“It will be my pleasure.” Brooketon nodded.
Lord Adam Sterling saw their approach far too late to make good his escape.
Chapter 15
“Well?”
Fliss felt a coldness down her spine at the chill of Sin’s tone, heartily relieved it was not directed at her but at the man and woman standing side by side in front of the fireplace of Ranulf’s study.
The two conspirators, Millicent Montgomery and Lord Adam Sterling.
Fliss repressed a shiver as she recalled she had eaten a picnic with Lord Sterling during her brief stay at Eckles Manor, and the two of them had been completely alone together in the grounds some distance from the house. An occasion when Fliss had not felt an inkling of similarity between him and the brute in the Woodrows’ library.
“Well what?” Sterling’s drawl challenged Sin.
“Would someone please enlighten me as to what is going on?” Ranulf demanded as he sat behind his desk.
Sin stood beside the desk. Lord Brooketon was at the back of the room leaning against a bookcase. Fliss had chosen to sit on the chaise in front of the window and observe rather than participate in the conversation. Sin’s expression upon seeing her arrival at Cairn House had promised later retribution, and she did not wish to add fuel to that particular fire by antagonizing him further.
“Your wife.” Sin nodded in Millicent’s direction. “And her lover.” The second nod was toward Sterling. “Tell me, Sterling, was she paying you to dispose of me with more than her body, or did that suffice?” he prompted contemptuously.
The other man shrugged. “She’s a tasty and willing morsel, I grant you that, but a man also has to pay his gambling debts somehow.”
Fliss blinked to hear the change in his tone, so recognizable now as being that of the man in the Woodrows’ library. It had none of the warmth with which he had spoken to her when they picnicked together that day at Eckles Manor or the night of blindman’s bluff.
“Millie?” Ranulf was clearly stunned by this turn of events. “Is it true? Are you and Sterling lovers? Did you plot with him to kill my cousin Sin?”
Fliss felt so sorry for Ranulf, who seemed, on their short acquaintance, to be a man totally undeserving of such a scheming wife.
Millicent appeared to struggle inside herself for several seconds, likely wondering whether to admit her behavior or continue to play the innocent. A single glance at a stony-faced Sin, and she chose the former. “Someone had to do it. You were perfectly content to continue to work alongside him at Castle Montgomery, with neither the title nor the funds.” Twin spots of angry color blossomed in her cheeks.
“Because he is the heir,” Ranulf protested.
“And you are his heir, and once he was out of the way, we would have lived in the castle and inherited all that money.” Her eyes glittered. “Enough so that we would never have to ask my father for anything again. Enough that Society would bow to and fawn over us. Enough that you would be welcomed into parliament rather than be sponsored by my father. Can you not see I did it for us?” she appealed to her now ashen-faced husband.
“Quiet, you stupid bitch,” Sterling snarled, his features twisted into an angry mask. Or perhaps it was the handsome face which was the mask? “Currently we are guilty of nothing more than having an affair, and the last I heard, that was not a crime,” he told the other gentlemen in the room insolently. “Reprehensible, perhaps, but not a crime.”
“You poisoned my groom and horse in order to keep me at Eckles Manor,” Sin reminded him.
The other man returned his gaze innocently. “Did I?”
“Worse than that, you gave Waverly some concoction to put in Mrs. Randall’s drink and render her unable to stop him when he tried to rape her.”
“I do not recall doing any such thing,” Sterling drawled.
Fliss glanced quickly at Sin, seeing by the fierceness of his expression that Lord Sterling spoke the truth when he claimed they had no evidence to convict him of any of those things. “I heard the two of you.” She stood to move to the center of the room. “In the library at the Woodrows’ ball. You were discussing killing Lord Winterbourne.”
Millicent gasped at this disclosure—as well she might, considering what had taken place there. Sterling remained unconcerned, and Sin—Sin looked positively furious at her interference.
“I will testify to as much in a court of law,” Fliss added with determination. If it was within her power to remove these two people from Sin’s vicinity, from Society completely, then she would do it. She would happily suffer the scandal, as well as the consequences of Sin’s disapproval.
“I do not believe it need come to that.” Lord Brooketon straightened from where he had been listening to the proceedings. “Sterling, I will ensure that you remove yourself from both Scotland and England and go to the Continent never to return. Montgomery…” He turned to Ranulf. “I believe it is for you to decide what to do with your wife. But if she were mine,” he added harshly, “I should see the lady returned to her family and her behavior exposed to Society. I have no doubt that Lord Sugdon will know best how to deal with her…wildness.”
“No!” Millicent wailed. “My father will beat me for shaming him and our family, then have me declared insane and locked up in an asylum. Ranulf, you cannot agree to such a thing.” She turned to appeal to her husband. “We are married. I did these things for both of us. Please do not return me to my father.” Her voice broke on a sob.
Poor Ranulf looked as if he were about to be sick, his cheeks having taken on a green tinge. “I cannot believe… That you should plot and scheme to kill my cousin, who is as close to me as a brother… Dear God, you were even unfaithful on our honeymoon!”
“He made me do it.” Millicent turned to glare at Lord Sterling.
Recalling Sterling’s bestiality that night at the Woodrows’ ball, Fliss could well believe Sterling had forced the latter and enjoyed doing so. But whether forced or not, Millicent had been willing to do anything Sterling demanded of her if it ensured Sin’s death.
That, Fliss would never forgive.
Millicent looked about the room at all the hard and unforgiving faces, lingering longest on that of her husband. Ranulf now stared at her as if she was a stranger. “Can you not forgive me and carry on with our marriage? I promise I will never do such a thing again.”
“No.” A nerve pulsed in Ranulf’s clenched jaw.
“Winterbourne?” Millicent turned that appealing gaze on Sin.
“No,” he stated evenly.
The entreaty disappeared as those blue eyes once again filled with rage. “I will not be returned to my father’s house in disgrace!” Millicent pushed past a surprised Fliss as she ran to the door, threw it open, and fled out into the hallway.
“She will not get far,” Brooketon assured them as he turned to follow her at a lazy pace.
“As your only evidence of any wrongdoing is hearsay, I believe I too will also take my leave,” Sterling drawled. “Gentlemen. Mrs. Randall.” His tone hardened over the last.
“I do not think so.” Sin stepped into the path of the other man, having taken exception to the threatening way in which Sterling had looked and spoken to Fliss. “You are in Scotland now, Sterling, and in this particular area, I am the law. As such, you should take Brooketon’s advice and leave for the Continent, never to return, or I will ensure you are never seen or heard from again.”
“You— I— You cannot do that.” The other man’s bravado began to falter.
“Oh, but I can,” Sin assured him confidently. He was not concerned for himself, but he would do whatever it took to ensure Fliss’s future safety. As to the reason she was in need of that protection… Sin would deal with her reckless disobedience once he and Fliss had returned to Castle Montgomery. “So which is it to be?” he challenged Sterling.
Sterling’s face flushed as he turned his anger on Ranulf. “Your wife is nothing more than a bitch in heat. She enjoys bending over and taking it—” H
is rant was abruptly cut off as Ranulf’s fist connected with his jaw, knocking Sterling to the floor.
In Sin’s opinion, not a moment too soon.
“I am sorry to report there has been a fatal accident.”
Sin turned to look at Brooketon as he stood in the doorway, one look at the grave expression on that gentleman’s face enough to tell him that Millicent Montgomery was no more.
“It was not Dante’s fault.”
“I never said it was.”
“You have not said anything at all since we all returned to Castle Montgomery!” Fliss glared her frustration with Sin’s silence. Brooketon had wisely excused himself moments after their return and retired to the bedchamber prepared for him. No doubt he was genuinely exhausted after his many days of travel, followed by the trauma of the evening.
All had been in uproar after Brooketon had explained that Millicent had found Dante tethered and saddled where Sin had left him on his arrival at Cairn House and seized the opportunity to make good her escape. As Sin had predicted only this morning, the stallion took exception to having a stranger on his back. Millicent had barely climbed onto the stallion’s back when he reared up and dislodged his rider. Millicent’s neck had been broken the moment she hit the hardness of the gravel driveway.
Much as Fliss regretted the loss of life, she could not find it in her to shed a tear on the other woman’s behalf. Millicent had wanted Sin dead and been willing to whore herself in order to achieve that end.
Sin’s mood was far less predictable than Fliss’s own.
He had not spoken to her once since Millicent’s body was brought back inside the house. The shocked guests were advised to retire to their bedchambers. Sterling was placed under lock and guard in a stable at Cairn House until Brooketon made arrangements for the two of them to leave tomorrow, after which Ranulf had retired to his study with a bottle of whisky. Sin had offered to stay with him, but Ranulf had expressed a preference to be alone. Fliss’s heart had ached for him.
Sin had ridden the now calmed Dante back to Castle Montgomery, while Fliss traveled in the carriage with Lord Brooketon.
Brooketon had excused himself once they entered Castle Montgomery, and been shown to a bedchamber by the housekeeper. Fliss believed Sin would have simply left her standing alone in the entrance hall, with no choice but to also retire to her own bedchamber if she had not followed him to his study. His expression had not been welcoming, his green eyes cold and unreadable once he sat behind his imposing desk and looked up to see her in the room with him.
Trepidation filled Fliss. “Sin—”
“I suggest you follow Brooketon’s example and retire for the night.” His voice was clipped, his tone cold.
“But—”
“Now.”
Her heart began to beat loudly as she sensed the warning, the danger, lurking beneath that single word. “I believe the two of us need to talk—”
“You disobeyed me!” Sin pounded his fist on his desktop, his eyes glittering like twin jewels. “Deliberately put yourself in harm’s way by openly accusing Millicent and Sterling.”
Her mouth became dry. “You did not specifically instruct me not to do so—”
“Well, I am now instructing you, specifically, to go to your bedchamber and stay there until I am ready to talk to you,” he cut in harshly.
“Sin—”
He stood up, his size as immediate and overpowering as his simmering fury. “Remove yourself, Fliss, before I do something we will both regret.”
She moistened the dryness of her lips. “Such as?”
His eyes narrowed. “This is my last warning not to challenge me.”
Was Fliss challenging him? She believed she had merely wanted to talk to him, and by doing so help to ease some of the pain she knew Sin must be feeling on his cousin Ranulf’s behalf, if not his own.
Poor Ranulf had not only learned of his wife’s infidelity this evening, and her plot to kill his cousin, but had also to come to terms with Millicent’s sudden death. It was enough to make any man turn to the bottle for comfort.
“Shall I pour us both a glass of brandy?” she offered in an effort to soothe Sin’s incendiary mood.
“I told you to leave, damn it!”
Fliss swallowed nervously at the fevered glitter in Sin’s eyes and the nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. Indications he balanced on the fine edge of losing control. “Why were you so angry with me this morning?”
“What?” He frowned his confusion with this sudden change of subject.
“You apologized for having been unnecessarily cruel when we were out riding.”
The last thing Sin needed was a reminder of his reprehensible behavior earlier today. This evening had been traumatic, not least because of Fliss’s part in it.
He had never admired her more—or wanted to strangle her more—than he did when she marched across the drawing room and confronted Millicent, and again when she challenged Sterling with the truth in Ranulf’s library.
Sin had never felt such apprehension in his life before this evening either.
Fliss had deliberately put herself in harm’s way by her actions tonight. Had stood up to both Millicent and Sterling, threatened them both with the evidence she had of their duplicity.
Against my instructions.
He gave a weary sigh. “I really cannot discuss this anymore tonight, Fliss. I am…sick to my stomach on Ranulf’s behalf. Please do as I ask and retire to your bedchamber. I promise I will set about making arrangements for you to return to England first thing in the morning.”
Fliss recoiled as if Sin had physically struck her. The sudden pain in her chest at his rejection felt almost as if he had done so.
He could not have made it any clearer that he wished her gone from Castle Montgomery.
From Scotland.
From him.
As quickly as possible.
Chapter 16
Fliss made it all the way back to her bedchamber, had undressed, with Mary’s assistance, and donned her nightgown and robe before the numbness she felt at Sin’s rejection was replaced by anger.
How dare Sin dismiss her?
After all they had been to each other this past month?
How dare he!
She would not be dismissed. Refused absolutely to allow Sin to send her back to England as if she were nothing more than an unwanted parcel. When she returned to England, and it might well be tomorrow, she would make her own arrangements.
All her life, it seemed, she had been instructed to do this or to do that, with never a thought from others as to whether “this or that” would bring about or add to her own happiness. Fliss had no intention of ever again allowing anyone to dictate her future movements.
Sin had given her that.
Since bringing her to Scotland, he had opened her eyes to a freedom she now refused to relinquish. The freedom to walk where she wanted, to go where she wanted, eat when and where she wanted, take to her bed whom she wanted. Sin might have tired of her and wished her gone, but she would not be sent away from here without first having her say.
The anger she now felt was enough to take her out of her bedchamber, along the candlelit hallway, down the wide staircase, across the entrance hall, before throwing open the door to Sin’s study.
“What the…?” He sat in an armchair beside the fire, a glass of some amber liquid in his hand as he turned his head to look at Fliss. She strode into the room and slammed the door behind her. “Fliss?” He eyed her warily.
Now that she was here, Fliss was uncertain of what to say. Only that she must say something. “I have enjoyed our time together.” Not exactly the roasting she had intended, she acknowledged with a wince, but the conversation had to start somewhere.
“As have I,” Sin answered warily.
Fliss began to pace the room. “You have opened my eyes to a life, a freedom I had not imagined nor ever known before.”
“Good…” Sin had no idea where she was going with
this conversation.
He did not particularly care either, was only pleased to see her, to be with her, having deeply regretted her absence as soon as she left his study earlier.
The way the candlelight shone through her nightgown and robe, outlining her luscious curves, was highly distracting.
Fliss nodded in answer to his comment. “That being the case, I wish to state that I am not yet ready to relinquish our…sexual relationship.”
His brows rose. “No?”
“No,” she assured him briskly. “Your responses to me indicate you have…enjoyed our encounters too.”
Enjoyed them? Bloody hell, Sin had lived for those times he and Fliss made love together.
“I have,” he confirmed guardedly, still unsure what it was Fliss wanted from him.
Her eyes gleamed a dark gray. “Past tense?”
His frown felt pained. “The danger is over now. You must be anxious to return to England.”
“Why must I?” Her answer sounded waspish.
“You have a life there. A home. Friends.”
“I thought I had a friend here too?”
Him. Fliss meant him.
Sin sighed. “I cannot be your friend, Fliss.” How could he ever settle for so little when he wanted so much? No, far better to cut the ties completely than have to sit back and watch as Fliss exerted that freedom. A freedom that did not include him.
“Why not?” Sudden tears swam in those huge gray eyes.
Sin placed his glass carefully down on the table beside him before standing. This might possibly be the last private conversation he and Fliss ever had together. “Do you wish me to speak honestly?” He had nothing to lose by doing so, was only concerned he did not embarrass or upset Fliss in the process.
“Always.” She breathed the word, sounding both apprehensive and hopeful.
He nodded. “You asked why I was so angry this morning? It was because you asked when I thought we might hear from Brooketon. The implication being that you wished for an end to this situation. And that hurt. I wanted to punish you when we went riding. Wanted you never to forget how it felt to have me inside you.”
Taken by the Earl (Regency Unlaced 3) Page 12