She looked toward him and flinched. She hadn’t had much of a good look at him in the darkness of the terrace and none once he pushed the blindfold over her face. He looked as terrifying as he sounded, leaned back against the wall beside the fire, arms folded across his chest. He had a scar that tore across his face in a ragged, diagonal line and it pulled the skin of his lips away from his teeth slightly.
“Bitch wouldn’t shut up. I gave her a slap before I put the rag in her mouth.”
Heathfield pursed his lips and then reached down to pull the rag away. Julia gasped as she was able to get a full breath of air for the first time since she was taken. Her mouth was dry from the fabric and tasted of sweat and cotton.
“My lord—” she began.
Heathfield glared at her. “Not a word, Miss Comerford or the rag can go back in. Learn to shut your mouth.” He looked at his lackey. “That will bruise.”
The other man shrugged. “What does it matter considering what will come next?”
She tensed in the chair, gripping her fingers together behind her back until the nails dug into her palms. She wanted to scream. Scream the house down in terror and in the hopes that someone would come for her. But the Earl of Heathfield didn’t seem the kind who would leave anything to chance. Even if those in the house heard her, she doubted any of them gave a damn.
Heathfield turned to her. “He’s talking about killing you.”
She nodded slowly and wished a tear didn’t leak from the corner of her eye. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
He gave a thin smile. “Nowyou may speak.”
“I know he’s talking about killing me,” she whispered. “I’m not a fool.”
“No, I didn’t think so,” Heathfield said with a shake of his head. “Ithoughtyou were a woman who could be reasoned with. Who would be intelligent enough to take my offer and disappear of her own accord. But now we’re here, and it’s only your own fault because you couldn’t walk away from my grandson.”
She stiffened. “You spy on him?”
“Only when he’s acting a fool by thinking he can choose a whore over me,” Heathfield said. “So yes, I saw you go gallivanting off to his hovel of a home in London where I’m sure you broke bread with his mother. Another whore, though certainly one who dressed herself up as better to get what she wanted. It seems the men of this family have a sickness when it comes to women trying to take from them. It will have to be driven out.”
She pushed her shoulders back. “Your grandson has no sickness, my lord. And I was given time to consider your offer. This is in violation of that agreement.”
She didn’t add that she, of course, would not have taken the money. Less than an hour before she was readying herself to say yes to Alexander’s proposal. To link her life with his because she foolishly believed they could overcome anything.
And now she was tied to a chair and she would die before she could tell him that she loved him. Another tear slipped free and she huffed out a frustrated breath at herself.
“It’s a new negotiation now, Miss Comerford,” Heathfield said. “Because you could not be a good girl and take the carrot, it is come down to the stick.”
She braced herself but before he could elaborate the door to the parlor opened again.
“Grandfather, I don’t know why you felt a need to wake me in the middle of the night after I had such a long—” It was Laurence’s voice behind her, she knew it without turning and he cut himself off with a gasp. “What the bloody hell?”
He came around the chair and stared down at her. She was happy that at least he looked truly shocked. He was in this now, it seemed, but it didn’t appear he’d been part of the plan of it.
“Shut the door, Castleton,” Heathfield said mildly. “This is not for the eyes of the world.”
“Laurence,” she said softly, trying to meet her former fiancé’s gaze. Trying to will him to do the right thing. He looked at her, but it was almost more through her. Then he glanced at his grandfather and she saw the controlling pull the earl had over him. He shook his head and then went to the door and shut it.
She flopped back against the chair and shut her eyes. This was hopeless and yet she fought not to lose hope. It was all she had left. That and her wits. The earl had called this a negotiation and if he simply wanted her dead he could have had that brute who took her just drown her in the Thames, so she could still fight.
“What are you doing, Grandfather?” Laurence asked. “Julia isn’t a threat, I’m married now. Why would you have her here?”
“Not a threat to you,” Heathfield said. “But your cousin…it seems if she could not have one Castleton, she’d take the other.”
Laurence pivoted on her, his eyes wide now. “Alexander?” he gasped out, and she realized he was asking her.
She pursed her lips. “Why would you care? You made it clear I was only part of your plan to marry who you liked. My felicitations, by the way.” He flinched at the sarcasm dripping from the last statement.
Heathfield shoved past Laurence and moved back to her. “Now that we are all here, this can truly begin. The money is off the table, my dear. You’ve lost that, do you understand?”
“I don’t want your money,” she said.
