by Laura Landon
“What if the reference isn’t to the air in London, but to something else?”
“What?”
“What if London and air are one word?”
“Londonaire?”
Jack held his silence.
“I’ve never heard the word,” Benton said, shaking his head.
“What does it sound like?”
“Either a place... or a title of something... or a—” Benton pushed away from the stall. “Bloody hell. A ship.”
“Yes. What if Lady Kingston and her brother expect a ship to arrive some time in November? The Londonaire.”
“And what if that ship will be carrying an illegal cargo of something that will make both Lady Kingston and Viscount Brackston extremely wealthy?” Jack continued. He wasn’t sure his logic was correct, but he had nothing to lose by following this line of thinking.
“Where does Ridgeway fit in?” Benton asked, obviously trying to connect all the pieces they’d gathered.
“I’m not sure he does,” Jack offered, “other than to take Jenna off Lady Kingston’s hands before she sees too much and she has to be eliminated. Plus, marriage to Ridgeway provides Lady Kingston with the opportunity to gain a tidy sum of money in the bargain.”
“If Ridgeway isn’t involved, then who is? Unless I’m mistaken, it wasn’t possible for Lady Kingston and her brother to have masterminded a plan of this magnitude. Especially one so big it was necessary to kill your brother to keep from being discovered. Nor do I think they are capable intellectually or financially of putting together a plan they anticipate will make them wealthy enough to pay off all their debts.”
Jack shook his head. “Perhaps I’m wrong and it is Ridgeway. If not him, perhaps it’s one of the nameless men who visited Kingston that night. Or, perhaps it’s no one we’ve considered.”
“How will we find out?”
“I’m afraid the answer won’t fall into our laps. We’ll set the trap I was talking about.”
A glimmer of excitement lit Benton’s eye as he considered the trap Jack had mentioned. Then he stopped and the excitement faded. “You’re going to go through with your betrothal, aren’t you.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Jack waited to see if Benton came up with another suggestion, but he didn’t. The reason he didn’t was because there wasn’t another way they could trap the killer without bait of some sort. And what better enticement was there than doing the last thing Lady Kingston or her mysterious partner expected? Or wanted?
“No,” Benton said with more than a hint of frustration in his voice. “But you can’t. Miss Kingston wasn’t betrothed to you. She was betrothed to your brother.”
“Thankfully, Miss Kingston was betrothed to the future Earl of Devlin. That happens to be me. Shad’s name was never mentioned in the agreement. Only the title.”
For a second, Jack detected a smile that Benton was quick to hide. “Baron Kingston evidently wanted to make sure his daughter became the future Countess of Devlin.”
“He’s going to get his wish,” Jack said, surprised at how much he meant those words. “I will inform Baroness Kingston that I will be staying the entire month of November, and that I insist on a betrothal ball to be held one week from today. We will plan for the wedding to take place here at Kingston Manor on the weekend following the ball.”
“That means you will have to produce a special license before then.”
“I attained a special license in London. That’s what took me so long to return.”
Jack’s words seemed to stun Benton.
“You brought a special license with you?”
“Does that surprise you?”
“Frankly, yes.”
Jack didn’t like having to answer to Benton for the decisions he’d made, but other than Baron Kingston, Benton was the only person Jack thought deserved an explanation. “I’d considered marrying Miss Kingston some time before I left here. The thought turned to a necessity the night I realized the abuse she was forced to endure.”
“You intend to remain here most of the month? Do you realize the risks you’re taking?”
“The risk will be the greatest before the betrothal ball. Anyone planning to stop the betrothal from being announced will have to do it before that night.”
Benton raked his fingers through his hair, then slammed his fist against the wood planking of the stall. “There’s no guarantee I can protect you, Devlin.”
“I’m willing to take the chance that you can.”
“If I can’t?”
“I prefer not to consider that possibility.”
“Well, you’d better. Miss Kingston would never forgive me if—”
“Miss Kingston’s already made her feelings known on the subject and I ignored them the same as I intend to ignore yours.”
Benton was silent a moment, then said in a tone of resignation, “Has anyone ever told you that you are a fool?”
“Perhaps once or twice.”
“Well, the sentiment needs repeating.”
Jack laughed.
He didn’t feel like laughing, but it was the only reaction he could come up with to cover his nervousness.
Benton checked the stable one more time and Jack realized the lateness of the hour. There were still a hundred questions to which he needed answers, but the longer they stayed away from the house the greater their chance of being discovered.
Before he lost this chance however, he had to ask Benton one more question.
“Where is Baron Kingston?”
Benton stopped. “I’m afraid that’s something only Miss Kingston can answer.”
“When will that be?”
“In the lady’s own time.”
Benton left the stable and Jack followed, knowing Miss Kingston’s butler understood his mistress nearly as well as Jack did. At least in this he did.
In all else the advantage was Jack’s.
THE DEVIL’S GIFT by Laura Landon
Chapter 16
“Absolutely not! I forbid it!”
The small dining room reverberated with Lady Kingston’s angry voice. Every sentence she spoke was filled with bitter accusation. Jack reached beneath the table and gave Jenna’s clenched fingers a gentle squeeze.
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly to form what he hoped she intended as a reassuring smile. He couldn’t be sure. Most of the baroness’s accusations had been aimed at Jenna, and her disparaging remarks had taken a toll.
They’d listened to the baroness rant and rave during breakfast for the past half hour, and Jack fought the urge to rub the temples on either side of his head to ease the ache that only intensified with each outburst.
What he did instead, was place a dollop of apricot jam on his last piece of toast and contemplate a bite. “I’m afraid you don’t have the right to forbid or accept anything, my lady,” he stated as nonchalantly as if he reported on the weather. “The betrothal papers were written and agreed upon by both my father and Baron Kingston before the baron ever met you. Since he did not see fit to insist on any changes after your marriage, any court in the land would have no choice but to adhere to the stipulations agreed upon and witnessed by several unquestionable members of the peerage.”
“You can’t do this. It’s trickery. You know my husband never intended for his daughter to marry you. She was only to marry your brother.”
“Miss Jenevieve Kingston was to marry my father’s son, the Earl of Devlin. That, my lady,” Jack said, lifting his brows and glaring at her over his half-eaten toast, “is my title. You are addressing the Earl of Devlin, lest you forget it.”
For the first time since they’d sat down for breakfast, Lady Kingston seemed at a loss for words and held her tongue. Jack enjoyed the silence for at least a little while. He knew the respite wouldn’t last long.
“I dare say,” Brackston said, chiming in when he realized his sister was missing an opportunity to make her point. “You can’t seriously expect Elly to hand over her d
aughter when her husband isn’t here to give his approval?”
“Miss Kingston is not your sister’s daughter,” Jack argued, “and your sister does not need her husband here to give his consent. He gave his approval years ago when he signed the betrothal agreement.”
“But demanding the wedding take place so quickly,” Lady Kingston said. “That’s impossible!”
“It’s not impossible,” Jenna said, adding to the conversation for the first time. “We will keep the wedding simple and invite only a few friends.”
“You misunderstand, Miss Kingston,” Brackston said. “I don’t think my sister meant it was impossible to prepare for a wedding in such a short amount of time, but that it was impossible because rushing the occasion would seem scandalous. Do you have any idea the rumors such a hasty wedding will invite?”
Jack didn’t need to look to where Jenna sat beside him to know her cheeks had turned a bright red. He reached out his hand again and placed it over her hands clutched in her lap. Her fingers were ice cold.
“Any rumors will die a quick death when the necessary months pass without the appearance of a babe in the Devlin nursery.”
Jack felt a tremor pass through Jenna’s body and gave her a reassuring smile.
“But you can’t have a wedding yet this month,” Lady Kingston argued, pounding her fist on the table hard enough to make the china clatter. “There aren’t enough Sundays left to read the banns.”
Jenna turned her head and stared at him wide-eyed. There was a hint of fright in her deep blue eyes. She obviously hadn’t thought of this minor detail.
“No banns need to be read,” he said, smiling at her. “I acquired a special license before I came.”
“You can’t have! It’s impossible!”
“I assure you, it wasn’t impossible,” Jack said, tiring of arguing over every point. “You are welcome to see the papers if you’d like. I left a copy of them with the Reverend Josiah Drisup when I arranged for him to perform the service. The original papers, of course, are locked in a safe place.”
“You already arranged for Drisup to perform the wedding?” Lady Kingston asked in a strangled voice.
“Of course. One can hardly have a wedding without priest or parson.”
Jack took the opportunity to give Jenna a reassuring look. “Is the Reverend Drisup agreeable with you, Miss Kingston?”
She answered him with an open smile and a gleam of emotion in her eyes. “Of course. He married my parents. I wouldn’t want to be married by anyone else.”
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Lady Kingston said, her cheeks a bright tint of red. “Tell Lord Devlin you will not marry him, Jenevieve. You don’t even know him.”
Jack’s heart raced inside his chest. She didn’t know him—not really.
He suddenly realized he needed to give her a choice. Even though he didn’t think she would refuse him, he needed to give her the chance to make that decision.
Jack thought of the courage it would take to play her part in this scheme he’d concocted. He’d already witnessed what Lady Kingston was capable of doing when she was crossed. Was Jenna brave enough to stand up to her? Did he have the right to ask her to take such a chance?
He wasn’t sure. All he knew was how desperately he needed her to say she’d marry him.
He tried to tell himself it was because she was the key to their plan. He tried to convince himself that he needed her to say she’d marry him so they could go ahead with the betrothal ball. He tried to persuade himself that he needed her to agree so they could lay the trap to catch whoever was responsible for Shad’s death.
But if he were totally honest, he needed her to say she would marry him because the greater part of him wanted to know she trusted him. Because he cared for her and wanted her to care for him. At least until the ball was over and they had the answers they needed.
But the choice had to be hers.
“Your stepmother is right.”
“What?” Jenna said, with a round-eyed look of confusion on her face.
“We haven’t known each other that long.”
“That long!” Lady Kingston interrupted. “You just met!”
“I don’t ever want you to think you were forced into this marriage. You must always know you had a choice,” he said through the sound of his thundering heart pounding against his ears.
“At last!” Baroness Kingston said. “Now tell him, Jenevieve. Tell him you refuse to marry him.”
“If I refuse?” Jenna asked.
“If you refuse, I will return to London and pursue a way to dissolve the agreement our fathers made.”
He knew the chance he was taking. It was monumental. Even Benton, who stood at his post at the end of the food-laden sideboard, arched his eyebrows in disbelief.
“Tell him you won’t marry him, Jenevieve,” Lady Kingston demanded as she glared down the long table. “Tell him you have no intention of being forced into this marriage.”
Jack watched in feigned calmness as Jenna rose from the table and walked to one of the long, multi-paned windows that overlooked the garden where they’d kissed just the night before.
He knew she was weighing her options. She was choosing between trusting him, or trusting herself. She was fighting the guilt she wrongly felt. She considered herself responsible for Shad’s death and was bothered by the fear that her decision could lead to Jack’s death too.
Suddenly, Jack wasn’t sure he should have given her a choice. What if she wasn’t brave enough to let him take the chance he had to take?
“Tell him you won’t marry him, Jenevieve!” Lady Kingston demanded again in an angrier tone.
A heavy cloak of dark tension filled the room while everyone waited for Jenna to make her decision. Jack was suddenly unable to breathe. Even Jenna stood unnaturally still, as if she’d been chiseled from a block of stone.
Just when Jack thought he’d reached a point where he couldn’t stand her silence any longer, she turned.
“I think a week from this coming Wednesday would be a perfect evening for a betrothal ball.”
Jack gave her a slight nod of affirmation. “As do I, my love.”
An indescribable wave of relief surged through him. Lady Kingston, however, didn’t share his elation.
“No! I won’t allow it!”
“You have nothing to say about it, Stepmother,” Jenna answered, staunchly facing the raging hostility in Lady Kingston’s glare. “This is what my father intended.”
“Then your father should be here to tell us that instead of hiding away like some frightened fool!”
“Yes, Jenevieve,” Viscount Brackston added, rising to his feet and bracing his hands on either side of his place service. “Where is your father? One would think you would want him here for such a festive occasion.”
Jenna fired back a retort with instant speed. “Unfortunately, one doesn’t always get what one wishes.”
“Damn you!” Lady Kingston screeched in a most unladylike outburst. “Damn your father, and damn the both of you!”
Jack pushed back his chair and bolted to his feet. “I should demand an apology, Lady Kingston. And I would because my betrothed doesn’t deserve to be spoken to in such a malicious manner. But any words coming from your mouth would be vile and insincere.”
The baroness’s hands covered her heart as if his words had caused her damaging shock.
“You speak of your betrothed as if she were a paragon of virtue,” Lady Kingston said, rising to her feet. She looked ready to launch an attack. “But she’s not. Not even a month ago I saw her in the garden with one of her many lovers. Her state of undress was disgraceful and the liberties she allowed a man who was obviously nothing more than a common servant were scandalous. I can guarantee you are marrying used goods,” she said, pointing an accusing finger in Jenna’s direction.
Jack paused and squarely faced the woman who Jenna had shared a home with for the last seven years. How had she survived?
“If
you ever,” he said, taking another step toward the end of the table where Lady Kingston stood, “defame my betrothed in such a manner again, I will see that you are never admitted through the front doors of any home in London for the rest of your life.”
“How dare you!”
Jack took another step toward her, and this time the lady had the good sense to step back.
“I may not be my father’s firstborn, but I am the twelfth Earl of Devlin and I am not a man without power and influence. One disparaging word concerning my betrothed and I will take great pleasure in ruining both you and your brother.”
Jack paused for a brittle moment. “Have I made myself clear?”
Baroness Kingston looked as if she were having difficulty forming words.
“Dammit, Elly. Answer Lord Devlin!” Viscount Brackston ordered.
“Y...yes,” Lady Kingston stuttered. “You’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”
With a sharp nod, Jack walked to Jenna and held out his arm. She placed her hand atop his forearm and he led her across the room. “Come, Miss Kingston,” he said. “We have a betrothal ball to plan.”
When they reached the door, he stopped and turned to face the baroness. “Don’t concern yourself with any of the arrangements. Other than providing Miss Kingston with a list of any guests you might wish to include, your involvement will not be needed. Or welcome.”
He escorted Jenna from the room, but the second they were out of sight he halted. He placed a finger over Jenna’s lips to keep her silent.
“Out, Benton! Get out! And close the door behind you!”
Jack waited until Benton had quit the room and closed the door as he’d been ordered, then motioned for him to stay close enough to hear anything Lady Kingston said to her brother.
When he nodded that he understood, Jack led Jenna across the foyer and through the front door.
“Bring my gig round,” he ordered a groom Jenna didn’t recognize.
“Right away, my lord.”
The young lad rushed toward the stable to bring the Devlin cabriolet to the portico, and Jack turned to make sure Jenna was all right. He wasn’t at all prepared for her reaction.