Page 50 of The Hazardous Measure of Love
As he saw Luc and James he jumped forward, seized Arabella’s wrist and dragged her to the door into the hall. ‘You won’t take her from me!’
‘Jerald – ’
But it was too late. She hesitated, then let him pull her out of the room.
I ran after them and burst out into the hallway as James and Luc emerged from the other room – and Alexander Prescott stepped out from the drawing room, talking to the footman who had admitted us. He was followed by the entire Prescott family on their way to dinner. One of the ladies gave a faint shriek.
‘What the devil?’ Alexander spluttered and two footmen came forward, clearly unsure what they were supposed to be doing with these intruders.
They got between me and the fleeing pair, but they also blocked the way to the front door. Jerald spun around and, dragging Arabella behind him, ran up the stairs. Luc and James overtook me as I stopped to gather up my skirts.
I found Alexander at my side, his hand on my arm. ‘Miss Lawrence? What is going on?’
‘Jerald killed Lord Tillingham,’ I said as I shook off his grasp and began to climb. I did not keep my voice low enough: there was a female cry of anguish below us.Too late to stop and explain now.
Ahead of me the chase continued and, with Alexander beside me, I finally emerged onto an uncarpeted landing, just in time to glimpse a pair of booted legs vanishing up a staircase at the far end.
‘Where does that go?’ I demanded, breathless.
‘The roof.’ This time Alexander’s grip was too firm to be dislodged without violence. ‘Are you certain about this?’
‘Yes. I am so very sorry. We have only circumstantial proof, but he ran as soon as he saw us. I do not think there can be any doubt.’
He nodded, his face grim. ‘It should be a shock. I find it is not. You had best go down, Miss Lawrence.’ He released me and ran for the stairs and I followed. No way was I leaving my menfolk on a roof with a murderer.
The stairs led to a low door that opened on to the flat leads of the roof between the two flanking towers. A quick glance over Alexander’s shoulder showed me no other way out and that this area of roof was bounded only by a low ornamental parapet, no higher than my knees.
Jerald, Arabella pulled close to his side, was about six feet from the front parapet, his back turned to it as he tried to watch both Luc and James who were facing him from the centre of the roof. They had spread out, the better to distract him, I assumed. Twilight was deepening: we had to get her away from him before darkness fell.
Alexander ducked out under the low lintel, circled around to stand between the brothers and spoke calmly and authoritatively. ‘Jerald, let Miss Jordan go. You are alarming her.’
‘Another lecture from you, Uncle dear?’ Jerald was defiant, driven beyond reason or, I suspected, much grasp on reality. ‘Arabella loves me. If we cannot be together in life, then we will be joined forever in death!’
That had me out of the doorway before I had time to think. With his attention on ranting at the men, he did not see me as I slid along the wall towards the front parapet, then edged my way beside it until I was almost behind him. I looked down, the ground far below seemed to swim up to meet me, and then I forced myself to turn away, to ignore the crumbling brickwork.
Jerald had Arabella clasped against his chest on the right side. She was facing me and I could see her eyes open wide as she realised I was coming to help her. Her left arm was free and I held out my hand as I edged gingerly towards her.
‘Why did you do it?’ Luc demanded.
‘She is mine! I told him so and helecturedme. I had gone in Court dress – he could see I was a grown man, someone who could make my own way in Society, but he spoke to me as though I was a little boy dressing up. He said love was a child’s notion, that he was making a proper marriage, a fitting one for himself and Arabella and that he was the head of the family. I must obey.’
I slid forward another six inches. Broken brick from the parapet crunched under my shoe and I froze.
‘And so you stabbed him.’ That was James, forcing him to look to the other side.
‘I don’t know how it happened.’ For a second his voice wavered, childlike. ‘I was angry and then the sword was in my hand and he told me to stop playacting! And then he fell down and he said,You’ve killed me.He groaned. And I saw that I had.’
‘Then what did you do?’ Luc kept his voice calm. Alexander, thankfully, had the sense to stay quiet. I glanced down at my feet, saw the leads were clear and inched forward again. Arabella’s eyes were huge, catching the last glimmers of light from the setting sun.
‘I went back, over the gate, the way I came in. I had thrown my cloak over, so my clothes were all right.’ Eerily, he had calmed down again. ‘I wiped the sword on some sacking I found in the mews, then I walked to the Palace and I thought about you, Uncle Alexander, and your endless nagging and I thought how I could make you stop.’
Alexander made a strangled sound and Jerald shifted again. ‘So I wrote that note and off you went like his lapdog. I thought I’d give you a nasty shock but it was even better – they thought you might have done it.’
‘You tried to make us think Madame Vaillant was guilty,’ Luc said. ‘You could have had her hanged.’
I was almost there.
‘She was a greedy whore.’
