His trip to Belletraine had occupied his thoughts all the way from Williamsburg to the folly. And when he arrived, the crisis at the folly had completely wiped Parker from his mind. Martha had already organized a search party when Shannon and Clara did not return at the first sign of snow. By the time Brandon entered the house, Martha’s control was a fragile thing. Brandon immediately added more men, widened the search area, and sent someone to Davey French’s in the hope that Shannon might have sought shelter there.
Brandon pulled on the reins of his mount and turned him back toward the house. All afternoon he had kept his ears alert for the sound of musket fire, the signal that the search was over. Now it was nearly dusk, and there had been nothing. He swore harshly and urged his horse to a faster pace. His return to the folly was brief. He set out again once he had taken up a torch and assured Martha that he was not abandoning the search.
After Clara had fallenasleep in the crook of Shannon’s arm, Parker ordered Shannon to get up from the bed and join him at the table. The swelling in her ankle had lessened, and though walking was painful, Shannon exaggerated the effect of the injury. Pretending weakness at this point seemed her best defense. If she could convince Parker she was helpless and lower his guard, there may be an opportunity to escape when he went to sleep himself. Shannon had given a lot of thought to the matter while she ate the dinner Parker had prepared. His horse was tethered in the back. She would take Clara and leave the cabin as soon as Parker was asleep. Shannon considered her chances of surviving the elements infinitely better than her chances of surviving what Parker had planned.
“Sit down,” he said brusquely, pointing to the chair across the table from him. “There.” He leaned back in his own chair, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes skimmed her body and rested on her bare ankle. “Still smarts a bit, does it?”
“More than a bit,” Shannon murmured. “There was no need to make me come here. If you had lowered your voice, Clara would not have been disturbed.”
“And you would have been comfortable. Is that so important to you?”
“On occasion.” She stretched out her leg, grimacing as she did so. “Brandon will find us. Clara and I left the folly this morning. There will be men looking everywhere for us.”
“No one has found you yet,” he pointed out calmly, watching her face closely. There was no color in her cheeks, but as a result of her recent efforts to leave the bed, her skin beaded with perspiration and glowed in the firelight. She did not seem at all perturbed by his statement. “The weather is in my favor. And now darkness. Clara mentioned at dinner that Bran had gone to town this morning. Most likely he’s trapped there by the snow. Not that it matters much. I think Bran’s forgotten all about this place anyway.”
“No. No, he hasn’t. How do you think we found it? Oh, I didn’t know this cabin existed, but Clara did. Brandon pointed it out to her not long ago. When he remembers that, and he will, he’ll at least explore the possibility that we might be here. You mistake the situation if you believe this weather will keep Bran away from the folly. You underestimate your brother’s tenacity.” She saw that rankled her captor, and pressed on. “When he discovers Clara and I are gone, he will look for us. I think it would be better if you left, Parker. Clara and I will manage on our own until my husband arrives.”
Parker was genuinely amused by her proposal. “Leave? In this storm? After I admitted what I did about Rory? Somehow I can’t imagine you keeping your silence. It wouldn’t be long before Sir James returned to Belletraine.”
“It would only be my word against yours,” she reminded him. “You could still deny everything. That’s supposing I said anything at all.”
“This conversation is absurd. I have no intention of leaving. I couldn’t be more pleased with this turn of events.”
“Brandon will kill you, Parker.”
“Not while I have Clara.” He reached across the table and cupped Shannon’s chin in his hand. “Not while I have you.” He released her face and let her think about that.
“What is it you want from him?”
“An exchange of sorts. Clara for the deed to the folly.” He paused fractionally, and one corner of his mouth lifted in a parody of a smile. “And one additional trade. An eye for an eye, as it were. Your life for Aurora’s.”
“But my sister is dead.”
Parker’s emerald eyes glinted. “Precisely.”
Shannon realized in that moment Parker was quite mad. What he was asking for was impossible, and he did not seem to know it. He had lost sight of everything in his bid for the folly. How did Parker expect to hold on to the folly if he murdered her? “Brandon will not agree to what you ask.”
“I may not give him a chance. Your life may already be forfeit when I speak to him about Clara.”
Shannon forced herself not to flinch from his steady regard. He found some perverse pleasure in trying to frighten her, and on this count she refused to grant him the satisfaction. Her bravado was feigned, however, for beneath the table her legs trembled. The assurance with which she had spoken earlier was also pretense. She thought it was very likely that Brandon had decided to stay in town because of the snow, and while she knew there would be others from the folly searching for her, she doubted they would think to extend their search so far from the house. She had to believe it was otherwise, that Brandon had returned home. As long as she believed that, she trusted him to find her and Clara. He would not rest until he had done so. “Brandon doesn’t even think Clara is his daughter,” she lied. “What makes you so certain that he will give you the folly for her?”
Parker dismissed her statement with a short bark of derisive laughter. “Clara is his daughter, and if he chooses to think otherwise, then he will lose her. I think Rory would be pleased if she knew how well she had planted those doubts in Bran’s mind.”
“Then you did not know my sister,” Shannon said firmly.
A white line of tension formed around Parker’s mouth. “I did. Or I did until you exerted your influence on her. I’m not of a mind to forgive that. The folly would have been mine if she hadn’t betrayed me. You caused her to do that.”
“Aurora’s decision was her own. I did nothing. But I can tell you that she didn’t regret what she had done, Parker. I think she must have known the folly meant more to you than she did. She was only a means to an end for you, and it wasn’t enough for her.” Shannon bit off her next thought, sensing she had pushed Parker too far. His jaw was rigid with anger, his face unnaturally flushed.
“You know nothing about it.” His voice was soft and menacing because of it. “Nothing. She fell in easily enough with my plan when I first proposed it. Aurora was intrigued, even excited, when I told her that Bran had taken a mistress in her image. She saw the possibilities almost before I laid them out to her.” Parker’s chair scraped against the floor as he pushed back from the table. He rounded it slowly, commanding Shannon’s glance all the while. When he was beside her, he rested his hip on the edge and looked down on her from the superior position he held. One hand reached out and removed the pins that kept Shannon’s hair coiled to her head. His thumb brushed the curve of her cheek. “Her vanity was touched, I think, that Brandon would choose a mistress so much like herself.”
“How did you know what I looked like?” Shannon asked, keeping her voice low and gentle in an effort to calm Parker. She held herself very still as he brushed aside the dark curtain of her hair and let it fall over her back.
“Cody told me.”
Shannon’s head twisted sharply away from Parker’s touch. “That is a lie.”
He tilted his head to one side consideringly. “Not precisely,” he said, tipping her face toward him again. “Cody has a regrettable habit of speaking his mind in the bedroom. Are you familiar with Annie Jones?” When Shannon nodded, he continued. “Then you understand how I was able to learn about you. It is unfortunate that Cody did not know for some time that you were Aurora’s sister. Rory learned it herself before I did. It made no difference to me, but I think she felt otherwise. At first it amused her. She would visit me here on her morning rides and tell me how simply she had taken you in with her tears and protests. Brandon and Cody were less convinced as to her sincerity, but she had no doubts about you.” Parker’s fingers pressed tightly on Shannon’s jaw. “She laughed about that, called you a fool. Aurora had no qualms about proceeding with our plan to kill you and fix Brandon with the blame…not until the end. What did you do to her? How did you force her to betray me?”
