Millie held her breath. And the gun.
“Simple Simon…” Willard swung the lamp. “Lily livered—” Willard stopped. “I guess in this case, it really isboys and girlscome out to play.” An awful smile broke over his face. He inclined his head. “I’m so glad you could join us, Miss Millicent.”
“Lady Neville,” she replied. She wanted him to know. She wanted him to realize she wasn’t someone he could harm. Not anymore. “Neville and I married by special license. And our marriage was witnessed by the Duke of Harbury, too.”
His gaze moved to Neville. “Haven’t you read your Pope? ‘To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.’”
“You didn’t react as if you found me vulgar at the theater,” Millie answered for her husband.
Willard’s head snapped back. “Ah, well. At the theater one mustact.” A look of disgust passed over his features. “‘This portico is just like the Acropolis’Of course, I found you vulgar. Anyone of taste and discernment could see that portico was nothing but the product of a garish, unoriginal mind.”
“Well, I did some very fine acting myself.” Millie knit her brows as if thinking. “Do you really believe I would have simply followed you down the path to ruin? That I would stand idly by while you destroyed me, not for money, not for gain, but for revenge?Amusement?”
“You not only followed me”—he took a threatening step—“you practicallyskipped.”
By her side and, she hoped, out of his sight, she leveled her gun. She didn’t want to shoot him, but she would if necessary. And if she wished to be acquitted, her only hope was to prove he attacked first. She’d have to keep taunting him as she led him outside the barn, where he’d be in full view of Dixon and Asquith.
“You’resucha Delilah,” she improvised. “Isn’t he, beloved?”
Neville didn’t answer, but she could hear him breathe.
“Pardon?” Willard’s eyes narrowed. “If anyone here is aDelilah—it is you.”
“No,” she countered. “It’s you. I am loyal.Youare incapable of love.Youbetray the very things you claim to value.”
“Youaren’t making any sense at all,” Willard snapped.
“Actually, she is,” Neville cut in.
“Thank you,” she said, without taking her gaze off Willard.
“Loyal?” Willard chuckled. “You used your wiles on me.”
“Acting, as I explained.” She backed further away, causing Willard to step in front of the window. “You turn my stomach.”
“Did you tell Nev how you agreed to be obedient to me? How you willingly offered yourself?”
“I swore obedience, but only to myself.” She mimicked his look of disgust. “You, on the other hand, were most certainly, disgustingly aroused.”
Just as in the theater’s corridor, his handsome face went ugly. “I am going to enjoy making both of you suffer.”
“Very well.” She lifted the flintlock. Timing, not accuracy was where she placed her concentration. All she had to do was wait for him to lunge. “Delilah.”
The shot rang out like thunder. At the same time, shattered glass tinkled down sounding like a rush of rain.
*
Neville watched inhorror as Willard’s lifeless body dropped, hitting the ground with a reverberating thud. There Willard lay, crumpled, unmoving, just beyond the reach of lamplight. Neville fixed an urgent gaze on his beloved.
“Untie me! Quickly. And then give me the flintlock.” He would do anything he needed to do to save her from the rope, including take the blame.
Millie tore her gaze away from Willard’s body. Her wide eyes held an unmistakable ‘seen a ghost’ expression. She was shocked. Dazed.Bewildered.
He wouldn’t let anyone harm her.He would not.He couldn’t lose her now. Not when he could save her with a simple sacrifice.
“We’ll say I fired the shot.”
“But that’s absurd.” She frowned. “How couldyouhave shot him?”