His Perfect Lady (20 page)

“Oh, Catherine, you couldn’t possibly be more wrong.” He moved toward her and cupped her warm cheek in his palm. “You have fulfilled a fantasy I didn’t dare dream of. I love you with every bit of my heart and soul and will never stop.”

She closed her eyes as he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. When she returned his kiss with exuberance, he gripped her tighter, desperate to be as close to her as possible. The joy flooding his body was tangible. For the first time since their marriage, she seemed to lose herself in him.

His body tightened as her eager hands roamed over him. An acute ache grew from within. He needed to possess her, but he had one desire preceding all others in importance.

Easing back, he gazed into her half-lidded eyes. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Catherine lay back in the soft grass and stared unseeingly at the clouds. This had been her favorite spot at Linwood for many years. Being here made her feel closer to Jonathan when he left the estate. It seemed recently his absences had increased. She didn’t like it.

His journey to collect her from Bath changed something inside her, and she no longer felt leaving him would be the best choice. Jonathan had also made it clear he would not tolerate her disappearance a second time. In addition, she found her outlook on life appeared less bleak with him by her side.

As a flash of Jonathan’s smile filled her head she realized that statement was false. Life wasn’t just less bleak, it was happy. A smile turned up her lips to recall Jonathan’s claim of experiencing the same emotion. They actually were happy.

She sat up so quickly her head spun as a random thought struck her. Jonathan enjoyed their marriage. Images of him flooded through her mind. Their wedding day. Running through the fields in Scotland. Their return to Linwood. Their late night dinners. Yes, he was gaining enjoyment from their marriage. Could the curse be broken?

The sound of a horse galloping toward her brought her to her feet. Had Jonathan returned? The thought made her heart swell. She couldn’t wait to tell him that he, no, that they had survived the curse. Turning in the direction of the rider, she didn’t recognize the man until he arrived much too close. Lord Dudgery.

All good feelings dissipated as he drew near. Jonathan had warned her to stay away from the earl. And the conversation with Evelyn in London also made her uncomfortable.

Uneasy, Catherine glanced around. No one in sight. Her chest tightened. She wasn’t safe out here alone.

When Lord Dudgery dismounted, he stumbled toward her. He didn’t look good. Sweat dripped down his face despite the cool spring breeze. His unnaturally pale skin held a greenish tint.

“Lady Linwood,” he began, blinking rapidly as if to clear his vision. “Forgive me, I . . . I . . .” He shook his head as he took another step closer to her.

“Are you all right, my lord?”

He fell to his knees in front of her, clutching his stomach. Dropping beside him, she stared into his pain-filled face in horror. Fear gripped her, making her tremble. Red splotches covered most of his face, primarily around his mouth and neck.

“What can I do?” she exclaimed, as her useless hands fluttered around him, desperate to help but afraid to touch him. What had happened to him?

His eyes bulged out as he gasped for breath. She screamed as he launched toward her. His body crushed her to the ground, then didn’t move. Tears poured down her cheeks as she pushed him off of her. Scrambling away, she looked upon Lord Dudgery’s unmoving form as her stomach rolled. Her heart hammered in her chest as she remained frozen to the spot.

“Lord Dudgery?” she said, voice trembling.

“He’s dead.”

Uncle Toban’s abrupt and unexpected response made her scream. She hadn’t heard him approach over the blood pumping in her ears. Needing comfort, she flew into his open arms as tears flooded her vision.

“Calm down. I’ll take care of everything,” he assured.

“Wh-what happened?” she rasped.

“Wait just a moment.” He left her to collect a sheepskin from his horse. “Drink this, it will help.”

She gratefully accepted the pouch and allowed the water to hydrate her parched throat. The flavor created by the container never appealed to her, and today it tasted especially unpleasant. Holding it out, she tried to return it, but he pressed it back into her hand.

An understanding smile touched his lips. “Finish it. It will help. Besides, I already drank my fill today.”

Not wishing to appear ungrateful, she did as bid. After she drained the bottle, he tucked it back into his saddlebags. Glancing back at the body of Lord Dudgery made her legs go weak. Falling to the ground, she wound her arms around her knees. Had the curse taken Lord Dudgery due to their betrothal? Was Jonathan safe or was he next?

Her body shook violently, but she couldn’t stop herself. She closed her eyes tightly as pain lodged itself in her throat.

“Catherine, are you all right?” Concern laced her uncle’s words, bringing her comfort. This was the uncle she remembered. The one who had been there for her.

“How did you find me?” she whispered, overcome with gratefulness as he wrapped his warm arms around her suddenly cold shoulders.

“Lord Dudgery had been at Berwick. He seemed upset and quite unwell. He left saying he intended to cause you harm as a way to get back at something your husband did. I followed him. After all, I couldn’t allow him to hurt you.”

Leaning heavily against her uncle, she tried to see his face, but the energy to do so evaded her. Jonathan had insisted she eat and drink more, but her worry kept her appetite back. Now she wished she had listened to him. The thought of her husband brought fresh tears to her eyes. Uncle Toban tightened his grip on her.

“I can fix this for you,” he promised. “I will make all this go away, and you can come back to Berwick. Everything will go back to the way it was before we went to London. I swear it.”

She opened her mouth to question him, but no sound came out. Panicked, she tried to reach out, but she couldn’t move. Her viciously pounding heart was the only thing moving her body. Pain shot through her midsection, but she could do nothing except suffer in silence.

Uncle Toban’s mouth moved, but no sound came from him either. Was it his voice or her ears? Suddenly, he cradled her head against his chest and began rocking her. Her mind flashed rapidly to the different explanations, each one just as terrifying as the last.

Catherine gasped. She couldn’t breathe. Terror clawed her as she futilely tried to catch a breath. Her last thought was of Jonathan before she succumbed to the black void that signaled the end of her life.

Chapter 18

“Jackson is dead.” Rawson’s grave voice offered neither fear nor relief. “He was murdered.”

Jonathan thrust a hand through his hair as he processed the new information. This didn’t bode well for either of them. Although the threat Sideon had posed had now dissolved, this development also brought more menace. Whoever had taken his life had grown desperate.

“Any idea who did it?”

“Probably Dudgery, but I didn’t stick around long enough to learn anything else. I believe whoever sent me this letter intended for the blame of Jackson’s death to fall on me.”

Taking the paper, Jonathan scanned the scrawl. The one sentence demanded Rawson meet with Sideon this morning and had been signed by the man in the same hand. Jonathan saw nothing damning in the words.

“How do you know it wasn’t from Sideon?”

“Jackson can’t read or write. Whoever sent this probably had already killed him and alerted the authorities. Sensing a trap, I arrived early and left as soon as I found Jackson in a pool of blood.”

“But why not kill you, too? Why leave it up to the authorities?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps to ensure the investigation didn’t bring any light to the killer’s connection to this. If I’m in custody, they have no reason to dig further.”

Rawson offered him a brandy, which Jonathan gratefully accepted. After finishing the glass and two more, he dropped himself into a chair. Having both the furniture and brandy made him glad he offered his friend the use of Linwood’s dowager house. It had turned out to be a perfect hideout as well as a meeting place for the two men.

“When is this ever going to end? Even with the men I hired, no one has been able to locate any information to incriminate this investment. All the paperwork has been filed. Honestly, I’m impressed with how legitimate it appears.”

“I’m to blame for that.” Rawson shook his head. “Between Dudgery and I, we did everything we could to make it appear up to your standards.”

“Well, I suppose I should be flattered. However as it turns out, we’re at a standstill until we can uncover something.”

Sighing, Jonathan leaned back in the chair and tried to think of what they had missed. Dudgery himself held all the knowledge, and by default, all the cards. The only way to obtain information from him would be to bribe someone on his staff. The plan had many risks, but they were running out of options.

“How is Catherine holding up through all this?”

Mention of his wife made Jonathan wince. He’d still been unable to reclaim the old Catherine. Similar to their search of knowledge about Dudgery, Rawson’s investigation into Catherine’s previous husband’s lives came up with nothing.

“Bringing her to Linwood has been a help. Most surprising, my aunt has been instrumental in helping Catherine come back to herself. Unfortunately, she has also demanded I exile myself from the manor at least twice a day to force my wife to engage in other activities that don’t include me. I don’t know what those women are doing to entertain themselves, but I’m growing weary of being left to my own devices.”

“I wish I could be of aid. Being in hiding has greatly limited my usefulness.”

Rising, Jonathan clapped his friend on the shoulder. “It won’t last long. Soon Dudgery will make a mistake, then we’ll have him. After that, I firmly believe your father will rethink disinheriting you, and your life can return to normal.”

When Jonathan arrived back at the manor house, it was almost time for dinner. However, the staff buzzed with activity. They moved about the house, no one making eye contact with him or offering any explanations. Hurrying to the drawing room, he found Aunt Mildred with his two younger brothers.

“What about the maze?” she asked. “You know how much she loves spending time there.”

“We checked it twice,” Darin replied in a solemn voice.

Pain twisted Jonathan’s heart. They were talking about Catherine. She’d left him again. His hands itched, making him want to smash his fist into the wall in frustration. His breathing came out in gasps as his constricted chest withheld air. How could she do this a second time? Didn’t she realize how her absence tore at his soul?

“How long has she been missing?” At the sound of his voice, all three heads turned to him with guilty expressions. No doubt remained in his mind. Catherine wasn’t here.

“Don’t worry, Jonathan.” Aunt Mildred hastened to her feet. “We have no reason to believe any harm has befallen her. Every time you leave, she rides out over the land. However, she normally returns after an hour or two.”

Jonathan froze. He had no idea his aunt had been allowing Catherine to wander the estate alone. What if Dudgery or Berwick had found her? He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the myriad of images clouding his mind. Catherine would be all right. She had to be.

“And this time?” he prodded, not willing to listen to excuses.

“She left before luncheon.”

Sucking his breath as terror clutched his heart, Jonathan closed his eyes against the pain. Sideon had been murdered, and now Catherine was out there unprotected.

“She couldn’t have gone far. She’s taken to riding Viola lately.”

Jonathan’s eyes shot open as hope burned within him. Surely if she intended to leave him, she wouldn’t have chosen the lame horse. Ever since breaking her leg, Viola’s movement remained limited.

After exchanging a few more words about the places they had searched for Catherine, Jonathan realized only one place remained where she could be. Jumping on his stallion, he rode out, praying she merely lost track of time.

When he came within sight of his and Catherine’s special place, his body sagged. She wasn’t there. However, in the distance he noticed something in the grass. His heart seized as he pushed his stallion harder. Someone lay unmoving upon the grass.

Relief flooded him to see the shape was male, but it quickly transformed to trepidation. Was this a trap? He dismounted and tentatively stepped toward the unmoving form. Flipping the man over, Jonathan gasped. Dudgery. He was dead.

From the look of it, he’d suffered a rather painful passing. Running a hand across his forehead, Jonathan felt his head begin to throb. Who had killed Sideon and Dudgery? Had one killed the other, only to find themselves murdered? Jonathan shook his head. That didn’t make sense. He didn’t know what to believe anymore.

And where was Catherine? The relief he had felt vanished. Could his wife have been murdered as well? He could barely breathe at the thought. He needed to find her.

Straightening his back, Jonathan scanned the horizon. His breath died as his body went cold. Another body lay under the shade of the trees. A female form.

Sprinting across the field, he could hardly see through his pain and anger. God, let her be alive.

He dropped to his knees and pulled the limp body of his wife into his arms. Anguish pumped through his veins as he bellowed in a painful rage. His absolute failure as a husband cost Catherine her life.

He never should have listened to his aunt and left the estate. It was his job to protect her. He clutched her tighter, needing her to fill the void opening up in his chest. Agonizing pain filled him as tears slipped down his cheeks.

Suddenly her body began convulsing in his arms. Although the movement brought him such acute relief, it alarmed him as well. But she was alive. Leaning back, he took in her ashen face, the angry red splotches on her cheeks, and eyes that were rolled back in her head.

The sight clogged his throat in terror. She was dying. Ignoring the band tightening around his chest, he sprung into action. He would do whatever necessary to save her.

Positioning her across the saddle, he mounted behind her, clutched her body to him, and raced to Linwood. Tears of misery burned his eyes, and he could barely breathe, but he pushed forward.

“Fetch the doctor now!” he yelled to the stable hand before rushing the precious bundle cradled in his arms into the house.

Cries sounded behind him as he barreled through the house to Catherine’s bedchamber. He didn’t know what had befallen her, but he would find out. Once in the bedchamber, he and the housekeeper stripped Catherine of her clothing.

No wounds were visible, and her cold flesh didn’t warn of a fever. Icy pricks of fear stabbed into his head. How could they fix her if they couldn’t discover what the problem was?

As her body began shaking again, he wrapped her in a dressing gown and tucked her into the blankets.

“What can I do, my lord?” Mrs. Balton whispered.

“Pray.” The hollowness in his voice surprised him.

Once the housekeeper left, he climbed beside his wife and pulled her petite body against him. After his mother had died of a fever and his friend had suffered from an infection caused by a gunshot, he’d made it his business to learn as much as he could about those conditions. But this . . . This was nothing he’d seen before.

By the time Dr. Ramon arrived, Jonathan had almost torn the bedchamber apart in frustration.

“What happened?” Dr. Ramon asked, his voice aggravatingly calm.

“I found her like this. She has no visible wounds and no fever. Another man lay nearby, looking similar, but he was dead.”

The doctor’s eyes bulged as he hurried over to Catherine’s side. “Good God. Move aside.”

Jonathan hurried away and began pacing the room, all the while not removing his eyes from the motionless form on the bed. He couldn’t live if she died. Too many years he suffered without her, and he refused to do so any longer.

His hands clenched and unclenched as worry and rage alternated control of his body. The doctor took too long. Wasted too much time. Jonathan stopped and approached the bed. Catherine still wasn’t moving. He couldn’t handle it any longer. They needed another doctor.

“Quick,” the doctor called out. “I need water.”

Jonathan whipped around to do his bidding when he saw Mrs. Balton’s retreating back.

“What can I do?” He didn’t recognize his own voice.

The doctor’s grim eyes met his. “She’s been poisoned. I’ve seen it before.”

“Then you can fix her? Give her the cure?”

Dropping his gaze, the doctor turned his back.

Red tinted Jonathan’s vision as the room spun around him. With ringing ears, Jonathan stumbled toward the bed to study his beloved’s pain-filled face. He would rip the world apart in less than ten minutes in order to save her. Nothing held more importance.

“We need to get as much liquid into her as we can. If we can flush the toxin out of her system, then maybe . . .” Dr. Ramon took a deep breath as his eyes fell back on Catherine.

Jonathan nodded, relieved to have some direction. “Is that the method that has worked in the past?”

Silence reigned.

Crippling pain shot through Catherine’s stomach. She cried out and tried to pull herself up to alleviate it, but her limbs wouldn’t obey the order. Using every ounce of strength within her, she tried to move, but only felt her head slightly pivot. Her freezing body refused to perform the simple task.

Something warm covered both her cheeks as a muffled voice yelled at her through a tunnel. A solid object touched her lips and liquid filled her mouth. What was happening? She didn’t want to drink. The painful throbbing in her stomach hadn’t passed. The terrifying voice demanded she consume the liquid. More scared of the anger in his tone, she did as bid.

The agony increased as the water mixed in her stomach. She futilely tried to struggle as the glass returned to her lips. What had she done wrong to be put through such torture? Forcing the drink down her throat, tears, which felt like boiling pitch, trailed out of her eyes and down her cold cheeks.

Where was Jonathan? Had the curse claimed him, or was it taking its revenge on her instead? She hoped for the latter. Death would be preferable to the horror she currently endured. She wouldn’t fight it. She would welcome the dark, cold arms of eternal slumber.

Her body relaxed as the pain began to subside. Freedom floated beyond her. She need only to reach out and grasp it to her. Weightlessness filled her. She wanted to smile, to grab on to the wondrous feelings as Heavenly music echoed in her head. So beautiful. So wonderful. So safe. Willing herself to grasp it, her body obeyed.

But . . . a tantalizing sound invaded her senses. It called to her, beckoning her to return.

“Damn it, Catherine,” Jonathan yelled. “Don’t leave me. Fight it. Come back to me. I love you.”

The torment in his broken voice called out to her as nothing else could. How could she go now? She’d promised to never leave him again.

The decision brought pain, as she fell like a rock sinking to the bottom of the river. She gasped for breath as she returned to the ground. Warmth surrounded her as her body rocked back and forth. The movement brought agony ripping through her, disentangling her from reality.

“What have you done to my niece?” Berwick demanded.

Jonathan rubbed his temples, then centered his itchy eyes on the red-faced man. When he found out who on his staff had alerted the baron of Catherine’s condition, they would be immediately terminated. He couldn’t deal with this right now while his wife lay dying in her bed.

“Last night, I found her unconscious next to Dudgery’s body.”

Berwick’s mouth fell open. “Good God, what happened?”

“The doctor believes they were both poisoned. Catherine must have fought because she clearly didn’t receive the same dose as Dudgery, or she would be dead.” His voice cracked on the last word, but he didn’t care about showing weakness in front of Berwick. The horrific night he’d spent forcing Catherine to drink and searching for signs of life had left him incapable of wasting extra energy on anything.

“Can he save her?”