Page 39 of Avoiding the Merry Viscount
Elias froze and glanced around the room, as if he were looking for something. Probably a weapon.
Several silent moments passed before Clint spoke again. “Perhaps your gentleman friend would like to watch while I take your maidenhead, my sweet. We could take care of matters right now.” He shifted his attention to Elias. “And if you want to have at her after that, I’ll let you. For a price, of course. I intend to sell her body to anyone willing to pay. That’s what the lightskirt gets for thinking she can run away from me and send her bumbling papa to threaten me out of Town.”
She watched as Elias drew a deep breath, his chest and shoulders heaving from anger. She knew he felt helpless, but she held onto hope that one of them would find a way out.
“How do you think you are going to get her out of here with no one stopping you?”
“The same way I’m keeping your pathetic, lovesick arse from coming near me. With this knife pressed against her throat.”
“She’ll run from you,” Elias said, catching her gaze for a moment and then refocusing her attention on Clint.
She would never accept such a fate and allow herself to be at the horrid man’s whim. She would run from him the first chance she got and never stop running.
“She won’t,” Durham said quickly. “Do you want to know how I know?” he asked, then glanced at Lydia, speaking to her. “Because I will murder your besotted fool and his entire family. Even those precious sisters of his.” Clint smirked and then caught Elias’s hard stareagain. “Although, I might keep Lady Diana around for a while. She could be useful. We’ll see if she has the mouth of a strumpet on her too.”
Lydia cried to herself as it appeared more likely that Clint might win. The man may be on the borderline of insanity, but he had found one of the few things that would keep her from running from him. She couldn’t risk the lives of Elias and his family or subject Diana to the same torture she would face at his hands. She would have to go with him and comply if that is what it came down to.
The realization splintered her heart, and she fought the bile that rose in her throat. It would only make matters worse if she were to cast up her accounts while gagged. So she willed herself to remain calm. She would need her wits about her to find an opportunity to get out of his grip.
“In the spirit of the holiday and me being such a giving man, the choice is yours, Snowdon,” Clint taunted. “Do you wish to step aside and let me remove her from here now, or do you wish to watch me unwrap my present and fuck her with a knife to her throat, and then I take her away?”
She saw tears form in the corners of Elias’s eyes and his face was the darkest shade of red from how angry he was. He looked at her, regret in his eyes, and then looked back at Durham. She only hoped he knew that none of it was his fault.
Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door. It was her chance. It would be now or never.
“Enter!” Elias shouted, just as Lydia spun around so that she moved herself away from the knife. The way she turned bent Clint’s arm back and forced him to release her hands.
Elias charged Clint as another man called, “What the bloody hell?”
“Hudson, help me!” Elias shouted at the man as he had Clint’s hand with the knife pinned against the wall.
Lydia watched as Elias’s friend, Lord Onslow, rushed over andpried the knife out of Clint’s hand. As soon as he did, Elias began punching the man in the face repeatedly until the man fell into a pile on the floor.
“Elias,” Onslow said, pulling him back. “That’s enough.”
Elias turned and instantly met her gaze, the rage fading from his expression as he rushed over to her. “Are you all right?” he asked, untying the cravat from around her face.
Lydia could only nod in response and threw herself into Elias’s arms. He closed them tightly around her, placing tender kisses on her head. Elias pulled back and cupped her face with both of his hands, staring into her eyes as if he were on the brink of death and she was the salvation that he needed.
“What happened?” Lord Onslow asked.
“He was going to force her to marry him,” Elias replied, his words thick with emotion, pulling her back against him and tightening his arms around her. “Among other things.”
Onslow kicked Clint in the stomach in response, and Clint groaned. Served the bastard right.
“I need to get her away from him,” Elias said to Onslow. “I don’t want him breathing the same air as her. Help me tie him up and then we shall send for the magistrate.”
Elias released her, only to help Onslow turn Clint onto his stomach. They used a bedsheet to tie his hands and feet together behind him so that he could not move his limbs even a single inch.
“Stay here and keep watch while I alert my father and send for the magistrate,” Elias said to Onslow.
“He’s not going anywhere,” his friend replied, scowling at the pitiful excuse of a man who laid on the floor.
Elias turned back to her. “Come here, Beautiful,” he said, sweeping Lydia into his arms to carry her from the room.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry I stormed off earlier.”
Elias stopped walking and stared at her. “Don’t you dare apologize to me. I was the fool. Once I have you away from here and I know you are safe, I will tell you just what kind of fool I am.”
