Broken Legacy (Secret Lives Series)

by Colleen Connally

  “Colonel Ralston hasn’t heard from her in months. He received news a couple of months ago that all have been taken prisoners and taken to Paris. Wayward as she may seem, she is his only child. The colonel has been to me closer than my own father. I have given my word I will find her and the children. Only, I have traveled twice over the Channel without success.”

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “What do you think I can do?”

  Lord Lenister glanced down at her. “I believe you are key in their release, if they have a chance at all. Hate for the comte runs great even after his demise. He did not make it to a trial. He hadn’t a chance to make it to Madame la Guillotine, once taken. His head was staked outside his estate. A call has gone out for all his family and all his connections to be executed. They await trial at the prison La Force. It is my hope to use your connections to gain access to her and the children before time runs out.

  “From what I gather from my time across the Channel, your family has found favor with the current regime. I have heard rumors that your family has a connection to one in particular who may find mercy upon them, General Marc Pierre Bernard. It is he that I want to find favor with. Tell me only this. Do you know of General Bernard?”

  Immediately, she stopped. She squared her shoulder and looked him right in the eyes. “You still have not explained how I can help you. What has my family…?”

  “I have tried to gain an audience but to no avail with anyone who can do some good toward my cause. No one is willing to take a chance to ask for leniency without cause. I need your family to intercede for me. I know well they hold to the French Republic, as I understood you did also.”

  She examined him. Her distrust encompassed the air. “If you question my beliefs, yes, I have always thought that all men should be treated equally. I was raised differently than you or my family. I never thought of myself as a blueblood, but as an outsider in both worlds and accepted in neither. But, yes, in the beginning I held to the same enthusiasm of liberty and equality. Now though, the passion has turned into fear. Fear that it matters not what birth you are or what politics you hold to. No one is safe…Lord Lenister. No one. All can turn with the wind. There is no ruler in France now. Only fear.”

  “I know well exactly what I face, Eloise. I am past trying to express myself delicately. Does not your family have a connection to General Bernard?” He no longer played a diplomat, but revealed himself an adversary.

  Tears welled in her eyes. How dare this man question her about her past she had tried desperately to leave behind, to forget! In truth, she would never forget Luc. How would one forget that night? Forget the life ebbing out of his body, holding him close, crying for him to live. Did she know Marc Pierre? She well remembered his hands pulling her away from her love, his brother, so she wouldn’t meet the same fate.

  “You know well I do or you wouldn’t ask,” she said plainly. Her body fell back away from him, but he caught her with his arms. She didn’t notice the tears streaming freely down her cheeks. “Let go of me.”

  “No, Eloise. Listen to me. This is my last option. I have to cross the Channel once more. This time I want to go as your husband. In that, they will not turn me away.”

  “My husband! Never,” she cried, but the dam of tears broke before she could contain them. He reached over and wiped away her tears. She hit back at him. “Do not touch me. I will never. I will write and ask for compassion if you like…”

  “You don’t listen well, Eloise. It would be met with a polite decline. Becoming your husband is my only option to show them I’m sincere. Your brother has already given his consent. I have already obtained a special license with your brother’s help. We are to be married immediately.”

  She tried to take a step back. “No…I won’t…I will not be forced…"

  “It was my desire not to use force, Eloise. I wish you to have accepted gracefully. Although a swift marriage, most would see it as advantageous.”

  “I’m sorry, my lord. I have no desire to marry.”

  “It isn’t a question, Eloise,” he said. There was something hard in his voice. “I would hate for the rumors of your involvement with smuggling aristocrats to cross the Channel. I dare say many might question your family’s involvement.”

  She tensed at the well-timed threat. She returned his glare with the same intensity. “You wouldn’t dare! They will be executed with only an accusation. You know this!”

  “I repeat, Eloise. I mean you no harm. It is simple and solves so many issues for me and for you. Take me for your husband. Relieve your brother’s worry about your future. Your family is safe from your secret. All will benefit from the arrangement.”

  “I hate you,” she retorted.

  “It is not necessary for you to like me for this to work, Eloise. I understand you are packed. We leave within the hour for Height Point.”

  Chapter Three

  Height Point, the ancestral home of the Granville family, sat high on the cliffs overlooking the English Channel. On a clear day, Eloise would have a full view of Calais, the place of her birth. So close, yet so far. The place had once been her home…a lifetime ago…when her life had a semblance of meaning.

  Situated outside Dover, the grand mansion had stood for several hundred years on a plateau back from the steep seawall, which served as a barrier against the Strait of Dover. The rocky height of the cliffs rose steep and straight from the sea along the indented shoreline. The cliff road that led up to the grand and noble manor stretched wide with breathtaking beauty. An abundance of flowers lined the open fields along the winding path. With the window open in the carriage, the aroma of fragrant blooms swirled in the air.

  Looking out, Eloise saw the large, dominating structure looming before her. Looking at Height Point from this view reminded her of her first glimpse of what was to become her home. In the dead of night, she had crossed the Channel in the utmost of secrecy. The whole of concealment had been necessary then as most crossings were now. How desolate she had felt. She cared for nothing…where she was…who she was with…if she had lived or died. She had never discovered how her father knew of her need. She only knew he had come…to his credit. And yet…

  “You could have well told me, Eloise,” Edmund said, interrupting her thoughts. Relentless, he stretched his leg. The carriage ride had been long from London into Kent. “And do not think for one moment the silent treatment will change events.”

  “I would have thought you would have well told me that you had arranged my marriage,” Eloise said, breaking the hours of traveling in silence. She straightened her posture and patted her flattened hair from laying her head against the side of carriage. Then she uttered under her breath. “Sold me out.”

  “I do not believe most people would consider marriage to the Earl of Lenister ‘selling out,’ especially as you had passed on Sir Joseph,” Edmund retorted. “It is an acceptable arrangement. He has no qualms about your history. He only requests that the marriage happens quickly.”

  “To gain access with my name? Come, Edmund, what does he hope to gain from such? Do you not find it all questionable? Why would he make a desperate attempt such as this…the odds are greater he will lose his head in his scheme than it is to free those held in prison. You realize, do you not, that these revolutionaries don’t hold to reason.”

  “You would know better than I,” he countered darkly. “Then think that your marriage could be short lived and you would have more freedom than you ever dreamed of.”

  “Edmund! How could you think I would consider such a circumstance…I would never want…never…”

  His hand waved in front of him. “How queer you are, Eloise. No, you would not. I have never met anyone so compassionate. In that, I will give to you. It must be your upbringing. Such a novel idea to care for others before one’s self.”

  Ignoring his snide remark, she said, “I’m not ignorant, Edmund. There is more here. What are you getting me into?”

  “Getting you into? After
helping in a smuggling operation, Eloise, you are asking me what I’m getting you into?”

  “You give me too much credit, brother. I only paid for certain things. I assure you, it was happening with or without me. Do you know how many smuggle along the coast?”

  “Do you know how illegal smuggling is? What if you were caught? Do you know what would have happened? Besides, where did you get the money to help the emigrants?”

  Her jaw clenched tightly. She lowered her eyes. Her secrets she held would not be breached.

  “I take it was your wardrobe that suffered. The expenses you asked for over time did not go toward your attire, would be my guess. Not that I should be all that surprised. I have never met a woman who is as independent as you are.”

  “It was learned by necessity. I was not waited upon hand and foot by anyone. I’m certain the men in my life would have loved to have done so but had not the opportunity. We women had no choice. Now, tell me true, brother, what does Lord Lenister expect of me?”

  He breathed out deeply and rubbed his chin in a manner to give words to his thought. “When Lord Lenister first came to me, I will acknowledge he wanted you to travel into France with him. I steadfastly refused. I would never allow you to do so. In the end, we came to an agreement. You need only supply the information he needs and in turn, you can spend your days on his country estate. Would that not make you happy? Have a dozen children. Julia will be ecstatic, as would Cousin Beatrice.”

  “But, Edmund,” she said, clenching her hands tightly. “I don’t know him. How can you expect me to marry someone I don’t even know?”

  “He is an eligible man of your status, Eloise. Whether you wait a day, a week, a month, a year, it would be no different because all has been agreed upon. I know you have dallied around the issue and you have only a few months before you turn one and twenty, but this one you will not outmaneuver me. It is for your own good. And for your information, you do not receive your inheritance at one and twenty.

  “It was changed to five and twenty. I have not told you, for I realized it would cause an uproar. Of course, the matter of guardianship would evaporate…to a certain extent, if you did not marry.

  “As for Lord Lenister, he wants it all immediate because of the circumstances. You aren’t a child, Eloise. If it is the marriage itself, you should have talked to Cousin Beatrice, but you refused to wait for her to pack. Told her to stay and enjoy…”

  “Edmund!” Eloise’s face reddened sharply.

  “What? What do you want me to say? You want to be in love? Come, Eloise. Now who is not being honest with me? If you wanted love, you would have had a desire to be courted. I have long suspected something happened across the Channel. But surely you want children and a household. If not the other, I’m certain Lord Lenister can find other avenues. Most men do.”

  “Not you…” Eloise paused. Her eyes lingered on her brother. He had no objection on his lips. With a start, Eloise realized her brother was as most men, as he so delicately put it. Disillusionment lay in her tone. “I thought you happily married.”

  “Quite so,” he agreed. “I have no complaints. Let us just say that three children are quite enough for Julia. She does not want to be burdened. I assure you I would never do anything to disgrace my wife, Eloise. Discretion.”

  “Of course.”

  Eloise sat back against the highly plush cushion. She studied her brother. If she had one person in the world she trusted, he sat across from her. The responsibility for the family he had placed on his shoulders long before their father passed away. She had wondered often if her rescue had been facilitated by Edmund and not her father.

  “This is what you want, Edmund, for me to marry this Earl of Lenister?”

  “Yes, Eloise. Although personally I don’t know him well, he has served with distinction in His Majesty’s army. He is highly thought of in circles. If I did not think he was well suited for you, I would not insist.”

  “Then I will do as you wish,” she said slowly. She turned her face and stared out the window.

  * * * *

  Lady Eloise might not have desired the union he had proposed, but Lord Gerard Lenister found a surge of confidence in his plan while he rode along the journey to Dover. Lenister smiled to himself. He didn’t give a damn what the rumors held. The mysterious lady certainly ignited a flame of desire within him.

  How quickly he had dismissed the concerns of his friends concerning the lovely lady. The Kiss of Death! Rupert whispered to him after his last dance with Lady Eloise.

  “Ah, my friend. So tempting, I admit, but I tend to like my head where it is,” Sir Rupert Godfrey added, to the amusement of all around.

  Lenister laughed. He understood the yarn only too well. For the last year, he had heard the whispers that the duke’s sister sympathized with the barbarians who had seized control of the once staple of French Society. If allowed, the rumors spread, she would have been in the midst of all the gruesome activities of late in Paris.

  Little did any know that when he discovered her connections, he could not have cared less if she had been the incarnation of a she-devil. He would marry Jezebel herself if she helped him on his mission. He was desperate.

  In his thirty-one years, Lenister had amassed quite a number of acquaintances, but there was only one he trusted above all else. Since childhood, Seamus McMann had been his best friend and confidant. The two had even served side by side in His Majesty’s army. Only Seamus understood the importance of the purpose behind this mission and it was only Seamus who had his utmost confidence. It was Seamus who now would travel back across the Channel with Lenister to complete this most imperative assignment.

  His sole attention for the last few months had been on France and the terror within the country. He began to lose hope. Who wouldn’t seeing the horrendous sights within the city? Until Lady Eloise’s name was mentioned upon that fateful night in Calais.

  With time being of the essence, he made immediate inquiries before leaving the French town. Information came readily and quickly. The sordid tale of a love gone wrong left Lenister confused in relation to Lady Eloise. Her upbringing had been inauspicious, beginning with her birth.

  Much more was behind the tale than what most had been led to believe. In that, he held little doubt. Not that he cared at the moment. It meant little. He had use of Lady Eloise whether she was legitimate or not.

  Lenister gave little credence to the story Rotheward wove. Despite Rotheward’s assurances that Lady Eloise was without doubt the legitimate daughter of his father, Lenister questioned the claim, as did most of the ton. What man in the position of the fifth Duke of Rotheward would have left his daughter to be raised in the most deplorable conditions?

  The relevant facts that concerned Lenister gave little weight to whether the lovely Eloise was legitimate or not, given more likely to the latter. He needed her, not her last name, but the life she led before she crossed the Channel. He needed her to plead to her friend his case. And he comprehended well that General Marc Pierre Bernard had been a close friend. Perhaps more on the line of brother, he thought, given she had been raised in his household.

  Marguerite D’Arcy lost her life giving birth to Eloise. Marguerite had long been believed to be the mistress to the duke since he had seen her on stage in Paris. An actress by profession, she soon left the stage to become a kept woman. Refusing to leave France hadn’t been an issue, not with the duke’s estate in Dover and her family in Calais. That had never been in question. The question laid with the exact relationship of Marguerite to the late Duke of Rotheward upon her death.

  Lenister thought all strange. Instead of taking the child back to England, the duke chose to ignore his daughter and let her family hold to the custom in France where Eloise had been taken to a wet nurse just outside Calais. Mame Adele Castel, twice widowed—first to a French officer who lost his life in the American Revolution and second to a baker—served the purpose. She had lost a stillborn daughter at the time. Her sole attention c
ould be given to Eloise, having only two older sons from her first marriage. Mame Adele Castel served as Eloise’s nurse until at some point Eloise had been placed in a convent, along with other schoolgirls, which in itself would be questionable. She had been allowed to be raised Catholic?

  From all accounts, Eloise had not been raised in accordance with the status her birth should have been afforded if it held she was indeed the legitimate daughter to the duke. She left the convent before the age of most girls. He had not found the reason. In some circumstance, she had been linked to the family of the Marquis Darius de Mortiere.

  From his understanding, Lady Eloise lived with her nurse once more after leaving the convent. Questions abounded in this action. Her family had risen to prominence in Calais. Yet she chose to live in poverty…until a scandal erupted, which led to the death of Vicomte de Calognac, the marquis’ oldest son.

  Then and only then did the duke make a move. Sweeping in to protect his daughter, he crossed the ocean and brought her back across the Channel. A short time later, the duke acknowledged her legacy as his own. Yet across the Channel in France, her name became legend with whispers she had been instrumental in the death of the hated vicomte.

  After learning the latter, the high esteem held to her for her stance against the despised aristocrat, he needed the lady…after their meeting, he wanted her.

  * * * *

  Eloise watched from her bedroom window, ignoring the beautiful cream-colored silk gown Jemma had hung out on her wardrobe for the ceremony tomorrow. The high-waist dress flared out with a delicate lace inset. The lace decorated the sleeves and the low neckline. Jemma, with her quick needle, had adjusted the dress, one of Her Grace’s. Eloise was certain Julia wouldn’t mind the dress, only that she wasn’t in attendance. But Eloise’s thoughts were far from which gown she would wear to her wedding. Her eyes fixated on the garden below.