‘Just so you are aware, I enjoy giving and receiving pain. So if you mean to deter me by your actions, they are actually having the reverse effect. I like a woman with spirit, Athena, and I’ve known since I first saw you that you have it in abundance.’
He had lowered his breeches to his knees, and she felt his cock, thick and heavy, pulsating against her thigh. Perhaps she should bite that, too. Surely, that would deter him? The thought of having it anywhere near her mouth revolted and disgusted her, putting paid to that plan, but her resistance was far from over. He reached between them and fiddled with the placket to her breeches, easily popping the buttons free.
‘Lift your hips.’
He presumably expected her to demur and couldn’t hide his surprise when she obediently did so.
‘Ah, so you do want me after all.’
She yearned to wipe the smug smile from his face but contented herself with a brief shrug. ‘What’s the point of resistance? You’re far too strong for me. Let’s just get it over with.’
‘By all means.’
‘You promise to care for the twins?’
‘You have my word.’ His breathing was hot and heavy as he struggled to pull her breeches down.
Athena let him get them so far, distracting him with her words while she desperately sought with the fingers of one hand for the vicious bobbin—one of the sharp wooden ones they used in lace-making—she had concealed in the waistband. Did she fix it to the right hand side, or to the left? She was sure it was on the right, but she couldn’t feel it anywhere. She panicked, worried she hadn’t secured it firmly enough and it had fallen out during her ride here. She had known he would expect her to arrive armed, which is why she had made it so easy for him to find the dagger. He was too foolish to think beyond a man’s choice of weapons.
‘Oh, my beautiful girl!’ He gazed in awe at her near-naked body, the candlelight flickering, casting it in light and shadow. ‘You are a prize so worth the winning. I promise to be gentle, my dear.’
Eli wasn’t coming. If he was, he would have been here by now. She listened for the sound of horses, for men’s voices. All she heard were the sounds of the night—an owl hooting, the leaves on the trees immediately beyond the window rustling in the breeze—nothing more encouraging than that. Well, that settled it. She was on her own and couldn’t wait another second. He could force his vile member into her at any moment, and the sacrifice was too much to ask of her. Just when she had given up hope, her fingers closed around the bobbin and she drove it into his groin area with considerable force. He howled, hopped off the bed and jumped about the room, breeches around his ankles, both hands clutching his genitalia.
‘You bitch, you’ll pay for that!’
He pulled the bobbin out and headed for her, but by then Athena was on her feet and had the advantage of her breeches being back where they belonged, not hampering her movement. She blew out the nearest candle and picked up the heavy stick, brandishing it as a weapon.
‘Put it down,’ he said, fixing her with a murderous look. ‘Or it will be worse for the girls.’
Only if he could go downstairs and give the order, and Athena would do whatever it took to ensure that didn’t happen. He had miscalculated in separating himself from his man. Even if he shouted, it was unlikely he would be heard, especially if the girls had discovered the tiny knife she had hidden in the pocket of her cloak. She had schooled them often enough for this very situation, and warned them always to look for weapons in the most unlikely places. It was a piece of good fortune that Blake had so obligingly thrown her cloak at them. She trusted them to do the rest. If they could free their hands without Blake’s man noticing, that would be something. Failing that, they could at least stab him in the thigh, if he got within striking range.
‘No,’ she said succinctly, stalking around him in a wide circle, her gaze fixed on his face. ‘You will never bend me to your will, and there’s an end to it.’
He pulled up his breeches without looking down, matching his movements to hers. ‘Your spirit never fails to move me.’
Damnation, he was enjoying this! He sprang like an agile cat and caught her unawares, pulling her against him with considerable force. She was too close to be able to use the candlestick as a weapon, but her knee would do just as well. She drove it between his legs as hard as she could, but he moved at the last moment and her blow merely caught his thigh.
‘Nice try.’ He actually laughed. ‘I told you already. I like it rough.’
Frantic barking and a loud crash interrupted them both. Thank God, Boris had found a way inside. An open window perhaps? Athena could only hope he had subdued Blake’s man and the twins would have the good sense to remain downstairs until she could do the same thing to Blake. Her aggressor obviously heard the noise as well, but appeared too intent upon her to worry about it.
‘That useless hound obviously escaped,’ he said carelessly. ‘Which is more than you will manage to do, my sweet.’
‘I disagree.’
They both turned to see Eli standing in the doorway, filling the aperture with his imposing musculature, looking disturbingly poised. Only the stormy glitter of rage in his eyes gave away just how angry he actually was. Athena’s body sagged with relief.
‘Let her go,’ he said in a mordant tone.
‘Why would I do that when I’ve gone to so much trouble to find her?’ He wound a strong arm around Athena’s waist and held her in front of him, her back to his front. ‘She’s a troublesome minx, Winsdale, but I’ll tame her eventually. I’ve spent many a long hour planning precisely how to go about it.’
‘He actually believes that.’ Athena shrugged. ‘He’s quite delusional.’
Eli flexed a brow. ‘Evidently.’
‘The twins?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Are unharmed.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, briefly closing her eyes.
‘My pleasure.’ He turned his attention to Blake. ‘You’re out of bargaining tools. Give it up now, let Miss Moncrieff go and face me like a man.’
Miss Moncrieff? He knows who I really am?
‘You’d fight for the little doxy?’ Blake sounded as surprised as he looked. ‘She really has made an impression upon you, just as she has me. I wonder what it is about her.’ Without telling Athena to expect it, he pushed her aside. She landed heavily on her backside beside the bed, winded but unharmed. ‘Come along then, Winsdale. This ought to be amusing. Are you armed?’
Eli held up his hands. ‘I don’t need weapons to best you.’
Blake laughed as he turned his back on Eli and reached for his jacket. In a flash, Athena knew what he planned.
‘Eli, be careful, he has a dagger!’
The dagger he had confiscated from her earlier, to be precise. It was too late for Eli to react to the threat. Blake again moved with surprising speed and agility and held the lethal blade to Eli’s throat with a grip that didn’t waver. Oh no! She had to do something. She was quite sure Blake really was sufficiently unbalanced to kill a duke without a second’s thought. Madness was reflected in his eye. Madness and determination. He pressed the tip of the knife against Eli’s throat, drawing blood.
Athena’s brain stalled, inertia occasioned by fear for the man she loved. The two of them stood, facing one another, tantalisingly just out of her reach. If she tried to stand and intervene, Blake would strike at Eli and laugh while he did it, no doubt blaming her for forcing his hand. That was a risk she couldn’t afford to take. There had to be another way.
Her sluggish mind was working at a frantic speed, logic no longer hampered by anxiety. If she was to somehow save Eli, she must set her own fears aside and think only of him. No wonder Blake hadn’t demurred at facing him, she thought disgustedly. Forget gentlemanly conduct. He had never planned to fight fair. Knowing him as well as she did, how could Athena ever have supposed he would?
A young man appeared in the doorway. She recognised him from the Park, and was fairly sure he was Eli’s secreta
ry. He took the scene in at a glance and paled, fisting his hands at his side impotently. He glanced at Athena. She shook her head at him. There was nothing he could do without endangering Eli. Blake was facing him and would see the moment he made a move.
Athena, on the other hand, was directly behind Blake. Out the corner of her eye, she noticed the candlestick, and knew what she must do. Blake had his back to her, and was still standing stock still, holding the knife to Eli’s throat, presumably waiting for him to admit defeat. Eli’s eyes were pools of hostility, and Athena knew he would never concede. She also knew she would never get a better chance. Blake and Eli were staring at one another, neither of them taking any notice of her. In one fluid movement she rose to her knees, grabbed the candlestick, and threw it with as much strength as she could muster, aiming directly for the back of Blake’s head. At such close quarters, she couldn’t miss. Her blood pounded through her ears as she put all the pent up resentment she felt at the turn her life had taken into her aim. She hit him squarely on the back of his neck, not hard enough to do any damage, but sufficient to make his dagger hand slip.
Two things happened very quickly after that. Blake turned with a look of surprise on his face, as though he had only just remembered she was there, and kicked her viciously in the head. She cried out as her vision blurred and a pain beyond imagination exploded inside her brain. At the exact same moment, she heard a masculine roar of anger, a heavy blow being landed, and the sound of bone cracking. She smelt the tang of fresh blood and was dimly aware of Blake’s colourful cursing as he crumpled to the floor beside her.
Then the world lost focus, and Athena fainted clean away.
Chapter Nineteen
Eli’s heart stalled when he saw Athena lying motionless on the floor. The kick Blake had delivered to her head had made it snap backwards and might well have broken her neck. His body seized at the thought. He absolutely couldn’t lose her. Not now. He crouched beside her, calling her name, anxiously feeling for a pulse. It was there thank the Lord, steady and regular. But Athena—his beautiful, courageous, spirited Athena, who had just saved his life for a second time—was deathly pale, and showed no signs of regaining consciousness.
He scooped her into his arms and gently laid her on the bed. When she still didn’t stir, he removed her shoes, pulled back the covers, lifted her again, and placed her between the sheets. He didn’t know what else to do for her, other than to brush the hair away from her brow and talk softly to her, willing her to open her eyes. What a fool he had been not to suppose Blake would pull a weapon on him and come suitably prepared. That miscalculation had possibly cost the life of the woman he loved to distraction.
He heard a sound behind him. The twins had joined Jessop in the doorway, their eyes round with fear.
‘Is she dead?’ Selene asked, her lips trembling.
‘She can’t be dead.’ Tears streamed down Lyssa’s face.
‘No,’ Eli replied, his tone gently reassuring, ‘she isn’t dead.’
Boris barged into the room, went straight up to the bed and snuffled Athena’s cold hand, pushing his nose beneath it. Then he whined, as though he too felt he had let her down and settled on the rug beside the bed. He rested his large head on his outstretched front paws, making it very plain he didn’t plan to budge.
‘Did you secure Blake’s man?’ Eli asked Jessop.
‘Aye, your grace. The dog bit him, and he’s bleeding pretty badly from his shin. I tied him up, just in case.’
‘Tie this one up, too.’ Eli indicated Blake, who had just sat up and was attempting to stem the flow of blood from his broken nose. ‘Put them both in the cellar for the time being.’
‘You can’t put me in a cellar,’ Blake protested, his voice a nasal whine. ‘I need a doctor’s services.’
‘Count yourself fortunate I don’t put you in the ground,’ Eli replied in a glacial tone. ‘I still might do that.’
‘Miss Moncrieff and her sisters are my responsibility. I have her uncle’s agreement on that score. You have no right to interfere.’
Eli ignored Blake and returned his attention to Jessop. ‘You’ll need to rouse Walters. You will find him in the apartment above the stables. Get him to help you with these two, and send Mrs Walters to me. She might know what to do to help Miss Moncrieff.’ There had to be something. ‘When you’ve done all that, take the horse Miss Moncrieff rode here, the one from my curricle, and go back to Whispers’ Hollow as fast as you can. Make sure Millie’s safe and comfortable, and reassure her about Miss Moncrieff and the twins. As soon as it gets light, harness the horse to the curricle again and bring Millie back here with you. She will want to see her charges. Don’t try and drive here until you can see. It’s hard enough on horseback. You’ll break your neck if you attempt it in a curricle in the dark.’
‘I will see to all of that at once, your grace.’
Jessop detached a cord designed to hold the curtains back and bound Blake’s hands tightly behind his back. With Blake still cursing and promising dire retribution, Jessop encouraged him down the stairs with considerable-sounding force. Presumably, he then locked him in the drawing room with his valet while he went to fetch reinforcements in the shape of Walters.
The twins planted themselves on the bed beside Athena. Eli wasn’t sure if they should get so close to her, but knew better than to try and remove them.
‘She will wake up soon,’ Eli said.
‘She must,’ Selene said bleakly. ‘She’s all we have left.’
‘We would be nothing without her.’
‘Things will be different now,’ Eli promised them. ‘You will never have to worry about Blake again.’
‘Will we have to live with our uncle?’ Lyssa asked, wrinkling her nose.
‘Not if you don’t want to.’
‘We don’t,’ they replied in unison.
‘You could live in this house, if you think you might prefer it.’
‘Here?’ Again they spoke together.
‘It’s very grand,’ Selene said dubiously.
‘I expect Athena will say we can’t afford it.’
‘The cottage is going to be very nice once the work is finished. That would do just as well.’
‘But this is better.’
‘I suppose we could make proper Cunningham lace again if we no longer have to worry about Mr Blake.’
‘That would make a big difference to our income.’
Eli listened in dazed fascination to their seamless communication, glad to have temporarily taken their minds off their unconscious sister. Her condition seemed unchanged, and Eli persuaded himself that was a good thing. He had heard somewhere the brain often shut itself down as a means of protection in times of extreme anxiety. This situation certainly qualified. He could only pray it would wake up again, none the worse for the experience.
Mrs Walters interrupted them. ‘Your grace.’ She curtsied, looking utterly astonished by the scene that greeted her.
‘Are you and Walters unharmed?’ Eli asked.
‘Yes, your grace. We had no idea what was happening. We heard horses earlier, my husband went to see who it was, but we had been locked into our apartment from the outside. There was nothing we could do.’
‘I’m glad you weren’t harmed. But now, is there anything you can do to help Miss Moncrieff? She has received a blow to the head. Should we send for a physician?’
‘I don’t see what he can do to help her that we can’t. Just give me a moment.’
Mrs Walters returned quickly with a bowl of water and cool cloth, which she pressed to Athena’s forehead.
‘She’s very warm, your grace. We ought to get her out of these clothes.’
Eli refused to leave the room, contenting himself with turning his back while Mrs Walters and the twins between them stripped off Athena’s breeches and the remains of her tattered shirt, leaving her in just her chemise.
‘There, she will be more comfortable now.’
Eli turned back again in time
to see Mrs Walters pulling the covers up to Athena’s chin.
‘I’ll get this cleaned up.’ Mrs Walters wrinkled her nose as she pointed to the rug stained by Blake’s blood. She bent to roll it up and threw it onto the landing. ‘I’m sure Miss Moncrieff would prefer not to see it when she opens her eyes.’
‘Quite, and find a room for these two young ladies, if you please, Mrs Walters. They are all done in.’
‘We want to stay with Athena.’
‘You will be no good to her if you’re too tired to keep your eyes open.’ Eli shooed them from the bed. They had the same stubborn set to their chins as Athena adopted when she was displeased about something and looked ready to argue. In the end they didn’t and went off with Mrs Walters.
‘You will call us if she opens her eyes, won’t you, your grace?’ Selene popped her head back around the door to ask the question.
‘She will be worried about us, you see.’ Lyssa’s head joined her sister’s.
‘You may depend upon it.’
‘You will stay with her until Millie gets here?’
‘You won’t leave her?’
‘I can safely promise you I won’t leave her for a second.’ Were all the females in the Moncrieff family so argumentative?
‘Don’t you have ducal duties that will take you away?’
‘No. Now go!’
Left alone with Athena, Eli kissed her brow, sending thanks to anyone who could hear his thoughts for her safe deliverance.
And for his.
Without the twins’ chatter, only Athena’s shallow breathing and Boris’s snores intruded upon the silence. Eli drank in the sight of his precious Athena, his feelings of fierce, protective love so strong they almost frightened him. Her features were so delicate, so pale, so heartbreakingly lovely, that Eli died a little more inside each time he looked at her and knew she could never be his. His courageous little firebrand’s quick thinking had saved his life, at the possible cost of her own, and the only way he could repay her was to offer her and the twins this house and his protection. What he would give to be able to offer her the protection of his name, too.
To Defy a Duke: Dangerous Dukes Vol 1 Page 23