Lured Into Sin By The Wicked Earl (Steamy Historical Regency Romance)

by Olivia Bennet

  “Perhaps, we’ll be alone again,” he said, running his index finger down along her temple, then over her tear-stained cheek. “Then, I’ll—”

  The door slammed open and Adam burst through. Susannah cried out, relieved to see him.

  “Adam,” she cried, her voice weak. “Help me.”

  Gerard had finally let her go, and she sank back against the wall, her knees no longer holding her up. It was like they’d turned to jelly and could no longer support her.

  Chapter 36

  The moment Adam saw his former friend, leaning in toward Susannah, he knew that he had arrived just in time. He didn’t dare think of what might have happened, had he gotten there moments later.

  Adam and the constables had arrived at Wrentbour Manor, only to find that Gerard was out. Adam’s gut had told him that he should return home. Something told him that Gerard had been tipped off by someone, perhaps the foreman at the factory, since Micklewhite feared for his own life.

  “Get away from her,” Adam growled. In a second, he was across the room. Gerard held up his hands, stepping away from Susannah. Adam glared at Gerard but went to Susannah. “Darling?” he asked, his voice tender. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. She clutched Adam’s arm. He wrapped it around her, holding her to him while he turned toward the man who had attacked her.

  “How dare you threaten the woman that I love—and in my own house,” Adam said.

  Gerard merely smiled, his eyes as hard as flint. “She’s going to find out what it’s like sooner or later.”

  “I’ve just come from Perry Cotton, where I found one of your workers, building my device—the one that you had stolen from me!”

  Gerard smirked. In that moment, Adam barely recognized him.

  “You caught on much faster than I thought.”

  “Why did you do it?” Adam asked. He wanted answers, and he would have them, sooner or later.

  “I thought it was a great idea to have your invention sent to my company to boost my production and income. You didn’t even want to sell it. I had to find another way to have it.”

  “Why? I was going to release it as soon as it had been tested! All that you needed to do was wait!”

  “My profits aren’t what they used to be,” Gerard said, rubbing his chin. “It was supposed to pay off my gambling debts that I’ve accrued. I recently lost a very large sum of money to Mr. Sullyard while gambling. I needed to boost production as soon as possible. Things were getting dire for me, and I didn’t want to have to beg you for it.” Adam hadn’t known that his friend had been so proud.

  “How did you do it?” Adam asked. He was pleased that the constables were waiting, just outside, listening to every word. It seemed that, caught in the act of attacking Susannah, Gerard was feeling rather forthright.

  “I hired two men to steal it,” Gerard said. “I merely needed the plans, but they brought the device as well.”

  “Were you the one to tell them to blow up my laboratory?” He couldn’t believe Gerard’s callousness.

  Gerard shrugged. “More or less,” he said. “I told them to leave no evidence behind. I left it to them to define exactly what that meant.”

  “Well, the label on the gunpowder box was still legible,” Adam told him. “Did you think that I’d never figure it out?” Adam asked. He had to know. “Did you think that I was too stupid?”

  “No. I rather respect your intelligence,” Gerard said. “I didn’t realize that you had so many connections among the riffraff. I assumed wrong. I suppose that was you, Susannah?”

  “Actually, she hadn’t much to do with it,” Adam said, angry that he was still attempting to strike at Susannah. “I did my own investigation.”

  Gerard blinked in surprise. “Ah,” he said. “I hadn’t expected that. You don’t really have the resources.”

  “You don’t know me at all,” Adam said. “I had enough resources to figure everything out and end up with ample evidence.”

  Gerard smiled slowly. “Maybe I know you best of all.”

  “Susannah knows me best of all,” Adam said. “And you’re going to prison.” Gerard’s eyes widened. This, it seemed was not what he’d expected at all.

  The constables, taking their cue, walked in. Adam watched as his oldest friend was put in irons. “The saddest thing is,” Adam commented. “If you had simply told me of your difficulties, then I would have given the plans to you. I would have loaned you the money to pay your debts.”

  Gerard scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t want your pity.”

  “And yet, you have it,” Adam replied.

  His former friend glared at him. There was so much more that Adam wanted to ask him but felt that he didn’t actually want to know. He decided that it would be better for him if he didn’t know just when Gerard had stopped being a friend to him.

  The constables led Gerard from the room.

  He looked at Susannah, who was sunk against him in a bit of a daze. She was gripping his arm tightly as though he were the only thing preventing her from falling to the ground. “Come, we’ll see them all out,” he said, softly.

  She nodded, though she still looked very pale. She raised her chin proudly and walked beside him.

  * * *

  Susannah’s mind was full, and her emotions were a frenzy. She kept moving forward. It gave her strength to watch as Lord Wrentbour was marched out of the house in irons. He had fallen so far.

  Both she and Adam stood at the door, watching as he was placed inside of the wagon. Mr. Howard stood on the front step, his back to them.

  “Are you all right?” Adam asked in a low voice. He planted a kiss on the top of her head.

  “He said…he said that I’ll never have what it takes to be a Countess,” she murmured, her eyes still on Lord Wrentbour. He was sitting in the carriage with a dour expression on his face. It was good to see him behind the wooden bars.

  “Are you nervous about it?” Adam asked her.

  “Very.”

  “He hit you right where you were vulnerable,” he said. “Just like he meant to.” He turned her to face him, his hands on her shoulders. When she looked into his eyes, she saw his love there, in the softness of them.

  “You will make a wonderful Countess,” he assured her.

  She smiled up at him. She loved him so deeply. It didn’t matter that the ton would never accept her. She was going to spend the rest of her life with the man that she loved. That was more than most women, ladies or not, ever got to experience.

  “You will have so much help,” he promised her. She nodded, smiling.

  They turned back as the wagon bearing Lord Wrentbour pulled away from the curb. Just as it rolled away, down Harrington Court Road, her own father walked up the stairs to the front door.

  * * *

  Susannah and Adam faced him together. Mr. Howard closed the door, then stood to the side. He was present in case they needed him. Adam looked at Susannah’s father curiously. He wasn’t sure what to expect from him. They had all assumed that he was long gone, back to the North, yet here he was.

  Adam steeled himself, on the off chance that the vicar had returned to demand that his daughter leave with him. Adam would never let Susannah go. He couldn’t bear the thought of living without her.

  Vicar Humphries stared them both down, unsmiling. He sighed, then spoke.

  “When I left the house the other day, I was very angry with you, Susannah. I had decided to stay in London just a few more days to try to convince you to go home with me.”

  The Reverend stared at her, his face suddenly crumbling. “Just this morning, I heard about the explosion and the fire at Lord Malmore’s house, and that a maid had been hurt. I thought that it was you, my daughter,” he sniffled. “My only daughter. And I realized my mistake.” He reached out, and Susannah placed her hand in his, tears springing to her own eyes. “Your happiness is more important than anything. And I don’t want to be the reason for your unhap
piness.”

  “Thank you, Father,” Susannah said, hugging him. Adam felt so happy for her. It was the one thing that she had wanted: her parents’ approval and their presence at the wedding.

  “If this is the man who you are to marry, then I shall be the one to walk you down the aisle to him,” her father said, then turned to Adam. “We started off on the wrong foot, My Lord. I want to apologize for that.”

  “It’s all water under the bridge,” Adam told him.

  The vicar squinted, nodding gruffly. He held out his hand to Adam to shake. Adam, smiling broadly, shook it in both of his.

  “Now, I’ll need to return to Lidcote, forthwith,” he said. “I have to go and collect your mother, or she will never forgive me.”

  “By the time that you both return, we shall have the wedding planned,” Adam was pleased to tell him. “You and your wife are both welcome here as our guests.”

  * * *

  Susannah’s father agreed to stay, at least for tea. They all sat in the parlor talking over steaming cups and one of Mrs. Larson’s famous chocolate cakes.

  “The maid—” her father said, “she’s well?”

  “Yes,” Adam assured him. “I would have allowed everyone to say so, but I needed a certain thief to believe that she was dead.”

  “Well,” her father said, “I’m glad to hear it. You’ve gotten your device back, as well?”

  “Yes! I recovered it just this morning,” Adam explained. Susannah beamed at him.

  “That’s excellent news,” she said. He hadn’t had a chance to tell her in all the hubbub.

  “Indeed,” Adam replied. “I’ll be bringing it over to Windham Tobacco later today, so that we can start the next phase of testing.”

  “My Lord?” Mr. Howard called out from the doorway.

  “Yes?”

  “There’s the man here to speak with you about fixing the lab.”

  “Excuse me,” Adam said, standing up. He gave Susannah a grin, then walked out. Susannah found herself alone with her father. She didn’t know what to say to him. She took a sip of her tea. She wanted to apologize.

  “I know that we’ve not always seen eye-to-eye,” her father said. “I would never have allowed you to come here. And I’m sorry for that. Over the past month, I’ve realized that I should have listened to you.”

  “Thank you, Father. I’m sorry, too. I should have sent word that I was well.”

  “You’re happy here?”

  “Yes, very.”

  “You’ll be comfortable, of course.” His eyes travelled around the room, which was richly decorated.

  “Most likely.” Susannah knew that she would be. Adam would take care of her—he would love and cherish her.

  “Lord Malmore seems honorable,” he allowed.

  “Very much so.” Susannah had the finest regard for Adam’s character. He could have convinced her to travel down the road of sin and scandal, yet he was waiting so that he could marry her properly.

  “Is he Godly?” her father asked. This, Susannah knew, was of the utmost importance to her father.

  “He attends church every Sunday,” she assured him with confidence.

  He nodded his approval. “Then there’s nothing that I can do but wish you both all the best.”

  “You must be here to give me away,” she said.

  Her father smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  Susannah was blissfully happy. In the end, everything had worked out. Her parents would be at the wedding, Adam’s invention had been returned, Gerard had gotten his comeuppance, and they would live happily ever after.

  Epilogue

  Behind him, the organ began to play the wedding march. Adam waited a few beats before he turned. Susannah, her hand in her father’s arm, beamed at him. She was dressed in white silk. The dress had an empire waist, and little bell-like sleeves. The veil flowed from the bun on her head. Her face was framed by little ringlet curls.

  He smiled, his heart lifting at the sight of her. She was his, at long last. When he thought back to when he had met her, only two months prior, he had only imagined this day. Now that it was happening, he could hardly believe it.

  When her father stepped forward, he placed Susannah’s hand in Adam’s.

  “No other man deserves her,” he told Adam.

  “Thank you, sir,” Adam replied. “I’ll take good care of her.”

  The Reverend stepped back, and Adam led Susannah the last few steps to the altar.

  They both faced each other, clasping hands.

  “I love you,” he mouthed to her.

  “I love you, too,” she replied.

  “We are gathered here today to see the joining of these two souls in holy matrimony,” the vicar announced.

  Adam beamed. He was so ready to begin his life with her. Her brown eyes glistened with joyful tears, and her smile lit up the room.

  * * *

  There was a veritable feast afterwards at Adam and Susannah’s home, in the oft-neglected ballroom. That day, it had been cleaned to perfection. The portraits had been returned to their places. White candles decorated the room along with large arrangements of white roses and lilies. Adam’s mother had assisted, but Susannah had been the one to plan out the décor. She had an eye for it.

  Adam looked around at all that were gathered. His parents had lent them their household staff for the day so that the members of Adam’s household could all attend as guests.

  It brought him joy to see Lord and Lady Wiltshire and other members of the ton mixing with Mr. Howard, Mrs. Braithwaite and all of the others. Adam and Susannah had even invited the other Mr. Fort who had proven himself a worthy ally. Susannah’s parents sat at the table with Lord and Lady Wiltshire; the four of them were deep in what looked to be a pleasant conversation.

  The only person not in attendance was Gerard. His trial had been only the week prior. He had been found guilty on all accounts and was now to spend the next few years in prison for theft. It had been found out that he was very much in debt; most of his assets, including Wrentbour Manor, and Perry Cotton Imports, had been liquidated to pay for them. Adam felt pity toward his former friend. He doubted that they would ever cross paths again. He hoped not, at least. The one place left to Gerard was the drafty manse in the country. With any luck, when he got out of prison, he would retire thence.

  “It’s good to see everyone so happy,” Susannah murmured, beside him.

  “It’s a wonderful sight,” he agreed. “Everyone who’s special to us, all in the same room.”

  He brought her hand to his lips. He was awash in pleasant anticipation. His blood seemed to be on fire with desire. He had waited for this for so long, and he was finally going to have her.

  “I’ve been dreaming of you,” he said, watching the roses bloom in her cheeks.

  “I can’t wait.” The musicians began tuning up in the corner.

  “Come,” he said. “You must dance with me.” She set her hand in his, allowing him to lead her out into the middle of the dancefloor.

  He pulled her close, and they both moved to the music. He loved the way that she seemed to melt up against him as they danced.

  “Funny,” he commented. “I never loved dancing before the night that I danced with you in my lab.”

  “Perhaps you had the wrong partner.”

  “Quite right, my dear.” He pulled her closer to him. She seemed to melt into him. He could smell her perfume—lavender and roses. He let himself get lost in the brilliance of her smile, the way that her eyes lit up. It was the first night of the rest of their lives.

  He meant to savor every moment.

  * * *

  Once Susannah and Adam had said goodbye to all of the guests who were not staying with them at the house, Susannah went upstairs. For the first time, Lucy helped her into her nightgown. She was going to be Susannah’s lady’s maid. Though it was a change, it would increase Lucy’s standing, and Susannah was happy to help her friend in any way that she could. />
  After all, Lucy had helped her to get to London, where she had met with good fortune. She wanted share in that with her dearest friend. After their bitter disagreement, they had agreed never to fight again.

  “All right, My Lady,” Lucy said, with a wink.

  “Please, Lucy—you mustn’t.”

  “I must,” Lucy replied as she pulled the pins out of Susannah’s hair, so that it fell in soft waves over her shoulders. “Think of it as a term of endearment between the two of us.”