Redemption (32 page)

“I don’t
know what you mean,” Lizzie gasped. “You always dumped me and left
me by myself whenever we went out anywhere. What was I supposed to
do; stand there and ignore everyone? People talk you
know.”

“Samson
did nothing to you to warrant losing his life. Now you intend to
take Lizzie’s life too,” Ben warned him. “For what? What has either
Lizzie, or Samson, ever done to you?”

“Samson
was a fool. He took a look around whenever he accepted an
invitation to one of the social engagements, and noted the things
in the house. Then he passed the information on to Trent. They
tried to get me to do it but I wouldn’t. Samson said he had
something on me that would force me to do it but I refused. I knew
he didn’t have anything on me, but then Trent started to threaten
me too. I had to do something.”

“You,
sir, are a liar.” Ben knew it was foolish to challenge the man
given the precariousness of the situation, but he knew from his
conversation with Trent that Julian was a chronic liar.

“I know
that Samson was passing on information to Trent, but they didn’t
attempt to force you into working with them. I know for a fact that
is a lie, so I suggest you try again. You told me that you had been
caught in bed with Trent’s sister but he doesn’t have a bloody
sister. You claimed that you had your mistress living in this
house, but instead purchased a pile of clothing that wouldn’t even
make an entire wardrobe. What are you hiding?”

“Nothing,” Julian said. He suddenly lost some of his
belligerence and began to look a shifty.

“Well,
whatever it is, I am sure that once we search this house we will
find not only the money you intended to use for your new life away
from the social strictures, but the condemnatory evidence that
would convict you in court for Samson’s murder too.” He knew
immediately that he had hit the nail on the head when Julian’s face
suddenly closed up and he lapsed into temporary silence. “The
murder weapon is in that bedroom, isn’t it?”

“Shut
up, McArthur, you know nothing,” Julian snapped, ignoring the
question.

“What
did Samson see that you wanted to hide?” Barnaby asked.

Julian
froze and turned to stare hatefully at him. His eyes grew wide as
he realised just how close Barnaby had crept over the last few
moments, and he turned frantic eyes on Ben as he stepped up onto
the low wall that ran around the edge of the rooftop.

Lizzie
refused to follow him but was leaning precariously over the edge,
unable to do anything except stare death in the face.

“Ben,”
Lizzie whispered.

“Just
stay calm, darling,” Ben soothed. “I love you, sweetheart. Just
stay calm for me. Do you know why Samson and Julian didn’t get
on?”

She
couldn’t move very well because of Julian’s restraining hold, but
she nodded. In spite of her situation her heart leapt with joy at
his quiet declaration. Her ears hummed with delight and she
suddenly felt that everything might just begin to turn out right
for her. His loving words gave her the strength she needed to tell
Ben what she knew. In spite of Julian’s epithet, she ignored him
and with her gaze locked on Ben’s, began to speak.

“At the
last ball there were rumours going around that Julian had been
caught forcing himself on Samson’s sister. When Samson challenged
him about it, Julian made some sort of crude joke about her
virtue.”

“Shut
up.” Julian tightened his arm to silence her. She winced but
refused to be cowed by him.

“No, you
will not tell me what to do any more,” Lizzie shouted.

“You
will damned well do as you are told,” Julian snarled. “I have just
about had enough of you. Rather than throw you out when you were
whoring yourself with him, I should have damned well killed you
then and done us both a favour.”

Her fury
grew; at him, at the situation, at everything he had done to ruin
her life. He wasn’t going to cost her the chance of a future with
Ben. She jabbed her arm painfully into his ribs and stomped down
onto his foot at the same time she threw herself away from the edge
of the rooftop.

The
sudden jerking motion, and Lizzie suddenly vanishing from his hold,
unbalanced Julian who began to flail his arms wildly. He threw a
frantic glance at the ground below and appeared to realise himself
that he couldn’t be saved. Although Barnaby lunched himself toward
the edge in an attempt to try to catch him, it was too late.
Pendlebury’s own weight began to drag him toward the ground
below.

His
scream as he fell shattered the silence of the midnight
hour.

Lizzie
gasped and put her hands over her ears to try to block out the
horrifying thud of his body hitting the floor several feet below.
Ben immediately wrapped her securely in his arms and held tightly
against his chest while he peppered random kisses along her
forehead and cheeks.

“I
nearly lost you,” he growled over and over. His mind couldn’t work
well enough for him to think of anything else to say.

All she
could do was cling to him as her heart raced and her knees shook
with a mixture of relief and horror.

“I love
you. I love you. I love you,” she gasped over and over again as she
clung to him and peppered his face with kisses.

She
didn’t object when he swept her high into his arms and carried her
back into the house. It was only when she was placed tenderly on
the chaise in the study that she finally lifted her head and began
to pepper his face with kisses again.

The
sight of the tears on her cheeks unmanned him. He couldn’t bear to
have any distance between them at all, not even for a second. In
spite of Barnaby’s presence, he cradled her with all of the love in
his heart. Barnaby handed them both a goblet of brandy before he
poured himself a large dose, took a sip and gave Ben a warning
look.

“I need
to go and check,” he said meaningfully but didn’t expand on what,
or who, he had to check. “I will be back in a minute.”

Ben
nodded but made no attempt to go with him. There could be little
question that Julian was beyond posing a threat to anyone again,
and that was not a moment too soon as far as he was
concerned.

“I am
sorry,” he sighed, resting his head against the seat for a moment.
The brandy burned its way down to his stomach where it roiled
threateningly for several moments. He knew that for as long as he
lived he would never forget this evening. The revelation; the fear;
the worry; the sight of Lizzie leaning toward her death, were
things he never wanted to experience ever again.

“Whatever for?” Lizzie gasped. “You saved me.”

“He
should never have been able to get you up there in the first
place.”

“He
wanted to kill me to stop me repeating what I heard from the
gossips, didn’t he?”

“It
looks like it. Unfortunately, Julian seems to have been a
compulsive liar, so the truth may never be known. One thing is
clear from the conversation we had with him tonight is that he was
responsible for Samson’s death as we suspected. I wonder if Samson
threatened to make his knowledge of Julian’s assault on his sister
public too.”

“Or
maybe he threatened to notify the magistrate,” she
added.

“I doubt
it given what he himself was up to. He wouldn’t want to draw the
attention of the authorities toward him, no matter what happened.
If he was providing Trent with information to support jewel thefts
then he would hardly call officialdom to his house. We may never
know what went on between those two, and to be honest, I don’t
really care.”

She had
to concede he had a point and settled against him with a
sigh.

“He
planned to push you off the rooftop. Nobody would have known it was
murder if we hadn’t been here,” Ben murmured with a shudder. He was
grateful now that he had met with Barnaby tonight. If he hadn’t, he
could have spent the next several days searching London for Lizzie
again, only this time to find her dead in her own
garden.

She
nodded. “People would assume that I had just accidentally fallen,”
she whispered as her tears began to flow. She wasn’t sure why she
was crying. It wasn’t grief for Julian. At the moment she felt
nothing toward her step-brother but cold contempt. She suspected
these tears had more to do with nearly losing the opportunity of a
future with Ben but daren’t look too closely at the tumultuous
emotions coursing through her.

“He
could have made it look like suicide,” Ben whispered. “With the
house empty of staff, it could have been days or even weeks before
you were found. By that time he would have gone; vanished from
London with his riches forever.”

“You
saved me from evil,” she whispered. All of the love she felt for
Ben shone in her eyes.

“You
gave me a life worth living,” he replied. His hands shook as they
cupped her head, but his lips were sure and steady when they
settled firmly over hers.

“I love
you, Elizabeth Pinner,” he whispered when he finally lifted his
head. He could have stayed there all night with her wrapped in his
arms, but he was aware of the dull thud of booted feet on the
hallway floor outside. Although Barnaby was a discrete man, this
was neither the time nor the place for Ben to take matters further
with Lizzie the way he really wanted to. “Come home with me,” he
pleaded quietly.

Lizzie
nodded. “On one condition.”

He
leaned back to look down at her. “Oh? What’s that?”

“I can
stay with you tonight. I love you too, so much,” she choked. Her
lips quivered and she sighed and rested her forehead against
his.

“I don’t
want you to rush into anything you are not ready for,” he assured
her as he stood up and gathered her into his arms again.

“I am
not being rushed. One thing being up on that rooftop has taught me
is not to waste a precious moment of the time we have together,”
she replied solemnly. “We have come too close to losing each other
again.”

“It’s
not going to happen for a third time,” Ben declared firmly. “We can
leave my good friend Barnaby to deal with the authorities, and
Julian. It is time we went home and tried to get some
sleep.”

She knew
that he was agreeing to her request and sighed in delight. After
the events of this evening there was nothing she could deny him or
herself for that matter. To do so would waste precious time and she
knew now that life was the most precious gift she had ever been
given. When at one time she would have considered life a gift, she
knew now that the true gift was having someone like Ben to share it
with because without him, she knew that her life would be devoid of
sunshine, hope, love and happiness.

“Let’s
go home,” he asked again.

She rose
and held his hand only to frown when he didn’t make any attempt to
leave as she expected. Instead he turned toward her.

“Are you
all right?”

“I will
be in a minute,” he murmured gazing down into her eyes. “Marry me?
Be my wife. I cannot abide not having you by my side.”

“Ben,”
she whispered, struggling to control the emotions. Eventually she
swallowed and nodded but before she could say anything, found her
lips captured in a very loving kiss.

Minutes
later, wrapped in each other’s loving arms, they left the house to
begin a new life – together.

EPILOGUE

Three weeks later.

“Well,
Lady Holmcroft, I suppose that if I have to allow you out of this
bed, it has to be to go to meet with the solicitor.”

Lizzie
smiled at her husband and leaned over him to place several
lingering kisses on his lips. When his hand began to stray down her
back she captured it and kissed his fingers before she climbed out
of bed.

“Come
back here,” he demanded. “One more kiss.”

“No,”
she smiled. “It’s time to get up. We are going to be late enough as
it is. Hurry up if you wish to come with me.”

Ben
groaned but it did little to dim the smile he gave his wife as he
watched her gather her clothes up and disappear behind the retiring
screen. Last night, they had been somewhat enthusiastic divesting
themselves of their clothes, but he didn’t care. Watching her
nubile body bend and stretch as she collected her clothing was the
best sight he had seen, well, since the last time he had seen her
naked.

The last
three weeks had been without any doubt the best three weeks of his
entire life. The weeks of their parting all felt like they happened
a lifetime ago now. Thanks to the love they had found and shared
they both now felt like entirely different people; stronger,
happier and considerably more content, both with themselves and
each other.

To add
to their delight, Patty had settled into life at McArthur House as
though she had been born there, and had shown no sign of any of her
previous eccentricities. In fact, she appeared to be more content
than ever too, and had squealed with delight when she had learned
of Ben and Lizzie’s forthcoming marriage nearly a month ago
now.