Lucy stood completely still, frozen to the ground.
Lucas began to loosen her long hair, entangling his fingers in her tresses. “Oh, Lucy, I knew Adam wanted you. Sometimes I thought it was endearing, the way he resisted his feelings for a servant. So honorable, our Adam. Any other man would have just taken you, as I’m sure you know. But don’t fool yourself, my dear. Our Adam knows the lay of the land; he’ll marry his precious heiress and have everything he ever wanted. He’d keep you on the side, too, if he weren’t so conflicted about your honor!”
Lucy stepped back into the shadows, feeling the wall behind her, trying to move away.
“You should have seen him that day in the pub! When that lout Richard talked about you! Adam, our errant knight, leaped to defend your honor. I don’t know who was more surprised, though, us or him.” Lucas chuckled at the memory. “Oh, ‘How can I have feelings for a serving girl?’ he would say to me. ‘She’s so sweet and good,’ he would say. ‘Do you know, Lucas,’ he said once, ‘she taught herself to read? Do you know what kind of mind she must have? A man could go a long way ere he met a woman like her! But a servant, no less!’”
Lucy listened, dumbfounded, barely noticing that his hand had caught hold of her sleeve. “Then, you see, when that oaf Richard spoke of your attributes, thinking that Adam, as the master’s son, had already tasted your wares, they all laughed at Adam championing your virtue as if you were a fine lady. Only I knew William to be your brother, so I kept my thoughts silent!” He licked his lips, his gaze darting about. “There’s something I must show you, Lucy. I need you to understand.”
“Understand what, Lucas?” she asked, her voice faltering.
“Understand why he was driven to kill those hoydens, I suppose?” asked a voice from behind them.
They spun around. Reverend Marcus!
The reverend continued. “I’d long wondered, Lucas, since I had of course seen you with a few of those girls before their … unfortunate demises.”
Lucy’s mouth gaped open, her fingers still holding Bessie’s pocket. She heard a lot of noise in the church, muffled shouts and then the church bells tolling. In the far reaches of her mind, she dully wondered what was going on, given the earliness of the hour.
Lucas laughed scornfully. “Those whores, you mean. A few of them with child, all of them with no morals, spreading their pernicious lies, polluting our congregation. I did it for you, sir—”
“Liar!” the reverend shouted, his face dark with fire. “Whores of Babylon they may have been, but I did not ask you to take the hand of God as your own!”
“Yet it was you who gave me the authority of the Church,” Lucas said, picking up a long pole, used to light tapers, that had been resting against the stone wall. He glanced at Lucy, still cowering by the trunks in the corner. “Well, I can thank the magistrate for this position as well. I did not want the Church, and yet I came to realize that this was the hand of divine providence at work. This I learned from you! God has sanctioned my actions. He has seen fit to give me power to act in his name.”
No, Lucas, no! Lucy thought, but she could not speak, terror having frozen her body and tongue.
“You have taken lives, Lucas, which did not belong to you but to God.” The reverend wagged his finger. “He will not thank you for the evil you have unleashed into this God-fearing community.”
“And how will this God-fearing community respond, when they learn that a bloody papist has been devoutly leading them in prayer every week?” Lucas narrowed his eyes. “Oh, yes, I’ve kept your secret, Reverend Marcus, but before I go, I will leave out your monkish trappings—the hair shirts, the rosaries—for all to see.”
For a moment the reverend was struck dumb. Anger, guilt, and shame warred on his features. Then he regained his voice. “You will suffer!” he shouted. “Indeed, you will suffer the most horrific torments, on earth and in hell!”
“I think not!” Lucas laughed, brandishing the pole. “For it is you who will suffer, for seeking to stop the hand of God! Just as Evangeline, the filthy wench, dared turn against me! I did know then, as I know now, that I had been given this power from God. Still, I taught