With Good Grace

by Wendy Soliman

  Actually he was not and it would not. Olivia had already made sure of that, being aware of the rapacious nature of both her own family and Marcus’s. But she had put her affairs in order as a precaution, not expecting that she or Tom would die in the near future. Seeing the murderous rage whirling in Hubert’s eyes, she was obliged to revise her thinking in that regard, and felt suddenly afraid. Unstable people acted irrationally and she could see that having his plans thwarted yet again had tipped Hubert precariously close to the edge of reason. She took a deep breath, knowing better than to allow her anxiety to show. Bullies of Hubert’s ilk fed off other people’s fear.

  ‘You do not do your own killing,’ she said scathingly. ‘You do not have the stomach for it. That is why you hired those thugs to break into our house, and hired more to break into Barber’s office.’

  ‘It was a damned shame that Torbay took up your cause and actually managed to track down the men who did for Marcus.’ Hubert shook his head in evident disgust. ‘You have the very luck of the devil! When you were caught leaning over Marcus, covered in blood, so soon after you were heard arguing with him, I thought I was finally about to get what was rightfully mine. But, once again, you wriggled out of being blamed and did not even have the decency to accept my help once you were released from gaol.’

  ‘I wanted nothing from you.’ She sent him a scathing glance. ‘Especially what it was that you particularly wanted to give me.’

  Molly’s jaw fell open. ‘What does she mean, Hubert? You told me that you could not abide her.’

  ‘He is using you, Molly,’ Olivia replied into the ensuing tense silence. ‘He fully intended to return to Grantley Hall and resume his life with his wife once he had blackmailed Lady Marchant into supplying him with sufficient capital to put his estate back in order.’

  ‘He did not. He…’

  ‘Oh, but he did. Sir Hubert Grantley is far too full of his position within society to make a life with a maid.’

  ‘You’re lying!’ Molly howled.

  ‘Of course, he would have held back a couple of Lady Marchant’s letters and continued to extract payment from her until he had bled her dry.’ She shot a look of vitriolic contempt Hubert’s way. ‘It is the only way he knows. And when that source dried up he would have most likely sold the remaining letters to the highest bidding newspaper.’

  ‘No!’ Molly sobbed ‘I don’t believe it.’

  Hubert lunged for Olivia, roaring like an enraged bull. Lady Marchant saved the day by grabbing Tom when Olivia thrust him towards her, otherwise he would most likely have been crushed between them.

  Tom was saved, but Olivia had no time to mount a counterattack before Hubert grabbed her waist and pushed her against the wall, pinning here there with his superior weight. Olivia kicked and scratched, fighting with the strength of a mother defending her child, but Hubert was simply too strong for her.

  ‘To the victor goes the spoils,’ he said, holding both of her wrists above her head with just one hand. He leered at her as his breath peppered her face, making her feel physically ill. ‘I’ve wanted you since the moment you passed puberty but I had to marry Margaret for her money. Marcus, of course, could do as he pleased but then he always damned well had. He didn’t have the responsibility of being head of the family. However, I shall at least have the pleasure of exacting revenge. Let’s see if your fastidious earl still wants you after I’ve done with you.’

  ‘You don’t want her,’ Molly wailed. ‘You have me.’

  With his free hand, Hubert casually reached behind him, where Molly clung to his heels, and planted a fist in the centre of her stomach. With a cry, she fell to her knees, her hands cradling her stomach. ‘Our baby!’ she wailed. ‘Don’t hurt our baby.’

  Hubert ignored her and returned his attention to Olivia. ‘Why do you always have to come between me and what I want to achieve?’ he asked in an aggrieved tone. ‘If you hadn’t fought with Marcus that night he would not have died and we would still be running a profitable business. But oh no, your feelings were hurt and you had to make sure everyone knew it.’

  His hand pulled at her jerkin. The buttons flew everyone and his hand was now on her shirt. Renewed anger surged through Olivia. She had endured the primal pawing of one Grantley. She was damned if she would go through that ordeal again. But brute force, she was well aware, was not always the way to achieve one’s goal. Instead of fighting back, she went limp against the wall, giving no resistance.

  ‘I knew it!’ Hubert smirked. ‘You are not nearly as reluctant as you make yourself out to be. Well, I can give you a damned sight more than Torbay; never doubt it.’

  He was convinced that victory was his and loosened his hold on her wrists. It was the moment Olivia had anticipated. In one swift movement, she lifted a knee into Hubert’s groin, putting all her anger and determination behind the blow, extracted the hat pin from her cloak with one hand and deposited it in the same place. Hubert howled, released her and fell to the floor, clutching himself as he yanked the pin free. Blood darkened the fabric of his trousers. Despite the almost unbearable pain he must be feeling, he straightened up again and blocked her way out of the corner she had become trapped in.

  There was nowhere for her to go.

  She looked towards Molly but she remained on the floor, still clutching her stomach, gazing up at Hubert with a combination of hope and confusion in her expression. When the stubborn girl refused to meet Olivia’s gaze, it became obvious that she was still clinging to the foolish hope that Hubert actually did love her. There would be no help from the quarter.

  Olivia elevated her chin, her expression defiant, as Hubert reached for her. She glanced towards Tom, still in a drug-induced sleep, cradled protectively in Lady Marchant’s arms. The sight of him strengthened her resolve and she gathered her wits about her, ready to launch another attack, secure in the knowledge that if anything happened to her then Lady Marchant would ensure Tom’s safety. She didn’t know why she felt that way about the woman who had embarked upon a steamy affair with her husband and was now fighting with single-minded determination to save her advantageous marriage, but somehow she felt convinced it was true.

  ‘Give it up, Olivia,’ Hubert said. ‘The more you fight me, the worse it will be for you.’

  He grabbed her hair, yanking it hard enough to make her eyes water and for her to cry out. He had her pinned to the wall again and this time she had no energy left to fight back. Hubert would not be fooled by her wilting violet routine for a second time. He raised his free hand, tugged her hair harder and slapped her face so hard that her head swam. Any hopes that Molly would belatedly come to her senses and prevent him from raping her were dashed when she caught a glimpse of the girl’s expression. Her eyes glistened with interest as she watched the man she claimed to love brutalising her former mistress. Significantly, she had also stood up, perhaps unwittingly blocking the path to the door so that Lady Marchant could not escape with Tom. That was all Olivia cared about; the welfare of her son, but she could not even protect him.

  She closed her eyes, resigned. There was no fight left in her and so she would endure Hubert’s furious revenge and wait for a moment to strike back. He could not seriously expect to have his way with her, here, now, against this dank wall, could he?

  Before Olivia could decide, the pressure on her hair abruptly vanished, as did Hubert. Instead he was sprawled on the floor, blood pouring from his nose, and Jake was standing over him, ready to strike him again the moment he got up.

  ‘How…where?’ Olivia gasped. ‘I did not hear you.’

  And then Olivia was in his arms, sobbing with relief, unable to find the words to express her gratitude to the man she adored for saving her from being brutally raped. Or worse.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘I will explain later,’ Jake said, stroking her hair. ‘Are you all right? Did he hurt you?’

  A glimmer of a smile curved her luscious lips; lips that were bleeding because the bastard had obviously st
ruck her. ‘Not as much as you hurt him,’ she replied, glancing down at Grantley’s prostrate form with considerable satisfaction in her expression. ‘But Tom…they gave him laudanum.’

  ‘Take Tom from that woman, Parker,’ Jake said in a mordent tone. ‘We will get him home and have him seen by a doctor immediately.’

  ‘Lady Marchant is not involved, Jake.’

  Jake looked at the lady in question, then back at Olivia, not understanding but willing to take her word for it.

  ‘Come back to Grosvenor Square with us in that case, Lady Marchant,’ he said. ‘We must get there immediately for Tom’s sake. You can explain everything once we arrive. Parker, stay here with these two until the carriage arrives, then bring them back. We shall lock them in the cellars until I know what precisely has happened here. Oh, and search this hovel. Bring back anything you find.’

  Molly moaned, implying that she had been on the point of helping Olivia. Jake glanced at Olivia, who shook her head decisively.

  ‘I gave her every opportunity, but she is loyal to Hubert,’ she said.

  ‘Then she will suffer the consequences of her folly.’

  ‘Nooo, I was deceived!’ Molly wailed. ‘He said he loved me. Promised me I would be famous.’

  Jake ignored her and ushered his party into the curricle, hoping against hope that Olivia was right to trust Lady Marchant. He made sure that Olivia sat beside him and that she had possession of Tom. Lady Marchant sat on the outside of the cramped box seat, where she could do the least harm if she tried anything desperate.

  By the time they arrived back at Grosvenor Square, Tom was starting to regain his senses, much to Olivia’s relief. She refused to be parted from her son, and sat with him on her lap until the doctor arrived to examine him.

  ‘No harm done,’ the medical man said to sighs of relief all round. ‘Put him to bed, he will sleep well tonight and feel none the worse for wear in the morning. In fact, he probably won’t remember much about what happened to him.’

  ‘Just as well,’ Jake muttered.

  A subdued and sleepy Tom went up without any fuss. When Olivia returned from helping Jane to put him to bed, she had changed back into a gown, washed the blood from her face and a little colour had returned to her complexion.

  ‘He is sleeping,’ she said, smiling at Jake. ‘I have never seen a more precious sight.’

  ‘I told you we would recover him safe and sound,’ Jake replied, patting her hand. ‘Now, perhaps you would like to tell me what happened.’

  Olivia did so, helped by occasional comments from Lady Marchant.

  ‘I really had no idea he intended to go so far,’ she said. ‘I thought I was dealing with a blackmailer, not a child abductor. I am so very sorry.’

  Jake was unsure whether to believe her. She sounded sincere but then she was a famed actress. However, Olivia appeared to be in no doubt and that was enough for Jake. He stood up, went to his safe and extracted her letters.

  ‘Yours, I believe,’ he said, handing them to Lady Marchant.

  ‘Thank you so very much,’ she said, flipping through them and then throwing them into the fire. ‘You can have no idea what a weight that is off my mind.’ She stood up. ‘I will leave you now, but I hope in time we can be friends, Mrs Grantley.’

  Olivia stood also. ‘I should like that.’

  ‘I will have someone summon a cab for you,’ Jake said, ringing the bell.

  Parker joined them almost as soon as Lady Marchant had left. ‘They’re locked in the cellar,’ Parker said. ‘And I found a lot of cash, presumably from the sale of those paintings, hidden beneath the floorboards.’

  ‘What do you want done about them, Olivia?’

  ‘Hubert admitted that he set up the robberies that killed Marcus and that poor night watchman, but it would be his word against mine and no one would believe I was not involved. You know very well that some still suspect me. Molly is so besotted with Hubert that she will take his side and if Lady Marchant was forced to testify to what she heard, it would mean the end of her marriage. She has been foolish, but still, I could not do that to her.’

  ‘What about the men he hired; the ones who killed the night watchman?’ Jake asked. ‘They ought to be brought to account.’

  Parker shrugged. ‘I doubt if he knows who they are. He was, shall we say, persuaded to give me the name of the man whom he paid to make the arrangements. We could pass that on anonymously to Chief Inspector Drake and let him take it from there. I doubt whether the man will be found, though.’

  Jake doubted it too. ‘Well then,’ he said. ‘Why do we not give all that money to Lady Grantley so she can at least pay for her boys’ education and have something left to live on? We will put Grantley and Molly on a ship to America with the clothes they stand up in and let them make of their new life what they may. That will save you from further scandal and give them their just desserts.’

  Olivia nodded. ‘That will serve very well. I gave Molly every opportunity to switch sides whilst we were in that cottage but she stuck by Hubert, even after he punched her, so she has no one but herself to blame.’

  ‘Then we are agreed.’ Jake stood and extended a hand to Olivia. ‘Come along, my sweet. You look exhausted. Besides,’ he added in an undertone that Parker could not hear. ‘You are in need of a lady’s maid and I am offering my services.’

  ҉

  Olivia smiled to herself as Jake’s carriage returned her to Grosvenor Square the afternoon after her ordeal. She had been to visit Margaret; aware that that delicate task could not be delayed or delegated, even though she would have much preferred to remain with Tom. Jake had assured her that he would act in loco parentis, setting her mind at rest, and he greeted her now with a squealing Tom thrown over his shoulder.

  ‘There you are,’ he said, sending her a somnolent smile. ‘We missed you.’

  ‘Not too much by the looks of things,’ she replied, smiling at her upside down son and ruffling his hair.

  ‘Mama, we have been building a fort,’ Tom cried enthusiastically.

  ‘So I see,’ Olivia replied, having surrendered her outer garments to the maid who stepped forward to take them and smiling as she saw an assortment of building bricks spread across the rug in front of the fire in Jake’s library. The makings of the promised fort emerged triumphant from the chaos. She idly wondered which of the budding architects had enjoyed himself more. ‘Very impressive.’

  Olivia spent ten minutes with Tom, admiring his handiwork and listening to his endless chatter, glad to see him restored to his normal inquisitive and talkative self. He did not seem to recall anything about the previous day and Olivia was grateful for that. Jane appeared to take him up to the nursery and Olivia reluctantly let him go.

  ‘Now, tell me how it went with Lady Grantley,’ Jake said when they were finally alone.

  Olivia planned to visit her sister-in-law alone. Jake’s idea of alone was to send her in one of his carriages, with two footmen up behind. She allowed him to take such excessive precautions, even though she knew they were no longer necessary, just so that he would know peace of mind.

  ‘I told her everything…well, almost everything. I did not mention that her husband tried to rape me. What would be the point of inflicting unnecessary pain? Anyway, she accepted what I did tell her with remarkably good grace,’ Olivia replied. ‘I expected her to blame me somehow, or to make excuses for Hubert.’

  ‘I suspect she already had a good idea that he was behaving rashly, even if she was not prepared to admit it to herself, much less anyone else. How did she respond to the knowledge that her husband and the girl he foolishly caught in his web of deceit are about to leave these shores permanently?’

  ‘You know, I think she was relieved; especially when I gave her all that money. I dare say she will tell everyone that Hubert is dead, thereby retaining her dignity and society’s sympathy. Either way, at least now she knows his fate and will not spend her days wondering what has become of him.’

  ‘W
hat does she plan to do now? The money will not be sufficient to restore that barn of a house.’

  ‘She had been thinking of moving into the dower house. She has taken control of things in Hubert’s absence and is already accepting her estate manager’s suggestions for improved productivity on the farm. She will try to find someone to take over the house for a peppercorn rent, in return for their doing the repairs. She does not wish to sell it if it can be avoided, since she looks upon it as her eldest son’s inheritance.’

  ‘Well then, we no longer need concern ourselves with Lady Grantley. Let us think of ourselves for a change.’

  Olivia permitted her surprise to show. ‘Whatever do you mean? The danger is past. I can go back to Chelsea and leave you in peace.’

  Jake fixed her with a look of fierce protectiveness. ‘You know precisely what I mean, and it has nothing to do with Chelsea.’ He canted his head and smiled at her with his eyes, his lips, his entire face. ‘But then again, perhaps it does.’

  ‘If you are about to scold me for leaving here with Molly yesterday then you can save your breath. My son’s life hung in the balance and given the same circumstances, I would do so again without a second thought. You are not a mother so cannot be expected to understand what primal forces influenced me.’

  ‘Actually, I was thinking of our future.’

  ‘What future?’ Olivia flapped a hand. ‘I have agreed to come to Torbay this summer and we were to speak of it then.’

  ‘That was before you put yourself in danger. Again.’ Jake clasped one of her hands in both of his own. ‘There is no help for it, my sweet, you will just have to marry me.’

  Olivia’s mouth fell open. ‘Marry you?’

  ‘I will be a very considerate husband and only beat you if you really deserve it.’

  Olivia punched his arm, still convinced that she must have misheard him. ‘What of Thorndike and your worries about your enemies getting to you through me?’