by Janet Kent
“Papa would tear you limb from limb if you’d ever tried, you Bartholomew baby.”
“Don’t you mock my clothes, cousin! Fashion is of the least concern when one goes out abducting. I never could understand why your father was so attached to you or the stupid old bat.”
“Because,” Beatrix interrupted, “I’m his mother.”
“What?!” all three of them cried in unison. Carlotta tilted against the door, Louis goggled and reeled backwards, and Alicia stared down at the top of her aunt’s head in shock.
Beatrix shrugged. “My brother needed an heir. ‘A legitimate heir,’ he said, ‘not a bastard nephew. Bastards can’t inherit titles.’ I fought him, but with my own true love dead, what could I do? He’d married a minor heiress who was so missish as to make the entire lovemaking process unbearable. The whole scheme was her idea. If there were already an heir, my brother wouldn’t have to touch her. I would be saved an even worse scandal than my current disgrace and the succession wouldn’t be in any jeopardy. It was a bizarre plan, but a sound one. And I got to raise him as if he were my own – which he was.”
“Did Papa know you were his mother?”
“Yes. That cold fish my brother married went into shameless fits of hysterics every time my baby tried to call her ‘Mama’. She told him the truth before he was old enough to understand. He resented me for ‘dumping him off on her’, as he saw it, but he couldn’t deny that he’d been given a better life, a respectable birth, a title.”
“The title wasn’t even his?” screeched Louis. “All this time I’ve hated the unfairness of the happenstance of birth that gave him the peerage and me nothing, and he was born a bastard?”
“You’re the bastard, Louis,” corrected Beatrix. “Look at yourself. My son doesn’t run around abducting people.”
“If Louis and Papa’s mothers weren’t cousins after all…” A grin stretched Alicia’s sore cheeks. “Do you know what this means? I’m no relation to Louis whatsoever!”
“Well, you’re not one of Morrissey’s either, except by marriage,” Louis snapped. “Why do you think you’re not here by yourself? I had to be sure to grab a blood relative in case you weren’t a big enough draw on your own, since you’re just a wife… and an unwanted one at that.”
Stung, Alicia shook her head. “You didn’t want me either. You just wanted my dowry.”
“I didn’t want your dowry, imbecile. I wanted the whole thing. Why do you think I positioned Chadwick to take the fall? The barony would be mine!”
“The barony would be my son’s.”
“The money would be mine, and money’s all that matters.”
“My brother won’t let you get away,” Carlotta piped up, glaring defiantly.
Louis smirked and brandished his pistol. “Nobody’s getting away but me, you fool.”
Terrible understanding widened Carlotta’s eyes and she said nothing else.
“Louis–” Alicia began then forgot what she meant to say as she caught sight of something through the dingy windows.
Ian rode up on a gorgeous gray, leapt to the ground, and tied the horse to a tree.
“Excellent!” crowed Louis, turning to see what had captured her attention. “You, girl! Open the door when he knocks and let him in.” Louis pranced to Alicia’s side and grabbed her upper arm with one hand while the other hand aimed his pistol at Beatrix. For the first time, Alicia realized that Louis had two more pistols tucked into the back of his pantaloons. If only he would turn around so she could reach one and blast a fist-sized hole in his big fat ego!
Carlotta swung open the door and Ian stalked inside, stumbling to a stop when he saw the situation.
“I’ve been looking for you, Larouche. Had I known you were here, I wouldn’t have wasted my time searching your townhouse.”
“Well, now you found me. Where’s my money?”
Alicia narrowed her eyes at Ian. “Wait. You knew what he was up to all along and you didn’t tell me?”
A faint blush stained his cheekbones, but he crossed his arms and glared at her. “What, like you’ve always been honest with me… Elizabeth?”
Well, maybe not about that, but he’d lied to her about being Rogue, about being a spy, about investigating her father, and even about where and why he’d taken off without a word. Surely that outweighed her naming herself Elizabeth. Alicia thrust her nose in the air. “You’re so deceitful it’s stupid.”
Ian threw out his arms in exasperation. “If I’m so stupid, how come I’m the one here doing the rescuing, and you’re the defenseless one being held hostage?”
“Ransom!” Louis shrieked, changing his aim from Beatrix to Ian. “She’s being held for ransom! Can we get back on topic here?”
Alicia glared at Ian, then Louis. The repeated blow to her head from her cousin’s gun may have disabled her thinking, but Alicia realized she needed a plan. She just didn’t have one. She frowned at her bloodstained hands. For lack of anything else to use, she wiped her tacky skin down the sides of her dress, freezing when one palm rubbed across something strange. With a slow movement, she slid her hand into her pocket and closed her fingers around cold metal.
“You’re wrong, husband,” Alicia said, turning toward Louis. “I’m not defenseless.”
Before Louis had a chance to face her, she pulled the knife from her pocket and shoved it into his side, pushing his shoulder as he fell. His pistol clattered to the floor and she kicked it against the wall.
“You bitch! You stabbed me!” Louis cried, clutching at his bloody waistcoat and rolling on the ground.
Ian sprang forward, trussing Louis up with a loose length of rope from the floor by Carlotta’s chair and removing his cravat to press against his wound.
A new shadow darkened the doorway. Carlotta backed away and sat back down in her chair, exchanging quizzical glances with Beatrix. Alicia didn’t recognize him until he’d stepped out of the sun.
“I got your note, Morrissey.” The cultured voice matched the well-dressed gentleman perfectly.
Ian looked up and smiled. “He’s all yours, Porter. No one here will miss him.”
Porter grabbed Louis by the ankles while Ian looped his arms under his armpits. Within moments, they’d carried him out to Porter’s waiting coach. Ian gave a little salute and stood staring down the road. Still shaking, Alicia fell to her knees to untie her great-aunt. Somehow, despite all the excitement, Beatrix had managed to fall asleep.
Ian came back into the cottage with a man she didn’t recognize, but whose voice was instantly familiar. Caspian – the man whose mid-night visit had enabled her to discover her husband was much more than the simple man she’d thought she married.
“What happened to Larouche?”
“I sent him off with Porter,” Ian answered as he untied his sister’s wrists. “Don’t worry, he’ll get what’s coming to him.”
“All right. What can I do for you here?”
“Take Carlotta and Miss Beatrix back to Heatherley. See that they’re taken care of.”
Caspian nodded and looped one arm for Carlotta, who paused for just a moment before placing her hand inside the crook of his elbow. Caspian turned and reached out his other hand for Beatrix. Alicia helped her aunt to her feet and shook her head when Beatrix placed her bony hand directly in Caspian’s strong one and gave him a saucy grin.
After Caspian led them from the cottage, Ian closed the door behind them and crossed the room. “Are you all right, sweeting?”
Alicia nodded. “I’m sure I look a fright, but I’m fine.”
Ian bent his head to hers and settled a sweet, tender kiss on her lips. He lifted his head and smoothed her hair from her face, frowning at the cut on her forehead and the bruise on her cheek.
“We need to get you something to put on that before it swells. Are you hurt anywhere else?”
Alicia shook her head. “I said I’m fine. Louis is gone, that’s all I care about.”
“That’s all?” came Ian’s soft echo. Sudde
nly, a question flashed in his eyes and his gaze flicked to her neck. With a gentle finger, he traced the line of the chain around her neck and lifted the heart-shaped locket from its place between her breasts. He flipped open the catch and let out a bark of laughter. “It’s not empty anymore!”
A grin threatened to ruin Alicia’s solemn expression. “Because our love is no mystery.”
Ian snapped the locket closed and dropped it back under her bodice. “How did you do it?”
“I had Poppy draw miniature portraits. She’s amazing. And I put them inside the heart because I hoped we could finally have the sort of marriage we both wanted from the start.”
Ian’s eyes twinkled and his tone turned husky. “In that case, I think I owe you a proper honeymoon.”
“You owe me plenty. You stole my heart.”
“And I’m keeping it – if you’ll let me. After all, you stole mine. I meant what I said… ‘My regard for you just grows and grows.’ Even if my poetry never improves.”
“Oh, Ian. The only thing I want is you.”
Ian’s sudden grin bloomed then faltered. “But you don’t need me. You’re amazing. You even rescued yourself. I made a muck of it every time I tried.”
Alicia launched herself into his arms. “I’ll always need you. You’re my heart-held hero and my very favorite fantasy.”
After a moment, his arms tightened around her and his lips pressed against the top of her head. “Then we,” he said, picking her up so that her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms encircled his neck, “are about to make a few of mine come true.”
Giggling, Alicia let him carry her into the cottage’s cozy bedchamber, blissful that true love had finally been unmasked.
THE END
Sole Witness
If you enjoyed UNMASKING THE SPY, you would also enjoy SOLE WITNESS!
Detective Davis Hamilton is struggling to balance his career and his personal life&. The high profile murder case couldn’t have come across his desk at a worse time—his partner is so pregnant she’s about to pop, and the sole witness is not only a suspect herself… she’s Lori Summers, famous for surfing killer waves in equally killer designer bikinis, and known deep in his heart as the one who got away.
Lori Summers decided the day Davis Hamilton dumped her for a society wife, that she didn’t need a man in order to be somebody. She lived up her daredevil career with glamorous international photo shoots until tragedy brought her back to her home town to face the past and re-think the future. Stumbling over a dead rap star wasn’t supposed to be part of that equation, and neither was running from a killer… right into the arms of the last man on earth she’d dare to trust.
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