Light to Valhalla (37 page)

Alex sighed, raking a hand through his hair
.
Charley wanted answers and he couldn’t put the inevitable off any longer
.
The problem was, once she learned the truth, he’d lose her
.
Pure and simple
.
She’d never understand the circumstan
ces
surrounding Tobias Witherspoon’s death—
hell, half the time Alex didn’t understand
himself—
but he’d
r
eached a
point where he couldn’t live without her
.
Not the dream Charley from the battlefield
,
but the living breathing woman sharing his life
.
The
woman
he laughed and shared a bottle of wine with after dinner each evening… the one person whose honest opinion he valued above all others…

Deep in thought, Alex
prowled the perimeter of
the ballroom, avoiding acquaintances and
chatty matrons eager to draw him into conversation
.
Curious glances and pointed fingers shot in his direction, b
ut none seemed accusatory
.
Unease slithered down his spine
.
Probably just the crowd
.
H
e
hated
crowds
.
Perhaps he should find a card game
.
Lose
himself
in a cloud of smoke and the stench of brandy
.

From across the way Lady Veronica Childers caught his eye
.
She tossed a coy smile over her shoulder and sashayed toward the balcony
.
Internally Alex groaned
;
Veronica’s meaning was implicit
.
He could ignore the invitation, but after all that had transpired in the last ye
ars he owed her at least a few mi
nutes of explanation
.
Surreptitiously he glanced around the ballroom, Charley was nowhere in sight,
so he
strode after Lady Veronica
.

A luminescent smile lit Veronica’s face the moment he stepped through the balcony doors
.
“Alex.
”
Angelic…
no other word in the English language existed to describe her
.
The most beautiful woman in London—if not the whole of Britain—and she knew it
.
“So good to see you.
”
Gracefully she slid forward, settling a gentle hand to his chest, and pressing soft lips to his cheek
.

“And you, my lady.
”
Tactfully he stepped back, letting her hand drop back to her side
.
Strange, but her presence did not affect him the way it usually did
.
Instead Charley lay squarely at the forefront of his mind and desires.

Not so easily deterred Veronica sidled forward, slipping her slender fingers into his. “None of your letters mentioned you’d be coming home so soon.
”
A pretty pout touched her lips
.
“You might have told
me
.”

“My apologies, Lady Veronica, but I told no one of my arrival.”

She closed the distance between them, tilting her face, inviting him to kiss her.

“Veronica, please, not here
.
I’m married, remember.”

“Ah, but things change
.
Marriages change
.
Unfortunate…
events
occur
.
We may be together once again, Alex
.
One never knows what the future might bring.”

A sharp gasp from the door drew his attention
.

Charley stood just inside the white drapery, a hand at her breast and eyes filled with such innocent betrayal his heart ached
.
The breath physically left his body
.
Oh, but more than innocence reflected back at him… more than betrayal…  Her
green
eyes, wide and bright as lanterns, delved into him with a naivety Veronica’s gaze never held
.
True sorrow touched Charley’s eyes
.
He’d hurt her
.
The reality pierced him like a spear
.

Without a word his wife turned on a heel and swept back into the ballroom.

“Charley,” he called, stri
ding after her
.
“Charley, wait.
”
His outburst drew more than a few interested gazes, but as he raked his eyes across the crowd he didn’
t particularly care
.
Methodically he searched the crush of dancers, growing more agitated by the second
.
How could Charley have so suddenly disappeared?  The band struck up a waltz, and a pang of guilt struck him that he’d not danced with her earlier
.

A flash of
filmy pink
caught his eye, and at last he spotted
Charley
twirling i
n the arms… of Sidney
.
A white-
hot needle of jealousy pierced him to the core
.
That was
his
wife spinning and whirling in the arms of the
ton’s
most
incorrigible rake
.
Determined,
Alex strode through the sea of silken dancers and firmly tapped Sidney on the shoulder
.
“Cutting in,” he clipped.

Over Sidney’s shoulder Charley shot him a murderous glare
.
“Ignore him, Sidney, Alex doesn’t dance.”

“I do now,” he growled
.
“Kindly step aside.”

“I don’t want to dance with you anymore
.
Go enjoy more of Lady Veronica’s favors.”

Sidney, looking decidedly uncomfortable, glanced between the two
.
“Look, Alex, this isn’t the time or the place
for this particular argument
.”

Typical
.
Here was Sid, intentionally stirring the pot, and yet again setting himself up to be the reasonable one… to be Charley’s hero
.
Alex stalked forward
.
“Get your hands off my wife.”

Sidney refused to comply yet again
.
Alex balled his hand into a fist, and let it fly
.

Sid sprawled backward, clutching his jaw
.
Blood trickled over his bottom lip onto the ballroom floor
.
“You son of a bitch.
”
He lunged at Alex, a dark gleam flickering in his eyes.

Alex swivele
d right, catching Sidney’s arm, wrenching it be
hind his back and driving him to his knees
.
“Keep
away from
my wife.
”

Sid grunted, struggling beneath Alex’s heavier bulk
.
“
Can you keep her away from
me?”

Alex cocked an arm more than ready to drive it into the side of Sid’s smug, leering face
.
“Why I’ll pound the living
sh
—”

“That is enough.
”
Strong arms
steeled around Alex dragging him off Sidney
.
Two other men flanked Sid, hauling
him backward and out of the line of fire
.
Lord Belleview stepped between
the men, providing a physical barrier
.

“Release me,” Alex seethed, jerking against his binds
.

“Alex
,
stop this foolishness immediately.
”

Slowly the red
hot haze faded
and Alex
saw
Charley
.
She stood directly in front of
him, a
wealth of hurt,
anger
and more than a little fear
lining
her
beautiful face
.
Fear?
 
N
o
.
This was all wrong
.
He didn’t want C
harley to fear him
.
He stopped fighting and
glared at the circl
e of finely dressed aristocrats
gawking at the brawl
.
A few even surreptitiously passed money between hands, no doubt having bet on the outcome—Alex had won
.
He always won
.
Of course the
ton
would titter on about the fight for the foreseeable future
and all his efforts to maintain a low profile were official
ly
up in smoke
.
Finally the set of bear’s arms released him
.
Alex glanced sideways to see who
it was
.
Jack R
eese
.
A pang of unexpected regret hit him
.
Pity he’d run into his old school chum under these circumstances
.
They’d been thick of thieves at Eton, but scarcely spoken in over ten years
.

Uncomfortably Alex
cleared his throat
.
“My apologies.”

A collective murmur rushed over the crowd though none moved or formally accepted his piss poor excuse of an apology
.

Charley stepped forward and grasped his arm
.
“Let’s go
.
Now.
”
She refused to meet his gaze, but tension fairly cracked the line of her jaw.

Curtly he nodded, slipping
a possessive arm about her waist
,
and
storming
through the ballroom
to the door
.
A footman
had Charley’s coat waiting and Alex paced impatiently
about the entrance way as she slipped into it
.
Once she was ready yet another black clad footman swung open the portal of escape and Alex
all but bolted through it, straight into
dreaded figure of…
General Witherspoon.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered caught totally off guard.

The general appeared every bit as shocked as A
lex
.
“Rawlings?” he spluttered, blinking in overt shock
.
The s
urprise lasted only a matter of seconds before
loathing
and rage contorted his face
.
“Rawling
s, you murdering son of a bitch
, what the hell are you doing here?”

Twelve

“Murder?
”
Regina’s shrill voice pierced the crisp night air
, mirroring Charley’s thoughts
.
“
Did he just say murder?”

Frozen Charley could not even manage a nod
as her mother-in-law approached from behind
.

“Welcome home to you too, sir,”
Alex quipped
dryly,
squaring off with
the older man
.
“And you’re a real hypocrite to bandy about such accusations.”

General
Witherspoon
s
tepped forward,
eyes
bl
ack
with loathing
.
“Burn in hell.”

“I know what you did,” Alex growled, refusing to back down
.
Power flowed with lightening force between the men and Charley could not help but be reminded of clashing Titans
.
Would Zeus or som
e other high power intervene to s
ave these men from imminent disaster?

Just when the chill air seemed taught enough to
crack,
the general straighte
ned his
black cravat
.
“I’ll
see to it you’
re taken care of soon,
”
he snapped,
and strode up the stairs
past Charley and Regina
.

Th
e threat seemed more than implicit and Charley was not privy to the details of their situation
.
M
urder
echoed over and again
from within the grand confines of the
Brumble
manse
, heightening Alex’s roiling unease
.

Charley
stumbled down the stairs
on quaking limbs
.
“So that’s what this is all about?  General Witherspoon believes you murdered someone?”

Stiffly he nod
ded
.

H
orror
filled
her
to the core
.
“Did you?”

“
Jesus
,” he
muttered, taking explosive strides down the remaining steps
.
He yanked off his hat, crushing it between his hands
.
“
Where is my goddamn carriage?” he hollered
in
to
the darkness
.

Regina descended the stairs
,
cold and brittle as ever,
spearing
Alex
with a lethal glare
.
“If you’re bound for the
g
ao
l
then she’d better be pregnant.
”
She jammed a finger in Charley’s direction
.
“And you’d best see that it’s a boy.”

Charley
bristled
.
“I’ll ha—”

“That is quite enough, Mother
.
No one i
s bound for the
g
ao
l
.”

Their coach rattled up the cobbled drive
.
Regina moved for the carriage.
“You don’t mind if I ride home with you
.
I can hardly show my face back at Lady
Brumble’s
party after the scene
she
instigated.”

Alex smoothly intercepted her
.
“You came
without us
you’ll leave the same way
.
Now, if you’ll excuse
me
,
I need a moment alone with my wife.”

“
Wife
.
”
Regina
’s blue eyes flashed pure ice
.
“Barren hussy
seems a far more apt description
.
Why if I’d known she was carrying on with Sidney, in my own house no less, I would have—”

Barren hussy?
 
Of all the insults…
Red tinged
Charley’s
vision and
something inside
her
just snapped
.
She stormed forward,
fists clenched
,
more than prepared to give Regina a knuckle or two to chew on
.
Appearances
be
damned
.
More scandal
be
damned
.
She’d suffered this woman’s incessant barrage long enough
.
In one swift motion she slung an arm through the air
, slugging Regina square in the jaw
.

“Ah!
”
Regina sprawled backward, landing hard on the ice hewn walkway.

“
Jesus
,” Alex
spluttered
.
“Nice hit.”

Charley shook her hand, knowing she should be embarrassed or remorseful
but not qui
te able to summon anything but pure
exhilaration
.

“Control your whore,” Regina raged, pounding her fists on the cobblestones
.

To Charley’s
utter surprise, Alex grasped
his mother’s arm in a
n iron
vice
and yanked her to her feet
.
“You will cease disrespecting my wife
i
mmediately
.
In the next week if I see you so much as look at her in a manner I deem inappropriate I’
ll
ship you
to the
country estate in Scotland.
”

Regina
gasped
.
Scotland and t
he c
ountry were
the only thing
s
she
hated more than Charley
.
“
You wouldn’t.”

“I would
.
Apologize to my wife
.”

“But she—”

“Now.”

Regina gulped
, and faced Charley
.
“Very well
.
Charlotte, I am deeply sorry
if
you’ve found any of my comments… offensive.”

“Forgive me if I’m not inclined to accept.”

Regina spluttered in response
.

Charley ignored her
righteous indignation
and marched to the carriage, clamoring aboard without any assistance
.
“Let’s go, Alex, you have much to explain.”

Her husband climbed aboard after her, hesitated in the doorway, and fin
ally took a seat opposite her.

“I won’t apologize for hitting your mother,” she said tightly.

“I wouldn’t e
xpect you to.”

Charley slid to the opposite corner, putting
as much distance between
her and Alex as possible
.
Tension emanated from his body in palpable waves though he made no attempt to
speak or make excuses
.
Silence lapsed

“How long did you write her?
”
Charley
asked finally, flicking her gaze to his brooding figure slumped against the window
.
She dared not look
directly
at him
,
else he see
the pieces of her heart floating
in her eyes
.

He scrubbed a hand over his face in overt frustration
.
“Please, Charley, it was—”

“How long?”

“It was nothing, I swear it
.
Absolutely nothing.”

“Nothing?
  Writing to a woman other than your wife is
not
nothing
, Alex
.
Some might even call it infidelity
.
”

“Is it any different than you carrying on a friendship with Sidney?”

“Yes
.
It is worlds different
.
Si
d
ney and I we
re never practically engaged
,” she hissed
.
“Tell me, h
ave you been to visit Veronica without telling me
as well?
”

“No
.
I wrote her a few letters a year and only in response to those she sent me.”

All women felt dowdy and wanting in the presence of Lady Veronica, but never before this moment had Charley felt more grossly inadequate
.
You never answered my letters
.
But she was not brave enough to speak the words
aloud
.
Hear the obvious truth that he still loved Veronica and not her
despite what sweet lies he wove
.
She’d written him
one letter a month for over a year
.
Whe
n no response came she’d ceased trying
.
The army postal system may be unreliable, but surely at least one of her letters made it through
.

“
What about Sidney?  He turns to a love sick idiot whenever you’re in the room.
”
He leaned forward suddenly, invading her space
.
“
You are
my
wife,
Charlotte,
”
Alex growled, the warning in his tone
implicit
.
“It would behoove you to remember that.”

“
I hardly believe y
ou’
re jealous of Sidney with Veronica panting at your heels.
”

“Veronica is nothing to me.”

“No, she’s just the woman you wrote home to from the war.”

“
D
amn it, Charley, enough about Veronica
.
You
r flirtation with Sidney and Lord
knows who else is over
.
I’ll not have half of London society whispering
about what a fool I am and what you and Sid are doing behind my back
.
Jealousy has nothing to do with it
.
We must k
eep up appearances
.
”

Disappointment
and anger
pierced her heart
.
He told her he loved her, but a piece of her had always suspected he’d been telling her what she wanted to hear
.
Once
he wooed a son from her
he’d be free to run back to the army and
carry
on with Lady Veronica
.
The
young
widow was still more sought after than most first season debutantes
.
Alex wasn’t sorry for what she’d seen, he was only sorry he’d been caught in the
midst
of an assignation
.
A hot rush of tears scalded her eyes, but she blinked them back, refusing to show him her distress
.
“
Because you murdered Tobias Witherspoon?”

Alex
froze
so s
uddenly Charley
wished she could
pull the words back
.
All color drained from his face and a haunted, faraway haze glassed over his eyes
.
Dread pooled in
her middle
.
Silence, thick and somehow loud enough to speak volumes settled oppressively around them
.

“Alex, did you—”

“
Yes
.
”
He met her stare with unsettling sincerity
.
“I killed the general’s son.”

Chills
cooled the blood hot with anger
in
Charley’s veins
.
“Oh, my god.
”
Denial crashed through her
.
Alex may be many things
but murder?