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Ann turned and pulled her cloak around her. She felt the blood drain from her face. "How& how dare
you enter without permission, sir?"
He strode to the center of the room, glaring at her. The snap of the rolled paper cracked at her senses.
He glanced about the room. "And how do you get out, my willful loon?"
"Get out? Oh, you mean my cloak." She swallowed. "I was cold."
"What a poor lie. You were going out, even though your door was locked." He looked around again,
more carefully. "Let's see, my loon, how you escape."
To Ann's horror, he went to a bookcase and began running his hands over the carved wooden edge.
"Speaking of lunacy, whatever are you doing?" she croaked.
He whirled on her. "Where is it? There's a secret passage, is there not?"
"You, sir, are a guest in my house, and you will leave my private chamber at once."
Erich glared at her. Then his stare seemed to waver. Her heart fell into her shoes as she realized he was
staring over her shoulder at the fireplace. "Priests' holes& They're always near the hearth, aren't they?
An old pile like this might have one. They'd need a plan to get the children to safety from the nursery in
case of& wasn't one of the Brockweirs a Jacobite sympathizer?" He strode past her to the fireplace.
"Bonnie Prince Charlie and all of that."
"You will leave immediately, sir," she commanded with what authority she could muster as her knees
weakened. He was going to find it. Even now he ran his hand over the stone carving& the knob at the
center of the rose&
The door sprang open.
He spun, maniacal triumph writ large on his face. "I knew it!"
"And so?" Ann felt calm coat her, though the center of her boiled with anger and with fear. The secret
door had been the only thing that kept her refuge from being a trap.
"So I shall have Polsham nail it up at both ends." Erich drew himself up and went still.
"Polsham takes his orders from me." But Erich seemed so sure of himself.
He let a slow smile spread over his features. It just didn't reach his eyes. Ann had never seen a smile just
like that. "Not any more, my own private loon." He held up the rolled paper. "The special license," he
announced. "And I received your uncle's blessing today. Your retainers know that with a quick trip to
Mr. Cobblesham tomorrow afternoon to make arrangements and two witnesses, by Thursday afternoon
we shall be locked in holy matrimony."
"And my fortune will be yours."
Again the smile. "And by Thursday night, your body will be mine, as well."
Ann's eyes welled with tears. "You can have my fortune. I won't make any trouble for you. But& " The
word stuck in her throat. She tried again. "But& please don't touch me."
"A husband not claim his rights? Your high-handed treatment hasn't inspired restraint."
"I won't be high-handed. I won't be proud." Her voice sounded small even to herself.
"No you won't. But I still plan to do some plunging. Quite a bit in fact."
"I'm not crazy, you know. But I will be if you carry out your plan." She said it straightforwardly, as sanely
as she could.
He approached. He was only six inches taller than she was but still he loomed over her. She could see
the slime on his teeth, smell his foul breath. She daren't cower or run to the other side of the room. That
kind of behavior would incite a bully. "I don't care," he said between gritted teeth. "In fact, that
guarantees I can put you in an asylum. Your fifteen thousand a year will set me up nicely." His pale blue
eyes gleamed. "And no one blames a man deprived of a wife in the prime of life for taking his solace
where he may."
He tapped her forehead with the rolled license. She felt the men who had prepared it, the one who had
rolled it and got a faint, distasteful echo of Erich himself. He was& weak. She knew that of course. He
had& secrets. She couldn't tell what they were.
He turned and headed for the door, yelling for Polsham.
She let out a breath when he disappeared, but he shocked her by putting his head back around the
doorjamb. "Don't think your Harrier friend will save you. He'll be out of the way in a day or two. We'll
just protect our rooms at night and let nature take its course."
He was gone. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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