The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [110]
Suzette didn’t believe him for a minute. He would have to kill them both. Consummated or not, the marriage could still be overturned if she went to the authorities and told them she’d been forced to it. Jeremy couldn’t risk letting them live.
“Are you really so stupid you think we would believe that?” she asked dryly. “If so, you have even less sense than I first thought.”
“You thought I had little sense, did you?” he asked, appearing more amused than offended. “And yet you agreed to marry me.”
“My lord, I only agreed to marry you because I was desperate. No woman would agree otherwise,” she assured him.
Jeremy ground his teeth and growled, “If Dicky weren’t already dead, I think I’d kill him myself for saddling me with you.”
Suzette wasn’t terribly surprised he knew Dicky was dead. She merely shrugged and said, “You would have been standing in line, many wanted him dead.” She then smiled and added, “I’m certain just as many would like to see you dead as well. I’m sure one of them will succeed eventually and you’ll get your comeuppance.”
Jeremy’s eyes narrowed with dislike. “I’m starting to think even your sizable dowry isn’t worth having to put up with your sharp tongue for any length of time.”
“But then the plan has always been that you wouldn’t have to put up with her long, wasn’t it?” her father said sharply.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jeremy muttered, his gaze turning back to the road.
“Although I suppose that wasn’t exactly the original plan, was it?” her father corrected himself grimly. “Originally, it was supposed to be all three of my girls tricked into marriage through my supposed gaming. They were to be wedded, bedded and then dead. But I would have been left alive to mourn the loss while you, Dicky and some third man enjoyed their dowers.”
“They were going to kill all three of us?” Suzette asked with a frown, wondering just how much she’d missed while she was in the parlor with Lisa. She’d already figured out Jeremy must be planning to kill her and her father once he’d forced her to marry him, but learning that Dicky’s grand scheme had been to force all three girls into marriage and then kill them seemed so cold. He must have planned it out before even meeting them, and then had the patience to wait until each of the girls could be forced into marriage before seeing the end of it. It had already been a year since Christiana had married Dicky. How long would it have taken for them to get her father drugged and drag him to the gaming hell again? It could be another year or more if he followed the same pattern he had after the incident leading to Christiana’s marriage. He’d spent most of the last year locked away in his office, hiding from his own shame and self-loathing for what he’d thought he’d done—gambling his daughter away. No doubt he would have done the same thing again after she was forced into marriage. Another year could easily have passed before they could trick him into thinking he’d gambled again, forcing Lisa to marry. The patience needed to carry out this plan was as frightening as the cold-bloodedness of it.
“All in one fell swoop,” her father said in answer to her question. “The three of you were going to die in a tragic carriage accident.”
“How do you know all that?” Jeremy asked with alarm.
“George’s valet, Freddy, told all,” Lord Madison announced, sounding pretty cold himself.
“Freddy,” Jeremy spat the name furiously. “He was to find the markers and bring them to me. I would have claimed the money and given him some coin for his trouble.” He scowled and asked, “How the devil did he get himself caught?”
“By being no brighter than you,” Suzette snapped before her father could answer.
“God, you are a fishwife,” Jeremy said with disgust and then muttered to himself, “It figures Dicky would marry sweet little mousy Christiana himself and stick me with the sister who was a harpy.”
“Oh, boo hoo, poor you, having to put up with my sharp tongue to get all my money.