Chapter 38
As the following days turned into months and the warmer weather grew cooler, the family entertained each other in fine form. Drew and Chase, who extended his stay indefinitely, hunted in the nearby woods and brought home rabbits and even a wild boar upon which Chef Jacques performed gastronomical magic.
Some days, Drew would take Marianne and Andrea for casual rides in the nearby fields so each could practice her horsemanship.
Margaret and George returned often and took turns having long tea parties with their granddaughter as well as reading her books and playing games of Blind Man’s Bluff, pat-a-cake, and other games she could enjoy at her young age.
On rainy days they stayed indoors and read, played music on the pianoforte or parlor games.
On the third Sunday in September, they arrived in the front courtyard after church. Chase rode his horse down to the stable but the rest of the family alighted from the carriage before the driver pulled away.
As they readied to take the stairs into the house a gig swerved up the lane, its driver lashing his whip wildly at the single horse. When the cabriolet entered the courtyard, he drew in the reins so quickly and so tightly that the horse, laboring to breathe and nearly foaming at the mouth, reared up and whinnied.
“Stop, you damned nag.” The driver wrapped the reins around a support on the gig, then jumped out holding a gun in his right hand.
The family stopped in their tracks.
“Well.” Drew stepped in front of Marianne who held Andrea in a death hug against her chest. “I must admit, Gentilly, we had no expectations of seeing you this soon, or, in fact, ever.”
Gentilly waved the gun. “I’m sure you did not. But I’m not so easy to get rid of as that. Marianne, come out here with that brat so I can see you.”
George shuffled Margaret behind him and started to move forward.
“Stay where you are, old man. I don’t want to shoot anyone but I will if you don’t do what I say.”
Marianne stepped from behind Drew, then turned and handed Andrea to grandpapa George. She whispered, “Guard her with your life.”
George nodded.
“Stop that whispering. Marianne, it seems you’ve easily settled back into the routine of careless ease and riches. I guess our relationship means nothing when you can be wealthy and despoiled.”
Marianne bristled. “We have no relationship. The man I knew would never have done the things you have. He was a kind man. A patient and giving man. There would have been no kidnapping or this farce of holding my entire family at gunpoint. What do you think you are doing? You can’t shoot all of us. You’ve only one gun.”
Gentilly sneered as his free hand moved inside his rumpled coat to extract a second pistol. “I can’t shoot all of you but I can shoot some of you. I can start with you, Marianne. If I can’t have you, why should he? Or, I could shoot him.” He waved a gun at Drew. “And see how miserable that would make you. Or would you want me then if he were out of the way. Or . . .” Gentilly shuffled over to the side so he could get a clear view of Andrea. “I could shoot the brat as well as your fortune-hunter husband and see how heartbroken that makes you. Then I could leave you here to rot in your despair.”
“Robert, that makes no sense and it’s more than cruel of you to even think it. What has Andrea ever done to you?”
Drew was proud of his wife. No sniveling and begging from her to this deranged madman. He broke in. “What is it you want, Gentilly? How did you even get back here?”
“I jumped ship. Evidently, I’m smarter than you were or cared to be. We went into port in Portugal and I jumped ship. It didn’t take me long to find another ship coming back to London. And it certainly didn’t take me long to find my way back here. Why did it take you so long, my lord?” Gentilly’s face was a mask of hate and vitriol. “Why did you not just come back to begin with? Then none of this would have happened. But, no. You had to travel the seas until you were good and ready to return home. Had you no thought for the people you left behind? The wife you left behind? Did you just expect her to pine away for you until she died? What was wrong with her finding another and starting a new life with me? I would have taken good care of her. I would have made her happy. I would not have deserted her, forgotten her, taken her for granted.”
“You’ve no idea what I’ve been through, Gentilly. And I was an over-protected boy at the time it all happened. I don’t have to justify myself to you. And you’ve no right to assume you would be a better man than I. Especially with your actions recently. What man of honor kidnaps a woman he professes to love? Only a madman. Put down those guns and take your leave. If you go on your way now and promise not to return, I’ll not bring charges against you.”
“Who are you to demand anything when I have guns pointed at you and your family? I’m making the demands here. You have no say in the matter.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Drew could see Chase coming up from the stable. He’d nearly stepped into the courtyard when he’d seen the tableau playing out and drawn back behind a hedge. Drew could only hope his brother-in-law could come up with a plan.
Moments later he lost sight of Chase so he dragged his attention back to the lunatic before them.
“Robert, let my parents and Andrea go. Let them go into the house. You don’t need them. It’s me you’re after. It’s me you want to punish for not choosing you.” Marianne moved toward their tormentor.
“Marianne, stay where you are. I don’t know that I want you now. You’ve made your choice. Maybe I should just punish you for it all.” Gentilly leveled the gun at her. “If I’d never met you, if you didn’t exist, this pain would stop. I’m tired of hurting. I’m tired of being the fifth wheel. Why didn’t you choose me?”
Drew saw Chase make a wide circle behind Gentilly out of the villain’s line of sight. Would he get to him in time?
Drew took one step forward, knowing Chase advanced quietly behind Gentilly but wanting to keep focus away from his brother-in-law. “Don’t. It’s me you want, Gentilly. I stole Marianne away.” It didn’t seem that anyone else was aware of what was going on.
Marianne grabbed his arm. “No, Drew. Don’t. It’s not your fault. It was my decision.” She tugged him back.
“Isn’t this sweet? The two of you taking up for the other. If only it wasn’t so self-serving. I know you’re trying to distract me while you figure out how you can get out of this. But you can’t. You’ve had your way, your fun. Now it’s my turn. Revenge will be so satisfying. And I will have no regrets.” He raised both guns aiming one at Marianne, the other at Drew.
In the blink of an eye, Chase came up behind Gentilly. With one hand he knocked a gun to the ground. It exploded into the dirt of the courtyard as it hit. The two men struggled for control of the second gun now crushed between their bodies.
Marianne shooed her parents and Andrea, who was still in her grandpapa’s arms, into the house.
Drew circled the fight trying to find a place to insert himself and unarm the madman.
“Drew, be careful.” Marianne circled not far behind him.
“Go inside, Marianne. I don’t want you hurt. Chase and I will get this under control.”
“I’m not deserting either of you.” She stayed right behind him, shadowing his moves first to the right, then to the left. As the scuffle continued, no opening for Drew occurred.
“Let it go, Gentilly,” Chase demanded. “It’s over. Let the gun go and we’ll figure this out.”
Gentilly moved his foot behind Chase’s leg and flipped him to the ground.
Chase did not let go. Gentilly fell on top of him.
Drew expected the gun to go off at any moment. If he couldn’t get between them, he feared for his brother-in-law’s life. “Gentilly, you’ve lost. There are two of us against one of you. You can’t win.”
“I don’t need to win.” Gentilly ground out between gritted teeth. “I only need to make you all regret the day you were born. No matter whom I kill, you’ll all suffer over it.”
The two rolled back and forth in the dirt, over the grass at the edge of the driveway. Drew saw the pistol in the dirt that had already gone off. He picked it up. But there was no way to reload it.
Chase and Gentilly grunted and groaned as they flipped over and over, one on top, then the other. With a huge surge of what seemed to be his last ounce of strength, Chase wrenched Gentilly’s arm.
The gun went off.
Silence fell as all responded to the shock of the shrill sound.
“You’ve shot me. You bastard. You’ve shot me.”
Chase stood up, the unloaded pistol dangling from his right hand. “I’d do it again and faster, too, if I had another chance. Where are you hurt?”
Marianne approached but Drew lifted an arm to hold her back. “Don’t. Let’s see how badly he’s hurt first.”
Gentilly looked down to his leg which seemed to be gushing blood. “You’ve shot me.”
“Chase,” Drew took control, “run into the house and get a glass of brandy. See if you can find a belt. We’ll need to make a tourniquet.”
Drew knelt down beside his nemesis. “Let me help you.”
“No, don’t touch me.” Gentilly pushed him away.
“You’ll bleed to death if you don’t let me near that leg. I’ll be happy to let you die. You’ve only to say the word. Or, I can use my neckcloth to staunch the bleeding until we get something else.” Drew untied his cravat and started to wind it around the scoundrel’s leg.
One of the stable lads ran from around the hedge Chase had been standing behind only a few minutes before. “Here, my lord. Maybe this could help.” He handed Drew a set of reins. “I was puttin’ the tack away when I heard the commotion and ran to see what was up.”
Drew took the reins and nodded to the boy. “Step back. I don’t want you involved with this. Mount a horse and go for a doctor and the magistrate. We’ll need both of them this night.” The boy hurried back toward the hedge and the stable.
Drew turned back to Gentilly. “This might hurt a bit.” He wrapped the reins around the injured man’s thigh and cinched it up.
Gentilly groaned. “Can’t you take it easy?”
“I am taking it easy. What I’d really like to do is wrap these reins around your neck and strangle you.”
Chase ran down the stairs carrying a belt and a glass filled with golden liquid. He knelt next to Drew and handed the glass to Gentilly. “This is probably too good for this reprobate but it was the fastest to hand. It was on the sideboard in the library.”
Drew shook his head. “You’re right. He’s not worth fifty-year-old cognac but we’ll let him have it for now. Marianne, please ask Wellingford to have a room prepared. We’ll have to put him somewhere the doctor can see to him and the magistrate can question him.”
He heard her skirts rustle as she went to make preparations.
The reins knotted and holding tight, he declined the offered belt.
“Gentilly, we need to remove you to the house. You’ll need to lean on both of us. Chase, you get under his right shoulder. I’ll get under his left. Gentilly, don’t put any weight on that leg.”
Moments later, the two men lifted the third and headed up the stairs.