Like a deadly miasma, William’s oily tones oozed through the fraught atmosphere. “So gratifying you know me so well after eight years of wedded bliss, my dear.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ice thickened Sidonie’s blood. “William…”
He slammed her against the wall when he shoved past, forcing the air from her lungs in a painful whoosh. As he strode toward Roberta, his boots crunched on broken pottery. Using his bulk to intimidate, he loomed over his cowering wife. “Tried to scarper, did you, bitch?”
“I… I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, dear heart,” Roberta stammered, edging away until she bumped into the empty shelves behind her.
Dread tangled Sidonie’s belly into painful knots. One look at William’s slitted eyes and swelling cheeks, and she knew the moment she’d fought so long and hard to avoid rushed toward them. William was abou
t to kill Roberta.
On trembling legs, Sidonie surged forward to force herself between Roberta and William. “Don’t you touch her!”
“Get out of my bloody way, you useless slut!” Keeping his gaze on his wife, William grabbed Sidonie’s arm with bruising force and flung her to the floor. As she went down, she banged her head. Agony overwhelmed her and briefly her world turned black. Frantically she fought to clear the fog of pain from her vision. Voices echoed weirdly as she sprawled at William’s feet, words only gradually making sense through the ringing in her ears.
“Don’t hurt my sister!” Roberta cried, flinging herself in front of Sidonie.
“Shut up, you useless cow.” Hazily Sidonie watched William seize Roberta by the hair and force her to her knees. He tugged roughly until her neck strained at an awkward angle, forcing her to meet his eyes.
“William, please, I beg of you!” Tears cascaded down Roberta’s ashen cheeks.
William’s face was scarlet and spittle collected at the corners of his mouth. He raised one beefy fist over his wife. Sidonie’s belly lurched with sick horror. “Maskell told me what you’d been up to.”
“Please don’t hit me!” Roberta struggled to break free but came up short when William savagely wrenched at her disheveled chignon.
“Let her go!” Sidonie screamed.
Clumsily Sidonie staggered to her feet and threw herself at William. Hissing, she dug her fingernails into the hand gripping her sister, deep enough to draw blood. For a few blind seconds, she wasn’t attacking Roberta’s violent husband but the jackal who had disfigured Jonas and laughed while he did it.
“Fucking hell! You little cat!” With a wild swerve, William released Roberta, who subsided gasping to the floor and turned on Sidonie.
William was heavy with fat, but he was still a big, powerful man and more than a match for a woman Sidonie’s size. Ruthlessly he pried her fingernails off him then cuffed her. Pain exploded through her body as she smashed again onto the bare floorboards amid broken pottery and scattered toys. Her hands clasped over her head, she curled into a ball to protect herself. Fighting unconsciousness, she braced for William to kick her. Behind her, she heard Roberta edging across the littered floor away from her husband.
“What—” she heard Roberta say in choked astonishment, then there was a thunder of boots and a resounding crash.
“Touch her again and you’re a dead man.”
Astonishment kept Sidonie huddled against the floor. Her ears must be playing tricks. She was sure that was Jonas’s voice. But it couldn’t be. She’d left Jonas at Ferney.
Gingerly she lowered her arms. Hands fisted at his sides, Jonas stood gasping over William, who lay splayed upon the floor.
“Jonas—” she croaked, her relief more dizzying than William’s blows. On a surge of hope, she tried to stand, but she couldn’t yet coordinate her limbs.
“Get up, you devil, so I can knock you down again,” Jonas hissed through his teeth to William. His angular face was stark with abhorrence and rage.
Shaking his head to clear it after what must have been a powerful blow, William struggled to sit. One plate-like hand nursed his jaw and his eyes focused on Jonas with a poisonous loathing that made Sidonie shiver. “Get off my property, you bastard scum.”
“Jonas, what are you doing here?” Sidonie asked.
Without shifting his attention from his cousin, Jonas stepped back to offer his hand. “Are you all right?”
“Yes… yes.” His hand was strong and warm and shored failing courage. Rising set her head swimming and she clung to him until she found balance.
“What the hell is this?” William lunged to his feet with renewed temper. Sidonie shrank toward Jonas as fear slithered down her backbone. “You call this blackguard by his Christian name? Have you lifted your skirts for this muck, you little trull?”
“Shut your foul mouth.” Jonas wrenched away from Sidonie and reached William in one bound.