Lady Unveiled (Daughters of Sin 5)

Debenham looked regretful. “I do curse my stupidity in making it so easy for you, having successfully obfuscated matters for so long. But there it is. You have me, and I could either offer to go peacefully now and accept the inevitable or make you a proposal.”

“You’re not in a position to make proposals.”

“I think I am considering I hold in my hands the life of the woman you apparently love. I had not known that, Silverton. I thought she was a passing fancy. Very lovely, she is, I do agree. I’d hoped to secure her charms myself, but it appears she desires only you. You can imagine I do not hold her in such high esteem having now realized she is the very creature who has ruined me. I would wish her dead. I may be headed that way thanks to her, and I should rather like to take her with me since I have nothing to lose by it. Do I?”

Silverton’s blood ran cold. “Very soon you will be overrun by sheer force of numbers.”

“As I expected. But also as I expected you have come ahead of the pack. You wanted to talk to me because of secrets you wish not to be broadcast. You see, there is room for negotiation.”

“I need to see that Kitty is unhurt.”

“Of course. Let us go upstairs and meet the girl, shall we? Hear what she has to say.” Genially, Lord Debenham invited him inside. It was cold, the temperature having dropped as the rainclouds became more oppressive. The thick walls of the building kept the warmth out and the chilled air in and Silverton shivered, despite his woolen coat.

Yet it was like the sun had burst upon him when the top-story door was opened, and Kitty rose at their entrance, standing in a shaft of light from the window like a sun queen, her hair burnished gold, looking even more beautiful if possible, though he quickly saw the strain in her face when he advanced.

“Kitty!” he cried, hurrying across the floor to take her in his arms. Her warmth and willingness to be embraced were the balm he needed to assuage his guilt. “I am responsible for this,” he muttered. “Dear God, forgive me. Has he mistreated you?”

She shook her head. “No, but the guarantees he wants you to make are impossible.” Clearly, she was trying to hold back her fear. They both knew how vulnerable she was. Evidence that would see Debenham swing was in Government hands now, and Debenham was a vengeful man. He’d have no compunction in killing Kitty for no other purpose than revenge against her and Silverton.

“Enough!” Debenham brought out an elegant silver blade at the same time as he gripped Kitty’s wrist and jerked her out of Silverton’s embrace and into his. With a smile, he drew her back toward the window. “We can both go now if you choose,” he said, indicating the drop to the churning river below

while the paddles pounded their deadly rhythm.

Kitty’s gasp raked across Silverton’s conscience as if Debenham’s blade had already done its work.

“I’m a ruined man and this woman is the cause. She has delivered me to you like a lion to the slaughter, and I want my revenge. Only my complete exoneration will save her.”

The bleak horror in Kitty’s eyes reflected Silverton’s.

“The box is out of my hands. You know that, Debenham. But you are no murderer. Not in cold blood. Not even you could do that.”

“I think I am capable of rather a lot when my life is hanging in the balance. It would give me a great deal of satisfaction, in fact, to take Miss Bijou with me to the grave since I was unable to take her to bed.” He chuckled. “I want what you had, Silverton. And which you threw away.”

A little piece of Silverton seemed to crack and disintegrate. Yes, he had thrown it away. Thrown away his chance of true happiness, by sacrificing Kitty at the altar of respectability and family expectations. And now he would be all but responsible for throwing away her very life.

Very slowly, he stepped forward. The blade was sitting almost gently against the soft white skin of Kitty’s throat. It was a small and deadly knife. Just one neat thrust was all that was needed to end Kitty’s life, and here Silverton was, bargaining Debenham’s life for hers. He’d never felt more powerless. With the box and its secrets out of Silverton’s hands, how could he possibly give promises Debenham knew he was in no position to keep? Secrets he may well not, as far as Debenham was concerned.

“I can bargain for your life if you promise not to harm Kitty. I’m in a position to do that.” Silverton hoped the dread in his voice wasn’t as clear to Debenham as it was to him. Debenham had always fed on fear and dread. Silverton had not had a huge respect for Lady Debenham, but he remembered feeling pity for her on occasion.

“And how can you do that, Silverton?” It was a sneer, and indeed, how could Silverton? He had connections and influence, but he had no means of effecting an outcome any more than Debenham right at this moment.

“You’ve just admitted you have secrets that could send you to the gallows, and that now we have those secrets, there’s nothing for you to fight for. What about the little honor you have left? Would you simply snuff out the life of a young woman on the cusp of everything ahead of her because you can, and you want vengeance? Put her aside and fight me, man to man. You have the knife, and I have nothing. I’m prepared to take you on at such a disadvantage if you just let Miss Bijou go.”

To Silverton’s surprise, Debenham laughed as he pushed Kitty aside, in the same moment as he lunged for Silverton. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” he muttered. “False friend, you are, Silverton. I don’t believe false friends deserve to live.” The knife sliced through the air by the side of Silverton’s ear and he ducked, immediately feeling the sting.

“Silverton!” Kitty cried, foolishly entering the fray before Silverton pushed her away at the same time as a trickle of blood obscured the vision in his right eye.

“That didn’t take long!” Debenham crowed. “I have the advantage, don’t you see? You want to both die? I can arrange that. It would be my pleasure!” There was shrill satisfaction in his laughter as he leaped with surprising agility in a man so tall toward Silverton, slicing the knife once more at throat level. Silverton jumped aside in time, only to see Debenham thrust and parry then lunge toward Kitty. He seemed fueled by blood lust, and Silverton realized he really did want to do Kitty the gravest ill. It hadn’t been empty talk or a means of simply bringing Silverton to the bargaining table. He would kill Kitty if he could.

The imperative now was to draw him away from her. Kitty didn’t deserve any of this. If Silverton hadn’t been so fixated on behaving as society demanded, she’d be flourishing as she deserved.

“It’s me you want. You’d kill a defenseless girl?” he taunted, drawing Debenham to the window. Silverton settled himself on the deep window ledge; the drop below to the river long and fatal. But if he could only entice Debenham closer, he might succeed.

Debenham’s face broke into a parody of a smile as he paused a moment, assessing his target. Silverton could see the workings of his mind as Debenham prepared to launch himself forward. So this was it. Debenham had made his choice—that he would not be taken alive, but that he’d take Silverton with him. Silverton had made himself a target, to be bowled over by the momentum of Silverton’s rush toward the ultimate freedom—death by waterwheel.

Kitty’s shrill cry and Debenham’s bloodcurdling scream of vengeance were, he imagined, the last sounds he would hear before oblivion. He was conscious of the blur of rage and hatred on Debenham’s face as the man barreled forward; of the heavy body blow that dislodged Silverton from his position—the two of them locked in combat at that great height. The resounding cry of defeat that echoed in the silence. And then Silverton was clinging to the harsh stone, his hands struggling to find purchase while his feet scrabbled in the stone, mercifully finding a chink in the sheer surface of the wall. Incredibly, he was alive, and there was Kitty’s face, beautiful and terrified, staring down at him.

And if this were the last vision he ever had, he believed he would be a happy man.