Imitation of Love by Sally Quilford Page B

you’ve only just left. So that’s at least another
day for the letter to reach Willoughby, and another day for your cousin –
George isn’t it? – to write back and say you didn’t arrive. By then it will all
be over.”
     
    Catherine didn’t want to admit that no
one might write to her at all, apart from Alyssa, and even she might wait a
week or so. Mr. Oakley would be glad to see the back of her, and she felt sure
no one else who would miss her absence. “What will be over?”
     
    “Our task. The one you are going to help
us with. Since you made it impossible for us to continue.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    “You told Mr. Oakley the names on the
forged letters of introduction. Now they’re unusable, so you have to create
more.”
     
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Catherine’s mind was working overtime. Celine had clearly been listening at the
study door. Had she also picked up on Xander being the Captain? She prayed that
was not the case. Neither of them had said he was. Though there had been hints.
     
    “Don’t play innocent with me. We know it
was you who forged the documents.”
     
    “It was my brother, Jimmy and he’s dead.
I suppose it was your men who killed him.”
     
    “They’ll kill you if you don’t
cooperate.”
     
    “So be it. Even if I were able to do it,
I’d rather die than help you.”
     
    “Then when you’re dead, we’ll travel
back to London and kill your sister.”
     
    “Don’t you dare hurt Alyssa!”
     
    Celine gripped Catherine’s arm. “Then
you’d better do as we say.”
     
    Catherine struggled for a moment,
thinking she might jump out, but the carriage was going too fast. She didn’t
fear death, if that was what awaited her, but she did fear it happening
painfully over a long period of time as she lay with broken limbs in a ditch
somewhere in the countryside. She knew they were going to kill her anyway. That
much was certain. They couldn’t afford to let her live once they’d forced her
to complete the task they set her. Just as they’d killed Jimmy to silence him. 
But she couldn’t let them hurt Alyssa. Her sister was an innocent in all of
this. Although she knew about Catherine being involved in the forgery, she knew
nothing of the details. What Xander said about Alyssa suffering for her
behaviour was coming true, but she hadn’t thought for a moment that such a
thing would happen.
     
     “It was you who approached Jimmy,
wasn’t it?” Catherine asked, looking at Mrs. Somerson. She wanted to get as
much information as she could, in case she did manage to escape.
     
    “He was one of my easier conquests,
unlike Mr. Oakley. Even when Oakley was in my arms, I never felt that I really
owned him.”
     
    Catherine winced inwardly. She hated to
think of Xander being with the Somerson woman, perhaps kissing her as he’d
kissed Catherine in the garden the night before.
     
    “I feel sure Oakley knows who the
Captain is,” said the maid. “Has he said anything to you, Miss Willoughby?” Her
voice was menacing.
     
    “No.”
     
    “You must know who he is.”
     
    “No, I don’t.”
     
    “I think you’re lying. He used to visit
your house. Are you telling me that you provided him with forged documents
without ever knowing who he was?”
     
    “I didn’t provide him with anything. I
don’t know who he is. My brother never told me. The Captain was always in
disguise and I only saw him from a distance. All I know is that he has a common
accent.” She looked at Celine. “Like yours.”
     
    “Don’t get impudent with me, Miss
Willoughby. I might be tempted to kill you immediately, since you’re clearly no
use to us now. But I think you are.”
     
    Blood run through Catherine’s veins like
iced water. She had never been so alone. Not only might she not live to see
Alyssa marry, she was never going to see Xander again. And she wanted to see
him, more than anything, just long enough to tell him how she felt. He