“What can I do for you?” he whispered in her ear.
“You’re doing it,” she replied, wrapping her arms tight about his waist as if he were her anchor in a turbulent storm.
***
Thunder and lightning heralded their arrival home. Mack could feel Cassie’s shudders as well as visibly seeing them.
“I not bring Missy Cassie’s special tea.”
“It’s too late for that,” Mack said as the trio ran for the door of the house as a deluge of rain started.
“I’ll be fine,” Cassie reassured both men. “Mack I want to talk to you.”
“John, you and Mr. Chang figure out something about sleeping arrangements,” Mack ordered before following his wife upstairs to their bedroom. He shut the door behind them, ensuring their privacy. Mack said nothing; he merely waited for her to speak. He knew from his years as Director of the War Office that often times, if one waited long enough the other person would speak.
“You must terminate this marriage.” The announcement was punctuated by a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder.
“Go on,” he said.
“You’re not angry?”
“I’m going to hear you out.”
Cassie looked at him. He looked formidable standing there, leaning against the door, his arms crossed. How could she leave this brawny faux Scotsmen of hers after she had come to care for him so much? An image of her father’s still form flashed in her mind, and she knew she had to do this.
“Papa is dead because of me. I might as well have pulled the trigger.” She paused and took a deep breath and met his eyes. “Then there was the carriage that tried to run you down.” Mack just continued standing there, looking imposing. Anger began to replace the grief she felt. “Are you just going to stand there all night, or are you going to say something?”
“I’m waiting for you to say something that makes sense.”
“Your life is in danger because of me.”
“Are you telling me that you care about me?”
“To someone looking in on our relationship it might look that way,” she mumbled, breaking eye contact with him.
“What about Chang?”
“He will have to stay with you. He can’t come with me either.”
“Where do you plan to go?”
“I don’t know. I could return to the village my parents and I lived in.”
“I see.”
He remained silent, studying her. It took everything she had in her not to squirm under his scrutiny. All of a sudden a lightning strike and thunder clap happened simultaneously, lighting the room. Cassie screamed and a sizzle filled the air. Soon the acrid smell of smoke burned their nostrils.
“Wait here,” Mack ordered and ran out into the hall, meeting John and Chang. “Check the house.” The men scattered in different directions. When they joined back up, Chang had a look of panic on his face.
“Attic on fire.”
Mack raced past him and up a ladder that led to a hatch. He could feel the heat before he lifted the hatch. Fire licked at every available surface and flames shot at him, causing him to drop the small door. Mack jumped down the ladder and ran back to the men. “Get what you need and get out. Meet outside. John, see if you can find a hack for us.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mack ran to his bedroom. The door lay open. Mack gave a quick check, but the room looked empty.
“Dammit, I told her to stay put.” Mack slammed his open palm against the door frame. He coughed as smoke began to drift into the hallway. He raced downstairs to the study and threw back the rug. He ripped up the loose floorboard, removing the maps and other documents that lay inside. Mack picked up everything and crossed to the desk. He grabbed the small bag he kept there and stuffed everything in it, as well as several pistols he kept hidden. The smoke was becoming thicker, drifting downwards. He turned to leave when he saw the pages of Cassie’s novel stacked neatly on a corner of the desk. Mack grabbed them and stuffed them in the bag as well.
He left the study, coughing. The smoke was so thick he could barely see. He reached the small front yard, rain pouring down on him. Lightning and thunder filled the air, causing him to duck. Mack saw John near the street, getting soaked as well. A hack pulled up in front of the house and the door opened, revealing Chang. Mack jogged across the yard to the carriage. He reached it just behind John. He threw his bag in and swung in behind his man servant.
“Where Missy Cassie?” Chang asked.
“She’s not with you?”
“No.”
“Dammit,” Mack cursed loudly. “Wait here.”
“I come too!” Chang exclaimed.
“No, you stay put. I don’t need to be looking for two of you. Where could she be?”
“Bedroom.”
“She wasn’t there when I looked.”
“I don’t know, Mister Mack.”
“John, I hate to ask this of you, but I need you to stay. Tell the fire brigades General Insurance, if it will do any good. We’ll be at Hawkescliffe’s as soon as I find Cassie.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Wait for me, Chang.” Mack left the carriage and raced back to the house. He was halfway across the small yard when the shattering of glass heralded flames flickering outside of the windows, licking at the wood. Mack used his hands to cover his head to protect himself from falling glass. He ripped his cravat from around his neck and wrapped it loosely around his mouth and nose, hoping the wet material would keep him from choking on the thick smoke. He bent low where the smoke was thinner and cautiously entered the house. The flames licked the walls like a serpent’s tongue. He prayed the rain would put the fire out.
“Cassie!” The only thing that greeted him was the snapping and sizzling of the wood. “Dammit, Cassie, where are you?” He yelled, coughing harshly. Mack quickly searched all the ground floor rooms and found all of them empty of his wife. Errant flames had begun to catch the furniture on fire on the lower levels. Soon the house would be an inferno, and he refused to leave without Cassie.
Mack started cautiously up the stairs to look in their room once more. Both the wall and bannister were alive with flames. Several times he had to stop to slap out flames that tried to spark on his wet coat. Just as he reached the top of the stairs, he heard a loud creak. Mack dove into his bedroom just as a large, burning beam crashed under the stress of the fire. He thought he heard a yelp, followed by hoarse coughing.
“Cassie?” Silence greeted his ears. “Dammit, Cassie, I’m not leaving without you! Do you hear me? We’ll die together! Today!” The sound of a cough greeted his ears once more. Where is she? he thought frantically. He stood and moved further into the room. He checked beneath the bed, and every corner of the room.
“Mack,” he heard her call his name. He looked and saw that she had wedged herself in the fireplace. Smart girl. She was surrounded by stone and likely the fireplaces would be the only part left standing of this house.
“Cassie, I’m here,” he rushed over to her. “We have to get out of here.” Their eyes met, and he could see the look of horror in hers. “Cassie, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You have to believe me.” A loud crash sounded and a burning beam fell across the bedroom door, blocking them in. He looked back at her. “I’ll get us out of here, trust me.” He held out his hand to her, and she reluctantly placed her hand in his, as coughs racked her body.
Mack helped her stand, and they moved across the room to the window. This was one that had not yet exploded. He quickly raised it and looked outside. The rain continued to pour, but the thunder and lightning seemed to have lessened. “Help me move the bed closer to the window,” Mack instructed. She pulled while Mack went around to the other side and pushed. “That’s good. Take the sheets off the bed.”
Mack ran back around the bed, took the sheets from Cassie, and tied the two corners of the two sheets in a tight knot. Then he got down on the floor and tied one end of the chain of sheets to the leg of the bed. He stoo
d and threw the other end out the window.
“You’re out of your bloody mind,” Cassie said, horrified.
He grabbed her upper arms and squeezed tightly. “This is our only chance, do you understand? Look,” he pointed towards the door. “Everything is on fire and soon this area will be as well. Do you want to be burned alive? I hear it is one of the most horrific deaths known to man.”
Silent tears rand down Cassie’s cheeks. “I hate heights and storms.”
“I’ll go down first and promise to catch you should you fall. We don’t have any more time. I’m going out that window, and you’re going to follow me. Understand?”
“Yes,” she said.
Mack crawled out the window and lowered himself down the make-shift rope and to the ground. He waited a few seconds, and began to panic when he saw no sign of his wife. “Cassie!” Mack called her name when she did not appear directly after him.
“Coming!”
“What are you doing? Get yourself out that window, right now! Dammit, Cassie, I swear I’m going to beat you!”
“I said, I’m coming,” she yelled back, and he saw her lean out the window. “I can’t do this.”
“Cassie, look at me,” he ordered.
She did.
“You can do this. Don’t leave me alone with Chang and John.” He watched her take a deep breath and start coughing uncontrollably. She disappeared from the window. “Cassie!” Nothing, not even the sound of her coughing. “Dammit, I’m coming back up!” He had to back up, run, and leap for the sheets. He pulled himself up two feet when he finally heard her sweet voice.
“I’m coming,” she called.
Mack dropped to the ground once more and took several step backs. She threw one pant encased leg out the window followed by the other. He watched her shimmy out the window. She hung there for a moment, flames on either side of her and above her. “Remember everything that Chang has taught you. You can do this.” She slowly began letting herself down the rope Mack had made. She had almost reached the halfway point when she dropped a little, not of her own accord.
“Mack!”
“The sheet must be coming loose. Just slide down the sheet. I’ll be here to catch you!”
Mack watched her slide. Just before she reached the bottom the sheet came with her. He caught her, falling backwards with her, but taking the brunt of the fall.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” he yelled.
Chapter 24
The rain had lightened, but lightning and thunder still punctuated the air about them once in a while. Mack had wrapped Cassie in his sodden coat and held her close the entire trip, feeling the tremors wrack her body. Chang watched her worriedly from across the carriage. The trio, having left John behind to deal with the insurance man and the fire brigade, arrived bedraggled at Hawkescliffe’s London house.
“Wait here,” Mack ordered the two of them and disappeared from the carriage.
“Missy Cassie, you all right?”
“I won’t lie, Chang, I’ve been better.” A laughing sob escaped her.
“There, there,” he reached over and patted her leg just as the carriage door flew open.
“What’s wrong?” Mack’s stern voiced demanded an answer.
“Nothing,” Cassie sniffed and dashed at her watery eyes. “Well?”
“Mikala almost beat me for leaving you in the carriage.” Cassie gave him a smile that warbled to a harsh, broken sob. “Chang, I’ll send a man to help you with the bags and to pay the driver.”
“Go, go,” the little man said, making a shooing motion with his hands.
Mack picked up his wife and carried her down the sidewalk towards the house. Lightning faintly lit up the sky and thunder sounded far away, but that did not keep Cassie from squeezing his neck until he thought it might break. “Cassie, love, I can’t breathe,” he managed to croak out. She loosened her grip slightly, but he could still feel the sobs that wracked her body and the tears that ran down his neck, mingling with the drizzly rain. “Shhh,” he tried to soothe her. “Everything will be all right.”
In response, she just sobbed harder. He entered the house to hear his sister-in-law call, “Up here.”
“What’s going on?” Gabe’s voice echoed off the marble floor in the entry hall. “What have you done to her?”
“Nothing. Can you pay the driver and send a man to help Chang with the bags?”
“Bags?”
“Gabe, it’s all right,” Mikala said from above.
Mack did not stay to see Gabe give him a querulous look, but instead moved up the stairs with his precious burden in his arms. He entered the room and looked nervously around. Everything looked so pristine and they were both filthy and soot-covered.
“Put her on the chair.” Mikala waved at a chair in the corner of the room.
“But…”
“It’s new and holds no sentiment. Now set her down and leave her with me. I promise I’ll take excellent care of her.”
Mack did as directed and knelt in front of Cassie. He pried her arms from around his neck, and she looked at him, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Mikala is going to help you with your bath. I’m not going but down the hall to get cleaned up as well. All right?”
She nodded, unable to speak.
Mack brushed a kiss on both her knuckles, then leaned in and gently brushed a kiss across her lips. He tasted her tears on them, and he felt his gut clench. He made himself stand, and he squeezed her hands before he let go of them. As he turned to leave the room, he paused and addressed Mikala, “Take care of her.”
“I will.”
***
Mack was clean and in a set of Gabe’s borrowed clothes. His boots were drying and they didn’t wear the same size shoes, so Mack was forced to walk around in stocking feet. He went down the hall and heard water splashing, soft feminine voices and a lack of sobs. He took it as a good sign and went in search of his brother. He found him in the study and knocked on the door.
“Mack, come in. Can I get you something to drink?”
“I could use a whisky,” the man who seldom drank requested.
Gabe poured them both a drink and then walked over to his brother and handed him the glass. “Let’s have a seat, and you can tell me all that happened.”
Mack threw back the liquor and enjoyed the slow burn down his throat to his gut. He rested his elbows on his knees and rolled the empty glass back and forth between his hands. His mind kept replaying his frantic search through the house looking for Cassie. Then when he waited outside and it seemed forever when he finally saw her throw a leg encased in a pair of his pants through the window. “I think we ruined your carpet,” he mundanely said.
“Easily remedied,” Gabe replied.
“Sir Graham’s been murdered.”
“You jest.”
“No, Gabe, it’s no joke. Sir Graham was shot sometime last night in his workshop. I took Cassie to see the body—she insisted. We returned home, and the storm happened. She was just telling me how I should look into terminating our marriage because she feared for my life. Told me she is ready to disappear. Then there was a lightning strike so bright and thunderclap so loud that I thought the skies were falling down around our ears. The lightning hit the house.”
“And?”
“Gone, or I assume it’s gone. I left John behind to deal with the insurance men and the fire brigade. Has he arrived yet?”
“No.”
“Chang?”
“Cleaning up and being fed.”
“Thank you.”
A timid knock sounded on the open study door. Gabe’s butler stood in the doorway.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Bartlett has asked to speak to Mr. McKenzie.”
“Send him in.”
The man entered shortly after the butler left. Mack stood and placed the glass on his brother’s desk. “Well, John, how bad is it?”
“Your Grace,” he bowed towards Gabe before turning and addressing Mack. “A total
loss, sir. Everything is gone.”
“I had guessed as much.”
“The insurance man said he would be by here or your office tomorrow. His name is Williams.”
“Thank you, John,” Mack walked over and took the man’s hand in a firm grasp and slapped him on his upper arm with the other. “Now, go get cleaned up and get something to eat. You look like hell.”
“Thank you, sir,” John said, a half-hearted smile on his face.
“Riggs can show you the way to your room,” Gabe instructed.
“Thank you, Your Grace.”
“You and Cassie and the men can stay as long as you need.”
“Thank you.”
“I want to know about why Cassie wants to terminate your marriage.”
“The threats. There have been more.”
“Her father’s murder.”
“Most likely committed by the person threatening her.”
“Any thought as to who this person might be?”
“At first I thought it was related to her articles.”
“But now?”
“Now I’m not so sure. I mean, why would anyone be so angry about what she writes that they would try to put an end to her life?”
“Perhaps a factory owner looking to improve production.”
“But why would he threaten the lives of the people she is close to? That is what I don’t understand, and it makes this situation even more confusing. This person isn’t threatening her life, they want to take away everyone that makes her happy. They want her to spend the rest of her life in misery.” Silence ruled the room before Mack slammed the flat of his hand. “Dammit, who wants to torture her like that?”
“Are you saying you make her happy?”
“What are you talking about?” Mack’s head snapped around and he stared at his brother.
“I asked if you think you make her happy?”
“What does that matter?”
“It doesn’t. I’m just curious.”
“I wish you would focus on the matter at hand, instead of…”
“Instead of what?”
“Chasing bloody rabbits down their damn holes!”
Seducing the Ruthless Rogue Page 27