Smiling through the tears, she turned around and started to return to the man she’d left behind, but the moment she did, she stopped, as there was someone blocking her path. “Hello, darling,” a familiar voice crooned. “Did you miss me?”
Isabella opened her mouth to scream, but the moment she did, Simon grabbed her and pressed a cloth over her nose.The familiar scent of ether drifted into her senses and she sagged in her captor’s arms. Before the darkness claimed her, he withdrew the drug and hissed, “Whereis my money?”
Isabella blinked. It was difficult for her to concentrate, although she was still ableto process that she was in a perilous situation. While she might have attempted this very outcome the night she’d ridden to Sandown, when she was actually faced with the prospect of going anywhere with Simon, the very thought terrified her, now that shewas aware ofwhat sort of man he truly was.
He gave her arm a shake. “Answer me!”
It was a struggle to speak, every word uttered as though her mouth was full of cotton. “How…did you…get here?”
He snorted. “Your lover isn’t the only one who has resources. You seem to forget thatI’m alsoaspy. I just work for the other side because I’ve found the benefits are much greater.” Heglanced around them. “Let’s head to your chambers, shall we? Itwouldn’t do if we were seen out here in the open.”
Isabella stumbled along next to him, her legs not wanting to cooperate with her brain’s demand, but she had to do something. Sheknewit would be too latetotrytoescapeonce they reached her room, but try as she mightto fight off the effects,the drug refused to abate. When she heard the firm slam of her door, her heart sank.
He pushed her toward the bed, where she collapsed in a rumpled heap, while he walked around the room and emptied drawers. Her room was a mess by the time he walked back to her. He grasped her chin in his firmgripand put his face directly in front of her. How could she have ever thought this man was so handsome and charming, when it was apparent he was nothing more than a monster?
“Iwillaskjustone more time,” hesnarled. “What have you donewith my money?”
Isabella thought of the dowry Ridge had returned to her that was tucked away in the bottom of her trunk. But she wasn’t about to give Simon the satisfaction of telling him that. Instead, she mumbled, “Ridge…has it.”
The viscount uttered a foul curse and then shoved her away from him in disgust. “The one thing you had been useful for, and even that has been taken away.”
Instead of being hurt by his words, Isabella was angry. At this point, she rather hoped that Ridge ran him through with a sword, rather than giving Simon a swift end at the end of a pistol or a noose. She wanted him to suffer as much as she had, to feel thesamepowerlessness.
“To think that I paid an exorbitant amount of money for that false license, to have it achieve nothing.” His hands clenched at his sides as he paced about the roomand grumbled,“I should like to flog that man for being so careless.”
Isabella narrowed her gaze, knowing that she was missing something important here. “False license?” she breathed.
He paused in his tirade and looked at her with all the contempt she might have expected. “As if I would wed someone like you in truth,” he sneered. “It was all staged so that I could get your dowry. Even the blacksmith at Gretnawaspaid to make our lovely little ceremonymerelyappear official.”
Isabella’s heart started to race. “But…”She swallowed, nearly afraid to hear the answer. “What about our…wedding night?”
His smile was cruel. “I have a particular penchant for taking virgins.”
She was finding it hard to breathe, and she feared she might very well be sick. She put a hand to her stomach. “You…stolemy innocence?”
He laughed. “As I recall, you gave it quite freely. Rathereagerly, even.”
Something inside of Isabella snapped. With renewed strength, she shot up from the bed—and attacked. She clawed his face, feeling a certain satisfaction when her nails scraped along his jawline and left behind three perfect bloody marks.He let out a roar and raised his arm to strike, but she reacted first. She lifted her knee, like her brother had taught her all those years ago, and raised it to his midsection. He instantly coughed and doubled over in pain.
It was enough of a distraction for her to race to the door and yank it open. But before she could take more than one step out into the hall, her head was slammed against the oak. She sighed Ridge’s name—and then she crumpled to the floor.
