The Secret Kiss of Darkness (19 page)

‘All right, thanks. Oh, by the way, are you staying long?’

Alex smirked. ‘What, trying to get rid of me already, dear bro? Don’t worry, I’ve nearly finished my business around here, so you won’t have to put up with me for much longer. Another couple of weeks at the most.’

‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’

‘Don’t pretend, Wes. I know you think I’m a waste of space.’

‘Damn it, Alex, you’re my brother and you’re welcome here any time you want. It’s your home too. I just wish you would take life a bit more seriously, that’s all.’

‘And I wish you’d lighten up a bit. You’re not in your dotage yet after all, but I guess we’ll never agree on that point, so I’ll see you later.’

Wes stared after his brother who sauntered out of the room as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Much as he hated to admit it, maybe Alex was right. Perhaps he did take life too seriously. Maybe it was time to live a little and let work take second place for a while. He’d been working far too hard of late and never did anything else. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands.

He was just afraid he had forgotten how to have fun.

John flung open the door to the bedroom so hard it ricocheted off the wall, making the furniture jump and sending an ornament crashing to the floor. His gaze fixed on Eliza, who’d turned around in fright, staring at him with huge eyes. The baby, startled out of his slumber, began to wail loudly, a piercing, terrified little sound. John ignored it and focused on his wife.

‘Wh-what on earth is the matter?’ she stammered. ‘You’re scaring the baby!’

‘Bitch!’ he ground out, his eyes boring into her, fury boiling his blood. His hatred must have been almost tangible, because Eliza began to tremble from head to toe.

‘John?’ she asked uncertainly, edging away from him under the covers.

She couldn’t evade him, however, he saw to that. Quickly, he advanced on the bed and reached over to haul her out by a painful grip on her arm.

‘No! John don’t, I’m supposed to lie down,’ she protested. ‘The midwife said the bleeding won’t stop otherwise. John, please!’

‘So you thought you could cuckold me, did you? Traitorous whore,’ he spat and pulled her along towards the door. She tried to resist, holding onto the bedpost, but he backhanded her and she cried out and lost her grip. He grabbed her around the waist, making his way towards the door, while Eliza began to sob and stretched her hands out towards her screaming baby.

‘No, John. My baby. He needs me, I must stay with him.’

‘Shut up.’

He hit her, harder this time, and she fainted, crumpling into a deadweight. With the strength born of true rage, John hefted her up and slung her over his shoulder.

‘Faint all you like,’ he muttered. ‘I’ll not let you get away with this.’

She came to as he was staggering along a garden path, huffing and wheezing with the effort of carrying her. She weighed more than he’d thought.

‘John, let me down, please. You’re hurting my stomach and I feel nauseous and dizzy. Did you hear me? Any minute now, I’m going to be sick, I swear.’

He ignored her and kept going.

‘Put me down,’ she begged. ‘Stop this, please. John, for the love of God!’ Feebly she started to hit his back with her fists, but she was so weak it didn’t have much impact. Still, he figured she might as well walk so he dropped her to the ground and she was momentarily winded.

‘So you’re awake again. Good. If you’d rather walk, so be it,’ he said. He tugged her upright with a yank of her arm and began to stride along the path holding onto her with a death-grip. She protested again and tried to free herself, but without success. He was pleased to note that she had to follow him willy-nilly, and he paid her no heed when she complained that the cold, sharp stones on the gravel path were digging painfully into her bare feet. He could hear her teeth clattering together too, presumably both from the cold and the shock of being dragged outside. It made a glow of satisfaction spread inside him. It was justice, pure and simple.

‘No, John! What are you doing? Have you gone insane?’ She tried again to free herself.

‘Hah, thought you could fool me, did you?’ he muttered. ‘Well, you should have found yourself a lover with blond hair then, shouldn’t you? Stupid whore. Now you’ll get your comeuppance. I’ll see to it personally.’

‘Don’t be silly, of course the baby is yours. Not everyone in the family has blond hair, you know that. You’re drunk, John. Can we not discuss this in the morning? Please! You don’t know what you’re saying.’

He wasn’t listening. Nothing she could say would stop him now, he was determined about that. Relentless, he pulled her along towards the cliffs and although Eliza dug in her heels, bit him and tried anything else she could think of, he didn’t let go of her. He knew full well she didn’t have the strength to withstand him, drained as she was after her recent ordeal. Even her sobbing lessened after a while, obviously an effort when she needed the energy for walking and fighting him every step of the way.

Eventually they reached the cliffs and as he dragged her near the edge Eliza seemed to understand what he intended, for she started to fight him in earnest, hysteria lending her additional strength.

‘No John, don’t do this, I beg you. You really have run mad … Help me someone, HELP ME!’

She shouted and sobbed, flailed and kicked, but they both knew he was the stronger. And there was no one out in the middle of the night. There was only darkness.

Alex rapped smartly on the door to a cheap hotel room in nearby Kingsbridge. It was opened cautiously and the occupant peered out through the crack.

‘Yes? Oh, it’s you. Come in.’

He entered swiftly and shut the door so hard it vibrated for a moment. ‘What the hell did you have to go and ruin Kayla’s stuff for? Don’t you have any sense?’

‘Nice to see you too, Alex. And who’s Kayla?’

‘Don’t play games with me, Caro. I’m warning you, I’m not in the mood. I’ve already had an earful from my sainted brother. That’s enough.’

Caroline, a tall beauty in her mid-thirties with short, honey-coloured hair, fashionably cut, walked over to sit on the bed with her legs curled under her. She glared at Alex. ‘What difference does it make to you what happens to that woman’s things?’

Alex groaned. ‘Don’t you understand? You’ve made Wes wary now. He’ll have his people on the look out for strangers and weird comings and goings. That’s exactly what we don’t want. I told you that we weren’t supposed to arouse anyone’s suspicions or attract any attention, for Christ’s sake, that’s why we came here and why you have to keep out of the way. No one would question my staying at the Hall – it’s still my home after all – but you being there for several weeks would seem odd when you don’t normally stay that long.’

‘I have a right to visit my daughter.’

‘Yes, but you don’t, do you? When was the last time you spent more than a day with her? Never, that’s when.’

‘That’s not to say I can’t.’

‘Well, bloody well do it in daylight, instead of creeping around the house wrecking stuff.’

Caroline opened a bedside drawer and took out a packet of pills. She extracted one and swallowed it down with angry movements.

‘And
that’s
not helping.’ Alex nodded at the pills and scowled at her. ‘You promised, no drugs while we’re doing this job.’

‘It’s just diazepam, they calm me down. And it’s no wonder I need them, with you storming in here in such a foul mood, shouting at me.’

Alex ground his teeth together, trying to keep his frustration bottled up. He took a deep breath before continuing in what he hoped was a more reasonable tone of voice. ‘Look, all I’m saying is that you have to be a bit more circumspect. There’s no point you hiding out here if you’re going to do stupid things up at the Hall. Wes will smell a rat for sure.’

‘The little bitch needed to be taught a lesson. She’s living in
my
room and probably using all my things, so what does she need her own for? Nell told me she borrowed my swimsuit, can you believe it? The nerve.’ Caroline’s features, normally as lovely as any model’s, took on an ugly expression.

‘So you
have
seen Nell?’

‘Yes. I popped in to say goodnight to her, as is my right. And don’t worry, it’s our little secret. I made her promise not to tell Wes.’ Alex rolled his eyes, but she ignored him. ‘Anyway, that’s beside the point. That woman is trying to take my place, I just know it, ensnaring Wes and worming her way into Nell’s affection. Nell does nothing but talk about her all the time and I’m sick to death of it.
I’m
the one who should be there, not living in this, this … well, look at it, for heaven’s sake. I mean, I ask you – pink nylon sheets? It’s disgusting. It’s not what I’m used to, I can tell you.’

Alex sat down and sighed. He put his head in his hands. ‘I thought you hated Wes, so what do you care whether he likes Kayla or not?’ He ignored the rest of her outburst. Some things weren’t worth fighting over. ‘You said you were in love with me.’ In his heart he had known all along that Caroline didn’t really love him, but he hadn’t cared. He just wanted her because she’d been Wes’s and he’d known it would annoy his brother no end.

She was an incredibly attractive woman, with her lithe body and seductive ways, so being with her wasn’t exactly a hardship. He had also thought they were kindred spirits as they both loved life in the fast lane and living in luxury without actually having to do much work in order to achieve this. Of late, however, the relationship had begun to pall on him. For that matter, so had the jet-set lifestyle and the things he had to do to stay afloat. He knew he was in too deep and he wanted out. But Caro had insisted they do this one last job together and he’d agreed. Then he’d finish with her.

She was right about one thing though. She did look incongruous sitting on the faded floral chintz bedspread, dressed only in a flimsy silk kimono. Like an exotic bird who had somehow ended up in the shabby nest of a sparrow. Caroline was the kind of woman who should be staying at The Ritz, or whatever the local equivalent was, and walk around wearing designer clothes and dripping with jewellery. But here she was, brought low by her own weaknesses. She was hooked on prescription drugs and alcohol. Just like he was. The only difference was that he admitted as much and wanted to do something about it. She didn’t.

‘Of course I don’t love Wes,’ she sneered in answer to his question. ‘How could I, after what he’s done to me? He’s a complete bastard. But I wanted to be Lady Marcombe. He had no right to take that away from me. I’d earned it, providing him with a child and everything. Now I’m back to being a plain Ms. How boring is that?’

‘You brought it all on yourself,’ he muttered, but she pretended not to hear him.

‘Anyway, that room is still mine. It was to be left intact for me to stay in whenever I visit Nell. That was the agreement, so why did he put her in there? So she could be conveniently close to his room, I bet. He’ll have unlocked the interconnecting door first chance he got.’

‘Look, the only reason she’s in your room is because all the others are being redecorated, okay?’ Alex tried to hang onto his patience, but it wasn’t easy. ‘Annie told me. And if Wes wanted to sleep with the woman, don’t you think she would be sharing his own room? This isn’t the Middle Ages.’ Caroline started to say something, but he held up a hand to stop her. ‘Enough, Caro. We have more important things to think about right now. We have to plan our next move carefully or we’ll jeopardise the whole deal. If we don’t succeed in our little venture, you’ll be spending the rest of your life in hovels like this. Is that what you want? Now are you going to be sensible and help out, or should I take you back to London and manage it by myself?’

Caroline lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply before replying. ‘Oh, very well. Let’s finish playing your little games first. I’ll deal with Wes and the bitch later.’

‘They are not games,’ he growled. ‘This is dead serious, Caro, I wish you’d get it into that pretty little head of yours. And it was your idea in the first place, remember?’

She ignored his comments yet again and with an abrupt change of mood she stubbed out the cigarette and crooked a finger at him, smiling seductively. ‘If you’ve finished being disagreeable, why don’t you come and greet me properly? Haven’t you missed me even a tiny bit, darling?’

Alex hesitated, then shook his head. For once he didn’t feel any desire for her and if he was honest with himself, it was a relief. He tried to let her down gently though. ‘Sorry, but I’ve got things to do. And I’m a bit tired. Couldn’t sleep at the Hall last night. Wes always gets to me, you know how he is.’

Caroline didn’t buy his excuses. She stared at him in disbelief before her lips tightened and fury made her eyes flash dangerously. ‘I see. Well, perhaps I’ll go and find someone else to play with then. I’m sure there are other little boys around here who wouldn’t mind.’ She flounced off towards the tiny bathroom and went inside, slamming the door behind her.

Alex sighed and cursed himself for a fool. He needed to keep Caro sweet until the deed was done. She knew too much. ‘I am
not
a little boy,’ he muttered, clenching his fists in frustration, ‘so why won’t anyone ever take me seriously?’ But he knew it was partly his own fault.

He gritted his teeth and went to knock diffidently on the bathroom door. ‘Caro, darling? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that I’ve had so much on my mind lately. Please, won’t you come out and I’ll make it up to you?’

He was kept waiting for a few minutes, then the door opened slowly.

‘So what do you say we take the day off to do some touristy stuff, Kayla?’

Kayla looked up from the computer and found Wes standing very close. She breathed in his aftershave, which for some reason she found extra intoxicating today. It was a mixture of subtle spices with lemony overtones that made her want to pull him close. ‘Er, sure, that would be nice.’ She cleared her throat, trying to get her wayward thoughts under control. ‘What’s brought this on?’

He nodded towards the window. ‘It’s a beautiful day, too lovely to sit inside. And I’ve decided I need to live a little. I work too hard.’ He grinned and shrugged. ‘I’m turning into a boring old man, or so Alex says.’