Tamblin slapped his hand in annoyance on the low wall where they were standing. “The mere fact that you ask that question shows me how far this has gone. But the answer is no; you shall not recuse yourself from this case. You shall recuse yourself from any further contact with Miss Bernay. Whatsoever. Permanently.”
“No, sir!” Michael exploded. “That is too much to expect. I will not do it.”
“You don’t have a choice, counselor.” Tamblin’s voice was low now, almost threatening. “This directive does not come from me. It comes from Lord Westbridge.”
“And what makes him think he can direct my personal life in such a high-handed fashion?”
“After hearing about the incident at the magistrate’s court, his lordship wanted to know who this woman was and why you would go to such lengths to help her.”
“Well, now he knows. Why doesn’t he just allow me to recuse myself?”
“After all the work you’ve done on this case, and all you know about our strategies for pursuing it? No. He wants to ensure he has your loyalty above everything else.”
“She saved my life, Tamblin.”
“You do not understand how far he will go to have his way. He has every detective in London at his beck and call. He’s done some personal research into your life, too, it seems. This morning he met with me, irate over this affair at the magistrate’s court. But more than that, he’d uncovered some disturbing information about your family.”
“If you’re speaking of my father, that’s public knowledge. Has been for years, including every possible permutation on every rumor.”
“It’s not about your father. It’s about David Barker.”
Michael stared at him. “The earl objects to a man who comes by his wealth through honest hard work? Surely even his lordship understands that many such people exist in England nowadays.”
Tamblin’s eyebrows raised. Michael thought it was a reaction to his sarcastic comment, until he said, “You really don’t know, do you?”
There was a note of sympathy in his voice that, mixed with his earlier demands, hinted at a new menace.
“What don’t I know?”
“It’s a serious situation, Stephenson. But I shouldn’t be the one to give you the news. Have a talk with Barker. Do it today. Then tell me what you intend to do.”
Michael stood outside the Royal Exchange, waiting for David. After his conversation with Tamblin, he’d gone straight to David’s place of business. Whatever was going on, whatever the earl and Tamblin knew, Michael was certain Corinna did not know it. Since their father’s death, they had not kept secrets of any magnitude from one another. Therefore Michael decided it would be best to speak with his brother-in-law privately.
He’d been informed by David’s clerk that David was at the Exchange, meeting with a new client. Michael had been waiting for perhaps a quarter of an hour when he saw David come through the main entrance. He was accompanied by another man, a prominent banker whom Michael recognized from his club. They paused and shook hands before the banker continued on his way. If this was David’s new client, he had done well indeed.
David placed his hat on his head with a satisfied tap, his face displaying his usual air of geniality. Michael could not imagine this man harboring some terrible, dark secret. It just wasn’t in his nature. Michael was determined to get this cleared up.
Calling out David’s name, Michael hurried up to him.
“Hullo, this is a pleasant surprise,” David said, smiling. “Don’t tell me business has brought you here. None of my clients are under suit at the moment, and I should like to keep it that way.”
“It’s not business. I must talk with you about something else.”
“I was just heading home. Why don’t you come with me? I’ve received an order of excellent cigars from Cuba. You really should try one.”
Michael shook his head. “This needs to be private. I have to ask you a very personal question—and I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t critically important to all of us. Is there something about you, or your background, that you haven’t told me?”
David’s smile faded. He glanced around to see who was in their immediate vicinity—a sign of nervousness that aroused Michael’s fears. The area was bustling. Businessmen came and went from the Exchange, and messenger boys threaded their way among them to deliver important missives at various buildings throughout the financial district. An omnibus had just pulled up and was disgorging passengers.
“Let’s drive to the park,” David suggested.
Once they were in a cab and under way, David asked, “Who told you to ask me about my past? How much does this person know?”
Michael explained the conversation he’d had with Tamblin. “I have been as honest with you as I can,” he finished. “I hope you will be so with me.”
David looked down at his hands, which were clenched together in his lap. He said, heavily, “Yes, I will tell you everything.”
They got out of the cab at Hyde Park Corner and walked into the park. There were many people out enjoying the day, but they were widely dispersed along the paths and the green fields of the massive park. Michael and David had space to speak confidentially.
“Suppose we take a seat.” David pointed toward a bench that had just been vacated by a man and woman. The pair walked off arm in arm with a casual lightheartedness that Michael envied. He had a premonition that everything he’d worked for all these years now hung in the balance. Even worse, the love he’d known for a scant few days might slip from his grasp as well.
“Warm day, isn’t it?” David took out a handkerchief and pressed it to his brow, but the tremor in his hand betrayed that he was feeling more than the late-day sun. “I’m sorry it has come to this. There are things I should have told you and Corinna, but I never did. I kept telling myself there was no point, that I had atoned and it was all behind me. But I see now I was wrong.”
Atoned? “What haven’t you told us?”
“I was born in a workhouse. I don’t even know who my father was.”
This introduction already gave Michael an understanding of why David would lie about his past. The stigma of the workhouse could never be fully erased. Certainly not in polite society. And if he was born out of wedlock, it would be nigh on impossible.
David looked at him with a combination of guilt and fear, as if he expected Michael to lash out in anger or disgust. Certainly it was tempting, for this knowledge would devastate Corinna and her dreams of respectability. Such a response would be futile, though. Michael had to stay levelheaded and approach this situation as logically as possible. David was his brother-in-law; that fact could not be changed. They must simply go forward as best they could.
Michael said calmly, “How did your mother end up there?”
Gratefulness for this compassionate response glimmered in David’s eyes before he continued. “She was heavily pregnant when she arrived at the workhouse door. She told them her husband had died and she had nowhere else to go. I’d like to believe her story was true. Or it may have been a lie she told as a grasp at some small shred of dignity. A few years later, she was dead.”
He paused again, this time to blow his nose with his handkerchief. “Allergies, don’t you know,” he muttered.
Michael stayed silent, allowing David this moment. It could not have been easy to relive these memories of his past—or even admit to them.
“It was a cruel, heartless place, as you might imagine. I ran away when I was eleven. I tramped my way to Manchester, where I fell in with a bad lot. They taught me pickpocketing, housebreaking, and most especially, the joys of alcohol. I got happiness from drink, but it didn’t quench my anger. You can never really ‘drown your sorrows,’ as they say, if there is an endless supply.”
Michael nodded. It was not difficult to imagine a young man’s rage at such a lot in life.
“Late one night, three of us infiltrated a crowd at a local fair. Two boys would cause a distraction while the third did the pi
ckpocketing. Must have been hundreds of people there, most of whom had had plenty to drink. I’d been drinking, too, although I knew better. I generally waited until after the work was done, but not this time. It was getting to where I couldn’t go too many waking hours without a drink. As a result, I was sloppy at the pickpocketing. When my mark realized what was happening, he raised an uproar. There were bobbies nearby, and they came after us. I ran off down a side street, pushing people over in my desperation to escape. At one point, I shoved a man out of my way—and directly into the path of an oncoming carriage.”
This horrific tale, coming from David, was almost impossible to believe. David paused, leaning forward and looking at the ground, giving Michael time to take it all in. Or perhaps to compose himself as he confronted memories he had hoped to keep buried. “It was an accident, but that didn’t lessen the impact of those carriage wheels. I was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to twelve months hard labor. But I was a changed person before I ever got there. I was in jail for weeks before the trial. Those weeks, coming off the liquor, nearly killed me. The tremors, the fever. I decided it would be a fitting way to die. I didn’t die, though. I stood trial, and after my conviction, I worked every day of those twelve months at the prison. Not for one day did I forget the sight of that man’s mangled body.
“I came out of that prison at age fifteen, hardened but penitent, too. I begged God to forgive me. The prison chaplain saw my genuine remorse. He found me a position with a dry-goods merchant. You wouldn’t think good people would want anything to do with me, but that man and his wife gave me a chance. I learned the business during the day, and they taught me reading and arithmetic at night. Improved my speech and etiquette. In time, I came to think of them as my parents, and they never objected to my calling them that.”
He leaned back, once more wiping his brow with the handkerchief. “Now you know my story. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for hiding it.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Michael, I love your sister. I suppose that, as her brother, you wonder how anyone could love her.” He managed a wry smile. “And yet Corinna means more to me than anything else in the world. When your father died and I saw what straits you were in, I knew this was my opportunity, and as any determined suitor, I took it.”
Michael thought back to those days when David was courting Corinna. Everything he had said was true. Michael had known full well why Corinna married him. But she was determined to do so, and all had agreed it was for the best.
“I wanted nothing more than to gain her hand and to help you both,” David continued. “But I was afraid she would never marry me if she knew my true history. For one thing, she might worry that I would give myself over to drunkenness again. To be honest, I fear this as well. That is why I am a temperance man and find my pleasure instead in good cigars.”
“There were times when I wondered about that,” Michael admitted. He’d assumed it had something to do with David’s charity work. Many of those charities promoted temperance among the working classes.
“But really,” David continued, “the most pressing concern to me was Corinna’s great desire to regain her place in society. Such a woman would surely never marry me. If my true history were known, who would ever receive us into the best circles? I care nothing for those things, except that Corinna does, and therefore her desires are mine as well.”
Michael thought back to the man he’d seen David with earlier. His newest client was a man of eminent respectability. “It would hurt your business, too.”
“That is true,” David agreed. “And then how should I be able to take care of Corinna in the way she both craves and deserves?”
This was the point around which everything now centered.
“Michael, what can we do to keep this from becoming public?” David asked quietly.
“Tamblin has told me the information will remain confidential so long as I continue working on the libel suit—and break off all contact with Julia Bernay.”
David’s brow wrinkled. “That seems excessive. Why would he make such a stipulation?”
“I think the earl wants to quash the medical school and anyone who has even the slightest connection to it. He doesn’t want me spending time with someone whom he sees as being in league with his daughter.”
“Why doesn’t he just remove you from the case?”
“He fears I would change sides and help the defense. That would be an unconscionable breach of ethics on my part, but his lordship doesn’t trust anyone. Now that this information about me and Julia has come to light, I think he trusts me least of all.”
“Well, I trust you implicitly,” David declared. “I know you are a good man, and you would not do anything to hurt your family. I beg you not to tell any of this to Corinna. Especially not now, in her delicate condition. She would be devastated, and who knows what effect that could have on her and the baby?”
“I agree,” Michael said grimly. “We will keep this between ourselves.”
“I’m sorry you cannot see Miss Bernay anymore. I know you feel beholden to her after what she did for you. Perhaps you might be able to help her another way, rather than tutoring her yourself.”
If Corinna had suspicions about Michael’s growing attachment to Julia, she must not have voiced them to her husband. David clearly assumed Michael’s association with Julia went no further than the lessons.
A kind of numbness began to steal over him as he considered the choice he had to make. But really, he had no choice. After all of Corinna’s sacrifices and all David had done for them both, how could he do anything to put them in jeopardy?
But what it was going to cost him in return was too unbearable to even ponder.
CHAPTER
23
JULIA PACED UP AND DOWN THE PATHS of the little park, waiting for Michael’s arrival. These past few days, her mind had been in turmoil despite her efforts to think rationally. Her prayers had given her some comfort, but she could not bring her mind around to an answer that felt right.
She thought of Dr. Anderson, who was proof that a woman could be married and still carry on a career in medicine—and an exceptional career at that. But Dr. Anderson’s work was here in London. Julia’s missionary work was going to take her far away. That dream had become a burden that lay heavy on her heart. If she gave it up, would she be putting a man above her faith? She kept vacillating between the choices presented to her, making up her mind to one but then deciding just as fervently for the other.
The park had other visitors today. There was a nanny pushing a perambulator, accompanied by a little girl. On a far bench sat an older gentleman who looked like he was dozing in the sun. Whatever happened between Julia and Michael today, it would not include kissing under the trees. She told herself this was a good thing—that it would help her remain strong. She had to ensure her decisions were based on God’s will, not on unreliable feelings.
She kept watch on the entrance to the park, but there was no sign of Michael. It seemed odd that he hadn’t shown up yet. Perhaps something had detained him at work. She could not imagine he’d be late for this appointment. Not after his fervent declarations to her before they’d parted.
Nevertheless, each passing minute seemed to confirm that he had changed his mind after all. Grief began to well up within her at the thought. And yet wasn’t that why she’d suggested this period of separation? Wouldn’t it be best to find out now, before they’d made irrevocable decisions? It brought her back to the conviction that they should not be swayed from their cherished but very different ambitions.
But what if he did come, and what if he tried just as fervently to persuade her to stay? Could she resist his appeal?
Julia strode faster along the path, breathing deeply, forcing her mind to be sensible and reject the folly of daydreams. As far back as she could remember, she’d lived her life with important goals that had nothing to do with finding romantic love. She was not going to succumb
to the foolish notions that were too prevalent among her sex—her sister Cara being a case in point. When Cara had whispered in her ear—right here, in this very park—how glad she was to see Julia had fallen in love, Julia ought to have taken that for the danger signal it was and not allowed things with Michael to get as far as they had. But she had not heeded that warning, and now she had impossible choices to make.
Reaching the end of the path, Julia turned abruptly to retrace her steps and saw Michael at the gate, looking at her across the length of the park. When he started forward, it was with a solemn deliberation that told Julia, even from this distance, all she needed to know.
She gulped air, clenching her fists and tensing every muscle, as though by reinforcing her physical strength, she could shore up her emotions. She refused to be weak. It had never been in her nature, and she wasn’t about to start now. If only her legs, which were alarmingly unsteady as she walked, would get the message.
They both came to a halt when they were still several feet apart.
His expression was distant, cool. But there was also a hesitancy in his eyes. Perhaps he was holding back, waiting to see her reaction first? That was not something she would have expected, given how adamant he was at their last meeting.
“I thought you might not come,” she said.
“Of course I came. I had to come.” He spoke with a heaviness that made it sound like a burden. “I have to tell you that we cannot meet anymore.”
Julia gasped. His words only confirmed what she’d seen in his demeanor the moment he’d arrived, and yet for him to blurt it out left her stunned.
“I—I see.” She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders—anything she could do to give the appearance of calm detachment. “As a matter of fact, I think that’s best, too. While I’m grateful for the many things you’ve done for me, we cannot expect, being on such different paths in life, that there could be anything between us, except perhaps for mutual admiration—”
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