Proper Scoundrel (35 page)

“I didn’t expect company.”

“Still and all, you got your slave to do most of the work.”

“I’ll show you how to be my slave,” Jade shouted as he went toward the corpse-laden cart hidden in the woods.

He wasn’t taking her final marriage refusal at all well. Neither was she, if truth be told. “Marcus?” she called, because he’d failed to respond to her tease, though she supposed she shouldn’t expect him to be happy about it.

“Marcus?” Jade started forward as pin-pricks of alarm assailed her.

A gunshot broke the burgeoning silence.

Marcus! Jade ran, but stopped short when she came face to face with a pistol.

She looked up. “Where’s Marcus?”

“You should be relieved. There’ll be no more talk of marriage now. You seemed to find it so distressing, I almost laughed and gave myself away, hearing the two of you discuss it earlier.”

A sudden pounding invaded Jade’s head. Bafflement vied with a rising crest of despair, but confusion was more welcome. She embraced it. “Kirby, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? Is this why you’re trying to blackmail me?”

“Blackmail? My poor deluded relative. You don’t know, even now, do you?”

When she gave no sign of understanding, her former man of affairs mocked her with his laugh. “I made up the name Neil Kirby, you little fool. I’m Giles Dudley, cousin on your grandfather’s side.” Awareness came to Jade like a slap.

“That’s right,” he said. “You’re beginning to understand. Yes, I’m the man who should have inherited Peacehaven, but for that batty old woman’s foolish notions.”

Jade could barely comprehend the depth of the man’s avarice, unless he was driven by something more dangerous. Like madness.

“I posed as your man of affairs to get on the old bat’s good side. Not that it worked, but it did fill my coffers while allowing me to sell that land option as a nest egg. I set my own man up in your employ, as well, to keep me posted, as it were.”

“Your man?”

“Dirk, in the stable. Came for me tonight, as a matter of fact, the same way he did the night your lover kept another of my men from shooting you. After that, I knew I’d have to take care of you, myself. The night I blew up that rail shipment, I planned to get you put away for killing the guards, except they weren’t there. But you were and I knew that blowing you up, as if you’d killed yourself with a final attempt to stop the railroad, was masterful. But I failed,” he said with disgust. “And I thought my luck had run out, but it’s back.”

Evil, and yes, mad.

“Imagine my surprise to discover the old bat was insane after all. A murderess, no less.” Dudley laughed.

Jade refused to believe Marcus was ... gone ... except, he would be rescuing her if ... she fought a rush of rising panic. “What will you do now?” she asked, to give herself time to think.

“Plant you and your dead lover with your grandfather. I’ll inherit quite easily when you go missing.”

Bile rose up, threatening to make her retch. “You won’t inherit for years,” Jade said, trying to appear calm. “There was a long tie-up with grandfather’s money, if I remember, correctly, because he went missing. I wonder how the law will appreciate a second family member coming to a questionable end?”

Dudley got anxious and rushed her, backed her toward the new grave. He raised his arm to strike. “Don’t give me—”

A growling caught their attention. Mucks lunged and attacked Dudley’s leg, fused to his flesh by her teeth.

As Dudley raged and tried to shake the pup off, Jade knew that Emily couldn’t be far behind. She ran in the direction the pup had come, but the dog’s painful yelp stopped her.

“Papa? Papa?” she heard Emily wail.

Em had found Marcus.

Tears spilled down Jade’s cheeks. A darkening cloak threatened to engulf her. How could she have brought Marcus to harm when she loved him so much?

Emily called to Marcus again.

Jade fought the darkness threatening her, a half-hearted fight. With Marcus gone, if not for Emily, Jade would welcome oblivion.

The determined pup rose and went back on attack.

Dudley kicked Mucks aside.

Emily shot from the woods in her pup’s defence and got herself caught in Dudley’s crazed clutches.

Jade tried to pry Emily free of the viper, but he cuffed her and knocked her to the ground. “Let her go, Dudley,” she said. “You can have it all. I’ll sign it over to you.”

He laughed. “I don’t need a signature. I need a shovel to plant the three of you.” He closed his hand around Emily’s tiny throat.

“Mama,” she called.

A body flew at Dudley and knocked Emily free.

Marcus, bloody of face, pummelled the bastard as Jade swept Emily from the fray. But Dudley got the upper hand, battering Marcus about his injured head, his fist slipping in Marcus’s blood when knuckle met bone.

Jade held Emily’s face against her neck, and for her sake, she did not cry out, but her silent tears fell free as she watched a fight only one man could win. The stronger one.

Emily tried to look. She called for Papa. Jade pulled her face back against her. “It’s all right, baby, it’s all right. Mama’s got you now. You’re safe.”

Jade wanted to shout to Marcus that she loved him and she’d marry him, but she was afraid to distract him. Except, he should know. He should know before....

Dudley beat Marcus senseless.

The man she loved hit the ground. Unmoving.

He would not rise to fight again.

Dudley had won. He swiped blood from his face and retrieved his pistol. Standing beside Marcus, Dudley trained his pistol at Marcus. “One shot and he’s gone,” he said watching her. Dudley grinned and cocked the trigger.

A shot rang out and Dudley doubled over, and lurched forward, his pistol slipping from his hand.

Jade stopped screaming when Em’s little hand touched her lips, not certain what happened, except that Dudley lay face down across Marcus.

Beecher rushed from the woods to kneel beside them, tossed aside his pistol, shoved Dudley aside, like a piece of trash, and gave Marcus his full medical attention.

Jade carried Emily toward them. “Is he?”

“Alive; he’s alive.” Beecher placed two fingers against Marcus’s neck. “Good pulse. Lost some blood. He’ll bruise.” He pried open an eye, probed a head wound. “Gonna have a headache like the roof’s coming down.”

“But he’ll live?”

“Expect so. Stubborn as you, unless he doesn’t care to live. If a body gives up, it’s finished.”

Emily scrambled from Jade’s hold. Jade knelt beside her as Em touched Marcus’s hand. “Papa?”

Marcus opened his eyes, ate them up with his gaze, impaled Jade with his look and begged for ... something.

She made to speak but Marcus regarded Beecher. “What took you so ... long?”

“Wedding guests.” Beecher rolled his eyes. “When I heard Ivy’s tale, I come running. Found the old grave easy enough, but I had a bit of trouble finding the new one.”

Jade let out a shuddering breath, kissed Emily’s brow. “Where is Ivy?”

“Sleeping,” Emily said.

Beecher chuckled. “Out cold when I got to him. He overheard Dirk telling your black-hearted cousin how things stood. Ivy tried to stop your cousin. Told me all about it when he came ’round. I moved some fast when we found the little one was gone.”

Jade covered the old retainer’s hand. Beecher had always been there for her. “Thank you.”

He nodded as he worked. “Time you knew something about your grandmother, young lady, before you make any more foolish mistakes. Don’t get huffy, now,” he said, bandaging Marcus’s head. “Listen for a change.”

Marcus chuckled but groaned at the pain the chuckle cost him.

“Serves you right,” Jade said, cupping his cheek, before returning her attention to Beecher. “Tell me, then.”

“Your grandmother wanted the world to think she hated men so much, she made them servants to keep them in their place. But the fact is, she rescued most of them, me included.”

Jade took her gaze from Marcus and focused on Beecher.

“Don’t mistake the hard edge she showed the abusive men in this world for the kind heart she showed humanity, man and woman alike. You think she chose a lonely solitary life, so you’re dead set on following her. Fact is, she didn’t choose to be alone.” Beecher gazed openly at her. “Constance had a man in her life.”

“When?”

“From the day your grandfather died till the day she did.”

“She did n—”

Marcus touched her face, silencing her. She covered his hand with hers, held it against her cheek, unable to speak, seeing for the first time the man who had always been there for her and her grandmother. “You,” she said to Beecher.

“Me.” He nodded toward the hidden dray. “I tended her often, after that one, justifiably dead, roughed her up. We fell in love. Jade, your grandmother knew enough not to equate love with weakness. She wouldn’t want you to make that mistake.” He frowned. “Not anymore than you already have.”

“But you never married. You remained a servant in her employ. How could she—”

“I remained her servant to be near her, because her husband was presumed living. There was no other way. Much as Constance flaunted scandal, and loved every minute of it, by God, living openly with a man not her husband would have destroyed her ability to help downtrodden women. That, she could not abide.”

“But you didn’t; I mean you couldn’t have—”

“We weren’t celibate, if that’s what you’re implying, though I don’t suppose Constance would approve my telling you so.”

“I love you, Beecher,” Jade said. “Did I ever tell you that?”

“No, Jade, darlin’. No, you never did. But I always knew.”

Emily yawned. “Take Papa home now? Mucks?”

“Yes, Emmy-bug,” Marcus said on a wince. “Home.” He put so much emphasis on the word, hope blossomed in Jade’s breast.

Beecher checked the panting pup and bandaged her middle. “Ribs,” he said to Jade.

She nodded. “What about Dudley?”

“Gone. I’ll take care of everything. You get Marcus and the little one home. I’ll be along in an hour or so.”

Beecher helped Marcus lie down in the dray. Emily sat beside her papa, taking his hand, Mucks beside them. Jade drove them back to Peacehaven.

Because they were worried, Garrett and Abigail had stayed, so Garrett helped Jade get Marcus to his old room on the main floor.

“Fancy that,” Marcus drawled as Garrett helped him along. “You helping me walk.”

“Stuff it, Marc.” Garrett’s voice broke. “Why the devil did you put yourself in jeopardy like that?”

“Jade,” he said, simply. “Emily. I’d do it again.”

Garrett cursed. “Aye. I’d do it as well.”

“Jade,” Marcus called, seeking her hand as she turned down the bed.

She gave it and waited. “I’d help you with your Downtrodden Society. Did I ever tell you that?”

“No, love,” she said, kissing his raw knuckles. “You didn’t, but you showed me in so many ways that I should have known.”

Garrett urged Marcus to lie back.

“Good,” Marcus said on a sigh and closed his eyes.

Jade remembered Beecher saying much the same thing to her. It was easy to take love for granted, and she promised herself to be careful in future not to.

Abigail took Emily and Mucks to see Eloisa, who also awaited news of them.

Garrett helped Jade undress and bathe Marcus, who passed out when she washed the grazed gunshot wound on his head, as Beecher had instructed her to do.