“You are a good woman, Mrs. Hennings, to continue to serve my father so.”
Mrs. Hennings became more agitated, wringing her hands. She did not look at Kate but stared once more out of the window. Fortunately, she continued her tale.
“Then came the night his lordship passed away.” Her voice was strained. “I had just posted the letters, informing your schools of the earl’s passing and requesting that you and your brother return home at once. It was late and I wished for some tea to steady my nerves, so I went down to the kitchen to prepare it. I heard voices. It was the doctor, berating the cook, saying ‘You gave him too much’ and ‘I didn’t want him to die yet.’”
“He didn’t want my father to die yet?” asked Kate.
“Aye, that’s what he said. I thought it strange too and turned to leave, but he must have heard me, for the next thing I knew, he was beside me on the stairs. ‘You ought not be eavesdropping on conversations,’ he told me. ‘I would hate to have you repeat anything you heard and have anything happen to your sweet children.’”
“Your children?” asked Kate.
“Aye, I was so afeared, but I went to the steward and reported to him what happened and my fears over the well-being of my children and you two as well. I hoped all would be well, but the doctor confronted me the next day with…” She began to sob and shake.
“Do not fret.” Kate tried to comfort the woman, who appeared as if she might shake herself apart.
The old housekeeper wrapped her arms around herself, as if to keep her together. “That demon doctor, if he ever was such, grabbed my arm and said he knew I had told the steward. He handed me a golden curl from my baby daughter’s head and said if I opened my mouth again, none of my children would never wake to see the morn.” The housekeeper brushed the tears away with the back of her hand. “I was so afraid. I knew if he thought I would tell anyone, he would kill all my babes. I thought if I were dead, my children would be safe. So I…I…”
“Oh, Mama!” cried her daughter, running into the room, while Emma and Wynbrook stood behind her. “You were trying to protect us? Why did you never tell us?” They embraced each other tightly, and Kate felt tears in her own eyes.
Wynbrook handed her a handkerchief. She took it and blotted her eyes. “I do not suppose you know the name of this evil doctor?” asked Kate.
“He went by the name of Dr. Bones, but I am certain that was not his real name. He was in his midthirties perhaps, a muscular man, with black hair and gray eyes that squinted when he talked.”
Kate took a deep breath and blew it out. Wynbrook’s warm hand rested on her shoulder, comforting and strong. It was a lot to take in. Something evil had infected their house, in the form of a nefarious doctor. And her father, her poor father, had been murdered—poisoned. She did not say anything until she was surer of her voice. “I wish there were a way to know who this man was or why he did something so horrible.”
“I do not know why,” said Mrs. Hennings with a sniff, “but I might know his name.”
Kate held her breath.
“The doctor, he stayed at Greystone before his lordship passed and I did his laundry. In one of his coats, I found a letter.”
“Did it have a name?” whispered Kate. It was the loudest sound she could make.
“Captain Harcourt.”
Thirty-three
“Captain Harcourt?” asked Wynbrook when they were back outside the cottage. “The Captain Harcourt whom your father exposed as a traitor?”
Kate nodded her head, her stomach too tied in knots to answer. Harcourt was alive? Impossible. Yet it explained everything.
“Oh my stars!” gasped Emma.
“They went to arrest Harcourt for treason, but the ship taking him back to England was lost at sea. He and all souls aboard were presumed dead,” said Dare in a voice like gravel.
“That is why we have been so cursed. He came back to effect his revenge. Evil, hateful man!” Kate was so angry she could have spit. Robert had a glint of murder in his eye.
“At least you finally know the truth of what happened,” said Wynbrook.
“Yes. Thank you for suggesting we talk to the housekeeper,” said Kate, pacing back and forth. She needed to do something with the pent-up emotion she felt.
“Perhaps you would like to walk back to the house?” suggested Wynbrook, correctly guessing her need to do something active, preferably attacking Captain Harcourt but a walk would do.
“Yes, that would be good. It would be good indeed.”
Robert put a hand on her shoulder, his eyes silently asking his question.
“Yes, I am all right. Just angry,” she said.
“It is good to know, for now something can be done.” His tone was ominous.
Robert handed Emma into the carriage and drove off, leaving Wynbrook and Kate to walk home. She set off at a fast clip, walking along the beach for a while before the trail turned inland. She had walked the path many times as a girl and much remained the same.
Wynbrook said nothing but kept pace with her, a silent comfort. Her father had been murdered. Murdered!
“I cannot believe it!” she finally cried out. “I want to murder that man myself!”
“If you mean Harcourt, I believe your brother will take care of the matter. Do you think he is behind your recent attack?”
“If he discovered we had made a fortune, he would certainly try to come back and destroy our lives once more. Vicious beast!”
Their path turned to a low bluff overlooking the ocean, and Kate paused to look out over the restless waves. The wind was brisk and biting, stinging her face. Wynbrook put an arm around her, drawing her close, comforting her.
“I hope the revelations today can help put to rest some of the difficult memories of your past,” said Wynbrook.
“I fear my past will always afflict me.”
“Indeed, I hope not. I would like to see us happy after such pain and trial.”
Us? Kate sighed. When would he ever understand that there was no us? “Your persistence does you credit, but my answer to your question is still no. Nothing revealed today changes that,” said Kate severely.
“Still refusing to marry me? My pride may at some point be hurt by your refusals.”
“Wouldn’t you rather marry Emma St. James?” asked Kate, voicing the streak of jealousy that had taken hold.
“Why would I wish to do that?”
“Why wouldn’t you? She’s pretty, smart, cheerful, kind, and has a host of other redeeming attributes I will never have. She can stitch up a wound with one hand and serve you tea with the other. Hell, I want to marry Emma St. James.”
Wynbrook laughed. “Then we are both doomed to disappointment, for I will wed none but you.”
“But…why?” Kate was exasperated. “Why not marry someone more like you?”
“If I wanted to marry some chit accustomed to society, I would have done it by now. I have been hunted as a matrimonial prize for years, though I know you will think me vain for saying it. I know the talk about Lord Devine’s niece and myself. But no one makes me feel so…so alive as you.”
They continued on the path back to Greystone Hall, the waves foaming and roaring beside them. A storm was coming. A storm was also raging in her heart as she tried to express why she could not be a fit wife yet all the while longing she could say yes.
“You have no idea what I’ve seen. When the ships came into port, they ran the bumboats to ferry women to the ship. Most of the crew wasn’t allowed to leave, so the women got brought aboard. Some were girlfriends or wives, but many others were there for a sailor to pay her coin for a go at her. I have seen things I ought not have seen.”
“I am so sorry this has happened to you. But I think you are amazingly brave. I would be honored to have such a wife.”
“But…” Kate stared at him. Had he not
just heard what she had said? “I’m ruined!”
“You are still a maiden, you say?”
Kate nodded.
“Then you are not ruined.”
“But in London, a lady can be ruined for taking a walk down the street by herself or being caught in conversation with a man without a chaperone. Do you know how many times I’ve been alone with a man, or a group of them for that matter? By London standards, I am a hopeless case.”
“But we are not using London standards. Forgive me, but you do not understand the nature of being ruined. You can do whatever you want to as long as nobody catches you. Yes, you had a most unconventional education, but the point is no one knows but me. Thus, you are not ruined.”
He frowned a little as he considered what he had just said. “Or at least, you weren’t. When someone caught you leaving with me in the coach, an elopement was assumed. If you return to London unwed, you would not be welcomed back into society. We must both be married—to each other—to avoid censure.”
“So you’re telling me that I can spend a year on a navy vessel, surrounded by men with not a chaperone in sight, and still my reputation could be intact as long as nobody knew?”
“Yes, quite.”
“Though when my brother is kidnapped and I try to rescue him with an old friend, my reputation is in tatters. Am I understanding this correctly?”
“Yes, I do believe you are getting the gist of this.” He grinned at her, the wind playing with his light brown hair.
“That is ridiculous! This makes no sense.”
“True,” said Wynbrook, utterly nonplussed.
Kate paused to look out over the ocean. The sky was gray with clouds that hung heavy with rain, threatening to unleash at any moment, and the ocean below them was dark and grumbling.
“Can you not see that everything I have experienced makes me unfit?” She had believed it for so many years, it was hard to let go of a long-held truth.
“Perhaps everything you experienced has given you the strength and the ability to face your challenges.”
“Have you been talking to Miss St. James? She said something similar. Some verse about tribulations causing perseverance causing experience causing hope or some such.”
“I tell you the truth. When you told me Dare was abducted, my first thought was to find a magistrate or travel on to find the Bow Street Runners. If you were not there, I would not have raced off to find him myself. You knew what to do because you have been in crises before and were not afraid to respond.”
“You think so?” asked Kate, barely audible over the rush of the wind around them. It was a strange thought that the very experiences that she felt made her unacceptable had actually given her the ability to help her family.
“If we had not left immediately and stuck with the chase, who knows how long Miss St. James and Dare would have been able to hold out without being discovered. You did that. No prim society miss would have been able to do the same. You saved your brother’s life.”
Kate said nothing, stunned by this new perspective of herself. Her past was not a millstone around her neck; it was valuable experience that gave her unique capabilities. They walked on in silence as she considered this new possibility.
A flock of magpies flew overhead, looking for shelter from the oncoming storm. She tried to count them as they flew, reciting an old nursery rhyme about the fortune-telling magpies. “One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret never to be told.”
“Do not stop there,” said Wynbrook.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The rest of the rhyme.”
“There is no more.”
“Oh, but there is. Eight bring wishing, Nine bring kissing, Ten the love my own heart’s missing!”
“You are making that up!” she accused.
“Indeed, I am not.” He laughed. He paused at the top of the bluff, looking over the tempestuous sea, and she stood beside him. “Kate, I wish to marry you. The more you reveal of yourself, the more I admire you. But if your heart is truly against me, please tell me now. I wish to save both our reputations, but I do not wish to make us both unhappy for the rest of our lives. Better to live on the Continent than to see you miserable.” He smiled brightly, but there was tension to it.
There it was. He would not pursue her any longer if she would only tell him that she had no romantic interest in him. It was easy. All she had to do was agree and the whole affair would be settled. Of course, she would never again be allowed to enter society, which would not do her brother any good, but she could return to Gibraltar and live out the rest of her life the way she had always planned, masquerading as a widow, managing the business from there. Everything would return to the way it was. All she had to do was agree.
“I shall return to Gibraltar.” It was all she could say, and even then she could not look at him. She could not look at him and lie.
“So our kisses, you did not care for them?” His voice sounded slightly strangled.
“I… That is to say…” What was she going to say to him?
A slow smile returned to his lips and a mischievous glint came to his smoky-green eyes. “So you want to kiss me.”
She should have known he would never let her go that easily. She turned away from him, taking a turn at looking at the scenery. At first glance, it was nothing more than a blustery gray day, but it had wild beauty of its own. The wind tugged at her bonnet, pulling strands of hair free from the tight knot of her bun. “I think it best to forget any such behavior…connection…between us.” She struggled to find the right word and knew she had failed miserably.
“Connection?” Leave it to that man to pounce on the one word she wished she had not said. He moved closer to her. She could not see his face for she kept the brim of her bonnet low.
Taking a chance, she raised the brim ever so slightly, turning her head just enough to catch a glimpse of him through the corner of her eye. He was an insufferably handsome man, with a square jaw to match his square shoulders. If he had any consideration for her, he would not dress to such perfection nor would he choose garments that hugged his body, revealing his muscular form.
“It seems you are a bit unsure,” he commented in a casual tone. “Perhaps if we try again, we can determine whether an actual connection between us exists.”
“Try again?” asked Kate, turning her head a little more so that she could see him fully. She should not have asked, but she could not help herself.
“The kiss,” said Wynbrook simply, as if it were a matter of offering a cup of tea. “If you are not sure if you find me appealing or repulsive, I suggest we attempt to kiss once more to determine your true feelings in the matter. It would seem a logical course.” Though his tone was benign, his eyes gleamed with impish mischief.
Kate swallowed hard. What was she to say to this?
“Besides, I would like to know the truth. Did you or did you not enjoy kissing me?”
Kate stared at him like a rabbit caught in a snare. “I was not unaffected by the kiss.”
“Not unaffected?”
She cleared her throat. “It was…nice.”
“Nice? No, I beg you, anything but nice. Tell me it was awful, tell me it was vile, tell me you would rather kiss a codfish, but please, do not placate me with ‘nice.’”
“Nice is…nice,” she protested.
“No, nice is not nice. Nice is getting a scarf from your aunt for Christmas. Nice is a hug from your sister. My kisses cannot possibly be nice.”
A smile crept onto her face. “I cannot deny your kisses were nice, for they were quite good.”
“Good is better. But I still feel you are lacking a certain finesse when it comes to describing the experience of the kiss. It is, after all, important that the record be clear on this matter so we can move on, kn
owing exactly the state of affairs.”
Kate narrowed her eyes at him. “You want to kiss me again, don’t you?”
“Yes, yes I do. I’d like to do it again and again, and tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. In truth, I’d like to kiss you every day of your life.”
“If you hope to trap me into marriage—”
“My dear, we’ve already been trapped into marriage. Now come here and let’s make the best of it.”
He reached out to her, and she could not resist being gently drawn into his arms. He softly put a hand on her shoulder and ran it around her back, moving in closer. He brushed his lips against hers and heat flushed her cheeks, sending tingles down her spine. He paused a moment, retreating an inch. She could feel the heat of his breath on her skin and waited for his next move, but he did not make it. Instead, he held still, gorgeous and inviting. She should deny him, deny herself, but she could not.
She pressed forward, meeting his lips with hers, running a hand around from his cheek to the back of his neck. His lips were warm and inviting, and she could not resist initiating the kiss. He did not disappoint and returned her kiss with a gentle power. Excitement coursed through her veins and she pressed closer, wanting more of him. Suddenly, alarm bells rang in her head and she pulled back with a start.
She gasped for breath. “I cannot do this.”
“Forgive me, but it seems very much that you can, and more to the point, you just did.”
“I concede that I enjoy kissing you.”
“A fine concession.”
“But to be married, more would be expected.”
A delicious grin spread across his face. “Yes, indeed.”
“But what if I cannot do more? I cannot tolerate the thought that my body would no longer be my own.” She began to stride toward Greystone again with him by her side, his long legs easily keeping up with her furious pace.
A brisk wind blew against her face, the cold like tiny needles on her skin. Yet she turned her face more to the chilling gusts. She knew she needed to speak the hidden truths that would forever bar her from any relationship with the man beside her. Despite being insistent that no union between them could ever exist, she found herself hesitant, standing on the brink of the abyss of love lost.
If the Earl Only Knew (The Daring Marriages) Page 26