Susan Spencer Paul (27 page)

“Come, now, Alex,” John chided, “you would have to ask Lillis to have your answer, would you not? Even she had the good sense to leave you when she could. Now, please, stop trying to free yourself. You cannot escape, so you’d best keep your temper and save your strength. Suffice it to say, Cousin, that no man is worthy of my Barbara and, in fact, she will never marry, or not for long, if she does. She will stay with her loving brother and I shall take care of her, as only I know how to do. Perhaps, if I can find some suitable old man to match her with in the future I shall, but you may be certain that he will die, too, once she is assured of inheriting a great deal from him, and then she will come back to me.”

“You,” Alexander said, “are insane.”

“Perhaps,” John agreed affably, “but I’m not the one who is about to die, am I? Perhaps being insane isn’t such a bad thing.”

“You are also a fool,” Alexander added.

John expressed a mild interest in these words. “How so?”

“You’ll never become the Lord of Gyer simply by killing me. I do have brothers, you know. Four of them, to be exact. Do you not think people will become suspicious if you start killing them off one by one?”

John leaned against the table and sighed. He shook his head and looked at Alexander with what might have passed for pity. “We’ve come to this so soon, have we? It’s just as well, since I really haven’t much time to spend with you. The truth, Alex, is that you don’t have four brothers. Well, you
do
have four brothers, but you
don’t
have four brothers who could inherit your title and estate. You only have two. Actually, as of now you only have one.”

An alarm went off in Alexander’s head. Until that moment the threat of danger had only been against himself, but now John talked of harming his brothers, his family. Damn! He had to get out of here!

“What are you saying?” he demanded, his fingers twisting in the ropes.

“Before I explain about your brothers, let me explain about my original plan,” John said. “I think it’s important that you understand everything before you die because I want you to suffer as finely as possible.” He smiled like a happy child with a new toy. “My original plan was for you and Barbara to marry and remain married for, oh, say three months or so before your death. I had intended for you to die on the battlefield, like a true knight of the realm. You and Willem both, I mean, for he had to go, as well, you understand, being next in line to the title. It was a very good plan, if I do say so, for even if your deaths had to be helped along a bit no one would have suspected foul play. You would have died as honorable warriors and all would have been well.”

Alexander almost laughed. “You
are
ready for the mad asylum, John. How is it that Willem and I were to die on the battlefield when there is no war? Were you going to start one yourself, or were you...going to...” His voice died away with sudden realization. His eyes met John’s, and when John began to laugh Alexander nearly went mad. He fought against his ropes until his arms were cut and bleeding. “Bastard!” he shouted. “You damned, demented, evil bastard! You were the one behind the trouble with Jaward, weren’t you?
Weren’t you?
”

John’s face lit with real pleasure. “I must admit, Cousin Alex, seeing you like this is better than I ever anticipated. Of course I was the one behind it. Do you begin to appreciate my brilliance now? Manipulating Jaward into building that dam was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. He was ripe with hatred for you, or rather, for your father. He wanted to see Gyer go down in flames, he did, and enjoyed every single second of suffering that your people went through.” He laughed. “A man after my own heart, he was. Whenever I brought him news of yet another field gone to rot he would actually smile, believe it or no, and there was a man whom it hurt to smile. Having his daughter marry Jason de Burgh was my idea, as well. I knew you would think they were going to join together against you, and that you would probably declare war on one or both of them. It was all going so perfectly, too, until the twins brought Lillis home.” He gave a sigh.

“And ruined all your plans.”

John nodded and looked momentarily displeased. “Those damned twins! I could have killed them for making such a ruin of my hard work, especially after you decided to marry Lillis. And Jaward! Lord! I’ve never seen a more degraded man in my life. I tried and tried to force him to hold firm against you, but he would not. The thought of his precious darling marrying you made him as weak and worthless as a newborn babe. I doubt anything has ever given me more satisfaction than killing that old man.”

Alexander felt as though he were suddenly suffocating. “You killed Jaward?” he said with disbelief.

John nodded and rested his hands on the edge of the table. “Strangled him,” he said. “It was quite pleasant, really. I should have liked to try it on you, save your neck is a good deal thicker than Jaward’s was and it might take too much time. Still, you cannot imagine what a good feeling it is to have someone’s neck in the power of your hands.” He lifted his hands in front of himself to demonstrate on a nonexistent neck. He twisted them in a convincing squeezing motion. “It’s warm and soft and pliable. Mmm. Most pleasant. Especially when you can feel the breath stop coming through. That’s the best part.” He dropped his hands back to the table. “Jaward didn’t put up much of a fight, being such a weak old man, but it was quite satisfactory nonetheless.”

Alexander thought for a dreadful moment that he was going to lose his midday meal. If John had truly killed Jaward then he was capable of doing anything—of killing anyone.

“You said I’ve only one brother left now who can inherit Gyer.” His voice was a hoarse whisper.

“Yes, that’s true,” replied John, “though you only had two full brothers who could do so to begin with. The twins, Hugh and Hugo, are only your half brothers, you see, and as you were present at their birthing, I don’t think I need explain that you are only related to them through your mother.”

Alexander was struck dumb, not so much by this revelation as by what John was leading up to. His heart began to beat more rapidly and his breathing sounded labored even to his own ears. His cousin seemed to be waiting for some response, but Alexander could not give it. He stared at John out of wide eyes and shook his head slightly.

“Aren’t you even going to accuse me of lying?” John asked with disappointment, like a spoiled child being denied a treat. “You didn’t know this already, did you? I made certain I should be the one to tell you!”

If he had proceeded to peevishly stamp his feet Alexander wouldn’t have been surprised. Since he was behaving like a child, perhaps it might be best to treat him as one. “I didn’t know,” he forced himself to say.

“Well, then, will you not demand to know who their real father is?”

Alexander shook his head mutely. He didn’t believe that Hugh and Hugo weren’t his full blood brothers, but what he thought didn’t matter. John obviously believed that they were not, and if the twins weren’t in John’s way then only Willem and Justin were left to dispose of, and John had said that only one of them was left now—

John huffed and made an impatient gesture. “Aren’t you going to at least have the decency to look shocked at discovering that your sainted mother was no better than the village whore? Oh, God! This is useless! If I didn’t know that I had better arrows left to aim at your heart I would kill you now and have done with it. But since you don’t seem to care about the status of your twin brothers, perhaps you’ll be interested to know what I’ve done regarding your remaining brothers.”

Dread seized Alexander so completely that he could barely think. He couldn’t keep the panic from his voice when he asked, shakily, “What—what have you done?”

John laughed, pleased. “That’s better. I can almost smell the fear in you now, Alex. So you want to know what I’ve done, do you? Well, I’ll tell you what I’ve not done first and let you worry a little longer. I have
not
harmed Justin. Not yet, anyway. I haven’t quite decided how much longer I shall let him live, especially since I shall be made his guardian and shall be able to control him until he comes of age. It wouldn’t do to kill him off too quickly, of course, because people might become suspicious if that were to happen. No, I believe I’ll wait and decide about Justin’s fate in, say, four or five more years. It won’t be necessary to harm Candis, so you needn’t worry over her. She shows every promise of growing into a very beautiful lady one day, and so will be more valuable alive than dead. I’ll wait until she’s twelve, perhaps, and then sell her to the highest bidder.” John smiled at the thought. “There are some men in England who will pay almost any price to obtain a beautiful young lady. Or perhaps, if I find her to my liking when she is a bit older, I’ll keep her for my own private pleasures.” He shrugged and scratched his chin. “But that is not your worry now, my lord.”

Every single word that came out of John’s mouth regarding his siblings sickened and enraged Alexander, but nothing could keep his mind from wanting to shout out the one question he wanted answered. “Willem,” he whispered, the very word an agony to say.

John chuckled and leaned forward as though he hadn’t clearly heard. “What was that, Lord Gyer? What did you say?”

Alexander felt hot and cold all at the same time. A shiver ran through his spine. “Willem,” he managed more loudly.

“Ah, you are asking me about Willem,” John returned pleasantly, moving forward so that he could squat in front of Alexander again. “You want to know what I have done to dear, kind Willem. Well, I shall tell you.” He stuck his nose right in front of Alexander’s. “I’ve killed him.” He leaned back after making this pronouncement and laughed out loud, thoroughly pleased.

Great drops of sweat poured down Alexander’s face, and his breath came in short, painful gasps. It wasn’t true, he told himself. It could not be true. This whole hellish nightmare was not true. “You lie,” he murmured, then again, more loudly, “You lie! Willem is not dead!”

John laughed so hard that he had to rest on his knees. He shook his head and laughed so that he couldn’t speak. Finally, gasping for breath between spurts of glee, he wiped his wet eyes and looked back at Alexander. “Oh, this is good, Alex. Truly good.” He wiped his eyes again. “This is what I’ve dreamed of for so very long. But you think that I am lying, do you? At last we have the insistence that I am lying.

Untying a small leather pouch from his belt, John said, “I’ve proof of what I say.” He opened the pouch and dug his fingers inside, carefully drawing out something that Alexander could not quite see in the dimness of the room. John held it up and Alexander’s sharp intake of breath made him giggle. “I thought you would recognize this,” he said merrily, “which is why I took it. You gave Willem this seal of honor yourself, did you not? It’s quite bloody at the moment and perhaps doesn’t look exactly as it should, but that couldn’t be helped. He always wore it over his heart, and I did place my arrow in just that spot. See, if you look closely you can see where the arrow nicked it.” He leaned forward and pointed with one finger to the spot he mentioned, then grinned fully into Alexander’s pained expression. “Good shot, don’t you think? I had a devil of a time cutting the seal off with that arrow in the way.”

“Oh, my God!” Alexander uttered, unable to stop the hot tears that stung his eyes. “Willem.” He collapsed against the chair and almost wished that John would kill him. The proof John had shown him was inarguable. Alexander couldn’t even say that his cousin had obtained the seal from some other source, for he’d only ever given that badge to one person, to Willem; there had never been another like it made. The thought that Willem was gone overwhelmed him. His head fell back and the tears streamed silently down his face. He sobbed imperceptibly. He was too stricken by his grief to more fully express it.

“Most satisfactory,” he heard John’s much hated voice say. “In truth, Alex, I shall carry this moment with me for the rest of my life and think of it often whenever I shall wish to lighten my mood. But enough.” He sighed. “It has been delightful, but I’m afraid I must kill you now and get going. I still have Lillis to attend to, you know.”

The sound of his beloved’s name coming from such foul lips and being spoken with such obvious intent sent Alexander into a frenzy. “Lillis?” he shouted, and reflexively lunged at John, knocking him over just before he, himself, hit the floor.

John didn’t seem offended by the limited attack, and quickly rose, brushing himself off and laughing. He stood over the place where Alexander lay struggling and watched him as though he were watching a very interesting bug.

Alexander, on the other hand, was experiencing feelings of horror and fury such as he had never known existed. “You filthy lunatic!” he raged, fighting the ropes with every ounce of strength in his body. “You do not dare to touch my wife! I will skin you alive if you so much as look in her direction! I will crush you like a flea beneath my palm! I will—”

John kicked him in the groin, twice, to silence him. The acute pain effectively quieted Alexander, as well as doubled him over, though it in no way lessened his wrath.

“Really, Alex, you are most amusing,” said John, “but as I have repeatedly told you, I don’t have any more time to spend with you. I realize you’re worried about your lovely wife and I do wish I could stay a little longer and enjoy your misery, but it’s a long ride to Wellewyn and I must be there as quickly as possible. I promise that Lillis won’t be made to suffer any more than you will. That will give you some small comfort as you are dying, will it not?” He sighed. “I must admit, I had at first planned to keep her alive and make her my mistress. You may find this difficult to believe, but I truly do have the greatest affection for the lovely Lillis. Such a beautiful woman! And so much fire, as well. We would have made the most striking couple. But, unfortunately, I received the unhappy information just this morn that she is very likely carrying your brat, and as I cannot risk the chance of her birthing a more legitimate heir to your title I think I must forego my own pleasures and kill her.” He looked toward his men. “Bring the poison, Miles. Aaron, hold him still, will you?”