Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) Read online

  “Yes,” David reluctantly agreed and was relieved when Tanner backed away to lean against a tree trunk. “But my wife and I want Diana’s future assured.”

  “Ah, so it comes down to money and position. It always does with people like you.” Tanner tilted his head to glance up at the night sky. “I’d be willing to bet that if I went after Diana she’d run away with me.”

  “I doubt it, Mr. Sheridan. Diana is very young and impressionable but she isn’t stupid. She knows perfectly well that she’d be unable to survive on love alone. She is gently bred,” David reminded Tanner.

  Gently bred. It was a term that made Tanner wince. In the opinion of David Richmond and those of his kind he was a barbarian, uncouth and dirty. No lady of quality would ever deign to glance in such a person’s direction. At least that’s what men like Richmond and Kingsley wanted to believe. They were wrong. If the truth be known, Tanner had made love to quite a few “gently bred” young ladies who’d visited Briarhaven in the past. Tanner smirked at the memories, knowing Richmond would be soundly shocked if he had any idea of the number of proper petticoated girls who had sneaked away from their rooms at night, all eager to lie in the arms of Harlan Sheridan’s bastard son. But he wouldn’t tell Richmond any of this, because none of it mattered.

  All that mattered to Tanner was Diana.

  “I’m in love with Diana,” Tanner admitted.

  David sighed. “I do wish you hadn’t told me that, sir. Knowing such a thing makes you more of a danger to her future happiness. If you only wanted to despoil her because of your hatred for the Sheridans, I could dismiss you. But a serious admission of love is sad and frightening to me. For all concerned, it would be best for you to leave Briarhaven.”

  Tanner reared upward, black fury on his face. “I’m not going anywhere!”

  David backed away, not saying anything. He gave Tanner a probing look before turning his back and returning to the house.

  ~

  “I don’t know why you keep saying that Tanner would hurt me,” Diana protested to Anne. “He told me that he loved me … and … and I love him too, I think.”

  “Heavens, this is worse than I thought. Come sit beside me, Diana.” Anne patted the spot next to her on the large, comfortable sofa in the library. Diana moved from the window, where she’d been watching for some sign of Tanner, but only David returned to stand solemnly beside Kingsley on the veranda.

  Harp music and the sound of merry voices floated from the ballroom. Diana felt less than merry as she took her seat by her sister. The golden candlelight emphasized the worry in her blue eyes. “Nothing bad will happen to Tanner, will it?”

  “I don’t understand how you can care about the beastly man. Kingsley told me he tried to have his way with you. Anything done to him will be only what he deserves.”

  “Kingsley is lying!” Diana stormed. “Tanner never tried to do that to me.” In fact she wasn’t even certain what “having his way with her” meant. “Anne, don’t you understand? I thought you of all people would. I liked Tanner touching me. I liked it. I’ve never felt that way before… .”

  “Please,” Anne interrupted and stood up. “I don’t want to hear about it. How can you say such a thing or even imagine you liked that disgusting man touching you? Diana, I’m shocked at you.”

  Never in her entire life had Anne said something like that to her or been so disapproving either. Diana felt a bit sick to her stomach. She’d always wanted to please Anne because she loved her so much, but she couldn’t help the way she felt about Tanner.

  Her eyes were wet with tears as she looked at Anne. “I wanted him to love me.”

  Suddenly Anne was holding her in her arms while Diana cried. She felt guilty about what had happened with Tanner because she’d caused such pain to Anne and David, and Kingsley too, she guessed. And to Tanner. But she couldn’t forget how his kisses and touch had made her feel. Yet she remembered the hatred she’d seen on his face when she’d left and she couldn’t forget that either. Somehow she’d ruined everything.

  Anne broke away and held her at arm’s length. “I want you to listen to me. What you felt for Tanner was natural, in a way. You’re a healthy young woman, and I have to admit that Tanner is … a virile man. But he is a great deal older than you and he took advantage of your inexperience. You must believe that when you marry Kingsley, you shall feel those same feelings for him. Be grateful that Kingsley knows you weren’t responsible. He loves you a great deal, Diana. You’re quite lucky Kingsley understands and still wants to marry you.”

  “But what if I don’t truly love Kingsley?”

  “You do love him,” Anne insisted. “Kingsley is a fine man and the man whom David and I have chosen for you. We’d never do anything to cause you unhappiness. Kingsley will make you happy, just give him the chance.” At that second David and Kingsley entered the room. David beckoned to Anne who instantly rose and followed him into the hall. Kingsley quietly closed the large oak door and came to stand beside her.

  He gently wiped away the tears that sparkled like diamonds upon her cheeks. “I hope these tears aren’t for Tanner. They’re wasted upon such an unworthy fellow.”

  “I’m very sorry for all that has happened,” Diana began to apologize. “I never meant…”

  Kingsley brought her to her feet and enveloped her in his possessive embrace. “I know, my darling. You’re an innocent. Tanner is to blame for all of it.”

  “But that isn’t wholly true. I danced with him and I let him kiss me, and everything. Certainly you can’t hold him responsible for what happened.”

  “Stop it! I don’t want to hear any more from you in defense of my father’s loutish bastard. As far as I’m concerned, Tanner is totally to blame. You can’t actually think he might have serious intentions where you’re concerned, Diana.”

  She didn’t like that. It sounded uncomplimentary, as if Tanner couldn’t be interested in her as a woman. “Why not?” she asked, and stiffened in his arms.

  Kingsley laughed a great booming laugh that echoed in the quiet library. “You don’t understand yet. I thought Anne would explain it all to you, but apparently she didn’t. Tanner hates my father and me. Father took a fancy to an Indian girl years ago. He built her a cabin on the edge of the property near the swamp, because he was already married to my mother.”

  “Why didn’t Harlan send the girl away?”

  “You are an innocent.” Kingsley tweaked her nose, causing Diana to grimace. “He didn’t send her away because men, well, men have needs, needs that proper women know nothing about. Anyway, he couldn’t very well send her away after she became pregnant. Father is an honorable man and felt he had to see to the child’s welfare. But whenever my mother was indisposed or was pregnant, and she was pregnant a number of times but miscarried, father sought out Naomi, who is Tanner’s mother. He took a liking to Tanner, but then I was born. No one can say father didn’t do well by Tanner.”

  “He didn’t give Tanner his name, Kingsley.”

  “Why should he have?” Kingsley hissed. “I am the heir to Briarhaven, not some bastard my father happened to whelp with a squaw. I find your support of Tanner to be most distasteful and distressing. The man wanted to have his way with you, and damn, I think you might have liked it if he had, Diana!” He jerked her hard against him, hurting her with the pressure on her upper arms. “You’ve gotten it into your head that he might love you. Tanner can’t love anybody. He wanted you to get back at me. He wanted to have you first and destroy my joy in taking your innocence. Tanner hates me so much that he’d ruin you to hurt me. And then, Diana, what do you think Tanner would have done after he’d finished with you? What? Tell me.”

  He was nearly shaking her. “I don’t know!”

  “Let me tell you then, my dear. He’d have left you lying on the ground like a whore. You’re too innocent to realize what he intended for you. Believe me when I tell you that he can only hate the Sheridans. You’re going to be a Sheridan so he hates you. He hat
es you, Diana. Remember that.”

  She was shaking so badly that she had to sit down. Kingsley stood before her with clenched fists. Could what he have told her be true? Was she so inexperienced that she’d mistaken Tanner’s words, his actions, for love? She’d felt so wonderful when he kissed her and touched her. How could he have meant to use her or have his way with her like Anne and Kingsley said? Nothing he’d done to her had hurt her. But then she remembered the hate on his face, and she knew now that Kingsley must be telling the truth. She was going to be a Sheridan, and if Tanner hated his family so much, then Tanner might seek to harm them through her. And she’d been such an easy prey, so very easy that she felt ill to imagine Tanner chuckling over her body’s betrayal in his arms.

  “I don’t feel very well,” she told Kingsley. “I want to retire.” Kingsley took her hand and led her upstairs. He kissed her on the cheek before leaving her at her door.

  ~

  “Tanner’s going to pay for this, Father. I swear he will.”

  Harlan Sheridan watched as his son grabbed for a whip, the long black tail coiling on the floor like a menacing swamp viper. The older man held up his hands to prevent Kingsley from storming out the library door. “Don’t act hastily,” Harlan advised. “Tanner is a fine overseer. I don’t relish him lying abed for days during harvest time. We need all the slaves now, and especially Tanner. You know they don’t listen to anyone but him.”

  “That’s because you’re weak, old man!” Kingsley hissed from between his teeth. He threw out the whip and grinned at the high, whining sound it made. “But I bet they’ll listen to me.”

  Harlan was tempted to berate his son for this pitiful display of manhood. Sometimes he wondered from whom Kingsley had inherited such a mean streak. Celeste, his dear wife and Kingsley’s mother, had been such a gentle, doe-like person. She could never have harmed a soul. And he, well, he didn’t like violence of any kind. Perhaps that was why he was so pleased with Tanner. Tanner had the ability to make the slaves work with little complaining because all of them stood in awe of him. They worked hard to please Tanner, not Harlan Sheridan, and certainly not Kingsley. In many ways Tanner was master of Briarhaven. Now, however, Kingsley planned to punish Tanner for forcing his attentions upon Diana.

  Most certainly, Harlan agreed that Tanner should be punished. He should have known better than to lay a hand upon Kingsley’s fiancée. The thought never crossed Harlan’s mind that Diana might have welcomed Tanner’s touch. But no matter what had transpired between Tanner and Diana, Tanner didn’t deserve to be whipped.

  “I’m certain I can decide on another course of punishment,” Harlan assured his son. “You just forget the whole thing. Your wedding is two days away, and you can’t waste your time on disciplining an overseer.”

  Kingsley reared back on his boot heels. “Oh, can’t I? You’d like that, Father. I know what sort of punishment you’d dream up for Tanner, something short and brief like a severe dressing down, followed by a friendly pat on the back. I know you think Tanner is worth his weight in gold. I wonder sometimes if you regret not legally claiming your bastard so he can own and run Briarhaven one day. Certainly you’ve never had any confidence that I could do the job.”

  “That isn’t true, Kingsley.” But it was, and Harlan knew Kingsley didn’t believe him. “You’re my heir.”

  “Then stop giving preferential treatment to Tanner. I’m your legitimate son, not that squaw’s bastard.”

  “But Tanner is an efficient overseer. I don’t want him harmed physically and I don’t want him run off.” Harlan sat in the chair behind his large, satinwood desk. He suddenly felt very tired arguing with Kingsley, who was not one to let an issue die.

  Leaning forward, the palms of both hands bracing the edge of the desk, Kingsley impaled his father with a look of pure disdain. “In that case, I believe that Diana and I shall have to reside in Charlestown. You can keep Briarhaven and your beloved Tanner. I won’t live where I am not master in my own home.”

  “You don’t mean that, son.”

  “I do. Try stopping me from punishing Tanner and see if I don’t mean to leave. You may not care that your bastard son, an overseer who is little better than a slave, pawed your future daughter-in-law. But I warrant that our guests might not look so kindly upon the situation. Some of them have young, pretty daughters and wives,” Kingsley reminded Harlan, “and there’s nothing a man hates more than to have one of his women fondled by a half-breed. Many of the men recall the difficult times some years ago when the Cherokees rose up and butchered some of the people around here.” Kingsley smirked, seeing the troubled frown on his father’s face. “And some men might not be too forgiving of Tanner for touching Diana. After all, he is part Cherokee and they might enjoy taking some of their vengeance out on him.”

  “You’d actually like your brother to hang, wouldn’t you?”

  Kingsley shrugged. “Tanner means more to you than he does to me. Now, Father, what is it to be?”

  Harlan was defeated and he knew it. He’d wanted to protect Tanner in the best way he could. From the day the boy was born he’d looked after him and Naomi. He’d provided them with shelter and food, training Tanner for the job of overseer. He’d even had the boy tutored with Kingsley, much to Celeste’s chagrin. The boy had never disappointed him, though Harlan guessed he had disappointed the boy many times. But Tanner had never asked him for anything. Now, however, Tanner was a grown man and he wanted Kingsley’s fiancée. Diana was something Tanner could never have, and he should be able to see that. Yet lust had very little to do with the eyes, as Harlan well knew.

  Truly, he didn’t want Tanner harmed by the hatred of the neighbors, a hatred he knew Kingsley could incite to his advantage. That would only result in Tanner’s death. There was but one alternative.

  “Get that ugly smirk off of your face,” Harlan demanded. “I give you my permission to punish Tanner, but I warn you that if Tanner is maimed or killed, I shall find a way to make your life a hell.”

  “My life is already a hell because of Tanner.” Kingsley went to the door, clutching the whip in his hand. “After tonight, I can start living.”

  Harlan involuntarily jumped when Kingsley slammed the door. He felt like a coward, but he’d had to choose between his two sons. For the first time since his dear Celeste’s death, he laid his head upon his desk and cried.

  ~

  For the rest of Tanner’s life he’d remember the shriek of the whip hissing through the air. As he lay on his stomach on the tiny cot in his room, and the hot summer breeze wafted over him, he thought he had died and gone to hell. His flesh burned and stung, bringing tears to his eyes. But he hadn’t cried and wouldn’t do so now, though he knew Kingsley had wanted him to cry out. Why else would Kingsley have personally lashed him after ordering two strong male slaves to tie him to a tree by the slave quarters? Tanner could still hear Kingsley’s raised voice, “Cry out, you bastard! Beg me for mercy!”

  What a spectacle he’d been. Trussed up and whipped for Kingsley Sheridan’s amusement. Then, when he’d been near to fainting from the pain, Tanner had heard Kingsley laugh. “Here’s your great overseer!” Kingsley had shouted to the gathered slaves. “Now you all know who is master of Briarhaven.”

  “I’m mas … ter,” Tanner slurred aloud, vaguely aware that his mother was there to smooth ointment onto the ugly red welts on his back until he cried out with pain.

  “Forgive me, Mariah,” Naomi sobbed, referring to him by his Indian name. “I don’t mean to hurt you.”

  After that he remembered nothing.

  ~

  Would Tanner send a message to her? Would she see him again before she married Kingsley tomorrow? Diana wanted to see him and ask him if what Kingsley had told her was true. Had he only wanted her to ease his hatred of Kingsley?

  Lying in her bed, she didn’t know what to think. Her memory of Tanner and the moment they’d shared almost convinced her that Kingsley was wrong. Tanner must have felt somethi
ng special for her, he must love her. He had told her he loved her. But why hadn’t he come to her?

  “Oh, Tanner, if you don’t come before the wedding tomorrow I shall know that you don’t love me,” she whispered into the dark night, a sob welling in her throat. “And I shall hate you for the rest of my life.”

  ~

  “She hates you, Tanner. Diana hates you with all her heart. She was disgusted by your touch. She said you tried to rape her and hopes never to lay eyes upon you again, so when you’re able to travel, you will leave Briarhaven.” Kingsley stood above Tanner, more than a bit startled when Tanner, whom Kingsley thought was unable to move, lifted his head off the pillow to cast him a malevolent grin.

  “I don’t recall her complaining too much. She liked what I did to her. Maybe, Kingsley, you should wonder about your innocent fiancée’s virtue. Did I take it, or did someone else before me?”

  “You arrogant whelp!” Kingsley raised his whip and would have struck Tanner had not Harlan entered the room at that moment.

  “Touch him again and I’ll send you packing!” Harlan’s usually calm voice boomed. “Now get out of here, Kingsley, and prepare for your wedding. You’ve wasted enough time and energy here.”

  “I’m finished here anyway.” Striding to the door, Kingsley laughed. “Such a touching picture of father and son that my heart bleeds. But remember, dear brother, I’m marrying Diana. Think about her in my bed tonight and all of the nights when you’re far away from Briarhaven.” Seeing Tanner wince, Kingsley chuckled anew and went out into the bright sunshine of his wedding day.

  Harlan sat on a small bench beside Tanner’s bed. “I apologize for my son.”

  “Yes, you should apologize for him. He is a clod and an arrogant fool who shall make Diana’s life a hell, but she’s not my concern any longer. I’m leaving Briarhaven today.”

  To Harlan’s surprise, Tanner slowly began to sit up. Harlan reached out to help him, but Tanner withdrew and practically growled at him. “I don’t need your help!”