Page 71 of Dangerous Illusions (Dangerous #1)
S EACOURT SAID ANGRILY, “DAMN it, Susan, put that pistol down at once. You don’t know what you’re doing, and it could very well go off by accident! I tell you, Melissa ran away. I found a note from her and didn’t tell you, because I had hoped to have her back before you realized she had gone.”
“I don’t believe you,” Susan snapped. “You would not be sitting quietly here if you did not know where she was, Geoffrey. I know you have taken her to torture me because I asked you to send Catherine away, and if you do not instantly bring her back, I promise you, I will shoot Catherine.”
“But damn it, I tell you, I cannot…”
Daintry, peeking through the narrow opening, was able to see Susan. She stood behind the chair in which Catherine sat, holding a pistol to Catherine’s head. Susan’s hand shook, and Catherine sat very still. Daintry could not see Geoffrey.
She felt Gideon beside her and reached out a hand to keep him from pushing the door open before she realized he had no such intention.
Glancing up, she saw that over her head he, too, was peering through the opening, while behind him, Penthorpe danced with impatience.
Charley and Melissa stood beside him, their eyes wide with fright, and Daintry knew that all three must have heard Susan’s words as clearly as she had.
For once she was grateful for Melissa’s habit of silence, and she nodded approval when Charley put an arm around the younger girl.
Now there was only Penthorpe to worry her, but though he was clearly itching to intervene, he seemed no more likely than Gideon to make a hasty movement.
Having help from men accustomed to looking before they leapt was clearly an excellent thing.
Geoffrey said, “I command you to put down that gun, Susan. If you do anything to harm Catherine, I will have you clapped into Bedlam. As your husband, I have that power, you know, and in fact, if you actually should be so demented as to shoot her, you will certainly be hanged for it.”
“No, she won’t, Geoffrey,” Daintry said, opening the doors just wide enough so that he could see her, and Gideon behind her.
“What the devil are you doing here!” Seacourt demanded.
“I came to visit my sister. Why else should I come? Oh, don’t lower that pistol, Susan,” she said in the same calm tone she had used before.
“Indeed, I can think of no good reason not to shoot her, for you would then be rid of all your troubles at once, you know.” She heard movement behind her and sent up a silent prayer that Penthorpe would not show himself just yet, or allow either of the girls to do so.
Seacourt said, “Good God, don’t encourage her, Daintry! Are you as crazed as she is?”
“Oh, Susan is not insane at all, Geoffrey,” Daintry said, forcing a smile.
“Don’t you remember what Lord Jervaulx said at the Assizes?
My dear sir, if your wife shoots your mistress in your presence, the courts will assume—as indeed they must, by law—that she acted under your command and control.
Therefore, it is not Susan but you who will hang, which is exactly as it should be.
” His look of dismayed fury was nearly enough to stir her to tell him exactly what she thought of him, but Gideon’s hand on her arm recalled her to the moment, and she said quietly, hoping to calm her sister, “What brought this about, Susan?”
“He has hidden Melissa to punish me for demanding that he send Catherine away. Oh, Daintry, he has begun to behave as if she were his wife and I one of their servants. Indeed, he gave the house servants leave last night and ordered me to serve her last night in their place, and in front of Melissa, too! I told him I had had enough.” She gestured toward a vivid bruise on her cheek.
“This was my reward then, but now …” She hefted the pistol again. “Where is Melissa, Geoffrey?”
Catherine spoke for the first time, her tone a near whisper. “Please, Susan, this is not my fault. Why do you threaten me?”
“Be silent,” Susan said through her teeth.
“You came sneaking into my home to seduce Geoffrey with your cozening ways. Mincing around, pretending to be helpful, but in fact taking over my husband, my house, and my child. You made a mockery of my marriage and taunted me in front of Melissa and my servants. It was by your suggestion that Geoffrey made me a prisoner here and has forbidden me to go anywhere with my own child. Indeed, if the truth were known, you are no doubt the reason Melissa is gone now, so do not dare to tell me it is none of your doing.”
“You are demented,” Seacourt said. Then, glaring at Daintry, he said, “And you are, too, if you think any court in the land will believe this to be my doing. There are witnesses, you idiotic girl. You are one yourself, and Catherine and Deverill would have to speak against Susan as well.”
“Catherine will be dead,” Daintry said, “so what she might do does not signify, and if you think I will be a witness on your behalf, you have windmills in your head.” Seeing her sister’s hand falter and knowing Susan could not maintain what must be pure bravado much longer, she racked her brain for a clincher.
It came from an unexpected source. “You have no witnesses to support you, Seacourt,” Gideon said calmly. “I certainly could not swear that you were not responsible for this.”
“Would you lie in your father’s court, Deverill?” Seacourt said with a sneer. “Somehow I doubt that. You, sir, are burdened with too much integrity to lie in any court of law.”
“It would not be a lie,” Gideon said. “You are responsible for everything that is happening here.”
“That you are,” Penthorpe said, pushing past Gideon and Daintry to confront Seacourt.
“To stand up in a courtroom and say that Susan acted under your mastery would be as simple as breathing, Seacourt, for that is precisely what she is doing. Dash it all, she ain’t a murderess!
She’s as gentle and kind as they make ’em, but you’ve dashed well pushed her to this, and so I’ll tell anyone who will listen.
But it won’t come to that. Put down the gun, Susan. I’m taking you away from here.”
She looked at him blankly but lowered the pistol. When Seacourt reached to take it, Penthorpe said sharply, “Leave it, you cretin, or by God, you’ll answer to me!”
Seacourt stiffened. “You forget, Penthorpe, that my wife is no concern of yours. You will not take her anywhere unless you want to be landed with a suit for criminal conversation. And don’t think I would not sue, for I’d take great delight in it. Susan, for the last time, give me that gun.”
She looked uncertainly at him, then at Penthorpe.
Daintry said, “Don’t do it. Geoffrey, leave her alone. She is going with us, and this time you will not get her back.”
“She is my wife,” Seacourt said, “and once this nonsense is ended, she will quickly be reminded of that fact. Moreover, your threats are meaningless, since I cannot believe you will, any of you, really encourage her to shoot Catherine.”
“But, Geoffrey,” Daintry said sweetly, “we do not have to encourage or allow it. As I recall, attempted murder is also a hanging offense, so all we need do is say that you had commanded her to kill Catherine but that we intervened in the nick of time to save them both. And there are three of us, you know, so even if Catherine should happen to tell another tale, she will not be believed, not once she is known to be your mistress.”
“That’s utter drivel,” Seacourt exclaimed. He looked at Gideon. “Surely, you will not pretend to support such an absurd accusation, Deverill!”
“No,” Gideon said, smiling at Daintry when she whirled to glare at him, “but Daintry forgets that it is not the least bit necessary to invent accusations against you, Seacourt. There are plenty of real ones that are more dangerous to you at the moment, or have you forgotten the attack on Lady Ophelia’s coach, not to mention the villainous attack on me in London, both of which can be set at your door?
I am certain it occurred to you that by eliminating Lady Ophelia you could keep her from altering her will, but what possible reason did you have to eliminate me? ”
Seacourt flushed. “You have no proof of that!”
“Do not be so sure,” Gideon said. “Melissa, come here.”
Penthorpe said quickly, “If you truly want the children in this, they are in that little parlor across the way, for I took the liberty of putting them there when it looked like things might get ugly. Do you really want her, Gideon?”
“Melissa?” Susan’s eyes lighted. “You found her?”
“All right and tight,” he said, moving to take the pistol from her slackened grasp, then glancing at Gideon. “Well?”
Gideon said, “No, leave them. The point remains the same, Seacourt, in that they were not alone when we found them, and the rogues who held them prisoner were quite willing, after some encouragement, to chat about activities both recent and past.”
“They did not admit to any attack in London,” Seacourt said confidently, extracting a snuffbox from his waistcoat pocket and helping himself to a pinch as if he had not a care in the world.
“Good God, man, as I understand the matter, you had only just arrived in town when that happened. I doubt they will admit to anything at all in the end, for to do so would be to implicate themselves. Moreover, I have done nothing whatsoever myself.”