“Is that you, Nate?” Lucy said without taking her eyes off Angel.
“Yes, it is. Can I ask you a favor?”
“What?”
“Let the children go out the back door.”
“You always cared about them more than me.” She turned and pointed the gun at his stomach. Angel gasped and her hand flew to cover her mouth.
Nate looked at the weaving girl. “Lucy, this is between you and me. Please let my wife and children leave the house.”
“No! Not her. I want her right here.” Lucy swung back to Angel.
Nate felt the blood leave his face. “How about letting the children leave?”
“Fine.” She turned to the boys sitting at the table. “Go. And shut that baby up.”
Matt looked up at his father, who nodded. “Go on son, take your brothers and sister out to the back yard.”
The boys scrambled out the back door, Luke and John clinging to each other, and Julia-Rose still screaming.
“Lucy, what do you hope to accomplish?” Nate slowly proceeded to where Angel stood.
“Get away from her.” She waved the gun toward the corner of the room. “It could have been so good for us. I took care of getting rid of Amy for you. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Nate jolted at her words, and what they meant.
She continued in a singsong voice. “We could have married, and with my papa’s money, we could have traveled, gone to parties, museums, plays.” Her expression turned nasty
as she continued. “But no. You couldn’t wait for me to come back from Europe, could you?”
Nate continued to move toward Angel, all the time watching the gun in Lucy’s hand.
“No, Lucy, we couldn’t have done all that. I have five children.”
Angel immediately laid her hand on her stomach.
Lucy waved her other hand around. “Nannies, Nate. We could have hired a nanny, sent them to boarding school. You would have been free.”
“There’s just one problem with your plan.” Nate finally worked his way over to Angel. “I don’t want to be free. I love my children, and wouldn’t want nannies to raise them.”
“No?” She screamed. “But instead, you marry a thief. A woman so desperate for a husband she has to travel all the way across the country and marry a stranger? And that’s not bad enough. Then she brings her witch of a stepmother here to take my papa away from me, too? Don’t you understand? I have no one. No one, and it’s all her fault.”
“Lucy.” Nate reached his hand out. “Calm down. No one has taken your father away. Sylvia is concerned about you.”
She uttered a curse word. The tension had increased, and he hoped Mark had reached the sheriff’s office. He’d sent the boy there as he headed for home. Unsure how long he could keep Lucy talking, time could be running out.
“Do you know how long I had to give arsenic to Amy before she finally died?”
“My God,” he whispered, his suspicions confirmed. “You gave Amy poison?”
“Yes. That’s why I came to help after the baby’s birth. I made sure she had little bit every day, until she finally died. She was a pathetic woman, never good enough for you, either. I had planned to allow you enough time to mourn, but before I even returned from Europe, you had already replaced her.” Pointing the gun again at Angel, she snarled, “With that.”
Nate crept in front of Angel, facing Lucy.
“Hand me the gun, Lucy. You don’t really want to hurt anyone.”
“No. I mean, yes. I do. Now get out of the way.”