wasted my time. No more. Get up now. We have a distance to go.”
No one helped me. I managed to turn over and come up on my hands and knees, then
slowly, I managed to stand. I hugged George against me. My derringer, I thought,
was tucked still snug against my waist, but I had to wait to use it. It held
only one bullet, just one.
It had taken them hours to track me down. They had caught me because their
horses were fresh. They must have changed them in the village. If only I had
dared the risk, I might still be free.
My husband looked as dark as the devil, standing there in front of me, wrapped
in a black cloak, black gloves on his hands. “I underestimated you, Andrea. No,
I won’t call you Andy anymore?a ridiculous name. I had to pretend to enjoy that
affectation to keep you trusting and content. You might even have escaped had I
not decided to drug you. Perhaps a servant would have walked past your
bedchamber and heard you yelling or perhaps hitting a chair against the door.
Yes, I realized that you wouldn’t just stay quiet in there, waiting for me to
come back for you. I was bringing a nice drug to pour down your throat. I was
quite surprised to walk in to a very cold, very empty, room. It was frigid,
really, since you had left the window wide open. I would have killed you had I
caught you then. But I didn’t, lucky for you. I am calm now, and I have you
again, and now it is all over.”
I stood there, breathing easily again, staring up at the man I had trusted, the
man whose affection for me I had believed was deep and abiding, at least at
first, at least before that old woman had appeared in my bedchamber with a knife
raised. Lies, all of it lies, a ruse. But to gain him what?
“What happens now, my lord?will you take me back and lock me in The Blue Room?
Will you bar the windows again as you barred them for Caroline?”
The wind swirled his cloak around his boots. “Do be quiet, you stupid girl. You
don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I? I know that you lied to me. Caroline did not walk that ledge into
another room that was unlocked so she could make her way to the north tower.
There is no other room before the ledge stops at the chimney. What did you do to
Caroline?” But of course I knew. He had killed her. He had thrown her from that
balcony so high above the flagstone walkway below. He knew exactly what I was
thinking. I could see it on his face. And so, because it didn’t matter, I said,
“You forced her to the north tower, and you hurled her from the balcony, didn’t
you?” .
He drew back his arm. I saw his black-gloved fist.
I saw the rage on his face, the venom in his eyes, and knew I should have kept
quiet. I knew he would hit me hard, perhaps break my jaw. No time, no time to
save myself.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Flynt’s shout cut through the air. “My lord. Best not to hit her. You just might
kill her by accident. It’s too soon. Not yet.”
Lawrence slowly drew back his fist. Instead of striking me, he took my arm and
twisted it up behind me until I couldn’t suppress the hiss of pain in my throat.
“Do not provoke me again, madam.”
He released my arm and gave me a shove. I was off balance. I fell, landing at
Flynt’s feet.
“Just look at what she has done to John’s horse,” Lawrence said. “She’s ridden
him into the ground, the bitch.”
I was on my feet again, not to try to run because I knew I wouldn’t get far,
what with Flynt right at my elbow. I hated him with every fiber of my being. “Listen
to me, old man. You would have ridden him into the ground as well, were you
trying to escape a madman.”