The Seducer (28 page)

She embraced him in gratitude for the hard choice he had made. “Do not lie too well,” she said. “Let Tyndale think that I am going for help. Let him know that I will tell everyone what I saw here.”

“The
idiot.
”

Andrew could not believe he had been cursed with such a fool as Gustave Dupré.

The irony was unbearable. The man was a scientist, but he proved incapable of rational judgment. The absence this morning of both Gustave and Diane proved that.

The little man had helped her to escape.

“Whatever she says will implicate
him,
” he said. “He is riding to his own hanging. Is the man too stupid to see that?”

Jonathan shrugged. “I think he fell in love with her. He kept calling her a little sparrow yesterday. It distressed him that your plans put her in danger.”

“She was in no danger, merely a lure to get her husband here.” Tyndale decided to ignore how thin the lie sounded. If spoken sincerely enough, and he now spoke most sincerely, lies became truths to the people hungry to hear them.

“You should have explained things better, then. Gustave could not see how you could allow her to leave, knowing her husband had met you here. I was at a loss on how that would work myself and could not help him. Still, I never expected him to be so bold. Well, there wasn’t much moon and Dupré is no horseman. Maybe they fell down a hill and broke their necks.”

Andrew hoped so. He could not count on it, however. Nor did he know just when the two of them had left. With the estate emptied of most servants, no one had seen anything.

His gaze fell on the documents stacked on the corner of his library desk. He had spent hours last night trying to get St. John to sign them. Hours of promises about Diane, and oaths of honor, and arguments and threats. He had played on St. John’s concern for his wife. In offering a path to salvation for the only person who mattered to his prey, he had expected to obtain the signatures. It had worked before. Instead, St. John had remained adamant that he would sign nothing until Diane was released.

He would not have held to that if a pistol were aimed at her heart. Which it would have been this morning, Tyndale had decided.

And now Gustave had run off with the girl, complicating everything.

Well, if it had to be a duel, so be it. It wasn’t as if St. John would win.

“Will you let him go too?” Jonathan asked.

“And spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder? I will handle this a different way, that is all. Bring him these documents. Tell him she is gone, and if he signs them we will meet with honor to settle things.”

The door to Daniel’s chamber opened. The bearded servant he had seen in the corridor yesterday entered. He carried the documents from the night before.

“Tyndale wants to meet with you,” he said.

“Until I have proof my wife is safe, he and I have nothing to discuss.”

“As it happens, your wife is gone. She left during the night. He does not want to discuss anything. He wants to
meet.
”

The news surprised Daniel. He refused to believe it even though profound relief shook through him. It would be just like Tyndale to lie about this, to get those deeds signed. No sooner than the ink was dried it would turn out to be a ruse.

As he forcibly controlled the vain hope that she was actually gone, he saw a small smile form above the man’s beard.

He inspected the man more closely. “Do I know you?”

“Why do you ask? Do I appear familiar?”

He did, in vague ways.

“I am an old friend of Tyndale’s, and an old victim of yours, St. John. Or should I say St. Clair?”

St. Clair.
Daniel suddenly saw this man in the lamps of a Parisian street, lunging with a knife. He saw him again, slipping away on a Southwark alley. Finally, with total clarity, he saw him without the beard and sickly pallor, smiling with confidence over a hand of cards.

He watched the man’s eyes. He knew them very well because he had seen them often, recently, on another face.

“Did you get her away?” he asked, as the hope began rising again.

“Yes.”

“Then you realized who she is.”

“She recognized me. Can you believe that? I only saw her a few times a year when she was a child, but she recognized me.”

“She kept the image of you alive when all other memories deserted her.”

Jonathan nodded. “Well, she is gone, and out of this.”

“I thank you.”

“I did not do it for you. As far as I care, Tyndale can cut you into pieces. Still, it will not be murder and that is just as well. Whatever plan he had hatched, I suspect that Gustave and I would have been surprised by the parts concerning us. Now he must deal with you honorably.” He dropped the documents on the bed. “If you sign these, that is how it will be.”

Daniel did not expect this duel to be honorable at all. The witnesses would all be Tyndale’s. Still, it was a chance, which was more than he had expected.

He pulled on his coat. “You are sure that she is away? That she is safe?”

“As her father, I swear to you the truth of that.”

The relief had its way this time. It flooded him, washing away a night of worry and self-recrimination. Later, if he survived, he would face the latter again, but he could not allow it to distract him now.

He picked up the documents and carried them to a table. Using a quill and ink pot there, he scrawled his name on each one.

“Let us go down. It is time to finish this.”

chapter
27

T
hey waited in the park behind the house as the silver sky lightened. The morning held a mystical quality. But for the chorus of birdcalls, there were no sounds as the earth revealed its beauty. Daniel breathed in the fecund smells and noticed all the details as he never had before.

Peace saturated him along with the new light.

Knowing Diane was safe made all the difference. He would not be distracted by worry for her, at least.

Jonathan walked over from the tree where he had been standing with the three footmen who guarded Daniel. “He should come soon.”

“What will you say when questions are asked? Surely you know that he has no intention of making this fair. Tyndale will make sure that this duel ends only one way.”

“I owe you nothing. Those papers you signed will give me back my life,” Jonathan said. “If you die, I saw a fair duel.”

“What of your daughter? Diane will know the truth. She is aware of all of the strings in this knot of betrayal and revenge that we have tied.”

“I lost her long ago. I have no dreams about that.”

A door opened up at the house. The dot of a blond head appeared and moved toward them. Two other men walked alongside. As they neared, Daniel saw the box of pistols he had brought from Hampstead in one man’s arms. The other carried a silver tray loaded with cups and a coffee urn.

Daniel’s mind flew through a whole life of emotions. He did not see Tyndale, but harsh images from his boyhood and youth. Anger began to rise in him. Then his thoughts veered to more recent memories, of Diane and her gentle love, and the sweetest, most profound nostalgia and regret flooded him.

He had lived for this moment, for this chance to settle the past with Tyndale. Ruin had been enough for the others, but he had dreamed of killing the man who had been the instigator of that betrayal all those years ago. He had expected it to be hatred that filled him when the time came.

Instead, all that mattered now was the terrible awareness that he might never hold Diane in his arms again.

Sadly, he forced his thoughts away from her. He doubted that he had much chance of surviving today, but he would have none at all if he dwelled on what he might lose.

The sun broke over the trees. Golden light spread on the park, displaying the perfection of Tyndale’s appearance. Daniel struggled to put on the armor of cold concentration that he would need soon.

The sun brought sounds as well as clear light. Nature came alive to join the chorus of chirping birds. Beneath it all, the vague noise of wheels and horses leaked into the air.

That sound got louder with each step that Tyndale took.

Tyndale heard it. He stopped and looked quizzically back at the house.

The sound abruptly stopped. Birds filled the hole it left, so that one wondered if it had ever been there.

Tyndale came forward, his expression as open as ever. He gestured for his man. “Coffee?”

Daniel looked past the tray and over the shoulder of the man who carried it. A movement had caught his eye. A figure appeared on the side of the house, then disappeared.

Tyndale’s gaze followed Daniel’s up to the house. “It appears we have a guest.” A sour note punctuated his tone.

“That would be my second,” Daniel said. “The Chevalier Corbet.”

Tyndale set down his cup on the tray. “It appears they did not fall and break their necks, Jonathan. Nor did Gustave have the sense to keep her in confinement.”

“He was very smitten. She must have worked her wiles on him.”

“Well, it changes nothing.”

The figure of the chevalier appeared again. He was not alone this time. A small assembly surrounded him. They all strode toward the tree.

Tyndale watched. “The idiotic, French fool.”

“Perhaps you would like to stand down,” Daniel said.

“The hell I will.”

The group drew near. The faces of Vergil and Adrian and Hampton grew clear. A diminutive figure broke through their ranks from the rear and ran across the grass, skirts hiked high so she could move fast.

Diane looked like an angel descending on the morning’s light. Daniel’s heart swelled with joy at the sight of her. He strode forward and opened his arms to receive her.

Her embrace warmed him as no sun could. He closed his eyes and savored the scent and feel of her. Her heart beat rapidly against his body as she clutched him.

“Jeanette sent for the chevalier, and we came by coach, but I sent word to the others and they followed and caught up with us on the road,” she whispered in a rush, pressing her face to his shoulder, twisting to kiss him. “They came to stop this.”

Daniel gazed over her head, to the faces of Louis and the Dueling Society. Each of them knew something about his argument with Tyndale, but only Louis knew it all. Their expressions revealed that they guessed this could not be stopped.

They had not come to stop a duel, but to witness one and to ensure fair play.

As they reached the tree, another figure appeared near the house. Paul trekked through the park, carrying a veiled woman in his arms. Without a word, he set Jeanette on the ground beneath the tree and she arranged her long shawl over her lap and lifeless legs.

“She would not stay in London,” Paul said to Daniel.

Louis went to the man holding the pistol box and gestured for it to be opened so the weapons could be inspected. Hampton came to Daniel and spoke lowly.

“Your ship at Southampton—I sent word to the captain to leave with the tide and anchor off the coast. A boat will be waiting to row you out to her.”

Diane’s head snapped around. “Why?”

“Duels are accepted for gentlemen, madame. For your husband, however, if he kills the brother of a peer, there is no saying for certain that he will not hang.”

“But there does not have to be a duel now. Tyndale cannot force one.”

At Daniel’s gesture, Hampton retreated. Daniel held Diane closer and caressed her face. “If it is not finished today, it will be another day. He is as tenacious as I am and will find a means to kill me, honorably or not.”

“Not if you tell everyone about him. Not if you denounce him for what he is and what he did.”

“The fact that I can do so only means that the danger is immediate. Not only for me. That I can live with. He has proven that he might harm you too. I cannot allow that. I will not leave this place knowing that he may take revenge on me through you.”

“There must be some other way.”

“There is no other way. Tell me that you understand that. I do not want to face him knowing that you are angry with me, or that you believe this is a betrayal of my promise to you.”

Worry trembled through her lithe frame. He felt it rise to a maddening level. Then it died as she conquered it.

She gazed up at him and only love could be seen in her eyes. “I understand. I know this is not your choice.”

He kissed her. Soothing peace and calm filled him as he lost himself in her. The whole world retreated and they were alone in the beautiful present, where he dwelled only with her, and where no dark past and no old hatreds could intrude.

“There is something I must say to you,” he said. “You have stolen my heart. You are my world now. I love you so much it astonishes me.”

“And you are my world. I told you last night that I know you love me. There is no doubt in my soul about that. Now, do what you must do. Should I leave? I do not want to watch this, but I cannot go if it might be—”

If it might be our last minutes together.
He should make her leave, but his awareness that it might be a final farewell hurt his heart. “It is your choice, darling. Women do not attend duels, but this is no normal duel.”

“Then I will stay, if it will not interfere. If you make it my choice, I choose to stay with you.”

She slowly extricated herself from his embrace. He was grateful she mustered the strength for that, because he doubted he could have let go on his own.

She went to stand beside Jeanette. He walked over to the young men of the Dueling Society. Vergil appeared extremely sober, his blue eyes full of concern.

“Is this necessary, St. John?”

“It is necessary, I assure you.”

Adrian looked more calm, but then Adrian had seen men die before.

“The head or the heart, Daniel,” he said quietly with a small smile.

“My horse is waiting,” Hampton said. “When it is done, ride for the coast immediately.”

Daniel removed his coat and handed it to Adrian.

Louis came forward.

Tyndale waited out in the sun.

“A cool head,” Louis said. “Sangfroid is essential.”

Daniel looked at Diane and allowed his love for her to scorch his soul.

Then he summoned the cold blood that Louis advised, and that would be necessary to survive.

She could not bear to watch. She could not bear to look away.

How calm everyone acted, as if such things were commonplace and one saw two men shoot at each other several times a week.

The stoicism infuriated her. There should be some acknowledgment that a life would end soon.

She prayed that it would not be Daniel’s.

Tyndale chose his weapon from the box and Daniel took the other. The chevalier asked if the duel could be averted, and Tyndale snickered.

Diane did not like the confidence in that reaction. She did not like the vacancy in Daniel’s expression any better. He should be angry and intense. Those devil eyes should be burning. Instead he appeared as if he were gazing out a window.

The men began pacing away. Diane’s heartbeat slowed to the rhythm of their steps. Tyndale walked toward her.

When he had paced six steps, a movement beside Diane distracted him. His gaze darted over to her hip even as he walked.

Diane looked down to see what had caught his attention.

Jeanette had lifted the veil from her face.

Tyndale frowned. One could almost see his mind searching, as if prodded by something he did not understand.

Suddenly he stopped walking and stared at Jeanette. Amazed recognition flared in his eyes.

Jeanette returned a level gaze, while her hands rearranged the large shawl over her lap.

It had only taken a few moments, but in that time, Daniel had completed his own pacing and turned. Now his pistol was aimed at Tyndale’s back.

“Andrew,” Jonathan hissed in warning.

Tyndale pivoted and faced the pistol. His own hung loosely at his side. He had not even completed the ritual steps. Unprepared, no longer confident, he fired.

The sound made Diane jump. She stared, waiting to see Daniel fall. He did not even flinch. He still stood rigidly, legs apart, the gun in his hand.

A horrible, long count passed with everyone immobile, watching, listening for the next explosion that would shatter the morning.

Diane ceased breathing. It seemed that the whole world did. Daniel’s arm stiffened straighter. He was not at all distracted now. Despite his cool expression, burning lights flashed in his eyes.

She guessed what memories and hatreds had called them forth. For an instant he was the Devil Man again, contented that he was about to fulfill his dream and send Andrew Tyndale to hell.

His gaze shifted slightly. He saw her now. The sharp lights died and very different ones took their place. The strict line of his arm wavered.

The report of a pistol cracked the silence. A ball entered Tyndale’s body.

Daniel stared in her direction, but not at Tyndale. She looked down in dazed confusion, to see what compelled his attention.

Jeanette held a smoking pistol in her hand.

As a crowd formed around Tyndale to check his state, Daniel threw his weapon away and strode over to Jeanette. He crouched beside her and eased the gun from her shaking hands.

“You should not—”

“Better it was me. As for how I did it, I will let heaven judge me. My mother will speak on my behalf, along with all the others he betrayed.” She patted his face. “Besides, I did not think you were going to do it. You had lost your heart for it.”

He had no answer for that. Diane remembered the moment of wavering, and wondered if Jeanette was right.

“Do not feel guilty, brother,” Jeanette whispered. “I am glad that he did not succeed in crippling us both for life. When they hang me, I will be more contented than I have been in years, knowing that you are happy and free.”

“You will not hang.” He rose and clutched Paul’s shoulder. “Get her away from here, to Southampton and the ship. Now. Take her to France.”

Paul scooped her into his arms and began striding away. Jeanette made him stop and gestured for Diane.

Diane went over for her sister’s embrace. “We will see you soon,” she promised. “I do not think Daniel will mind visiting Paris now.”

Jeanette looked over at her brother. “Is that true, Daniel? Is it finished?”

“Yes, it is finished, darling.”

As Paul carried Jeanette away, Hampton came over with Daniel’s pistol, peering into its chamber curiously. “It appears a little damp in there.” He pointed the pistol in the air and pulled the trigger. It sputtered rather than cracked. “Tyndale must have tampered with it. Louis is too inexperienced with guns to notice. Good thing we arrived when we did, or you were a dead man even if you had fired first.”