The Duke Who Loved Me

by Rachelle Stevensen

  Aidan took a step towards Braddock, who brought the gun back up, and took another shot.

  Aidan felt the burn on his arm and heard the shot hit the far wall and the women scream as the gun went off again. He looked down at his arm, and saw the furrow in his sleeve and his skin. He felt the warmth of his blood sliding down his arm.

  His arm was burning where the shot had gone through his flesh, and Aidan couldn't believe that this man had not only shot Cole, but now him. All he had done was take a step forward, but the man was insane. “If you were planning on me falling at your feet and begging for something that I won't give, you should have shot me in a different place. As it is, I am not the type of man to beg. For anything. Next time, you shouldn't miss your target.”

  Braddock wasn't smiling. He gave Aidan another sneer, “I told you I don't miss. I shot you in the arm to let you know just how serious I am. Don't make me shoot you again. It would be my pleasure. And I guarantee you will be begging for more than just your life by the time I am done with you.”

  He walked to the settee with Rose and Lily and dragged Rose to her feet. He held the gun to her head and cocked it, “Do you want to test me on just how serious I am when I say that I have no problem with killing all of you? She would be one less person I have to deal with. Test me. Make me even more angry. Please.”

  Aidan shook his head, watching as Rose go completely still in Braddock's arms. She shut her eyes tight and tears slipped from her lashes. Aidan heard his mother gasp and cry out, as well as Lily.

  Braddock shoved Rose hard back to the settee where she sat, her face completely void of color and tears silently tracking down her face.

  “Now you know I'm not lying when I say I have no compunction about shooting any of you. None. I wouldn't test me again. This girl here would have been the first casualty and I wouldn't have lost sleep over it. Absolutely none. She is merely in my way, as are all of you. Now, are you going to have a seat or am I going to decorate your body with even more scars?”

  Aidan reluctantly sat at his desk. His body still shaking with rage, and Rhia wished she could go to his side, especially after seeing him get shot, and watching the blood drip from his hand to the floor.

  Rhia put a hand to her mouth, trying to hold back the contents of her stomach. This was not how today was supposed to go, and she knew Aidan was having a hard time keeping his emotions in check. She could see him breathing hard. Braddock was insane. Shooting both Aidan and Cole, and then threatening Rose to make his point was too much for Rhia, and she hated the man more than she could say.

  Braddock waited until Aidan had sat down behind the desk, and walked to where he was seated.

  He pulled some rope out from behind the curtains, and quickly tied Aidan up. He roughly tied his arms to the chair arms and his feet to the legs. Blood dripped down Aidan's arm and it slowly soaked his shirt and coat. Rhia could see it darkening the fabric of his shirt, and making his coat shiny from the blood. She hated seeing him hurt in anyway. Him or Cole. It was horrifying.

  When Braddock was finished with Aidan, he walked past Rhia, which she didn’t understand why he didn’t tie her up, but she stayed still. Not wanting to draw his attention to her. He then proceeded to tie up Rose and Lily.

  Lydia looked up from where she was pressing a handkerchief on Cole’s wound. It was ineffective and she threw it to the floor, lifting her skirts to get at the petticoat beneath it. “You monster! Who are you? How dare you come to our home, threaten us for something we had no control over and hurt my sons!”

  The man laughed, “Oh, Lydia. You have no idea who you married did you? No idea of the family that you willingly let yourself be stuck with. My father certainly had a soft spot for you. Although he was never soft with you was, he? Ah the tales he would tell me after he left you broken and bloody were some of my favorites. You have certainly gotten more beautiful as the years have passed, haven't you?”

  He walked to where she was pressing on Cole’s wound. Lifted her chin with two fingers and looked her up and down. “Yes, age has definitely agreed with you. You are too beautiful, it’s why my father never left you be. You needed to be punished for it. For drawing other men’s eyes.”

  Lydia pulled her face away from his grasp and glared up at him. “I don’t know what you are talking about. How did you know my husband?” He smirked down at her, and Rhia could see Lydia’s face was full of confusion and anger.

  Braddock pulled off the spectacles he had on, and the mustache as well. Lydia did a slight double take when she realized it had been fake. He took his cravat off and rubbed it on his head. It made his black hair significantly lighter.

  He smiled. “That is an excellent question Lydia. How did I know your husband? Let me tell you just that. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Braddock Smith. Or rather, Braddock St. Andrew if you want to get really specific.”

  Everyone in the room stilled, stopped breathing, especially Aidan. Braddock chuckled, “Oh, I see it’s hitting you now. The resemblance and of course my name. My given name.”

  He walked back over to Aidan and leaned over him. “Right now, you are trying to figure out why I look like my father, and you, unfortunately. Why I was born a St. Andrew but you have never heard of me. Let’s just let those questions stew for a minute. Now that the situation is where I want it, I am ready to tell you why I am here.”

  Aidan growled at him, “I don’t care who you are. You may share our name, but it is of no consequence. We don’t want to hear the rest. Anything to do with our father is not something we want to know. He is dead and buried and burning in hell. It’s where you will end up as well, I vow it. You will not get the chance to hurt anyone else in this room.”

  Braddock full on belly laughed, hard for a minute.

  Then the laughing stopped abruptly and he pulled back, punching Aidan in the face as hard as he could, once and then another time. Just for the fun of it.

  Rhia let out a scream as she watched Braddock punch Aidan.

  Blood poured out of Aidan’s nose and Rhia went to stand. Couldn’t see the man she loved being hurt in this way. Not when he was helpless against defending himself. His story from the stables at the forefront of her mind of how he was helpless once then as well. She didn’t like it. One bit. He was already injured, and here was this man punching a defenseless man. She couldn’t take it. But stayed where she was, mainly because Braddock leveled his glare at her for a second, before he focused back on Aidan.

  “I haven’t even gotten started yet. Shooting you two is nothing, not compared to what I actually have in store for you. I am going to end up in hell? I came from there. Was raised by the devil and reveled in it. Hell is paradise. You should care who I am. Because after I answer all the questions, I will be the last face you will ever see.”

  Braddock left Aidan dazed in his chair, his head lolling on his chest. Blood dripping onto his cream waistcoat. Staining it even further. Same for his shirt. The once white garment was now red with his blood.

  Braddock walked to where Rhia was sitting, and ran the pistol over her shoulders, then followed it with his fingers. He kept touching her bare skin and Rhia hated every moment of it.

  “My my Rhia. Aren’t you a tasty little treat? I can just tell you are going to be delicious. And so much fun to play with. To break. I can guarantee that my tastes are far more demanding than Aidan’s.” He whispered, loud enough for Rhia alone to hear.

  Rhia shivered and tried to lean away from him, but he grabbed her by her shoulders, hard enough to make Rhia want to whimper in pain, and he whispered in her ear.

  “I am certain you have noticed that you were left untied. I did that for one reason and one alone. Because I don’t expect you will get in my way. Not with you being a cripple. But be warned right now, I will not hesitate to hurt you if you disobey me. Trust me on this. You and I will be having some fun later... Mmm.”

  He then licked the shell of her ear, and Rhia fought not to gag and shudder. His hot breath washing across her
neck. She was sick to her stomach and wished she could wash his touch from her skin.

  He let her shoulders go, and Rhia knew with how rough he held her that she would have bruises there later.

  He walked around her and cleared his throat, “Now, who is ready to hear the tale of the poor boy who never got what he deserved or what he was owed in his life? It is a very interesting tale.”

  Aidan had shaken off the daze he was in, “You will tell us regardless, so say what you have to say, and be gone.”

  Braddock chuckled. “Oh Aidan. I will say what I have to say, but as for leaving, I am here to stay I am afraid. You think you are better than me, think because you are the Duke, that you hold the power here and I will simply walk away from this. When I have told you that you won't be leaving this room alive, you still think to speak to me that way. Still act like you are going to win. I can see why my father hated you.”

  Braddock clapped his hands together and started talking. “I was born Braddock St. Andrew. My father, Edward, who was the next in line for the Dukedom; had gotten one of the maids pregnant when he was only 16. He had been doing far worse, far younger in his life. He didn’t let his age fool anyone. He had the majority of the staff here terrified of him, and his evil knew no bounds. He knew what he wanted, what he was owed to him, and he took it. By any means necessary.”

  Braddock looked around the room and seemed to be pleased with what he saw. “The maid gave birth to me and your dear grandfather would never acknowledge me, my mother or my birth. Said I was a bastard and he would never allow me to be a part of his family. Wouldn’t allow my father to marry her because of her station. Though, he did have a point and my father only wanted his son to be acknowledged. Dear old grandfather thought he was the greatest man who ever lived. So righteous in his thinking and beliefs. And he stayed that way, at least until the end, before we took his life.”

  Braddock waved that part away like it was inconsequential.

  “My father made my grandfather give my mother a small house in the country to raise me. Threatened my dear grandmother’s life to get him to give in. He did, and it was where I stayed until it was time for me to learn what I needed to know from my father. But, before he could come back to us, he killed someone. As it wasn’t the first time, he had done this, but had never been caught, he thought to do it again. But caught he was. And he was wrongly convicted of this crime that he shouldn’t have been convicted for. He was sent to Newgate prison. And, your dear grandfather was so high and mighty that his first-born son would murder someone, and be sent to Newgate for that crime, that he disowned him. Completely and irrevocably. Not just in word, but my dear grandfather had his name taken off any records of the family line, had his son erased from any chance of being anything other than a no one in a prison cell. No one remembered my father after a time. No one mentioned him. They never spoke his name ever again. Never let on that they had ever had another son, had a brother. It was said that my grandfather, dear old Harold St. Andrew; threatened everyone in his family that he would cut them off just as he had Edward, if they spoke of him.”

  Braddock snarled at them all, his face twisted with malice.

  “It was easy to never speak of him after that. No one had any love for the boy who had run wild and was a murderer. They were only too happy to forget him then. To let him rot in that cell. Alone. Everyone loved Jacob, and Edward was forgotten. Discarded and thrown away like he was garbage. A nobody. Like he hadn’t been born the first son of a Duke. Like he wasn’t practically royalty. He was locked up and left to rot for the rest of his life. They didn’t like hanging a member of the peerage. It was shameful, and Harold made certain that they didn’t hang him. That he would spend the rest of his life in prison. He paid great amounts of coin for that.”

  He stopped talking and paced, back and forth, until Lydia spoke up. “But Jacob didn’t have a twin.”

  Braddock sneered over in her direction. “Didn’t you hear anything I just said? Jacob indeed had a twin. Your grandfather didn’t want the shame of what Edward had done on the family name. So, he made certain that no one would know he had even been born a St. Andrew. That he had ever existed.”

  Lydia looked confused, “I think I would have remembered Jacob having a twin. I was in society for a long time. I knew Jacob when he first came to society functions.”

  Braddock walked over to Lydia and went down on one knee, he again grasped her chin in his hands, “You may have been there, but they were there as well. You saw them both. But most didn’t realize they were two separate beings because they were identical twins. They never went places together, and if they showed up at the same function, it was by accident, not on purpose. They hated each other. But they looked exactly alike. Right down to every freckle and mole. The only thing that was different between them was their personalities.”

  Lydia paled, her face showing her every emotion and currently that was realization.

  Rhia could only imagine what was going through Lydia’s head. Her heart went out to the other woman and Rhia desperately wished for this to end.

  For the secrets and pain to stop being spewed out of that evil man, like so much filth. For them to hopefully come out of this, not all the way unscathed, but with everyone still living at the end. That scared Rhia the most. That he would snap and kill someone.

  Braddock stood up, and began pacing again. “Now, enough about that part of the family history. I have said too much about all of that. That isn’t important right now. I want to tell everyone what happened to me. Why I have decided it’s time to get revenge. Why now is the time to finally get what has always been mine.”

  He walked back over to Aidan, grabbed his hair in a tight fist and pulled his face up to see his. “I am here to take my title, my house, and my fortune. I was the first born of the first-born son, the title is rightfully mine by birth. I am tired of living the life I wasn’t born to lead, and watching you live in my house, using my fortune and neglecting your title. I will not make that same mistake. And, I am here to get rid of what is standing in my way. Which is you. All of you.”

  Aidan looked up at him, “I would never give you the title, it will never happen.”

  Braddock snarled. “If you die, your title passes to Cole, and if he dies, I know for a fact there is no other relative that can take the title that is eligible. I have checked. I wanted to know without a doubt that it was mine, no contest. But dear Aidan that is where you are so very, very wrong. You are going to sign over everything to me. Because you will have no other choice. I will kill every single person in this room, and who live at this estate to prove to you just how serious I am. And when I am done, I will show you their broken bodies. After that, I know you will sign it over to me. Because you will have nothing left.”

  Braddock laughed and slapped Aidan across the face so hard Aidan's head snapped to the side. “I am going to keep your woman though. She is delicious. I can’t wait to taste her. She seems so innocent. So, pure. I bet you haven’t even taken her yet. I would probably be wrong though. Who could resist such an innocent as this? She practically radiates innocence, it’s almost disgusting. But that will soon change. After all,” Braddock gestured at Rhia and licked his lips. “I did see the two of you leaving the stables. You both seemed rather...disheveled.”

  Aidan growled again, he was pulling at the binds on his wrists, “You fucker! You will not touch her. Ever. Leave her out of this. She had nothing to do with your father, or you. I can promise you will not survive if you harm her.”

  Braddock bared his teeth at Aidan and walked over to where Rhia was sitting. “That is the only reason she will be the only one left alive. Because she is innocent of any of this. But dear Aidan, I am most definitely going to do more than touch her. In fact, I cannot wait to break her in. She just needs a firm hand. And pretty soon, she will know her place. Which is kneeling at my feet.”

  He leaned down, fisted his hand in her hair and pulled her mouth to his. Kissing Rhia hard. Slamming his
mouth on hers and making Rhia want to whimper at the pain from him pulling on her hair, to the kiss. His kiss was rough and he bit her hard on her lip, making it bleed. She fought and kicked, trying to get away from him. He reached out and grabbed her breast.

  Rhia cried out, wrenching away from him. “Don’t touch me!” His hands were rough and hurt her sensitive skin. Grabbing her hard and making her kick and fight harder.

  She screamed out at him again, and Aidan roared from his seat, he was struggling against his bonds and yelled out, “Stop it! Rhia! Don’t fucking touch her! I will kill you if you hurt her!”

  Braddock shoved away from Rhia, reaching out to touch her hair. She tried to lean away from him, but he grabbed her hair in another tight fist and her eyes watered from the pain.

  Then he grabbed her fists in a hold as well. He wrenched her hands behind her back, and Rhia kicked and struggled against his tight hold.

  He licked down her neck and she pushed at him as much as she could, while he was holding her hands. She thrashed back and forth on her seat and Braddock bit down on her neck, the pain of it sharp. The sting causing tears to well in her eyes. He reached for her breast again, which he grabbed hard and ripped part of her dress away, all the while Rhia was kicking and screaming, bad leg and all.

  She was able to slip one hand free with all of her squirming, and she reached up and slapped him across his face as hard as she could. Slapping him so hard, her nails caught his face and it scratched him as well.

  Braddock yelled out in pain, and brought Rhia up in front of him with her arms in a hard grip.