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.They were too busy glaring at each other to notice anyone else.Bianca led Oliver out a side door, and Priscilla and John slipped through the same door a moment later.They saw their quarry halfway down the hall.The couple turned left and disappeared into a room.Priscilla and John hurried quietly down the hall, slowing down when they grew close to the room.The closed door muffled the sound of the voices inside, so that they could tell little, except that a high-pitched woman’s voice was shrieking.Priscilla motioned to John to follow her and ducked back into the room they had just passed.She pointed to a door in the side wall of the room.“A connecting door,” she whispered.Carefully they eased the hall door closed behind them and made their way to the connecting door.Here, sound escaped much more freely around the edges of the door.“…could you have been such a fool?” they heard Bianca snap.“Would you quit storming about and tell me why you are so furious?” a man’s voice lashed back.“You sound like a sea gull.”“Don’t try to draw me off the subject by insulting me.It won’t work.You have ruined everything.Bungled it all.”“What do you mean?”“There is a man with that nasty little Priscilla Hamilton.Didn’t you see him?”“No.” Oliver’s voice grew wary.“Why? Who is he?”“I don’t know who he is.I never saw him or heard of him in my life.The point is that he is an American! And he told me that he had been attacked and robbed a few days ago.”“No! It’s impossible.” They heard a thud as Oliver hit something.“God damn them! They swore to me that they would get him this time.”“This time?” Bianca said dangerously.“This time? What do you mean by that? What other time was there?”“He got away.” There was a surly tone in Oliver’s voice.“But they promised that they would get him back.I offered them money, threatened them, everything I could think of, and they promised.”“Why didn’t you tell me this? Did you think I didn’t need to know? Why did you leave me to find out from this perfect stranger, to run into him and hear…” Her sentence ended in a wordless shriek of rage.“It is all right, my love.Calm down.I will manage it somehow.”“Why isn’t he dead? I told you to kill him! Why couldn’t they manage to kill him? Did you hire utter idiots? What am I thinking? Of course you did.You are an utter idiot yourself!”“I— Well, it did not seem entirely necessary to kill him.I thought perhaps he could be reasoned with, made to see that it would be better for him to go back to the United States.”“You coward! You were too scared to kill him—even to hire someone else to do it for you!”“Well, it was not you whose neck was on the line,” Oliver told her petulantly.“Those two fellows never met you.You are not the one they could inform on to the police.Easy for you to be so brave, when I was the one doing the dirty work.”“A duchess can hardly go about hiring ruffians,” Bianca reminded him haughtily.“What good are you to me, if you can’t do even something as simple as this?”“I will do it.Right now, this very evening.I shall snatch him as he leaves the party.”“He is with friends.What do you plan to do, whisk away the entire carriage?” Bianca’s voice dripped sarcasm.She walked away, and they could not hear the first few words she said, but then she turned back and said, quite clearly, “Besides, he is not the one.”There was a moment of stunned silence.Priscilla and John looked at each other in equal amazement.“What?” Oliver finally squeaked out.“You got the wrong man,” she replied wearily.“That man isn’t Lynden.He could not possibly be.He is far too young.Have you no sense? How could he be Ranleigh’s son?”“Alec is Ranleigh’s son,” Oliver said defensively.“He is younger than this Wolfe fellow.This man was the one at the solicitor’s office.The clerk sent me a note when he came in, and I went to the office, and that was the man who came out.The clerk said it was he.”“Then the clerk is as great a fool as you.Or else he was lying and pocketing your money.Lynden was practically a grown man when he left Ranleigh Court, and that was thirty years ago! He has to be middle-aged now.I told you the entire story.It all happened long before I even met Ranleigh.Lynden is old enough to be Alec’s father, even if he is his brother.And you follow a young man, thinking he’s the new duke!”Priscilla and John turned toward each other, eyes wide and faces blank with astonishment.There was another long silence on the other side of the door, then a rustle, followed by the crack of a slap.“Get your hands off me, you dolt! Lynden’s out there somewhere, and I have no idea where or when he will show up.You have ruined my life, and you think you can make it up to me by playing the adoring lover? Get away!”Her heels clattered across the floor, followed by the outer door slamming.In the room behind her, there was the sound of glass hitting the floor and breaking.It came again and again, until Oliver had apparently exhausted either himself or his supply of breakable objects.Then he, too, stormed out of the room.Priscilla sagged against the wall.She felt as if her legs would hardly support her.“My God!” she breathed.“They thought you were the missing heir! The Duke! That is why they attacked you!”John scarcely heard her.He was focused on what was most important to him.“It was a mistake.It was all by chance.They don’t know me.And I still have no idea who I am!”Hearing the distress in his voice, she turned, reaching out to him.“Oh, John! I’m sorry.I didn’t even think…how awful this must be for you.”“God, Priscilla, I had hoped! I wanted to find out so badly.” He went into her arms, pulling her close to him and burying his face against her neck.“I wanted to lay it to rest, to find out what I am and whether I am free.”“I know.I know.” Priscilla rubbed her hands soothingly over his back.She ached for him, but even so, it felt wonderful to feel his arms around her again.She had never before realized that a person could actually feel starved for another’s touch.But she had been starved for John the past two days.“I am so sorry.But it will happen.I am sure of it.Don’t worry.One day you will remember.”“But when?” Despite his despairing question, his voice had lost much of its strain.Her soothing touch was drawing the anguish and frustration from him.“Don’t worry about it.Just believe.It will happen.It has to.”They stood for a long moment, arms around each other.Then his arms tightened around her.Priscilla could feel tension, a different sort of tension, growing in him.“God, you smell good,” he murmured.“Thank you.” She tilted her head back to look up at him, smiling.Her lips were soft, and faintly moist.John gazed at them, his heart beating faster in his chest [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]