“Tsk tsk. Thinking of going somewhere? I think you have something that belongs to me.”
“You’re despicable! How could you? How could you betray your country? How could you kill your wife?”
“It was quite easy actually,” he said with a chuckle. “Spying is a lucrative business. Much easier than the more mundane ways of rebuilding a fortune such as farming or something as vulgar as trade.”
“At least trade is honest,” she spat.
“Honesty is for naïve idealists who lack the imagination to aspire to higher things.”
She turned her head and prepared to launch herself at the door, but when she looked back at him he was leveling a pistol at her.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“My brothers will be returning at any moment,” she said with forced bravado.
“Yes, and such a shame. Angry at the fact that I confronted you about your betrayal of Stuart, you made wild accusations against him. When I threatened to expose your affair, you drew a pistol and tried to shoot me. Regrettably, when I tried to wrest the pistol from your grasp it discharged, killing you in the process.”
“You’remad.”
“I prefer to think of myself as driven. Now step away from the window. I have no wish to draw more attention by breaking the window when I shoot you.”
“You can’t kill me,” she said desperately. “If you kill me, my father will make sure you hang.”
“Your father will be more disappointed that his daughter acted so desperately,” he said with a smirk.
She searched her mind frantically for something, anything to stall. “Why did you want the marriage? I don’t understand.”
“Because I suspected my dear wife had perhaps confided in you, or at least left information for you to find. The locket seemed a likely choice. She wasn’t exactly circumspect in her efforts.”
“So Stuart is innocent of any wrong doing? Has no idea what you’ve done?”
He laughed a cruel, sinister laugh. “Poor Jenna. Would it crush you to know he was involved in every step of my plan?”
The blood drained from her face. How close she had come to disaster. But here she stood looking down the barrel of the end of her dreams. Did it matter so much that Stuart had betrayed her?
“Why?” she whispered. “Why kill me? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I couldn’t chance you opening your mouth to the wrong people,” he snarled.
“Was it you in my bedroom last night?”
He laughed harshly. “It was good of Stuart to accommodate my need to have you gone for the evening.”
“You have the locket then, why are you bothering with me?” The questions sounded desperate even to her ears, but then she was desperate to stall him.
“Yes, I have the locket. Useless now that you’ve removed the letter. I’d like that letter back. And I’d like whatever was in the box you retrieved from Lady Dudley’s bumbling sister. I would have never guessed the daft old woman had it. But it’s of no consequence, my dear,” he said, flourishing the gun in dramatic fashion. “Because I don’t believe you’ve shared the information with anyone.”
“Of course, I have.” She stalled for more time. “I left it for my father. When he returns he’ll find all of it. He’ll never let you get away with this.”
He chuckled and shook his head, his beady eyes glittering with evil. “You are a terrible liar. You sound so desperate and pathetic. Like a woman who knows she is about to die.”
The viscount spun around as the door flew open. Gray burst into the room, a wild look on his face. “Jenna...” His voice died when he saw the gun in the viscount’s hand.
“Gray, get out of here,” she screamed.
“Don’t move or she gets a bullet through the heart.”
Gray looked between Jenna and the viscount in confusion, obviously failing to comprehend the severity of the situation.
