Caroline stiffened ever so slightly. “Thank you, but I think it’s best I don’t. I should go back to London tomorrow. Mr. Bessborough has been kind enough to pay my coach fare and lodgings there, and I wouldn’t want to waste his hard-earned money.”
“If it’s a question of funds—” Dev began.
“The Duke and Duchess of Scane!” Jackson announced. “The Marquess of Haltonbrook!”
“Good God! Paul!” Dev gasped, turning around as swiftly as Thea.
Everyone else stared, too. The duke stood in the doorway grinning from ear to ear. His dour wife, dressed in black from head to toe as if she was in mourning, looked like a shadow of her former self. Behind them, half-hidden by the butler, was a tall young man who had to be the Marquess of Haltonbrook or, as his father called him, the young Apollo!
“Sorry to be so late,” the duke said loudly enough for all to hear before striding forward through the assembly toward Dev and Thea like a hot knife through butter. “The young Apollo! didn’t arrive until late his afternoon and without a word of warning, too. Could have knocked me down with a quill!” He half turned and called out, “Come along, Apollo! You have to meet Sir Develin’s wife!”
From what Dev had told her, Thea expected to meet a very thin, not very attractive young man with a long nose. Instead she found herself staring at a young man who could have posed for a statue of Apollo.
It was true the duke’s son had an aquiline nose, but it was more than balanced by his broad forehead and strong jaw, the sharp planes of his cheeks and well-cut lips. Dark hair, expertly trimmed, waved upon his head. His evening clothes emphasized his broad shoulders, trim waist and lean, muscular legs.
All in all, he was nearly as handsome as her husband and a very far cry from the gangly, homely fellow she’d envisioned.
“Oh my word!” she heard Gladys breathe behind her.
A swift glance proved that Dev was equally shocked.
His surprise quickly gave way to true delight, however. He grabbed his friend’s hand and shook it with enthusiasm while Paul looked just as pleased.
The duke beamed like a man seeing a vision of heaven as he addressed Thea. “My lady, may I present my son, the Marquess of Haltonbrook?”
The young Apollo turned toward her with another smile and reached out to kiss her hand. “I’m delighted, my lady. Truly,” he said, his voice deep and his accent bearing the cosmopolitan traces of years on the Continent.
“I’m so pleased to meet my husband’s good friend,” she said sincerely.
“Not as pleased as Dev was to meet you, my lady, I have no doubt,” Paul returned graciously. “I’ve never seen him looking so well and happy.”
Thea blushed and smiled, but at the same time, she realized the duchess had been all but forgotten. New lines of strain had come to the woman’s features, and she looked pale and drained.
Thea moved past Paul and took his mother by the arm, intending to lead her to a nearby chair on the edge of the room.
“Young woman, I don’t require your aid in any way, shape or form,” the duchess hissed in a low whisper, proving she was not completely unaffected by recent events.
Thea let go of the woman’s arm, but only for a moment, until she realized the duchess wasn’t steady on her feet.
“Get me out of this crowd!” the duchess muttered, her breathing rapid. “I won’t be stared at like something on display at a fair!”
Thea did as she was asked, leading the older woman to the anteroom where she could sit in a shadowed corner and get something to eat and drink, too.
Only to discover Caroline was there, standing in the shadows near the servants’ entrance, a door disguised as one of the wall panels.
“Good evening, Mama,” Caroline said, coming forward, her expression tense but unflinching.
“Caroline!” Her mother’s exclamation seemed both a plea and an accusation.
Caroline halted and her expression changed from determined defiance to worried dread. “Mama! You’re ill!”
The duchess pulled away from Thea and took a step toward Caroline, but only one. “If I were, I wouldn’t be in this... I wouldn’t be here,” she replied, her haughty pride once more evident, if slightly weakened. “Why are you here?”
“My solicitor thought it best that I appear among society. Mr. Bessborough is here, too, if you or Papa wish to speak to him.”
“No, I do not.”
“Mama,” Caroline said firmly, but with dismay in her eyes, “I’m well aware I’ve disgraced the family. I’m trying to remedy that the best I can. It would be easier if I had your help.”
“And what of your brother?” the duchess demanded. “What of Paul’s future?”
“I have no fear of gossip and scandal,” a male voice said nearby.
Thea and the duchess turned to find the young Apollo approaching, an affectionate smile on his handsome face before he hugged his sister.
“We shall brazen it out, all of us,” he said resolutely, letting go of his sister and facing his mother. “Together, our family can face anything. Did our family not arrive with William the Conqueror himself and survive the War of the Roses? The plague? And Cromwell? Yet the house of the Duke of Scane still stands and proudly, too. Are you going to let that little cad Leamington-Rudney destroy what centuries of warfare and upheaval could not?”
Her mother straightened as if shot by an arrow. “My son, you are right! Our family is more ancient than anyone else’s here, and our forebears were royalty.” She slipped her arm through her daughter’s and then her son’s and said, “Come along, my dears. Let us show those gossiping old biddies what we’re made of!”
Without so much as a backward glance at Thea, the mother and her children marched back to the ballroom, leaving Thea surprised and surprisingly relieved to see the duchess so quickly return to form.
* * *
“Oh my dear! This has been the most marvelous night of my life!” Gladys enthused as she joined Thea at the punch bowl in the anteroom a few hours later. “To think I actually danced the first dance! No doubt Mr. Bessborough asked me as a kindness, but still! I’ve never been asked by anybody for the first dance. Usually it takes a few before some of the gentlemen recall I’ll have a considerable dowry and even then, I can tell they aren’t happy to be saddled with me.”
“You dance very well,” Thea said, trying not to yawn.
The ball was proving to be as successful as she’d wished, albeit with an undercurrent of scandalized whispers even after Caroline, her parents and her brother had departed early in the evening. Paul had shown that not only had his appearance altered for the better as he matured, but so had his manners, for he was certainly not shy. He moved about the ballroom engaging in pleasant conversation with all the guests and, judging by the response of the ladies, making a very favorable impression. Thea suspected he would find himself in the same social position Dev had once occupied: that of the greatest catch of the marriage market.
During one of the breaks in the dancing, Paul had pleaded fatigue from the journey home in his deep, smooth voice and promised to come for a longer visit the next day, while Caroline had seemed more full of energy than ever, perhaps because no one had dared to snub her. Moreover, the duchess had demonstrated her forgiveness by allowing her daughter to stay at the ducal residence that night. Mr. Bessborough had likewise taken his leave early, reminding them he needed to get back to London as soon as possible.
“I’ve had a cartful of dancing lessons,” Gladys went on, “but nothing can be done about my height. No man likes to look diminished by a woman. Fortunately your Mr. Bessborough is sufficiently tall. Indeed I quite felt like a sylph beside him. What a pity he’s a solicitor!”
Thea looked at her friend with surprise and some dismay. “He’s a very good solicitor and a most excellent man.”
&nb
sp; “Oh, I know all that. I meant it’s a pity he’s not a barrister. I can just see him in wig and robes demolishing a villain on the stand, can’t you? I’m sure he’d make a murderer squirm!”
“Yes, I can see that.” Thea assumed a look of innocent speculation. “I’m surprised he’s not married.”
Whatever she had thought about a possible attachment between Gladys and Paul, at least on Gladys’s part, this evening had dispelled the notion. After the surprise of Paul’s arrival, Gladys had spent most of the evening at her mother’s side, not so much as glancing at the male belle of the ball, not even when he was speaking to the countess. Nor had Paul made any effort to speak to Gladys beyond a very brief and formal greeting.
Gladys smiled and waggled a finger at her. “None of that sort of thing, if you please. He’s not my sort of young man at all. Too stern by half. Can you see him putting up with my chatter? I can’t. Not in several millennia. No, he needs a woman more like you. Or Caroline, if it comes to that.
“But it won’t. Even after what’s happened, Caroline would never marry a mere solicitor. That would be the final straw for her Mama, and I daresay her allowance would be completely cut off. Caroline could never be poor, or even what we would consider poor. She hasn’t that kind of cleverness.”
“But for the right man, perhaps...?”
Gladys shook her head emphatically. “Caroline would make a poor man miserable.”
Gladys had known the duke’s daughter longer, so Thea bowed to her opinion and said no more about that. “Lord Haltonbrook was not what I expected. I really didn’t think any man could live up to the duke’s praises.”
“Yes, he’s turned out to be quite handsome, like the ugly duckling in the fairy tale,” Gladys carelessly replied, confirming Thea’s notion that she’d been mistaken about Gladys’s feelings for the marquess and that Dev had been right.
“Oh dear!” Gladys cried, looking across the room toward the men gathered around the window and as alarmed as if the tablecloth had caught fire. “Your poor husband’s been cornered by Papa. No doubt Papa’s talking his ear off about the new school. I’d best go rescue him.”
Gladys immediately set off toward the earl and his companions.
Thea made no effort to follow. Dev was more than capable of extricating himself from a boring conversation if he wanted to, so she took the opportunity to sit down and rest her tired feet.
She’d no sooner done so than there was a slight commotion outside the room. Wondering what was wrong, hoping it was nothing serious, she rose again just as Jackson came to the door. His face was red, his manner agitated.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dev, looking equally worried, start forward.
“Sir John Markham!” Jackson announced.
Thea came to a dead halt and stared with amazement as her father, alive and well, stepped out from behind the butler.
“Father!” she gasped before rushing headlong into his open arms.
Chapter Eighteen
Dev’s first instinct was to hurry after his wife until Roger appeared at his elbow and put a detaining hand on his arm. His half brother didn’t say anything; his expression alone was enough to remind Dev of his suspicions about Sir John’s possible attempt to wring money from his daughter’s husband.
Dev nodded in acknowledgment of that silent caution and, aware that there were several other people staring at the tableau in the doorway, continued toward his wife and her father.
“As delighted as I am by your return, Sir John,” he said, “perhaps we should adjourn to somewhere more private.”
The older gentleman whose face Dev well remembered nodded and gently removed his daughter’s clinging arms from around his neck. “Yes, yes, of course. I didn’t mean to interrupt your ball, but I didn’t know you were having one.”
Sir John’s voice was just as Dev remembered, too, although it lacked the accusatory or wheedling tone of that memorable night.
Thea held on to her father’s arm, then reached for Dev’s hand, smiling at him through her tears.
He wished he could feel such joy at the prodigal’s return, but he couldn’t, not until he knew where the man had been, why he’d kept his whereabouts secret and if he wanted anything from them now that he had reappeared.
Dev took a candelabra from a table in the hall and led them to his study, where his father’s wrathful visage seemed to regard Sir John with the same suspicions as Roger.
“Where have you been, Father?” Thea asked, her relief tinged with concern. “We thought you were on your way to Canada.”
Her father didn’t answer right away. Instead he took hold of Thea’s hands and spread them wide, surveying her. “Let me look at you! You’re as beautiful as your sainted mother.”
A more discernible expression of dismay came to Thea’s face, and she pulled her hands away while also surveying her father from head to toe. “Why didn’t you get on the ship like you told me you were going to? And where did you get those clothes?”
Only then did Dev realize how finely dressed Sir John was.
“I’ll tell you everything in a moment,” he replied, looking from Thea to Dev and back again. “First I want to hear about you and this marriage. You could have bowled me over with a pebble when I saw the announcement in the Times.” He fixed a gaze as steadfast as his daughter’s on Dev. “You went to look for her after what you’d done, didn’t you? I thought you might. You seemed the kindhearted sort. And once you met her, you fell in love with her, eh?”
Although part of that was true, Dev was not impressed by the man’s assumptions. They seemed to absolve him of any need to be concerned about his daughter’s welfare.
“I had no idea you had a daughter,” he informed the older man.
Thea lightly touched Dev’s arm, then addressed her father. “I sought him out, Father. It was my suggestion that we marry.” Her cheeks reddened, but she went boldly on. “I told him that since he had won my dowry, he should have the bride.”
Obviously astonished, Sir John felt for the sofa nearby and sat down. “I’ve always known you were a brave, bold girl, but I never imagined... I thought you’d find yourself a place as a teacher or governess, or some lady’s companion, or maybe a husband, but I never thought you’d...” He wiped his forehead with his hand before he looked up at Dev. “And you said yes?”
“She had a point.”
He would say nothing about the sort of freedom she’d offered in return because that was utterly unimportant now.
Thea started to speak, and fearing she was going to reveal that part of their bargain, he interrupted. “Fortunately it’s turned out for the best. We’re very happy together.”
“Is that true, Thea?” her father asked, apparently finally aware of the hardships and dangers his daughter might have faced alone.
“Yes,” she replied, sitting beside him and taking his hand in hers. “And we’re going to have a baby.”
Sir John’s eyes widened with surprise and delight. “A grandchild!” he cried, hugging his daughter. “A grandchild!”
“Yes, we’re both delighted about that,” Dev said, and, sweeping his coattails aside, he sat in a chair opposite them. “Why don’t you tell us where you’ve been all this time?”
“Well, now, I will,” Sir John replied, moving a little away from Thea but continuing to hold her hand. “I was going to get on that ship, I truly was, until I met an old friend of mine and decided to have a game of cards. Just one, mind. No more, I told myself.”
He sighed and, not looking at Thea, said, “I kept playing. By the time he’d had enough and I’d had a bite to eat and something to drink and a bit of a rest, the ship had sailed. I was beside myself, thinking how upset my darling girl would be if she found out and that ashamed of myself, too.” He glanced at Thea, his expression remorseful. “I said
to myself, I can’t let her find out. I had a bit of money left, so I took a stage north to Glasgow and got another ship, to Dublin.”
“Dublin!” Thea exclaimed. “You’ve been in Dublin all this time?”
“Dublin first, then Belfast, and a few days in Limerick. ’twas in Limerick where I was at my worst. I’d lost everything by then, all that I’d won and then some. I had nothing to eat, nothing to sell except the clothes on my back. And most of all, I’d lost you, too, Thea. You were right to leave me. If you’d stayed and looked after me as you’d done for so long, I might never have realized the mess I’d made of my life, and yours.
“I was so full of regret and shame I came near to doing myself in, until I thought of all the times I’d been like that before and you’d always managed to make me feel better. You always said there were better days ahead and I’d always believed you. So I decided to do what you would do if you were in my place—although,” he admitted with the hint of a smile, “I never thought of marriage.”
Not many would, Dev silently concurred.
“I got a job as a clerk in a warehouse,” Sir John continued. “I found out one of the other clerks was embezzling funds to pay for his gambling—I knew all the signs, you see—and the owner gave me a reward. I was going to save up a bit more and then go back to London to look for you, but then I saw your wedding announcement in the Times.”
He gave her a wistful smile. “I wasn’t going to come after that. I thought, ‘She thinks I’m far away and she’s better off without me.’ Then one night I was in the pub having my dinner when I heard this drunken fellow grumbling about Sir Develin Drake and his busybody of a wife nobody seemed to know anything about and something about another woman.
“Well, you can bet...” He cleared his throat. “You can be sure I wanted to find out more, so I offered to buy the fellow another drink or five. Turns out he’s a viscount—”
“Leamington-Rudney!” Thea cried with sudden comprehension.
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