Blood Lust (32 page)

“It’s simply that the more I think about what happened, the less I am convinced your brother knows anything about you.”

“He knew enough to damn near get you killed.”

She walked further into the room. He watched her and his body tightened with longing. He forced the unwanted response away.

“There is another possibility.” she said.

“Which is?” Damien shifted himself beside the mantel.

“Which is that the note we received was real. There really is a man who saw something the night of the murder. He didn’t reveal himself to me because he wanted to speak to William.”

William frowned. “And the presence of Jane’s murderer, that was merely a coincidence?”

“You know it was not. He was watching the house, just as you expected him to do. When he saw me leave, he simply followed, hoping for a chance to do me in.”

“Which he nearly succeeded in doing.” William reminded her with a scowl.

Damien moved away from the mantel, his long-limbed frame moving with elegant grace across the carpet. “You know, she may very well be correct, my friend. There is no reason for Benjamin to suspect your return from the dead. Jane might have told him before she died if Benjamin had been the one to kill her, but he sent his henchman instead. I doubt if Jane would have said anything to him.”

William pondered the idea. He looked at Katherine and a hint of respect curved his lips. “You never fail to amaze me, my lady.” To Damien he said, “I think in this matter the lady is correct. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. Unless Benjamin stumbled across the information by accident, he has no reason to suspect I’m still alive.”

“Which puts the element of surprise back into our plan,” Damien replied.

“It also means that there may be someone else out there who can help us,” Katherine added. “Someone who knows the truth. Perhaps he’ll try to contact us again.”

“Perhaps,” Damien agreed. “In the meantime, I’ll finalize the detail of our meeting and speak to the magistrate about it.”

“What will you say?” Katherine asked.

“That I suspect the duke of Sussex may have been involved in a smuggling operation, that he may be using my empty warehouse for nefarious gain. I’ll tell the magistrate I’ve arranged a meeting that could establish the duke’s guilt.”

Katherine smiled. “Except that the crime Benjamin will be admitting to won’t be smuggling, it will be murder.”

“If all goes well,” William reminded them, his hands unconsciously balling into fists.

Katherine lightly touched his forearm. “It will, William, it has to. You’re innocent. It’s beyond time people knew the truth.”

William, however, wasn’t so sure. So much could happen. So much could go wrong. Part of him wanted to forget the vengeance he had been seeking for so long. But until he found a way to stop Benjamin, Katherine would be in danger.

An image flashed of the night before, of Katherine in the darkened alley, of her terrified face, of deadly glimmering steel. He closed his eyes against a vision of her lying in a pool of blood, dead in the rat-infested alley.

His stomach tightened and the bile rose into his throat. In an instant the awful vision shifted and began to change. The pool of blood ran onto him, across the canted deck of a tall-masted ship. He could hear the women screaming, begging them to stop, begging someone to help them.

William braced his hand against the table to steady himself, to push the vision away, but the crimson pool kept spreading, forming a bloody pool at his feet. “No,” he whispered, but the screaming only grew louder. He tried to block the sounds, but the blood kept creeping toward him. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t move. He had to escape. He had to.

“William? Are you all right?”

Her soft voice filtered in, sweetly soothing. The crimson pool began to fade and the screams slowly retreated, withdrawing themselves into the back of his mind.

“William?” Her hand encircled his arm and he realized he was trembling. “Are you all right?”

Her voice slid over him like a balm. He shook his head to clear it, found himself still standing in the study.

“
Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“It’s all right.” she didn’t press him to explain as he thought she would, just rose and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. “I’m sure you’ve just grown weary. You’ve accomplished what you meant to, and that Damien was just leaving.”

He felt his friend’s solid grip on his shoulder. “Get some rest. I’ll take care of everything. As soon as the pieces are in place, we’ll be ready to send word to Benjamin.”

William just nodded. His thoughts were still in turmoil, the images of blood and death remained, making his worry for Katherine even stronger.

If anything had happened to her, the fault would be his, another sin added to a long, weighty list.

It was a thought too awful to consider.

The earl of Stanton felt like a complete and utter fool. He was standing in the garden of the duke of Sussex’s house, waiting in the shadows like a lovesick boy for a glimpse of Elizabeth.

It was the second night he had been there, lurking among the potted plants, hiding, hoping to catch her attention and garner a moment alone. He knew she had returned to the city. She was in deep mourning for her father so she hadn’t gone out, but the duke had made no secret that he had brought her home.

“She does as I tell her, and a damned good thing. The girl has no love for the marriage bed, more’s the pity, but I’ll see she does her duty, and that she had better not complain. A man needs a son. A few days more to morn her old man, then she’ll spread her legs and be glad of it, until she carries my child.”

Benjamin had made the remarks in the open at a gaming table and it had taken John’s full control not to hit him.

Instead he had wound up here, waiting like a fool in the garden, hoping no one would discover his presence, except of course, for Elizabeth.

Movement in an upstairs room. It was far too early for the duke to be home. John watched the flicker of a candle as it floated out of a bedchamber and down the stairs. The light disappeared for a moment, the reappeared in the library. Flattening himself against the wall outside the window, he peered into the interior and smiled with relief to see Elizabeth.

John rapped lightly on the mullioned window and the candle lifted in that direction. Another soft tap. He stood away from the bushes, allowing her to see him. Recognition dawned. Elizabeth’s hand flew to the base of her throat then she hurried toward the window and threw it open.

“John? Whatever are you doing here? You must leave immediately, before someone sees you.”

Instead he took her hand, urging her over the sill and out into the garden. “I’m not properly dressed. My hair is uncombed. I must look frightful.”

John smiled. “You look beautiful.”

Her hand relaxed in his and she let him lead her into the darkness and up the stairs of the gazebo at the far end of the garden. “What’s wrong, John? Why have you come?”

“I had to see you. I had to be sure you were all right.”

Elizabeth looked away. “I’m fine. The duke insisted I come back with him, just as you warned me. I should have listened to you, John.”

“It isn’t too late. We can go away just as I said. We can leave this place, Elizabeth. Start over somewhere else.”

She looked at him with sorrowful eyes. “You would give up all that you have? Your home? Your businesses? Your family? Why, John? Why would you do such a thing?”

His hand came up to her cheek. It was a soft as the down of a dove. “I’ve thought of nothing but you since the moment I left you. I love you, Elizabeth. I was a fool not to see it. I love you and I want us to be together, no matter what it costs.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “I love you, John. More than my own life. And that is the reason I cannot go with you. I’ve had time to think things over. Whatever Benjamin has done, I don’t believe my life is in danger. I’ve no choice but to stay, to make the best of it.”

John shook his head. “Elizabeth. . .”

“Please, John, I am a married woman. There is nothing else I can do. In time I shall learn to tolerate Benjamin and eventually there will be children. I can find solace in that.”

“Your children would also be mine, if you would come with me.”

She shook her head. “It is too late for us, John. I won’t let you suffer for what the duke’s greed and my father’s mistaken intentions have done. I know what I must do.”

A sharp pain rose in John’s chest. He found it difficult to breathe. “Are you certain?”

She nodded. “It is better this way. At any rate, I would have made you a very poor wife. Benjamin has destroyed whatever passion I ever thought to feel for a man. I loathe the act of loving and always will. You deserve a better sort of woman than this.”

His hand shook as he cupped her cheek. “That is what you think? That you have no passion?”

She tried to glance away, but John would not let her. Instead he turned her face to his and gently settled his mouth over hers.

It was a soft kiss, unbearably gentle, but Elizabeth felt it like a warm, teasing wind through her body. His tongue slid along her lips, coaxing them apart, then slipping inside. He tasted her, urged her to taste him and knowing she shouldn’t, knowing it was the wickedest thing she had ever done, tentatively she did so. John eased her closer, tighter in his embrace, his hard body pressing the length of her. He deepened the kiss, and she found herself clinging to his shoulders, swaying even closer against him.

His hand found her breast, but instead of a brutal squeeze, his fingers lightly brushed the side. He cupped the fullness and a soft sweet warmth unfurled in her stomach, began to seep through her limbs. It was incredible, so wonderful she found herself pressing more fully against the hands of muscle across his chest. It was John who pulled away.

“There is nothing wrong with you, Elizabeth. Nothing gentleness and patience could not cure.”

Her breath came in short, breathy gasps. “I shouldn’t have let you. I know it was wrong, but once you touched me I didn’t want you to stop.”

John ran a hand through her hair. “I’ll teach you passion, Elizabeth. Come away with me. Make a life with me somewhere else.”

She wanted to. Dear God, she had never wanted anything so badly. But John would be ruined. They both would be. They would have to give up their homes, the land of their birth, their families.

“I cannot.” She pulled away from him and turned away, started down the stairs of the gazebo, stopped and looked back at him over her shoulder. Tears formed in her eyes. “Go on with your life, my love. Find a way to be happy.”

John said nothing, just stood there in the darkness, his chest aching, his throat closed up. He would go on. He was that kind of man. Perhaps e would even find happiness of a sort.

But he would never love again, never risk the sort of the pain he felt in losing his Elizabeth. John knew that as certain as he knew he would draw in the next breath of air.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Trouble had arisen the following day from a totally different direction and Katherine was once more brooding and out of sorts. As soon as supper ended, William approached where she sat in the drawing room.

“Elizabeth Spencer has returned to the city. Apparently she has reconciled with the duke,” she announced.

William frowned and leaned back in his chair. “No one reconciles with him. He has commanded her presence and she has obeyed. Apparently Stanton was not prepared to throw caution to the wind and take her away.”

“Or Elizabeth would not go with him.”

William grunted. “Then the lady is a fool.”

“Do you think she is in danger?”

“Possibly. Probably not, though. Benjamin isn’t crazy. He knows what he wants and he is simply ruthless enough to use any means at his disposal to get it. At present he wants an heir. He has a wife, so in his mind there is no problem to overcome.”

Katherine sat there and said nothing for the longest time. “Elizabeth is in love with Stanton.”

William’s eyes swung to hers. “Then perhaps that is the reason she remained with Benjamin. She is married to a duke. The scandal of her leaving would ruin Stanton. He would lose everything he has worked for. Perhaps she loves him enough that for his sake she is willing to give him up.”

There was something in his eyes. Something she hadn’t seen there before. In some dark way it had something to do with her.

“I want to see her,” Katherine said, “discover if she is all right.”

“You know you can’t do that. Your life would be in danger.”

“Surely the man wouldn’t murder me in his own home.”

“Benjamin is unpredictable. Lord only knows what he might do.”

“But we aren’t even sure he is the man behind Jane’s death. Surely, if I’m accompanied. . .”

William reached out and grabbed her arm. “I said no. It’s too dangerous for you to go there. I forbid you to go and for once in your life you are going to obey me!”

Katherine swallowed hard. He had never spoken to her in quite that tone of voice. Perhaps in this he did know what was best.