“Fool!” Kenna shouted, running to Nick’s side, unafraid of Mason’s pistol any longer. Once fired, it was useless until he reloaded. Kenna dropped to her knees, her head snapping up when she saw Victorine step into the chamber. “Oh, why did you come here? Look what has—” She broke off abruptly as she noticed the pistol Victorine held in a tight double grip. Her weapon was pointed directly at Mason’s chest.
Mason had seen the pistol before Kenna and he decided upon his action quickly. He kicked the lantern at his feet, sending it skidding wildly toward Victorine. At the same time, he dove for Kenna, using her body to shield him. Startled, Victorine stumbled backward as she tried to avoid the lantern. She fell against the stone, releasing the spring, and it rolled easily into place, blocking the exit she had planned for Kenna and Nicholas.
Mason stood up, bringing Kenna to her feet in front of him. “Your calm surprises me, Victorine. I thought you would fire your weapon. But look at this situation carefully. You still have a primed pistol and I have Kenna. It would appear we have a stalemate”
Tears sprang to Victorine’s eyes but she did not lower the pistol. “You are a proper bastard, Mason.”
“A popular opinion this evening,” he said easily, getting to his feet and dragging Kenna with him. “Give me the valise and I’ll bid youau revoir.”
“If you want it, you will have to get it yourself.”
Kenna was frightened for her stepmother. The pistol seemed impossibly heavy for her thin arms to support much longer “Let him have it, Victorine,” Kenna said. “What can it matter now?”
“It matters, Kenna. Once he has it he will kill us.”
“But his pistol—”
“Mason is never without a knife. Isn’t that so, Mason?”
Mason grinned. “You know me so well, but then our association goes back many years, doesn’t it? Mayhap you wish me to explain it to Kenna?”
“I wish you to cut her bonds.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Cut them, Mason.”
He shrugged. Watching Victorine carefully, he slowly pulled his knife from where it was sheathed against his calf inside his right boot. He cut the ropes at Kenna’s wrists but did not let her go. Placing one arm across her chest, he held her back while he pointed the tip of the blade beneath her chin. “I have done as you asked, Victorine, though I fail to see what you have gained.”
What Victorine had gained was the possibility that Kenna could defend herself. Before her bonds were cut she hadn’t the remotest chance of doing anything to save herself. “Now release Kenna and I will give you the valise.”
Mason shook his head. “And shoot me when I pick it up. I have not forgotten that you can use that thing, though perhaps Kenna has. You are not so successful at distances—witness how you missed Kenna in the wood and shot that old poacher instead—but you are more than competent at this range, aren’t you, Victorine?”
Kenna gasped, her features contorting in a mixture of pain and horror at her stepmother’s betrayal. The last veil over her memory was lifted. She closed her eyes briefly and in milliseconds she saw what she had never seen before: Victorine picking up the pistol that her father had dropped a moment before the lantern was extinguished. Kenna opened her eyes and stared hard and accusingly at Victorine. “You killed my father! You murdered your husband!”
Mason tightened his grip on Kenna. “You are half right,” he said. “She shot Robert Dunne but she did not murder her husband.” He jerked his chin in Victorine’s direction. “Tell Kenna why we were here that night.”
Victorine’s thin shoulders sagged a little. The pistol wavered as her arms slackened. “I came with Mason to discover word of my husband, the Comte Dussault.”
“But—” Kenna’s protest was cut short as Mason pressed his blade more firmly against her neck.
Victorine did not seem to notice Mason’s action, nor that he was slowly, cautiously, moving himself and Kenna toward the valise. She continued to speak, her voice low and strained. “I know you thought I was a widow. Everyone did. But my husband was still alive in France…I would have done anything to see him released…and I did. I was told I could save him by coming to England and acquiring information for the Bonapartists. I accepted Robert’s marriage proposal because I thought it would give me access to what I needed. I never intended to care for him, Kenna, but I could not help myself.”
“He loved you,” Kenna said. “He tried to protect you that night.”
“I know.” Her head dropped forward as she stared at the ground. “He knew more about me than I had ever suspected. He slowly realized my purpose in England and gave me bits of useless information.”
Kenna looked away from Victorine to the unconscious form of her brother. The darkening flower of blood on his shoulder needed attending. “That is when you turned to Nick.”
“Yes. But it was not what you think. Nick was simply infatuated with me and I used it against him, teasing him along. Until his own sense of guilt played upon him, Nick was unwittingly helpful.”
“Then who was with you in the summerhouse?”
A single tear trickled down Victorine’s cheek as she lifted her head. In the lantern light her complexion was sallow. “Mason,” she said quietly. “Mason was my lover. Not that I wished him to be, but because I had no real choice. Even before I came to England, Mason was using me. I laid with him because he saw to it that my husband was not tortured.” She glared at Mason. “He made no such promises about my parents. They were murdered by the Bonapartists. As was my husband, eventually.” Victorine came out of her reverie suddenly, tightening her grip on the pistol. “Stay there, Mason!”
Mason halted but he began talking, lowering Victorine’s guard as he filled in the gaps for Kenna. “Victorine arranged that I should wear the same costume as Nick at the masque. It was merely a precaution to throw suspicion toward Nick and away from me. She said she had important information to give our contacts so she took me through the passage which Robert had shown to her and I responded to the signal from the ship. But she had lied to me. She only wanted news of her husband. Unknown to either of us your father followed.”
“It was an accident, Kenna!” Victorine said. “You must believe me! It was an accident! I picked up one of the pistols Robert dropped when Mason hit him. The lantern went out and I could no longer see. You know what it was like. I was so frightened! I did not know I had fired the pistol until your father fell against me. I screamed and one of our contacts found me and pulled me away from Robert.”
