The Abduction of Julia (39 page)

“Tell whomever you like, Therese. I will be on my way to Langley before you even reach the ballroom.”

Therese unleashed a furious screech. “Langley? That’s where we first—”

“Spare me your maudlin memories. My hunting box will be perfect. It is private, nestled away where no one will find us.”

A sob rose in the night, followed by another.
“Damn you, Nick.
You cannot treat me this way! After all I did!”

He sighed. “I suppose you are talking about that little trick with the portrait. It was overdone, but effective.

Just how did you manage to convince a coward like Bentham to put himself at such risk
?“

The sobs ceased abruptly. “That is no concern of yours.”

“Ah, but I think it is,” Nick said in a horrifyingly quiet tone.

“Y-you promised to marry
me
.”

“No, my dear.
That is an illusion you created.” There was a pause before he added, “Besides, I have found other, more delectable prey.”

Julia felt his hand reach through the darkness to caress her cheek. For an instant she was glad she was too drugged to feel anything more than distracted revulsion, for she would surely have wretched.

Therese shrieked. The unmistakable sound of a scuffle followed, only to end with the crack of a harsh slap. Hysterical sobbing filled the night.

Nick called to his footman. “Lady Frant has had too much to drink. Take her back to the ballroom and deliver her to her mother.”

Without waiting to see if his orders were obeyed, he swung into the coach beside Julia and settled her in his lap, tucking her in with a cloak as if she were a child.

All too soon, the cocoon of warmth, combined with the swaying motion of the coach, sent Julia tumbling helplessly into a black, dreamless sleep.

"Alec here you are
.“
Lucien’s voice came from the balcony steps.

Alec turned from where he had been leaning against a tree fighting for a semblance of control. “What do you want?” The cool bubbling of the fountain had done much to soothe his anger, but not the vast ache that seemed to have taken the place of his heart.

Lucien pulled out a cheroot and lit it, his eyes hard in the flare of light. “What in the hell were you doing, to leave Julia like that?”

Alec set his jaw. “I was angry.” Angry, furious, jealous… hell, he’d experienced more emotions this evening than he’d realized he possessed.
And all because of the unavoidable fact that his wife loved another.
The thought weighted his shoulders like a sack of stone.

Lucien made a sound of disgust. “Oh, yes. And you have such reason to be angry. Your wife has taken in a mistreated child, saved a woman destined for ruin, transformed your household into a living, breathing home, and squandered your funds on charity. I’m surprised you aren’t calling for her head on a platter.”

“You don’t know the half of it. She’s incorrigible, impertinent, and—”

“You love her.”

The ache swelled into something
more,
and he had to swallow before he could speak. “Julia doesn’t believe Nick had anything to do with this latest debacle.”

Lucien shrugged. “She wouldn’t. I’m surprised she hasn’t found him a position in your house. He’d make a hell of a butler if you could keep him from the liquor cabinet.”

“This is not a laughing matter!”

“I don’t think it is,” Lucien said shortly. “If you had seen Julia’s face when you left her in the middle of the dance floor, you would agree.”

Remorse ripped at his tenuous control, but Alec subdued it. He hadn’t meant to cause her pain, but he seemed unable to look at her without experiencing the agonizing burn of jealousy. And that, he admitted, was what had made him stalk from the dance floor like the cad he was.

Alec raked a hand through his hair, wondering how to deal with the emptiness that held his heart in an icy grip. If he were honest, he’d just admit his faults. All his life he’d been selfish and intemperate, caught up in the pursuit of empty pleasures, until he’d met a spirited, no-nonsense American reformer who believed she could change the world.

A pain akin to fire lanced through him. He loved Julia more than he’d ever thought possible. There was no denying it any longer; he loved her, and damn it, she loved Nick, a man destined to bring nothing but ruin and desolation. Turning away, Alec stared into the darkness.

From behind him, Lucien asked, “What has Julia done that is so horrid?”

Alec roused himself with an effort. “I gave my word to Grandfather—”

“Bloody hell, Alec.
Let it go. Your grandfather would have been pleased to know you were in love with someone other than yourself. I’m not sure that isn’t what he had in mind to begin with.”

Alec glowered, though he wondered if Lucien might be right. The conditions of the will had seemed improbable, bizarre even.

Lucien sighed. “I know you promised your grandfather you would try to keep the fortune from Nick, but Julia is more important than the money.”

Julia was more important than everything. “She doesn’t want me, Luce. She wants Nick.”

“How do you know?”

“She defends him every chance she gets. Even tonight, she said he didn’t even know about the portrait; that it was all Therese’s doing.”

Lucien sat on a bench beside the fountain and stretched his legs out in front of him. “She could be right. Therese holds sway over Bentham, not Nick.”

One of the bushes suddenly sprang to life, the leaves rustling violently as Edmund stumbled into the clearing. “Thank God you are here, Alec!” Edmund’s voice held an unmistakable note of panic. “Julia’s disappeared with Nick. Aunt Maddie said for you to come at once.”

The world spun crazily for one mad moment. Alec was running before he knew it, pounding down the pathway and bursting into the ballroom. Without a word to those he pushed aside, he made his way to Maddie.

“Demme, Hunterston,” she hissed, when he reached her. “Didn’t that silly nephew of mine tell you not to make a scene?”

“Where is she?”

Maddie’s chin quivered and she suddenly appeared all of her seventy years. Clenching her gnarled hand about the cane, she gathered herself and scowled. “We don’t know. Nick escorted her to the balcony ten minutes ago or longer.”

Edmund added, “They were mighty chummy, too. He had his arm about her waist and she was leaning against him like—”

Maddie thumped her cane near enough to Edmund’s foot that he jumped. “Not another word! I won’t have my own family telling tales!”

“But Aunt Maddie, I saw them myself! Julia walked right by me and didn’t even say a word. She looked—”

Alec whirled on Maddie. “Damn it, why didn’t you stop them?”

The brilliant blue eyes sparkled. “Why didn’t
you
stop them? I’m not as young as I once was. By the time I got to the balcony, they were gone.”

“And then Therese—” Edmund stopped and turned a bright red. “But no one believed her.”

Alec curled his fist in Edmund’s lapels and lifted him up on his toes. “No one believed
what?"

“Therese burst into the ballroom screeching that Nick had lied to her, promised to marry her. She was hysterical, sobbing that he’d stolen Julia away to that hunting lodge he is so fond of.” Edmund’s hand gripped Alec’s wrists. “That’s all she said, Alec. I swear.”

Suddenly aware of the look of panic on Edmund’s face, Alec loosened his grip. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” Edmund straightened his cravat.
“All to pieces, worrying about Julia.
I perfectly understand.”

Lucien quirked a brow.
“Do you think Therese was telling the truth?”

Edmund nodded.
“Bound to be.
Made a regular cake of
herself
, crying all over the place.” He leaned forward and said earnestly, “Alec, I think it is a trap. Nick knows you will come after her.”

Alec gave a cool nod though his heart slammed against his ribs in a furious beat. “Then he’s won one battle.”

Lucien caught his arm as he turned. “
Think
, Alec! I heard Grenville say just this evening that Nick was on the verge of ruin. He is desperate and will do whatever he must to get the fortune.”

Alec shook off the restraining hand. “I don’t have a choice.” All that mattered was Julia. He only prayed he would not be too late.

Julia awoke slowly, her mouth dry and bitter, her head aching furiously.

“I was beginning to think you would never awaken.”

She blinked toward Nick’s voice. His large form loomed before her, his golden hair lit by firelight. She struggled to sit upright on a small settee, her movement hampered by her gown.

“Don’t try to get up yet,” he said. “It takes some time for the effects of the laudanum to wear off.”

Laudanum.
Memories flooded back and with it, all the fear she had been too drugged to feel. Julia rested her head against the back of the settee. Before she could do anything, she had to regain her wits. Accordingly, she took a long, slow breath and examined the room. Low and wide, it was decorated in masculine tones, with heavy, dark furniture flanked by a huge stone fireplace.

Nick made an expansive gesture. “Welcome to my private hunting box. The only thing my mother ever left me worth possessing.”

“Very nice place.”
Her voice creaked like the hinge on an old door.

A frown flickered across his face. He crossed to the table and filled a cup from a pitcher. “Here, drink this.”

She regarded it with suspicion and made no move to take it. “What is it?”

Nick smiled and took a deep drink from the cup before offering it to her again.
“Only water.
Nothing more, I assure you.”

Julia took the cup, her hand trembling with even that small effort. “It was very nice of your mother to leave you such a pleasant retreat.”

“It once belonged to an elderly nobleman. I often wonder how many times my mother serviced him in order to win it. She was a whore, you know.”

He said it in the most commonplace of voices, but Julia saw the flash of emotion in his blue eyes. In a way, Nick was very like the children from the Society. Hurt repeatedly, they became tough and rebellious, ready to handle life’s worst and often seeking out that very thing as if to test themselves. “It is still very nice that she left it to you.”

Nick shrugged and looked around the room. “In a way, it was all she had to give.” His gaze returned to Julia. “But we are not here to speak of my mother.”

“Oh?” Julia pushed her hair back from her face. It had long since fallen from the pins and streamed over her shoulders in a tangled mess. “Why are we here?”

His hooded gaze followed her every move. “Perhaps I have decided I care nothing about the fortune and want only you.”

Julia raised her brows in polite disbelief.

Nick chuckled. “Always the pragmatist, aren’t you? But you are correct. Lovely as you are, no woman can outshine seventy thousand pounds a year.”

“Certainly not me.”
She smoothed her skirts over her knees, her palms damp. “You know Alec will find us.” Provided, of course, he chose to come after her.

“Oh, I am counting on it.” He leaned an arm on the mantel and looked into the fire. “I would be most disappointed if he did not.”

Realization dawned. “You want him to miss the meeting with the executors.”

He smiled.

“You had this planned all along?”

“My only worry was how to lure you away from Alec long enough to give you the ratafia. Then you two staged that brilliant row in the middle of the dance floor. Heaven, shall we say, has smiled on this venture.”

Though Julia felt better by the minute, her head still
throbbed
a relentless beat. “Heaven is not smiling now.”

“Ah, but it is. Imagine how it will look to the executors: Alec will chase after his wife, who has, to all intents, run off with another man, while they meet to discuss whether he has stayed free of scandal. The answer should be obvious, even to those fools.” His smile widened. “I have destroyed any influence you may have had with the executors. They will think you an adulteress and worse.”

She sniffed. “I’ve never even met the executors.”

“Ah, but you have, my dear. Not that it matters. Alec will come breathing the fire of the righteous, and I…” Nick’s smile chilled her. He crossed to a small table and picked up an elaborate box. The carved lid lifted to display a set of dueling pistols. “Alec and I have a score to settle.
One long overdue.”

Fear clutched her stomach. “What would that solve?”

He shut the box.
“Everything.
When he arrives, Alec will have no choice but to fight me.” Nick slid his hand over the box with an almost loving gesture. “I have never lost a duel.”

Julia swallowed at his calm, certain voice.
“Never?”

“Not once.”

“You cannot have fought very many, then.”

He quirked a brow.
“Dueling is much more accepted on the Continent. I fought my first one when I was only thirteen. I shot the man right between the eyes.”

She wet her dry lips. “What had he done?”

“He called my mother a whore.”

The elaborate box suddenly took on a menacing quality. “Alec will not fight you,” she said with much more conviction than she felt.

“How can he refuse? Consider your inebriated state on leaving the ball.”

Julia’s heart sank. She could picture how she must have looked, with Nick’s arm about her waist. Her cheeks burned at the thought. Tears threatened, but she held them at bay. There would be plenty of time for that once this drama was played out. She had forever to regret what would never be. Right now, she had to think. “Nick, don’t do this. I know in your heart, you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

His smile slipped. “You know nothing about my heart.”

“But I do.”

Nick walked toward her, menacing and lethal. “I didn’t bring you here to listen to your theories on reforming lost souls. There are more amusing ways to while away the time.”

He sat beside her, his arm resting along the back of the settee, his fingers brushing against her shoulder suggestively. His broad shoulders blocked the warmth of the fire. Julia averted her gaze and glanced around the room. There had to be some safe topic of conversation that would enthrall him until she could figure a way out of this mess.