Page 40 of The Duke's Tempting Widow
Though, when he moved—a heavy metal sound preceded the tug of the chain at his wrists. He moved toward what he hoped was a wall, feeling more unsettled with every step. The room was absolutely freezing. Perhaps those weren’t drapes at all? Was he somewhere underground?
Slowly, as he attempted to gauge the size of the room and where the door was, memories slowly started to return to him. Flashes of images as he was pulled from the carriage by bandits who wore cloth coverings over the lower halves of their faces. He remembered fighting them, knowing that his large size gave him a distinct advantage over them, but he was sorely outnumbered.
Weston groaned in pain; thinking was only making the ache stronger. He leaned into the closest wall to him—with his chains he was only able to reach three of them before he ran out of slack.
Forehead to the cold wall he kept his eyes scrunched shut, attempting to relieve some of the ache that he had been feeling. What had happened next? Water, one carriage to the other he had been shuffled around—and then nothing. Weston felt likethere was a thick fog settling in over his mind and that was also unsettling.
Inhaling sharply, he struggled against the fog for clarity—only to be interrupted by a sinister laugh.
He was not alone in this room.
“Who is there?” Weston demanded, his deep voice sounding more confident than he actually felt.
“I must say, it is so gratifying to see you stumbling about in chains, dear cousin.”
He knew that voice. How fitting that he was skulking around in the dark like the rat that he truly was.
“Cassian.” Weston said his name like an accusation and a curse.
“You know, I have to say that I admire your new lover, even though she is quite vexing. I do not think that I would have ever had any cause to experiment with laudanum if it were not for her.” Cassian continued, speaking with a haughty air. “Despite how annoying the bulk of your dead weight has been to manipulate, you have been quite the docile little hostage with the proper dosage.”
“Where have you taken me?” Weston demanded once more. There was no part of him that actually feared his cousin. Even if this venture had been Cassian’s brainchild, there was certainly no way that he had done this by himself.
Which meant that there were others. Weston knew that he was going to need to coax more information from the rat before he could properly figure out an escape plan. He hated the very notion of playing into Cassian’s ego, but he might not have a choice.
“We have made it all of the way to London, cousin.” Cassian continued to gloat.
Days? He has been drugged for days? There was no telling what sort of long-term damage something like that could do. Annoyance bled into rage, and he tested the strength of his bonds behind his back. He had never been inclined to snap somebody’s neck before, not quite so much as he was tempted to do now.
“I suppose that you are quite upset with me, but it was necessary. You have humiliated me long enough, cousin. Now, your inheritance is all mine. Along with whatever else I choose to have you gift me. You have to understand, this is because I deserve it more than you do. Surely, you have to admit to that much.”
Weston’s lip curled. “You do not deserve anything other than a swift kick in the teeth.”
“Ah, ah!” Cassian chastised. “You think you still have the upper hand here? You think that you are the one in control? That is amusing. I suppose that the drugs must have affected you more strongly than I had originally presumed if you think you have any power here.”
“Your delusions of grandeur are overwhelming you, Cassian. Stop this now before you make a mistake that you cannot take back.”
Cassian laughed, clearing feeling very untouchable. “All of my life, I have languished on the sidelines of the life that has been owed to me. Forced to live outside of the peerage and it isfinally myturn! Iwilllive the life that is owed to me! I will not struggle in the gentry another moment!”
“That is your plan? You covet a life that you have not worked for?”
“You were born into your title, what would you know of hard work?”
“I know that it does not consist of swindling grieving widows of their money. I also know that it certainly does notinvolve stealing from others!” Weston tried his best not to shout, but he was failing. “You truly have no honor at all.”
Cassian scoffs, clicking his tongue loudly. “If only you had been delayed, then I would have been able to handle this seamlessly. I would have stepped into your role and the earl’s title without issue. Then, I could have been rid of you and none would be the wiser!”
Weston could not stop himself from rolling his eyes. As if his friends and staff would not have realized that he was not home, and that a pretender was attempting to play act as the duke. It never would have worked.
“Then that barking mad widow showed up… she has ruined everything.” Cassian sneered. “I shall have to handle her too, sooner or later.”
“You cannot possibly think that your plan would have actually worked?”
“Posing as you? Why yes, I do think that it would work. You have been absent from society for quite some time cousin. With the quick moving gossip mill of thetonyou have been long forgotten. If she had not drugged me, I would have simply slipped into your role.”
“And when I showed up, then what would have you done?” Weston scoffed.
Cassian certainly did not like that. He had always had such little tolerance for people talking down to him. “I would have killed you of course. Then I would be free to do as I liked. Obviously. The plan has been derailed, but it still happened. I shall just have to… silence the widow.”
