Chapter Eighteen
Asher’s heart all but stopped in his chest as he watched Felicity freeze in Fitzgilbert’s arms. Her face was a mask of pure terror, and he realized in that moment that she must have looked the same way the night she’d been forced to take her husband’s life.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his tone gentle as he watched only her, connecting with her in the hopes it would reduce her fear even a little.
She swallowed as her wide eyes held on his, but it was Fitzgilbert who responded.
“The lady came to bargain,” he said with a sneer as his gaze shifted to Dane. “And look who’s come to treat with me. The Duke of Clairemont. I thought you were dead. Oh, but that’s right, isn’t it? You wereneverthe duke.”
John tensed beside Asher, but his tone was calm as he asked, “You knew?”
“No,” Fitzgilbert admitted. “I didn’t. I found out after you’d ‘died’ and my granddaughter almost immediately married a no one named John Dane. No wonder she hid you away in the countryside. I’d be ashamed of you, too, just as I’m ashamed of her.”
Dane’s nostrils flared. “Don’t test me, old man.”
“Or what?” Fitzgilbert laughed, pressing the gun harder to Felicity’s head and eliciting a gasp from her that cut through Asher’s very soul. “I have a gun to the girl’s head. Don’t think I won’t use it.”
“Put it on me,” Dane said. “You want to hurt Celia?I’mthe one you shoot, not Felicity.”
“John,” she whispered.
“I’m sure that’s true,” Fitzgilbert said with a shrug. “But I have this one and I’m not about to let her go.”
“What do you want?” Asher asked.
“And who the hell are you?” Fitzgilbert asked, eyes shifting to him. He examined Asher a moment, then nodded. “Ah, I see it in your eyes. You idiots. Why do you fritter yourselves away on falling in love? Unions should be built on power, anything less is a waste.”
Asher clenched his jaw. “Perhaps in your world.”
“In all worlds that matter. So yours must not.”
Felicity flinched, her gaze meeting Asher’s, and he refocused. “It doesn’t matter who I am or what I feel.What do you want?”
Fitzgilbert smiled. “If I’m reduced to negotiating with two lower level nothings since the lady’s brothers don’t want to come to her rescue, I suppose there is nothing to it. Once what I wanted was power and influence. It was all I asked of my granddaughters, to marry well and grant me into the inner circles of their husbands. But they refused. I found other ways to gain power, of course, but access is harder.”
“Access?” Asher said. “We can guarantee it. I have powerful connections, as do Gray and Stenfax, we could—”
“The nameless pup before me has access?” Fitzgilbert snarled.
“Asher Seyton,” Asher said sharply. “I’m a solicitor and an old friend to the family you threaten.”
Fitzgilbert froze and his eyes suddenly went wide. “Asher Seyton.Seyton.”
“Yes,” Asher said, casting a quick glance toward Dane. Fitzgilbert was just staring at him now, his face pale and his eyes wild. “What of it?”
“I knew someone by that name once,” Fitzgilbert said. “Someone who stole everything I could have had and could have been.”
Dane set his jaw. “I think I know exactly who that someone was, Fitzgilbert.”
“What are you talking about?” Asher asked, the unease in his stomach only increasing as this strange, unclear conversation passed between the two men.
Fitzgilbert glared at him. “If you are who I think you are, then this is even better. You see, the only thing I want now is what only I can provide myself. The only thing that will satisfy me now issuffering. I want Stenfax, I want Danford, I wantyouto know that I will tell the story of how the fine Lady Barbridge is a murderer. Iwillpresent the proof. And there is no way out of that now.”
“No!” Asher said, stepping toward them.
Fitzgilbert’s grip on Felicity tightened and she made a soft sound of pain. “You want her to die, instead? That will also suit me.”
“You’ll be transported or hung for doing such a thing,” Dane said, low and dangerous.
