His father set down his cup as though it was going to be a long story. “Mrs. Scrope-Nevins petitioned a whole list of landowners for contributions, at least that is what I heard. She knew many Americans had French sympathies but most of them would not get involved. I went to the government to see if they knew what she was doing and if they wanted to prevent her.”
Rachel looked at Leighton’s father proudly. “They asked him to investigate the plot and scotch it if he could. They already were trying to make peace and any American involvement, even privately, in such a scheme could have ruined that.”
Maddie smiled at her. “Also, it jumped with your own inclination to come to Bath.”
“Yes, I had to talk to Patience to see if we could not rescue you somehow. I had no idea Leighton was already working on it.”
“And making slow progress,” he confessed. “If I had not always been blurting my suspicions out to Maddie, we might have run off and been married by now.”
Patience cast him a frown. “But then the plot might have succeeded.”
“Possibly,” Lord Longbridge said. “I went to Bristol to check on those ships Mrs. Scope-Nevins mentioned. Indeed she had engaged three ships but they were waiting for money so they could be provisioned.” He took up his replenished cup and drank, as the others speculated on possible outcomes.
“Why couldn’t Gifford have supplied the money?” Maddie asked. “He seemed to have plenty. And if it comes to that, why would he sell out his country? He is a coward and stupid but why run the risk?”
“Reid answered that for me,” Leighton supplied. “He checked in London and Gifford’s heavily in debt. He has a penchant for gambling but no skill. He was hoping Mrs. Scrope-Nevins would pay him for information.”
“Well, that explains most of it, except why you sent the code on to Leighton.” Maddie wanted to hear Lord Longbridge’s side of it.
“If I’d had any idea that Mrs. Scrope-Nevins could be dangerous or that she had an accomplice, I never would have involved Leighton. But I couldn’t resist the chance to see if he could still solve the sort of puzzles he enjoyed as a boy. I’d no idea he’d been doing that sort of work these last few years.”
“Or that Maddie would be the one to solve it.” Leighton put his arm around her. “What finally linked the code to you in my mind was the scent of your tobacco.”
“Ah, I had not even thought of that.”
“Leighton guessed it was a substitution but tried the wrong way to get the variations. I simply turned it on its head. But Mrs. Scrope-Nevins never worked out that code. You did.”
“Yes, when I was asked to expose her, I sent her the code, not such a difficult one when you have the key. She loved the intrigue of it. When I sent word of my plans to come to Bath, she thought she had snared me.”
“I would never have pursued the decoding if my rooms had not been searched,” Leighton said. “Reid admitted to that.”
Maddie nodded. “And it must have been he who disarranged your room at Marsden House.”
“He apologized. He and Dr. Murray have been investigating this plot for a year, based on gossip coming out of Bath. They were getting frantic to expose the culprit. Now that I think of it, we were lucky not to get shot for our pains.”
Rachel reached for her daughter’s hand. “We were torn about whether to tell you or not. When Patience said Leighton was courting you, we thought perhaps there was no need but I so wanted to see you again, to hope that you would forgive me if you knew.”
“I’m glad now Leighton exposed you. It was a shock, to be sure but he is right. You had no choice but to go to America. After so much sorrow, I am glad you are happy now.”
“I had you girls to comfort me. That was worth everything. And you are going to come for a visit.”
“Yes,” Leighton agreed. “As soon as British ships can legally run to America.”
“And that’s why you farmed me out to the Haddons,” Maddie said to Patience. “I was so angry with you I could have spit.”
“If they wanted to keep themselves secret, I thought it best they stay here.”
“As soon as Maddie went to Haddon House, we removed here from the hotel,” said Rachel.
“I thought it would be safer,” Patience put in, “There would be less chance you would bump into them. I didn’t count on Leighton invading the second drawing room.”
Leighton chuckled. “Odd we chose the same hotel.”
“Not odd. It has a stable where one can rent a horse.”
“Ah.”
Patience’s butler opened the double doors into the drawing room. “Lady Longbridge and Mr. Westlake.”
Leighton saw his mother come in with her nose in the air and two bright spots of color on her cheeks. She was carrying a ridiculous parasol and took a seat without being invited as Patience looked nervously from her to her father.
Westlake’s gaze raked Rachel and Leighton could see her wilting like a flower even though his father pressed her hand tighter.
Maddie stood up between her mother and father in a shielding way. “I think you should sit down…sir. This may take some time.” She took his sleeve and conducted him to a chair by Leighton’s mother. The man looked shocked. They all looked shocked.
“Constance Madeline. You condone this…sin?”
Maddie turned to him. “Since I have the experience of keeping house for you and know how unappreciative, overbearing and downright nasty you can be—and you a man of the clergy—yes, I condone her behavior since you discarded her.”
“So you know,” Leighton’s mother said.
His father chuckled. “Yes, your lay has been rumbled.”
“It would have been better if you had not returned,” Lady Longbridge said.
“We would not have,” Rachel said, “if Horace had kept his word. She turned to her husband, drawing strength from Maddie’s defense of her. “He promised to let Maddie go to live with Patience. He lied about that.”
Leighton’s father nodded. “We would have come back sooner if the war had not prevented it.”
“I wanted to make sure at least one of my daughters was raised correctly.”
“Oh, really?” Patience asked. “I am sorry now I let you bully me into covering your lie.”
“Lie?” In my heart I felt my wife was dead. The blame rests on these two sinners.”
Leighton’s father chuckled again. “You may not have killed your wife, Westlake but you certainly killed your marriage and her love for you. You have no idea what it’s like to have someone gnaw away at every good intention, every noble thought ‘til there is nothing left but a desperate hunger for escape.”
“And I suppose you do,” Leighton’s mother challenged.
“Yes, I do know what that is like.” He looked at her, not with hatred but with sadness.
“I did not drive you away.”
“You underrate yourself, my dear. You most certainly did.”
“I did not think you would go. I told you we could make some arrangement. You could have had your mistress on the side. You could have taken her away and kept her on your estate in America as you have done.”
This produced a shocked gasp from everyone, including Maddie’s father. Westlake stared at Lady Longbridge as though he did not know her.
“However, I now see the wisdom of divorce. We should proceed with it.”
“What?” Leighton stood up. “What has changed since you went to London? You’ve had an offer, haven’t you? And for you to marry would be bigamy. Yet you can’t give that as a reason. You’ve been trapped by your own ingenuity, Mother. This must be a pretty big fish for you to give up being Lady Longbridge.”
“Never mind who he is. I want a divorce.”
“And I should like to oblige but the situation is out of our hands.” Leighton’s father slowly lit one of his cigars and Leighton remembered how much his mother hated them.
“What do you mean?”
“After I received your letter informing me that
I was dead, I drafted a codicil to my own will, leaving my American holdings to William Stone, my illegitimate half brother. It was properly witnessed and dated before my death. I cannot come back and neither can Rachel. You saw to that.”
His mother turned to Leighton. “You knew about this?”
“Yes but I had no time or inclination to look into the bequest. I’d just lost my father. What did I care for land in America?”
“This isn’t fair.”
Leighton sighed. “As I see it, you have trapped yourselves.”
“But they are happy, as though they were married,” his mother protested.
“I’m pretty sure they are married in the only way that matters. And they are far happier than when they were legally married. But the two of you have condemned yourselves to lives of solitude.”
“I suppose you will give the living to someone else,” Westlake said, looking much older than he had when he entered the room.
“Certainly not. I wish to see you live out your punishment.”
“How dare you preach to me?”
“How dare you preach anything but forgiveness?” Leighton asked. “You provoked the situation. I can only hope time will teach you the lessons your family could not when you had the keeping of them.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” Lady Longbridge wailed. “I am neither married nor a widow.”
“Maddie and I are getting married. We invite you to stay for the wedding. Beyond that your situation has not changed, except that you may have your own house in London. Much good may it do you.”
“Stay for the wedding?” his mother asked. “To the daughter of that woman.”
“Maddie is my daughter too,” Westlake said.
“You—you side with them?”
“When you proposed the scheme to me, I knew it was wrong. I knew I would be punished for it. But I saw no other way. Call Rachel dead? Yes, I was doing that already. But you left yourself a way out that I did not see. You could always have your husband come back from the dead if you needed him. Even if you only needed to divorce him. But that escape has been taken away. So you are punished as well.”
“Are you telling me you condone this misalliance?”
“Which misalliance?” Maddie asked. “Mother and William or Leighton and me?”
“You and Leighton, you scheming girl.”
Westlake stood. “I…am staying for the wedding.”
“Very well, you can go to the devil for all I care. Get back to Longbridge on your own.” Lady Longbridge rose and stalked from the room.
Westlake stood up as well and Patience conducted him out. Leighton wondered if she would recommend Prad’s Hotel.
“Well, you got your way,” Maddie said. “Permission to marry me.”
Leighton chuckled. “I hope I don’t do anything else to upset you before we get that license.”
“I might take Lucy’s advice and lock you up until then.”
His father rose and pulled Rachel to her feet. “I can tell this will soon get maudlin and I wouldn’t want to hamper that, so we are off to the Pump Room. Try to stay out of any more conspiracies, both of you.”
“What?” Leighton asked. “I wasn’t the one—”
“Let them go,” Maddie said.
“But he is the one who dragged us into the spy plot to begin with.”
She stopped his complaint with a kiss, then rested her head on his chest.
“Your father was funning, wasn’t he, about the codicil?” she asked.
“No but he could resurrect himself and still keep the American lands.”
“So he could divorce her now but he won’t. Why?”
“I doubt it’s the scandal that concerns him. Probably just wants to save some other poor fellow from what he endured. Do you mind so much if she lives in the North Wing?”
“No, of course not. I almost feel sorry for her.”
“At least it looks as if we may make peace with your father. That is far more important,” Leighton observed.
“What a lot of plots and coils we have faced.”
“And I have neglected you terribly these last few days.”
“I was just thinking, Leighton. If it would take only half a dozen ships to rescue Napoleon and restore him to France, shouldn’t the government be warned it’s a possibility?”
“I am quite sure Reid covered it in his report.”
“If Lucy has let him write it. She is supervising his care at Marsden House.”
“Don’t worry. It would never have worked anyway. A thousand men cannot retake a country.”
“If you say so. But you have been wrong before,” Maddie reminded him.
“That is why I need you so much.” He tightened his hug. “We solve problems best when we work together.”
“Promise me it will always be so, no matter what we face.”
“That you will always be at my side is my one wish, whether we are sailing to visit family in America, or riding the fields at Longbridge, or even burying a dead cat. I always want you by me.”
She raised her face. He dipped his head and touched his lips to hers as though they were sacred and he was only tasting because he didn’t think he deserved them. When she deepened the kiss, need and giving washed back and forth between them like an exchange of some life-giving element.
As she held onto his strong frame, she felt for the first time as though she held the future and not the past. As though she held already their children and all the amazing hours they would have because she had forgiven him and not turned her back on happiness.
He laced his fingers with hers and she looked at their joined hands. “Do you think it’s true that the vows we make to each other in private are as binding as the public ones?”
“I think so and I also think that love, true love, is more binding than any document. We are one Maddie, as we were meant to be from the start.”
“I have been wrong on occasion too. I am glad you did not give up but convinced me forgiveness is entwined with love.” She raised her face for his kiss, leaving all doubts behind her.
Epilogue
In the spring of the next year, before Maddie and Leighton had been delivered of their first child, Napoleon did indeed escape Elba with a half-dozen ships and a thousand men. His old army turned its back on the Royalists and flocked to his banner, pitching Europe into a war that would end at the village of Waterloo in Belgium. Though Leighton followed events with the utmost interest, he never felt tempted to offer his services again.
About the Author
Barbara Miller teaches in the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. She has published mysteries, young adult novels, and historical romances, including one nominated for a Rita. She lives on a farm with her husband and a pack of unruly dogs.
Barbara welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Tell Us What You Think
We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at [email protected].
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer ebooks or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
www.ellorascave.com
Music Master Page 21