His voice hardening, he said, “You will go upstairs and put on your wedding gown. I will simply tell everyone you could not wait for the ceremony and wished to be wed right away. They will assume you are an excited bride energized by the prospect of her wedding night and ready to please her husband.”
She gasped, her face reddening with the attending guards who stood stoically on the sides of the room and immune to the tableau. Hired to be blind and deaf, none of them would come to her aid. How many years had she thought of this man as her friend? He smoothed the skin up and down her arm.
“I will marry Zachary Rourke. Never will I marry a monster. He will come. And when he does come, and he will, there will be nothing in the world to save you.” Elizabeth yanked her arm from his hold, but he held her drawn between his legs. His breath was sulfuric. Her stomach roiled.
In a brief instant, his eyes took on a hunted look. Elizabeth played on it. “You are afraid of Zachary Rourke. You think you have power over him because you have me. You think it makes you stronger.”
He pressed his fingers into her flesh, digging them into her muscles. When she squirmed, he laughed. “You can think what you wish. Mr. Rourke, I’m sorry to say, will meet with unfortunate circumstances today.”
The very air stood still, simmering with tension. “What do you mean?”
His glacial eyes glared at her, speckled with brown and grays as if something alive had gotten caught and fossilized in theirises. “The prescription is his internment in an early grave. Buried dead or alive does not matter to me.”
She felt the blood drain from her face but refused to show weakness. Somehow, she had to keep up this dangerous game, this dance of words, faking a bravado she did not have. “You wouldn’t dare.”
From her pocket, she pulled the small gun Zachary had apprehended from Havemeyer the night the sugar baron had accosted her. Hands shaking, she pointed the gun at Dyer’s chest. “I’ll shoot you. Release me, now.”
“You are a surprise, Elizabeth. You have fight in you and are not to be underestimated. I look forward to our wedding night.”
From behind, a guard reached around her and jerked the weapon from her hands. Her heart sank.
“Andrew,” he summoned one of his guards. “Send my men to Rourke’s factory. Make sure to take care of the cowboy.”
She put her hands up. “No-no! I’ll do anything you want.”
“I want a willing bride.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes then opened them. The nightmare of her future shifted before her. Years of living in constant fear. “I will be cooperative. But please, do not hurt Zachary.” She hated the pleading in her voice.
“That’s the way I want to hear you, begging, imploring. That lovely mouth of yours—I look forward to our nights together. Every inch of me sunk deep between your luscious thighs. I can’t wait to teach you the extraordinary arts. Did I mention I have a special room? It’s soundproof. No one will hear your screams. Did I mention the array of whips I possess? I’ve waited so long to lay you on your front, tied spreadeagled. Oh, I will be careful. Your beatings will never give an outward hint of the lashes.”
Elizabeth forced down the irrational fear swelling in her throat. Dyer’s eyes bulged, violent and wild. He posed a figure that even imagination could not begin to fathom, a fury from thebowels of hell. Already he was aroused thinking of what he’d do to her.
He crooked his finger to Elizabeth with the tolerance of a god for the mortal to whom he condescended. He rubbed his mustache against her ear, breathing words, familiar words, piercing her memory of long ago. Raspy whispered utterances. She grabbed her throat.
Her brain hammered. Piecing events. Fragments of memory exploded. The terrible headache that impelled her to her room. Shadows. Darkness. Someone behind her. Pushed to the bed. Clawing, pushing away her attacker. Voiceless screams. A smothering cloth over her nose and mouth. Her skirts lifted.
“Elizabeth, you will have only me.”
Her knees buckled. “You!”
“Yes, it was me. You finally figured it out. You were lovely at eighteen. Untouched. I needed you. I’ve always desired you, Elizabeth. I relished taking your innocence. With you at my side, I can control the world.”
She slapped his face. “You defiled me and let me face the humiliation.”
“You mean our daughter. Clever of you hiding her in the orphanage.”
Her blood turned to ice. Of course, he’d known about Caroline.
He took a step back, adjusted his trousers. “I’m in a good mood. I’ll allow your indiscretion,” he said, adjusting his cuff. “I had you before Rourke. But no more whoring, Elizabeth. The consequences might be insurmountable.”
Elizabeth’s nerves rattled up her spine. She didn’t want to entertain the penalties of his foul punishment.
“Hurry upstairs and get dressed, or I’ll have my men dress you. And one more thing, I have someone waiting for you. We don’t want anything to happen to our guest.”
On the third floor, one of the guards unlocked a door. At the far end of the room, a swollen palpitating tangle of light frayed from a tiny round dormer window into hot darkness. Pigeons cooed on the roof above. Elizabeth searched the room. A bed, desk, vanity, Queen Anne’s chairs, a large dresser topped with a massive mirror, nothing remarkable. A servant’s room.
She tried the door. Locked. Elizabeth slumped to the floor. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. The only arms wrapped around her were her own, but even they weren’t enough to still her shivers of misery. It hurt so much to breathe that she almost wished she could stop.
