Lord Exmouth's Intentions

by Anne Ashley

  'Come, my darling, no time to waste!' Grasping a bemused Robina by the hand, Daniel whisked her from the room, sliding the bolts across the door before she realised quite what was happening. 'I'm sorry you were forced to witness that, my dear, but I'm afraid there was no other way.'

  'Oh, please don't apologise, Daniel. Besides, I've witnessed you perform the feat before,' she reminded him, sudden excitement adding an extra brilliance to her eyes.

  'What a redoubtable young woman you are, Robin! A veritable breath of fresh air. Which is something I hope we'll both enjoy again, once we're away from this unwholesome place.'

  Feeling inordinately pleased by the surprising compliments, Robina followed him along the musty-smelling passageway to the head of a steep and narrow flight of stairs. Hampered by petticoats, she wasn't able to descend as quickly as Daniel who, having reached a second narrow passageway, began to move cautiously forward. He was halfway along its length when a door behind him opened a fraction. Before Robina could gather her wits together to scream out a warning, Molly had darted out and had jumped on his back, clawing and hissing like a cat.

  It had crossed her mind to wonder whether she would have the courage to use her weapon. Now that the moment had arrived, Robina didn't need to think twice about it. Unconcerned for her own safety, she darted down the last few stairs and, raising her arm, brought the wooden stick down hard across the clinging woman's shoulders. A loud scream of pain echoed along the passageway as Molly released her grasp and dropped to the ground to land in a huddle by the wall.

  There was little pity in Daniel's eyes as he glanced briefly at the hysterically sobbing female whose features were contorted in pain as she clasped her shoulder. Nor did he betray even a moment's alarm as he turned to find his way barred by the third member of the villainous gang, brandishing an evil-looking knife.

  'So, you thought to free the wench, did 'ee,' Jack sneered. He didn't seem particularly interested to discover precisely who Daniel was. Evidently his only concern was that a stranger was depriving him of some easy money.

  He raised the hand holding the knife. 'Well, let's see how you'd like some of this.'

  'No, I don't think so,' Daniel replied, his voice silky-smooth and as soft as velvet. 'Let us see, instead, how you'd like some of this.'

  Calmly delving into his jacket pocket, he did no more than draw out a pistol and discharge it before the other man had taken more than a pace or two towards him. Robina, watching the knife fall from suddenly limp fingers, couldn't decide which of Daniel's startling feats had amazed her more—his ability to floor a powerfully built man easily with a single blow, or his unerring accuracy with a pistol. She didn't suppose for a moment that he had intended to mortally wound the man called Jack, who went stumbling back along the passageway to disappear from view, merely render him incapable of foiling their escape, which he had done with precious little effort, it seemed.

  'Come, my darling.' Daniel recaptured a bemused Robina's hand, as she continued to gaze up at him in dawning wonder. 'I think it's time we left this den of thieves.'

  'But—but, surely we aren't just going to leave them like this,' Robina protested, as Daniel hauled her willy-nilly along the remainder of the passageway, down a second flight of stairs, and then out into blessed fresh morning air.

  'I have no intention of sparing any one of them another thought,' he assured her, sounding sublimely unconcerned, as he continued to lead the way along a weed-covered path and into a narrow lane. 'None of them will suffer any lasting harm, I'm sure. They can think themselves very lucky that I'm not considering bringing charges against them.'

  Robina looked up at him, uncertain whether he was being quite sensible to leave matters as they stood. She didn't consider herself a vindictive person by any means, and would be quite happy to forget the whole unfortunate experience, but she couldn't help wondering whether, having been thwarted in their attempt to make some easy money, those three incompetent abductors just might try to wreak their revenge some time in the future, and echoed her fears aloud.

  'They might, of course, but I very much doubt that they will. They're not hardened criminals, merely petty thieves and, by the looks of them, not very successful ones. Besides,' he shrugged, 'I am endeavouring to ensure that your ordeal does not become widely known. Also, there is the welfare of someone else to be considered. I do not believe that I shall be troubled by those three again, but my friend Mr Higgins might not be so lucky if his part in this unfortunate business ever became common knowledge.'

  Daniel continued to lead the way through a clump of trees and bushes, and eventually into a clearing beyond. 'And here he is, dutifully guarding my horses, just as he promised he would during my absence.'

  Robina was delighted to make the acquaintance of the man who had made it possible for Daniel to accomplish his rescue in such fine romantic style, even if she still failed to understand why the good Mr Higgins should ever have imagined that Daniel should have wished to abduct her in the first place.

  Little time was wasted in clambering into the curricle and heading back to Brighton. Thankfully at this early hour there were very few other travellers using the roads, and Robina was able to make a few necessary repairs to her appearance whilst she listened to Daniel recounting the events of the morning to his friend Mr Higgins, who had happily relinquished his seat to Robina and had climbed up on the back.

  They bowled along at a sprightly pace until Daniel, quite without warning, drew the curricle to a halt. 'This is where we must part company,' he announced, turning to Higgins, who appeared as surprised as Robina by the unexpected stop as he obediently clambered down on to the road.

  'In the field yonder, unless I much mistake the matter, are the first traders arriving for the horse fair. In an hour or two the place will be crowded. Take advantage of your early arrival by thoroughly examining the animals on offer before finally making your choice.'

  Daniel paused to toss a bulging purse down to the jarvey. 'You'll find more than enough in there to purchase a fine animal, and to make all the necessary repairs to your carriage, if you don't choose to look round for a newer one. But before you go,' Daniel added, smiling at Higgins's expression of awe-struck wonder, 'I'll thank you for the return of my pocket-watch.'

  This reminder appeared to restore the jarvey's faculties. Laughingly handing up the timepiece, he offered his grateful thanks, and then set off at a brisk pace in the direction of the fair-field.

  'And now that we are alone,' Daniel remarked, after giving his greys the office to start, 'there are a few little matters which we must sort out before we arrive home.'

  Robina instinctively put a hand up to her hair, which she had tied back with a ribbon torn from her gown. 'I realise I must look a fright, but there's not very much else I can do.'

  'Your appearance does not concern me in the least,' Daniel assured her. 'Your reputation, however, most certainly does. You have spent the whole night alone in my company. Therefore I am in honour bound to offer the protection of my name.'

  A long silence, then, 'No!'

  Daniel had not expected his proposal to be accepted with a great deal of gratitude or enthusiasm, and he was forced to concede that he had not expressed himself as well as he might have done, but even he was shocked by the vehemence of the refusal.

  Drawing his greys to a halt once again, he turned to discover her staring straight ahead, the lines of her sweet face held rigid, as though striving to maintain her composure.

  'Come, my dear. We get along together so very well.' He reached for her hand, easily retaining it in his own when she struggled to free her lingers. 'I do not perfectly understand why you are so set against marrying me,' he continued, desperately striving not to betray the deep hurt he was experiencing at this surprising show of opposition. He simply couldn't...wouldn't believe that she was so indifferent to him!

  'Come, surely you can stomach me as a husband?'

  'Even if I could, you don't imagine for a moment that I'd be so cr
uel as to steal you away from Arabella.'

  Her voice had been little more than a choked whisper, and Daniel wasn't perfectly certain that he'd heard correctly. 'Arabella, did you say...? What in the world has she to do with anything?'

  Robina did turn to look at him then, her expression betraying both shock and bewilderment. 'Why, everything I should imagine! She's the one you truly wish to marry.'

  'Marry Arabella...?' It was Daniel's turn to look confused now. 'What in the world makes you suppose that I have any desire to marry my cousin?'

  'Because I overheard you in the garden on the evening of the Maitlands' party.'

  It was out before she realised what she was saying, but it was too late to do anything about it now. Daniel had digested her every word, and was now looking rather thoughtful, staring directly at her, and yet seeming to see something else.

  'I don't know what you imagined you overheard, my little love,' he said at length, 'but unless I much mistake the matter that was the night I confided in Arabella, informing her that I had every intention of marrying again. Furthermore, that I had every intention of proposing that very night to the lady who had succeeded in winning my heart. She was delighted and wholeheartedly approved my choice. Unfortunately, my plans were thwarted by my future bride herself.' His tone had changed suddenly to one of gentle, teasing censure. 'Unbeknown to me, she had decided for reasons best known to herself—though I'm certain she will favour me with an explanation at some future time—to leave the party early, and has been hiding herself away and depriving me of the pleasure of seeing very much of her...up until last night, that is.'

  Robina could only stare back at him in wonder. That tender look which she had so often seen in his eyes whenever he looked at her was unmistakably there again, confirming his every word. Unbelievably, he was every bit as much in love with her as she was with him, and all she could think of to say at such a moment of blissful enlightenment was simply, 'Oh.'

  Daniel, however, seemed to find this precisely the right thing to say, and with great presence of mind decided to quash any lingering doubts which she might still be harbouring as to the true state of his feelings by taking her into his arms and ruthlessly kissing her.

  Emerging from her first ever experience of masculine passion a little breathless, but very willing to sample a great deal more, Robina rested her head against his shoulder. 'Oh, Daniel, I've been such a fool,' she admitted, quite unable to stop those silent tears of happiness from escaping and rolling down her cheeks. 'It wasn't until I thought you wanted to marry Arabella that I realised how very much I loved you. But I never imagined for a moment that you were in love with me.' She felt that strong arm tighten about her as she inadvertently brushed his cheek with her long lashes as she peered fleetingly up at him. 'You managed to conceal your feelings very well.'

  'And with good reason,' he responded, reluctantly holding her a little away so that he could look down into her face. 'Although I had decided, after our weeks in London, that you would make the perfect wife, I felt that you were being unfairly pushed into accepting an offer of marriage that you were not altogether sure you really wanted. I felt you needed more time to get to know me a little better.'

  This had certainly been true, and yet now, after the heartfelt misery she had experienced during these past few days, Robina found it difficult to believe that there ever had been a time when she had experienced any reluctance in accepting an offer of marriage from him.

  'I always liked you, Daniel, right from the first, and quickly grew to prefer your company to that of any other man. It was just...' She paused for a moment, unsure whether to confess her early doubts or not, and then decided that, if he was to understand her initial reluctance, only complete honesty would serve. 'It was just that I thought you could never possibly love me...any other woman, for that matter...not after...'

  'Not after I had lost Clarissa,' he finished for her when her courage failed.

  He glanced briefly at the slender fingers resting lightly on his sleeve, and took them gently into his own, while silently cursing himself for every kind of a fool. They were very alike in so many ways that he had instinctively known on numerous occasions precisely what she was thinking and feeling, and yet, idiot that he was, it had never once occurred to him to suppose that having to live in Clarissa's shadow was what his dear Robin had feared she must suffer if she married him.

  'I should have told you the truth weeks ago, but I suppose,' he shrugged, 'the right moment just never seemed to arise. And the truth of the matter is, my darling, Clarissa hasn't entered my thoughts very often of late.'

  He smiled at the frank puzzlement which sprang into blue eyes. 'Surprised... ? Yes, of course you are. Because, like everyone else, you supposed I was desperately in love with my wife and utterly devastated when she died. And that is precisely what I allowed people to believe, my darling. But nothing could have been further from the truth.'

  Retaining his hold on her hand, he began to rub his thumb absently back and forth across the soft white skin, as he turned his head to stare at the empty road ahead, gathering his thoughts.

  'When I married Clarissa I was very young, and a trifle headstrong...arrogant, perhaps. I had been running the estate very successfully since my father's death, and felt that I was more than capable of making my own decisions, without outside interference. In many respects, I suppose, I seemed to many far older than my years—responsible, dependable. But emotionally I was not so mature. I have long since realised that I mistook infatuation for love.'

  These revelations were so startling that Robina hardly knew what to say when he fell silent, as though expecting some response. 'But surely your marriage wasn't an unhappy one, Daniel?' she managed to ask, after a moment's intense thought.

  'No, I wouldn't go as far as to suggest that,' he hurriedly assured her. 'It was simply that, after Lizzie was born, I was forced to face the fact that I had changed, matured, if you like, whereas my wife remained the child I had married. We simply had nothing in common. And as the years passed the differences between us became more marked, and we simply drifted further and further apart. Not to the extent that we went our separate ways, but we certainly spent less and less time together.

  'I didn't object in the least when Clarissa wished to visit London, or our house here in Brighton,' he went on to disclose. 'In fact, I actively encouraged her to do so, little realising that maybe one day she just might succumb to flattery and attention which she no longer received from me. The gentleman who had captured her interest was a certain Mr John Travers who had a maiden aunt living within easy travelling distance of Courtney place, which of course proved mightily convenient for them both.

  'You appear shocked,' he remarked, turning his head suddenly and noting the astonishment which she found impossible to conceal. 'Yes, my wife had a lover. And the truth of the matter is, my darling, I suspected as much, but chose to do absolutely nothing about it. Which is testament enough, I think, to the state of our union.

  'I didn't realise to what extent my wife's feelings were engaged until I returned from London one day to find the house virtually deserted. The daughter of one of my estate worker's was being married that day, and my wife had given permission for the servants to attend the celebration. Only the butler remained in the house, and he informed me on my arrival that my wife had left the house in the company of Mr Travers an hour or so earlier to visit Mr Travers's aunt.' There was a distinctly cynical twist to his smile. 'My wife had taken to paying regular visits to the elderly lady, so I thought little of it until I learned from Kendall, who had accompanied me on my travels, that the stable-lad who normally tooled my wife's carriage was also at the wedding celebration, and Mr Travers's horse had been left in the stable. Now, that did strike me as being odd! What could be so urgent that Travers should feel the need to tool my wife's carriage himself, and not await the return of my stable-lad?'

  'So you were not responsible for your wife's death at all,' Robina murmured, hardly aware that
she had spoken her thoughts aloud, until he said,

  'I was not tooling the carriage, no. Travers was in charge of that, and the young fool had chosen to take the hillside track, in an attempt to avoid meeting me on the road from London, I can only suppose. But I still hold myself, in part, responsible for Clarissa's death.'

  'But why, Daniel?' Robina was at a loss to understand him. 'You were not even there at the time.'

  There was a hint of sadness now about the smile he cast her. 'But had I been there, my darling, Clarissa would have been alive today. Had I given her more of my time, had I not been so wrapped up in my own interests, she would never have sought the attentions of John Travers.

  'When Kendall and I rode out, and examined the wreckage, I realised at once that Clarissa had decided to leave me. I ordered Kendall to return to the house with my wife's baggage, so that people would merely believe that she had planned to visit Travers's aunt, although I never supposed for a moment that that had been her intention. I also instructed Kendall to say that I had arrived home before my wife had left the house and that I had been in charge of the carriage.'

  'Because you didn't want the world at large to learn the truth?' Robina suggested, when he fell silent once more. 'Yes, I believe I can understand that, Daniel.'

  'It wasn't so much for my sake, my darling. Although, if I'm honest, I would have to admit that my pride received a severe dent when I realised that Clarissa had grown to prefer Travers to me. But the decisions I made that day were for my daughters' benefit, rather than my own. I didn't want Clarissa's name dragged through the mud, or my children ever to discover that their mother was willing to abandon them. Everyone, including my own mother, had supposed our marriage to have been a very happy one for the most part, and I was more than willing to allow the world to continue to believe that. Only Kendall, my butler and my friend Merrell, who had travelled down from London with me that day, ever knew the truth... And now, so do you.'