“Gerard!” Bianca pleaded. “You’re upset.”
“You stupid, vain pig! To think you believed that I, a Courtalain, could ever love such as you. You will be found dead, a suicide, grief-stricken over your husband’s death, which was caused, no doubt, by robbers.”
“No,” Bianca whispered, her hands outstretched, palms upward.
“Oh, yes,” he smiled, obviously enjoying himself. “The Armstrong estate will be left to those obnoxious twins, and since there are no other relatives, Nicole will be their guardian and I will be her husband.”
“Hers!” Bianca gasped. “You said you hated her.”
He laughed. “It was a game, remember? You and I played a game, and I won.”
Nicole was beginning to think again. Maybe she could divert Gerard’s attention until someone found them. “No one would believe Bianca would kill herself over Clay. It’s common knowledge that she hates him.”
Bianca turned to Nicole with a look of hate. Then their one and only look of understanding passed between them. “Yes, the field hands and the house servants know that we rarely even see each other.”
“But, lately, people have been saying you’re reconciled, that Armstrong’s stopped drinking and become the perfect husband,” Gerard said.
Bianca looked bewildered.
“Bianca is an English lady,” Nicole said. “In England, she’s one of the peerage, and there is no peerage in France anymore. She would make an admirable wife.”
“She is nothing!” Gerard said. “Nothing! Everyone knows royalty will be reinstated in France. Then, I shall be married to a duke’s granddaughter. The magnificent Courtalains will live again through me!”
“But—” Nicole began.
“Enough!” Gerard screamed. “You think I’m stupid, do you not? Do you think I can’t see through your schemes to keep me talking?” He waved the gun toward Bianca. “I would not have her if she were the queen of England herself. She is fat, ugly, and unbelievably stupid.”
Bianca flew at him, her hands going for his face. Gerard struggled for a moment under her suffocating weight.
The pistol went off, and slowly Bianca moved away from him, her hands clutching her stomach, blood beginning to seep through her fingers.
Nicole’s eyes had long been on the pistol Gerard had carelessly tossed to the floor, but now Gerard and Bianca struggled between her and it. She looked around the empty shed until she saw a loose board in the wall. With superhuman strength, she wrenched it free.
Moments after the pistol went off, Nicole hit Gerard with the board. He staggered as Bianca crumbled to the floor.
“You have hurt me,” he whispered in French, his fingers touching the blood at his temple. “You will pay for that with every moment of your life.”
He advanced toward her as she backed against the wall.
Bianca, her blood quickly flowing from her, looked through hazy vision to see Gerard advancing on her enemy. A pistol lay at her fingertips. She used the last of her strength to raise it, aim it, and pull the trigger. She died before she saw that her aim had been true.
Nicole stood absolutely still as Gerard suddenly jerked still. He seemed to react before she heard the shot. His eyes showed surprise, puzzlement at what had happened to him. Then, very slowly, he fell t
o the floor, dead, his eyes still showing his wonder.
Nicole stepped away from him. Both of them lay on the floor. Gerard’s outstretched hand had fallen across Bianca’s, and as Nicole watched, some death reflex made Bianca’s hand tighten on Gerard’s. In death, she held him as she never could have in life.
Nicole turned and ran from the shed. She ran the distance to the house. She must find Clay!
There was blood on the library floor but no sign of him. Nicole knew her heart had stopped beating long ago.
Suddenly, she stopped and sat on the couch, her face buried in her hands. She needed time to think and calm herself if she was to find him. Someone could have found Clay and taken him away. No, if that were the case, the house would be alive with activity.
Where would he go?
She stood up, because she knew where he’d go—to the clearing.
There were tears in her eyes as she ran the mile or more to the cave. Her lungs hurt and her heart pounded, but she knew she wouldn’t stop.