Always in My Dreams (55 page)

The backstairs were deserted as well. Walker made Skye wait on the landing until he was certain the hallway was safe. When he reached the door to her room, he motioned to her to follow.

"Where are they?" Skye mouthed the words.

He shrugged and rooted in her trunk, coming up with the gun after a few seconds. He checked the barrel. It was empty. He raised both brows and gave her a telling look.

"I never said it was loaded," she whispered. "And you never asked."

"I have shells in my room." He indicated she should go first this time and he would back her. Skye took a step out of the dressing room and stopped suddenly. She placed a finger to her lips. With the other hand she pointed to the armoire.

Voices could be heard from the other side. Walker huddled in front of the armoire while Skye knelt beside him. Parnell and Corina were arguing, their raised voices and sharp tones perfectly audible through the thin partition of the wardrobes.

"And I'm telling you we can't stay here any longer," Parnell said. "Can't you be satisfied with what we have?"

"We've already been wildly successful, more than I dreamed. Why must you always want more?"

"Your dreams are paltry, that's why," Corina snapped. "I'm the one who got us this far."

"And I'm the one who took the risks. You're the cook. I've been impersonating another man. It's my signature on those contracts."

Walker touched Skye's wrist. With a series of gestures he told her he was going to load the gun and get the contracts. She was to stay just where she was. Skye agreed and watched Walker go out of the corner of her eye as she continued to eavesdrop on Parnell's conversation with his sister.

* * *

"If you don't want to pack your things, Cory, then don't," Parnell said. "We have enough money for you to buy everything new. You can travel anywhere you want. Do anything. Seventy thousand dollars can make you very happy if you'll let it."

Corona's small oval face was mottled with angry color. "It's nothing compared to the treasure!" she said furiously. "Nothing."

"A treasure that doesn't exist is worth exactly that—nothing." He reached under his bed, withdrew two valises, and tossed both on his bed. "I've been searching for it for months now.
I've
been searching. There's nothing there, Corina. The tunnel can't be excavated. Parnell told you and you wouldn't listen. You sent that man to his death, making him dig. It could have been me who was buried alive." He saw it in her eyes just then, that fleeting wish that it
had
been him. "Watch yourself," he warned her. "I can put you in that cellar as easily as I put the others there."

Corina snorted. "You couldn't have done it at all without my help. Or do you think Walker would have just followed you down there like a sheep to the slaughter?" She crossed her arms in front of her, her pose more impatient than defensive. "You needed me. You've always needed me.
I'm
the one who took the position with Parnell.
I'm
the one who saw the opportunities with the contracts.
I'm
the one who read the Granville history and understood the potential. What have you done except to complicate every plan we have because of your own vile needs?"

His head jerked back under her verbal blows. Angry color flushed his face unnaturally. "Shut up, Cory."

But she would not be silenced. "You caved in to those death threats and hired Walker Caide against my advice. Instead of simply having a few servants to worry about, we had to contend with someone whose very job demanded he watch you! In all the time he's been here you've hardly made any progress on the tunnel. You're barely to the point Parnell was when the landslide occurred. And then there was Mrs. Givens."

"Shut up, Cory."

"And when you frightened her off, you had to have another whore. You couldn't wait to have that Dennehy bitch, could you? I was drugging her from the first just so you could get inside her!"

"I never—"

"That's it, isn't it? You never get inside! You only touch. What kind of man are you?"

Parnell's hand came up.

Corona's eyes blazed. "Don't you hit me," she bit out. "Don't you dare!"

Rather than let his hand hover in the air, Parnell raked back his hair in an angry gesture.

"You have to pay for them or drug them and you still can't do what a real man does. You'd have tried with her again tonight if I hadn't stopped you—and you'd have failed."

"Go get your things, Cory. We're leaving this place. It's over. If there
was
a treasure, it's not going to be yours."

"It's because you still want me, isn't it?" she asked baldly, needling him. Her voice was husky and quiet, a throaty whisper. "Just like when we were children. I've spoiled you for other women. You didn't only touch me. I let you do other things. I let you do anything. Is it because I'm your sister? Is that what made it different for you?"

"Stepsister," he said quietly. "You're my stepsister."

"I know. But Mother still said it was wrong. Do you remember when she—"

This time when Parnell raised his hands, he put them over his ears. "I'm not listening to you," he said tightly.

"What a child you are," she whispered. "It's small wonder that you need me to show you what needs doing."

Parnell turned away and went to his armoire. "I'm leaving here, Cory. You can go or stay as it pleases you. I'm taking half the money." He yanked open the door to the wardrobe. "And you can have—"

Just like Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass, Skye Dennehy fell forward into the opening. She tried to scramble out of the way, but Parnell was too quick. His fingers caught the shoulder of her shift and he pulled hard. To prevent him from ripping the material, she was forced forward on her knees.

Corina threw up her hands. She was very close to tears. "Can't you do anything?" she demanded. "I thought you said she couldn't get out! You should have killed her!" She glanced quickly over her shoulder to the open doorway. "You know what this means, don't you?
He's
out, too."

Parnell's hand moved from Skye's shoulder to her hair. He twisted his fingers in it and jerked her to her feet. "Is that right?" he fairly growled. "Walker's out?"

Skye remained mute.

"Of course he's out," Corina snapped. "I hope you did a better job with Annie and her brat." Her full mouth flattened and then became a sneer. "Or can we expect more company?"

Parnell slipped his forearm around Skye's throat. He kicked the wardrobe door shut. "I think it's safe to assume he won't be coming at us that way," he told Corina.

Her voice raised an octave. "He shouldn't be coming after us at all!"

"Do you have your pistol?"

She shook her head.

"Get it."

"What if he's out there?" she asked. "What if he's waiting for me?"

Parnell's laughter was short and without humor. "It's not so easy being the one to take the risks, is it? Well, dear
sister,
I have my protection. What are you going to use? Walker Caide was never much interested in your cold charms."

"Bastard."

The pressure on Skye's throat made every word a struggle. "If you let her go, she won't come back," she told him. "And not because Walker will find her. She'll betray you again."

Parnell's arm didn't loosen. It tightened on Skye's throat as if he could force answers from her. His cold blue eyes had narrowed on Corina. "Explain you," he said. "What betrayal?"

Corina shook her head. "It's a play for time," she snapped. "I'm going to get my pistol."

"Don't let her go," Skye told him quickly, imparting urgency into her warning. "She'll leave you."

"Stay where you are, Cory. I want to hear what she has to say."

Corina ignored him. "Walker must be somewhere else," she said. "She's just trying to give him time to get here." She hesitated on the threshold, looking up and down the hall before she hurried away to her own room.

"You've lost her," Skye whispered hoarsely. She brought her hands up to Parnell's forearm and tried to get him to ease his grip on her throat. She managed to turn her head slightly to one side and draw a deep, cleansing breath. "She's been playing you for a fool. You must have suspected."

Parnell gave Skye a small shake before he urged her toward the door. "Talk to me," he said. He emphasized his words by forcing her up on tiptoe. Had he pressed further, her feet would have left the floor.

Skye sought purchase on the forearm that held her securely against him. Her fingers bit into Parnell's shirt and the hard muscle beneath. "All the time she's been making you dig in the cellar, she's been looking for the treasure above stairs."

"Where? Here, on this floor?"

She could only choke out a single word. "Higher." Parnell moved Skye into the hall and toward the main staircase. When they stood on the precipice of the landing, he paused. Skye held her breath; afraid he meant to push her. "On the servants' floor. She went up there at night... when you were..."

"With you."

"With me," she agreed. "She wanted you to be with me. She had an opportunity to get rid of me and she didn't take it." Skye knew she had Parnell's complete attention. His arm loosened slightly to let her breathe. "Corina covered for me."

"What are you talking about?"

"I went into the cellar. Annie locked me in and Corina figured it out. Instead of exposing me, she drugged my milk that night and later went back to the cellar and locked the door I used to get out. She never told you. I was valuable to her as long as I proved a diversion."

Parnell placed a hand at her back and forced her to take the first step down. "Cory says I shouldn't have let you read the Granville history," he said quietly. His mouth was very close to her ear. "But you know why I wanted you to have it."

Skye did know. Parnell had wanted to convince her it was Hamilton Granville's ghost making nightly visits to her room. He wanted her to be seduced by the idea of the ghost, a little afraid, a little intrigued, and thoroughly in its thrall. "Did you do the same thing to the housekeeper before me?"

He didn't answer her question and his hold tightened so she couldn't ask any more of her own. She was effectively silenced, unable to cry out to Walker, unable to warn him of their approach. Parnell urged her forward over the lip of the next step.

Skye didn't immediately understand Parnell's intent. At first she thought he meant to move her out of the house entirely, using her as a hostage to make his escape. It wasn't until he turned her in the direction of the library that she realized her mistake. She had forgotten about the money, had never considered where he might have kept the fortune from his investors. Parnell wouldn't have entrusted it to a bank, not with bankers among the businessmen he had deceived. Parnell would have kept it close by so that he could look on it occasionally, have it close so he could take it on a moment's notice.

The doors to the library were closed. He made Skye open them. The arm at her throat was cutting off her circulation. Her fingers felt numb and clumsy because of it. Even her thinking didn't seem sharp any longer. She should have found a way to warn Walker.

The room was empty. Parnell made certain of it by turning himself and Skye in a slow circle to investigate the area. He pushed her to the desk and forced her into the chair behind it. He shoved the chair forward, caging Skye between the desk top and the chair arms, and stood over her, behind her, and made her open the panels under his direction.

One by one the pocket drawers were sprung open and each in turn revealed nothing. The contracts and money had all disappeared.

"Damn her!" he swore. His fingertips pressed whitely into Skye's shoulders. "She's taken it all! Taken everything!"

Skye gasped at the pain. Her hands slipped from the top of the desk to her lap. From his hiding place under the desk, Walker placed a loaded gun in her palm. Her fingers closed over it.

Parnell yanked the chair away from the desk and hauled Skye to her feet again. This time, when he turned her toward him, he found himself facing the barrel of his cutaway trigger Colt. He took a step backward without any urging from Skye. Her two-handed hold on the weapon was steady. Walker crawled out from beneath the desk.

"Keep it on him," Walker told her. "If he moves, shoot." Then he hunkered down at her bare feet and tore a strip off the hem of her shift. Skye didn't flinch. Walker straightened after he produced a second strip and held one in each hand. His next order was for Parnell. "Turn around and put your hands behind your back." There was hesitation. Walker added calmly, "Shoot him, Skye."

The movement of her finger was almost imperceptible, but Parnell saw it. He spun on his heel and presented his hands behind his back. Walker tied him quickly, then forced Parnell to kneel and added a length that bound his wrists to his ankles. When he was done, he pushed Parnell's shoulder so he toppled on his side. Watching Walker work, Skye realized Parnell had to be considering his own mistakes in binding both of them. Walker's method of securing Parnell made it impossible for Parnell to move his hands forward as Walker had done.

"I'm going to get Corina," said Walker. "I want you to stay here."

Skye relaxed her grip on the Colt. "You'll need this. Corina went for her gun."