Page 77 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“No!” Rafe turned, ready to lunge, but Phelps raised a pistol, stopping him in his tracks. “You made a promise, Caddington. We had an agreement,” Rafe snarled, his back still burning.
“I don’t bargain with thieves,” Caddington said.
“If you think a bullet will stop—” Rafe surged forward, but Caddington stepped just outside the cell door and slapped it shut an instant before Rafe would have gained his freedom.
“I don’t need a bullet to stop you.” Caddington pushed the keys into the lock and nodded at Phelps.
Phelps tucked his pistol into a leather belt at his waist and unlocked Diana’s cell. She backed up into the corner closest to Rafe.
“Fight him when you are clear of the cellar,” Rafe whispered in her ear. “My horse is outside. Take it and go to Ashton. Protect our child.”
She turned to face him, her gaze spearing into his. “Then stay alive,” she said. “I have waited my whole life for you, and I will not lose you now.”
Phelps seized Diana, dragging her away. Her hands remain clasped in his for an instant before her fingers slipped free. She struggled against Phelps. He slapped her hard across the face. She stumbled and went down to the ground limp, her eyes closed as she lay upon the floor.
“Diana!” Rafe roared as Phelps lifted the unconscious woman in his arms and tossed her over his shoulder.
Caddington leaned back against the wall opposite Rafe’s cell, grinning like a cat who’d just trapped a canary beneath its paws.
“I knew your pain would be exquisite,” he sighed dreamily. “I have fantasized about this over and over, and I feared my dreams would never measure up to the real thing. Were I an artist, I would paint your face a thousand times, a thousand ways, showing the way grief and loss have destroyed your soul piece by piece.”
He took a step forward. “You’re just like your father. Your weakness is the same. Every time I took his money, I took not only his pride but his self-worth. His love for you, though... that I hadn’t expected. And watching him see me covet you... He knew I would want to hurt you. He died to save you. And now he’s failed. And you’ve failed your own child just as you failed Miss Fox. She will die, and your daughter... Well perhaps when she is grown I will take her too and watch her suffer as you do now—unless you comply. And I will tell her what a pathetic fool her father was. Women do have the prettiest tears, don’t they?”
Isla... in this man’s hands. The thought nearly made Rafe’s knees buckle. Whatever strength he’d had was gone. He couldnot stop Phelps from killing Diana. Could not stop Caddington from taking Isla someday. It was over.
With a cold smile, Caddington nodded at the wall. “Face the wall.”
Body shaking, Rafe turned to face the wall, listening for the sound of keys turning once more in the lock and of Caddington’s boots as he stepped into the cell. He’d finally met his end. The sense of urgency to live fast and furiously had stopped. Rafe was out of time.
“We’re all alone, Rafe. There’s no one coming to save you now. You will die alone in this dark cell. Unfortunately for you, it won’t be fast. I know how to keep my toys alive.”
The whip hissed and bit into his back like a viper. Rafe grunted as his skin split beneath the lash and he felt the warmth of blood trickle down his back. Caddington’s words played over and over in his mind, but after another two blows knocked the wind from him and he fell against the wall, gasping, his vision blurred. For a brief instant, he wasn’t sure where he was—he knew only that he was somewhere elsewithsomeone else.
Rafe blinked against the sunny light coming into the room, a room he recognized, the Lennox library, but as it was years ago when he’d been a boy.
A middle-aged man sat before a chessboard, studying the pieces carefully.
“He’s wrong, you know,” the man said as he lifted his gaze from the board. Rafe stared back into his father’s eyes.
“So long as you have yourself, you are never truly alone. Your mother told me that once when we were young and first married. She is a brilliant creature, my Reggie. She always knew that she was valuable, not just to others but to herself. Somehow I had forgotten that I mattered, but there is power in believing in oneself. And it’s not too late for you, my boy.” His father said this with such gentle affection that Rafe’s heart lurched. “Thomasinahas her pianoforte, Ashton likes chess, and Joanna has her books, but you, my boy... you like risk. Like me.” He stood, once more looking at the pieces on the board as if planning his next move. “Do you know what the greatest risk a person can take is?”
Rafe shook his head.
“It’s the risk of daring tolive.That is the greatest risk one can take.” He met Rafe’s gaze, a sad smile on his lips. “I’m so sorry. That night you found me at that tavern, I should have gone home with you.”
Rafe tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. “Why didn’t you?”
“I was afraid to face your mother... and I had to stop Andrew Caddington from doing what he’s doing to you now. I went back into the tavern to kill him, but I failed you.”
Rafe took a step toward his father. “No. It was I who failed you. If I hadn’t left the house, if I had listened to Ashtonand stayed home...”
Malcolm shook his head. “You were achild, Rafe. None of this has ever been your fault. The fault will always be mine for leaving that night, for leaving every night to lose our family’s fortune, your mother’s dowry, all of it.”
Rafe shook his head. “But yousawme that night. I know you saw me when you tried to cross the road.”
“I saw you... and I feared you’d been hurt by Caddington while I’d gone back inside the tavern.”
“So it ismyfault,” Rafe rasped.
