Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3)

by Pearl Darling

  “My sister is not dead.”

  “Not dead,” the voice conceded, “but as good as. I’ve spoken with those up here. They say she only has a fifty percent chance of survival. Whatever happened to that baby she was meant to have, Bertrand. Where is my baby?” The voice rose in a scream.

  “I killed it!” Lisle shouted, now shaking hard. “Forgive me Sumner, you must forgive me, but I killed it.”

  The voice was silent for a long while. “Say something!” Lisle shouted. “Say something!”

  “How?” was the only word that floated from the wall. It made Hades shiver. The emotion was palpable.

  “Oh God.” Lisle pushed his free fist towards his face, but still gripped hard onto Hades. “I was in the middle of an experiment with my snakes. My sister came to visit me, but interrupted me. In a rage I threw a large bowl at her. It hit her in the stomach. She lost the baby. She, she never forgave me.”

  “Why did she marry me, then?”

  “Because she still loved you, but over time you kept going on expeditions. You left her with your daughter, your daughter who still lived. It turned her mad. She escaped into gambling and drinking. I hated you for it.”

  Lisle stood deadly still, his eyes searching wildly in the room. This time the dead man remained even more silent than.

  “Sumner, where have you gone? Sumner?” Lisle shouted into the dark.

  The voice started softly, its volume rising with every word. “You killed my daughter, you killed my unborn babe, Lisle. You have nearly killed your sister, and now there is no one left for you. Jeffries is dead, your circus performer is nowhere in sight… and I am coming for you, traitor and viper.”

  Lisle screamed and let go of Hades’ hands. He pushed Hades into the darkened room and slammed the door on him. Loud footsteps faded away from the door into the depths of the house.

  CHAPTER 32

  Melissa sat shivering in the cupboard as the vibrations in her throat dried away. She wanted to sob. All these years she had thought her stepmother was a villain. But now she knew that Eliza had been a broken woman, forced by her unwitting father and evil brother into a life that had snapped her in two.

  She hadn’t known what she was going to say before the words had fallen out of her mouth. At times she had had to force herself to carry on. It was as unnerving to her to hear her father’s tones unnaturally produced by the resonance of the wall on her own voice. She hadn’t meant to ask about the unborn child. She was going to talk more about the garden, that traitorous night, even ask more about the secrets that Hades so badly needed. But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to speak more after that.

  The door slammed once more on the room. Melissa gulped. The darkness was beginning to press in on her. She could also hear a greater slithering coming from just outside the cupboard door. The door kept moving slightly on its hinges as if a weight of something pressed against it. She had closed her mind against what it could mean.

  “Melissa?”

  Melissa jerked, her head banging slightly on the wall behind her. She hadn’t expected anybody to be there. She said nothing. If it was Lisle then she would give away her position.

  “Melissa, it’s Hades, love. I know you are in here somewhere.”

  Melissa still kept quiet. Lisle was slippery. He could still be trying to trick her.

  “Darling, are you alright? I know your father is dead. I’m sorry to hear about your stepmother. But you must come out. I need to talk to you. I need to tell you how much I…”

  Keeping quiet was definitely Melissa’s best policy at this point. But the voice didn’t go on. It stopped.

  “You think I’m Lisle, don’t you?” In the darkness of her cupboard, Melissa nodded vigorously. Damn right she did.

  “Well I’m not. Melissa, I, err, ever since you came into my life and looked at me over those awful spectacles I was hooked. Even when you had them on I couldn’t help myself. You ran roughshod over me, took over my study, my chair, my servants, even my dog. And despite myself I let you do it.”

  Melissa could hear a throat being cleared.

  “You have even charmed my mother.”

  Lisle could have found that out just by watching the house. It wasn’t enough.

  “Do you know how you make me feel?” Melissa could hear the desperation in the voice. “When I found you inviting Carter to do up the buttons on the back of your dress…” Melissa drew her knees up to her chest and gulped. “I felt a rage that started in the bottom of my boots, and moved right up through my heart. I had let you in, a small amount, but you repaid me by trying to seduce my butler. And then when I touched you…” Hades’ voice faded away slightly and then returned. “I was on fire. And I could see my flames reflected in your face.”

  Melissa wanted to scream in triumph. He had been affected by her, she knew it! She hadn’t been wrong.

  “What about Elsa?” she said softly.

  “Elsa? She’s nothing to me.”

  Melissa could feel a familiar ire growing. He was lying to her again. Had he not learned anything?

  “She’s nothing to me now,” Hades qualified. “She broke my heart when I was young, strung me along like a calf and then left with a richer, older American. I’ve measured every woman against her since.”

  “What about me?” Melissa said softly. “How do I measure against her?”

  “Dammit, Melissa, I’m standing in a room full of snakes trying to work out how to rescue you, how do you think you measure against her?”

  “I want to hear it, Hades. You have given nothing of yourself to me; even when I have tried to reason with you, you lied to me.”

  “I wanted to protect you, Melissa. I didn’t want you going after the Viper. And I wanted to protect myself as well. I didn’t realize I loved you until I knew you were gone!”

  “You love me?” Melissa asked querulously.

  “Yes, you silly fool, even if we do keep running away from each other. I love you.”

  Melissa sniffed slightly. The cupboard door shifted again.

  “Hades?” she said, stammering.

  “Yes, my love?”

  “I’m not sure I can hold on any longer.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m in a cupboard under the workbench. I think all the snakes have gathered outside because of the sound of my voice and the warmth of the wooden door to the cupboard. They’re pressing to get in. My hands are tied in front of me and I can’t move!” Melissa’s voice broke on her last words.

  “Where under the workbench?”

  “Five steps from the door to the right. Is the door still locked?”

  “I don’t know, my hands are tied behind my back. I can’t get them up high enough to twist the handle.”

  Melissa gulped. Her deadly Russian doll scenario had become even worse, even if Hades had said he loved her. He loved her! Despite herself, she smiled. Footsteps fell sharply against the stone flags of the orchid room floor. A scraping sound echoed, and the weight against the door was lifted.

  “Quick, Melissa, love, open the cupboard door. The snakes are against the wall. If you push open the door you should pin them against the wall. Hurry, I can’t open it for you as my hands are still behind my back.”

  Melissa surged forward. She trusted in Hades blindly. She thrust open the cupboard door, right back to the wall, and wriggled out rapidly. She moved just enough so that she was out from underneath the worktop and pushed herself off the floor with her bound hands.

  As she stood, she collided with a warm body. Her hands caught at Hades’ waistcoat and held him tight. She sensed him bring his head towards hers, but recoil as he touched the hessian sack that remained over her head.

  “Follow me,” she said quickly. She stepped lightly back to where she knew the door was. As her hands were in front of her, it was the work of a moment to pull the handle down and walk into the kitchen. “Can you see a knife?” she asked Hades, who followed behind her soundlessly.

  “Three steps in
front of you,” he said, whispering in a deep voice, “it’s at waist height. Grab it and hold it out in front of you. I will cut my bonds first and then take the hood from your head and do yours too.”

  Melissa nodded. She trusted him now. She took three steps forward and bumped into the cold marble of a shelf. Creeping her hands across the shelf, she found the handle of a knife. She turned and held it as firmly as she could outstretched.

  She grunted as Hades pressed down against the knife with his bonds. The knife thrummed in her hands as he worked his ropes backwards and forwards against the blade.

  With a snap, he was free. His arms encircled her, not caring for the knife that dug gently into his side. Under the hood she closed her eyes and rested against his chest.

  “Hades,” she said after a moment. “I really would like to be able to see you.”

  “Sorry, my love,” Hades said with a smothered laugh. Suddenly the sack was lifted from her head. She lifted her chin up as it came off, meeting Hades’ eyes directly. Her glasses had miraculously stayed intact, for the first time. It allowed her to see the heat in his eyes directly. With one strong and frustrated movement, Hades cut her bonds as if made from butter and swept her up into his arms.

  Melissa drew in a breath as Hades leant his nose gently against hers and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

  “I thought I had had lost you,” he whispered. Slowly but surely he captured her lips with his, tenderly deepening the kiss before drawing away.

  “I am not going to let you go from now on,” Hades said, breathing heavily. “No more running away.”

  Melissa swallowed. “We need to deal with the professor.” She patted her hands against Hades’ chest, feeling at his strong chest, stilling as she encountered a small cylindrical object in his waistcoat pocket. “What’s this?”

  “I think it’s yours.” Hades smiled. His face whitened as the look on her face changed as she drew out the small glass vial with the wax stopper. “What is it, Melissa, tell me?”

  “It’s a poison. A deadly poison,” Melissa said. “I wanted to kill the Viper. He was making my life a misery. I planned to confront him and kill him. It’s what I was doing when I met you in Brambridge.”

  “When you wouldn’t let me touch you?”

  Melissa nodded. “I had just collected a henbane plant. It is poisonous even to the touch. I was covered in it. If you had touched me, you would have become very ill.” Melissa sobbed slightly. “I wanted to kill him. But then I read my father’s diary and I realized that if I did, I would be no better than the Viper. All I’ve ever wanted to do is heal people, not kill them.”

  In a flurry of sobs, she laid her head against Hades’ chest. Hades closed his long arms around her and held her quietly until her sobs dried away.

  “And now he will escape,” she said dolefully, wiping her nose against part of her skirt. She looked down at her feet and gasped. “Hades! Your boots.”

  Both of them looked down at Hades’ feet. The boots were covered in puncture marks, and dark stains were liquid dribbled down the sides. The puncture marks rose all the way up the leg till below the knee.

  Hades grinned. “Good thing I wore Hoby boots. Best leatherworker in London. I banked on that when I pushed the snakes aside outside your cupboard with my feet. Didn’t feel a thing.”

  “They didn’t manage to bite through?” Melissa said disbelievingly. “You were lucky.”

  “About the only time in this whole episode,” Hades said, kissing her hand. “Melissa, I want you to get out of the house. I need to find the professor and deal with him, dead or alive.”

  Melissa started to protest. He was shutting her out again!

  “Darling, this is for your own good. I can’t marry you if you are dead.”

  Stunned, Melissa fell back. Marriage? Beyond her wildest dreams she had not even contemplated marriage. She hadn’t thought it was possible.

  Hades’ face darkened. “You don’t want to marry me?” he said quietly. He shook his head from side to side. “Never mind, we’ll talk after this episode is done. Will you just do as I ask for once?”

  CHAPTER 33

  Hades ran through the rooms towards the front of the house as a horse’s wild neighing echoed from the drive. He scrambled down the front steps as Professor Lisle looked at him, aghast and turned back to fasten the back gate to the cart in place, forcing the wood so hard it bumped the cart pony forward.

  Stretching forward, Hades gave one last leap onto the drive, stumbling as his knee collapsed beneath him to the stony ground. Gasping and clutching at his knee, he braced himself against the hard earth, turning sharply as a wild thundering of hooves echoed up the circular drive. Carter swung into view, wildly riding one of Hades’ prime horses in a fashion that no gentleman would ride. The horse neighed again as Carter threw the reins against its neck.

  Glancing back at Lisle, Hades saw with horror that the man had abandoned his attempts to close up the cart and had cut the pony’s traces, climbed onto its back and was already cantering across the gardens at high speed.

  Scrabbling to his feet, Hades patted frantically at his waistcoat. But it was useless; he had left all the precious guns that he had been loaned on his horse at the inn outside the house gates. It was too far to run to reach the inn and then go after Lisle. He would be long gone before Hades had even mounted his horse.

  “Sir! Sir!” Carter called, slowing his horse to a trot as he neared the front steps to the house. “What do you want us to do?”

  “Have any of you got a gun?” Hades called out desperately. He could see Charles and Carlos in a carriage entering the estate gates, wildly gesticulating.

  Carter shook his head. “No,” he shouted. “Just some kitchen knives—” Carter pointed towards the carriage—“and your mother.”

  Hades’ eyebrows crawled up his hairline as he took in the carriage. Now that the crest on the side was evident it was clear that it belonged to his mother. With much protesting, he observed Carlos draw his head back in and Dowager Lady Harding push hers out.

  He supposed his mother could be in the dangerous weapons category too along with kitchen knives.

  “Hades, your man is getting away!” his mother called.

  As Hades swung his head, Lisle brushed past a large rhododendron and disappeared into the back garden. He cursed and ran towards the cart that still stood in front of the house.

  “Strategy, strategy. Where are my strategies now when I most need them?” he chanted. He swung his head between Carter’s horse and the trunks that still sat on the waiting cart. “I don’t think this is a very good idea,” he said as he ran down the steps and swung himself onto the cart.

  Gingerly, Hades lifted the lid on one of the trunks. The trunk stayed quiet as he laid the lid down on the cart floor. Carter drew up on the panting horse.

  “What can I do to help?” Carter said wildly, bouncing in the saddle.

  “Put this in one of the saddle bags. Do it quickly, quietly and carefully,” Hades said, handing a wicker basket from the trunk to Carter.

  “What’s in it?” Carter asked curiously as he stowed it in the saddle bag.

  “No time to explain. Now, get off the horse and get up here on the cart. I need to swap positions with you.”

  “Yes sir!” Carter slid off the chestnut horse who immediately quietened. Hades stepped straight off the side of the cart onto the horses back.

  “Now get up there and hand me two more of the wicker baskets,” Hades ordered. “Quickly, Carter!”

  Carter scrambled onto the cart and pushed two baskets into one of Hades’ large hands.

  “Let’s hope Hannibal had it right,” Hades said as clutched the reins in his free hand and kicked his laboring horse into a gallop. “Death to the Pergamums!” he yelled.

  Glad to have a more experienced rider on his back, the horse responded with a pace that astonished Hades. Hades set a course for the rhododendron bush in the hope that he would catch up with Lisle. It was easy to see
where the pony had fled; large clumps of hoof shaped pieces of turn were upturned across the garden.

  The tracks made a sharp turn around the bush and set off in a new direction at an angle to the previous path. Pulling madly on the horse’s reins, Hades leaned into the turn as a small untidy creature fled out of the bushes and into his path, yapping wildly. Bloody hell – Arturo! The dog slowed and looked back at him, the wildness that Hades felt reflected in the spaniel’s eyes. His coat was bloody, the strokes of a whip evident on his back, and his tail hung at an odd angle. He must have followed Melissa and the Viper all the way from London.

  “I’m coming Arturo!” Hades tucked his head in and pressed his knees into the horse’s heaving flank as Arturo surged ahead towards the galloping pony in the distance. But something soft brushed against Hades’ head as he leant lower. Taking his eyes momentarily off the tracks in front of him, Hades flicked a glance towards his hands.

  In shock he could see that one of the tops to the wicker baskets had come off. Hades squeezed his eyes shut and offered a quick prayer to any God that might hear him, and looked forward again, avoiding the specter of the open basket in his hand.

  He could see Lisle in the distance. Arturo had already caught up with the stout cart pony and was obviously giving Lisle some trouble, nipping at the pony’s flanks causing it to sidle backwards uncertainly. Squeezing his legs together, Hades extracted even more speed from the horse.

  In slow motion, Lisle turned round and grinned. The man was unhinged. But then he brought up his arm to reveal the same pistol that he had used to masquerade as a highwayman. He pulled the trigger back. In the same instant Hades ducked his head down and pulled his horse’s reins to the left.

  As the horse screamed and banked sharply, the high whine of a bullet zinged across his right hand shoulder, scorching him. In shock, he hunched quickly away to his left, only to come face to face with the curious contents of the open basket that he held. A snake’s head swayed in the air as it balanced on its impressive muscles. Its mouth was wide open and its tongue darted in and out. It followed his head’s every move.