Elizabeth Elliott by Betrothed Read Free Book Online Page A

collected the wealth of her inheritance until he turned the people of her keep into beggars as well. If the wall were not standing between them, she would have plunged her dagger into his heart. Or been sorely tempted to try.
    “He must have noticed something amiss with the forged articles,” Lonsdale went on, a petulance to his voice that one would expect from a boy rather than a grown man. “I had to act before Montague discovered the truth.”
    “You were ever rash,” said the bishop. “Always the first to charge into a battle with no thought of what would happen when you left your army behind. I can tell you what will happen this time. Montague will exact his retribution the moment you set him free. An annulment will be his first order of business, then he will return with his army and lay siege until he starves you out. Did you give no thought to that?”
    “I want the gold he promised,” Lonsdale said defensively. “With twice that amount, I can raise an army of mercenaries to keep Montague at bay.”
    “And take in a pack of blackguards who are as like toseize Lonsdale as they are to guard it.” The bishop shook his head. “Nay, you must accept my counsel in this matter or suffer the consequences. If we are successful, I will take half the gold you receive from Montague.”
    “Half!” Lonsdale sputtered. “I would give you a generous share, of course, but half? ”
    “Admit the truth, Laurence. You will have nothing without my help.” He waited until Lonsdale gave him a grudging nod, then he leaned back in his chair. “Well, now. The first thing we must do is convince Lord Guy that I will not take sides in the matter, that I am acting only on the facts presented. I will offer to hold the marriage properties at the monastery for safekeeping, and will assure him that nothing will be distributed to either party while the marriage is in dispute.”
    “Excellent! We will lure Montague into a false sense of security. He will go along with that plan much more readily than he would with my demand to deliver the dower into my hands.” Lonsdale’s hopeful expression faded. “But nothing will change when he finds out I have the gold. The marriage could even be declared invalid if he discovers your part in the plot, the dower forfeit.”
    “He will never discover my part, nor live long enough to know that we split the gold between us.”
    The bishop’s clear intention to murder Guy did not seem to startle Lonsdale. He made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Oh, aye, I thought of murder right enough, but I am not so rash that I cannot see the finger of guilt pointed right back at me. I would hang sure as sin.”
    “Not if we make it look the work of another, one who would appear to have ample reason to murder her new husband.”
    “Claudia?” Lonsdale’s eyes widened with disbelief, then the light of understanding. “Of course! My God, John. ’Tis perfect!”
    “Aye,” the bishop agreed. “We will give him a fortnight to deliver the dowry, then I will perform the marriage. Montague’smen will enter the fortress the next day. You will tell them you witnessed the bedding ceremony, and their lord is well and truly wed. Do what you can to encourage their belief that he has made the best of the bargain and accepts his bride, that the couple prepare as you speak to depart for Montague Castle. We will send one of Montague’s own men to fetch him from his chamber. There they will find the baron’s throat slit, with your niece’s dagger nearby.”
    A dark sound came from the bishop that might have been a chuckle. Her uncle wore a smile that grew broader with every word the bishop spoke. “The cry will go up and several of Lonsdale will step forward to say that Claudia plotted to seduce Lord Guy into marriage. Then I will tell them of her dead brother, Roberto, and the reason she has to hate all Montagues. We will give her to Montague’s men to hang the next morning.”
    “They will question her,”