[Author's note: I'm posting 3 parts today to keep things moving along. Wasn't able to post yesterday and will most likely be away from the computer again tomorrow.]
[Previously: Cedric has managed to overpower two of the thieves who have invaded his home, but has just been captured by two others. Where's Lavinia?]
The poker was wrenched from his grasp and held, poised, above his own head, even as he struggled against their combined weight and grasping hands. Fear and desperation kept him from giving up hope, until he heard a suave drawl from the direction of the doorway.
"Oh, dear, it must be true what they say after all! One is never appreciated in one's own home town."
All activity had suspended at the sound of that voice, and as one they turned towards the man who had spoken. There in the doorway, as impeccably dressed as ever, with an arm pinning Lavinia to his side and a gun pointed at her head, stood Lucius, Earl of Kentham. His cold eyes took in every detail of the room before coming to rest upon his two henchmen.
"Can you not subdue one, insignificant farmer between the two of you without destroying my ancestral halls in the process?"
The two robbers may not have understood his entire, biting speech, but they were perfectly capable of latching onto one particular point.
"Farmer!" one of them snorted. "He ain't no farmer. Why he--!"
"Enough!" Lucius rapped out, cutting off their attempts at self-justification. "Bring him to me."
This duty they performed with alacrity, using the opportunity to pay back a couple of scores by handling Cedric more roughly than was strictly needful.
The pain they were causing him nearly took his breath away, but what had Cedric's heart in his mouth was the sight of Lavinia at the mercy of his heartless uncle. "Are you all right?" he asked her, at this moment only peripherally aware that there were other people still in the room.
Lucius' brows snapped together upon hearing the tone of his nephew's voice and his eyes narrowed as he observed the looks being exchanged between the two young people. This development was not to his liking.
"It seems that I was away longer than I'd thought," he commented icily. He shifted the muzzle of the gun from Lavinia's head to Cedric's face and held it there. "Someone should have warned you, my dear nephew, of the penalty for casting your pretensions at the feet of any lady under my protection."
"Protection!" Cedric bit out scathingly. "Any lady worthy of the title would rather be protected from you than by you, my not so dear uncle."
Lucius' eyes glittered dangerously and he levelled the gun purposefully. Lavinia saw what was about to happen and burst out with a plea for Cedric's life, despite the Earl's earlier threats designed to keep her quiet. "Please, no, monsieur! Do not kill him. I will go with you. Please do not--!"
Lucius looked down at her lovely face, just now turned towards him, her eyes bright with unshed tears and her mouth open slightly, panting in fear. That it was fear for another which had brought that becoming flush to her cheeks, did not lessen his ardour for her. "You are coming with me in any event, my dear," he assured her, his voice husky with lust, "but I must admit that this development adds a certain piquancy to what would, under ordinary circumstances, be a mere kidnapping and bolt to the continent."
He then bent his head and kissed her, hard, pulling her to him roughly while groping her as if she were some common tavern wench.
Across the room, her father cried out in outraged protest at the same time that Cedric, taking advantage of his captors' momentary distraction, burst free of the hands which held him. He lunged for his uncle, knocking the gun from his hand and forcing him to release Lavinia. His momentum carried him forward and Lucius backward until they lost their balance and fell to the floor. Lucius' two henchmen, stunned by this sudden turn of events, were undecided what to do at first, until a bellow from their leader relieved their minds of all doubt. Then they lumbered forward to forcibly remove Cedric from atop his uncle. In the confusion, no one noticed that Lavinia had picked up Lucius' discarded pistol.
"Let him go! Maintenant! Or I will shoot!" She had the undivided attention of every man in the room. "And, monsieur," she added, taking a breath to steady herself, "I was a very good shot on my estate in France. This is an English gun only, but I'm certain I could put a bullet in you ... somewhere." Her expression hardened. "Let. Cedric. Go."
Lucius' eyes had never left her face, and he had no doubt that she would do exactly what she was threatening to do, but he was not one to give up so easily, nor would he ever willingly take orders from a woman. His nephew had not yet recovered from this last attack, and he was pinned beneath Lucius and his two accomplices, so a card remained to be played.
Too quickly for Lavinia to stop him, he pulled a knife from the boot of the thief at his right hand, and pressed it to Cedric's throat. Lavinia gasped and took a step forward, clutching the pistol more tightly and crying out, "No!"
Lucius calculatingly took in the terror, and the love, in her eyes as she stared at the knife so dangerously close to Cedric, and he knew he'd already won. "Ah, yes, my dear Lavinia. I will kill him, if you do not hand my pistol back to me. If you do shoot me, as I can see you still want to do, I shall most likely fall forward, pushing this knife into Cedric's neck and he will certainly die. Decide quickly, mademoiselle, for I grow weary of this game and must be on my way."
Cedric had been labouring to get his breath back after the rough treatment he'd received, and he wanted more than anything to see Lavinia safely away from all this. "Lavinia!" he gasped, "get away. Don't worry about m--! Ahh!"
His pleas were cut off by one of the thieves who, all unknowingly, had hit Cedric's wounded side with his knee while trying to re-secure his grip on his struggling prisoner. The sight of her love in danger and in pain was too much for Lavinia. She put the pistol down on the floor beside her, willing to sacrifice herself in order to save his life.
"Please do not kill him, monsieur. I will do as you say."
"But of course, my dear," Lucius purred, a sweet revenge against his meddlesome nephew forming in his evilly fertile brain. "I have a much better use for young Cedric here," he added, rising to his feet and gesturing for his henchmen to hoist Cedric up as well.
"Let her go, Lucius," Cedric panted from the imprisoning arms of the two thieves. "She doesn't want to go with you. Leave her here with her father."
"Cedric ... Cedric," Lucius replied, pityingly. "You should know me well enough by now to know that I please only myself ... in everything. You will all," he added, his wide-swept arm included the professor in his captive audience, "do exactly as I wish." By now he had recovered both his pistol and his grip on Lavinia. His gaze returned to Cedric, "I have a particular use for you, nephew. You shall stay behind and run my estate. I shall require money--lots of it--in order to live abroad comfortably, and you shall send it to me."
"Never!" Cedric cried, and was forced to his knees by the two bullies holding him.
"Oh, I think you will, because if you stint me, I shall stint her." Lucius' voice became even more menacing. "She will starve long before I do, nephew, and I will not suffer quietly. If you want her to remain as lovely as she is at this moment," he threatened, guiding the muzzle of the pistol along Lavinia's jaw line, "then you will do precisely what I tell you. Besides," he added, in a provocative tone, as he slid the hand holding the pistol down the front of Lavinia's gown, "someday you'll thank me for teaching her everything I know."
Cedric's reaction was everything Lucius could have hoped for, but it caught his guards unprepared, so engrossed had they become in the little play being enacted in front of them. Lucius had to retreat a few steps, dragging Lavinia with him as a shield, before Cedric could be subdued again.
"You fools!" Lucius venomed. "Can you not perform the simplest of tasks? Tie him up then you, Simpson, go see what's keeping those other idiots."
They did as they were told, with an enthusiasm which left Cedric near to swooning. As he lay on the Library floor, helpless, cords cutting into his ankles and wrists, Cedric could do little beyond try to gather what strength he had left and listen to his uncle cursing every fate, and every person, within earshot.
"What do you mean you can't find them, or the rest of my plunder? Where in hell could they have gone?"
Neither Simpson nor his companion felt it wise to offer up any suggestions, so Lucius was left to simmer and boil alone. But the Earl was not one to hoard ill feelings to himself; he believed in sharing them with those around him. He lashed out viciously once more at his two henchmen, sending them scurrying to the stables to ensure that something, at least, was going as he'd ordained.
Lucius then wasted little time in making his adieus. His parting bow to the Professor was an exquisite blend of courtesy and insolence, especially since he refused to listen to a father's plea for his child. For Cedric, however, Lucius saved his last, and most cruel farewell, including in it, as he did with relish, a promise to write long and often about how Lavinia was progressing with the lessons he proposed to teach her.
"You devil!" Cedric cried, in frustrated torment from where he lay on the floor. "I won't let you get away with this."
Lucius' first response was to laugh. "I really can't quite see how you can stop me." He then put his boot on Cedric's shoulder and pushed, rolling him over onto his back.
Cedric gasped in pain as his wounded side protested against the strain being put upon the muscles of his torso and arms.
"Cedric!" Lavinia wept. "Oh, Cedric!" Then to Lucius, "Leave him alone, you bully!"
"But my dear," Lucius purred, like a cat with a captive mouse, "I propose to do just that. He'll be all alone very soon now."
Through his pain, Cedric could see the kick coming, but he could do little to avoid it. He tried but it was mostly luck, and the fact that Lavinia managed to knock his uncle slightly off balance, that Lucius' boot hit his side and not his head. The result was all that Lucius could have hoped for, however.
Spiralling down into pain-driven darkness, Cedric could hear a distant cry from Lavinia, hastily cut off, and then ... nothing.
[Author's note: help with French phrases--
Maintenant! = Now!
