Page 108 of A Bride for the Devilish Duke
It was bitterly ironic that it would be Sutherland whose cowardice had led to the fire taking hold among the tightly packed materials below. Sutherland would be the one who completed Damien's revenge.
He shoved the other man towards the door, and then heard the deafening crash from behind. He looked, wanting to make sure that Emma and Elsie were no longer below.
What on earth were they doing there? Why would she follow me and how did she know? Elsie must have listened at the door. Blast!
Damien stared in horrified disbelief as he saw Emma and Elsie running deeper into the warehouse, their exit blocked by aseething mass of burning wood. He pointed to another door, hidden from their sight by crates. But they showed no sign of hearing him over the noise of the inferno.
Then he realized that the door would be locked anyway.
He had unlocked only one as an escape route should he need it. The keys to the rest of the doors weighed heavily on an iron ring in his pocket.
He could throw it down to them, but if he missed, they were lost. He could go down the stairs and open the door from the outside… but it would take too long. He needed to get down to them immediately, but how? There were no stairs inside the godforsaken building.
Looking along the walkway on which he stood, Damien saw the mass of wool bales a few yards ahead. It would be a hard landing but not as hard as solid wood. And if he survived it, he could get to Emma and Elsie and guide them to the door.
“Are you coming, man?” Sutherland cried from the doorway.
He had mastered his fear enough to look in to see where Damien was. Damien looked back and grinned. Then he ran along the walkway, vaulted the wooden handrail, and leaped into empty space.
The landing was hard enough to knock the air from him. Something snapped and pain lanced through him. His right armwas in agony and would not bear his weight as he tried to push himself upright atop the pile of wool bales. A deep breath brought a stab of pain in his chest which he thought was a broken rib. Or even more than one.
He scrambled across the wool bales, tumbling down from one to another until he was on solid ground.
Emma appeared out of the gloom, staggering, and choking on the smoke which was already rendering the air almost solid. Damien hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her towards the door, fumbling with a broken arm for the keys. With a soft rushing sound, a fresh heat surged up behind them. The wool bales had caught light. The heat was unbearable and Damien's numb fingers dropped the keys.
Crying out in frustration, he summoned the last of his strength to kick at the door.
It gave way on the third kick and Damien pulled Emma through. Elsie clung to Emma, following. They staggered out into the blessedly cool night air. Damien wanted to collapse to the ground but knew they needed to be a safe distance away. Explosions were sounding from within as barrels of oil ignited. He kept trudging forward, drawing the two women after him.
In the darkness beyond the warehouse, a gibbering Silas Sutherland watched in disbelief as Damien emerged from the raging inferno.
“It cannot be!” he stammered, “he fell! I saw him fall into the fire! What manner of demon is he?”
Sir Silas Sutherland cried out, a wail of pure existential terror, and fled into the London night.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Emma looked down at her wounded husband. He lay on a bed in his Curzon Street house, eyes closed and face pale. His broken leg had been splinted by Elsie and his ribs were bound tightly to prevent them from moving. An untouched bottle of poppy juice rested on the bedside table. Emma wore a dressing gown and was naked beneath, having spent the last hour soaking the soot and ash from her body. She had seen Elsie to her bed, sitting with her until the other woman fell asleep.
Now, she stood before her husband.
Our mutual foolishness almost cost us both our lives: your foolish pursuit of revenge and my foolish pursuit of you. Is this love I still feel for you also foolish? Perhaps, but I cannot give it up. God help me.
Damien's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled, lifting a leg to kneel on the bed beside him.
“You should drink the poppy juice. It will help the pain. Elsie said it will be considerable for a while until your fracture heals. You are lucky your leg did not snap clean in two. Imagine leaping from that height!”
Damien grimaced from pain. “If I had not, you would have burned. And Elsie. And it would be my fault. I should have taken you into my confidence, but I was afraid you would talk me out of it...”
“Had I thought you intended murder and arson, I would have bound you hand and foot!” Emma snapped.
“I never intended arson. I am sorry though, I still broke my word. At first, I thought I could not take away my brother's hope. I have watched him fade away over the years, but since he met Elsie, he has come alive again. I could not deny him this. Then, I realized that letting our vengeance consume him would turn him into that shell once more, so I planned to lie to him until his mind healed.
“ButSilas… there was nothing left to do. If you had not come when you did, I don’t know what would have become of that man. What would have become of me…”
Emma frowned sorrowfully at the man who had almost destroyed himself in pursuit of a misguided justice in her name, as he looked away in guilt.
I had thought he had broken his promise, returned to his vengeful ways of destroying his father’s legacy. But all this time, it was for me?
