Desire Me More (23 page)

Shauley was ignoring her, reading a newspaper at the table situated in the middle of the room. He hadn't said much to her since he'd first arrived, but she held out hope that he didn't intend to hurt her more than he already had.

She wished the inspector were here; he was slightly easier to talk to, and if she didn't start talking, she was apt to fall asleep where she was crouched. Amelia rubbed her eyes with the side of her hands, which were still bound. She wasn't sure she had the strength to stand on her own, but she might have to do so if the gritty feeling in her eyes didn't cease.

“Is the inspector off to make a bargain with Mr. Riley?” Her mouth was dry, and her voice gravelly.

“You're not at liberty to ask anything of me,” Shauley said without lifting his head from his paper.

“Why do you hate Nick so much? He told me you were once friends, but friends don't turn on each other.”

Shauley spun around on his chair and studied her a moment. “Told you, did he?”

“He did. And about the depravities at the school.” She wasn't sure if she'd said too much, but she needed to stay awake and talking was the only thing keeping her mind active. “He won't make a deal with you. Not after the trouble you've caused us.”

Shauley stood and came toward her faster than she expected. She tried to shrink away from him, but he didn't hit her. He ripped a strip of her chemise from the hem and held her legs down by kneeling on her when she tried to kick him away.

“I've had about all I can take of you.” Shauley held up the strip of her chemise and wrapped it around her mouth before she realized what he was doing. She tried to scream, but it was muffled with the cloth stuffed in her mouth and wrapped around her head where he knotted it.

“Much better,” he said and went back to his paper.

Amelia was back to trying to stay awake. Her head bobbed every time she nearly lost her battle with her body.

She swore she heard horses in the distance. She'd heard them last night too, but they hadn't come close to the cabin.

When Shauley stood to peer out the window, she knew her ears weren't fooling her. She pushed her knees under her and pressed her back against the wall to try to stand. If she could make a run for the door and throw it open—she tested her hands, hoping they could grasp the knob and turn it—she might be spotted.

Shauley picked up the pistol from the table and stared in her direction. “Stand, and I won't hesitate to shoot you.”

She slid back down the wall, tears tracking down her face.

“If you're not in the same spot I left you when I get back, I'll make sure you can't walk. And I promise you, a broken limb or two is going to feel a lot worse than the bump we gave you on your head.”

Shauley slipped out the front door, leaving her alone. All Amelia could think was that the threat of a broken leg was better than ending up somewhere unfamiliar. A place that was farther from Nick. She pushed herself up against the wall. Pins and needles ran up and down her numb legs, so she waited a minute as the feeling came back to them. This might be her only opportunity to get free.

T
hough they tried to be quiet as they approached the cabin, Nick knew it was impossible not to hear the dozen horses that were surrounding and filling the woods. They'd found the carriage used to kidnap Amelia, but no horses, which meant they'd either mounted up and taken Amelia to a new location, or . . .

He told himself for the millionth time that hurting her would serve no purpose to either man. They'd taken her for ransom; that much was obvious. And that meant they needed to ensure her safety to some degree.

Shauley wasn't a stupid man; he would have had a contingency plan in place, had his plan gone to shit with the murder of Lord Berwick, and it had.

The closer they got to the cabin, the more anxious he grew. He drew the pistol he kept on him when he traveled but had never found reason to use. Today might be an exception.

Nick dismounted a hundred meters or so from the cabin, wanting to blend in with the forest so he could approach undetected. The closer he got, he told himself, the easier it would be to get to Amelia and take her to safety.

Shots rang around the woods, and Nick was forced to take shelter behind a tree. Someone yelled; another of Nick's party shouted, “In the tree line.” The report of shots going off sent hundreds of birds to the sky, almost blackening the morning. Nick took the distraction as an opportunity and sprinted toward the cabin entrance, pistol at the ready.

When the door flew open, Amelia let out a muffled scream and fell forward into his arms. “Amelia. Thank God,” he found himself uttering as he caught her.

The crack of twigs behind him had him spinning around, taking aim. The inspector held a rifle, and Nick didn't hesitate for a second as he yanked Amelia down to the ground behind him and shot Laurie through the chest. A moment of surprise shaded the inspector's face before he fell to the ground, his chest moving up and down in a whistling breath. Landon broke into the clearing just then with three other men, surrounding the downed inspector. Nick nodded to his friend and turned back to his only concern. Amelia.

He'd found her. She was safe. Her face was bruised and there was blood in her hair, but she was alive. And Nick felt a stab of tears in his eyes.

He dropped his pistol and stripped out of his jacket. He wrapped it around Amelia as he cut through the rope binding her wrists and carefully untied the knot of cloth at the back of her head. She sobbed and buried her head in his chest. He rubbed her back, letting her cry out her relief and fear. Giving him enough time to compose himself before he had to face the rest of the men who had assisted him.

When she stopped shaking, he helped her put her arms through the sleeves in the jacket and buttoned it up in the front.

Once she had calmed, she tried to stand but couldn't seem to get her legs under her. Nick lifted her in his arms and carried her toward his horse. He sat her up in the saddle and pulled himself up behind her, keeping her body cradled tight against his, her legs over to one side so she could wrap her arms tightly around his middle.

Though it wasn't full light, he could still see there were at least eight men milling around, half of them already on their horses. The still form of the inspector lay sprawled out on the ground, a pool of blood growing and spreading from his motionless body. No one said anything, or maybe they did but Nick's only concern now was getting Amelia to safety.

He took the horse at a careful pace so as not to jostle her. She cried into his shirt. Neither said a word as they headed back to the inn. It was enough just to have found each other.

A
melia pushed Nick away. He was inspecting the goose egg in her hairline for the tenth time in the past hour. He hadn't stopped fussing over her since they'd arrived back in his room at the inn.

“Please, I've been poked and prodded with doctor's instruments for the past hour. I just want to sleep.”

“The doctor said otherwise,” Nick reminded her.

“That doesn't mean I'm not tired. I can at least rest for a while. I just want to forget everything that happened.”

Though she doubted she would ever forget the scene that had unfolded as Nick opened the door to the cabin. He'd shot the inspector without hesitation. He'd killed man in front of her without a second thought. She couldn't say if the inspector planned to negotiate something with Nick or pull the trigger on his own gun. Still, it had to have been a hard decision for Nick to make.

“That you were ever put in that position tells me I have let my guard down when it should be highest in this town, of all places.” Nick pulled her closer, her body lying half on top of his as she stretched out on the bed beside him.

She played with a button on his shirt. “Did you find Shauley?” she asked. Fear snaked through her body as she asked that. There was no denying that there was something mentally wrong with that man for him to have done all he'd done to her and Nick.

“We didn't. But he'll have everyone in the country looking for him after today. He's a wanted man, and I'm willing to put a price on his head if that keeps him from coming after you again.”

When Nick had carried her over to his horse, she had been surprised to see just how many riders had been aiding Nick through the night. Amelia planned to thank every single one of the volunteers who Nick had pulled together as soon as she was rested and able to form coherent sentences. If it hadn't been for them, if it hadn't been for Nick . . .

It didn't bear thinking.

Nick tilted her chin up, making her look at him. “You're not falling asleep on me, are you?”

“No, thinking.”

“Might I ask what about?”

“What did Shauley think to gain in kidnapping me? Why did he kill my brother? Jeremy wasn't anyone I admired or respected, but that his death was avoidable makes me feel as if I was the one who killed him.”

“You have nothing to feel guilty about. If you want to blame anyone for what unfolded, blame me.”

Amelia sat up so she could better look Nick in the eye. “I could never blame you. You came into my life like a knight on a white steed, and you haven't let me down since.”

He swiped his thumb across her cheek, wiping her tears away. But more tears fell, covering her face. “Do you know how perfect you are? How much you mean to me?” he asked.

She shook her head, still not able to talk, not without sobbing.

“Without you in my life, I have nothing to live for.”

“Don't say that,” she choked out. “You've built an empire. You have helped so many people, and so many others count on you. Don't say that.”

He took her hands in his, kissing each finger before kissing the abrasions on her wrists where the rope had burned into her skin.

“What will happen if Shauley is caught?”

Nick let out a long sigh. “He'll be tried, found guilty, and hanged for his crimes.”

“I don't know what to say, other than I'm sorry, Nick. I know you haven't been friends with him in a long time, but having once trusted, it must be difficult to believe him capable of what he's done.”

“I'm not sorry. Shauley and I haven't been friends for twenty years,” he said. “Make no mistake; I would have killed Shauley myself, had I found him before finding you.” A dark look clouded his eyes for only a moment before he focused his full attention on her. “I'd rather talk about us,” he said, his tone changing.

She looked at him curiously. “Us?” Was there something wrong? “What is it?”

“There are thirty people staying at this inn. It's the only one in a ten-mile radius on the main road.”

She tucked her chin closer to her chest, unable to meet his gaze. “They've already labeled me a harlot, haven't they?”

He remained silent.

“It makes our working together impossible, Nick. No one will take me seriously after this. What must your friends think of me?”

“Landon will stand by me, no matter my decisions. He'll stand ready as your friend too.”

“How can he? How can Lady Burley? They'll judge me from the events of tonight.”

“Marry me. Let us prove the world wrong. Stand at my side as my wife.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide, shocked by the proposition and at a complete loss for words or how to respond. “Su-surely you don't mean that.”

“I do.” He was in earnest. “Let everyone know of our devotion. Let them remove prejudices and labels they've already assigned to our relationship.”

She wanted to say yes. She did. But was he only asking out of pity for the situation they now found themselves in? What if the only reason he was offering was in sympathy and regret for their having been found out? Maybe that's what scared her most—that it wasn't a genuine offer but asked out of guilt.

She rubbed her hands over her eyes. This shouldn't be a difficult decision, but it was exactly that. Didn't every young woman want the man she loved to propose marriage?

To make a commitment for the future?

“Are you sure that's what you want?” she asked. Why was she denying him?

A frown creased his brow. “What makes you think I haven't thought this through?”

She opened her mouth to respond but found herself still at a loss for words.

“Would you be offering this, had we not been discovered?”

“It's no lie that I never imagined myself the marrying type.”

“And what is the ‘marrying type'?” She almost laughed that such a type existed in his mind, but she was too on edge with what he might say, so she bit her lip and waited for his response.

“I've had a difficult life. I've watched the people I love live through some terrible situations. There are things I have done for which polite society would label me a monster.”

“If we marry, you have to be open and honest in all things.” That was a condition on which she wouldn't budge.

“I'm willing to live with that.”

“All things, Nick. I cannot have it any other way. We either have all of each other or nothing.”

“I agree to your terms.”

“There isn't anything you don't know about me,” she countered.

“I know.” He chuckled. “But when we leave this room tomorrow, I plan on telling everyone that you are my fiancée.”

She felt something grow in her belly and expand outward. Excitement. She suddenly felt alive, and any bit of tiredness left from her ordeal was washed away. She pulled herself up and sat over his thighs, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

“I will marry you, Nicholas Riley. As long as you don't hide your heart from me.”

The last thing she expected was for a smile to light up his whole face. She pressed her hand against his beard and kissed him on the mouth.

When she pulled away, he said, “Amelia, I will give you that and so much more.”

 

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