Chapter Twenty

F lorinda flinched as she watched Oliver take hold of a vase sitting on her fireplace mantle and fling the fragile glass at the wall. It shattered into a million tiny shards and a curse filled the room. Blood ran from his hand, and he turned hostile eyes toward her as though the damage was all her fault.

"Be useful and get me something to stanch the blood, damn it," he ordered as he shook his hand sending splatters of blood onto the rug beneath his feet.

She turned away trying to catch her breath and looked around for anything that would serve the purpose he demanded. A napkin left on the sideboard would do and she went across the room to retrieve it. She held the cloth before her waiting for him to take it. She dared not get any closer to his frightful man.

He had showed up three nights ago and hadn't left since. No matter how she pleaded with him to leave her residence, she couldn't convince the man to go away. In a drunken stupor, he had confessed what he had done. Stupid, really, on his part for what reason would she keep his secret that he had struck Asher with a knife? None. She held no sense of loyalty to this hotheaded and dangerous man. His need for revenge on Asher was completely out of control and, to her way of thinking, unreasonable. A feud spanning years that would best be forgotten but not in Oliver's case. For everyone's safety, he needed to be sent away where he couldn't harm anyone else. The only reason she hadn't gone to the authorities straight away was because he hadn't permitted her to leave the house.

She had tried pleading with him, even pouring him drink after drink hoping he might get drunk and pass out. But he seemed more interested in breaking everything within hand's reach than consuming any alcohol tonight. She was running out of ideas and kept praying that he would eventually pass out from sheer exhaustion.

Oliver went to the sideboard and poured a generous shot of brandy into a glass. Finally… there might still be hope!

"I had hoped that bloody bastard was dead in that alleyway," he muttered in frustration. "I should have stayed to see the job done…but no, it's better this way. He should be alive to witness me get my revenge by bedding his woman. She'll be easy enough to get hold of at that Vaughn woman's townhouse and then I can finish what I started with Rowley."

Florinda couldn't fathom who this poor woman might be that Asher had taken a liking to, but she couldn't spare much worry for a stranger when she was so busy fearing for her own life. She kept her silence, staying in the back of the room hoping Oliver would forget about her.

He downed his drink, picked up his coat and said something about getting his final revenge this very night. Thankfully, he left slamming the front door behind him.

Florinda wasted no time putting the lock into place the moment he left. She quickly ran around the house ensuring any entrance was now barred so Oliver wouldn't be able to get in so easily if he returned. She then went back to the front parlor and pulled the bell cord. When a servant answered her summons, Florinda asked the girl to have someone fetch a constable. She had information to give him.