Chapter 16
Mrs. Follmer greeted them upon entrance to her private quarters. The room was small, neat, but comfortable. Much like the innkeeper’s wife herself.
“Good, you came. I was worried I wouldn’t catch you before you left.”
“Is my carriage here?” George asked.
She nodded. “But there’s something I thought you needed to see before leaving.”
Mrs. Follmer opened the wardrobe behind her. There, sitting in the bottom of it, was a man, kerchief in his mouth, hands bound with twine.
Willie clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Who is this?” George demanded. His voice was calm, but the twitching of his jaw demonstrated he was equally disturbed by the discovery.
“This was one of the guests who came to stay with us last night,” she announced proudly.
“Do you make it a habit of detaining all your guests?” Willie asked, now more worried than disturbed.
“Only the thieves,” she said, producing a gold ring with an inset of rubies decorating what appeared to be a coat of arms. “One of the servants came to me after he tried to find a buyer for this little gem.”
Willie looked at the ring, then back to George. “What does this have to do with us?”
George reached out and took the object from her. “It’s my brother’s ring.” He pointed to the insignia on the side.
“That’s the Chesterton coat of arms.” Willie recognized it immediately upon closer inspection. “But how?”
“I noticed your ring when you checked in. We innkeepers make it our business to know our guests. I knew this lad was trouble when he came in, and asked the staff to keep a close watch on that one. And turns out I was right to. I thought he might have robbed you two. I make it my business to protect the interests of our more distinguished guests.”
George shook his head. “Yes, thank you for that consideration. We were fortunate – he’d didn’t rob us, but he did rob someone. Do you mind if we remove his gag so that I might question him as to how he came across my brother’s signet ring?”
“Not at all,” she replied, her chin held high. She motioned for the servant to undo the kerchief.
The man spit as soon as his gag was removed. “You’ve got no business holding me like this. I told you – I won it fair and square.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” George announced, kneeling down to the man’s level. “Now where did you get this ring?”
“I’m not telling you!” he yelled, pulling at his bindings.
George narrowed his gaze. “If you want to get out of those bindings, you will. If not, I’ll transport you to the local magistrate myself and you can spend the rest of your life in prison for stealing from the peerage, do you understand me?”
“I told you–I didn’t steal nothin’.”
“Then how did you come across this ring?” George asked again, this time his tone considerably darker.
“I won it fair and square in a card game.”
Willie clutched at her chest. Henry was an avid gambler, but he’d quit. Surely he wouldn’t have…
“Where?”
“There’s another coaching inn a couple hours north of here in York. I stayed there last night and came across a fellow who said he was in a bad spot and wanted a chance to win some coin. He looked well-to-do, so I took him up on his offer. I won this ring from him fair and square.”
“What did you play?” George asked, though Willie couldn’t quite understand why such a level of detail was necessary.
“Whist!” the man spat.
George took a deep breath. “Is he all right? Do you swear no harm came to the man you played against?”
“He was fine when I left him.”
George’s head fell and Willie knew. Henry and her sister were at the coaching inn.
George stood up and whispered something to the man in the wardrobe.
“What’s happening?” Willie asked, her mind frantically going over all the worst-outcome scenarios she could come up with. “Where’s Kitty?”
He took both her hands in his and looked directly in her eyes. “It’s going to be all right. I know where they are?”
“Where are they?”
“It will all be all right.”
Willie reached out and grabbed his arm. “Nothing is ever all right. Take me to my sister.”
*
She sat in the carriage, her mind racing. Where was her sister? What happened to her? Was she safe? Had harm come to her?
She felt George’s hand on her knee. “Willie, you need to calm down. Take a breath. It will be all right.”
Something inside her snapped. “You keep saying that as if your words will make it so. How do you know, George?”
He flinched, but she was tired of hearing that it would all somehow work out in the end. When in her personal experience, it seldom ever did.
“Willie,” he pleaded.
“Enough!” She turned to him, pushing his hand off her. “This is my fault. If I would have been steadfast and not allowed myself to become preoccupied, then none of this would have happened.”
“Don’t say that. You didn’t do this.”
“Yes, I did. Who else? I allowed myself to become entangled, and now my sister is at some coaching inn with a man and God knows what has come of her.”
“She may be just fine, we don’t know yet.”
“Shut up, George! Of course things end up fine for you. You’re a marquess and you have a fortune to fall back on if anything should dare go wrong for you. But that’s not how it works for everyone else. There are real, tangible consequences for the rest of the world, so I’d appreciate it if you would stop trying to placate me with these fake affirmations. I know better than most not to fall for anything a rich man promises.”
He was hurting. She could see it in his eyes, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t allow herself to.
“You’re just upset right now. You don’t mean it.”
“I do mean it. I let my guard down and I’ve made yet another tremendous blunder. It was a mistake and I hope and pray that I can salvage something out of this horrific situation.”
George shook his head slowly. “It wasn’t a mistake, Willie. It was anything but. You were always meant to come back to me. It was fate if anything…”
She slammed her hand against the bench. “Stop it! Stop trying to change my mind. You won’t. I let myself go down a road I shouldn’t have. I should have travelled to find my sister without you. I should never have gone to your home, I should never have trusted you. I should have done anything else but make love to you. I was wrong. It was wrong. We are wrong.”
“Willie, I love you.”
She knew he wanted her to say them back, those three little words that changed the world for some people. But those words are what had gotten her into so much in the first place. She was wiser now and couldn’t let herself be moved by such a simple display of affection. Those three words were terribly dangerous, and she knew better than to allow herself to be changed because of them.
“Tell your man to go faster.”
George’s blue eyes stared back, an ocean of pain. He lifted his cane and banged three times on the ceiling of the coach. A moment later, she heard the crack of a whip and the whinny of horses. Her body jerked back against the seat.
They would be there soon.
*
She flew from the carriage the moment the door was opened.
George caught up quickly, and the two made their way inside the small inn. It was much smaller than the one they’d occupied, and in considerably worse condition. But she couldn’t allow herself to dwell on such things now, not when she had Kitty to find.
“May I help you,” the man at the desk asked, making no effort to cover up his assessment of the two. He was gangly and just as clean as one would have expected in such an establishment.
“I’m looking for my sister!” Willie yelled. The din around her went quiet and she was positive
all eyes were on her.
The man sniffed. “Haven’t seen her,” he said. He turned around and began shuffling papers.
“How dare you!” she yelled again, irate at the dismissal. “You turn around this instant and talk to me. Who is your superior? You find me the person in charge of this disreputable establishment straight away or else I’ll…”
“Willie,” George interrupted in a harsh whisper. “Why don’t you stand over there and allow me to take care of this.”
“Why?” she asked, jutting her chin. “Because you’re a man and think you can do better.”
He raised a sardonic brow. “No, not at all. Because I’m civil, that’s why.”
George leaned forward on the desk in front of them. “I’m looking for someone,” George said politely, his voice considerably more hushed than hers had been. “I believe he might be staying here.”
The man turned around and moved closer to them. “I apologize, but I’m not at liberty to disclose the identity of my guests. That’s not the kind of establishment I run around here.”
Willie pressed her lips together.
She watched as George’s nostrils flared, but if he was truly angry, he didn’t let on a bit. He calmly reached into his jacket pocket and removed a velvet purse of coins, tossing it on the desk in front of him. “His name is Henry, but I sincerely hope he wasn’t fool enough to use his real name. He’s a bit shorter than I with a similar build and identical dark hair. He looks and acts as if he comes from money, a complete blockhead. I’m sure he was accompanied by a pretty girl with a head of blonde curls, equally pampered. Have you seen them?”
The man reached out and covertly took the purse. “Yes, I believe we may have a guest residing here that matches a similar description. He checked in with his sister and her lady servant shortly before the storm and have been here ever since. He paid for two rooms, but only for the one night. Then he made up some ridiculous story about his room being robbed and all their money being taken. I’m afraid they owe me quite a sum.”
Willie crossed her arms over her chest, disgusted by the exchange. No doubt that wretched man probably had something to do with Henry’s room getting robbed. He probably took him for the easy target he was.
She watched, seething, as George reached into his jacket and removed another purse. This time he dropped two coins on the table. “This should take care of that and any inconvenience they might have caused. Now, where might I find him and his sister?”
“He’s in the stable, and the girl is upstairs in the fourth room on the left. I couldn’t bring myself to turn her out, pretty thing that she was.” The man looked expectantly toward the purse as if his good deed entitled him to more payment.
Disgusted, she watched George remove another couple of coins and toss them at the man. “I want you to know that I appreciate your efforts to maintain anonymity.”
The man bowed deeply. “Of course.”
George turned to Willie. “Do you want me to come with you?”
She shook her head. “No. You go to your brother, I’ll go to Kitty.”
Willie wasted no time and turned to run up the stairs.
*
One, two, three, four.
Willie counted the doors again to make certain she had the right one. Confident, she knocked on the door with enough force that she was certain her palm would bruise.
She recognized her sister’s maid immediately. Willie pushed by her and saw Kitty sitting on a short bed, dressed in a dark gown she recognized as her own, her hair perfectly coifed.
“Sister!” Kitty stood up and ran to her, throwing her arms around her and hugging her close. “You found us!”
Willie hugged her, squeezing her as tightly as she could. Then, she patted her hair and then her arms, looking her over as best she could through the tears that were coming now at an impressive pace. “You don’t look hurt.”
Kitty shook her head. “I’m not really. This room is quite dreary, but other than that, I feel fine.”
Willie wept openly now, relieved beyond reproach. She’d been so worried, and to see her sister in such fine condition…it was more than she could have ever asked.
They both cried together, falling to the bed – nothing more than a mattress full of sticks, and holding onto each other. Finally, Willie broke from the embrace. She wiped the tears from her eyes and wiped her nose with her glove. It was not her finest moment, but sometimes a lady just had to improvise.
“I was so worried,” Kitty said, her face streaked with tears.
And that’s when Willie lost it.
“You were worried?” Willie stood up and began pacing. “Do you know what the past few days have been like for me?”
Kitty bit her trembling lip.
Willie didn’t care if the girl was terrified. After all she’d put her through, she deserved to be whipped. “I thought you might have been kidnapped! Or worse!”
“What’s worse than kidnapping?” Kitty asked.
“It’s my turn to talk. You just get to sit there and listen,” Willie snapped back. “How dare you run off with some boy!”
“He’s not a boy, he’s a viscount!”
“Quiet!” Willie yelled. “You ran off without telling anyone where you were going. Do you know how worried we all were for you? I have spent days trying to get to you. Next time you decide to ruin your life and flee with some man-child, then at least leave a note or something.”
Kitty listened, her brown eyes wide with shock. Willie took pride in remaining levelheaded around her younger sister, she felt it set a good example for the impressionable girl to follow. It wasn’t always easy, especially considering that in her younger days she’d been much more reactionary. But now, well, there was no keeping calm. The old Willie was making her debut with her young audience.
“You didn’t even take your trunk. What were we to make of that?”
Kitty pressed her lips together, her chin trembling.
“Well? Answer me!”
“But you told me not to speak,” Kitty answered, her voice soft and shaky.
“Well, I’m telling you to answer me now.”
Kitty started to speak, sniffling in between every word. “I knew you’d disapprove of marrying Henry, so we knew we had to run away. We needed a few days to get to Henry’s home so we might be properly wed, and I thought if I’d packed a trunk that you might notice. So, I took a small case and packed one of your gowns. That way I would look like a respectable widow on the road. No one would ever suspect me of running away to get married dressed like you. Besides, Henry said he would buy me an entirely new wardrobe once we arrived to Chesterton.”
Willie listened, half impressed by her plan, if not insulted. “Well, you’re correct. I would have never approved of you marrying that cad.”
“I knew you’d say that. No one is ever good enough for you.”
“Any man who would disrespect you by running away and not even having a proper Christian wedding deserves my scorn, not my sister’s hand.”
“But he couldn’t marry me proper, his brother hates me. He thinks I’m only after Henry’s money. I didn’t even know Henry had money until after I fell in love with him.” Kitty shrugged a little. “Not that I minded. It was a delightful surprise.”
“Focus, Kitty,” Willie scolded. “Have you two…”
“Have we what?”
“You know,” she said, trying to be as delicate as possible.
“I do?”
“Have you two consummated your relationship?” Willie finally blurted.
Kitty’s hands flew to her chest. “How could you even suggest such a thing? He’s a gentleman.”
“He’s an opportunist,” Willie hissed.
“You don’t even know him!” Kitty bit back.
“I know enough. I know that he has a gambling problem and he’s been cut off. I know that he doesn’t have the decency to treat you well. He ran off with you as if you were a common whore. That’s all I need to know, thank you ve
ry much.”
“You’re lying! Henry doesn’t gamble. He used to but he quit, for me. He stopped to make me happy. My Henry would never go back to it.”
“Really? He lost his signet ring playing a game of cards. That’s how we learned of your location. We spoke to the man who won the ring. Sounds an awful lot like gambling to me, now doesn’t it?”
Kitty stood up. “He’d been robbed. The first night here we went to find something to eat and when we returned someone had been in Henry’s room and took everything. We had no money for the coach and he had no other way. Henry is a good, honest man. You have to believe me. He even made certain that I had a maid and a room of my own as to not compromise me before our nuptials. He’s a proper gentleman and he would never lie to me. Henry loves me.”
“Love isn’t enough,” Willie shouted. “He’s a damned fool. He practically ruined your reputation and he put you in an otherwise dangerous situation to boot. And he lied to you, Katherine. He spent all he had playing cards and lost the only thing of worth he had left. This man is not to be trusted, let alone married. He’s not ready for an honest, committed marriage. I doubt he’s even ready to be out of his leading strings.”
Kitty was sobbing now, her heart breaking. Willie knew firsthand how devastating it was learning the man you trusted with all your soul had been lying to you. There was only one thing worse than the feeling of rejection, and that was the feeling of being made a fool for love. Willie told herself that it was better this way, better she had learned the truth early and from someone she loved, rather from Henry later when he’d done something else to lose her trust or lied to her out right. That was her job after all, to protect Kitty. And as much as it hurt, it had to be done. Not everything that was right, was easy.
“Now gather your things. We’re going home,” Willie announced.
Kitty tried to gather herself, taking a lace-trimmed handkerchief and delicately dabbing at her wet face. “Wilhelmina? Is that one of my gowns you’re wearing?”
Willie rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes it is.” Her head was reeling. She couldn’t be sure if it were her emotions causing such havoc or the general idiocy of their current situation. Either way, she was starting to fade.
Second Chance Marquess (Second Chance Series Book 1) Page 14