Til Debt Do Us Part (Married At Midnight #4)

Chapter 7

Seven

Talia

O nce the storm clears, Dare sails the boat back to the dock. While he navigates the ship, I sneak peeks into the small cabin where he stays, absentmindedly looking at his phone while he makes sure that the ship steers itself safely on its course.

At last, he puts his phone away and stares out at the sea, standing by the manual wheel for the ship. I can’t help but wonder what he is thinking about. Honestly, I am impressed that he stays still for so long when the meditation session hits twenty minutes.

Is he thinking about us? Or perhaps what awaits us in Harwicke. That’s the more likely answer.

I spend most of the rest of the day on my own in the living room, working on a book of tough crosswords that I found shoved in between all the Parcheesi sets and the Monopoly boards.

I get lost in my own thoughts, tangled up with twelve-letter words and clues about rivers that run through Paris. When I notice the ship gently pull to a stop, I look up and the sky above me is growing quite dark.

I head back up to the main deck and find Dare descending the stairs from the navigation deck. He arches a brow and he sees the crossword book still clutched in my hand.

“Where did you find that?”

I look down at the book and shrug. “It was on the board games shelf in the living room.”

He gives me a dubious look for reasons completely unknown to me. Then he jerks his head toward the dock. “Come on. We have to go back to real life eventually. Might as well jump right in.”

I follow him, allowing him to lead me from the ship down the steps to the dock. It’s only then that I realize that this is not the dock we departed from. It’s much smaller, only three other boats moored to one side. The other boats look like little toys next to the ship that I am departing. “Where are we?” I ask.

Dare keeps walking, his pace never slowing for a moment. “This is one of many slips that we own. We're just at the southern tip of Maine right now, only half an hour by car from Harwicke.”

“Oh.” I blink, realizing that the snowy ground might be one of the reasons why I am so confused. Though the massive mountains are missing from where we originally departed from, everything else could be the same. There is thick snow on the ground, a few people bustling down the wood planks toward their boats, and it is just as cold here as it was when we were in Canada a few days ago.

I step off the last plank onto solid ground and immediately feel the ground tilt. It’s the weirdest thing; I think my body had just gotten used to the gentle swaying of the ship. Now my legs feel strange and rubbery without the slight movement of the earth beneath my feet.

Dare eyes me as I stumble forward, grabbing my arm. “Don’t worry. Happens to everybody. The feeling will be gone before you know it.”

He hustles me up a well worn footpath and we come into the parking lot where, idling in the handicapped spot, is a big black SUV. As soon as we make it onto the wide concrete surface of the parking lot, the doors open and I see two familiar faces. Frick and Frack climb out of the car, their expressions all business as usual.

Frick opens the passenger door, giving me a cool smile. If she is upset that I ran away on her watch, she doesn’t say anything about it. She gives me a little bow.

“Welcome back,” she says.

For some reason, I blush deeply. I don’t say anything but I climb in the back of the SUV. Dare slides in beside me, pulling his phone from his pocket. When Frick and Frack are both back in the car, Dare says, without looking up from his phone, “Go ahead. You can fill me in on the improvements to the loft later.”

I shift my gaze over to him but Frick just backs the SUV up and heads toward Harwicke. A few minutes into the drive, I grow tired of staring out the window at the coastline as we speed past. I look at Dare and he is still reading from his phone, scrolling and looking concerned. I pull out the crossword magazine from the boat and open the spot I have marked with a pencil. I work diligently for a minute before finding a clue that I am stumped by. I page through some of the other crosswords that have been filled in by what I assume is a feminine hand.

When the magazine is ripped from my hands, I look up, stunned. Dare is holding the magazine, his expression furious. “Where did you get this?”

I reach for the magazine, scowling at him. “I already told you. It was on the ship.”

Dare closes the magazine, smoothing his hand over the front cover as if it were somehow invaluable. “This is my mother’s magazine. My mother’s handwriting is in it.”

My pulse speeds up. I want very badly to ask what he means, but I don’t think that Dare will be particularly forthcoming with his story in front of Frick and Frack.

He is still looking at the magazine, his hand touching the cover reverently. So I reach over and squeeze his forearm. He looks at me, his eyes somewhat unfocused.

I don’t know much about Dare’s mom or what happened to her, but I get the sense that finding an item that belongs to her means a lot to Dare. I slip my arm through his, leaning my head against his shoulder. For a long second, he is tense and wooden. But when he realizes that I only intend to comfort him and let him be, he seems to relax.

I make a note to ask him about his mother the next time we are alone.

The spell is fragile. It’s shattered easily when Dare’s cell phone begins to vibrate. He puts one hand on top of the crossword magazine, as if he needs to hold it down lest it blow away. The other hand answers the phone, putting it up to his ear.

“Yeah?”

He listens intently, cursing after a moment. “Fuck. All right. We’ll be at the house in ten minutes. We’ll talk about it then.”

He sighs and puts his phone away, then awkwardly pats my hand where it rests on his arm.

“We have to go to the estate. My uncle has some plans that he needs me to look over. Remy is out of town so we should be able to get in and out of the estate relatively quickly.”

I wrinkle my nose and shrug. Dare barely looks at me and seems very distracted by his phone. I pull my hand out from his where it grips his arm and sit up, sad that our moment of understanding is gone. I look out the window, pouting a little as Frick drives us into Harwicke and all the way up the mountain, finally dropping us at the Morgan estate. When Frick pulls the car to a stop, I open my door before anybody can help me out of the vehicle. Dare offers me his arm as we step into the shadow created by the sun against the large stone building. But I choose to ignore it, blithely making my way into the house. Inside, the manor is exactly as magnificent as always. High ceilings, polished floors, the same royal colors and echoing great hallways as before. Dare starts forward, forgetting that I trail behind him until he is halfway down the hallway. He stops suddenly and looks back at me, his eyebrows rising slightly.

“Are you going to come with me?”

I shrug and give him an uninterested look. “I think I will go into the living room and check out the taxidermied animals. I can keep myself occupied.”

His mouth pulls down but he glances at his watch.

“It should only be a few minutes. We just have to go through some documents. Felix needs my signature on some things and then I’ll be done. You will probably only be alone for ten or fifteen minutes.”

Giving him a frigid smile, I turn, bounding off to the living room area. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Dare as he stands still, looking at me with uncertainty. But then he checks his watch again, shakes his head, and starts off toward the back of the house.

I’m about to head into the living room when I stop, looking at the doorway. Something is off about the shape of the wall here. I reach out to the wall immediately to the left of the door frame, feeling that there is a slight edge sticking up. Using my nails, I pry up a few inches and to my surprise, it opens a large small doorway of no more than five feet by three feet.

It is patterned to look just like the rest of the wallpaper. If someone hadn’t left the door ever so slightly ajar, it wouldn’t even be visible. Sucking in a breath, I push the door open a few inches and peer inside. My heart hammers as though I am doing something illicit.

But no one has ever told me not to look in any secret doors I might find, so I guess technically I’m not doing anything I’m not supposed to be. The open door throws a light on the small, dark space. I squint and realize that it is actually a passageway. What it goes to, I have no idea.

Checking behind me to make sure that no one sees, I step into the chilly, dark space. I pull the door closed, leaving it open only an inch. Cold air rushes up to my skin and nips at my wrists and my neck where bare skin meets the heavy wool coat I am wearing. I shiver and move a little further down the passageway.

There are several holes cut out in the wall, tiny viewing portals. I peek into one and have a perfect view of the entire living room. It’s silent and dark just now, the lights not even on. I look directly down and realize that the viewing portal is stealthily hidden just above the wainscoting.

This must be for servants to pass, I realize. I think I remember Dare mentioning that his family has lived here for centuries. I could easily imagine a young man in nineteenth century garb bending low to look through this peephole.

Wandering farther down the tiny hallway, I wonder where the passages go. Are they all over the house? Or do they just run to this room?

Creeping down the corridor on my tiptoes, I tried to be quiet as a mouse. I can hear the sound of someone clearing their throat in a far-off place. The air vent kicks on at the end of the hallway and I can hear the quiet hum. As I poke my head out of the end of the hallway, I look left and right.

I realize that going left would only lead me to the front of the house. So I turn left, cautiously making my way down the secret hallway. It’s ice cold back here, with a constant draft moving around my ankles. I can feel it waxing and waning but I don’t know what the forces may be behind it. I stop once and check the living room one last time before I cross another passageway which forks off to the right.

This hallway is exactly like the one I just came from, but it has one special exception. A door stands ajar, barely more than an inch. But because it’s so dark in the hallway, it looks like a magical glowing portal. I move towards that as stealthily as possible, putting my ear to the wall next to the door and listening intently.

I hear that same man clearing his throat and coughing, the sound farther away this time. But it’s almost definitely not in this room. I move the door open very quietly, noting that there are three paintings on the wall that I move back. The one facing me most directly is a powdered wig wearing descendent or ancestor of Dare’s. He looks like an older, smudged photocopy of Dare. I step closer and examine the tiny gold plaque beside it. The old man is named Jeb Morgan. He wears a simple white shirt and an old-fashioned naval officer’s coat with a number of medals pinned to the lapel on one side.

I look above and below and find that there, too, are portraits of Dare’s ancestors. Mostly men, mostly wearing wigs and their finest suits. All looking off into the distance, gauging the future.

Finally I open the door enough to stick my head in there. The walls are almost filled with portraits, as many as five high and four wide. There are roughly the same shape and size, rectangular portraits of men alone or men on horses.

I know that there are no women on the walls in this room. Probably why this closed off space exists, frankly.

The middle of the floor is cluttered with busts on stands, marble and wood and obsidian portraits of proud male figures. I squint at the one closest to me, a marble statue of someone wearing a toga and looking off into the distance. I’m not sure how this is related to the ancestry of the Morgan family, but somehow I have no doubt that it is one of Dare’s relatives.

Looking around the small space one last time, I pull my head out and start to close the door.

That’s when Dare’s voice reaches out and ensnares me.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

His voice is low and threatening, almost certainly about to tell me that I shouldn’t be here.

I spin around and shut the door with my back to it, my eyes going wide. Dare looks at me, his expression haughty and imperious. For a moment, I am confused. Is he just angry that I went snooping where I shouldn’t have been?

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

I gulp and look down at his outfit. Then I squint. I don’t remember exactly what he was wearing when we left the boat, but either he has changed into a three-piece suit or…

Or he isn’t Dare at all. Sucking in a breath, I put my trembling hands behind my back and straighten my posture. My head goes up, my shoulders go back, my chest sticks out. Just like Dare told me to stand whenever I was around someone that I wanted to impress or intimidate.

“Burn,” I greet him carefully. “I suppose I should ask you the same thing. Why are you creeping around the secret passageways in your grandfather’s house and trying to scare people to death?”

He looks nonplussed at the fact that I figured out his little deception so quickly. He stalks toward me, making his size evident when he looms over me. I draw a shaky breath and look up at him, determined not to look like I actually feel. That is, that I’m about to pee my pants.

Burn raises his hand to me, his fingers getting much too close to my throat for my liking. Then he diverts his hand at the last moment, catching a little of my coppery hair between his fingers and tugging it gently.

“I see that my brother brought you back unscathed from wherever you scampered off to. I was just telling Daisy that I didn’t know if Dare would kill you or not.”

My blood goes cold. Suddenly, I can only hear the sound of my heart beating in my ears.

Did I hear Burn right? Did he say that Dare would kill me?

I have to say something. I lick my lips and say, “I’m fine, as you can see. Thank you for your concern.”

Burn smirks and moves closer to me, his body nearly touching mine. I move back but I hit the wall and Burn chuckles. “Talia, Talia, Talia. What are we going to do with you?”

He traces a line from my collarbone down to my breasts, looking me dead in the eye as he does it. I move to smack his hand away but he grabs my hand and pins me against the wall, resuming his slow unbuttoning of my coat.

The look in his eyes is fiery, with an edge of threat.

“Stop, Burn. I don’t want you to touch me.”

He smirks and stops, then he spews his hand into my hair and pulls my head back. “Why are you with my brother? Is he paying you? Or did he just promise you a cut of the proceeds when he manages to steal the inheritance from me?”

I lick my lips, struggling against his tight hold.

“Let go of me, Burn. You’re hurting me.”

He laughs. “You don’t know the first thing about what it is to be hurt, little girl. But maybe you don’t have to. What’s he paying you? Whatever it is, I’ll double it. Or if you wait until I win the inheritance race, I will triple your money. All I need from you is a promise that you will start birth control right away. The patch, the pill, the shot, whatever.”

I look up at him, my brow furrowing. “What? No. Get off me. You are sick.”

He grits his teeth, leaning close enough to my face that I can feel his breath against my cheek. “Either you let me pay you. Or I fucking kill you. I don’t particularly care which one.”

Something in me snaps. I rear back and bash my forehead into his mouth, screaming. “Get off me! Help! Get off me!”

Burn stumbles back, holding his hand over his mouth, his eyes going wide. A door opens at the end of our hallway and Clive steps through, looking perplexed. His gaze scans the small hallway and he sees Burn on the ground and me screaming bloody murder.

“Help! Clive, help! Burn is trying to kill me!”

Burn looks bewildered and absolutely scandalized by the idea that I would just immediately rat him out. Clive storms down the hallway, casting Burn a vicious glare. The butler grabs me, pulling me from where I am standing and practically carrying me back toward the open hallway.

I catch a last glance of Burn getting to his feet, his hands still over his mouth. And then Clive shoves me out the door, following me and slamming the door shut behind him.

Dare comes running around the corner, ready to do battle, his fists balled up. Clive grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me toward Dare, looking ashamed though he didn’t do anything wrong.

“Sir, I’m very sorry. If I’d known that you were here, I would have known to keep Miss Chance’s location in my head. You see, I knew that Burn was here–”

“No offense, Clive. But if my brother wanted to fuck with Talia, he would have found a way to do it regardless of being watched or not. None of his actions are your fault.”

I reach out, gently laying a hand onto Clive’s arm. I’m hysterical, almost sobbing when I speak.

“You saved me, Clive. Thank you. I’ll never forget it.”

Dare looks at me, grabbing my coat and pulling me close, his eyes search my face.

“You’re all right now. It’s okay. I’ve got you.” He cups my jaw, looking down at me, his eyes blazing with fury and concern. “Did he hurt you?”

“He… He grabbed me. He wanted to pay me to run away from our marriage. And he– he threatened to kill me. I think if it weren’t for Clive, he would’ve…” I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes. “Done something more.”

Dare turns away, his body as tight as a bowstring, his eyes riveted on the door that we just exited. But I grab at his arm, scared that he will either trounce Burn or Burn will beat the shit out of him. Either way, I don’t want to be the cause of it.

“Dare, please. Stay with me!”

He moves toward his twin brother, murder in his eyes. I pull Dare away from Burn, my tone turning pleading.

“Please don’t leave me. I need you, Dare.”

Dare freezes and then turns his head back to me. I lift his arm, using my shoulders underneath it. Then I hug his body, realizing only then that I am shaking so hard that my teeth began to chatter.

“Don’t leave me. Please.”

Some of the tension goes out of his body and he closes his arms around my shoulders, pulling me against his chest. I know that I am supposed to be faking my reaction to keep the twins from killing each other. But it feels so good to have his familiar scent around me, his warmth revitalizing me, his big strong body sheltering me. I close my eyes for a second and let out a shaky breath.

“Okay,” he whispers into my hair. “Okay. I’ll deal with my brother later. Clive, tell the driver to pull the car around. We’re leaving.”

Dare sweeps me up into his arms and carries me out of the mansion.