Page 87 of My Secret Duke
Ivo centered his spinning thoughts. He needed to reach Olivia before it was too late.
Other voices were growing louder now. Gabriel and Freddie had followed him and were asking questions. Justina and Roberta, too, their eyes worried. Gabriel puthis hand on Ivo’s shoulder to capture his attention. He looked grim. “This is Rendall, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Ivo didn’t look away from the other man’s face. He knew what Gabriel was thinking.This was all Ivo’s fault.“I will get her back safely,” he vowed.
Gabriel hesitated. “You’d better,” he said gruffly.
As Ivo climbed back down the ladder, Freddie’s voice echoed after him. “Good luck!”
A quick visit to his room, and Ivo threw off his formal jacket, changing it for a coat, then he changed his shoes for boots. When he stepped out into the corridor, he found Charles, who had done the same. He had never been more grateful for his brother. Downstairs, Carlyon was wringing his hands as usual.
“Hang a light in the cupola so it can be seen!” Ivo instructed him. “And send someone to Portside to find Bourne. Tell him what is happening. Tell him I need his help in the marsh.”
“But what will that beast do to Lady Olivia?” Carlyon wailed.
The remaining guests were gathered now in the foyer, and their voices fell silent at the question. Ivo could hardly bear to meet their eyes. “I am going to bring her back,” he said.
The dowager gave a gasp. “You,” she began, and Ivo could tell she was about to blame him for everything. He knew he deserved that, and he wouldn’t have stopped her. But he was grateful when Vivienne cut her short.
“Olivia is a clever and resourceful girl. She will stay safe until Northam reaches her.”
Ivo prayed she was right.
Charles hesitated as they began to move away from the house. “Do we need a light?”
“No,” Ivo said. He had reached the gate that led into the salt marsh, barely slowing as he opened it. “I know this place. I know it better than anyone.”
It was true. Even as emotion threatened to overcome him, Ivo reminded himself that he had played here since he could walk. Even with the tide coming in, he had the advantage, not Rendall. All his years living and breathing the salt marsh had been for this moment. If anyone could save Olivia, then it was he.
Chapter Forty-Two
Olivia stumbled again, and this time, her slipper sank into watery mud. She had not dressed for this, being stolen away by a stranger. The hem of her skirt was already sodden and clinging to her legs as she walked. Even through the sack over her head, she could smell the marsh, a wet, salty smell mixed with rotting vegetation. She was in that dangerous place Ivo spoke of with such fondness. And she could hear the lapping of water. The tide was turning.
Did that make the marsh more dangerous? She thought so. She stumbled again, and this time, her slipper sank deeper. She felt the suck of the mud around her ankle.
Her cries and efforts to free herself brought the man. He reached down and, with a grunt, pulled her foot free, but her slipper remained behind. She stumbled to her knees and stayed there, trying to catch her breath. There were hot tears on her cold cheeks.
“Let me go,” she begged. “Please, let me go.”
“Be calm,” he said. His voice was close beside her, and she felt the press of his hand on top of her head. “You are safe.”
That kindness gave her back her courage. “Why are you doing this?” She tried to steady her voice. “Why do you hate Ivo?”
“He knows why. I told him I was his brother, but helaughed and rejected me. My mother was dead, and I had no one else, but he turned his back. All these years, I’ve sworn to make him pay for his cruelty.”
Olivia hesitated. “I’m sorry. But couldn’t you have made a life somewhere else? My brother was an orphan, but he didn’t seek revenge on whoever had put him in St. Ninian’s.”
She heard him take a deep breath. “You don’t understand,” he said earnestly. “Yes, I did make a life in France for a time. I even married and had a child. But my memories wouldn’t let me be happy. I had no choice but to come back and seek my revenge.”
Olivia knew how grief and hatred could fester over time. Her own mother had been guilty of it. But even she had recovered and made a better life for herself. It seemed to Olivia that this man did not want to forget the wrongs he believed had been done to him. He preferred to wallow in them.
“Northam loves you,” he went on, and chuckled. “I saw you both today. Your bonnet blew away, and he fetched it. The look on his face, ooh la la. He wants you in his bed. I am glad he will never have you. I am glad he will never have any happiness.”
Olivia wondered if she should tell him that it was too late, that she and Ivo were already lovers. Then to her astonishment, she felt the Frenchman untying the rope. When it fell away, he removed the sack from her head. She rubbed her face, taking deep breaths of the salt marsh as she looked about her. He had set the lantern on the ground so that the area around them was visible, but everything else was dark. Water was running near a narrow path, bubbling and gurgling, spreading outward with the tide.
She didn’t want to look at her captor, but she couldn’thelp it. He was standing over her, and the light made hollows of his eyes and his cheeks, while wisps of hair had come free and were sticking to his damp face. One eye bored into hers, the other strange and blind.
“I am not a cruel man,” he told her. “I will not take your life with my own hands. The marsh can do it. The tide will cover it soon, and you will sink down into it. Northam will search for your body as long as he lives. Hoping, hoping, and never finding.” His smile chilled Olivia to the bone.
