Promise of Redemption

by Ellie St. Clair

  “I should not be so forgetful,” he grated, his head now hanging low.

  “She is gone and you need to let her go,” Lord Hudson replied, his voice firm. “You have dwelt on this for years, Ravenhall, but instead of finding healing, you have allowed it to build guilt and pain and sorrow within you. Now Christina has come into your life, and you refuse to give her the one thing she wants because your guilt will not allow you to do so.” Daniel looked up and caught Hudson smiling gently. “I know she cares for you, Ravenhall. You are in doubt about that yourself, I think. If you leave Laura in the past, no one will condemn you. It is only you who stands in judgment upon yourself, as foolish as that sounds. Leave the past in the past and focus on the future.”

  “On Christina,” Daniel breathed, nodding slowly as he walked around the table and sat down in an overstuffed chair, facing the fire.

  “Yes,” Lord Hudson chuckled, his smile broadening. “On Christina. Goodness knows you have both been through more than enough to look forward to a bit of a quiet life.”

  That did not bring a smile to Daniel’s face. He could not have a quiet life, as Hudson put it, not when Northcliffe remained a threat.

  “I mean to mete out punishment, Hudson,” he said, firmly. “When we find Lord Northcliffe, he will receive no mercy from me. The man deserves to die.”

  Lord Hudson raised his eyebrows. “That is not what I expected to hear from you, Daniel. This morning, you were speaking of a plan to make him confess. You know the views of your wife — how will she feel if she knows what you have done?”

  Daniel shook his head. “My plan was formed before he entered my home and tried to kill Christina. There is nothing but evil in that man. I will punish him for what he did and what he tried to do. There are consequences he must face.”

  “And you think you are the one to bring him down to the grave?” Lord Hudson asked, calmly.

  Daniel shook his head. “For once, I shall be the executioner. That is all.”

  A quiet knock came to the door of his study and, before he could call out, it opened and in stepped Christina.

  She was looking rather tired and pale, but her eyes were bright and there was no longer any trembling in her limbs.

  “Christina,” Daniel said at once, getting to his feet and hurrying over to her. “You should be resting.”

  “I am quite well, I thank you,” she replied, with a soft edge of steel to her voice. “The maid told me of Lord Hudson’s arrival, and I had to know what had been done.”

  Daniel offered her his arm, and a tremble shot through him as she took it, though she kept her gaze ahead of her and not upon his face.

  Goodness, she was beautiful.

  “Have you made any progress, Lord Hudson?” she asked, as Daniel seated her by the fire. “Have you found Lord Northcliffe?”

  Hudson cleared his throat and got up from his chair in the corner of the room to draw closer to Christina. “Yes. We have. It appears the men we use to help us find those who require our help are also rather good at following a criminal.”

  Daniel watched Christina closely, seeing how she swallowed hard as she nodded, her hands tightening together as she held them in her lap.

  She was more affected than she wanted them to see.

  “You need not fear anymore, Christina,” he said, softly, reaching for her hand and holding it tightly in his own. “We are to set out for him once it is dark.”

  Her eyes caught his, confused. “Dark?”

  He nodded. “Northcliffe is at an inn only two hours’ ride from London,” he explained. “We think he is to go to Scotland but something has held him up. The road will be well lit by the full moon, and so we shall go under cover of night to take him by surprise.”

  She held his gaze for a moment, and Daniel’s breath caught in his chest at the deep emotions in her eyes, though her look was troubled, which he wondered about.

  “I haven’t told you everything that Lord Northcliffe said to me,” she said, in a somewhat tremulous voice. “He told me that if he had to, he would go to Scotland, to hide there so that he could not easily be found or convicted.”

  Daniel listened with growing anger as Christina recounted the words Lord Northcliffe had said to her. The arrogant fool had apparently believed he would be able to kill Christina and leave her body for Daniel to find, and seemed to have told her everything, believing she would never have the chance to speak the truth aloud.

  Anger began to burn again, growing all the hotter as Christina continued to speak.

  “There is something else,” she said, and he noted the way she twisted her fingers in her lap. “He was quite adamant about the fact that he wanted to kill me because you had taken Miss Churston from him, Daniel. Not that you had taken her love, but rather, he seemed to think that you were the one who killed her.”

  The room went completely silent for a moment as Daniel took in her words. He clenched his fists in anger that Northcliffe had not only sought to take Christina from him but had attempted to turn her against him in the process.

  “Do you believe him?” he finally asked, and when she raised her head to look at him, he saw the turmoil in her face.

  “No,” she said, though her words lacked conviction.

  His heart fell as anguish washed over him.

  “No,” she repeated with more determination, peering into his face; he must have worn the question in his expression. “I do not believe you would take the life of an innocent woman,” she said firmly.

  “But?”

  “But I did believe him when he said he didn’t kill her,” she said softly. “He told me she had arrived at your home to tell you that she was running off with him to be married. He said…” She hesitated, as if not wanting to share anything further with him.

  “What did he say, Christina?” he demanded, rather than asked.

  “He said that she only agreed to marry you because her father had learned of your affection for her and much preferred that she marry a future duke. That she still loved Northcliffe and they had a plan to be together. She came to your townhouse that night to tell you of this.”

  Daniel got to his feet and began to pace the room, unable to meet the sympathetic gazes trained on him by Lord Hudson and Christina. He wanted to deny all that she said, to tell her Northcliffe had simply been playing with her emotions, been turning her against him. And yet, as much turmoil as he felt, his mind began to review the logic of what she said. He thought back to his relationship with Laura, to the times they had together. She always had a quiet demeanor, a gentleness he found endearing. But what had he really known of her? For all these years, he had thought he loved her and she him in turn, but when he recalled the times they had run into Lord Northcliffe, he recalled the warm smile that had crossed her face, the jealousy that had tugged at his heart. Was there something more there, something he had missed, that perhaps he hadn’t wanted to see?

  “I’m sorry, Daniel,” she said in almost a whisper. “I know not what to say, what to believe—”

  “So you would believe him, a man you hardly know, who threatened to kill you, over your own husband?” he seethed, allowing the more familiar anger to overcome him. All else he thought and felt shriveled in the face of fresh hurt now that he had recognized his deep feelings toward her. She put a hand on his arm, and he shook it off in disgust. “Come, Hudson, it is time we go. Christina, we will be returning to London shortly, though Lord Northcliffe will not.”

  Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I have no intention of letting the man go,” he said, calmly and reasonably. “After what he did to Laura and what he was about to do to you, I cannot let him live.”

  Christina stared at him for a long moment, her eyes filling with tears. “No, Daniel,” she said, her voice quiet and filled with horror. “No, you cannot do this. It will haunt you forever.”

  “So be it,” he said, filled with a determination to do just that. “I am the one he has injured. I am the one he
chose to attack. I should, therefore, be the one to bring an end to all of this.”

  She shook her head, and one of the tears pooling in her eyes spilled over and flowed down her cheek.

  He grieved the loss of her affection toward him, her belief in him, and his heart ached with a sudden, furious pain. How could she not see that he had to do this? That he had to be the one to bring an end to the agony he’d been forced to endure these last few years, that he could never move forward until he had done so?

  “Do not ask me to step away from this,” he said, haltingly. “I cannot do that, Christina. I must bring Lord Northcliffe’s last judgment upon him.”

  She looked back at him steadily, her tears gone as her lips drew into a long, thin line. “And who made you judge and jury?” she asked, firmly. “Who brought you out as executioner? You have suffered, yes, but you are better than him, Daniel. You are not like Lord Northcliffe in any way!”

  Daniel curled his hand into a fist, the fingernails biting into the soft skin of his palm. “I must do this.”

  “No,” she said, getting up from her chair in a flurry of skirts. “No, you are choosing to do this, Daniel. You are choosing to take on a role you have no right to bear. This pain will never lift, not if you kill the man responsible. Not if you become what he is.”

  “She is right,” Hudson murmured, lifting one eyebrow.

  Daniel clenched his jaw.

  “You cannot let him do this, Hudson!” Christina exclaimed, holding her hands up in a gesture of helplessness. “How can you let him go when you know what he will do?”

  Hudson gave her a sad smile. “Because I must. I swore to help him find the man, and so I will. What he does once he finds him is his responsibility.” He turned his gaze toward Daniel, shaking his head. “Although I confess I miss the man I once knew all those years ago. I have stayed by your side, Daniel, and I have seen the pain you have carried for as many years, but I no longer know this murderous, villainous man standing in front of me.”

  “Then you are right. You do not know me. For I am exactly that kind of man!” Daniel shouted, throwing himself from his chair, his eyes blazing with fury. “I am the kind of man who wants restitution for what he has suffered! I am the kind of man who seeks justice for the crimes committed against him! I am the kind of man who wants to, finally, put this to rest.”

  His words echoed around the room, bouncing off the walls as he struggled to draw in a breath, his anger and fury burning so hotly he feared he could not contain it.

  “Then I will not be here when you return,” Christina said, her quiet voice drawing his attention and bringing his anger down to nothing more than a sputtering flame. “I love you, Daniel, I do, but I cannot accept this, not when there is another way. I will not be present when the authorities come for you, when they arrest you for killing another man in cold blood.”

  He laughed at her, his frustration covering the pain that coursed through him over the fact she would not accept him if he followed through with what he must do, despite his love for her. “I am a marquess, Christina, a future duke. Should they come for me, then I will explain all to them. I will tell them exactly what he did to me, to my first love, and then to my wife. I shall not be held.”

  “Daniel…” she said softly, her eyes sparkling with tears. “If you are set free, you will simply live in an imprisonment of your own doing, of knowing who you have become.”

  Daniel did not say anything, his words turning to sand as she stepped past him, her fingers brushing his hand as she passed.

  “Goodbye, Daniel,” she murmured, one hand on the door handle as she looked back at him. “I shall have my things sent to your country estate this very night and shall not be here when you return. I shall go to my father’s townhouse for the evening and pray fervently that you will not do this reckless act.” She gave him a small smile, just as a single tear trickled down her cheek. “I will pray that you will prove yourself to be a better man than that. That you will be the man I know you can be, not the one who throws all he has away simply to bring a veil of justice over all that he has experienced.”

  Tears fell from her eyes like rain as she watched him, her smile remaining steady regardless. “Be the man I love. The one I can trust.”

  The door closed behind her, and Daniel felt his heart go with her, leaving him an empty shadow of a man.

  21

  Daniel leaped from his mount’s back before the creature came to a complete halt, tossing the reins to the stable hand who was hiding a yawn behind his loosely clenched fist. Daniel did not care about the hour, not when he could finally get his hands on Lord Northcliffe.

  “Ravenhall,” Hudson said, firmly. “Hold for a moment.”

  Daniel drew in a long breath and turned around just as his friend dismounted behind him.

  “This is as far as I will come,” Hudson said, as the stable hand led away the second horse. “I will come into the inn, of course, to guard the door, but I will not be part of whatever it is you have planned.”

  Daniel stared at his friend for a moment, seeing the steadiness of Hudson’s gaze.

  “You are quite serious!” he exclaimed, completely taken aback. “But why, Hudson? I know you disapprove of my plan but—”

  Hudson nodded. “That is it precisely.”

  A spurt of anger flooded Daniel’s heart. “Then why help me at all?”

  “Because I promised I would,” came the calm reply. “I always said that I would help you, Ravenhall, to find the man responsible for such a terrible crime. Even though the authorities had nothing to hold him on, I had always presumed that we would mete out justice in another way. Your anger has turned murderous.”

  Daniel let out a long, frustrated breath. “I am not murderous, Hudson.”

  Hudson snorted. “Yes, you are. Perhaps you could take this gentleman down through taking away his financial gains, by finding a way to discredit him, by forcing him to live quietly without all the things he so clearly loves in society? You said yourself you wanted to find a way to make the man confess before handing him to the authorities. Now, those thoughts are gone.”

  He shrugged, helplessly. “I have seen what you have done in the past, Ravenhall, but I thought that Christina’s words and her very presence in your life would bring some sense to your troubled heart, that reason would enter your scope of view, but it seems I was mistaken.” He reached forward and put one firm hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “I cannot go with you any farther, Ravenhall. Whatever you do, you will do it without a witness. I cannot be a party to it. Besides that, I have my own plans for my future, and I cannot allow this to affect them.”

  “Your own future?” Daniel repeated, a little surprised. “You have never spoken of such things before.”

  “That is because I have never felt such stirring emotions for a lady before,” Hudson replied, frankly. “Lady Beatrice shall be my bride if I can persuade her somehow and, since I shall have no requirement to help you in your search for Lord Northcliffe any longer, I intend to focus my time on her. Not that I plan to drop the work you started in aiding those seeking justice, but that shall no longer be my primary focus. I cannot allow you to alter my plans. I have my own happiness to think of now.”

  For a moment, Daniel was stunned. It sounded as though Hudson was almost resentful of him, as though his friend were frustrated that their search was to come to such an end.

  “You don’t understand,” he said, hoarsely. “I must do this.”

  “No,” Lord Hudson replied, his voice firm. “You are choosing to do this. And the consequences of which will not only affect you but will also affect your wife, the woman you have only just declared yourself to love, whom you have not yet informed of the fact.” He shrugged, gesturing toward the inn. “But this is your own decision, Ravenhall.”

  Daniel shook his head, his limbs suddenly feeling wooden and heavy. “I don’t understand,” he said, thickly. “If you are so against this, then why aren’t you trying to stop me?”

>   Hudson gave him a small, sad smile. “I am, in my own way. However, it was not my bride-to-be that was shot, not my heart broken. It was not my wife that was threatened with death, not her cries that broke my heart. Lord Northcliffe has done nothing to injure me, so I cannot fully understand your anger. I will try with my words to prevent you from doing what I think to be wrong, but you are ultimately responsible for your own actions. I will not try and stop you from entering the inn, Ravenhall.”

  Daniel lifted his chin, choosing to stride forward and away from Hudson without hesitating. He did not look back at his friend, even though he felt his presence behind him. His heart began to quicken wildly in his chest as he opened the door to the inn. Only a few drunken patrons sat at the tables while the innkeeper glowered at him from behind the counter.

  As he walked toward the innkeeper, Daniel’s body coiled with tension. He was only a short distance away from his quarry. Somewhere near, Lord Northcliffe was waiting.

  “I need to speak with a gentleman who came here earlier today,” he said, pulling out a sheaf of notes from his pocket. “I will make it worth your while not to notice my presence here.”

  The innkeeper’s glower disappeared at once. “Of course,” he murmured, taking the money. “You’ll be looking for a fine gentleman, then?”

  “Yes.”

  The innkeeper rubbed his chin. “Only got one of them here this evening. A Lord Norcourt, I believe.”

  The name did not disconcert Daniel in any way. It was not as though Northcliffe would give the man his real name. “And where might he be?”

  “Upstairs,” the innkeeper replied, jerking his head toward the narrow staircase. “The last door on your left.” His sharp eyes turned back toward Daniel. “Although I’d guess the door will be good and bolted.”

  Daniel frowned. “Then is there a key?”