Page 64 of With Good Grace
She turned her attention to the seething individual pacing the small amount of space available to him in the cramped room, forcing the rest of them to fall back against the dank walls. Anger and bitterness rendered him ugly and Olivia could sense him struggling to think of way to recover his position. He would not succeed because therewasno way. Besides, Hubert was not blessed with a sharp mind and thinking was something of a labour for him.
‘It’s over, Hubert,’ she said firmly. ‘And you have lost. Again. I do not have the letters. They are locked in Lord Torbay’s safe and you will never get your grubby hands on them. Lady Marchant will not pay you a penny because she knows you don’t have them and any rumours you start cannot harm her without the proof to back them up.’ It was now, Olivia realised, the unlikely combination of her and Lady Marchant ranged against Hubert and Molly. There was nothing to prevent them from walking out. ‘Come, Lady Marchant,’ she said. ‘It’s time to leave.’
‘No one leaves until I say they can!’ Hubert roared, physically blocking the path to the door.
‘Really?’ Olivia arched an insolent brow. ‘How do you intend to stop us? Even you must realise there is nothing to be gained from keeping us here. However, to appease your anxiety, I will make a bargain with you. I give you my word that if you allow us to walk away then nothing more will be said about kidnapping Tom. And as to your arranging the break-in at Barber’s office and being responsible for Marcus’s death, I have no proof.’ Olivia crossed the fingers of the hand that supported Tom’s weight. For the first time in her life she fully intended to break her solemn word. No one, but no one, drugged her child and got away with it! ‘Lady Marchant would not want the world to know that she was here and there are no other witnesses.’
Lady Marchant nodded emphatically. ‘Exactly so,’ she said.
‘You seem to overlook the fact that you have interfered with my plans once too often,’ Hubert snarled. ‘And I have nothing left to lose. However, if you and the brat were to disappear,’ he said, nodding towards Tom sleeping in Olivia’s arms, ‘all that was Marcus’s would become mine. Ought to have been mine by right. I was as much responsible for the success of the theatrical agency as he was.’
Actually he was not and it would not. Olivia had already made sure of that, being aware of the rapacious nature of both her own family and Marcus’s. But she had put her affairs in order as a precaution, not expecting that she or Tom would die in the near future. Seeing the murderous rage whirling in Hubert’s eyes, she was obliged to revise her thinking in that regard, and felt suddenly afraid. Unstable people acted irrationally and she could see that having his plans thwarted yet again had tipped Hubert precariously close to the edge of reason. She took a deep breath, knowing better than to allow her anxiety to show. Bullies of Hubert’s ilk fed off other people’s fear.
‘You do not do your own killing,’ she said scathingly. ‘You do not have the stomach for it. That is why you hired those thugs to break into our house, and hired more to break into Barber’s office.’
‘It was a damned shame that Torbay took up your cause and actually managed to track down the men who did for Marcus.’ Hubert shook his head in evident disgust. ‘You have the very luck of the devil! When you were caught leaning over Marcus, covered in blood, so soon after you were heard arguing with him, I thought I was finally about to get what was rightfully mine. But, once again, you wriggled out of being blamed and did not even have the decency to accept my help once you were released from gaol.’
‘I wanted nothing from you.’ She sent him a scathing glance. ‘Especially what it was that you particularly wanted to give me.’
Molly’s jaw fell open. ‘What does she mean, Hubert? You told me that you could not abide her.’
‘He is using you, Molly,’ Olivia replied into the ensuing tense silence. ‘He fully intended to return to Grantley Hall and resume his life with his wife once he had blackmailed Lady Marchant into supplying him with sufficient capital to put his estate back in order.’
‘He did not. He…’
‘Oh, but he did. Sir Hubert Grantley is far too full of his position within society to make a life with a maid.’
‘You’re lying!’ Molly howled.
‘Of course, he would have held back a couple of Lady Marchant’s letters and continued to extract payment from her until he had bled her dry.’ She shot a look of vitriolic contempt Hubert’s way. ‘It is the only way he knows. And when that source dried up he would have most likely sold the remaining letters to the highest bidding newspaper.’
‘No!’ Molly sobbed ‘I don’t believe it.’
Hubert lunged for Olivia, roaring like an enraged bull. Lady Marchant saved the day by grabbing Tom when Olivia thrust him towards her, otherwise he would most likely have been crushed between them.
Tom was saved, but Olivia had no time to mount a counterattack before Hubert grabbed her waist and pushed her against the wall, pinning here there with his superior weight. Olivia kicked and scratched, fighting with the strength of a mother defending her child, but Hubert was simply too strong for her.
‘To the victor goes the spoils,’ he said, holding both of her wrists above her head with just one hand. He leered at her as his breath peppered her face, making her feel physically ill. ‘I’ve wanted you since the moment you passed puberty but I had to marry Margaret for her money. Marcus, of course, could do as he pleased but then he always damned well had. He didn’t have the responsibility of being head of the family. However, I shall at least have the pleasure of exacting revenge. Let’s see if your fastidious earl still wants you after I’ve done with you.’
‘You don’t want her,’ Molly wailed. ‘You have me.’
With his free hand, Hubert casually reached behind him, where Molly clung to his heels, and planted a fist in the centre of her stomach. With a cry, she fell to her knees, her hands cradling her stomach. ‘Our baby!’ she wailed. ‘Don’t hurt our baby.’
Hubert ignored her and returned his attention to Olivia. ‘Why do you always have to come between me and what I want to achieve?’ he asked in an aggrieved tone. ‘If you hadn’t fought with Marcus that night he would not have died and we would still be running a profitable business. But oh no, your feelings were hurt and you had to make sure everyone knew it.’
His hand pulled at her jerkin. The buttons flew everyone and his hand was now on her shirt. Renewed anger surged through Olivia. She had endured the primal pawing of one Grantley. She was damned if she would go through that ordeal again. But brute force, she was well aware, was not always the way to achieve one’s goal. Instead of fighting back, she went limp against the wall, giving no resistance.
‘I knew it!’ Hubert smirked. ‘You are not nearly as reluctant as you make yourself out to be. Well, I can give you a damned sight more than Torbay; never doubt it.’
He was convinced that victory was his and loosened his hold on her wrists. It was the moment Olivia had anticipated. In one swift movement, she lifted a knee into Hubert’s groin, putting all her anger and determination behind the blow, extracted the hat pin from her cloak with one hand and deposited it in the same place. Hubert howled, released her and fell to the floor, clutching himself as he yanked the pin free. Blood darkened the fabric of his trousers. Despite the almost unbearable pain he must be feeling, he straightened up again and blocked her way out of the corner she had become trapped in.
There was nowhere for her to go.
She looked towards Molly but she remained on the floor, still clutching her stomach, gazing up at Hubert with a combination of hope and confusion in her expression. When the stubborn girl refused to meet Olivia’s gaze, it became obvious that she was still clinging to the foolish hope that Hubert actually did love her. There would be no help from the quarter.
Olivia elevated her chin, her expression defiant, as Hubert reached for her. She glanced towards Tom, still in a drug-induced sleep, cradled protectively in Lady Marchant’s arms. The sight of him strengthened her resolve and she gathered her wits about her, ready to launch another attack, secure in the knowledge that if anything happened to her then Lady Marchant would ensure Tom’s safety. She didn’t know why she felt that way about the woman who had embarked upon a steamy affair with her husband and was now fighting with single-minded determination to save her advantageous marriage, but somehow she felt convinced it was true.
‘Give it up, Olivia,’ Hubert said. ‘The more you fight me, the worse it will be for you.’
