Alana (27 page)

Her cheeks flamed scarlet the longer she stared into the mirror. Reaching behind her, she parted her long hair and brought two evenly divided sections forward, covering her breasts. At least, she thought, I shall have some modesty.

A moment later, the door opened and the maid entered. “Come with me,” she said in a monotone without looking at Alana.

Alana did not reply as her heart sped up. Instead, she took a deep breath and followed the woman. They went directly to the stairs, and as they did, Alana looked around, impressing every detail in her mind for later use.

They reached the second floor, and the maid led her to a set of double doors at the far end of the hallway. There, she opened one and stepped back, motioning Alana forward at the same time.

Alana walked into the large room and, when the door closed behind her, stopped. The rich fabrics decorating the walls of this magnificent room were accented by the high sheen of brass lamps damped to a soft glow. A large painting of a man embracing a woman hung on one wall. Across from it was a huge four-poster bed. A chill crawled up her spine as she looked at the bed.

Her eyes flicked to the right where a small table had been set for two. On it were two tall candles shimmering in silver holders. Next to the table was a silver serving cart. Beside the cart a bottle rested in a polished bucket.

Then a noise caught her attention. She turned just as Ledoque entered from another doorway. Time froze as she stared at him. His hair was brushed away from his face; his lips were formed in a half smile. He wore a waist-length silk smoking jacket, his legs encased in thin silk pants.

Alana repressed a shudder at the sight.

“Good evening, my dear,” Ledoque said. He walked toward her, his eyes raking her avariciously from her head to her toes. When he stopped, inches from her, he smiled openly. “You must be hungry.”

Taking her elbow, he led her to the table, where Ledoque lifted a silver bell and rang it. Not three seconds later, a serving woman entered the room. Without instructions, she served Ledoque first, then Alana, and then departed as the aroma of lamb rose to Alana’s nostrils.

As if reading her mind, Ledoque said, “Madame Lynche, who just served us dinner, has been in my employ for eighteen years. She and her daughter, who brought you here after your bath, are totally loyal to me, for reasons you would not understand. No, my dear, they will not help you.”

Then Ledoque lifted the bottle of wine and filled both glasses. He raised his glass into the air in a silent gesture to Alana, his eyes sparkling. After one swallow, he spoke.

“I chose that particular negligee so that I could see all that I want. Your modesty is unwarranted,” he stated pointedly, his eyes narrowing in warning.

Knowing that she must do whatever was necessary to please him until she learned about Rafe, Alana lifted the hair that covered her breasts and pushed it behind her.

“Much better,” Ledoque commented as his eyes feasted on the dark circles of her nipples. “Eat.”

Alana looked down at her plate and was nauseated. “I–I’m not hungry.”

Ledoque shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

She watched him devour his food and drink three more glasses of wine before he tossed his napkin onto the plate. Alana had but a half glass of wine herself.

Once again, Ledoque rang his silver bell. When the serving woman reappeared, she cleaned the table silently and pushed the serving cart from the room. While she was gone, Ledoque consumed another glass of wine.

A few minutes later the woman returned. This time, the cart held a silver teapot and a decanter of brandy. She left the cart at the side of the table and left.

“Pour me some brandy,” Ledoque ordered.

Alana stood, did as he instructed, and handed him the glass. He took it, but at the same time his other hand caught her waist. He stared up at her, and then slowly lifted his hand until he was cupping her left breast. Alana closed her eyes and made herself stand perfectly still.

“You will learn to enjoy my touch,” he stated. Then he took his hand away and sat back.

Alana returned to her seat in a dark haze. When she looked at him again, she saw his eyes were glazed; his face was somewhat flushed.
From drink
? she wondered.

“Do you not want some brandy?” he asked.

Alana shook her head.

“A shame, you know. This is the finest brandy in the world. It is the most expensive liquor man has ever made. It comes from the Montpelier vineyards,” he added.

Alana froze at the mention of the name.

“Yes, among the many other things that the Montpelier Company exports is this magnificent drink.”

“You bastard,” Alana spat, unable to hold back her anger as he threw in her face his thievery and deceit.

“Careful,” Ledoque whispered, his face suddenly tight.

Within her mind, she heard Crystal’s words of advice about dealing with men. She willed her anger away and made her expression change.

“Much better,” he said.

“How do I know that after–after you have had me, you won’t have Rafe killed?” she asked suddenly.

“You don’t,” Ledoque stated. “Except that I have given you my word. But Alana,” he said, his voice thickening from a combination of drink and lust, “if you don’t please me, I will see to it he dies.”

Taking a cigar from the serving cart, Ledoque clipped its end and lit it with a candle. He completed the ceremony by drawing deeply on the cigar. When he exhaled, there was a low but persistent tap on the door.

“Enter,” Ledoque called.

The man who had been guarding Alana’s door walked to the table. He did not look at Alana, only at Ledoque. Bending, he whispered into Ledoque’s ear.

Ledoque stood. “A small matter, my dear, I shall be back shortly.” With that, both men left the room, the lock clicking behind them.

Alana breathed a sigh of relief at her reprieve, but she knew it would end all too soon. Standing quickly, she went to the window. The moon was full, the sky clear.

She listened for any sounds from behind her, and when she was sure that no one was coming into the room, she opened the window and leaned out. Looking down, she saw a straight drop to the ground two floors below. She wondered if she could survive the jump.

“If I have to,” she whispered.

Leaning farther out, she saw that a vine-covered trellis reached the bottom of the window. She smiled for the first time since her horror had begun.

Then she pulled her head quickly inside, for she saw a dark, furtive shadow emerge into the alleyway. Closing the window, Alana returned to her seat and took a sip of wine to calm her jangling nerves.

I must learn about Rafe first, she reminded herself. No more outbursts.

After what seemed to be half an hour, Ledoque returned to the bedroom. As he walked toward her, she saw that his legs were somewhat unsteady.

“A minor matter,” he told her unnecessarily. Then he stopped, his eyes raking across her breasts. “But now there is something very important to be done.”

Alana’s heart almost stopped. Her stomach churned.

“Stand,” he commanded.

Alana stood.

“Undress!”

Fear surged, but she fought it down as she moved away from the table and toward the bed. She knew the only way to learn what he had done with Rafe was to do this disgusting thing.

At the side of the bed, Alana bent her arms and pulled the nightgown from her shoulders. She grasped the material of the dress and slid it down her arms. When her breasts sprang free, she heard Ledoque’s breathing deepen. Pushing the silken gown from her hips, she stood still as it gathered about her ankles.

“I have waited a long time for this,” Ledoque said victoriously as he started toward Alana, his hands already working on the belt of his smoking jacket.

Alana
remembered nothing of what had happened between them, concscience of only the soreness between her thighs. But when she smelled his fetid breath and opened her eyes, she found Ledoque next to her, his too-pale body touching hers.

Alana lay absolutely still while she tried to determine if he was asleep. The way his breath washed across her cheeks made her think he was.

Moving carefully, Alana slid away from him. When his skin no longer touched hers, she put her legs over the side of the bed and sat up. But when she tried to stand, her arm was imprisoned by his hand.

“Where are you going?” he asked. “I am not yet finished with you.”

“To cleanse myself,” she stated.

“Don’t take too long.”

Alana left the bed and went to the necessary room, where she found a pitcher of water, a ceramic bowl, and two linen towels. While she made her ablutions, she tried to think of a way to get the information from Ledoque. When she finished, she returned to the bedroom and to the bed.

Sitting down, she steeled herself to keep up her determination, and she took a deep breath before she spoke.

Ledoque spoke first as his hand went to her breast and stroked it knowingly. “I told you that I would have you one day,” he boasted.

Alana’s skin crawled when his fingers wandered on her breast. Her self-control snapped, and a red sheet of hate fueled her words. “My body perhaps. Nothing else!” Pulling back from his hand, Alana left the bed.

Ledoque was at her side in an instant, his face twisted with anger. “Everything about you will be mine!” Gripping her upper arms, he shook her violently.

Alana refused to speak. She only stared at him.

He released her, shoving her backward as he glared at her. “Are you so vapid that you really think your shipping commission was good luck? Did you really believe that having a whore for a partner would bring you success against me?”

His words pierced, arrow swift, into her mind. They confirmed things she had not thought possible, and an icy chill ran through her veins.

“What are you talking about?” Alana asked, absently rubbing the places that he had grasped so cruelly moments before. Her fear of him was gone, replaced now by an even greater sense of foreboding.

“I planned it all!” he half-shouted as he advanced toward her. “It was my company that offered Landow the commission. Your company will not survive another month. Your ship will never reach Africa. When you fail to fulfill your contract, you will lose everything you possess.”

“That’s impossible! You’re lying!” Alana cried, but she did not feel the certainty of her own defiant words.

“No, my dear, it is very possible,” Ledoque stated confidently, his voice now under control. He stopped speaking until he reached Alana, and then, as he started to speak, he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand.

When Alana tried to pull away, his fingers clamped painfully on each side of her jaw, holding her prisoner and forcing her to face him.

Ledoque stared at her through narrowed eyes, his thick lips moist from spittle. “It was I who arranged for the agent to offer you the contract–-the consortium’s contract. When the Harmony reaches Cape Town, it will no longer be your ship; it will be mine. We’ll give it a new name. Of course,” he said, releasing her at last, “in a week, two at the most, word will reach NewYork that the Harmony was lost in a freak storm, not a week out of port.”

“Insanity!” Alana declared, ignoring the pain his fingers inflicted. “The Harmony won’t sail for another five days!”

Ledoque shook his head knowingly. “The last piece of equipment arrived today. It’s aboard now, and the Harmony leaves tomorrow to meet its fate.” Ledoque smiled again as he savored the distraught look on Alana’s features.

“There will be only one survivor of that unlucky voyage. He will report that all other hands were lost, as well as the cargo, when the ship sank. You see, my dear, one of my ships has already left to intercept the Harmony shortly after she leaves port. Then it will be my crew, flying the Marquette flag, who will bring the ship to Cape Town. Your crew will not survive their journey.”

Ledoque smiled at the shock so plainly visible on Alana’s face. “You realize, do you not, that you are responsible for all those men who will die when the Harmony is boarded?”

“You’re mad!” Alana declared.

“Perhaps,” Ledoque agreed with a shrug. “But look at what my madness has gained me.” Again, he reached out. This time his hand caught her long hair. He dragged her to him until his eyes were a half inch from hers.

“You could have saved Landow Shipping when I made you my offer. You could also have saved Riverbend. But you’re going to lose everything. When word of the Harmony's loss reaches port, the agent will call for full restitution of the cargo, as is stated in the contract.”

“No!” Alana shouted, twisting from him.

“Yes,” Ledoque replied in a calm, victorious voice. Then he released her. “As I said, Alana, you should have accepted my offer when I gave it. You would have been the wife of one of the most powerful men in the world.”

Alana was shaking inside, but forced herself to appear calm, despite her nakedness.

“I accept the offer now, Charles,” she said, her mind working frantically to think of a way to save the men of the Harmony. Calculatingly, she moved close to him and pressed her breasts to his chest. She moistened her lips with a darting tongue; her fingernails ran lightly up and down his arms.

“Do you think I would marry a whore?” he asked, staring hard into her eyes, ignoring what she was attempting to do. “That is what you are, Alana…you and that Revanche woman. No, I will keep you until I grow tired of you, and then I will throw you into the street where a good whore belongs!”

Alana spun from him. “As you did with Rafe?” she asked. Behind her,

Ledoque laughed explosively. “Your lover will never see another street.”

Alana stiffened; her breath caught as his words bored into her mind. Yet she did not turn back to him, for fear he would see the hope in her eyes.

Then she felt Ledoque come up behind her. His chest touched her back. His hands went around her waist and began to stroke her stomach as he pressed her tighter against him. She could feel him beginning to harden, and she could not repress the shudder that rippled along her body.

“You see, my dear,” Ledoque continued as if he were having a pleasant conversation with one of his peers, “Montgomery had made an enemy of the most powerful man in New York, and perhaps the entire country. This man wants Montgomery to live out his life as a lesson in stupidity and futility. Rafael Montgomery is to live with the memory of what he will never have or see again.” Ledoque paused to kiss Alana’s shoulder. His lips were hot and wet against her skin; his hands rose upward, pushing her arms away as he grasped her breasts and fondled them freely.

“Montgomery is on a ship that left port yesterday morning bound for South Africa. When the ship docks, Montgomery will be turned over to a–certain party, who will take him to the Transvaal, where he will spend the rest of his life in bondage, working in a diamond mine like a slave.”

Ledoque’s last word echoed ominously. Alana reacted ferociously. Spinning, she dislodged his hands; her own hand rose and flashed toward him. The sound, when her hand met his face, was loud and sharp. Then she launched herself at him, her fingers curved into claws, her nails seeking his face.

Her left hand sank into his cheek. She pulled it sharply down. Ledoque’s roar of rage filled her ears. Before she could strike him again, Ledoque attacked. Pain exploded in her stomach. She doubled over, gasping for breath, but before the pain started to diminish, he caught from behind and grasped her long hair.

Her head snapped back, and she found herself staring into Ledoque’s maddened face. “Bitch!” Ledoque spat. Jerking her painfully to her feet, his other hand grasped her throat.

“I could kill you easily,” he stated, his hand tightening on her windpipe. “But not yet,” he finished in a whisper.

Alana stared, not into his eyes, but at the three deep red furrows her nails had made in his cheek. “You’ll have to kill me, or I’ll kill you,” she promised in a flat, deadly voice.

Pulling her head back, Alana tried to escape his grip. He reacted by tightening his hand on her throat and cutting off her breath. He held her like that until spots danced before her eyes and darkness seeped into her mind. Then he suddenly released her and pushed her back.

Gasping for air, Alana could not stop him from grabbing her and carrying her to the bed. She was trying to fight him, but the way he held her prevented any but the weakest of moves.

Suddenly she was on her feet, facing him, for he had set her down at the side of the bed. Without letting herself think, she lashed out. He caught her wrist in his left hand; his right palm struck her cheek. The force of the blow sent her tumbling back onto the bed.

She lay still for a moment, feeling blood flow from her lower lip. Ignoring it, she stared hatefully up at him. Then her eyes widened, and her body turned cold.

Ledoque laughed again, even as his eyes shone with insanity and lust. Alana realized that their fight had only served to excite him and he was swollen with desire.

She almost cried out, but she stopped herself.

“Good,” Ledoque said, “very good, Alana. Maybe now you’ll show some life when I take you, instead of lying beneath me like a dead sow.”

Alana shook her head fiercely.

“Oh yes, you will. Now I will teach you how to please a real man!”

When he put one knee on the bed, Alana kicked upward toward his face. Ledoque had been prepared and grabbed her ankle. Then he caught her other ankle and locked them together. An instant later, he twisted both legs and turned Alana onto her stomach.

She tried to squirm away, but his fingers twisted into her hair and he jerked her head back. She cried out in pain.

Then his hot breath rushed across her ear, followed a moment later by his voice. “Keep fighting, Alana. I like a woman who shows life.” He lifted his body and then forced himself between her legs, his chest pressing heavily onto her back.

She stiffened when she felt his hardness pressing into her, its hot, blunt tip probing where it should never go.

She squirmed anew, shouting as she tried to dislodge him, but the painful way he held her neck stopped any move she attempted. Then his other hand was under her, lifting her backward toward him. His fingers slid cruelly toward her womanhood, while his rigid pole continued to try to gain entry.

Her body stiffened with a fear such as she had never known. Anger and humiliation fed her mind, but they did not give her the strength to throw him off.

“No!” she screamed when he pushed harder against her am\nd tore into her.

~~~~~

Throughout the entire first night, the whole of the next day, and the early hours of this night, Chaco had stayed near the townhouse. He’d walked around it endlessly, waiting to see if he could catch a glimpse of Alana. Early that morning, he’d seen Ledoque leave, but not with Alana. Ledoque had returned just after sunset, and Chaco had gone into the small alley that separated Ledoque’s house from the one next to it.

The feeling of dread that had been with him since he’d recognized Ledoque, had stayed with him and had not given him a moment’s peace. Yet until he knew where Ledoque held her in the house, he could do nothing.

Two hours after Ledoque returned, Chaco had glanced up at the sound of a window opening. He flattened against the building when he saw someone lean out of the second-floor window.

When he saw it was a woman, he left the shadows, trying to see if it was Alana. He thought it might be, but the woman had withdrawn her head quickly.

Then all he’d been able to do was to wait.

Later, the back door had opened. A woman and man had stepped outside for a moment. Again, Chaco fled to the protection of the shadows, but stayed within listening distance.

“Poor girl, I’ve never seen him like this. Not in all the years we’ve been here,” said the woman.

“He’s getting crazier every day,” the man agreed.

“How long do you think he’ll keep her here?”

The man shrugged his shoulders. “Not long. I heard Corsell tell Mr. Ledoque that Mr. Allison expects him to go to Washington with him tomorrow night.”

“What will he do with her?”

Before the man had answered, another woman had called the two people inside. Chaco knew he must act soon.

Looking up, he saw that light still flickered in the window, and he decided he would wait until it went out. He had already inspected the latticework, and he decided it would support him.

It was well past midnight when Chaco’s senses urged him to move. He had seen the lights in two other rooms go out, but the lights in the upper bedroom still illuminated the windows.

He heard loud voices shouting from the second-floor window. His muscles tensed when he recognized Alana’s tones. Then he heard her scream, and his body went into action. Pulling his knife from its sheath, he clamped it between his teeth and started to climb the trellis.

More shouts, followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh reached him. Two minutes later, his hands were on the window ledge; his feet anchored in the trellis.