Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(141)

Nicola kept talking. “I’ve been married to this man at my side for twenty-five years,” she announced unnecessarily, “twenty-five extraordinarily unhappy years.”

There were some chuckles and murmurs as many thought Nicola had flubbed her speech.

Abby, however, did not. Nor, she could tell by the way he tensed at her side, his arm curling her closer, did Cash.

“There wasn’t abuse, not overtly,” Nicola went on, Abby felt Cash’s body jolt and the chuckling and murmurs stopped immediately as the room grew silent. “Mostly neglect. And, on occasion, cruelty. Not only to myself, but to my daughters.”

“Oh dear,” Mrs. Truman muttered as the feeling in the room turned uneasy.

Alistair’s face, magnanimous a moment ago, had soured, indicating without words the veracity of Nicola’s awful speech.

His hand came up to curl around her arm and he muttered, “Dearest –”

She yanked her arm free and gave him a cold look.

“I’m not, nor have I ever been, your dearest,” she informed him and then looked back to the crowd. “I asked you all here tonight not so you could celebrate twenty-five years of a very, very bad marriage. But instead so I could publicly apologise to my daughters for being weak and not protecting them the way I should. For desiring for them a life without want and sacrificing a home filled with love in order to do it. And now what I ask of you is to lift your glasses in a toast, not to the continuation of that bad marriage, but to the end of it,” she turned back to Alistair and finished, “because, dearest, tomorrow morning, my daughters and I are moving out. I want a divorce.”

There were shocked gasps, excited murmurs and a good deal of uncomfortably shifting feet.

Except Mrs. Truman who was chuckling.

She turned back to Abby and Cash and muttered loudly and with authority, (even though she had none), “Met him and was in his presence for about two seconds. Didn’t like the look of him. Just deserts, I say.”

Jenny’s gaze shot to Abby’s and even with their heartbreaking conversation of moments before, they both emitted short, shocked but entirely unamused giggles.

Their giggles stuck in their throats and their eyes flew back to the fireplace when they heard Alistair’s voice vibrating with fury, demand, “How dare you!”

Nicola ignored him and lifted her glass, shouting, “A toast! To the end of the bad and heralding the beginning of the good!”

But she didn’t get her glass to her lips.

Alistair’s fingers closed around her wrist and he jerked her hand down, the champagne spilling all over Nicola’s throat, chest and down the front of her elegant, black, strapless, bias-cut gown.

There were more stunned gasps but Cash didn’t gasp. The instant Alistair’s fingers curled around Nicola’s wrist he moved, pushing forward through the crowd toward the couple on display.

“You bitch! How dare you humiliate me in front of my friends?” Alistair demanded, getting in another jerk, causing the rest of the champagne to splash against Nicola’s chest and also in her face, triggering another now-horrified murmur to race through the crowd.

Fenella got close to the couple, her body rigid, she demanded loudly, “Unhand Mummy!”

Alistair’s eyes sliced to Fenella and he barked, “This is none of your goddamned business!”

It was then Cash arrived at the scene. He moved between Fenella and Alistair, positioning himself in front of the three sisters, his back to the crowd.

Even so, his deep voice carried when he ordered, “Take your hand off her.”

Like a demented schoolboy who was abusing a toy, Alistair gave Nicola, who was now fighting his grip on her wrist, another hefty wrench and her entire body shook with it, so much she nearly came off her feet.

All three sisters pressed in behind Cash but at Alistair’s action, Cash’s deadly voice cut through the room. “Take your hand off her,” he repeated, “now.”

Alistair, clearly mad in the face of Cash’s warning, enraged tone, narrowed his frightening eyes at Cash. “Who do you think you are? This is my wife and my house. I’ll do what I damn well please and I won’t let the bastard son of a Scottish bitch-in-heat stand there telling me what to do!”

Abby felt as if all the air in the room was sucked away as, with a vicious tug, Nicola tore free of Alistair. She stepped aside and Abby watched in disbelief as Alistair, robbed of one victim, turned his eyes to another and he took a swing at Cash.

Then two things happened at once.

One, Cash easily caught his uncle’s fist in his hand, twisted his arm, twirling Alistair so his back was to Cash and then he jerked Alistair’s arm up forcing him to emit an ugly grunt of pain.

Two, Vivianna Wainwright materialised in the air above Alistair, her dress and hair drifting and snapping about her. Her eyes, cruel and filled with venomous hate, were on Alistair.

As the room went entirely still, Vivianna opened her mouth and screamed.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Showdown, Part One

Vivianna’s scream filled the room and with it mingled other terrified noises, muted shrieks and urgent voices.

Then, moving as one, the crowd shifted, panicked, toward the door.

Except Abby, Jenny, Mrs. Truman and Kieran who all stood frozen staring at the scene in front of them.

And Nicola, Fenella, Suzanne and Honor who were gazing wide-eyed up at Vivianna.