Page 70 of Her Wily Duke

“Where did you get it?” she asked, staring wide-eyed at the necklace as if it was a cursed object.

“I think you know where I got it,” said Lord Jasper. He motioned, with a sweep of his long hand, to where the grassy bank was cut off sharply by the cliff edge. “I saw him earlier that day, in the village, and David mentioned that you were coming out here to meet him, all full of foolish happiness. But when he arrived, in that long summer twilight, it wasn’t you he found waiting for him in the shade of the yew. I gave David an ultimatum. I told him to leave you alone. Told him to leave the area and I would never bother him again. I would let him escape with his life. But of course, he couldn’t have that.” Jasper laughed, a cold, callous laugh. “Said he wasn’t going to take the coward’s way. If he couldn’t have you, then what was the point of living? On that we were agreed, at least…”

“Tell me you didn’t hurt him,” said Ariana. She was unnerved by his strange calm and sure that he must be playing some demented prank. “Surely he slipped. He fell into the river. You never laid a hand on him!”

“Maybe you were meant for each other,” said Lord Jasper with a shake of his head. “Both so naïve, so deluded. I should have let him marry you. But I couldn’t. You’re supposed to be mine, have always been mine. And if I had let him live, I would never have had you. So when he refused to leave, I had no choice. He was only a step or so from the cliff edge. It only took one push, and he was over.”

Ariana could no longer deny the import of what she was hearing, and horror ran through her, ice through her veins, bringing deep fear with it.

“Why did you do it?”

She barely managed to ask, the words choking her – but she had to know.

“I just told you why. For the same reason your marriage to Darkmire was doomed from the start. It was only a matter of time, until the day when I would act.” Slowly and with perfect poise he opened his jacket and removed a long silver pistol. Aiming the pistol at Ariana, he said, “If I couldn’t have you, then why should they? I’ve watched you with Darkmire, watched as you began to care for him, and forced myself to wait, to bide my time. But today… well today, you’ve saved me the trouble of waiting any longer.”

“Watched us? So that’s why I felt…”

“Felt what?”

“As if there were eyes on me, as if something lurked just out of my sight.”

He laughed, the sound bitter.

“Oh yes, that was me. I have discovered a talent for hiding in shadows.”

Ariana swallowed her panic, knowing that she was almost certainly going to die, but hoping that, maybe, she could get him to see reason. He loved her, after all, or thought he did. Would that be enough for him to listen to her, at all?

***

As they approached the point where the road ran along the river towards the ford, benedict saw, silhouetted against the last dim light in the sky, two figures walking close to the cliffs up under the old yew tree. One, he was sure was Ariana. In that instant, he knew that something was terribly wrong – Ariana would never go to that place by choice, with all of the dreadful memories it held for her. And something about the way that the other figure moved sent a deeper chill through him – he had only seen Lord Jasper Peele that one time, but he knew, just knew, that it was Lord Jasper on that hill with Ariana.

He called the coachman to a stop, and he and James flung themselves from the carriage, sprinting up the hill. He picked up a large rock as he ran, cursing himself internally for having forgotten to gather any other weapon – but why would he have though a weapon would be needed, at the point when they had left the house?

But he was sure, now, that he was likely to need a weapon – the rock would have to do. They reached the crest of the hill in time to hear Lord Jasper’s chilling admission of murder, and benedict felt, in that moment, the acute certainty of just how much he had come to love Ariana. He could not lose her, not now! He had known that using the potion was wrong, had known that something terrible was happening, when told that she had left the house – and when he had seen her on the hill, just now.

And his instincts had been right, in all ways.

***

“Jasper, you don’t have to do this.”

“Don’t try to stop me,” replied Lord Jasper, placing a finger on the trigger. “You and Darkmire have had your quarrels but I can tell when two people really love each other. If I seriously thought your marriage was ending, that he might cast you off, I might have let you live, but I couldn’t bear to see you go on living happily for another forty or fifty years together.”

“What are you talking about?”

Ariana was quite sure that she knew exactly what he was talking about, but she needed to keep him distracted, keep him speaking, to delay the moment when he might pull that trigger. Before he could answer, they were interrupted by a loud cry.

“Lord Jasper! Drop your weapon!”

Then, to Ariana’s immense relief — she thought she had never been so glad to see another person — Benedict and his friend came walking out of the misting rain.

They would have presented a ridiculous picture under any other circumstances. Benedict was carrying a large stone in one hand and carefully edging forward, half sideways like a crab, while Fitzherbert glided out of the mist in his cowled cloak, looking ten feet tall, like a giant with green twinkling eyes. Regardless of appearances, the sight of them filled her with relief.

“Don’t try to stop me, Darkmire,” said Lord Jasper in a bored tone, as if he had killed too many people to be really bothered by it. “Don’t be a fool like David was, or you’ll meet the same fate.”

“I’m not just going to stand here and let you kill my wife!”

“You were only too happy to poison her, weren’t you?”