Page 51 of A Duke to Restore her Memory
Sebastian flushed with mortification. He had never felt like a bigger fool in his life.
“Powell was probably in cahoots with Hester and Barstow,” she continued in a crisp voice. “Now that the plot against us has been exposed, Powell swooped down, asking about his missing fiancée, to spread the word he was looking for her and thus ‘find’ her.” She gave her brother a withering look. “Why else would he not have mentioned that she was missing before? He sat in our drawing room and never mentioned a thing about her then, did he?”
“No, he did not mention her,” he whispered, his heart pounding hard. His mouth had gone dry. “But I do not think I mentioned Georgina to him, either, and she was not here the day that he called. He did not see her.”
“He did not mention her,” she repeated, her eyes sparking furiously. “Why would a gentleman whose fiancée was missing not mention that fact to you, even in passing? Wake up, Sebastian. He planted her here to glean information about the mining business – and now that the plot has been exposed, he has taken her away. It is as simple as that, brother.”
There was a tense silence. Abruptly, Sebastian turned away, running a hand over his face. He had never felt more miserable or heart-sore in his life.
The truth about Georgina – no, Christina – was pressing on him like a vice, and no matter which way he turned, he simply couldn’t escape it.
His heart sank. Lydia was right. She had been right all along about the woman. And he had been a foolish, lovestruck imbecile who had stubbornly ignored the truth that his sister had kept insisting to him.
He supposed the ‘abduction’ of Lady Christina had been staged, along with everything else. He frowned. However, why they had gone through so much trouble was beyond him.
Powell could have just knocked on the door, claiming he had heard they were housing a missing woman and wishing to see her. Then, they could have enacted a reunion and be done with it.
“I am sorry, brother,” said Lydia with a sigh. “But you must accept the truth of it.” She stared at him. “She is gone. Forget her. And thank the Lord that the plot to ruin you entirely was foiled before it was too late.”
Sebastian nodded, not saying anything. His heart hit the ground again. What more was there to say?
Still, he felt uneasy. Was the lady a spy? Had she been deliberately planted in his house … or was there still a mystery of why he had found Lady Christina Whitford at the bottom of that mine shaft?
Chapter 26
Christina awoke with a start, her heart pounding. The carriage had stopped. She turned to her abductor – the big, bulky man with the small, cruel eyes and silver threaded black hair that was tousled after the journey.
“Get out,” he barked, grabbing her firmly by the arm. “We will stay here the night. It is too far to get back to Exmouth now.”
She struggled against him as he pushed her through the opened carriage door. She blinked, gazing around. They had stopped at a roadside inn near the top of a hill. The wind picked up, sending her hair flying like ribbons behind her, and she shivered violently.
She turned, colliding with him. His girth was as solid as a rock, and the smell of his cologne hit her in the face with the force of a punch. She whimpered in shock, her eyes opening wide.
Suddenly – sickeningly – it all came rushing into her mind with the force of a bolting, distressed horse. It was like a thousand dinner plates started crashing within her mind, one by one, breaking into shards as they hit the ground.
I remember him. I remember everything. My father was forcing me to marry him. He is a cruel, horrible man. And that is why I was on the horse that day, riding along the cliffs. I was trying to escape my life … and my fate.
“I know you,” she cried in a distressed voice, fighting him anew. “I never wanted to marry you! That is the reason I ran away in the first place!”
To her horror, he laughed in her face, gripping her arm tighter and twisting it. “What do I care what you want? Your father agreed to the betrothal, and that is all that matters..” His eyes narrowed, and he put his face very close to hers, so close that she could smell the sourness of his breath. “You will marry me. And that is all there is to it.”
“Shall I take the horses to the stables, My Lord?” called the carriage driver. “Are you staying the night?”
“Yes,” barked Lord Powell over his shoulder. “We will take some refreshment first and then retire for the night. Make sure you put the carriage away, so it is not visible from the road … in case the Duke of Newquay decides to play knight errant and chase you into the night, My Lady.”
Christina’s heart twisted anew at the mention of the duke. He must be home and know that she was gone by now. And his terrible sister would have told him that she had gone willingly with this ogre into the night.
Lydia would have told him that the lady did not even wish to bid him farewell after regaining her memory – that she wanted to go straight home. And why wouldn’t he believe his sister?
Her heart twisted again with the agony of a knife. The duke would think she had abandoned him and never cared for him at all. And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
She blinked back helpless tears. She could have told Lord Powell that the duke wouldn’t bother playing knight errant to save her.
The duke had already been harbouring suspicions about her that had been fuelled by his sister, and it wouldn’t take much to convince him that she had simply abandoned Newquay Hall, fleeing like a thief into the night, even if he had gazed at her tenderly and told her to wait for him the last time they had spoken. Even though she had told him about the plot against him.
Her shoulders slumped as she gazed into the inn’s main room. Candles flickered and the fire roared as men laughed and chatted, raising mugs of ale in the air and toasting each other.
The brightness and laughter in the room contrasted sharply with the bitter disappointment in her heart and the sour taste in her mouth as she contemplated her dire fate.
