“Borrowing it.” Sean sounded cool, but his eyes were glittering in anger.
Diana saw that Sean was inching forward. A few more feet and he’d be close enough to leap on Nicky. But the gun could go off! She needed to get Nicky’s attention onto her. “Yes! I’m leaving forever,” she said, loudly. “You’re a piece of filth and I never want to see you again.”
“If you tell anyone what you made me do, I’ll kill you,” Nicky said, aiming the gun at her.
She tried not to look at Sean, but she knew he was getting closer. Her voice grew louder. “I’m going to the police. Right now. I’ll tell them what you did. I may not win in court but your illustrious name won’t be clean anymore. I’ll say there are orgies here and—”
Sean leaped and the gun went off.
Diana held her breath as she waited to see what had happened.
Sean stepped away, seeming to be unscathed. He glared at Nicky for a moment, then turned to Diana. “Go.”
She didn’t have to be told a second time. She gave him a quick look up and down. The bullet must have missed him. She climbed onto the saddle and took off into the night.
Sean waited until Diana was out of sight, then he turned to Nicky, who was still standing there, gun in hand.
Nicky could see what Diana had not: Sean’s side was bleeding.
Sean put his hands to his side. His voice was low. “You may get your kicks from raping girls and they may be too scared to take you to court but I’m not.” He raised his bloody hand in a threatening way. “I will prosecute you. Attempted murder. Before I’m done, I’ll see you in prison.” He stepped back to the bales of hay.
Nicky, terror on his face, dropped the gun and ran toward the house.
PRESENT DAY
Kate was the first one to run to Jack. The fake blood on his side looked very real. Without thinking about what she was doing, she pulled his shirt out of his jeans and ran her hands over his ribs.
Jack had raised his arm and was watching her in amusement. “It wasn’t real,” he said softly. “I wasn’t actually shot.”
Kate looked up to see a few people staring at the two of them. Embarrassed, she sat back on her heels. “That will never come out of that shirt.”
Under the cover of the bales of hay, he squeezed her hand—then turned to the bystanders. “Next act is in the kitchen. Better go get your places before they’re all gone.”
All but the police inspector left. “So young Nicky killed you?” the inspector asked.
“I’m not sure about that,” Jack said. “I wasn’t given a death scene.”
“Interesting,” the man said, and started toward the house.
Kate stayed where she was. “If it was only Nicky and Sean there, how do we know that Nicky shot him?”
“I think this is our Sara’s storytelling. Remember I told you that there were two bullets with the skeleton? You were so busy drooling over evil Nicky’s son that I didn’t get a chance to tell you where they were located.”
“I don’t think you should throw stones at sons of bad daddies.”
“Agreed. Anyway, one bullet was embedded in his lower ribs. The other one was in his skull.”
“You told Aunt Sara that?”
“You think I withheld information from her? Not on my life! Don’t forget that there are three more acts. I can’t imagine what else has been put together.”
“I hope the other acts aren’t like these two. Too dramatic for my taste.”
He held out his arm. “Help me up, will you? All this blood loss makes me weak.”
She didn’t call him on his joke, but put her arm around his waist, as his went around her shoulders. “What happened in the kitchen? I can’t imagine Mrs. Aiken allowing anything to go on in her kingdom.”
“I have no idea,” Jack said, “but I believe Diana is playing Mrs. Aiken. Sara wanted Bella but she declined.”
“Understandable.” She looked up at him. “When this is done, I still want to go to Scotland.”
Smiling, he kissed the top of her head. “It’s my heart’s dream.”
They walked to the kitchen together.
ACT THREE
KITCHEN OF OXLEY MANOR
Puck was in the big walk-in pantry. Byon and Nicky had sent her there to get more of the tinned fish paste that Willa had brought. They’d all been smoking marijuana and were very hungry.
Actually, not everyone was smoking. Nadine had worn a beautiful dress but she’d spent the evening in the downstairs loo. Puck’s mother had muttered “Women problems” in disapproval. It was like she knew some secret that no one else did.
Diana had been nervous all night, constantly looking out the windows. If a door opened, she jumped. She seemed to be expecting someone.
As for Clive and Willa, they were playing their usual hide-and-seek game. He hid, but if Willa took too long to find him, Clive changed places. As Byon said, “If Clive didn’t have Willa to complain about, would we know he existed?” Byon would say most anything to make Nicky laugh.
Puck filled a basket with delicacies, all while knowing that tomorrow her mother would give her hell. No amount of saying, “It was for Nicky,” would stop her mother’s tirade.
When the kitchen door opened, Puck crossed her fingers. Please, she thought. Don’t let it be my mother. Even though the others seemed to be in a bad mood tonight, they were still better than getting caught by her mother.
But it was, of course, her. Her mother started slamming pans about and muttering complaints. “I don’t know why they expect me to do it all. They should go home and leave Nicky alone. He has too much to do. Too much to oversee. They are destroying him.”
Puck had heard it all many times and knew her mother could go on for hours. Only Nicky was able to coax her out of a bad mood.
Puck was thinking about how she could get out without being seen when the door to the outside was flung open. She expected drunken laughter but what she heard was her mother’s gasp of shock.
Puck peeked out. Nicky was standing in the doorway and he looked so terrible that she put her hands over her mouth to keep from crying out. His face was bruised and swollen. There was a long scratch down the side of his jaw.
Mrs. Aiken engulfed him in her big arms and led him to the chair at the head of the table. “Who did this?”
“Diana and I...” He caught his breath. “We... She made me do things. She forced me to do—”
“Shhhh.” Mrs. Aiken glanced toward the pantry as if she knew her daughter was in there.