Darkest Valentine

by Leona Bushman

  “Sorry, my lady. I had a snarl which needed a good tug.”

  Ruefully, Lillian acknowledged the underlying message of having needed the distraction. Before she could reply, a short knock interrupted them, followed by the door opening. Lady Amber.

  “Your father and uncle are in a right state of upsetedness. What did you do? Tell them you shan’t be marrying The Dark Duke after all?”

  Lillian gave her a half smile then turned back to the mirror. She’d heard the snide tone when mentioning the duke’s not so nice moniker. Funny how she’d come to think of it as a term of endearment, since he’d come to her in the dark and saved her. Still, why would his cousin use it and in such a derogative tone? “Actually, I refused to call it off.”

  Janice stayed silent, softly doing brush strokes. Lillian watched Lady Amber in the mirror.

  Lady Amber paced back and forth. Lillian thought she saw something in her hand besides a cloth that must be a handkerchief, but she always stepped behind Janice before she could focus on it clearly. Irritated already, she let it go. At the moment, her life was in shambles, and she did not care what Lady Amber held.

  “That is unfortunate,” Lady Amber said.

  “Why?”

  “It would make this next part easier if people believed you were distraught over losing him.” She sighed.

  Lillian ground her teeth as she silently counted to ten before answering her. “What next part, and what do you care? You said you haven’t seen him in years, and you barely know me!” Angry tears threatened again. She would be distraught if she lost him. For now, anger held sway.

  The door burst open. Jarvis stood there with a revolver pointed at her. “Come along quietly, you and the maid. Hurry up.” He indicated with the gun for her to move to the side.

  She stood and clasped hands with Janice while she scooted to the side. “Have you lost your mind? Wait until I tell Father you pulled a gun on me and Janice.”

  “And me,” Lady Amber added.

  “And if you want to live, you’ll do as I say. Lillian, tie her to the bed.”

  He tossed her some rope. “Make it tight. And you,” he said to Lady Amber. “If you scream or tell anyone I was here and did this, I’ll come for you next. There is no love lost between me and the Canterburys. I would enjoy hurting you.”

  Lady Amber shrank back and put her arms out toward Lillian, hands fisted. With little grace and a lot of anger, Lillian then tied her hands to the post at the foot of the bed. She turned toward Jarvis, hands on her hips. “Father will not forgive this.”

  “He won’t know.” He laughed. “Even if this chit tells, no one will believe it of me. Titles and money have their uses, my dear.”

  “The Canterburys have more money than I do, so why take me?”

  “It’s my orders. You and the maid and no one else. Now come on.”

  He again waved the revolver in their direction. Janice walked out first. Jarvis came up behind Lillian, and she had to swallow back the scream. If only the duke had come home with her this time. He wasn’t here. She’d have to think of something else.

  Surely Father or Jacob would see them? But the foyer was deserted, and she heard loud voices coming from the kitchen. Robert was yelling at Father. Maybe if she yelled? She sucked in her breath, prepared to scream at the top of her voice, but Jarvis slapped her.

  “Scream, and I’ll kill Janice,” he threatened.

  Her breath left her in a whoosh, and her hand grasped her stinging cheek. The robe’s drape reminded her she wasn’t properly dressed. Fear recoiled in her stomach. Without proper clothing or shoes, she had little chance of escaping.

  Then it hit her.

  Robert’s voice yelling at Father. Robert was here when he should be in country. Robert selling her to the cabby to be delivered. “Robert is helping you!” she exclaimed. “You planned this all along.”

  Jarvis laughed again. “The Dark Duke messed with the wrong person this time. And now I have you as ransom, I may never have to do another shipment in my lifetime.”

  For such a nasty person, he sure loved to laugh. Creepy.

  Janice opened the door, and they were soon moving up the walk. Shivers started, and her lips quivered as the cold impacted them. A carriage waited at the end of the walk. She walked slow as she could, trying to think of a way out.

  Jarvis dug the revolver into her back. “Move faster. Don’t think I don’t know what you are up to. I heard about how you managed to disappear from the last carriage ride. I am not an idiot cabby.”

  She stumbled as he shoved her forward, falling into Janice. They both tumbled to the ground.

  “Get up,” he said in a harsh whisper. “Now.”

  They scrambled up and continued to the carriage.

  He sat across from them, pointing the revolver so that the barrel faced them as he rested it on his lap. “I will use it. I don’t care on which one of you. Make a wrong move, and you will die.”

  Lillian reached for Janice’s hand and held it for the long ride. After ten minutes, she couldn’t stand the silence. “Why are you doing this? You’ve always been hateful, but why would you do this to your own niece?”

  His shadowed face stared back at her even creepier as he smiled. “I will be doing a lot more.”

  Lillian gripped Janice’s hand even tighter. She sat back as far away as she could get from him, holding her wrap closer, and he only laughed at her. Every second stretched a lifetime. Fear coiled around her heart, squeezing with every beat.

  The whole trip, she tried to catch him off guard, but he never even peered out of the windows. When the carriage started to slow, she tensed, wishing she knew what Jarvis’ end game was. What could he want with her?

  As it came to a stop, he picked the revolver up. “Slowly, get out. If either of you tries to run, I’ll shoot the closest one.”

  Anger started throbbing behind her temple as if it were its own cognizant entity. She wanted to slap him so hard that he went blind. If only she had that capability. Instead, she glared daggers at him and alighted the carriage, waiting for Janice.

  The stank of the docks smacked her as hard as she’d wanted to hit Jarvis. Here, it was even stronger than where she’d been taken last time. The fetid stench of rotten fish and feces seared her nostrils, and she covered her mouth as she coughed.

  The waning moon shone on the water, and cast inky fingers, twisted branches of shadows like cancerous fingers waiting to trap them in its wake. Jarvis gripped her arm, and she screamed. He struck her with the butt of the revolver, and her head whipped to the side, pain shooting through her skull with each throbbing movement as they walked.

  “Move faster, or your mistress will be hurt further.”

  He drug her into one of the nearby warehouses, Janice following close behind after the threat. Lillian’s stomach rolled. The stench already had her a bit queasy, but now she wanted to throw up. Dizziness sailed through her, and she stumbled. When she bumped her head on the railing, the pain had her screaming again. She swayed as she tried to right herself, but her vision blurred, and she fell against the stairs and started retching.

  Jarvis let go of her and jumped up out of her way. “Blasted female,” he exclaimed and kicked her in the side.

  She grabbed the railing to keep from falling and held her side with the other hand as she lost the contents of her stomach. The acrid smell bit into her consciousness, Janice’s gentle hands a soft counterpoint helping to ground her.

  “You hit her too hard, Jarvis,” a new voice said.

  Lillian tried to focus on it as something was familiar about it, but the effort caused another wave of nausea to hit, and she held her gut with one hand while retching again.

  “She deserved it. I’ve owed her that one for a long time. You can clean it,” he said. Lillian looked up to see whom he meant, and he stared pointedly at Janice.

  Lillian finally stopped heaving, and sat on the stairs to the side away from her mess. She sat with her head between the knees.

>   “Might as well clean it now while Lillian is too weak to do much else,” the voice said.

  Jarvis stepped on her hand brushing past her on his way down. She was too weak to do more than let out a whimper and cradle it against her. Tears fell. A sudden craving for The Dark Duke’s strong arms hit her. Safe. That was what she wanted, needed. He made her feel safe.

  She didn’t care what he’d done to Jarvis. She hoped it ruined him for good. She’d have him up in chains, hung as a murderer and cutthroat. If he’d do this to his own niece, she had no trouble believing he’d likely killed someone else. Her head swam again, and the world tilted on its axis for a moment. The creak and sway of the wood as Janice came back up it almost had her throwing up again.

  She counted in French while thinking of her duke. Why had she fought her feelings for him? Oh, she knew. Because it had happened so fast, no logic behind it, and women of her station were not allowed to love. The strength of her visceral reaction to him had scared her into running from her emotions.

  Safe.

  He made her feel so safe. The sobs started. Would she ever feel safe again? Jarvis yanked her up by her arm, and she dry heaved at the sudden dizziness caused by the abrupt change in position. He hastily let go.

  “Upstairs, now.” He prodded her in the back.

  She stumbled, Janice helping her, but made it up the stairs and into the dank room he forced them into. The door shut, and the jangle of keys and metal scraping of the lock turning clanged through her head like a death knell. Terror unfurled in her gut.

  “You’re only alive because Boss has decreed it. When he is through with you…” Jarvis laughed. “I will teach you not to be so uppity as a woman. Teach you your place. Your maid, too.”

  Acid ate through her nerves like a worm in a rotting apple. She huddled on the cot with Janice, seeking warmth and comfort. How would they ever escape?

  Chapter Twelve

  “My lord! My lord! Clarence!” George’s frantic voice had him opening one eye then sitting straight up as the urgency registered.

  “What is it, George,” he asked and began putting on his breeches. Farnsworth ran over with a shirt and jacket, rushing him along.

  “You must come down immediately,” George replied urgently, checking the bandage as he spoke. “That will do for now. It will have to,” he added cryptically.

  “What in the name of the queen are you on about, George?” Clarence held onto his patience by a mere thread. Dull pain kept him from falling asleep right away, and his head felt as if a hundred horses galloped inside, every single one of them stampeding.

  “It is Lillian, my lord.”

  That had his attention. “What of her?”

  “She’s gone missing. His lordship, the Earl of Lamberth’s in the study waiting for you. He only told me about Lillian because I refused to wake your lordship without due cause at this time of night, earl or not.”

  “Quite right, George. I’d say, if he is correct, this situation warrants being awoken at such a beastly hour.” Worry flittered through him. Had Jarvis returned already and somehow figured out he could hurt him through her? Bloody hell, he needed to get down there and talk to Lamberth immediately.

  Farnsworth came toward him with a bow tie, and Clarence waved it off. “I will not be put into a tie at this time of the night. Lamberth will just have to take me as I am. This is no time for fripperies.”

  George and Farnsworth flanked him closely. Almost as if they were afraid he’d fall, he thought ruefully. He walked as purposefully as he could manage with his side reminding him he was not as young as he used to be. In his younger years, he’d never have been cut so deeply.

  “Lamberth,” he said sternly as he entered the studied. “Where is Lillian?”

  “Canterbury, you have to find her. My dastardly brother has something to do with this.”

  Clarence had just started to sit down when Lamberth’s words hit him. He rose back up, roaring, “What?” God his worst fear. Mayhap this was another nightmare. It had to be. But reality stared him in the face in the form of her father.

  “Jarvis waited at my house when I returned from your betrothal party. He insisted that you were only after my Lillian to hurt my family, and I’m afraid I believed him. Jarvis told her you’d never want someone like her when you could have anyone, that you only used her. I’m afraid I told her the wedding was off.”

  Clarence wasn’t sure who looked the more guilty and ashamed, because the earl’s face reflected Clarence’s own feelings. “And Lillian?” he asked quietly and finally sat down, unable to stay standing as his world came unraveled.

  “She told us the right off, and proper like too,” Lamberth said, pride evident in his bearing and slight smile crossing his face. “I do not know what it is, but she is more spirited and confident since you started courting her. I never thought I’d enjoy seeing my child rebel, but in this case, she has the right of it.”

  “What do you mean?” The veneer of control he’d held onto since hearing Lillian was missing slipped deeper and deeper into a darkness which would get its revenge on whomever was responsible. Doubly so if it were Jarvis. He may even live up to some of the rumors surrounding him as The Dark Duke.

  “My brother claimed you tried to ruin him as revenge for some shipping venture with your father. My daughter said Jarvis deserved it and more.”

  Hope started to fill the holes which had burned through him as Lamberth revealed everything. “Is Lillian safe?” he asked.

  “No, I’m sure she’s not. I hate to admit this, but I think Jarvis kidnapped her. I need your help to find her before it becomes a scandal.”

  Clarence stilled as his eyes met the earl’s. “There will be no scandal. She is my betrothed. She will be my wife.”

  “You cannot promise there will be no scandal, my lord.”

  “There are perks to being a duke, more when one is The Dark Duke. I say again, there will be no scandal.”

  The startled look turned to one of pleasure. “I will owe you for this, sir. A debt of honor.”

  “Now. Tell me why you think Jarvis has her, and why, if it is him, do you believe she is not safe with her own uncle?”

  “Jarvis made threats to me and her, really started losing his head, yelling how he would not be denied.” Lamberth threw his hands up. “I have never heard such dishonorable ravings from him. I admit, I know he is not the most honorable man, but he is my brother, and I was taught to protect family. However, after Lillian left the study, his words became intolerable. I had him thrown out by Jacob.”

  Clarence steepled his fingers. His pointer fingers laying across his lips to help him stay silent. His inner demon wanted to rush forth and kill Jarvis. Even the pain of losing his father paled with this. Why had he taken so long to admit it to himself? Mayhap, if he’d married her… But such musings did not help the present situation. His long experience with Her Majesty’s Navy and as a Bow Runner helped him reign in his impatience. “And Lillian?”

  “She went upstairs with her maid. Then Robert showed up, started harassing the servants and yelling in the kitchen. I went in there to find out why he wasn’t at my country estates as I’d ordered him and make him leave immediately, despite the late hour. While his mother and I dealt with that, she disappeared. I went to her room to tell her about Jarvis’ subsequent behavior after she’d left us and that I’d had him forcibly removed from the premises, but she wasn’t there, only Lady Amber, tied up to the bedpost.”

  “Lady Amber was tied up and Lillian gone? What does her maid say?”

  “Janice is also missing. My wife is completely distraught. I have sent for a doctor and have the servants keeping her in bed while I came here.”

  “How far are you willing to go, sir, to save your daughter?” Clarence’s mind worked on a plan as they talked. He had a feeling Jarvis would take Lillian to the docks as before. However, as Robert was likely involved same as the first time, he didn’t want Lamberth in the position to have to decide between his s
on and daughter.

  “I would do anything.” The fervent answer told him the earl meant it, and the fierceness of his gaze reminded Clarence that Lamberth had served in the Napoleon Wars.

  “Is the hereditary lines of Lamberth the same as most in the kingdom?”

  The earl cocked his head and gave him a shrewd look. “No, but why do you ask?”

  “Does Jarvis get your titles if you and Robert are dead?”

  “No, they go to Lillian.”

  Clarence stood up. “Get in the carriage. Explain it to me on the way.” A deep fear and urgency slapped through him. Now everything Jarvis was doing with Lillian made sense. All of their lives were at stake.

  “George!” he bellowed as he left the study, not even watching if Lamberth followed.

  George stood right there and barely flinched. “Yes, my lord?”

  Always the protector, he’d not left the area. “Dispatch Brett immediately to the Lamberths. Take at least three able bodied men. Have one in the house guarding the Countess of Lamberth’s door specifically, one on the back door, one on the front door. Be wary. Do not let anyone in without my express opinion.” He turned and shared a look. “I’m afraid that includes you, sir. If you are coerced into it to try to save your daughter, you may put everyone in danger.”

  “Yes, my lord,” George said. “I will meet you with the carriage. Henry has already woken the stable master and is preparing the coach. Seth will also accompany us.”

  Clarence nodded his appreciation. “Come, Lamberth. We have much to discuss, and, my lord, I’m afraid, you are in for a bit of shock.”

  After they settled into his unmarked coach, he sat back and asked the earl some questions. “So how is the title passed on, and how did this come about?” He had to know the legalities of it. Jarvis would surely know. Plus it kept his mind from wandering to what Jarvis could be doing to her. Or worse, what he might have already done to her. If he’d hurt a hair on her head, Clarence would kill him.