Love and Triumph: The Coltrane Saga, Book 8 (22 page)

“I need to wash up,” she called over her shoulder as she disappeared behind the screen. “Just leave the bottle and two glasses beside my tray.

“And I’m so grateful,” she added sweetly. Serge hurried out, relieved to have been spared further interrogation.

Marilee waited a few moments, then peered out from behind the dressing screen. She smiled in triumph as she realized her plan had apparently worked. He had thought she would be in her toilet, and he was in a hurry, so he had left the door ajar!

She moved quickly.

Tiptoeing out of the room, she glanced about furtively to make sure there were no other guards. Then she stealthily made her way to the front stairway, knowing that Serge would have gone the back way.

She was almost at the entrance foyer when suddenly the front door swung open and Cord walked in.

She dropped to her knees behind the thick mahogany balusters and he failed to see her as he strode quickly and purposefully down the hallway toward the rear of the house.

Marilee felt a sudden wave of fury as she realized that he was headed for the sun porch!

She stood up and forced herself to continue slowly on her way despite the urge to run and burst in on them.

Cord, unaware that Marilee was following him to the sun porch, unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Elenore had been waiting for him ever since he had left her there long hours earlier with a stern warning she was to stay there and keep quiet until he could report to headquarters and confirm the orders she had brought.

She was lying on a wicker chaise, covered with a down comforter. Her hair was loose and flowing around her shoulders, and she lay with her eyes half closed. “I’ve missed you,” she said huskily.

Cord was uneasy at once. Her shoulders were bare. Then she confirmed his suspicions by throwing back the comforter and lazily standing up—completely naked.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment.” Her tongue flicked provocatively across her moist, wet lips, and she moved with seductive grace to where he stood.

Cord did not move.

Despite his reservations, he could not help being aroused.

Her large, firm breasts had always enticed him.

Her waist was narrow and her hips were wide and curved.

Merely watching her move across the floor made him instantly erect.

She stood before him, scant feet away, and paused to spread her legs, in a pose meant to tease and torment. “For you, my darling. All for you. I know you want me. Take me here. Now!” she commanded.

Cord bit down on his lip, the nerves in his jaw tensing. Goddammit, he loved Marilee, but love had nothing to do with the way his insides were on fire now. Elenore had always been a good and satisfying lover, and it had been too long since he’d had her or any other woman.

And he could not, would not, apologize for being a man.

She curved her forefinger toward him, urging him to follow as she backed toward the chaise.

She lay down, spreading her thighs yet wider, caressing herself. “For you, darling. All for you. Take me…”

With a deep, agonizing groan of surrender, Cord went to her and lay down on top of her, his lips claiming hers.

Marilee rounded the corner—and stopped dead still. She could see that the door to the sun porch was ajar.

All was silent from within.

Had she made a mistake? she wondered. Had Cord perhaps turned and gone up the back steps? Was he, this very moment, discovering that she was missing?

Well, all she wanted was a few moments alone with Elenore to get a few things off her chest. For too long she had allowed others to manipulate her. Now she wanted to tell Elenore just what a two-faced bitch she was for having connived with her lying, cowardly brother.

And yes, she had to admit that she yearned to tell Elenore of that night in the basement, how wonderful Cord’s kisses had tasted. By God, she wanted to have the delicious revenge of seeing the look on Elenore’s face when she told her that she intended to have Cord—for always.

Taking a deep breath, she tiptoed quietly to the door, pushed it open—and froze in horror.

Without a word, she turned and fled as quickly and quietly as she had come.

Cord and Elenore, lost in their wild and wanton passion, were totally unaware of her presence.

Marilee ran into the nearest room, a large storage closet that her mother had used for arranging flowers. Now it was empty, and Marilee sank to the floor in the darkness and allowed the tears to come.

First she was overwhelmed with sorrow and heartache to think how Cord had made a fool of her. She had never been any more to him than just another body to give him pleasure. And he obviously wanted Elenore more, for it had been to her he had gone first—not to culminate the passion
they
had shared earlier in the day.

But the sorrow and heartache quickly turned into boiling fury, such as she’d never known before.

Damn him!

Damn him straight to hell!

No more would he make a fool of her.

No more would anyone make a fool of her.

She had been used for the last time in her life.

And now, she realized wildly, she had a chance to escape.

Cord was busy with his animal lust.

Serge was, no doubt, relaxing outside her door, confident that she was, safely locked inside.

No one knew she was free, so all she had to do was get out of the house and away from the estate.

But then where?

She thought a moment, trying to think rationally.

She knew Elenore had driven an automobile, for she had seen it parked in the circular driveway in front of the house.

Marilee chewed her lip anxiously. While she had never actually driven a car, she had watched others and felt she could handle it. In her present state of desperation, she felt she could do anything.

Stepping from the closet, she saw by a nearby window that darkness had fallen outside. All she had to do was get in the car and make her way quietly to the overgrown back road which led to the site of a winery her father had planned to build. From there a rough, curving road led to yet another back road. Taking that route, she knew she could reach the main road to Pans undetected. By the time she was discovered missing, she would be well on her way.

She smiled confidently to herself as she made her way out. She would not remain in Paris. She would go from there to the German border, to somehow find her way to Russia. Surely there were subversives along the way, and if she were smart and careful, she could make contact with the underground.

A ripple of fear ran up her spine as she left Daniberry for what might well be the last time, but Marilee would not look back.

No matter what the future held, she was determined not to fail.

She was, after all, a
Coltrane
,
and that, she thought with satisfaction, was a legacy that would give her the courage to survive.

Cord lay spent and despondent as he pondered the price he was paying for a few moments of pleasure.

No matter that in his mind the mouth he’d kissed had been Marilee’s, and the body he’d caressed had been hers.

And no matter that at the moment of final release he had actually been with
her
.

For when all was said and done, he found himself looking down at Elenore and wishing he’d had the strength to resist.

“Now I know what a black widow spider’s mate feels like,” he muttered to himself, getting to his feet and gathering his clothes.

A dreamy look on her face, Elenore raised up on one elbow to ask, “What did you say, darling?”

His response was cold. “I said I’ve got to go.”

She reached out to clutch his arm, but he jerked away from her grasp. She frowned. “I don’t like you treating me this way, Cordell,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

A little warning bell went off inside, and Cord told himself that the last thing he needed was to make Elenore angry. He was going to have a big enough problem as it was getting Marilee out of there and to safety without Elenore causing trouble.

With great effort, he leaned over to brush his lips against hers one more time. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so cross. It’s just that I’ve a lot to do, and it wasn’t on my schedule to be seduced by a beautiful woman.” He winked.

Elenore yawned and stretched, pleased as a warm kitten. “Well, do what you must, darling, but hurry. This might’ve been a splendid place in its day, but it’s depressing now, and I want to get back to Switzerland.”

She sat up suddenly. “Have you given any thought as to where you’d like for us to settle till we decide on the future?”

Cord groaned inwardly, but with great effort he continued to be amiable. “No. No, I haven’t. I just want to carry out my present orders, and then we’ll talk about it.” He kissed her again and left, promising to return whenever he could.

He rushed down the hall and up the stairs, wishing he had never taken time to check on Elenore. It had been Marilee he’d yearned to see the instant he returned, and now nearly a half hour had passed.

Serge was dozing, his chair propped against the wall just outside Marilee’s door. At the sound of someone running up the steps, he was instantly alert, hand at his holster. He sighed with relief to see Cord. “It’s about time you’re back. She was asking about you awhile ago, and I didn’t know what to tell her except that you’d gone away on business.”

Cord drew him across the landing so they would not be overheard should Marilee be awake. Then he hastened to confide, “I confirmed orders from the Bolsheviks to proceed at once to Petrograd with Marilee and turn her over there. I also confirmed with the Whites that once we leave here, we will leave our course and be met by comrades near the German border ready to take us underground.”

“And will you tell Marilee the truth now?” Serge wanted to know.

“Yes, yes,” Cord said quickly. “Have you heard her moving around lately?”

“No. I took her dinner tray to her, and she asked for a bottle of wine. When I took that in, she was in her toilet, so I locked the door and haven’t been in since.”

Cord took a key from his pocket and let himself into the room.

Darkness greeted him, and he whispered her name softly, thinking she was asleep. When there was no response, he turned on a lamp.

The first thing he saw was the dinner tray on the table—untouched—and the full bottle of wine beside it.

He knew.

Before he ran across the room to the toilet and dressing alcove, he knew that Marilee had escaped.

The automobile bumped along slowly, for Marilee was not altogether confident in her driving.

Straining to see in the moonlight, she was relieved to be able to make out the overgrown path to the winery. She had walked it so many times and knew every curve. With a pounding heart, she turned the automobile in that direction.

She was frightened, but her fierce determination would see her through this night.

Cord Brandt would have to face the consequences for allowing her to escape, and oh, how she wished those consequences would be great—and painful—as painful as the aching of her broken heart.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Serge was distraught as he tried to figure out how Marilee had slipped by him. “It had to have been when I went for the wine. She’d gone into her toilet alcove, and I saw no need to lock the door. And when I came back, I thought it would be rude to call out to her, so I just left the wine and locked the door behind me. But how was I to know she was planning to escape?” He looked at Cord helplessly. “You had let her roam about the château, and she’d made no attempt to leave.”

Cord was deep in thought. “Serge, you’ve got to remember that those times I was usually with her, and besides, there wasn’t another woman around. Elenore showing up just made her angrier than I realized.”

Serge sighed and shook his head. “She’s out there, in the middle of the night, all alone. We know she took that automobile, but the guard at the gate says she never passed him. That means she has to be somewhere on the estate.”

Cord nodded absently. He already had every available man out searching the grounds. Did Marilee even know how to drive? Stubborn and determined as she was, he was sure she would not let a little thing like that stop her. No, she would keep on going, trying to make her way to—where?

He snapped his fingers, his blue eyes suddenly glowing with hope. “She’ll head for the border. She’ll try to make it all the way to Russia.”

Serge looked at him doubtfully. “How can you be so sure?”

“Where else would she go? The authorities? Oh, no. She realizes there’s a war going on, and she’d be detained somewhere, then sent back to the Coltranes in Spain. She doesn’t want that. She’s torn over what she was told about her father, and she’s determined to find him and prove it was all a lie.” He nodded firmly and smiled to himself. “Yes, she’ll head for the border, all right, and she knows the countryside. She’ll know which way to go.”