“What will you do when he arrives?” Raven ventured to ask.
He shot her a cool glance. “That
is no concern of yours.”
“You would not really harm him, would you? Your own brother?”
The sharp twist of his mouth sent a fresh chill through her. “How touching-you pretend to care for him. But I know your heart is made of ice.”
“I do care what happens to him. He is my husband.”
When Sean’s eyes narrowed, she realized her mistake. Whatever her feelings for Kell, she shouldn’t declare them for fear of provoking Sean further. “Kell doesn’t care much for me, however,” she murmured. “We have a marriage of convenience, nothing more.”
“You lie.” Crossing the room to her, he calmly struck her across the face with his open palm, making her head snap back.
Raven stifled a cry of pain and clenched her teeth.
“Kell has been panting after you like a dog for a bitch. You seduced him, and he fell for it. He will pay for that.”
His tone was so composed, he might have been remarking on the weather. Her stomach muscles knotted with dread.
She knew she shouldn’t dare challenge Sean again, knew he would be impervious to pleas, but she couldn’t help herself. “Please, Sean, whatever you are planning, Kell doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”
“He stole you from me.”
Raven bit her tongue, recognizing that further argument was futile. Sean was so twisted by his tormented past, so filled with bitterness and hatred, that she truly questioned his sanity. Yet she couldn’t allow Kell to walk blindly into a trap.
“What is it you want? Me? If so, then…” She swallowed hard. “You can have me.”
His wintery smile lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. “Ah, but I no longer want you. Now be silent.”
Sean turned back to the window. Another dozen minutes ticked by before he spoke again. “At last he comes.”
His satisfied pronouncement filled Raven with alarm, and she flinched when Sean turned back to her.
With methodical efficiency, he released her from the chair but left her hands bound. She couldn’t help but cry out when he jerked her savagely to her feet.
“Where…are you taking me?” Raven gasped as he ushered her forcefully to the door.
“You will see soon enough.”
Kell cursed as he struggled through the drifts of snow in the rear of the Lasseter estate. He’d found the house empty but for four servants huddling in the kitchen. They’d been told to keep out of sight, but when asked, they pointed to the back exit, indicating the direction Sean had taken with his hostage.
Following the tracks, Kell bent against the razor-sharp wind, the capes of his greatcoat snapping. He could barely see in the swirling snow, yet he knew where Sean was headed. The gazebo had been chosen with a purpose, for that was where William’s abuse had begun.
A sickening sense of inevitability buffeted Kell as he realized the past had come full circle.
In a few moments he could make out the delicate cupola roof and the lacy railings of the gazebo. The ornamental lake beside it was frozen over, while a stand of elms rose behind like ghostly sentinels, their bare limbs coated with ice crystals.
When he reached the gazebo, Kell felt the same ice freeze his veins. Two figures were seated on a bench, Sean holding a rapier at Raven’s throat.
Kell’s breathing ceased as he forced himself slowly to mount the snow-slicked steps. His heart pounded as if he’d run a great distance, while his gut churned with a tumult of emotions: fear for Raven. Hatred for the bastard who had destroyed his young brother’s innocence. Anguish at what Sean would force him to do.
Sean meant to make him choose between the two of them, Kell knew. His brother and his wife. But he really had no choice.
Not wanting to incite his brother, Kell came to a halt and surveyed his wife. Her lips were blue and her body shook with cold, yet he couldn’t tell if the expression in her eyes was pain or fear or both.
“Sean, let her go. Your quarrel is with me.”