Justine watched as her sister’s expression changed from doubt to horror. She believed him. How could she not? There was more than enough truth in what Montague was saying and it matched very closely to what she had told her sister.
But he had omitted one important detail. ‘Montague struck him. With a poker. If I had not brought him home to heal, he’d have died on the floor of your precious shop and we would both have been hanged for murder.’
It was plain that the facts made the story no better. Margot stuffed a fist into her mouth, as though she could not decide whether to scream or be sick, but desperately wished to avoid either. Her hand muffled the sob that matched the tears starting in her eyes. Then she was up and gone, probably to her room, where she’d have been all along had she followed Justine’s first order.
The door shut and silence fell in the room again, as though Montague expected her to speak first. Justine reflected that the wait for words could be prolonged, since she had no idea what to say next. Even if she managed to get him to leave again, it would take some time to calm her sister and to explain things in such a way that did not make her seem like a conniving whore.
Perhaps that was what she was, after all. She had thought herself the victim. But Montague’s version of the truth seemed equally plausible. In either case, it was possible that her bond with her sister was irretrievably broken. Margot would never again look with trust upon either Justine or their guardian. Who did that leave to support and encourage her?
‘What have you to say for yourself?’ Montague said at last, as though dealing with a recalcitrant child. ‘You see all the trouble you have caused, trying to get around me and disobeying my wishes? Next, I suppose you will tell me that you’ve learned nothing of the stones and the whole trip has been for naught.’
‘Not for naught at all,’ she said with a sigh. She sounded as tired as she felt. ‘I have not had to endure your touch for several months. In my opinion, that is almost as good as a holiday.’
‘Then your holiday is at an end,’ he said, rising from the chair and standing over her. ‘You will be coming away with me, today, while Felkirk is away and cannot ask questions. Tell your sister to pack as well. We are all going back to Bath.’ There was something in his voice that made her wonder if that was their destination at all. Perhaps he meant to take them only part way. There was likely a cliff or a crag somewhere between there and here, where three might walk out and only one would return. He would be safe and there would be no more troublesome women, threatening unfortunate revelations.
‘No,’ she said, feeling rather proud of herself. ‘I do not mean to stir a step from here. When Will comes back, I will tell him all and he can decide what is to be done with me.’ She looked up at Montague, trying to raise some real defiance to disguise the apathy she felt creeping over her, now that all was lost. ‘Since you cannot carry me bodily from the house, you might as well go away.’
‘I will take your sister, then,’ he said.
‘She will be nearly as difficult to move as I am,’ Justine said, with a slight smile. ‘I suspect she is having hysterics in her room after what she has just heard from the pair of us. Better that you should go alone. You can travel faster that way and be far from here before my husband and the duke return.’
‘Your husband?’ Montague laughed at her.
It had been a stupid mistake. She must learn not to believe her own lies. ‘Lord William Felkirk,’ she corrected. ‘The man you attacked. Perhaps he will not even seek you out, if I am here to take the blame for the crime.’
Montague considered for a moment and shook his head. ‘You think you shall persuade him to forgive you, with your sad eyes, your bowed head and your gentle manners.’ He reached out then and plucked the cap from her head, running his fingers through the curls and then pulling sharply back on them so that she was forced to meet his gaze. ‘You will bind him with lust and pity, until he is as trapped by you as I have been. Then you will send him to find me and I will be the one who hangs.’
‘Then I suggest you run as far and as fast as you can,’ she said in a calm voice. She could feel the skin of her scalp pulled tight in his grip and the muscles in her neck straining against the force of his hands. It did not matter. After today, she had likely lost the love of her sister. She would lose Will as well and the respect of everyone else she had met here. There was little left that Montague could do that would hurt her.
‘I am not going anywhere,’ Montague said with a smile. ‘Unless it is back to the woods to await the return of your precious Felkirk.’ He released her, pushing her roughly back into the cushions of the chair, and withdrew a pistol from his coat pocket. When he was sure she had seen, he dropped it back to where it had been hidden. ‘How hard would it be, do you think, to finish him with a single shot?’
‘Harder than you think,’ she said breathlessly. ‘He is with his brother the duke. There will be coachmen, outriders, livery. You cannot have so many bullets as that in your little gun.’
‘Perhaps I shall wait until he rides out alone,’ Montague replied. ‘He is still weak, is he not? And probably just as careless as he was the day he turned his back on me.’
‘You would not dare,’ she said, suddenly quite sure he would.
‘I would not act, unless you gave me reason. If you were to stay here, to blather the story to him, for example. Or if you plan on raising the alarm against me.’ He paused, reaching for her again and running his thumb down her cheek. ‘I would have no reason for it if you came away with me. Things will be as they were between us. Then, if it pleases me, we will discuss your freedom and that of your sister.’
Her heart sank. He would win, just as he always did. She would go with him, if only to lure him away from Will and Margot. If she did not, he would wait and watch, and eventually he would strike.
He could feel her weakening. It made him smile. ‘Very good. I knew you would come to see things as I do. You of all people should understand what might happen to a man alone on that path. There are places that are shadowed, even in daylight. At night, when the moon is new as it was when your father died...’
‘How did you...?’
‘He thought he was too clever for me, just as you did,’ Montague said. ‘He hid the diamonds and carried nothing but an empty pouch. In the end, he gained nothing and lost his life. I got the insurance money, of course. But I wanted the stones as well.’ His voice trailed off, as he thought back to the incident, his face marked by a childlike disappointment.
‘You.’ She felt no surprise. It was as if she had known, all along, but it had been too awful to contemplate, so she had refused to think too closely about it.
‘Me,’ he said, with a proud smile. Then he gripped her by her shoulders, pulling her to her feet. ‘There is no point in resisting. I have been the architect of your fate for most of your life and I do not mean to change that now. In a few moments you will get your shawl and come away with me. You will leave this place and have no more contact with sweet William and his family. If you do anything to warn him, seek help of any kind, or reveal secrets that have been hidden for years, then things will be far worse than the lesson I mean to teach you now.’ He kissed her, if such an open-mouthed punishment could be called a kiss. She fought, but the contact was relentless, his tongue pushed deep into her mouth until she was near to gagging on it and had ceased her struggles. Only then did he release her, following it with a slap that sent her reeling on to the sofa.
It was happening again. And as usual, she could think
