Wolf of Arundale Hall (23 page)

“So you murdered her.” Joshua’s strength was failing. He was going to lose here and Applegate would be the last one standing.

“Not before I enjoyed her thoroughly,” Applegate said with a grin. “And don’t worry about little Elizabeth. I’ll make her last hours on earth pleasant.”

Joshua roared and attacked. They tumbled against the wall, the hard surface jarring Joshua’s wound. But he no longer fought for himself. He fought for his mate, his heritage, his future.

However, Applegate had the advantage and more strength. His long forelegs connected with Joshua’s belly and kicked him back hard enough that he lifted off the floor and slammed back down. In a flash, Applegate’s teeth sank into Joshua’s throat. Blood spurted over their faces and Joshua couldn’t pull away without having his neck ripped apart.

I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I failed again.

A loud explosion sounded behind them and Applegate’s body stiffened. His teeth loosened and Joshua managed to jerk away. The sound of another shot filled the room and Joshua whirled around to see his wife with her pistol smoking, pointed at Applegate.

Wounded, Applegate snarled, launching his lean body at Elizabeth. Joshua didn’t stop to think. He threw himself in front of his mate and blocked Applegate’s attack. He clawed the man’s face. Applegate howled and made one last attempt to kill Joshua.

The next shot was near Joshua’s ear and hit Applegate between the eyes. Thick blood streamed from the hole in his forehead and he remained still for a moment before he dropped to the floor, dead.

Exhausted, bloody and near death, Joshua padded over to his wife, his mate, the only woman who’d ever mattered to him. He licked her hand and then, his wounds overcoming him, fell to the floor.

His last thought was that he’d never be able to hold her in his arms again. All he had were his accursed paws.

*

“Joshua!” Elizabeth knelt beside her husband, still a wolf, bleeding from too many places. She glanced around the room in shock.

Perry struggled against the metal restraints on the wall, his eyes wild and bestial. Sarah hung from leather straps on a waist-high bench, her back bloody and raw. In the far corner, Lord Everret lay completely inert with Derek’s remains scattered around him.

Her stomach rolled but she knew she had to keep her wits. Though Joshua was her first thought, she needed help. “Perry,” she snapped and his gaze jerked to meet hers. “I need you to cage the Beast. I need you to ride for help.”

“Sarah,” he said, the word more of a growl than speech.

“I will release her and soothe her wounds. But Joshua will die if you don’t get Dr. MacDonald.”

Perry shook his head and she watched him struggle to contain the Beast within. While he trembled, she found the key on Lord Applegate’s dead body to unlock his chains. Just as she released him, Perry managed to regain control.

He panted heavily but stumbled to the door. “I’ll go for help.”

“Get Dr. MacDonald and Jaimison,” she said.

Perry sprinted up the steps and Elizabeth did the best she could for those who were left.

Joshua’s wounds were bad. She ripped her dress again to stop the flow of blood. His claws reached out and encircled her wrist. “You won’t have any clothes left at this rate.” His voice was gravelly and deep. The Beast still had control and Joshua was too weak to fight it. She knew this was how he might die.

“Stop talking, Joshua.” She stroked his face, more wolf than man but still the face of the person she loved. When she’d finished with him, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I have to help Sarah and Lord Everret.”

He nodded and closed his eyes. She shook him by the shoulder. “Don’t you dare leave me.”

A strange grin stretched his features. “I won’t.”

She relaxed slightly and crept over to Lord Everret. He was in human form, his wolf completely gone. She stared at him. He was covered in blood but there were no wounds on him. In his hands, under his curled body, was the dismembered thigh of his lover, Derek. Lord Everret traced a mark on the skin, a mark Elizabeth recognized.

Her heart clenched. Derek had been Lord Everret’s mate. He’d marked him, claimed him, and Applegate had killed him. Tears fell from Elizabeth’s eyes. How could she help this man? He seemed physically unharmed but completely broken.

She touched him and he knocked her hand away. His eyes were dead and lifeless, his fingers the only movement he made. “Lord Everret,” she said softly. “Marcus?”

“Leave me alone,” he snarled.

“I have to aid Sarah. I need your assistance.” What could she do to get him to look at her?

“I can’t help anyone.” Suddenly, his gaze met hers. The absolute hopelessness, the despair, took her breath away. “I couldn’t stop him. He killed Derek and I couldn’t stop him.”

“He’s dead now, Marcus. Get up. Derek wouldn’t want you to—”

“Don’t fucking tell me what Derek wanted. You don’t know,” he snarled again.

“I know how I would feel if Joshua gave up because of me,” she said. “I would never want Joshua to stop living because I was gone.”

“I loved him,” Marcus said simply.

“I know,” Elizabeth said with tears in her eyes. “I know.” She reached out and stroked his hair.

Something broke in Marcus and he arched his neck, changing, shifting, his wolf crying out its grief. The mournful howl of loss and death cut Elizabeth to the bone. She cradled his head in her arms and rocked him.

“Marcus,” she said softly. “I have to help Sarah.”

In two heartbeats, Marcus shifted back into a man and slowly rose to his feet. He held out his hand to Elizabeth, who took it. Together they released Sarah and Marcus found some ointment that he carefully rubbed into the maid’s wounds.

“They’re not too bad. He used a cat o’ nine tails.” Marcus stroked Sarah’s back, soothing her. “She’ll have some scars, but there’s no permanent damage.”

Not physical damage, Elizabeth thought.

It wasn’t too long after they’d treated Sarah’s wounds that Dr. MacDonald arrived. He viewed the room with a grim expression. “I’m glad you warned me,” he said to Perry.

The doctor went to work on Joshua first and instructed Marcus and Perry to carry him to the carriage waiting upstairs. Sarah also had to be carried, though the doctor said her injuries were more superficial.

When they arrived at Arundale Hall, Jaimison met them at the door. “What happened?”

“Applegate—” Elizabeth started, then she glanced at Perry and Marcus. “Perhaps we need to discuss this, since I know very little.”

The four of them sat down in the den. Perry ran an impatient hand through his hair. “Applegate sent a message to me that he had Sarah and that if I wanted to see her alive again, I had to go to Lord Everret’s.” He shot a glance at Marcus. “I… It seemed that…”

“You thought I was in on it,” Marcus said with a humorless smile. “Go on.”

Perry pursed his lips, then continued. “He hit me over the head and I woke up chained to the wall with Sarah trussed up on that bench. Only it wasn’t like the last time. She wasn’t aroused. It wasn’t sexual. He planned to kill her but he wanted to torment me first.”

“What did he say, Perry?”

“That Father got his mother pregnant. That his mother passed him off as the legitimate heir of the Duke of Kent, yet tormented him with his tainted birth.” Perry glanced at Marcus. “When Applegate was nineteen, he demanded that my father pay him money. Tried to blackmail him. My father refused and Applegate boasted to me that he killed him.”

Marcus’s face was gray and drawn. “It makes sense. He always tried to get close to me, but I kept my distance. I found him…too obsessed with bloodplay. He enjoyed hurting people. Too much. Often preferred women who weren’t willing and I drew a firm line with him.”

Perry glanced at Marcus, compassion softening his gray eyes. “He’s been planning this for a long time. My grandmother knew, since Applegate approached her and they made a plan of revenge. Between them, they set out to destroy our family.”

“But why Sarah? I don’t understand,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head.

Perry took a deep breath. “Because I marked Sarah but I didn’t claim her. Because she’s my mate.”

“How did they know?” She didn’t understand how Applegate or Lady North could have known it.

Her brother-in-law shook his head. “I think Applegate picked something up somehow. It’s not as though I understand how it all works.”

“Likely, it was a scent,” Marcus said. “I knew who Elizabeth was before she spoke. By her smell. And Joshua had been away for ten years. Maybe the mark has a scent.”

“But they knew before I marked her,” Perry said.

“There’s more to this, I’m sure,” Elizabeth said. She remembered that the diaries were filled with hints of bloodlines and preferred mates. Maybe Lady North had discovered something. She’d have to ask the older woman and that wasn’t going to be pleasant.

Dr. MacDonald appeared in the doorway. “Well, your patients are doing well.”

“May I see her?” Perry was on his feet and heading for the door, but the doctor stopped him.

“She doesn’t want to see you.” The doctor’s face was sad. “I had to leave a nurse with her to keep her in the bed. She wants to leave Arundale.”

“But why?” Elizabeth demanded.

Dr. MacDonald shook his head. “I cannae say. I only know the wounds on her back aren’t the only ones.” He glared at Perry. “My father explained some of the biology connected with the Arundale Beasts. Why did you mark the lass and not claim her? Don’t you know what that does to her?”

“I’m sorry, Doc,” Perry said with his head hung low. “I thought I was protecting her from…from…” He swallowed and clenched his jaw. “How can I claim her if she won’t talk to me?”

“That’s not my problem, laddie,” the doctor snapped. “You’ll have to figure out a way.”

“Maybe it’s better if I don’t,” Perry said.

“It’s too late for that,” Marcus said harshly. “Damn it, don’t you know what the mark does?” He nodded at Elizabeth. “Ask her. Ask your sister-in-law what it was like to be marked and not claimed. You’ve changed Sarah—you’ll have to make it right.”

Perry glared at Marcus. “I’m sure you have some suggestions, brother,” he snarled.

“I do. Don’t let her out of your sight. When the time is right, you’ll have to finish the job.” Marcus didn’t seem fazed by Perry’s hostility. “Once you mark a mate, Perry, they’re your responsibility, your life—” His voice broke and Marcus suddenly rose. “I’ll go home.”

“No,” Elizabeth said, and stepped in front of Marcus. “Stay with us, Marcus. Make your home here. Keep your house and your business, but stay here.”

He’d just lost the mate he loved. Elizabeth wanted him to stay, to heal. Marcus’ smile was tender. “No, Lady Arundale. Though I thank you. For my life. For the offer. But I have to…grieve my loss in my own way.”

She took his hands in hers. “You always have a home here, Marcus.”

He squeezed her hands and abruptly turned to leave the room. Elizabeth hoped he’d be well. She knew he’d continue to open his home for the needs of the Arundale men.

Perry followed Marcus out of the small office. “I’m going to sit outside her door until she agrees to see me.”

The doctor was right on Perry’s heels. “Don’t disturb my patient, you big boor. I won’t allow her to be bullied.” Their voices faded down the corridor to Sarah’s room.

Elizabeth swiftly climbed the stairs to her husband’s chamber. He lay in the bed, his wolf retreating, his human face almost completely returned. She yanked a chair to the side of the bed and touched his face. She stroked his head and spoke softly. “I’m here, my love. I’ll never leave you.”

He stirred against her fingers. She fell asleep with her hand on his face.

Chapter Thirteen

The scandal that followed didn’t touch Elizabeth, though she heard about it through Jaimison, who had the job of covering up the mess. It hadn’t been easy but Jaimison had managed to set the stage so that Lord Applegate was known to be Melinda’s murderer. Gerry had handled his mother’s death well, though Elizabeth had tried to spare him the details of her murder.

Weeks of recovery had made Joshua cranky and surly but Elizabeth ignored his moods. It didn’t help that Perry had disappeared soon after Sarah had escaped from Arundale Hall, leaving the house strangely empty and silent.

Joshua required a cane but he healed quickly considering how close to death he’d been. He seemed pensive these days and Elizabeth was at a loss for how to help him. She filled the silences between them with details of her life in the ten years he’d been absent. Often he’d give her tidbits of his life in Jamaica.

Two months to the day after Melinda’s murder, Joshua said the words Elizabeth had dreaded. “Elizabeth, we need to discuss the future.”

They were in the dear, familiar office, once her refuge from the busy household but now Joshua’s domain. He sat behind the desk and she sewed a set of dishcloths in one of the high-back chairs. “Yes, Joshua.”

He rose awkwardly from his chair and limped to tower over her. “You want children,” he said bluntly.

“Yes, I do.” Why lie? He knew it.

“Will you leave me if I refuse?” His gray eyes were ice cold.

She swallowed. Would she? The ache, the emptiness that swamped her when she thought of a life with no children, no blood kin of her own, seemed so overwhelming. But what would life be without Joshua? Even more empty. “I would be…disappointed, but I will not leave you, Joshua.”

The silence seemed charged with something electric. “I do not know if I can father another Beast.” Joshua’s voice faltered. “Gerry will probably be one, since he is a descendent of the old earl, and I don’t want to curse another soul with this.”

Finally Elizabeth met his gaze. “I do not view it as a curse.”

He blinked. “Why not? Look at what happened,” he said bitterly. Abruptly, he lifted the cane and whacked the desk, turning his back on her. “Melinda was murdered by the Beast, torn to pieces by a mindless wolf. Applegate only followed the instinct we all have.”

“He was evil, Joshua. You and Perry are not.” She rose from her chair. “And I am not Lady North.”