Blood Lust (30 page)

Damien threw the morning paper down on the seat of the carriage. News of Jane’s murder was in big bold letters across the top of the page. Damien had known about it. It was the talk of the town. William had sent him a message, in a dispirited tone, as his own spirits were at the news.

That, however, was yesterday. Today he sent word requesting an audience with Lord and Lady Habersham. Defeat was not in his nature. He had come up with a plan.

“All right, Damien, let’s hear it.” Closing the door to the drawing room, William eyes him through the clear glass spectacles he was now wearing. “Your step is far too spry. What are you up to, my friend?” He looked weary. Dark circles encased his eyes like bruises.

“Yes, my lord, please, if there is something you have learned, some news that might be useful.” Katherine was hopeful he had something.

“I’m afraid I know nothing new. I truly wish I did. What I’ve come to propose is daring. There is a small amount of danger, but at this point. . .”

William leaned forward. “If you’ve a plan that might clear my name, the danger is of little importance.”

“I thought you would feel that way.”

“What is it, my lord?” Katherine asked. “What can we do at this point?”

Damien eyed his companions, took a deep breath and dove in. “The way I see it, we’ve got some information that is very good evidence against Benjamin. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to convict him. Jane’s testimony could have done that, but she is dead. That leaves only one person.”

William removed the spectacles from his nose. “Benjamin? You think we can force him to tell the truth?”

“That isn’t exactly what I had in mind. We might be able to trick him into admitting the murder. If a magistrate happened to be present at the time, combined with the evidence we already have, it would surely be enough.”

The haunted look faded from William’s face. He grinned at his friend. “You’re a genius!”

“Yes, but we knew that all along, didn’t we?”

William laughed. It was a sound Damien hadn’t heard in a long, long time.

“How do we do it? When and where?”

“Patience, my friend. It’s going to take some planning and some time. We’ll have to move carefully. We must think through every possible detail. One wrong move and your life could be done.”

Katherine went pale.

William nodded. “We’ll start today,” he said, “hammer out a plan then try to find the faults in it. Like you said we don’t want to move until we’re certain the plan will work. On the other hand, everyone is breathing down Katherine’s neck to meet her mysterious new husband. She’s been holding them off by telling them I’m busy with business and often out of town. But if we don’t act soon, they’ll be arriving in droves at the door just to get a look at me.”

Damien chuckled at the thought. “Then perhaps they shall or at least we will make them believe that they are about to.”

“I’m sorry, my lord. I don’t understand. We can’t possibly let all those people see him. Even dressed as he is and looking somewhat different than he used to, someone is sure to recognize him.” Katherine’s hand had come to rest on William’s arm. Damien noticed his friend did not pull away.

Damien smiled. “You promised them a ball to introduce your shy new husband. We can’t do that, but we can send the invitations.” He cocked his head at her. “Let me see, that date will be set for, shall we say two weeks hence? That should hold them at bay for long enough to carry out plans.”

Katherine smiled. “You are really a genius, Damien.” She looked radiant today, womanly in a way he hadn’t seen her. He knew that look, the softly feminine look of a woman well loved.

William had broken his promise, not to take her. If he had, it wasn’t something his friend had done lightly. It was obvious he desired her in every look he cast her way, but Damien was sure there was more. William cared for Katherine. Damien wondered just how deep his friend’s feelings were.

And how badly Katherine would be hurt if William left without her, as he was so determined to do.

An ember popped and sizzled against the hot metal grate. Outside the window, night had set in with a icy chill in the air. Katherine fidgeted with her embroidery in front of the fire in the drawing room. She rest it in her lap. The weather was damp and the wind whipped the branches of the trees, but inside the house wasn’t cold anymore, not since William arrived.

There was coal enough to keep the fires burning. The candles that now lit the room were fine beeswax tapers and not the tallow ones she had been using these last desperate years.

She wasn’t destitute any longer. William had returned her dowry, but he had not let her spend the money. He had provided well in the time he had been there, playing the part of her husband, at least in that respect.

In other ways, he was still the same remote, determined man he had always been. He hadn’t slept with her again. Last night she had been waiting upstairs when he finished his late-night meeting with Damien, hours spent working out more of the details of their plan.

She had dressed in a pink silk gown that had been part of the trousseau meant for her marriage to Benjamin. She stood silently at the doorway, praying he would accept her blatant invitation.

William hadn’t approached her. He merely stood in the middle of his bedchamber and shook his head.

“I am trying my damndest, Katherine. If we keep making love, sooner or later there is going to be a babe.” He paused, his eyes suddenly hard, piercing her with accusation. “Or perhaps that is exactly your intention. You think that if you are with child, then I will not leave. If that is your game, you are much mistaken. A child would hasten my departure, not deter it. I want nothing to do with a babe, mine or anyone else’s. I made that clear from the start.”

Most men wanted a child of their own, a son to carry on his father’s name. Why was it that William did not? Was it part of the dark secret he harbored? Katherine was certain it was.

“It was not my intention to trap you, my lord. If your care of me is not enough to keep you here, then I would rather that you leave.”

William stood silent.

“It was that I simply desired you.” At least it was part of the truth. “You have taught me to enjoy the pleasure a man can give a woman. The last time we made love, you seemed to enjoy it as well. I thought that perhaps. . .”

“You thought perhaps, what? That I would like to bed you again?” He crossed the room toward her, stopping so close she could see the heavy pulse beating down the side of his neck.

His eyes raked her, hunger evident. “You are a fool, Katherine. You know how much I want you, that when I see you dressed as you are, it’s all I can do to keep from tearing off your garments and taking you right here.” His hand came up to her cheek, but he didn’t touch her, instead he let his hand fall away. “There is nothing I would rather do than bed you. I am asking you, as the friend you have become, to abide by the agreement we made.”

A lump in her throat rose. He didn’t love her but he had accepted her as a friend. And he trusted her, she knew. For a man like him, friendship and trust did not come easy. Somehow she had earned both these things. The knowledge gave her an odd sort of comfort even as it forced an end to the desperate game she had been playing.

She cupped his cheek, felt the late night beard. “I will not trouble you again, my lord.” She smiled sadly. “Sleep well, William.” Then she turned and walked away.

Now she sat alone in front of the fire, she couldn’t help remembering, wondering at his secrets, wishing he trusted her enough to tell her what they were. Her brother’s footsteps drew her attention to the door.

“Where is that handsome rogue you have married?” He walked into the drawing room, a leather bound book in his hand. “I thought I might entice him into a game of chess.”

“He had a meeting with Damien.” Katherine reminded him, though he had asked that same question less than an hour ago. “He won’t be back for some time yet.”

“Yes, that’s right, Damien. Sorry, I seemed to have forgot.”

She smiled at him. “That’s all right Thomas.”

“Seems there was something else, something else I was suppose to tell you.

An uneasy feeling trickled through Katherine. “What was it?” She doubted he could remember, but perhaps if it were important enough something would jog his memory.

All of a sudden, it came to him. “A message! I remember now. I put it in the study on the desk. I’ll go get it for you.”

Katherine sat waiting, fingering the embroidery sitting in her lap.

Thomas stuck his head through the door. “Damn! I forgot what I went after!”

“A message, Thomas, a message. You were going to the study to retrieve it. Better yet, why don’t you wait here and I’ll go get it.”

Before she could rise to go retrieve the note,, Thomas had left the room, mumbling under his breath. This time he returned with the note he had received from someone that morning. A sealed message addressed to Lord Habersham.

Katherine studied it only for a moment, then tore it open with nervous hands. This wasn’t the time for formalities, the message might be urgent.

And it appeared that was exactly what it was.

Scanning the neatly folded paper, Katherine read the note, then read it again. The words on the page were scrolled with great care, as if the writer had ordered them penned, not written them himself. The sender wanted a meeting, the message said. He had heard of his lordship’s search of information regarding the murder of the late duke of Sussex. For a price, the information could be his. The message gave a meeting place and time and more importantly told his lordship to come alone.

Katherine looked at the clock across the room. Dear God, it was already close to the hour of the meeting and William might not be home for hours. He was meeting with Damien but she wasn’t sure where. He was tired of being cooped up indoors and had mentioned that they might go out for a late night supper.

“What is it, Katherine?” Thomas’ voice interrupted her thoughts. “You are looking a little pale.”

Katherine eyed the note in her hand. How had the sender discovered Lord Habersham’s interest? How had he known where to send the note? Perhaps the man Damien and William had hired had alerted him. Or perhaps he was acquainted with someone at the Lion’s Den.

Whatever the case, it was obvious the man knew something. It could be information that was vitally important. If William didn’t arrive to collect it, the man might disappear and they would never find him again.

“There is someone I must see, Thomas. If William should come home before my return, give him the message. The note will tell him where I have gone.” She pressed the paper into his hands. “Can you remember that, Thomas?”

“Of course I can.”

Odds were of course he would forget. She thought about summoning the butler, but the fewer people who knew of this the safer for William. Besides, she would take along the man hired to watch the house and would probably be back long before William returned.

She glanced at the clock. Whirling toward the door, she called for the footman to summon her carriage, then grabbed her hooded cloak and went to find the man standing guard outside the house.

Fifteen minutes later they were on their way along the crowded streets, pausing beneath the big painted signs suspended above them, making their way toward their destination. The alehouse wasn’t in the best part of town, far from it, but the man in the battered hat seated across from her was above average in height, sturdily built and appeared as though he could defend them if trouble arose.

He stirred on the leather seat. “I don’t mean to speak out of turn, my lady, but it’s a bit late for a woman to be traveling about, especially in this part of town. I don’t think your husband would approve.”

Now there was an understatement if ever there was one.

“I’m afraid I have no choice, Mr. Long.” she smiled at him. “Besides, I am sure I am perfectly safe as long as I am with you.”

Even in the dim light of the carriage she could see his chest puff out. “Well, right you are. I suppose now that you put it that way.”

“I’ll only be a moment. As soon as I have concluded my business with the man I have come to meet then we can be on our way.”

He didn’t argue, just grunted and settled his thick burly body more solidly against the seat. Outside the carriage, a heavy mist had begun to fall over the muddy streets, but it was the odor that Katherine noticed, a sour smell rising up from the docks. Dead fish. The buildings along the dirt lane they traveled were soot-blackened, the windows often boarded up, and rubbish rose in piles against the crumbling brick walls.

Katherine shivered at the damp air sweeping through her cloak, making her skin feel sticky and cold. She wasn’t afraid, not exactly. But she was decidedly uneasy.

The sign for the alehouse rose out of the mist ahead. ”There it is! That’s it!” Katherine tapped on the roof of the carriage then instructed the driver to pull over in front of the building on the right.

“I don’t like this, my lady. Your husband will be having me head if something happens to you.”

“Nothing is going to happen, Mr. Long. Not with you standing right there beside the carriage. I will simply should for help if I find myself in need of assistance.” She had told him nothing of the rendezvous, only that she had a bit of business in a rather disreputable part of town and needed him to accompany her.