AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She needed him to keep talking. A man who had kept silent for so long was likely bursting to speak his feelings. She held his gaze. “How long have you known my mother?”
“Mere months,” he answered with disdain. “She sought me out after learning that I was Nick’s valet. She knew she could never get the key alone. But together—”
“Are you the one who shot at Nick, as well?”
Jack’s eyes grew darker and Giulia’s stomach roiled. “Why?” she asked.
“I did not aim to kill. Just to create a diversion so Lily would have time to sneak inside and search Halstead—though, we had mixed up our meeting place and by the time I located her and returned to the house to send Robert out to search, you had arrived.” Jack lowered his voice. “It didn’t work, but I do not regret it. Nick has always gotten whatever he wished. He has always been lucky. If anyone deserved to be plucked from their dreary life and given a seat of luxury, it was not him.”
Giulia stared at the man in astonishment. Had he not been plucked from his life as well and given a fine position with relaxed propriety? The longer she gazed into Jack’s face, the further she saw the greed which consumed him.
“Why now? You have been his valet for three years, have you not?”
“I am not mad, Giulia,” he said. “I would never risk my life merely to teach the imbecile a lesson. But Lily presented an opportunity to me that I could not resist.”
He looked to be growing impatient, and Giulia was nearing the point where she would have to give up the necklace or her life. Or both, for once she gave him the key, her leverage was gone. Jack would have no reason not to shove her from the tower then and there.
She must find a way back inside the castle.
“I take it you shot at me, too?” she asked. “Two targets, and two misses. I suppose you are not a very good marksman.”
“No one shot at you. Your mother was hungry. I could only sneak her food occasionally, so I gave her a gun in case she needed to obtain a pheasant.”
Lily had been hunting.
“We are getting away from the point,” Jack said through clenched teeth. “Make your choice, Giulia.”
“No, there is no point!” Giulia shouted. “I do not have a key. You, who sat and listened to Nick and I try to find the wretched thing should know this best of all.”
Another moan cut through the rain and Giulia looked to Lily’s form curled on the stone floor behind Jack.
“What did you do to her?” Giulia asked.
A brief look of concern flashed in his eyes but was quickly replaced by a hard expression. “She was in my way,” he growled.
Giulia ducked around Jack and crossed the open hatch, dropping on her knees beside her mother’s still form. The light of the moon was enough to show her the large purple lump that had developed on Lily’s right temple, and the trickle of blood oozing down the side of her face and over her ear, helped along by the rain.
Lily groaned again and shifted sideways as a large hand came down and knocked Giulia on the side of the face, stunning her.
“Where is it?” Jack roared.
Giulia staggered back on her heels as she recovered from the blow, but not before a hand grabbed at her hair and lifted her, her scream piercing the quiet as he yanked her to her feet. Hot breath tickled her neck as Jack came closer and asked through his teeth, “Where are the jewels?”
Giulia held her breath and clenched her teeth, the pain from being lifted by her hair was nearly blinding and she could not form a rational thought.
Fury shone in his eyes as he turned her to face him. “I suppose it is a tragic death on the tower that you choose, eh?”
Giulia tried to gain her bearings. If she could kick Jack hard enough, he might drop his hold long enough for her to get to the hatch. Rearing back, she kicked hard, and he released her, sliding his hand around her waist and holding her flush against him.
She opened her mouth to scream when a shaft of light poured through the floor, surprising them both. She was blinded momentarily but felt Jack’s grip slacken. Sliding out of his arms, Giulia crawled across the floor until she bumped into the wall. Using it as a reference point, she followed it around the tower and put as much distance between herself and Jack as she could.
“Jules?” A voice pierced the dark and Giulia gulped in a breath of relief.
“Nick!” she yelled as a head appeared above the hatch, a lamp in hand. Her vision adjusted as he climbed onto the tower and she gasped, “He’s behind you!”
Every muscle in Giulia’s body tensed as she watched Nick spin around with catlike finesse and hit Jack across the side of the head with a heavy iron padlock.
Jack slumped to the ground in a heap and she felt equal parts relief and grief.
Within a moment Nick was beside her, his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. She felt dazed as his hands held her close, rubbing her back and stroking her head as rain pounded down on them.
“It was Jack,” she said softly, then looked up. “It was all Jack.”
“Shhh,” Nick soothed, rubbing his hand along her back as his arm kept her close. “He cannot hurt you anymore.”
“The threat is gone?” she asked timidly, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Yes,” he said, the warm sound vibrating against her head and combating with the sorrow she felt in her heart. “The threat is gone.”
