The Devil's Daughter (31 page)

Deacon let go a loud snort. “Lucille is the devil’s daughter, incapable of love.”

“No, Deacon.” Berta spun to face him, a bundle of fire yelling loud enough to wake the dead. “
You
forget who she is. Lucy is my daughter— part human and fully capable of every emotion possible.”

That shut him up for a second.

“B-Berta,” Maggie gasped, reaching through the air for something to hold. Berta was at her side in a heartbeat. Jed’s brain spun out of control with things Lucy had said to him. She’d told him her life had been hell, but he never thought she’d meant it literally. Everyone’s life was hell once in a while.

The rest of his thoughts were drowned out by the sound of pounding hooves. What now?

Reverend Conroy, clinging desperately to the horse’s mane, raced toward them, his white collar standing out in stark contrast to his black suit.

And sitting behind him, with her arms wrapped around his waist, was Lucy. Her long black hair blew behind her and her eyes – those deep emerald pools Jed had loved so much – focused on two things: Maggie and Deacon.

Deacon sucked in a sharp breath, stopped moving, and seemed struck dumb, but not for long. “What have you done, Lucille?” he bellowed, his voice hard and brittle.

Reverend Conroy jerked the animal to a stop, jumped off, and quickly helped Lucy down. He cast a quick, terrified glance in Deacon’s direction, then skirted around him to where Maggie lay in the hay. The horse reared and shot off back down the road.

Reverend Conroy knelt beside Maggie, clutched his Bible to his chest and began to make the sign of the cross. “In the name o-of the Father.” His voice shook slightly, but he kept on. “And the Son--”

“And the Holy Spirit,” Berta’s voice, strong and steady, joined his.

“Jed.” Lucy hurried toward him, but he backed away. How could he have been so stupid?

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Deacon cried, his hands flailing. “Do you have any idea what
he’s
going to do to you?”

The emphasis on the word ‘he’ made it perfectly clear to Jed who Deacon meant, but Lucy didn’t so much as spare her brother a glance.

“You have to listen to me,” she pleaded, her eyes already full of unshed tears. “Please.”

Jed shook his head and tried to back away more, but she continued to match him step for step.

“I’m sure Deacon has told you everything.” Her voice shook with each word. “I know it’s horrible, and I know you probably hate me, but Deacon doesn’t know what really happened.”

Jed swallowed as hard as she did.

“Jed.” She reached for his arm, but he jerked out of the way. “I love you.”

Deacon stepped right up close to her, until his face was mere inches away. “You brought a preacher!” he yelled. “A preacher!”

Lucy turned on her brother with such ferocity, it sent a rip of fear through Jed’s veins.

“Yes!” she yelled back. “I brought a preacher.”

“But the child. . .”

An evil little smile tugged at Lucy’s lips. “You lose.”

“But--”

Lucy didn’t wait for him to finish. She turned back to Jed, her expression softened, her eyes pleading. “I did it,” she said. “I’m so sorry, but I did. I came here. . .to you. . .to make you love me, and then take your soul. And the baby’s. And yes, I tried my hardest to seduce you. But you --” She hiccupped on a sob, then dashed away more tears. “You were so damned stubborn. You insisted we had to respect each other, to build trust between us before we could. . .”

Her voice tripped and she stopped only long enough to catch her breath.

“And somehow, Jed, you did it. You made me respect you. You made
me
love
you
.”

Jed couldn’t think clearly. He pressed his back against the tree, then slid to a crouch. In the back of his mind, the preacher’s voice droned on, first through the Lord’s Prayer, then on through the Psalms. And Berta’s voice matched his word for word.

“I didn’t make you do anything.” The throbbing pain in his chest reflected back in her eyes.

“Yes, you did.” She fell to the ground beside him, and gripped his hands in hers. “You made me work, and I don’t just mean around the house. You made me work for your love, for your respect. And somehow, it turned around on me.”

He stared at their hands, twined around each other. God, what he wouldn’t give to go back a couple hours. Back to before he waved Berta and Dwight on their way and his whole world caved in on him.

Back to before his wife said she loved him and then in the next breath told him she was the devil’s daughter.

He pulled his hands away.

“Don’t.” How could he have been so stupid? He knew from the first second he’d seen Lucy at the damned auction that she was nothing but trouble.

Eyes that had once snapped with green flames, now pleaded with him in desperation. Gone was the distrust he’d seen those first days. All that remained was raw emotion, begging him to love her. To forget who she was and that she’d done nothing but lie to him from the start.

He should have run from that auction and never looked back. He never should have let himself be swayed into taking her for his wife.

Jed dropped his chin to his chest and ground the heels of his hands against his eyes. Who was he trying to fool? No one had swayed him into marrying Lucy. He’d done it himself. He had taken her as his wife and then fallen head-over-heels-stupid in love with her.

Deacon paced like a madman, making quick turns, chewing his thumbnail and muttering to himself. Lucy ignored him and focused completely on Jed. She took his hands back in hers, willing him to feel her love. If she could do that, maybe he wouldn’t hate her quite so much. It would make the eternity she faced in Hell slightly more bearable.

“I had no idea that what I felt for you – what was scaring me so badly – was love.” She squeezed his hands, milking them for the warmth only he could give her. “It was Berta who made me see it.”

“If it hadn’t been for Berta…” Lucy’s voice hitched in her throat. “I might never have known that I could love.”

If only Jed would look at her.

“I might never have known that what I felt for you, what filled me with so much light, was love.”

Deacon stopped his pacing and snorted loudly behind her. “Yes,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “She loved you so much, she was willing to condemn you and the rest of your family to an eternity in Hell.”

Lucy lifted her chin and forced her voice to stop trembling. “Not anymore. I won’t do this, Deacon, and I won’t let you do it, either.”

His laughter was anything but joyful. Instead, it was the same condescending sound it always was when he spoke to Lucy. “Have you forgotten – again – who we’re dealing with? Our father will not be left empty-handed.”

“He won’t be.” She squared her shoulders. “He sent you to make sure I failed, and I did.” She swallowed a stomach full of bile and forced the quiver out of her voice. “So do it. Take me back.”

Jed was on his feet, realization flooding his face. He grabbed Lucy by the shoulders and held on. “No.”

“Yes.” She couldn’t swallow fast enough to stop the tears. “We have no other choice. Reverend Conroy is here, so the baby is protected. Deacon can’t touch it.”

They both looked down at Maggie, her face red, her muscles straining, and Berta who knelt beside her, praying as hard and as fast as Reverend Conroy.

Fury raged in Deacon’s eyes, but before he could move, Lucy caught him in an invisible grip, freezing him.

There was no telling how long her hold on Deacon would last. He’d always been much stronger than she was.

“Jed, listen to me.”

She stepped closer, hating the fear she saw in his eyes; fear of her and what she was, and fear of what he thought she would do to him.

 “We don’t have much time,” she said. “But you have to believe I love you, Jed. If I didn’t, I would have finished you and Maggie off last night and you never would have known what happened.”

The pain etched across his face ripped through her.

“I needed you to love me, and you did. The only thing missing were the words.”

A stifled grunt sounded from Deacon, but his lips remained frozen.

“I tried . . .” He trailed off, his frown deep.

“I know.” She reached for his hands, willing her love to flow through them. “But I couldn’t let you. I was so confused, I didn’t know what I was feeling or what I would do if you said it.”

She dared a glance back at her brother. His face had turned a fiery red. He’d soon be free. “I was stupid enough to believe my father when he said I could be free. But he was never going to let me go, even if I did take the child.”

“You knew about Sam.” Torment twisted Jed’s features. “And you didn’t say anything.”

“It happened before I came here, and there was nothing I could do about it.”

“But you knew.” He spun away, raked his hands through his hair, and muttered more curses than Lucy had ever heard – even in Hell. After a long moment, he turned back to her. “Are Maggie and the baby really safe?” he asked warily.

She pressed her palms flat against his chest. “Yes.” She choked on a sob. “But you’re not.”

His head hung low, his shoulders slumped. “Maggie knew. She
knew
and I didn’t believe her.” Jed shook his head slowly; every ounce of his pain seeped into Lucy, searing her from the inside out.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wanted to be free of it all, and I didn’t care who got hurt.”

Very slowly, Jed lifted his face to hers.

“And now?” He seized her wrists and narrowed his eyes at her. “What about now?”

Her wrists pinched in his grasp, but she didn’t try to escape.

“Now I know Deacon was right. I was stupid.”

“To hell with Deacon,” he growled. “I’m talking about us. What happens to us?”

A blast of warmth shot through her heart, followed immediately by a rip so painful it made her gasp. “If you trust me and believe me when I say I love you more than anything else, then you can save yourself.”

Darkness clouded Jed’s face. “What do you mean? What about you?”

She tried to free herself from the heat of his touch, but he refused to release her. “Deacon will never let me go. His powers – his hatred – it’s too strong.”

“Deacon has nothing to do with you two.” Berta’s voice made them both jump. Her face was flushed and sweat trickled down her cheeks. “You can win this – you just have to trust in what you know.”

Deacon burst out of his freeze and stumbled face-first to the ground. Horrified, he pushed to his feet, and stared at the toe of his boot, and his once white ferret, both now covered in a thin layer of brown dust.

“Ugh,” he grunted as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping the dust from his pet.

“Sonuvabitch.” Jed whirled, swinging his fist toward Deacon, but he’d already moved.

A smug little smile lifted Deacon’s mouth. “Temper temper, human.”

Before Jed could swing again, Lucy moved herself between him and Deacon. “Don’t.” She wrapped her hand around his fist and eased it back to his side. “If you can believe that I love you, if you can hold that in your heart, Deacon can never take you.”

Deacon settled his ferret back inside his coat pocket, and stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his bowler hat sitting slightly off-center and his fancy black suit looking like he’d just had it cleaned and pressed.

 “Lovely words coming from you,” Deacon scoffed. “Considering you’re the one who put the human in this situation to start with. If that’s what you call love--”

Jed lunged for him again, but Lucy pulled him back.

“Look at me,” she repeated.

He resisted. His hatred for Deacon poured out of him as fast as Lucy’s tears fell. She could feel darkness falling over him, but she had to stop it. She couldn’t let his light be snuffed out as hers was about to.

She took his hand and pressed it flat against her left breast. Jed stared at it for a minute, then locked gazes with her. Those deep, dark eyes that had warmed her through so many times were now flooded with confusion and doubt.

“You gave it light,” she murmured. “And you made it grow. There’s nothing Deacon can say to make that any different.”

Jed swallowed. His gaze flickered to their hands, his brow furrowed. Maybe, just maybe he was beginning to believe her.

“How touching.” Deacon rolled his eyes. “Jedidiah, perhaps it’s time for you to come clean with Lucille, too.”

Reverend Conroy continued to read from the Bible, his left hand clutching its binding, while his right hand lifted in prayer over Maggie’s head.

“What is he talking about?” Lucy asked haltingly. Jed would never lie to her. Would he? If only he’d look at her, she’d feel a lot better.

“Tell her,” Deacon said. “Tell her about your relationship with your sister-in-law. Or I will.”