The Captain's Courtesan

by Lucy Ashford

  He was already struggling to pull on his breeches. Self-disgust fractured his being. ‘My God,’ he’d said through gritted teeth, ‘I hope you’re not still seriously considering getting married to my father.’

  ‘Why not?’ she’d queried softly. ‘Surely you are not going to tell him about this?’ She’d slid out of the bed and swayed towards him; he continued pulling on his clothes. She put her hands up to his chest, toying with the buttons of his coat. ‘We can do this again, whenever it’s convenient, can’t we? Your father need never know.’

  ‘You’re joking.’ Alec had pushed her away.

  He’d set off back to London before the rest of the house was astir, filled with self-disgust. Surely his father could not marry this woman?

  He’d tried to warn his father, before he was sent abroad again on his last spell of active service. The result was total estrangement between father and son. And the young Lady Emilia, already peevish at Alec’s devotion to his army duties, and bewildered by his increasingly sombre moods, hastily broke off their betrothal.

  The Earl and Susanna had married in the summer of 1815, the summer of Waterloo. When Alec returned from the war he went to live at Two Crows Castle, effectively cutting himself off from his family.

  That autumn he’d gone to a house party in a grand Kensington mansion, hosted by an officer of his regiment—Grenville—whom Alec hadn’t seen for some time. Alec had been under the impression it was to be a kind of army reunion, but clearly the event had grown in size. And Grenville hadn’t told Alec until he arrived that night that he’d also invited Alec’s father and his wife.

  As it turned out, the Earl, unwell, had been unable to attend.

  ‘A shame about your father,’ Grenville had said to Alec. He was either unaware of father and son’s estrangement, or was bent on causing mischief. ‘But your stepmother’s turned up. Your brother offered to bring her, you see.’

  Alec was deciding he liked Grenville less and less. And—Stephen, with Susanna? It wasn’t unknown, of course, for a male relative to escort a married woman to a social event. So Alec, trapped in a situation he had not foreseen, was curt to Stephen and coldly civil to Susanna. He stayed for barely two hours, then made his excuses to leave.

  Like the other guests, the intention had been that he stayed overnight, so he first had to go upstairs and get his things from the chamber he’d been allotted on arrival. It was a little past eleven; his mind was already on his journey home.

  But he’d pulled up with a jolt of utter disbelief when he came upon Stephen and Susanna, stealing out of a nearby bedroom.

  To Alec it couldn’t have been plainer that they were fresh from intimacy. ‘My God,’ he’d breathed.

  Stephen, straightening his neckcloth, had drawled, ‘Say one word about this, little brother, and you’re finished. I know from Susanna that you have no reason whatever to preach virtue at me.’

  ‘At least she wasn’t my stepmother at the time!’

  Stephen said, ‘Do you think that would matter if our father were to find out?’

  So Stephen had been able to hold that knife to Alec’s throat ever since.

  Jarvis came into the parlour where Alec waited. ‘His lordship is ready to see you, Captain Stewart.’

  ‘My thanks, Jarvis.’

  The Earl was still in his library, pacing the floor. When Alec entered, his father came almost hesitantly towards him.

  ‘Alec,’ he said. ‘You were so right, my son, to warn me about—about …’ He suddenly gripped Alec’s hand. ‘God help me,’ he whispered, ‘I’ve been such a fool.’

  ‘No, sir,’ said Alec quickly. ‘Never that. Please. Sit down.’

  ‘A fool is what I am,’ repeated the Earl bitterly. He sank into the chair to which Alec guided him and ran his fingers through his greying hair. ‘She’s gone back to Italy. She as good as told me it was tedious, living with an old man like me. And she’s taken all the family jewels!’ He began to laugh, a hollow sound. ‘Well, there’s no fool like an old fool, they say. And do you know? Stephen has set off after her. He says it’s to get the jewellery back. Says he feels huge concern for me and all the rest of it …’

  Alec had gone very still. Stephen, gone after her. To get the jewels? To get Susanna? Or was it because he realised that, thanks to his attempt to kidnap Katy, Alec could now expose Stephen for the blackguard he was?

  Alec said, ‘It’s good of Stephen to try to get the jewels back for you, sir.’

  His father looked up at him in utter despair. ‘There’s no need to gammon me any longer, Alec. Stephen and she were rutting together whenever my back was turned. Weren’t they? Weren’t they, damn it?’

  Alec braced himself. ‘For how long have you known this?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘There were signs I’d ignored, for months.’ His father clenched his hands. ‘But I knew for certain when Stephen came to visit me in the country. They thought I was in my bedchamber. I came downstairs and saw the two of them whispering together. Touching each other. God damn it, I tried to pretend I didn’t realise what it meant …’ The Earl shook his head. ‘Of course she probably cares for him even less than she did for me—he’ll just be an idle diversion for her. You, Alec, realised what she was from the start—that was why you tried to warn me off her, before our wedding—’ He broke off, coughing.

  Now. Now was the time. ‘Sir, there is something I must tell you.’

  And Alec told him the story of that one despicable night. He made no excuses for his own behaviour. ‘It was unforgivable of me,’ he said quietly.

  After a long silence his father turned to Alec and said, ‘You did try to tell me, didn’t you?’

  ‘I did, sir, but not strongly enough.’

  His father waved his hand dismissively. ‘Ah, I was an old besotted fool, I wouldn’t have listened to a word anyway.’ He got up and went to the window, his shoulders rigid. Then at last he turned round and said, ‘Did you take all your war diaries away, my son?’

  ‘Almost all, sir. But there were just a few left, which of course I intend to remove as soon as possible.’

  ‘You know, Alec …’ his father’s voice was hesitant ‘… you never did tell me about Waterloo. I wonder, are you free for an hour or so?’

  ‘For as long as you wish, sir,’ said Alec quietly.

  ‘Perhaps,’ his father said, ‘you would spare a little time to go through the battle with me? I find myself rather in need of company. And, you know, I never did understand why Wellington said that the whole outcome of Waterloo turned on the Coldstream Guards holding some damned gate at a place called Hougoumont …’

  Alec went over to the bookcase for his father’s maps, spread them out on a nearby table, then pulled up chairs for himself and his father and started pointing out the battle lines. ‘Here’s Hougoumont, below the escarpment. It was a farm with gated grounds that Wellington had fortified, a crucial position—the French attacked it all day.’

  ‘And is that the north gate?’

  ‘Yes. There the enemy might have broken through were it not for Macdonnell and his Coldstream Guards defending it hand to hand. Then Halkett’s Hanoverian Brigade reinforced Macdonnell’s men and they somehow held on, despite heavy losses.’

  ‘Ah, Halkett’s men.’ The Earl nodded.

  ‘Indeed, sir. Lord Wellington always said that between them they won the battle for him there …’

  Alec was in no hurry. He had all the time in the world spreading out empty before him, now that Rosalie had gone. For he had realised what he should have acknowledged weeks ago: that he simply could not bear to live his life without her.

  Yet clearly—she couldn’t have made it plainer—she wanted nothing at all to do with him. Had removed herself entirely from his life. Why had she left so suddenly?

  Alec knew that the attempt to kidnap Katy, and the news that Alec’s brother was the villain, had shaken her badly. Perhaps she’d been right and he should have told her earlier about Stephen. But surely she’d forgiv
en him, when she realised how thorough had been Alec’s preparations to safeguard the little girl? Hadn’t Rosalie tended Alec’s slight injury herself, her eyes full of something like tenderness?

  But she’d gone, and there was no message for him, only an address—Helen’s address—that he gathered she’d been reluctant to give. Perhaps Rosalie had decided she could no longer bear to be in the company of someone who would always remind her of Linette’s evil seducer. Remind her of Katy’s father, God damn it.

  It was as well she’d never know how he’d betrayed his father with Susanna. Or—perhaps she did. His stomach pitched as he realised—that could be it. At Lord Stokesay’s ball—somehow she’d realised. She’d somehow found out—and that was why she’d left.

  Oh, God. Who could blame her?

  Meanwhile, he’d neglected his fencing lessons lately for the other matters, and day after day more soldiers came to Two Crows Castle begging for shelter. Alec knew it was possible now that his father might offer to restore his aid. But in the meantime drastic action was called for, if they were not to close down within weeks.

  After leaving his father, Alec rode to his bank in the Temple, to ask for more time to pay his bills. As he was ushered into a private office, he braced himself.

  Then a senior clerk hurried in, smiling. ‘Captain Stewart. This is indeed a lucky chance! I was about to contact you …’

  And Alec listened, almost in disbelief, as the clerk told him that a large sum of money had been given into the bank’s care—for the benefit of the soldiers at Two Crows Castle. And the donor wished to remain completely anonymous.

  His father? His father would have told him, surely! The clerk refused to say any more. But Alec, on his way out past the rows of junior clerks at their desks, was stopped by a scrawny lad in black, sweeping the floor.

  ‘Captain Stewart?’ the boy whispered eagerly. ‘You remember me, don’t you, Captain Stewart? I got a job here now, Captain, running errands and the like!’

  ‘Mikey! You stayed at Two Crows Castle for a couple of weeks, didn’t you?’

  ‘I did, and it was thanks to that place I got this job. And funnily enough, I saw someone else here from Two Crows Castle only the other day, Captain!’

  ‘You did? Who was he?’

  ‘Not a he, Captain,’ said Mikey importantly. ‘But a she.’

  As Mikey explained who, Alec began to understand. And—to hope.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It was a warm May afternoon and Rosalie was in the orchard at the back of Helen and Francis’s pretty house, sitting on a rug in the shade of a blossom-laden apple tree while she read stories to Katy and Toby.

  She had been here for a few weeks now, renting a cottage close to the village of Heythrop. The banns had been read three times in Heythrop’s pretty church; Helen and Francis were married now and Helen had welcomed Rosalie like a lamb returned to the fold.

  ‘Oh, my dear Rosalie, I knew you’d see sense in the end!’ she had cried.

  ‘Captain Stewart proved to be a true and honourable friend,’ Rosalie had replied quietly. ‘And he helped me to find Katy’s father.’

  ‘So—is the villain going to be made to pay for his wickedness to poor Linette?’

  ‘I think he has paid, Helen.’ Rosalie could still hardly bear to think of the kidnap attempt on Katy. ‘Though the fewer people who know of it, the better. And Katy and I are quite safe from him, thanks to Captain Stewart.’

  Helen had kept hugging them both, and laughing and crying, and trying to ask more. But sensible Francis had drawn his wife aside gently. ‘Give Miss Rowland time to get her breath, Helen! You’ll be tired, my dear,’ he added to Rosalie, ‘after your journey.’

  ‘I’m fine.’ But Rosalie had smiled at him, in gratitude. ‘Mr Wheeldon, I cannot thank you enough, for putting me in touch with my mother’s family. And I want to tell you and Helen that I would like to give some money towards your school—no, I will not allow any arguments! There will still be more than enough for me and Katy, I assure you!’

  And for Two Crows Castle. She hugged that thought to herself over the next few days, remembering her visit to the bank. It was so strange that she’d bumped into Mikey there, who told her how much he’d enjoyed working in the garden. She’d had to hurry away, because of the stupid tears brimming in her eyes.

  She and Katy had settled quickly into their little cottage. The fact that it was less than ten miles from the place where she grew up gave her a sense of peace, of redemption even, to be here again with Katy. To visit her mother’s grave, and their old home, which was inhabited now by a pleasant young family. To watch Katy, so happy in the places like the riverside where she and Linette had played.

  Helen had offered to send over their daily maidservant to help her in her new abode, but Rosalie preferred to do everything herself, brushing and sweeping from dawn till dusk. Action was a necessity, for a great ache of loneliness—of sheer loss—filled her almost unbearably whenever she thought of Alec Stewart.

  Once the cottage was neat as a new pin, she helped Helen in the school, teaching the small ones to read. But now school had finished for the day, which was why she was in the orchard with Katy and Toby, equipped with buttered scones and a pitcher of lemonade for when the storytelling was over. Helen and Francis had taken a trip into Chipping Norton in their dog cart to visit the shops there, so she was surprised to hear the sound of steady hoofbeats approaching.

  Katy heard it, too, and wandered off towards the low hedge that separated the orchard from the lane. She turned back to Rosalie, her little face alight.

  ‘Tick-tock man!’ she cried in joy.

  Rosalie felt her heart do a topsy-turvy somersault. No. It could not be … She got slowly to her feet.

  But it was. It was Alec. Lithely dismounting, he looped his horse’s reins over the gatepost and was striding towards her, his hair rumpled, his boots dusty from the road, but still so handsome that her breath caught thickly in her throat.

  Katy was the first to reach him; he swung her up in his arms and kissed her cheek. ‘How’s my girl?’ He smiled.

  But his eyes—his dark, burning eyes—were on Rosalie. ‘I’ve come to thank you,’ he said to her. ‘For what you did for Two Crows Castle.’

  She’d scrambled to her feet, knowing her straw hat was askew. ‘But you weren’t supposed to know …’

  ‘And no one deliberately betrayed your trust,’ he assured her. ‘But …’ And he explained about Mikey.

  ‘Of course,’ she said wonderingly. ‘I saw him there.’

  ‘He misses the garden. And you,’ he told her. There was something in his eyes, in his voice, that made her dizzy with an emotion she didn’t dare to name.

  Then Katy was tugging at his hand, and Alec sat with them all in the orchard, sharing their lemonade and scones. Afterwards he showed the children how to roll pennies along the smoothed-out rug, making Toby laugh with delight at his success and guiding little Katy.

  Rosalie watched his long, lithe figure as he sprawled in the grass in his shirt sleeves, the sun hot on his brown forearms, one of them marked by the jagged scar she remembered so well. Though a tight ache of longing squeezed at her chest, she tried her hardest just to be content that he was here, that he turned to her every so often with a look of such warmth in his dark eyes that her foolish heart leapt.

  He has only come to thank me for the money, she warned herself. Nothing else has changed. His heart is not free. Soon he will be leaving again.

  When Helen and Francis got back they were surprised to see him here. But Francis warmly invited Alec to eat with them and Katy was put to bed in the room next to Toby’s so the adults could dine together that evening. Francis was aware of Alec Stewart’s work with homeless soldiers; now he openly showed his interest. As for Helen—well, Helen was melting, slowly but surely.

  ‘He is rather charming,’ she confided reluctantly when she and Rosalie were alone together in the parlour after the meal, while the men took a glass
of port. ‘And so very handsome … Obviously I’d got hold of the wrong end of the stick about him. An earl’s son, you say? And he dealt with the villain who wronged poor Linette. Hmmm.’

  Rosalie didn’t even want to think about Stephen now. All that filled her mind was Alec. Alec was here. It means nothing. You know it means nothing …

  The men joined them very soon afterwards, and Helen began to say, ‘You may stay here, of course, Captain Stewart, we have a bed made up!’

  Alec looked at his watch. ‘I actually planned on staying at the Heythrop Inn tonight. But on my way back, perhaps I could escort Miss Rowland home.’

  ‘Oh, Francis will do that, won’t you, Fra—?’

  But Rosalie would swear that Francis had, most definitely, given his wife’s arm a warning pinch.

  Tomorrow, Alec would be leaving her life again. He’d only come to thank her for the money, hadn’t he?

  It was less than a quarter of a mile back to her cottage, and a beautiful, moonlit evening. He led his horse, and as they walked she told him lightly about the school and how well Katy had settled in here. He waited while she unlocked the door, then she turned to him.

  He was going to leave her again now. She gazed up one last time at that proud, handsome profile that had stunned her at the Temple of Beauty. ‘Thank you for seeing me home,’ she began. ‘Now you will want to ride on to the inn.’

  Something blazed in his dark eyes. Some emotion that caught at her quivering heart, pounded through her veins, melting her very bones.

  ‘Rosalie,’ he said, ‘why did you leave London so suddenly?’

  Her throat seemed to have closed up. ‘I really think you must guess why …’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I can’t. May I come in? Just for a brief while? We really must talk.’

  She couldn’t answer.

  ‘Go inside,’ he urged gently. ‘I’ll see to my horse. Is there a stable?’

  ‘Round the back. A neighbour uses it sometimes, everything’s there.’