To Tame a Dangerous Lord (39 page)

“Was your concern for Gerard the reason you demanded we call off the duel?”

“In part. I also worried that you might be hurt. Ackerby is accounted an excellent shot.”

Rayne continued to scrutinize her. “Why should I believe any of this?”

“Why shouldn’t you believe me?” Madeline countered. “I am telling the truth.”

“That remains to be proven. You could just as easily be in league with your brother.”

She winced at his reply but strove to quell her rising despair. “I can understand why you would consider some of my actions suspect, Rayne, but not why you could think I would betray marriage vows by taking a lover—and with Ackerby, of all men.”

“What reason have you given me to think otherwise?” he rejoined. “You claimed you were shopping with Lady Danvers during your frequent jaunts to London last week, but yesterday you lied about being with her. It’s conceivable that you used her as cover for a secret affair with a lover.”

The accusation both distressed and stung Madeline.
“You
spend much of your time in London without telling me what you are doing. How do I know you are not engaged in an affair? Perhaps you have a mistress in keeping there.”

“Perhaps I do.”

The words cut straight into her heart. Madeline found it hard to swallow for the tightness in her throat. It seemed small consolation that Rayne compressed his lips as if regretting his biting reply.

After a moment, he changed the subject, using a softer tone. “So what is your plan, Madeline? You say you are waiting here for Gerard to collect his funds.”

“Yes. According to his letter, he plans to arrive today at one o’clock.”

“An hour from now.”

“Yes,” she answered, keenly aware of how slowly the hours had crawled by.

“You don’t know where Gerard might be at the moment?”

“I haven’t a clue. I went to Claude Dubonet’s cottage last evening and again this morning, but no one was at home. And the innkeep does not know where Claude has gone, or where Gerard is hiding.”

A long silence ensued. Madeline held her tongue, waiting for Rayne’s next questions, yet she was beginning to feel sick inside at his damning allegations. Even though his face remained stark and expressionless, she suspected he didn’t fully believe her, that his angry suspicions were still simmering.

With his former profession making him justifiably mistrustful, Rayne was predisposed to think the worst of her, especially when the evidence pointed to her guilt. But still it greatly upset her that he considered her capable of such nefarious deeds—being in league with her brother’s theft, and worse, betraying her holy vows by taking a lover. Her head might understand his logic but her heart did not.

“So you intend to confront Gerard when he arrives,” Rayne continued.

“Yes.”

“What if he is right—that Ackerby’s henchmen are on his trail? You realize you could be putting yourself in danger.”

Dully, Madeline glanced down at her reticule. “I have my pistol with me.”

“What good will a single shot do against determined thugs?”

“I will make do somehow.”

Rayne muttered a low oath. “A foolish tactic if I have ever heard one. You should not even be here.”

“What choice did I have?” she asked. “Gerard is my brother. I could not simply abandon him.”

“You could have come to me,” Rayne reminded her rather fiercely.

“I thought I could handle the situation on my own. Besides, I wasn’t sure you would see Gerard’s side of the matter.”

“What side is that? That he is not only a thief but a reckless idiot as well?”

Madeline bit her lip, although Rayne’s charges were nothing more than she had made herself. “Until now Gerard has never violated the law, but he is in love, Rayne. Sometimes love makes people do idiotic things.”

“And treacherous things as well.”

She opened her mouth to speak but paused because her throat suddenly hurt with the need to cry. To her great shame, hot tears burned at the back of her eyes.

Not wanting Rayne to see, she turned and moved blindly to the window.

Behind her, he observed, “If you are watching for your brother, you shouldn’t bother. He is unlikely to enter by the front door.”

“I know,” Madeline murmured. “I asked the innkeep to inform me when Gerard arrives.”

“And you trust him to oblige?”

Unwillingly, she glanced over her shoulder at Rayne. “I paid him a generous sum.”

“Yet he may double-cross you and warn Gerard.”

Rayne abruptly stood and went to the door.

“Where are you going?” she was startled into asking.

“To have a word with John James. He can keep watch on the innkeep so we will know at once when your brother approaches him.”

With that, Rayne let himself from the room.

Madeline felt a hopeless laugh well up inside her. Rayne was completely taking charge as usual. He was a warrior, a modern-day white knight. Even if he thought her guilty of treachery and betrayal, he would try to protect her from harm, and perhaps her brother as well. Yet she couldn’t help the bleak sensation of despair spreading through her chest.

Letting her head drop, Madeline wrapped her arms around herself, fighting desolation. Her body was trembling with emotion while helpless tears seeped from the corners of her eyes.

How could Rayne possibly ever come to love her if he mistrusted her so profoundly? If he thought she might be guilty of thievery and even infidelity? If his suspicions ran so deep that he had set his spies to watch her every move?

She had scant hope of winning his love if he trusted her so little.

Yet she had only herself to blame, Madeline thought, struggling against a sob. She had been seduced by her own fantasies, the ones deep in her heart.

Weakly, she let the tears fall during the interval Rayne was away. As soon as she heard footsteps in the corridor, though, she dabbed at her wet eyes and cheeks. She hated crying in front of him. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let him know her heart was breaking.

Thankfully, she was almost able to regain a semblance of control by the time Rayne entered. She was surprised, however, when the innkeep’s wife bustled in behind him, bearing a tray laden with ale and meats and cheeses.

“I ordered a meal,” Rayne said in explanation.

With a cautious smile at Madeline, Mrs. Pilling deposited the tray on the table, then curtsied and left. When they were alone again, Rayne held out a chair at the table for her.

“Come, sit down,” he ordered.

She risked a direct glance at him. His eyes had lost that fierce, hot intensity and instead merely looked moody and dark.

“You should eat something,” he urged.

“I am not hungry.”

He hesitated, looking as if he would press her, but then he murmured, “Very well,” before settling at the table and helping his own plate. He had also found some newspapers from somewhere, Madeline realized when he opened the pages and began to read. No doubt he had long experience waiting for his operations to result in some sort of action.

She couldn’t eat a bite, though, not when she felt cold and hot and sick to her stomach. In addition to her despair over Rayne, she was half out of her mind with worry for Gerard.

Mentally, Madeline shook her head. She was admittedly resentful that Rayne appeared so calm, but then he was no ordinary man. With his vast experience in intelligence, he was likely inured to danger, impervious to fear. The baron’s henchmen would not frighten him—

She froze as she suddenly had a horrifying thought. “What if Ackerby’s ruffians have already found Gerard?” she asked in alarm.

“It’s possible,” Rayne said, looking up. “If your brother doesn’t arrive by two, we will search the area until we find him.” His gaze sharpened again. “But you will let
me
deal with Ackerby’s thugs, Madeline. I’ve had
a great deal more experience with their sort than you have.”

Madeline remained silent. Rayne was treating her like a fragile flower again, and yet she didn’t intend to object. In this instance he was right; she was far out of her depth. Indeed, she was actually relieved he was there to help her face this crisis. Even if his lack of trust made her heart ache, she was glad not to be alone.

Still, she couldn’t help remembering two nights ago when there had at least been a pretense of passion between them. This heavy, tense silence was even worse than his detachment had been.

Feeling her despairing ache intensify, she turned back to the window to watch and wait.

   By her calculation, it was a full, interminable hour later before anything happened. In the interval, Madeline saw a great deal of activity in the inn yard below, but as Rayne had predicted, there was no sign of her brother.

Her first indication that something was wrong came when Rayne threw down his newspaper. As he surged to his feet and sprang for the door, Madeline heard shouts coming vaguely from somewhere in the inn.

The commotion grew louder when Rayne flung open the door.

“Stay here!” he threw over his shoulder before sprinting from the room.

It sounded very much as if a fight was ensuing on the floor below, Madeline realized, her heart suddenly pounding in her chest. Quickly snatching up her reticule, she fumbled inside for her pistol as she disobeyed Rayne’s order and ran after him.

He had already reached the bottom of the staircase by the time she came to the head. Madeline’s heart leapt to her throat and lodged there as she took stock of the struggle in the entrance hall. Three rough-looking men were conducting a savage assault on her brother and James.

One had Gerard pinioned by the throat while attempting to drag him out the front door. Across the way, James was struggling valiantly to keep the other two brutes at bay with his fists. The innkeep, however, was standing by, watching impotently, while a small crowd of customers had gathered to gawk in the open tavern door.

Just as James was felled hard to the floor, Rayne gave a shout and plunged into the fray, blows flying.

Gerard must have sneaked in another entrance, Madeline concluded, and so had the louts attacking him. Thank God, James had been watching for him, or they might have succeeded in seizing her brother and hauling him off.

As it was now, James was knocked out cold and Rayne had his hands full dealing with the two thugs, so there was no one to help Gerard. Outweighed by several stone, he was struggling futilely against the bruiser’s choking grip.

Madeline couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting Gerard, so she did the only thing she could think of. She scrambled down the stairs and flung herself at his attacker, pounding the brute’s shoulder and head with one fist and kicking his brawny legs with both her feet.

The man was so startled, he almost released his hold, but he abruptly recovered and began fending off her
blows with a meaty fist. One swing contacted her right cheek, making her see stars as she stumbled backward.

Madeline gave a cry of pain but surged forward again at Gerard’s assailant, more determined than ever. She had no notion of time, merely the panicked, fiercely protective instinct to save her brother from harm, yet at least several moments passed before adamant hands gripped her and pulled her away.

Madeline gave another cry, this one of protest, as she felt her pistol being usurped from her grasp. The next instant Rayne was standing protectively in front of her, holding the gun’s muzzle to the brute’s temple, saying in a lethal voice, “If you are fond of living, you will release him.”

The ruffian froze at the threat, then quickly freed his captive and held up his hands.

Madeline also halted at the sight of her armed husband looking so deadly dangerous. Rayne had laid the other two assailants out on the floor, she saw, while Gerard had dropped to his knees and was doubled over at the waist, holding his throat and hacking as he gasped for breath.

Panting hard herself, Madeline sank down beside her brother. Rage and fear were flaring wildly through her blood, but relief was beginning to hold sway.

“Dear God, Gerard,” she implored, placing a careful hand on his shoulder, “are you all right?”

In addition to a reddening throat, his nose was dripping blood and his damaged left eye had begun to swell. Despite his injuries, though, her brother nodded unsteadily and croaked, “I will be … in a moment….”

Gerard coughed again, then peered up at Rayne. “I say …” he rasped, “that was a smashing right … you
gave that blighter. You must have … sparred at Gentleman Jackson’s club.”

Madeline felt a twinge of exasperation. It was just like her brother to ignore a brush with death in favor of admiring the skilled fighting form Rayne had displayed in demolishing his opponents.

“You must be Haviland,” Gerard added in a hoarse voice. “Thank you—you came at a very good time.”

“Don’t thank me, thank your sister,” Rayne replied grimly.

Gerard threw Madeline a feeble grin. “Thank you, dearest sister. You have my utmost gratitude.”

Rayne, on the other hand, cast a dark glance down at her. “I believe I told you to remain upstairs.”

She didn’t dignify his criticism with a response. He should have known that iron chains could not have kept her away when Gerard’s life was in danger.

As she helped her brother to stand, though, Rayne’s gaze fixed on her face, on the ripening bruise on her cheek.

“This bastard
struck
you,” he muttered as his free hand reached out to gently touch her cheek.

Rayne’s face was so dark with anger that Madeline flinched and drew back from him. “It doesn’t signify. Gerard is safe and that is all that matters.”

At her faint recoil, a different emotion flickered in Rayne’s blue eyes, something much like remorse. Dragging his gaze back to the miscreant, he tightened his grip on the pistol and pressed the muzzle harder against the man’s skull.

“Who sent you to apprehend Ellis?” he demanded in that same quietly lethal tone.

“’is lordship … Baron H’ackerby,” the fellow answered
quickly, obviously not wanting to tangle with so formidable a nobleman.

Just then John James came awake with a groan. When the erstwhile footman abruptly pushed himself up on his elbow, prepared to rejoin the fight that had already ended, the innkeep at last involved himself in the contretemps and hurried over to help James to his feet.