Regency Romance: The Rake's Fake Marriage (Historical Arranged Marriage Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) (19 page)

*****

''You're what?'' Radley said, the furrows on his forehead looking deeper than ever. There was a distinctly
cool
atmosphere in his office as they discussed Tyra's situation.

''She said she was pregnant,'' his wife intervened. ''Unmarried and pregnant. Tyra, I'm very disappointed in you. How could you let us down like this? ''

''Steady Eliana, don't
be too
harsh on her, accidents happen. She's had a rough time lately and maybe she needed a bit of love.''

''Well whatever she thought, she's let us down. She'll be off work for lord knows how long now. And even when she returns she'll be cutting her days short to look after the child.''

Will you stop talking about me as if I wasn't here, Tyra thought. ''I'm sorry. It wasn't
intentional,
and we took precautions. Something went wrong.''

Who's the father?'' Eliana asked, leaning forward in the
arm chair
.

''He a Russian, I met him when he came to buy jewelry. He asked me on a date. I wasn't' thinking
straight;
I'm sorry.'' Tyra was feeling ill. It
was just gone
nine and for the last three
days,
she'd had terrible morning sickness.

''A client. Tyra, you have been fraternizing with one of our
clients
? You know we frown on that kind of behavior.'' Eliana slapped the arm on the chair in frustration.

''Does he know?'' Radley asked.

Tyra looked up at him startled. ''No and he never will. I will keep the baby and bring it up on my own.''

''Then I'm afraid we will have to think what else we can do with the business. Under the circumstances, it would be fool hardly to go ahead with our plan to leave it to you. I don't want a Russian's bastard getting his hands on it in the future. You can keep your job here, but that's all.''

''Eliana,'' Radley exclaimed. But when he looked at his wife, he knew it was time for him to keep quiet.

*****

When Tyra got home to her studio in Washington
Heights,
she undressed and got into bed. She put her hands on her belly and closed her eyes. She began to wonder when life would stop kicking
her,
but she was so exhausted she could come up with no answers before she fell asleep.

The next day was a bright summers
day,
and she woke up feeling better. For
her,
the most important thing now was to protect the child growing inside her. It was a blow that Eliana had reacted in such a way, but she accepted she had been foolish. What she had seen in Dima was now beyond her. Perhaps it had been his good looks, or his money, or both. Maybe it had been the loss of her parents that had made her blind to his
shortcomings
.

As usual,
she showered, dressed and sat down at the small table in the kitchen to eat some toast and jam. Yesterday she had been repulsed by strawberry jam, today she couldn't stop eating it. She even considered having cheese with it. She'd always loved her morning coffee but from now on she'd decided it was tea in the morning. On her way home she decided she would buy some fresh mint from the organic shop downstairs and make mint tea herself. The last thing she always did before leaving home was pick up her cell phone from the table next to the front door. Fifteen missed calls from Dima. Delete his number she told herself.

Her apartment was in a block of twenty on the Upper East Side. It wasn't a large
apartment,
but it was expensive. When she was
younger,
she'd always wanted to live in the Upper East Eide because it was so cosmopolitan. Just before she'd left home, she'd looked at rents there and decided she would never be able to afford it. Her mother and father had put money away for this
eventuality,
and Tyra was able to get her dream location.

She opened the door to leave and almost fell over a bouquet of flowers that had
been left
on the doorstep. She read the card.
So sorry. please forgive me Dima.
She picked them up and took them with her.
As usual,
she nodded at the man from two floors up. He was on his way to work as well. She didn't know
him,
but they nodded at each other every morning. Wouldn't it be funny if we nodded at each other for the next forty years until we retired, she thought. So much happening in our respective lives yet never exchanging a single word about any of it. She followed him downstairs and out onto the street. There was the usual hustle and bustle as began to walk to the bus stop. She dumped the flowers in the first trash can she came across.

When the man bumped into her, she thought for a split second that she'd been in the wrong. She was looking in the
florist’s
window and not
really
concentrating on where she was going. When he grabbed her and bundled her into the gray van, she tried to
scream,
but his hand was over her mouth. Nobody heard or saw anything. It all happened so fast. He slammed the door shut from the inside and put his weight on top of
her
while he reached for some tape.

''What the hell are you....'' she managed to
say
before he put his hand back over her mouth.

''Shut up and do as I tell you. If you do, you won't be harmed. If you insist on making a
noise,
I'll have to hurt you.''

Thinking of her baby, she decided to be quiet and do as he asked.
The duct tape he placed over her mouth clung savagely to her delicate
skin,
and when she tried to speak through it, it stuck to her lips making it impossible for her to move her mouth. He put her hands behind her back and taped her wrists together. He did the same to her ankles.

When he drove off, Tyra had no way of holding
on,
and she slid across the floor bumping into the side wall. When he turned a
corner,
she
slid
to the other side. Use
your
legs as buffers, she thought. At all costs protect your belly.

She concentrated on the man. Try and remember him, she told herself. He was short and
bald,
and she noticed the tattoo on his neck. He was wearing a navy
T-shirt
and a pair of old jeans. A gold chain and a Rolex, she repeated a couple of timer to herself.

When they stopped, Tyra let out a sigh of relief. She had been thrown from side to
side,
and it had been a great effort to stay on her back and keep maneuvering her feet in front of herself all the time. The van door
opened,
and she blinked against the sunlight. The man cut the tape at her ankles and pulled her out of the
van
.

She was in a yard behind what appeared to be a mansion. It
was, in any case,
a
large single
property,
but she was unable to determine whether it was a dwelling or for office use. A tree hung over the
yard,
and a gray squirrel ran in front of her and darted up it. He pushed her to a
door,
and they entered the building. They were on the ground floor at the rear, in the old servants quarters. He opened another door and turned on a light. She saw a flight of steps.

''Go down there,'' he said. She put her foot on the first step and slowly began to descend. Her arms were still tied behind her back making it difficult for her to balance. She
was petrified
she would fall and lose her child.
Eventually,
she made it to the bottom. She was in a damp cellar. There was just one solitary wooden chair in the middle of the room and nothing else.

''How long you stay down here depends solely on you. If you tell me what I want to know, you can go soon. If you refuse to answer my questions, this may very well be the last place you ever see.'' He's
Russian;
he sounds exactly like Dima she told herself. He wants to know about the Hope Diamond.

Without saying
anymore,
she
sat her on the chair. He left her arms tied and the tape over her mouth. When Sergey climbed the
stairs,
he chuckled to himself. She won't ever leave this cellar even if she tells me what I want to know.

*****

At nine am, Dima rang the bell at the jewelry store. Leon answered. ''Hi I need to speak to Tyra,'' he said stepping inside.

Leon picked him up by the collar and took him outside. ''You've got a nerve showing up here. She doesn't want to speak to you, ever again and officially I should be handing you into the cops. She asked me not to when she told me what you'd requested from her.'' Leon's hand twisted the jacket collar further into his giant palm. ''Leave and don't show
your
face here again. You Russians are all the same. You may have bucket loads of money, but there is one thing money
can’t
' buy. Class.'' Leon shoved him away and went back inside.

''I deserved that,'' Dima thought. No point in trying again, he's far too big.

At ten, Radley came into the store from his office. ''Where's Tyra?'' he asked Leon.

''I don't know,
Mr.
Samuels. I haven't seen her today yet.

''But it's ten, she's always here early.'' He looked at his watch again. ''I'm worried about her.''

''There was a Russian here an hour ago looking for her.''

''Indeed. What did you tell him?''

''Er......'' Leon
was lost
for words. Tyra had told him in confidence about Dima's desire to pinch the Hope
Diamond,
and he didn't want Radley to think he'd scared client away. ''I told him, she hadn't arrived yet.''

*****

When the light went on, Tyra closed her eyes against the light. When she opened them, she saw the same man standing in front of her. He had a knife in his hand. Tyra screamed and stamped her feet as he ripped the duct tape
from
her face.

''Alright, Miss,'' He leaned in
close,
and she could smell vodka. ''You work at
Samuel’s,
and you are going to tell me about the Hope Diamond. I want to know all the details.''

''Please....
I'm pregnant, please don't hurt my baby.''

''Who said anything about your baby. But good you mentioned it. I was going to punch you in your
stomach;
now I won't. I'll cut you instead,'' he laughed as he held the knife to her chin.

''Okay, what do you want to know?'' she said.

''I want to know, where exactly in the store it will be held. I also want to know how many guards there will be. Also camera positions and number. Then I want a diagram of all the wiring in the room and the security codes.''

My God I don't' know any of that information she thought. ''I
really
don't know any of that, but if you let me
go,
I will see what I can do.''

Again he laughed. ''Good try, but pathetic. I suggest you think about it a bit more because if you
really
don't know anything, the best you can hope for is
a painless
end.''

Again she was cast into darkness when he switched off the light. She tried to think what she knew about security.The problems
was
, it wasn't something they did at the store, it
was outsourced
to a specialist
company,
and she
really
did know nothing about it.

Think, darn well think girl, she told herself. What have you noticed down
here?
What is there that can help you? Blank walls, a chair, a light and nothing else. Nothing else at all.

*****

Radley and Leon stood in front of Tyra's front door and knocked loudly. There was no reply. ''I don't know what to do now Leon. We've rung her and knocked on her door. If she's inside
surely,
she would have answered.''

''She went to work at the usual time.'' Behind
them,
a door had opened. It was
Mrs.
Smith;
she was the eyes and ears of the building. When she'd heard two male voices echoing on the staircase, she was curious and decided to see what all the fuss
was about
. ''She took some flowers that a foreign looking guy left on her doorstep last night and went to work at the usual time.''