Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“It’s true, I misjudged your father. But I was right about you.
” The assessing glitter in Widow’s eyes would have been matronly pride on another woman, if it had an ounce of warmth to it.
“I knew you would take to our cause, Diana. And I know that once removed from this scoundrel who’s turned your head, you’ll come to your senses. ”
Diana gritted her teeth around the throbbing pain in her arm and, as regally as she could manage, rose from the bed. “That’s why you wanted me to steal the emeralds. Anyone could have taken them, but you deliberately wanted me to hurt Ian.”
“They traded his mother like chattel for that necklace. Did he tell you that? She always looked so superior when she donned them at a party, while everyone whispered that John Holt had won her in a card game. Pathetic.” Widow sniffed.
“Ian is part of their sordid world and you’ll never extricate him from it.
If I hadn’t acted, he would have tried to possess you too. ”
“That’s not how it is between us.”
“Dear girl,” her mother drawled insipidly as she shook her head, “there is no man alive who could care about anything you offer beyond your fortune or your face. If Ian did, he would not have let you go so easily.”
Diana was tempted to volley back Ian promised to find her—and he never broke a vow—but she had a terrible fear her mother would laugh out loud and make her ashamed of her conviction.
As she recalled the last days in Florence leading up to Il Gioco, and the last moments with Ian before he’d fallen to the ground before her, Diana’s faith in him, as in herself, was unshaken.
Her loss of regard for her mother, however, was irrevocable.
“How can you claim to lead a mission to save lives and be so bloodthirsty?” Diana asked.
“Aren’t you being a tad hypocritical? You’ve left quite a body count over the years.”
“I only ever did it to defend others and myself,” she said thickly around the tears building in her throat. “It’s terrible that those men died at my hand. And it’s why I want to end this violence.”
“Calm yourself. You sound hysterical.”
And how her mama hated hysterics.
Diana heaved a sob and shouted, “You forfeited Ian’s life to Titus and the Manu Rosso in exchange for a necklace!”
“It wasn’t his life I was negotiating for; it was yours.” Widow’s mouth puckered. “Whoever found you and the jewels first would have killed Ian. Costa threatened to make you his mistress by force. His plan was to murder his current wife, marry you, and commandeer your fortune.”
Diana didn’t want to believe her, despite having met the man and knowing what he was capable of. “We could have found another way. Ian and I were working on an alternative.”
“That doesn’t matter now,” her mother said coldly. “We have the means to destroy the filth who steal women. And we will not be merciful.”
“No matter what they’ve done or threatened, I can never support the scale of violence you’re suggesting. Innocent people will be hurt, or worse.”
“It’s necessary, Diana,” her mother chided, as if she was reminding her to brush her teeth before bed. “In order for us to create the world we want, we must burn the old one to the ground.”
Widow knocked on the door to summon Birdie and another Stag enforcer. “Since the idiots you were associating with have sent too many factions searching for us, we’ll be traveling in separate convoys. Don’t do anything foolish.”
Her mother didn’t bother with any other words of farewell or care. And as the cold weight of her mother’s rejection settled on her, Diana finally allowed her thirteen-year-old self to weep openly for what she had lost.
Hot tears soaked her face, but she welcomed the relief and the release that came along with watching Widow walk away. She didn’t care if she ever saw her again.
When Birdie and the other woman approached to bind her arms, Diana’s sobs grew louder as they wrenched her sore arm.
“You know, Birdie.” She hiccupped a breath. “The thought occurred to me that since you betrayed me so easily, your loyalties might be of the constantly flexible type. What would it take to sway them back in my favor? A ship of your own?”
Birdie covered her unease at Diana’s crying with a cocky smile. It reminded Diana of the way dockside cats looked when they’d caught a fish. “Shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, pet.”
“What did Widow promise you for your betrayal?”
“Already owe her my life for pulling me out of the workhouse. I would have died in that hellhole, had it not been for her.” Birdie’s voice dropped low.
“You never asked where I came from, ma’am.
Thought at first it was to keep things professional-like, out of respect for the fact I worked hard, and we shared a mission.
Realized later that you didn’t care at all. ”
“Do you think I’d allow anyone to man one of my ships?
” Diana countered, her breath steadying.
“Of course I knew where you and every one of my crew came from. And I did respect that and you. Show me I was right, Birdie. Let me go. Leave this behind and come with me. If you stay, Widow will ruin you.”
Birdie shook her head. “She said you’d say that.”
They bound her mouth with a cloth, and Birdie flashed her teeth. “No need for us to carry you, is there? You’ll follow nicely, won’t you?”
If one of them attempted it, Diana calculated a sixty percent chance she could relieve one of them of a knife or pistol, but it would be messy and awkward.
A short-term gain for a potentially longer-term loss if the struggle resulted in another injury.
It was better to cooperate until her odds of escape improved.
In the convent’s back garden, a wagon waited for them. Two large barrels took up half of the back. Compared to a hired carriage, the cart would blend in more easily on the rural roads.
Diana was mildly chagrined to find a team of two decent-looking horses leading the cart; Birdie was in a hurry to move them and keep up with Widow’s coach and four, which had departed ahead of them.
The enforcer seized her by her sore arm and maneuvered her into the back of the cart. They tossed a foul-smelling horse blanket over her and packed in some sacks of grain for good measure to weigh down the blanket. Her bound hands, sore arm, and blindfold wouldn’t make it an easy escape.
But it wasn’t the hardest one Diana had trained for either.