Chapter 25 #2
“What the hell are you talking about?” Adam cut her off so angrily that she jumped, gasping in fright. “Did you read the letter or not?”
“I…I can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I saw the name Keefer Dunn…and I couldn’t go on.”
“Then I’ll read it for you,” Adam said, snatching up the paper, “and listen well, my love, for you are the cause of this!”
As he rushed through the letter, his hate-filled tone cut into Susanna’s heart like a razor-sharp knife.
The situation was as bad as she had imagined.
No, worse. Keefer Dunn must have identified her to Dominick and then told everything about her, probably in an attempt to save his own miserable life.
Now Adam would never complete his revenge, and he was blaming her, but it wasn’t her fault.
Fate had worked against them, thrusting in their path a man she had hoped never to see again.
“Adam, I’m truly sorry this has happened,” she said, rising from the stool to face him, “but you can’t say it’s my fault. If you hadn’t made me go with you this morning, you’d still have your revenge. How could I have known that Keefer Dunn was a convict at Raven’s Point?”
His eyes widening, Adam suddenly threw back his head and laughed, a harsh, humorless sound. Startled by his unexpected reaction, she went on nervously.
“It was a horrible trick of fate that Keefer tried to escape today…that he was one of the men dragged to the house to be whipped. He recognized me the moment he saw me, and I recognized him” —she shuddered, remembering— “those dark-yellow eyes, like a snake’s, and his ugly pocked face behind that scraggly beard.
I tried to tell myself it wasn’t possible, but it was him, Adam, and I should have told you sooner—”
“Good God, woman, do you expect me to believe this tale?” Adam shouted, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her hard. “A trick of fate? I knew you would come up with some fantastic story, but this…this is incredible!”
Susanna gasped at him in astonishment, tears smarting her eyes.
“And don’t dare start crying either, because it won’t work,” he railed at her, his hands tightening their painful grip. “What a consummate actress you are to summon tears so effortlessly. I have to grant it to you, Susanna Guthrie, you’re as clever and devious as they come.”
Stunned even more that he would call her by her real name, she pleaded, “Adam, you’re hurting me…I don’t understand—”
“There is no Keefer Dunn at Raven’s Point, and you damn well know it!” he thundered, releasing her so abruptly that she fell against the dressing table, upsetting perfume bottles and other toiletries. “You told Dominick that name at the Byrds’ party, and everything else about yourself, didn’t you?”
“No, that’s not true!” Susanna cried, anguished that he would make such a preposterous accusation. Why, why did he never believe her?
“You told him I was going to seek vengeance against him, probably soon, and then you came up with the perfect way to save him, didn’t you? A way to keep me mum until you and your precious Dominick could silence me permanently.”
“Adam, this is madness!” she insisted, backing up as he advanced upon her, his expression so black that she feared he might strike her.
“Those words you said to him this morning were all part of your act, weren’t they? You two make an ingenious pair, maybe you deserve each other. But I don’t plan on giving either of you the satisfaction.”
She bumped into the wall, hitting her head hard. Still he stalked her, until suddenly he stopped within arm’s reach of her. His voice was bitterly quiet.
“And to think that just before I received the letter I was on my way up here to apologize for accusing you of plotting against me. To tell you that I wanted us to start over…to tell you that I—” He didn’t finish, choking on his words, and for a fleeting instant Susanna thought she saw a wetness glistening in his eyes until he blinked several times and said hoarsely, “Damn you, woman. This is twice you’ve made me the fool. ”
“Adam…Adam, please listen to me,” she said, her throat tightened painfully against the tears threatening to overwhelm her. “I didn’t plot against you, I swear it! We can still start fresh. We don’t have to let Dominick do this to us!”
“To us?” he scoffed. “He made no mention of you in that letter.”
“I—I don’t know why he didn’t,” Susanna admitted, confused, her words coming in a desperate flood, “but he meant both of us! Adam, we can go to Williamsburg right now and confess everything to the magistrate. The court might punish us, but when they hear the truth, maybe they won’t.
I know we’ll lose Briarwood but after what happened today, I don’t think we were ever meant to have it.
Yet you can still have your revenge! The Cary money you paid to Dominick’s creditors will have to be returned, and then they’ll go directly after him for payment.
He’ll still end up in a debtors’ prison, Adam, don’t you see? ”
“Why would I agree to give up everything I’ve worked so long and hard to gain and start over with nothing, and with the likes of you?
” he lashed out at her. “No, my love, you’re going to remain as Camille Cary and the mistress of Briarwood until the day you die, whether you like it or not.
And if I ever discover again that you’ve plotted with that monster against me… ”
Susanna gasped in terror as he brought her hard against his chest, plunging his fingers through her hair to pull her head back cruelly.
“We’re going to play out this deadly game with Dominick Spencer and give him exactly what he wants until I can find a way to best him.
What a merry race it will be! Him, hoping to find a way to kill me so he can have you and your fortune, and me, thwarting his every move.
One day I will have my vengeance, my beautiful, treacherous wife. This I swear.”
As Adam’s mouth came down savagely upon her own, his powerful arms enveloping her in a crushing, heartrending embrace, Susanna felt all hope die within her.
She would never have his love, only suspicion, mistrust, and hate…
and she knew she couldn’t bear it. Not for a lifetime. Not for another moment.
“No…!” she cried against his mouth, biting his lower lip hard. As, cursing, he abruptly loosened his hold upon her, she wrenched away from him so violently that she would have fallen if she hadn’t grabbed the opened balcony door.
Regaining her balance and spinning around to face him, she edged along the door until she felt nothing but air, the afternoon sun warm upon her back and the strong breeze stirring her hair.
With the balcony behind her, her desperate gaze flew to the door across the room, her only means of escape, then back to his face.