Winthrop Trilogy Box Set

by Burnett, May

  “I see,” he said, though he didn’t, not really. “You feared the touch of a man?” That might be a problem, though surely during those intervening years she had discovered that it could be different.

  She tilted her head, considering. “Not fear, precisely. Say, rather, disgust. The whole business looked unpleasant and gross, something better avoided.”

  Barnaby suppressed a sigh. It was not an uncommon attitude among ladies, including many who had never had been groped by drunken louts. “I have heard that Fenton assaulted you, as well.”

  “Yes. When I forced him to marry me in retaliation, I had no illusions about the kind of man he was. I wanted an income of my own, but I took good care not to let him put a hand on me. He died without ever consummating our so-called marriage. You know how he tried to disinherit me, and what became of his will.”

  “You had your revenge on him, and are enjoying his fortune while he is rotting under the ground.” Barnaby hesitated. “Or …are you still enjoying it? If you have lost his money somehow, it would not matter to me.” Would she finally tell him what had worried her, when she penned that letter to Abigail?

  She raised her brows. “You would wed me if I were penniless?”

  “Of course, without a moment’s hesitation. I never was interested in your fortune, even when I helped you fight to retain it.” If Milla were not rich, she likely would have stayed in London, married him, and this whole discussion would be moot. He had wished her inheritance to the devil countless times.

  She smiled wryly. “After pretending to mourn the scoundrel for two whole years, I was not going to let his fortune slip through my fingers. I like to be rich. I want security, and the power that comes with wealth. Independence gives me licence to try out things forbidden to less favoured, more confined females.”

  He peered at her suspiciously. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “For a long time I was not interested in lying with any man, since the very notion repelled me. Over time, however, I began to toy with the idea, and to think that perhaps not all men were drunken brutes. I heard from a variety of women that some detested the act, while others claimed to enjoy it. I became curious.”

  And he had not been there to appease her curiosity. He did not want to know, and yet heard himself say with morbid curiosity, “What did you do?”

  “I found myself looking at men… men of all classes. Appreciating a neatly turned leg as I would a fine dish, comparing eye colour, size, even ears and teeth… I was looking for one who I could tolerate in my bed.”

  She was tormenting him with these frank confessions. Had she found Major Kepler acceptable? Was he just the last of many? “There are many attractive men,” he said neutrally, even as his fists clenched.

  “So I realised. Unfortunately, there was always some flaw, some reason to look further. It might be a booming laugh, the way a man ate his soup, the smell of his hair pomade.”

  He was afraid to hope. “In all this time …?”

  She shrugged and turned to look at the forests stretching underneath. “Have you noticed that the timber consists mostly of fir trees? I like their fresh scent,” she said irrelevantly.

  “I admire the view, very much,” Barnaby murmured. From Milla’s swift sideways glance, she understood he was not merely talking of the landscape. Her lips curved into an enticing half smile.

  Barnaby threw aside all gentlemanly reticence. She should not provoke him with her lascivious imaginings, if she expected him to remain unaffected. He drew Milla firmly into his arms, and kissed her, the way he had dreamed of doing every single hour since embarking on this journey. She kissed him right back, as warm and passionate as he could have wished.

  Thank God, he thought as he tasted her luscious lips. At last, at long last…

  Had he known how unutterably sweet she tasted, far better even than he had imagined, nothing would have kept him back in London during all those lonely months.

  Chapter 15

  “Did you really tell some of the greatest gossips in Regensbad that the Mental Water Treatment gave you bad dreams? That you suspect someone put his hand on your body in an illicit fashion?” Kepler was in a towering rage, though he did his best to hide it.

  Milla shrugged. “It was only the truth. I did find the treatment relaxing at the time, but then I was plagued by those dreams. It only stands to reason there might be a connection.”

  “Well, there is not!” He took a deep breath, visibly forced himself to calm down. From his expression, he would have liked to call her stupid, and worse, but he remained in character, if barely. “You will stop talking about the matter – tell everyone your dreams came from some tisane you took at night, anything!”

  “Why do you care about it, Major? Is Doktor Rabenstein a particular friend of yours?” That grinding noise must be Kepler’s teeth gnashing. Milla had to dig her fingernails into her palm, to maintain her earnestly inquiring expression.

  After a long moment, the Major’s spoke with a semblance of calm. “No, I don’t know Rabenstein personally, but it is profoundly unfair to ruin a man’s livelihood with unfounded insinuations.”

  “Zounds, if he lowered his price he might find more takers. Who can afford four gulden for an afternoon’s treatment? Very few.”

  “There is a Mrs. Rainer, who has taken lodgings in the Pension Abendstern,” Kepler said. “The treatment would be highly beneficial for her.”

  “Why don’t you tell her so, Major?”

  “It would do not good, after you have poisoned the well with those rumours. Lady Fenton, I want you to talk to the woman and persuade her to take the Mental Water Treatment. The price will be specially lowered to half a gulden, if Mrs. Rainer hesitates on account of the price.”

  Milla was puzzled. What was so important about this particular patient? Moreover, this offer contradicted the Major’s claim that he did not know Rabenstein. Kepler must think her very stupid indeed, not to notice such a slip.

  “I don’t even know the woman. She is not likely to listen to me, and I still don’t see what this has to do with me or you. As a paying customer, it is my right to talk about the treatment afterwards, however I please.”

  His clenched fists paled to a pasty white. She wondered how close he was to hitting out. Louis was close by, or she might have been nervous. This was a new, ugly side of Major Kepler, the bully Veronique had seen when they were children.

  “You will not deny me.” He stared into her pupils. She held his gaze for a moment, then deliberately dropped her eyes.

  “Very well. I’ll try, but I can make no promises.”

  “I heard that you rode out with that Englishman, Mr. Winthrop, without any groom or companion.”

  This really was too much. She raised her chin. “I am not aware that I need to account to you for my behaviour, Major. Besides, he is family, by marriage, and I am a widow.”

  “I don’t like it. Family members have been known to take advantage of misplaced trust, and he is a young, virile man.”

  Milla had to repress a smile at the backhanded compliment. “Well, I am planning to ride with him again tomorrow, should the weather be fair. If you are so concerned, perhaps you want to come, too?”

  “I wish I could, but I have business to conduct. Not all of us have the leisure to ride around the countryside for hours on end, and take in the sights.”

  Milla opened her eyes wide. “But you are far from the Prussian army here. What business could an officer have so far from his country, in peacetime?”

  “Do not worry your pretty head about it, Lady Fenton.” His odiously condescending tone put Milla’s back up. Enough of this, she was tired of the Major and his pretensions. Now that Barnaby Winthrop had arrived, why was she wasting her time on this crook? She was still going to unmask and ruin him, if possible, but she would not play this ridiculous part much longer. Another day or two, while she considered how best to get rid of him with a minimum of fuss.

  ***

  The Pension Ab
endstern’s maidservant led Milla to a modest drawing room, where a lady in her mid-thirties was reading to three girls in pinafores and a small boy in a sailor suit. Milla blinked at the sight. This was a decidedly middle-class household, not even a governess was in evidence. Why on earth would Kepler and Rabenstein be so eager to target a victim who did not possess great wealth? It broke the usual pattern.

  “Lady Fenton, Ma'am,” the maid blurted and left, as the mother of the brood turned to Milla in faint surprise.

  “Please forgive my disturbing your time with your children,” Milla said in German, which made Mrs. Rainer smile in relief. “I need to talk to you confidentially, on a rather ticklish matter.”

  “I cannot imagine what that could be, but by all means.” The second-oldest girl, of about fourteen, was directed to take the youngest girl and the boy out into the garden. The oldest daughter, about sixteen by Milla’s reckoning, was allowed to stay. She had long blonde tresses and watched Milla with innocent curiosity.

  “This is my firstborn, Käthe,” Mrs. Rainer said. “She’s my chief assistant, while our governess is enjoying her own vacation. You can speak freely in front of her.”

  “Very well. I do not know if you have come here for the waters, Mrs. Rainer, but if so, you may have heard of a procedure called the Mental Water Treatment.”

  “You are supposed to have had bad dreams afterwards,” Mrs. Rainer said promptly. “We have only been here for four days, but two different people have told me all about that.”

  “I deliberately told that story to some of my local acquaintances to warn them off the procedure, but the truth is rather worse. I had reason to believe, even before coming to Regensbad, that this treatment had some sinister purpose. Doktor Rabenstein, as he calls himself, mesmerized me and the other two patients. At least, they made the attempt in my case, for with some difficulty I managed to remain awake.”

  “I believe mesmerism can be helpful for various medical problems,” Mrs. Rainer said, leaning forward with interest. “If he told his patients to eat less, or sleep better…?”

  “That is not what transpired, however.” Without naming names, Milla briefly described what she had seen and heard. “Not only does this Doktor command his patients to hand over their money to his confederate, Major Kepler, he also probes for their guilty secrets and takes notes of names and dates, presumably so as to have an additional hold on them.”

  “How wicked!” Käthe exclaimed. “Do go on. What secrets did you reveal?”

  “I foiled him with useless information that cannot harm me. The reason I came to you, Ma’am, is that Kepler and Rabenstein were furious when they discovered I had warned other ladies against the treatment. For some reason, they seem very desirous to have you undergo this procedure, and commanded me – under the impression that I am theirs to command – to talk directly to you, and convince you to try the treatment. They even offer to lower the charge to half a gulden.”

  “How much is it normally?” Mrs. Rainer asked.

  “Four gulden.”

  “So much?” Käthe shook her head. “Who on earth would ever pay that much for a treatment?”

  “The high price makes sense,” her mother said thoughtfully, “if they deliberately target the rich and foolish, people who need not consider the value of money. It would keep ordinary, less rich patients out of their hair.”

  “Yes,” Milla said, “that is why I am wondering what interest they have in you, specifically. You are not secretly a millionairess, I take it?”

  Mrs. Rainer snorted, amused. “I wish I were.”

  “I shall tell them that even at the reduced price, you were not interested in the treatment,” Milla said. “Rabenstein is very good – even forewarned, I nearly succumbed to his influence. I could not help his previous victims, without any proof, but I would not want you to fall into the clutches of these unscrupulous men.”

  “What are you going to do about them?” Käthe asked.

  “I have been trying to ferret out more information, enough to expose them and foil their activities, but it is proving unexpectedly difficult. Kepler is pretending to woo me, but with so little enthusiasm that I wonder if he is already married, or merely acting on somebody’s orders. His heart is not in it. Instead, they are trying to extract money from me by way of spurious investments.”

  Mrs. Rainer and Käthe exchanged a look. “Don’t tell them I refused outright,” the older woman said slowly, “rather that my nerves are not in need of any treatment, but I thought it might suit my overworked husband, when he comes to stay with us over the weekend. I suspect they will be very happy to hook him, and forget all about me.”

  Milla stared at her. “You cannot mean to allow your husband to fall under their influence! Rabenstein is very dangerous, and as I just described, men succumb to him as easily as women.”

  “Don’t worry, he will be safe,” Mrs. Rainer said with irritating complacency. “Thank you for the warning, Lady Fenton. I would not have taken such a treatment regardless, but I am obliged to you.”

  Chapter 16

  Major Kepler passed his hand over his moustache with satisfaction. “Did I not tell you that the mine shares would be an excellent investment, and produce great short-term gain?” he asked Milla, preening. “In a mere three days, we have nearly doubled our outlay!”

  Milla smiled guilelessly. She had just handed the perfidious Major one hundred and eighty gulden, his share of the joint transaction, and pocketed her initial investment and eighty gulden profit herself. The bearded seller of shares had come to her in a frenzy to buy them back, and barely baulked when she drove him up by another twenty gulden. Veronique had been quite right. Had Milla been an ordinary investor, unaware of the sling about to be placed around her neck, she would now feel proud and elated.

  “Prodigious,” she agreed, “that is certainly a most satisfactory rate of return. I wonder that he was so foolish to place the shares prematurely. But one man’s foolishness is another’s profit, isn’t it?”

  “Or another woman’s,” he assented. “Through my contacts, I frequently come across special business opportunities like this. I shall not fail to include you the next time.”

  “Do that.” Milla smiled at him warmly. That would be the larger transaction in which she was supposed to lose her shirt. Within days, according to Veronique, Kepler would propose something so very lucrative, that she would be willing to hock her jewels to profit to the greatest possible extent.

  Kepler approached a little closer; Milla had to force herself not to step back. “Have you thought further on my advice regarding your companion, Lady Fenton? That Frenchwoman is not your true friend. I strongly believe that she is out to feather her own nest.”

  “I suppose you are a good judge of people.” Milla gave him an admiring glance from underneath her long dark lashes – or at least that was the effect she hoped for. “But it is not so easy, as I told you before. I have discussed with Madame Rallien what her long-term plans might be, if she did not wish to return to France. She indicated that she could not possibly desert me. In face of such loyalty, how could I dismiss her?”

  “Too great softness can be a mistake,” he lectured. “You have to put your own interests first, Lady Fenton – or may I call you by your first name, Camilla, since we are becoming such good friends?”

  She pretended to hesitate. “It will cause talk,” she said regretfully. “Perhaps in private, like this, but among other acquaintances, it might be better to use last names. Germans are so very formal, they would not understand.”

  “They might believe that we are closer than mere friends.” He passed his hand over her shoulder in a quick caress. “Would that be so bad, Camilla?”

  She had never liked her full name, had been Milla since she first learned to speak. Yet she did not correct him. The false name would remind her that this was only a pretend intimacy.

  “I am not eager to court gossip,” she said primly. “And since we are not more than friends, Major, it
would be foolish to create a false impression that cannot but harm my good name, especially if it should be reported to my family in England.”

  He grimaced. “As of course it would be reported, since your officious relative, Mr. Winthrop, is staying here in Regensbad. You seem to be very much at ease in his company.”

  She shrugged. “He wants to explore the environs, since the waters are not much of an attraction to a healthy young man his age. I am fond of riding myself, and see no reason not to show him about. This morning we had to postpone our ride because of the heavy rain, but there are still many other sights to explore.”

  She and Barnaby had taken a walk through the wet streets instead, talking of England and her weeks in London, when they were chasing that elusive will. And had kissed once again, in the shelter of an arched doorway … she brought her attention back to Kepler, who was regarding her with creased brow.

  “Why don’t you include me in those expeditions, Camilla?”

  Drat! That was the very last thing she needed, Major Kepler playing gooseberry while she flirted with Barnaby. “Did I not do so just the other day? I was not aware that you had any interest in natural beauties.”

  “Such rides, without your companion or even a groom along, are likely to lead to gossip as well,” he warned. “If there is more than one man in the group, it looks less particular.”

  She pretended to consider. “In that case, I might as well invite Madame Rallien, too.”

  “I doubt that would please her.”

  “How would you know, Major? Do you have some previous acquaintance with Madame Rallien, that you have such insight into her tastes and predilections?”

  His moustache twitched in irritation. “No, of course not. I merely go by my general impressions, and my knowledge of her type.”

  “Her type,” Milla repeated. “Are people mere types to you, Major Kepler? What type am I?”

  He grasped her hand in his. “The type of woman I most adore. You, out of all women I have met, transcend type and sex, and are absolutely unique. I cannot get you out of my head. You cruelly indicated that we are merely friends. But that can change – if you give me permission, I would like to make love to you, give you such pleasure that you will scream it to the heavens.” His thumb was beginning to slowly massage her palm, and she knew that with the slightest encouragement, he would kiss her. Milla withdrew her hand from his. She remembered how that rough moustache tickled, and had no desire to repeat the experience.