Chapter 26
Fellow Britons, I recently received the following communication through my publisher: Dear Lady Justice, Your impertinence astounds me. But your tenacity must be commended. I fear I have already, in fact, come to admire you for that. But, dear lady, if you wish admittance to the Falcon Club so desperately, you have only to discover the names of its members and apply to join. One, I regret to report, has recently left us. But four of us remain. Among these is myself, Your servant, Peregrine Secretary, The Falcon Club Impertinence, indeed. This Peregrine seeks to intimidate me with soft words and flatteries, common methods by which the powerful and wealthy cajole and control society. Rest assured, my head will not be turned. I shall continue to seek out wasteful expenditures of funds and lay them open to examination before the entire kingdom.
I am, it seems, beset by correspondents. Another letter came across my desk only two days ago. Its anonymous author (a lady, by the genteel hand) begged me to print it. Her reasons for wishing this were sufficiently intriguing that I do so now: To the Particular Gentleman it may concern: I am on my way to Shropshire in search of a portrait cameo.
That, my friends, is all it said. I am enormously curious and ask only that upon her return from Shropshire, the lady will inform us as to the success of her quest.
Lady Justice Leam cast the pamphlet into the grate and watched it float on a swell of hot air to the edge of the ashes, untouched by the flames. He pressed his palm into the mantel.
So, Jin, Yale, and Constance had not finished with the Club after all. And Gray.... Leam did not understand his old friend. This seemed foolhardy. Colin was arrogant, but he was also directed and disciplined, and possessed of a single purpose: England’s safety.
As Leam’s single purpose was Kitty’s safety.
Tomorrow he would don his roughest costume and delve into London’s seamy underworld once again. He would turn over every stone until he found the one under which David Cox was hiding.
Then, when Kitty was free of threats, he would bend his mind finally to deciding what to do with his wife.
Cornelia had not mentioned Jamie again, but Leam had only called on her once since the first occasion. She had fluttered her lashes and begged him not to divorce her. He had told her the truth, that he had no honest grounds for it, and would not perjure himself by claiming her infidelity, the only justifiable basis for divorce. He requested only that she remain at the apartment until he made suitable arrangements for her residence at his own expense. She said she preferred a smaller house so that she could spend her funds on charity rather than unnecessary servants. At the convent in Italy she had become accustomed to giving to the needy poor; she wished to continue that practice now in London.
He did not believe a word of it. But he didn’t care.
His vision blurred staring at the pamphlet. So close to the flames, yet not consumed.
It seemed curious that the one place he thought about almost constantly these days should appear in Lady Justice’s leaflet. Shropshire was a large enough county, and there were any number of places in it one could find a cameo, none of which was undoubtedly a shabby inn in a tiny riverside village.
The corner of his mouth crept up.
But swiftly his smile faded. He bent and snatched the smoking paper from the hearth.
At the ball, Kitty had spoken of a cameo belonging to Cox. The next day Lady Justice received a letter from a lady about a cameo, clearly intended to inspire a gentleman to take the bait. Had Kitty known something he did not? He wouldn’t blame her for not telling him. But…
This was madness. A sane man would never put the two together. After all, his eyes and mind and heart sought Kitty in everything anyway. He was imagining hints and clues where they did not exist.
Or he was not, and she was the clever beauty he had fallen in love with.
He ran out of his house, grabbing his coat and barely strapping the saddle onto his horse before bolting down the street in the direction of the pamphleteer’s publishing house.
The clerk in the publisher’s office would not give him Lady Justice’s address or name. Leam asked to see the letter from the anonymous lady. The clerk refused. Leam put money on the table. The clerk treated him to a pointed speech on journalistic integrity and the arrogance of the aristocratic class.
Leam threatened legal action. The clerk rang a bell on his desk, and a burly fellow who looked like he could load crates onto ships with his bare hands walked into the chamber and gave Leam a dark look.
Leam did not have any particular desire to spend the next fortnight in bed nursing broken bones.
He departed, leaving his card and a request that should Lady Justice find it in her heart to pay him a call, he would be much obliged. Perhaps Gray’s methods had some merit.
He could not sleep, and the following morning stole himself to pay a call at the house where he was least wanted. He knocked on Kitty’s door. The footman opened it, round eyes brightening noticeably.
“Milord!”
“Is Lady Katherine in?”
“No, milord. She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
The fellow nodded, his wig bobbing up and down.
“Lady Katherine has gone to Shropshire, my lord.” The housekeeper stood at the far end of the foyer, a spark in her eye.
“Shropshire.” His blood pounded. “Are you certain of this?”
“Quite, sir. My mistress has recently been wed and is on her wedding trip in Brighton. Lady Katherine set out for Shropshire yesterday.”
“Alone?” God, no.
“With Madame Roche, my lord.”
Leam released a pent-up breath. “Thank you.” He cast a nod at the footman and went to his horse.
He must pay a call before he took to the road. He hadn’t any idea why Kitty thought Cox had lost his cameo, or why Cox might think Leam had it, or what it had to do with him at all. But she must know something about the man that he did not. She had brought down a lord committing treason against the crown through years of quietly observing others, of listening and paying close attention.
Now her cleverness and bravery had dislodged his own brain from bemusement. The parts would not come together, but they were tantalizingly close.
Without waiting for Cornelia to come to him, he went straight along the corridor, the manservant glowering at his shoulder. He found her in a bedchamber strewn with gowns and underclothing. A traveling trunk sat amid it all.
“Leam!” She leaped up from a table at which she was taking tea. “What are you doing here?”
“Where are you going?” He gestured to the scene of packing.
“To Alvamoor, of course. To see my son,” she added hastily.
He moved toward her. She cowered. He had never wanted that, but now he had no patience for her histrionics.
“Cornelia, what do you know of a man named David Cox?”
Her cheeks went white. “What should I know?”
Leam’s heart raced. “You do know him, then. How? What is your connection with him?”
She slid from behind the table and moved across the chamber. “Whatever are you talking about, Leam?” Her voice trembled. “I told you, since I ran away I have not been with any man, only my parents and my companion, Chiara.” She turned wide eyes upon him, gold lashes fanning outward.
“Did you know Cox before our marriage?”
She twisted a napkin between her pale fingers, her eyes abruptly distressed. “What do you wish me to say?”
“The truth, Cornelia. After all these years of lies, I deserve it from you.”
“I did.” She squeezed her eyes shut, her hands banded about the napkin. “I knew him before.”
“When?”
Her eyes opened, full of uncertainty. “Your brother introduced me to him. They were in the same regiment. Is that what you wish to hear?”
“Did you give him a cameo?”
“A—a cameo?”
“Perhaps a portrait of yourself. Or of James.”
<
br /> “Of James?”
“Did you?”
“Yes!” The word seemed to tear out of her. “Yes. A picture of me. He begged me for it.” She pressed the linen against her mouth. “What will you do now, Leam? Will you punish me for it?”
“I never meant to punish you, Cornelia. I hurt, and I did not understand why you and James could not have told me the truth before it was too late.” It seemed so simple now. So honest.
“I wish I had.” A tear escaped her eye and dripped over her knuckles pressed to her cheek. “Maybe then you would have forgiven me.”
“Sooner than I did, probably.” But then he might not have known Kitty. He would not have known love.
“Have you forgiven me, Leam?”
He nodded.
“Then why won’t you take me back?”
“Cornelia.” Tension gripped him. He must be off to Shropshire without further delay. But her gaze beckoned and he wanted this finished once and for all. “Why have you come back? I know you don’t care about your son. So then, what do you want of me?”
She drew the linen away and her lips quivered, a second tear escaping.
“I do care about Jamie, and I don’t want anything from you,” she whispered. “He does.”
Leam’s blood stilled. “Tell me now.”
Her eyes were round as saucers. “His business went horribly wrong in America. He needs money desperately and says he will hurt Jamie if I don’t get the funds from you and give them to him.” Her tone had risen.
“Who, Cornelia?”
“David! Don’t you see? He was so greedy. I did not understand it at first, but then he wanted so much. More than I could give him even with the generous allowance you provided me. Then the baby came so soon after our wedding and James died and I could not think straight. I was frightened of you and David, and so confused.”
“Cornelia,” Leam broke into her mounting agitation. “Why does David Cox need this cameo?”
“He lost it in Shropshire at that inn. He thought you took it, and he was wild with fear that you were playing him to frighten him. He searched your bedchambers on Christmas night when you were all playing cards, he said, but he could not find it. So he thought that if you were dead he would get the money anyway through me once I returned to society, so he tried to shoot you. But that went awry and he realized he was not a murderer after all, even though he is a horrid thief and extortionist.”
“Why would I have been playing him? About what?”
“He thought I had told you everything already and that you didn’t care because you were with Lady Katherine now.”
“What? ”
But she seemed not to hear him, her words tumbling forth swiftly. “When I would not go to Alvamoor to show you I was alive and seek money from you, he threatened her so that you would come to London and I would be forced to meet you. I told him I would not, even so, that I would return to Italy and you would never know. But he vowed he would go to Alvamoor and hurt my son. I could not allow that to happen, Leam. I have not seen little Jamie in five years but he is my flesh and blood and I always loved him. I pray you to believe me!”
“I do.” It was too fantastical to disbelieve, and her eyes rolled with the same manic distress as on that day she’d told him about her affair with James. “But I still do not understand, Cornelia. What is this cameo to him?”
“His insurance, but only until he needs it. I inscribed it before I gave it to him.”
“What is the inscription?”
“It says…” She released a whimper like an injured animal. “It says To my dear husband, David.”
Chapter 27
Leam’s breaths came in uneven chunks.
“Our…” An ocean seemed to wash through his head. “Our son is—?”
“Not his. For all the lies I have told you, I swear this upon my soul. He is James’s.”
It must be. The child looked exactly as his brother had at that age.
“But how long before—”
“I married David three weeks before you offered for me.” She seemed to shrink back against the wall. “Over the anvil in a village near the border.”
He shook his head, shaking space in it for the knowledge. The truth. The miraculous truth.
“Then why did you need me? You already had a husband. You would not have been ruined.”
“I told you. I could not bear being parted from your brother. I still cannot.” Her voice quavered.
“Sometimes I don’t believe he is dead. I dream of him at night and believe when I wake he will be there.”
“And Cox?”
She turned her face away. “Before meeting you, I was desperate, afraid to tell my parents I was increasing. Only James knew, and he had abandoned me. David said beautiful things to me, that he would protect me and care for me. I was heartbroken. I went with him, but he insisted we not tell anyone, though I begged. That same week you started courting me, admiring me so greatly. I think he saw opportunity. You had a fortune and are to be a duke—”
“Cornelia.”
She fell silent, staring at him with wide eyes. He passed his hand across his face. It could not be.
But it was.
“Have you proof of your wedding other than the inscription on the cameo?”
“I kept the receipt of payment from the blacksmith who performed the ceremony. And it has not been very long since then, after all. I think I would recognize the witnesses if they were before me.
David has never had any money, so I don’t believe he could have bribed them to maintain their silence, even now. He wanted to blackmail you, but I don’t know that he thought he would be able to do so for long. I don’t think he thought it out clearly at all. He is very impetuous, and always believing that others seek to harm him.”
He crossed the chamber and as gently as his racing pulse allowed, grasped her arms and looked down at her.
“We are not married. We are not married ,” he repeated for good measure and because his life had abruptly begun again.
She shook her head. “We never were.” Then she whispered, “What will you do with Jamie?”
Amid the euphoria expanding in him, regret sliced.
“Keep him, if you will allow me. Even if you will not. He is my blood. It cannot be helped that he must learn of your marriage, but he needn’t know he is not mine. And I will treat him as my son, Cornelia. I could not do otherwise.”
Her head bobbed. She reached up and set a small hand atop his. “Leam, I beg your forgiveness for what I have done to you. What I did. It is as though an enormous weight has lifted from me now, having told you all.”
He released her. “Where is Cox now?”
“I don’t know. This morning he came and was very agitated. He said something about returning to Shropshire, but—”
“I am going after him now. He has committed crimes and must be punished for them. The truth will have to be revealed publicly.”
She nodded. Then she looked away, pressing the linen to her lips once more.
“Cornelia, do your parents know of your real marriage?”
She shook her head.
“I can help you.”
“After all I have done to you? No. I deserve whatever I will suffer now.” She lifted her gaze again.
“You needn’t worry about me. After all, you have another lady to worry about now, I think.”
He could only hope. And pray. And wish upon every star in the heavens.
“Good-bye, Cornelia.”
“Good-bye, Leam. Write to me of my son, if you will, occasionally. I should like to hear of him.”
He departed.
The day had advanced, and his quick breaths turned to smoke in the cold. But the sky without was pale and low, the glow of the lowering sun fighting early spring clouds laden with uncertain rain.
Leam mounted his horse and set off. For Shropshire. To chase down a man bent on harm. And to seek out a lady worth more than the stars and sky combined.
; He found Cox just shy of Bridgnorth in the taproom of a farmers’ tavern. It had not been difficult tracking him. At each stop for food and bed, Cox had left his bills unpaid.
Leam crossed the room.
Cox caught sight of him, and his face turned ashen.
It was certainly an exaggeration to claim—as some did later to others not present at the event—
that just as the late-winter sun was setting on the Severn nearby, a barbarian of a Scot that none in the place could understand stormed in, threw about chairs until at least five were ruined and another three badly splintered, then proceeded to do more or less the same to a smartly dressed gentleman from Londontown who hadn’t been bothering a soul.
That the Scotsman, while standing over his bleeding, broken prey, had the effrontery to demand a magistrate be summoned also received poor press from the locals. But, after the magistrate arrived, heard all, and departed with both strangers, then returned alone some hours later to explain that the brute was in fact heir to a duke, and the pretty fellow a low character by any standards, some were willing to reconsider their opinion on the matter. When in due course it became known that the duke’s heir was already an earl, and not only paid the tavern keep for the destruction to his property but also left a pile of guineas to be spent on ale for everyone he had bothered in the dust-up, forgiveness flowed like said ale throughout the pub.
What was the good in being a grand lord, after all, if a fellow couldn’t have a right rowdy knock-
around with a scoundrel every now and again?
“The ass made the noises all the night yesterday. I am—how do you say?—exhausted! Et toi, belle Katrine?” The Frenchwoman laid her hand gloved in fingerless black lace on Kitty’s knee and tut-
tutted. “You must go up to the sleep tout de suite.”
Kitty flipped a page in her book and tried to focus. “Not yet. I have a bit more to read, then I will turn in.” And remain awake staring at the ceiling beneath which she had made love to a barbaric Scot, this time with her nerves strained in fear and anticipation.
When a Scot Loves a Lady fc-1 Page 31