Page 105 of She Tempts the Duke
Taking a deep shuddering breath, he marched into the room. He should have accomplished more here. Should have hired men to help him tear it down, brick by brick. Just as Mary had suggested. She was so wise, so thoughtful. He relied on her counsel, yet had seemed to ignore it of late. Whatever had possessed him to discount her?
The lantern set on the table provided enough light for him to see that his uncle held Mary close, the end of a pistol’s barrel tucked up against her chin, causing her head to tilt back at an awkward angle. He knew the direction the ball would travel through her, knew she would be dead before it finished its journey.
She looked limp and appeared to be struggling to keep her eyes open. “Don’t give into his demands,” she slurred. “Don’t let him have Pembrook. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Shut up, girl,” his uncle warned, shoving the barrel in deeper, forcing her head even further back.
“What did you do to her?” he asked.
“Bit of ether to subdue her.”
He needed to stall for a bit of time so she could regain her wits in case his plan didn’t work and she needed to make a run for it. “Interesting scar on your cheek, Uncle.”
His face twitched and Sebastian thought he wanted to rub it but in order to do that he’d have to release his hold on Mary. “Damned signet ring,” he muttered.
“You were the one who attacked me at the Weatherlys’. Do you intend to murder us all?” he asked.
“Accidents. I cannot control accidents. Or a distraught soldier wanting to kill a coward. Or ruffians who have a score to settle with someone from the darker parts of London.”
“You hired the men who attacked Rafe?”
“Of course I did. Fools. Not as skilled as they advertised.”
You underestimated Rafe,he thought, and wondered exactly how Rafe had acquired his talents.
“Do you not think suspicions will be aroused when we all meet untimely ends?” he asked.
“Suspicion is not proof of evil deeds done. If it were, half the men I know would be sitting in Newgate.”
If they were his acquaintances, they probably should be.
“But your death will be the most dramatic,” his uncle said. “Your wife went completely mad, shot you, and in her grief over killing you, threw herself from the tower.”
“You do have an imagination. The makings of a macabre novel. But you don’t have to kill Mary. You only need to kill me.”
“And leave her as a witness to tell the world what I did?”
“She was a witness before and she kept it all to herself.”
It was difficult to tell in the dim light but he thought his uncle paled. Lightning flashed, eerily illuminating him.
“What did she witness?”
“She overheard you tell someone to kill the lads in the tower.”
He laughed, a mad sort of sound that echoed between the stone walls. “She’s the one who knocked out the guard, unlocked the door. I should have known. I thought it was the stable boy. He even confessed before he died in the dungeon.”
Sebastian’s stomach roiled. “You tortured him?”
“The guard said it was someone small. The lad was small.”
“And no one noticed that you killed him?”
“He was a stable boy. I told the servants that my nephews must have inspired him because he ran off. Why would they think I lied?”
“And the man who was to kill us?”
“I sent him to find you. He failed. Hanged himself.”
