Further Than Passion (32 page)

This had to be the
secret
of the marital bed. What if he insisted on trying it again? What if the behavior was mandatory? What if she had to perform the abominable ritual whenever he requested it?

Her stomach roiled.

She stared at his scrawny, withered torso,
,
at his mussed hair and untrimmed nails. The event was concluded, yet he wasn't paying her any more attention than he had when it was occurring. She'd been naught but a receptacle, a vessel for his manly lust, and the greatest disappointment she would ever experience swept over her.

"You don't love me, do you?"

He frowned. "What?"

"You don't love me. You never will."

"Of course I don't love you. How ridiculous! Be a good girl, would you?" He nodded toward the dresser. "Fetch me a wet cloth."

Desirous of being away from him, she scurried off, though her anatomy protested. At her center, she was raw and throbbing, and she stumbled over and dipped a towel in a bowl of water. Gulping down tears of disillusionment, she wrung it out and returned to him.

He wiped himself, and she dared to peek at his loins, stunned to discern that they were covered with blood. She peered down at her own crotch, finding blood there, t
o
o.

"I'm wounded!" she shrieked. "You tried to kill me!!"

"Be silent!" he growled. "And lie down."

She should have hurled an insult, then stormed out,

284

but she was trembling, her knees weak, and she felt as if she might swoon.

"Lie down!" he barked again, causing her to scramble onto the mattress.

For an eternity, she was quiet, analyzing the ceiling, the
f
loor, looking an
yw
here but at him.

"What now?' she ultimately asked.

"No
w
... we wait."

"For what?"

"For your mother," he said calmly. "Be sure you're smiling when she walks in. I want her to see how glad you are."

"She's coming? When?
"

"Very soon."

She shuddered with dread, incapable of imagining the scene. There was a knitted throw by her feet, and she reached for it, desperate to warm herself, but to shield herself, too.

"Leave it," he snapped. "From the instant she enters, let's give her an unimpeded view of what we've done."

₂₀

"Where is she?" Marcus demanded, out of patience.

"I've told you, milord," the prison warden claimed, "there's no record of anyone by that name being brought in."

"Look again."

"I've been over the list a dozen times. She's not here."

"A twenty-five-year-o
l
d woman doesn't simply vanish into thin air."

'That's true, but you're assuming your information is correct, and that mis i
s
—
i
n fac
t
—
t
he institution to which she was transported." He flashed a wan smile at Selena, hoping he hadn't insulted.

Marcus frowned at Selena. "Where did they say they were taking her?"

"Newgate Prison," she responded without hesitation.

"So where is she?" Marcus repeated, and he grabbed the warden by his jacket.

"Now see here, Lord Stamford," the man blustered. There's no need for violence."

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"You call this
violence
?
"
Marcus lifted him up, the seams on his coat popping as his feet dangled in the air. "I'll show you
violence!”

He slammed the warden into the wall, banging him into the p
l
aster with a loud thud that had his clerk rushing in from the other room.

"What the devi
l
... ?" the clerk bristled on witnessing his supervisor hanging from Marcus's fist. Christopher stepped forward to prevent any interference.

"Get out!" Marcus seethed without slackening his grip.

The clerk scurried away, and as help was summoned, Marcus could hear a commotion in the outer office, but he ignored the uproar. He felt as if he were outside himself, gazing down at a crazed lunatic who was assaulting a public servant, and was stunned by his state of emotion. H
e
—
w
ho never cared for other
s
—
w
as angry enough to commit murder, and if anything dastardly had happened to Kate, he just might.

"You have five seconds to explain how a hurt, frightened gentlewoman could be wrongly incarcerated in this jail without anyone knowing."

"Wel
l
.... wel
l
..." the warden stammered.

"Have you any idea of how powerful I am?" Marcus asked. "Can you begin to comprehend what I will do to you? To your family? I'm sure you value your employment. If you don't tell me where she is, how long will you hold on to it?"

"
There are so many prisoners," the warden squeaked
.
'Terhaps we missed having her identity recorded."

Marcus's heart sank. If she'd been tossed into the

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teeming throng, how would they find her among the thousands of people? The place was packed to the gills with the most wretched souls in London. She could be tried, convicted, and hanged before they located her.

A brief meeting with solicitor Thumberton had proved that Regina had presented fake documents in her scheme to have Kate arrested. Over an extended period of years, she'd gone to great lengths to conceal her theft
,
of not only Selena's money but Kate's inheritances as well. If Regina was capable of such unmitigated duplicity and deceit
,
what else might she perpetrate? Had Kate actually been delivered to Newgate? Or had Regina engineered a more dire fate?

Regina had much to lose, so she couldn't allow Kate to surface, couldn't give Kate the opportunity to defend herself.

It was entirely possible that Kate's abductors had mentioned Newgate as a ruse, so that those raising questions would presume that the law had been involved, that Kate had been appropriately seized and confined.

Had Kate ever made it to Newgate? Or had she disappeared en route
?
In a few days, would a body be discovered, floating in the Thames?

He shuddered and tightened his grasp on the warden's neck, shutting off his air so that he was turning blue and prying at Marcus's fingers.

"Please ..." the warden begged. "I don'
t
... I can'
t
..."

"If you haven't found her in the next ten minutes, I'll kill you."

Behind him, footsteps pounded, and several burly

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guards raced in, intent on effecting a rescue. Marcus spun to confront them, dropping the warden in the process, and he crumpled to a heap, panting and rubbing his throat.

They milled around, perplexed as to what their role should be. They couldn't manhandle a lord, but they couldn't have him pummeling the warden, either. One was more brave than the rest, and as he advanced, Selena gasped.

"It's him," she insisted, pointing. "He took Kate from my house."

"You're positive?
"
Marcus queried as Chris positioned himself to block an escape.

"I've never seen the lady before," the oaf contended, shifting uncomfortably. "She's daft."

The warden wobbled to his feet and reasserted control by shooing the others out. "Let's discuss this privately."

"By all means," Marcus agreed, quiet and composed until the warden closed the door; then Marcus hit the guard, lashing out so quickly and so firmly that the man fell like a stone.

He attempted to rise, and Marcus punched him again and kicked him in the ribs.

"What have you done with her?"

The incoherent fellow didn't answer. Blood poured from his face, his nose was probably broken, and Marcus gripped him by his shirt. 'This is your last chance."

"I don't know wh
o
—
"

Marcus struck him a third time, the blow smashin
g
the bones in his cheek. He was a wailing, defeated lump, and Marcus bent over and clutched him by the neck. "Is she here?"

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"Yet
h
..." he muttered, pushed beyond the spot where he could lie.

"Where is she, Jimmy?" the warden inquired.

"
I
tho ... itho ..." With his injuries, he couldn't pronounce the word, and Marcus glared at the warden.

"What is he trying to say?"

"I believe he's informing us that she's in an isolation cell."

Marcus straightened,
a
hundred hideous thoughts careening past. "Why would she be?"

"Well, she might have been deemed a danger to herself or others."

"Or?" Marcus prodded, a niggling suspicion dawning.

"I suppose someone could have ... could have purchased a more serious detention."

Marcus leaned down and clasped the guard's hair, tipping his head back. "Who paid you?"

"A woman," the man managed to spit out.

"Was she very obese?"

"Yeth...."

Although he'd never given the stories any credence, rumors abounded as to such atrocities. A wealthy person could enjoy an easier internment, so why couldn't it be arranged that a poorer person suffer a worse fate? Felons were occasionally thrown into the judicial system, then vanished.

Were their records lost? Or had something more sinister transpired? What had been Regina's objective for Kate? Very likely, Kate was to have been murdered and disposed of by the knave lying at Marcus's feet.

After all, who would have checked on Kate? Who would have missed her?

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t

Too bad for
R
egina that she'd miscalculated. She had no idea that people loved Kate, that Selena and Christopher, and h
e
—
m
ostly he himsel
f
—
w
ould search to the ends of the earth to find her.

Within seconds, they were marching down the hall, and Marcus ignored the smells and moans of human agony. They paraded through the mai
n
sections of the prison, across sweltering courtyards, through dank, filthy tunnels; then they descended into the bowels, the stairs slippery and dark, the light dimming behind them, the cries of despair fading.

They stopped at the last door. The warden had escorted them, and he rotated the key in the lock, though he wasn't strong enough to pull it open. One of his lackeys tugged it aside, and Marcus stared into the forbidding chasm, sickened that this was where they'd hidden her.

Would they have starved her? Tortured her? Left her to rot? His rage surged anew.

The warden entered first, holding up a lamp. Brave, determined Selena squeezed in after him. Marcus tried to enter, too, but there was so little space that he and Chris were forced to tarry in the corridor.

"Kate?" Selena called softly. "Kate, it's me."

There was a rustling and murmurs, Selena fussing and cooing, but no reply from Kate, and Marcus squeezed his eyes shut, praying that she would respond.

'This was all a mistake," Selena whispered. "You're to be released."

"Selena?"

When he heard Kate, his relief was so great that his knees buckled, and lest he sink to the floor, Chris steadied him.

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"Yes,
m
ia
c
ara.
It's really me." Selena's voice was wobbly, and Marcus could tell she was on the verge of tears. "Everything will be all right now."

Kate said something Marcus couldn't decipher, and Selena explained, "I went to Christopher. He and Lord Stamford helped me. They're just outside."

"Lord Stamford helped you?" Kate sounded confused. "Why would he?"