A portrait of a girl

The shelf caught Charlotte's eye because it was spotlessly clean. On it stood a portrait of a woman, a small book bound in red leather and a glass vase with a handful of fresh wildflowers. Angry at herself Charlotte paused on her way out to freedom to see what kind of woman had captured this outlaw's heart. She was sick at the thought that the man who had so easily seduced her was in love with another; but all the same she paused for long enough to examine the portrait. The child's face in the pewter frame was familiar, a pretty girl with a half-smile that Charlotte was sure she had seen before.

The book was a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets, the poems were so out of place in this masculine hideout that she almost giggled when she saw how worn the cover was and the dog-eared pages. She wondered if anyone else in the county knew that the dreaded Black Brand was a secret lover of poetry? It was not until she saw the note in the cover page that all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The inscription read simply "To my sweet Mary, for when my corporeal form is away from yours, my heart will always be close. - Jack"

Mary was the girl in the portrait, and now she knew why the face had been so familiar. This was Mary Fuller, the maid who had been put in a compromised position last year and sent away from the Marlton estate in shame. As soon as she recognized Mary Fuller Charlotte knew Black Brand's identity. It could be none other than Randolph Fuller, Mary's older brother who had crashed her party last fall with the sobering news of Mary's **** and his crazed demands for justice from her father. He had his sister's fine blond hair and blue eyes and the anger when he spoke of Lord Marlton was made clear.

Really, she would have made the connection sooner had her father's agents not definitively eliminated Fuller as a possible candidate long ago. After Fuller's angry outburst in the great hall of Marlton Manor and the way he was soundly beaten by the family's groomsmen many people assumed Black Brand was he, but multiple witnesses identified him boarding a East Indies frigate bound for China nearly a month before Black Brand's first appearance. Somehow Fuller must have made his way off the outbound ship and made his way back to Marlton's lands, because Charlotte's captor was most certainly Randolph Fuller.

No wonder he had shown no mercy as he had taken from her what had been stolen from his sister. Charlotte blushed fiercely as she remembered how thoroughly he had claimed her; she now knew that Mr. Fuller's passion though had not been desire for her awkward body but rather vengeance for what she and her father had done to his family.

With Black Brand's identity and the location of his lair Charlotte could put an end to his campaign of robbery, terror and now abduction and ****. Well, truthfully it had not quite been ****, but Charlotte's father would not hesitate to add that crime to the others, unless he hoped to keep Charlotte's shame from the London gossips.

However, she paused as she was about to make good her escape, now that she knew who this outlaw was and why he had waged this private war against her father, did she even want to destroy him at all? A crazy thought occurred to her as she carefully replaced the small red book of poetry back on the shelf. What would Mr. Fuller's reaction be if he returned to find his ravished captive free of his shackles but waiting patiently to ask him about his sister and offer her help?