‘We needed the attention to be on her rather than on us,’ Helena persisted in defence of the letter she had insisted Geoffrey should write, copying Rampton’s hand. ‘Rose might well have not questioned that it was written by her husband, taken the money and sailed away. By the time Rampton discovers the truth – if he does – we’ll be long gone.’ She forced a smile. ‘And rich.’
‘But we’d have been a great deal safer if we’d simply taken the jewels without going to such lengths to black your sister-in-law’s name into the bargain.’ Geoffrey sighed. ‘If Rose hasn’t gone to the docks then she’s coming to London to win back her husband.’
‘Not even Rose is that stupid,’ Helena spat, going to the window and wiping at the grimy pane for despite her bold words she felt a tendril of discomfort. ‘We’ve covered every contingency.’
‘Well, if she’s smelled a rat and elicits Rampton’s sympathies we’re in trouble.’ Geoffrey’s head appeared from the wing of the chair. ‘Jeremiah was to have met Beth at the docks to pay her off but if the girl’s taken everything and fled we’ll have to cut our losses and head for the coast.’
Helena closed the curtains at the window with a violent tug. ‘The coast is where Rose should be at this moment. You’re sure Jeremiah knew what he was looking for when he reported that she’d turned south on the London Road? Oh Geoffrey,’ she burst out in sudden agitation, ‘what can we do when we don’t even know where Rose is headed?’
‘I daresay we should leave.’ Geoffrey rose. He glanced at the shabbily furnished little room and advanced, gripping Helena by the shoulders and pulling her against him. She felt his erection straining against her stomach and, with a grunt of irritation, pushed out of his embrace.
Geoffrey snorted. ‘You never had a sense of occasion, did you, Helena?’
‘I hardly think now is an appropriate time for what you appear to have in mind, Geoffrey.’
‘How do you know what I have in mind?’ His hands spanned her neck before he began caressing it, twining his fingers into her hair. Despite her anger, Helena shivered as he touched his lips to her ear.
‘You probably mistake the motivation for my desire, also,’ he murmured.
She stilled, silent and suddenly afraid as his hands moved over her body, caressing her breasts, moulding her buttocks, while she tried to make sense of his words.
Jerking her against him with sudden violence his voice held an edge to it she’d not heard before. ‘All those weeks when I forced myself to withdraw at the pinnacle of the act, only to discover you were barren, Helena, darling,’ he rasped.
One hand was upon the back of her head while his other squeezed her buttocks, kneading them roughly.
She tried to use disdain to mask her fear. ‘I thought you’d be only too delighted not to be saddled with a brood of brats. We’ll enjoy our gains with no complications. Stop it, Geoffrey!’
His hand was hiking up her skirt and she struggled to pull away.
‘Not this time, Helena,’ he muttered. ‘For once I’m in charge-’
Frightened, she ground out, ‘I know where everything is hidden. The jewels, the money… You need me-’
‘I need a son!’ His breath rasped in her ear. ‘Does Charles know what you did? Why you’re barren? Of course not!’
‘If you want to blame anyone, then blame yourself!’ Helena gasped, for he was pressing her so hard against the wall she was finding it hard to breathe. Suddenly she was very frightened. ‘Everything that happened to me was because of you, Geoffrey!’
‘You sent me packing!’ he snarled. ‘You knew I’d have done anything for you-’
‘We had an argument. When I looked for you so I could apologise, you’d gone.’
‘You’ve never apologised to anyone in your life.’
His face, black with anger, was filling her vision. His breath was hot on her skin, moist now from her growing fear. Raising her knee, suddenly, she connected with his groin, wriggling out of his arms as he crumpled to the floor with a howl of agony.
Just Desserts
Chapter Twenty-one
THE COLD SWEAT of fear made Rose shiver, despite her warm pelisse, as she looked up at the dark house in the afternoon light. She’d not taken Geoffrey into account when she’d conceived her plan to force Helena to confess all to Rampton. Yet surely he must be complicit in Helena’s campaign against Rose? Or was Helena acting alone? It was possible.
For five years Rose had lived with Helena’s volatile temper. She knew her sister-in-law’s capacity for vengeance, her spitefulness and her devious nature, but surely forging the letter purportedly from her husband was worse than anything she’d done before. Now the time had come for Helena to be called to account.
Rose’s nerve nearly failed as the hackney drew to a halt and she heard the jarvey prepare to descend. She closed her eyes while her heart hammered. How would she approach Helena? How would she make her not only confess, but come with her to confess to Rampton?
Her thoughts were interrupted when a panicked voice hissed, ‘Rose! I don’t believe it, but thank God you’ve come!’
Before Rose could protest, the carriage door was flung open and Helena had grasped her by the wrist and was hustling her up the steps and indoors, crying, ‘Rose, you have to help me!’
In the gloomy passage, Rose took stock. The peeling wallpaper and dust lent the dwelling an unsavoury aspect and she wrinkled her nose at the smell of damp. This was not where Rose had expected to find Helena.
‘Beth told you what we’d done, didn’t she? Where is she?’ Helena’s voice was thick with fear. As she put aside the heavy veil of her black bonnet her eyes glittered in the small amount of light that filtered in from outside.
‘Gone!’ said Rose, harshly, gaining courage from the knowledge Helena had set out to ruin her life. ‘And now you’re coming with me to tell Rampton that you wrote that letter. I put the pieces together after I realised Beth’s involvement and how you must have been using her to spy on me.’
This was greeted by a gasp, then silence. Snatching her wrist from Rose’s grasp, Helena stepped backwards. A tinkling laugh escaped her. ‘You really know nothing, do you?’ She sounded incredulous. ‘Beth isn’t with you?’
In the gloom Helena’s rapid breathing indicated her agitation. She sounded as if she were speaking her thoughts aloud. ‘No, obviously Beth is cleverer than I thought. Or perhaps it’s just her sense of self-preservation is more well-honed than I’d expected. As for me, if you don’t help me get out of this house before Geoffrey returns you may as well prepare my eternity box.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Rose snapped. ‘You’re lucky I’ve said nothing about this or you’d be so mired in scandal you’d never be received again. It’s Charles I care about, not you.’
In the dim light Rose saw Helena’s mouth drop open. ‘You really came alone, Rose, without telling anyone?’ Her surprise seemed genuine. Gathering her concealing black shawl more tightly around her, she shook her head. ‘You really don’t know what people are saying?’ she asked, adding under her voice: ‘Fortune favours me, after all. Now Rose, I know you don’t want me to elope with Geoffrey though you’ve never thought me good enough for your brother.’ Her smile was one that Rose knew well. She waited for the inevitable bargaining or wheedling and was not surprised when Helena said, ‘What would you say if I told you I’ve realized the error of my ways and I need you to help me?’
‘Help you!’ Rose gave a strangled laugh. ‘You’re asking for my help after everything you’ve done to damn me in the eyes of my husband? If you’d had your way I’d be on a boat bound for the West Indies.’
Helena gave a dismissive wave as if this were of no account. ‘Rampton would have intercepted you. You know he would have!’
‘I don’t know anything except you’ve been telling Rampton lies about me.’
‘And when Rampton discovered the truth – which he would have in good time – he’d be so beside himself with remorse for doubting you that you
’d want to shower me with gratitude … only I’d be long gone.’ Helena laughed again, impulsively pulling Rose to her and saying with apparent sincerity, ‘I’m so glad to see you, though. Now that you put it like that, I can’t tell you how terribly guilty I feel about what I’ve done-’
‘You don’t know what remorse is, Helena! You wrote the letter and you were behind the stolen necklace, too, weren’t you?’
‘What stolen necklace?’
‘Lady Barbery’s.’ Rose heaved in a breath as Helena dropped her hand. ‘You made Rampton think I’d stolen it, didn’t you?’
Helena’s laugh was spontaneous. ‘I thought you were clever enough to deduce the truth of that long ago.’ She put her head on one side. ‘You really are very credulous, Rose. Surely it was apparent Lady Barbery was behind that? Do you recall when the parcel first arrived addressed to Lady Chesterfield and I naturally assumed it was for me? Do you remember my surprise when you opened it?’
Rose nodded, her suspicions far from allayed.
‘Well, I recognised it as Lady Barbery’s and of course it made perfect sense that she would act so maliciously since she was Rampton’s mistress until you entered the scene. But yes, I suppose I did play on Rampton’s suspicions.’
Rose drew herself up. ‘So much so that he sent me to Larchfield.’
‘Well, you obviously didn’t do a very good job defending yourself.’
Rose felt like throttling her. ‘I didn’t know what I was defending myself against. But worst of all was the letter. You forged his hand so that I would believe he was banishing me to the West Indies,’ Rose finished, hotly. ‘Meanwhile, everything you’ve done is so that you can run away with Geoffrey, isn’t it?’ She threw a glance at their insalubrious surroundings and added, ‘Though what you think will sustain you both, when Geoffrey is clearly as impecunious as you, I don’t know.’
Helena gave a supercilious sniff. ‘Geoffrey’s gone to fetch a hackney. He’ll be returning any moment to pick me up, only the problem is,’ she sounded remarkably calm as she went on, ‘I’ve changed my mind about eloping with him since I greatly fear he intends to kill me.’
Rose blinked. Curtailing the heated response she’d intended, she muttered, ‘It’s a shame you didn’t consider his character before you embarked upon this bold and wicked course of action, then, isn’t it?’
The blaze in Helena’s eyes was at odds with the calm in her voice. ‘You think me disloyal and inconstant, but the fact is this isn’t the first time Geoffrey’s asked me to elope. I refused him when I was seventeen and I’ve regretted it ever since. Well, until now, that is.’
Rose gripped Helena’s shoulders and put her face close. ‘Do you know that you will be forever barred from polite society if you go with Geoffrey? Not to mention that Charles will never get over it. Please, Helena, if you’ve no further wish to associate with Geoffrey then what choice do you have but to return with me to confess to Rampton? Charles would forgive you, for if you come with me now I swear I’ll say nothing about Geoffrey.’
The sound of a hackney carriage pulling up in the street outside made Helena gasp and pull away. ‘Oh God, I thought I had more time!’ She sounded truly panicked. ‘Now it’s too late! What will we do? Where can we flee? He’ll hunt me down.’
‘Well, why didn’t you think of that before?’ Rose muttered, her own palms sweating as for the first time she wondered what involvement Geoffrey had in Helena’s plans to discredit her. She felt a tug and turned to see Helena untying the ribbons of her bonnet.
‘Rose! Please, change clothes with me. My cloak, my bonnet.’ Already she was divesting herself of these garments, forcing them into Rose’s resisting hands. ‘Nobody wants to kill you, do they? You’ll be safe. But hear me out.’
Untying the ribbons of Rose’s bonnet and whipping it off her head, she hissed, ‘The reason Geoffrey wants to kill me is he believes I betrayed him. We were lovers, you see, only we argued and he left. Yes, yes, I understand you’ll have no great sympathy for me when I tell you that the reason I was so desperate to marry Sir Hector was because I was going to have Geoffrey’s child.’
Shock and disgust made Rose drop her hands though she listened as her sister-in-law went on, ‘Then I heard you’d said terrible things to Sir Hector to put him off me.’ Bitterness overlaid the panic in her voice. ‘So I had no choice but to consult Madame Dubrovsky.’
Rose shuddered at the mention of the back-alley abortionist who had caused the death of many desperate and ignorant women in the neighbourhood.
Almost ripping Rose’s cloak from her shoulders, Helena continued, ‘After that I could never have children. That’s why Charles and I have never …’ she shrugged and gave a short laugh, ‘been blessed. But over the years I’ve begun to see it as indeed a blessing. I never …’ Her voice broke as she staggered back against the wall and covered her face with her hands. ‘I never thought …’ she wept, ‘that having a child, a son, would mean so much to Geoffrey. I assumed Geoffrey suspected, or even knew the truth, within a short time of us being together but when I revealed everything that had happened …’ she took another heaving breath, ‘I thought he was going to kill me.’
The sound of Geoffrey’s voice telling the jarvey to wait came clearly through the partly opened window. Helena was now dressed in Rose’s hat and cloak, but Rose had refused to tie the ribbons of the bonnet Helena had placed on her head.
‘Help me, I beg you!’ whispered Helena before, to Rose’s amazement, she flung herself at her feet to kiss the hem of her skirt. ‘If you don’t believe me, look at this!’ she cried, twisting her head so that for the first time the left side of her face came into full view. A large purple bruise was beginning to form under her eye. On closer inspection Rose saw traces of blood from a small gash.
‘You are asking me to go with the man who did that to you?’ Rose asked, incredulous, taking Helena’s wrist and pulling her to her feet. ‘Let us both flee from here!’ The last thing Rose wanted was to see Helena jump into a carriage alone with Geoffrey and escape.
‘There’s no other way out of the house. Geoffrey’s barred the door and lower window and he paid a man to guard the front to prevent me getting away. I’m surprised you made it in here at all.’ Helena’s quick deft fingers tied the ribbons of the thick veiled bonnet beneath Rose’s chin and buttoned her cloak. ‘All I’m asking is for you to buy me a little time, Rose. If you love your brother like you say you do, you know that preventing me from going with Geoffrey is the greatest service you can render him. Truly, I’ve repented. Geoffrey’s not the man I thought he was and if you go with him now to put him off the scent I promise to confess all to Rampton and be the meek and obliging wife Charles has always wanted … but only if you help me now!’
‘You had better be telling the truth, Helena,’ Rose muttered as her sister-in-law pushed her towards the door. ‘Go to Rampton, now, and tell him everything. I won’t be long after you. When Geoffrey realises it’s me he’s eloping with he’ll quickly set me down.’
Geoffrey’s low growl from the other side of the door drowned out Helena’s reply. The grating sound as he fumbled with the lock echoed the fear that reverberated through Rose, though she was certain she could handle Geoffrey if she had to.
She pulled down the veil as Helena seized her by the wrist, calling out to Geoffrey in a falsely reassuring tone, ‘I’m ready, my love.’
Thrusting a small drawstring bag into Rose’s hand, she pushed her on to the front step.
***
It was mid afternoon by the time Rampton arrived at his London townhouse, only to be told that her ladyship was not at home.
Disappointment choked him. He’d allowed himself to be swayed by Felix’s determined assurance that this was where Rose would be waiting for him, together with a full accounting of all the misunderstandings and manufactured evidence his brother claimed lay at the heart of their estrangement.
‘However her maid came in a short while ago. When I questioned her she appe
ared greatly agitated and seemed to have no inkling as to her mistresses’s whereabouts. Decidedly odd, my lord, and I’m only telling you since I thought your lordship might be interested.’
‘Very interested, Whibble. I want Beth brought to me immediately.’
‘Very good, my lord.’
Rampton and Felix were in the library when the girl was delivered, clearly reluctant.
‘Found her slipping out the back way, sir, and had to run to apprehend her when she failed to respond to orders.’ Whibble looked with distaste at the sullen creature. Her mutinous gaze was fixed upon the floor.
‘Where’s Lady Rampton and why did you not obey Whibble when he called you?’
When Beth mumbled something about being turned off halfway between Larchfield and London Rampton glanced at his brother. Felix looked smug, as if Beth’s answer already exonerated Rose, before interjecting smoothly, ‘Really, Beth, I can’t believe her ladyship would be so unfeeling as to turn you off in a muddy field, no matter how great her distaste for your company.’
Beth said nothing, though she squirmed when Rampton said, ‘You must tell us if there’s anything you’re owed. Fortunately you were able to collect your things.’ He indicated the small bag she carried.
‘Yes, sir. If that’s all, sir?’ Beth half-rose, clutching the drawstring bag from which protruded a grubby apron. Felix darted a horrified look at his brother as she sidled towards the door but Rampton had no intention of allowing her to leave yet.
‘Just one thing, more, Beth.’
Like a frozen rabbit she hesitated on the threshold. ‘Yes, sir?’
‘I believe my wife entrusted you with some of her jewellery which may have escaped your attention. Please just ensure it’s not in that bag of yours.’
Beth’s eyes widened. Slack-jawed she whispered, ‘Here?’
A Little Deception Page 27