Page 72 of Her Wicked Highwayman
She squeezed Diana’s hands. “Now, before I become a watering pot, I will have the footmen bring this down today and we will begin work on your wedding gown. We want to make Foxglove proud, don’t we?”
“Yes, we do,” Diana agreed, her own voice thick with emotion. “Thank you, Mrs. Ripley.”
Mrs. Ripley cupped her cheek as though she were a little girl once more. “I never had children of my own, but you... I claim you as my daughter in every way I can.”
Diana threw her arms around Mrs. Ripley and hugged her.
A few hours later,Diana walked to the stables to see how Nelson was doing tending the horses. It was an old habit she’d gotten from her father, who’d liked to check on Nelson, and he’d taken Diana with him more often than not so she could see the horses.
As she stepped into the stables, the aroma of fresh hay and grain mixed with the pleasing scent of leather and horses. She found the old groom in the farthest stall. He was speaking in a soothing voice to the beasts and winked at Diana when he spotted her. She tapped her fingers on the stable door and took a moment to breathe the air and enjoy herself.
“Nelson, don’t forget to come in for dinner soon,” she reminded the old groom.
“Yes, Miss Diana,” he said from behind a tall white Percheron he was brushing.
Diana turned away from the stables and returned to the house. She looked upon her home with new eyes, eyes that didn’t feel weary at the thought of caring for it. Now she saw what her life would be, how the gardens would flourish, how there would be Isla and perhaps another child running about the lawns, and she would spend her days with Rafe, basking in the sunlight and living in the way she’d longed for. Foxglove would once more be a shining jewel in the countryside, and her family would have been proud that she’d saved it.
She heard the sudden rush of steps behind her, and pain exploded in the back of her skull. She collapsed on the grass, her hands scrambling in the autumn leaves as she tried to get to her knees.
“You’re stronger than I thought,” someone hissed, and a second blow sent her into a world of black oblivion.
When she came to, she found herself on the floor of a dimly lit cellar. It took her a full minute to get past the throb in her head as she realized she was sitting in a... cell? A lit lamp sat on the floor just beyond her reach through the bars. She groaned and tried to sit up. The world still spun sickeningly, and her fingertips came away from the back of her head with a bit of blood. Where had she been just now? Had she seen Nelson in the stables? Yes, she remembered that she had... What happened after that?
Light flickered at the opposite end of the cellar as someone came down a set of stairs and emerged from the gloom.
“Welcome to my home, Miss Fox,” Lord Caddington said with a dark chuckle. “I find it amusing that I set the trap to catch a fox, yet I had no idea I would quite literally catch one.” He sneered and wrapped his fingers around the iron bars of the cell as he peered down at her.
Diana got to her feet. “You’vekidnappedme.” The green woolen gown she wore was muddy and torn, and parts of her body ached as though she’d been dragged, which was likely given the state of her clothing. Whoever had taken her from her home must’ve tossed her about with little care to bring her here.
“Correction, I’ve taken you intocustody. As the local magistrate, I am within my rights to see justice done. And seeing as how you have been robbingmycoaches, Miss Fox, I fully intend to do so.”
“This doesn’t look like a proper jail,” she said coolly. “Where are we?”
“This is my private prison, for prisoners I must see topersonally.”
A private prison. No one would know she was here. Diana stayed silent. It would do her no good to argue with a madman.
“But rather than see you hang, I’ve found a better use for you.” His gaze swept over her body, and she turned away from him.
“Oh, come now. I have no interest in you inthatfashion. No, I’ve discovered recently that someone I dearly wish to catch happens to have one weakness. You. Quite frankly, I don’t see the appeal. However, once I have him, well, I will have no further interest in you.”
Rafe. He must mean Rafe. He’d told her about how Caddington had desired him when he’d been a boy, how dangerous he was. She couldn’t let Caddington know she knew him or cared about him. She had to protect him however she could.
“You don’t wish to know who you have bewitched and inadvertently betrayed? Come now, Miss Fox. Play along with my game or I shall become bored, and you would not like to see what I do when I am bored.” Caddington’s voice held such ice that Diana was surprised the bars of her cell didn’t frost over.
“Who?” Diana uttered the word quite against her will. She didn’t want to play his games.
Rather than answer her question, Caddington let go of the iron bars and paced the length of the short corridor in front of her, hands clasped behind his back.
“There is someone I have wanted in my grasp for a very long time. I couldn’t take him before because I had no way to keep him. Trapping him in crippling debt wouldn’t have been enough, and the man slips through every trap—until now. To have him under my power, to hurt him, make him bleed... Ah, what sweet bliss it will be to hear him scream. His life will now belong to me. All I needed was a reason for him to surrender himself to my keeping.”
“Who are you talking about?” Diana growled, but deep down a terror like she’d never known before filled her, because she knew the truth. “Just tell me, damn you!”
Caddington, his back to her, bent to retrieve the lantern on the floor and hung it from a hook opposite her cell before he turned to face her.
“Don’t act all innocent. You’ve pretended to be him, after all. The infamous highwayman who has made my life most difficult this past year. I believe you call him Tyburn.” The relief she felt that it wasn’t Rafe vanished beneath a wave of guilt.
“Tyburn?” Caddington could not catch Tyburn. He was a shadow, a dream. He could not be real, could not be caught.
