A Christmas Escape by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page B

mollified that at least someone was listening to him.
    “A very vicious attack,” Finbar said, more to himself than to Bailey. “How unpleasant for you. And you are certain you have no idea who it was?”
    “Didn’t I already say that?” Bailey demanded. “And spare me your false sympathy. I know far too much about you and your pretenses. I think you’d be pleased if you were certain I could never tell any of your friends, even accidentally.”
    Finbar looked straight at him. “You don’t do much by accident, Bailey, except perhaps fall over.”
    Bailey’s face was scarlet. “You won’t get out of it that easily…”
    Candace could take it no longer. She stood up abruptly. “You have no right to say that, Mr. Bailey. Uncle Roger isn’t the only person here who doesn’t like you. But we are civilized people and we don’t go around attacking one another. If we did, you wouldn’t have had to wait so long!” Her face gave away that she knew perfectly well she was breaking every rule of good manners, and didn’t care. No one attacked one of her own and got away with it.
    Bailey drew in his breath to reply, but Isla interrupted him.
    “You really must come and let me tend to your wounds, dear. They look quite serious. At least we should stop the bleeding.” Her voice trembled a little, as if she were frightened. Charles thought that actually Bailey’s dignity was wounded more deeply than his body. The blood seemed to be dry already, as if he had been cut a couple of hours ago, and not so deeply that the bleeding had not stopped of its own accord.
    Bailey put out his hand to fend her off, and she stopped, uncertain what to do.
    “I’ve put up with it this long,” he said harshly. “I’ll survive another few minutes. I want to know who attacked me! Surely you can understand that?”
    “Of course,” Quinn observed with a gesture that was more a baring of the teeth than a smile. “They may do it again, since apparently they did not succeed very well this time.”
    Bailey looked at him icily. “I wouldn’t put it past any of you, but you have the best motive—don’t you?”
    Quinn flushed hotly, but refused to back down. “Since I don’t know anybody else’s motive, I couldn’t say.” He was speaking only to Bailey and as if no one else in the room were listening.
    Charles found his body aching with tension. What had been an easy, charming evening until Bailey’s arrival had turned into something not only bitter but possibly even dangerous. To begin with he had thought Bailey absurd, but perhaps he was not. Maybe he had reason to fear.
    Bailey seemed to be aware only of Quinn. “I always thought you were too damn stupid to understand Lucy,” he said between his teeth. “Not a shred of imagination, have you? I know you too well, just as I know old Finbar. I don’t know Bretherton, but there’s nothing there anyway—beyond a stuffed uniform and a pathetic lust after my wife…”
    Bretherton moved to protest, but the table was in the way and all he succeeded in doing was banging his knees on one of the legs and rattling the china.
    Bailey gave him a withering look.
    Isla was close to tears with anger and embarrassment.
    “You missed me,” Charles pointed out to him. “Why would I attack you? Simply that you’re a cad doesn’t seem to be enough. Admittedly, the house rests easier without you, but we’re all here for only a short time.”
    “Unless one of you kills me first!” Bailey was angry, but this time Charles heard fear in his voice as well. Quite suddenly, in an instant, it all changed. Until then he had been assuming that Bailey had tripped in the dark, and was using it as a chance to attack all of them and become the center of attention.
    “You are quite right, Mr. Bailey,” he said aloud. “We are making light of it because it is a very frightening idea, and we don’t want it to be true. We were assuming it was an accident, and there was no malice intended. But if, as you