He stopped quickly at his house to fetch a sword and cursed as Burke handed him the ransom note.
I have your duchess. I will trade her in exchange for a note of safe passage out of London for myself and John Polidori.
Respectfully your servant,
Rosetta
“Goddammit!” Ian roared.
Of all his vampires, he had never expected quiet, unassuming Rosetta to betray him. He bared his fangs in rage. He would kill her for this!
Thirty-one
Angelica awoke cramped and uncomfortable from sleeping in a chair. Had she fallen asleep at her writing again? The sound of rustling papers intruded on her thoughts. Loki was playing with her manuscripts again. She tried to leap out the chair to startle and scold him and nearly had the wind knocked out of her when the thick ropes pulled her back.
Her eyes snapped open. She wasn’t home at all! She was in a stone cellar that was furnished as if it were living quarters. Still, with the velvet hangings, ornate tapestries, and tasteful ornaments strewn about, an attempt at beauty had been made.
The pine tables and ladder-back chairs were sturdy and serviceable, but inexpensive. Coupled with the darkness, they reminded her of the furniture that had been in her parents’ town house before her father had been promoted at the bank. Her attention was pulled away from her surroundings as she realized that she was not alone.
John Polidori reclined on a settee. Her reticule lay on the floor by his feet. In his hands he held the pages of one of her manuscripts, which he had been reading by candlelight.
“Where in the blazes am I?” she asked, despising the hysterical note in her voice as she squirmed in her bonds.
Her efforts were useless. The man obviously knew how to tie a decent knot. Rage engulfed her, hot and bitter. She had been on the brink of happiness, and this scoundrel had presumed to ruin it for her!
“Ah, you are awake, Your Grace,” John said pleasantly. He held up her work. “This is quite good, actually. I love the way you are able to bring your characters to life.”
“Thank you,” she said, feeling flattered despite the fact that he had abducted her and tied her up. “Would you please untie me now?”
“I’m afraid not, Your Grace.” His voice was thick with remorse. “But I do promise you will come to no harm.”
The sincerity in his eyes was unmistakable. Angelica believed him, despite the dictates of common practicality. She decided she might as well take advantage of his company, and from the tightness of the ropes, she appeared to have time to spare. “So, Mr. Polidori, how did you get the idea for the character of Lord Ruthven when writing ‘The Vampyre’?”
His dark brows drew together in consternation. “I have told everyone, even going as far as to have it publicly announced in the paper, that the basis of the idea was from a fragment of a novel that Lord Byron wrote. I merely developed it further.” His bitter laugh made her heart go out to him in sympathy.
“In truth, I wrote the tale out of spite. I wanted to, in the only manner I could, show the world what a coldhearted monster he was. Instead, because of that blackguard Colburn’s greed, my story was accredited to him and declared, ‘the best that Lord Byron has ever written.’”
“Colburn is indeed quite the blackguard,” Angelica said. “He refused to see me or my work only last year because I was a ‘mere woman,’ but when I arrived disguised as a man, he loved it and asked for more. After I married and revealed myself to be the ‘infamous’ Duchess of Burnrath, he paid me more! I suppose he thought my identity would generate more sales… the hypocrite.”
She paused as she digested Polidori’s words. “You did not base your story on my husband at all, did you?”
He shook his head. “I did not even believe in vampires until a few months ago. I’d intended the ‘vampire’ in my story to be a metaphor for Byron’s way of making people fall utterly and completely in love with him before sucking the life out them and tossing them aside.” Polidori looked down at his hands. “He broke my heart, you know.”
Angelica was stunned by the revelation that men could love each other in such a manner. She meant to ask more about their relationship, but as she shifted in her chair in an effort to get more comfortable, her attention was drawn again to the ropes that held her.
“You discovered that my husband was searching for you,” she said, looking pointedly at her restraints. “That is why you have abducted me.”
Before he could answer, a woman’s voice interjected. “It was the only option we had left. I will not let him kill my Johnny!”