The Seduction (56 page)

What were they going to do with her? A vendetta, Lucci had said. Vengeance. She shuddered, and fear began seeping into her soul. Her imagination, overactive at the best of times, was already picturing many possible fates, none of them pleasant. She closed her eyes and said a prayer that Trevor would rescue her.

Trevor knew every inch of the countryside around Ashton Park, including Purvis Lodge. It was surrounded by a dense stand of chestnut and maple trees and covered by tangled ivy vines and the canes of climbing roses gone wild. With its boarded windows and thorny roses, it seemed impenetrable.

Crouching low in the dense shrubbery, he moved silently around the perimeter of the house until he could see the front, where two men stood on the steps, pistols in hand, smoking cigars and speaking Italian in low voices. Lucci was not one of them.

As he hunkered down in the thick undergrowth and studied the two men standing guard, he began considering his options. He could wait for Edward to arrive with the magistrate and his men, but the idea of relying on a country magistrate to save Maggie worried him. In all likelihood, Mr. Shelton would just go barging in, and Maggie would get hurt. He wanted reinforcements who would haul Lucci off to jail, but he didn't want them to do anything stupid.

He fumbled on the ground and grabbed a pair of fist-sized stones. He tossed them into the forest at his right and watched the men lift their heads sharply at the sound. They looked at each other and nodded, then one of them put out his cigar and came around the side of the house with his pistol raised, passing about twenty feet in front of Trevor as he circled the house. Another well-thrown rock led the man into the forest at the back of the lodge, and Trevor followed silently behind him. The man paused amid the trees, looking around with some uncertainty, and Trevor jumped him, the gun falling from his hand and knocking him unconscious with a blow to the head.

One man out of the way, he thought with relief. Three more to go. He took the man's gun, dumped out the bullets, and tossed the weapon into the underbrush. Then he crept back around to the front to wait and watch. It didn't take long for the second guard to become impatient. He paced restlessly in front of the door for several moments, then looked down each side of the house.

A prudent man would have alerted Lucci at this point, but Trevor was counting on past experience in dealing with
Lucci's
men. Instead of facing his employer, who would be outraged, the guard would attempt to investigate the situation on his own. As expected, the man came around the side of the house exactly as the other had done. Trevor jumped him, and within seconds, another unconscious Italian lay on the ground. Trevor disarmed' him, then circled back to the front of the house and slipped noiselessly inside.
That's two.

He could hear Margaret's voice coming from the room on his right, which, if he remembered correctly, was the drawing room. Relief flooded through him at the sound of her voice. She seemed to be all right for the moment.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"Signora," Lucci answered her, "if you don't shut your mouth, I will gag you. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she murmured and fell silent.

Lucci spoke again, this time in Italian. "I find myself growing bored with this game, Antonio. Do you think St. James has sweated enough over his wife's abduction? Perhaps we should send for him and end his suspense."

"Whatever you think, Lucci," the other man replied. "Do you want me to go?"

"No. Send
Stephano
. I don't want Trevor using you as a hostage to trade for his wife."

Trevor was back outside before Lucci finished speaking, knowing he had the perfect opportunity to get rid of
Lucci's
third man. He waited beside the door, his back against the wall, listening as Antonio's footsteps approached. The moment he stepped outside, Trevor seized him, clamping one hand over his mouth and jamming the point of his pistol against the other man's temple. "Don't make a sound, Antonio," he murmured, "not one sound, or I'll blow your brains out. We're going to take a little walk."

He pushed Antonio down the front steps and guided him into the cover of the trees. In a lightning- quick move, Trevor slammed the butt of his gun against the other man's neck. Antonio's body slumped to the ground.
That's three.

"All right, Lucci," he muttered as he started back toward the house, "now it's just us."

When he reentered the house, it was silent. He slipped over to the drawing room, but he didn't dare look inside and risk being seen. He waited.

If he were lucky, Margaret and Lucci would start talking again, enabling him to determine their positions inside the room. If he were very lucky, Lucci would start wondering why Antonio did not reappear and would come to investigate.

A long, tense silence passed, then Lucci spoke, and Trevor knew today was not his lucky day. "It seems my brother has met with some sort of mishap," he said loudly. "I think, St. James, it would be best if you joined us."

Damn.
Trevor didn't move, hoping Lucci was only guessing, but the other man's next words dashed that hope.

"I can see you quite clearly in the glass doors, my friend."

Trevor looked to his left, saw his reflection in the closed French doors that led into a library, and cursed himself for not noticing them the moment he entered the house.

He let out his breath in a slow hiss between his teeth and stepped inside the drawing room, holding his hands up with his gun pointed toward the ceiling. He glanced past Margaret, who was bound hand and foot to the chair in which she sat, and saw Lucci standing behind her. He also saw the gun Lucci had pressed beneath her jaw.

Lucci smiled. "You should have noticed the doors, Trevor. Very sloppy."

"I'm getting too old for skulking about, it seems."

"Drop the gun on the floor and kick it away."

Trevor did so. Keeping his eyes on Lucci, he asked, "Are you all right, Maggie?"

"Yes."

Lucci stepped back, relaxing slightly now that Trevor's gun was safely across the room. "As you can see, she is well enough. For the moment." He studied Trevor for a few seconds, then he said, "You are here sooner than I had intended."

"You underestimated me," Trevor answered and smiled back at the other man. "But then, you always did."

Lucci's
face hardened. "It doesn't matter. But I confess, I am curious. How did you know where to find me?"

"You must be accustomed to stoic Arabic servants. English
kitchenmaids
are a much more talkative lot. They can't help bragging to other servants about their handsome suitors."

"My brother is a handsome man, isn't he?"

"He's also lying in a heap in the woods, unconscious: He'll have a hell of a headache when he wakes up. The other two are back behind the house, and I doubt they'll be able to help you either. When are you going to learn to hire thugs with some intelligence?"

Lucci shook his head. "You shouldn't have done that. Ah, well, it doesn't matter now. You are here, which is exactly what I wanted."

"Now that I'm here, why don't you let her go? She's of no use to you now."

"Oh, but she is," Lucci replied, placing his free hand on Margaret's left shoulder. "She is going to prove very useful to me. In fact, when you are dead, I think I'll keep her. I've become quite fond of her." He slid his hand upward, his fingertips fanning across her cheek. Margaret made a sound of agitation, and Trevor took an involuntary step forward.

Lucci tightened his grip on the pistol. "Don't move."

Trevor froze, watching in silent agony as Lucci twined his fist in Margaret's hair and jerked her head back. With his pistol still poised beneath her jaw, he pressed a wet kiss to her cheek, his eyes gleaming with expectation as he studied Trevor's face.

He wanted a reaction. This was to be his vengeance—Margaret's degradation as he watched, helpless to stop it. He refused to play up. Folding his arms across his chest, he forced a look of bored amusement to his face. "All this for a woman? If you wanted her, you should have just said so."

Margaret, thankfully, did not react to his indifferent attitude. She sat motionless and silent, and Trevor hoped she understood what he was doing.
Lucci's
reaction was not so circumspect. He straightened and moved his hand to her breast, cupping it in his hand. "She is very lovely."

Margaret turned her face away, her expression one of repugnance and fear. Trevor's guts tightened at the sight, but he merely shrugged. "I suppose so."

"She is your wife. How can you be so callous?"

Trevor pretended to suddenly understand. "Ah, now I see what this is all about. You found out about my little tryst with your wife, and now you are thinking to gain some kind of revenge by having mine." He shook his head. "Lucci, really, after all this time, don't you know me better than that?"

Lucci straightened and let go of Margaret. "What do you mean?"

Trevor knew that if he and Maggie ever got out of this alive, he was going to have a lot of explaining to do. "Well, you know how I feel about women. They're pleasant enough, but hardly worth getting all desperate about."

"But she is your wife!" Lucci shouted, clearly becoming frustrated by Trevor's refusal to play the game.

"So? She's also a wealthy American, and now I have control of her money."

"You married her for money?"

"Of course I did! Why else would a man get married?"

Lucci took a step toward him, enraged. "I married for love!" he cried.

Trevor looked at him with pity. "You mean you went to all this trouble because I slept with Isabella and you were jealous?"

"You didn't just sleep with her!" Lucci stared at him, his face twisted with pain and loathing. "You defiled her, you raped her. You bastard! She tried to fight you off, but—"

"What?" Trevor stared at him for a moment, then he started to laugh. "You must be mad."

"I knew you would deny it."

"Of course I deny it." He made a sound of contempt. "No woman is worth that kind of trouble. What other lies did she tell you?"

"You are the one who lies, Trevor. Isabella would never lie to me!"

"Lucci, Isabella would lie to God if she thought she could get away with it. I know you don't want to hear this, but Isabella invited me into her bed. I didn't rape her." As he spoke, Trevor cast his mind back to that night in Cairo, desperately searching for anything that
might help him now. "I can prove it. You were away in Alexandria on business when I was with her, and I know you returned three days after I left. How was she when you arrived home? Was she injured? If she tried to fight me off as she claims, were there bruises on her?"