Seducing the Rake (Mad, Bad and Dangerous Heroes) (54 page)

“Perfectly.” She smiled as she saw Andrew’s captive. “So, you finally managed it. And now we shall have our own little reception to the bride and groom, shan’t we?”

~ ~ ~

Halfway down the hill, just inside the forest, a dim figure knelt in the shadow of a giant yew tree.

The warrior known as Khan watched in taut silence as Chessy was shoved up the hill, watched as the woman appeared at the door of the windmill.

His body was tense, and his eyes were dark and hard with shadows. For it was a debt of honor now.

If he failed, he would die slowly, painfully.

And by his own hand.

Andrew Langford turned, surveying the valley.

“A perfect spot, isn’t it? I can see everything and everyone from here, long in advance. And now I think it’s time to let my brother know where we are, don’t you agree, Louisa?”

She nodded and disappeared inside the windmill.

Without warning Andrew shoved Chessy inside. A moment later, the great white arms of the mill shuddered and then creaked to life, making their first laborious transit under the force of the wind.

Soon the whole structure hummed with the surge of the arms, white in the sunlight. Chessy knew they would be visible for miles.

Which was exactly what her crazed captor wanted.

“Now for the children. Remove their bindings, Louisa, so they can come forward and say their welcomes.”

The scuffling of feet brought Chessy around sharply. Her heart twisted when she saw the two pale faces emerge from the adjoining storeroom at the rear of the windmill.

“Let me go, you witch!” Elspeth was jerking wildly at Louisa’s hand, while Jeremy looked frightened but mutinous.

There were ugly red marks at their mouths and wrists.

Chessy felt fury slam through her as she ran to catch them against her. She felt Elspeth give a convulsive shudder, then lapse into dry, racking sobs.

“It’s all right, little love. Don’t worry.”

The girl’s face rose, pale and bewildered. “He—he’s
not
my father! It’s all a trick, isn’t it? All some kind of trick?”

Chessy caught her close and stroked her head. “Of course it is, Elspeth,” she whispered. “Now you must be brave, and do everything they ask of you.”

“But I don’t want to—”

“Everything,” Chessy said firmly. She studied Jeremy’s defiant features and repeated the word. “Everything. Do you both understand?”

After a taut silence, the children nodded.

Andrew strolled closer. “A touching little scene, to be sure. But now I think the children need to rest. For we are soon to have visitors, I think.”

At that announcement Jeremy’s fists clenched. “You’ll never touch him, do you hear? Never!”

Andrew’s face hardened. “Take them away, Louisa. I shall have to teach them that children must be seen and not heard.”

As Louisa shoved them into the adjoining room, Andrew strode to a dusty table near the door. “And now, I believe that this is what you were searching for all over London?”

He opened a box and lifted out a jewel-encrusted rectangle. Emeralds, rubies, and diamonds winked in the bar of light from the window.

He flicked the ivory closings free and then opened at random to a sheet. A pair of lovers laughed, sporting amid a garden of peonies. Idly he turned the pages, showing scene after scene of jewel-like colors, with lovers caught in sensual dalliance.

“Inspiring, is it not, my dear?” Chill eyes scoured Chessy’s face. “It almost makes me wish I had more time…” He ran his hand across her cheek, her full lower lip. “Ah, yes, I can see why my brother was intrigued with you. After we are through here, we will enjoy this book, you and I. It offers endless amusements.” Again the chill smile. “Louisa can attest to that.”

Chessy swallowed, fighting to stay calm. “How—how did you find it?”

The bronze brow arched, mocking her attempts at distraction. “Still being devious, are you? But never mind. It hardly matters. We still have some time before our visitors arrive.”

He smiled thinly as he moved on through the pages. “Louisa has quite a collection of the books, by the way. This one was in the possession of a rather jaded Italian count who had just purchased it from an even more jaded Manchu prince. As I recall, Louisa was part of the purchase price in both cases.” The thin lips curled upward. “She is really quite insatiable, that one. And Tony is the only man who has ever spurned her.” He made a clucking nose. “But he would do better to mind his bard. ‘Hell hath no fury,’ you see. And Louisa is most determined to have her moment of revenge for that piece of public humiliation. But where were we? Oh, yes, she is by now quite an expert with this particular book. The price of its acquisition was her participation in the amusements of each page, you see.” He smoothed a fold from his lace cuff. “Not that she found the job overly onerous.”

Above them the great sails spun on, moving in quiet precision. They had been recently oiled, Chessy realized. No doubt Andrew had planned for this detail too.

She shivered, feeling as if she were locked in a nightmare, with no avenue of escape.

But there had to be
some
way.

And then her captor’s white fingers closed upon her arm. “But I wonder…”

He jerked her against him, his turquoise eyes blazing with madness. His fingers locked in her bodice and wrenched downward.

And then his mouth came down, hard and grinding against hers. Chessy twisted, locking her lips, but fear for the children kept her from clawing at him as she wished to do.

He swore, gripped her face, and jerked her immobile. “Open your mouth, damn it! Open it, if you want to see those damned children ever again.”

Choking back nausea, Chessy complied. Instantly his tongue thrust against hers and his fingers probed greedily at her gaping bodice.

And then, suddenly, it was over.

He shoved her from him and stood back, surveying her.

“Yes, very nice.” He gave her a cool smile. “And exactly the thing to provoke my dear brother.”

Chessy caught her hands behind her, balling them to fists. She knew how she looked, flushed and disheveled, her lips red and swollen from the fury of his kiss.

And that was just how Andrew wanted his brother to see her, to inflame his anger.

For that, too, was part of this cruel plan.

And then every thought but one was driven out and hammered against the earth.

She heard a voice, a familiar voice, raised hard with rage. And then the man she loved stepped before the door.

“Let her go, Andrew.
I’m
the one you want, not her! Let her go, and the children with her. Then you can have me!”

Instantly Andrew thrust Chessy back, into a recess beside the narrow half-shuttered window.

He stared out at Anthony, his eyes glittering with mad triumph. “So you came, my dear brother. I see you noticed my little beacon light.”

“The mill is unsafe, you fool. I had it closed down months ago.”

“Too bad. For your lovely Miss Cameron and the children, that is.”

“Let them go, Andrew. Then come out and face me like a man.”

Chessy’s captor gave a cold laugh. “I think not, Anthony. You are not going to be free of me quite so easily this time.”

He seized a squirming Chessy and shoved her in front of the open window. “She’s a very tasty little mouthful, by the way. I can see why you were enticed by her.”

A raw curse ripped the air.

“Do you want her? If so, you’re going to have to work for her.” His lips pulled back in a thin, bloodless smile. “Louisa must be paid, after all. And the wench is wealthy enough that money holds no interest for her. She is determined upon a prize of a different sort, you see.

Chessy raised agonized eyes. Tony stood grim-faced, a pistol clutched in his hand. Behind him lay a leather satchel, half hidden among the tulips.

“Let Chessy and the children go. And then I shall—see to Louisa.”

“First things first, my dear boy. Drop your pistol. Then kick that satchel over here where I can see it.” Andrew’s hand moved, leveling the muzzle of his own weapon against Chessy’s breast.

After a low curse Morland obeyed.

His pistol hit the flowers. A moment later, the satchel went bumping over the ground.

“Very good. Now come closer, so I can be sure you have no other tricks up your sleeve.”

Chessy stiffened as she heard a muffled sound behind her in the storeroom, but Andrew, his attention focused on his brother, did not seem to have noticed.

From the corner of her eye she saw the door inch open. Two childish faces beamed at her, and then another face, cast in shadow.

The face of a warrior she had not seen since her months at Shao-lin.

She saw his warning nod and his silent gesture at Louisa, whom Chessy saw lying bound and gagged against the far wall.

Hope surged inside her.

And then Chessy cried out as Andrew’s fingers clenched on her arm and jerked her into the doorway. There he held her, braced before him.

“Very well. And now you may have one last kiss. Never say that I am not magnanimous. But I advise you to be very careful, Anthony. For the children’s sake, you understand.”

Chessy felt her heart lurch. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the children crawling out of the storeroom window. A few seconds more, and they would be safe.

She had to see that they got those few seconds.

“He—he has the book, Tony. He knew it would bring you exactly where he wanted you. Just as it brought me.”

She saw Tony’s look of surprise, which he quickly concealed. “My congratulations, Andrew. I never realized you were so resourceful.”

“There are many things you do not know about me, Anthony. But I am afraid you are not going to have any time to discover them now.”

Elspeth was out, and Jeremy was inching over the weathered sill. Chessy caught a breath.

“I’ll give you Sevenoaks, you know,” Tony said. “I’ll see it’s deeded to you free and clear. I’ll even see if we can have those other limitations removed.”

“Paltry, my dear brother. I’m after much more than Sevenoaks.”

“Name it. If I can, I’ll—”

Andrew Morland laughed. “Ah, but this is one thing you cannot share. For it is
you
I want, dear twin. Your name—your very identity.”

He dug his pistol into Chessy’s breast. “I’ve had enough of you dogging my every pleasure, haunting my every dream. It was always you, the one my mother preferred, the one our father secretly wished could be duke one day. You even had your first wench before I did, right up here in the hay of the storeroom.” His eyes glittered. “Don’t you remember? Mollie, the miller’s lush little daughter?”

“Mollie had everyone in pants. By the time she was seventeen, she had had me and every other man on Sevenoaks land.
You
included.”