His Mask of Retribution Read Online Free PDF

scandal, but Knight crushed it within his hand as a red mist descended before him.
    * * *
    Marianne heard the footsteps outside in the alleyway before the highwayman’s accomplice did. The highwayman strode into the room wearing the same long dark coat he had worn upon Hounslow Heath, but his hat was the smart beaver she had watched him don in the coach, and beneath the coat she caught a glimpse of the fine white shirt and dark waistcoat. The mask tied around his face had moulded to his features and his boots left a trail of footsteps through the dirt of the floor.
    After all these hours of waiting, he had finally come to return her to her father. Her stomach tightened with anticipation. Then she met his eyes, and they were not golden and light but dark and dangerous and filled with such a cold hard rage that she knew, before he even spoke the words to his accomplice, that it had all gone wrong.
    ‘Misbourne played us false.’
    ‘He didn’t deliver the document?’ The accomplice sounded as shocked as Marianne felt.
    ‘Not the right one. Does he think me so much a fool that I would not notice?’
    ‘You said he was a blackguard but, even so, what manner of man risks his own daughter?’ the accomplice whispered, but she heard him just the same.
    ‘No!’ Marianne leapt to her feet so suddenly that the chair tipped back and clattered on to the floor. ‘You’re lying! My father must be confused. You cannot have made it clear what you wanted.’
    The highwayman walked right up to her and his eyes were dark and deadly. ‘Your father knows exactly what I want, Lady Marianne.’
    ‘No,’ she whispered, shaking her head, knowing that what the highwayman was saying could not be true. ‘He would not leave me here with you. He would do everything in his power to save me.’ She knew it with all her heart.
    Something of the rage diminished in the highwayman’s eyes and the way he was looking at her made his words ring true more than any angry assertions could have done. ‘I am sorry, Lady Marianne.’
    ‘There must be some mistake.’
    The harshness of his whisper softened. ‘There is no mistake.’
    ‘You’re lying,’ she said again and her voice was very quiet and controlled, in such contrast to the terrible frenzied thud of her heart. Of course he was lying. He had to be lying.
    He said nothing, just stood there and looked at her, and she could not bear to see the pity in his eyes.
    ‘You’re lying!’ she shouted it this time. ‘You just want more from him!’
    ‘Lady Marianne.’ Gently he tried to take her arm.
    ‘No!’ She flinched and pushed him away. ‘Do not touch me!’
    ‘We have to move,’ she heard his accomplice say in the background. ‘What do we do with the girl?’
    The highwayman did not take his gaze from hers as he answered, ‘We take her home with us.’
    The accomplice gestured the highwayman aside. They talked in hushed tones, but Marianne could hear some of what they were saying.
    ‘Maybe we should just let her go. If Misbourne isn’t going to give up the document...’ The accomplice was arguing to release her.
    ‘We keep her until he does.’ The highwayman was so adamant that she knew his accomplice would not persuade him. He meant to keep her and heaven only knew what he would do to her. He glanced round, saw she was listening and pulled his accomplice further away, turning his back so that she would not hear their words. They were so intent on their conversation that they did not hear the sound of feet and voices, children’s shouts and a man’s growl. The door opened and four children ran in, and behind them, a man and a woman carrying a puppy wrapped in a filthy shawl.
    The children did not seem fazed to find the highwayman, his accomplice and Marianne.
    ‘All right, governor?’ The oldest fair-haired boy sauntered across the room and gave the highwayman a nod.
    ‘Tom,’ the man snapped at the boy, but the boy was not cowed in the slightest. ‘Beggin’ your