“No,” Clara cried out. “Don’t do it, Julian. He’ll only kill us both.”
“Silence,” Edward ordered, tightening his arm on her throat.
Clara’s hands scrambled to Edward’s coat, clutching at it as he choked her.
Nausea hit Julian straight in the gut. Damn it, Edward was going to kill Clara unless he acted. Unless he agreed to drink the poison. From there, with Clara freed from the pistol pressed to her head, perhaps he could finally make a move.
“I’ll do it,” he said definitively. “Let her go, Edward, and I’ll drink the bloody poison.”
Clara cried out, tears dashing down her cheeks. “No, Julian.”
“Hush,” he told her with a calm he little felt. “All will be well. This is what must be done.” With his eyes, he tried his best to tell her how much he worshipped her, to communicate to her the endless depths of his love. He looked to Edward then. “Let her free.”
Edward released her, shoving her away from him and in the opposite direction of Julian. Clara stumbled, gasping for her breath before catching her skirts in her hands and righting herself.
“Go sit in the chair,” Edward ordered Clara, waiting as she haltingly made her way to the chair behind Julian’s desk before turning his attention to Julian, the pistol trained upon him now. He reached inside his jacket and extracted a small vial. “You’ll drink this now or I’ll kill her and then I’ll kill you.”
Julian stared at the vial of poison, his mind spinning. He could knock it from Edward’s hand, jump on him, grapple for the gun. But would that put Clara at risk?Think,he told himself frantically.Think, goddamn it.He could stall him, delay him, distract him. Those were his best options. And when he saw his opportunity, he would act.
“How do you imagine this will play out, Edward? I die and then what? You don’t think the authorities will find this suspect?”
“You don’t think I’ve thought this out?” Edward taunted. “Of course I have. It’s a shame you suffered an apoplectic fit like our father. I’ll be grieving, of course. Not many questions will be asked. And if they are, isn’t it commonly known that poison is a woman’s weapon? Perhaps one of your lovers finally sent you to hell. Perhaps even your own wife.”
Julian’s fists clenched at his side as he struggled to remain calm. The plan didn’t sound nearly as deranged as it ought. But what chilled him the most was not his brother’s betrayal or even his greed. It was that he intended to frame Clara for Julian’s murder.
“You’re a sick bastard,” he said, staring at the stranger who shared his blood. Half his blood if he were to be believed, but blood nonetheless.
“Drink the poison or I’ll make you watch her die,” Edward snarled, holding the vial out to him.
Julian prepared himself to strike, knowing he would need to act fast, to take Edward by surprise and overpower him or all would be lost for he and Clara both. He reached out as if to accept the vial.
And just that quickly, a gunshot exploded into the silence. Almost simultaneously, a bullet found its home in Edward’s skull. Blood spattered across Julian’s waistcoat, the wall, the carpet. Edward fell, a wound on his forehead blossoming scarlet. His eyes stared sightlessly into the ceiling. The gun and poison fell from his limp fingers.
It was over. Edward was dead.
“Julian, are you injured?” Clara’s shaky voice cut through the haze of shock clouding his mind.
He turned to find her standing, her face a pale mask, a pistol in her hand. Jesus, she’d shot Edward and saved them both. He’d never have imagined she’d have it in her. Everything he should have said to her before clamored to his tongue. But instead of any of them, all he could manage was a numb reply.
“Clara, you shot him.”
Her beautiful mouth tugged up into a half-smile. “I told you I could shoot an apple off a man’s head at fifty paces.”
“My little Virginian warrior princess.” His throat was thick, his mind and body and heart bombarded with all that had unfolded this night. But one thing he knew for certain. He loved her with everything in him. She was fierce and brave and better than he deserved. “My love. Come here.”
He didn’t need to say it twice.
She flew into his arms, and he held her to him as if he could forever keep her there. If he clasped her with more force than necessary, it couldn’t be helped. Never in his life had he been more relieved. The full, blinding force of emotion exploding inside him was overwhelming. Thank Christ she was safe. Trembling in his embrace, butsafe.
He buried his face in her fragrant hair, breathing deeply of her scent, and blurted the words he should have said long ago, the words that it seemed had begun simmering within him the very first night he’d laid eyes on her in his study. “I love you, Clara. I love you so damn much I ache with it. More than I ever imagined possible. When I almost lost you, it was more than I could bear. I would do anything for you. For you, I would have gladly swallowed the goddamn poison.” His hoarse voice broke on the last confession but he didn’t feel a bit of shame.
Her face was pressed to his neck, her arms around him in a grip that rivaled his own in its vehemence. She tipped back her head to look up at him, tears and unrestrained love shining in her eyes. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight. “And I love you, Julian. I love you so much that I couldn’t stay away, regardless of the danger. I never want to be anywhere but with you ever again. You’re my home.”
Perhaps he shouldn’t have revealed his feelings. He still had no right to keep her from pursuing what she truly wanted, from returning to Virginia. He still wanted only the best for her. He was still an imperfect man with a past marred by too many sins to count. But something about the way she gazed at him now made him believe he could be a better man. That he had changed, and that she alone was responsible for it.
He swept a stray tendril of hair from her soft cheek, caressing her with his thumb. “I thought Virginia was your home.”
She shook her head. “Not any longer. Anywhere in the world is home to me as long as I’m by your side.”
