“It was quite a brilliant arrangement, really, for the company was able to thrive, at least for a time, under a false aura of legitimacy—all the while perpetrating the greatest of frauds on the public. The directors gained immense profits without the risk of actual investment and thus began a remarkable and manic speculating frenzy.”
“I know this,” Mary said. “It was how my father made his own fortune. He was a recording clerk for the company and bought many shares at the very beginning. He was also one of the lucky ones for he sold before they became worthless. He made a fortune before the bubble burst. But how can you know all this?” she asked.
“Because my father was one of those fortunate stock recipients, but then he became greedy. When the stock tripled, he wanted more than Sir Richard was willing to issue gratis. So he mortgaged his holdings to purchase ten thousand additional shares, at a greatly discounted price, of course, but then he failed to perceive the warning signs. Within months, the bubble burst and he was ruined. When the public cried out for blood, his death provided the perfect scapegoat. Sir Richard knows that I know this, and he both fears and despises me as a reminder of his sins.”
“Is there nothing you can do? Can you not appeal to the courts?”
“No. The courts are in the ministry’s pocket. And I lack the proof I need, for the stock ledgers disappeared the moment there was any talk of an investigation. No doubt, they are long destroyed. So there remains only two means by which I can regain my lands and title—either by obtaining the king’s pardon for my late father’s supposed crimes, which is a vain hope, or by purchase…at double the true value.”
“Purchase?”
“Yes. Sir Richard ever seeks to profit.”
“But how is it that Sir Richard has anything to do with any of this?”
“According to the records at the Chancery, he is the trustee over the estate of one Francis Edwardes, Esquire, of Welham Grove, Leicestershire.”
Mary regarded him blankly. “But that would be my father.”
He waited with a patient smile while she processed this information.
“Are you implying that I own your estates?”
“Precisely, my dear.” He gave her a tight smile. “According to the Chancery, my ancestral home was purchased by your father six years ago. No doubt out of the proceeds gained from the same company that ruined me. So you see now how a marital alliance between us answers both of our needs? Mine for my lost patrimony, and yours for your freedom, for I will surely allow you more liberty than any other husband would, let alone one of Sir Richard’s choosing.”
“My freedom or yours? With control of my fortune, it seems there would be nothing to stop you from squandering and philandering to your heart’s content.”
“Squandering and philandering? Is that what you believe would make me happy?” He clenched his jaw in an effort to control the ire that was quickly rising to the surface. “I will ignore the personal offense that I might answer you with logic. Do you not see how that would be to my detriment? Why would I return from seven miserable years abroad, seeking to reclaim my patrimony only to risk it all again? Besides, until you reach your majority, we must make due at my expense, and I hardly have the means to live the high life you describe.”
In truth, Hadley had lived three years as such a wastrel. It was a miracle he had survived without contracting the pox, or getting his throat slit. Yet he had finally risen out of the hellish pit of iniquity and vowed never to return to it.
“Nor do most noblemen,” Mary argued, “but that doesn’t seem to stop them from living on credit.”
True enough for Hadley was no stranger to living on credit. Hell, most of the nobility traded on credit. “I suppose you would just have to trust me,” he replied with a twinge of guilt. “Is that such a novel notion for a wife—to place her trust and care in her husband’s hands?”
She chewed her lower lip. “Should I consider this, how would we go on?”
“By going abroad,” he said. “At least for a time. I have business that calls me to Paris. I would take you there with me, for we could not stay in England.”
“Abroad? Paris? You already know I don’t speak a word of French and I don’t even like the French! Nanette cut off all my hair! And Monsieur Gaspar was a hateful little tyrant!”
“My dear girl, if you do not care for France, we will quickly move on to Italy. It’s a beautiful country with a populace as warm as the climate.”
“But I have no wish to travel. England is my home!”
“Do you not think you could make the sacrifice, Mary?” he asked. “Would you rather stay and wed whom your guardian selects, or go abroad with me? I have made my offer. Now you must choose.”
“But…there is one other thing,” she said.
“What is it, Mary?”
He cupped her chin but she refused to meet his gaze. “I never wanted to be forced into a marriage…do you…do you think you could grow to care for me?”
He lowered his head and murmured against her lips. “But my dear, sweet girl, don’t you see that I already do?”
…
“What do we do now?” Mary asked.
“I suppose we should go and be wed,” he replied.
“Now?”
“You would rather chance that Sir Richard will have his way? After your stunt last evening, he is more than likely to lock you up.”
“He could never do such a barbaric thing! Would he?” she asked with less certainty.
Hadley cocked a brow. “He is an unscrupulous man. I put nothing beneath him. I deem it best we do this thing now, and then you will return to Hanover Square with no one the wiser.”
“I don’t understand. You would wed me only to send me back?”
“Exactly. I propose that we do the deed and keep it secret for the time being. There are many details I must attend to before we can leave for France. I need some time, only a day or two. Haste makes for error and I can’t afford to err in this. My life could depend upon it, Mary.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “You think he would call you out?”
Hadley threw his head back with a guffaw. “He would never be so honorable as to actually face a man on a dueling field. No, I fear a knife in my back from a hired thug should he discover too soon that I have thwarted his schemes.”
“We’ll go now, Mary. All we need for the nonce is a certificate of marriage. I have heard of a Dr. Keith in Mayfair who will officiate without a license. I think you would prefer this over the Fleet prison chapel.”
They left Kensington Gardens with the first rays of light stretching in colorful fingers of pink and gold across the sky. The London streets had only begun to stir with the clip-clop of iron-shod hooves, echoed by the first cries of street vendors with their barrows. Hadley hailed the dozing driver of a hackney cab who rubbed his eyes and tugged his cap.
“Aye, guv? Where to?”
“Mayfair,” Hadley replied. “Do you know of St. George’s Chapel?”
“Rightly enou’. ‘Appy is the wooing that is not long a-doing,” the driver quoted with a knowing wink.
Less than an hour later, after rousing the reverend from his bed, Mary and Hadley scrawled their names in the register at St. George’s Chapel, witnessed by the hackney driver, and the reverend’s cook. Mary stared for a long moment at their names in the book and then regarded Hadley with a dazed look. “It is done then? We are legally bound to one another?”
“Not quite,” Hadley’s lips twitched while the reverend and the jarvey exchanged knowing looks.
“What more is there?” she asked.
The jarvey answered with a lecherous grin. “If ye be needin’ a set o’ rooms for the consummatin,’ me brother-in-law has some o’er his coffee house—”
“I thank you for your offer, but your services are no longer required.” Hadley said and handed the driver a guinea. “For your continued discretion.”
The jarvey regarded the coin wide-eyed and then pocketed it as if i
t would disappear. “As you say, guv!” He tugged a forelock in departure.
“Why did you dismiss him?” Mary asked after they departed the chapel.
“Because it is best that no one who has witnessed this event knows any more than they must.”
“What happens now?” she asked with a look of trepidation.
“Surely you already understand that there is yet a…minor technicality…to be fulfilled.”
“Now?” Mary plucked at her skirts. “Can it not wait?”
“Under English Law a marriage may be voided unless consummated with bodily knowledge.”
“Hadley, please,” she begged. “I cannot bear the thought of a hasty coupling in dingy quarters over some tap room. Can I not have some time to adjust to all of this?”
“As you wish,” he conceded. “I’ll grant you a short reprieve, Mary, but know that this will happen between us. It must happen. But I also swear to you that in the marriage bed you will suffer no regrets.” It was a dark promise that made her stomach flutter.
“I will see you safely returned by sedan chair,” he continued. “But I shan’t accompany you. It would be best to allow them to believe you returned on your own volition. Let Sir Richard think you’ve been frightened into submission after spending a terrorized night in the London streets.”
“What of the Countess? She knows you came after me, surely she will question.”
“Say nothing to her of our marriage. Barbara is an unprincipled schemer. I’ll handle her when the time comes. I trust you have full faith in Jenny?”
“Yes. Unconditionally.”
“Good then. Jenny and James shall be our emissaries. No one else, Mary, must know we were together this night.”
“I understand, Hadley.”
“Now, you must go.”
He flagged a sedan chair for her and her face fell. He wrapped his arms around her. “My dear, you need not fear harm, as you are too valuable a commodity to them. I only need you to buy me some time to do what I must. Go along with Sir Richard for the nonce and I’ll soon come for you.” He handed her into the chair and then took her face between his hands and kissed her.
Oh, how she’d missed his kisses. His scent. The feel of his arms around her. For a long moment, Mary allowed herself to bask in the fantasy that it could be real, that he could love her and they could have a normal life together. But when moved to deepen the kiss, she withdrew, overcome with sudden doubt. “Hadley, you do promise I won’t live to regret this?”
“Have faith, my dear. I ask only for your trust and all will be well.”
“Trust?” she repeated softly. “Is not that a mutual bargain? You seem to have so many secrets, Hadley. I wonder when you will trust me.”
…
With the certificate of marriage safely pocketed, Hadley saw Mary into the sedan chair bound for Hanover Square, and then made his own way to Jonathan’s Coffee House on Exchange Alley. The scene at the haunt of London’s most prominent financiers and moneylenders was smoke-filled chaos, but the man he sought was easily located, for Samson Gideon, a Jew who’d garnered a fortune during the panic of the South Sea crisis, was considered the veritable oracle of finance.
Hadley doffed his hat and presented himself with a bow. “Mr. Gideon, you do not know me sir, but I believe you were well-acquainted with my father. I am come on a matter of personal business. Might we speak?”
Dismissing his present companions, the gentleman regarded Hadley intently with bushy brows raised over his silver-rimmed spectacles. “Was I indeed? And who was your father?”
“Henry, Fourth Earl of Blanchard.”
“Ah.” Gideon nodded in understanding and then shook his head sadly. “I did know him well. ‘Twas a sad end for such a prominent gentleman. Lord Blanchard was regarded by many as a rarity amongst the aristocracy.”
Hadley’s gaze narrowed. “How do you mean, sir?”
“I mean that he was exceedingly sober and fair-minded. It is unfortunate that he lost his head in the speculation frenzy. You have my sincere condolences, young sir.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Nevertheless, the demise of one’s father is always a painful loss.”
“I ask you candidly, Mr. Gideon, do you believe the charges levied against him?”
“For fraud? No, I do not,” Gideon replied. “I never did, for I knew him too well to believe him capable of such a grand scheme. But there were a number who fell to screen the guilty ones. Those were perilous times indeed,” he sighed.
Hadley breathed his own sigh of relief that the Jew remembered his father in such a favorable light. “I thank you for your kind words. I had hoped that out of former regard for my father, you might be disposed to lend me some small assistance?”
Until this morning, he’d given little thought to what he would actually do with a wife once he had her. Now he found himself faced with a murky dilemma—how to support her. With a certificate of marriage to a known heiress, he might very well be able to secure a loan on the basis of his new bride’s inheritance. He felt another pang of conscience but assured himself that it was the best course of action—really the only course of action. If he was not to return to service, he needed money. It was only a loan and he would repay it.
“Is there a place where we might speak?” Hadley prayed the marriage certificate along with his note of hand would suffice as surety.
Chapter Sixteen
“My dear girl! Thank God you are safe!” the countess rushed to embrace Mary the moment she entered her rooms. “Just look at you! Where could you have been all the night?”
“I’m so very sorry, madam,” Mary replied with what she hoped was convincing contrition. “I was overwhelmed by everything last night! And I am so very homesick. I only had thoughts of leaving this place and returning to Welham Grove.”
“But of course you were overset, my pet,” the countess soothed in a cloying tone. “Any young woman of the least sensibility would have been, for Sir Richard has no tact at all! Tis no wonder you reacted as you did. But where did you go?”
“I don’t even know, my lady. I only ran and ran until I was lost. I sought a coach to take me back to Leicestershire but didn’t have sufficient coin to get me home, so I hired the hackney for the night and slept in it.”
The countess regarded her aghast. “You slept all night in a hackney coach?”
“Yes, my lady. It seemed the safest place to me. The streets at night—” Mary shuddered.
“Are indeed an exceeding dangerous place! You foolish, foolish girl! Sir Richard and I have been beside ourselves with worry. He will be exceedingly pleased to hear of your safe return. I must notify him straight away.” The countess rang for a footman, instructing him to go post-haste to Sir Richard and inform him of Mary’s safe return. Then she turned back to Mary. “You have not yet explained to me why you came back.”
“By light of day, I realized my foolishness and the futility of flight, my lady. For it is as you once said, I have little choice in these matters. I suppose it is far better for me to accept my plight with good grace than to continue to fight the inevitable.”
“Finally you show wisdom!” the countess declared. “But what of Lord Hadley?”
“What of him?” Mary asked.
“Why he went in search of you. He was quite distraught, you know. Indeed, I strongly suspect my step-son harbors a tendre for you.”
“Do you think so?” Mary asked. “Sadly it can amount to naught. You know my guardian would never approve of him.”
“No, I suppose he would not, but what of you, my dear? Do you return his sentiments? For if you did, it is not impossible for such a thing to be contrived.”
“No, my lady. It is quite impossible. Although Lord Hadley is extraordinarily handsome and charming, I could never wed such a man.”
“And why is that?” Lady Blanchard’s brows rose. “I was given to understand that Lord Hadley paid his address to you. Are you very certain you will not have him?”
/>
“Though I daresay he has a number of good qualities, Sir Richard does not approve of him. Neither do I think we would be compatible, for we have nothing in common.”
“Come and sit with me, Mary.” Lady Blanchard perched on the settle and patted the cushion beside her. “Let us talk. With all of the recent excitement we have not had opportunity for an intimate chat in quite a while.” After arranging her skirts, the countess continued in her coy manner. “Are you saying that after all the time you have spent together that you have no regard at all for Lord Hadley?”
“Yes. I’m very certain, madam. What kind of life would we lead? I desire to return to a quiet life in the country, yet his extensive travels belie a certain wanderlust. He has no estate, no title, and you have already confessed that a scandal mars his good name. Although he has been a kind and attentive companion these past days, I could never consider anything further. No, I fear Lord Hadley would not make a respectable husband at all.”
“Is that so? Pity. He needs an heiress, you know. It is largely why he returned from the Continent, to try to find a suitable English wife. Oh well,” she sighed. “Though I should hate to see him go, I suppose he will return to Italy soon.”
“I’m sorry, for your sake, as I know he’s the only family you have.”
“Nonsense, my dear,” she protested with a smile. “For now I have you. And I hope you will continue to think of me as…your big sister. Indeed, I will do all I can to smooth things over for you with Sir Richard. You cannot know the worry and mortification the poor man suffered on your behalf.”
“I never meant to cause everyone such trouble,” Mary said.
“Because you did not think of anyone besides yourself, my dear. It would behoove you not to repeat such behavior in the future. There are many gentlemen who will not tolerate willful behavior in a wife.”
“I understand, madam. I am now prepared to entrust myself to Sir Richard’s counsel. For certain, he must have my best interests at heart. He was chosen by my beloved Papa to be my guardian, after all.”
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