshead had been overtaken by this creature bent on
evil.