Page 86 of To Wed an Heiress
She didn’t get a chance to ask him why he was here before Lennox threw the valise at her feet.
“Did you think to pay me? I told you I wasn’t going to take your damn money.”
He didn’t get another word out. Gregory was suddenly there, his fist planted beneath Lennox’s chin. In the next instant, Lennox was flying through the air to land on the runner a few feet away.
He raised up on his elbows, shook his head, and in the next second was on Gregory.
Mercy couldn’t tell where one body ended and the other began. The two men were a tangle of arms and legs, flying fists, and spraying blood.
Mrs. West attempted to get between Gregory and Lennox but was thrown back. McNaughton was the second one to try and he, too, couldn’t stop them.
The fight was oddly silent except for the blows, wet, slapping sounds that made Mercy wince.
She’d never seen a fight before, especially one in which the combatants looked to be determined to kill each other. The spectacle was attracting a number of maids and male servants who crowded into the corridor behind Mrs. West.
The two men looked equally matched in size. She had to move out of the way, because they were rolling toward her.
“What in the bloody hell is going on here?”
Douglas stood there, his granddaughter beside him. Flora was wide-eyed and open mouthed.
The servants immediately dispersed, Mrs. West with them. Only McNaughton stood there, stiff backed with his nose in the air.
Lennox got to his hands and knees. Gregory stood and, in a move that was deliberately unfair, raised his boot and kicked Lennox in the side. Lennox reached out, grabbed Gregory’s foot, and jerked him off his feet. In the next second he was sitting astride Gregory, pummeling his face.
“That’s enough!” Douglas shouted. “Get off him, man!” he said to Lennox.
For a moment, she didn’t think he was going to obey, but Lennox finally got to his feet. Lennox was holding his left side. In addition to a cut on his mouth and a bloody nose, Gregory was going to have a black eye. Lennox’s shirt had been torn, but Gregory’s was spotted with blood.
“Who the hell are you?” Douglas said to Gregory.
“The gentleman on the floor is a Mr. Gregory Hamilton,” McNaughton said with his usual supercilious air. “Late from America, sir. I believe you know his Lordship, the Earl of Morton.”
Douglas ignored Gregory in favor of Lennox. “What the hell are you doing in my home, Caitheart?”
“I returned some of Miss Rutherford’s property,” Lennox said. “A payment, if you will, for taking her virginity.”
He turned to Mercy. “That’s why you came to me last night, wasn’t it? It wasn’t to ask me to help you get to Inverness or even to buy a husband. You wanted to escape this marriage and you have.”
She’d only heard his voice sound like that once, the morning of the accident. He’d been furious then, too.
He looked at Gregory, holding the back of his hand against the cut on his mouth. “She’s used, isn’t that what they say? She’s known another man’s touch.” His gaze swung back to Mercy. “Isn’t that what you wanted? To be freed from marrying him?”
“Is that what you think?”
“That’s what I know,” Lennox said.
“Then you’re wrong.”
She could feel her lips curve into a smile, but it wasn’t one filled with amusement.
“You don’t understand, Lennox. Gregory has already forgiven me. You see, he doesn’t care. I’m a commodity, a means to an end. Tell him, Gregory. It doesn’t matter to you that I went to another man’s bed as long as you can get your hands on all that lovely money of mine.”
Gregory didn’t say a word, but the look he gave her promised that he would exact payment for her comment in the future.
Her grandmother stretched out her arm and pointed at Lennox. “Get out of this house.”
Lennox turned on his heel and went out the way he came without glancing once in Mercy’s direction.
