Page 57 of The Bachelor
Then Joshua felt Gwyn pulling on his arm and heard her screaming, “Stop! Stop!Stop!You’ll kill him!”
He rounded on her, still holding his cane like a cudgel. “Do you care?” he snarled.
Fear leaped in her eyes. “Abouthim?” she choked out. “No. But I very much care that you not hang for murder, especially when it’s committed on my behalf.”
The words were a bucket of ice water thrown in his face. They brought back to him some semblance of control, of rational thought. They cooled his fevered blood to the extent that he was able to lower his cane.
Then shame set in. Once again, she’d seen him behave like an ungoverned arse. A savage animal. What she must think of him! Now that she’d witnessed him at his worst, she feared him. It was his only regret. Because he sure as hell didn’t regret beating Malet. Joshua only wished he’d thought to pull out the blade of his cane and kill the bastard.
“Are you all right?” he asked her. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t have time, thanks to you.”
Meanwhile, Malet was wiping blood from his eyes. “You damned whoreson! What is wrong with you?” He tried to get up and had to brace himself against the wall to do so.
“Gwyn,” Joshua said, “go join your mother.”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
To Joshua’s surprise, worry etched lines in her face as she pulled out her handkerchief and dabbed at his cheek. Apparently, some of Malet’s blood had sprayed onto him.
Malet made a grab for her and nearly fell flat on his face, which seemed to infuriate the man further. Struggling to get up off his knees, he growled, “I see you’ve got quite the gallant protector, Gwyn. So the cripple yearns for you, does he?”
Anger fairly choked Joshua. “You’re the one trying to force yourself on her. You’re the one yearning, it seems to me.”
“Forher?” Malet wiped blood from his eye with the back of his glove. “I had her years ago, in Prussia. And a sweet piece she was, too. I’d happily take her to bed again, but yearn for her? Never.”
Joshua looked over to find Gwyn’s face reddening with humiliation, which told him all he needed to know. That Malet spoke the truth. That this was what the arse had been blackmailing her over: her seduction . . . possibly her rape. Malet wouldn’t make a distinction between the two.
Nor would anyone else in society, sadly enough. If news of either got out,shewould be the one ruined, not Malet.
And the thought that the arse had tried to makemoneyoff her past . . . infuriated Joshua all over again. It reminded him of Uncle Armie trying to blackmail Beatrice into becoming his mistress.
“Please, Joshua,” Gwyn whispered, “can we just go?”
“In a moment. I have a few more things to say to this scoundrel.”
He reached down to snatch Malet’s purse out of his greatcoat pocket, then remove the hundred pounds and hand those to Gwyn.
“Hey!” Malet cried.
Joshua pushed the button on his cane, which allowed him to pull the blade from its “scabbard,” then pressed the point of the sword to Malet’s carotid artery. “Come near her again, and I will thrust this so deep that you’ll bleed to death within moments. This is the end of your blackmailing her, do you hear me?”
Malet turned white as chalk.
Joshua went on. “It had also better be the end of your trying to tamper with Thornstock’s carriage. You could have killed us all in your attempt to . . . to . . .” It dawned on him that it made no sense for Malet to try waylaying their carriage if he’d simply been blackmailing Gwyn.
And Malet’s face showed nothing but confusion. “I’ve never tried to tamper with anyone’s carriage. You can blame that on someone else.” Then his voice turned sullen. “I’m only guilty of trying to get some money for myself. Which I deserve, damn it. Gwyn’s family has done nothing but try to ruin my life. Between Colonel Lord Heywood and Gwyn’s damned brother—”
“Her ‘damned brother’ did the right thing, and I intend to continue in his footsteps. Just to make sure you don’t forget, let this be a warning to you . . .” Joshua dragged the point of his blade over Malet’s cheek, taking grim satisfaction from the line of blood it left behind. “Approach her again and you die.”
Joshua sheathed his blade in his cane, then turned to usher Gwyn to the entrance to the alley.
Malet cried out behind them, “I will tell the world all your secrets, Gwyn. I don’t have to come near you to ruin you, you little harlot!”
She flinched, and Joshua felt his anger swell all over again.
Looking back at the bastard, Joshua said, “Go ahead. I dare you. The day you spout your lies, the newspapers will hear the truth about your leaving the army—how you seduced an orphan girl of fifteen and refused to marry her. How she died as a result of your cruelty. How you were cashiered for it. Then I will announce my own engagement to Gwyn, making your accusations sound like so many sour grapes over losing her.”
