Legacy Redeemed (Redeemed, Restored, Reclaimed Book 1)

by Aubrey Grayson

  He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. I have pressing business with Weatherly.”

  His brother stared at him a long while. “Anything I can help with?”

  Nick considered. “Perhaps. Do you know of anything about Julian that he wouldn’t want to get out?”

  “Blackmail? Little brother, you do astound me today!”

  “It’s not exactly blackmail. Just a little extra…weight behind my words.”

  “I see. In that case, I do know something. I learned recently that his father is far deeper in debt than we knew before. Either he had hidden it when the marriage contracts were drawn up, or he has incurred it since then. And actually, I am not certain that Julian even knew of it until recently. He was certainly spending money as though he had it. Then about a month ago, he began pinching pennies.”

  “Did you tell Clarissa’s father?”

  Weston shrugged. “No. Clarissa has a large dowry, and until last night, I believed her to be in love. I intended to speak to her directly but had not yet done so. The wedding date was set for a couple of months away, so I felt I had time.”

  “How did you hear of it?”

  “Alice was worried for her cousin. She asked me to look deeper into his situation, so I asked my solicitors to investigate. Do you think it will be helpful?”

  “Perhaps. It’s not what I wanted to hear, but it’s better to have the information. I hope I won’t have to use it. But it does explain something else I’d heard,” Nick said, remembering the task that Rattenbury had given him.

  Nick said his good-byes and walked up to his own set of rooms, even more discouraged. From what Susannah had told him, her guardian had run through her own dowry. If Weatherly and his father were penniless, what kind of settlement could he offer Susannah? He had asked his brother for information, hoping there was some kind of scandal that Julian wouldn’t want prospective brides to know, but this was not what he’d expected to hear. He prayed to God that there was some solution he’d not thought of. He would still confront Julian. He couldn’t let that cur escape with no consequences for his actions. And though Julian was cash poor, perhaps he had some property he could deed to her.

  He thought of Scripture. To him who is able to grant more than we ever imagined or hoped for. He hoped God would provide a way out of this tangle. He might not be able to hope that she’d become his bride, but perhaps she and her child could get out from under the power of her guardian and have some sort of happiness in this world.

  ***

  Nick’s conversation with Gabriel wasn’t any better than he had feared it would be.

  “Am I to go to London with you, Papa?”

  “No, Gabriel. You will wait here with your nurse. Aunt Alice and Uncle Terence and Charlie will stay until I return, as well.”

  “And Susannah?”

  Nick sat on a nearby chair and drew his son near to him. “I’m afraid I have bad news for you. Mrs. Stanhope was called away as well.”

  “Oh, then she is going to London with you? Will you get married there?”

  “No. She is not going to London with me. She is going to Scotland. And I am sorry to say we will not be getting married.”

  Gabriel simply stared at him then, working it all out in his young mind. “Susannah went to Scotland.”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “She will come back for me,” he said, finality and certainty ringing in his voice.

  Nick scratched his head. How on earth did one tell a child that someone he loved wasn’t returning? “Gabriel, it is my understanding that Mrs. Stanhope’s family needs her now, even more than we do. Although I know she cares for you very much—she asked me to tell you so, in fact—I don’t believe she will be able to leave them for quite some time.”

  The boy just beamed up at him. “It’s all right, Papa. You go to London, and when you are done, come back to me. I will wait here with Charlie. And maybe Susannah’s family will finish up with her, and I will wait here for her too. Just in case she comes back before you do.” Then, as though to comfort his father, he added, “I know you will probably return before she does, but I shall wait, just the same.”

  Nick blinked at him. He wanted to argue, to insist that Susannah was never coming back to them, wanted to make him believe, but there was no sense in breaking the boy’s heart just because Nick’s was broken. He would go to London and get this filthy business done. And then he would return and be here to comfort his son when he finally realized the truth.

  Chapter 26

  In the end, Terence had insisted on accompanying Nick to London. At first, Nick had protested, but it had hardly seemed to matter. If Terence could keep up, he could come along. Alice stayed at Poppledown Park with the children, and Nick was glad she would be there with Letitia and Mr. Robinson. For two days, they rode hard, not wishing to delay the business any longer than necessary. During rest stops, Nick filled Weston in on the reason he sought Weatherly. They arrived in London late in the evening.

  “You can’t go to Weatherly now. He’ll be deep in his cups at best, and more likely, he’ll be out with friends, who won’t appreciate your interrupting their fun. Best wait until morning.”

  Nick’s fingers curled into a fist at his side. His brother was right. He wanted the best outcome for Susannah, and his own sense of justice wasn’t likely to get that for her. He would wait, just this one night.

  The next morning, Weston met him at the breakfast table. “He won’t be up this early, you know,” he said, pulling out a chair across from Nick.

  Nick sipped his tea before answering. “I know. No matter. I have business with my solicitor, and then I will have no qualms about pulling our cousin from his bed.”

  His brother looked at him consideringly. “Might I make a suggestion?”

  Nick shrugged.

  “It would seem to me that given what we know of Julian’s character, it is unlikely that he will do the honorable thing.”

  Nick scoffed. “I’m not even asking him to do the honorable thing. I’m asking him to provide for her. The honorable thing would be for him to marry her.”

  “Yes, but to what end? So that she could face the same fate we were so relieved that Clarissa escaped?”

  Nick’s jaw tightened. His brother was right, but if a man fathered a child, he should be the one to look out for it. And certainly he should face responsibility for his actions.

  Weston continued when Nick didn’t respond. “I’m just saying that perhaps it would be best if you spent the morning obtaining a special license.”

  Nick’s eyes shot to his brother’s in confusion. “So they can marry right away if he has an honorable moment? We just said that wouldn’t be in her best interest.”

  Weston shrugged. “Actually, I meant for you.”

  Nick fell back against his chair. “For me?”

  “Yes, well, if you confront Julian with the truth of his child, and he refuses to do his duty, then… Well, better for her to be married to someone than all alone.”

  Nick blinked. He had thought his chance to marry Susannah was gone. That his brother thought otherwise surprised him. “She refused me.”

  “She refused you because she didn’t believe you’d have her. And then it sounds as though you made quite a hash of it when she confessed the truth.”

  Nick relived those moments with Susannah, seeing them for the first time from her perspective. “Yes, I suppose I did.” He’d been so hell bent on finding Julian, and so sure he’d lost her, that she must have thought… Well, he didn’t blame her if she’d felt rejected.

  They sat in silence for a moment, Weston eating his breakfast with relish, Nick staring into his tea. “What if he will have her?”

  Weston swallowed a bit of egg and washed it down with water. “Well, if it were me, and I were half-mad enough in love with a woman to chase someone all the way to London just to defend her honor, then I suppose I’d be glad I’d obtained a special license so that I could get to her first.”


  A smile spread across his face. His older brother was an honorable man, even if some of his ideas about morality were more flexible than Nick’s. He grimaced and gave a little shrug.

  “Perhaps. If my business with the solicitor is done quickly. I’ll give our cousin a little more time abed.”

  Terence leaned back in his chair and smiled. “A wife for you, Poppledown Park saved, and a stepmother for Gabriel. If you can manage it, it will make this trip worth the trouble.”

  Nick considered his brother’s words. It seemed a lifetime ago that he had met Susannah at the masquerade ball, but the truth was it was only a matter of weeks. And before he’d met her, he’d been sure he’d never consider taking another bride. Or force Gabriel to endure a stepmother. He had thought those factors too heavy a price to pay to save Poppledown Park. But now, he found he wanted them. And from his last conversation with his son, it seemed Gabriel wanted them too. But was this marriage what God wanted for them? Would He make Nick’s path clear? Or would Nick be making a mistake to pursue something he had sworn off only weeks before?

  He didn’t know the answers. But perhaps a confrontation with Julian would provide more clarity.

  So in the end, Weatherly was awoken rather earlier than usual. Weston had insisted on tagging along. “It’s what older brothers do,” he’d said. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun.”

  Weatherly’s butler showed them to the study.

  “So I take it you did not take care of the business we discussed earlier?”

  “The solicitor?” Nick said, pretending to misunderstand. “No. I decided to take care of this mess first. Start with the worst morsel of food on the plate.”

  “I see. And the other? Are you saving that for dessert?”

  Nick stared down his brother, doing his best to appear determined and possibly a little morally superior. “I don’t believe there will be any need for it. I fully intend to persuade our cousin to act honorably.”

  His brother scoffed and shook his head. “You’ve more faith in your persuasive powers than I do, little brother.”

  But at least he stopped talking.

  Which was rather unfortunate, actually, because it was a full half hour before their cousin deigned to grace them with his presence.

  “Weston. Daventry,” he said when he finally swaggered in, still in his dressing gown. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” He seemed genuinely surprised to see them, and perhaps he was, since they had never been the kind of family who dropped in unannounced. “Has that little baggage Clarissa changed her mind and sent you two to come beg me to forgive her?”

  Weston laughed outright.

  Nick cleared his throat. “No. It’s nothing to do with Miss Peabody. I’ve come to speak to you of Miss Susannah Blackmon.”

  This seemed to please his cousin, as an oily smile spread across his face. “Oh! So you do know where she is? I understand her guardian is quite beside himself with worry.” His voice was sly, as oily as his smile. “I had wondered whether your mysterious Mrs. Stanhope was the lovely lady herself. At dinner the other night, the neighborhood ladies couldn’t stop themselves fawning over her, and I did notice she matched the description of my friend’s missing ward. And of course, she did arrive in Seaton mere days after Miss Blackmon went missing.”

  Nick didn’t answer. His jaw was clenched too tightly to emit sound.

  “Excellent. I am in great need of her myself, now that Weston’s cousin-in-law has jilted me.”

  Nick’s eyes snapped to Julian’s, confusion welling. “So you will have her?”

  “Certainly. Every man needs someone to warm his bed while he searches for a bride.”

  “Pardon me? What do you mean by that?”

  “Well, just that Miss Blackmon is a pretty little thing and quite clean. A man could do much worse for a mistress. I might even take my time finding a new bride.” His eyes shot to Nick’s as he said this, and he seemed to understand Nick’s interest in her, because his smile widened. “And she’s already in Seaton, where I’m told I’ll soon inherit property. Can’t you just imagine how lovely Susannah would look tottering around Poppledown Park in the nude? I might even keep her on after I marry.”

  Nick gritted his teeth. He wanted to bellow, but he made a Herculean effort to keep his tone light. “You were betrothed to her before. Why not marry her and save yourself the trouble?”

  “Oh that!” Julian said, waving away the thought with a chuckle. “No, that was just a scheme her guardian and I cooked up. We were never really betrothed.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, Hector knew he’d never be able to marry her off, with no dowry to speak of—”

  “Because he spent it illegally…” Nick couldn’t help but interject.

  Weatherly shrugged. “So he decided he’d do them both a favor and find her a protector instead. But she was raised with high, if false, expectations and was very protective of her reputation. So we invented the engagement to help persuade her.” He waggled his eyebrows lewdly. “And of course once a lady gets a taste, she always wants more, so we knew from there it would be a simple thing to convince her to agree to find a protector.”

  Nick was flabbergasted. He couldn’t imagine such evil, yet here it was sitting in front of him, waggling its eyebrows. “She carries your child, Weatherly.”

  He waved a dismissive hand. “Her guardian spends enough time at the brothels. I’m sure he can find the name of a midwife who can make a little thing like that go away.”

  Nick stood. “You foul creature. You’ll never touch her again. I will marry her, and she’ll have the Weston name behind her.” He ground the words out.

  Weatherly laughed outright at that. “More fool you, to marry a little piece of skirt like that. Seriously, you can’t mean to raise another man’s bastard. You would throw mud on the Weston name? You must have no care for society.”

  “Let me be clear. You will never speak her name again. No one will ever hear of your involvement with her. Susannah is a good and honorable woman. It’s not her fault she got mixed up with the likes of you and her guardian.”

  Julian looked at him speculatively. “And what’s going to keep me quiet?”

  Nick started to lunge for him, then stopped himself. He ran his fingers through his hair. “I must confess that I came here today with every intention of causing you great bodily harm. But I won’t do it. You’ll keep quiet because you’d be a fool not to. You can’t share Susannah’s story without implicating yourself in a criminal plot to destroy a young lady of gentle breeding. With your father’s financial situation being what it is, I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate any further slurs on his name. Or knowing that the last of his money was spent on such evil.”

  Julian’s face went white, even though he tried to keep up a good front. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Don’t you? If you have money lying about, then I recommend you make peace with Jack Rattenbury before he makes sure you understand he’s not to be trifled with. As to Susannah,” Nick sighed, flexing his hands, “do as you wish. I’ll not stop you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve other business to attend.”

  He stalked out the door, into the street, where he slowed enough to allow Weston to catch up.

  Terence clapped him soundly on the shoulder. “Nicely done, little brother. Just one quick stop to see the bishop, and you can race to her side and be married by the end of the week.”

  Nick’s stomach roiled, and his brother’s congratulations seemed out of place. His declaration of marriage had been rash and born out of anger. He wanted to marry her, yes, of course, but he still questioned whether it was God’s plan. And whether Susannah would have him. He decided to answer the practical part of his brother’s comment. “Race to her side. Hmmph. She likely left for Scotland on Thursday. The truth is, I don’t even know where to race.”

  Weston clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Buck up, brother. Sabbath is tomorrow, but we’ll leave first thing Monday, and we won�
��t stop until we find her, if we have to ride all the way to Scotland to do it. And here is the good news—you don’t have to go to see the solicitor now, since you’ll be married and inherit Poppledown Park outright.”

  And he was right. Except that the letter from his grandfather, the one that had started him on the treasure hunt in the first place, had mentioned another letter when he returned the final clue. And right now, Nick could use some wisdom from the man who loved him best.

  Not to mention that if Susannah turned him down, he would still need to give her fifteen percent of his winnings, whatever they were.

  Nick shook his head slowly. “No. I already asked Mr. Brown to meet me this afternoon. I will still take the clue to him. Perhaps he will give me something of use.”

  An hour later, Nick stretched his legs out in front of him as he sat in the armchair across from Mr. Brown. He fished the small sack out of his pocket and presented it with a flourish to the little man. “I presume you know something about this? The note inside says to give it to you.”

  “Yes, yes, of course. I presumed that you had found it when I received the note that you would be coming. Your grandfather has left a letter.” He slipped said letter out of a folder on his desk and presented it to Nick. “Would you like to read it here or take it home? I believe there will be business to take care of afterward.”

  “Here, please. No reason to make one trip into two.”

  “Then I shall leave you in peace. I will return in a quarter of an hour, but if you finish sooner, please ring the bell.” He gestured to the bellpull on the wall, before slipping out the door.