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And suddenly the knife was skidding across the terrace and both men were diving for it. Alexi landed on top of the pilot, grunting, as he seized it. A loud, sickening crack sounded. And Montgomery went still beneath Alexi, cheek pressed against the stone terrace.
Suddenly neither man was moving.
Elysse froze. Alexi got onto his hands and knees, staring down at the American—and she saw that Montgomery’s eyes were wide-open, eerily so.
Elysse gasped in shock. Montgomery was dead?
Alexi slid off him slowly. As slowly, he looked up at her, the answer in his eyes.
Her own horror began.
Alexi looked back down at the pilot. “He’s dead.”
She cried out. “He can’t be!”
Alexi inhaled harshly. “He’s dead. He hit his head on the stone.”
William Montgomery had hit his head—William Montgomery was dead?
“Damn it,” Alexi gasped, trembling. He was fighting his emotions now.
And it hit her. This was her fault—wasn’t it?
Alexi looked up at her again. “Elysse,” he said thickly.
She began shaking her head, backing away. Then she seized her skirts and fled.
CHAPTER FOUR
STILL IN SHOCK, Elysse ran into the house, choking on a raw sob. She could not believe what had happened. William Montgomery was dead!
She stumbled, leaning against the wall. They had been fighting because of her. They had been fighting over her. Oh, God—this was all her fault.
Elysse collapsed against the wall. She couldn’t stop shaking. She was so sick. How had this happened? She hugged herself, crying. Montgomery had wanted to court her! Yet he had turned into a beast! He had said he loved her, but if he had, he would have never treated her with such disrespect! Alexi had been right about him! And now he was dead!
Gasps sounded.
Elysse started, wiping her wet face with her fingers, looking up. A pair of women stood at the other end of the hall. They were frozen, staring at her in shock.
Suddenly Elysse realized how she must look and what they must be assuming. She knew that her hair was coming down, her face was tearstained, and her skirts probably dirty. Any rational person would just think that she had been accosted—and she had.
She recalled William Montgomery’s hands and mouth and she felt even more violently ill. Why hadn’t she listened to Alexi, who was her oldest and dearest friend? What would have happened if Alexi hadn’t come outside and intervened?
“Miss O’Neill,” one of the ladies began.
No one could know about the horrid events of that evening! No one could know that she had allowed a kiss and that it had turned into something more, and that William Montgomery was now dead! Crying out again, she whirled to flee back down the corridor. Alexi was rushing up it.
She had never needed anyone more! She shouldn’t have left him alone outside with Montgomery’s body! She rushed to him. Alexi seized her arm, their gazes locking. Then he jerked his head and turned, dragging her back down the hall with him. Behind him, she heard both women in a frenzy of whispering.
Oh, God.
She was ruined now.
Alexi pushed open a door and they fled inside the room there; he closed and locked it behind them.
Trembling, her heart pounding with sickening force, she managed, “They know.”
“They know nothing,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
Elysse cried out, collapsing against his chest, her cheek against his lapel. He held her, hard, in a bearlike embrace.
When he spoke, his mouth moved in her hair. “Tell me you’re all right, Elysse. That he didn’t hurt you.” His tone was raw.
She was crying now, incapable of speech. She reached for his shoulders and clung as never before. He rocked her. Why had she allowed William Montgomery to kiss her? Why had she ever even considered his suit? The events of that evening began to replay in her mind—her terrible, endless flirtations; her argument with Alexi; the awful, aggressive kiss; and the fatal confrontation she had just witnessed between the two men.
“I am so sorry,” she wept. “I never meant for this to happen. Oh, my God! Alexi!” She looked up at him. His face was spinning. She felt faint. The horror was consuming.
He clasped her face in his hands. Tears shimmered in his eyes, too. “I know you didn’t. Damn it, Elysse. Why did you go outside with him?”
She buried her face against his chest. She didn’t want Alexi to ever know that she had allowed Montgomery to kiss her.
“I would never let anyone hurt you.”
It was so hard to think—all she could remember was that William Montgomery had turned into a beast and he was now dead and it was because of her. “This is my fault, isn’t it? Because I played him—because I went outside with him. Because I didn’t listen to you.”
Alexi’s face hardened. “Stop!” He pulled her tightly against him. His taut body was shaking as wildly as hers. “He had no damned right to kiss you—he knew you were trying to fight him off!”
His embrace felt so safe. She had never been so scared. All she could think of now was that she was safe, finally. But Montgomery was dead—because he had been fighting with Alexi over her. Surely Alexi would not be blamed? Elysse didn’t speak, breathing hard, fighting the tears, her cheek pressed against his chest. She wrapped her arms around him. “It was awful. Don’t let me go,” she managed. She wished they could stay that way, in one another’s arms, forever.
Images whirled wildly in her mind. She would never forget the sound of his skull hitting that stone staircase! Worse, those two ladies had seen her in the hallway. She started to cry, soundlessly.
Alexi was in trouble and she was ruined….
His grasp tightened. She didn’t know how long they stood there that way, each grappling with their own demons. She finally became aware of his harsh breathing, which sounded suspiciously like choked sobs, and her own heavy, anguished breaths. The sound of a shutter banging against the house filled the night. A clock was ticking loudly in the corner of the room. The trembling of Alexi’s body had slowed. Her own wild shaking had not.
Slowly, she looked up.
He slid his hand up her jaw, then into her hair. His cheeks were damp. “We need to get you home.”
“I’ll be fine,” she whispered. “It was an accident, Alexi, wasn’t it? Everything was an accident!”
He inhaled loudly. His gaze blazed through his tears. “I warned him not to take liberties.” Agony flickered in his eyes and she knew he was thinking of what she had suffered. “I wanted to kill him, Elysse.”
“What are we going to do?” More tears fell, slowly but steadily, an outpouring of torment and guilt.
He caught her face in his hands. “I’m going to take care of everything,” he said.
Their gazes locked. Suddenly the nausea roiled, too much to bear. She ran across the room and retched in a small wastebasket. A man was dead because of her foolish flirtation. This was her fault, not Alexi’s!
“Can you stand?”
She nodded and he helped her to her feet. She didn’t realize she was still crying until he brushed his thumb across her cheek, as if to stop the flood. “I want you out of here,” he said roughly.
She wanted nothing more than to run away and hide—forever, if possible. “How can I leave you now? After what happened? I can’t stop thinking about…him.”
“In time you’ll forget—we both will,” he said, not meeting her gaze.
She knew Alexi well enough to know neither one of them would ever forget—he was lying to her, to make her feel better. “Yes. Because it was an accident.”
He met her gaze abruptly, and she thought about the fact that the men had been shipmates and friends—and that the pilot had saved Alexi’s life. Stricken with guilt, she looked away.
“I need to think, Elysse.” Alexi’s tone was rough and raw. “Montgomery is dead—and the body is outside.”
And suddenly her mind came to life. Could Alexi be accused of murder? Could he wind up in prison? The future flashed vividly in her mind—a sensational murder trial, her reputation in ruins, Alexi behind bars.
“Stay here. Don’t move. I mean it!” He whirled for the door.
Elysse followed him nervously. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get my father—and yours.”
She seized his arm. “My father can’t know!”
He faced her and said, “Devlin has to know.”
Elysse gasped as Alexi strode from the library. Then she shut the door behind him, leaning on it, breathing hard. What were they going to do? Alexi couldn’t be charged with murder! It had been an accident!
But she was the only witness to the fight. Everyone knew how close Alexi and Elysse were and how close their families were. She might not be believed. How had this happened? She had liked William Montgomery. She thought of his forceful kiss, his disgusting touch. Hadn’t he known she wanted him to stop? More tears welled. She should have never walked outside, alone, with him!
“Elysse,” her father cried, stepping into the room. “Alexi said there is a problem!” As his glance moved over her, he paled impossibly.
Her mother, Cliff and Alexi were with him. Alexi shut the door and locked it.
She somehow straightened, clutching her churning abdomen, more tears falling. Speech was now impossible.
Her mother ran to her, embracing her, and Elysse sagged in her arms. Devlin choked, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at her hair, her face, her dress. “Who did this? Who? Wait.” His handsome face enraged, he turned to look at Alexi. “Where’s Montgomery?” he snarled.
“He’s outside,” Alexi said harshly. “And he’s dead.”
Virginia gasped. Cliff strode forward, seizing Alexi by the shoulder. “What the hell happened?”
“It was an accident!” Elysse cried, before Alexi could respond. “It was my fault. I encouraged him. I have encouraged his attentions all week. Alexi found us…kissing.” She thought she flushed. “They fought.” She looked at her father, begging him now. “It was an accident, Father. They fought and he fell and hit his head. Please, you have to protect Alexi!”
“What did he do to you?” Devlin demanded.
“I’m not really hurt,” Elysse cried.
“Not now,” Virginia warned her disbelieving husband. To Elysse, she said, “Darling, we are going home. We’ll go out the back. And you needn’t worry about Alexi.” She smiled reassuringly at her.
“I am not going home, not until this is all sorted out! He is dead, Mother, and—” She stopped. “And it was my fault, not Alexi’s.”
“If Alexi fought Montgomery, then he was hurting you,” Devlin roared. “I want to know what happened!”
“It was just a kiss, a terrible, disgusting kiss!” she shouted back.
A silence fell. Virginia pulled her closer to her side. Elysse wiped the incessant tears, wishing she hadn’t spoken so openly. Finally Alexi said, his tone firm, “The pilot was making improper advances. Elysse was rudely accosted, but nothing more. Nothing else happened.”
Devlin jerked to stare at him, clearly uncertain of whether to believe him or not.
Elysse flushed as Cliff demanded sharply, “Where is Montgomery’s body?”
Alexi’s gaze was unwavering on her. Elysse trembled in her mother’s arms. He said flatly, “The body is outside on the terrace.” Alexi added in a grim, matter-of-fact tone, “We fought hand to hand and he hit his head on the stone steps.”
Devlin said, “So they were on the lawns, not the terrace?”
Alexi looked coolly at him.
Devlin was red. “Where was he taking you?” he asked Elysse.
“I don’t know—I didn’t want to leave the terrace!”
“When I saw them, I wanted to kill him.”
Cliff paled. “Did anyone else see anything?”
Elysse bit her lip. She didn’t want to bring up the two women in the corridor now.
Alexi apparently agreed, as he sent her a cautioning look. “We can’t go to the authorities.” Alexi spoke rapidly and firmly. “If we do, the events of this evening will be made public, sooner or later, during an investigation and maybe even a trial. Elysse will never recover from that.”
She knew he would do anything to protect her now.
Cliff turned to Devlin. “We need to get rid of the body.”
Devlin nodded, his face ruthlessly set. “Agreed.”
Virginia whispered, “They will fix this, darling. Alexi will be fine and so will you.”
Elysse prayed that her mother was right.
Devlin and Cliff locked gazes. Devlin said, “We’ll bury Montgomery at sea. No one will ever know.”
HE HAD JUST KILLED A MAN.
It was half past four in the morning and Windhaven was silent now, its women soundly asleep on the second floor. Alexi followed his father, Devlin and Jack into the kitchens, the four men having surreptitiously entered the house from the back. He had shed his tailcoat long ago and his white ruffled shirt was black with dirt and oil, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows. It remained difficult to think clearly. What he was aware of was the pounding pain in his chest, the hammer in his temples. Even his ribs hurt, as if they were bruised or broken, so much so he’d had difficulty breathing the entire night.
William Montgomery was dead.
But Elysse was all right.
