“There you are,” Dubois said, making the final knot in the rope and then sitting back to admire his work. “That wasn’t so hard to sit still now, was it?”
These words brought Leah back to reality. Immediately, she began to struggle against the ropes. But the more she moved, the tighter they seemed to get. Panic began to build inside of her. She was trapped.
“You won’t be getting out of these anytime soon,” Dubois said with satisfaction. “So sit quietly and do as you are told. Do you understand?”
“I am not going to sit quietly,” she snarled. “I am going to scream from here all the way to Scotland until someone on the road hears me and discovers us.”
“That would be very unwise,” Dubois said, frowning at her. “I would have to gag you if you did that, and believe me, you will not like that.”
Dubois sat down on the bench opposite her and then thumped his hand against the roof of the carriage. “Drive on!” He shouted, and the carriage began to rumble forward. Leah stared in sick dread out the window of the carriage. The estate zipped by, faster than she would have believed, and soon, they were on the road, going north, toward Scotland.
Leah turned to her kidnapper, eyes narrowed as she appraised him. He was not looking at her, but staring out the window himself, a deep frown on his lips. He looked nervous, she thought. What was it that was making him anxious? Was there a chance that someone was going to find out what he’d done? Was there a chance that she could still be rescued?
“How do you know that my husband plans to annul our marriage?” she asked after what felt like an hour of them bumping their way along the dirt roads.
Dubois glared at her. “Don’t ask questions.”
“I will ask questions if I want to,” she snapped. “How did you know about the annulment?”
“Everyone knows,” he said with a shrug. “He got drunk at White’s and was telling everyone about it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
“How would you know? You were married for what, a few weeks? You don’t know the man. He is nothing but a lout, a rake! All those women he has used over the years… You think I will make for a bad husband, but you have no idea! He is far, far worse.”
Leah scoffed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Dorian isn’t a rake. He told me. ”
“And you believed that?” Dubois raised an eyebrow. “Women are so gullible.”
“I’m not gullible!” she shouted. “And I’m not going to believe your lies about my husband! There is no way he would tell everyone he is annulling our marriage. That’s the last thing he’d do. He wouldn’t want you to find out about it, because then you might… then you might do exactly what it is you are doing.”
Realization was dawning on her. Leah couldn’t believe she hadn’t guessed it right away. She stared at Dubois, her rage and her shock unparalleled.
“It was you,” she murmured. “You forged the annulment documents. Just like you forged the contract with my father for my hand in marriage! You are a forger!”
It all made sense now: the reason why the lawyers weren’t able to prove the marriage contract wasn’t legitimate; the reason whyhe knew about the annulment now. He had become an expert in faking the documents and signatures of the lords of theton.
“Who else have you cheated?” she snarled, sitting up and glaring at him. “How many in thetondespise you because of how you have manipulated them through your forgeries? Do you really think that won’t come back to bite you, that you won’t have to pay for your crimes?”
For a moment, Lord Dubois didn’t answer. Then his face split into a wide smile.
“Maybe someday they will figure it out,” he said, laughing quietly. “But by then, I will be long dead. I am very good at what I do, My Lady, and it will not be easy for others to figure it out. But I am an old man, and it will take years to prove in court that my documents are forged. By then, you will have given me several heirs, and then I can die peacefully, knowing that my estate, and my legacy, will live on.”
“I will never give you heirs,” Leah spat. “And even if I did, I would teach them what a terrible man you are. From the moment they were born, I would whisper in their ear everything that you did, so that they grew up to despise you, to hate, to spit upon the name of their father.”
Dubois’s face twisted into the ugliest scowl she had ever seen in her life. “You wouldn’t dare!” He shouted. “Not when I am your lord and master!”
“I have but one lord and master,” Leah said, “and his name is Dorian Attor, Duke of Nottington! He is my husband, myonlyhusband, and he will remain my husband until the day I die!”
She leaned forward, so that her face was close to Dubois’s, so that he could see the look of deadly seriousness in her eyes.
“And Dorian is far, far more clever than you give him credit for. I see the fear in your eyes, My Lord, and I know what it means: you fear that Dorian will figure out what you have done. You fear he will get wind that letters of annulment were filed on his behalf, that he will suspect everything, and that he will come after us, chase you down, and save me. You fear it because you know if any man is capable of it, it is him.”
She could see the fear now, a tiny ember of a flame inside of Lord Dubois’s eyes. He really did fear that Dorian would come after them, and for the first time, Leah felt more than a flicker of hope that her husband really was coming for her.
“But why?” she murmured, as if to herself. “Why do you fear he will figure out you are behind the forgery and that it means you have kidnapped me?” And then it hit her. It was so obvious. “You admitted it to him that night he cornered you in the pub, didn’t you?”
There was a flash of recognition in Dubois’s eyes, and Leah smiled with satisfaction.
