Chapter 18 #4
“There’s more, my love. Much, much more.
I’ve seen him wrest squalling babies from their mothers’ arms and sell them on the auction block.
To give you a clearer insight into his despicable nature, he did that to the six children his longtime mistress, Cleo, bore him while I was at Raven’s Point.
He sold his own flesh and blood into slavery, hating the thought that his superior blood was mixed with a race he so despised.
Did you meet Cleo yesterday? She also works as his housekeeper.
She’s one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever known. Other than you,” he added bitterly.
Attempting to force from her dazed mind the unsettling pity she had seen in Cleo’s eyes and shocked to discover the woman was Dominick’s mistress, Susanna could make no response.
“I’m surprised Dominick has kept her for as long as he has,” Adam went on.
“He must know she hates him. That Satan’s spawn must fancy himself in love with her, though it’s unbelievable to me that he could care for anything.
Cleo told me five years ago, just before I left Raven’s Point, that someday she would find a way to break him for selling away her children, but she’s obviously failed.
Or maybe she simply lost the will to fight… ”
As Adam fell silent, seemingly lost in memories, Susanna finally found her voice. “How could you have convinced Mr. Cary of these terrible things? He wouldn’t have taken your word for such accusations!”
Adam gave a grim laugh, hauntingly hollow, his eyes filled with cold hatred.
“James didn’t have just my word. To understand the depths of that man’s depravity, he had only to look at what that devil did to me to know I spoke the truth.
He had only to hear of how Dominick horsewhipped my father to death right in front of me and my mother, and then how he raped her while two of his overseers held her down.
My mother lost the will to live after that and a week later, drowned herself in the York River. ”
He drew a ragged breath, his voice laden with bitter regret.
“God help me, I was too young to save them, only fifteen. But I swore that one day I would have vengeance, if not by killing that monster, then by finding a way to make him suffer the cruelest torture. I didn’t want to marry James Cary’s daughter for her land or her fortune, as you so wrongly accused, but for the revenge her wealth could bring me.
” Adam drew Susanna closer, crushing her against his chest. “Revenge that you will now bring me, Mrs. Adam Thornton.”
Though Susanna was horrified by what he had described, she could see in his agonized gaze that he spoke the truth, just as she realized with heartrending clarity that he could never have loved her.
What a fool she had been to think that he had pursued her because he cared!
In an embittered heart such as his there could be no room for love.
He had lied to her to secure his revenge, and that was the most crushing revelation of all.
“There’s something else you don’t know about your beloved Dominick,” Adam added grimly. “Something only his creditors know about him. Even James Cary had no idea that the man was on the verge of bankruptcy.”
“Bankruptcy?” she blurted, thinking that this accusation must surely be false. What of Dominick’s fine clothes, his luxurious carriage, the costly gifts he had given her which Adam had already told her would be sent back first thing in the morning—
“Why else did you think he wanted to marry you?” he scoffed.
“Out of affection? Dominick needed your fortune to pull him out of debt because his addictive gambling has finally gotten the better of him. He’s been on the brink of losing Raven’s Point for months.
His wretched financial state isn’t common knowledge only because he’s a master at hiding it.
” Adam laughed dryly. “Think how completely he fooled you, my love. But I’ve made it my business to know everything about that bastard.
A few well-placed bribes have provided me with all the information I needed to plan my revenge.
All I required was a very rich wife, and since I now have one, I can finally push him over the edge. ”
“How…how will you do that?” Susanna asked numbly.
Her mind spun as she recalled the spartan interior of Dominick’s house, the worn furniture, his plain clothes, the meal which had been less than sumptuous…
and even the many times during their brief courtship when he had disappeared into some planter’s game room to play cards…
“You will see in time,” Adam replied tersely, his hands falling to her waist. “Actually, I believe I should thank you for your cunning deception. It was worth a fortune just to see Dominick’s face today when he realized he had lost the one thing that could have saved him from rotting in debtors’ prison…
and to a man he once forced to lick the field dust from his shoes. ”
“Blackguard! You’re as despicable as he!” Susanna cried, his words shocking her out of her silence. “To think you would so callously use an innocent young woman to suit your own selfish ends! I’m almost glad Camille isn’t here to suffer at your hands.”
“Leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, doesn’t it?
” he mocked her. “It’s not pleasant to discover that you’re valued less as a human being than for what benefit you can bring to someone else.
But let’s not talk of innocence,” he added scornfully, his fingers straying to the ribbon tie at her waist, “as if it’s something a former waiting-maid with your passion and beauty might still possess. ”