Marquess of Fortune: A Lords of Fate Novel

by K. J. Jackson

  Garek’s eyes left Lily’s face to scan the study above her head. “Do not yet bring up the topic of moving to Brianna. It would only alarm her—the possibility of suddenly leaving Weadly Hall. I do not think she remembers anything of what happened, yet. But in the meantime, you can dig through your father’s papers, find out where your father’s holdings are, what you can afford to buy or rent.”

  His hands on her shoulders moved up to cup her neck. “When I get to town to ask about the Franklin cottage, I will also inquire about a larger place—learn if there is something suitable for you to rent in the area. At least for the short term until Brianna is well enough that you two can plan together where you would like to settle.”

  Lily’s eyes closed, nodding. “Yes. A nice cottage home—it is winter, but if it has a place for flowers—Weadly has such nice gardens, and roses—Papa loved the rose bushes. Brianna too.”

  Garek chuckled. “I will inquire about that exact thing.”

  She met his eyes. “Thank you. I cannot leave here or prepare to on my own. I am afraid of Mr. Sneedly’s retribution were he to find out I was planning on leaving.”

  “Make me a promise, Lily.”

  “What?”

  “Do not push him. Avoid him at all costs. I do not want you in the fray of his maliciousness. If you see him coming down a hallway, you duck into a room, walk the other way. You stay in Brianna’s bedroom. Eat there. Do not put yourself in his path. And when Brianna is no longer fragile, we will get the two of you out of here safely.”

  He pulled her to him, kissing her forehead.

  Lily’s eyes fell shut as she let the feel of him, the strength of him, wash over her. Everything would be good again. Her world would be righted. Garek would make it so. She knew it. She just had to wait a little longer.

  She nodded against his lips. “I promise. I will avoid him.”

  { Chapter 5 }

  Lily tiptoed out of Brianna’s room. Garek had been gone for hours, and the winter’s early darkness had descended, lit only by the wispy glow of a half-moon.

  Lily had waited. And waited. And waited. But Brianna had not opened her eyes again. Not since Garek had checked on her one last time before he left for the day. The only comfort was that Brianna’s breathing was now even, not labored as it had been.

  Standing from her chair at Brianna’s bedside, Lily went to the window, pulling back the drapery to stare at the night sky. She had hoped Brianna would wake for at least a few minutes—long enough for Lily to ask her about their father’s dealings. Where the money and investments were held. How she could access enough coin to at least pay Garek and make sure he had a place to sleep. Enough coin to move them out of Weadly Hall.

  She looked back to her sister. Brianna was not waking anytime soon and Lily had to figure this out, and figure it out quickly. She needed to get them out of Weadly Hall. Away from Mr. Sneedly. Away from this place that surrounded her with memories of happiness that would never be hers again.

  She had to get out, and her father’s study was the place to start.

  Leaving Brianna, Lily slipped along the darkened halls, ignoring the chill as her hand blocked the air in front of the flame from the candle she carried. She saw the light spilling from under the doorway before she reached her father’s study.

  Light that should not be there.

  With each step, dread filled her chest and warred with sudden anger twisting her stomach into a rock.

  Feet stopping, she paused at the doorway to the study, her hand hovering above the knob.

  Avoid Mr. Sneedly at all cost.

  The one request from Garek. But the only one who would dare to be in her father’s study was Mr. Sneedly.

  In her father’s room. Going through her father’s things.

  Her anger won out.

  Lily opened the door in one swift motion, stepping into the room.

  With a yelp, Mr. Sneedly jumped at the intrusion, a pile of papers slipping off the desk, crashing and fluttering to the floor.

  “Mr. Sneedly, what in the blazes are you doing in here?”

  Mr. Sneedly rushed around the desk, moving in on her.

  Close, too close.

  Her neck craned backward, as she tried to avoid the smell of him. The man stunk of brandy. She hadn’t known Mr. Sneedly drank, but at this moment, he reeked of it.

  Then she saw it, her father’s very best brandy sitting out on a sideboard by the window, nearly empty with a full glass next to it. Her chest tightened, the anger in her belly exploding.

  “Lily, why are you not in bed?”

  “Why are you in my father’s study?” She straightened, not willing to let him, or his stench, intimidate her out of the room.

  “Oh, I…” His hand flipped up over his shoulder, waving. “I was searching for something the viscount requested.”

  “Everything in this room belongs to my father, Mr. Sneedly. Not the viscount.” Lily skirted around Mr. Sneedly, moving herself deeper into the room before she spun back to him. “And you are very well aware of that fact. You have no right to be in here.”

  “Your father is dead, Lily. Everything in this room is under the viscount’s roof. I think he has every right to take anything and everything that exists in this place.” He followed Lily further into the room, his boots almost touching the toes of her slippers. “As does his proxy.”

  Lily wedged her arms up, crossing them over her chest, but refusing to cower a step backward. “And you are his proxy, Mr. Sneedly, so you have every right? You emptied the coin box, didn’t you? You had no right.”

  “I have every right.” Sneedly leaned in, bumping her arms, his face invading her space. “To everything. Everybody.” The last word snaked out slowly, his black squinty eyes leering.

  Her head jerked backward, her face crumpling in horror that he would dare threaten her directly. “Me?”

  “Now you are beginning to understand the way of things.” His hand came up, his fingers trailing along her arm, dragging rough against the black bombazine silk of her dress.

  Fighting instant bile chasing up her throat, Lily took a step backward, only to ram into the desk. Her arm flicked up, trying to shake off his fingers. Fingers that leeched onto her arm. “No. I need you to leave this room this instant, Mr. Sneedly. I insist.”

  “You insist?”

  “Yes. I insist, or may heaven help you.”

  “Heaven help me?” He sneered a laugh. “Heaven does not seem to favor you as of late, little chit. You are far too headstrong, my Lily.” His hand dropped from her arm, only to reach up, his fingers wrapping into the hair on the side of her head. He twisted his hold, tearing hair.

  Lily tried to jerk away, even though it ripped more hair from her scalp. “Do not call me Lily.”

  Mr. Sneedly’s eyebrows slanted inward. “No? Dr. Harrison calls you Lily.”

  “And you are not Dr. Harrison, Mr. Sneedly. You are the furthest thing from that man. You are a sniveling coward—”

  He yanked her head, cutting her words as his other hand reached out to grab her left breast, twisting and squeezing.

  Lily yelped, grabbing his wrist and digging her nails into his skin, trying to break his hold.

  Sneedly laughed, wrenching her breast again. “You will learn, little wench.” He shoved his head close to her face, spittle collecting in the corner of his mouth. “You will learn to submit to me, Lily.”

  Without another word, he shoved her backward, releasing his hands from her, and Lily fell onto the desk, papers scattering from the force. Before she could catch her balance and look up, Mr. Sneedly was out the door, the click of his boots receding down the hall.

  Gasping for breath, Lily stared at the door, the fear pounding through her veins morphing back into rage.

  Helpless.

  She had been utterly helpless—frozen in inaction since she walked into the damn abbey and found her father dead and Brianna near death.

  And now she was shackled here until she could move Brianna.
Shackled at the mercy of that rat.

  Her fist cracked down on the desk.

  She was so damn tired of being helpless.

  So damn tired.

  ~~~

  Garek tugged on his horse’s reins, damning the clouds that had blocked most of the moonlight. Moving through the woods, the darkness had slowed him enough that he had needed to dismount, and now he contemplated just tying his horse to the nearest tree so he could make faster progress.

  He was about to do that very thing—and chance not being able to find his horse again until morning light—when the woods thinned and he heard a crack. He broke into a run over the brush, tossing the reins over the nearest branch as he reached the clearing.

  He found Lily instantly in the sliver of moonlight, just as she swung her whole body into a whack of the hammer. Stone from the abbey shattered, pieces flying as the weight of the hammer sent her stumbling.

  “Good god, Lily—I was frantic.” Garek sped across the clearing, capturing her before her feet had resettled on the ground, wrapping her into his body.

  She wedged her head up. “Garek? What are you doing out here?”

  His arms clamped harder around her. “What am I doing? What are you doing? I could not find you at the house—only Sneedly passed out on the floor in the drawing room. No you. You scared me half to my grave, Lily.”

  “You were at Weadly Hall tonight?”

  “Yes. I could not let it rest—leaving you—I had thought to only ride by, but then I had to go in and check on you.” His right hand moved from her back to cup the rear of her head. “I was worried.”

  “About?”

  “Sneedly. And now I find you here.” He motioned with his head to the abbey. “Why are you out here, Lily?”

  She shrugged in his arms. “I am mad.”

  “Why?”

  Her eyes dropped to stare at his chest. “I will not tell you.”

  “No. Do not hide from me, Lily. Are you mad at me? Mad that I left?”

  Her eyes went wide, her head shaking as she looked up. “No—no, of course not. I am furious that you were forced to leave, but I am not mad at you.”

  Garek’s arm tightened around her. “Then what did Sneedly do to you?”

  She ducked her head, her arms wiggling under his clamp. “Nothing.”

  He stopped her from escaping, then slid his hand from the back of her head to the line of her jaw. Thumb under her chin, Garek tilted her face upward, but she averted her eyes. “You are out here for a reason, Lily. You are mad for a reason. Something happened. What did he do to you?”

  “I will not tell you. It was not dire. I am whole. Uncompromised. It was nothing I could not handle. Nothing of consequence.”

  “You are lying.”

  She met his eyes. “You do not know that.”

  “I do. Have you come out here to the abbey once since I went with you to Weadly Hall?”

  “No.”

  “So what sent you here? Only anger that you have no place for would bring you here, Lily. I know that much of you.”

  Her bottom lip jutted out, stubborn as she shook her head. But Garek could see it in her moonlit eyes. See that Sneedly had done something very vile to her. See the shame. The helplessness.

  Rage exploding through his body, Garek set her free from his hold, whipping around to stalk back toward the woods. “I will kill him.”

  Lily was on him in an instant, both hands wrapping around his left arm, her heels digging into the ground. “Dammit, Garek. No you will not.”

  She yanked hard against his movement, her grip slipping and sending her sprawling.

  Her grunt as she hit the cold ground, landing hard on her side, stopped him.

  Garek turned back to see her holding her shoulder as she tried to scramble to her feet, the dead grass slippery with frost.

  A pang cut through his chest at the sight, landing in his throat. It was just as much him that had sent her to the ground—just caused her pain.

  He sucked in a breath, trying to calm himself as he stepped to her and reached down, threading his arm along her waist. Righting her, he set her as gently to her feet as his rage allowed.

  Dammit to hell, he wanted to protect her.

  Protect her and take her and her sister away from Weadly Hall so she never had to worry. Protect her so badly he was willing to go and crush a man.

  Something he swore he would never do again.

  But he had no money. He had no home to bring Lily to—to bring her sister to. No way to get them out of Weadly Hall. He couldn’t very well bring them to that cramped room above the tavern he had landed in.

  He had never planned for any of this—hell—he had never planned to leave London. Never planned to let his surgical tools into the light again. Never planned on travelling through this area, on staying here. Never planned on complicating his life with a hammer-swinging woman, much less having to protect her.

  He had gotten involved when he had known from the start it was doomed.

  Hell—he only had enough coins to stay at the tavern for a week the way it was. Not to mention Brianna’s reaction to his presence by her bedside. Never had he been eyed with such suspicion as he had been by Lily’s sister.

  Stuck. Utterly stuck. He wasn’t about to leave Lily—not when the very thought twisted his heart. He was very near in love with her. In love with a woman he couldn’t protect.

  And he knew damn well he would do anything for her—including wiping the earth of Sneedly if that’s what needed to happen to keep her safe.

  Her feet under her, Lily jerked away from his hold, her arm swinging in a wide arc. “Do not listen to me, then.” She stomped over to the building, picking up the hammer she had dropped. “Go. Ruin your life over a sniveling vulture.” She swung the hammer, stone smashing.

  “Ruin my life. Ruin my sister’s. Just go.” She swung again, shards flying.

  “Lily—”

  A smash of stone sent sparks flying, interrupting him. “What the hell do you think is going to happen to you, to all of us if you injure Sneedly, Garek? Or kill him? How will that help anyone?” She refused to turn to him, her yell echoing through the woods.

  “It will keep you safe.”

  She swung, a long, vicious grunt unfurling. “I am safe. As safe as can be managed. You know I cannot leave Weadly Hall until Brianna is well.”

  Her right arm dropped, the hammerhead swinging above the ground as she leaned forward, her left hand landing on the ripped stone in the wall before her. He watched her shoulders, the black dress covering her back rise and fall with heavy breaths.

  Garek moved toward her, stopping an arm’s length away from her backside. His hands stayed solidly at his sides, even though he wanted to grab her, hold her—banish every horrible thing weighing upon her that he knew he couldn’t.

  His fingers spread wide on his forehead, rubbing his eyebrows. “Lily…I know you will do anything for your sister. Suffer anything, and it scares me to no end. I have known men like Sneedly, they prey upon the fragile, take advantage of situations that only call for humanity, for mercy. I cannot allow him to hurt you, Lily. To lay a hand upon you.”

  She pushed off from the wall, her face tipping up to the sky, yet she still did not turn to him. “Mr. Sneedly is manageable, Garek. He is better than the viscount. That man. That man is just evil. I do not want him to come back here. I do not want the viscount near Brianna. He had demanded I take my ‘bloody, raggedy hobgoblin sister’ out of Weadly Hall after I found her. He did not want the blood to sully his floors. I had to keep her in the barn until I managed to convince him to let us stay—but he only relented because he was very, very drunk. The barn, Garek. The damn barn.”

  Her chin dropped to her chest as her arm shifted, swinging the hammer half-heartedly at the corner of the abbey.

  “Just leave me, Garek. Leave me to my stones.” Her voice escaped in a puff of cold air, a cracked whisper.

  Her arm drifted to a standstill at her side, the handle of th
e hammer nearly slipping from her grasp.

  “Smash them all you want, Lily. I am waiting right here for you.” Garek took a step forward, his hands setting softly on her shoulders. “You will not be alone. I was not about to desert you that first night I saw you, and I am not about to leave you alone now. It kills me that I cannot make right everything in your world. But I will. One day, I will. I swear it, Lils.”

  It took a very long moment, then Lily swayed slightly, finally releasing her body backward. Backward to lean into him. To let him slip his arms around her.

  Garek’s throat clenched, halting his breath.

  This moment. This moment of safety he could give her. If nothing more, this he could give her.

  A shiver ran through her body, and the hammer slid from her fingers, thumping to the cold ground.

  “You are freezing.” Garek tightened his hold around her belly, trying to heat the chill from her body.

  “And you are warm.”

  His head dropped, his chin resting on her hair. “This is all I want, Lils. To heat you. Comfort you. Let me do that, if I can do nothing else.”

  Garek stared at the beaten stone in front of them, the holes that had been ripped open into the interior.

  A mess. A ramshackle mess.

  { Chapter 6 }

  Garek stepped along the garden path outside of Weadly Hall, crunching the frost clinging to the blades of dead grass. He had checked on Brianna, but not finding Lily in her room, he had gone searching.

  Her absence troubled him, as they had fallen into a reliable routine during the past weeks—Garek would arrive late in the morning and stay until just before nightfall unless there was a new patient in town to visit.

  Dread building, he knew the formal gardens were the last place to check before he headed on to the abbey. If she was there, it most likely meant Sneedly had overstepped his bounds again.

  The sound reached him softly at first, louder with each step, until he fully heard it.