“You’ve no idea what I’ve been through, Gentilly. And I was an over-protected boy at the time it all happened. I don’t have to justify myself to you. And you’ve no right to assume you would be a better man than I. Especially with your actions recently. What man of honor kidnaps a woman he professes to love? Only a madman. Put down those guns and take your leave. If you go on your way now and promise not to return, I’ll not bring charges against you.”
“Who are you to demand anything when I have guns pointed at you and your family? I’m making the demands here. You have no say in the matter.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Drew could see Chase coming up from the stable. He’d nearly stepped into the courtyard when he’d seen the tableau playing out and drawn back behind a hedge. Drew could only hope his brother-in-law could come up with a plan.
Moments later he lost sight of Chase so he dragged his attention back to the lunatic before them.
“Robert, let my parents and Andrea go. Let them go into the house. You don’t need them. It’s me you’re after. It’s me you want to punish for not choosing you.” Marianne moved toward their tormentor.
“Marianne, stay where you are. I don’t know that I want you now. You’ve made your choice. Maybe I should just punish you for it all.” Gentilly leveled the gun at her. “If I’d never met you, if you didn’t exist, this pain would stop. I’m tired of hurting. I’m tired of being the fifth wheel. Why didn’t you choose me?”
Drew saw Chase make a wide circle behind Gentilly out of the villain’s line of sight. Would he get to him in time?
Drew took one step forward, knowing Chase advanced quietly behind Gentilly but wanting to keep focus away from his brother-in-law. “Don’t. It’s me you want, Gentilly. I stole Marianne away.” It didn’t seem that anyone else was aware of what was going on.
Marianne grabbed his arm. “No, Drew. Don’t. It’s not your fault. It was my decision.” She tugged him back.
“Isn’t this sweet? The two of you taking up for the other. If only it wasn’t so self-serving. I know you’re trying to distract me while you figure out how you can get out of this. But you can’t. You’ve had your way, your fun. Now it’s my turn. Revenge will be so satisfying. And I will have no regrets.” He raised both guns aiming one at Marianne, the other at Drew.
In the blink of an eye, Chase came up behind Gentilly. With one hand he knocked a gun to the ground. It exploded into the dirt of the courtyard as it hit. The two men struggled for control of the second gun now crushed between their bodies.
Marianne shooed her parents and Andrea, who was still in her grandpapa’s arms, into the house.
Drew circled the fight trying to find a place to insert himself and unarm the madman.
“Drew, be careful.” Marianne circled not far behind him.
“Go inside, Marianne. I don’t want you hurt. Chase and I will get this under control.”
“I’m not deserting either of you.” She stayed right behind him, shadowing his moves first to the right, then to the left. As the scuffle continued, no opening for Drew occurred.
“Let it go, Gentilly,” Chase demanded. “It’s over. Let the gun go and we’ll figure this out.”
Gentilly moved his foot behind Chase’s leg and flipped him to the ground.
Chase did not let go. Gentilly fell on top of him.
Drew expected the gun to go off at any moment. If he couldn’t get between them, he feared for his brother-in-law’s life. “Gentilly, you’ve lost. There are two of us against one of you. You can’t win.”
“I don’t need to win.” Gentilly ground out between gritted teeth. “I only need to make you all regret the day you were born. No matter whom I kill, you’ll all suffer over it.”
The two rolled back and forth in the dirt, over the grass at the edge of the driveway. Drew saw the pistol in the dirt that had already gone off. He picked it up. But there was no way to reload it.
Chase and Gentilly grunted and groaned as they flipped over and over, one on top, then the other. With a huge surge of what seemed to be his last ounce of strength, Chase wrenched Gentilly’s arm.
The gun went off.
Silence fell as all responded to the shock of the shrill sound.
“You’ve shot me. You bastard. You’ve shot me.”
Chase stood up, the unloaded pistol dangling from his right hand. “I’d do it again and faster, too, if I had another chance. Where are you hurt?”
Marianne approached but Drew lifted an arm to hold her back. “Don’t. Let’s see how badly he’s hurt first.”
Gentilly looked down to his leg which seemed to be gushing blood. “You’ve shot me.”
“Chase,” Drew took control, “run into the house and get a glass of brandy. See if you can find a belt. We’ll need to make a tourniquet.”
Drew knelt down beside his nemesis. “Let me help you.”
“No, don’t touch me.” Gentilly pushed him away.
“You’ll bleed to death if you don’t let me near that leg. I’ll be happy to let you die. You’ve only to say the word. Or, I can use my neckcloth to staunch the bleeding until we get something else.” Drew untied his cravat and started to wind it around the scoundrel’s leg.
One of the stable lads ran from around the hedge Chase had been standing behind only a few minutes before. “Here, my lord. Maybe this could help.” He handed Drew a set of reins. “I was puttin’ the tack away when I heard the commotion and ran to see what was up.”
Drew took the reins and nodded to the boy. “Step back. I don’t want you involved with this. Mount a horse and go for a doctor and the magistrate. We’ll need both of them this night.” The boy hurried back toward the hedge and the stable.
Drew turned back to Gentilly. “This might hurt a bit.” He wrapped the reins around the injured man’s thigh and cinched it up.
Gentilly groaned. “Can’t you take it easy?”
“I am taking it easy. What I’d really like to do is wrap these reins around your neck and strangle you.”
Chase ran down the stairs carrying a belt and a glass filled with golden liquid. He knelt next to Drew and handed the glass to Gentilly. “This is probably too good for this reprobate but it was the fastest to hand. It was on the sideboard in the library.”
Drew shook his head. “You’re right. He’s not worth fifty-year-old cognac but we’ll let him have it for now. Marianne, please ask Wellingford to have a room prepared. We’ll have to put him somewhere the doctor can see to him and the magistrate can question him.”
He heard her skirts rustle as she went to make preparations.
The reins knotted and holding tight, he declined the offered belt.
“Gentilly, we need to remove you to the house. You’ll need to lean on both of us. Chase, you get under his right shoulder. I’ll get under his left. Gentilly, don’t put any weight on that leg.”
Moments later, the two men lifted the third and headed up the stairs.
Chapter 39
The doctor, young, tall, lean, and fairly recently out of medical college, arrived in short order. Fortunately, he had just delivered a baby at a nearby farm. He removed the bullet from Gentilly’s leg, stitched him up, and dosed him with laudanum to calm him down, as he continued to rave like a madman in the bedroom in which they’d settled him.
Quite a while later the magistrate, old, ponderous, corpulent, and put out by a call farther out in the country so late in the day, arrived in a wagon escorted by two stout outriders. He’d crossed most of the county to take on the task at hand.
This local judge interviewed each witness—George, Margaret, Chase, Drew, and Marianne—separately, took their statements, and examined them for similarities or discrepancies so he could validate their honesty.
He did not speak to Gentilly, who was still sedate
d, but had the outriders carefully bundle him up, trundle him down the stairs, and gently load him into the wagon. The magistrate explained he would thoroughly interrogate the accused later when he was fully awake and stronger.
The magistrate promised Gentilly would be properly cared for before he was transported to the penal colony in Australia where he would spend the rest of his days. If he should return, Gentilly could face the harsher penalty of death. The magistrate would see to it.
After the lawmen left, the family settled down to a quiet dinner Chef Jacques prepared with his usual enthusiasm. Andrea, once again permitted to dine with the grown-ups, chatted happily through the meal, already recovered from the trauma of the afternoon.
Marianne and Drew tucked the little one into bed, then retreated to the veranda with George, Margaret, and Chase to watch the sun set at the end of a long, traumatic day.
As if to signify that the future would now be much better than indicated by the actions of the day, the sun graced the sky with myriad hues of blues, pinks, lavenders, yellows, oranges, and more. Each onlooker sighed with exclamations of appreciation as well as relief.
The sun set, the family retired early for bed, much exhausted by all of the day’s doings, sharing wishes for restful sleep and better tomorrows before heading to their rooms.
Now Marianne sat at her dressing table as her maid ran a brush through her hair counting the strokes and nearing one hundred. Marianne watched the reflection in the mirror as Drew came up behind them.
“I’ll take over from here.” He gently lifted the brush from Ellen’s fingers. She acquiesced with a curtsy and left quickly and silently through the dressing room door.
“Seventy-six, seventy-seven . . .”
“You can stop, Drew. I don’t need all one hundred strokes every night. I’m sure I won’t suffer from the loss of a few.”
He went right on brushing. “Eighty-one, eighty-two, have you not thought that maybe I enjoy brushing your hair? Enjoy feeling the silkiness of your tresses? Watching how they glimmer in the candlelight as they cascade down your back?”
She felt the flush up her neck into her face and rose from the bench. “Well, be that as it may”—she extracted the brush from his fingers and placed it on the dressing table—“I think my silky tresses have had enough attention for tonight.”
“Mmm. Maybe.” He tilted his head down to hers and placed a gentle kiss upon her lips.
“Mmm. Definitely,” she whispered as her arms stole up around his neck and kissed him back. When the moment passed, she pulled back. “I can’t help but wonder about Robert.”
“I think we’ve spent more than enough time on Gentilly. He’ll be transported and we’ll never have to think of him again.” Drew tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“But what made him do it? What made him change so completely?”
“What makes any man go mad? I saw it happen at sea to a number of sailors. For one, it seemed to be days of looking out at nothing but water and needing to put his feet on dry land. For another, it was just the opposite. He ran onto the ship like a madman so anxious to go out to sea he’d have signed without pay. Yet a third was crazed after so many months of not seeing his wife and children. We all have a different threshold, a different need. Evidently, he obsessed for you, Marianne. When he couldn’t have you, his mind simply broke.”
She shook her head. “But I wouldn’t do that to anyone, least of all a friend.”
Drew placed a hand against her cheek and tilted her head up. “Trust me. You did nothing except be the wonderful person you are. What turns a person into a dangerously obsessive individual is not caused by forces without, but how he chooses to handle those forces from within. When he is far away from here and busy making a new life, he may heal and learn to be happy. Or, he may be mad forever. We may never know and it’s just as well. It’s time to continue our lives together in the best way we see fit.” He brushed his lips against her ear. “I’m going to start with my favorite activity. I’m going to seduce you once again.” His hands rested on her shoulders, then slid off the straps of her nightrail which susurrated to the floor.
Marianne couldn’t help but purr at this enticing announcement, then tugged on the cord of his robe. When it fell open, she slid her hands up to his shoulders and pushed the fabric off. “You certainly are my Dandy Lion.”
Drew pulled her close and she experienced the thrill of his firm chest pressed against her aching breasts and the hard length of his aroused manhood against her stomach.
Their lips met in a kiss that promised many tomorrows of love, joy, togetherness.
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Seduced by the Dandy Lion Page 25