Redemption (31 page)

“I shall
have to make sure that breaking and entering and kidnap are added
to your list of crimes, Pendlebury. Keep going, you are taking
yourself to the hangman’s noose all by yourself, aren’t you?”
Barnaby drawled mockingly.

“They
can’t catch me. Not now. I have my money, and will have her wealth
too once she has gone,” Pendlebury snarled, yanking on Lizzie’s
neck hard enough to make her cry out in pain.

Ben
cursed and took a threatening step forward only for Barnaby to hold
him back.

“I am
afraid you are wrong,” Lizzie gasped past the stars in her eyes.
“Go and speak to the solicitor if you don’t believe me. I am not
your proper relation. We are step-relatives; nothing more.
Therefore, you have no legal right to anything that is mine.
Everything I own is going to be given to Ben and Aunt Patty now. I
arranged for the solicitor to draw my will up while I was at his
offices the other day and learned of the fortune you tried to cheat
me out of. The solicitor recommended it. You don’t inherit a thing,
so killing me will get you nothing but the death
sentence.”

“You are
lying,” Julian snorted. For once though he looked a little
doubtful.

“No, I
am not,” Lizzie countered firmly. “You have made your hatred of me
clear from the very first day we met. You have sent most of the
stipend you were given for me on yourself, and never gave any
consideration to me when you tossed me out of here like a piece of
rubbish. I could have died in the street for all you
cared.”

“But you
didn’t, did you?” Julian snarled quietly in her ear. “You had to go
and leech off another cushy relative somewhere else.”

“That’s
what you were hoping, isn’t it, Pendlebury? You were hoping she
would die out there, all alone, so you could inherit everything you
knew was hers. You would inherit it once her body was found. If you
had to kill her, then you could at least get your hands on the
money and could wait until the heat died down before you
resurfaced. Then you could claim what was inherited from her, and
get on with your life without paying for your crimes.”

“Did you
expect her to go to Derbyshire?” Barnaby asked with a
frown.

Before
Pendlebury could reply Ben nodded. “He followed her to the
ticketing office and watched her get on a coach to Derbyshire.
Patty told me that he had her address because she inherited part of
Lizzie’s mother’s estate. Julian kept a copy of the will, so was
able to find out which relative lived there without even leaving
the house. He told me that he went to see a relative in Kent to get
the address.”

“I don’t
have a relative in Kent,” Lizzie added. “Nor does he. He is a
liar.”

“Ingenious, but also incredibly risky,” Barnaby drawled.
“There were flaws in your scheming.”

“I have
no idea what you are talking about,” Pendlebury snarled.

“You
were the last one to be seen with Samson on the night of his
murder. You weren’t content with just killing Samson though. You
thought you had gotten away with it. His death led you to consider
an alternative way to get rid of your step-sister, didn’t it?” Ben
snapped.

“You
know nothing,” Pendlebury challenged, but a muscle ticking in his
jaw confirmed to Ben that he was right.

“You
knew about her wealth; wealth that you couldn’t touch. It must have
irked you to have your own bank accounts empty while hers were
bulging, but you couldn’t get your hands on it while she was alive.
She was of more value to you dead. You thought you would inherit
everything that was hers if she died. You knew the best way to get
rid of her was to humiliate her; tarnish her good standing, and
throw her out on her ear. She would either die in the street or go
to the only relative you knew she had in Derbyshire. You watched
her purchase the ticket to get to her aunt’s house and returned to
Pendlebury House to wait. Once she was in Derbyshire, you would
know exactly where to find her when the time came. You could travel
there, kill her and claim to have been in London all along and
continue to claim to have no idea where she was.”

Pendlebury snorted. “You, fool that you are, spread the word
that Lizzie had vanished and I was suspected of her
murder.”

“While I
was scouring London, you knew all along where to find her and were
waiting for the right time to visit Derbyshire.” Ben had never been
so angry with anyone before in his entire life, and clenched his
fists against the raw fury that thrummed through him.

Barnaby
stepped forward. “You panicked though, didn’t you Pendlebury? Once
Samson’s body was found, gossip began to circulate that the Star
Elite were investigating. The broadsheet printed it in their bloody
articles. That made you worry, and you decided then to get out of
London for a while. But you couldn’t go too far because you weren’t
going to turn your back on the fortune you could get off
Lizzie.”

Ben
shook his head. “So, being sent to prison for a crime you knew you
hadn’t committed yet was all right in your mind. You knew that
Lizzie was alive and well and able to return at any moment. Being
in jail for her supposed murder gave you a safe place to stay while
the worst of the investigation into Samson’s death took place.
After all, you knew you would get released at some point. You just
had to wait for a while. If anyone did ask you, then you had
already set up a sordid scheme here to prove your innocence, and
Trent’s duplicity. The fact that it was a pack of lies didn’t
matter to you.”

“God,
how wrong you were,” Lizzie snarled. “You are a disgusting specimen
for a human being,” she growled. Without stopping to think, she
opened her mouth and sank her teeth into Julian’s forearm as hard
as she could.

Suddenly, a flurry of movement beside them dragged the knife
away from her throat but, before Lizzie could break free, she was
cruelly yanked off her feet and dragged out into the darkness of
the corridor. The clatter of the knife hitting the floor was
nothing more than a dull thud but was immensely reassuring to hear.
Unfortunately, while it helped protect her from direct danger of
being stabbed to death, she still didn’t have enough strength to
break free because Julian now had both hands available to restrain
her and drag her wherever he wanted to go.

“Let me
go,” she screamed, watching Ben and his friend race out into the
hallway after them.

“Stay
right where you are, McArthur,” Julian snarled.

“Where
do you think you are going?” Ben demanded. “You can hardly hide
anywhere in the attics where we won’t find you.”

“There
is a rooftop terrace,” Lizzie croaked. “Stop him, Ben. Help
me.”

To her
consternation, she was pushed roughly through the door that led to
the rooftop. She grabbed the door jamb in a desperate attempt to
halt her progress but was no match for Julian’s strength and was
dragged unceremoniously up the stairs. With desperate fingers she
clutched at Julian’s arm, and tried to grab hold of anything in a
desperate attempt to stop his progress. She knew she was being
dragged to her death but was helpless to stop it.

“Ben!”
She screamed in desperation when the cold night air swept over the
chilled flesh of her arms. “He is going to throw me off the roof.
Help me!”

Lizzie
redoubled her efforts to break free but was drawn with relentless
force toward the edge of the terrace. She closed her eyes and tried
to find purchase with her feet to forcibly try to slow Julian down
but the loose pebbles made it impossible.

“Stay
calm. It will be all right,” Ben murmured calmly.

Lizzie
couldn’t move her head to nod. Her eyes locked on Ben, silently
seeking reassurance. She read calmness in his wonderful deep blue
eyes and in that moment something shifted between them. The
connection she always felt with Ben suddenly became clear, and
stronger than ever. It felt as though all of her cloudy and muddled
thoughts suddenly lifted, and she was able to see clearly for the
first time in a very long time.

She
wasn’t afraid of death; far be it, everyone goes through life aware
that at some point they will die and she wasn’t angry that she was
likely to die now. What did upset her was having her future stolen
by her selfish step-brother. There were so many things she wanted
to say to Ben; to share with him. She wanted to live her life and
get to know him. With him by her side she knew that she would be
the happiest she could possibly be, and wouldn’t ask for anything
more from life than to spend the rest of her days with
Ben.

With the
edge of the rooftop inching closer, Lizzie closed her eyes on a
silent prayer that she could get through tonight and have a chance
at happiness. The knuckles on her fingers turned white with the
force of the hold she had on Julian’s arm. Any moment now she would
be flying through the air, and would leave this mortal
coil.

“Ben,”
she gasped.

Ben
tried to keep his gaze away from the panic in her eyes. The need to
remain as calm as he could and think rationally about what to do
had never been so important as it was right now; but it was damned
difficult when the woman he loved was being dragged toward her
death.

“Lizzie,
stay calm for me. It is going to be all right.”

Julian
glanced wildly over his shoulder. The edge was little more than
four feet away. He caught sight of Barnaby sidling around the edge
of the roof toward him.

“Stay
right where you are or I will throw her over,” Pendlebury
warned.

“No, you
won’t,” Lizzie gasped. “Let me go.” She wriggled, writhed and
squirmed some more, but couldn’t get Julian to loosen his hold
enough for her to even breathe properly.

Tears
gathered on her lashes. Sensing the end was nigh she turned
desperate eyes to Ben and sucked in a breath.

“I love
you,” she whispered. “I love you.”

“God,
Lizzie,” he growled in return, glaring at Julian with all of the
hatred inside him. “Kill yourself if you want, Pendlebury, but
don’t kill an innocent person.”

“I don’t
care what people think of me,” Julian snorted. “I owe them nothing.
I owe her nothing. She has been a thorn in my side for a long time
now. I shall be glad to get rid of her.”

“Why?”
Barnaby challenged. “She is your step-sister, Julian.”

“She
knows too much; sees too much, and is always poking her nose into
matters that don’t concern her.”

“How?”
Lizzie spat. “I haven’t even been in London for the last several
weeks.”

“Ha!”
Julian countered. “You are always huddled in corners listening to
those blasted mealy mouthed gossips; swapping tit-bits about
people’s lives like it is a blood sport. You hear too much, see too
much. You are a fool if you think I am going to let you get away
with that.”

“Just
what the hell happened to you in life to turn you into this? Why
turn to murder? You had everything going for you. Your father left
you a fortune, an estate that was still working in spite of the
main house being ravaged by fire, and this place. It could have
worked well for you if you had looked after it properly. It is as
though you don’t give a damn about it and wanted to destroy it and
your life. You were given the world; far more than most people ever
get. There are people who would sell their souls for even a
fraction of what you have taken for granted. Why in the hell would
you do this to yourself? To Lizzie? She has never done anything to
you to deserve your treatment of her. What possible reason could
you have for wanting to do her harm in this way?”

Ben
tried to keep his voice calm and non-threatening but he could do
nothing about the audible tremble. Everything; his life, his world,
his soul, teetered on the brink of disaster if he couldn’t persuade
Julian to release her. If Lizzie went over the side of the building
it wouldn’t be just her life that would end; his would
too.

“Ben?
What do I do?” she gasped. She glanced sideways and cried out at
the sight of the path that ran through the garden toward the gate
at the far wall. “Tell me what to do.”

“You are
a fool if you think I care about what you think. Why should I work
on Bristledown? I hate the bloody place. What should I work for?
Who is there to share my life with? I hate living in the damned
country. It is cold, draughty, and there is nothing to do. I didn’t
ask for everything I was given. Father dropped it on me along with
her, and told me to look after her. I didn’t want to be her
guardian. Why the hell should I spend my life looking after someone
who isn’t even my family? Yet I got landed with the job anyway. I
am not a guardian; I just want to live; to be free of all of the
bloody social strictures we have put on us in this bloody world. I
have the house, the title, and had the wealth but what else did I
have, eh? Who do I have to share it with? What should I have done
with it, eh? Found myself a wife I could share it with but be
saddled with looking after her too?”

“Why
kill Samson though? We knew you didn’t get on with him but that is
no reason to strangle the man.”

“You
have no idea what’s been going on do you?” Julian snarled. “Do you
mean to tell me that she has not told you? She has listened to the
gossip.” He looked down at Lizzie almost tauntingly. “You are
slacking, my dear.”