Sitting next to the marquis, Gillian was particularly aware of her husband’s eyes glittering dangerously whenever she caught his gaze as they rode to that evening’s entertainment. After the chill that swept her the first few times she encountered his eyes, she did her best to avoid them altogether, turning her attention to the man next to her.
“Lord Rosse,” she addressed him with a smile that was somewhat frayed around the edges, “as Noble is not speaking to me, perhaps you will tell me how he came by a broken nose.”
Rosse shot his friend a pleading look. Noble ignored both it and his wife and glared out the window of the carriage as it rolled through the night.
“I believe, madam, that he acquired it at Jackson’s rooms.”
“Ah. Thank you, my lord.”
“Not at all, my lady.”
“Harry?”
“Yes?”
“Since my wife is behaving in a childish manner by making a point of not speaking to me, would you ask her just what the blazes she thought she was doing by ignoring my wishes and not only leaving the house but meeting with the very man I specifically forbade her to meet?”
“Ah…”
“Lord Rosse,” Gillian said with an injured sniff and a frown across at Noble, “you might, since you are being so obliging as to act in a mature and intelligent manner, unlike some people I could mention, notably the irrational, emotional, and unjust man I married, would you be so kind as to tell him that I did not agree to abide by his dictates since they were silly, unreasonable, and unfair?”
“Silly? Unreasonable? Unfair?” Noble folded his arms across his chest and glared at her.
“Silly, unreasonable, and unfair. Noble you know full well that keeping me a prisoner in the house, forbidding me to see friends and family, and, worst of all, denying me my son, is simply intolerable. I will not stand for it!”
“Harry, please tell my wife that she will stand for whatever I tell her she will stand for.”
“Um…no, I don’t think I will tell her that, Noble.”
Noble added Harry to his list of people to be glared at.
“See,” Gillian said, tapping Rosse on his arm with her fan. “Irrational and emotional.”
“I’m nothing of the sort,” Noble snapped.
“You are, husband, just look at you! You’re sitting there scowling and growling at us, and over what? A simple stroll in the park with my cousin, son, and others.”
“You left the house by yourself, madam, without a footman or groom in attendance, and,” he said hurriedly, before Gillian could protest his statement, “you walked for some time alone with that murdering bastard.”
“If you had three Bow Street Runners following me, then I was not alone,” she said triumphantly, pleased with her logic. “So my going out to meet with Lord Carlisle was perfectly respectable.”
“That’s beside the point. You didn’t know the Runners were in attendance…”
“Yes, and I’d like to discuss that with you…”
Noble waved her objection away. “The point is, you deliberately disobeyed my commands.”
“Noble.”
He glared at her gentle smile. “What?”
“You’re speaking to me.”
He swore under his breath. “Gillian, you will not distract me by smiling at me in that manner. The issue at hand is one of obedience. Without any concern for your health or safety, you left the sanctuary of our home to meet with that—”
“—murdering bastard, yes, Noble, we all know who he is.” Gillian took a deep breath and reached out a hand toward him. He frowned at it.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake…” Gillian moved across to sit next to her husband and, by wriggling her fingers, managed to work her hand under her husband’s crossed arms. “Noble, I was perfectly safe. I knew Charlotte would be there, and I was in a public place.”
She reached up with her free hand and ran her finger around the cleft in his chin. “Can you not see your way clear to forgiving my transgressions, and I shall forgive yours?”
He reached up to grab her fingers, his scowl growing blacker. “My transgressions? You will forgive me my transgressions?”
“Yes”—she pulled her hand out of his and placed it on his chest—“I am quite willing to forgive if you are.”
Her hand slid up his chest and curled around the back of his neck, sliding into his hair. God’s eyebrows but his hair was sinfully soft. It was like silk slipping through her fingers. She closed her fist around it and tugged his head toward hers, tilting her head back and offering up her mouth.
Noble tried to remember why he was so angry and why he had decided that a policy of indifference seemed like such a good idea, but the sight of her parted lips drove all other thoughts from his mind but the desire to sip her sweet nectar. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her up against his chest as his mouth claimed hers, his tongue dipping in to revel in her taste. He stroked the roof of her mouth and saw stars when she suckled his tongue.
“I shouldn’t be seeing this, no I shouldn’t, so I’ll just look out the window at the passing scenery. Or I would if I could see anything, but since it’s nearly ten o’clock and black as sin out there, I can’t see anything. However, since I’m sure if I were to look back at you, I would see…oh, yes, that’s just what I thought I’d see, and I shouldn’t be seeing that either, so I’ll just keep my eyes looking elsewhere until you’re both finished. I hope you finish soon,” Rosse said wistfully. “It gets a bit tedious staring out into the dark when two people who are close enough to you to touch are engaged in an activity better suited to a private location.”
“Harry.”
“Yes, Noble?”
“Get shankered.”
“Crouch?” Several hours later, Gillian peered out from her sitting room and waved the pirate in. “Crouch, where have you been?”
“Sorry, m’lady, the Tremaynes was at it again, and I’ad to get my wager on Tremayne Three.”
Gillian listened for a moment. No sounds of a battle reached her ears, so the fight must be going on in the servants’ quarters. She knew she should intervene, but she hated to do so. The Tremaynes all pouted so when she insisted they behave. “Three? Is he so much better than his brothers?”
Crouch grinned. “Nay, m’lady, worse, but I likes an understrapper, I do.”
“Well, I am glad you managed to tear yourself away from the excitement, but we have an important task ahead of us, and you know you are vital to my plans. Should you not be leaving to meet Lord Carlisle?”
“Aye, m’lady, I’m just about to do that.” He yawned.
Gillian yawned back at him. “Don’t do that,” she snapped as soon as she could. “We both have work to do. Do you have the laudanum?”
He handed her a small brown bottle. “Ye know ’ow much to use?”
“Yes, just a few drops ought to do it. Do you have the Runners with you? All of them?”
“All five, m’lady. Yer two and ’is lordship’s three, and we’ve all got barkin’ irons with us.”
“Barking…irons?”
“Aye, just as ye ordered.”
Gillian tried to remember if she had asked specifically that the men be equipped with iron dogs that barked. She didn’t think she had.
“Oh, pistols you mean.”
“Aye.” Crouch nodded, his gold earring swinging. “Snappers, just as ye’ve asked.”
“Snappers, yes, excellent. You have the key to Noble’s house in Kensington?”
He patted his waistcoat pocket with his hook. “Aye, m’lady, all’s taken care of there, but I’m worryin’ what I’ll do if the murderin’ bastard doesn’t show up.”
Gillian’s smile brightened up the dark room. “He’ll show up. He’s been wanting to save me…well, now he’ll have his chance.”
“It’s a right devilish mind ye’ve got yerself there, mistress.” Crouch saluted her with his hook. “I’m thinkin’ ’is lordship, once ’e gets over being drugged, will thank ye.”
“I wish you were right,” Gillian said, her smile fading. “But I fear he’s simply going to be too angry to see much reason for a while. Oh, well, there’s just no helping it. If those two men intend on acting like stubborn little children and refuse to be reasonable, we’ll just treat them as children and do what’s best for them.”
The rumble of masculine voices made its way up the stairs.
“Must be Lord Rosse leavin’ ’is lordship,” Crouch said as Gillian pushed him toward the back stairs.
“Then go, and Godspeed, Crouch.”
“And to you, m’lady.”
The two conspirators grinned at one another, then separated — Crouch down the backstairs, and Gillian skimming up the staircase to her bedchamber. She hugged the bottle tightly to her chest, planning just exactly how she would slip the liquid into a bit of brandy. Crouch had warned her about putting too much in brandy, since the liquor would accelerate the effects of the drug, so she had to make certain Noble didn’t drink too much…just enough to guarantee he’d sleep through the dawn.
“That should take care of the Lord of Pigheadedness,” she muttered a few minutes later as she entered her room and looked around for a spot in which to hide the bottle. As she walked toward the wardrobe, a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye had her gasping and stumbling backward in surprise. A small, thin figure unfolded itself from the corner and stood hesitant in the candlelight.
“Nick? Is that you? Is something wrong?” Gillian started toward the slight figure but rocked backward when he threw himself against her.
“Oh, Nick, my darling, did you have a nightmare?” Gillian wrapped her arms around the boy and swayed gently with him while he heaved huge sobs into her chest. She murmured soothing words and brushed the dark locks back from his forehead until the weaping lessened in intensity. “It’s all right, my love. I’m right here, and nothing can hurt you now.”
“But…if Papa sends you away…”
Gillian stared down into the tearstained face and blinked in surprise. Nick was talking? Now? Why? His thin little body shook against her as she held him. First things first, she told herself, and with an arm around the lad, sat down with him on her bed. “Your papa’s not going to send me away, Nick. You’re worrying about nothing. Now tell me.” She handed him a handkerchief. “Did you have a nightmare?”
He nodded and blew his nose, then tried to hand the handkerchief back. “Er…no, you keep it,” she said as she smoothed a hand over his hair. “Do you want to tell me about the dream? Sometimes it helps make it seem less frightening if you can talk about it.”
He thought about that for a minute, then gave a minute shrug. “It was about that night.”
“What night?”
“The night my mother died. My other mother.”
Oh, lord. Had Nick been present when Elizabeth was killed? Gillian tried to remember what Noble had told her about the trauma that had sent Nick into self-imposed silence. He had said it had its roots in Elizabeth’s death, and she had assumed he was traumatized because his beloved stepmother had been taken away from him.
“You can tell me if you’d like, Nick,” she said, still stroking his head. He leaned into her and spoke in a soft, monotonous voice so devoid of emotion that it made her skin crawl. What he described made her sick. And furious.
“I was there again, in that room, her room, and she was there with him, and he was making me watch as he whipped her.”
Gillian felt the blood drain from her face. Dear God, had she been wrong all along about Noble? Was the damning truth to come from the mouth of his own child?
“She screamed and screamed and wouldn’t stop, and neither would the bleeding, and I thought I was going to be sick on the carpet when he started cutting her with a knife. I put my hands over my eyes, but I could still hear her screaming and begging him to stop, but he wouldn’t.”
Gillian clutched his head to her bosom and rocked him, squeezing her eyes closed over her tears. What sort of a monster was Noble? How could he commit such obscene acts, and in front of a child?
“She stopped screaming, so I thought it was all right to look, I thought he was done, but he wasn’t, he had just tied something across her mouth, and tied her arms to the bed. Then he looked at me, and he laughed and laughed and told me to take off my clothes, that he wanted to leave Papa something to remember him by.”
Gillian thought she was going to be sick for a moment, but then Nick’s words struck her. “Papa? Nick, who was the man who was doing…who was doing those bad things?”
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know his name, I just know him. He hurt her.”
Gillian laid her head on his, relief swelling over the fact that Noble was innocent of such heinous crimes. She tightened her arms around the boy. “Was that the end of the dream?”
He shook his head again. “The man made me take off my clothes, and then he started laughing again, and I…” He tried to burrow his head into Gillian. She rubbed his back, overwhelmed by the waves of agonizing torment rolling off him. How could a child survive such a hellish scene?
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish to, Nick.”
“I wet myself,” he said in a small voice. “Just like a baby, but I couldn’t help it. The man stood over me with the whip and he laughed harder and said how just it was that Papa’s son should be such a weakling.”
“You’re not weakling, Nick. The man was wrong, and you have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Papa saw,” he whispered into her neck. “Papa came in and saw me. He saw me crying and he saw that I’d wet myself.”
Gillian’s mind chased around in circles. Noble was there? He saw what happened? How could this be? Why hadn’t he killed this horrible monster who tormented Nick and Elizabeth?
“What did Papa do?”
“He fell down when the man hit him on the head with one of his pistols.” Nick detached himself long enough to stare at Gillian with eyes filled with so much pain she wanted to weep. No child’s eyes should look like that. “I tried to help Papa, but the man picked me up and threw me on top of her, and I was so scared I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move! I tried to help Papa, but I couldn’t move!”
“Shhhh,” she calmed him, holding him close again and stroking his back. “It’s all right, my love, you aren’t to blame for what that man did. No one blames you. Your father knows you tried to help him. He doesn’t blame you.”
Nick went suddenly stiff in her arms. “I couldn’t move, and then the man shot her and there was blood everywhere and…I think I wet myself again.”
“Oh, God,” Gillian moaned, unable to keep the tears hidden now. She rocked the frail body of her son in her arms and wept for him, wept for the hell he had lived through, and wept for Elizabeth, who didn’t deserve to die.
“The man was going to shoot Papa,” Nick whispered so softly Gillian almost didn’t hear it. “He was going to shoot him. Papa wasn’t moving, he couldn’t move, and she was dead and I didn’t know what to do so I threw the candlestick at him, and he didn’t shoot Papa because he shot the wall instead.”
Gillian had a horribly vivid image of what happened that night. “Did the man leave then?”
Nick nodded, and his body sagged against hers. “He left, but she was dead, and I thought Papa might be dead until he started groaning. The man told me not to tell anyone or he’d come back and kill Papa. He told me it would be my fault if Papa died. I don’t want Papa to die.”
Gillian held him, rocking him and murmuring soft, comforting words in his ear until he fell asleep against her. She held him even after he slept, weeping silent tears for all that her brave little son had been through.
“I promise you, Nick,” she whispered to him. “I promise you that your Papa will punish that man. He won’t hurt you again.”
Noble signed his name to the document, blotted it, and handed the thick sheet of paper to his secretary. “You’ll be sure to destroy my prior will?”
“Of cou
rse, my lord. May I say, my lord, that I and all the staff hope that you will not need this document in the near future?”
“Thank you, Deveraux, I also trust it will not be needed for a long time.” He and his man of affairs watched as Tremayne witnessed the document. Then Noble glanced at the clock and stretched as he stood. “I believe I will retire for a few hours before I am due to leave.”
“Good night, my lord.”
“Good night.” Noble took the stairs two at a time. He was looking forward to spending the time before he had to leave covering as many items remaining on the list he had created for Gillian as was humanly possible. He was even looking forward to apologizing to her for trying to remove Nick from her care. Apologies did not come easy to him, but he had been wrong. The threat of taking Nick away had hurt his wife deeply.
He paused a moment as the thought snaked through him that he could die at dawn, leaving behind Gillian and Nick. Although he had every confidence in his ability with a pistol, only a fool did not feel fear when facing danger.
“If it’s to be, then so be it,” he muttered to himself as he stalked down the hallway toward his dressing room. That and other grim thoughts raced around in his mind while Tremayne removed his evening clothes. Gillian’s words from earlier in the evening haunted him.
“This duel is simply ridiculous! It is not about a slight done to me or to you,” she had said, her face flushed with anger. Noble thought her eyes were about to spit flames. “This is about your male arrogance, and Lord Carlisle’s arrogance. Neither one of you wants to admit it was a simple misunderstanding, that no insult was done to either of you, except the ones you hurled at each other so publicly in the street. Is your stupid male pride worth dying for, Noble? Is it? Do Nick and I matter so little to you that you would throw away your life on something so trivial?”
He had defended his actions with the standard response about honor, but now, as he thought of what her life would be like without him, of how Nick would grow up without a father, he admitted there was some validity to her opinion.
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