Read A Bright Particular Star Online

Authors: Elizabeth Hanbury

A Bright Particular Star (45 page)

He shook his head
slowly
.

It was a mistake.
You shou
ld have married me as planned,
and then
all this would not be necessary.


What do you mean

all this
?



I want the Devereux Star.


For once in your life,
you will have to accept that wanting
something and getting it
are two different thi
ngs,

she said.


Not for me.

“D
on
’t
be
childish,
Perry,

she retorted
.

His eyes narrowed
.

You

ve never appreciated me,
have you?
N
ever given
me the respect I
deserve
d
.
How I am going to enjoy surprising you!
Your sudden
departure
forced
me
to reassess matters
.
Annoying
, but
all was not lost.
I set off in pursuit and once
I had caught up with you,
I
waited until nightfall to slip
into your room at
T
he Pelican


Sophie gave a start of surprise
.

Y
ou!


Yes,

he said,
a mocking light in his eye
.

When
I discovered
you had the
Star
, I was
please
d.
You had pr
esented me with an unexpected
opportunity.
If I
could steal
it
, no one need
ever know I was responsible
.
I waited until you were asleep and began to search.
Inconveniently
,
you woke up
before I
could find it
and stabbed
me
.

His smirk
twisted
into
an
ugly look
as he spat out,

Upon my word, y
ou will
regret that!

Watching him,
Sophie had t
he curious sensation
the earth
was shifting beneath her
feet
.
A
short time ago, she had bera
ted herself for being a fool
.
Now she wondered if she was going mad.
She replayed
Perry
’s
words
over
in her mind.

No, she
had not imagined it
.
H
e
had
just
confessed to trying to steal the Star
from her room
.
His expression had
undergone a transformation
too
.
He was looking at her in a peculiar
way.
T
here was
a pitiless
, implacable
set to his features
and a sm
ile
unlike anything she
had seen before
curled
his thin lips
.

His
words and the way he was staring
made
her fee
l
sick.
Her mouth was dry with fear.
She
tried to think rationally
,
but somethi
ng in his manner, in
that light in his eyes and
that slow
,
singularly unpleasant
smile, repulsed her
and sent a chill down her spine
.

The
scene was certainly
bizarre.
Steam
rose from the tea
cups on the table
and
a clock ticked merrily away on the mantelpiece
.
From
the kitchen in the depths of the inn,
she could smell
bread being
baked.
Indistinct voices and occasional
bursts of
laughter d
rifted in from the taproom and
the noise and b
ustle
continued
unabated
outside
.
Meanwhile, her cousin
sat opposit
e, his
habitual
indolence gone, h
is
expression
frightening
.
His dark eyes were fixed on her like a bird of prey ready to swoop.
She could find nothing amusing in his appearance now.
He looked monstrous
,
and the whole thing
felt
like
a
nightmare
she would wake up
from
at any moment.
She ran her fingertips over the polished w
ood of the chair, only to find
it
and the rest of her surroundings
were
distressingly real
.



i
t suited me to let you to cont
i
nue on to London,

she heard him saying
.
”T
he Star
was not in the reticule that
some of
my
friends took from you in Savernake, nor w
as it in your room at
T
he Bell and Anchor
when they searched it.


Your friends?

she echoed
blankly
.


Charming
fellows.
Not much
intelligence

they made pathetic
highwaymen

but they would sell
their
grandmother for a farthing
.

Perry
thrust his head forward
,
his eyes snapping
with
anger.

By the time we reached London
, you were annoying me a great deal
.
Not
only had you bolted
when I did not expect it, but you
managed to acquire a
champion
along the way.
Cavana
gh was always at your side, curse
him!
Lucius Grey, too.

He frowned
heavily
.

S
o
mething
strange
about that fellow
.
Always appea
ring when you least want him to
.
Thought I could get some money out of him when we first met, but turns
out he
’s
no fool.
I should have been
more wary of him from the outset
.

His
eyes locked onto her again.

With
Cavanagh ever present and
any
chance of
steali
ng the Star
gone
, I
had to revert
to the origina
l plan
.
You thought it was my mother
’s
idea for us to marry, didn
’t
you?

He
gave a mirthless titter
.

You were wrong
.
I
t
was mi
ne.
Once I had planted the notion
in her head, she was all encouragement for it, as I knew she would be.

“S
o that
’s
what is
behind this
,

she murmured
, staring
.

You must be mad.
But y
ou are wealthy enough

w
hy bother to
go to such lengths?

Without warning
,
h
is fist slammed down on
to
the arm of his
chair
.

Because
I
cov
et it!
Covet
it, do you hear
me
?

he thundered.

She flinched
, but
s
aid with deliberate calm
,

I do
, but y
our
mother would be shocked
if she were here
to witness your behaviour.

A
nother
ripple of
laughter escaped him
.

U
ndoubtedly, but
she
is the most doting parent.
I believe s
he would excuse
me if I was the blackest
villain in England.
Although she would not approve of my methods, s
he is eager
to bri
ng the Star into the
family and will comply with whatever I say
and do
.
I have always been
able to twist her round my finger
.
She encourages my greed yet
even sh
e does not appreciate the half
of it, or w
hat I am capable of
.
No one does.

H
is
h
ooded gaze swept over he
r, his
voice
remaining
hypnotically
low and even
.

You use
d
the right
word
a moment ago
.
There is
a
selfish
madness
in me
which
means I will
do
what
ever
is necessary
to get what I want
.
I
always
get what I
want
, b
ut
you had
to make matters
complicated
.
W
hen I
thought
yo
u might be about to marry
Verney
,
I had to act



No—

she began
, until she
realize
d he wasn
’t
listening
.


You had to be carrying the Star on you
somewhere and
I
racked my brains
t
o think where it could be.
By then I knew it was not in the necklace.
I called in Brook Street as often as I could, but only after you
had
agreed to accompany me to the
museum
did the answer
suddenly
occur to me

the Star
was
co
ncealed in that ugly thing.

Pointing
to the hat pin where it lay
on the table beside he
r bonnet, he
added,

You wore it all the time
on the journey and in London
an
d yet I had never seen you with
it at Ludstone.
A prodigious
clever disguis
e,
I admit,
but then I had been uncharacteristically
stupid.
I don
’t
know why it took me so long to
realize


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