A Bright Particular Star (45 page)

He shook his head
slowly
.
“
It was a mistake.
You shou
ld have married me as planned,
and then
all this would not be necessary.
”

“
What do you mean
’
all this
?
’
”

“
I want the Devereux Star.
”

“
For once in your life,
you will have to accept that wanting
something and getting it
are two different thi
ngs,
”
she said.

“
Not for me.
”

“D
on
’t
be
childish,
Perry,
”
she retorted
.

His eyes narrowed
.
“
You
’
ve never appreciated me,
have you?
N
ever given
me the respect I
deserve
d
.
How I am going to enjoy surprising you!
Your sudden
departure
forced
me
to reassess matters
.
Annoying
, but
all was not lost.
I set off in pursuit and once
I had caught up with you,
I
waited until nightfall to slip
into your room at
T
he Pelican
—
”

Sophie gave a start of surprise
.
“
Y
ou!
”

“
Yes,
”
he said,
a mocking light in his eye
.
“
When
I discovered
you had the
Star
, I was
please
d.
You had pr
esented me with an unexpected
opportunity.
If I
could steal
it
, no one need
ever know I was responsible
.
I waited until you were asleep and began to search.
Inconveniently
,
you woke up
before I
could find it
and stabbed
me
.
”
His smirk
twisted
into
an
ugly look
as he spat out,
“
Upon my word, y
ou will
regret that!
”

Watching him,
Sophie had t
he curious sensation
the earth
was shifting beneath her
feet
.
A
short time ago, she had bera
ted herself for being a fool
.
Now she wondered if she was going mad.
She replayed
Perry
’s
words
over
in her mind.

No, she
had not imagined it
.
H
e
had
just
confessed to trying to steal the Star
from her room
.
His expression had
undergone a transformation
too
.
He was looking at her in a peculiar
way.
T
here was
a pitiless
, implacable
set to his features
and a sm
ile
unlike anything she
had seen before
curled
his thin lips
.

His
words and the way he was staring
made
her fee
l
sick.
Her mouth was dry with fear.
She
tried to think rationally
,
but somethi
ng in his manner, in
that light in his eyes and
that slow
,
singularly unpleasant
smile, repulsed her
and sent a chill down her spine
.

The
scene was certainly
bizarre.
Steam
rose from the tea
cups on the table
and
a clock ticked merrily away on the mantelpiece
.
From
the kitchen in the depths of the inn,
she could smell
bread being
baked.
Indistinct voices and occasional
bursts of
laughter d
rifted in from the taproom and
the noise and b
ustle
continued
unabated
outside
.
Meanwhile, her cousin
sat opposit
e, his
habitual
indolence gone, h
is
expression
frightening
.
His dark eyes were fixed on her like a bird of prey ready to swoop.
She could find nothing amusing in his appearance now.
He looked monstrous
,
and the whole thing
felt
like
a
nightmare
she would wake up
from
at any moment.
She ran her fingertips over the polished w
ood of the chair, only to find
it
and the rest of her surroundings
were
distressingly real
.

“
…
i
t suited me to let you to cont
i
nue on to London,
”
she heard him saying
.
”T
he Star
was not in the reticule that
some of
my
friends took from you in Savernake, nor w
as it in your room at
T
he Bell and Anchor
when they searched it.
”

“
Your friends?
”
she echoed
blankly
.

“
Charming
fellows.
Not much
intelligence
—
they made pathetic
highwaymen
—
but they would sell
their
grandmother for a farthing
.
”
Perry
thrust his head forward
,
his eyes snapping
with
anger.
“
By the time we reached London
, you were annoying me a great deal
.
Not
only had you bolted
when I did not expect it, but you
managed to acquire a
champion
along the way.
Cavana
gh was always at your side, curse
him!
Lucius Grey, too.
”
He frowned
heavily
.
‘
S
o
mething
strange
about that fellow
.
Always appea
ring when you least want him to
.
Thought I could get some money out of him when we first met, but turns
out he
’s
no fool.
I should have been
more wary of him from the outset
.
”
His
eyes locked onto her again.
“
With
Cavanagh ever present and
any
chance of
steali
ng the Star
gone
, I
had to revert
to the origina
l plan
.
You thought it was my mother
’s
idea for us to marry, didn
’t
you?
”
He
gave a mirthless titter
.
“
You were wrong
.
I
t
was mi
ne.
Once I had planted the notion
in her head, she was all encouragement for it, as I knew she would be.
”

“S
o that
’s
what is
behind this
,
”
she murmured
, staring
.
“
You must be mad.
But y
ou are wealthy enough
…
w
hy bother to
go to such lengths?
”

Without warning
,
h
is fist slammed down on
to
the arm of his
chair
.
“
Because
I
cov
et it!
Covet
it, do you hear
me
?
”
he thundered.

She flinched
, but
s
aid with deliberate calm
,
“
I do
, but y
our
mother would be shocked
if she were here
to witness your behaviour.
”

A
nother
ripple of
laughter escaped him
.
“
U
ndoubtedly, but
she
is the most doting parent.
I believe s
he would excuse
me if I was the blackest
villain in England.
Although she would not approve of my methods, s
he is eager
to bri
ng the Star into the
family and will comply with whatever I say
and do
.
I have always been
able to twist her round my finger
.
She encourages my greed yet
even sh
e does not appreciate the half
of it, or w
hat I am capable of
.
No one does.
”
H
is
h
ooded gaze swept over he
r, his
voice
remaining
hypnotically
low and even
.
“
You use
d
the right
word
a moment ago
.
There is
a
selfish
madness
in me
which
means I will
do
what
ever
is necessary
to get what I want
.
I
always
get what I
want
, b
ut
you had
to make matters
complicated
.
W
hen I
thought
yo
u might be about to marry
Verney
,
I had to act
—
”

“
No—
”
she began
, until she
realize
d he wasn
’t
listening
.

“
You had to be carrying the Star on you
somewhere and
I
racked my brains
t
o think where it could be.
By then I knew it was not in the necklace.
I called in Brook Street as often as I could, but only after you
had
agreed to accompany me to the
museum
did the answer
suddenly
occur to me
—
the Star
was
co
ncealed in that ugly thing.
”
Pointing
to the hat pin where it lay
on the table beside he
r bonnet, he
added,
“
You wore it all the time
on the journey and in London
an
d yet I had never seen you with
it at Ludstone.
A prodigious
clever disguis
e,
I admit,
but then I had been uncharacteristically
stupid.
I don
’t
know why it took me so long to
realize
—
”