by Faye Hall
Silence fell between them, until he reluctantly admitted to the truth he had been carrying around with him for years.
“It was me who killed her,” he said softly. “I sent her back to Gordon knowing the monster he was…”
She approached him, her steps measured. Stopping before him, her hand went to his face, cupping his stubbled cheek appearing slightly warmer to him.
“You didn’t cause her death, Duncan, any more than you have caused my bruises. I chose to return to Inkerman with Gordon. You didn’t send me away. Nor can you be expected to rescue every desperate woman who is foolish enough to fall in love with you.”
He looked up at her, their gazes joined. “Why did you pay out my debts, Phoebe?”
She shook her head. “Don’t do this, Duncan” she begged him. “I can’t do this.”
His hand went to the back of her head, his fingers lacing in her hair.
“You gained nothing from it, Phoebe,” he reminded her. “Nor did you owe me anything. Still you gave them the money. Why?”
She didn’t answer him.
Leaning into her, his lips lightly touched hers. Breaking their embrace, his face mere inches from hers, their foreheads rested against each other, his stare joined to hers. He watched as the tears continued to fall down her cheeks and he felt himself ache for her even more so.
Affectionately, Duncan licked the salty moisture away, enjoying the taste of her skin beneath.
“Why did you pay out my debts?” he asked again. “We agreed you would only do so once I had taken you safely away from Gordon and your family. I did neither of those things yet still my arrears were paid out in full. Why?”
She bit her lip.
“I...I…,” she struggled through her tears.
He kissed her lightly again, his lips savouring the taste of hers.
“Tell me, Phoebe…,” he begged her.
“I love you…”
The words were barely more than a whisper but still they warmed his heart like little else could. He may not be able to give this woman his love, but he knew he would do near anything to receive hers.
Holding her gaze, he studied her, searching for any sign of a lie. “Tell me again.”
She shook her head. “Don’t do this, Duncan…please.”
He kissed her again.
Phoebe tried to push him away from her. He didn’t falter and soon she was returning his kiss with vigour.
Suddenly from the street, a carriage was heard and a man’s voice echoed down the alleyway. It seemed as if it was like a dash of cold water on her emotions. She pushed away from him and frantically straightened her clothing.
“I have to go, Duncan. Your brother’s carriage has just pulled up outside in the street. If Gordon finds me here with you he will kill us both.”
“You will go back to him?” he asked confused, his breathing still ragged from the intensity of emotion they’d almost shared.
“I have no choice.”
“You do have a choice!” he insisted reaching out to her. “Come with me, Phoebe. Come with me now and I will keep you safe.”
She shook her head, frantically wiping at her tears. “I won’t be your redemption, Duncan.”
“Damn it, Phoebe!” he cursed at her. “I know that. You are—”
Suddenly he stopped, realising what he had almost admitted to, and the truth of it.
She wiped away the last of her tears. “I’m nothing, Duncan.”
With that, she quickly fled from the alley way and back out onto the street.
He stood watching as she walked away from him yet again. He had almost called her his love...not his lover, but his love. Mulling the emotion over in his mind, he wondered if he was indeed allowing himself to fall in love with this woman. Honestly, he didn’t know. All he could be certain of was that his heart ached at knowing what she had been living through because of him...because of who his family was.
It had to stop...it had to stop now.
He knew there was only one way this could happen and he could postpone it no longer. He had to go back to his family and beg forgiveness for his departure from the business. He needed to show them that he was willing to do anything to take back his position as chief executive of The Lester Company.
But before he did that, there was one more stop he had to make.
Duncan walked into the police station, and stopped at the front counter.
“I want to see Commissioner O’Loan,” he demanded of the uniformed officer at the desk.
The officer shook his head. “You can’t just walk in here and demand to see the commissioner, sir. Even if you could, he wouldn’t see a man such as yourself.”
“Such as myself?” Duncan asked, slightly humoured, as he started walking toward the rear of the station looking for the commissioner’s office. “He will see me, make no mistake about that.”
“You can’t go back there!” the officer called after him, hurrying to stop him before he got too far.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Commissioner Walter O’Loan yelled as he stepped out of his office.
“This gentleman demanded to see you, sir,” the officer answered. “I tried to stop him but he just barged back here.”
“I need to see you, Walter,” he begged. “It’s important.”
“Duncan?” the commissioner asked as he walked toward him. “How did you get back to town without your family finding out? Last I heard your brother was hunting for your head.”
He nodded. “He still is, Walter, but I had to come back here regardless. I have unfinished business.”
“You best come into my office,” the commissioner ordered as he opened the door wider for him.
Duncan walked into his office and took a seat. “I was wondering if I could do a deal with you, Walter.”
The older man took his seat opposite him. “You know I don’t do deals, Duncan.”
He stared at the older man. “I know, Walter, but you will want to do this one.”
The commissioner sat back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest. “And what are you offering that is so irresistible?”
He thought hard about what he was doing, knowing full well it could back fire on him. Still he had to do it.
“I’m offering you The Lester Company, Walter.”
The older man didn’t look convinced. “We’ve been chasing them for years, Duncan. Other than the few patsies they hand us, we can’t get inside enough to break up the whole company.”
He nodded. “I can change that. I can give you the owners as well as the current chief executive. I can give you their contacts as well as their shipping information. I can give you details on espionage, theft, even murder just to name a few.”
“Why?” Walter asked him. “What do you get out of all this, Duncan?”
“I want protection of myself and of Phoebe Porter.”
The commissioner sat forward leaning against the desk. “Her name is Phoebe MacAllester now. She and Gordon married a couple of weeks ago.”
Duncan hid the pain this knowledge caused him.
“As I have recently learnt,” he replied. “Regardless of her name though, Phoebe is nothing more than a pawn in all of this all because of some station she owns deeds too. I don’t want her harmed.”
Walter studied him. “Anything else?’
He nodded. “I want my property and finances protected too. If something happens to me I want you to ensure Phoebe gets all of it.”
The commissioner laughed slightly, though not from humour. “Say I agree to all of this, Duncan, how can I be certain you will see your end of the agreement through? How can I be certain the information you give me will be accurate?”
He let out a shaky sigh. “My parents own The Lester Company. My brother is the chief executive. Phoebe was given to Gordon as payment to cover some debt her parents owed the company. If she doesn’t sign the deeds for her station over to him, then he has been told to kill her so her parents might inherit the prop
erty and sign it over to him that way.”
Walter looked as if he were struggling to comprehend what had been said.
“Do you have proof of these accusations?” he asked.
Duncan shook his head. “Not yet…but I will.”
* * * * *
“I have been looking for you!” Gordon yelled at Phoebe as she rushed down the footpath and toward the waiting carriage. “Where the hell have you been?”
Stepping up into the carriage, she dusted herself off. “There were some beggar children who asked for some money. I took them to get something to eat.”
Gordon struck her hard across the cheek with the back of his hand. “I have told you before not to give my money to those street rats.”
Phoebe nodded, tears welling in her eyes as she nursed her stinging cheek. “Forgive me, Gordon. It shan’t happen again.”
She sat silently in the carriage beside Gordon as it travelled through the town and toward their estate house.
“Did something happen in town this morning, Phoebe?” he asked her.
She just shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. She didn’t want to tell him that his brother was back in the area, for more reasons than one, but nor could she risk keeping such a thing from him. Either way, any response she would make to him would result in her suffering more punishment.
When her silence continued, she felt her husband’s fingers tightening around her wrist. She flinched away from him, trying to pull her arm free.
“Nothing happened, Gordon!” she cried out in pain.
He let go of her, throwing her back against the seat in the carriage. “If I hear any different there will be hell to pay.”
Rubbing her sore wrist, Phoebe turned to her husband. “You know every step I make in this town so what exactly is it that you think can happen anyways?”
“Duncan.”
She could feel Gordon’s eyes on her, studying her as he spoke his brother’s name. She knew he was waiting for some kind of tell-tale sign that she had been in contact with him, but she wouldn’t give it to him, not for Duncan’s sake or for her own.
“Your brother wouldn’t be stupid enough to come back here when he knows you and your family both want him dead,” Phoebe replied. “Besides even if he did, I would be the last person he would seek out, husband.”
“We shall see,” Gordon replied. “We shall see.”
Chapter Eleven
Dismounting from his horse, Duncan threw the reins to one of David’s men who had come to see who had arrived at the station.
“Take my horse to the stables!” he shouted at the man. “And get back to work!”
Duncan knew his anger was getting the better of him, his rage growing at having learnt of the existing abusive relationship Phoebe was now in. He felt so helpless, not knowing how he was going to rescue a woman he still wasn’t sure wanted rescuing. He had offered to take her to safety, but she’d refused, walking back into the arms of the very man causing her pain.
Opening the door, he walked into his house, knowing what he needed now was a strong drink to help him bring some order to his scrambled thoughts and give him direction.
“You’re back late,” David Pola remarked, approaching him through the house. “Has something happened?”
He poured himself a drink. “Your money has been taken care of, David,” Duncan reassured him. “The rest is none of your concern!”
David approached him, his hand resting on Duncan’s forearm as he went to take a gulp of his brandy.
“The angry man who has returned to this estate is much to my concern, sir,” David rebutted. “Angry men make stupid mistakes and in my experience end up hurting all around them.”
“It is none of your concern!” he shook off the other man’s hand and gulped down the contents of his glass.
“If you want my services, Duncan, then it is my concern,” David reassured him. “Now I ask you again...what happened in town?”
Duncan stared into his empty glass, the events of the morning swimming in his head. Finally he turned around to face the other man.
“What would you do if you discovered a woman you cared about was being beaten by her husband?” he hesitantly asked.
“You’re asking about a woman?” David asked, sounding slightly confused as he studied him. “The Porter woman? You’re asking about that woman aren’t you? The woman who paid your debts?”
Duncan avoided answering him, instead turning away from him and pouring himself another drink.
“Why would any man beat a woman so beautiful...so…”
His words trailed off. Reaching in his pocket, he grabbed some money and threw it at David. “You and your men find out everything you can about my brother.”
David caught the money and carefully placed it in his pocket. “This wasn’t why we came to work for you, Duncan.”
“Be that as it may, you will do what I pay you to, David, or you can go back searching for the highest bidder.”
“What about his wife?” David asked, as if he hadn’t heard Duncan’s last remark. “Do you want information on her too?”
Duncan thought for a while, pouring the contents of his glass down his throat. Finally he spoke.
“Phoebe too.”
Seeing David and one of his men on their way into town about mid-afternoon, Duncan walked out the back of the station house looking for his aboriginal friend.
“I need you and your men to get this station back to what it used to be, Simon,” he requested of his friend. “I need what cattle are here rounded up and ready for sale by the morning. I need fences and gates fixed so we can get new livestock in too as soon as I can afford to purchase some.”
Simon nodded in understanding.
“When is the new stock arriving, Duncan?” Simon asked.
He shrugged. “I’m not sure, my friend. I lost touch with so many of my business associates when I was driven from town.”
“Is there anybody that you can think of?” Simon asked.
Turning to his aboriginal friend, Duncan nodded. “Maybe there is. Simon, do you remember that old station owner a bit west of here. Married an aboriginal girl a few years back?”
Simon nodded.
“Go see him and ask if he has cattle for sale. We will pay whatever he asks. Cows as well as bullocks. Maybe even a few steers for meat too.”
Simon nodded again. “I’ll help the men round the cattle up first, Duncan, then I will go see about the new stock.”
Simon was setting off to see about purchasing the new stock for the cattle station when David and his man rode back in.
“What did you find out?” Duncan asked them.
“Your brother is in debt, sir,” David answered him. “He has borrowed against everything he owns as well as your parents shipping company. He owes money for gambling, drugs and whores throughout the whole town but no one is willing to refuse him more because they fear what he may do to them, what The Lester Company can do to their supplies.”
Duncan nodded, not surprised by what he was hearing. “Anything else?”
“Your brother and some of his henchmen have been seen frequenting the docks of late...days before bodies have been found washed up...a bullet in their heads. No one can say it is Gordon who killed them, only that these men were well known to him.”
“And Phoebe?” he asked heavily.
David nodded at his man, issuing him to disappear out the back to the servant’s quarters. Waiting until he had gone, David turned back to Duncan.
“There is a station in her name. They call it Inkerman Downs. It lays unoccupied near Inkerman Hill.”
He nodded. “I already knew that, David. Her parents were trying to get possession of it last I heard.”
“She made a deal apparently with Gordon, that he would cover her parent’s debts upon their marriage. In return she was to play his dutiful wife and be at his beck and call or suffer his wrath.”
Duncan glared at the other man. “By the bruises I saw o
n her I would say he hasn’t kept to his part of the bargain.”
“Neither did she,” David replied. “My sources tell me she was given to the Burstle brothers as payment for her husband’s debts. Gordon told them they could do what they wanted with her and he would return to collect her in a few days. The Burstle brothers were found with their cheekbones broken, knife wounds in their guts.”
“Gordon changed his mind?” he asked.
David shook his head. “Phoebe didn’t fancy being used as payment.”
Duncan stood for a while, thinking on what he had just learnt, thinking how he could use this information to his advantage.
“Do you know who Gordon owes his debts to?” he finally asked David.
David nodded.
“I need his debts called in. Now!”
“And what about those of The Lester Company?” David asked.
He nodded. “Those too. Tell the collectors there is talk of the company being sold and Gordon leaving town without paying his debts out. They’ll call in his debts pretty quick.”
“What of Phoebe?” David asked.
“I will take care of her,” Duncan said, sending David on his way.
Pouring himself yet another drink, Duncan forced himself to think on the venture he was partaking. He knew better than any exactly what kind of lifestyle he was agreeing to walk back into. The deceit. The lies. Events he had forsaken years back because he could no longer morally live with being responsible for them.
He had thought upon leaving his parents company that he would never again be expected to work in such an industry; to be the man responsible for destroying people's lives. He thought himself free. Never had be banked on meeting a woman such as Phoebe Porter, a woman who had managed to capture what little of his heart existed, a woman he was now willing to forsake everything for.
Though he called himself foolish, he knew he would in fact crawl on his stomach through broken glass to rescue her if such was the need. Remembering what it was like working for his family, remembering the deals he would have to become involved in, the debauchery he would have to instigate, he knew there was little difference.
