Page 75 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“What?” Rafe’s gut tightened.
Phelps sneered. “You didn’t think that his lordship hadn’t thought his plan through? By having a signed confession of Rafe Lennox admitting to being the infamous highwayman Tyburn, he’ll have every right to keep you imprisoned.”
A terrible, dark chill swept through Rafe’s entire body. Of course Caddington would have thought of everything. The man wouldn’t miss getting his hands on Rafe, not this time, so he’d make sure to have everything perfectly planned and thought out.
“This way.” Phelps showed him to a parlor where a few sheets of paper and an ink bottle and quill were ready for him. “Leave nothing out.” Phelps crossed his arms over his chest and his eyes narrowed as Rafe reluctantly sat in the chair and took up the quill. His hand trembled as he wrote out the words henever thought to write as he confessed to several years’ worth of robberies. When he’d filled two pages, he set the quill down and stood. Phelps skimmed the words he’d written and nodded in approval.
“Now you may see the woman.”
He led Rafe to a hidden door that was concealed beneath a ratty old tapestry and retrieved a lamp that hung on a hook at the top of the stone stairs. The lamp cast dancing shadows on the roughhewn rock walls as they descended, and the air turned musty and dark the deeper they went. Rafe kept a careful distance between himself and Phelps, not knowing what to expect from him.
At the bottom of the stairs, the tunnel opened to a cellar. But rather than containing wine barrels or storage crates, there was a trio of iron-barred cells. In one corner of the first cell sat a huddled figure, more shadow than real until the lamp finally illuminated her.
“Diana!” Rafe shoved past Phelps to run to the cell. The door creaked as he tried to open it, but it didn’t budge.
“Tyburn?” She lifted her head from where it had been resting on her bent knees as she stared up at him in wonder and agony.
“Lass,” he growled as she stood and ran to him. Her arms stretched through the bars to grasp at his waist. “I’m here,” he soothed. “I’m herenow.”
“No...” Tears streaked down Diana’s dirt-stained face. “You shouldn’t have come. It’s a trap.”
“I ken, lass, but I couldna leave ye here. I agreed to trade my life for yers.” He reached through the bars and brushed his fingers over her cheek.
Phelps removed a pistol from under his coat, then took out a set of keys and opened the door of the cell beside Diana’s. He gestured from Rafe to the open cell door.
“In you go. The magistrate will be with you shortly.”
Rafe didn’t look away from Diana as he entered the cell next to hers. Phelps locked the door, sealing Rafe inside, and briefly left them alone.
“Caddington knows I robbed his coaches,” Diana breathed. “That horrible man Phelps followed me... and he followed you. I’m so sorry I damned us both.”
“Hush, lass,” Rafe said as he just wanted to hold her a little longer. Once Caddington arrived, he would give the bastard whatever he wanted so that Diana could be set free.
“When he lets ye go, I want ye to ride to Lennox House.”
“Lennox House? But why?—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “I ken ye have friends there, people who care about ye. Promise me ye will go to them.”
Her sorrowful brown eyes grew wide. “How can I leave you here? I can’t?—”
“That man ye love... He has a wee child that needs ye, lass. I’m not worth yer tears let alone yer life.” He couldn’t bring the words up... the words that would tell her she was losing Rafe too. The pain in his chest was simply too great. It was cruel, to play Tyburn in these final moments, but he couldn’t bring himself to face the truth.
“But you are...you are.” She pressed her face against the bars and curled her arms around his neck. To know she loved him, this other side of him, not just as Rafe, this woman waseverything, and he was about to lose her and his own life.
“Promise me ye’ll go to Lennox House.”
She shut her eyes tight, then answered with a shaky nod.
“In another life I would’ve loved ye until death and beyond,” Rafe said. “In another life, ye would have been my every dream. A man would die for a love like that.”
“Don’t be a fool.” Diana’s face flashed with anger. “You can escape this, damn you. Don’t give up. Find a way out.”
“Ah, but he can’t, Miss Fox. You see, he knows that I, as the local magistrate, have the authority to hang youbothfor your highway robberies.” Caddington stood at the foot of the stairs, holding a lamp in one hand and a coiled black whip in the other. “He is counting on my... generosity to see that you live. He will stay of his own free will, or else your life is forfeit.”
Rafe closed his eyes, stilling his racing heart, knowing what pain that whip would cause him.
“Some traps do not need to be clever or hidden,” Caddington continued. “Some simply need the right bait and to be snapped shut at just the right moment. I have waited a very long time for this.” He came closer as Phelps hung two more lanterns along the walls, lighting the cells more clearly. Caddington wore only a white shirt and pale buckskin trousers. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing thick muscles. He uncoiled the whip in his hands and chuckled as he eyed Rafe and Diana, who still held each other through the bars of their cells.
