Hawkins’ eyes glittered. “That might be true, but she is clearly someone you care about. Her death will distress you.”
A sliver of dread sent shivers along Meredith’s spine. “That is your true aim, isn’t it, Hawkins? To cause me suffering?”
He smiled at her again, as if she were a clever child and he a doting teacher. “I should not be surprised at how quickly you grasped the reality of the situation. Congratulations, Lady Meredith.”
Meredith tried to say something, but her tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth. She glanced down and saw Elizabeth struggling against her bonds furiously. When she made no apparent progress, she slumped in the chair; defeated.
Meredith’s heart thumped madly. The only chance they had to survive was to stall for time. No doubt Trevor would notice she was gone when he returned to the conservatory. He would not wait long to begin looking for her. Yet it would take time for him to find her, buried back here in such a remote section of the house—if he even thought to search for her within the house.
“I cannot think what I have done to warrant such strong feelings of hatred, Mr. Hawkins. However, I should like to make amends. Will you accept my sincere apologies?”
Her contrite manner seemed to puzzle him. His mouth opened, shut, then opened again. “I shall accept your apologies, Lady Meredith. After all, you are only a woman, weak of mind and body. But I shall still kill Miss Elizabeth.”
“What is going on in here?”
Meredith and Hawkins turned in startled amazement toward the female voice. Harriet Sainthill stood in the open doorway, her hands planted firmly on her hips. She saw Hawkins the same instant he spied her. Her mouth formed a perfect O of shock as the valet lunged toward her.
“Harriet, run!” Meredith screamed.
Harriet’s face was frozen in surprise. She tried to dodge away, but Hawkins was too quick. In one swift move, he slammed the door shut and captured Harriet. He backhanded her across the face to stun her, then put one strong arm around her shoulders, trapping her against him. He reached for something held within his coat pocket and Meredith sickened when she saw a flash of light reflected off the blade of a long knife.
Her eyes darted around the room, searching for something she could use to attack Hawkins, but the room appeared to have been stripped bare. There was not even a candlestick.
Meredith put her hand to her mouth. Harriet seemed stunned by the blow, but Meredith could not take her eyes off that deadly knife.
“Well, well, things are certainly getting interesting. Somehow I knew I could count on you, Lady Meredith, to keep things lively.” Hawkins lowered his head and looked indifferently toward Elizabeth. “It brings me far greater pleasure to use my hands on a female’s throat, but I need both of them to accomplish the task.”
Hawkins dragged Harriet across the room. Meredith backed away slowly, pressing herself against the wall beside Elizabeth. He said nothing, only tightened his grip on the now struggling Harriet. When he reached the bound girl, he raised his knife. Elizabeth flinched. Harriet screamed.
“Mr. Hawkins, please,” Meredith cried desperately. “Miss Elizabeth is Miss Harriet’s younger sister. Miss Harriet is going to marry Mr. Wingate. I dare say your employer will be most distressed if anything happens to his future sister-in-law.”
Hawkins’s expression turned smugly condescending. “How little you know of Mr. Wingate’s true feelings. He does not care a fig for this cow, else he would have married her long ago. He will be pleased by this surprising twist of fate, for it will free him of any obligations toward her. You see, now I shall have to cut her throat, too, since she has seen me.”
He pulled Harriet harder against his chest, and she moaned softly. Meredith was unsure if Hawkins’s rough handling or his words had wounded the other woman more. She gripped the edge of the window ledge beside her and tried to make her mind function. Somehow she had to keep him talking.
“Why do you prefer to use your hands, Mr. Hawkins? Is it faster that way?” The words nearly made her sick, but Meredith forced them through her lips.
The valet slowly lowered the knife. “What tricks are you playing at, Lady Meredith? No woman of quality wishes to hear of such things.”
Meredith steeled herself for what she must do.They are only words, she admonished herself silently.Listening to them will be difficult, yet it might save you all. “My interest should not surprise you overmuch. You have said I am unlike most other females.”
Hawkins’s face was a mask of astonishment. He seemed to be weighing her sincerity, wondering if her interest was genuine. “I use my hands so I can feel the final breaths of life as they leave the body. As I hold the throat between my fingers, life slips away and death takes its place.”
Meredith cringed at the pride and excitement in his voice. She did not have to ask another question to prompt him, for it suddenly seemed very important that he explain himself to her, brag about what he had done.
“I choose my women very carefully, you know. The English shop girls are the best. So sweet and fresh-faced, yet they fight and struggle like warrior queens.”
“We are not shop girls,” Harriet said breathlessly. “We are all women of quality.”
“I have killed a noblewoman,” he insisted, “though Lady Lavinia died quickly and without the tiniest of struggles. I received little pleasure from it.”
Meredith’s face twisted with shock. What was he saying? He had killed Lavinia? Was that possible?
Meredith could barely hear his next words, for a sudden pounding had overtaken her head. Her skin grew clammy and the blood drained from her face. Though it might create a much needed diversion if she became violently ill, Meredith did not wish to test that theory.
“You killed the former Marchioness of Dardington?” Harriet asked. “Why?”
“I did not mean to kill her. It was a mistake.” He laughed, but the sound was not in the least humorous. “Lady Meredith was meant to die that afternoon, for the insult she had shown Mr. Wingate. She rejected his honorable proposal of marriage most cruelly. I could not let such a slight go unpunished.”
