Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) (32 page)

After a few moments more in conversation, Tanner excused himself from David and walked around the grounds. He decided that David was right about his looking better. He felt stronger. Soon, soon, he’d search for Diana himself.

“Tanner, darling,” came Annabelle’s well-modulated tones as she came up behind him as he neared the carriage house. Dressed in a mauve-colored gown, Annabelle presented a very pretty picture, with her long curls swept atop her head. When she took his arm in hers, her eyes glowed brighter than the garnet earbobs and ring she wore, but she made a mock pout. “I’m so peeved with you. Ever since the Richmonds’ arrival, you’ve ignored me.”

“Sorry, Annabelle, but don’t you think it’s time you left here?”

“Oh, no, darling, don’t be absurd. I’m your nurse, you know. You need looking after, a great deal of looking after.” Annabelle wrinkled her nose. “And I’m just the person for the job.”

“I appreciate your efforts,” Tanner remarked, weary of Annabelle’s constant hovering over him and her proprietary attitude. Why didn’t he just throw her out? he asked himself but he couldn’t do it. For all her brazenness, Annabelle had nowhere to go, and Tanner knew how it felt not to have a home to call one’s own.

“I’m so glad to hear that. That woman told me I was being too bold and should restrict myself only to periodic visits.”

“What woman do you mean?”

“Anne Richmond, that’s who!” Annabelle placed her hand on her hip and sneered. “She had the nerve to tell me that I shouldn’t be caring for you, a married man, that it isn’t the proper thing to do. For heaven’s sake, Tanner, why don’t you tell her that we were lovers once, that we may be again if—”

“Enough!” Tanner pushed her away from him. “Diana will come home — soon. And Anne is right. You really shouldn’t be looking after me.”

Annabelle started to mouth a retort, but Mike Candy appeared and hailed Tanner. He grinned broadly. “Got some news for you, Mr. Sheridan. Two blokes from Rawdontown been arrested by Captain Farnsworth for cutting you up and killing your driver.”

Tanner’s face brightened at the news. “I’ve got to speak with them. They can lead me to Diana.”

“Hmm, not too sure,” was Candy’s assumption. “But I’ll drive you to see Captain Farnsworth.”

Without another word to Annabelle, Tanner immediately joined Mike Candy and left. Worry was deeply etched into Annabelle’s face. She didn’t care for Candy’s news. Those two men, if they were the same ones hired by Kingsley Sheridan, could implicate her in Diana’s disappearance — not that she’d had a direct hand in it — but just the same, Annabelle’s mood was very glum indeed when she joined Anne for tea in the parlor some minutes later.

“I notice that you aren’t your usual chattering self,” Anne mentioned as she stirred her tea. “Is something wrong?”

“No, Mrs. Richmond, everything is fine, I find that I have nothing to talk about this afternoon that would interest you.”

“On the contrary, Miss Hastings, I find you most interesting.”

“You do?” Annabelle was on her guard. She didn’t like Anne Richmond or her polite assessment of Annabelle’s person.

“Oh, yes, why shouldn’t I think you’re interesting? You’re quite pretty and wear such lovely things. Those earbobs and that ring, for instance. Tell me, where may I get a duplicate set? I’ve always been partial to garnets.”

Annabelle touched the garnets at her ears for merely an instant. I bet she believes Tanner gave these to me, she thought and ached to viciously wipe that smug smile from Anne’s lips. “Thank you, but these can’t be duplicated. You see, they belonged to my grandmother and have been passed down to me.”

“Ah, a family heirloom. I understand exactly, my dear.” Anne inspected them more closely. “And you’re right, they can’t be duplicated.”

~ ~ ~

“Don’t be downhearted, sir. We’ll find your lady. Those two buggers just don’t know nothing about where she’s at, but they’ll be swinging for their crimes on the morrow. Captain Farnsworth promised you that.”

Tanner barely heard Candy’s speech, a speech meant to comfort him, he was certain. However, Tanner didn’t feel any sense of comfort. He identified the two men as the ones who’d attacked him and killed Curtis, but the man who was behind the plot to kill him, the man who had kidnapped Diana, was gone. Neither of the men knew his identity, and their description of him was general at best. Candy said the clean-shaven and well-dressed man who had kidnapped Diana didn’t seem to be the same one he knew as Mr. King. So Tanner still didn’t have a clue as to where to go or who to go after.

But the hope had strengthened inside him that Diana was still alive.

He’d no sooner arrived inside the house than Anne and David pulled him into the parlor and securely shut the door. “Tanner, I want you to do something about that Annabelle Hastings,” Anne pronounced, and David nodded solemnly in agreement. “She’s wearing stolen property. Those garnet earbobs and the matching ring she wore today belonged to Diana.”

“But Diana didn’t leave any of her jewels behind when we packed to leave for Briarhaven. Anne, calm yourself, you look ready to burst.” Tanner calmly folded his arms as Anne’s face crumbled.

“Those … jewels … are Diana’s. Believe me, they are. I’d know them anywhere because they belonged to our mother. Mother gave them to Diana in her will. I remember that I was rather jealous, but I couldn’t begrudge Diana the jewels because I knew how she always asked Mother if one day they’d be hers, and Mother had assured her they would be.” Anne gained her composure and looked directly in Tanner’s eyes. “The setting is one of a kind, garnet with gold filigree. And on the back of the earbobs and inside the ring is an engraved letter M for Montaigne. Diana was quite distressed when her jewels were stolen.”

Tanner raised an eyebrow. “Stolen by whom?”

“By Kingsley Sheridan, on the day he was thrown out of Briarhaven by Harlan.”

24

Tanner knocked on Annabelle’s door with a mixture of anger and sadness. Not for a moment did he doubt Anne’s word about Diana’s jewelry, but he felt like a fool for trusting Annabelle. Oh, he thought she might be up to something, but it never crossed his mind that she knew about Diana’s disappearance or that she was involved in it. He still wasn’t certain about that, but he couldn’t help but wonder where she got the jewels. Could Kingsley still be alive and holding Diana?

“Darling, come in,” Annabelle offered and practically dragged Tanner into the room after she’d found him standing on the threshold. “I was watching the lightning outside on the piazza. Come join me.”

Dutifully, Tanner followed Annabelle through her room and out the french doors to the covered piazza. The ebony night’s calm was disturbed by periodic flashes of jagged silver streaks in the Atlantic, but with each ear-shattering roll of thunder it became more and more apparent that the storm was fast approaching. “Can you smell the rain in the air? I can,” Annabelle told him and tucked her arm through his. At that moment he noticed the garnet ring on her finger. Just then lightning sparked, and when she turned to look up at him, the matching earbobs gleamed like two scarlet teardrops.

“I’ve always enjoyed watching the rain,” she explained. “When I was a little girl my mother worked for a wealthy family who had glass on their windows. We didn’t, of course, because we were poor. But whenever the thunder started, I’d stop my chores at home and go running to the big house and creep into the dining room to watch the raindrops skate down the glass. Believe it or not, I spent many happy and contented hours doing that.”

“Were you ever caught?”

Annabelle laughed. “Never! I’ve always been careful, Tanner. That’s what made me so valuable as a spy.”

She seemed so vulnerable as she stood there with her hand on his arm. Annabelle was the epitome of beauty and innocence, but Tanner knew Annabelle better than most people, and he knew how her mind worked. For months she’d kept the whole city of Philadelphia in her thrall, no one suspecting that the woman they thought of as a poor orphan, a patriotic heroine of the fight for independence, was a calculating imposter. But he’d known, and he suddenly knew that somehow Annabelle thought he might be on to her. Any sympathy or doubt he had felt for her now fled on feet swifter than the approaching storm.

Tanner smiled malevolently and quickly wrenched an earbob from her pretty lobe, causing Annabelle to squeal in what sounded like pain but that was probably more indignation than anything else. “Just what are you doing?” she shrieked, and made a move to grab the garnet object from his hand.

“Tsk, tsk, Annabelle, I’m examining your precious family heirloom, that’s all.” Tanner turned it over in his hand. Holding the earbob up to the lighted torch on the piazza wall, he saw the letter M clearly engraved on the gold backside. “Ah, you’ve been keeping secrets again, my dear.”

“God, I hate it when you sound like that!”

“Sound like what?” he asked, but Tanner already knew what she meant, purposely changing from Tanner Sheridan to his alter ego.

“Like Mariah, damn you. Your face gets a frozen look, like you might be smiling, but you’re not really pleased. And your eyes, well, a person can’t see anything in them but blackness. And your voice becomes hard edged but monotone and … and I hate it!”

Tanner bent close to her, his mouth skimmed the bare spot on her earlobe. “In New York you didn’t seem to mind. Remember, Annabelle, how it was between us.”

“But we were different then. We forgot who and what we were.” Annabelle’s lower lip trembled.

“That was wrong of us, because it only makes it harder now.” He straightened and took the other garnet from her ear and grabbed her hand to slide the ring from her finger. “Now, for old times’ sake, tell me where you got these jewels.”

“They were my grandmother’s…”

“You’re lying, love.”

Annabelle shook her head defiantly. “They’re mine! I told Anne Richmond they are heirlooms. That’s it, isn’t it? Anne told you a lie about me. Don’t believe her, Tanner.” She pushed close against him, rubbing suggestively against the lower half of him. “Anne Richmond hates me because she knows I love you, that you might love me, too.”

“Stop it!” he barked, and savagely threw her from him. “I don’t love you and never will, and you don’t love me either. You want my wealth, as you’ve always wanted money, and would do anything to have it. And merciful God, I admit I’ve been no better! But for once, Annabelle, be honest and tell me about these jewels. I know they belong to Diana and that they were stolen. Admit the truth. Otherwise, my lovely Annabelle,” and here his voice lowered and seemed to chill the very air, “your life will be as nothing, if I even let you live… .”

Tanner loomed over her, seeming larger and more menacing than the storm whose whipping wind stirred up the trees. The palmettos beat raggedly against the house, sounding like Annabelle’s own heartbeat. For the first time in her life, she tasted genuine fear, unable to force a bravado exterior. She knew what Mariah was capable of doing, had seen his handiwork with her own eyes, but he’d been doing jobs for money then. Now his wife’s life and safety were at stake. Annabelle doubted he’d be as gentle with her as he had been with some of the men he’d turned in to the British. There were times she still shuddered to remember what Mariah had done to force the truth from them.

Tanner and his wealth would never belong to her now, even if Diana didn’t return. She was so horribly tired of lying, of assuming other identities, and with the ending of the war, she didn’t have to any longer. She was free now, free only if she appeased Mariah, and the man who watched her with hooded lids
was
Mariah — there was no doubt about that.

Annabelle licked her lips. “I … want to know what you’ll do with me if I tell … you the truth.”

“Wonder what I’ll do if you don’t,” was his intimidating reply.

“I have, and I don’t relish the thought, but I still have to think of myself, you know. I want your assurance that I’ll leave here with no fear of reprisals from you.”

“You have my word, but when you leave here, I want your promise never to return and upset my life. Otherwise, you’ll have no life of your own left to worry about.”

She could tell he meant what he said, and she nodded in agreement, her face extremely pale. “Kingsley Sheridan enlisted me to get the jewels for him. He’d stored them in the bricks behind the fireplace, and I found them for him. I did it to have you. He promised me that you wouldn’t be harmed, but I know now Kingsley meant to have you killed. And Diana, well, I admit that I didn’t think too much about her fate.”

Annabelle gasped as he gripped her wrist and hauled her to him.
“Kingsley is alive?!’’

“Y … es.”

“Where did he take Diana? Tell me where he took her.”

“How in the name of God do I know where he took her? Briarhaven, I’d assume, because he seemed obsessed with claiming Diana and his rightful place as master. Now what is to become of me?”

Tanner stared at her with piercing black eyes, eyes that suddenly shot flames. “Get your things together. I’m going to make certain you’re taken care of, and in a kinder fashion than you deserve. Just say I’m being generous for what we shared in New York.”

Annabelle didn’t even ask what he had in mind, but as she hurriedly packed her belongings, she knew better than to try to escape from Tanner’s clutches. In fact, she was more than a bit curious about how he intended to deal with her. An hour later Annabelle had her answer. After a furious ride through the city, Tanner pulled her from the carriage and she found herself on the docks before a large British frigate. He dragged her unceremoniously up the gangplank and thrust into a room where Samuel sat at a table, going over paperwork.

“Sheridan, what’s the meaning of this?” Samuel rose and immediately grabbed for Annabelle. Never in her life had she been so glad to see anyone.

“This wench belongs to you, Farnsworth. I suggest you take her back to England with you when your regiment departs, and if I ever find her on my doorstep again, playing havoc with my life…”

“I understand,” was Farnsworth’s instant acknowledgement of the situation.

“I hope you do. And you, too, Annabelle. Remember what can happen even to such a pretty thing as yourself if you ever cross me again.”

Annabelle nodded, too frightened to say or do anything else, but a great sense of relief seized her. Tanner was turning her over to Samuel!

Like a great, black wind, Mariah departed and Annabelle found herself staring into Samuel’s narrowed eyes.

“Whatever have you done?” he asked her.

“Let’s just say I displeased Mariah … Tanner,” she corrected. “Samuel, do you still want to marry me?”

“Yes, my dear.”

Annabelle’s eyes glowed with happiness and relief. She knew marriage to Samuel was her only answer now. “I agree to your proposal.”

For a second, he examined his fingernails and then he lifted his head in a smile. “Life with me will be quite hard, my dear. I’m not a wealthy man, but I hope to advance myself.”

“That’s fine, my darling,” she said and kissed him. “Anything you want.” And for the moment that
was
fine with Annabelle. All of her promises made to herself only minutes ago when she thought she’d face a fate worse than Samuel slipped away. She’d marry Samuel Farnsworth and once again be on English soil. Once she’d tired of him, she’d find someone else who’d want her. Someone wealthy.

~ ~ ~

“I’m going with you to Briarhaven,” David informed Tanner after Tanner’s return home. “I can’t have you going by yourself. You’re still not well enough, and heaven only knows what Kingsley is capable of. And … and I feel some responsibility for this atrocious situation since I gave my permission for Diana to marry the bounder in the first place.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Tanner said. “No one had any idea things would turn out this way.”

“I shouldn’t have encouraged Diana to marry him,” Anne said, clutching her kerchief in her hand. “I knew how much she didn’t want to marry Kingsley. And I thought you were wrong for her, but she was so happy with you, Tanner. And now Kingsley is alive. What has happened to my sister? I can’t bear for Diana to be harmed by that monster!”

“I’ll find her,” Tanner assured Anne and kissed her cheek. “I promise you that Kingsley Sheridan shall rue the day he took her from me.”

As Tanner and David rode hard away from Charlestown, the heavens broke and pelted them with rain. Rivulets of water ran down their faces, their cloaks offering little protection against the deluge. Tanner had no time to think about his physical well-being. Perhaps it was because he at last knew where to look for Diana that he no longer felt weak. Heaven help Kingsley, he vowed, because he was determined to show no more mercy than Kingsley had shown him.

None.

            ~ ~ ~

Marisa glanced worriedly at Clay early the next morning. They stood at the window on the upper floor and watched the rain deluge the fields, clearly seeing the swirling yellow waters of the Santee push over the banks. Clay frowned. “The rain started so fast that there was no time to start sandbagging, but no matter, we don’t have adequate hands to help. The river’s rising higher every hour and soon we’re going to be flooded. Tell your mother we have to start moving furniture out of the way. I’ll pull up the carpets. Before this day’s over, we’re going to be soaked.”

“But Kingsley may object,” Marisa worried.

Clay grunted. “Kingsley’s dead drunk. He must have found a bottle of brandy or something in the cellar. I doubt he cares what’s done with the house.”

Marisa placed her hand on Clay’s arm. “Something isn’t right about all of this. I mean, it’s so odd that Kingsley is suddenly alive, yet he hasn’t made the effort to go into Charlestown and claim Diana or to talk to Tanner about what is to be done. Mother’s in a frenzy about how people will gossip. Diana’s a bigamist and doesn’t know it.”

“It will work out,” Clay assured her with a smile. “But right now, we’ve got a more immediate worry with the Santee.”

~ ~ ~

“Tanner, Tanner,” Diana moaned and moved restlessly in her sleep. She dreamed he stood outside the cellar door and called her name, but she couldn’t move toward the sound. Her body ached, her legs were unable to move. In her dream she cried out that she was going to die, their baby was going to die, but she suddenly woke to find her face was wet with tears.