Robin Schone by Gabriel's Woman (10 ebook reader TXT) 📕

eye; at the same time, his cane flew out of nerveless fingers.

Gabriel pressed the silver knob into the man’s windpipe, effectively pinning him against the tree;

simultaneously, he shoved the blue-plated pistol into the man’s face.

Thornton gasped, visible eye wide with fear.

“I wouldn’t shout out if I were you, Thornton.” Gabriel’s breath shone silver in the yellow fog. He did

not relieve the pressure on the man’s windpipe. “You wouldn’t want your two daughters to see you with

your face blown off.”

“Oh, I say ...” The man’s voice rose to a hysterical pitch, breath commingling with Gabriel’s.

“Quietly,” Gabriel softly warned him.

“My money—it’s in my coat.” The white of his right eye showed round like a miniature moon. “I can

pay you—I’m a rich man—”

Victoria had thought Gabriel wanted to blackmail her father.

For one second he wished the man in front of him were her father.

He would show him how little money mattered.

“I don’t want your money, Thornton.”

Thornton’s eye bulged. “Please don’t kill me.”

Victoria had not begged for her life. Had Thornton hoped to make her do so?

Had he hoped to make her beg for pleasure?

Had he stolen into her bedchamber and seen her silk drawers when they were soft and white?

Gabriel held on to his anger.

“I won’t shoot you if you tell me what I want to know,” he said caressingly.

Gabriel didn’t lie.

A gunshot would attract attention; a crushed windpipe wouldn’t.

“Anything, sir,” the man babbled. He had no pride, no dignity, just the title gentleman that was a product

of breeding and wealth. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Gabriel didn’t doubt it.

“Anything, Thornton?” Gabriel asked softly, seductively.

“Yes . .. Yes!” Thornton said eagerly, hope blazing in the one eye that was visible.

It was his second mistake.

Hope killed.

It was time to end the game.

“Tell me why you’re terrorizing Victoria Childers.”

The man blinked. “Victoria Child—why, she is no longer employed in my household.”

“Why not?” Gabriel asked silkily.

The man’s eyes rolled nervously. “She—she—my wife dismissed her.”

“Now, why would she do that?”

“She—she—Victoria Childers—she flirted with me—”

It was Thornton’s third mistake.

A man did not lie when confronted by death.

“Victoria Childers is not a flirtatious woman.” Gabriel delicately pushed the bore of the pistol into

Thornton’s right cheek. Bone and metal impacted. “Why did you lie to your wife?”

“Oh, please—”

“The truth, Thornton,” Gabriel crooned. “All I ask is the truth.”

“I”—the man tried to swallow, could not— “I did not lie to my wife.”

“Are you saying Victoria Childers flirted with you, Thornton?” he asked dangerously.

The man did not make a fourth mistake.

His eye rolled upward, as if looking for a savior from above. “No, no, I did not say that.”

“Then what did you say?”

“My wi-wi-wife”—he stuttered—”my wife is a jealous woman.”

“The employment agency supplies you with a fresh governess every few months, Thornton. Surely you

did not think that your scheme would go unnoticed.”

“I do not—I do not know what you are talking about.” The bore pushed the inner flesh of his cheek

between his teeth so he could not completely close his mouth. His vowels broadened. “It is my wife ‘oo

employs and discharges the governesses.”

His wife ...

“You must have quite a harem by now.”

Thornton was beginning to realize how dangerous Gabriel was. “Plese don’t ‘urt me,” he begged.

“You don’t think you deserve to be hurt?” Gabriel asked gently.

Wondering what Thornton had planned to do with Victoria if she had come to him.

Wondering what he would have done to Victoria after he had finished with her.

Would he have given her to the second man before or after he had used her?

“I have done nuthing, I tell you,” the man said painfully.

“Yet Victoria Childers was discharged. Without a reference. Governesses who do not have references

cannot gain reputable employment. You really leave your women no choice, do you, Thornton, but to come

to you?”

For food. For shelter. For sex . ..

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t have women. I have my wife. My wife would know

where the gov’r’nesses go.

They don’t come to me. No one comes to me. I don’t know what you are asking me. I have done

nuthing, I tell you.”

A discordant peal of truth rang inside the man’s voice.

Gabriel ground the bore of the gun harder into his face. The man would have a bruised cheek come the

morrow. It would match his bruised throat.

“Oh, please, sir, please put the pistol away.”

The man’s breath smelled of coffee; the acrid aroma of ammonia wafted upward.

In his fear, Thornton had urinated in his trousers.

A child’s giggle drifted through the air. A distant reminder of innocence.

Victoria had said her employer had lied. To get her discharged.

She had said her former employer had written the letters. To seduce her.

Do you think your uncle arranged a woman to be sent to me in order to lure me to my death?

Gabriel had taunted Michael.

“Where were you going when you left your house?” Gabriel asked sharply.

“To my”—the man’s distorted voice wavered—”club.”

Doubt crawled up Gabriel’s spine.

The man had admitted Victoria had been employed. By his wife.

If he was not the man ...

“If you don’t have a fountain pen, Thornton, I’m going to kill you,” Gabriel said deliberately.

“Oh, I have a foun’n pen, sir!” the man said eagerly. “Inside my ‘rock here! See!”

It could be a ruse.

The man could have a gun inside his frock instead of a fountain pen.

There was only one way Gabriel would ever know the truth.