The Duke's Revenge (30 page)

“
Aye, sir, the punishment
room,” Donald nodded.

“
Where is it?” Max asked,
looking at Lisa.

The maid shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“
I know where it is, your
grace,” Donald said.

“
Lead us, we search there
first,” Max ordered.

The butler nodded and led them to the third
floor and made their way through a series of dark corridor toward
the fourth floor of the castle. There was a narrow passageway. It
was dark and cold. They ran toward a thick door at the end of the
long hallway and stopped.

“
It’s this room here,”
Donald said.

“
Move!” Max commanded and
tried the door handle. It was locked. He banged on the door with
his shoulder but it wouldn’t budge.

“
There must be a key
somewhere,” Lisa sobbed.

“
We have to break it
open,” Max said and started kicking it with his foot. He kicked the
door a few more times until it started to shake.

“
It’s working!” Mrs. Price
said.

Max did more kicking and banging until he
broke the hinge. He was sweating, and when he gave one last kick,
the door crashed opened.

He rushed in. The small chamber was in total
darkness.

“
Ivy, are you in here?” he
shouted, his eyes searching.

Lisa rushed in and stripped the thick
curtains from the small, high window. Light poured into the room.
Max darted his eyes around the room, and instantly, he saw Ivy’s
small form lying near various decaying furniture.

“
Ivy!” He rushed to her.
He lifted her limp body. “Ivy!” he whispered, his voice thick with
emotion. “Ivy,” he whispered again. Gently, with fear nearly
suffocating him, he touched his fingers to the base of her neck. He
closed his eyes.

God, please let there be a pulse.

Her skin was cold, and as his fingers
touched her skin, he felt the pumping of life in her vein. He
sighed with relief and touched her pale, lifeless face.

He lifted her up and carried her out the
room.

“
Oh, your grace...” Lisa
cried.

“
Get a doctor!” he ordered
as he rushed pass them. He ran down the narrowed stairs and did not
notice if the servants were following him or not. All he knew was
that he must get her to safety.

He stalked across the corridor and into
Ivy’s bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed and touched her
cheek.

“
Please be all right,” he
said.

Mr. Tim Oliver came not long after Ivy had
been carefully and gently washed and dressed by Lisa and Mrs.
Price. The young surgeon examined her and treated her wounds, which
was many indeed on her back. It was an hour later that he came down
the stairs and met the distraught duke in the study.

“
How is she?” Max asked,
his blue eyes wild and his blonde hair in a dishevel
mess.

“
She’s badly hurt,” the
young surgeon began, taking a pity at the distressed looking duke.
He thought the man looked very tired and the line on his face was
dark and prominent. “She was very lucky. You are very
lucky.”

“
Will she be all right?”
Max asked.

“
She will be all right,”
Tim confirmed and squared his jaw.

Max nodded and closed his eyes as he rested
his head back.

“
She is very lucky,” Tim
said again, his voice firm this time, “She could have lost the
baby.”

Max opened his eyes, lifting his head up.
“You mean...”

“
What kind of a husband
are you? To leave a woman in such a delicate condition to her own
device?”

“
I didn’t know!” Max said,
weak at the thought of his wife carrying his child. “Ivy is
pregnant,” he said in awe.

“
You didn’t
know?”

Max shook his head.

“
She will be all right,”
Tim confirmed. “She will need special care, however. Her condition
is very delicate.”

“
Yes, I know.”

They talked for a couple more minutes and
then Tim left.

Max did not sleep that night. He stayed up
nursing Ivy until the early dawn. After having something to eat, he
was by her side again. The next night she was burning hot with
fever, and Tim had to be called in. Her cries of hallucination
nearly killed Max with despair. Tim told him that she needed to be
bathed with cold water to bring down the fever. And so Max found
himself stripping her of her nightshirt and he cooled her hot skin
with a cold, damped cloth. At first he thought that she was not
going to make it. When she finally did, however, he later hid in
his room and wept with relief.

He was beside her bed again the next day,
and now and again, he would bath her hot face with a cold, damped
cloth, and now and again, she would whimper unintelligible words.
She would calm down after he had soothed her with his gentle
touches and words. It was not until Lisa had begged him to take
some rest that he reluctantly agreed and took a good, long
sleep.

CHAPTER 26

“
No!” Ivy sobbed, shaking
her head.

A thin, skeletal shadow loomed over her, and
its claws reaching out for her.

“
Go away!” she
whimpered.

‘
You won’t get away, Ivy!’
a voice shrieked behind her.

The strap flew high in the air and it
slashed down on her--wish--whish--whish!

She screamed; her voice hollow in the dark,
empty room.

“
Papa!” she cried, shaking
her head.

The strap rose again, and slowly, it flew
down toward her--

Ivy woke up with a start. Golden light
blinded her eyes. She squint her eyes in confusion as she looked
about her surrounding. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her
forehead was wet with perspiration. A moment later, her furious
beating heart slowed down when she realized that the shadowy forms
of her mother and Gale was not there. It was only a dream, she
thought. They were not here in this very room to beat her.

She got out of bed. As she moved, her whole
body ached. She bit her lip to suppress the pain and walked in a
daze to the door, leaving Lisa forgotten and fast asleep on the
sofa.

It was dark in the corridor, and she found
herself loosing her bearing. Which way to go, she wondered. She
spread her hands out as she stumbled along, trying to find her
way.

“
Papa,” she whispered,
blindly walking to her left.

Papa would keep her safe, and Mama would not
be able to hurt her because Papa was here.

She knew where the master bedroom was, where
her papa was even in the darkness. And so she kept walking to the
left. Then she felt her palms touched a door. She moved her hands
down and they touched the doorknob. She felt the warmth of her papa
soothing her and her panic dissipated.

She turned the door knob and opened the
door. She slipped in, and immediately, she saw the golden color of
the room. There was fire burning in the hearth, and there, on the
large bed was her papa. He was deep in his sleep. She smiled. How
she loved him. She wanted to go and lay beside him, but she didn’t
want to disturb him. And so she staggered toward the glowing hearth
instead.

There she sat by the fire and brought her
knees up to her chin, hugging herself into a ball. She rocked
herself back and forward as she hummed herself a lullaby, a lullaby
that her papa had always hummed to her when she came to him after
she had woken up from her nightmare, her nightmare of her mother
beating her.

Hmm...hmm...hmm....

As she hummed, she closed her eyes and felt
that her papa was right there beside her. She was about to nod of
to sleep when she felt warm hands touching her shoulders.

Yes, Papa was here and he would protect
her.

She snuggled her face against his warm chest
and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Max lifted her up and carried her to his
bed. He placed her in between the sheets and brought her into his
arms. She snuggled against him.

“
Papa,” she whispered,
“keep me warm please. Don’t leave me again.” Tears started to flow
down her cheeks.

Max kissed her on her forehead and wiped her
tears clean with his thumb.

“
I feel so alone without
you. Please don’t leave. I love you. You said you love me too.
Pease don’t leave me. She would hurt me. She whips me, Papa, please
don’t let her. I love you forever and ever...”

“
Shh...” He stroked his
fingers through her long hair.

“
Max, help...” she
whimpered, shaking her head. “Please don’t leave me. I love
you.”

“
I won’t leave you.” He
soothed her pale cheek. “I love you too.” He moved his hand down to
her stomach. It was flat and soft. His child was in her
womb--
his
child.

To think that he could actually loose her
and his child? A bolt of anger rushed in his being.

“
I’m a stupid man. I
almost lost you, but I won’t let that happen again,” he said and
kissed her forehead. He moved back and made himself comfortable.
Then he tightened his arms around her and closed his
eyes.

***

Ivy opened her eyes to see a wall of
muscular, tanned chest and her face was snuggled intimately against
it. She widened her eyes in horror and wondered how on earth this
came to be. She looked up and saw Max watching her. She was
sleeping with her husband, and she was drooling all over him. Good
God, when did that happened?

Her heart skipped a beat. Was she dreaming?
She stared up at him a bit longer to make sure that she wasn’t
dreaming.

He looked different, too, she realized. His
blue eyes, she saw, were not sharp nor were they cold as he looked
down at her. The blueness was so bright that she thought she was
looking up at the English sky in summer. Warmth was gleaming from
within them. Suddenly, she felt as though she was finally home. She
felt warm and safe. Her heart quivered with this overwhelmingly
nice feeling, and she shivered in reactions.

“
Are you cold?”

She shook her head and spread her small palm
out on his bare chest. She could feel the heat glowing out from him
to her hands and body.

He pulled her to him by nudging her lower
back forward. Her body was squeezed tight between his body and his
large hand. She realized that she only had her nightshirt on. She
blushed and tried to pull away.

“
You don’t like my
warmth?” he asked.

“
Nay, your grace,” she
said, “it’s jut that, err...”

“
I’m a stupid man, Ivy, I
almost lost you.” He nudged her chin up with his thumb and finger.
“You were talking last night by the way.” He smiled, his eyes
twinkling.

She caught her breath. By God, but he was
very handsome when he smiled. She lowered her eyes to stop herself
from looking at his strikingly gorgeous face.

“
I didn’t know that I was
talking.”

“
You were hallucinating, I
believe, going on about such nonsense as—” He looked deep into her
eyes, and she found it quite hard to break free. She held her
breath, dreading what he was going to say next.

“
I love you,” he said, his
fingers stroking her cheek. “Now, wife, does what you said last
night in your delirious state holds true?”

“
You grace, please, I do
not want to talk about it.”

“
You said that you love
me.” He watched her clamped her lips together with concern and she
seemed so damn vulnerable, he thought.

“
Is that what I said last
night?”

“
Just tell me.”

“
Your grace, you are
teasing me, please stop. It does pain me so because I am
embarrass.” And her cheek turned crimson in unison with her
words.

Max didn’t mind that he made her blush, for
she looked bright and enchanting in the process. “Forgive me, my
sweet, I do not mean to hurt you in anyway. I merely wanted to
verify that what you said last night is true.”

She looked at him and said, “I can’t help
myself, your grace, it hurt me because I couldn’t stop myself from
falling in love with you. I hate you, you see, at the way you
treated me. I hate you so but somehow I did not know that I was
falling in love with you. I should really despise you with all my
being but that is not my nature.” She moved her hand to touch his
prominent jaw and stroked his cheekbone. “I love you,” she said,
her voice quivering with emotion.

“
That is all I need to
hear,” he said and kissed her forehead, and without lifting his
head, he moved down and kissed her nose. He lifted his head back
and looked at her. Her eyes were bright with marvel. Then he kissed
her lips.

His kiss was warm and gentle, and as he
moved his lips down her throat to her breasts, she felt as though
she was in heaven. The beautiful warm sensation was so homey that
she thought she would surrender anything for this feeling.

Max kissed her everywhere, from her forehead
to her tiny toe. Her skin was petal white and silky smooth. When he
turned her around so that he could kiss her back, he winced inside
at the red lines crisscrossing her small, slender back. He moved
her long, raven tresses and rested them over her shoulder. Then he
kissed every single one of her wound on her back, very gently.