Raven's Bride (28 page)

Lord Ravensbourne shook his head sadly. “The kind person who delivered my pardon into my hands also gave me some other documents along with it. I found them very interesting reading. So, no doubt, would the justice, if I saw fit to give them into his hands.”

Melcott’s bluster died and he fell silent, the muscles in his face twitching.

“This is the last time I will call you uncle or own you as my relative. As my last gift to you, take the donkey and go.”

Without another word, Melcott looped the rope over the donkey’s neck, climbed aboard and set off down the road. Lord Ravensbourne watched him depart, his legs dangling over the donkey’s sides nearly to the ground, and his black cape flapping in the wind like that of a bat, brought to earth at last.

With a light heart, Lord Ravensbourne walked back into the manor house. The guests had taken the opportunity to disappear. Only Anna, Charlotte, the pastor and a man Lord Ravensbourne recognized as Melcott’s card partner of yester-evening were left in the parlor.

The man walked up to Lord Ravensbourne and grasped him by the hand. “Tom, me lad, pleased to meet you.”

Lord Ravensbourne lifted his eyebrows and looked down his nose. “Can I help you?”

The man lowered his voice. “Well, it’s hardly a topic I can speak to you about in front of the ladies, but I was hoping my bargain still stands.”

“Your bargain?”

“For Miss Charlotte, your sister. I’ve already paid my friend Melcott half of the thousand pound I promised him for her, but I’ll give the rest to you if you like.”

“You bought my sister for a thousand pounds?”

“Expensive, wasn’t she? But I’ll make sure I get my money’s worth out of her.” And he turned around and gave Charlotte a great wink.

“My sister is not for sale.”

“But…but…my five hundred pounds?”

“You gave it to Melcott. I suggest you get it back from him as well.”

And the card player stomped out of the house, muttering under his breath about swindlers and cheats, and how he would get the law on them.

In the pause that followed the departure of Charlotte’s erstwhile suitor, the pastor, in a threadbare cloak and a beaver hat with most of the pelt rubbed off, sidled quietly up to him.. “I’m sorry to disturb you,” he said, in a soft voice, as he took the hat off his head and turned it around nervously in his hands, “but Mr. Melcott promised me ten shillings to marry him this morning, and it cost me a shilling to hire a horse to get here.”

“You have the marriage license with you?”

The pastor reached into his pocket and drew it out.

Lord Ravensbourne glanced over it briefly. “Stay here for a moment, if you please, sir. Charlotte, would you get the pastor a glass of Madeira?” He held out his hand to Anna. “My love, come walk with me in the garden.”

He held out his hand to her, and she took it with a smile. It was cold outside, but the sun shone brightly, making the icicles hanging from the trees sparkle and shimmer in the sunlight, and throwing rainbows of all colors onto the snow.

“Anna, my love, I asked you to be my wife once before, and you agreed. Are you still of the same mind now?”

Anna turned to face her cousin. She had learned to trust him, to look below the surface and see the good that lay in his heart. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly to her. “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”

“Today?” His voice was as eager as that of a little boy.

“But we cannot. We have not read the banns. We have no license.”

He showed her the license in his hand. “Blank,” he said, with a grin. “It is a sign of God’s providence that we can put it to far better use than that for which it was intended.”

Hand in hand, they walked back to the parlor. Lord Ravensbourne drew a handful of gold from his pocket and put it on the table by the pastor. “Drink up quickly,” he said, with a smile so wide that it nigh split his face in two. “You have a wedding to conduct this morning.”

Read on for a bonus excerpt of
The Mistress Affair
, by Kate Silver.

Kate's young son needs an expensive operation or he will die. Her last hope lies in borrowing the money from Alex Gattung, a business tycoon and distant relative. He thinks she is a gambler down on her luck and offers her a devil's bargain - sleep with him, and he will loan her the money she needs. Her desperation forces her to agree to his terms. But what neither of them counted on was falling in love.

KATE MOORE FELT a grubby little paw slide into her hand and she squeezed it tight. She glanced down at the white face of her son as he walked gamely but slowly, oh so slowly, next to her along the wide hallway.

“
Can I carry you for a bit?” she suggested, though she knew how much he hated her asking. “I could give you a piggyback if you like.”

He shook his head.

“
Or at least stop a moment for a rest?”

He was too exhausted even to object to her fussing.

“
No, I’m fine,” was all he said, but the set look of determination on his face and the blue tinge to his lips told a story of their own.

She blinked away the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks. Their visit to the heart specialist in his fancy steel and glass offices in downtown Auckland had tired little Ben out–and all for nothing. She should have refused when he begged to go up the Sky Tower, the tall, needle-shaped building that dominated Auckland’s skyline, but he had been so disappointed when she had said no. After one look at his beseeching face, she had given in. After all, he had so little fun in his life, why should she begrudge him this one small pleasure?

She regretted it now though. Even the walk through the hallways to the elevator that took them up to the viewing platform that bulged out of the needle halfway to the top had proven a struggle for him. Once on the viewing platform, Ben had insisted on walking all the way around to look at the view from all directions, clapping his hands and exclaiming with delight as she pointed out every landmark in sight. She had almost had to drag him away.

Now they were on their way home again, he was almost too worn out to stand. The muggy heat of a late morning in summer didn’t help either. She was starting to wilt herself.

As they walked slowly along towards the exit, Ben put his free hand into his pocket and drew out a small golden coin, tarnished with age. He pressed it into Kate’s hand. “Take it, Mum,” he begged, “and try your luck over there.”

He pointed towards the open door of the public casino that occupied the ground floor of the tower complex. Kate stared through the door with distaste and shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t, darling,” she said, glad she had a cast-iron excuse for refusing him. “You’re not allowed to go in there with me until you’re eighteen, and I can’t leave you out here on your own.”

Ben gestured towards the bathrooms. “I need to go in there anyway. Please, go and put it in one of the machines for me. Uncle Vernon gave it to me, and I brought it with me specially.”

“
Keep your dollar and spend it on a chocolate fish instead. You know how much you love chocolate fish.”

His bottom lip trembled at her refusal. “You might win a lot of money with my dollar.”

She smiled at his foolish hope. “More likely I’ll lose it instead and then you won’t even have a chocolate fish to show for it.”

“
I don’t care if you lose it all. I don’t like chocolate fish anyway. I never want to eat one ever again.” He threw the gold coin on the floor at his feet in a rare flash of childish temper. “If I was eighteen I’d go in there and put my coin in the machine and I’d win a whole heap of them out again, hundreds and hundreds of them until my pocket was so full it could burst and I’d give them all to the doctor so he could put a patch on the hole in my heart and glue it up tight. He’d make me all better and I would never get tired again. Never ever.”

She picked up the coin from the hall floor, studiously ignoring the pitying looks from the hall porter who had heard everything. “Go off with you,” she said, giving him a gentle nudge towards the bathroom door.

He stood his ground. “Only if you spend my dollar.”

How could she refuse him this last, faint ray of hope? She didn’t have it in her to disappoint him. Besides, you never knew until you tried. Someone had to win. Heaven knows, she needed the money more than most. She sighed. “I’ll go put your coin into one of those machines in there, and if I win a whole heap of money with it, I’ll do exactly as you said.”

Ben’s face creased into a smile. His outbursts never lasted for long before all was sunshine again. “Thanks, Mum,” he said, throwing his arms around her and giving her a hug. “It’s my lucky dollar. You’ll win something with it, I know you will.”

She watched him disappear around the door to the bathroom before walking reluctantly over to the casino to spend his lucky dollar.

The lighting was dim in the casino itself, making it seem like perpetual twilight. The carpet was dirty and stained, and a thick fog of smoke hung in the air. The gamblers, glued to their machines as if winning required all their attention, didn’t seem to notice their surroundings. The air smelled of false hope and desperation.

She perched up on a high stool in front of the first free machine she came to and studied the buttons in front of her with mild curiosity. She’d never been inside a casino before. Maybe she was due some of that beginner’s luck that people talked of.

With a heartfelt prayer, she dropped Ben’s lucky dollar into the slot on the side and pushed the button. After all, it never hurt to pray.

She’d expected the slot machine to whiz and clank but it just beeped soullessly at her. The symbols jumped around on the screen in a flash of color before coming to a stop with the pictures of a lemon, an orange and a bunch of cherries. GAME OVER flashed in bold on the screen.

She stared blankly at it. So that was the end of Ben’s lucky dollar. His last hope was gone.

She’d known that she would not win, she’d known that she was throwing Ben’s dollar away, but even so her heart felt like it was breaking anew.

She turned around to keep an eye out for Ben coming out of the bathroom. The screen flickered in the corner of her eye and she was tempted to put in another coin, and then another and another until she had exhausted all her money or won enough for Ben’s operation. Even if she lost all her money she could hardly be worse off than she was now.

She resisted the temptation. She would only lose what little cash she had with her and then she wouldn’t even have enough for a taxi to take her and Ben home again.

She put her head in her hands, trying not to cry. There would be time enough for crying when she was home again with Ben safely tucked up in bed and no one around but her kitten, Fluffball, to see her swollen eyes and red nose.

A man in a charcoal gray suit passed by her as she sat on her stool, tears running down her face, and looked curiously at her, with a mixture of pity and exasperation on his face. She was so caught up in her own private misery that she hardly noticed him.

Still, something about him intruded into her consciousness enough for her to realize that she couldn’t sit here weeping forever.

She sniffed loudly and wiped her teary eyes on her sleeve. Ben would be coming out soon and she did not want him to suspect that she had been crying. She had to put on a brave face for him. He needed her strength. He had so little of his own...

His white face peeped out of the bathroom door, searching for her among the crowds of people. She jumped off her stool and hurried towards him with a smile on her face. Darling Ben. How precious he was to her. Whatever would she do without him?

“
Did you spend my coin?” he asked as soon as he reached her.

“
It wasn’t my lucky day,” she said brightly, blinking back the tears that filled her eyes. She folded her arms around him in a hug and, despite his protests, lifted him onto her hip to carry him out to the curb. “Now then, Benjamin Bunny,” she said, and gave him a loud kiss on his ear that made him squeal. “Time to get our taxi home.”

She still had one avenue to explore. One possibility, however faint, of borrowing the money that Ben needed so desperately.

For Ben’s sake, she would swallow her pride and try her luck just one more time.

For Ben’s sake, she would do anything.

ALEX GATTING SCOWLED as the door to his office opened. “What do you want?” he barked, his head bent over his work. He was scribbling furiously on the improvement to the design of one of the hydraulic lifts his company manufactured and he had expressly forbidden anyone to interrupt him.

Being CEO of his own engineering company was pretty darn good most of the time, except when he was struck with a sudden technical thought, and couldn’t get ten minutes time on his own to set it down on paper before he lost it again. At times like these he wished that his step-uncle and namesake, old Alex Gatting, who’d left him to hold the reins, was still alive. The rest of the time, he was only too glad that the grumpy old Scrooge who’d tormented his childhood was no longer around to make everyone’s life a misery.