Hope - Lesley Pearse [70]
As she got to the top of the stairs she heard a creaking sound. It sounded as if the window in Nell and Albert’s room was open and banging in the wind.
As she opened the door and walked in, the sight that met her eyes made her gasp with horror and clap her hands over her mouth. Albert was in bed and the blond, curly-haired person beneath him was not a woman, but unmistakably Sir William. Both men were naked, Albert’s muscular chest and arms virtually covering his much paler-skinned and slender master.
Such a sight was beyond Hope’s comprehension. She froze; even her heart seemed to stop beating with shock.
‘Get out!’ Albert roared at her.
Hope fled down the stairs, but the enormity of what she’d witnessed was so terrible she didn’t know what to do. She knew that male animals would attempt to mount one another when there was no available female, but she hadn’t known men could do the same thing.
The shock robbed her of any power to make a decision, and she just stood there crying. She could hear Albert’s deep voice, and the higher, more plaintive tones of Sir William mingling with it. One side of her brain told her Sir William would walk down the stairs any moment and give her an explanation that would make it all right, yet the other side told her that there was no possibility of an innocent explanation for what she’d seen.
It was probably no longer than a minute that she stood there, not knowing whether to flee or even where to flee to. But as soon as she heard Albert’s footsteps on the stairs she came to her senses and realized she must get out through the back door. Her bootlaces were tangled and her fingers had become as useless as toes in her panic; she tried to force her feet into her boots but she couldn’t get them in.
She heard the front door slam shut and breathed a faint sigh of relief that the men were gone. But as she reached up for her cloak from the peg, the back door opened and Albert reached out and gripped her shoulder.
‘Get in here,’ he growled at her.
She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he was too strong. He hauled her back into the kitchen, slammed and locked the door behind her, then struck her hard across the face.
He was wearing just his undershirt and breeches, his feet bare.
‘You’ve been a thorn in my flesh for too long,’ he roared at her. ‘How dare you come creeping in here spying on me?’
‘I didn’t. I came to clear up,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know you had anyone here.’
He hit her again, four or five times in succession, fast, hard slaps round the face, and with each one she was moved back closer and closer to the door.
‘Please stop it,’ she cried out, trying to cover her face with her hands. ‘I promise I won’t tell anyone.’
He punched her in the stomach then, hitting her so hard her spine cracked against the door. ‘You won’t get a chance to spread your lies,’ he spat at her. ‘I’m getting rid of you for good.’
She knew that meant he was going to kill her. It was the only way of ensuring this never got out. Sir William might even have ordered it; after all, he had far more to lose than Albert.
He caught her around the throat the way he’d done before, squeezing her neck until her eyes were almost popping out of her head. He banged her head back against the door again and again until she was seeing stars, then as she fell to the floor he kicked her.
Even though he had bare feet it was like being kicked by a horse. Hope rolled herself into a ball to avoid the worst of the blows, but he was frenzied, like a savage animal. She felt that all the hate locked inside him was rushing out to be inflicted on her.
Just when she felt she couldn’t take one more blow, he grabbed the shoulder of her dress to haul her to her feet, and the bodice just ripped away in his hand, leaving her chemise and part of her breasts exposed. As