Rebel Enchantress (17 page)

“Where’s Nathan?” Oliver demanded brushing roughly against her as he strode into the hall. “I’ve got to talk to him at once.”

“He went out early this morning.”

“Where’d he go?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you?”

“It’s not Mr. Trent’s habit to inform the servants of his whereabouts,” Delilah said. She probably shouldn’t speak to a guest that way, but Tom Oliver shouldn’t have brushed by her as if she weren’t there.

As Tom’s gaze traveled over Delilah, the irritation in his eyes changed. He had looked at her lustfully many a time during the last three years, and he found that her attractiveness had not diminished.

“Why don’t you be a good girl and show me to the library?” he said.

From his expression, Delilah suspected that talking to Nathan was no longer uppermost in his mind. She was tempted to tell him to come back later. She didn’t like him and never had.

“I’ll tell Mrs. Noyes you’re here.”

“I don’t want to see that bitch” Oliver said sharply.

“You keep a decent tongue in your head, Tom Oliver, or you’ll go right back out the door.”

“You going to chuck me out?” he asked, an insolent smile showing a mouth full of straight, strong teeth.

“There are half a dozen men within the sound of my voice.”

“Just take me to the library,” Oliver growled.

“Follow me,” Delilah said, feeling rather pleased with the way she’d handled him.

She opened the library door, walked inside, then stepped aside to allow Tom to enter.

The room was completely paneled in honey-colored pine adorned with fluted pilasters and rosetted capitals. Eight bookcases were set into the wall and fronted with glass. A Chippendale slant-front desk and corner chair sat between the fireplace and the two windows which looked out over the garden and down to the river. Two tall-backed Windsor chairs were set against the far wall with a butterfly drop-leaf table between them, and a high-backed settle stood against the near wall. Between the two windows was a tilt-top table.

Before Delilah could guess Oliver’s intentions, he pulled the door out of her hands and kicked it shut. Then he trapped her in the corner, his large physique between her and the rest of the room.

“Now, my pretty, scream all you want and see who’ll hear you.”

Delilah wasn’t afraid of him, but she didn’t like the situation.

“Don’t be foolish,” she said, hoping her face revealed none of the apprehension in her heart. “If you’re trying to show me you’re bigger than I am, you’ve made your point.”

“You always were a haughty female,” Oliver retorted, remembering past rebuffs. “Always thinking you were too good for most people.”

“Not too good. Just not interested.”

“Not interested?” Tom asked. His eyes gleamed lecherously. “I bet you’d change your mind for the right person.”

“Not interested, period,” Delilah insisted.

“I find that hard to believe. A good-looking gal like you ought to be wanting a man.”

“A man, perhaps. It’s overgrown boys I have no time for.”

“I’m a man now.” Oliver pushed his body up against Delilah until she could feel the swelling at his groin.

“If you were a man, you wouldn’t think of attempting to trap me in a corner and steal a kiss,” Delilah said contemptuously. “Now get out of my way. I’ve got work to do.” She tried to get past him on one side and then the other, but he blocked her.

“Always trying to run away.”

“That’s been part of your trouble from the beginning,” Delilah said, placing her hands on her hips and facing him squarely. “You never could tell the difference between a girl who was running away and one who was turning her back on you.”

Oliver turned dark red with anger. “You won’t turn your back on me this time.”

He spun her around to face him as she tried to move past, grabbing her shoulders and burying his fingers in the soft muscle between Delilah’s neck and shoulder. The pain was intense.

She raised her arms to push him aside. At the same time she shrugged her shoulders, breaking his hold.

“I’ll always turn my back on the likes of you.”

Tom grabbed her arms and pulled her up against him. “Not until I find out whether you’re worth half what you think you are.”

Delilah’s head spun. Surely he couldn’t have meant what that sounded like. No man would think of forcing himself on her in another man’s house.

“I’ve been wondering if it’s you filling out that dress or cotton wadding.”

The worst of her fears receded. Anger took their place. There’s nothing false about me, Tom Oliver.”

Delilah feinted to her right. When his grip held, she kicked him in the shins as hard as she could. He yelled in pain and lost his grip, but he was able to block the door.

“You’ll pay for that, you little bitch,” he growled. He dashed toward the Windsor chair she was hiding behind and sent it spinning across the floor out of his way. When Delilah hid behind a second chair, Oliver threw it aside as well.

“I’ll kick you again if you touch the,” she said between pants.

“Bitch,” Oliver roared. He came after her again. This time he overturned the table between them. “When I get my hands on you I’ll—

"You won’t do anything because you’re not man enough.”

That was too much for Oliver, and he came at Delilah over the upended table. She screamed and dived behind the desk. As she scrambled out the other side, the door burst open and Serena Noyes’s horrified gaze took in the upheaval.

“What is the meaning of this?” she demanded.

“That bitch threw herself at the” Oliver said before Delilah could get to her feet. “When I told her I’d have none of her, she kicked the. She upset the room to keep the from getting my hands on her.”

Delilah brushed the dust off her dress and straightened her clothing.

“I did nothing of the kind” she said with a calm dignity Serena couldn’t help but respect. “I wouldn’t have anything to do with Tom Oliver before he married. I certainly wouldn’t tempt him to be indiscreet when he’s about to become a father.”

“You can’t believe a farm bitch,” Oliver said to Serena. They’ll do anything to attract the attention of a man with a little bit of money.”

Serena looked confused. She found it hard to believe that Delilah would attempt to seduce Tom Oliver. It wasn’t like her. On the other hand, Oliver was a man of her own station. How could she not believe him? Besides, he was married, about to become a father. Such a man wouldn’t waste his time on the sister of a poor yeoman farmer. Still, Serena didn’t really believe Tom. But she had been looking for a chance to get rid of Delilah. She couldn’t pass up this one.

“I never wanted you here,” she said, turning on Delilah. “I told my nephew you would cause trouble, but I never dreamed of this, not even from one of your kind.”

“You say ‘one of your kind’ like that again, Serena Noyes, and the bruise on Tom’s shin won’t be anything to what I do to your face,” Delilah announced. She was utterly furious, madder than she had ever thought possible. Oddly enough she wasn’t that angry at Tom. She had expected something crude from him. She wasn’t even too upset that Serena had sided wth him. She had expected that, too.

What
did
make her so mad she was ready to fight them both with her bare hands was that she would be considered guilty of something she hadn’t done, especially such a sordid act. It made her even madder to know she was defenseless. No one had seen it. No one in the house would take her side.

“I want you out of this house in half an hour,” Serena decreed. “And don’t leave anything behind.”

Delilah started to object, but realized she had no ground to stand on. She faced Serena squarely, her eyes looking directly into the older woman’s, and for a long moment did not speak, the silence of the room becoming heavier the longer it lasted. Serena squirmed uncomfortably, but didn’t turn away.

“I always knew you disliked the,” Delilah said at last, “but I gave you credit for common decency. You know Tom Oliver’s lying, but you choose to accept his obscene accusation because it suits your convenience. It doesn’t matter to you that my reputation may be ruined or my family may lose their only means of making a living. You’re a sick, twisted woman, Serena Noyes. I pity you.”

Serena shrank back as if she had been struck.

“You stop talking to Mrs. Noyes like that, or I’ll take a whip to you,” Oliver threatened.

“You so much as lay a finger on me, Tom Oliver, and I’ll leave a set of scratches down your cheek you’ll not see the end of for a month. How will you explain that to your wife?” Delilah was so furious her whole body shook.

Oliver drew back in some confusion.

“I’ll pack my things and leave immediately.”

“What’s going on?” Nathan demanded from the door. “Why are you packing?”

No one had heard him come in. Delilah looked up to see confusion on his face. Even in the midst of the most all-consuming rage she had ever experienced, she was affected by his physical presence. The two powerful emotions battled briefly within her, and her physical response to Nathan won. Her rage at Tom and Serena started to subside with astonishing speed. Within seconds, it might never have existed.

“I thought you wanted to stay until you’d paid off your brother’s debt.”

Delilah couldn’t answer. How could she accuse one of his friends of lewd behavior, his aunt of using a lie to get rid of her?

“I’m waiting for an answer.” He might have been speaking to all three of them, but he was looking at Delilah.

She shook her head helplessly.

“You can’t just shake your head. I want to know why you’re leaving.” When Delilah didn’t answer, he turned to Serena. “Can you tell me?” His aunt opened her mouth to speak, but Delilah sent her a look so filled with rage that her mouth slammed shut. “Have you also fallen dumb?” Nathan asked Oliver.

“Hell, no” Tom said, as he shot Delilah a look of triumph. “The little whore made a pass at me, and Serena told her to get out.”

The last word had barely escaped his mouth when a powerful blow from Nathan’s fist sent him crashing to the floor between an overturned chair and a broken table.

He lay still.

“Now,” Nathan said, turning to the two women, “will one of you tell me the truth.”

Serena looked from Tom to Nathan and back to Tom, horrorstruck. Then she sank into a chair, one hand at her throat, the other at her breast. Speechless, she stared at Nathan.

“Well,” he said, looking to Delilah.

He hadn’t turned a hair. He wasn’t even breathing hard, yet Tom Oliver lay unconscious in the middle of the library floor.

“Tom … he … I can’t … I really didn’t …”

“Don’t try to explain that nonsense,” Nathan said impatiently. “Whatever happened, I know you didn’t make a pass at Tom Oliver.”

Delilah looked at him in amazement, a great weight lifting from her chest. “How could you know that?”

“I haven’t been around you this long without coming to a fair estimation of your character. I wouldn’t put it past you to stick a knife between my shoulder blades or to tell your brother and his friends everything that goes on here, but you wouldn’t steal so much as a crumb even if you were starving—and you wouldn’t make a pass at any man under any conditions.”

Delilah’s world turned upside down.

She had known for days her feeling for Nathan had become more than a mere physical attraction. So many things had happened to show her he wasn’t we man she had first believed him to be, but it had never occurred to her he would concern himself with her character. She had certainly never imagined he’d believe her rawer wan Serena or one of his friends.

Yet he had. Without hesitation.

The realization of what this meant made her so weak she wanted to sink down onto a chair as Serena had. But she didn’t. She stood facing him.

“Tom Oliver brought a message for you. When you weren’t here, he got fresh. It made him angry when I rebuffed him.”

She stopped. She didn’t want to say any more.

“Is that all? I don’t see how that accounts for the state of we library.”

Delilah looked down at Oliver. He was a weak man, but she really didn’t dislike him.

That was all,” Delilah said. She sneaked a glance at Serena, who hadn’t moved.

Then I suppose I shall have to have him arrested.”

“Why?”

“He must be drunk. He broke up my house. He could have become violent.”

Delilah knew what Nathan was doing. “You would really have him arrested?”

“Certainly.”

“Even though you know that’s not true?”

“How could I know that? No one has told the we truth.”

Delilah didn’t see how learning the truth was going to help anybody, but she couldn’t allow Tom Oliver to be arrested.

“I made Tom mad.”

“How?”

“Some things I said.”

“What things?”

“I told him he wasn’t very attractive.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“No. Why did you tell him? You don’t make a habit of being rude.”

“He always resented me because I wasn’t attracted to him.”

“And?”

“He threatened me.”

“How?”

“He didn’t say.”

“But you were able to keep away from him?”

“If I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been on his feet for you to knock down.”

Delilah’s spurt of temper made Nathan grin. “Now tell me why you were getting ready to leave.”

Again Delilah fidgeted. She knew she had to tell him this time. She was just trying to decide how much to tell.

“Mrs. Noyes came in on us. Oliver told her I had made advances, kicked him when he’d turned me down.”

“So why were you leaving?”

“It’s impossible to keep a servant such as Tom said I was. Mrs. Noyes had no choice but to tell me to leave”

“But he was lying.”

“How could she know that?”

“I did.”

That was unanswerable.

“I promised your brother you’d be safe. I obviously haven’t done a good job.” He looked down at Oliver, who had begun to moan. “Get up,” Nathan ordered. When Tom didn’t move, Nathan roughly hauled him to his feet. “You’re not to come to this house—ever again.” The fires of deep anger flamed in his eyes once more. “If you have a message for me, send it by someone else.”