Franklin,
As of late last evening, or early this morning, I’m not sure which, Miss Hastings vanished. Lord Westwood has also disappeared. I’m inclined to believe they are together but can give you no direction which way they headed. Mr. Hastings is extremely aggravated by their sudden departure. However, there seems to be no urgency to recover Miss Hastings from her present hidden location. I will advise you upon her return. Have patience. In the meantime, please don’t have all the fun without me. I plan to visit within the next few days, and I would prefer you keep your guest alive.
Franklin crumbled the note in his hand. He growled at the fireplace, hurling the crumpled ball into its hungry flames. They flared, happily lapping the edges of the parchment. Samantha’s disappearance irked him, a move outside of his control. He ground his teeth in frustration. How long could she stay away? A lengthy absence from society would give the gleeful gossips much to whisper about. She could be gone no longer than a month. Anything beyond that time period would be difficult to explain. He would wait and use the time to heal. Absently, he rubbed his right shoulder. The wound ached. Samantha would suffer for her impudence... for shooting him. Snarling, he grasped a poker and stabbed the charred letter violently until it crumbled to ash.
A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. At least he still had a guest to occupy his days. She would wake any moment. Humming, Franklin rubbed his hands together, warming them in front of the crackling fire before he shrugged on a heavy coat. He had waited a long time to punish Hattie. With a smile, he left the cottage and headed toward the stables.
Unlatching the door, Franklin slipped into the stables, his gaze finding a horseless carriage. Its two occupants remained immobile—one drugged, one dead.
Hattie moaned twice, groggy and incoherent. It wasn’t the first time she had been witnessed in this catatonic state; however, this was the first time her unconsciousness was caused without her consent. Her eyelids fluttered, and she groaned again. Gradually, she opened her eyes and gazed around at her surroundings. She blinked several times, trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind. Still seated in her gilded carriage—two empty goblets at her feet—she tried to puzzle out the night’s events, a worried crease in her brow. Her mouth worked furiously as her gaze rested on a supine wine bottle, teetering precariously on the edge of the bench across from her.
Intelligence was not one of Hattie’s charming attributes—although one could argue Hattie possessed no positive qualities whatsoever. Indeed, even without the mental challenges she faced, the amount of opium Hattie had ingested in her glass of wine would ensure her memory remained a hazy outline of events.
A spark in her eyes indicated the moment her mind processed a recollection. She gasped and twisted to her left, checking on her husband, who she remembered began the evening with her. At first, she assumed he was merely intoxicated, passed out with his limbs sprawled in an ungentlemanly position. She shook him once, then a second time, less gently than the first, fury crossing her face. Reaching her hand back to slap his swollen face, she realized her wrists were bound. Pale terror washed through her cheeks, visible in the carriage shadows. A loud cry, wounded and fearful, echoed through the tiny barn.
She struggled to stand and bumped the top of her head against the carriage roof. Finding her feet immovable, Hattie bent over with a grunt. In the dimness, she squinted at her shoes, running her fingers over the rope binding her ankles to the carriage floor. A shriek of anguish escaped her colorless lips. Wobbling, Hattie lost her balance and toppled backward, landing inelegantly on the bench cushion, a cloud of hay dust puffing into the air.
Hattie sneezed once, and her lashed hands flew to her face to stop the barrage of sneezes that followed. Twisting in her seat, her gaze fell on a pile of hay bales, neatly stacked in the corner. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance, and she sneezed again, rubbing her nose on the back of her hand.
“Hattie.” Franklin acknowledged her with a grotesque grin as he stepped into a pool of light. “It’s a pleasure to see you again. Are you enjoying your evening?”
“Franklin.” She gasped, startled by his voice, her eyes flying around the barn, seeking him. “Help me.”
“What of your dear husband? Should I assist him, too, or solely you?”
She glanced sideways at Horace, peaceful in his deadly repose, and returned her gaze with a snarl. “What did you do?”
Franklin slowly shook his head, clucking in response. “My question first, Hattie. Where are your manners?”
“No.” She accompanied the word with a withering scowl. “I’m not having a pleasant evening. I woke to find myself tied up in my carriage and abandoned in a filthy barn, filled with bales of hay.” She growled the final word, fighting a sneeze that tickled her nose.
Cocking his head to the side, Franklin studied Hattie with morbid curiosity, his mouth stretched wide, black eyes glittering with malice. She deflated under his hard scrutiny, shrinking back against the bench carefully so she didn’t brush against her deceased husband.
“The most egregious act I have committed this evening was hiding your body in a barn,” he said, tapping the tips of his fingers together. He rocked on the balls of his feet, hovering between light and shadow. “Extraordinary. Have you no feeling for your husband? Do you not wish to know how his demise came to be? What of your poor, orphaned niece? Do you not care about her fate either?”
“Wretched girl,” Hattie burst out, stomping her foot on the carriage floor. “If this whole predicament is due to a grievance you have with Charlotte, I suggest you kidnap her. Carry out whatever disgusting atrocity you wish on her person. We will ignore this terrible travesty which has befallen my poor Horace.”
Franklin raised an eyebrow in surprise. Hattie didn’t know the family secret—the truth behind Charlotte’s lineage. Lillian held her promise and her tongue. Perhaps she earned a reprieve for her son—Mr. Robert Shirely and his friends were due a horrendous punishment for interfering with Franklin’s second attempt to take Samantha’s life. Even so, Lillian’s cooperation didn’t earn Mr. Shirely’s friends a reprieve.
How many more chances would he find to exact his revenge upon Samantha, especially with the return of her overzealous fiancé, Lord Westwood?
The recovery of the Hastings jewelry was truly becoming a chore. He should have smothered Samantha the night of her parents’ final party when he had the opportunity. Little imp. Franklin knew she was trouble from the moment he discovered her crouched behind a pot on the stairwell.
After the party concluded, he crept back into the townhouse, a silent silhouette of rage. He couldn’t press the pillow over Samantha’s sweet face, so much was her resemblance to her mother, Rebecca. Franklin remembered gazing down at the mass of auburn curls spread behind Samantha’s head like a halo and found himself imagining Rebecca descending the stairs on his arm instead of Matthew’s. He watched Samantha sleep a few minutes, wondering how different she would appear if she was his child. Hopefully, Samantha would retain all the wonderful qualities of her mother’s beauty and grace. His chest throbbed unexpectedly.
Rebecca’s abrupt demise unnerved him. Why did she relinquish her life? He asked the question repeatedly over the past ten years, and each time he arrived at the same conclusion. There was no answer—until Samantha’s callous remark. Was it possible Rebecca truly loved Matthew? Could one die of a broken heart? He certainly did not. He survived Rebecca’s rejection, transforming into something more powerful, something greater.
Rebecca. After all this time, her name still drew a sigh from his lips. All the other ladies were simply distractions, dalliances to fill the emptiness. Not one of them compared to Rebecca—including the woman currently seated in front of him, knotting her fingers nervously in her lap.
“It is very kind of you to offer someone else to suffer in your stead. However, I believe Miss Randall would much rather remain in her new living arrangements.” Franklin smirked, flashing his teeth.
“What living arrangements?” Hattie asked, confused.
“Miss Randall is currently residing at the Westwood Estate. Given the distraught nature of her highly excitable maid, Lord Westwood and Mr. Reid whisked Miss Randall away from her cottage as soon as they learned of your disappearance.”
“I don’t understand.” The furrow in Hattie’s forehead increased. “Why have you abducted me?”
Grinning, Franklin sauntered closer to the coach, resting his arm on the window frame. He leaned forward, conspiracy on his lips.
“Lillian knows our secret,” he whispered, watching the color drain from Hattie’s face a second time.
“No, it’s not possible.” Hattie swallowed and shook her head so violently, it looked as though she went into convulsions. “I never told anyone, not even Horace.” She muttered a few more words and turned toward Horace as if questioning his confidentiality.
“Hattie,” Franklin called softly, his satin voice seductively washed through the carriage. “I’m not finished speaking with you. Look at me.”
Reluctantly Hattie twisted her body until she faced Franklin again, her eyes rising to his smoldering gaze. Humiliation beaded sweat across her forehead.
“How does Lillian know?” Hattie asked, her lower lip trembling.
“Someone had to pay the doctor,” Franklin replied, his lip curled into a sneer.
Shock vibrated through Hattie’s chest. “I thought you did. You told me you would take care of everything.”
“And so I did.” The sneer stretched tightly over Franklin’s depraved mouth.
“I couldn’t keep it,” Hattie whined, her body trembling, a mountain of shivering blubber. “It would have ruined my engagement to Horace. Look what happened to Lillian after Della returned in that delicate state. Lillian’s fiancé ended their engagement, ‘a scandalous family,’ he called us. We would have been destitute without Horace’s money.”
Franklin spat in disgust. He ripped open the carriage door and leapt into the coach, growling. Slamming the door closed behind him, he flung the wine bottle at the wall behind Hattie. It exploded, raining bits of glass and red drops of wine onto Hattie’s hair. She flinched but remained seated on her cushion.
“Always thinking about money,” he said with a cluck, his anger dissipating. Reclining on the bench across from Hattie, his mouth crooked into a half-smile. “You were not always so concerned about finances. I can remember a time when you only thought of passion.”
“That was many years ago, Franklin.” Hattie flushed and glanced at her hands. “I’m no longer that woman.”
“Such a pity,” Franklin said with a playful shake of his head.
“You would not have married me,” Hattie said softly.
She was searching for reassurance, something to grasp onto to ease her fear. Franklin tilted his head and destroyed her hope, expelling the secret Lillian had withheld from her sister all these years.
“Certainly not. If I refused to marry Della, why would I marry you?”
“D-D-Della?” Hattie’s face paled. “Why would you need to marry Della?”
Franklin leaned closer until his breath caressed Hattie’s ghostly countenance.
“Don’t be so conceited to believe you are the only Randall sister I seduced.”
Hattie’s mouth popped open like a fish gasping for air. “When?”
“Sometime before you informed me of your pregnancy,” Franklin mocked, threading his fingers through Hattie’s hands.
“And Charlotte?” Hattie swallowed.
“Miss Randall is the result of that union.”
Hattie gasped, yanking her bound hands from Franklin’s grasp.
“Please don’t tell Charlotte. It would devastate her. She deserves a chance at happiness, not to be connected to someone as monstrous as you.”
“Lillian stated those exact words to me when I revealed to her that I was Miss Randall’s father. She refused my paternal claim, preferring to leave Miss Randall in your capable hands.” Franklin snorted. “She paid me handsomely for my silence.”
Stunned, Hattie remained motionless, unable to speak.
“I’m surprised by your concern for Miss Randall, Hattie. The rumors regarding your maternal character are not gracious. I believe Miss Randall has suffered numerous injustices by your hand. I fail to see how I could damage her character any further. I met Miss Randall at the Shirely masque last evening—an extraordinary young woman. Don’t worry, Hattie, I didn’t reveal her true lineage… yet.” He tilted his head again, his calculating eyes assessing Hattie. Callously, he sneered, “Miss Randall is extremely beautiful, as was her mother. Thankfully, neither lady received your coloring.”
Hattie’s eyes exploded. “How dare you!” she snarled, her mouth barely able to form the words to express her indignation.
Franklin leaned forward, trailing one long, cold finger down Hattie’s burning cheek. She shivered, vibrating with anger. Retracting his hand thoughtfully, Franklin smiled, his face distorted by half-shadows.
“We had some pleasurable nights together. Do you remember?” he cooed softly, drawing on years of inbred genteel manners. Hattie returned his smile faintly, her tongue silenced by his mesmerizing stare.
“I have always wondered.” Franklin’s fingers grasped her chin, pinching the flesh as he wrenched her head. “When you were forced to lie with your husband, how many times did you think of me, of what I could do to you?”
“Every time,” Hattie replied after a moment of contemplation. “Horace didn’t compare to your aptitude.”
“Indeed?” Franklin grinned widely. “I’m extremely pleased with your answer.”
Glancing at the deceased man to her left, Hattie sucked on her lower lip hesitantly. She returned her attention to Franklin. Attempting a winning smile, Hattie indicated Horace with a flick of her bound wrists as if she was inquiring about the weather.
“How did he die?”
“An overdose of opium, concealed in his wine,” Franklin replied, his gaze sliding to the dead man. “While Horace did nothing directly to deserve my discontentment, he also did nothing to protect my daughter from your jealousy.”
“You are planning to kill me as well?” Hattie asked, her voice indicating her realization of the danger she faced.
“Yes,” he taunted, releasing her chin, “As well as your illegitimate niece.”
“What has Charlotte done to you?”
“She interfered,” Franklin snarled and narrowed his eyes. “If you expect me to show you the same leniency I showed your husband, you will be severely disappointed.”
Hattie dropped to her knees, her brown eyes pleading with Franklin. She brought her lashed wrists to her chest as if praying before placing them gently on Franklin’s leg. Biting her lip, she managed to appear contrite.
“Franklin, please, spare me. I will do anything you ask, give you anything you want,” she begged, staring into his cold eyes.
Franklin paused, considering her statement, his eyes dragging slowly over the woman crouched on the floor between his legs.
“Anything?”
“Anything,” Hattie repeated seductively, sliding her hands up his thigh.
Franklin glanced down at his leg in disgust and shook it free from Hattie’s grasp. She stared in shock, her mouth popping open like a fish gasping for oxygen. Leaning forward, Franklin’s lips stopped millimeters from Hattie’s mouth.
“My dear,” his voice lovingly caressed, “there is only one thing I want from you...”
Hattie swallowed, her breath catching as she waited to hear the one thing that would give her salvation.
He smiled.
“I want you dead.”
The End
Thank you for reading An Imperfect Engagement. If you enjoyed the love story between Samantha and Benjamin, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased the story, it really does make a difference. If you are interested in hearing about new releases, behind-the-scenes author secrets, sales, and giveaways, sign up for my newsletter. Now, it’s time for Thomas Reid to find his leading lady in A PERFECT DECEPTION.
♥Alyssa