"Told them what?" she asked, puzzled at his grim expression.
"That I attacked you. Beat you. Tried to rape you. They're coming for me."
"No, I never said a word against you. How could I? I didn't tell anyone about my accident," she gasped. "I can't even remember what happened. You're my cousin. You would never--"
Yet even as she said the words, Arabella knew. She tried to keep her breathing even. "I know you love me. You'd never-"
He grabbed her roughly, yanking her hair backwards so she was forced to confront his evil leer. "Oh yes I would. I would, and I did. And I'm going to again now. If I can't have you, Blake sure as hell can't either."
His hands locked around her throat. Her eyes bulged as he began to squeeze the life out of her. She recalled how she had unmanned him before, and brought one knee up hard enough to graze the fork of his thighs.
She fell to the ground heavily as he clutched himself in agony. She heard the sound of pounding hooves and Blake's shout, though he was still some distance away.
"Arabella, get away from him, now! He killed Leonore and Rosalie."
She gasped and scrambled away as it all came flooding back to her at last, almost paralyzing her with horror. The last few pieces of the puzzle of her lost memories which had eluded her now clicked into place.
She began to retch, great heaving sobs which made her feel as though she would be torn in two. She wrung her hands in agony, yanking off her gloves in the process.
Adam grabbed the shuddering girl and was about to snap her neck like a twig when she clawed his hands with her now-bared fingernails. She went tumbling onto the ground once more as Blake launched himself at Adam. They struggled for a moment.
Then Adam skirted around Blake to the saddle of his horse, and pulled out the musket he used for hunting. He aimed it straight at Blake's chest.
Arabella threw herself against Adam's knees and sent him toppling sideways. The weapon fell near a puddle of mire. Blake and Adam sprawled on the ground, struggling like two enraged tigers.
Blake let his emotions get the better of him. He hauled Adam up off the ground by his shirt front and tried to beat to a pulp the man who had harmed his wife. But Adam was almost superhuman in his strength and desperation, and began to pummel Blake around the head unmercifully with his fists.
Blake knew this was a fight to the death for them both unless help came soon. Death for him, and perhaps a fate worse than death for Arabella if he didn't stop her cousin.
Blake tried to summon up all of his soldierly fighting skills, but Adam was like a wild animal. He rained blow after blow upon Blake's face, ears, stomach, until he was flattened against the marble wall of the folly and the only thing he could do was defend himself ever more weakly.
Arabella screamed and tried to pull Adam off her husband. He was too strong for her and flung her off like a tiny clinging kitten. Then with one smooth dive he rolled and brought up the musket once more.
Blake raised his hands and hissed through bloodied lips, "You won't get away with any of this. The magistrates know all of it. Oliver told them everything. How you murdered Rosalie and Leonore, raped those women, drugged them. Killed them. That powder stops the kidneys from functioning.
"You thought you were having a bit of fun in your own sick mind. But you've left a trail of injured and dead women everywhere you've been. No one could possibly think it was me now. Even having that poor maid Molly steal my cufflinks and leaving them in their beds didn't convince them. You're going to hang! You'll never have Arabella or her money."
Adam smirked. "If I'm going to hang anyway, then one more murder won't make any difference, now will it? And I can still have her in the time it takes them to get here." He leered. "Have her again the way I did the last time."
Blake shook his head. "Oliver told me the truth about that as well. How your back was injured and you can't manage to consummate relationships. You beat Arabella, groped her, but you never raped her.
"It's all over for you. And none of it was worth it, now was it? You still didn't get back what you lost, and now you and your brother are going to prison as well."
Adam paused for a moment. "Oliver didn't do anything. It was all me. I did it. I beat them, killed them. He never knew I dumped the bodies. He never knew about Leonore and Rosalie."
Blake shrugged. "Glad to see you have some decency left after all. But you were going to let me hang, and I never did you any harm."
Adam scowled blackly. "You got in my way, made a fool of me!"
"I loved him all along. It wasn't to make a fool of you!" Arabella shouted, trying to knock him over again.
He stood as solidly as a rock. "Well, I may not get Arabella, but you two won't have each other either."
"No! No! I'll go with you, I'll do anything you ask, only please don't kill him," Arabella begged, grabbing his left arm as he brought the barrel up inexorably to level it at Blake's head.
"I need you a widow, dear. All his money, and yours. All mine. Sorry, old sport. You should have just let me have her in the first place. I'd have let you have her once I grew tired of her. But now I have more than I ever dreamed of, so I guess I have to thank you."
"No!"
Blake lurched forward to grab the barrel, try to deflect the shot. Adam pulled the trigger, and the stench of burning powder filled their nostrils. Arabella expected a gasp from her husband, for him to fall to the ground, but there was nothing except a surprised look on his face and no blood.
"This musket never was worth a damn," Adam muttered, before bringing it up sideways with both hands to smash Blake in the face. Blake went flying backwards, and crashed into the marble wall.
"But it will work just as well as a club."
He took the barrel in both hands, and swung it straight for Blake's head to crack it like a walnut.
Arabella screamed and grabbed Adam's elbow, trying to deflect the vicious blow.
Suddenly there was a crash and then a huge roar, and she could feel herself flying backwards.
Then she was flat on her back looking up at the sky, hardly able to breathe. She was partly pinned under a huge heavy weight, and pushed with all her might at Adam, who had landed on top of her, his back against her chest.
"Arabella, my God, Arabella," Blake said, running up to his wife and heaving her cousin off her.
He ran his hands all over her gore-stained dress. But apart from some singed skin on her stomach where the powder had burnt right through to her bare skin, she was unharmed.
They stared at each other for a moment, hardly able to believe they were both still alive. Then he opened his arms wide and she threw herself into them. They clung to each other on the mired ground, and wept.
"It's over now. It's over," he whispered against her hair.
"Is it? Is it really?"
"Come, let's get you back to the house. You need to rest." He helped her to her feet, trying to shield her body and her eyes.
"But Adam-"
"No, my love. Don't look."
She caught a glimpse of red glistening on the grass, and doubled over, retching.
"Don't look," he said again, and led her away from Adam's eviscerated corpse.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Blake had at last got his trembling wife out of the ruined riding habit and into a hot bath. He had forced Arabella to drink a cup of hot sweet tea, and now she was wrapped up in a night dress and quilt almost sitting on top of the fire, scarcely able to control her shivering.
He hardly dared touch her until she asked softly, "Hold me, darling, please?"
"Of course."
He wrapped his arms around her, breathing in the fragrance of her clean hair. In her pristine white night dress with a high lace collar, she looked like the small child he recalled from so many years ago, innocent and fresh and unspoiled.
He stroked her hair back from her brow. "I love you, you know that, dearest, don't you? There is nothing you can't say to me."
"I just can't believe what he
did to me."
"Tried to do, Arabella. He beat you, but at least we know for sure now that he never raped you, never gave you a disease, and that it's truly over at last.
"He's dead now. He can never hurt you again. I know how hard this is for you, how absolutely horrifying. But if you allow him to make you fearful for the rest of your life, then he's won. Defeated us.
"I know you're stronger than that, Arabella. You were so strong for me when we had to cope with the carriage accident. You saved my life then. I'm asking you to save it again. Make me a whole man, banish my fears. Let us both put the past behind us, and be happy."
She nodded. "You make me strong, Blake. I know you'll protect me this time, just as you always have."
"I've tried. Malcolm and Geoffrey Branson know the whole story now. Oliver told them everything he knows. It's a dreadful story. I can scarcely credit it myself, even having seen the results of his depravity with my own eyes."
"How can we possibly explain this to the poor Jeromes. I mean, the girls were all set to marry them!" She gave another long shudder of horror. "The family has been through so much already."
"Malcolm agreed we shouldn't tell the whole truth. Adam is dead now, so what difference can it possibly make to reveal it all? We're telling everyone he went berserk and tried to kill me over some gambling debts. Not everyone will accept that explanation, but if we all stick to the same story, it will blow over."
"Will Oliver be charged?" she asked quietly after a time.
He shrugged. "I'm going to make a case for him not being. He was misguided and stupid, and certainly did wrong, but he's not a vicious criminal. He's truly horrified by what he's done, what he could have become. We'll find a suitable punishment for him, never fear.
"I'm also discharging all of their debts. As soon as the news spread of Adam's death they flocked like vultures. It appears your cousins were fond of gambling. Adam ran up a fortune of debt trying to create a good impression to win your hand in marriage to get their hands upon your wealth. I know it isn't my responsibility. Malcolm told me that. It's just that I don't see any reason why these blameless people have to lose out because Adam was a thief, liar and degenerate."
"I can't believe he killed so many poor women," she sighed.
"If I hadn't been so preoccupied with nursing you, I would have heard about the most recent poisoning cases in Bristol and Bath. There was so much evidence, but I couldn't think about anything other than you and getting you well after you were assaulted."
"I was so scared."
He held her close. "I know. It must have been terrible to have someone you trusted turn on you like that. And today, you must have thought he was going to attack you again."
"No." She shook her head vehemently. "I meant I was terrified he was going to kill you. It was all I could think about. My worst nightmare come true. It was a fight to the death. If the powder hadn't been damp, he would have shot you in cold blood for certain.
"Then he tried to club you to death. If he hadn't hit the stone wall so hard and made the barrel explode, the gods only know what would have happened to you. To us both."
"Yet despite the danger, you tried to save me. I saw the way you fought him, like a tigress defending her cubs."
"It was the least I could do for you. You were my guardian angel from the moment I met you."
He sighed, and the tears began to fall anew. "If that were true, then Adam would never have had a chance to attack you."
"You can't blame yourself entirely, my love," she said, reaching up to dry his eyes. "Philip warned me. He said not to trust in appearances. To just believe you loved me. To trust in our love blindly, without any doubts or hesitations.
"If I had done that, none of the lies that Rosalie or Leonore told would have upset me. I never would have run out of the house and into Adam's clutches."
He hugged her tightly. "You can't blame yourself for what he did. He was a devil, a fiend. He assaulted, violated and murdered without an ounce of regret."
She shuddered once more and whispered, "It's all true. He did. But he's dead now. He can't hurt us or anyone else ever again.
"I'm so sorry you were so worried about me and so miserable because of it. Thank God he didn't rape me, give me a disease. He beat me, but I'm all right now. And I'm going to stay that way."
"I was miserable, yes, but relieved when you didn't remember anything. I was terrified of pregnancy and disease, it's true. But I was just so glad you were still alive, nothing else mattered.
"Your losing your memory was a blessing in a way. If you had told me it was Adam, I probably would have tried to kill him, and ended up in jail, leaving you unprotected. And if I hadn't killed him, well, I shudder to think what would have happened next. As long as he was alive, he would have kept on with his murderous career."
He nestled her against him tightly. "Coming so close to losing you, and you losing your memory, also gave me a second chance, however bad things were. I got to do it all over again, better the second time around. I got tell you the whole truth about how much I love you, and why I was terrified.
"I'm not frightened any more. I don't have a single doubt about the wisdom of what I've done in marrying my ward. I love and trust you, and I'm going to show you every day for the rest of your life as soon as you're feeling better."
She snuggled against his lean hard chest. "Being in your arms like this makes me feel better already."
Arabella suddenly heard the sound of crinkling paper next to her ear. "What's that?" she asked, poking at it.
He patted his breast pocket. "Oh, a letter from Peter. It arrived just after I finished giving my deposition to Geoffrey and his son."
"What does it say?"
"It's addressed to both of us." He frowned at the multiple addresses crossed out on the outside of it. "It's travelled all over the south of England to get here. I was going to save it, but if you're feeling up to it--"
"I am. Let's see what news he has."
He tore open the seal and scanned the first two lines. Then he laughed and shook his head, and it was as though a final cloud had been lifted from his heart and soul.
"What is it? What does it say?"
He cleared his suddenly choked throat and read aloud,
"Dearest Arabella and Blake,
"If you are reading this letter now, it is because my little matchmaking scheme has worked, and the two of you are safely married. Welcome to the family, Brother. For so I have always thought of you, and am delighted it is in fact as well as deed.
I hope you can forgive my machinations, both of you, but I couldn't think of any other way of bringing this most perfect of matches about. If any two people were meant for each other, it is the pair of you.
You, Belle, are too shy and retiring, though, and you, Blake, too modest and self-effacing to ever dare pursue her. Though the guardianship was no doubt a burden upon your conscience for some time, Blake, I feel sure that the two of you managed to work things out happily in the end.
I know that you will both look after each other and make each other's happiness, and you have my blessings now and for always.
Mr. Brown has been instructed to deliver this to you a month after you are wed, so that you will be sure that you have not done anything of which you should feel ashamed. You have made your best friend and brother a most happy man.
Warm kisses and hugs to you both, and I hope to be an uncle by the time I return from India.
With much love, Peter."
Arabella read it and re-read it, her eyes wide with wonder. "That sly little pup. Why, I have half a mind to give him a good telling off."
"Do you really? He was right, you know. We would never have met on the road if you hadn't been trying to go up to see him before he left."
She looked sheepish. "I was actually going up to beg him not to leave me in charge of a guardian. The good Lord only knows what would have happened to me if I hadn't been."
Blake lifted her into her arms and brought he
r over to the bed. "Don't even think about. You were, and we're safe and happy. And we have a lovely new home here with the Jeromes."
She shook her head. "Maybe in the future, but not now. We need to get to London quickly. You have your appointment at Horse Guards, and Philip is getting married," she said, sounding unutterably weary for a moment.
"Philip? Have we had another letter from him?"
"No."
"Then how do you know…" He frowned. "How is it possible? He never mentioned anyone special."
"He was my guardian too. He was the guardian of my person against Adam. I should have seen it. And you were the guardian of my heart. Now you can guard both, especially where we're going."
The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2 Page 99
