Page 131 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke
Was this because of John?
Mr Wareham stood, towering over her.
Again, she tried to swallow to ease her dry throat but the foul-tasting cloth only made her gag.
He walked away, crossing the room to a table. When he turned back, there was a short knife in his hand.
Katherine tried to speak, forgetting the gag. Nothing but a muffled urgent sound escaped. He walked towards her, holding out the knife.
Her heartbeat pounded in her ears.
‘It is not your fault, I know, Miss… Katherine. But he has taken things from me and so I must take you from him.’
Her stomach clenched and she retched against the gag.
Mr Wareham sat on the bed, beside her stomach, and she thought of the child. Her child. John’s child. She was suddenly terrified Mr Wareham might know. He could do anything to her…
The blade’s tip slid across her bodice and pressed gently over the position of her heart. Did he intend killing her?
The knife lifted and so did his eyes. They met hers as the knife drew a line across her cheek without cutting.
He had said he was her father.Had she dreamed that?
He laughed and then smiled, a sly, tormenting smile, and ran the knife beneath her chin and across her throat.
God help me!
He stood up again then and walked back across the room to the table. She watched him as she might a wolf who stalked her.
This time when he turned back he held a gun. He smiled. ‘I am undecided what to do. What do you think shall hurt that boy most?’
He is mad. He is utterly mad.
* * *
John pulled his stallion to a halt outside the address they had been given, slid his leg over the saddle and dropped to the ground. Harvey and the other men followed suit as the man beside John pointed to a door.
The place was a slum and the cobbles beneath John’s feet were slippery with human waste as he ran across them, ahead of the others.
John slammed a fist on the door. It jolted. But knocking was only warning Wareham they were here.
John stepped back and instead smashed a heel against the wood, over and over until the damn thing gave, crashing inward. When the wood splintered, John shouldered it aside to get through, then raced upstairs to the upper room Wareham was meant to be renting.
John could hardly breathe and his heart could not beat until he had Katherine back. He did not think. He could not. What if he was too late?
The handle of the upper door twisted in his hand and then opened inward.
What faced him hit him like a fist in the gut.
Katherine was tied and gagged, lying on a bare mattress and Wareham stood over her with a pistol in his hand. It was aimed at her forehead.
‘Stay away.’
John hesitated as behind him the sound of the other men carried into the room. In a moment a pistol was aimed over John’s shoulder. The man beside John said, ‘Put the gun down.’ Wareham did not move.
Katherine was white, her eyes wide, the bright blue looking to him, screaming,help me.
The man behind John came further into the room, and another entered.
