The odd comment left Charlotte a little off balance. “Oh?”
A gleam came to her captor’s eyes. “Here I was trying to figure out a way to coax you into visiting me. And then, as if by magic, you appear.”
“But why—” began Charlotte, only to be interrupted by the tattoo of footsteps on the flagged walkway.
“Julianna! We must pack our bags and flee.” A voice cut through the foliage, rough with urgency. “Things have gotten out of hand!”
DeVere’s ward shifted slightly, her free hand sliding into the folds of her skirts as a gentleman rounded the bend.
“I fear—” Hollister skidded to a stop on seeing she wasn’t alone. “W-What the devil is going on here?”
“Dear Cedric’s cousin has come to pay me a visit,” answered Julianna. “It seems she’s exceedingly clever and has somehow come to have an inkling of the truth.”
His face went ashen. “All the more reason to leave the country! Lord Wrexford is also on our trail.”
Charlotte heard the note of rising panic in his voice. No wonder the villain’s trail had been so devilishly difficult to untangle. The two of them had been working together.
But in what way?
“I’ll find some rope,” continued Hollister. “We can bind and gag her. By the time she’s discovered, we’ll be well on our way to the Continent.”
“Leave now? Just when we’re on the cusp of mankind’s greatest discovery?” replied Julianna. “Oh, I think not.”
“Surely, you must see reason,” he pleaded. “This madness must stop!”
“Madness?”
Hollister’s face was sheened in sweat. “W-What I meant was . . .” He wet his lips. “We can begin again, in a place where we’ll be under less scrutiny with our experiments. Perhaps India, where life is not held so dear, or . . .”
Shifting her stance, Charlotte darted a look around, gauging her chances of bolting. They were, she decided, grim. The raised beds and jumble of terra-cotta pots made the narrow walkway—blocked in both directions by the conspirators—the only avenue of escape.
A soft laugh from Julianna cut short Hollister’s stuttering. “You’re right, my love. It’s time to begin anew.”
His shoulders slumped in relief.
“Come, give me a kiss to celebrate a glittering future.”
Smiling, he started forward.
In the same instant, Charlotte caught the gleam of steel, moving quick as a cobra. “No!” she cried.
Too late.
The blade pierced his chest with lethal accuracy, thrusting up and in between his ribs.
Charlotte watched in horror as a look of mild surprise widened his eyes for a heartbeat, before he went limp and slumped into his murderer’s arms.
Julianna spun away and, with a graceful flick of her wrist, freed her knife as she pushed Hollister away, allowing his corpse to topple onto the walkway.
“A man of little imagination or courage.” The pistol in her other hand was once again aimed at Charlotte’s heart. “But he served his purpose.” In the gloom, her eyes seemed to spark with fire. “As will you.”
Ye gods—she is truly stark raving mad.Charlotte swallowed a spurt of panic and made herself concentrate on how to survive.
“And just what is my part in your grand plan?” she asked.
Julianna’s smile was chilling in its utter lack of emotion. It sent fear slithering down Charlotte’s spine. “You’ll see soon enough.” She gestured with her pistol. “This way.”
Charlotte slowly turned.Think, think!Her eye for detail allowed her to summon a picture of the way she had come. The collection of potted tree specimens afforded the best opportunity for escape, she decided. The tangle of trunks and fronds might cause even a crack shot to miss.
