Page 42 of A Lady in Name

Oade waved the weapon. Menace was in his look and his tone. “You bring that brat of Alice’s here again and I’ll blow out her brains!”

Restlessly tossing in bed was not conducive either to comfort or relaxation. Dog-tired as she was, Lucy could not sleep. The events of the afternoon played and replayed in her head, together with the things she might have said and did not say as well as the things she said and now regretted.

As the curricle had swept out of the farm, with the echo of Mr Oade’s threat ringing in Lucy’s ears, she’d been haunted by an image of the broken old woman she must henceforth take for her grandmother.

Dion had been busy stigmatising Oade for a madman. “You should have that Stagg man cart him off to the roundhouse, Stefan. Though he would find himself more at home in Bedlam, I dare say. Gracious, what a nightmare!”

Stefan’s attention had been wholly concentrated upon his horses, rendered unruly by the commotion. Lucy had felt a stronger motion of his arm beside her as he struggled to keep his team in check. Dion was quick to note the difficulty.

“Are they going to bolt?”

The nervous pitch of her voice drew Lucy’s attention and the visions in her mind faded. She looked to the horses’ heads and saw the twitch to their ears. The uneven pace became apparent.

Her glance went to Stefan and she met his eyes briefly. Lucy read reassurance in the quick smile he gave.

“Have no fear. They are perfectly manageable, if a trifle frisky.”

“Who shall blame them?” uttered Dion in forthright tones. “I, for one, should be glad to see that awful place disappear behind us in a cloud of dust.”

A pang smote Lucy. “It was a dreadfully unhappy house, was it not?”

“Murderous.”

“Don’t mince your words, Dion,” cut in Stefan drily, and Dion giggled.

“Well, it was. I’m sorry to say so of any family of yours, Lucy, but they are strangers to you, after all.”

“Only Mr Oade is murderous,” Lucy pointed out. “Poor Mrs Oade is rather a victim of his acts. I do hope he will not visit his rage upon that poor old creature.”

“I think not,” Stefan said judiciously. “Recollect his venom is directed upon his sister.”

“And me, as the living embodiment of her sin.”

“It is all bluster, I am persuaded,” he soothed. “I have frequently remarked that persons who have done a great wrong are apt to work themselves into a fever of fury against their victims, as if to justify their actions.”

“But he does not think it was wrong,” objected Dion. “He believes he did right to encourage his father to throw Lucy’s mother out.” She looked sharply round at Lucy. “It must have been he who discovered her condition.”

Lucy was swept with an abrupt resurgence of the bitterness that had overtaken her when she first heard of her state. “What an inconvenience I have been to so many persons! Perhaps it would be as well if my charming uncle carried out his threat to dispose of me.”

“Lucy!”

She ignored Dion’s shock, but she was unprepared for Stefan’s reaction. His hand moved sharply, the horses slowed and were pulled up, held under iron control. Lucy glanced round in question and met a thundercloud. Her heart thudded heavily in her breast.

Stefan was white-lipped, his eyes mere chips of ice-cold steel. His voice bit at her, cutting like a whiplash. “If you ever utter another such foolish sentiment, Lucy Graydene, I will wash my hands of you! You are far less dismally situated than a great many unfortunates, and to speak in such a fashion is a base ingratitude to those who have your interests at heart.”

A wash of dismay and remorse swept through Lucy, and she struggled to keep from bursting into sobs. Her heart was thumping like a battle drum, and she felt altogether worse than she had done all day.

He had paused as if for breath, his chest driving in and out. Lucy wanted to say something, anything to mitigate the hateful fury in his face, but her mind was devoid of words. She opened her mouth to begin to form some semblance of apology, distressed beyond bearing. But his whip hand came up and one finger pointed a warning.

“Don’t dare come back at me! But one word, and you will tempt me to use you in a manner unbefitting the conduct of a gentleman.”

With which Stefan turned his face deliberately from her, and put his attention on his horses. Next moment, the curricle was in motion and Lucy’s composure in tatters.