Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) (31 page)

“Jackie, promise your old Granny you won’t be doin’ that no more. Mr. Kingsley keeps to himself and don’t want no little tadpole trailin’ after him. Hear now?”

Her face and voice had softened and Jackie eagerly nodded his understanding. He wouldn’t follow after his father any more. Realizing Hattie had forgiven his transgression, he grew brave. “When can I see Miss Diana?”

Hattie stirred the stew. “You know Miss Diana’s in Charlestown with Mr. Tanner … at least for now.” Hattie’s forehead puckered with lines.

“Naw, Granny, she’s in the cellar. I done heard her talkin’ to Mr. Kingsley.”

“Jackie! I’m gonna take this here spoon to your bottom for tellin’ tales.”

“I ain’t, Granny, I heard…”

“Go on outside and start choppin’ that wood out back for the stove. Maybe doin’ chores will keep you from thinkin’ up stories.”

“Yes’m,” was Jackie’s response. He went behind the woodshed and found his little ax. Tears gathered in his eyes. He disliked being eight years old. No one ever believed him or took him seriously, everyone was always telling him what to do. And now Granny Hattie had accused him of making up stories, but he knew what he had heard.

Wiping his nose on the cuff of his jacket, he managed not to cry. “One day I’m gonna be big and nobody gonna tell me what to do. And people will believe what I say.” With that, he industriously commenced chopping the pine into kindling for the stove.

23

“Stop acting so petulant, Diana, and eat up. See, Hattie made her special sweet potato pie because she knows how much I like it. Go on, be a good girl and eat.” Kingsley pushed the plate toward her, a coaxing grin on his face.

Diana barely looked at it. “I’m not hungry and I’m not your child bride any longer. You can’t force me to do what I don’t want to do.”

“Hmm, Tanner must be responsible for such rebellious talk, and for your sudden spunkiness. I don’t think I care for this new you.”

Diana’s eyes glittered dangerously and Kingsley backed off. “I don’t care what you like! I want to get out of here. For God’s sake I’m having a child and I feel awful. Haven’t you any compassion, if not for me then for my baby? I could lose my baby.”

“I know,” was Kingsley’s quick retort, but Diana didn’t hear one iota of sympathy or guilt in his tone.

From where she stood, her back against the cellar wall, fearful to sit or recline in Kingsley’s presence thereby to give him the advantage of height, Diana felt a great wave of nausea rush over her. Kingsley didn’t care about her or her child. She suddenly realized that he’d kidnapped her to assuage his own perverted sense of vengeance. Tanner had taken her away from him, and now he had done the same. Whether Tanner was dead or alive didn’t matter to Kingsley, because it was the deed that counted. Though she felt horribly sick, she had to get away. She’d considered trying to knock him down and run, but she couldn’t summon the strength. Her head hurt, her very bones ached. Perhaps she could appeal to Kingsley’s logic.

“Keeping me down here isn’t accomplishing anything,” she told him. “Please allow me to go upstairs.”

He shook his head, and incredible pleasure shone in his eyes. “You’re wrong, my dear wife. The longer I keep you here in the cellar, the more your soul is purged of the wrongs you committed against me with that half-breed.”

“I never did anything against you, Kingsley.”

“Ah, but you did. Kindly remember the night of our engagement ball, when I found you writhing beneath the bastard like a bitch in heat. And then after we were married you were pining away for him, I know you were. Sometimes you’d get a dreamy look in your eyes, and I knew you were thinking about him. After I was declared dead, you wasted little time in marrying him. Tell me you never wronged me, Diana. Lie to me now.”

Kingsley grabbed her and pulled her against him, startling her with the suddenness of the action and frightening her immeasurably with the potential violence that hovered below the surface. “Yes, you should look afraid, you should tremble from fear. At this very moment I could lay you down and have my way with you and no one would hear your pitiful cries for help. This time my father can’t come to your rescue, and that’s another wrong you’ve committed against me. He loved you more than me. He put your welfare over mine, and I was his son.” He smiled wickedly and whispered into her ear. “Now you might have a son — Tanner’s child. I’d say it would be poetic justice that I take the child as my own, and as for you, dear Diana, you belong to me already. I’m your husband still, not Tanner.”

“Don’t … don’t,” Diana begged. She knew she was begging but her pride deserted her. She recognized the lust in his eyes, felt the heat of his hands upon her arms, tightening around her like freshly forged steel. Kingsley was insane and strong enough to rape her. He could harm her, force her to miscarry, and if she lost her child, she’d lose her mind. She had to think of  something, anything, to prevent the inevitable and unendurable pain that would follow. Suddenly she knew what it was that aroused Kingsley to act like this. It was her fear of him that gave him power. If she didn’t act afraid …

Diana yawned in his face, somehow able to control her shivering, her voice, and her facial features. “Heavens, you’re a tiresome fellow with all of this silliness. And I’m quite exhausted playing along with you.”

“What do you mean, playing along with me? I’m the one who has the upper hand here, Diana.”

Suspicion crossed his face, and Diana realized what a weakling Kingsley truly was. “I’m a different woman than I was when we were married. To be honest with you, Tanner has taught me a number of things about passion that you overlooked, Kingsley. Perhaps instead of your having your way with me, I should give you a few pointers about how to please a woman, because either your Charlestown whores were inept in their tutorship or else you were a poor pupil. So take your hands off me. I’m not the cowering wife you remember.”

Diana was more than stunned when he let her go and backed away from her. “No, you’re the same,” he remarked. “Maybe you’re not as frightened of me as you used to be, but you still hate me. You think that I’ll let you out of here if you’re no longer afraid of me, but I won’t. You’d go blabbing to everybody about me, and I can’t have that. But I wouldn’t turn you out into the cold with a child growing in your belly. Your defiance leads me to believe that I want your little bastard more than I originally thought. You know how much I wanted an heir, and now, my dear, you’re going to give me one.”

The breath caught in her throat, nearly choking her. “What … what are you going to do with me, with my baby?”

“Well, I’ll tell you,” he said and rubbed his hands together. “There are two choices, and I trust you’ll think on both of them well. You will have the child and I’ll claim it, and maybe allow you to stay on at Briarhaven and be my wife, servicing me with the new tricks Tanner taught you. A fit punishment since you detest me so much. Or, if you don’t behave by keeping your mouth shut about me, and that includes never back talking or insinuating by word or deed your unhappiness, you’ll find yourself in one of the fanciest whorehouses in Charlestown. And I know the high regard you hold for those ladies. Maybe, if you get very good at your trade and aren’t too used by the gentlemen who frequent you, I might even take a turn with you myself.”

“I’ll run away and take the baby with me.” From where did the courage come to say that? Her body quivered with disgust and fear, but she wasn’t going to give in like a docile dog.

“You may, but I’ll find you, and I guarantee you’ll never make it home alive.”

“Kill me now, then. I’d rather be dead and take my child with me than ever give in to you!”

“Think it over, Diana,” he commented with more calm than she expected.

Kingsley left the cellar, locking her inside. For once she was too overcome with hatred and despair to try the knob or beat upon the door.

~ ~ ~

Annabelle was unprepared for the sound of voices coming from downstairs so late at night. She looked at the clock on the mantle and noticed the time was quarter past twelve. Curious, she got out of bed and pulled on her robe, but she grew even more curious when she noticed that Tanner’s door was ajar and that he wasn’t in his room. Just then Cammie came bustling up the stairs, followed by two little girls and a boy.

“These are Mrs. Sheridan’s sister’s children,” Cammie explained when she saw Annabelle’s puzzled look. I’m taking them up to the attic bedroom to settle them in for the night. Their folks are downstairs in the parlor with Mr. Tanner, but I wouldn’t go down right now.”

“Why ever not!” Annabelle was affronted that this servant woman, who was little better than a slave, should tell her what not to do.

Cammie’s eyes flashed. “Because he’s telling Mrs. Richmond about her sister and I don’t think he wants you down there at a sad time like this.”

Annabelle’s hands clutched at her white throat. “Have … have they found Diana yet?”

“No, Miss Hastings.” Without further word, Cammie ushered the three sleepy children forward but waited for an old black woman to catch up with them. The woman wept into a kerchief and Cammie put her arm around the woman’s shoulders. “Don’t cry, Ruthie. Mr. Tanner’s doing all he can to find Mrs. Sheridan.”

“I know,” Ruthie said brokenly. “But I held that child in my arms before her own mama. Miss Diana is like my baby girl. Oh, poor Miss Anne. What she gonna do without her sister? They loved each other so much.” Cammie comforted Ruthie again and they disappeared up the attic stairway.

Annabelle couldn’t help but groan. Now she had to contend with a houseful of Diana’s relatives, who’d be constantly there to remind Tanner of her. She clenched her fists, rushed into her room, and slammed the door behind her.

~ ~ ~

In the parlor, Anne wept softly against David’s shoulder.

“We didn’t have any idea we’d be coming home to such tragic news,” David explained to Tanner, who sat across from them as still as a brooding, morose statue. “And we wouldn’t have returned now, with the British still being here. As it was, we had to sneak into town. But Anne,” he looked at his wife and kissed the top of her head, “Anne wanted to see Diana. God, I can’t believe any of this!”

“I
don’t
believe any of it!” Tanner exploded and jumped up from his chair and paced the room restlessly. “People tell me to stop hoping that she’ll turn up alive, but I can’t. I don’t feel that she’s gone — in here.” He roughly tapped the spot by his heart.

Anne lifted her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. “Is anyone searching for her?”

“I have people scouting the area, under the direction of a man named Mike Candy. But so far no one knows anything.”

“She isn’t dead, Tanner.” Anne’s face brightened with hope.

“Anne, now don’t start imagining…” David began.

“David,” Anne’s tone was frosty, “I’m not imagining anything. Tanner’s hopeful and so am I. Diana isn’t dead, I know she’s alive somewhere. And we’re going to find her, we will, but until that time, we’ll stay here with Tanner. He needs looking after, and I know Diana would want me to see to him while she’s gone.”

Tanner couldn’t help smiling. Anne made Diana’s absence sound almost as if she’d gone on a short sojourn from which she would soon return. Yet Tanner didn’t dispute Anne. Evidently that was her way of dealing with the tragedy, and he approved. At least Anne had hopes of finding her sister, unlike Annabelle, who hoped Diana was dead. He shivered to recall Annabelle’s heartless remarks.

Tanner sat beside Anne and kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Anne. I very much appreciate your care, and you’re all very welcome to stay here for as long as you like.”

David acknowledged Tanner’s invitation, but he shook his head regretfully. “We’re returning to our home on the morrow.”

“No, you aren’t,” Tanner told them. “Brace yourselves, but some British soldiers are quartered there. The city is overrun with them, now that they’ll soon be leaving our shores.”

“Oh, no!” came Anne’s strangled cry.

“It will be over soon.” Tanner comforted her. “Within the next few days, they’ll all be gone.”

“I hope so,” Anne said, and that sentiment was silently echoed by Tanner and David as well.

~ ~ ~

 
“
Looks like we’re going to be in for a spell of bad weather,” David commented two days later as he and Tanner sat on the piazza.

Tanner had noticed the dark clouds that malevolently pushed aside the blue ones. He felt about as black inside. No word of Diana yet, but he wouldn’t give up hope, even though with each day the possibility that she was alive faded. Clenching his hands into tight fists, he braced himself from moaning aloud his torment. “We need the rain,” he said instead. “This sudden heat wave’s been oppressive.”

Tanner felt David watching him. “Diana will be found,” David told him and smiled.

“If I were able to search for her…”

“You’ll be able to soon. Remember what the doctor said, any vigorous activity might start you bleeding again. You need time to heal, but I’ll admit that you’re healthier looking today than when we arrived. Your color is better and your face is fuller, probably because of all that tonic Anne is force-feeding you.”

Despite his preoccupation with Diana’s plight, Tanner laughed. “That has to be the most awful tasting brew this side of the Atlantic, but Anne means well and I appreciate the fact that she cares about me.”

“She does. We all do, Tanner. In case I never adequately expressed my gratitude to you for what you’ve done for my family, for me, let me do it now.” David extended his hand and Tanner shook it.

Tanner smiled, finally feeling as if he were part of a family, as if he truly belonged. If only Diana was found, then his life would be perfect.