by Monica Burns
She’d returned to London late yesterday in anticipation of Ashford securing Fanny’s and Harry’s freedom two nights hence. Unfortunately, she had not slept well last night as she wondered whether Percy would seek her out today. Early this morning, she’d visited Ashford’s office to try and convince him to let her accompany him Friday night. The private investigator’s refusal wasn’t unexpected, but it was disappointing.
While she’d not asked, Ashford had indicated Percy had visited the investigator’s office the day before. It didn’t surprise her to learn Percy intended to be present for the rescue, but she wasn’t certain how she would react when she saw him again. Like a coward, she’d spent the rest of the morning until lunch in the National Gallery to avoid any possibility of seeing him.
She was still feeling far too vulnerable with the revelation that she loved him. The longer she could put off seeing him, the easier it would be to leave London for good. In the back of her head, she heard the sound of mocking laughter, but she ignored it. The soft murmur of voices penetrated her thoughts for the first time.
She heard the rumblings of a male voice, and immediately stiffened. Was Percy here? A woman’s voice echoed loudly in apparent response to the man speaking. Rhea had barely taken a step toward the salon door, when the front door opened behind her. She immediately turned around and stared in surprise at the sight of Arianna entering the house.
“Arianna, I'm so happy to see you. Aunt Beatrice told me last night that you and Blake have reconciled. I had intended to come see you later today.” Rhea hugged her sister warmly then pulled back to look at her sister. “What is it? What's wrong?”
“I’m uncertain. I received a note from Aunt Beatrice to come quickly as she needed to speak with me urgently." Arianna’s puzzlement matched Rhea’s, and an ominous sensation crested over her.
"Did she elaborate in her message as to what might be wrong?"
"No, and that's what concerns me."
Rhea didn't have a chance to reply to Arianna’s comment before the salon door opened. Beatrice Fremont’s face was white with fear, the look of fear on her aunt’s face made Rhea’s stomach lurch. Had something happened to Lord Foxworth? She stepped forward to ask her aunt the question, but Beatrice Fremont simply stepped back to let her and Arianna enter the room. Rhea’s heart began to race. Something was wrong—terribly wrong. As she crossed the room’s threshold, Rhea heard her sister’s gasp as a man at the fireplace turned to face them.
“Hello, my poppet.”
At the sound of Ruckley’s voice, Rhea swayed slightly as the room faded in and out. Struggling to control her panic, she clasped her hands in front of her and focused on the task of regaining control of her senses. As she met Ruckley’s gaze, she buried her fear beneath layers of hate. One of the lessons she’d learned from him was to never let your enemy see your fear.
Determined to adhere to the lessons the despicable man had taught her, she deliberately schooled her features into a nonchalant mask. Rhea didn’t take her eyes off Ruckley as she let all the hate and anger she’d buried so deep burn its way through her blood. It was easy to welcome the red wave of violent emotions as she stared at his coarse, pock-marked features. Hate was the strongest emotion that spiraled through her, and she drew strength from it as she eyed Ruckley in silence for a moment.
“Let me guess how you found me, Ruckley. Edgar succeeded where you failed.” Her taunt made the man glare at her. A moment later he was smiling with smug amusement.
“Don’t matter none how I found you, Rhea—”
“My name is Miss Bennett.”
Her voice lashed out across the room with a white-hot fury. The quiet menace in the statement caused the stocky man’s body to jerk in surprise before he narrowed his malevolent gaze at her. “So that’s how it is, is it?”
“Arianna and I paid our father’s debt to you, Ruckley. We paid it seven times over. You have no business here.”
The criminal eyed her with malicious amusement and with a gnarled hand, he stroked at his grimy beard. “You’ve gotten all high and mighty since we last saw each other. Quite the lady now, isn’t you?”
“What do you want?”
Rhea’s fingernails dug into the back of her hands, and she forced herself not to look away from the beady eyes shrewdly assessing her. He was trying to determine how frightened she was, but she refused to let the bastard see her fear. He’d use it against her.
“That’s what I always liked about you, Rh—Miss Bennett. Straight to the point. I’ve come with a business proposition.” The absurdity of his statement made her laugh. He appeared surprised by her reaction, as did her sister and aunt.
“You have a business proposition for me.” Each word a sharply pointed icicle, Rhea tightened her lips as she glared at the man who had destroyed her life and that of her sister’s.
“Aye, are you willing to hear me out?”
“No. I’m not,” she said with a quiet bitterness that she could see surprised him again. “I suggest you leave now, or I’ll summon the police.”
“Fancy words, Miss Bennett.” The unkempt man picked up a miserable substitute for a hat and started slowly toward the door. “Perhaps I’ll have to tell the police my own story.”
“Your story?” She met his gaze steadily. “You have so many lies to tell, Ruckley, I doubt anything you say will hold any weight with the police. In fact, you’re quite likely to implicate yourself.”
“You don’t say,” Ruckley said with a nasty grin that exposed his rotting teeth and the gaping hole where one of his upper teeth was missing. “Perhaps you forgot about that little job you and Arianna did at the museum and that gent you killed.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” she bit out as she glared at the man. “You shot the man in the back.”
“Ahh, but they won’t know that. I mean Edgar was there with you and little Arianna. The boy will be quite willing to say you were the one to pull the trigger.”
The veiled threat made Rhea freeze. The fact that Ruckley didn’t realize Percy was still alive was a gift she refused to give up. She had no intention of the bastard going after Percy simple to tie up loose ends.
“Edgar’s word against mine? Against the Viscountess Sherrington? Do you seriously think the police will take your word, a known reprobate, over our denials?”
“Don’t get cocky on me now, Rhea. There are other stories I can tell,” Ruckley’s head turned toward Arianna. “What about that brat you had a year ago. I reckon your husband don’t know nothing about her.”
“Actually my husband knows everything about my past,” Arianna said in a cold voice, but the pain on her face made Ruckley narrow his gaze at her.
“Are you sure of that Miss Arianna?”
“Oh, I’m quite sure, you bastard. The only thing I haven’t told him is how to find you, and I’ve not done so to save you, but to save him. He’d kill you, and I won’t allow him to be hung for the likes of you.” The loathing in Arianna’s voice made Ruckley arch his eyebrows.
“Well now, little Miss Arianna has developed claws since she left me high and dry.”
“Get out, Ruckley. Your threats are pointless here. You cannot harm us anymore,” Rhea said in a cold, icy voice. At her command, he scratched his chin through his beard.
“All right, it seems I came for nothing, after all.”
The man shrugged and started for the door. The way he gave up so easily made Rhea stiffen. Ruckley was far too nonchalant to not have another trick up his sleeve. She didn’t move as he walked toward her. The stench of the man swept over her as he brushed past her, and she tried not to gag. As she turned to watch him leave, he paused at the door.
“Oh, and don’t go getting any more ideas about stealing my boys and girls out from under my nose.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” At her reply a calculating look crossed Ruckley’s face as he narrowed his eyes, and her heart sank.
“Now don’t go playing games with me, Rhea,” he
chuckled with vindictiveness. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure out who stole Vincent and Rufus away from me?”
“You’re losing your touch, Ruckley. If any children are no longer a part of your band of thieves, I’m glad. But I had nothing to do with their disappearance,” she lied with cold contempt.
“I see,” Ruckley said with a slow nod of his head. “Well you can’t blame a bloke for trying to find the truth of it. Of course, I’m going to be needing someone to replace them. They was my some of me best dippers, they were.”
“If you’re expecting sympathy, you’ll be waiting until hell freezes over.”
“Oh no, Miss Bennett. I don’t need no sympathy,” Ruckley said with a familiar swagger. “I already know where I’m getting my next dippers.”
Something in his voice made her eye him carefully, and she saw a look of malice cross his face. With the White Willow orphanage off limits, the bastard had found another source of children to exploit. She shook her head.
“Take care with what you tell me, Ruckley. I won’t hesitate to go to the police if I have too.”
“No, I don’t think you will, my poppet,” he drawled with a venomous smile. “You see, you’re the one who’s going to get me my new dippers.”
“I’m not going to help you do anything,” she said with a derisive laugh.
“Oh, I think you will. After all, I know how much you love Fanny. I’d hate to see anything happen to her. Such a pretty little thing. Why she’s just about the right age for the gents to have a go at her.” Ruckley’s threat drew every bit of air from her lungs.
“She’s not even ten yet, you bastard.”
“But that’s how a lot of me clients like them, Miss Bennett,” he gloated as he swung his glance to Arianna and back to Rhea. “All the men who fucked you and Miss Arianna over there didn’t complain none when you first opened your legs.”
At Ruckley’s crude language, Aunt Beatrice gasped loudly behind her. Grinning, Ruckley tipped his head to look around Rhea and nodded at her aunt. Immediately, Rhea shifted her body to block his view.
“If I do whatever it is you want, you’ll give Fanny to me.”
“Hmm, I don’t know that I can do that. She’ll eventually fetch me some pretty coins with that pretty blonde hair of hers,” Ruckley said with a sneer as he bobbed his head in her sister’s direction. “Just like her ladyship did.”
The cruel words made Rhea move forward until she was inches away from the man. The rancid odor of his rotting teeth made bile rise in her throat, but she swallowed it as she made certain to hold his gaze without blinking.
“I will do what you want, but in exchange you will give Fanny to me or I will kill you. It’s as simple as that, Ruckley. Do you understand me?”
The icy sound of her softly spoken words chilled the space between them and some of the triumph slid off the ruffian’s unwashed features. For a long moment, he appraised her intently as if judging whether she was capable of carrying out her threat. The man’s shifty eyes glinted with a trace of uneasiness, as she gazed at him with cold hatred. How she wished she had a gun now. With a slow nod of his head, Ruckley grunted.
“Yes, I believe you would. I never thought you had a killer instinct, but then you always did surprise me, Rhea.”
“I’m glad we understand each other.”
“You know, one of the things I always admired about you, Rhea, was you being so quick-witted. It’s one of the things I missed the most when you and little Arianna flew the coop.” Ruckley scratched the back of his neck as he arched his eyebrows at her. “That hurt me bad, it did. Lost my two best protégés. So, here’s what I want. You’re going to give me access to two or three of the boys in that orphanage where Edgar saw you.”
“You’re mad,” she exclaimed as her cool composure slipped.
“I don’t see that you have much choice, girl. Either you supply me with stock from that orphanage, or my sweet Fanny is going to start making me money sooner than I expected.”
“You bastard.” Arianna sprang to her feet and crossed the room to stand at Rhea’s side. “You can’t possibly expect her to condemn two children in exchange for Fanny. There must be something else you want. If it’s money, we’ll find it.”
“Hmm…perhaps you’re right,” Ruckley said as a calculating look crossed his face and his thin lips curved in a cruel smile. “But I can think of other ways I’d be willing to give you Fanny free and clear.”
“What would that entail?” Rhea asked with a sense of doom. She knew what the man was about to say, and the idea horrified her.
“I think you know I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Rhea. You left before I ever got to taste your wares.”
“Oh, dear God,” Arianna gasped and swayed on her feet beside her. With one hand, Rhea steadied her sister as she heard Aunt Beatrice utter a cry of horror. Ruckley smiled.
“I reckon you know what I’m asking.”
“You’re not asking,” Rhea said quietly, surprised at how calm she was. “You’re blackmailing me.”
“Blackmail is a nasty accusation Rhea. After all, it's not as if you've not enjoyed a bit of fun of late." The sly words made Rhea’s heart skip a beat with fear.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, I think you catch me drift real good. Edgar told me about a fancy-looking gent he saw with you at that orphanage." Ruckley's features held a smug expression. "Seems this gent likes his museums almost as much as his late night visitors."
"You're not making much sense," Rhea snapped as fear chilled her skin.
"Do you really think I've only just discovered your whereabouts, my poppet?" Ruckley chuckled with malevolence. "Edgar has been following you ever since the day you reappeared. I know everything, even how you're parting your legs for that gent you left to die in the museum a year ago. In fact, Edgar seems to think you're sweet on the gent."
The gasps of her aunt and sister barely registered with Rhea as she struggled to stem the tide of terror racing through her.
"Percy means nothing to me," her quick, vehement denial made her heart skip a frantic beat as Ruckley's gaze narrowed at her. Horror swept through her. For all his depraved manners, Ruckley was extremely intelligent. As she met his gaze, she realized her hastily spoken denial and use of Percy's first name had given her away.
"So you've gone an' given your heart to the man. Does he know?"
"Your imagination always was overly exaggerated,” she sneered as she tried to find a way to redirect Ruckley's focus away from Percy.
"I'm beginning to think I'll pay this Rockwood fellow a visit and finish the job I failed to do last time."
"What is it you want, Ruckley?"
"You know what I want. I want to saddle and ride you, my poppet, and you're going to do it with a smile unless you want to see that gent of yours or little Fanny hurt."
“And when is this exchange to take place?”
Arianna and her aunt gasped loudly at her words, and her sister clutched Rhea’s arm in a deathlike grip. Absently, she ignored her aunt’s and sister’s protests keeping her gaze focused on the man standing in front of her. She arched her eyebrows as Ruckley frowned slightly. With a shrug a cocky expression settled on his dirty face, and he laughed unpleasantly.
“I should wait so you could anticipate all the things I intend to do to you,” Ruckley said with another broken tooth smile. “But I’ve waited too fucking long, my poppet. You remember The Bull and Hare tavern don’t you, Rhea? Tonight at nine.”
Rhea’s stomach roiled as the past rushed out to wrap its slimy tentacles around her. The Bull and Hare was where Ruckley sold her over and over again. Ice sluiced through her as she met Ruckley’s gaze. The thought of his hands on her horrified her was a debilitating one. In that split second, she realized she would never let him touch her. Resigned to a fate that would most likely see her hung, Rhea allowed a small confident smile to curve her lips. He immediately narrowed his gaze at her.
“Very well, I’l
l be at the tavern at nine this evening. When I arrive, Fanny and Harry are to be handed over to my driver.
“Here now, I never agreed to give up Harry, only Fanny.”
“Then you’ll not have me, will you?” she said softly with a taunting note in her voice. Ruckley eyed her for a moment, clearly debating his options. With an abrupt nod, he agreed to Rhea’s demands.
“You drive a hard bargain, my poppet, but don’t you go getting any ideas of tricking me out of my pleasure.”
“I have never had any need to trick you, Ruckley, but do not presume you will be able to control me simply because, how did you say it? I part my legs for you.” Confidence warmed her as she met his surly gaze. “You will never control me. My father stole my future from me. You destroyed it for me. There’s little more you can do to me that hasn’t already been done. After tonight I’ll be free of you once and for all.”
“You always were a headstrong girl,” he snarled, his features ugly with anger.
“Get out, Ruckley, and if you ever come back here after tonight, I’ll send for the local magistrate. I don’t have anything to fear from you anymore.”
“We’ll see about that, my girl. I’m not finished with you yet, Rhea Bennett.”
Wheeling about, Ruckley stormed out of the salon. The sound of the front door slamming shut made Rhea sag with relief. Nauseated, she shrugged off Arianna’s hand and slowly made her way to the fireplace in an attempt to warm her ice cold skin. She stretched out her hands toward the small flames, but she couldn’t feel any warmth at all. Swaying slightly at the reality of what she planned to do, her fingers gripped the cool wood mantel, and she rested her forehead on her hands. She would never let Ruckley touch her. She’d kill him before he laid a hand on her. The fact that a few moments ago she’d calmly made the decision to kill the man caused her stomach to lurch.
“You cannot go through with this, Rhea” her aunt said with a fervent note of horror in her voice as she crossed the room to touch Rhea’s arm.
