‘Thank you. You can leave me now.’
Luke glanced around the scrupulously tidy room, observing what few personal possessions she had left on display. A hairbrush, a ribbon, an old shawl. It was oddly intimate, yet impersonal, as though she thought she would not be staying for long and didn’t want to stamp her personality upon the space. Luke felt tempted to tell her that she had displayed her loyalty a dozen times over and would not be going anywhere. He remained silent on the point. Now was not the time. Perhaps she had plans for her future that he knew nothing about. She had mentioned a man’s name earlier. A lover? Luke felt envious at the possibility but chased the thought away. He was grateful to Flora, but her personal aspirations were none of his concern.
‘You don’t have a maid.’
‘Of course not. I am a maid myself, of sorts. I can manage.’
He offered her a wolfish smile. ‘Not that gown, you can’t.’
‘And you are an expert on the subject, I suppose,’ she said, striving for a disapproving tone but not quite achieving it.
‘Naturally.’
She gasped, but whether with outrage or surprise he was unable to decide, when he swiftly loosened the fastenings at the back of her dress. Before she could react, he also reached for the ties to her corset and loosened them too.
‘Don’t worry. I didn’t look,’ he said, aware of the smile in his voice. He dropped a delicate kiss on her bare shoulder and reluctantly moved towards the door. ‘Lock it behind me,’ he said. ‘Good night.’
Luke stood outside the door, waited until he heard the lock turn and then returned to his own domain, feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. He stripped off his clothing and poured the brandy he had intended for Flora, drinking it down himself in one swallow as he mulled over all he had just learned and how he intended to exploit that knowledge. There would be little sleep for him that night.
He dozed, but was up and fully dressed by eight the following morning, long before anyone else in the household could be expected to stir after such a late night. Breakfast would be prepared for early risers expected to show their faces by noon, or later. Luke made his way to Paul’s door, tapped and put his head round it.
‘Someone set fire to your bed?’ his friend asked, about to slip his arms into his coat.
‘Rouse Alvin and come down to the library as soon as you can. Something’s happened that you both need to know about.’
Paul’s smile faded at Luke’s serious tone. He asked no questions but nodded just once. Luke made his way downstairs, aware that it would take his friends a matter of minutes to respond to his summons. He had barely settled in before the pair joined him, Alvin clearly having dressed hastily.
‘What is it?’ Paul asked.
The three men sat in front of the fireplace as Luke succinctly told them all that had occurred the night before.
‘Good God!’ Alvin was the first to respond. ‘Sounds like Miss Latimer is more enterprising than we gave her credit for. She certainly saved your bacon.’
‘I for one never doubted Miss Latimer ingenuity,’ Paul said in a considering tone, ‘but I did underestimate Magda’s vindictive nature and the lengths she’s prepared to go to in order to have the final word.’
‘She always did want you, Luke,’ Alvin reminded him. ‘Having Archie’s death on her conscience, always supposing she possesses one, which is doubtful, doesn’t seem to have changed anything.’
‘I don’t think she would have acted, though,’ Paul said, ‘had her husband not cut her off and left her virtually penniless.’
‘Why she’s decided to push herself upon me is neither here nor there,’ Luke said, setting his jaw in a rigid line. ‘All that matters is that we stop her, once and for all this time. I can easily see how she managed to lure Carlton in. What’s less clear is why his cousin was willing to go to such lengths to marry me simply because Magda wants her to.’
‘Carlton marrying a girl with a decent dowry makes a twisted sort of sense, I suppose,’ Paul said, ‘always supposing that Carlton planned to scarper with her money and set up home with Magda. They’d have to go abroad, of course, to reduce the scandal. It would explain why Carlton intends to resign his commission. I heard something said about that sometime this week. He would be disgraced and cashiered for conduct unbecoming if he remained in uniform. He would be aware of that, but unless Magda has lost her touch, she could easily inspire a weak man to fall in with such a dishonourable plan.’
‘Exactly, but even if I had been forced to marry Lily, she wouldn’t have control of my fortune.’ Luke shook his head. ‘Ah well, there’s only one way to find out. Go and rouse Carlton, Paul, if you don’t mind.’
‘It will be a pleasure.’
‘Stay with him whilst he dresses. I don’t trust him to be left alone.’
Alvin and Luke whiled away the next half-hour, talking in circles, until Paul returned with a bleary-eyed and hastily dressed Carlton.
‘I say, what’s the meaning of this?’ he demanded belligerently. ‘Dragging me out of my pit in the middle of the night.’ But his outrage lacked conviction and Luke could see that he was a very worried man.
‘Sit down,’ Luke said curtly, ‘and tell me about the plot that you and Magda Simpson have hatched.’
Carlton was unable to hide his shock. His jaw dropped as he gazed sightlessly at three rigid, disapproving faces. But as Luke had suspected would be the case, he quickly recovered and went on the offensive. Trapped animals with nowhere to run tended to fight back. ‘None of your damned business.’
‘I beg to differ,’ Luke replied coldly. ‘You went to considerable trouble to try and force me into marriage with your cousin, to say nothing of chancing your luck with my sister.’ He scowled at Carlton with enough ferocity to cause him to shrink back in his chair, an involuntary action that he quickly attempted to cover by adopting a casual posture. ‘You will not leave this room until you have offered an explanation that satisfies me. And bear in mind before you think of lying that I am better acquainted with Magda’s manipulative character than you are, and I shall know if you are being economical with the truth.’
Carlton looked at each of them in turn. If he had been considering making a break for it, their implacable expressions caused him to reconsider.
‘Magda and I have an understanding,’ he reluctantly admitted.
‘Then why are you attempting to affiance yourself to one of the wealthy young women here?’ Alvin asked before Luke could. ‘Ah, of course, you’re short of blunt. Does Magda really mean that much to you? You’d marry someone you don’t love, help yourself to her dowry and vanish, forcing yourself into a kind of exile and ruining your reputation simply because Magda asked you to?’ Alvin shook his head, not attempting to conceal his disdain. ‘What sort of man does that make you?’
‘Magda inspires a man to think the unthinkable, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her,’ he declared passionately.
‘You’re not the first man to think that way,’ Paul said, ‘and you certainly won’t be the last.’
‘She’s using you to get at me, and she will drop you the minute you are no further use to her,’ Luke said. ‘She is a woman with ambitions that you are not in a position to satisfy. Surely you can see that?’
‘She warned me that you might attack her character if her name came up in conversation.’ He puffed out his chest. ‘You overestimate your importance to her.’
‘If anything, I have underestimated it.’ Luke fixed Carlton with a derisive look. ‘Now then, I shall ask you this only once and expect an honest answer. Why was Magda so keen to see your cousin and I married? What does she have to gain from the union and why would Lily agree to her demands, even going so far as to try and ambush me in my own rooms?’
‘Didn’t succeed though, did she?’ Carlton didn’t seem to realise that he’d just admitted his culpability. ‘That little doxy who bears your grandmother company beat her to it. And there’s her, pretending to be all prim and proper. I
t’s always the quiet ones that surprise you, I find.’ He raised an insolent brow. ‘Worth it, is she?’
Quiet? In spite of the gravity of the situation and Luke’s swirling anger, he almost felt like smiling. If Carlton thought Flora was quiet and biddable then he really didn’t know her at all. ‘I’m waiting, Carlton, and you will find I am not a patient man,’ he said.
‘Sorry.’ Carlton offered the three of them a derisive smile. ‘There’s nothing you can do to make me reveal Lily’s secret.’
‘Then you leave me with no alternative. I will have Miss Latimer bear witness to the fact that your cousin attempted to seduce me in my private rooms. She will be ruined.’
Carlton laughed. ‘You won’t do that. Apart from anything else, it will destroy Miss Latimer’s reputation. Her father will hear of it and take your fancy bint back to Salisbury in double quick time.’
He most likely would, and Luke would never have put her in that position anyway, but he had hoped that the threat would be sufficient to loosen Carlton’s tongue.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Paul said, sharing a warning look with Luke. ‘We know the truth anyway, just not the actual names of the individuals involved.’ We do? ‘Lily’s year touring Europe came at a time when she should have been preparing for presentation. I wondered about that. Unlike the earl’s sisters, she isn’t the type to shy away from the limelight. Most people accepted that she was anxious to see the sights of Italy and didn’t question the timing of the trip. Just as well, or rumours that Lily had indulged her passions a little too freely and was obliged to leave the country until after her confinement might have done the rounds.’
‘How the devil did you…’ Carlton seemed to realise he had said too much and abruptly stopped speaking.
‘She’s in love with the father and wants to be reunited with her child. Magda suggested a way that she could achieve that ambition,’ Luke said, catching on to Paul’s theory and running with it. ‘As my wife, she would have free access to the Beranger jewels, which everyone knows are worth a fortune. She’d have access to other small valuables too, which she could easily make off with. Magda wanted to see us married so that Lily could desert, rob and humiliate me, providing her with the ultimate revenge because I didn’t fall for her charms. That’s why she accosted me in the village. Aware that I held her responsible for our friend’s death—’
‘What friend? What death?’
Luke wasn’t surprised to learn that Magda had failed to enlighten Carlton about a situation that didn’t show her in a good light. He was damned if he would tell him either. Archie’s father had used his influence to ensure that his son’s death was recorded as the result of a fall from an unbroken horse that he’d accepted a wager to ride bareback through the streets of Oxford. Everyone who was anyone knew of his dare-devil spirit, and had accepted the explanation without questioning it.
‘Suffice it to say, Magda suspected that I would not welcome her presence here. She sent me a note, knowing full well I would go and see her. She probably hoped that I would be willing to allow bygones to be bygones, given the amount of time that has elapsed, which shows how little she actually knows me.’
‘Magda felt confident about persuading you to take her as your countess,’ Paul said, scathingly. ‘She thinks so well of herself that it wouldn’t occur to her that you could remain oblivious to her charms, even after what happened in Oxford.’
Luke nodded. ‘Failing that, I can only assume that she thought seeing her on my turf would prompt me into taking a wife, unwittingly choosing the one she wanted me to select, if only to deter her. Either that or she couldn’t bear not to play a supporting role in the drama that she had you and Lily acting out, Carlton. No one can accuse her of disliking attention.’ He shook his head. ‘She really is a woman scorned. I’d learn from this farrago and steer well clear of her evil machinations while your reputation’s still intact if I were you,’ he added, aware that Carlton would be as incapable of walking away from her as Archie had been. Besides, after all the trouble he’d almost caused, Carlton didn’t deserve to be warned and Luke didn’t give a fig what happened to him.
‘Damn you all!’ Carlton cried, throwing up his hands. ‘I will not sit here and listen to you insult the woman I love.’
‘Forget all about Miss Vaughan,’ Luke said, ignoring the outburst. Carlton was a child in so many respects, Luke thought, and it was easy to see why Magda had selected him to do her dirty work for her. ‘Be gone from here as soon as the ladies are prepared. Tell Magda from me that her plan has been thwarted and if she too doesn’t leave the region by the end of the week, I have witnesses here who can and will attest to her masterminding a plot that would have led to theft and bigamy. You can be sure that the local magistrate will take my side if matters reach that stage. We know other embarrassing snippets about her past, but as gentlemen we have thus far kept them to ourselves. That situation will not endure if she doesn’t go; and go immediately.’ Luke stood, towering over Carlton’s chair. ‘Do I make myself clear?’
‘I will tell her,’ Carlton said in a defeated tone, standing and leaving the room with shoulders slumped.
*
Later that afternoon Flora watched the steady stream of departing carriages, glad to see them go. She longed to know how matters had played out between Luke and Carlton and so responded quickly when she received a message from Luke, delivered by a maid, asking to see her.
‘Ah, there you are.’ Luke rose to greet her. ‘Are you all right? No ill effects from last night?’
‘I am tired, but that is to be expected. Dancing the night away is more exhausting than endless prayer meetings, but far more enjoyable.’ She returned his smile and took the chair that he indicated. ‘Tell me everything.’
He did so, and Flora could see relief etched in the planes of his face as the words slipped from his lips. The spectre of Magda Simpson and the guilt he had lived with because he didn’t do more to prevent his friend from falling for her wiles with such disastrous results had played on his conscience all these years, probably without his being aware of it.
‘Do you think she will really go?’ Flora asked, frowning when Luke ran out of words. ‘She sounds very determined.’
‘She is also a survivor. She knows she is beaten and will slink away to lick her wounds. For now. Whether she will return to haunt me again is another matter. Admitting defeat, graciously or otherwise, is an alien concept for her. It will be a while before she shows her face again though, even if she can afford to remain in England.’
‘Well, I am glad it’s all over and that things can return to normal here.’
‘Thanks to you.’
‘No thanks are required, but if you wish to show your appreciation for my intervention, then make my position with the countess permanent.’
Luke quirked a brow. ‘With the greatest of pleasure. I didn’t think there could be any doubt about that in your mind. You have worked wonders with her, and I now suspect that she will outlive us all.’
Flora smiled. ‘Very likely.’
‘Your position here is secure.’
‘Thank you so very much. I shall write to Papa and tell him so, and he will have to accept that I am really gone.’
‘He doubted it?’
‘Oh yes. He predicted that I would not last a fortnight.’
‘Good heavens!’
‘Indeed, but at least I feel secure now.’
‘Who’s Bolton?’ he asked into an ensuing silence.
Flora blinked. ‘I beg your pardon.’
‘You mentioned the name last night.’
‘And you remembered that, despite everything else that occurred.’ She paused. ‘Mr Bolton is one of the curates whom my father mentors at Salisbury. He asked Papa if he could marry me. Papa told him that he could, without bothering to seek my opinion on the matter.’
Luke shook his head. ‘He really doesn’t understand you, does he?’
‘Suffice it to say, I flatly refused.’ She shudde
red. ‘The man gives me the creeps, despite the fact that he’s set more than one female heart aflutter in the local community. But I cannot see anything in him to admire. He is pompous and insensitive.’
‘So you took a position that no one else wanted, in preference to remaining at home and being forced into matrimony.’
She nodded emphatically. ‘Papa doesn’t inspire respect and obedience in the people over whom he has control, he extracts it through intimidation and the severity of his punishments—obedience, that is. Respect must be earned, and he will never enjoy mine. I am the eldest of five girls. My sisters never give him a moment’s worry. They learned in their infancy that it was unwise, I suppose.’
‘But you?’
Flora smiled and spread her hands. ‘What can I say? I cannot abide being told what to do, unless there is a good reason for it. Papa is very ambitious but has made his share of enemies who are more than willing to spread rumours about him, given the smallest of reasons. A disobedient daughter would create sufficient controversy to ensure that he is never appointed to the dean’s position.’
‘Which is why he wanted to marry you off to a rising influence of his choice?’
‘Precisely. My gift that you don’t believe in…I inherited it from my paternal grandmother, who was a wonderful woman. But Papa kept her a virtual prisoner during her later years to prevent her from doing her healing and warning people if something bad was about to happen to them. The enemies I spoke of earlier would have lost no time in branding his mother a godless witch and that would have been the end of his ambitions.’
‘I don’t disbelieve in your—’
‘Yes you do.’ She treated him to a forgiving smile. ‘You cannot be blamed for your lack of enlightenment. I confess I thought you might be more open-minded, but it doesn’t signify. Besides, we have agreed to keep the matter between ourselves, have we not? If your grandmother were to discover…well.’ She smiled and stood up. ‘Speaking of whom, I had best go to her. She has decided to take over the arrangements for Emma’s wedding. If I do not go back upstairs again immediately, I dread to think what sort of flamboyant gown she might have talked Emma into commissioning.’
A Sense of Belonging (Perceptions Book 1) Page 24