Chapter 17 #2
She leaned close. “I owe you more than I can ever repay,” she whispered—and she touched the spring clip on his shoulder belt, releasing his carbine. She quickly reversed it, sliding the safety catch to remove the bolt lock, although she did not quite aim the barrel at him.
He gaped at her.
“Thomas!” she cried. “I am so sorry, but I am going to Cork, not Adare! Reed is a madman and I must make certain Sean has fled the country. If Reed has treated me with such disdain, what will he do to Sean?”
Brawley was starkly pale. “He insisted you would go to him, but I refused to heed him. I believed you would go home, where you will be safe! My dear lady Eleanor, please reconsider. You are right—Reed is mad. However, I have already sent a letter to Major Wilkes. Reed will not be allowed to continue on in this vein.”
“I hope you are right. But I must warn Sean.”
“Then let me escort you to Cork, Lady Eleanor. Please. I am a gentleman. I cannot allow you to ride this road at night, by yourself.”
Eleanor did not want to implicate him in her plot. “If you escort me to Cork, we can say that I escaped you here and you pursued me to the city limits,” she said slowly.
“Yes, we can.” He understood that she would not lead anyone, not even him, to Sean’s hiding place. He nodded and held out his hand. “Please?”
She returned his carbine to him. A cloud overhead passed and the moon illuminated the roadway. Spurring their mounts, they charged off into the night.
He HAD BOOKED passage not to America, but to France. From Normandy, he would then find a fare to the United States. His ship, a small French schooner, was setting sail the next day. Sean felt as if he were in the midst of a surreal nightmare.
He was chopping wood for Farmer O’Riley, as he felt he must do something to contribute to the man’s selfless actions in hiding him.
But his actions were mechanical, because there was no thought, no feeling.
He was dazed and numb. He was vaguely sorrowful; there were nameless, unidentifiable regrets.
But Elle was safe at Adare by now. She would have arrived late yesterday. He could not rejoice, but he was relieved.
He swung the ax and split the heavy cord of wood.
Although the gray skies were ominous, threatening rain, he did not feel any chill on his skin and he had removed his shirt.
The only chill he felt was in his soul. The future loomed, and somehow it had become as black as the hellhole where he had been confined for the past two years.
Sean wished he could unravel time. He no longer knew who or what he was.
Before he had wandered so recklessly from Askeaton, he had been whole.
And briefly, in these past few days, he had started to feel like that man, with a heart and soul, with a past and a future.
That odd awareness had vanished. Elle had taken it with her.
Sean heard a rider approaching and he stiffened. He was in the yard behind the house, not far from the small wood barn where O’Riley kept his prized sow. He quickly moved to the house, pressing to the wall, ax in hand. And he peered around the corner.
His heart stopped.
Eleanor was leaping from a cavalry mount, clad in the white dress he had bought her, a man’s shirt and the brown cloak. She started to run for the front door, but Sean knew that no one was home. He stepped into sight. “Elle.”
She halted and whirled. “You didn’t leave!” she cried.
His heart had come to life. It sped wildly, madly, insanely, beating hard with pleasure and joy. He had needed to see her one more time. It was drizzling now, but the yard was drenched in sunshine. He realized he was smiling.
And smiling in return, she rushed toward him.
When he reached for her, he saw the bruise on her face, which was mottling now, gray, blue and green.
She went into his arms. “It’s nothing, really. Kate told me where to find you. Sean, there is news!”
A vast sense of dread and alarm had overcome him. He managed to tear his gaze from her bruise to her eyes. A terrible fear was reflected there. “What happened?” he asked quietly, reaching for her hands and removing them from his shoulders.
She winced. “There is a spy amongst the Blueboys, Sean. You are not safe here. Connelly and I were waylaid on the roadway by troops.”
He stared at her tightly wrapped wrist. Blood drummed in his head, in his ears, deafening him. Suddenly Peg’s blurred image came to mind. He tore his gaze from her wrist to her eyes.
“I fell from my horse,” she said with urgency.
He had never heard a more outrageous lie.
“He tripped,” she tried to explain.
“How badly are you hurt?” he asked, a dark, dangerous need settling over him.
“I’m not hurt.” Her smile was brief and strained. “Sean, I must warn you—Colonel Reed is at Kilraven Hill and he has confessed to murdering your wife!”
Shock immobilized him. For one instant, even his mind was paralyzed.
“He is a madman,” she whispered, and tears came to her eyes. “He is coming after you, Sean. I had to come back to warn you!”
Reed had done this to her and he knew it. He knew it the way he knew that it was drizzling and about to pour. “You are to tell me everything…Eleanor,” he said, his tone so hard even he didn’t recognize it.
She jerked away from him. “Sean! There is nothing more to tell except that he purposefully set his troops on your poor wife. I am very afraid of him and you should be, too.”
His heart beat now, hard but slow. A calm had descended. “So a spy informed on us. You were apprehended by troops and taken to Reed…at Kilraven Hill.”
She was staring at him, wide-eyed. Her face was utterly pale, causing the dark bruise to stand out garishly. “Nothing happened,” she said.
He felt a convulsion ripple through him. “How did you get here?”
She swallowed. “Captain Brawley helped me escape.”
He tilted up her chin.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Don’t lie to me,” he warned.
“But I’m fine.”
“He struck you, didn’t he? Did he touch you, too?” And in his mind, Reed turned red, bursting into flames.
She started to shake her head no and then the emotion changed, becoming an affirmation. She started to cry, two large tears slowly tracking down her face.
He was going to kill Colonel Robert Reed.
“It’s all right,” he soothed, taking her by her arms. “Elle, I’m here now, and I will never let him touch you again.”
She nodded, her gaze glued to his. “I was so afraid.”
“What did he do?” he asked, amazed at how calm his tone was, when he was beyond rage.
She had trouble speaking.
He leaned down and brushed her lips softly with his. “Tell me, Elle.”
She nodded. “He was so rude. Sean, he is not afraid of anyone, not father. Not Ty, not anyone! No one has ever addressed me as he did, much less—” She stopped, more tears falling.
He pulled her close and held her. She buried her face against his chest, gasping in anguish. He held her more tightly. He had to know. “Did he rape you?”
“No.”
He stared and she stared back. “Then why are you wearing a man’s shirt…over your gown?”
Her mouth crumbled.
Sean unfastened her cloak and tossed it into the dirt and mud.
He reached for her shirt and saw his hands shaking, betraying his own fury and anguish.
He began to unbutton it. Elle reached for his hands to stop him but he ignored her, and as each button was released, the tear in her bodice became increasingly visible.
He pulled the shirt open. Two pins kept the front of her gown closed.
He was suddenly sick enough to retch. “Don’t lie to me.”
“He didn’t…do what you asked. He used a blade—a letter opener—on my dress.” She looked away, closing her eyes, starkly white.
She had been cherished, respected and protected her entire life. His worst fears had come true. Reed had reappeared in his life and he had gotten his hands on her. He saw no difference between cruelty and molestation and rape.
He pulled her close again. She held on to him tightly. He stroked her back, her hair. “Where is Reed now?”
“I don’t know,” she murmured against his chest. “Brawley was allowed to help me escape—Reed intended to follow us, correctly thinking I would return to you. Sean, the things he said to me!”
He met her anguished eyes and stroked her hair again. “Once you are safely back at Adare, you will begin to forget…that anyone could dare to treat you so dishonorably. Where is Brawley?”
“I left him hours ago. We agreed he would not be privy to your whereabouts. I think we eluded the troops, but obviously Reed must be lurking about Cork.”
He nodded. It would not be hard to lure Reed out of whatever rat hole he was in. And he began to relish the prospect of facing him and taking his bare hands to his throat, so he could slowly choke the life out of him.
She understood him completely, because she said, “You can’t assault another officer. You cannot—I will not allow it.”
He touched her left cheek, which was not bruised. “I am sorry, Elle, but Reed is going to pay…for his murdering ways.”
“He will kill you.”
Sean thought that likely. Lying smoothly, he denied it. “I will strike when he least expects it…in the dark…like a coward. He will never know what hit him and this will be over, Elle. You will be able to sleep at night.”
She shook her head fiercely. “I am not the one with nightmares! I am not the one who cannot sleep peacefully because of what Reed did to Peg and Michael! Do not seek vengeance for me. I am fine, Sean.” She inhaled.
“Please, do not go after Reed. Father is seeking a pardon for you in London, even as we speak. There will be no pardon, not now, not ever, if you assault Reed!”
“I could never live with myself if I let him walk away…from what he has done to you!” he cried.
“I am fine!” she cried, weeping. “But I have never seen such a look in your eyes. Nothing I say will change your mind, will it? You are going to seek vengeance now and we both know that will be your death.”