Not until she felt him pressing against her, his knees wedging between hers and the hard bulge of his manhood nudging hotly against the juncture of her thighs with only his breeches to separate her flesh from his, did she realize what he meant.
“No!” She shoved at his jaw, managing to free her mouth from the devastating heat of his kiss, and tried to struggle free. But he had her backed up against the wall, and the sheer weight of his body held her in place. To Anna’s horror she discovered that, with her skirt bunched up and her thighs spread, she was helpless to prevent him from thrusting himself against her naked flesh. The hard, hot friction against that most intimate part of her made her lips part and her knees go weak. The softness of her inner thighs was abraded by the scratchiness of his wool breeches, his buttons dug into her stomach, and the wall behind her hurt her spine. But what she felt was not discomfort, not fear or panic or even outrage, but a sharp, hot longing that filled her with shame.
“Stop! How dare you? Let me go!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll not think any the less of you when we’ve finished.”
That snide whisper against her ear as his mouth slid along her cheek and down her throat made Anna catch her breath. What he was doing to her was only what he had done to her countless nights in her dreams, and her body quaked in hungry remembrance. But this—this was reality, and this man was not her dream lover but a dangerous stranger. They were in the front parlor at Srinagar, it was broad daylight with the door to the hall half open, and Ruby, Raja Singha, or even Chelsea could happen upon them at any moment. And he was treating her like a whore!
“Let me go!” Her voice gained strength even as his mouth slid down the front of her bodice to find her breast. She gasped, quivering, as the moist heat of his mouth burned through the thin layers of cloth to her nipple, scorching her flesh. The tiny bud hardened painfully. Anna’s back arched in instinctive response—and then she felt his hands between her legs, touching her there.
“You’re every bit as hot as I thought you’d be.” It was a husky murmur.
“Get your hands off me!”
He paid her no heed. His fingers stroked her dampening flesh, leaving fire in their wake as they gently explored clefts and crevices, while she stood frozen with a dreadful mixture of humiliation and desire. Then, to her horror, she felt him fumbling with the buttons to his breeches.…
One part of her, the shameful, animal part, quivered and quaked and ached for him, whispering for her to acquiesce, to permit him to finish this wickedness that he had begun. Her mouth went dry and her heart pounded deafeningly. The raging fire that he had kindled inside her with his first kisses had lain not quite dormant, smoldering for months, and had needed only his touch to stoke it to white heat. Now she needed him, wanted him, to put out the conflagration. Dear Lord, her body hungered for him!
But the other part of her, the decent part, the part that had been born and bred a lady, knew sheer horror at her own depravity. That part reached out blindly, groping for the nearest solid object. It was a vase set into a niche in the wall. Anna’s fingers closed around it. She raised it high, closed her eyes, and brought it crashing down on the side of his black head.
XII
It was a crude method of securing deliverance, but it worked. He staggered a pace or so backwards, his hand going to his head. Then he straightened slowly, awfully, to his full height. Those midnight-blue eyes blinked at her with pained disbelief. Anna saw to her horror that she had cut him. A trickle of blood ran from a gash in his temple. Pulling his hand away from his head, he saw the blood on his fingers and swore furiously. Then he looked at her again. His eyes blazed murder.
“What the bloody hell did you hit me for?”
“I’m sorry.”
Anna had not moved from the spot against the wall where he had held her. As he had stumbled away from her her skirt had fallen into some semblance of decency, and she stood now with both hands pressed against it as if to hold it down. She felt as though she might faint. Her legs trembled with the aftermath of what had happened.
His expression turned ugly.
“You little hypocrite, quit looking at me like that! You’re no bloody virgin. You wanted it. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t. You wanted it that night at Gordon Hall, and you wanted it just now. You wanted it so bad that you were wet—”
“Stop it!”
Anna shuddered with shame and clapped her hands to her ears to ward off his jeering words. His lip curled at her, and then he reached into his coat to withdraw a handkerchief, which he pressed to the gash in his temple. After a moment or so, during which he glared at her balefully, a muscle twitched in the corner of his mouth.
“Stop cowering. I’m not going to touch you.” The words were curt.
Pride stung, Anna dropped her hands and straightened her spine. Her chin lifted, and she regarded him steadily. If her cheeks burned with humiliation, well, she couldn’t help that.
“Would you please just leave,” she said steadily.
He laughed. The sound was crude, brutal. His eyes as they swept her were hostile.
“You must not have been listening to what I said earlier. Until I get those emeralds back, this hellhole of a place is mine. Understand?”
“You can’t just come in here and—”
“Oh, can’t I?” he interrupted. “Why not? What are you going to do to stop me? Report me to the authorities? Did no one ever warn you what happens to pretty young ladies in glass houses? Go on, Mrs. Traverne, throw your bricks at me and see how long it takes for you to find yourself in gaol for theft.”
“This is our home! You can’t—”
“I can do any bloody thing I want, under the circumstances. You, my dear, are a thief, and I know it. If you don’t want me to tell what I know, then you’re going to have to go along with whatever I decide to do. And from where I’m standing, the best course of action is to sell this place, take the money, and buy back the emeralds. Do you have any better suggestions?”
“You’ll never be able to sell it. It was on the market for almost a year before I bought it. It—”
“But you’ve made tremendous improvements since then,” he jibed, and turned toward the door. As she stared at that broad, retreating back in growing horror, something he had said earlier suddenly clicked into place in her mind.
“Stop!”
He did, turning back to look at her with raised brows.
“Well?”
“How did you get out of Newgate? You said they hang thieves in England.”
His eyes narrowed at her. “None of your bloody business.”
Anna met those hard eyes with a courage born of desperation. “While we’re threatening each other, I wonder how you would like it if the authorities in England found out where you are? I have a notion that they might be very interested indeed.”
His eyes narrowed until they were no more than glittering slits. “If you had a brain in that very pretty head, you wouldn’t threaten me. The way I feel right now, it wouldn’t take much to induce me to wring your neck.”
Then he turned on his heel and strode from the room.
XIII
Frightened, furious, Anna saw nothing for it but to trail him. His walk had an annoying swagger, and there was an irritating cockiness to the tilt of his black head that made her long to hit him again. How dare he walk into her home and behave as he had? Just who did he think he was? Then the answer popped into her head, frightening her anew: the one person on earth besides Ruby who knew that she had stolen the emeralds. He held her freedom, security, indeed her whole way of life in his hands. The thought of what would become of Chelsea, to say nothing of herself, if she were sent to gaol made her feel ill.
The path that ran from the road to curve in front of the house had recently been weeded and strewn with a thick layer of ground shells. The lawn that sloped away from the house was just scythed and lushly green. To the east and west, acres of white-blossomed tea plants flourished under the care of turbaned
islanders produced without seeming effort by Raja Singha. The sweet smell of the blossoms was cloying in the steaming heat of the afternoon. Farther in the distance was the dense blue-green barrier of the jungle, looking deceptively cool. Beyond the jungle rose the towering mountain known as Adam’s Peak, because it was to that mountain that Adam supposedly had fled when cast out of the Garden of Eden. In the large bo tree at the corner of the yard a pair of leaf-monkeys played and chattered. A male peacock spread his tail and strutted for the benefit of his admiring flock of peahens along the edge of the lawn.
Anna had eyes for none of this. Her attention was all for Julian Chase. What did he mean to do?
Two broken-down horses stood at the bend of the drive, cropping halfheartedly at her grass. Julian Chase strode up to them and spoke quietly to the wizened man who held the reins. The second man’s eyes narrowed as they spied the gash on his cohort’s temple and the bloodstained handkerchief in his hand. Following the other man’s gaze, Julian grimaced and thrust the handkerchief into his pocket. The second man said something, his expression sour. His clothes were even more ragged than the housebreaker’s. As Anna watched with horror he actually spat upon her lawn.
Julian started untying the bundles fastened behind the saddle of one of the horses, dropping them one by one to the ground. Dear God, did that mean that he actually meant to stay at Srinagar? Surely her threat would make him think twice about that.
Just then she heard the scrunching sound of carriage wheels approaching. Anna caught her breath. There was no mistaking the dignified black of Charles’s carriage or the upright bearing of its driver! Oh, dear Lord, however was she going to explain her unlikely visitors? What could she say?
Her heart rat-a-tatting against her chest, she waved a hand at Charles, then hurried over to Julian and his even more disreputable companion.
“Visitors?” her nemesis asked with an irritating lift of his brows.
The other man spat again, barely missing the toe of her shoe. Anna cringed.
“It’s a neighbor—Major Dumesne, He’s the one who’s been overseeing the fields—oh, for goodness’ sake, please won’t you just go?”
Her disjointed speech was interrupted by the arrival of Charles’s carriage, directly opposite where she was standing and not three feet away, Anna turned toward him with a false smile of greeting. A panicked flush was washing over her in waves.
“Afternoon, Anna,” Charles called jovially, stepping down and securing his horse’s reins to the iron hitching post at the foot of the steps. Another man climbed down on the opposite side, but Anna barely noticed him. She was too busy trying to think of what to say.
“Hello, Charles,” she croaked, looking desperately for the tall, broad form of Julian Chase behind her in hopes that he might simply have disappeared. But of course he hadn’t, and was in fact unloading the last of the bundles from his horse. He flashed Anna a sideways look that she could have sworn was full of malicious amusement, then shook his head at her. From that she deduced that he had no intention of leaving. Flushing even more deeply, she turned back to Charles.
“You have visitors, I see.” There was mild surprise in Charles’s voice as he stepped toward her. “How nice for you.”
“Yes,” Anna managed to say, her eyes rolling to Julian Chase for a pregnant second. How on earth could she explain him? Charles caught the outflung hand that he must have thought she was extending to him and carried it to his lips.
At that Julian dropped the last of the bundles to the ground and turned to Charles, unsmiling. Charles, taking in the height and breadth of him, as well as the grim look in his eyes, released Anna’s hand, looking surprised.
“Who … ?” he began.
“Julian Chase,” Julian said, introducing himself curtly. “And you are …”
“Charles Dumesne,” Charles answered, examining the other man with a degree of caution. “ ’Tisn’t often we get visitors—from England, is it?” Julian gave a nod of confirmation. “Are you planning a long stay?”
Anna, listening, felt sick to her stomach. Who knew what the devil might take it into his head to reply?
“The lady is my sister-in-law,” Julian answered before she could hurry into speech. “I’ll be here as long as it takes to help her put her affairs in order.”
His sister-in-law! Anna’s eyes widened at the untruth. Then she remembered what Graham had told her about this man’s parentage. If Julian Chase’s claim was valid, then he was her brother-in-law in truth!
“Very kind,” Charles said, sounding surprised. “Her brother-in-law, you say? Chase? I thought the family name was Traverne.”
Julian looked dangerously impatient at what he clearly considered an impudent question. Before he could say anything too rude, Anna broke in, desperate to avert any unpleasantness.
“It is, of course. Ju-Julian is really my—my half brother-in-law.” Although the explanation was far from complete, and clearly did not satisfy Charles, he had the good manners to let the matter drop.
“Oh. Well, nice for you to have family here to look out for you. You know I never was easy about you staying here without a man in the house. That Hindu of yours—Raja something, isn’t that his name?—is all very well, but still …”
“Raja Singha takes very good care of us,” Anna replied stiffly.
“I’m sure he does, I’m sure he does. Still—well, that’s neither here nor there now that your brother-in-law’s come. I have to tell you, sir, that we dearly love your sister here in these parts. She’s a ray of sunshine for us all.”
“I’m sure she is. She’s a regular little ray of sunshine for me, too.” Anna hoped she was the only one to detect the dryness in Julian’s voice.
“Charles, I see you’ve brought a visitor of your own.” Desperate to change the subject, she grasped at the first straw that came to hand. Charles looked surprised for a moment, then slapped his thigh.
“So I have! Hillmore, come meet Mrs. Traverne. And her brother-in-law, Mr. Chase.”
Hillmore stepped forward, shook hands with Julian, and nodded to Anna. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mrs. Traverne. Mr. Chase.”
“Mrs. Traverne has been in dire need of an overseer, Hillmore, as I’ve told you. She wants to make Srinagar the best producing tea plantation on Ceylon.”
“I’d be real interested in helping you, ma’am. With the Carnegans moving home, I could use the job.”
“It’s yours, Mr. Hillmore, if you want it. Major Dumesne has praised you so highly to me that there’s really no need for us to go through the usual formalities.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Hillmore hesitated. He was a small man, wiry, fit, and brown as a berry. His pale gray eyes were faintly uncertain as they shifted to the tall, black-haired man who stood so easily at Anna’s side. “Mr. Chase?”
Anna felt a sudden flare of fury so hot that she was surprised steam didn’t come out of her ears. Srinagar was no concern of Julian Chase’s! Despite his threats, it was hers—hers! But there was nothing she could do but stand there, falsely smiling, as her “brother-in-law” shrugged.
“As to permanent employment, we’ll have to see. There’s a question in my mind as to whether this kind of life is suitable for a woman alone, and I have business interests of my own in England. I can’t stay here indefinitely. I may advise my sister to sell out and move back home.”
“You know I don’t want to do that,” Anna protested, forcing a stiff smile at the man she was rapidly coming to hate more than any other creature on earth.
“I know you don’t want to, but nevertheless it may come to that. But we’ll see, my dear, we’ll see.”
Then, adding insult to injury, the blackguard wrapped a hard, muscled arm around her shoulders and gave her a brotherly squeeze!
XIV
Minutes later, the party dispersed. As Charles took Hillmore off to look over the fields, the odious Julian volunteered casually to go along. After all, he said blandly, if he was to help his dear sister make a
decision about the plantation, he should know whereof he spoke, and now was as good a time as any to begin to learn. Of course what he really wanted was to get some idea of the extent and value of the estate, and he would doubtless pump the other men to that end. There was nothing Anna could do for the moment to prevent him. Silently fuming, she was forced to smilingly wave the gentlemen on their way. Julian’s disgusting friend, with another shower of spittle for her lawn and not so much as a word for her, took himself and the horses around the back of the house, presumably in search of the stable. Anna, feeling as though she might have strong hysterics at any moment, pressed a hand to her churning stomach. Then she hurried back into the house.
Ruby was already coming down the stairs. She was dressed in emerald silk, the gown far too elegant for a simple afternoon at home. But, of course, Ruby would have seen Charles’s carriage and changed her dress accordingly.
“Where’s Charles?” Ruby asked, halting on the bottom stair and looking around in some surprise.
“He’s gone to take the new overseer to look at the fields. Oh, Ruby, the most dreadful thing has happened! Come into the parlor, quickly, before they get back!”
Ruby, agog, followed Anna only to stop short on the parlor threshold, surveying the shattered remains of what had been a prized vase.
“What ’appened to that?” she asked. Anna, unable to control a blush, shook her head. “I—uh— dropped it,” she muttered, not meeting Ruby’s eyes.
The older woman’s eyebrows lifted, but when she would have questioned Anna further, Anna stopped her with a shushing gesture. For the first time in ages, she slid the pocket doors shut so that they might be private. Then, almost whispering, words spilling over themselves in her hurry to get them out, she told Ruby the horrible calamity that had befallen them all. The only thing she left out was Julian Chase’s unforgivable assault on her person. That, and her degrading response, she could not bear to think about.
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