“Not so fast.” John put an arm around her waist and hauled her roughly to his side. She tried to let her body go limp as if she didn’t have the will to resist.
“We was instructed to deliver her straight to Lady Southwood,” John said. “How’s we to know you won’t sport with her yerself before turning her over? She won’t be worth near so much if yer grubby hands’ve been on her.”
The man snarled. “Give the girl to me and leave. Your continued presence is a danger to your health.”
“I’m not moving ‘til I see Lady Southwood.” John nodded to his brother who pushed past the sputtering footman and entered. John dragged Amanda inside.
“Stop, right there.”
John released Amanda and punched the footman.
The man staggered back, but he managed to grab hold of the bell rope. John punched him again, harder this time. The footman slumped to the floor as footsteps and shouts echoed through the foyer.
Thomas grabbed Amanda, intending to send her back outside but two men appeared in the doorway. Both carried pistols. The three of them had no choice but to run.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Mark crept along the passage between cells until he came to a set of stairs leading to a door. Anyone or anything could be on the other side, and he had no weapon. Fire burned through his body. He stopped and leaned against the wall, seriously wondering if he could go any further without relieving his raging need.
The sound of voices reached him from the far end of the corridor, trying the door was his only option.
He turned the handle, exhaling when the latch gave. The door opened into a side yard. Trees stood a few yards away. After closing the door silently, he ran toward the small wilderness across the lawn.
He heard a gasp and the crunch of leaves. He studied the darkness, willing his eyes to make sense of the shadowy forms of trees and shrubs.
Then he saw something. A face peeked out at him from behind a small tree. It disappeared after a second. Mark dashed in that direction and caught the lurker.
He knocked the man to the ground, tumbling and rolling until he managed to pin his opponent beneath him. Except it wasn’t a man. Soft curves and the scent of roses told him a woman lay beneath him. A woman his raging body responded to instantly.
Why hadn’t she screamed? Her rapid pulse beat against his hands where they pinned her wrists to the ground. He couldn’t keep from grinding himself against her behind. Yet she remained silent and motionless.
The cold barrel of a pistol pressed against Mark’s temple. “Get up slowly. Make a sound and you’ll regret it,” a male voice whispered.
“Sidney?”
The woman shifted beneath him. “It’s Mark.”
Dear God. “Cassandra?”
“Please, you’re crushing me.”
Sidney lowered the pistol. Mark rolled off Cassandra, pushing her away and trying to get his body under control. What must she think of him rutting against her without even knowing who she was.
“What are you—”
“Where is—”
They both paused. Then Mark spoke again. “Katherine? I… knocked her… out.” He couldn’t get enough air. Cassandra’s scent assailed his nostrils. He was desperate to pull her beneath him and plunge into her. Without relief he feared he would disintegrate.
“Mark, what’s wrong?” She looked down at the dark stains on her dress. “You’re bleeding, aren’t you?” She reached for him.
He scooted away from her. “Don’t touch me.”
“Mark, what is it?”
“She gave me the drug. The one she gives the women.”
“Oh, my God. But the blood—?”
“My hands. The ropes. It’s nothing. I’ll be fine.”
“Stay here. Both of you,” Sidney said. “I’m going in.” Before Mark could protest,
Sidney disappeared into the darkness.
“Did you see any of the others inside?” Cassandra asked.
He shook his head to clear it. Her words made no sense. The only thing he understood was the demands of his body. “What do you mean?”
“Some of the guards are here and Amanda and—”
“Amanda!”
Cassandra realized how foolish it sounded, how crazy and desperate had she been to let her sister risk her life like this? “Two of Ewen’s friends pretended to deliver Amanda. They were supposed to get to you and the captive women.”
“I’m going to find them.” Mark tried to stand, but he stumbled and grabbed a tree for support.
“You’re in no shape to go anywhere. Sit down.”
“I’ll be all right. It has to wear off soon.” He tried to stand again and pitched forward onto his hands and knees.
“Mark! Stop it!” She grabbed his arm to pull him back to the ground. He flinched. “Don’t touch me!”
Cassandra barely contained her panic. Mark was half delirious. He wouldn’t let her help him, and something had gone terribly wrong inside. What if her sister was in Katherine’s clutches? Her gaze flicked to the house then back at Mark. She couldn’t leave him like this.
She knelt in front of Mark and put her hand under his chin, forcing him to look at her. Even in the moonlight, she could see that his pupils were fully dilated. His skin burned where she touched him as if he had a fever.
“Tell me how I can help you.”
“No!” He pushed her away and sat back on his heels.
“Mark, what the hell is wrong with you? What has she done?”
Cassandra moved forward, but Mark scooted back on his hands and feet like a crab until he made contact with the trunk of a tree.
“You can’t touch me.” His voice was wild, frantic. “My skin is alive. I feel everything.”
She studied him. He seemed unable to keep himself still. Then realization hit. “Oh, God. The drug. It’s an aphrodisiac.”
“Y-yes.”
“Susanna told us about it, but I thought it made the women groggy, unwilling to fight.”
“Susanna?”
“She came to the house to warn us. They had beaten her to make her talk, but she’s going to be all right, if she can survive without their potion.”
“Where is she?”
“At my house, with Rebecca. A doctor is seeing to her.”
Mark pushed away from the tree and got to his feet. “I have to go help them.”
Cassandra watched him teeter and lean against the tree. She knew what she had to do. It was the only way to bring him back to sanity. Amanda needed her desperately, but she wasn’t foolish enough to think she could save her sister on her own. She needed Mark’s help.
She closed the gap between them and brought her hands to the waist of his pants.
“No!” He tried to pull away, but he was trapped by the tree.
“Shhh!” She placed a finger against his lips. “It’s the only way I can help you.”
“No.” This time his voice held less force. His hips bucked against her hands as she pulled his breeches open and found his cock.
She’d intended to bring him relief with her hands or her mouth, but once she touched him, she lost control of the situation. He growled, a low tortured sound. Then his arms locked around her waist, and he pushed her to the ground.
Twigs and stones dug into her back, and the weight of him took her breath. His hands tore at the breeches she’d worn for ease of movement.
She feared he would rip them. He pushed them down and freed one of her legs, giving him the access he needed.
Mark’s flesh burned her, and his thighs were slick with sweat when he pushed them between hers. She realized he had no control over his need, and a shiver of fear ran over her.
He thrust to the hilt in one brutal stroke. She gasped, biting down on the sleeve of her shirt to keep from screaming. His hands were everywhere. They grabbed roughly at her breasts, pinching her nipples and pulling at them. They slid over her belly and drew her legs up, trapping them against her body. Hoarse cries came from his throat
as though they were being ripped out by an unseen hand.
Mark gripped her calves and pushed her legs up until he could hook her ankles over his shoulders. He plunged so deep he penetrated straight to her heart, breaking the wall she’d built there. She lay trapped beneath him, a willing sacrifice.
The familiar fire raged in her body. Her hips came up against Mark’s, meeting him stroke for stroke. She should have been embarrassed to be so easily aroused, ready for him to take her on the ground with no preliminaries. Instead she abandoned herself to pure sensation. The rush of fear and anger that had thrummed through her transformed into a desire so fierce it rivaled what the drug had done to Mark.
There was no finesse to his actions, no attempt to be gentle. Mark was mad with need. Her crisis built until suddenly the night lit up, and she saw an expression of pure bliss on his face. He sent his seed into her, choking out her name.
He lay atop her, resting his full weight on her body. She feared she would suffocate before she got him off of her. But the sound of creaking wood echoed across the lawn, bringing him rapidly back to consciousness.
They scrambled to straighten their clothes, and Cassandra gave Mark her second pistol. Without speaking, they crept to the edge of the wilderness and saw Ewen slowly making his way toward them. Cassandra rushed out to meet him, Mark close on her heels.
Ewen fell to his knees. His hands gripped his abdomen where blood soaked his shirt.
“You’re hurt!” Cassandra said.
“Shot.”
Mark put his hand on Ewen’s shoulder. “Where are they?”
“Cellar.”
Mark looked back at Cassandra. “Stay with him. Try to get him to cover. I’m going in.”
“No,” Ewen whispered, but his voice was too low for Mark to hear. Cassandra’s heart constricted as she watched Mark go. If lives hadn’t been at stake, she would have run after him. Despite the fact that he’d been under the spell of Katherine’s drug, their coupling re-opened barriers they’d both erected with their cruel words. She had much to say. Yet she wouldn’t have been able to find the right words even if they’d had the luxury of hours.
“Can you make it to the trees?” she asked Ewen. “We’ll be less exposed there.”
“They took Amanda.” Ewen looked at her with anguish in his gaze. “I’m so sorry.”
She took his arm, helping him up and trying to keep moving so grief didn’t overtake her. “What happened?”
“The footman at the door. He alerted others. Amanda couldn’t get away. There were too many of them.”
Cassandra pulled a knife from her boot and used it to cut a strip of cloth from the long man's shirt she wore. After folding it over, she tugged Ewen’s hands away from his wound and placed it under them.
Would any of them survive this night? She shook her head, trying to block out her fear and focus on helping Ewen. She wanted to ask if anyone else was injured, or worse, but she couldn’t bear to.
She lit the lantern Sidney had left with her, deciding the risk of detection was less important than saving Ewen. When she raised his shirt, she saw a nasty slash. It was still bleeding, but it wasn’t deep. He would survive if they bound it tight enough to staunch the bleeding.
She ripped more fabric from her shirt and wrapped the strip of cloth all the way around him, securing the cloth pad she’d made and putting pressure on the wound. “You’re going to be all right. I’m going to see what I can do for those who are still inside. I promise we’ll come back for you as soon as we can.”
“Don’t. It’s too dangerous.” His eyes pleaded with her. She knew he blamed himself for the plan going awry.
“I have to,” she said, rushing off before he could protest more.
***
Mark gripped his pistol tightly as he descended the stairs to the cellar. He heard muffled voices but could not make out what was being said or who was speaking. One of the voices was female. Probably Katherine. He doubted the blow he’d dealt her had been strong enough to kill her.
As he reached the end of the passage where he had been held, the voices grew louder.
“You stupid whore, couldn’t you manage one man’s capture?” Mark easily identified the speaker as the man who had attacked Cassandra.
“Gaston, you cannot blame me. Those idiots you hired did not give him enough of our potion. If they had the brains of a rat, they would have done as I said, and he would be tied to my bed, begging for more.”
“That is all you think of, isn’t it? Your own pleasure. This is a business. You can’t think with your cunt all the time.”
“He deserves to be humiliated. It’s his fault we are behind with our shipment.”
“Then he should be dead. Instead, your lust caused us to lose him. Now we have more prisoners who must be dealt with.”
Mark crept closer. Finally, he reached a doorway through which he saw Katherine and the Frenchman. Guards held Amanda and a man at gunpoint. Another man lay on the floor either dead or unconscious. Where were the others?
Suddenly an arm came around him, and a hand covered his mouth. “Don’t move, it’s us.”
Mark nodded. The hand fell away, and he turned to face Stanton and Sidney. They motioned for him to move back down the passage. When they were far enough away to whisper without detection, they made a plan. If Katherine and Gaston’s argument continued to escalate, they would rush the room in the ensuing chaos.
Sidney and Stanton would aim for the guards who held Thomas, who he learned was a friend of Ewen’s, and Amanda. Mark would train his weapon on Gaston. There were two other men around the perimeter of the room, but their weapons were holstered. Their best chance was to eliminate the others quickly then deal with the secondary threat.
They inched back to the doorway, standing two on one side and one on the other.
“I am not your slave,” Katherine screeched at Gaston.
He slapped her. “You will do as I say. That is part of our agreement.”
“Don’t ever hit me again.” She pulled a knife from a sheath at her waist.
He shot her. Blood spread from the center of her chest.
Shock rattled Mark, but he forced himself to stay steady. Stanton gave the signal, and they launched into action.
Sidney’s and Stanton’s shots connected, but one of the unoccupied guards tackled Mark. His shot went wild.
Gaston pulled a second pistol from his waistband and aimed it at Amanda. Stanton dove toward him as Mark watched from the ground.
Gaston squeezed the trigger. Stanton hit his arm, throwing the Frenchman off balance.
Amanda fell back. She knocked her head on the wall and slumped to the floor.
Mark elbowed the man on top of him and looked for his gun. But it had skidded just out of his reach.
Gaston wrestled free of Stanton’s hold and unsheathed his knife.
***
Cassandra eased the cellar door open. She kept her hand clenched around the pistol Stanton had given her before they left her townhouse. She heeded his caution to keep her finger off the trigger lest her shaky nerves make her shoot before she was ready.
When gunfire echoed down the long hall, she sped up, running toward the room where her friends were fighting for their lives.
The first thing she saw was the Frenchman who’d attacked her raising a knife to throw at Mark. She lifted her pistol and fired.
The man slumped to the floor, a bullet in his head. Mark spun to see where the shot had come from. His face paled when he saw her.
With Gaston out of the picture, the two guards who were left held up their hands, declaring their surrender.
Cassandra saw Amanda lying on the ground and raced to her. Stanton was already there, bent over Amanda, inspecting her wound. “I don’t think the bullet hit anything vital,” he said. “The bleeding’s mostly stopped.”
“What happened?”
“Gaston shot her. Then she fell and hit her head against the wall.”
“She would be dead if i
t weren’t for Stanton,” Mark informed her as he leaned over to look at Amanda. “He knocked Gaston off balance and kept the bullet from doing more damage.”
“Thank you.” Cassandra placed her hand over Rhys’s.
“Don’t thank me yet. She hit her head hard and…”
Mark held Amanda’s wrist. “Her pulse is strong. She’s got a good chance, but we need to get her upstairs.”
Cassandra turned to face Mark. “Are you all right?” He reached out to caress her cheek.
“Y-yes.” Suddenly the impact of what she’d done hit her. She’d actually killed a man. “I had to do it, didn’t I? He was going to kill you.”
“Yes, he was. I owe you my life.”
John interrupted them. “One of us should go check on Ewen while the other sees to the prisoners. Sidney’s gone to the village to find the local magistrate and a doctor.”
Mark reached out to cup Cassandra’s cheek before he stood. The look on his face made her ache. She’d never seen him look so sad.
Before he left the room, he looked down at Katherine’s body. Cassandra turned her head from the gruesome sight, and her gaze met Rhys’s. He must have read the question there. “Gaston killed her, not Mark. I think it was easier that way.”
She nodded. If Mark had killed her, he would always wonder if he had no other choice or if he had done it for revenge.
She surveyed the rest of the room. Thomas was still seated. His head rested in his hands. “He was hit in the head with the butt of a pistol, but he he’ll recover,” Stanton explained.
Amanda moaned and stirred.
“Amanda? Can you hear me?” Cassandra squeezed her sister’s hand.
Stanton caressed Amanda’s cheek. “Come back to us.” She moaned again but didn’t wake.
John returned with the few servants who hadn’t fled. They swore they’d worked for Katherine only because their lives had been threatened. They were willing to do anything necessary to aid those who had been injured.
John explained that there were three women locked in the cells, but they were all unconscious. The men would get them upstairs as soon as Amanda and Thomas were settled.
A Carnal Agreement (Regency Intrigue Book 1) Page 22