Page 102 of His Improper Lady

“What?” Gregory gaped.

Tabitha started turning to him, then jerked back as Desiree threw herself forward into a roll. Tabitha’s gun roared, but Desiree was beneath her line of fire and the bullet went harmlessly into the depths of the cave. Desiree jumped to her feet, only inches from Tabitha, and slammed into Tabitha’s arm.

The revolver fired, the noise reverberating around the cave. Tom charged forward as Desiree sprang, and he grabbed Tabitha’s arm, wresting the gun away from her. Gregory moved at the same moment, wrapping his arms around his mother and pinning her arms to her side.

Tom stepped back, gun still in his hand, eyeing the pair uncertainly.

“Mother, stop! This is madness,” Gregory exclaimed as Tabitha continued to struggle, twisting and kicking in a vain attempt to get free.

“No!” Tabitha shrieked like a wounded animal. Then suddenly she sagged against her son, bursting into sobs. “No...” Gregory eased his grip on her as she cried, raising her hands to cover her face.

Gregory turned to Desiree and Tom as he held his mother. “I, ah, I beg your pardon. I don’t know what came over Mother. Her—her nerves have been unsettled by this whole thing about the will. I hope you will not... I’m sure she...” He ground to a halt, his face sinking into despairing lines. “What you said...”

“That she killed your father?”

“That can’t be true.” His words were automatic, without conviction. “She adored him, however little he deserved it. She’s kept his bedroom a veritable shrine. She loves him.”

Desiree felt a rush of pity for the man. It was clear his world had just fallen apart. In a gentle voice, she said, “It was an unhealthy sort of love. I’m sorry, but it’s true.”

Tom, less delicately, said, “See for yourself.” He gestured toward the pool beside them.

Gregory hesitated for an instant, then dropped his arms from his mother and walked with Tom and Desiree over to the pool. Tom struck another match, holding it out over the shallow water.

“My God,” Gregory whispered, shoving a hand back into his hair and staring as if struck to stone. “That’s him? My father?” He lifted his eyes to Desiree.

“Yes,” she said gently. “Your mother...um...” She fumbled for words and looked toward Tom in entreaty.

“She confessed,” Tom finished. “She brought Desiree’s mother here to kill her, but Alistair found out and came after them. So she killed him, too.”

Gregory’s face was blank with shock as he gazed down at the pool. “I barely remember him,” he murmured. “Just that he was big and smelled of tobacco and—” He stopped, sucking in a harsh breath, and swung back around, saying, “Mother—”

Tabitha was no longer there. For an instant, all three of them stood frozen. Then Gregory broke and ran from the cave, shouting to his mother. Desiree and Tom ran after him. The beach was deserted. They skirted the huge rock, splashing through the water that now covered the former strip of sand.

There was no sign of Tabitha on this side, either. They swung around, looking in all directions. Twilight was rapidly deepening, making it difficult to see. In eerie contrast, the moon was rising early, a globe of white on the horizon.

“There!” Tom pointed to a cluster of rocks several yards out in the ocean.

The rocks thrust up in a line, like a row of blunt black teeth, tight together. Tabitha, drenched, was clambering up out of the water onto the lowest rock. She climbed up onto to the adjacent rock, then the next, as the ocean crashed and swirled all around her.

Tabitha reached the last shelf of stone. It was the longest and largest, and the sea foamed around its base, water spraying up with each crashing wave. The small dark figure went up the incline in a sort of running half crawl until she reached the very tip.

“Mother! No!” Gregory ran toward the ocean, but Tom caught him at the water’s edge.

“No,” Tom told Gregory, holding him back. “You’d never reach her in time. You’d only kill yourself trying.” Desiree joined them, taking Gregory’s other arm in a firm grip.

But Gregory was no longer trying to pull out of Tom’s grasp. He simply stood, staring in horror, and whispered, “Mother...”

Tabitha reached the top of the rock and stood poised there for a moment, arms spread, looking out across the dark gray water. She turned toward them, her arms still out wide, before she fell backward into the sea.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

FOR A LONG MOMENT, they stood, staring out to where Tabitha had disappeared. Desiree turned to Gregory. His face was desolate, and he dropped suddenly to his knees, as if all energy had drained out of him.

“My God,” he said quietly and rested back on his heels, his hands loosely on his thighs. For a moment, he simply sat, gazing out as darkness gathered around them.

Desiree looked from him to Tom, and Tom shrugged, clearly not knowing what to do any more than she did. Desiree knelt beside Gregory, putting her hand on his back. Gregory turned his head toward her, his gaze raw with pain. “She loved him more than anything else in the world. More than anyone.”

It seemed a very sad statement from a son, but Desiree said only, “I’m sure she did.”