by Multiple
Actually, Church had pressed it on her, besides needing her last minute help with the event. At the moment, he could feel her in the room connected to his and she felt like a soft, solid caress in his mind. He’d left her to the opposite, more feminine room to bathe, while he’d paid extravagant amounts of money to have an appropriate dress delivered for her.
Her gasp of surprise just a short time before had converged in his mind and in his extraordinary hearing, connected so intimately to her. She was pleased.
“Your bride will wear these.” Church strode into the room on the wave of brisk irritation. The event of the ball was trying his patience. Church had a square, black box in his hand, which he flipped open as Trinity turned to look.
“Mother’s necklace,” Trinity uttered, remembering the emeralds and diamonds as clearly as if she were standing in front of him wearing them. He was shocked, as he’d thought all of his mother’s possessions were lost, destroyed, taken and sold off by their stepfather.
“I’ve added the earrings and bracelet to match over the years,” Church’s voice grumbled.
It was a magnificent set meant for royalty and it would awe the ton, which was exactly why Church was doing it, Trinity realized. With jewels like these offsetting Beth’s beauty, her possession by the Lords of Blacknall would ring throughout the ballroom. For him, Church, Baptiste, and Christian, it would mean intimate acceptance into their family.
Trinity touched the bold, glistening emerald at the center of the necklace, perhaps secretly wishing he could feel his mother’s presence. He was afraid of what Church might have had to give up to even possess this relic from their mother. As he stroked the cold jewel, his gaze raised to Church’s, searching.
Church’s gaze remained locked … there would be no hint of the sacrifice. Yet, Church must have sensed his train of thought because he rasped in a barely-audible hiss, “It was worth it.”
Trinity nodded. They wouldn’t speak of what price their vile Sire extracted. They would simply appreciate the memories the necklace brought of happier times. “I remember when you and I snuck out of the nursery to hide at the top of the stairs the night they held a ball,” Trinity muttered, dropping his fingertips from the emerald.
Church looked startled for a moment. “You remember that? You were so young.”
Trinity arched an eyebrow. “As were you.”
Church smiled. “She was radiant that night. We both swore she made the emerald sparkle as father waltzed her across the dance floor.”
They’d been little boys wanting to look for soldiers attending the silly ball and perhaps their swords, Trinity thought. But their mother and father had captivated their ruckus attention.
Church thrust the box forward. “So take it,” he said gruffly.
Trinity tapped the box closed, still in Church’s hand, and laid his palm across it. “You should save this for your woman.”
Church jerked his head once. It was a sharp denial that he would ever have a woman. “Take it,” he demanded, and then he left the box so Trinity had no choice but to take it. Church stalked to the windows. The night fog had clouded them, but still the torches in front of the mansion flickered on the windowpanes.
“You’ve seen Christian and her brother Adam?” Church turned his piercing, blue eyes to him. Trinity nodded, as Church continued, “I don’t know who could have done this vile thing. And to a noble, no less.”
Trinity interrupted anything further Church might add. “I do.”
Church’s black brows rose against the shock of white hair on his forehead. “You do?” he demanded.
“I’ve a suspicion it is the same one who has been mutilating the women.”
“And you know who this is,” Church challenged. He growled, “It would take a vampire to kill Cull like that.”
“Exactly,” Trinity answered with his irises turning predatory yellow.
“Trinity, is something wrong with Adam?” Beth exclaimed, hurrying into the room with the crackle of petticoats. “You look so fierce.”
He turned to her, for a split second admiring the dress she wore before she was embraced against him. “No, your brother fares just as we left him.”
Church’s features instantly turned from predatory to fond as his gaze slid over Beth. “You do this family’s uncouth bachelors proud, my lady.”
Trinity watched his bride blush at the compliment and he could not agree more as pride filled him. She was exquisite in the green and dappled-silver gown, with pearls shot through the hem, collar, and sleeves. He especially appreciated the modest, but full, cleavage she presented and he would envy the emeralds nesting atop the creamy mounds.
“You must call me Beth in private.”
“My pleasure, Beth,” Church responded. “I will be forever in your debt for shouldering some of the social expectations from this blasted ball.”
She smiled again, placing her hand on the black sleeve covering his forearm for a light pat. “I wish we didn’t have to care about such social nonsense. I have spent half my life worrying over it.”
Church covered her hand for a moment. “It is better to confront them and keep up appearances. They don’t know we have more to hide than they do.”
Beth nodded. “You are correct and wise.”
Church’s hand lifted from hers and hers fell away. “Your husband makes certain I am not always right.”
Trinity tilted his head with a slight smirk. “Your head’s already swelled enough, brother,” he teased a bit caustically.
Trinity heard and felt the arrival of Baptiste behind them — what interested him was Beth appeared to also. She truly was connected to his brothers through him.
Baptiste wasn’t dressed for a ball. He looked disturbed and the discontent thrummed in Trinity’s mind. Baptiste bowed slightly to Beth, and then he said, “There was a vampire in the mansion, hidden behind the walls by the look of it.” Baptiste turned his gaze to Beth. “Your brother screamed the name Fanton, so I thought …”
Beth gasped. Trinity strengthened his arm around her as her horrified gaze met his. He looked deep into her eyes and nodded. He watched her gulp and straighten. “That is my stepbrother,” she stated distinctly. “He is a vampire.”
Both Church and Baptiste made amazed sounds, before Trinity advised, “Let her finish.”
Beth squeezed him, and then said, “I didn’t know he was a vampire. My brother, Adam, didn’t either. We’ve known he was evil forever, but this …” She shook her head. “We never knew there were …” Her voice trailed off.
“Vampires,” Trinity uttered, finishing her words.
“He was massively torn about the throat, wounded badly. And he ran. But what I don’t understand is why Christian or I couldn’t detect him,” Baptiste muttered. “Perhaps it was all the blood.”
“Nay,” Trinity said, glaring at his brothers. “It’s wolfsbane.”
“What is this?” Church demanded.
Trinity shrugged. “I’ve not had time to tell you. However, I came across a meeting of Cull and Mongrel. I heard them speaking about an elixir that would leave them undetected by their brethren.”
“Of course it’s quite possible,” Baptiste muttered.
“It obviously works,” Church stated, turning his flashing gaze on Beth. “This Lord Fanton killed Cull and tried to kill your brother.”
She nodded, clutching Trinity’s arm. “He was evil before. I know it,” she whispered the terrible knowledge.
Trinity watched Church’s gaze turn to him. “Evil before, was he?”
“It’s why he mauls them,” Trinity uttered. “He was a killer before he was turned into a vampire.”
Beth whimpered at the revelation, and he pulled her fully into his embrace as he turned them away from his brothers. “These women who were killed, he-he, you think he …”
He grasped her chin and turned her anguished gaze up to him. He had to tell her the hardest things he suspected. “Yes,” he stated, and then he hesitated, but forced the wo
rds out, “It had to be him in the woods chasing you.”
She nearly crumbled, but he held her upright. “How could I not know any of this?” she exclaimed, “How could I be so blind?”
“You are not,” Church expelled behind them.
But Trinity said it for him. “Vampires live to deceive, Beth. We are masters at it.”
Chapter Thirty Two
Beth left the discussion of how to find and destroy Fanton to the brothers. It was too heartbreaking, knowing she’d been as if an accomplice in all the horrors Fanton had wrought. They could say vampires were master deceivers, but she should have known.
Nonetheless, she had to leave her guilt alone to fester on its own for a while. At least until the ball was over. Her skirts swished on the floor as she walked the long hall to the main staircase. She worried over how to present herself. She had secrets that needed to be kept now, and she was a new wife. She thought about how other new wives she’d known acted at their first balls after marriage, so carefree and a bit triumphant they’d made their catch.
She couldn’t be carefree, not with her brother’s life so destroyed and Fanton such a threat to innocent, unsuspecting women. But she could be proud. Proud to love a man such as her husband. She felt the touch in her mind right before she heard a unique swishing sound, then suddenly, as if a blur, Baptiste arrived beside her.
“Oh my,” she gasped, startled even with the warning.
“Apologies,” he said. “It might take a bit of getting used to.” She smiled, nodding, but noted the pensive look on his handsome features. “I came to ask you if you could perhaps help a, um, acquaintance of mine.”
Beth raised an eyebrow as she stopped walking and turned to him. “If I can, my lord, of course.”
“Baptiste,” he interjected, and then he said, “Her name is Irene, and she’d require a dress for this ball.”
An hour later, Beth stepped down the main staircase, with emeralds at her throat and sparkling on her earlobes and the large ring with the Blacknall crest on her finger. They were nearly ready to open the main doors to start greeting arrivals. She was very pleased with what she’d accomplished with the mysterious Irene. She glanced sideways at Irene, stepping shyly beside her. The woman’s rich fall of deep red hair was caught upward in a fashionable twist as her gaze darted nervously.
“Will he be here?” she asked for the dozenth time.
Beth clasped Irene’s hand for reassurance. “Lord Baptiste will be here.”
Beth smiled inwardly; there was definitely something of the heart going on here. She wondered if Trinity knew. Then she saw him across the grand entryway watching her arrival with heat in his gaze that caused her to blush slightly. Trinity nodded his head to her inner question and she felt startled. It was going to take time to become used to the secret connection of the mind they had.
Mischievously, she started imagining kissing him with great passion and his irises began to glow in what she saw as she drew nearer was the beginning of yellow rings. The image of her lying naked as he split her legs and kissed her mound flashed with amazing heat into her mind.
Her hand flew to her lips as she gasped then admonished, “Trinity.”
He raised a challenging eyebrow to her, not looking at all guilty as he stepped forward to clasp her gloved hand. He was the only brother in attendance and he answered before she could ask.
“I know Church should be here, blast him.” She watched Trinity bow to Irene. “My lady, I am Lord Trinity Montrose, pleasure to greet you here.” Irene looked as if made of pure porcelain marble, and her gaze wouldn’t meet Trinity’s. “This is my wife and we mean you no harm,” he stated severely. Beth glanced at him, wondering at his tone.
Irene seemed to straighten beneath his admonishment and curtsy slightly, while trying to look up at him. “I really shouldn’t be here,” she began to say, starting to back away.
Beth reached forward and grasped Irene’s hand. “Come stand beside me. We are friends now, yes?”
Irene nodded, smiling at her. “I went to a ball once when I was sixteen,” she whispered.
“Was it your coming out?” Beth asked, settling Irene beside her as she sent a questioning glance to Trinity. Trinity’s mind caressed her with thoughts that later he would explain.
“No, not mine. It was for my older sister.”
“You have family? Here in London,” Beth asked.
“Oh no, my lady,” Irene exclaimed. “They are all gone now.”
More mysteries, Beth thought, and she’d find answers with her husband later on. She patted Irene’s hand. “Well, this will be your second ball.”
“I just don’t know who to say I am,” Irene said.
Beth wondered what she could possibly have said to that, but Baptiste arrived.
“If my new sister-in-law doesn’t mind, we will say you are her third cousin, Miss Irene Ensworth, in from Yorkshire,” Baptiste said, arriving on the other side of Irene, and looking well put together in black evening attire. Irene dipped her head, blushing. And before Beth could agree to Baptiste’s plan, he turned to Irene with a short bow. “My lady, you look lovely this evening. I am honored to have you here by my side.”
Beth turned back to Trinity, raising an eyebrow as he curled an arm about her waist, drawing her closer. She murmured in his ear, “Please just tell me Miss Irene isn’t kidnapped or the victim of any other nefarious happenings.”
“Do you believe your household of vampires would be nefarious toward a young lady?” he murmured back against her ear, sending a shiver through her.
She tried not to smile, but remain serious. “Put that way …” she paused, making him wait for her prediction, and then she finished, “No, too noble by half, I think.”
His lips pressed behind her ear. “I’m not completely noble where you are concerned.” For a moment, Beth wished the presence of the impending ball would disappear.
But then Church arrived, with a booming voice saying, “Open the blasted doors and get this started.”
Trinity chuckled against her as they all turned to watch two footmen pulling open the heavy front doors.
The greetings took well over an hour, and Beth was surprised to see how many notable lords and ladies appeared. Trinity’s whispered speculation in her ear was they were too curious not to attend. She thought he might be right. They all looked at them both with great interest, some of the grand dames seeming as though trying to pry out if she were with child. Trinity deflected one and all from her with austere glares. She’d never felt so comfortable or formidable in society before. It was gratifying having the nobility that had shunned her now seek her court.
That was until Lady Ariel arrived. How could she forget that might happen? It was nearing the end of the cavalcade of arrivals, so when she spied Lady Ariel it wasn’t too blatant that she picked up her skirts and left the greeting line. Trinity was involved speaking to a Lord Brimwall of the Royal Society and a colleague of Baptiste’s. Therefore, her murmur that she was leaving didn’t lift his gaze as she passed him.
Would she run before the enemy? Yes. But then she realized many of the lords and ladies present for the festivities would have an eagle eye out for what would transpire between her and her accuser, Lady Ariel.
“Darn,” Beth cursed beneath her breath. She should have thought about this inevitability, but really things were far too hectic for her to have considered it. She wasn’t certain how she felt about Lady Ariel now, except betrayed. Trinity’s mind brushed hers, questioning her unrest and she cooled his thoughts with assurances of wellbeing.
She was out the other side of the ballroom into the hall, as she muttered, “We must find ways to block some of this.” She wasn’t certain she wished her husband to share every turmoil she felt. Without looking where she was going, she bumped into an immovable wall.
“Oh dear, excuse me,” she exclaimed with her gaze rising. Her impressions were choppy, but she saw broad shoulders, raven black hair, a sharp nose, and violet so deep it t
urned her gaze back.
“Quite all right, domina angelus.” Violet eyes like two drops of rich wine turned down to her as firm hands steadied her. She wondered about the Latin words the man spoke.
“I …” she started to say, but her voice closed as the purple deepened.
“Why would you call her lady angel in Latin, my lord? Are you from Rome, might I inquire?” a soft voice from behind them sounded.
Beth shook her head as the violet eyes turned from her and she felt as if fog were lifting from her mind.
“Look at me, bella. Do not interfere. You are mine now, yes. Look deeply.”
Alarm tugged Beth’s mind for an instant as she saw a broad hand curl outward as though enticing the other lady in the hallway. She saw the pretty, blonde-haired woman with gold spectacles sway toward the hand as though mesmerized. Just as bits of her senses were returning, those alluring, violet eyes turned back to her, and she sighed into them.
“Yes, my beauties, come closer.”
Trinity’s head snapped upward. “Did you feel that?” he hissed.
Church leaned closer. “No. I didn’t feel anything.”
Trinity turned from the foyer looking into the ballroom. “I am more closely attuned to her. I thought I felt a moment of …” He paused, walking toward the ballroom. “Unrest or …” He shook his head. “I cannot name it.”
Church’s hand clasped his shoulder from behind. “Her false friend, Lady Ariel, came through but didn’t stop at the greeting line.”
Trinity turned back to look at Church. “I’d believe that would certainly upset my wife.” He turned back, walking forward, as he uttered, “Except now I cannot feel her at all.”
Church grabbed his arm, holding him. “I agree it’s alarming, however, we must use discretion.” The words were sharply-suppressed orders.
Trinity nodded curtly, taking a deep breath. He couldn’t use his superior speed to whisk around the mansion. Baptiste and Irene pulled toward them, making a circle.
