“Di…dispose of me?” Emmaline gulped.
“Don’t listen to him, Emmaline!” her father cried. “Don’t let him get to you. Help will come. Your husband will come. I was wrong. He is not the devil. He could never be the devil. Not when this beast lives!”
“Tiny, do the honors and shut him up,” Frederick ordered, inclining his head toward her father without taking his eyes off her.
Without a sound, Tiny turned and walked toward her father.
“Don’t touch him!” Emmaline screamed. “Don’t you d—”
She was cut off by the gasp and following grunt of her father as Tiny’s heavy boot hit him in the abdomen.
“Papa!” she cried again.
“Don’t fear for me, child,” her father groaned, blood already dripping from the corner of his lips.
“Again!” Frederick snarled and before Emmaline could protest Tiny kicked him again.
“Why? Why are you doing this? We have done nothing to you!” Emmaline screamed at Frederick, hoping he could see the hatred that seethed beneath the surface of her irises.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Frederick asked. He gave a swift gesture of his head and the man who had been standing behind her moved to pull another chair around.
Frederick flopped down on it in front of her and added, “I am doing this because I can. I am doing this because I am the rightful duke. I put my brother up on his high horse. I helped him build the club and the other business besides. I was the one always taking the pound of flesh, doing all of the dirty work while he reaped all of the reward and then, when he died who should it fall to but his sniveling weakling of a son!”
“Alex is more of a man than you will ever be!” Emmaline ground out through gritted teeth.
Quick as a snake, Frederick lashed out a foot and stomped the heel of his boot down on the top of Emmaline’s foot, causing her to cry out in agony.
“Don’t! Please, don’t hurt her! She’s just a girl!” her father cried only to receive another boot for his troubles.
Pulling her foot in beneath her, Emmaline glowered hatred at the man before her, biting her tongue to stop from whimpering in continued pain. Her foot throbbed with agony, but she would not allow him to see. She knew what happened to those who showed weakness.
“You are right,” she ground out, “You are thetruedevil.”
That only seemed to please him. “You truly are a smart girl. Perhaps if you can promise me you will be a good girl for this next part, I will let you live. You are a good girl, aren’t you?”
He leaned forward and stroked her cheek. The sensation was akin to being stroked by a reptile, his hand cold and clammy.
His breath reeked of liquor, so rancid it made Emmaline gag. She did not speak, only met his gaze without flinching.
“If only my brother had listened,” Frederick sighed. “If only he had given me what I asked for and promised me the club. I might have been happy with that. It would have been my own little kingdom.”
Emmaline suspected that was true, for a time at least, but this man was green with greed. As he glowered at her, he barely looked human in the dim light of the cellar with its sparse amount of candles.
“Wha…what is that supposed to mean?” she asked, the feeling in her gut making her feel as though she could barely contain the contents of her stomach. Luckily, that was very little as she had been unable to eat more than a mouthful or two since the Tillington’s ball.
“Didn’t Alex ever tell you about the accident?” Frederick asked. “The fire?”
“Of… of course he did. What does that have to do with anything?”
Frederick leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands over his pot-belly stomach.
“You didn’t honestly think it was an accident, did you?” Frederick asked, laughing so loudly it almost burst Emmaline’s eardrums as it bounced off the stone walls, “How I ever avoided total suspicion, I do not know! I must simply be a genius!”
Chapter 28
“Why aren’t we going down there?”
Alex could not answer the whispered question for the bile was sick in his throat.
