Virginia Henley (23 page)

For Kitty the week passed without incident until the last day of their stay. She breakfasted early to avoid everyone, but as luck would have it, two of the young men were up before her. Her interest was caught when she overheard Ninian say, “That was the most ingenious peephole I’ve ever looked through.”

“I agree,” replied Basil. “When they are in the ceiling like that, you get a view of the whole bedroom; nothing is hidden.”

“The most glorious black curls!”

“Tantalizing buttocks.”

Kitty was outraged to think she had been spied upon while undressing, and by the sounds of it at Simon’s instigation. Her dander was up now and she was damned if she would tolerate such behavior beneath her roof. She stepped into view and said, “Well, the more fools, the more fun, so they say. You can both pack up and leave now, and that goes for the rest of your stupid friends,” she ordered.

“I’ll tell you what it is, Basil: She’s jealous,” jeered Ninian.

“No, just low-bred,” drawled Basil, whereupon Kitty sent him a ringing blow across his ear and stormed from the room.

What she needed was a brisk ride and some fresh air, she decided. She put on riding breeches and a jacket and took up her riding crop. Simon burst into her room and she could see immediately that he was as angry as she was herself. He wore only a silk dressing gown negligently belted and as he advanced upon her she knew he had nothing on beneath it.

“You’ve insulted my friends and I intend to punish you for it,” he threatened. Kitty was damned if he was going to thrash her bare bottom again, so she struck out at him with the riding crop. His eyes got that certain gleam in them and he became instantly aroused. Kitty hit out at him again and his robe fell away from his body, exposing his erect member to the horrified Kitty. She lashed out with the quirt, forcing herself to stand her ground.

“The elastic of my patience just snapped! Get out! Don’t ever enter my room again under any circumstances. If your precious friends are so important to you, you’d best get the hell to London after them, because I can’t bear the sight of you.”

“Maybe I will,” he said menacingly, but all the fight had gone out of him. After she had bathed and changed, she discovered that Simon had departed for London and taken Terrance with him. A swell of relief swept over her and she fervently hoped he would stay away for a month. As she sat arranging her hair, Mrs. Hobson came to her, upset and agitated.

“Mr. Hobson has been looking worse and worse since I buried them blue marbles, ma’am. I do fear that the spell has come back on me. What can I do?” she pleaded. Kitty fully
realized that Mrs. Hobson had fallen prey to the only danger that spells and superstition represented. If one believed in them, only then could they do any harm.

“Mrs. Hobson, you must dig up the marbles immediately,” she urged.

Mrs. Hobson shook her head. “It did no good. I dug them up yesterday, and this morning Hobson took to his bed. I don’t like the looks of him. You must take the spell off! You’re a Gypsy—you can help me,” she said fervently.

“All right, Mrs. Hobson. It’s really very simple.”

Kitty’s mind raced as she sought out a little ritual that would convince the woman. “You must take the front-door key and place it in your Bible. Mr. Hobson will be better almost immediately.”

“Will it work?” she asked hopefully.

“Oh, yes,” Kitty assured her firmly. “Keys are ancient magic symbols and placing one in a Bible can lift any spell.”

A week hadn’t elapsed before Simon returned with more dissolute friends in tow. They were gambling in the library, and his pockets were empty, so he put up Kitty for grabs. Only the thought that he had lost again angered him; he gave not a fig for what he had lost.

“Christ, you’re a lucky dog, Savage!” the winner was told by his companions.

“Fortune favors the bold, so I’m told,” the cruel-looking youth retorted. He added with a sneer, “I hope your wife measures up better than this stuff we’re drinking. It tastes like stallion piss!”

Simon eyed Duke Savage sullenly. Duke wasn’t as far gone in his cups as the others, and although the thought of Kitty whetted his appetite thoroughly, he was shrewd enough to realize Simon would be jealous. Simon would reason that
whatever the Duke and Kitty could enjoy, the Duke and Simon could enjoy more!

Duke Savage also realized Kitty’s brother Terry would present a problem. They all expected Duke to collect his bet tonight so the rest could get their kicks as voyeurs, but Savage had a better plan. After everyone had left for London tomorrow, he would double back and take her at his leisure.

Terrance knew better than to act anything except indifferent. When the revelers got to the point in their drinking where he wouldn’t be missed, Terrance slipped away to warn Kitty.

“Terry, I thought nothing Simon did could shock me anymore, but I was wrong.”

“Well, the Duke of Savage is the one who has won you.”

“Terry, he isn’t a duke. That’s just his nickname,” she answered unhappily.

“Do you know, Kitty, I lie awake at night, planning to kill Simon.”

“Oh, God, Terrance, not you too? Promise me you won’t do anything foolish? I’ll figure a way to get us out of all this. Anyway, Duke Savage is a more pressing problem than Simon. I’ll be sure my door is bolted tonight. Come with me now and we’ll make sure no one’s hiding in that hideous wardrobe. It frightens me to death. I swear I’ll get it moved tomorrow.” She kissed him good night, then firmly threw the bolt and didn’t undo it again until after the hour of noon the next day. By this time all had departed for London and she was left alone with the Hobsons. Mr. Hobson had fully recovered as a result of Kitty’s “magic,” and the couple would gratefully do anything Kitty wished.

“Mr. Hobson, I would like you to go over to the farm and get a couple of those really hefty, strong farmboys for me. I want that big wardrobe moved out of my bedroom. I don’t
have many clothes anyway, and that thing gives me the shivers.”

“I’ll go over now, then, and get a couple of the lads. You might have to wait until they’re finished their chores.”

“I might as well walk over to the farm with you. We need some eggs,” said Mrs. Hobson. “I’ll just go and get my basket.”

It was a warm day and as Kitty was getting a drink from the kitchen she heard an unfamiliar step behind her. She whirled about to face Duke Savage. In one illuminating second that seemed suspended in time, his purpose became crystal clear. Pretense would have been ridiculous as she looked at the sensual curve of his mouth and knew he was already aroused.

“I’m not alone here,” lied Kitty.

He cocked an amused eyebrow. “On the contrary, my dear, I’ve just seen them leave for the farm. We are completely alone.”

The air of lust in the room was almost tangible. His face was brazen and knowing with an unmistakable leer.

“To pay a gambling debt is a point of honor,” he whispered, and a lynx at bay could not have given her a crueler glance.

“Honor?” she mocked. “I’ll swear you know little of honor.”

“I know much of other things, sweetheart.” He reached out easily to encircle her waist and draw her body up against his. As his hand covered her breast, she let out a piercing scream, so he quickly bent his head and cut off the sound by covering her mouth with his. He did not release her mouth until he thought she might be in danger of suffocation. He then proceeded to tell her what he intended to do with her in graphic words, hoping she would relish the hinted indecencies. She was trembling now, but feared to fight him in case
she enflamed him to madness. She hoped that by keeping calm she could postpone the violence that seemed inevitable. He caressed her breasts and whispered, “I bet you enjoy a good roll in the hay, don’t you, sweet? I know Simon’s no bloody use to you. You must be mad for it by now.”

Kitty made a desperate effort to break away from him.

“You’re not struggling, are you?” He pulled up a straight-backed chair and forced her down upon it none too gently. He took off his neckcloth and bound her wrists to the chair behind her.

“Like a spot of bondage, do you?” he teased.

He was standing behind her and Kitty shuddered with revulsion as she felt him pressing his erection against her back. He came around to face her, his eyes upon her mouth. “With a little cooperation on your part, we can get the first thing I want done without untying you or even mussing up your clothes.” His fingers started to unbutton his trousers.

Although Kitty had had no experience of this sort of thing before, she was left in no doubt of his meaning. She raised her eyes to his and said very clearly, “Duke Savage, if you put that thing anywhere near my mouth, I promise you I shall bite it off! I’ll maul it so badly it will never work again. It will give me the greatest pleasure to ruin you for life!”

He knew she meant it, and a grudging admiration came into his eyes. “Come then, I’ll take you up to bed. That way we’ll both enjoy it.”

He lifted her in his arms and started for the stairs when Mr. Hobson came in with two young giants. Duke Savage set her on her feet at once as one of them asked, “Was there something you wanted us to shift, ma’am?”

“Yes, this gentleman. Kindly take him off our property and give him a bloody good beating.”

Savage turned pale green. “They wouldn’t dare. I’d press charges!”

“Shut your cake hole!” one of the farmhands said bluntly.

“Are you sure that’s what you want us to do, ma’am?”

Kitty looked Savage straight in the eye and said sweetly, “Put the boots to him!”

Terrance was determined upon his course. He wasn’t going to let one more day pass without informing Patrick of Kitty’s plight. As soon as they arrived in London Terrance gave Simon the slip and wondered whether it was better to try to catch Patrick at home or at his office. Terrance finally decided to try the latter, as he probably spent as little time as possible under his sister’s roof, even though the house in Cadogen Square was his.

Patrick greeted him with raised eyebrows. “Terrance! Your very presence tells me something must be wrong.”

Terry nodded miserably. “It’s about Simon.” He hesitated.

“Go on,” Patrick said shortly.

“He’s not normal—he’s queer! He sleeps with other men.”

Patrick stiffened. “Wherever did you hear such filthy rumors?” he demanded.

“They aren’t rumors,” Terry said quietly.

Patrick looked at him with disbelief. “How do you know?” he demanded.

“How the hell do you think I know?” shouted Terry.

Patrick went pale. “My God, why didn’t you tell me sooner? He hasn’t harmed her, has he? She doesn’t share his bed, does she?”

“No, she has her own bedroom, but he uses her as bait to attract young men and she is in constant danger from them.”

“I’m sailing for America before the week’s out. Why the hell didn’t you come sooner?” shouted Patrick. “I’ll just have to put the sailing date ahead for another week. You must
have known it was a mistake from the very beginning. Why didn’t you inform me earlier?”

“Kitty doesn’t know men have sexual relationships with other men, but she knows Simon isn’t normal. He calls her Kit, a boy’s name, and he has her wandering about the place in boy’s riding breeches. He even cut her hair like a boy, but it’s growing again.”

“Terry, go at once to Cadogen Square and have them pack me a bag. I have some things here I must attend to, but I can leave for Surrey in about two hours.”

“I’ll go back to Simon and make sure he stays in London. How long will you need?”

“Give us a week alone, if you can. After that I’ll have to leave. Take Kitty and stay with Julia until I return from America, but be assured the problem of Simon will be eliminated. Permanently.”

Kitty rode out a little way from the house, dismounted and sat down with her back against a tree in a little glade on the edge of the forest. The bridle jingled as her horse cropped the grass beneath the leafy arches. The trees sighed and murmured to each other in the slumberous, gentle wind. She sat with unseeing eyes, trying to come to a decision about her future. She knew she could not remain with Simon any longer, but she was unsure of where she should go. Kitty longed to go home to Ireland, but the prospect was bleak and she realized she probably would fare better if she went to London and tried to find some kind of employment. What she really wanted was Patrick. The flowers lifted their faces to the sun and filled the air with their languorous perfume. Her eyes lifted heavenward, brimful of tears when Patrick caught his first glimpse of her. Screened by the thick-budded foliage, he gazed breathlessly upon her, entranced by her beauty, dewy-eyed and languid. He saw how the thin ruffled
shirt clung to her shapely body, and he was filled with desire. Her horse whinnied softly to him; she was startled into awareness. The sight of him took her breath away. She thought for one fleeting moment that he was only a vision, but her heart lifted with such a wild surge that she knew he was real.

“Kitty, how are you?” he asked softly.

Her heart thudded in her chest, and a solid lump came into her throat when she tried to speak. She hesitated, then said with stiff pride, “Things are marvelous, couldn’t be better …” but could go no further.

They looked into each other’s eyes and in that moment their souls touched. Patrick held out his arms to her. With an incoherent cry she stumbled into them and sobbed out all her troubles against his chest. His arms were comfort and safety to her. Nothing could hurt her now, so secure did she feel against the firmness of his shoulder. When she had cried herself out, he lifted her chin until her eyes met his.

“I want you to go and change into a gown for me. Your breeches are so tantalizing I won’t be able to keep my hands from you, and we have a great many things to talk about before I make love to you.”

Her eyes widened in apprehension, but before she could voice a protest he set his mouth to hers and kissed her with all the pent-up longing he had known since they had been apart. She clung to him with a desperate need of her own. He was the first to withdraw from the kiss, but only long enough to whisper, “I love you, darling.”