Wicked Deception (30 page)

Tieghan ducked his head as the others
all guffawed with delight to hear the illustrious actress Angeline
Weston was soft for the giant. His face was quite red when Gareth
informed them she was quite obvious in her affections, dubbing
Tieghan ‘her great hunk of manliness’ no less.

The laughter in the cabin dispelled the
real threat that existed. Tieghan took the ribbing with a wide grin
as they all discussed the merits of using the actress instead of
the real Lilly.

“
I don’t dare let her out,”
Nicholas said with such finality they knew he wasn’t going to bend.
“She would flee the minute I unlocked her cell and we would never
see her again. No, we stick to my plan. Dartmouth is out there. He
is no doubt living not far from the shop where he sold his wife’s
jewelry yesterday. We concentrate our efforts there and hope he
takes notice. This will all end very soon.”

“
Lord Rudd has not left his
residence since the paper came out this morning with your letter
printed in it,” Thane told his brother in satisfaction. “I paid his
footman to tell me when he seeks to leave the residence. He says
the man is in quite a state when he learned the authorities went
ahead with the digging at Dartmouth’s estate. I think he must
question his control over them all now.”

“
He has lost his hold on
them now that they have their evidence returned. The members in
parliament that used to hold court with him have ceased to rally to
his aid. They all distance themselves from him now. He will panic,
no doubt. I shall enjoy this next part of my plan. Rudd was asked
to do a speaking engagement at the university. I dare say his
audience will be nonexistent now that his alleged crimes are on the
front page of every newspaper in the city,” Nicholas divulged in a
considering tone, his face filled with glowing retribution to see
Rudd crumbling from his celestial pedestal in the eyes of
all.

They all murmured in agreement, alone
with their own thoughts. Gareth continued to whine over his
actress’s unruly temperament and demands to the mirth of his
brothers. They knew when it was all over; they all had much to
answer to their wives.

The ladies were growing quite
suspicious of their activities; with Claire instigating most of the
nonsense. They endured rousing, bitter arguments day in and day
out.

Thane was now sleeping upon the settee
in the salon downstairs and Thor was in the study. They were all
eager to end the charade once and for all. The news Eric was
leaving now that he had failed to win back his wife saddened them
all.

Natalia sought the annulment and
returned to Tieghan’s holdings. Thor was delighted his brother’s
move would add to their growing wealth.

The new shipping offices in America
were sure to thrive now that war was growing imminent with France
and would open up a new market for the smuggled goods. They would
all be wealthy men.

Nicholas finally agreed to enter the
family business at last, having no choice given his dead status.
They were all eager for an end to it. None more than the dead man
who longed to see his wife’s face each day he woke
alone.

Angeline glared at Gareth as she was
helped into the coach by Tieghan, showing the giant her teeth.
Tieghan smiled as he met the gorgeous blonde’s look of invitation
in her dark blue eyes. She looked so much like the Countess he was
shaking his head when he arrived at her rooms to collect her.
Gareth refused to endure her tantrums anymore.

The sight of her hunk of manliness with
him seemed to curtail her flaying Gareth alive for their tardiness.
She was quite happy he accompanied them.

“
Tieghan, you must come see
one of my plays while you’re in town,” the actress told him,
smiling prettily as she arranged her skirts in the elaborate coach
outside her small townhouse.

He smiled, knowing she wanted him to
see far more than her play. Elise would kill him. “If I have time
before I leave, Miss Weston.”

Angeline smiled and looked at the
gorgeous Norwegian with a sultry look. “Make time, Tieghan. You
will find my plays most…stimulating.”

Tieghan felt mauled by her gaze at that
moment and nodded, saying nothing more. Elise would do more than
kill him if he went anywhere in the vicinity of the beautiful
actress and he knew it. She tolerated his business now out of guilt
for shooting Thomas Sullivan, and for no other reason. He had to
finish this for his friend and she understood. They would have time
enough to say what they needed to say to one another during the
trip back to his home in Norway.

Tieghan was disguised as the driver and
Gareth her footman. A flimsy, nearly transparent drape showed
Angeline inside. Both men did a double take at how much she looked
like Lady Lillianne St. Armand, right down to her haughty stare and
imperious demand they leave at once.

Gareth grinned at Tieghan’s blatant
charming of the actress, making the chore of driving her around all
day bearable. Tieghan was whistling under his breath as he jumped
upon the perch, wondering if he dare take the actress up on her
offer to annoy Elise.

He would like to see her fiery
jealousy, the same he felt to know she lived with Caspian Roth all
these months he searched for her. Knowing the man was far more than
her employer enraged him. Yes, they had much to work through. He
knew adding fuel to that already blazing inferno would hamper his
efforts to woo her back to loving him again.

Angeline looked amazingly like Lilly.
It would work; this ruse of Nicholas’s to draw out Lord Dartmouth.
He remembered how he loathed the woman all those years when she and
Nicholas were lovers. He had known it would end badly for his
friend if he continued to see the woman. He’d been right all along.
He slapped the horses into a slow canter and they were
off.

Tieghan kept his head down as he
navigated through town, staying within blocks of the area where
they believed Dartmouth was hiding. Angeline drew back the drape
from time to time to snipe at them, her grasp of the woman she
portrayed coming alive before their eyes.

There was little doubt in Tieghan’s
mind Angeline Weston would be a great actress one day. She was so
convincing with her cutting ridicule of them, he was hard-pressed
to not liken her to Lilly. He smiled in relish when she upbraided
them for going too slow or too fast. Yes, Dartmouth would have
little cause to think it wasn’t the wily Countess within the coach
they had stolen from Rudd’s residence. He smiled darkly, knowing
Dartmouth would take the bait.

~ ~ ~

Phillip was growing desperate as he
walked back to his room. He was low on cash and Eunice’s jewelry
was running out. He met with the fence he found and was disgusted
he received a pittance for what he had originally paid for the
items. He had no choice and snatched up the money and left the
shop.

He was near the pub where he planned to
have lunch before returning to his room. He heard the imperious
voice lashing out at her servants in a nearby conveyance navigating
through the traffic on the busy street.

He stared in shock as he saw Lilly
before the coach moved down the thoroughfare. He followed
hurriedly, watching the coach and furious to have identified it as
Lord Rudd’s conveyance from the crest on the side.

So that is the way of
it
, he thought as he half-ran to keep pace
with the coach. He was seething to realize Rudd had found her
first. The fact she was alive at all told him they betrayed
him.

Phillip stopped running and lost the
coach. He was grim when he went back to his room. He was running
out of money. The coachman returning so early the day before kept
him from robbing the Van Ryker residence. He had barely enough time
to get out the window and flee before the watch was called
in.

He was pleased with himself for having
left Catherine a message. He took his time with her maid, finding
his satisfaction even long after her body grew stiff under him,
bathed in her blood. He wrote upon her wall before he washed
himself clean in her bath tub. He was satisfied for the moment, but
his unquenched hunger for her drove him mad.

She was hiding now and safe for the
moment. He would have her eventually before he succumbed to either
Rudd’s men or the magistrate that hounded his trail. He realized he
must find other accommodations.

Once the story was printed in the
papers, his likeness would be passed around the city. He took pains
to change his appearance, donning wigs and hats, but he knew his
days of being a free man were running out.

He stared in impotent rage out the
window. Rudd thought himself above the law. He would make sure he
hung beside him before it was all over. He’d wring the Countess’s
ivory neck for her treachery as well.

Knowing Lilly was in with Rudd the
whole time made him realize they were intending to blame him for
the murders of all whose bodies were dug up at his residence
daily.

The macabre account in the papers
painted a grisly portrait of him as a loathsome monster, while Van
Ryker’s accounting only hinted at Rudd’s implication. The hint was
enough to bring question to the man’s activities. He thought it
unfair he was now being blamed for all of it.

He may have killed his fair share, but
the rest of those rotting within his grounds were the doing of Rudd
and no other. Even Weldon and Billingsley’s deaths were laid at his
feet. He realized if he didn’t get some control over the situation
he was going to the gallows alone.

~ ~ ~

Angeline’s performance wasn’t all that
was observed that day as Lord Rudd made his way up the steps to the
university to address the students. His secretary rushed ahead of
him. They drew up short when they arrived to an empty
theatre.

They reasoned the times was confused
until the director of the university arrived at once. He informed
them the engagement was cancelled due to the stories in the paper.
He walked away from them rudely without even bothering to use the
Duke’s title to address him.

Lord Rudd was florid with fury as they
returned to his coach. He cursed his secretary for not having
realized the allegations in the paper would be taken seriously.
Dartmouth might be blamed for the dead bodies being unearthed upon
his property, but his being implicated in Van Ryker’s letter was
causing him no amount of discomfort.

His club refused him entrance the day
before. He received no invitations. His continued messages to the
men in power he controlled went unanswered. He felt like his world
was crumbling around him. Lady Billingsley refused to see him, as
well as Lady Weldon. When he arrived home the magistrate was
there.

Leland Newell regarded him with grim
pleasure when he approached. He glared as he was put under arrest
for his involvement in the murders of both Billingsley and Weldon.
Dartmouth’s servants told them he was the last person to see them
alive before they disappeared. As he was taken down for
questioning, he wondered how this had all come to pass.

Leland was smug when his men carted him
away, seeming undisturbed by what he held against him in his safe.
When his barrister arrived and he was released this day, he would
see them all punished for turning on him.

Rudd endured the questions for most of
the day before his barrister arrived and he was released. They had
no evidence to charge him with the two nobleman’s murders, but he
was warned by Newell to not leave town or he would be arrested and
held.

He went to his safe. His brown eyes
filled with livid rage as he opened it and removed the documents.
He opened the thick packet and stared at the playbills that slid
through his fingers announcing the newest production starring
Angeline Weston.

The documents were gone. Someone broke
in and stole them, as recently as today while he was being
questioned. He’d taken them out the night before to review them
with pride as he made his plans.

Everything was here then. Now they were
gone. He sat down into the chair behind his desk heavily, staring
into space. The men he held under his thumb for years for various
misdeeds were now free to seek their revenge upon him.

He knew it was only a matter of time
before he hung alongside Dartmouth. He smiled grimly, thinking of
his interview with Nicholas Van Ryker. The man had changed in
twenty years since he had last seen him.

Gone was the little boy he used as his
favorite toy then. He was a fierce man now who wanted justice for
what was done to him by himself and the others. He knew in that
moment Van Ryker had done it all, somehow, even from the
grave.

Francis reached into his desk and
retrieved the pistol. He wasn’t waiting for them to come for him
again. He knew he was beaten. He pressed the muzzle of the weapon
to his temple, his last thought of Eunice before he pulled the
trigger. His head went down among the playbills, soaking them with
blood.

~ ~ ~

Gabriel learned of Lord Rudd’s suicide
that day when he received a note from Lady Billingsley. The lady
felt no remorse for her husband’s crony. She only wanted to let him
know the ringleader had taken his own life rather than take his
punishment. He felt for her learning her husband was one of those
named in Nicholas’s letter must have pained her.