Page 60 of Long Live the Baron
Lily struggled, raising her hands to claw at the muscled arm that was throttling her.
“Can’t … breathe!” she wheezed, her lungs burning in protest as she kicked her legs back and forth. The footman eased his hold just a fraction, allowing her the much-needed air her body was crying for. He watched first John from over her shoulder, as he slowly lowered her back to her feet, but he was careful to maintain the stranglehold around her throat, leaning slightly down and forward.
As her feet made contact with the floor, she looked over at first John, who was primed to rush forward but could not.
“Back up! Out the door!” Wesley’s voice was hard, and he would brook no argument. Whatever John could see on her assailant’s face, he obviously took seriously because he shifted back out of the room into the hall.
Lily swallowed hard against the band around her throat.
This is what Brendan had warned her of. Wesley had been backed into a corner, and in his panic, he had now taken her hostage. She might not survive this, and she wished … she wished she had spent last night with Brendan. She wished she had told him that her wedding day with him had been the best day of her entire life. She wished she had told him she loved him and wanted to spend her life with him. That it might have been a strange series of events that had led them to be wed, but he was everything she had ever dreamed about, even if he did not reciprocate.
And she wished to live so she could experience the highs and lows of love firsthand.
* * *
Brendan had stoodat the iron gates to the square for some time. Finally, he straightened up and made a decision. He could not allow Lily to leave without him. This was not what he desired, and it was time for him to become decisive and tell his wife what he wanted.
He supposed he should be tracking down more of the lords from his list, but his wife needed to come first. Resolutely, he set off for Ridley House, determined to take Lily to Baydon Hall. They needed to focus on their future. He would sort out this argument with her, and he would order his own trunks to be packed as he had originally proposed during his meeting with Briggs before Harriet had arrived to overturn his plans.
When he reached home, Michaels opened the door to let him in.
“Where is Lady Filminster?”
“I believe she is in the small drawing room, milord.”
Brendan nodded, striding to the hall leading off the foyer. He was going to find his wife and repair their growing rapport.
Entering the corridor, he paused when he saw that Lily’s guard was positioned at the door of the drawing room, holding his hands aloft as if trying to appease someone inside.
“I assure you I will not enter!”
Something was amiss. He ran forward, nearly skidding into the guard as he stopped by the door to view the interior. Brendan’s blood ran cold at the sight of Wesley clutching her with a thick arm wrapped around her throat. Lily was panting in agitation as if she had been running, her eyes wide with fear. Her gaze found his, and her large brown eyes stared directly into his as if peering into the depths of his soul, imploring him to help her.
“Do not enter, milord! I will kill her if you enter!” the footman cried out, his voice firm despite the frenzy written on his features.
Brendan stepped back and raised his hands in the conciliatory gesture that John had been displaying moments earlier. “Do not panic, Wesley. We can reach an agreement.”
Out in the hall, Brendan heard the heavy tread of Michaels approaching. The footsteps stopped, indicating the butler must have surmised that there was a problem.
“What is the meaning of this, Wesley? Has something happened?”
“Her ladyship noticed a slip. She knows I was involved with the baron’s murder, so I am afraid she will have to be my leverage to escape.”
Brendan’s pulse raced in fear at seeing Lily in peril, but he noticed that the panic in Wesley’s face had reduced slightly after he had backed out of the room.
Faith! He should have sent Lily away the morning he had found his room ransacked. If anything happened to her now, he would have only himself to blame. And he would lose the woman that … that … that he loved, damn it all to hell! He loved his new wife. He had fallen irrevocably in love with her the night of their wedding, and he could not allow her to be harmed. Not one tiny, delectable inch. It would break his very heart in two if something happened to her because of him!
Rubbing a hand through his hair, he attempted to relax. The only thing he could think to do was to talk. To negotiate with the footman for Lily’s release.
“Did you kill the baron?”
Wesley’s face scrunched with anger. “Of course not!”
“But you know who did?”
A mutinous bob of the head was the only reply.
“Is it someone in this household?”
