Page 101 of His Improper Lady

“Oh, yes, that’s what my mother kept telling me. ‘A lady turns a blind eye to her husband’s squalid little affairs. Alistair is only a man, and men are so easily led. You have his name, his position, his home, his prestige.’ But I didn’t have him!” Tabitha’s voice rose, her eyes flashing. “I tried. I’m a Darrington. A Moreland. I did what was expected of a lady. I ignored his peccadilloes and told myself he would come to his senses. But he didn’t! He was going to leave me. Trot off to live with his hussy and their bastards. He was going to humiliate me! I could not let that stand. When I saw his letter to that Jezebel, gushing like a schoolboy about love and how happy they and their brats would be living together, I knew what had to be done. And I did it.”

“I understand that you had to kill Stella,” Tom said, drawing Tabitha’s attention to him as he slid forward a cautious step. At the same time, he tugged at Desiree’s arm, pulling her back.

Desiree knew what he was doing. He intended to position himself in front of her, to shield her when Tabitha fired. He would doubtless make a suicidal rush at Tabitha in an attempt to overpower her while Desiree ran farther back into the darkness of the cave to hide.

But Desiree wasn’t about to accept that. She wasn’t going to run; she was going to attack. All nerves were gone now; she was filled with a steady, determined calm.

Of the two of them, she was the one better able to bring Tabitha down. Instead of rushing at Tabitha, which was bound to fail, Desiree could dive down into a roll and come up beneath Tabitha’s arm, knocking the gun from her hand, but the distance between her and Tabitha was too great. She would have to move closer.

Desiree’s inner sense told her that Tabitha would follow through on her threat to kill them, but she also knew the woman didn’t intend to shoot them just yet. Tabitha was insane, but she wanted that will. They could keep the woman talking while Desiree moved incrementally closer to her. It was too bad her abilities didn’t include moving as quietly and unobtrusively as Wells.

Tom released his hold; he trusted her, and that warmed her. He continued to talk, drawing Tabitha’s attention. “What I don’t understand is why you killed Alistair, too.”

“I didn’t want to!” The gun wavered under the force of her emotion. “Alistair wasn’t supposed to know. I was so careful. I planned it perfectly. And then that fool Falk ran to Alistair and told him!”

“Falk helped you? That’s why he was blackmailing you?”

“No,” Tabitha replied scornfully. “I didn’t need his help. I told you, this is my beach. I knew about this cave. All I had to do was get her down here, right by the entrance, before I fired the gun, and it would be easy to drag her inside. I wasn’t stupid enough to trust Falk. But the blasted man saw me driving the carriage, and he figured it out. He ran to tell Alistair. The man never missed a chance to make a little money.”

“Ah, I see,” Tom went on as Desiree moved a fraction closer. “You must have disguised yourself in the coachman’s coat and hat so Stella wouldn’t notice anything amiss about the carriage. Clever.”

“It was easy. The little tart never even glanced at me. Just jumped into the carriage, happy as could be.”

“And Alistair came down here to save Stella,” Tom said, his guess more a statement than a question.

“He came to save me!” Tabitha cried out. “He knew what a scandal it would be, how it would hurt my reputation.”

“Then why did you kill him if all he wanted was to protect you?”

“He wasn’t thinking! He was hysterical. I had to stop him. I never meant to hurt Alistair. Ever. I loved him. If only he’d been a few minutes later, everything would have been fine. I would have had him here with me all these years. We would have had a beautiful life. But we couldn’t. She took him away from me.”

Desiree could not hold back a sound at that statement, and Tabitha’s eyes turned back to her, narrowing. “Stop! Don’t come any closer.”

“But you were cool and calm enough to cover his death up, weren’t you?” Tom said quickly, drawing Tabitha’s attention back to him. “You wrote that note to Mr. Paxton. You were able to copy your husband’s handwriting.”

“Well enough to fool Lloyd Paxton,” Tabitha snorted. She waggled the gun at Desiree, now a foot closer to her. “Don’t take another step. And no more wasting time. I want that will. If you don’t—”

She broke off at the sound of a man’s voice, calling, “Mother! Where are you?”

“Good God. Reinforcements,” Tom muttered.

Desiree’s heart sank. Disarming Tabitha would be hard enough. She had no chance against two of them. She and Tom were going to die. Right here next to her parents. Well, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

Surprisingly, Tabitha didn’t answer. A furtive look came over her face, and she whispered, “Hush. Don’t move.”

Desiree had barely taken in that peculiar statement when Gregory burst into the cave.

“Mother!” Gregory stopped, staring at his mother. His hair was wildly windblown, his chest heaving. “No! What are you doing?”

“Go away, Gregory. This isn’t something you should see.” Tabitha raised her weapon, sighting down it.

“This isn’t something you should do!” Gregory’s shout seemed to stay her hand for the moment. “Mother, you aren’t feeling well. Let me take you home. You need to rest. I’ll send for Dr. McIntyre,” Gregory said in a cajoling voice, moving closer to his mother.

“Stop! I’ll shoot her,” Tabitha snapped, and her son halted. “Go away, Gregory. Right now.”

“No. Mother, this is wrong. What does it matter who has the will? We don’t even know what’s in it. It’s not important. Give me that gun. Please. I can’t let you kill two people.” He stretched out his hand to Tabitha, palm up, but she made no move to do as he asked.

“We aren’t her first victims,” Desiree told him. “She killed our father, too.”