A Sinful Duke She Can't Refuse (Steamy Historical Regency)

by Olivia Bennet

  Emmanuel stared at Isabella, searching for confirmation and she nodded slightly, lashes sweeping down to hide her eyes as she shivered. Emmanuel noticed that beneath the red cloak she was wearing, all she had on were some night clothes. “Could you not have dressed her in something warmer?”

  “Oh, forgive me, we forgot to carry a lady’s maid.” Chandler rolled his eyes and looked irritated. “You have seen that she is well, can we get on with this?”

  “I will need a surface on which to write. May we go inside?”

  Chandler hesitated, searching Emmanuel’s mien for any sign of trickery. His gaze then moved to Lord Gefferton with whom he exchanged narrowed eyes. “Very well, then, ladies first,” he pointed at Lady Gefferton, Lord Peregrine and Lady Edric. Without hesitation, they stepped into the cottage, following the bandit who had Isabella firmly in his grasp. He led them all to the study, seating Isabella in a corner bench and training his rifle at her head. The other ladies arranged themselves in a semi-circle simply watching him. Finally, the men filed in, with Emmanuel heading straight for the desk. Lord Peregrine stood by the door while Lord Edric joined the ladies. Emmanuel took a seat while Lord Gefferton stood at his back.

  Chandler strolled into the room and stood on the other side of the desk, staring at Emmanuel. “Well?” he asked.

  “I am waiting for you to tell me what you need pardon for.”

  “And I told you that’s none of your business.”

  “Well then, we are at an impasse!”

  Chandler raised his eyes and stared balefully at Lord Gefferton. “Are you going to get this done or not? I will shoot your daughter. Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, eh?”

  Lord Gefferton moved restlessly. “Look, Your Grace, why don’t you just write the pardon and leave the space for alleged crimes blank? Mr. Chandler can fill that in himself.”

  Emmanuel was staring at Mr. Chandler with slitted eyes. “So, you have murdered before, have you? Would you care to enlighten us as to your escapades?”

  They eyeballed each other, neither blinking nor moving.

  “I do not care to, no.” Chandler said at last with sneering contempt.

  “That is unfortunate, I had hoped to get to the bottom of this matter.” He reached into an inner pocket of his coat. A pearl-handled pistol fell out of it, onto his palm. He placed it carefully down on the table.

  There was pin-drop silence in the room.

  Emmanuel picked up the gun. “Do you recognize this weapon?” he asked Chandler.

  Chandler merely stared, his face blank.

  “I think you do. I think that you recognize it very well. You used it to cripple me, after you killed my father.”

  Immediately the room erupted in noises of disbelief and shock.

  “I have no idea what you’re on about. We’ve never met before.”

  “Have we not? I remember your eyes quite clearly. Those have not changed. Your hair is a bit gray now, where it was jet black before. And your beetle brows are a bit thinner, but I recognize the widow’s peak, the thick curly hair, the beetle brows and most strikingly, your eyes, staring at me coldly, without an inch of mercy in them. You have been haunting my nightmares recently, sir, but it was not until just now, when you commanded your man to bring Miss Isabella Addison out that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had found the man who killed my parents.” He leaned forward, looking Chandler in the eye, “I have been looking for you, for a long time. I wish to repay you of the debt you owe me.”

  He pointed the pistol at Chandler.

  The former highwayman raised his hands, shielding his face. “Wait! Do you not want to know the whole story? Would you risk the life of your betrothed to get revenge? Is she worth the hollow satisfaction of killing me?”

  Isabella squawked as the man holding a rifle over her, swung it into her temple. It was not a hard blow but it reopened the wound at her temple. Emmanuel jerked back in shock as Lady Gefferton cried out, “Please don’t!”

  “Put the rifle down,” Chandler growled.

  Emmanuel continued to point the pistol at him. “You owe me two lives. Will you make it three? I will not rest until every one of you is dead.”

  “Do you not want to know why we were there? Why your particular carriage?”

  Emmanuel narrowed his eyes at Chandler, “And what is that supposed to mean?”

  “Twas no accident that we ambushed you that day, but a well thought-out plot. Somebody wanted what your mother had.”

  “Chandler! What is this nonsense?”

  Emmanuel turned to look up at Lord Gefferton, who was too busy glaring at George Chandler to notice. “Let the man speak,” he said.

  “No! Don’t you think he has spouted enough lies? Shoot him and have done with it.” Lord Gefferton said.

  Emmanuel look back at Chandler, whose malevolent gaze now rested on Lord Gefferton. “Is that so, Colin? Am I lying?” His eyes shifted to Emmanuel, “Would you like to know if I am lying to you? Your mother wore a red ruby necklace on that day, did she not?”

  Emmanuel swallowed down remembered grief. “What of it?”

  “That ruby was a prize of not only great value but much coveted by the ton. Was it not…Lady Gefferton?” Chandler turned to her, a contemptuous smile on his face. Lady Gefferton uttered an inarticulate sound, her face drained of color.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Oh yes. You wanted that ruby, did you not, Lady Gefferton? And your husband was bound and determined to get it for you. He did it out of love, or lust, or pride, I have no idea. But what you wanted, he was determined to give you.”

  “No. No. No. You lie! I never wanted—”

  “You never wanted to kill anyone? But did you spare even a moment’s thought to where the jewels came from? Or even if your husband, a mere Viscount, could afford such expensive baubles? Or did you show them off to your friends with perfect happiness and dismiss any doubts you might have had about their source?”

  “I, I never…he told me he got them at auction. That there had been a private…auction.”

  “Indeed. But did he also tell you not to flaunt the jewels in public, ‘out of respect’ for the deceased?”

  Lady Gefferton’s breath was coming short and her knees gave out. She might have fallen to the floor if Lord Edric had not caught her.

  “Leave my wife out of this! She has nothing to do with your crimes,” Lord Gefferton shouted.

  “Oh, but you do, don’t you, My Lord?” Chandler turned on him at once.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about!” Lord Gefferton drew himself up to his full height, the better to look down on Chandler.

  “I am talking about the fact that you hired me to steal those jewels. You told me that Her Grace would be traveling with her son alone and that I was to ambush them and steal the ruby along with the other jewelry she would have on her person. You did say I was not to harm her, however, you reckoned without her husband being present and her son,” Chandler turned to glare at Emmanuel, “being a brat enough to fight back.”

  “I didn’t, I—” Lord Gefferton looked around the room, shaking his head in denial. Emmanuel pointed the pistol at his head. Immediately Lady Gefferton and Lady Peregrine began to scream in protest, while Isabella whimpered.

  “You had my family killed for some jewelry?” He did not recognize his own voice, so twisted with fury was it.

  Lord Gefferton extended a tentative hand as if he might try to take the pistol from Emmanuel. He got cracked on his knuckles, hard, by the pistol for his trouble.

  “Answer the question!”

  “I, I…” Lord Gefferton said, looking frantically around the room for help. “I was…young, foolish, and in love. I did something foolish. Believe me, it has haunted me all these years.”

  “Haunted you so much that you employed this…brigand…to be your steward?” It was Lord Edric who asked the question, eyeing both Chandler and Gefferton with a jaundiced look.

  “He threatened me.
I, I needed to keep an eye on him.”

  “You had him around our children!” Lady Gefferton screamed, tears streaming down her eyes.

  “He would not have hurt them, I swear to y—”

  Lady Gefferton jerked her hand in a quelling gesture. “No. You do not get to swear anything to me, Colin Addison. How dare you?”

  “How dare I? You were the one who wanted all the baubles, my dear. I was simply trying to satisfy the demands that you made upon me! It is you who claimed to be unable to hold your head high amongst the haut ton if you did not have the rock.”

  Lady Gefferton screamed, in anger and frustration. “Do not try to put this on me. I never asked you for anything you could not provide.”

  There was a loud silence as everyone stared balefully at everyone else.

  “Well, I for one, would say that he could not provide what you needed, hence the stealing and the killing,” Chandler lazily pointed out.

  “Shut up! You do not get to talk to me!” Lady Gefferton was almost foaming at the mouth. “Now release my daughter this instant.”

  “Not without my pardon.”

  “You will get a pardon over my dead body.”

  Chandler cocked his own pistol. “That can be arranged.”

  “Enough!”

  The scream had the entire room freezing in shock and they all turned to look at Lady Edric. She stepped forward, taking a deep breath and smoothing down her gown. Just as if there were no threats of violence being traded, she walked right up to Chandler and snatched the pistol from his hand. Then she turned to Emmanuel, holding out her hand. “Give me the pistol, Manu.”

  Chapter 29

  Revelation

  Emmanuel stared at his aunt before slowly handing her the weapon. She turned toward the third bandit in the room but he nudged the rifle against Isabella’s skull, his face threatening and she froze, before turning back to Emmanuel.

  “Now listen here, we are going to all sit down like civilized people and get to the bottom of this very complicated situation. A lot of unsubstantiated accusations have been flying about and before anyone gets shot, we are going to get to the truth of the matter.”

  Isabella was grateful that a level head had intervened. For a moment she had been terrified that her father was about to be killed by her husband-to-be. That would have made for some awkward dinners.

  “Shall we adjourn to the parlor?” Lady Edric was saying and to Isabella’s surprise, the men meekly obeyed her; even Chandler. Brutus, who had a rifle practically up her nose, led the way, poking the rifle continuously in her back. It was annoying and Isabella had to refrain more than once from turning on him with a sharp word. She allowed herself to be shepherded into the room and hustled into a corner, away from everyone else.

  Even as she dealt with the physical discomfort of being held at riflepoint, part of her was reeling from the revelations in the study. Had her father really been responsible for the deaths of Emmanuel’s mother and father? And was it horribly selfish of her to wonder how this would affect their wedding plans?

  She felt guilty even thinking it, but she had waited so long to find her perfect match that she was not ready to lose him because she was related to a man who would kill another over jewelry.

  My father had Emmanuel’s father killed over jewelry?!?

  She wanted to scream hysterically. Her father was every villain in every book she’d ever read. While they had never been close, she had always admired and respected him. She had loved him. How was she to deal with finding out about his feet of clay?

  She felt pulled in so many directions it was all she could do not to succumb to exhaustion and faint dead away. The only thing that stopped her was that she did not want to be that kind of heroine—the kind who fainted and waited for others to solve problems for her.

  No.

  She wanted to be like Lady Edric, taking command of the room and navigating pitfalls like the leader she was. She stiffened her spine and listened as Lady Edric outlined what had already been said.

  “Right, so His Grace avers that you, George Chandler, together with other persons unknown, did conspire to rob and kill his parents, the late Duke and Duchess of Helmsfield. True or false?”

  “I did not conspire with persons unknown. I did conspire with Lord Gefferton who promised me riches if I would steal the Cabochon Ruby necklace from the Duchess, for his wife greatly desired it.”

  Lady Gefferton made a sound of extreme distress but otherwise said nothing.

  “Lord Gefferton, what say you?” Lady Edric’s expression remained serene and non-judgmental.

  “I…have no idea what this man is on about. I would never do such a—”

  “Stop lying!” somebody screamed and Isabella was shocked to find by the strained feeling in her own throat, that she had done it.

  Everyone was startled, including Brutus, and she took the chance to grab the rifle from him and throw it across the room. It was caught quite neatly by Lord Edric, who tucked it under his arm and then nodded for his wife to continue.

  “Lord Gefferton, do I need to make you swear upon the Bible, or will you do the honorable thing and tell the truth?”

  Lord Gefferton sighed, looking away as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “I am telling the truth. I did not conspire to kill the Duke and Duchess, only to obtain the jewel. I specifically asked Chandler not to hurt them.”

  “You also told me that it would just be the Duchess and her brat in the coach!” Chandler growled.

  Lord Gefferton would not look at him, or anyone. Lady Edric sighed deeply, clearing gathering her spirit before going on.

  “All right, so regardless of the details, on the night of February 3rd, 1798, you, George Chandler, and your accomplices did stop the carriage belonging to the Duke of Helmsfield, did take his life and that of his Duchess, crippled their only son, and stole the Duchess’s jewelry. Is this a fair summary of events?”

  Emmanuel made a growling sound, deep in his chest, his eyes reddened and glaring. His hands were balled into fists and Isabella knew it was taking everything he had not to kill both Chandler and her father at the moment. And Isabella could not blame him. Not one bit. If she were in his shoes, she would want them dead, too.

  She looked to Lady Edric, wondering where they were all to go from here.

  Lady Edric sighed. “These are very serious and criminal accusations that have been brought before us today and I feel that the only fair way to handle them is to let the law deal with it.”

  “Do not forget I will kill Miss Addison if—”

  Isabella got to her feet. “Oh, shut up. Killing me would do you no good and would only add to your crimes.”

  “If they are going to hang me anyway, what is one more body?” Chandler raised a knife he’d been holding in his hand.

  Emmanuel got to his feet as well. “If you go anywhere near my betrothed, I will jam that in your eye.”

  Isabella shivered at the violence in his voice, torn between disquiet, relief, and arousal. It was good to know that Emmanuel still considered her his bride, however, he was not thinking too clearly right now and likely the repercussions of her father’s involvement in his parents’ deaths had not occurred to him—yet. What would happen when they did?

  Isabella tried to think of a way out of this quagmire but everywhere she looked, they were mired in bog.

  Damn you, Father, for a greedy bastard!

  Immediately, she clamped her own hands to her lips even if she had not expressed the thought aloud. She could not believe she had thought such a disrespectful thing about her own father. She sought her sister’s eyes, looking for reassurance but all she found there was more confusion. If any one of them had idolized their father, it was Sarah. This whole mess must be hitting her a lot harder than it was Isabella. She sought her mother, who was sitting slumped over on the settee, eyes downcast. What Isabella could see of Lady Gefferton’s face looked horrified beyond belief.

  Everyone was taking this so hard.
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br />   Isabella took a deep breath, and straightened her spine. “I think you’re right, Lady Edric. We have to involve the authorities.”

  “No!” Chandler shouted and lunged for her. He raised his hand, knife glinting in his fist, and Isabella watched as it rose and then began to drop in an arc, headed straight for her bosom. And then Emmanuel was there, standing between her and the knife.

  “No!” The sound erupted from her throat and she leaped forward and pushed him out of the way. A jolt of pain hit her as she jerked, her arm erupting in agony so terrible she almost fainted from it. Somebody shouted and someone else was screaming hysterically. Isabella could not pay any attention to any of it. She was too busy drowning in aching, throbbing, paroxysms of misery.