Collector of Hearts

by Cassandra Samuels

  ‘I’m sorry. I won’t talk of Barton again.’

  ‘Thank you. I see you are all packed.’ Isabelle’s trunks were stacked up by the door.

  Isabelle frowned. ‘Yes. I leave in under an hour, remember? Are you well?’

  ‘I am fine. And are you well?’ Arabella asked, biting on her lip.

  Isabelle smiled and took Arabella’s hands in hers. ‘Of course... oh, you mean after last night? Yes, dear sister, I am very well. Mother’s speech was not exactly helpful but making love wasn’t as difficult as I thought.’

  ‘Did you have pain?’

  ‘A little, but it didn’t last long. I’m not sure we should be talking of this.’

  ‘Why? Do you want to leave me with mother’s unhelpful speech as my only guidance?’

  Isabelle looked at her firmly then. ‘Bella. Are you trying to tell me you are still innocent? I know you have most likely done... things with Robert. It is why I am anxious for you to marry.’

  Arabella suspected her blush gave her away, but in all likelihood Isabelle had known as soon as Arabella came into the room that she was changed.

  ‘Robert is organising a special licence as soon as he gets back to London. Please do not tell Quinn.’

  Isabelle gasped and then poked her sister in the shoulder. ‘I knew it. I won’t be so indelicate as to ask when this happened but why must I not tell Quinn?’

  ‘I don’t know, but Robert seems very concerned that we keep it to ourselves. He will be mad if he knows you know.’

  ‘I will not tell Quinn... unless it becomes necessary.’

  ‘Thank you. Now hug me, before you get in that carriage downstairs and drive away from me.’

  Isabelle hugged her and kissed her tenderly on the cheek. ‘I will write, I promise.’

  ‘And I will write back.’

  ‘I love you, my dearest heart.’

  They rose together, still hand in hand. ‘And I you. I will think of you every day.’

  ‘I know, because I will be thinking of you too.’ Isabelle smiled and Arabella felt tears burning behind her eyes; Isabelle’s looked suspiciously glassy also.

  They laughed then to stop the torrent of tears that were threatening and, arm in arm, they went down to the parlour to farewell the rest of the family.

  Chapter 25

  Robert was just finishing his conversation with the stableboy about when to ready his horse when Amy waved to him from the doorway.

  ‘Oh, Robert,’ she said all out of breath. ‘Thank goodness I found you. I’ve been looking all over for you. Your mother said she wasn’t sure of your plans and John and I thought you might like to come with us as far as Richmond. If you want to come with us, we leave in an hour.’

  He smiled. ‘Thank you, but I’m staying at the local inn in the village.’

  ‘You’re staying at the King’s Arms?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘But why? Oh, let me guess. Lord Tremaine wishes a less scandalous distance be kept between you and Arabella while you are courting.’

  ‘Very clever deduction, dear Amy. It is no secret that I am not Lord Tremaine’s first pick for his daughter. I think he would like me to remove myself much further than the King’s Arms.’

  She smiled and took his arm and guided him towards the walk at the side of the house. ‘I wouldn’t think you would be the first pick for many a father, but I know you, and I think you and Arabella a smart match.’

  A smart match. She would likely be the only one who thought so. ‘Well, thank you.’

  She waved her right hand in the air about her. ‘Oh, I’m not the only one who thinks so. You are a hard nut to crack, Robert Mallory. I will say that. We all thought you would never fall for it.’

  He stopped walking. ‘Fall for it?’

  Amy waved a hand around again. ‘I mean fall in love. You can be most stubborn at times.’

  She was even more excitable than normal and something didn’t seem right but perhaps she would come out with what she really wanted to say soon.

  He shook his head. ‘I had my reasons for resisting the lure of love.’

  ‘Oh, that rude Lady Brogdan? Did you really fall for her pretty golden locks, Robert?’

  He sighed, because looking back now he had fallen for her looks alone. ‘I’m afraid I did, or at least I thought I was in love with her.’

  ‘I do remember you coming to stay at the Hall with us when I was younger. You were all lanky limbs and heartbreak. I swear you spent a month or more just sighing and looking sullen as could be. I wondered why my brother had brought such a sad soul to live with us. But then I sort of fell in love with you myself and didn’t care any longer what brought you to us. I thought your situation was so romantic, in a pathetic kind of way.’

  He had been a dullard back then so he couldn’t blame her for thinking him pathetic. ‘I did not feel my situation romantic in any sense of the word, I assure you.’

  ‘Yes, looking back it was more a Shakespearean tragedy than a love sonnet by Donne, wasn’t it?’

  She grinned up at him and for a moment he saw the young girl who used to follow him everywhere he went, asking him endless questions. Then, in what seemed like a moment, she had grown up and he had lost his allure, replaced by Snowden in her affections.

  ‘Until John came to town,’ he said to her.

  ‘Well, yes. Then I realised what real love was.’

  He pretended a stagger. ‘You mean you never really loved me? I am all devastation.’

  She giggled. ‘You hardly noticed me anyway.’

  ‘But Snowden did.’

  She had the modesty to blush. ‘Yes, he did. I really am a very lucky woman, you know.’

  ‘Ha! You are indeed. However, I think you will find Snowden is the luckier one.’ They both grinned like fools—a shared knowledge. Obviously, she agreed with him. He pictured Bella’s flushed face when she had agreed to be his wife only this morning. How lucky he felt at knowing she loved him. How much he felt in his heart that she was the one he had waited for. The one he had needed all these years to finally heal his broken heart. ‘Yes, there is a difference, isn’t there, between infatuation and love?’

  ‘Oh, most definitely. We all want to see both you and Bella happy. If we interfered a little.’ She made a measurement between thumb and forefinger, ‘You would not be mad, would you?’

  He raised a brow. ‘Do you mean like encouraging me that morning at the Hall to ride out with Arabella to the creek?’

  ‘Yes, yes, that sort of thing. We did make sure a groom went with you. Tell me you have forgiven us our matchmaking. It is in our Shacklesbury nature and if Mother and I sometimes go a little too far, well, it was with good intentions.’

  ‘Of course.’

  They walked up the path that led back to the house. He would miss having Amy and her mother around. They certainly did liven things up. It struck him just then how much he would also miss Quinn. Who would he converse with until the early hours? Who would caution him with good-natured lectures when his thoughts turned reckless? How silly of him, he had Bella now. Ah, his sweet angelic Arabella. His to have and to hold—well, very soon anyway.

  ‘You mustn’t be so mean to him,’ Amy was saying now. ‘He only had your best interests at heart.’

  He was momentarily confused. ‘Mean to whom?’

  She crossed her arms over her chest. ‘Justin, of course.’

  ‘I fail to see how Barton only had my best interests at heart. He is most likely trying to steal Arabella from under my nose as we speak.’

  ‘Oh, he is not, Robert. He is on your side, believe it or not.’

  He raised a brow at that. Barton? On his side? ‘How so?’

  ‘Well, at first we thought to just throw a few hints your way, have him show a little interest in Arabella to get your attention, but then you were being so stubborn and—’

  Robert stopped walking, turned towards Amy and held up his hand. ‘Wait. Are you telling me you and Barton hatched
some sort of plan to force my hand? To make me jealous?’

  She grinned up at him. ‘I can’t take credit for the whole plan and we did have to talk Arabella into it, but—’

  ‘There was a plan? And Arabella knew about it?’ His voice shook with the energy required to get the words out around the lump in his throat, but Amy’s brow only puckered slightly, as if she could not understand why he might be angry.

  ‘Why, yes. It became painfully obvious you needed help. You were being awfully dense about the whole thing and... It was all done with the best of inten—’

  He shook her shoulders. ‘Who else knew about this plan?’ he demanded.

  Her features became unsure. ‘Well, everyone really, but it was done with the best of intentions, I swear,’ she called after him, but he was no longer listening. He wasn’t staying to hear the horrid details of their betrayal. He needed to hear it from Arabella. For her to tell him it wasn’t true.

  ‘Robert, wait, let me explain.’

  The sheer fact she and the rest of them had all had a hand in this plan to trap him made him want to punch something, or someone. It felt sickeningly familiar. As he strode towards the house, his anger continued to build like lava about to explode from a volcano. It boiled in his belly like acid. All he knew was he loved Bella and she had played him for a fool. She had set him up.

  He had vowed never to be a fool in love again and this just proved he had been right to keep his heart safe from women like her. His hands clenched into fists by his side. How could she do this to him? How could any of them think trapping him like this was a good idea? The best of intentions, my arse!

  He burst into the drawing room like a wild winter storm. The doors banged behind him. The women shrieked. And Bella...

  He strode forward, the fury hurtling through his veins propelling him, and grabbed her, hauled her to the other side of the room.

  ‘Robert?’ Her gaze, filled with worry and confusion, fixed on his.

  Amy almost fell into the room after him. ‘Wait. Please.’

  Arabella turned towards her but he wanted her full attention. ‘Tell me it isn’t true! Now!’ His voice felt strained and out of control. ‘Tell me you didn’t set me up to look like a fool. Was this whole thing a plan to trap me?’

  ‘S-set … you up?’ Her eyes were wild.

  ‘Did you or did you not conspire with... Barton over there.’ He pointed towards the man who had ruined his happiness. ‘To make me jealous,’ he yelled.

  Barton was halfway across the room, coming to her aid. He halted when Robert held up his hand. ‘Stay right there, you... bastard!’

  Arabella’s face was pale. ‘I …’

  ‘Tell me it isn’t true. That you would never conspire against me like that.’

  ‘Robert, please. You are hurting my arm.’

  He let her go so quickly that she fell against a chair. Immediately she found her feet again.

  ‘I need you to tell me the truth.’ The level of his tone hurt his own ears.

  ‘Now see here, Shelton, I won’t have you yelling at my daughter like that,’ Tremaine said, coming only as far as Barton.

  ‘Shut up, Tremaine, and sit the hell down.’ Tremaine’s mouth opened and closed like a fish on the shoreline but Robert had bigger fish to fry. He didn’t even care that his cursing had scandalised the ladies in the room. He was totally focused on Arabella. He tried to soften his tone. ‘Tell me, Arabella. Tell me you did not conspire with Barton to make me jealous, to force my hand, to make me think you loved me. That you actually wanted to marry me.’

  The tear that slid down her cheek made his heart drop like a stone in his chest and the pain that followed made breathing difficult.

  ‘It’s not what you think,’ she said, her voice wobbling. ‘Amy just thought you needed prompting to realise your true feelings for me, and Justin said he would help.’

  He shook his head; this was the best she could come up with? ‘This whole thing has been a deception from the start.’

  ‘No! I love you.’

  ‘Do not lie to me. I thought you were different. I thought you were the one to convince me I had been wrong, but you’re just like Catherine, aren’t you?’

  She gasped anew. Her eyes were frantic but he couldn’t trust that her shock was not an act.

  ‘No, Robert, no. I didn’t know about Catherine then. About what she had done.’

  ‘So you think that excuses what you did? You’re nothing but a lying, deceitful bitch, like all the rest,’ he spat.

  She promptly crumbled to the ground at his feet. Part of him wanted to close his eyes and hope he had been dreaming. And when he awoke they would still be in bed upstairs and none of this would have happened.

  ‘Shelton, don’t be stupid, man. She loves you. If you have to be angry, be so at me,’ Barton said, stepping forward.

  ‘Oh, don’t worry, Barton I’ll see you tomorrow morning at dawn. Swords or pistols, it matters not to me.’ Robert was pleased to see Barton go pale. No amount of rhyming, iambic pentameter or pretty verse could excuse his part in this debacle. He will pay for what he has done.

  ‘Robert, please,’ Quinn said. ‘Take some time to calm down and we can talk this through.’

  He swung his gaze to Quinn. ‘Talk this through? Did you know about this so-called plan too?’

  Quinn tugged at his waistcoat. ‘No. At least not until very recently and by then...’

  So that was it? Even Quinn had betrayed him. ‘You just decided to play along? To let your best friend be taken for a ride? I thought of all people I could depend on you not to hurt me in the one way you knew would kill me.’

  Quinn at least had the shame to bow his head. ‘Robert, I’m truly sorry. I should have put a stop to it, I know. But what’s done is done. Arabella loves you and you love her. Does it really matter how you came to realise it?’

  ‘Enough! All the talking in the world won’t change the fact that she played me.’ He turned to face the rest of the room. ‘You all did.’

  ‘I beg you to reconsider. Take a day to think about it. She did what she did out of love, not because she wanted to hurt you. None of us wanted to hurt you.’ Quinn put out his hand but he turned his back to him. He couldn’t look at him, at any of them.

  ‘Robert, listen to him,’ his mother demanded, standing up. Her eyes were full of concern.

  ‘Even you, Mother?’ he asked in a tone that made her wince. He realised then there was no use remaining here. His friends, and even his own mother, had turned against him and he would not stay here to be made even more a fool of.

  ‘What has happened? I just saw Robert leaving the room like the devil was on his tail.’ Arabella heard her sister’s voice and covered her face in her hands. This was her worst nightmare come to life and she had no one to blame but herself. Isabelle was soon at her side, taking Arabella’s hands in hers. Arabella realised she was surrounded by the concerned faces of her mother, Amy, Lady Shelton and Lady Shacklesbury.

  ‘He found out about our plan,’ Amy provided, guilt etched on her face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

  ‘What? How?’ Isabelle asked.

  ‘I told him,’ Amy said. ‘Only I didn’t actually tell him, and then he wouldn’t let me explain and the more I tried the angrier he got. Oh, Arabella, I am so sorry. This is all my fault.’ Amy turned and wept into her husband’s jacket.

  ‘Your careless mouth has got me challenged to a duel, Amy. Now how do you suppose I get out of that?’ Justin’s expression showed his worry. It sat oddly on his face, Arabella thought. ‘I don’t want to fight Shelton any more than I want to die tomorrow morning.’

  Amy’s wails grew louder.

  Quinn stepped forward. ‘You can’t get out of it, I’m afraid. I can only offer you some advice on how he fights. His weaknesses and so on. I also suggest that you use swords. You may have half a chance then.’

  ‘Oh, thank you. That paints a rosy picture. Perhaps I’ll last more than a minute before I am punctured b
y his sword.’ Justin turned towards John. ‘Second me, Snowden?’

  ‘Of course.’ John’s face was grave as he held his wife.

  ‘Do you have a sword I could use, Tremaine?’ Justin asked her father, who was looking more smug than stunned by what had just happened. Did he have no feelings for her at all?

  ‘Yes, I have several in my study,’ he replied.

  ‘Will you take me to see them? I feel the overwhelming need to practice.’ Justin followed her father out of the parlour, mumbling about how he always knew Shelton was trouble.

  Arabella sat on the floor, staring at the pattern on the Persian rug, a prize brought back by her uncle from one of his travels to the Far East. She should be crying, shouldn’t she? Tears were there, her eyes were heavy with them but she felt more in shock than anything. Her heart was sluggish in her chest; her stomach was threatening to vacate itself. And yet her legs would not move. This paralysis gave her time to realise that she had lost the one man she loved while putting a man she cared about in grave danger. If only she had said no to Amy’s plan. If only she had stood up for herself and not allowed others to dictate what she should do about her own love-life, her own future.

  Never again would she allow others to lure her into their plans and schemes. For nothing good could come of such foolishness. And now she had lost him. He was gone and she might never see him again. Never get the chance to tell him how sorry she was for this mess. Never get to tell him how much she loved him and how she had never meant for any of this to happen. That hurting him was the last thing she wanted.

  With this realisation, the tears that had been burning behind her eyelids finally ran free. The room around her swam, blurring her vision, but she knew no amount of tears would ease her guilt.

  ‘I’ll go to him,’ Lady Shelton announced, shaking out her skirts.

  ‘Are you sure, dear?’ Lady Shacklesbury asked, her usually jovial expression replaced by a frown.

  ‘He’s my son and he’s in pain. I must go to him. Perhaps I can talk him out of this ridiculous duel.’

  ‘You can take my carriage,’ Quinn said. ‘It’s ready to go.’