Page 79 of The Duke Who Claimed Her

“Quiet!” Lord Witherington snapped at his daughter. He did not look at her, however. While he continued to stand facing her, he had his head turned so that Caspian was in his sights. “I did not want it to come to this, Your Grace. All I wanted was what I am owed.”

“And you thought that kidnapping your daughter was the way to get it? Threatening her and her family?”

“As you well know, that was not my first attempt. Alas, I have raised a rather petulant child who seems to take pleasure in testing the limits of what she can get away with.”

“Mourn your failed fatherhood all you want.” Caspian took another step into the room. “But first, step away from Arabella. Now!”

Lord Witherington looked at Caspian and the pistol, his mind turning. Then he turned back to Arabella, and Caspian saw his arm raise just a little.

Caspian fired the gun into the air. The shot was like the boom of a cannon, splitting Caspian’s ears. Arabella shrieked, and Lord Witherington jumped.

“That was a warning,” Caspian growled. “You will not have another.”

“I am at a loss,” Lord Witherington said, not moving. “If I do as you say, what then? Arrest me? Put me in chains? And all the while, I will be forced to watch my daughter live a life she would not have if not for me?”

“That or I could kill you now.”

“Perhaps that is for the best,” he sighed as if in acceptance. “But in death, it might be nice to know that my daughter will join me. We were so close once, you know? I would hate to lose her.”

“Wait!” Caspian cried out just as Lord Witherington lifted the iron bar. “We can… There is a third option!”

“Caspian…” his wife’s voice cracked, and through her father’s legs, Caspian saw the terror in her eyes. It was like a knife plunging through his chest, and he knew that there was nothing he would not do to save her.

“A third option, you say?” Lord Witherington said. “Pray do tell, what is it? But unless it ends with me getting what I want, I doubt it will be enough. I have always been greedy.”

“You leave,” Caspian said. “Tonight. You climb into your carriage and go far from here, never to be heard of again. I want you gone from not just this county, but the country. You exile yourself from high society, a ghost, so that you are forgotten by all unfortunate enough to have ever known you. If you do that, I will pretend that tonight never happened, and you can spend the rest of your life not having to look over your shoulder in fear, that niggling worry deep in the recesses of your depraved mind that I am hunting you.”

“Hmm…” Lord Witherington frowned. “That sounds suspiciously like me not getting what I want.”

“Your life is your reward.” Caspian pointed the gun at his head. “Which is more than you deserve.”

Caspian could see almost right away that Lord Witherington was not going to accept the offer. He still stood facing Arabella. He still held that iron bar in the air. And he still had a look on his face that reeked of depravity. The man had lost his mind, and Caspian had no doubt that he was willing to die.

He looked at his wife, pleading for her to trust him. She stared helplessly at him, not daring to move; her eyes flicked to the iron bar.

There was a fourth option, a dangerous one, and that was where Caspian’s mind settled. Where he might have liked to have just shot Lord Witherington, he could not guarantee that it would stop him from attacking Arabella, and that was a risk Caspian could not take.

“I have a fourth option,” Caspian said. “A final one.”

Lord Witherington laughed. “You are not much of a negotiator, Your Grace! But come on, let us hear it.”

“Catch.”

Caspian tossed the pistol in the air, straight towards Lord Witherington. Lord Witherington’s eyes lit up in surprise, then hunger, and on instinct, he turned fully to snatch the pistol from the air. That saw him lower the iron bar, which took Arabella out of danger, which gave Caspian his opening.

He charged forward like a bullet from a pistol.

Lord Witherington caught the pistol, and just as he did, Caspian wrapped his arms around the man’s waist, hoisted him from his feet, turned them both away from Arabella, and slammed the spindly lord into the hardwood of the cabin floor.

The earth groaned and shook as his body crunched and shattered.

Lord Witherington cried out, and the gun flew from his hand. Caspian, still on his feet, pressed one foot onto Lord Witherington’s chest and kept him pinned. And then, he bared his teeth like a wolf about to feast.

Lord Witherington held his hands out and smiled. “So… About that third option.”

“Arabella,” Caspian said. “Please fetch the pistol.”

She did so without hesitation, at which point she stood beside Caspian and aimed the gun at her father. Caspian glanced at her; he saw the rage in her eyes, and he worried for a moment that she was about to shoot him.