Chapter Twenty-one

 

She knocked on his bedroom door, a woman resigned.

“Is he gone?” Phillip asked his voice rough with emotion as he pulled her into his room. He locked the door without a thought. “I still can’t believe what happened.”

“Can you not? Mr. James Osborne tried to rape my maid,” she answered, the quiet in her tone a complete contradiction of the storm inside of her. “My Pepper. Did you know that she was with me in the orphanage? That I met her there? My precious girl?”

His brow furrowed. “My god, I can hardly credit it! He has always seemed so—“

“Do. Not. Defend. Him.” Her hands clenched into fists so tightly she knew she’d drawn blood. “Make such a mistake at your own peril, Phillip. There is no question of his guilt, no smattering of doubt for you to quibble over his manly virtues.” She took a step closer to Phillip, squaring up like a warrior for combat. “He tried to rape my maid and would have succeeded had I not come in the room!”

“I wasn’t defending him. Can you not allow a person to be shocked to find that someone they’ve known for years has revealed themselves to be a criminal?” He crossed his arms, determined for her to see the irony of their argument. “I am not the enemy, woman.”

“No.” She pressed cool fingertips to her temples. “It has been—a difficult day. I never wished to see Pepper in danger and it has taken its toll on my peace of mind. Forgive me.”

“What? What did you say? You never wished to see her in danger?” His expression changed slowly until his eyes glittered with anger. “Did you knowingly put your maid, your ‘precious’ Pepper, in danger, Serena? Is this part of some scheme?”

Guilt fueled her own furious response. “Truly? Are you so late to the party, Sir Warrick? Yes. Your cousin requested my aid with her rapacious troll of a husband after he attacked her lady’s maid and I came. Yes. I blindly thought that it would be an easy matter and have learned that nothing is easy when someone you love is in harm’s way! But let’s get straight to the heart of the matter, shall we? If she had asked you, what would you have done? Would you have done better? Or would you have advised her to simply make sure her next lady’s maid was less attractive and given Osborne a brotherly lecture on being more discreet with his affairs?”

“That is—unfair! I would have…” Phillip’s words trailed off as he flailed on the horns of the dilemma. He knew as well as she that there was no simple path through the tangle of a maid who tried to accuse her employer of such a thing; that the legalities fell onto the man’s side of the case, but it was difficult to accept it. “I don’t know what I would have done. But I would not have slapped the man on the back and wished him well.”

“That is comforting. I’m sure Delilah and the women of Southgate would have slept better at your raging commitment to justice.” She folded her arms. “My hero.”

“I’ll be damned if I’m going to defend a hypothetical failure to do more in your imagination, woman!” He gently seized her upper arms. “You came here to stop him! You were plotting all along for his end! Why not tell me as much? Why lie to me when I repeatedly asked you what your true purpose was?”

“When? When you were convinced I was a scorpion at your picnic? When I had no confidence you wouldn’t run to James and point out the danger?” She shook her head. “Even when we…when it seemed that there might be some hope for us to recover, my loyalty to Delilah made it impossible to tell you anything.”

“Truly?”

“What? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that if I’d outlined my glorious plans to wrest the house and holdings from James’ hands, catch him in the act of assaulting an innocent maid; you would have cheerfully just watched it unfold?”

He hesitated for the space of a breath but it was long enough to cost him.

Serena pulled away from his touch, her expression alight with disgust. “Yes, of course! No matter if he’d raped a dozen girls! Heaven forbid his rights as a noble Englishman are violated!”

“You are putting words in my mouth! And I am not arguing for that waste of skin but you cannot play judge, jury and executioner. You cannot.”

She laughed in a bitter mirthless melody. “I can because I dare to do whatever it takes to balance the scales.”

“You’ve balanced nothing. You may have stopped him this once. What makes you think he won’t just pounce on the next hapless girl in his employ?”

“Because the only thing he’ll be able to mount will be a saddle.” She brushed her hands on her skirts dismissively. “I neutered him.”

“You—what?! How?”

“I stabbed him in the balls with my hair pin,” Serena said archly.

“My god! I hardly think that’s—“

“I stabbed him with my hair pin coated with the shit of a maid he had raped.” Serena stood. “An infection is inevitable. If the man survives, I highly doubt he will possess his manly powers.”

“And if he doesn’t survive the infection?”

“Then the devil can sort him out when he arrives in Hell.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I got the idea from a historical accounting of England’s infamous long bowmen and archers. They used to defecate on the ground in front of themselves and then plant their arrows in a row, tip down, in the dirt before a battle. It ensured that any injury their enemies suffered, no matter how minor, would likely be mortal.”

Phillip sat down, his knees betraying his shock. “What have you become?”

“I am the Black Rose.”