The Desires of a Countess (33 page)

Noah let out a laugh. “A bit?”

“Very
foggy.” Simon scowled. ”You don’t have to be so damned pleased
about it. The woman I love told me she can’t stand me. You’d get
drunk, too.”

Noah considered that for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes, I can imagine I’d get much more than drunk if Marion told me
such a thing. But right now you and I have to figure out what
caused my sister to act so erratically.”

“Hey,” Simon took the coffee his footman brought him
with a nod. “How did you know what happened, anyway?”

Noah shrugged and stifled a grin when Simon nearly
spit his first sip of the strong brew across the room.

“I
didn’t
know about you and Ginny. She
sent each member of the family a letter that arrived this morning.
Essentially, she cut all of us out of her life for a second time.
She said she was returning to Westdale and she never wanted to see
any of us again.”

Simon shook his head. “No. That’s not right. She was
very happy to be forming new bondsh with all of you.”

Simon winced at his slur. He had to focus now. Why
had he drunk so much? His head was starting to throb.

“That’s what I thought, so I was certain her change
of heart had something to do with you. That you had hurt her
somehow.” Noah cocked his head. “But now I’m more worried than
ever. A broken heart I could manage, but there’s something more
going on here.”

Simon frowned. “She did seem upset when she came
here last night, but I thought it was only because she of what she
told me.”

Simon tried to focus back on the exchange he’d been
trying so hard to forget. Ginny had said those words, those
horrible words. He’d held her while he tried to make her explain.
And then her torn dress when she’d pulled back. He had dropped the
fabric and-and a piece of paper.

“Wait. There was a note,” he said as he downed
another large gulp of coffee. “Somewhere.” For the first time, his
eyes focused when he looked around. “What happened to my sitting
room?”

The formerly stylish room was now torn to shreds,
vases broken and chairs destroyed. Even the picture that had once
hung above the mantle now stuck out at an odd angle across the
room.

“I don’t think I’m the one to ask about that,” Noah
said with a chuckle. “Now what was this about a note?”

“Before she started her claims that she didn’t want
to be with me,” Simon said, trying his best to pick his way through
the destroyed room while he maintained his precarious grasp on
balance. “She told me our mutual friends have run off together to
elope.”

“Harriet and-?”

“Harriet and my best friend Adam Scott. Apparently
they fell in love beneath our very noses.”

Simon tried to nod and walk at the same time and
nearly went down in a heap. If Noah hadn’t been right behind him to
steady him, he would have met the floor for an intimate
conversation.

“You and my sister have been rather tangled up in
each other,” Noah said with a smirk. “Which is why you’re in this
mess to begin with.” The smile fell. “Not that I approve.”

“You know,” Simon said as he kicked at some broken
glass to see if the note was under it. “I don’t think you hate me
as much as you like to pretend.”

“Probably not.” Noah grinned as he dropped to his
knees to search under an overturned chair. “But I won’t like you
completely until you’ve married Virginia and I see you’re making
her happy.”

Simon considered that as well as his addled mind
would allow. “That seems fair.”

“So how did you come upon this note of hers and why
is it on your floor?”

Simon squinted. Had this room always been so blasted
bright? “When I tore her pocket, the paper fell. I was too upset to
think it was important, but perhaps it is.”

Noah’s hand stilled where it hung and his gaze
slowly turned to Simon. Fire glowed in it. “You tore my sister’s
gown?”

Simon raised his hands in surrender. He couldn’t
take Noah Jordan in a fight. At least, not in his current
state.

“It was an accident,” he said. “She pulled away and
my hand caught her pocket. I would never lay a hand on your sister
in violence.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed, but he returned to his search.
“If you did, I’d rip both your arms off.”

Pursing his lips, Simon muttered, “You should talk
to her about Henry.”

Noah’s face came up, but instead of asking what he
meant, he glared at Simon. Then he said, “Look at what I
found.”

He held up a folded missive that had been pinned
under Simon’s knee.

“Very good. Now let’s just hope it isn’t Harriet’s
elopement letter but the other item Ginny was carrying.”

Simon took the note and opened it. It wasn’t
Harriet’s letter. He frowned as the remainder of his drunken haze
fled to be replaced by anger and terror.

“Noah, you’d better read this.”

“Why?”

“Because what I read has to be a figment of my
drunken imagination. It just can’t be true.” He shook his aching
head as shock washed over him to eliminate some of his drunken
cloud.

“Wait,” Noah said as he read. “This says that
Ginny-”

“Killed my cousin Henry. And some bastard is
blackmailing her over it.”

***

Ginny sang softly as she rocked Jack back and forth.
He wasn’t enjoying the travel. In fact, he was inordinately cranky.
Probably her son sensed her fear and was reacting to it. Surely her
terror was palpable to the child. It certainly was to her. She
could feel it in her every heartbeat and taste it on her tongue.
Bitter.

The last two days had passed like some nightmare.
Not only had Robert forced her to write terrible letters to her
family cutting herself off from them for a second time, but he’d
made her pack up and schedule an immediate return to Westdale the
same night.

Worse, their driver was one of his choosing rather
than any servant who might be sympathetic to her and her plight.
The large, silent man had barely looked her way. She had a feeling
he was being paid well to ignore her.

The pace had been grueling. They only stopped for a
few hours so they could trade horses, then rode on. All day and all
night. It was like the hounds of hell were on their heels and
Robert was determined to get ahead of them. If they kept up their
pace, Westdale was only two days away.

Ginny wasn’t sure she would make it that long. She’d
been sick every morning and dizzy even when she was sitting in the
incessantly rocking carriage. At first she thought her illness was
due to lack of sleep and fear, but then she’d realized with alarm
that it was more. She was late on her monthly courses.

There was a very real possibility she was carrying
Simon’s child. Every time she thought of it, her hand strayed to
her belly with fierce protectiveness. A baby. If that were
true…

What would she do?

She had promised she wouldn’t keep Simon from a
child they produced together. Now she wondered if it would be
possible to reunite them. It would require the truth. And that was
something Robert wouldn’t allow her to tell.

But perhaps it was worth the risk once she returned
to Westdale.

The carriage slowed and finally pulled to a stop.
She shivered. Robert had ridden up with the driver for some parts
of the trip, but she dreaded the times when he’d come into the
carriage with her. The way he looked at her…

The door opened and Robert looked inside.

“Do you need some time on your feet?” he asked.
“We’ll have a few moments while we change horses.”

She rolled her eyes as she gently laid Jack on the
seat. He was exhausted and she didn’t think he’d wake while she
stretched her legs and possibly cast up her accounts yet another
time.

Robert reached out a hand and Ginny gingerly took
it. How she hated touching him. Every time she did, she wished she
could take a long bath to rid herself of his residue.

“Are you still feeling ill?” Robert asked as she
walked away from the carriage where the driver was hitching a fresh
set of horses.

She stretched her aching back and tossed a look of
pure hatred over her shoulder. “Will it make any difference? You’ll
still blackmail me, won’t you? You’ll still ride at this ridiculous
pace you insist on pressing.”

Robert smug smile answered her question.

“Yes, I will. You know, this would be all the easier
if you’d just stop fighting me.” He reached out to run a hand along
the curve of her arm. She was reminded of a snake. “You might find
you like me.”

She spun on her heel and wrenched
her arm from his touch. Somehow she managed to keep her voice low
as she hissed, “I will
never
like you, Robert. I’ll never see you as anything
more than the man who stole my future from me. I will hate you each
and every time I see you. And every day I will pray for some
horrible accident to befall you so I’ll be free of you
forever.”

Instead of growing angry, Robert tilted back his
head and laughed. Ginny balled up her fists and turned her back on
him.

“Such words from such a pretty mouth,” he whispered
close to her ear and his hot breath made her skin crawl. “But
you’ll soon see me as something else.”

“What is that?” she ground out.

“Your husband.” When she spun to face him, he
grinned. “That’s right, love. Why do you think I’m riding us so
hard toward Westdale? We’ll stay there for a day or so in order for
you to make arrangements and turn your son over to his caregivers.
Then you and I will ride on to Gretna Green and the marriage that
will bind you to me for life. Even if Simon Webber decides to come
and test your resolve, you’ll still belong to me.” His green eyes
clouded. “As it should have been from the beginning. Through my
marriage to you I’ll have Henry’s money, his child and his wife.
Everything will be perfect.”

“You make me ill,” she spat as she walked back
toward the carriage. “I will never marry you.”

He caught her in three long strides and spun her
back against the carriage door. “Oh, yes you will, Virginia. Or
else Webber and your son will pay the price.”

He bent his head and crushed his mouth to hers. She
fought against him, but his lips bruised and claimed as she let out
a squeal of disgust. Finally, she managed to shove him away.

He grinned as he wiped a thin line of spit from his
lip. “You have no choices left.”

Ginny held her head high as she got back into the
carriage, but when the door closed, she slumped against the seat
and let out a heavy sigh. For now Robert was right. She had no
choices.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“One piece of the puzzle inevitably leads to the
next,” Noah said with a grin as he and Simon rode hard down the
road toward Westdale.

Simon rolled his eyes.

“You’ve been saying that for two days, but I have
yet to take Ginny in my arms. When that happens, we can take time
to celebrate your brilliant investigative techniques.”

Noah’s eyes met his and the other man grinned. “I’ve
been right so far, haven’t I?”

Refusing to answer, Simon urged his horse faster.
Yes, Noah had been right so far. He’d been right about going to
Ginny’s home. She’d already left, but the servants had been worried
when she packed her life and her son up in a matter of hours and
more than happy to tell them where she’d gone before she told Simon
she didn’t love him.

At the Infidel Tavern, the innkeeper had taken their
coins with pleasure and informed them Ginny had been seen in the
company of Robert Dennison and that the two had argued.

Robert Dennison. Simon’s instincts about the man had
been right. And now he couldn’t wait to finish what they’d started
that day in the stable. Only this time he wouldn’t hold back, and
Dennison would end up with more than a black eye. For threatening
Ginny, for taking her, Dennison would pay dearly.

“Hey, are you paying attention?” Noah asked as he
caught up to Simon.

“Of course,” he muttered as he returned his
attention to the road.

“I know you’re worried about Ginny. So am I. But we
haven’t heard anything that suggests she’s been hurt. Dennison is
just riding fast, trying to get back to Westdale.”

Simon shook his head. “Why? Why is
he running? He has no idea we’re chasing him. As far as he and
Ginny know,
I
believe she doesn’t care for me and that
you
and your family have accepted
that she cut you off again.”

He shook his head and tried to fight back the
horrible images in his head. The woman he loved had been trapped
with an obsessed madman for days. And nights. He had to fear the
nights and what Robert had done to her the few times they
stopped.

Noah shrugged. “I’m not sure why he’s running so
hard. But the men we met last night told us they saw a young woman
and child in Dennison’s carriage. Both were unharmed. You must keep
thinking about that.”

“No,” Simon corrected through clenched teeth. “They
told us the woman looked ill. He’s been running with hardly a break
for two days. You and I have no carriage to impede us, yet we’re
still two steps behind him all the way.”

Noah frowned. “I understand your frustration, but we
must press on. Becoming distracted won’t help either of us. And it
certainly won’t make this situation any easier for my sister.”

Simon rode in silence for a long while, thinking of
Ginny and what he would say when he finally found her. First and
foremost was how she could fight him all she wanted, but he wasn’t
about to let her walk away from their life together.

He just hoped she would trust him enough to finally
tell him the truth about what had happened the night Henry died. He
could guess, but he wanted to hear it from her mouth.