Defiant Impostor

by Miriam Minger

  Stunned even more that he would call her by her real name, she pleaded, “Adam, you’re hurting me … I don’t understand—”

  “There is no Keefer Dunn at Raven’s Point, and you damn well know it!” he thundered, releasing her so abruptly that she fell against the dressing table, upsetting perfume bottles and other toiletries. “You told Dominick that name at the Byrds’ party, and everything else about yourself, didn’t you?”

  “No, that’s not true!” Susanna cried, anguished that he would make such a preposterous accusation. Why, why did he never believe her?

  “You told him I was going to seek vengeance against him, probably soon, and then you came up with the perfect way to save him, didn’t you? A way to keep me mum until you and your precious Dominick could silence me permanently.”

  “Adam, this is madness!” she insisted, backing up as he advanced upon her, his expression so black that she feared he might strike her.

  “Those words you said to him this morning were all part of your act, weren’t they? You two make an ingenious pair, maybe you deserve each other. But I don’t plan on giving either of you the satisfaction.”

  She bumped into the wall, hitting her head hard. Still he stalked her, until suddenly he stopped within arm’s reach of her. His voice was bitterly quiet.

  “And to think that just before I received the letter I was on my way up here to apologize for accusing you of plotting against me. To tell you that I wanted us to start over … to tell you that I—” He didn’t finish, choking on his words, and for a fleeting instant Susanna thought she saw a wetness glistening in his eyes until he blinked several times and said hoarsely, “Damn you, woman. This is twice you’ve made me the fool.”

  “Adam … Adam, please listen to me,” she said, her throat tightened painfully against the tears threatening to overwhelm her. “I didn’t plot against you, I swear it! We can still start fresh. We don’t have to let Dominick do this to us!”

  “To us?” he scoffed. “He made no mention of you in that letter.”

  “I—I don’t know why he didn’t,” Susanna admitted, confused, her words coming in a desperate flood, “but he meant both of us! Adam, we can go to Williamsburg right now and confess everything to the magistrate. The court might punish us, but when they hear the truth, maybe they won’t. I know we’ll lose Briarwood but after what happened today, I don’t think we were ever meant to have it. Yet you can still have your revenge! The Cary money you paid to Dominick’s creditors will have to be returned, and then they’ll go directly after him for payment. He’ll still end up in a debtors’ prison, Adam, don’t you see?”

  “Why would I agree to give up everything I’ve worked so long and hard to gain and start over with nothing, and with the likes of you?” he lashed out at her. “No, my love, you’re going to remain as Camille Cary and the mistress of Briarwood until the day you die, whether you like it or not. And if I ever discover again that you’ve plotted with that monster against me …”

  Susanna gasped in terror as he brought her hard against his chest, plunging his fingers through her hair to pull her head back cruelly.

  “We’re going to play out this deadly game with Dominick Spencer and give him exactly what he wants until I can find a way to best him. What a merry race it will be! Him, hoping to find a way to kill me so he can have you and your fortune, and me, thwarting his every move. One day I will have my vengeance, my beautiful, treacherous wife. This I swear.”

  As Adam’s mouth came down savagely upon her own, his powerful arms enveloping her in a crushing, heartrending embrace, Susanna felt all hope die within her. She would never have his love, only suspicion, mistrust, and hate … and she knew she couldn’t bear it. Not for a lifetime. Not for another moment.

  “No … !” she cried against his mouth, biting his lower lip hard. As, cursing, he abruptly loosened his hold upon her, she wrenched away from him so violently that she would have fallen if she hadn’t grabbed the opened balcony door.

  Regaining her balance and spinning around to face him, she edged along the door until she felt nothing but air, the afternoon sun warm upon her back and the strong breeze stirring her hair. With the balcony behind her, her desperate gaze flew to the door across the room, her only means of escape, then back to his face.

  “So this is how it’s going to be from now on,” Adam said, a dangerous gleam in his eyes as he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “Biting, kicking, scratching. I can’t say that the challenge doesn’t intrigue me—”

  “It’s not going to be any way!” Susanna broke in defiantly, trying to choke back the scalding tears that were almost blinding her. Trembling with hurt and fury, her embittered words tumbled from her lips in a wild, agonized torrent.

  “You don’t deserve to touch me, Adam Thornton, and you never will again! I refuse to spend the rest of my life with a man such as you, a man who can’t love, a man who won’t relinquish his insane lust for revenge. I should have known that no matter what I did and no matter what I said, you would always think the worst of me. Well, you can have your precious Briarwood and the Cary fortune and Dominick’s blackmail of you, and you’re welcome to them! I don’t want any part of this charade, and I don’t want any part of you!”

  “You’re confusing matters here,” Adam said, moving slowly toward her, his gaze stormy as he stepped from the shade of the room into the bright sunshine streaming through the open doors. “Love has never been a concern between us, only desire, yet you hurl it at me like an accusation.”

  “You’re right, it never was a concern!” Susanna cried, retreating onto the balcony as he kept advancing on her until she could go no further, halting abruptly against the wooden railing. Her heart breaking, she could not stop herself from flinging at him, “That’s why I can’t believe I ever fell in love with a man like you! How could I have ever been such a bloody fool as to hope that someday you might come to love me, too? You’re too full of hate to care about anything but your revenge!”

  Adam stopped cold, feeling as if he had been struck hard in the face. He stared at her in total astonishment, at those beautiful green eyes which were filled with such torment and defiance, at the tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, at the palpable tension in her stance, as if she was about to flee past him for the door.

  “What did you say?” he demanded softly, wanting to hear her startling words again so that he would know he hadn’t imagined them.

  “It doesn’t matter!” she threw back at him, swiping a damp tendril from her face. “You have nothing to fear from me anymore, Adam Thornton. No more foul plots to uncover, no more worries that I might go to the constable and tell him the truth about Camille. I’m leaving for England on the next ship sailing out of Yorktown, and then you’ll not have Susanna Jane Guthrie to worry about any longer. You can tell your fine Tidewater friends that I’ve gone back to my aunt’s at Fairford, or tell them I died suddenly, I don’t care! Just get out of my bloody way!”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Adam said, his heart thundering. God help him, she had said she loved him! He had heard it! Yet was it the truth, or just another of her many lies? Dammit, he had to know! “You’re going to stay right here and answer me—”

  “No, you can’t stop me!”

  She dashed past him with such agile quickness that he almost didn’t catch her; grabbing a handful of jade silk he hauled her back and enfolded her thrashing body in his arms. He wasn’t prepared for the wild ferocity of her struggles, and when she kicked him hard in the shin, he lost his balance, pitching into her.

  He saw a blur of green silk and white flailing arms as Susanna lurched backwards … heard wood cracking and splitting, and her terrified gasp of surprise. Then she was gone and he was left alone on the balcony surrounded by an eerie, ominous silence.

  Feeling as if his heart had stopped beating, Adam rushed to the shattered railing. She lay on her stomach twelve feet below him, her body inert and limbs askew, her face deadly white against the green
grass.

  “Susanna!”

  He didn’t think, only reacted. Wrenching aside the splintered wood, he jumped, feeling excruciating pain shoot through his right ankle as he landed. But he paid it no heed, falling to his knees and gathering her unconscious form into his arms. Her breathing was frighteningly shallow. Tears stung his eyes when he saw the scarlet blood matting her glistening hair where her head had grazed the edge of the bricked path.

  “Oh, God. Susanna …”

  In shock, he rose with her and, hugging her to his chest, he limped on his badly turned ankle to the double French doors. He couldn’t believe they were bolted, then he remembered he had ordered all doors and downstairs windows to be locked, just in case Dominick decided to pay them an unwelcome call …

  Wasting no time, Adam smashed his fist through the glass and, ignoring the stinging cuts in his knuckles, he unfastened the bolt and flung open the door. Swallowing against the fear and terrible anguish that gripped him, he staggered inside and began to yell … for Ertha, for Corliss, and for the footman to run like hell to the stable and saddle his horse so he could ride into Yorktown for the physician.

  Chapter 26

  “I’ll sit with her, Master Thornton, if you want to go and talk to that man from Raven’s Point. After I saw the physician on his way home, the man said to tell you that he can’t wait much longer before he has to leave. It’s almost sunset, and he hasn’t gotten any answer from you yet to take back to Mr. Spencer.”

  Jolted from his exhausted haze by Ertha’s voice, Adam realized he had forgotten all about the overseer in the horror and then sweeping relief of the last few hours. He glanced from Susanna’s ashen face to the housekeeper’s. Strain showed around her dark-brown eyes, which held concern but, thank God, no judgment.

  “You’ll stay here until I get back?” he asked, reluctant to leave Susanna’s side for even a moment. “I won’t be gone long.”

  Ertha nodded as she smoothed the satin spread tucked up under Susanna’s arms. “You don’t have to rush. There’s nothing you can do here anyway. Maybe after you speak to the man, you might want to get some rest. Corliss will help me keep watch when she returns from fetching you something for supper.”

  “I’m not hungry, and the last thing I want to do is sleep,” Adam replied.

  “Now, Master Thornton, you know the physician said it could be hours before your wife wakes up. It’s a miracle she wasn’t hurt no worse than some bruises and that nasty cut on her head … no broken bones and, thank the Lord, no broken neck. It was the thick grass that saved her.”

  “Yes. A miracle,” Adam agreed, wondering how a sorry son of a bitch like himself had been found deserving of such a precious thing. He rose, wincing at the pain in his tightly bandaged ankle, and relinquished his chair beside the bed to the housekeeper, who sat down with a heavy sigh.

  “I just wish she wasn’t so pale,” Ertha murmured, laying her wrinkled hand on Susanna’s forehead, then, adding as she glanced up at Adam, “and I wish things weren’t turning out as they are, that there was something I could do about all this, some way I could help. I don’t know what troubles between you and Mistress Susanna” —sighing again, she continued— “I mean Camille, caused this terrible thing to happen, but I have a strong feeling it has something to do with why that man is waiting for you outside.”

  “It does,” Adam replied with grim honesty, but he said no more as he limped to the foot of the bed and gazed upon Susanna, stark emotion welling in him. How beautiful she was … and how horribly close he had come to losing her forever.

  Her impassioned words still rang in his head, fueling the unanswered questions that tormented him. Unanswered questions that would give him no peace. It sickened him that even now, he could not bring himself simply to believe that she might love him. So much hurt and deception had gone between them. They had both suffered so much. Yet there was a way he could find out if she had spoken the truth …

  “I’ll be back soon, Ertha,” he said, turning from the bed.

  “Whatever you say, Master Thornton, but I still think you should get some rest. You were injured yourself, you know.”

  Adam didn’t answer as he left the room, the weight of the pistol he kept hidden in his coat pocket bumping against his thigh.

  ***

  “Good thing you came out of the house when you did, Mr. Thornton. I was just getting ready to leave,” the overseer said testily, reining in his restless mount by the front walk. “I heard about the accident. I guess that’s as good an excuse as any for keeping me waiting here all afternoon. Is your wife going to recover?”

  Ignoring the man’s callously stated and all-too-personal question, Adam said, “If you want to talk to me, get down off your horse.”

  “Look here, I don’t see any reason for that,” the man objected, scowling. “Just give me your reply to Mr. Spencer’s letter and I’ll be on my way. He told me a simple yes or no would do nicely, so which one is it?

  “I said to get down,” Adam repeated calmly despite his thundering pulse, withdrawing the pistol from his coat pocket and pointing it at the overseer’s startled face. “Now!”

  “All right, Mr. Thornton! All right!” The man jumped down, his swarthy coloring marked by a distinct greenish pallor. “I—I don’t see why you’re getting so upset—”

  “Shut up and listen!” Adam ordered, leveling his weapon at the man’s stomach. “Now I want an answer to my question and I want it fast. Do you have a convict by the name of Keefer Dunn at Raven’s Point?”

  “I—I don’t know. There are so many of them—”

  “Think very, very hard.”

  “Like I told you,” the overseer echoed nervously, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. “I don’t know, and Mr. Spencer said not to say anything more to you, just to hand you the letter and get your reply.”

  “But Mr. Spencer won’t be the one with the ball in his gut, will he?” Adam queried, cocking the pistol with an ominous click. “I can assure you, a stomach wound is a gruesome way to die—”

  “All right! Don’t shoot me!” the man blurted, backing into his horse, which whinnied sharply, tossing its head. “Keefer Dunn’s been at Raven’s Point for a year now, but if you were thinking of trying to see him, God knows why, you’re out of luck.”

  His hand trembling, Adam had to tighten his grip on the pistol. Susanna hadn’t lied to him! Oh, God, what had he done to her … ? Filled with self-loathing and bitter remorse, he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand, although he wanted nothing more than to rush back to her side.

  “Why is that?” he demanded, his blood roaring in his ears.

  “The bastard tried to escape this morning and since he survived the lashing Mr. Spencer gave him, he’s going to be executed first thing tomorrow as an example to the rest of the prisoners.” The overseer gulped for air like a fish, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “You must have seen him, Mr. Thornton! He was one of the two men dragged back to the house while you were talking with Mr. Spencer.”

  “Describe him. I don’t remember.”

  “Stout build, bearded, pocked face like he suffered bad with the pox, and the strangest eyes I’ve ever seen on a man. A real freakish dark-yellow color.”

  The man’s hasty description, matching the one Susanna had given him, made Adam all the more desperate to return to her. His heart aching, he muttered, “Get back on your horse.”

  The overseer scrambled into the saddle, his hands shaking as he took the reins. “Wh—what do you want me to tell Mr. Spencer? About the letter, I mean?”

  “Tell him to meet me here tomorrow morning at ten o’clock and we’ll go over the arrangements he requires,” Adam replied tightly, a determined plan taking shape in his mind. “If that isn’t acceptable, he’ll just have to wait. My wife’s recent injury will prevent me from leaving Briarwood anytime soon. Do you have that?”

  “I heard you, Mr. Thornton,” the man agreed, anxiously eyeing the pistol still pointed at his gut. “To
morrow morning, ten o’clock, the arrangements he requires. I take it that means you’re in agreement with what he told you in the letter?”

  “Yes. Now get the hell off my land.”

  The overseer didn’t need to be told twice. Jabbing his horse with his spurred boots, he took off around the drive and never once looked back.

  Impatiently waiting until the man disappeared from sight, Adam released the cock on the pistol and returned the weapon to his pocket.

  Oh, he was in full agreement, all right, he thought grimly, limping back into the house and up the stairs. But only with the part about seeing the magistrate.

  Judging from the depth of Dominick’s greed, Adam guessed that the accursed bastard would throw aside all caution and be here well before ten o’clock tomorrow, his fingers itching to touch the first installment of his ill-gotten wealth. Adam couldn’t wait to see his expression when Dominick discovered he would soon be caressing cold prison bars instead, and that Adam would be personally escorting him to Williamsburg. As Susanna desperately had tried to tell him after he had so unjustly accused her, that would be vengeance enough.

  Entering their room, Adam knew when he saw Ertha keeping faithful watch by the bed that she deserved to know what was going to happen tomorrow. Everyone at Briarwood would be affected by his decision. But he had no other choice than to admit everything to the magistrate.

  Their charade couldn’t continue, not if he hoped to convince Susanna that he wanted her only for herself. The precious gift of her love was worth more to him than Briarwood, worth more than any revenge the plantation could give him. Once, he had told himself that he would be content just to have her at his side for the rest of his life, but now there was an all-important difference.

  He didn’t want the heiress to the Cary fortune; he wanted Susanna Jane Guthrie, waiting-maid. He would never call her Camille again.