The scream that had been on the tip of Vanessa’s lips died at once, and she felt herself go cold and pale.
“What are you doing here, Lord Langdon?” she whispered, even though she knew perfectly well why he was here.
Lord Langdon smiled—a cold, sneering smile that made her stomach clench in fear.
“Did you not get my note?” he asked. “I told you I would be coming for you—and that your husband’s need for vengeance would lead him to abandon you. Is that not exactly what has happened? He has abandoned you to go and seek revenge against Lord Egerton?”
Vanessa did not answer. She knew that if she admitted to where she thought her husband was, it could condemn him.
But Lord Langdon did not seem to need her to confirm or deny.
“It is all right; you do not need to say anything,” Langdon said. “We know where he has gone. And by ‘we’, I mean the Constable of the Bow Street Magistrate.”
“Since when have you worked for the Bow Street Runners?” she demanded. “You are the son of a viscount! Why would you work in a trade?”
“I am not a constable, if that is what you mean,” Langdon said contemptuously. “I am merely helping them out on this particular case which has befuddled them for some time. Really, they have you to thank for it.”
“Me?” she asked, astonished.
“Oh yes. I never would have connected the Vigilantes of Virtue to the Duke of Thornfield if he had not sogallantlytried to rescue you from me by marrying you himself. But that particular act ofchivalrymade me wonder what kind of man would give up his freedom to marry a woman he hardly knows. A little bit of digging and I learned all about his past. And then everything began to fit into place. Thornfield had all the right motivations to make him one of the Vigilantes of Virtue. Tie that to the fact his best friend was seen that night, and it was too perfect…”
His smile widened. “The constables have been very thankful for my help in connecting the dots. Thanks to me, they have a prime suspect. Thanks to me, I led them to Egerton, who then, with my prompting, decided to come to London to confront Thornfield. And thanks to me, Thornfield is now on his way to Egerton, fueled by his hate and need for vengeance. He does not know it, but he is walking into a trap.”
“No!”
“Yes. The will be so thankful that I am sure they will turn a blind eye if Thornfield’s wife goes missing as well.”
“Missing?” Vanessa’s heart leapt into her throat. “What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about the fact that I cannot marry you as I promised I would.” Langdon shook his head. “As long as Thornfield is alive, you will not be legally able to marry another. It was a conundrum that held me back for some time. I thought perhaps I would have to kill Thornfield myself, freeing you up to marry again. But the Magistrate wants to make him an example. And I do not see how I will be able to get away with it. And a Duke… The consequences of that are too risky. You, however…”
His smile was growing more insane by the moment. Vanessa was beginning to tremble. She had a very bad feeling. A very, very bad feeling.
Lord Langdon reached into the front of his coat and pulled out a pistol. The moment she saw it, Vanessa shrank back. The coldmetal glinted at her, and her body seemed to grow heavier. She should run, she knew. She should scream. But she could not bring herself to move. She had entirely frozen.
“You are a woman,” Lord Langdon continued. “And if the case of the Vigilantes of Virtue has taught me anything, it is how little the Bow Street Magistrate seems to care about violence that happens to women. Astonishing, is it not? Ladies can walk around Mayfair with broken bones that are done to them by their husbands, and no one investigates. But when a gentleman is beaten up and a list of his crimes left for the constables to find, all they care about is bringing his attacker to justice.”
Lord Langdon laughed. “I must say, it fits very well with my plans to make you disappear. No one will suspect anything. They will think that in the scandal over your husband’s arrest, you ran away to the continent with some of your large fortune. Even if someone suspects something otherwise, the Magistrate will never look into it. I will be safe. And although we will not be able to be married, at least I will be happy knowing that you did not marry anyone else.”
Lord Langdon raised the gun, and Vanessa stared at it, her body still completely frozen.
I am going to die. The man who tormented me throughout my childhood is going to kill me. I am going to die as I lived—lettingmyself be harmed by this disgusting, depraved man.
And as she thought this, a surge of rage went through her.
No. She was not going to just take it. She was not a child anymore, saying nothing when he pinched her and pulled her hair and dug his fingernails into her. She was a woman now. A strong, free woman. A duchess. And more than that, a woman who had known love.
It blazed through her then, her love for Winston. He might not be ready to receive that love from her, but it did not stop her from feeling it. She loved him with all her heart because he had given her the greatest gift of all: belief in herself that she deserved more. That she deserved more than to be bullied by both Langdon and her parents. And if she was going to die now, she was at least going to die fighting back.
“Say goodbye to this world, Your Grace,” Langdon said as he aimed the gun at her heart.
“No!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “I will not let you!” And then she threw herself forward at Langdon, her arms outstretched, as if to seize the gun from him. She knew it was useless, but she didn’t care. She was not going to go down without a fight. That’s what Winston would want. That’s what the Vigilantes of Virtue would want. And that’s what she wanted.
Vanessa saw Lord Langdon’s eyes grow wide in his shock as he realized what she was doing. Then there was an ear-splittingbangas the gun went off, and everything went black.
“I knew you would come.”
Lord Egerton sat at the head of the long dining room table, his eyes glittering in the candlelight as he gazed at Winston, who stood in the door of the dining room, watching him. “I knew you would not be able to resist.”
