Following her, Thea found herself in a small but clean stone building with a dirt floor and a brick hearth. A fire warmed the cottage furnished with what were clearly castoffs from the duke’s manor.
Feeling somewhat tired after her walk, she gestured at one of the chairs near the hearth. “May I?” she asked.
“If you wish,” Caroline sullenly replied.
“My husband told me it was purely by chance that he discovered you were in Liverpool,” Thea began without preamble. “He never said how.”
“I didn’t write to him and beg for his aid, if that’s what you think,” Caroline said. “He told me he met that lout Leamington-Rudney and discovered I had run off with him. Charles was vain enough to brag that he wasn’t going to marry me, so Dev took it upon himself to help me.”
“You don’t sound very grateful,” Thea noted.
Caroline sat, twisting her hands in her lap as she continued to meet Thea’s steadfast gaze. “Of course I am.” Her gaze faltered and her cheeks flushed. “And I’m ashamed to the core of my soul, if that’s what you want to hear.”
“I take no pleasure in what’s happened to you,” Thea said. “In fact, I hope to offer you a way to restore your wounded pride.”
“Why would you want to help me?” Caroline demanded. “Unless you want to spite my mother, I suppose.”
“My offer has nothing to do with her and everything to do with a woman who was lied to and is made to suffer while the man who deceived her gets away virtually unscathed.”
Thea reached out and took Caroline’s cold hands in hers. “Before I met Develin, my family had fallen on hard times. That dress I was wearing when we first met was one of only three I owned. So you can believe me when I say I understand how it feels to be scorned and belittled, to be treated as unworthy, and how hard it can be to retain your self-respect.
“I can also understand why you would run off with a man who made you feel attractive and desirable and who offered to marry you. I can even understand if part of you wanted to make my husband jealous.”
Caroline’s eyes narrowed, but Thea continued undaunted. “Then instead of marrying you, the viscount went back on his promise and left you with a ruined reputation.”
Caroline looked away, staring out the small window to the trees beyond. “I was in love with Develin, or thought I was. I was sure he’d offer to marry me and instead he came home with you.”
Today Thea could ignore her scorn. Caroline was in pain, suffering from wounded pride and a broken heart. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, meaning it.
Caroline turned back to her, her expression hard, her eyes hot with unshed tears. “So am I.”
“Dev told me he never gave you cause to believe he wanted to marry you.”
Caroline jumped to her feet and walked to the far wall of the small cottage before facing her again. For a moment, she looked at Thea defiantly, but only for a moment before her shoulders slumped as if in defeat. “No, he didn’t,” she admitted. “I wanted him, but he never wanted me.”
She came back and sat again, now regarding Thea with a more humble mien. “And you’re right. I needed to hear I was beautiful and wanted, that a man loved me, even if it was Leamington-Rudney. He wrote me adoring letters and said if I would honor him with my hand in marriage, we’d go to Gretna Green just like you and Develin and be wed.” She took a deep breath and the fire of scorn returned to her eyes, but this time the disdain was for herself. “Like a fool, I believed him, just as I foolishly told myself Develin’s attention meant he cared for me.” Her hands balled into fists in her lap. “No man’s ever going to make a fool of me again!”
“I believe you,” Thea said firmly. “What if there’s a way to show Lord Leamington-Rudney that you won’t be treated like discarded baggage?”
“How?” Caroline demanded before she gave Thea a bitter little smile. “I can’t challenge him to a duel.”
“You can sue him for breach of promise.”
Caroline’s eyes widened with stunned surprise. “Sue him?”
“Yes, especially if you still have the letters he wrote offering to marry you.”
“What? And become even more infamous?” Caroline exclaimed.
“There’s going to be a scandal regardless, and if you sue, all will see that you were betrayed by a cad. You’ll also be warning other young women about him. I know of another jilted bride who did just that,” Thea explained, and she briefly described Geraldine’s legal triumph.
“I do have his letters,” Caroline said, getting to her feet and hurrying to a small valise near the window. She opened it and drew out a packet of letters tied with a green ribbon. “I thought of burning them but was afraid some portion would escape and a servant would find it. I was going to throw them overboard on my way to the Continent.”
Regarding Thea warily, she held them close to her chest. “Do you want to read them?”
“No,” Thea replied, shaking her head. “As long as you have them as proof for your lawyer should you decide to sue.”
Her eyebrows knit, Caroline sank onto a nearby wooden chair. “Take the cad to court,” she murmured before she looked up at Thea and smiled, beautiful despite the black eye and the bruise. “It would serve him right.”
* * *
Dev walked toward the duke’s cottage through the early-morning mist. He’d had a tense dinner with Thea the night before, during which each had said only what was necessary. He’d spent the rest of that night pacing in his bedroom.
His father had often condemned him for a lustful, weak-willed, impetuous fool. He would have been surprised by the resolve his son had displayed last night, staying away from the woman who stirred so much desire in him and whose presence he’d come to enjoy.
Until yesterday.
He’d been so taken aback by Thea’s manner and her calm acceptance of the suggestion of adultery on his part that he was beginning to doubt her sincerity about anything, including her passionate responses. And if he was wrong about that, what else was he wrong about? How much could he trust her about anything?
He reached the cottage and knocked on the door. At least for now, he had something practical with which to occupy his mind and his time, and that was getting Caroline safely to Europe.
“Who is it?” Caroline called out.
After he answered, she opened the door and gestured for him to enter.
Wearing a rather plain, dark gown and with her hair tightly and simply dressed, the duke’s daughter looked like some sort of nun or Quaker.
He hoped this was a temporary reaction to her distressing situation. Caroline had always been a cheerful person, and he would be sorry to find out that her nature had been permanently altered.
He spotted a horsehair trunk near the small window. “I trust you’ll be ready to leave with me early tomorrow morning. I’ll take you to London to meet with my solicitor, and then escort you to Dover. One of Mr. Bessborough’s agents will meet you in France.”
Caroline lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders—rather like his wife about to voice a strong opinion. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me, Develin, and all the plans you’ve made, and for helping me to reconcile with my father. But I’m not going.”
Poor girl. She must be more afraid of such a major change to her circumstances than he had realized. “You’ll have letters of introduction and a considerable allowance, as well as the assistance of Mr. Bessborough’s contacts and your father’s, too,” he assured her. “You should be safe and comfortable.”
“I’m not going to Europe,” Caroline repeated, a stubborn glint to her eyes that also—and unfortunately—reminded him of Thea.
“Your father and I both agree that’s for the best,” he said, this time somewhat warily.
“I don’t,” Caroline replied, “and neither does your wife.”
His wife? What did Thea have to do—
“She thinks I should sue the viscount for breach of promise.”
“What?” Of all the foolish, ridiculous—“What the devil are you talking about?”
“Thea came to see me yesterday. She told me about another young woman who’d been jilted and what she’d done, and it did not entail fleeing the country like a whipped dog.”
He still couldn’t quite fathom what Caroline was saying. “My wife came to see you?”
“Yes, and I was as surprised as you are that she did. She’s truly a kind and sympathetic woman, and clever, too. She said that if I had proof that Charles offered to marry me—and I do—I should sue him for breach of promise. That’s what I intend to do.”
Dev stared with dumbfounded disbelief at the regal young woman whose cheeks were flushed and whose green eyes sparkled as she continued. “Everyone is going to learn what happened to me anyway, so why not make that cad’s betrayal public knowledge, too?”
Dev tried to overlook Thea’s unexpected involvement and concentrate on Caroline. “But you went away with Leamington-Rudney. You stayed with him without being married. There’s no denying that.”
Caroline blushed and looked down at her toes. “No, there isn’t, to my eternal regret.”
“Then taking the viscount to court will only create more gossip and make your life more difficult.”
“I realize you think you know best, but you’re not a woman scorned, Develin,” Caroline said, her tone slightly softer, the look in her eyes pleading. “I have to do what I think is best for me, and I agree with Thea. By suing, I will show the world the kind of blackguard the viscount is, and even if I must suffer more because of gossip, he should also endure some social repercussions.” Her tone gentled even more and she took his hands in hers. “If you ever cared for me, you’ll help me by going with me to London and introducing me to your solicitor. It’s well known Mr. Bessborough is the best in the city.” She let go and stepped back, her voice and visage hardening again. “If you won’t, I’ll go to London anyway and find another solicitor to represent me.”
“And if Mr. Bessborough counsels you not to sue?” he asked.
“I will listen to what he has to say, just as I did to your wife, and then make my own decision.”
“Is there nothing I can say that will make you change your mind?”
“No, and there’s nothing my father can say, either.” Her eyes grew moist, but her voice was firm when she said, “Please, Dev, help me do this. If I don’t, the viscount has made me look nothing more than a weak-willed, gullible fool. The suit will also serve as a warning to other young women that he’s a cad and a scoundrel. That will give me some comfort, some hope that something good has come from my shame.”
Dev sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Caroline seemed so sure of her decision he doubted there were any more objections he could make that would convince her to change her mind.
Perhaps Roger would have more luck in that regard. “We’ll leave for London tomorrow as we planned and see what my solicitor thinks about a lawsuit.”
Caroline nodded and, after Dev said his farewell, watched him stride away through the trees. Then she closed the door, leaned her cheek against it and started to cry.
* * *
A short while later, Dev marched into the morning room where his wife was deep in conversation with the housekeeper.
“If you’ll please excuse us, Mrs. Wessex,” he said with stern intensity. “I need to speak to my wife. Alone.”
Chapter Fourteen
Thea’s jaw clenched. She’d been expecting this confrontation since she’d gone to see Caroline that morning. Because Dev was a male aristocrat, it was no wonder he didn’t understand her reasoning.
Mrs. Wessex, though, was obviously shocked by Dev’s manner, and no wonder. He looked and sounded furiously angry.
“If you please, Mrs. Wessex,” he repeated.
The housekeeper regarded Thea worriedly.
Not wanting to alarm the housekeeper any more than she already was, Thea marshaled her ability to appear more in control than she felt and gave Mrs. Wessex an encouraging smile. “It’s quite all right, Mrs. Wessex,” she said. “I’m sure whatever has upset Sir Develin, we’ll be able to discuss it in a calm and rational manner.”
Her words had the desired effect on both Dev and the housekeeper. Mrs. Wessex left the room and her husband appeared slightly more composed before he sat on the edge of the chair opposite her, meeting her steady gaze with a searching one of his own.
“What were you thinking, telling Caroline she should sue for breach of promise?” he asked at once. “Do you truly believe dragging the whole affair through the courts will make things easier for her? How can it, when their affair will be public knowledge, discussed at every ball, fete and dinner party for months?”
“If Caroline were a weak and feeble woman, I wouldn’t have gone to her this morning and suggested it. Fortunately she has letters the viscount wrote that prove he lied to her about his intentions, and by exposing Leamington-Rudney for the cad he is, Caroline will not only regain a measure of self-respect and assuage her wounded pride, but she’ll help prevent other young women from being seduced by that disgraceful scoundrel.”
“Her story might save other young women from a similar fate,” Dev countered, “but it might not. And Caroline will certainly suffer more.” He ran his hand through his hair with frustration. “Obviously you are too naive to appreciate the damage scandal can do a duke’s daughter.”
“Naive?” Thea retorted, his words and his disdain tearing open barely healed wounds. “You call me naive when I’ve seen the scorn from former friends as my father lost his wealth and position? When I’ve had to search for my father in gambling hells and taverns from the time I was thirteen? How do you think men treated a girl in such circumstances? The things they said, the ways they tried to touch me? How can I be naive when I watched my mother die of poverty and despair while my father continued to gamble, and nothing I said or did could convince him to stop? You have no idea what I had to learn if we were to survive.
“But for all the pain and shame, I grew stronger, as Caroline will. As I did, she’s learning that in this world, a woman must stand up for herself if she’s to have any self-respect, no matter how difficult or what people might say. That’s why I believe Caroline should stay and fight, as I stayed rather than leave England with—”
She nearly said too much before she caught herself and turned away.
Too late.
Dev marched around to face her. “What were you going to say, Thea? Weren’t you abandoned by your father? Didn’t he abscond and sail without you?”
“I was abandoned by my father—many times!” she retorted. “He would leave me for hours and even days. I was determined not to live that way any longer.” She took a deep breath and told the truth because there was no point to hide it from Dev anymore. “So yes, when he wanted me to sail with him, I said no and came to you instead.”
“If he sailed,” her husband said coldly. “There’s no evidence he ever boarded a ship for Halifax.”
Thea’s stunned disbelief quickly turned to dread. “What are you saying?”
“He wasn’t listed on the manifest of any ship leaving Liverpool in the past few weeks.”
Dread and disbelief became increasing fear. “That has to be a mistake! He must have sailed!”
“You haven’t had any communication with him?”
“No, of course not!” she cried. “I was sure he was at sea. He must be at sea! Where else could he be?”
“That’s what my solicitor and I have been trying to find out. That’s why I went to Liverpool.”
Anger and dismay joined with her fear. “Why didn’t you tell me my father was missing?”
/> “I thought to spare you from worry.” Dev leaned close, studying her features as if she were a coded message he was trying to decipher. “Do you truly have no idea where your father is?”
“No, I do not, and I don’t appreciate being interrogated this way!”
She started to go past him, forcing him to move out of the way as she strode to the windows. By the time she turned back to face her husband, the resolve and defiant pride that had come to her aid so often had returned. “Wherever my father is, whatever he’s done, you can’t play the virtuous martyr with me. When you gambled with my father, the cards were marked—and not by him.”
As her husband’s face turned pale, she came closer, glaring at him with recrimination. “You can’t deny it, not to me. My father pocketed the deck after the last game you played, the one that left him penniless. He’d done that before, pawning the used decks for a few pennies. When he told me what had happened, I checked the cards carefully before he could sell them. I’ve been around enough gamblers and card sharps to recognize the marks. No wonder you won everything.”
Her husband’s expression darkened. “I won’t deny it. I wanted a swift end to the game and I thought he’d quit when he began to lose so much, but he kept playing.”
“Because he didn’t realize he was playing with a cheat,” she charged. “No one knows, because I’ve told no one. I saved your reputation.”
Instead of being grateful or remorseful, he lowered his eyebrows and he regarded her with cold suspicion. “And if I hadn’t agreed to marry you, what then, my lady?”
He had guessed her plan, the one she had been so happy not to need, but she wouldn’t tell him that. Not now. “Fortunately you did marry me and your reputation remains unsullied.”
“While you got a rich and titled husband.”
“You took advantage of my father’s vice.”
“I took advantage? What did you do, coming here like some poor abandoned orphan?”
A Marriage of Rogues Page 17