Page 75 of If the Slipper Fits
She shrugged and toyed with a damp lock of her hair. “I won’t say he didn’t occasionally leer at me. But more often than not, he was simply too far into his cups to present much of a threat.”
Caden gave an indeterminate grunt.
“One afternoon, after Angelique went out, I waited near her bedchamber for the lone, harried chambermaid to carry out the used bedding. As I hoped, she didn’t bother with locking the door behind her when she left. I stole inside.” She clenched her jaw. “That’s when I discovered my mother’s jewelry had not been sold. It sat in a drawer in Angelique’s vanity. Angelique had all of it. My mother’s pearls, the wedding ring my father had given her, her ruby pendant.”
Should she tell him about pawning the ruby, and finding it in her trunk? She supposed she should explain her entanglement with Lord Bolton first.
“That raises some interesting questions.”
“Indeed. She’d lied about my mother’s jewels. What else might she have lied about, and why? Regardless of what her possible motives, I was furious enough to take the lot. But…if she noticed, I had no notion how far she’d go to punish me. So I left everything exactly as I found it—save mother’s pendant. She’d always worn it; I could never remember seeing her without it, and I…I couldn’t help myself. I hid it under my mattress with the letters I’d written. I vowed to leave that night. Somehow, some way.”
He leaned forward, elbows propped on his knees. A muscle in his jaw ticked. “They caught you, trying to escape?”
She shook her head. “They drugged me. Angelique is an accomplished apothecary, but I had never considered she might try something like that. One minute I was eating my evening meal, the next…”
She drew her fist to her mouth. “I have vague memories of being in Bolton’s moldering chapel. I recall standing before, I assume, a priest, Lord Bolton beside me, Angelique behind me, whispering if I answered wrong, she’d make me regret it.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “So I thought, just keep quiet. Don’t say a word. Maybe the priest would notice something amiss and offer assistance.”
Cursing softly, Caden shoved the table from between them. He took both of her hands between his.
Funny. She hadn’t realized her fingers had grown so cold until the warmth from his palms seeped into hers.
“Angelique wouldn’t have it. She took me aside and slapped my face, hard, ’til I promised I’d answer correctly. God help me, I did.
"Afterward, they sent me to my room. I must have fallen asleep because, when I woke, it was full on night. I heard voices—probably what awakened me. Angelique screamed at Bolton. She told him she hadn’t gone through all the trouble she had for him to blunder everything in the final hour. She said she didn’t care what he did with me afterward, but that he needed to…” She swallowed, “…get the deed done before she returned. I gathered she meant…” Her words died in her throat.
“She meant for him to bed you,” Caden said, his mouth set in a grim line.
“Had I been thinking, I’d have barred my door. Instead I stumbled out to the landing in time to witness Angelique flying out the front door. He looked up and saw me, frozen at the top of the stairs. He said, ‘Come on girl. Let’s get this over with.’I ran back to the bedchamber. He pursued me.”
Caden ducked his head, tunneling his fingers through his hair. “Sweetheart.”
“I tripped. I was still groggy.”
“Sweetheart, it’s all right. You don’t have to—”
“—He grabbed my ankles and tried to pull me across the floor toward the bed. I resisted with all my might. He must’ve given up, because I heard him unfasten his trousers. He said we could do it the hard way. When he fell atop me, his legs bracketing mine, I didn’t think. I grabbed for whatever I could reach, then swung it ‘round with all my might.”
Admiration and a glint of moisture shone in his eyes. “Little hellion. Fire poker?”
She’d never said a word of this to anyone. For some odd reason, she felt better, lighter, with the telling.
She sent him a tremulous smile. “Chamber pot. I thought I’d killed him.”
He blinked once, then threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Only you. Death by chamber pot. Would’ve served the bastard right.”
Chapter Sixteen
Caden’s humor faded as quickly as it had come. Anna had survived a harrowing ordeal. More than survived. She’d triumphed against a devil-spawned step-mother, and a vile excuse for a man.
And he’d assumed the worst about her. He hated himself in that moment.
“I’m sorry. For the things I said, back at Femsworth Manor. You didn’t deserve any of it.”
“Apology accepted,” she whispered.
Just like that. Despite his cruelty, how harsh he’d been.
