"As you are mine. It'll be fine, I promise, Blake. No one and nothing will ever separate us, not even death. Our love can endure anything. Trust to it, and the gods."
"I wish I could, Arabella. I love you more than life itself. It's just the rest of the world I don't trust."
She reached for him then, and all his worries flew away in the face of their whirlwind passion.
Adam had been thinking quickly ever since Blake had walked in with his wife. He had beaten Arabella, but no mention had been made of the assault.
She was looking well, and the Jeromes had no notion that anything was amiss. So what had happened that night after he had attacked and beaten her? He could only guess.
Blake was a logical man. He would have acted logically. Blake would have had to take her to an inn in a large town, Bristol or Bath. And Leonore said she had seen him shopping for his wife in Bath. So Bath it must have been.
His agile mind came up with yet another scheme to rid himself of Blake and the two women he had come to loathe because they knew his secret.
Rosalie more than enjoyed his bag of tricks, but lately Leonore had been insisting that they were made for each other, and he suspected that she had told a couple of people in the area about her interesting if unusual young lover.
She was also expecting money from him, and he and Oliver had gone as deeply as they dared without getting a definite undertaking to rescue their material circumstances in order to avoid debtor's prison.
Ellen would turn seventeen shortly; he had already asked for her hand, and been told he would have to wait until then.
Oliver was about to give up on Georgina on the grounds that both of them could not afford to cut a dash unless the sisters could somehow convince their Papa that they really ought to have a double wedding.
The only other loose end was Molly the maid. The rest of the women he had used to satisfy his need to hurt and maim had all been taken care of, though he was rapidly running out of his interesting drugs.
He would save his remaining supply for a special occasion. Neither Rosalie nor Leonore needed any. They were already so immoderate in their desires that to give them any would be gilding the lily.
His mind racing, he said goodnight to the Jeromes and headed home with his brother, who was happily unaware of the monstrous thoughts running through his head.
Adam had one more pair of stolen cufflinks of Blake's that he had rather fancied for himself, and a couple of other items. They would have an interesting use or two, he was sure. With a quick stop at the house, he told Oliver he was going on the prowl for whores, and said good night.
Oliver watched him stroll down the street and hail a cab. He shook his head. No. Now that he had a chance of someone decent like Georgina Jerome, he was ashamed of himself for his previous excesses.
Women were not just pieces of meat to be bought and sold. He could sow his wild oats once or twice more before he put his head in the noose, but Georgina was a pretty and fun little thing, who had let him have quite a few liberties already, and was obviously a passionate woman. If only he waited a bit longer, he could have everything he ever dreamed of, and not have anything more to do with his brother and his bizarre behaviour any longer.
Adam whistled as he ambled down Cheap Street and gave his usual quiet little knock. As usual, he was welcomed with open arms, and legs.
Leonore didn't put up much of a struggle. She was in the throes of an orgasm when he squeezed the life out of her. Her final gasp was indistinguishable from the noises of passion she usually made. Adam dropped the cufflink in the bed, and left without a backward glance.
The following afternoon, Adam got rid of Molly, taking her far enough away from the Jerome household not to run the risk of her being found for a time. He brought her to the brink of delight, and snapped her neck like a pullet's.
He pulled an embroidered handkerchief with the initials ‘BDS' out of his pocket and crumpled it, then dropped it a short distance away from the body.
Adam swung back into the saddle and returned to the Jerome household with tales of his pleasant ride with his brother, who looked puzzled, but took off his riding gloves, set down his crop, and said nothing.
On the third night, Adam paid his final visit to Rosalie, and never had he enjoyed her more. She had begged for sex first, begged for her life when she had eventually understood how much he had always loathed her. He tossed the second of the cufflinks into the bed beside her and declared, "Good riddance to bad rubbish."
Now he had to wait for the local magistrate Geoffrey Branson and his son Malcolm to find Molly and start asking questions, as would the police in Bath when they found the dead women and the matching cufflinks.