Page 3 of The Highlander's Princess Bride
And his hand had been on his groin as he’d watched her play with his two little nieces. She could hardly imagine how any man could be so depraved, and it had frightened and infuriated her in equal measure.
“Did he threaten you?” asked Dominic.
“No, but he made his intentions clear,” she said quietly. “There was no misunderstanding them.”
Dominic looked grim, but nodded for her to continue.
“I decided to write to you that evening of my intention to return to my family in Brighton until I could find new employment. I was going to inform Lord Welgate of my plans as soon as he returned from his short trip to London, and then leave immediately thereafter.”
Victoria would rue that delay forever. She should have packed her bags immediately and walked back to Brighton if she’d had to. But Lord Welgate had always treated her with kindness, and she’d not wished to show him even the slightest hint of disrespect. So she’d taken the risk that Fletcher would not have the nerve to attack her in his sister’s household, with two small children sleeping just down the hall. It had been a monstrous miscalculation.
“It was stupid of me to wait,” she said with a grimace.
“You did nothing wrong, Victoria,” Aden said firmly, “so, get that out of your head right this instant.”
“Your brother is right,” said Chloe. “The fact that you were not safe in your employer’s household is a reflection only on Fletcher and his sister.”
Victoria gave them a shaky smile. Most people would think her the guilty party, either for putting herself in harm’s way or for “casting out lures,” as Lady Welgate had put it. Life was often precarious for female servants, even in the best of households. She supposed she’d been lucky to reach the advanced age of twenty-five before finding out for herself just how ugly things could become.
“Thank you,” she said. “In any event, that very evening, Mr. Fletcher took advantage of the fact that Lady Welgate was attending a dinner party at a neighboring estate.” She huffed out a bitter laugh. “I’d assumed he’d gone with her.”
Relieved that she’d made the decision to leave, she’d celebrated with a small glass of sherry from the bottle she kept in her room—a present from one of her uncles the previous Christmas. Victoria only ever indulged on her half day off—one glass in the evening, as a treat.
She drew in a breath, steadying herself for the next part of the story. “It was quite late. The children were asleep in the nursery, and the staff were downstairs in the servants’ hall or gone early to bed. I’d borrowed a few books from the library, and I thought to return them while I was thinking about it. I was coming down from the nursery wing, which has a separate staircase to the first floor. Unfortunately, Mr. Fletcher was coming up that very same staircase.”
“Did he have any cause to be coming up that particular staircase?” Aden asked in a chilling voice.
“He did not. That part of the manor is reserved for the children, the two nursemaids, and me.”
“So the lout was deliberately seeking you out,” Vivien said with disgust.
Victoria would never forget the horror that had surged in her when she saw him on the landing. Although she’d carried only one candle, a full moon had shone through the large window above the staircase, illuminating the flare of lust in Fletcher’s eyes. He’d clearly been on his way to her room.
“When he saw me, he laughed,” she said. “I told him to get out of my way, and that I would scream if he came any closer.”
“Surely someone would have come to help if you had,” Chloe said, her normally serene features pulled tight with distress.
“Yes, if they’d heard. But it was mostly an empty threat, which he knew. The door at the top of the stairs was shut, and I was too far from the servants’ hall for anyone to hear a call for help.”
“If the bastard wasn’t already dead,” Aden growled, “I’d rip out his throat with my own damn hands.”
The look on her brother’s face suggested he’d have done exactly that and not lost a moment’s sleep over it. Victoria supposed it was rather awful of her, but his outrage partly dispelled the chill that had settled around her like a casket of ice since that terrible night. That Adencoulddo something like that wasn’t a question. That he would do it for her was nevertheless rather amazing.
Dominic crossed his legs and rested a hand on his knee. “A laudable if rather gruesome sentiment, Aden. Fortunately, it’s an unnecessary one, since Victoria ably extricated herself from a very dangerous situation.”
She choked back a spurt of nervous laughter. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“It’s the best way to put it,” Chloe said. “So, Fletcher attacked you on the stairs, and then you struggled. I hate to embarrass you, my love, but did he injure you in any way?”
Victoria pressed her eyelids shut as she flashed back to the awful interlude. “Not really. He ripped my bodice and scratched me a bit, but that was the worst of it.”
Aden breathed out a rather shocking oath as even Sir Dominic’s calm expression disappeared under a barely contained fury. Victoria was exceedingly happy that both men were on her side. It was unlikely that anyone on the receiving end of such intense fury would remain in one piece for very long.
She managed a tight smile. “Fortunately, I was able to give him a sharp elbow to the chin as he took me down to the floor. He fell to the side instead of on top of me, which enabled me to scramble to my feet. He was so furious that I resisted. At that moment I thought he actually wished to . . .”
She couldn’t say the words, momentarily swamped by terrifying memories that flickered through her mind. She’d been mere moments away from a brutal assault and possibly even death. It had taken every particle of strength to push back against a fear that had threatened to turn her limbs into leaden, useless appendages.
“It’s all right, dear,” Chloe said, taking her hand again. “He can never hurt you again.”
