Wicked Proposition (65 page)

Lilly chuckled as she chewed and swallowed the
note from her most recent admirer. He was waiting in the wings to
aid her when she got out of this vile, rat-infested cell.

Lilly shrugged away the sense of foreboding at
the stranger’s sudden interest in her. She assumed he had been at
her trial and developed an infatuation for her. It was obvious
knowing she would go to her death inflamed the man.

Money always did have a way of making things go
so much more smoothly. With the help of Lord Dartmouth, she would
be escaping her prison this night.

Dartmouth had assured her he had thought of
everything and for her to be ready when he arrived.

Lilly shivered to think of the man. Dartmouth
scared her, out of all the men she had known. The man had little
conscious and seemed to delight in inflicting pain.

The nobleman finally discovered Yvetta’s part in
Sullivan’s blackmailing scheme from Milly. The maid had also gone
missing recently.

Dartmouth felt it only prudent to rid himself of
the ones who knew of his crimes.

Lilly frowned as she gazed at her chipped nails.
She sighed and flicked a dirty, lank piece off hair off her
shoulder.

Lord Dartmouth had his own agenda, she knew. She
thought of her benefactor with a derisive sneer.

Phillip Sutton, the seventh Earl of Dartmouth,
was her unlikely champion. He kept her alive now only to further
his own schemes. Lilly did not know what his plan was for her
husband and the others.

Lilly did not care as long as she got out of
this awful place. Seaton was found dead recently. He was found
floating face down in the Thames after a night of revelry at the
brothel, an apparent victim of robbery.

With his accomplice now dead, Phillip sought to
remove the ones who knew of his misdeeds. The other nobles in his
group wanted assurances their sins would not come back to haunt
them again as well.

Phillip promised her much in the weeks he had
been coming to the prison to see her secretly. Her eyes hardened
when she thought of the one promise he vowed to keep.

Catherine appealed to Phillip. He was obsessed
with her little sister. Lilly simmered in fury as she thought of
Catherine stealing not only her husband from her, but Nicholas as
well. What did men see in the twit?

Lord Dartmouth had plans for Catherine. Her
little sister would pay for what she had done to her. Dartmouth
assured her of that with a look of perverse insanity in his dark
eyes.

Lilly stood suddenly as she heard the keys
jingling at the end of the hall, alerting her to the guard’s
arrival. He was joined by Lord Dartmouth, who walked a staggering
cloaked figure to the door of her cell. Lilly smiled as Dartmouth
met her gaze with a look of grim retribution through the bars. The
guard opened the cell.

Dartmouth placed the drugged Yvetta upon her
straw pallet. He removed the cloak from the prostitute and tossed
the mite-infested blanket over her body. Phillip returned to the
Countess and put the hooded cloak about her shoulders. He tossed
the purse of coins to the guard. The guard tucked the bag inside
his coat. The man watched furtively as the pair was led out the
rear entrance of the prison.

“Lady Iverleigh, we have much to discuss
concerning your future,” Phillip said softly in a cordial tone. He
led her out of the prison and into his waiting coach outside.

Lilly smiled delightedly as she leaned back
against the velvet cushions. She settled herself and accepted a
flask of port from him. She drank the wine greedily, her mouth dry
from chewing the note and swallowing it before his arrival. Phillip
would kill her to if he knew of her own plans.

Lilly decided she could endure his disgusting
perversions for a time. His dark obsidian eyes met hers, and she
shivered from the look she saw there. He terrified her. Phillip did
her a service, she reminded herself. She could not afford to show
him how much he disgusted her.

“We will speak more of it later, my lord,” Lilly
said with an unconscious shiver. She looked out the window of the
coach as it moved away from the prison. “I am in your debt, and
ever willing to accommodate you, especially when it involves
killing my husband. You have my undivided interest.”

Lord Dartmouth nodded and drank from the flask
when she handed it back to him. He regarded her with a satisfied
gleam in his eyes.

“Yes, we have a mutual interest here,” Dartmouth
agreed and gazed at her in amusement. “Shall I tell you how we will
begin, my dear? You will enjoy this immensely.”

“Never let it be said I am not an avid listener,
Lord Dartmouth,” Lilly said softly, blue eyes growing feral. “Do
tell.”

THE END