Michael Dun - 31. Chapter 31

Lord Granville lit a cigar without asking her permission, the first sign that he did not respect her. He looked at her with a squint of pity. She once smelled like a rose, now it was more like the stench of bad cauliflower.

"Comfortable?" He asked, waving the lit cigar in her direction.

She did not say anything. Her eyes were void of emotion and he knew she would do one of two things, deny the charges, or blame it upon someone else, or both. He began with a harsh tone, accented by a deep, snapping voice. "Oh, my darling, what have you done? What on earth possessed you to use arsenic. The poor bugger never stood a chance."

"Don't you see, we can be together now!" She said with romantic fire in her eyes.

"Well... it is not quite as simple as that, my love."

"You said I should get rid of him, remember?"

"I simply want to hear it from your perspective. Start with Michael. You disapprove of him as much as he disapproves of you. His lifestyle does not comply with yours and you are unable to forgive him for this curse he has placed on the Dun lineage. If he does not find a woman to marry, the Dun lineage ends here. But that is between Michael and yourself. You could have told Sir Robert about his male sexual preferences but you kept silent, for you see, his sexual preference was most important to us. It meant he might not marry, it meant that he might not easily be misguided by the charms of a fake temptress, like you. We would have preferred that his sexual preference remained his own. And when you discovered Charlie was involved with Michael, you probably offered Charlie a certain sum of money to make sure that Michael did not ever return to England. Your first mistake."

"You were the one who sent him to Africa, not me." Madelyn said.

He came forward and kissed her hand, "Oh, my Lady, you used arsenic. Traceable arsenic! Sir Robert was about to die anyway. What on earth possessed you?"

"You possessed me. Oh, God! I am so hungry for you, Alfred." She growled, pulling him up to her, but he stepped away.

"No! You are disgraceful! A murderess! A woman who has no self-respect for herself, let alone the little life she has. You have become a nothing, madam."

"How...how dare you!"

"No, you did the daring, Madelyn. What will happen to us? What will happen to our destiny that we should have shared? It is gone, gone! And you made it happen, my dear."

Madelyn shook her head, she would not hear the words coming from his vile mouth.

"I did it for us, for you!" She shouted.

"Please, keep your ruddy voice down. I think I may have a solution. You will escape. I will place you in police custody but you will escape. I shall inform you of the details in due course. In the mean time, I want you to remain calm, or else we both go down. What is the name of the man you hired to kill Michael?"

"Gregory..." She whispered.

"I did not hear you."

"Charlie Manning." She said out loud.

"It seems this Charlie Manning has killed several people in the process of getting to Michael."

"I know nothing about the other killings."

"Only Michael was the target, Madelyn. Only Michael, that is why I sent him to Africa."

Lord Granville laughed, "Oh, my dear! You are such a schemer. Come to me."

She came to him gladly and kissed his hands and feet and neck and eyes and then his mouth. They tore the clothes away that separated them and he did not see her clutching a small knife in her hands. They fell onto the floor in a wild penetrating embrace and she saw the pleasure mixed with pain as she drove the knife into the small of his back. His head sank to her breasts