The Duke's Revenge (33 page)

Max turned to his and entered. It was dark
and the echoing of water dripping was louder in his ears.

As he ran through the long, dark, narrow
tunnel, his gut was churning inside out. He only hoped that he
would get there on time. He damn well hoped he had chosen the right
passageway too.

The tunnel seemed to be stretching longer
the faster he ran. He was also aware that the dripping water was
getting fainter behind him.

He didn’t know how long he had been running,
and suddenly, he slipped and fell to his knees. The torch flew off
his hand and everything went dark.

Damn it, this was just what he needed.

Cursing fluently, he got up and spread out
his hand to feel the wall around him. He took a few steps forward
when something hit him by the shoulder.

He fell. The pain burnt through his skin. He
turned to look at what it was but all he could see was darkness. He
frowned and struggled up. He took a few steps when something
smacked on his other shoulder.

He fell to the cold stone floor again.

“
Who’s there?” he shouted
into the silent. His voice echoed across the tunnel as he narrowed
his eyes against the pitch darkness. His breathing was harsh and
deep.

There was no replied. Wasting no time and
ignoring the pain on his shoulder, he struggled up and kept walking
forward. In the distance he saw his torch; its flam was alive and
flickering weakly. His heart lifted. He rushed to it.

Another smack landed on his back. The impact
was so strong that he fell hard to the ground.

He knew that somebody was hiding behind him,
trying to murder him. Such coward, he thought, and angrily he
turned in time to see a shadowy figure approaching him. The
swinging came again. He twisted to the right—missed being smashed
by an inch. He caught the culprit’s arm and punched the man’s
stomach with his fist. Once he straightened up, he gave the man
another blow on the side of his head. He heard a loud thud and then
another loud thud and then silent.

He turned and ran up to get his torch. He
brought it up and rushed back to the unconscious body. He lowered
the torch and what he saw choked him immensely.

“
Sherington!”

He shook his head as he looked at the man
lying there with his head bleeding. He kneeled down and touched his
fingers to the man’s neck. There was no pulse. Sherington was
dead.

The bastard had wanted to murder him for a
long time, and now he knew who was responsible for all the mishaps
that had happened in his estate in these past months. Did
Sherington really wanted to avenge his father’s death and get his
inheritance back that much even though the earl’s death had nothing
to do with him? It was merely because of the earl’s own folly? The
man had loved to gamble and had lost all his wealth to him one
night at Whites. Sherington had wanted all that back. The man had
been full of hatred and revenge. But then, Max thought, for a while
he had, too, been consumed with hatred and vengeance. No more, he
told himself, for it had caused him and others nothing but pain.
And there he turned his thought to his wife.

Where was she?

He stood up, and leaving Sherington’s dead
body there, he continued his way through the tunnel to find his
wife.

***

Ivy opened her eyes to the unbearable pain
aching away in her head. She looked about her and felt the
confinement of her surrounding suffocating her. She pulled herself
up into a sitting position.

The moment she sat, the world spun before
her. She gagged and felt as though she wanted to vomit. She touched
her head and continued to look around. She felt disorientated as
she stared wide-eyed at the looming cave. She heard the cries of
wild, hungry wolves from afar and the echo of the silent close to
her made her heart beat with fear.

Where was she?

She was about to get up when she heard a
soft, mocking voice from her left.

“
So you are
awake?”

She turned and her eyes widened.
“Mother!”

“
I am not your mother you
insolence slut,” the woman screamed, rushed toward and pulled Ivy’s
long hair. “I am not your mother. I never was.”

“
What do you want? Why are
you doing this to me?” Ivy asked, her voice quivering and her body
shaking.

“
Why, you asked me why,
Ivy? You should know why.” The woman laughed and slapped her on the
cheek.

The action threw Ivy on her back.

The woman advanced toward her, and Ivy moved
back.

“
You took him from me.
Dominic was mine in the beginning. He was always mine. He was never
Grace’s nor was he ever yours,” she said, “ask Gale.” She pointed
to a figure standing in the shadow. “She knows, Dominic was mine
and mine alone.”

“
Mother, please, I am your
daughter,” Ivy begged.

“
Stud up, you are not my
daughter, you never was. I have no daughter.” The woman grabbed a
bunch of Ivy’s long hair chin and snarled as she said, “I’m going
to kill you, Ivy, very slowly and very painfully. No one will find
you here. You will die of starvation. I will whip you until you
could not bear more pain, until you could not cry out for help. Oh
yes, no one will help you now. When I get tired, Gale will help
me.” She threw her head back and laughed, her madness echoing loud
in the cave.

When she stopped her laughter, she stood
up.

“
Look how pathetic you
are, Ivy. I wondered what
he
would think when he sees you now.” She turned to
the skinny woman and commanded, “Gale, the whip!”

“
Aye, m’ lady.” The maid
rushed forward and handed a long, thin strap to her
mistress.

“
No!” Ivy shook her head.
“You will not whip me again, ever. I won’t allow you.” Ivy
struggled up. Her knees buckled and she fell down. She pushed
herself up and said firmly, “I won’t allow you to whip me
again.”

“
You dare to stand up to
me?”

“
Yes, I am standing up to
you,” Ivy said through gritted teeth.

“
Insolence girl!” the
woman screamed and slashed the whip.

The strap hit Ivy’s arm. She winced.

The woman raised the whip again. Ivy rushed
forward and grabbed it from the woman’s hand.

“
Let go!”

“
No, you won’t hurt me
again,” Ivy said as she pulled the strap from the woman’s
hands.

“
Gale, help!” Grace
shouted. When Ivy didn’t let go, she slapped Ivy’s face.

The pain did not reach Ivy’s heart this
time, and she slapped the woman back on the cheek. When the woman
simply glared at her, she slapped the woman again.

Gale rushed up behind Ivy and grabbed a
bunch of her long, loose hair and pulled her back. Ivy lost her
gripping on the strap and fell to the ground.

Grace sneered and slashed the whip on her.
Ivy rolled away just in time as another slashing came. It missed
her by an inch. As she was doing so, she grabbed Gale’s skirt and
pulled the maid to the ground. She punched the maid with her fists
and then rushed to Grace and grabbed for the whip. Grace saw her
coming and slashed the strap on her again. This time it hit her,
causing her to fall to the ground.

Grace came to her, grabbed her hair, and
glared into her eyes. “You think you are so strong? You’re just
like your mother before she died.”

Ivy widened her eyes and her already pale
face turned even paler with horror. “What are you saying?”

“
Ah, curious now, are we?”
Grace laughed. She moved her face closer, and through gritted
teeth, she said, “Since you are going to die here I might as well
tell you who I am.”

Ivy stared at the mad woman, her blue eyes
wide.

“
I am not your mother, I
never was.” Grace moved her mouth to Ivy’s right ear and whispered,
“I killed your mother, Lady Grace Westwood.” She moved her back and
smiled. “Aye,” she said, “I killed your mother, the real Lady Grace
Westwood, my twin sister. Did you know that we were so alike even
our dear papa couldn’t even tell us apart? Even dear Dominic
couldn’t tell us apart. Even your dear papa couldn’t tell us apart.
I killed her and took her place, as was rightfully mine. And now,
Ivy, I will kill you, too, and take your place as it should be
rightfully mine. Dominic was my lover. He was never Grace’s. Yes,
I, Julie Anderson, will be the Duchess of Lynwood.” She stood back
and laughed as she spread her arms out in the air.

“
You’re crazy,” Ivy said,
shaking her head with disgusted.

“
Aye, my dear, I am crazy.
I had it all in my young lives, and I am not about to loss it all
just because of you. I will claim back what should have been mine.”
She raised the strap, ready to unleash it on Ivy.

Ivy closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to
come when the strap hit her for she was too tired and too sore to
move. But it did not come. She opened her eyes and saw that the
whip was still in midair. She turned to see Max’s hand gripping the
woman’s wrist. Her heart soared with happiness. His eyes, she saw,
were a blue fury of anger and the muscles at his jaw were
flexing.

“
You will not touch my
wife,” he said through gritted teeth and shoved the woman
away.

Julie fell to the floor and scrambled away
from him like a pathetic animal.

Max rushed to his wife and kneeled beside
her. “Are you all right?”

Tears flowed down her cheeks. She managed to
nod.

“
You shouldn’t be here,
Dominic. I will kill her and then we can get marry. We could be
lovers again like old times,” Julie cried.

Max turned to look at the woman in
disgusted. “Woman, what are talking about? I will never marry the
likes of you,” he said as he helped Ivy up to stand beside him.

Julie shook her head. “You bastard, you made
love to me. You had asked me to marry you,” she screamed. “You
lying bastard. You are a nobody, you hear, just a stupid boy with
no future. You should have never inherited a dukedom with too much
money. You bastard, you asked me to marry you,” she screamed and
shook her head.

“
Woman, I’ve never asked
you to marry me. You must have mistaken me with Dominic, my
brother,” Max said coldly.

Julie widened her as she stared at him.
“What! But how?”

“
The Earl of Westwood had
shot him in the heart at the duel. He died instantly. I was too
late.”

Ivy snuggled her face against Max’s shoulder
and tightened her arms around his neck. Her papa had killed his
brother? Oh God, was that why he hated her so much? Was that why he
did what he could in his power to ruin her family, to take his
revenge?

“
You lie!” Julie snapped,
“it’s not true.”

“
Whether you believe it to
be true or not,
Miss
Anderson
, I don’t bloody care.”

Julie widened her eyes. “You knew?”

“
I didn’t know it then but
I do now. I summed it all up with what little Dominic had told me
about you when you two were together and what I know of Grace
herself. She was nothing like you, Julie, and when I met Ivy, she
was everything Grace was, kind, gentle, and damn beautiful to boot.
And the fact that you treat Ivy the way you are, I could only make
the conclusion that no mother would ever want to hurt her own
daughter. Even animals, Miss Anderson, still love their young ones
and protected them with their life. Only a monster, a monster such
as you, Miss Anderson, would treat their young ones
otherwise.”

“
You bastard!” Julie
swore, glaring at the two people before her. “Fine!” she snapped,
reaching her shaky hand into her reticule. “If this is what you
want then I’ll just have to satisfy you both,” she said, her eyes
turning a bright green. “I will have to kill both of you.” She
brought out a pistol and pointed it at them.

Ivy widened her eyes.

“
Woman, you’re mad,” Max
said.

“
If I don’t get what I
want, no one will,” she shrieked, and slowly, she pulled the
trigger.

“
No!” Ivy
screamed.

Max pulled her down with him to the ground.
The bullet misled passed their heads.

“
Are you all right?” he
whispered. Ivy managed to nod.

Julie was about to fire another shot when
Max rushed up and snapped the gun from her hands. He slapped her on
the face. She fell to the ground. Gale rushed to the unconscious
Julie.

Max tucked the pistol in the pocket of his
coat and rushed back to Ivy. He picked her up in his arms and
turned toward the mouth of the cave.

“
Is this the way out?” Ivy
asked.

“
I think so.” He stepped
out, taking every step very carefully. It was rocky and very
slippery. One mistake and he could slip. The passage was downtrend,
and he knew if they were both to fall they could not well get back
up.

“
Max, I’m
scare.”

“
Hush, my dove, I’m here.
I won’t let anything happen to you.” He tightened his arms around
her and took another careful step downward. They were quiet as Max
carefully chose his way about the tunnel.

A long moment later Ivy touched the side of
his face and said, “Would you really look after me and not let
anything hurt me?” she asked for fear that he might lie to her.

He shifted his gaze to her and smiled
despite the fact his inside was twisting at the thought that any
moment now he might take a wrong step and they both would fall down
the long, sloppy tunnel.