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Aknock sounded on the parlor door and Caroline turned away from the piano. She had been plucking the keys in a pensive rhythm that had matched her clouded thoughts although it had not been any true tune.
“You have a visitor, my lady,” the butler had informed her. “Shall I send her away?”
Caroline furrowed her brow but nodded so that she might receive the visit. Had the duke returned? Was he not with her father? It was several minutes before the door opened again.
Lady Blackwell stepped through the door with a weary sigh.
“I am sorry to intrude,” she said by way of greeting. “I only just heard the news and came straight away to express my shock and horror at your ordeal.”
The lady rushed over to where Caroline was reclined on the couch with her injured leg elevated on a pillow. Lady Lydia knelt beside Caroline and took her hand. Had the news already broke in London this morning? Had her father and the duke been so busy in the morning hours while she had slept?
“Had I known I would never have been so awful,” the dark-haired beauty whimpered. “I might have helped you. We could have been like sisters, you and I, both promised to men that we did not love.” Caroline bristled at the notion that Lady Lydia had found the duke unlovable but then reminded herself that she ought to be grateful for that fact. It alone had opened the door for their own affections to grow.
Caroline considered the fact that the lady could have been acting out of jealousy. She had heard of Lord Edward’s interest in what she had thought was a maid and looked upon it as an insult. Caroline wondered if she had also heard of the growing friendship between that same maid and her betrothed. She supposed that it was reason enough to have been horrible.
Caroline released a slow breath and looked upon the worried features before her. Lady Blackwell was as pristine in her attire as ever but there was a tension in her frame that made Miss Caroline feel for the shock that she must have endured.
“It is no matter,” she replied. “All is forgiven.”
“Thank you,” Lady Lydia bowed her head and pressed her lips to Caroline’s knuckles. “When Lord Edward was arrested this morning, I could hardly believe it. Then the whispers started that you had been recovered and that you could lay his entire story bare, a true nightmare.” Lady Blackwell sniffled and looked up at Caroline with tear-filled eyes. “To think that you have suffered so. I cannot bear it. I had thought…” she paused. “I had thought that he was good, you know?”
Caroline pressed a calming hand to her guest’s shoulder. She had never cared for Lady Blackwell but she could see now that the female had been wronged. She had put her trust in the wrong gentleman. She had been fooled by Lord Edward just as so many had been led into his web of duplicity.
“It will all be set to rights very soon,” Caroline promised. She felt a pang of worry that Lady Blackwell might present a hindrance between Caroline and the Duke. He was a man of honor after all. He had made his offer to Lady Blackwell years before and if she asked that he upheld his end of the promise Caroline was not certain that he could refuse. She tried to quell the ache in her heart. Lady Blackwell was not to blame for the fact that Caroline had fallen in love with the duke.
“It certainly will,” Lady Blackwell’s voice had transformed to cold ice in the matter of an instant. Caroline felt something hard pressing against her ribs and looked down to see the reticule pistol in Lady Lydia’s hand.
Caroline’s mouth fell agape but she could not make words. She glanced toward the door, wondering if help would arrive in time if she screamed.
“No one is coming,” Lady Lydia grinned. “The butler told me that the maids were out and so I had my man lock him in a closet. If anyone else appears, my men have orders to kill.” Of course, she would not have come for the visit without her thugs, Caroline realized. Caroline hoped that the housekeeper did not wander down to this level else she too would be taken.
“You’ll pay for this,” Caroline said through gritted teeth.
“You must be an imbecile to think that your story could take down one as renowned as my Edward,” Lady Blackwell spat. “Fortunately, without your side to tell, he shall be released in a matter of days.”
Caroline forced her breathing to slow. She needed to think. She needed to have a clear mind so that she could understand what was happening. Lady Lydia had come here to kill her, she realized, to silence her tale and free Lord Edward from the accusation. They were both well aware that well-positioned gentlemen rarely stood trial for their crimes. A conviction would take more than hearsay. It would take a witness. It would require Caroline alive and possibly even more than that.
“Lord Robert will avenge me,” Caroline replied with a cool tone that she could not recognize. The steady words did not match the erratic beating of her pulse.
“Lord Robert will be disposed of one way or another,” Lady Lydia snarled. “He ought to have done the world a favor and died at sea.”
Caroline’s fist made contact with Lady Blackwell’s face before she had finished the sentence.
“Get up,” Lady Lydia demanded as she pressed the back of her free hand to the lip that was already swelling.
“No,” Caroline protested. If she were to be killed, it would be done here, where there could be evidence to follow and the memory that Lady Blackwell had made her visit. She would not be carted off to one of hundreds of warehouses on the edge of the Thames as she had been before.
Lady Blackwell grasped Caroline by her arm and hauled her with brute force to her feet. The elder female was so much taller and stronger than Caroline’s moderate frame.
“You will obey me,” Lydia growled. “You may think that you are the duchess, but that title is mine. By one brother or the next I will not be thwarted. If I have to marry Robert and kill him in our bed, I will have it done. Edward and I will share our victory.” Her hand had curled into the hair at the back of Caroline’s head and forced Caroline’s neck to crane back so that she might look up into the angry gaze above. “We have worked too long for this end for some nobody to come ruin us now.”
Caroline cried out, the jerking motion against her neck had shifted all of her weight to her injured leg. She understood with full clarity. Caroline was in Lady Blackwell’s way from several angles. She could send Lord Edward to the gallows and force Lady Blackwell to marry a man that she loathed, or Caroline and the duke could die and Lady Blackwell and Lord Edward could see their plot to completion.
Caroline cursed herself for an idiot for not having seen that Lady Lydia had been involved from the start. She had underestimated her adversary. She had wanted to believe that the female had been deceived and innocent. She had thought that Lady Lydia had only been searching for love, for the passion that she had told the duke that she had so desired. Lady Lydia had wanted more than that. She had wanted the title, the wealth, the prestige. She wanted all of the accoutrements of being duchess without the scarred gentleman that came along with the title. She had waited five long years for the prize that she had deemed her due. She wanted it all and the beautiful Lord Edward at her side. Lord Edward had not been saying that Lady Lydia was unaware of their misdealing; only that he did not want her to know about the chaos that had been caused by keeping Caroline alive.
“You have been a thorn in my side ever since you arrived at that house,” Lady Blackwell shoved the gun with more force against Caroline’s ribcage. “First, Edward lusted after you. He would have never given up without having you. He said that he would, but I knew better.” The disgust in her voice was evident, but not at the gentleman, only for the fact that Caroline had presented a temptation. Could Lady Blackwell truly blame Caroline for Lord Edward’s inability to calm his own lustful fantasies? “Then we came to learn who you really were. I told him to kill you but he was still so blinded by the idea that you could be turned to his will over time. He should have put a bullet to your head at any time, but he didn’t. I won’t make that same mistake.” Lady Lydia moved the gun from Caroline’s waist until it pressed cold against her temple. The grip on her arm still bit against her skin and she wondered if blood were being drawn from Lady Blackwell’s sharpened nails. “Do you have any last words?” Lady Lydia crooned. “I could tell Ed that you cried out for him in your last moments. That would pique his fancy. I could play it up for months at the least.”
Caroline wanted to rage against her. She wanted to spew obscenities against the beastly Lord Edward and the Lady herself. That he would be aroused by the idea that Caroline might have wanted him was repulsive. That Lady Blackwell would use that tale to whip him into an amorous frenzy was worse.
