“I’m fine.” Tristan grumbled and shoved his brother away. He stood—unsteady—and glanced toward the area the shot had come from. “Come out and fight me like a real man, Hollingsworth!”
Two dark shadows by the nearest tree finally materialized into forms. The descending light from the sun touched them, and indeed one of them was Hollingsworth. Tristan didn’t care who the other man was because he focused his hatred on the redhead holding the smoking pistol.
“Is this the way you have made it through life? Shooting people in the back?” Tristan shook his head slowly, the dizziness becoming worse. “You have no right to call yourself anobleman.”
Hollingsworth threw down his weapon and marched toward Tristan. “I loathe men like you. All of you think you’re better than the rest of us.”
“Iambetter. I don’t shoot people in the back. I face them like a real man.” The pain in Tristan’s back worsened, and numbness spread quickly through his arm. Still, if he had to fight this imbecile with his bare hands, he would. If only the dizziness wasn’t consuming his vision right now.
Hollingsworth tilted his head back and laughed harshly. “My dear Lord Tristan. If you knew your efforts were wasted, you would think differently.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Miss Baldwin.” He stopped mere feet away from Tristan and folded his arms. “Have you not asked yourselfwhyher father was willing to marry her off so quickly?”
The pain was too great to think. He shook his head. “I can only assume you are blackmailing him in some way.”
“I paid off her father’s debts. Did she tell you that? Diana knew that I would send her father to prison if he tried to back out of our deal.”
Hollingsworth’s words were muffled in Tristan’s head, and slowly, he started piecing things together. “Diana knew I couldn’t stop you? Sheknewthere wasn’t anything I could do to talk you out of marrying her?”
“Now you’re getting it, Worthington. And here all along, I thought you were the dim-witted brother.”
Tristan rubbed his forehead, the pain getting worse. In back of him, his brother was yelling at him to get back on the horse and leave, but all Tristan could do was stare in shock at Hollingsworth’s confession.
“And that’s not the best part,” Hollingsworth snickered.
At this point, Tristan didn’t really want to hear anymore, but the question came from his throat anyway, “What is the worst part?”
“Diana is now a ruined woman. Just this evening, I took my lusts out on her in her father’s barn and she was unwilling to stop me. I suspect she will be giving an heir in nine months.”
A loud curse rent the air mere seconds before Trey attacked Hollingsworth. Trey pounded his fists into Hollingsworth’s face, knocking the man to the ground.
Tristan wanted to join in, but as he took a step toward them, he swayed. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Hollingsworth’s second plowed into Tristan. He lost his footing and landed on the ground. The other man’s weak punches couldn’t harm a fly, but in Tristan’s deteriorating condition, he couldn’t fight them off. Finally, he kneed the man in the groin, giving Tristan the room to stand. The man screamed like a little girl as he knelt on the dewy grass, holding his crotch and rocking.
Glancing at Trey and Hollingsworth, Tristan realized they were closer to the edge of the cliffs than they had been a few moments ago. Tristan broke into a run—as well as he could with the world spinning around him—heading to help his brother.
Hollingsworth threw a punch, knocking Trey down. The redhead blackguard then searched the ground for his weapon. Tristan prayed for strength as he bent and planned to bump his head right into Hollingsworth’s chest.
Mere seconds before Tristan reached his target, Hollingsworth moved away. Suddenly, the ground beneath Tristan’s feet disappeared. Like a bullet, he sailed through the air, down… down toward the turbulent waves below.
Coldness surrounded Tristan. He couldn’t breathe. He whimpered and flayed his arms. They seemed weightless.
From out of nowhere a woman’s voice soothed him.Diana.She urged him to drink tea. Yet his mind still swam with darkness. Within minutes his body relaxed and his mind drifted to a closure.
Chapter Fourteen
The next morning,Diana was up early and dressed quickly so she could check on Tristan. Late into the night she’d heard him whimpering, and rushed to see what had ailed him, and then almost laughed to see him lying half on the couch.
Seeing him sitting, or lying there so helpless made her want to untie him, but instead she loosened his gag and gave him a sip of tea, urging him to drink. When he hadn’t awakened, she threw a blanket over him and left him tied to the chair. She could tell he was having a bad dream because of the way his forehead creased and the moans that came from his throat. Even his head moved back and forth. After watching him a few minutes and realizing that he had calmed down, she had returned to bed.
She glanced at her clock and uttered a loud curse. It was nearly afternoon. Oh, why did she sleep so long? Quickly, she pulled a beige day dress over her head and tied a copper ribbon around her waist, pulled her hair back in a coil, and then hurried down the stairs. The scent of bread hung in the air and made her stomach grumble. Tabitha must be up and making something to eat.
Instead of going to the kitchen, she decided to check on Tristan first. Would he be awake? Then again, if he was, she was certain he’d be making a lot of noise right now. Fortunately, he was in the same spot where she’d left him.
Taking careful steps toward him, she didn’t want to disturb his slumber. His eyes were closed, and his chin rested on his chest. The gag lay limp around his neck from when she’d removed it last night. She doubted he had rested any better than she had, being in such a cramped position, but although she’d lain on a nice soft bed, sleep hadn’t come and she tossed and turned fitfully all night. Knowing that Tristan was back in her life kept her more alert than she wanted to be.
“Oh, what am I going to do with you?” she mumbled. She had thought of no solution for their problem.
