Page 137 of Every Rake Has A Silver Lining

The sinister smile creeping across Hester’s lips chilled him through. “Then you best hurry while she’s still alive to tell her whatever’s so important.”

What?!No longer caring about what Hester might think, he grabbed her by the upper arms and shook her. “What are you talking about?”

“The longer you wait here, the less time you’ll have with your precious bride.”

“What’s going on here?” Edgerton demanded.

“I don’t know.” Simon’s voice sounded frantic to his own ears. “But I think Charlotte is in danger.”

Edgerton’s eyes flared. Perhaps the man did care, or perhaps he only wanted to avoid another mention inThe Muckraker.“Then why are you wasting time with this trollop?”

Simon rushed out the door as Hester’s voice boomed behind him. “Watch who you’re calling a trollop!”

Footsteps pounded behind him as Simon raced outside, searching wildly for any sign of Charlotte.

“Where is she?” Edgerton panted behind him.

“Over there!”

Simon turned at Hester’s words, his gaze straining in the direction she pointed.

Bile rose in his throat as his earlier nausea returned.

“Samuel. For God’s sake, release my wife!” Simon’s gaze locked on the knife point against Charlotte’s throat.

“Don’t come closer, or I’ll slit her throat right now.”

Simon skidded to a halt, Edgerton right behind him. Hester sauntered up to Samuel and Charlotte as if she had nothing better to do.

“You’re party to this?” Simon croaked out the question, struggling to believe the tableau before him. “Why?”

“Because I don’t believe you’ll do what Samuel wants,” Hester said.

None of it made any sense. “Whatdoyou want, Samuel?”

“I want you to feel the pain I did when you killed my daughter.”

“What’s this?” Edgerton said, taking a step closer.

“You stay back, too!” Samuel pressed the knife into Charlotte’s flesh.

Simon’s eyes locked with hers, registering the flinch of pain as a dark spot bloomed on her skin. “Please don’t hurt her.”

“Did you kill his daughter, Beckham? Perhaps an annulment is too good for you. I’ll see you hang instead.” Edgerton’s threat bounced off Simon.

“Annulment?” Hester said, looking hopeful. The woman was daft. As if he’d ever consider taking up with her again. No other woman could take Charlotte’s place.

Like being trapped in a tunnel, everything other than Charlotte faded from Simon’s mind.

Fire blazed in Charlotte’s eyes. “Samuel, you, sir, are a nodcock!”

Oh, God, he loved her spirit, but she would get herself killed if she antagonized Samuel any further.

However, Charlotte’s declaration startled Samuel, and he lowered the knife a fraction.

Simon didn’t know how Charlotte kept her voice passionless and calm. “Although you make the most delicious plum tarts, and I truly hope to enjoy them again if I’m not dead, you are wasting your time. Kill me and you cause my husband no pain. Goodness, he more than likely will be relieved to have been freed from the burden of my presence. He might even thank you—before you swing from a rope, that is. My brother is the Marquess of Edgerton”—she gave an infinitesimal nod toward Edgerton—“and he enjoys watching people hanged. And Miss Pace will no doubtwormher way back into Simon’s arms as she did after your dear daughter died.”

The knifepoint pricked Charlotte’s throat again, and Simon drew in a breath. He wanted nothing more than to be able to communicate with his wife the silent way Drake and Honoria did.Too far, Charlotte.But there was something buried in her message directed only to him. If his mind weren’t in such a tangle, with time, he’d puzzle it out.

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