Barbara Pierce

by Naughty by Nature

  Grinning down into her horrified face was Julian Phoenix. “Miss me, my little pigeon?”

  Something hard connected with the back of her skull. Patience saw a bright flash of light and then saw nothing at all.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The foreign taste of blood awoke Patience from her slumber. Confused and with her eyes still closed, she licked her lips. Her mouth was sore. She must have cut her lower lip when someone or something struck her from behind. Considering the immense throbbing pain radiating from her skull, she was wagering it was a wagon laden with barrels of ale. She raised her hand and realized someone had tied her wrists together.

  Julian Phoenix!

  “So you are finally awake,” Phoenix said from somewhere behind her. “I was afraid that your thick skull had been cracked from the blow.”

  Patience slowly opened one eye. The nausea and headache she was suffering from made even the dimmest light unbearable. She tried not to whimper. Men like Phoenix preyed on the weak. She would not give him the satisfaction of revealing how badly she was hurt. “You are supposed to be dead,” she said tersely.

  He had brought her to a small theater. Opening both eyes, she glanced about. He had carried her up to the second tier and had placed her in a private box close to the stage. She did not recognize the building. The interior smelled of dust and stale air, so if the building was still being used, any occupancy had not recent.

  Phoenix circled around until he was facing her. “Such fiery defiance. Once, I tried to teach you that there are instances when you should accept your defeat gracefully. This is one of those moments. You have undeniably been outwitted and there is no chance of escape.” He knelt down in front of her. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Her swollen lip gave her the appearance of pouting. Giving him a sullen look, she said, “I was careless. I should have stabbed you through the heart with the hay fork to ensure that you were dead.”

  The ire in his eyes was her only warning to his intent. Drawing back his arm, he slapped her. Her head snapped roughly to the side. Her cheek stung like he had seared his palm into her flesh. She brought up her bound hands and lightly touched her face.

  “Bloodthirsty little wench! I nearly perished from your first thrust,” he said, glowering at her as he stood. “However, much like the mythological bird that is my namesake, I was reborn into the man you see before you.”

  Patience flexed her fingers. He had tied the rope around her wrists so tightly her fingers were numb. “It was an accident. If you recall, I wanted to summon help, but it was too late, or so you said. I hate to be rude, but why are you not dead?”

  His mouth curled up into a feigned smile. “Oh, I was quite convinced death was close at hand. An icy lethargy had deadened my limbs and each breath became shallower than the next. I could barely hear the words you were screaming at me as my vision dimmed to blackness.”

  Patience felt a pang of guilt. She had been so upset that afternoon in the barn. Had she seen only what she had wanted to see? “I thought you were dead,” she said contritely. “If there had been a chance to save you, I would have gone for the surgeon.” She had tried to go for help, but Phoenix had only taunted her for causing his death.

  “You had done enough,” he said waspishly. “When I awoke, an angel hovered above me. While you left me to rot beneath a moldering pile of hay, the lady who discovered me, bloodied and unconscious after your heinous attack, unquestionably saved me from a certain death. She cleaned and bandaged my wounds, bathed my feverish brow, and remained by my side day and night until the shadow of death was banished from my sickroom.”

  His final words and death had haunted Patience for two years. Although she had not deliberately sought to harm him, she had been burdened with the sin of killing another person. She had lied to people she had thought were her friends and privately endured the shame of her omission. Why? Phoenix could have spared her years of misery if he had revealed himself.

  “Deidra, Perry, and Link were concerned when you failed to appear at the inn. Why did you not send your angel to us, and tell us that you lived?” she demanded angrily.

  Why did you let me think I killed you?

  He leaned nonchalantly against the façade enclosing the private box. His eyes gleamed in merriment. “I was not ready to reveal my miraculous recovery. Besides, you told the troupe that I had abandoned the lot of you. No one was grieving my death, my pigeon, except for you. And you did mourn for me, did you not?”

  Hate rose within her breast for Julian Phoenix. She would never forgive him for taking something precious from her. Oh, not her virginity but her innocence. It was difficult to trust anyone. Her days with Ramscar and Meredith had softened the prickly exterior Patience presented to other people. Nonetheless, she was still struggling to give Ramscar the trust he offered unconditionally.

  “Of course I mourned you. Unlike you, it is not my nature to harm others. I regretted what had happened in the barn—”

  “And yet you ran away and lied about my fate?” he taunted, sounding disappointed in her.

  Phoenix made her actions to protect herself seem monstrous. “I was not the one intent on pouring a bottle of laudanum down my throat so Lord Grattan could violate me while you got rich from my pain! Though I regretted what had occurred, I was not going to hang on your behalf!”

  He slowly grinned and glanced upward. “Do not be so certain.”

  Although it pained her to tilt her head in any direction, she could not resist looking up to see what had captured his interest. Overhead, a hangman’s noose was suspended from the ceiling. The rope was low enough so that if she stood, the noose could be fitted around her neck.

  She bit her lower lip and then winced at the pain. “Must I point out that you are alive, sir? You are not righting any wrong by hanging me.”

  “Oh, I have no intention of hanging you, my duplicitous little protégée,” he said cheerfully. “You will carry the task out for me.”

  Something Phoenix had revealed earlier troubled her. “How did you know that I had lied to the troupe? Unless you were following us or had someone spy …” She trailed off.

  He crossed his arms and waited for her to figure out how close he had been to her all this time.

  No!

  “Deidra,” Patience said with grim confidence. “She was the angel you had mentioned, the lady who saved you?”

  “I was surprised that you never guessed. Deidra detested you. Yet she remained by your side, supporting you when Link and Perry chafed under your authority. Did you never wonder why?”

  Deidra was a better actress than Patience had guessed. The other woman had never been overtly friendly toward her. Their alliance had been borne of necessity to keep their small troupe together. Deidra never concealed the fact that her loyalty would always belong to Julian Phoenix. In hindsight, Patience realized that her friend had never doubted that he would return to them one day.

  God, she had been such a fool!

  “Yes,” Phoenix said, slowly nodding his head as he let the unpalatable truth sink in. “Deidra was always rather protective of me. When I told her to remain at the inn with the others, while you and I drove out to Lord Grattan’s estate, she naturally followed us. The poor dear always disliked the intimacy between us.”

  “She loves you.”

  “Ah, yes,” he sighed. “Love. Such a useful emotion. In the proper hands, it can be wielded as a warrior manipulates his dependable sword or shield.” He moved away from the façade framing the upper tier and stood over her. “She arrived just in time to see you stagger out of the barn, sobbing and cursing my name. After you had climbed into the wagon and driven off, she entered the barn and found me,” he said, fingering several curls near Patience’s left temple. “As one might expect, she wanted to return to the inn that very night and slay you while you slept for what you had done to me.”

  No doubt Phoenix had embellished the retelling of the tale so Patience was the villainess of the piece.
She had lived the last two years believing she was finally free of Phoenix’s machinations. It was a bitter realization to acknowledge that she had been his pawn all along. Sullen but not defeated, she stared at him. “So I am here because Deidra demands revenge?”

  “For Deidra?” He chuckled softly. “No.”

  He abruptly hauled Patience onto her feet. She cried out as daggers of pain exploded in her skull. “No—no,” she said, attempting to avoid the noose. The extensive length of the rope hinted that he intended to throw her over the façade. Her own weight and gravity would eventually strangle her. He roughly pushed aside her bound hands, and the hemp circled her neck like a hideous necklace.

  “You are facing my retribution, little pigeon,” he said, tugging on the knot at her nape. “You know I can be most thorough when it comes to my plans. When I leave this abandoned theater, you will most certainly be dead.”

  “You are the thief,” she said, wetting her dry lips. She had to keep him talking. It was not a difficult task. Phoenix was too enamored by his own genius to refrain from gloating. “For weeks, jewelry has been disappearing throughout the ton. When I awoke this afternoon and found the stolen pieces on my bed, I finally understood that someone was awfully determined to have me blamed for the thefts.”

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” he said, reveling in his cleverness. “I am the talk of the season! I’ve enjoyed reading the papers and laughing as they tried to speculate when and where the dastardly thief would strike next.”

  The weight of the hemp rope felt like a thick iron chain around her neck. She cringed, fighting to keep her composure. “I applaud you. It was a laudable scheme. While you plucked the ton of its pretty treasures, you gave Ramscar’s Bow Street Runner a likely suspect. Me.”

  Phoenix gripped her arm firmly to prevent her from removing the noose. “Deidra has been a valuable accomplice. Disguised as servants, it was not difficult for us to gain entry into a busy household. There is always extra staff underfoot during a ball, so we were rarely questioned. On a few occasions, we changed our attire again by borrowing clothes from our host and hostess and then reappeared as guests. No one suspected. Not even you,” he purred triumphantly

  Patience frowned. The night of Meredith’s birthday ball, there had been a moment when a sense of foreboding had overwhelmed Patience. She had shrugged off the sensation, assuming she had been suffering from a case of nerves. Everyone had been staring at her and Meredith that evening. Patience would never have guessed that Phoenix had been stalking her while he plotted her downfall.

  “Why stop?” she wondered aloud. “The season has not ended. You could have continued plundering the ton, and waited until someone made a formal accusation against me. If I had been convicted, I would have been hanged.”

  “Regrettably, certain recent developments have forced me to alter my original plan,” he said defensively. “I should have anticipated that you would unwittingly ruin my lucrative scheme. You have always been troublesome baggage, Patience. Although, I must confess, you are highly entertaining. I have enjoyed watching you over the years as you desperately tried to prove to yourself and others that you are at heart an honest woman. While that was amusing, I have long anticipated the day when I would rid myself of you.”

  Patience dug her fingers into his coat when he nudged her closer to the ornate façade. If she was going over the balcony, she intended to take him with her. “You do not have to do this,” she said, every cell in her body rejecting the notion of bargaining with the devil. “Lord Ramscar is wealthy. You could ransom me!” She twisted in Phoenix’s embrace.

  He snorted at her naivety. “The moment you were safely ensconced in the earl’s custody, you would tell him I was responsible for the thefts.”

  She shut her eyes, striving for sincerity. “I will not. I swear!”

  Phoenix shook his head. There was no feigned regret to soothe her feelings. “Even if it meant you would face the magistrate for the thefts? I do not believe you. You would tell me anything to avoid going over that edge.”

  He was correct. She would tell him anything to stop him from carrying out his plan. “Ramscar loves me. I-I could convince him not to pursue you,” she said, truly believing for the moment that after she was released she could sway Ramscar into not hunting down Phoenix and Deidra. “You could have the ransom and your life.”

  With the back of his hand, he gave her cheek a downward caress. He gripped her chin and tipped it as he studied her face. “I have no doubt you have wiled your way into the earl’s heart. A man in love is likely to do anything for the lady who holds his affections. Of course, there is one small problem with your logic.”

  “What?”

  His handsome face contorted into an insolent sneer. “Lord Ramscar became my enemy the night he lied on your behalf to discourage the speculation that you were the ton’s mysterious thief. I confess, I had not anticipated his protectiveness so soon. Did you offer him your body to gain his loyalty?”

  She almost sputtered at Phoenix’s assumption. “There was no reason to barter my body for his protection. I was innocent of the thefts!”

  “I might have been content if you had been charged with my crimes as I had planned. However, your lover thwarted me, so I have decided to return the favor of spoiling his plans. Specifically, his marriage to you.” Phoenix grabbed the hair at the back of her head and cruelly tugged. Patience cried out. Her poor head had been too sorely abused for her to conceal her discomfort.

  “Oh dear, did you really think I would permit you to become his countess?” Phoenix taunted, constricting his grip until she cried out again. “Not while I live, my sweet pigeon. I hope Ramscar is present when your cold corpse is being cut down. On your behalf, Deidra wrote a touching note in which you confessed your heinous crimes and begged the earl’s forgiveness for shaming him. To avoid further scandal, you told him, you planned to kill yourself. He naturally will find your tragic note too late for him to save you from your desperate act.”

  “He will never believe I willingly killed myself.”

  “It matters little to me. I will be gone, and you will be dead. If it amuses him, the earl can spend the rest of his days in quiet contemplation, wondering if you truly took your own life or if you died by foul means. A fitting punishment, do you not think?”

  Patience peered closely into Phoenix’s face. What she saw terrified her. There was no madness gleaming from his brown eyes. No, Julian Phoenix was quite sane. In his cold, manipulative mind he had reasoned that she had goaded him to this mortal conclusion. His dispassionate expression revealed he was indifferent to the task. No plea for mercy or cunning lie would persuade him from his goal.

  He grabbed her upper arms from behind and tried to slowly walk her to the ornate façade. Patience stiffened in his arms. She was not some docile lamb who would blindly accept her captor’s dictates. He had called her a troublesome baggage. She did not want to disappoint him. Flailing her bound arms wildly, she fought back, knowing her life literally depended on her actions.

  “Damn you!” he growled; her vigorous disruptive movements were throwing him off balance.

  Unfortunately, Phoenix was heavier and stronger. Despite her efforts, he was inching her forward. The rope around her neck became tauter as they neared the front of the box. “No. No!” she screamed, kicking at his legs.

  She did not want to die. The man seemed impervious to her attacks. One foot connected with the façade, and in a desperate attempt to free herself from his hold she pushed off the paneled surface with her leg, sending them stumbling backward.

  The rope was jerked hard and she choked against the sudden constriction. Fighting to keep her balance, she slipped her fingers under the rope and pulled. The noose widened with surprising ease.

  There is not much time … .

  Bumping against Phoenix, she struggled with the noose, hoping to ease it over her head before she lost her advantage.

  “No.” As soon as he realized she was succeeding in freeing herse
lf from the noose, he seized the rope and tried to pull it back down. “Damn your eyes. Stop! You are not escaping me so easily.”

  It was a battle she refused to lose. She worked one side of the loop over her head before he could decrease the diameter of the noose. The moment the rope was away from her throat, she deliberately went limp and dropped to the floor.

  Phoenix was suddenly grappling with rope and empty air.

  “No!” he roared in fury. “Cease this defiance, you silly bitch! You cannot win. You are going over the façade even if I have to pick you up and toss you over the side.”

  “Patience!” a male voice echoed from below.

  Ramscar.

  A sob bubbled in her throat. Crouched down, she had never been so grateful to hear his voice.

  Julian Phoenix turned away from her as they heard the sounds of other people entering the building.

  Patience did not hesitate. Rising up like a vengeful Fury, she used her entire body to shove Phoenix. Her thighs slammed against the façade, halting her momentum forward. Julian Phoenix reached and found only air. She heard the outrage and denial in his scream until his body smashed onto the floor below, silencing him abruptly.

  She peered over the edge. There was a chance he could have survived the fall. The awkward position of his limbs and the odd angle of his head revealed that he had managed to break his neck. A bright red pool of blood expanded around Phoenix’s head, eerily reminding Patience of a halo.

  She turned her back on the scene below.

  “Patience!”

  Ramscar charged at her and scooped her into his arms. He hugged her so fiercely she could not speak. “Do you have any notion what you have put me through? Christ, I thought I lost you!” He pressed a harsh kiss to her mouth.

  Oh, how it hurt! Her lip was too tender for his rough, affectionate kiss. Nevertheless, it was pain she would gladly endure.

  Everod appeared behind them. “Is she hurt? Should I send someone for a physician?”

  Patience touched the side of Ramscar’s face. “I am a little bruised, but I am fine. Please,” she pleaded softly, “can we just go home?”