Light to Valhalla (51 page)

*
             
*
             
*

Sidney flipped up the collar of his greatcoat
against the
fiercely falling
snow
,
and rushed through
Bruton
Place
.
C
louds and
shadows engulfed much of the
posh
streets and
spoke of a nasty snowstorm sure to come
.
Sidney checked the pistol tucked carefully into his waistband and kicked up the pace more than ready to reach his destination
.
He had less than an hour before Veronica and her surprise cohort expected him at
Coverstone
House
.
Painfully little time to crawl out of the grave he’d dug for himself
.

How the hell had he gotten into this mess anyway?

Sid had set out to exact a little revenge—perhaps bed Alex’s wife and make him look the fool, but murder?  The sinister notion had never crossed his mind until Veronica, and if Sid had learned one
thing in his lust for vengeance
it was that he wasn
’
t
actually
angry with Alex
.
The humbling reality was that no satisfaction lived in this reprisal
.
Sid was as empty and hollow now as he’d been before taking action
.
The si
mple truth was that his anger was
with an old man so insecure and embittered that he’d taken his own life
.
Perhaps that was retribution enough.

For the first time in many—
many
—years a sense of peace settled within Sid; as though a weight had lifted from his chest
.
Now to halt the impending disaster careening toward Charley and Alex
.

He turned down a near deserted road, squinting to see the house numbers as he jogged past
.
Number one… two… There it is
.
Bruton
Place
number
three
.
Snow drifted over the walk leading to the red stained arched door
.
Sid hunched against the bitter cold and would have angled up the
path
except that a carriage rattled to a halt before the elegant townhouse
.

He drew up short
.
Heart hammering
.
Could he really be this lucky?  Lady Luck had never leaned Sid’s way.

Steam rolled off the horses
’
backs and clouds of breath snorted from their nostrils
.
A footman leapt from his perch and opened the side door
.
An expensive boot emerged and the body of the man Sid
needed
quickly followed
.

He jogged forward, holding up a hand to block the snowflakes swirling into his eyes
.
“General Witherspoon, sir
.
I need your help.”

Seventeen

“Alex!  Alex!
”
A man’s
urgent voice battered against
the thick wall encrusting his
whiskey soaked
brain
.
“There’s little time
.
We must hurry.”

             
“Sidney
?
” Alex
mumbled
without raising his
throbbing
head off the desk
.
“Am I dead?”

             
“Oh, dear Jesus
.
Don’t tell me you drank the whiskey from your father’s secret liquor stash.”

             
Alex struggled to make sense of Sid’s words through the fog enveloping his brain
.
“Why not?
”
He lifted his head, swiping away a piece of paper stuck to his cheek
.
How much had he had to drink?

             
“Bloody hell this is a disaster.
”
Sid s
w
iped the bottle from Alex’s desk and sent it sailing
into the wall
.

             
The bottle
exploded, jarring
Alex’s dulled senses
.
“
Ugh.
”
White hot pain drove straight through the center of his skull
.
“
What
happened?  I know I didn’t
drink that much.
”
Slumping against the back of the chair he pinched the bridge of his nose, warding off the crippling headache.

             
“
S
ober up
,
Rawlings,” Sid ordered with militaristic efficiency
.
“Your wife needs you
.
Now.”

             
Ice cold water splashed Alex full in the face
.
He shot to his feet
.
“Chr
i
st, Sid.
”
He wiped the dripping liquid with his sleeve
.

             
“Do you remember that opium we found in India?”

             
Alex’s mind flipped instantly to the memory
.
“How could I
forget?
”
Powerful stuff that Indian opium
.
Young and stupid, he’d passed out for two days solid after his first and only hit of drug.

             
“Three years ago I ad
ded a good lot of the stuff to y
our father’s secret stash
.
The old man drank himself
in
to
oblivion the night before he shot himself.
”
Sid
grasped Alex’s arm and
hauled
him toward the door
.

             
“Wait a minute… wait a minute…
”
Alex’s head reeled,
grappling to make sense of Sidney’s confession
.
“Why would you do that?  Unless…
”
Oh, dear God
.
“
So y
ou know we’re really brothers then.”

             
“Yes, I’ve been aware for quite
awhile
, but now is not the time
to discuss it
.
We must sav
e Charley.
”

             
“Charley
?
  What’s happened to her?”

             
“Josiah Baker is
going to kill her.”

             
Josiah Baker
.
The name
sounded fami
liar but for the life of him Alex
could not remember why
.
“How do you know this? 
Did
Witherspoon
hire him
?”

             
“N
ot General Witherspoon
.
”
Sid
marched
toward the study door
.
“Veronica
.
Veronica is behind everything
,
and
n
ot just writing the
letters from Bernadette Barcelona.”

             
Sidney’s words sent a sobering rush
of clarity
through
Alex
’s
veins
.
He stopped short
.
“I never told you
Veronica wrote those l
etters or
about
my handwriting expert
.
The only way you could know is…
”

             
Rigid Sid stilled and pivoted slowly
to meet Alex’s
accusatory
g
a
ze
.
The guilt in Sid’s soulful eyes spoke volumes.

             
“You’re Veronica’s partner
.
”
Betrayal carved a vicious path through his soul
.
Part of him had suspected Sid may be working against him, but the
irrefutable
e
vidence
proved devastating as all th
e missing pieces to the puzzle
slid snuggly into place
.
Sidney had known of the trouble with Witherspoon and capitalized by spreading more scandal and rumor
.
“D
id you have Charley kidnapped as well?”

             
“No.
”
Sid held his arms out, imploring
.
“I swear to you I would never harm her
.
Veronica hired Josiah Baker to have Charley killed
so
she’d have a clear shot at you
.
I didn’t know of any of this until long after we had Charley back.
”

Baker…
Charley’s story about the abused woman she’d helped escape to Scotland flashed through Alex’s mind
.
“Oh, dear God.
”
Understanding dawned as he snapped his gaze to Sid’s
.

Regret g
limmered in his brother’s
deep set eyes
.
“
Veronica is a manipulative bitch
.
She sucked me in with her schemes, but I will
not go to the noose for her
.
No measure of apology can atone for what I’ve done, but right now it doesn’t matter
.
We must get to Charley. It may already be too late.”

*
             
*
             
*

“
There’s been a change of plans for the Christmas season, Trudy
.
We’ll be traveling to the family estate in Scotland at the end of the week.
”
Charley
gazed
at her reflection in the mirror
and
blew a strand of hair from her face
, waiting
for Trudy to continue picking the knots from her
curls
.

“
How lovely, milady
.
I’ve never been outside of London myself
.
Shall I start packing straightaway then?”

“
Most definitely
.
I was thinking
tha
—
”
Charley stopped short,
unease licking her middle as
the whisper of a refl
ection caught
her eye in the mirror
.
“Trudy
?
Did you… see...
”

Judging b
y the expression on the maid’s f
ace
reflected in the mirror
it was obvious she’d
also seen the mysterious apparition
.

Dread settled hard in the pit of Charley’s stomach as the
solid
figure of a man materialized from the shadows edging her room
.
Garbed in filthy brown clothes the intrude
r
slipped across the room successfully
blocking the door
.
Long greasy hair
hung in clumps to his shoulders
and
obsidian
eyes
burned
ominously
in the soft lamplight—black eyes she’d never forget
.
Charley’s blood ran cold
and she whirled, facing him head on
.
“Mr. Baker.”

A lazy grin split his face
.
“Ay
e, milady, and
it’s
high time you pay for
your sins.
”
He palmed a thick bladed knife and flipped it in the air, expertly
catching the hilt in the opposite hand
.
The razor sharp edge gleamed with menace.

Trudy took a hasty step back, clutching the silver hairbrush out in front of her for protection.

Charley
leapt to her feet, searching for any sort of a weapon for herself and finally lifted the entire stool she’d been seated on.

Baker
laughed
.
“Come now ladies, you don’t really think the two of you have any hope of escaping me
.
Scream all you wish, but the door is locked and even if someone hears you’ll be dead and I’ll be gone long before they arrive.
”

Trudy’s blood curdling scream rent the bedroom air
.

Charley flinched
.

Baker’s face darkened with anger
.
His arm snapped back and his knife hurtled through the air
straight for Trudy’s throat
.
The maid reacted with
lightening
speed and dove behind Charley
.
The blade slammed into the looking glass, shattering the mirror and sending
a shower of
glittering shards into the carpet
.

Briefly Charley locked eyes with Trudy
.
She snapped her gaze back to Baker
.

Pure rage lined the brigand’s gaze as he lunged forward, another smaller knife clutched in his hand
.

“Now, Trudy!
”
With all the force she could muster, Charley swun
g the chair toward her attacker, h
is gleaming blade
just inches from her face.

*
             
*
             
*

Crash
.
The ring of s
hattering glass echoed from the second story.

A burst of ice
cold adrenaline shot through Alex’
s veins, sparking
him
to action
.
“
Let’s go
.
”
He
could pound Sid and
hash out their little family drama
later
.
Right now all he cared about was getting to Charley before Baker finished his evil.

Grabbing a pistol from the
decorative iron box on his shelf,
Alex
charged
from the room with Sidney in tow
.
Together they hustled
up the stair
s
and down the hall to Charley’s bedchamber
.
Alex
grasped the door
handle but it wouldn’t budge
.
“Charley,” he roared, desperation giving way to full blown despair
.

Another resounding crash emanated from within the room, snapping
him
to action
.
He backed across the hall and threw his shoulder into the door
.
Heave! 
Once...
Twice…
The woo
d buckled inward after the third
blow, sending Alex reeling into the chamber from the force of his momentum
.