Lord of Pleasure by Bronwen Evans

Author:Bronwen Evans [Evans, Bronwen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bronwen Evans

Chapter 7

The carriage was approaching the house, and her father’s snores didn’t help to steady her nerves. When they arrived home, her mother would no longer be in residence. She’d taken her father into Newmarket on the pretense of Christmas shopping while Billy, Tessa, and Jimmy, her father’s valet and Tessa’s husband, moved her mother to Hascombe.

Georgiana prayed none of the other servants saw them go. Tessa and Jimmy now worked for her. They could never go back to Wentworth. They would be her mother’s caregivers. While Billy… she prayed hard that no one saw Billy helping with the escape. He insisted on staying at Wentworth to guard her, and Daniel agreed.

She let her father sleep until the carriage came to a halt. How long would it take for her father to learn his hold over her had escaped? She swallowed down her fear. Her father was a cruel man, and she worried how he would react. Perhaps, as Daniel had said, she should have gone with her mother. But if they both went, her father would suspect the Hascombe’s. Hopefully, he would think Georgiana had merely sent her well away, he’d have no idea the Hascombe’s were helping her.

As they drew up to the steps leading up to the front door, she noticed the commotion and knew her mother’s absence had been noted. She literally jumped out of the carriage before it had fully stopped.

“What is it, Burton?”

He stood ringing his hands. “It’s Lady Wentworth—”

“What’s happened to my mother?” she cried. “Is she ill?” and she made to move past Burton up the steps.

But Burton cried out, just as her father stepped from the carriage. “She’s gone. And so are Tessa and Jimmy.”

The whole county could have heard her father’s roar. What she had not expected was the hand that suddenly wrapped around her throat, almost lifting her off the ground. “You… You will tell me where you have hidden her, or by God I’ll—”

“My Lord, perhaps this would be best handled in private.” Burton’s calming voice brought her father out of his murderous haze. His hand loosened at her throat, and she began gasping fresh air into her lungs. He grabbed her arm and began pulling her up the stairs. She didn’t have the breath to stop him. She saw Billy’s worried face peering round the corner of the house. He’d go for help.

Her father swung her round and pushed her into the drawing room, closing the door behind him. She crawled along the floor until the settee was between them. “You will tell me where you have put my wife or I will beat it out of you.” It wasn’t the words themselves, merely the way he said them. He was calm. Too calm.

“I have no idea where Tessa has taken mother. I was with you. I am not a party to this.” Her fingers were crossed behind her back.

He drifted toward her. “You must think I’m stupid. Tessa would not move your mother without your say so.

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