Rake Beyond Redemption (11 page)

‘It doesn’t matter any more, foolish girl.’ For a moment Zan’s voice softened, then light flashed in his eyes with a return to the old defiance. ‘You see before you the rogue you’ve spent the past weeks associating with.’ Zan’s sudden grin was wild and white. ‘Not an edifying thought, is it? I’m sure you understand, Madame Mermaid, why I did not broadcast my sins on our first meeting.’

‘Enough!’ Luke cast one glance at Marie-Claude’s white face.

‘Oh, I quite agree.’ Zan bowed curtly in a curiously graceful gesture. ‘I told you you did not want to know me. And I was right, wasn’t I? You should have believed me from the start.’

All Marie-Claude could do was look at him in horrified disbelief. ‘I know what you told me but—I had no idea. Could I have guessed this depth of depravity?’ And then grief began to replace the horror. ‘Why did you do it, Zan? Why did you seek me out, spend time with me…?’

Luke stepped forwards, between her and Zan, as if to protect her, face alight with anger. It was as if her words had lit a fuse to one of his Majesty’s cannons.

‘So it was revenge, was it, Ellerdine? You couldn’t harm me directly, so you set your sights on those I love.
That’s despicable beyond words. And to use an innocent woman to further your own illicit ends. I told you five years ago that you were not welcome here in this house!’ Luke’s verbal attack was savage. ‘How dare you come here again? How dare you foist yourself on my sister?’

Zan cocked his head, challenging, stirring the flames. ‘Do you think I forced her? I’ll not take that layer of guilt, Venmore. I’d say she was willing enough—with a little encouragement.’

‘So you seduced her to get your revenge on me!’

‘No!’ Marie-Claude cried out.

‘Believe what you will!’ Zan smirked insolently.

And Luke sprang, one fist making contact with Zan’s jaw, taking him by surprise so he fell to the floor. For a moment he lay there. Then as Marie-Claude covered her mouth with trembling fingers, he propped himself on his elbow, tossing his hair out of his eyes.

‘This is getting to be a habit, Venmore.’

‘And you deserved it on both occasions—when you put Harriette in danger and now when you have deceived Marie-Claude. Get up!’ Luke snarled. ‘Get out of my house!’

Zan pushed to his feet, brushing the dust from his shirt and breeches. Reclaiming his coat, he wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve. For a moment his eyes were on Marie-Claude, hot and wilful. Wild. Reckless, as if he would speak and act as impulse dictated. Then the emotion drained to leave his face as white as hers and icy cold. It was as if a flame had been quenched.

With ridiculous dignity, inestimable grace, he bowed, a full court flourish, to the company. ‘Cousin. Venmore. Your servant, as ever.’ Then turned at last to Marie-Claude.
‘Madame Mermaid. Our acquaintance was very sweet. I regret its ending. Perhaps you should thank the noble Earl for saving you from my clutches. Obviously a fate worse than death.’

‘Zan!’ She stretched out her hands, torn hopelessly between disgust for this man who had bewitched her for the worst reasons, and an irreparable sense of loss.

Zan ignored her. He spun on his heel and walked out.

Before she disgraced herself by dissolving into tears, Marie-Claude evaded Harriette’s compassionate arms and ran to the refuge of her room.

With Marie-Claude fled and Alexander Ellerdine shown the door, Harriette and Luke were left to face each other in the deserted entrance hall with the rags of emotion clinging to the walls.

‘Oh, Luke!’ Harriette flattened her palms against her heart. ‘What a terrible mess this is.’

‘I know.’ When he took her wrist in a light clasp, she looked up to see the anger beginning to die in his eyes. ‘Come with me, love. We’ve aired our dirty linen in the entrance hall for all to hear. Let’s try for some privacy now.’

He drew her into the library, hunted up a half-decanter of brandy, poured and gave a glass to his wife. ‘Drink this…’ He threw back his own measure without enjoyment. ‘It won’t help, but it might steady your nerves.’

She did not drink. ‘What have we done?’

‘It was not of our doing, Harry.’ He moved to sit beside her. ‘None of it.’

‘No. But she didn’t
know.
We dealt with it and pushed it aside—for five whole years—as if it had never happened. We never talked about it—I don’t think we ever mentioned Zan’s name—so she did not know.
That’s at our door. A sin of omission, if you wish. She didn’t even know he was my cousin!’

Luke nudged her hand until she took a sip. ‘I agree. But it was Ellerdine who saw the chance and spun his web to entrap her. It didn’t take him long, did it? I think she’d barely arrived here when he cast the lure.’

‘Do you think he was truly so—so cold-blooded?’ Harriette’s eyes were wide with distress, grief shimmering beneath the pale silver. ‘That he hunted her, to use her in that way?’

Luke eased his shoulders in an uncomfortable movement. ‘You still believe the best of him.’ A wry twist to his lips.

‘No…I don’t know. Zan was always wild, with nothing to anchor him to good behaviour, no love or affection at home. So he took to smuggling to prove a point, I think. But he was never vicious.’

‘I don’t recall any affection in
your
upbringing, Captain Harry. It pleased me to rescue you from your brother’s less-than-tender care!’ A kiss. A soft touch. ‘It’s no excuse for your cousin’s bad habits.’

‘He was kind to me when I was growing up and not very happy.’

‘He put a bullet in you!’ Luke protested.

‘Unintentionally.’

‘Yes. It was his intention to put it in me! As I recall, he had murder in mind. I can’t forgive him, Harry. You can’t expect it of me.’

Harriette sighed. ‘I know. I don’t mean to defend him. It’s just that…’ She lifted her hands in despair.

‘I’m sorry. How can I think well of him? He would have destroyed our marriage simply to keep control of the Pride. His plans were foiled, but only at the eleventh
hour. I nearly let you go. I nearly let him persuade me that you were a blood-soaked killer. When I think of that I could plant my fist on his jaw all over again!’

In understanding, Harriette touched his cheek with her fingertips. ‘I can’t defend him, can I? If we had parted, I would have lived with pain and grief for the rest of my life.’

‘Thank God we stopped him. But because we did—why would your cousin not want his revenge on us?’

‘By seducing Marie-Claude?’

‘Of course. A perfect weapon. He can’t hurt us in any other way.’

‘No.’ She leaned into his arms, letting them soothe her as they closed round her, full of love.

‘Look up,’ Luke murmured at last. ‘I despise him for what he did to you. I’ll not let him hurt you again. Nor Marie-Claude.’

‘No, I suppose not. So much evidence of his guilt. He admitted to it all. Even the wrecking.’ Harriette wiped the dampness from her eyes as she recalled the outcome of the scene in the hall. ‘Oh, Luke! I hope he has not broken her heart.’

‘Marie-Claude has more sense than that.’

Which just showed how little men sometimes understood, Harriette thought. ‘She’s lonely, Luke. It’s six years since Marcus was killed. She’ll never love him any less, and Raoul is the centre of her life. But I know she’s lonely, although she’ll never admit to it. I know what love is. You gave me that. Would we want to deny Marie the chance? I would not have Marie live without it for the rest of her life.’

‘No. Nor I. But not with the likes of Ellerdine.’

‘No. But she’s not happy.’

‘She’d be even less happy with Ellerdine!’ he exclaimed.

Harriette kept her own counsel. What had she seen between Zan and Marie-Claude? The vibrations between the pair of them, even in the welter of anger and betrayal—well, they had been nothing less than astounding.

It was nothing that she could mention to Luke.

In the terrible aftermath of the storm, Marie-Claude sat in the middle of her bed, her arms around her knees. Her face was dry of tears, her heart set in stone. She
would
not weep, but it was difficult to breathe, she noticed inconsequentially. Difficult to think. Difficult to
be.
It was as if her mind had been belaboured by a heavy club until it could absorb no more. So many accusations. So much knowledge. So much evidence!

And Zan standing there, accepting it. Making no attempt to defend himself. Admitting to every accusation thrown at him.

It was impossible to take it all in and put it into some form of order, but she had enough recall of Zan’s sins to freeze her blood. Why had she had no sense of all this? Smuggling, yes, but not all the rest. Attempted murder, no less. Deliberate sabotage of a run that might have brought both Harriette and Luke before the Justice of the Peace. And then there was the wrecking. Bloody deeds that could never be excused. There was so much he had not told her. If he loved her, if he were innocent, would he not have told her?

They won’t want you to know me.

Well, he had been right about that!

But he had not given her the choice to make up her own mind. Could she ever forgive him that? But in truth
it wasn’t
that
that tore at her heart. What if Luke’s accusations were true? That Zan had never loved her, but seen her only as an instrument for revenge? And she had willingly thrown herself into his company, into his deceitful embrace, believing that his emotions were as engaged as her own. She had seized this unexpected chance at life, at love. She had
trusted
him. And what had he done? Only cracked her heart in two.

All lies. All a cruel charade. Misery washed through her and, head bent, she hid her face against her knees. Well, she had learned a valuable lesson, and should be thankful for it, she supposed. She did not think she would ever trust a man again.

A knock on the door roused her.

‘Come in.’ She lifted her chin. She would not be an object of pity. ‘Harriette…’

Of course, Harriette would come to find her.

‘Marie…What do I say to you?’ She sank on the bed beside her.

‘You never warned me.’ That was all she could think. ‘I did not even know Alexander Ellerdine was your cousin.’

Harriette sighed her guilt, taking Marie-Claude’s hands. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t think I had to—that it was at all necessary. It wasn’t a connection I was very proud of after all that had happened.’ She grimaced a little. ‘And I suppose I never thought this would happen. But, yes, Zan’s my cousin. His mother, my aunt Dorcas, was a Lydyard. James Ellerdine, Zan’s father, was pleasant enough, but too weak-willed to control his wayward son. So Zan got into smuggling—above his head.’

‘I don’t recall you ever talking about him, not even mentioning his name. I would have remembered…’

‘No. You can understand why.’

‘I suppose so.’ She rested her chin again on her knees. ‘Is it all true? All the accusations? I suppose it has to be.’ A question. A last grasping at hope.

‘Yes. He never denied it,’ Harriette said gently.

They sat together for a little time, hands clasped.

‘I’m sorry he took advantage of you.’ Harriette finally broke in to her thoughts.

‘So am I. Do you truly think he was using me out of spite against Luke? Or even to get a foothold in the Pride again? He wanted it five years ago—perhaps he still does.’

‘It’s possible. Luke thinks so.’

‘So all his words were false.’ Tears burned, but she would not let them fall.

‘There’s no blame on you.’

‘But I was taken in. I pursued him. Even when at first he refused to see me again. I don’t think I was so innocent in this.’ Her eyes flashed. ‘I feel so stupid. He made me believe what was not true. How could I have been so weak?’

‘He is very charming. And cunning. I know to my own cost.’

‘So he lured me on to make the first move? He appeared reluctant so that I would beg that we should meet again?’ She all but cringed at the thought.

‘Marie—don’t dwell on it.’

‘How foolish and gullible I must have seemed to him. How needy.’ Bleak acceptance caused unshed tears to gather. ‘He kissed me, you know, and held me in his arms, on our very first meeting. He rescued me from the sea—that was genuine enough. After that I was bewitched.’

‘Oh, Marie!’ A pause. ‘Did he…did he take further advantage of you?’

‘If you mean did he seduce me…No.’ Which was true. By then she had given herself of her own free will. Oh, how naïve and over-trusting she had been. But she could not talk about it, not even with Harriette. What passed between them on the moonlit cliffs was too precious. Too painful now. How could she possibly talk about that?

‘You haven’t fallen in love with him, have you?’ Harriette asked anxiously.

‘No. Certainly not! What a pathetic creature that would make me.’

But she had. Oh, she had. Shame swamped her that she should have been so wilfully taken in.

Her heart wept within her when Harriette had finally, reluctantly, left her.

‘I can’t believe it of him,’ Marie-Claude murmured to herself. ‘I simply can’t.’

You have to believe it. Do you trust Harriette and Luke to tell you the truth?

Yes, she did.

So if the answer was yes, then she had to believe it.

Did Zan deny any of it?

No, he had not.

Devastating.

And the worst of it all? That his wooing of her had meant nothing. That he had embarked on it, a cold calculating ploy, simply to avenge his treatment at Venmore’s hands. Or even to get access to the Tower and the Smugglers’ Lamp to send the signal for the incoming contraband. Once he knew who she was, he had made a plan to use his knowledge. How despicable was that, to use her in that way, wooing her, seducing her, overwhelming her, only to use her as a weapon or to gain
material advantage, whilst she had rejoiced, believing that she had met the one man who could turn her limbs to water and her blood to fire. And whilst her heart had been full of love, he had been cultivating her with hatred and cold planning in his mind. It had all been part of a scheme to further his own ends. She had become part of the scheme.

What’s more, she knew the exact moment when he had seen the possibilities. When she had first gone to Ellerdine Manor. To start with, he had been determined to send her away. And then he had changed his mind, invited her into his home. Had made an assignation to meet her on the cliffs. That was it. And she had been so stupidly intoxicated that she had leapt willingly into his arms, had opened herself to his cruel manipulations. From that moment he had set himself to seduce her with such skill she had not stood a chance.