The cold air shocked her with its stinging intensity, but nothing could slow her pace as she ran toward her brother, who was rising weakly to his feet.
“What is happening?” she demanded to know.
“The marquess has been arrested for high treason and attempted murder,” he explained.
Rose drew in a quick breath that chilled her lungs. “No, that cannot be…”
It was some kind of mistake. Leopold had done none of those things. He was guilty only of improper intimacies with her. That had been wrong—yes, she knew it was—but there was no need for such extreme punitive measures.
Did he say attempted murder?
What?
Rose felt dizzy all of a sudden. Her vision clouded over with a strange and sickening white haze. Randolph had already left her side. He had returned to the palace.
Nicholas appeared suddenly in front of her and took hold of her arm. “You shouldn’t be out here,” he said. “It’s freezing. You’re not wearing a coat.”
She realized she was shivering uncontrollably. “I don’t understand. Where are they taking Lord Cavanaugh? Surely there has been some mistake.”
He glanced uneasily in the direction of the palace prison. “There is no mistake, I’m afraid. Cavanaugh is a devout Royalist and has been secretly engaged to Alexandra since the day he was born. He and his father plotted for years to put her on the throne. The duke financed her debut in London so she could meet Randolph. He paid for all her gowns and jewels. It was all a deep and complex conspiracy.”
Rose frowned in bewilderment. “You mean to say that Alexandra was Leopold’s fiancée? That she was involved in the poisoning?”
Good God! It couldn’t be true! This was madness!
“No,” Nicholas firmly replied. “As far as we can tell, she was a pawn and knew nothing of the plot and has never even met the duke. Their plan was for her to return to Petersbourg, secure the throne, and win the love of the people, and then, when Randolph was out of the way, Leopold would step into his shoes, marry her, and sire the next king.”
Rose felt sick to her stomach and feared she might faint. None of this was making sense. Leopold never mentioned anything about this. He told her his engagement was over and done with.
But all his secret visits to the palace … Had she unknowingly helped in the plot?
“Has he confessed?” she asked as they crossed the terrace and approached the door.
“Not yet,” Nicholas replied, “but I will interrogate him personally and get to the bottom of it.”
Rose swallowed uneasily. She would have to confess her relationship with Leopold. She could not allow anything to be missed.
“How did you discover all of this?” she asked.
“The Countess of Ainsley, Randolph’s former fiancée, came forward this morning to confess her involvement. Evidently she was paid a handsome sum to seduce Randolph in Vienna, make him look like an adulterer, and create a scandal that would ruin the Sebastian name once and for all. I’ve been a victim of it myself as you well know. The press is always dragging me into the gutter. You’re lucky they haven’t tried to turn you into damaged goods.”
She remembered the night at the orchard. The seduction in the library. Was that all part of this terrible plot to bring shame to her family?
No, she refused to believe it! Leopold loved her. He wanted to marry her.
“Nicholas,” she said, still shivering as they entered the palace. “There is something I must tell you. It is important that you know everything before you question the marquess.” A lump rose up in her throat. “Oh God, I don’t even know where to begin.”
* * *
He is accused of murder. The murder of my father and the attempted murder of my brother.
After telling Nicholas everything about her secret love affair with Leopold, Rose entered her bedchamber and shut the door behind her. All normal sounds seemed to fade into a garbled hum of chaos in her ears. Her head was spinning.
She still did not believe it could be true. Despite everything that Nicholas had just told her about Alexandra’s benefactor in England and the Duke of Kaulbach’s arrest that very morning, none of it seemed possible. Her heart didn’t believe a word of it. Leopold was her one true love. He had promised to be faithful to her forever, and she had never doubted his passion.
Was it all part of a traitorous Royalist plot?
No, she could not accept it. Yet she was so bloody angry! Why had he never told her the name of his former fiancée? Why had he not mentioned the depth of his father’s involvement in such treasonous schemes? Was Leo still a part of it, or did he only wish to protect his father?
Rose wanted to believe that he was innocent, but all the evidence suggested otherwise. She wished she could interrogate him herself and look into his eyes when he explained everything. Surely she would know the truth when she saw it.
A knock sounded at her door just then, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Was there news already? Had something more been discovered? Perhaps it was a mistake after all and this was nothing but a bad dream.
She opened the door to find a footman standing in the corridor holding a gold-plated salver.
“A letter has come for you, Your Royal Highness.”
She stared at it uncertainly, then picked it up and dismissed him before shutting the door.
At first she thought it was something from Leopold—an explanation, perhaps, which he might have written that morning, knowing he was about to be arrested. But the letter did not bear the Cavanaugh seal.
This letter had come from Austria.
Chapter Twenty-one
Dear Rose,
I promised myself I would not do this. I promised your brother I would set you free, but I cannot keep my word. Since the day I read your letter that ended our engagement, I have been crushed by a despair I never imagined possible. For months I was happy in the dream of having you as my wife, but all joy has vanished from my life since the day I learned you did not feel the same passion as I.
I blame myself for the loss of your affections and am quite certain I deserve this suffering. I should have come to you when I learned your father was ill. How I long to turn back all the clocks in the world and choose a different path. If I could, I would return to Petersbourg on the night we first met and never leave the country without you. I should have married you when I had the chance last spring, when you still believed we could be a success as husband and wife.
Do you not remember how we danced at the spring ball? Do you forget how I looked at you when we were introduced at the reception?
Perhaps you did not feel what I felt. Perhaps you did not know that every moment I spent with you was the greatest happiness of my life. I was overcome by an all-consuming passion that has not left me since that first day.
I cannot think, I cannot function knowing that I have not done all I could to convince you of my undying love. I must therefore beg you to reconsider your decision.
I will not try to convince you of the importance of a political alliance between our two countries. I am writing to you not as the son of an emperor, but as a man who is brokenhearted and desperately in love.
I still want you as my wife. If you will change your mind, I promise to spend an eternity giving you everything in my power to give and making you as happy as any woman can be.
Please write to me, Rose. Or better yet, come to Austria, be my future empress, and make me the happiest man alive.
Yours forever and truly,
Joseph
Rose covered her mouth with a hand to smother a terrible, gut-wrenching sob.
She had never meant to hurt Joseph. In fact, she had not believed her change of heart would cause him any pain at all, for he had not expressed his affections in the past, and she had not recognized the intensity of his feelings.
Or perhaps she had recognized it, but the months apart had caused the memory to grow dim. His letters had conveyed no passion whatsoever, and she had therefore as
sumed he was not in love with her. She had been so sure that it was a political marriage and nothing more than that.
She was absolutely shocked by this letter.
Clearly she had misjudged Joseph. A terrible regret racked her body, for she had unknowingly broken his heart.
Perhaps if she had known of this sooner, she might not have been so easily wooed away by Leopold.
And what about Leopold? He was the one she loved. Even now, knowing that he had lied to her about so many things, she could not turn her back on him. Not until she knew the whole truth.
With an aching heart and a flood of anxieties coming at her from all directions, Rose sat down and waited for Nicholas to return from the interrogation.
* * *
It took hours, and Rose could do nothing but pace in her room, waiting fretfully and wondering what was transpiring in the prison.
Please, God, let it all be a terrible misunderstanding. Leopold could not have poisoned Randolph or her father. He had kept secrets from her, certainly, but had not committed murder. Surely not that.
At last a knock rapped at her door, and Nicholas entered the room. He looked exhausted and weary, as if he had not slept for many days.
“Well?” she asked. “What happened? Did you uncover the truth?”
He dropped his gaze to the floor as if he were filled suddenly with despair. “This is not going to be easy for you to hear, Rose. You had best sit down.”
Her stomach careened with sickening apprehension, but she was determined to keep a steady mind. She would hear the truth, whatever it was, and she would weather it.
Taking a seat in the dark leather armchair in front of the fire, she invited Nicholas to sit down as well. They faced each other in the late-afternoon sunshine beaming in through the windows while the fire crackled and snapped in the hearth.
Nicholas inhaled deeply, then exhaled before he began. “I will come straight to the point. Lord Cavanaugh has confessed his secret engagement to Alexandra. He says he knew of her existence and was pledged to marry her since he was a young boy, and had always believed it was his destiny and duty to remove our family from the throne and restore the true monarchs.”
“The Tremaines.”
“Yes. He also believed it was his duty to restore his own family dynasty to the throne, for as you know he has a distant claim to it by blood. His ancestors were once kings of this country, while ours were blacksmiths and butchers.”
She worked hard to keep her breathing steady and swallowed over a jagged lump of unease. “Continue.”
“He also denied any sort of relationship with you. He said he never came to the palace to see you, nor did he arrange to meet you secretly the night before he left for Vienna. When I explained that you had already told me everything, he reluctantly admitted to it, so we are now obliged to doubt his truthfulness about anything.”
“He was only trying to protect my reputation,” she explained in his defense. “We cannot use that against him.”
Nicholas paused. “If I believed that were true, I would spare nothing to ensure the court’s leniency toward him.”
“But you have reason to believe otherwise?”
He stared at her for a long moment, then leaned back in the chair and glanced anxiously around the room. “Is that wine in the decanter?” he asked, motioning toward the tray by her bed.
“Yes. I had it brought up an hour ago. Would you like some?”
“Please.”
She rose to go and pour him a glass, then returned to the hearth, sat down and handed it to him.
“It must be serious,” she said. “You don’t look well at all.”
He took a sip. “It’s bad, Rose. There is so much more. You have no idea.”
Clasping her hands together on her lap, she said, “Do not try to protect me, Nicholas. I am a grown woman. I will survive whatever you say.”
He took another sip of wine, then set the glass on the small table next to his chair. “All right, then. First off, we have located the maid who brought the poison into the palace. She is still being questioned in the prison, along with Leopold’s father and his father’s valet.”
“How is the valet involved?”
“He is the maid’s brother. They are loyal servants at Kaulbach Castle and dedicated Royalists. It was the valet who approached the Countess of Ainsley and paid her to try to seduce Randolph in Vienna. He was also responsible for the scandal that was reported to the papers last spring—the one about me seducing and ruining the Duke of Tantallon’s daughter at the Hanover Hotel.”
Rose frowned. “But you did seduce that young woman if I remember correctly,” she reminded him.
“Did I?” he replied. “Or did she seduce me? She was ridiculously willing as I recall, and she was ruined long before I ever touched her. As it turns out, her family is flat broke. We are looking into it now to find out if she was offered money as well.”
“My word,” Rose said. “How deep does this go?”
“Deeper, I’m afraid. Here is the worst part, Rose. I was grateful before that you had been spared from the scandals, but it seems now that you are next to be skewered.”
“How so?”
He shut his eyes for a moment as if he could not bear to deliver the news, then he spoke frankly. “Your letters to Leopold have been shared with the Chronicle. Your reputation is—” He stopped. “I’m sorry. I cannot go on.”
She struggled to understand what Nicholas was saying, while her stomach clenched with anger at this unthinkable betrayal. “Can we stop the editor from printing them? What else do they intend to reveal?”
“Everything,” he replied, “and it’s too late to stop it. The papers are already distributed as a special edition along with news of Randolph’s near death at the hands of a murderer.”
She frowned. “Are you trying to tell me that Leopold did all of this to ruin me? That he seduced me in order to make the people demand that we be declared unfit to rule and should be deposed?”
“Yes. It is more than clear to both Randolph and me that this has been the plan all along. The maid admitted to it as soon as they closed the prison cell door behind her. She spilled everything in a matter of minutes.”
Rose was having trouble breathing. “I still do not believe that Leopold lied to me like that. I believe he cared for me. It couldn’t have been a trick.”
Nicholas shrugged. “I don’t know what is in his heart. Perhaps he does love you. I think it’s quite possible he does. How could he not? You are a lovely woman, but the fact remains … He is a Royalist, and all his life he has been groomed to seize the throne. He traveled to England last spring to make sure his future with Alexandra would be secured.”
Rose fought hard against the bolt of anger rising up in her throat. “But they never even met each other. Why did they not present Leopold to her sooner? Why did they let her marry Randolph?”
“Because the duke knew he would never have enough supporters to overthrow us, even if Alexandra was revealed as the lost Tremaine princess. He wanted her to secure the throne quietly, without incident, then get rid of us in a more underhanded way. That is why Leopold came home early from Vienna. To win her friendship while Randolph was allegedly straying to another woman’s bed.”
Rose pressed a hand to her chest. “No, that cannot be true. To hear it spoken like that, to imagine that Leopold was involved in such a dark plot, years in the making, and took advantage of me in that way … It makes me sick.”
“I’m sorry, Rose.”
She collected herself and met her brother’s gaze. “Has he admitted to any of this?”
“He has confessed to treason and the plot to marry Alexandra but denies knowledge of the arsenic. At this time, we don’t know what to believe. That will be up to the court to determine. In the meantime, you must brace yourself for the scandal that is about to hit all of us.”
She bowed her head and closed her eyes. “I don’t care about the scandal. Thank God the plot was discovered in ti
me. Randolph is alive and Alexandra is safe from the villains who would have used her to gain back their position on the throne.”
They were quiet for a long time. Nicholas looked toward the window. “It’s snowing again.”
Rose turned in her chair. She felt strangely numb all over, but there was no chance of tears. Her heart seemed to be freezing over with ice. “It’s quite pretty, isn’t it? It makes the world seem almost normal.”
“But it’s not,” he replied.
“No, far from it.” Her eyes darted to Joseph’s letter on her bed. She had read it a number of times while she waited for Nicholas to return with news of the interrogation and wasn’t sure what to feel about it now.
“There is something I should show you.” She stood to retrieve it.
“What is that?”
“A letter from Archduke Joseph.” She did not wish to hand it over, for it was personal and private, so she attempted to explain in her own words. “He still wants to marry me. I didn’t realize it, but he was deeply hurt by my change of heart.”
Nicholas stood and approached her. “Joseph did seem very low the entire time we were in Vienna.”
She turned the letter over in her hands. “I never meant to hurt him. Now it feels as if I am being punished for that. I should have been faithful. I should not have let myself be seduced away. Joseph was always such a gentleman. Now I fear I was very foolish, and if I am to be ruined, he will be glad to have escaped such a reckless wife.”
Nicholas regarded her with great care and sensitivity. “I beg your pardon, Rose, but I must ask the question. Are you truly ruined?”
She knew what he was asking. This was all so dreadfully unpleasant.
“If you wish to know if I am still a virgin…” She paused. “No, I am not.”
A muscle flicked at Nicholas’s jaw and his hand curled into a fist. “How do you feel about the archduke now?” he asked, not putting her through the agony of explaining the sordid details. “Do you think you might be able to care for him if he still wanted to marry you? Because I believe he would be very willing to come to your rescue. He was devastated over the loss of you. I am sure he would do whatever it took to save your reputation, for clearly you were deceived in the worst possible way.”
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