“And the matter might have ended there, for I didn’t feel inclined to go after everyone who owed money to my brother,” Nathan said. “Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Bellingham, sometime before my brother cocked his toes up, he sold your stepfather’s markers to Lord Waldrop, with whom my brother shared some business interests that included the acquisition of young women for prostitution. ’Twas at a house party at the estate of Lord Gorham in Northumberland that I encountered both Bellingham and Waldrop, as well as a young man by the name of Frederick Hathaway. We were playing cards one night, and Mr. Hathaway lost a hand to me after staking his own sister.”
Baxter shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I didn’t think anyone still did that.”
“Nor did I,” Nathan said sharply. “And what made it all the more personal to me is the fact that my half brother did the same thing to my own mother, after my father died.”
Baxter stiffened in the chair again. “I had no idea about that.”
“Most people don’t. Most people think she went abroad and died of a fever. Most people don’t know that he wagered her to Lord Waldrop, who sent her to work for his ‘business.’ How do I know?” A familiar cold qualm gripped his heart. “Because that’s where I found her years later, when I went with a group of friends to visit a certain brothel.”
Baxter could scarcely conceal his shock. Neither, for that matter, could Nathan. It still made him queasy to think of it.
“Naturally, I wanted to take her away from that place. But she insisted she didn’t want to leave. She didn’t even seem happy to see me again. She told me to go away and forget about her. I was only eighteen at the time, young and naïve and foolish. So I left, but of course I couldn’t forget about her. After the war was over and I left the army, I went back again, hoping she might still be there, thinking that maybe this time I could persuade her, since I was older and not so naïve. But I was still just as foolish. I was too late. She’d died of influenza the previous winter, and they ended up burying her in a pauper’s grave, because they couldn’t persuade her favorite client to help with the burial expenses.” He leaned forward in the chair. “And you’ll never guess who her favorite client was. Or perhaps you will.”
“My stepfather?”
“Or perhaps you won’t. No, my own brother. Her stepson.” Nathan sat back in the chair. “Sometimes I think I should have hunted him down and killed him with my own bare hands.”
Baxter flicked his gaze over Nathan, from his head to the tips of his polished Hessians. “You look as if you could do it. He was shorter and thinner than you. And, as my wife was wont to point out, he had no chin.”
Nathan felt a smile quivering at the corner of his mouth. “But once again, I took the coward’s way out. I went back to Scotland and stayed there until his final mistress did the work for me.”
“That was the wise thing to do, Your Grace, but I would hardly say ’twas cowardly. At the very least, you might have forfeited your inheritance.”
“So you can well understand how I felt when Frederick Hathaway staked his own sister. I quit the game after that, not wishing to give Waldrop the chance to take her away from me. That’s why I waited until Hathaway brought his sister to a prearranged rendezvous in York to hand her over to me, at which time I meant to forgive the debt and send him on his way with a lecture that probably would’ve gone in one ear and straight out the other. But before leaving the game, I remember Bellingham expressing the desire to do the same with his stepdaughter, and it was only after I left that Waldrop confronted him with the marker that bore your sister’s name.”
Baxter nodded. “My mother informed me only that she’d left Bellingham because he’d returned to gambling. She never elaborated or mentioned my sister, probably out of fear I might shoot him.”
“Waldrop wanted either her or the five thousand pounds. Since he didn’t receive the blunt, he came after her.”
“Obviously he didn’t get her.”
“No, so instead he came after me.”
Baxter furrowed his brow. “Why would he come after you?”
Nathan smiled. “Because she was with me. I guess she never told you?”
Baxter finally smiled back. “As a matter of fact, she did.”
Astonishment jolted through Nathan. “She did?”
“She did. She told me you escorted her from Ellington Hall to Derby.”
Nathan had to assume that was all she’d told her brother. It certainly explained why Baxter hadn’t demanded he make an honest woman of his sister.
It also proved that Kate had no intention of using her scandalous odyssey with Nathan as leverage to become his duchess.
Could that mean she wouldn’t marry him anyway?
“We parted ways in Derby, where she encountered Lady Bellingham quite by accident, but most fortuitously,” Nathan said. “It wasn’t too long after Miss Baxter and her mother continued the journey to London that Waldrop finally caught up to me at the posting house in Derby and accused me of hiding her somewhere. When he couldn’t find her, he said I could have Bellingham’s marker for five thousand pounds.”
“You’re saying that in effect, he offered to sell my sister to you, even though she wasn’t even his to sell?”
“And—if you’ll forgive how crude I know this sounds—I would have bought her on the spot, had I that much blunt in my possession. Waldrop accompanied me to a bank in Derby where I took out a bank draft and gave it to him. I prefer to think I didn’t really buy her. Instead I bought the marker which just happened to have her name on it. Once he had the draft, he returned to Ellington to fetch his stepmother, only to find her in a decidedly awkward position with Sir Niles Barnett. No one seems to know exactly what happened, except both men are dead as a result of the ensuing altercation, while his stepmother has fled to the Continent. Lord Ellington managed to retrieve the bank draft and return it to me, and I promptly destroyed it. Perhaps I should have destroyed the marker, too, but I thought I would leave that to your discretion.” He reached inside his coat and pulled out the marker, handing it to Baxter.
Baxter scanned the worn, dog-eared document, his jaw tightening, his eyes narrowing. He gestured to the fireplace. “May I, Your Grace?”
“By all means, be my guest.”
Into the fire it went, the edges curling as they blackened and the ghastly thing was reduced to ashes.
“I’m very grateful to Your Grace for your assistance in making sure no harm came to my sister,” Baxter said. “We are truly indebted to you.”
“Please, no more talk of debts!” Nathan exclaimed, holding up both hands, the palms facing Baxter. “Though if you do feel so obliged, there is but one thing I would ask of you.”
“Name it, Your Grace.”
“Actually, make that two things, although one shall depend on the other.”
Baxter sat forward in his chair. “Name them, Your Grace.”
“First, I would like your sister’s hand in marriage. And secondly, if you agree—and, of course, if she’ll agree—I would like you to call me Nathan instead of Your Grace, since I sincerely hope we will be brothers. And, I might add, as a brother I believe I will find you to be a vast improvement over the one I had until last year.”
Baxter gripped the arms of his chair and appeared to tense his legs as he pressed his booted feet into the floor, as if trying to bore a hole in the Aubusson rug with his heels.
Nathan smiled. “You look as if you’re trying not to fall out of that chair.”
“That’s because I am trying not to fall out of this chair.” Baxter composed himself, relaxing somewhat. “I wasn’t expecting this. I know she made your acquaintance on her journey from Yorkshire, but otherwise she’s never mentioned your name. At least not to me.”
Nathan felt his heart dip. Had she truly resolved to forget about him and banish him from her life—and even her memory—for good? “I’m afraid we were more than just acquainted, Mr. Baxter. We actually got to know each other quite well, most particularl
y during the time we spent at Ellington Hall. And since we parted ways in Derby, I’m afraid I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind. Surely I don’t need to explain why.”
“No, you don’t,” Baxter replied. “For once I made the acquaintance of the lady who is now Mrs. Baxter, I was unable to get her out of my mind.”
“As to my prospects, I’ve inherited a great deal of entailed property,” Nathan went on. “My predecessor nearly depleted the family coffers due to his profligate lifestyle, but I haven’t been idle all these years. I inherited a wool business from my uncle that’s based up in Edinburgh—my uncle is actually the one who took me in and raised me after my mother disappeared from my life. Either way, your sister will never want for anything.”
“All things considered, I don’t believe I could ask any better for her,” Baxter said. “As long as she accepts you, Your Grace has my blessing.”
Nathan finally rose to his feet, as did Baxter, and the two men shook hands.
“Of course, there’s still the matter of this ball my Aunt Verity insists upon,” Nathan grumbled. “She was planning it for weeks before I even arrived in London, and I understand it’s been the talk of the ton. I’m expected to choose my bride from among the debutantes in attendance, only I’ve made my choice already, and I can’t dash my aunt’s plans now. I hope you and your wife will come this evening, and bring Miss Baxter, even though I don’t believe she received a formal invitation.”
“I don’t think she’d miss it for the world,” Kate’s brother declared.
Nathan showed his visitor out the door and wandered back to the drawing room where he stopped short in surprise at the sight of his aunt standing in front of the fireplace.
“Verity, were you hiding somewhere in this room eavesdropping?” He smiled as he said it, for he wasn’t at all angry with her.
Just alarmed that she might have overheard him hinting that the ball she’d been planning for such a long time was all for naught.
“As a matter of fact, I was in the next room,” she replied. “Wherever did you get the notion that you absolutely must choose your bride at the ball tonight?”
“Well, isn’t that how my father met my mother?”
Aunt Verity sighed and averted her gaze. “My dear nephew, that was a Cyprian’s ball, and it was a horrific scandal at the time. I do believe his wits were still addled from the death of his first wife, even after fourteen years. He should never have married your mother. Of course, if he hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here now to claim the title of Duke of Loring and I wouldn’t have such a charming, handsome nephew who was like a son to me and my dear, late husband.”
None of this really surprised Nathan. It certainly explained why his mother hadn’t minded being wagered to Waldrop and why she’d wanted Nathan to leave her alone after he found her in the brothel. “But didn’t you meet my uncle at a ball?”
“I did, but only because there was no other way for me to meet a man I might wed, other than allowing my father to arrange something with a man I might not even see until the wedding day itself. It’s really a quite tedious way to find a bridegroom, or in your case, a bride.”
Hadn’t Kate said something similar, only with an extra dollop of scorn?
“Then why else have you been planning this ball? You did inform me at the outset that you would invite all the eligible young ladies of the ton.”
“Yes, but not because I expected you to choose your bride from among them, and on that very occasion!” She flicked her handkerchief at him. “You silly dear. You’ve spent so little time in London all these years, so hardly anyone in the ton really knows you. The real purpose of the ball is to introduce you to them, and they to you—and if you happen to meet a young lady who takes your fancy, that’s all well and good! But if you’ve already found her…”
A smile spread over his face, and he felt his heart lifting, almost floating in his chest. “I have indeed found her, Aunt Verity. And the most wonderful thing about it is that I found her even though I wasn’t looking for her.”
She smiled back. “Then I daresay you’ve found more than your bride, Nathan. You’ve found true love.”
* * * *
When Kate had traded places with Margaret Hathaway, she’d been looking forward to returning to London and all it offered, especially musicales and the lending library. Her sister-in-law, Georgiana, had taken her to the modiste for a new wardrobe. She visited old friends. Everything was just as she’d long anticipated—and yet she felt a strange emptiness that she’d never felt before.
Not the kind of gloom she’d escaped in Yorkshire, but something else—the feeling that something was missing that she didn’t recall missing on previous stays in London.
She had the oddest feeling that it was something to do with Nathan. Somehow, she didn’t feel complete without him.
It didn’t help that she knew he was also in London, but he had yet to call. Perhaps he would never call. Most likely he’d forgotten her already, or if he hadn’t, then he must consider himself well rid of someone he certainly deemed to be a harridan.
Her mother was right. Men—with the exception of her brother Anthony—preferred women who were quiet and featherbrained, and never voiced an opinion of anything other than the latest fashions or on-dit.
The latest on-dit—in fact, it seemed to be the only on-dit next to the recent announcement that Princess Charlotte, the Regent’s only child, was expecting a baby—was that blasted ball, where, it was said, the new Duke of Loring would choose his bride—or at least choose someone he might wish to court with a view toward making her his duchess.
That the ball was still going forward this evening told Kate more than she wished to know. Not for the first time, she chastised herself for thinking he would ever consider her worthy of being his bride. And what Anthony told her this afternoon only confirmed it.
She slammed both hands on the keys of the pianoforte, making an angry, discordant noise. “So I was sold to the duke, like a horse at Tattersall’s!”
“One can be forgiven for thinking that way, but that’s not what really happened,” Anthony countered. “According to him, he merely bought the marker that happened to have your name on it. That’s all. You’re no one’s property to buy, sell, or wager, so it really had nothing to do with you. His Grace has no claim on you, nor does anyone else.”
Of course it had nothing to do with her, and of course Nathan had no claim on her. She knew her brother was right, but her heart sank all the same. Now that she was back in London, safe under her brother’s roof, and Waldrop was dead, why would Nathan want to have anything more to do with her? He was a duke who could have any woman he wanted.
She started playing another sonata, this one by Beethoven. “Why did the duke even summon you?”
“To explain all of this to me, and offer his assurance that you’re safe from Waldrop as well as our stepfather.”
“And that’s all?”
Anthony was his usual, inscrutable self. “He said he hopes to see you at the ball this evening.”
That was all? She almost hit another wrong key. “I haven’t received an invitation.”
“If he said he hopes to see you, Kate, then that’s an invitation,” said Georgiana, who sat by the fireplace cuddling one of the twins.
“No, it isn’t.” Kate got up from the pianoforte and swept over to the mantel where she plucked a cream-colored card engraved with the Loring crest. “I haven’t received one of these, and this particular one is made out only to you and Anthony.”
“That was before his aunt knew you and your mother were back in London,” Georgiana explained.
“He specifically stated he wants you to come,” said Anthony.
“Did he include Mama in the invitation?”
“I’m afraid not.” He cast a rueful glance at his mother, who sat on the sofa next to Georgiana, holding the other baby.
“I have no desire to go,” their mother declared. “I’d much rather stay here and look a
fter the babies. But if the duke told you to bring Kate, then I think she should go.”
“Maybe he only said it to be polite,” Kate argued as she staggered back to the pianoforte. “If he really wants to see me, then why hasn’t he called on me since coming to London?”
“Pray, why would Loring or any duke pay a call on you?” asked her mother, who, along with Anthony and Georgiana, still didn’t know the truth about what happened on Kate’s journey from York to Derby. Then Anthony might be forced into the awkward position of insisting to Nathan that he marry her, yet Nathan evidently didn’t want to marry her, or he wouldn’t be going ahead with tonight’s ball. “A duke has many duties and responsibilities. Of course he said it to be polite, but surely you don’t flatter yourself that His Grace really wants to see you—as if he doesn’t really want to see anyone else. Can you think of anything more absurd?”
She could indeed, but this wasn’t the time to regale her family with the story of what really happened to Kate between York and Derby. She lowered the lid over the keyboard, too forlorn to play anymore this afternoon, and besides, her vision was suddenly blurring, even though she was wearing her spectacles.
“Kate, do come with us,” Georgiana pleaded. “You can wear one of your new gowns.”
Kate shook her head. “I’m afraid I’m not feeling well. Please excuse me. I think I’ll lie down for a while.”
“Kate!” Anthony called after her, but their mother told him to leave her be. Kate heard no more as she rushed upstairs to her bedchamber and threw herself across the bed.
Secretly she longed to go to the ball, just like Cinderella, but she couldn’t bear the idea of going only to see Nathan dancing with other women, all of whom would be much younger and prettier than she. Clearly he hadn’t found true love on their madcap journey last month—or if he’d been looking for it, then he’d apparently been disappointed and disenchanted by what he’d found.
But Kate hadn’t been looking for it, either, yet there’d been moments when she foolishly thought she might have found it.
Wagered to the Duke (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 25