“I don’t remember, but if I did, it did not last long. Now, enough. I’ve answered all your questions.” He looked at his watch. “It is time. Both of you come in here and sit your backs against the cave wall. Yes, you may continue to hold hands, I find it touching.”
Cam said, “You weren’t a small child and yet you wantedto kill your own brother?You’re vile, you’re insane.”
Simon stared at her, a brow arched and she recognized that arch—it was Uncle Tally’s. Without the beard, the resemblance would be unmistakable. Cam was scared to her soul, but she wasn’t about to let this monster see any fear.
Even as the words dug into him, even as he accepted the truth of them, the treachery didn’t dig deep. Graham felt no particular pain. This man was a stranger, insane, evil, as Cam had said. He said, his voice calm and cold, as if he were discussing the merits of a certain grade of steel for more reliable train tracks, “Tell me, brother, no, half brother—was it your father’s plan when you returned to King’s Head after my father’s death to tell a hair-raising story how you and I were kidnapped, and I was killed and you were taken? Where? France? Italy? You were kept prisoner? But there was no ransom letter? Come, what was your heartrending tale to be?”
“My father never told me what he planned to tell everyone, but I’m certain it would have made as much sense as you being raised by Ryder Sherbrooke and having no memory.” He paused, then yelled, “Damn you, all you had to do was die! Why didn’t you just drown?”
“Well, I didn’t. Listen to me, Simon, it’s over. Your fatheris dead. My father, the earl, is very healthy and will remain so for many years to come. You should leave and return to your life in Brussels. You know my father would not believe any tale you would tell him if you killed us and returned here to claim my place.”
Cam said, never looking away from Simon, “He does not intend for your father to be alive when he returns, Graham. He plans to murder your father.”
Simon gave her a short bow. “Just so, sister-in-law.”
“But why? You’re rich, you’re wedded. Why do you still want what is mine?”
Simon stared at Graham as if he were witless. “Why? You are so stupid, so simple, to ask me why? I should have been Vereker’s heir! I deserve to be Earl St. Lucy. My father believed it with all his being. It is what he wanted for me. It is why he murdered for me. It is why he died for me. He gave me everything. I honor him. I will always honor him and I will take what he wanted me to have. What should have always been mine.
“I stayed with my father until you showed up again, brother. And I learned everything since he began going to the house for dinner every night. Everyone thought he was coming again because of you.” He gave a sharp laugh. “Of course it wasn’t the reason. It was to learn about you and your precious father’s plans.”
Keep calm, keep calm, and so Cam said, her voice mocking, “It didn’t work out for you, did it, Simon?”
His gun hand jerked. “Shut up if you don’t want me to shoot you in the face. Everything will now work out as it was supposed to. When your bodies are found, there will be no questions, no doubts. The two of you will drown. A terrible accident. You misjudged the tides since you have no memory of them. Not long now.” He looked at his watch again. “Soon I must leave.”
Graham said, “Wait. Are you telling me my mother tookyour father as a lover, her husband’s own brother? No, I will never believe that. Your father, my precious Uncle Tally, raped her and she birthed you, passed you off as the second son. Your father threatened her, didn’t he? Threatened her if she told anyone? I know it’s believed she committed suicide. But that’s not what happened, is it? Your father murdered her when she was going to confess to my father.”
“Shut up, you know nothing. My father loved her, loved me. They were lovers until he told me she didn’t have the heart for the subterfuge. She was eaten up by guilt, ready to confess all to her husband, but she knew if she did, I would be cast out and Tally too, of course. When she couldn’t bear it any longer, to save me, to save my father, she killed herself. She threw herself in the Green Stream. She couldn’t swim.
“My father was devastated, the earl was devastated, all the multitude of people at King’s Head were devastated. I was, I suppose, for a while. My father did not kill her.”
Cam said, “Suicide? I do not believe that for an instant. Graham is right, poor Madeline was murdered by your precious father. He was a monster, after all, just as you are—his son. And he did it because Vereker would know Tally was your father, not him.”
“You bitch—shut up! You know nothing. My mother was weak, her guilt destroyed her. She killed herself to protect us.”
She shook her head at him. “What an unbelievable lie. However did you manage to bring yourself to believe it?”
“Damn you, shut your mouth.” He was panting with rage. He raised the gun.
CHAPTER 73
He got ahold of himself, slowly lowered the gun. He studied them a moment, shrugged. “No, I will not let you make me lose my temper. Oh yes, whilst you two are dying, think of your father, dead soon as well. Such a terrible accident.”
“And what tale will you tell about where you have been for the past ten years?”
“I’m considering that after we were kidnapped, you, my poor brother, were killed, and I was sold into servitude. I selected Macau, ruled by the Portuguese. I even taught myself Portuguese so no one would doubt what I told them. Then I managed to make my way home. Everyone will comfort me, welcome me home, at last. Of course I will have all I need to prove I’m the long-missing heir.
“But none of this concerns you for you and the bitch will be dead. Can you hear the tide coming in?
“Since you have no memory of this, brother, let me tell you what will happen to you two. The tide is vicious. It will fill both the chambers quickly and the two of you will drown. You cannot remain with your heads above water until the tide goes out again. It will drag your bodies with it. And thatwill be the end to both of you. I rather wish you could remember the time you and I were nearly caught by the incoming tide and nearly drowned, then you would understand better what will happen to you.” He frowned. “You saved my life. You were a strong swimmer, but now it doesn’t matter.
“Don’t even think about swimming out of here. I will be outside on a stack of boulders the tide doesn’t cover and I will shoot both of you dead and bury your bodies deep. Ah, the tide is already covering my boots.”
Simon laughed, saluted them, and splashed through the water back to the first chamber. Cam and Graham heard the sound of the relentless waves coming closer.
“Graham.” Her voice was a thread of sound but he heard it over the crashing water. The water was to their shins, rising fast. Cam knew they’d drown if they stayed, but to be shot—He smiled down at her, hugged her close, said in a low, deep voice, “It’s all right, Cam. I know exactly what to do.” He grabbed her hand and led her toward the back of the cave chamber.
Even as the relentless tide crashed into the second chamber, everything was perfectly clear in his mind. Everything from the lost years was now in its place, his rough and tumble childhood, his boy’s innocence and excitement at everything life had to offer. He remembered his experiments with his father, remembered thrashing wheat with the tenant farmers. And he remembered the blow to his head. He saw Ryder’s face above his.
