His Christmas Countess

by Louise Allen

  So, she had been right to leave Giles with instructions. ‘My man is outside in the carriage. He knows what to do if I do not come out, or if I send him a note without a certain code word in it. I really am not as foolish as you always thought me, Henry. And as for how I intend to extract that money from you, why, I will simply confess all to my husband. Grant Rivers is a law-abiding, honest man and—’

  The door behind her opened. ‘I am flattered that you think so, my dear,’ said a deep, calm voice.

  ‘Grant.’ Kate found she was on her feet, facing the door where her husband stood surveying the room with a chilly hauteur that sent a dangerous wave of sheer desire through her. Behind the broad shoulders in the caped greatcoat she could glimpse the butler, bobbing about in agitation.

  ‘Sir? My lord?’

  Grant half turned and handed Claridge his hat and gloves. He kept hold of his riding crop. ‘Thank you. That will be all.’ He shut the door in the butler’s face. ‘Sir Henry Harding, I assume? My brother-in-law.’ He stayed on his feet, looming over the seated man at the desk. ‘I wish I could say it is a pleasure, but I doubt it will be, for either of us.’

  ‘Grant, please sit down.’ He might be intimidating Henry, which was a good thing, but he was terrifying her.

  ‘If you wish, my dear.’ He picked up one of the heavy carved chairs that sat against the wall and spun it across, one-handed, to thud in front of the desk next to Kate, then he sat down, crossed one booted leg across the other and began, very softly, to tap the riding crop against the polished leather. ‘So, allow me to summarise the situation as I see it, Harding. Your sister is with child by Baybrook. You send her away where he cannot marry her even if he wishes to, and then you extort money from him under threat of informing his immensely wealthy and very, very moral prospective father-in-law. Am I correct so far?’

  Henry stared like a mesmerised rabbit in front of a stoat until Grant slapped the crop harder against his boot and Henry twitched. ‘Yes, well…’

  ‘And you put her in the way of a confirmed rake in the first place? Yes, I assume so. And not content with ensuring that he pays a suitable sum to your sister to raise her child decently you decide to keep it all yourself—and to ask for as much money as you think you can possibly extract. Yes?’ There was another slap of whip on leather.

  ‘Yes. But now she wants it all! She threatened me!’

  ‘With me. Very wisely. I am trying to recall what the judicial penalty for blackmail is.’ Grant rocked the heavy chair back and studied the ceiling, deep in thought. ‘So few people come forward with a complaint, that is the problem. Most seem to deal with it by other methods. Direct methods.’ He brought all four chair legs back to the floor with a thud and Henry cringed back in his own seat.

  ‘You mean murder? Catherine said you were an honourable man!’

  ‘And she is correct, I hope. Let me think now. The navy is always short of men. That would give you a healthy outdoor life with plenty of fresh air and exercise, and we are not at war at the moment, so there are only falls from the mainmast, shipwreck and over-amorous shipmates to worry about. Oh, and the food, of course. Or there’s the East India Company—always on the lookout for men, I understand. A pity India is such an unhealthy country, but we can’t have everything. I am making new acquaintances all the time these days. Men of influence in the navy and the East India Company for example.’

  ‘You wouldn’t.’ Henry was pale now—in fact, Kate thought he might vomit on his shiny new desk. ‘I’m a married man.’

  ‘From what I hear Lady Harding would be quite relieved by your absence. Of course, your loving sister would support her in remaining here, make sure she had a good bailiff and not the useless one you inflict on your tenants now.’

  ‘I’ll pay! I’ll find the money somehow, although I don’t know how…’

  ‘We’ll work it out, never fear, Harding.’ Grant stood up and nodded to Kate. ‘Ready, Lady Allundale? I’ll be back tomorrow, Harding. Oh, and don’t try to make a run for it. I know far too much about you.’

  Kate was confused, anxious and deeply relieved to have Grant there, all at the same time. The mixed emotions might be uncomfortable, but at least he now knew the truth about her. But how did he feel? There was no way of telling, not when she could not ask him, could not take his hand and look into his eyes. He was in control of himself, of Henry and of the situation, but whether he was furiously angry, disgusted or merely resigned to her betrayal she had no idea, and a chaise containing a lady’s maid and a footman was not the place to find out.

  She thanked Giles for his attentiveness and Wilson for her patience and then sat, hands folded in her lap, her mind utterly blank of any kind of meaningless small talk while Grant surveyed the flat farmland on either side of the road back to Southend. He had tied the hired hack on behind the carriage, so she had not even had the time to sit and think without looking at him and having that steady green gaze look straight back at her.

  Perhaps this was how a prisoner in the dock felt as she watched the faces of the jurors. Guilty or not guilty? Condemned or pardoned?

  Somehow she kept control of herself on the interminable drive back. Kept her chin up, her back straight, her expression composed. One did not show weakness in front of the servants. Besides, pride would not let her give way.

  *

  When they reached the Ship Inn and Grant issued orders for the hired horse’s return she dismissed Wilson and Giles and climbed the stairs to the large suite of rooms she had taken. Jeannie and Anna were bright-eyed and pink-faced from a chilly walk along the beach. Charlie and Mr Gough were still out there, swathed in scarves, skimming pebbles, prodding driftwood and doing whatever men and boys did by the seaside.

  ‘His lordship has returned with me. Please let everyone know that we are not to be disturbed until dinner time. His lordship has a great deal of business to attend to.’ Such as dealing with his deceitful wife.

  ‘Which is our room, my lady?’ Grant had come up the stairs while she stood on the landing, steeling herself.

  ‘Through here. I took virtually the entire floor.’ He was addressing her formally and the chill of it was like the touch of a cold finger on the nape of her neck, unpleasant yet bracing. She walked in through the door he opened for her and took the chair by the window, let the light fall on her face. There was no hiding anything now.

  Grant sat down facing her and leaned forward, his forearms on his knees. ‘Are you all right, Kate?’

  It was the last thing she expected him to say, this expression of concern for her, and it almost undid her.

  ‘Don’t cry,’ he said, firmly and without reaching for her. The prosecuting counsel…

  ‘I am not and I will not.’ Easier to promise than to keep, she suspected. ‘You seem to know a great deal, but I expect you would like me to tell you myself why I have lied to you.’

  Grant moved, an involuntary gesture that she read as acknowledgment of her betrayal. So be it. ‘Henry likes to gamble and he met Jonathan in some hell or another and invited him to stay. I think he had made up a plan on the spur of the moment when he realised that Baybrook needed to escape his creditors and get out of London for a while before news of his debts reached Lord Harlington, his future father-in-law. I did wonder whether it was some deep-laid plot or whether Henry simply had a flash of inspiration, but it was probably the latter. He brought him home, made much of him, invited all his cronies round for card play, let him shoot our coverts. And did nothing when Jonathan began to flirt with me. I thought Jonathan was serious, that Henry’s unconcern meant approval. I was inexperienced, lonely—ripe for the plucking, I suppose.

  ‘I told myself I was in love, that he was an honourable man who intended marriage. I was not the first naive girl to fall for it and I will not be the last. When Jonathan had gone, his pockets lined with enough winnings from the local squirearchy to keep his tailors happy, I realised he had made me no promises, not even to write. And then I found I was expecting and Jane t
old Henry and he went off to London.’

  ‘To tell Baybrook he must marry you.’ Grant leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. The judge listening to the evidence, weighing it up…

  ‘That’s what he told me, but I realise now he knew perfectly well that Jonathan was in no position to do that. He was contracted to the daughter of a powerful and wealthy man and he could not afford to risk that alliance. Henry told me about it when he got home. He’ll pay, he promised. And like an idiot I asked if that meant there would be enough for me to have a little cottage somewhere, raise the child in modest respectability. He laughed and said that we did not need money for that, he would find a home for the baby easily enough. And then he explained it all, how he could extort money from Baybrook for years, how he needed to get me out of the way so Jonathan could not find me, how a foundlings’ home would take my baby.’

  ‘I think I would like to see your brother through the sights of a duelling pistol on the nearest common at dawn,’ Grant remarked. ‘What did you do then?’

  ‘I did as I was told and I went up to the lodge in Scotland.’ Now they were coming to it. The story so far had been one of her own foolish innocence in allowing Jonathan to seduce her. But what followed was not innocent. ‘I should have written to Jonathan, told him that I was not in league with Henry, promised him I would support a statement to a magistrate. But I didn’t. I allowed myself to be used. And then it was too late, I was on my way north and all I could think about was how to get away, how to keep my baby.’

  ‘You left it very late.’ Grant’s voice was dispassionate. She found she could not look at him, so she watched Charlie running along the road towards the inn, laughing and calling back to Mr Gough. My son. I could lose him, too.

  ‘I wasn’t well at first, and then I had no money. It took me a long time to get it together, stealing the odd shilling from the housekeeper’s purse over weeks so no one would notice and suspect. They were all paid by Henry. I had nothing to offer them to win their loyalty.’ Charlie had vanished, but she could hear his voice faintly from the hallway below, happy, laughing. She shrugged. ‘You know the rest.’

  ‘Why did you tell me that Anna’s father was dead?’

  ‘At first, just instinct to hide, to cover up. That was why I told you I came from Suffolk and didn’t tell you about Henry’s baronetcy. And then, later, you were so protective, so possessive. I was afraid you would confront Baybrook, call him out. If I told you about the blackmail, then that made you an accessory after the fact, didn’t it? So you would have no option but to expose Henry, and I know he deserves it, but it could have ruined Jonathan if his father-in-law found out and cut him off financially.’

  ‘You have a high opinion of my sense of honour and of how law-abiding I am,’ Grant said drily. ‘It did not occur to you to tell me this whole story and let me set it right?’

  ‘Of course not. I had deceived you, allowed you to marry me, save Anna and myself, embroiled you in this. How could I turn around and dump the whole mess at your feet?’

  ‘It was why you were so reluctant to come to London, I suppose. Kate—’ He broke off. His lower lip caught between his teeth, then, as though he was making himself ask, he said, ‘Did you meet Baybrook in Green Park by appointment?’

  ‘No! When you told me how you felt about me, saw for myself that you were happy in our marriage, saw how much you trusted me, I knew I had to stop pretending everything was all right. I went looking for Jonathan to find out exactly what Henry had been demanding, promised him I would put it right somehow. I saw him in the park that day and followed him.’

  ‘Anna has his eyes, that unusual clear green with gold flecks.’

  ‘She got that from him?’ Kate shook her head, bemused by the detail. ‘I can’t remember what colour his eyes are. Anyway, I knew I had to go to Henry, make him stop, get the money and pay it back.’

  ‘All two thousand five hundred and twenty pounds,’ Grant said.

  ‘How did you know it was that much?’

  ‘I arrived outside the window just as you were discussing it, demanding that he give it to you.’

  Kate thought back on what she had said, when she had said it, when Grant had walked in the door. So that was how he knew so much. ‘You must think I am as bad as he was, that I wanted the money for myself?’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ‘I had a bad moment.’ Grant held up his hand and she saw the raw graze across his knuckles. ‘I hit the wall, which was foolish. But you are my wife, Kate. I owe you my loyalty. I owe you my trust.’

  He meant it, she could tell. For a moment the happiness bubbled up, almost painful in its intensity. Then she realised that he was making himself trust by an effort of will, against the evidence. The happiness wavered and went out like a candle flame in the wind.

  He has to trust me because he is loyal to me. Not because he knows I wouldn’t do such a thing, not because he loves me. Grant is honourable and Madeleine rejected him and Charlie. Now he has the courage to risk his heart and his happiness all over again on a woman who has been deceiving him since the moment we met. What if I let him down, slip up, fail to have the nerve to always be truthful?

  Grant needed to believe in her, she realised. He needed that faith that she would be true to him.

  I am on a shaky pedestal where I have no right to be.

  ‘Thank you.’ She could feel the pedestal rock beneath her feet as she groped for balance, the right words. ‘I was optimistic in thinking Henry would actually give me the money, but I had to try. I would have given it all back to Jonathan somehow.’

  ‘Will you let me deal with this if I promise not to call Baybrook out? I will repay him, assure him of our silence, of the end of Henry’s extortion, provided he forgets he ever met you.’ When she opened her mouth to protest he smiled thinly. ‘And Henry can repay me.’

  ‘It may take some time.’ It seemed she could breathe again. Grant believed her.

  ‘I will put some of my own people in. That will sort him out. He may come to think longingly of a nice sea voyage to India after all, by the time I have finished with him.’

  ‘I am glad you are on my side and not against me,’ Kate ventured, daring a feeble joke. Grant’s smile was still tight. ‘I should not speak lightly. And I should not expect you to deal with Baybrook. It was my fault. I will—’

  ‘You will do no such thing.’ With the suddenness of a pistol firing Grant lost his temper. He was on his feet, his fist thudding into the wall, his voice a barely contained shout. Kate stared horrified at the smear of blood from his unhealed knuckles, the mark of violence across the neatly papered wall. Grant never lost his temper, never shouted. He swung round, towering over her. ‘I deal with threats to my family, my wife, my daughter. Is that clear?’

  Kate nodded, unable to drag her gaze from his face. ‘I am so sorry.’

  He swore, crudely, harshly. ‘And don’t apologise!’ It was a shout now. Grant slammed away across the room, turned and glared at her from ten feet away, six feet of infuriated male pride and muscle. ‘Your brother, who should protect you with his life, uses you, an innocent, to bait a honey trap, makes you party to a criminal act, puts you in fear for your child. You could have died in that hovel. You probably would have done if I had not come past by the merest chance. You have the guts to fight for your daughter, take risks for her. You have given my son the mother he deserves, made my house a home, driven away my demons.’

  Grant lifted his hands, scrubbed them across his face. ‘Don’t you dare apologise to me, Kate.’ He stared at her as though he had forgotten who she was, what they were doing there. Stared as if he was having a revelation and not a very happy one at that. Then he moved. Ten long strides took him past her to the door. ‘Get back to London first thing tomorrow, let me sort this out. I don’t know when I will be back.’

  He stopped, turned on the threshold and came back to her, pulled her into his arms and took her mouth. The kiss was hard, possessive, almost punitive. Thr
ough her confusion she could taste his anger and his desire and, beneath it all, a sort of desperation.

  And then he was gone, booted heels clattering down the steps.

  ‘Lady Allundale?’

  Kate blinked and the room came back into focus. Mr Gough was standing in the doorway, regarding her warily. ‘Yes?’

  ‘His lordship has…er…left?’

  ‘Yes,’ she repeated and somehow managed to think of something other than Grant’s mouth on hers, kissing with the sort of desperation a condemned man might use if he were to be hanged the next day. ‘We are going back to London tomorrow morning, first thing. Please can you arrange that, Mr Gough?’

  ‘Certainly, Lady Allundale.’

  ‘Was that Papa? I didn’t know he was coming here. I heard him shouting.’ Charlie appeared from his bedchamber door, a clean shirt half on. ‘Papa never shouts like that.’

  ‘He has had a very trying day, dear.’ Possibly almost as trying as I have had. Kate forced back the hysterical laughter that was threatening. ‘We will be going back to Grosvenor Street tomorrow, first thing.’

  ‘Oh, good.’ Charlie’s anxious expression turned to a broad grin. ‘It is interesting here. I like the sea. But it’s not long until Christmas and we’ve got to get ready.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Kate hoped she looked less fraught than she felt. Christmas had completely slipped her mind. There was the anniversary of the old earl’s death to deal with and the challenge of creating a perfect new set of Christmas memories for Charlie and presents to buy and… And a husband who I thought I understood and now…

  ‘Run along and finish getting changed, Charlie. And try not to bother Mr Gough. He has lots of things to do.’

  She went back and sank down into the chair, considered indulging in hysterics and concluded, rather wildly, that they would have to wait. ‘Wilson!’

  ‘Yes, my lady?’ The maid had a pile of folded underwear in her hands. Gough must have lost no time in telling her the news.

  ‘What is the date?’