“Arabella, wake up. Come, love, come back to me. You had a nightmare.
It’s over now.” He drew her to him and began to rub his large hands up and down her back.
She drew a shaking breath. “It was that horrible skeleton in the old abbey ruins. Then I thought I heard from our ghosts, but now I begin to doubt that their cries were not my own. Oh God, it was horrible.”
“I have heard the ghosts.” He looked over at The Dance of Death panel. “I do not like that thing. Should you like it if we removed it to the attic?” She nodded slowly. “It was odd, Justin, but somehow that panel was part of the dream. I don’t understand it. Yes, let’s send it to the attic. It means nothing to anyone now.” She snuggled against him again. “I came very close to dying this afternoon. I would have died without ever having known all of living. I would have died without knowing you as my husband.
I thank you for saving me.”
“You’re shivering.” He was kissing her temple, shoving her hair from her forehead. “Here I am trying to avoid speaking honestly to you. It is because I am a man, I suppose. We don’t wish to speak of things so deeply felt. It makes no sense, but there it is. If you had died, I couldn’t have borne it. It’s that simple.”
“Gervaise tried to kill me today. No, don’t shake your head. I know that he must have. The collapse of all the rocks and dirt were only around the cell I was in. He asked me to stay there. He said he wanted to go exploring. Why, Justin? Why did he want to kill me? I have thought and thought about it but I can’t dredge up a reason. Why did he do it?” The earl was silent for a long time, but he didn’t loosen his hold on her. His fingers lightly caressed her shoulder, the softness of her upper arm. “He didn’t want to kill you,” he said finally. “What he wanted was to get me out of Evesham Abbey. He wanted to come here, to our bedchamber. There is something in this chamber that is hidden, something he wants, something probably poor old Josette knew about and that is why he killed her. Did you not wonder why I had this bedchamber locked? Why I gave that ridiculous excuse that some floorboards were loose and thus posed a danger? It was to keep him out until I found out what he was after.
“I risked your life because I wanted to trap the little bastard. It was all I could do not to wring his mangy neck today, Arabella. But the game is soon up. He will not leave here until he has made a last try to get into this room and retrieve what it is he is looking for.”
“You know he killed Josette.”
“It sounds like you had already guessed as much yourself. It makes sense.
It was you who pointed out that she had no candle with her to guide her in the darkness. Yes, it only makes sense. Did she threaten to expose him? I don’t know. I suppose I could simply beat him until he’s either dead or he tells me the truth of why he came here.
“But before he leaves on Friday, he will try again. When he came running in here to tell us you were trapped in the old abbey ruins, I immediately began running to the front door. I turned to see him going quickly up the stairs. He trapped you so that he could get me out of the way, come to this room, so he could retrieve what it is he is after.”
“Let’s kill him. Now.”
He was shocked into silence, his brain numb, but just for an instant. She was like no other woman he had ever known in his life. He laughed, even as he was kissing her ear. “You delight me. You’re no fainting miss, and that pleases me. You will probably flay me with your tongue many times in the future. I shall relish each time. You are magnificent. Now, tell me.
How shall we kill the bastard?”
“I would like to tie him up and leave him in the abbey ruins until he tells us why he came here.”
“I like it,” he said, nibbling now on her earlobe. “Will we give him water?”
“Water, but no food. He will be utterly alone. You will visit him but once a day to ask him one question. If he fails to answer, you will leave again. I predict he will break in three days, no longer.”
“I’m sorry, Bella, but I don’t believe we can do it. However, I do appreciate the way your mind works. Now, there is Elsbeth to consider.
What will we do about Elsbeth?”
She swallowed. It was decision time. But she couldn’t, not yet. She turned to face him. “Not yet, not yet. Love me again, Justin. Love me.” He did, and it was wild and frantic, and she still didn’t know what to do when she listened to his breathing even into sleep.
Life wasn’t simple. It was vastly irritating, particularly since she had her husband again and wanted nothing more than to have him love her until she was unconscious, which should require at least several years, by her reckoning. She had all of him now, finally, and it was beyond splendid.
She wanted all of him forever.
But forever didn’t seem to be measured in a very long stretch just now.
The earl flung back the heavy curtains that covered the long row of narrow mullioned windows in the family portrait gallery. He brushed a light layer of dust from his hands, mentally noting to bring this neglected room to Mrs. Tucker’s attention.
