“Master Duvall.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I will never call you master again.”
He set the cigar on her bed stand and sat beside her. “So you thought you could run away with Alden Payne.”
“I didn’t think any such thing.”
He traced the line of her neck with the blade until it rested on her collarbone. “Were you seducing him too, under my roof?”
“You are mad.”
The tip of the knife pressed against her skin. “I’m going to win, Isabelle. Alden can’t have you any longer.”
“I don’t care if you kill me,” she said, but her voice shook.
“Maybe I won’t kill you,” he said. “Maybe I’ll just leave a few more scars.”
“I’m not your property anymore.”
“You will always be mine.” He inched the knife slowly away from her neck and put it beside the cigar. Then he took his father’s crumpled manumission paper out of his coat pocket.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked, holding it up in the moonlight.
She blinked. “I do.”
He held it over the molten edge of his cigar. The heat licked at the paper until he blew on it. Then it turned into flames, consuming the deed. When the fire got close to his fingers, he blew it out, the embers scattering across the bed.
“You’ll always be my slave, Mallie. And I will always be your master.”
She clung to the bedcoverings against her chest, looking at him with a growing confidence that disturbed him. She’d often fought his advances, but she’d never looked him in the eye.
“What if we make a deal?” she asked.
He scooted closer. “What kind of deal?”
“I will buy Isaac from you.”
“At what price?”
“At whatever price you’d like as long as you set us both free.”
A laugh escaped his lips, and then he silenced himself lest he awaken someone in the neighboring rooms. “I want both of you, but if I had to choose one, I’d choose you.”
“I see.” She took a deep breath, her gaze still fixed on his face. “I’ll go back with you, Victor, but only if you leave Isaac here. And you drop your case against Mr.Payne.”
He contemplated her proposal. It would make things much easier if she would go willingly. He wouldn’t really leave Isaac behind, but if he could appease her now, he would find Isaac—and her money—once he had her in chains.
Louis Gibbs had offered him six hundred dollars back in Sacramento for a slave boy. It was enough to buy passage for him and Mallie on a ship out of San Francisco. Then they could begin filling the farmhouse with more children, all of them owned by him.
“Isaac can stay here with Alden,” he said before leaning forward, slowly kissing her forehead. “You and I will leave in the morning.”
She nodded her head.
“We’ll celebrate Christmas at home this year.”
Isabelle crunched her knees up to her chest and sobbed. It felt as if Victor’s lips had burned her forehead, his knife piercing her heart.
She may no longer belong to Victor in the eyes of the law, but he wouldn’t relent until she went back to Virginia with him. She had to protect Isaac. And Alden. She couldn’t allow Victor Duvall to hurt either of them.
