The Gamekeeper's Lady

by Ann Lethbridge

  A trickle of shame slid through her belly. He must have seen it in her eyes because his smile grew all the more cynical.

  ‘Why are you being so horrid?’ she said.

  ‘Am I being horrid? Then run away, Frederica.’ He jerked his chin. ‘Back to your noble friends. To your betrothed. You should not be here with the likes of me.’

  She gasped.

  A shadow passed across his eyes. Bleakness. The announcement of her betrothal must have hurt him. Could that be reason enough for theft? So he could depart Wynchwood with money in his pocket? Lord, she hoped not.

  ‘I told them repeatedly I would not marry my cousin. But they wouldn’t listen.’

  ‘Really.’ He tilted his head, his dark eyes intent on her face. His jaw flexed. ‘Did you think to use me to make them change their minds? Tell them I’d stolen your virtue?’

  She winced. Put like that it sounded cold and calculating. Still, he deserved the truth. ‘I thought of it afterwards. And only as a last resort.’

  He flattened his back against the wall and stared up into the dark above his head. ‘Do you think it will work?’ He sounded dreadfully tired.

  She stooped and set the candle on the floor. ‘Actually, no. I have another plan.’ She reached into her pocket and pulled the knife she’d taken from the kitchen out of her pocket. ‘I’m booking a passage for Florence.’

  He looked down at the knife and up at her face. ‘Italy? Was that where you wanted to go when you asked me to run away with you?’ He sounded bemused.

  ‘An art teacher I’ve been writing to has offered to take me as a student if he likes my work. We could go together.’ She shrugged as if it didn’t matter either way. ‘If you wanted to.’ She didn’t want him to know how hurt she’d been at his rejection. ‘Turn around. Let me set you free. If they find you guilty, they will hang you.’

  He jerked his hands from behind his back. ‘I used the shovel to cut the rope.’

  The lace at his wrist was black and bloody. ‘And hurt yourself in the process.’

  ‘It’s nothing. You should go now before someone finds you here.’

  ‘But what will you do?’

  His face became grim. ‘I need to speak to Maggie.’

  Something sharp pierced her ribs at the familiar name. ‘You do know her.’

  He cursed under his breath ‘Yes. I do. And I didn’t steal her damned jewels.’

  ‘Then why say nothing?’

  He cracked a bitter laugh. ‘You don’t want to know.’ He grasped her shoulders and turned her around, pushed her towards the door. ‘It’s time you left.’

  He preferred Lady Caldwell’s help to hers. The realisation cut her to the quick. And he still hadn’t given her any answers. She whirled around. ‘I’m not going until you tell me what is going on. What is Lady Caldwell to you?’

  The Robert she knew seemed to disappear; another man, relaxed, charming, at ease, took shape before her. He had a dangerous smile on his lips. A smile warm enough to melt a woman’s heart. Another woman’s heart, for this was not her Robert.

  He raised a cocky brow. ‘Little girl, you couldn’t get much closer than Maggie and me at one time.’

  ‘Lovers.’

  He bowed. ‘A gentleman never tells.’

  The pain almost knocked her off her feet. She clenched her hands, felt the skin tighten over her knuckles and the breath held in her chest like a hard lump of coal. She forced herself to ignore it, to focus on his words, not her hurt. ‘And yet you stole her necklace?’

  ‘Let it lay, Miss Bracewell. Forget we ever met. Get married. Have children. Or go to Italy if you must. Be happy, but for God’s sake go.’ He turned away, his shoulders set and stiff as if he was angry. But the note in his voice wasn’t anger, it was bleakness.

  ‘You are a gentleman, aren’t you?’

  ‘Once. No more.’

  ‘How can that be?’

  ‘I did something dishonourable. I seduced a lady and refused to wed her.’

  The words hung in the damp, coal-dust-laden air.

  Robert had never said those words out loud. Never. They were like daggers to his heart, nails in his coffin. But as she’d gazed at him with hope in her eyes, he knew he didn’t have the right to drag her down into the hell-pit that was now his life. Better she hate him than follow him into the abyss.

  He turned, expecting to see disgust in her elfin face. Instead he saw puzzlement.

  ‘W-why?’

  The stutter was back, betraying her nerves. Good. She should be nervous. ‘I didn’t want to get married.’

  ‘Oh.’ She looked shocked.

  As well she might. He took a deep breath and found his chest tight. ‘I am a rake.’

  ‘But not a thief.’

  ‘No, but nor am I a good man. And after tonight I will be a wanted criminal.’

  ‘But you didn’t take the necklace. They have to tell the truth.’

  He shook his head, his throat too full of something hot and hard for speech.

  A fissure cracked in the ice that seemed to encircle his heart. The pain of it sent him spinning away, made his eyes blur, his heart feeling too large for his chest. It was as if the coal piled at the end of the cellar had been lifted from his shoulders and been put back where it belonged. She trusted him.

  He grabbed her shoulder. Tipped her chin so he could look in her eyes. ‘Don’t get involved.’

  ‘Then stand up for yourself, R-Robert.’

  ‘The evidence is against me, I’m afraid. Who will believe me, a gamekeeper against a peer of the realm?’

  She winced. ‘How did the necklace get in your pocket?’

  All questions he’d asked himself. He took a deep breath. ‘I believe Lullington put it there.’

  ‘Because he hates you. I saw it in his face. He is jealous of you—’ her voice caught and she took a deep shaky breath ‘—because of Maggie.’

  He narrowed his eyes. ‘What do you know about Maggie?’

  ‘That she spoke your name, just before she fainted. She knows you.’

  If she trusted him enough to believe him about the necklace, he had to do the honour of telling her some of the truth. ‘It was Lullington’s cousin whose virtue I stole.’ Not that she’d had any, but that was the way it appeared.

  She pursed her lips. ‘It isn’t a very honourable way to punish you.’

  He cracked a laugh, couldn’t help it. ‘He’s a clever man. This is the one way he can do it, without sullying the lady’s name.’

  Her beautiful eyes stared at him. He tried to maintain dispassion, tried not to let the trustful gaze suck the truth about his banishment from his throat even as it ate through every defence he’d built over the years. He didn’t want her pity.

  He caught her around the shoulders and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. ‘You must go now. Forget we ever met.’

  A noise sounded out in the passage. They both swung around to face the intruder. Hell. Now he’d never be able to speak to Maggie. He pushed Frederica behind the opening door and picked up the shovel.

  ‘Robert?’

  He let his weapon fall. ‘Maggie?’

  Her buxom figure glided through the door. She paused when she saw Frederica frozen in the light of the candle.

  ‘La, Robert,’ she drawled, ‘I see you haven’t changed. But isn’t she a little young even for you, darling? On the other hand, you always did have an eye for something special and this one is quite unique. I’m madly jealous.’

  Frederica backed up a step, her gaze flickering back and forth between them, her eyes large and hurt and grave.

  ‘How did you get down here?’ Robert asked.

  ‘There was no guard in the kitchen. I hoped to find you alone.’ Maggie looked shamefaced and, now he looked more closely, rather pale.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Dash it, Robert, there’s no need to look so Friday-faced. I wanted to apologise. I had no wish to get you into trouble.’

  ‘You planted the necklace on me? Not Lul
lington?’ He felt as if those he cared about most were bludgeoning him from all sides. He clenched his fists. ‘God damn it, Maggie. Why?’

  Maggie flinched. And so did Frederica. She must have heard the shock in his voice, the note of betrayal. Naturally, she wouldn’t understand that he and Maggie had been friends as well as lovers. In some perverse way, Maggie’s betrayal hurt worse than Father’s. At least that hadn’t surprised him.

  ‘I had no idea it was you,’ Maggie cried. ‘Oh, I saw through your highwayman disguise, but I thought you were the saucy gamekeeper. How could I know you were my Robert out for a lark?’

  Frederica gasped. Robert inwardly winced. ‘I’m not your Robert.’

  ‘You know what I mean. I thought you were a cheeky servant. I knew you’d leave before the unmasking.’ She tossed her head. ‘Dash it all. This is so confusing. What are you doing playing at gamekeeper anyway?’ She cast a sidelong glance at Frederica. ‘Or shall I make my own guesses?’

  ‘That’s enough,’ Robert snapped. ‘Even if you didn’t know it was me, why incriminate an innocent man? A theft like that means the gallows.’

  ‘The necklace wasn’t supposed to be found. You were to walk outside where my groom was waiting to relieve you of the necklace. He was to engage you in a bit of a scuffle, or get you drunk or something. Then it was to disappear. Lull ruined everything.’ She sounded distraught.

  ‘So Lullington is not in on your little scheme.’

  ‘It was his idea.’ She caught her bottom lip in her teeth. ‘The emeralds are paste. They have to disappear before my husband finds out. I don’t know why he changed the plan.’

  ‘Lullington always plays his own game. You know that.’

  Her chin thrust forwards. ‘He’s been good to me. Kind and generous since you left.’

  Robert snorted. ‘He’s a rake.’

  She stamped a foot. ‘So were you.’

  Robert recoiled from her vehemence. He held up a placating hand. ‘How came you to be in such a fix that you needed to steal your own necklace?’

  Frederica moved forwards, as though she too wanted to know the answer. Her face was white and pinched. He wanted to hold her. To offer comfort. He didn’t dare. Maggie had already guessed about them. He didn’t want to give her proof.

  ‘You know what Caldwell is like about my gambling. I had a run of bad luck. Lull would have given me the money, but he was short of funds.’

  ‘So you pawned it.’

  She nodded.

  He glanced at Frederica, standing silently in the shadows, her thoughts hidden by an unusually blank expression. ‘Were you planning to claim the insurance?’

  Maggie gave a bitter laugh. ‘My husband is the only one who could benefit from that. No. Just before I left to come here, he told me he’d noticed the clasp needed repairs and promised to send it to the goldsmith on my return. I was terrified. If he discovers I pawned it to pay off gambling debts, he will lock me away in the country. He threatened it last time. This time he will do it.’

  Robert stifled a curse. ‘Well, you are in a pretty fix now. The emeralds are recovered. And very publically, too.’

  ‘I know.’ She twisted her hands together.

  Frederica moved into the circle of light. ‘You must t-tell the magistrate the t-truth,’ she said. ‘You cannot allow R-Robert to take the blame.’

  Her fierceness took him by surprise. The sense of being swept up out of harm’s way by the arms of an angel was strangely uplifting to say the least. He wanted to hug her. Instead, he raised a brow at Maggie.

  She wrung her hands. ‘I’ll tell the magistrate I don’t wish to prosecute,’ Maggie said. ‘I can’t tell him I planted them on you, but I can convince Lull to let the matter drop.’

  ‘I don’t need Lullington to do me any favours, but dropping the charges would work.’

  ‘Is this a private party?’ said a drawling voice from the doorway. ‘Or can anyone join?’ A lithe, tall man leaned against the doorpost, a bottle in one hand and two glasses dangling from the other.

  John. Robert groaned. How many more people from his past would join him in his cell? All it wanted was Lullington to complete the nightmare. ‘Radthorn, what are you doing here?’

  ‘I dropped the ladies at home, then returned to see if you needed help.’

  ‘By giving me enough brandy so I won’t notice when they hang me?’ He gave a hard laugh. ‘I’m surprised you are prepared to acknowledge you know me.’

  John stiffened. ‘Er, Robert…about that afternoon. You took me by surprise. I didn’t expect to see you out in the street. We were meeting at White’s.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Frederica asked, her eyes suspicious.

  ‘The day he got sent to Coventry,’ Maggie said. ‘Lull told me all about it.’

  ‘He would,’ Robert said.

  ‘It was all over Town,’ Maggie said. ‘The son of one of the most powerful dukes in the land thrown out of the fold?’ She shrugged. ‘It was on everyone’s lips.’

  ‘A duke’s son?’ Bemusement dawned on Frederica’s face and then horror.

  ‘A second son, Frederica,’ he said, reaching out a hand. ‘I’m banished. My father disowned me.’

  She spun away, avoiding his touch. Then she turned back, her soft mouth twisted in pain. It almost killed him to see her hurting even if he couldn’t understand the source of her pain.

  ‘You have to leave here tonight,’ she said, clearly anxious to be rid of him. ‘If Viscount Lullington deliberately implicated you, there is no guarantee he will back down.’

  Maggie opened her mouth to protest.

  ‘Miss Bracewell is right,’ John said. ‘Lullington would love to spear you with his proverbial rapier. Come home with me and we’ll find a way to sort out the mess. The duke—’

  ‘No,’ Robert said.

  ‘What about Charlie?’ Maggie asked.

  Charlie had been less than charitable the last time they met. He shook his head. ‘Forget about my family.’

  A grating noise had everyone looking up.

  ‘Snively,’ Frederica said. ‘Unbarring the trapdoor. Pippin should be waiting at the end of the drive.’

  John looked startled. ‘Enterprising young lady, I see. Robert, let me offer you refuge until we get this sorted out. Do you think you can find your way to Radthorn Grange? You can stay in the east wing.’

  Another person who believed in his innocence. His best and oldest friend. A man he would trust with his life. Robert let go a breath. ‘All right. I’ll meet you at the gate. Then we can decide on what to do next.’

  ‘Let Pippin go when you are done with him. He’ll find his way home,’ Frederica said. She looked at him for a long moment, moisture glistening in her eyes. ‘I just want you to know, I am not getting married.’

  Amid the tears he saw hope. Yet he could not be swayed by those eyes or that lovely mouth. He could not tie her to a man without honour. He could not let the ache to fill his empty nights be her downfall, no matter how much he desired her. ‘You are safe here,’ he said softly. ‘Get married, have children and be happy.’

  She stared at him as if he’d handed her a death sentence.

  ‘You had better get going,’ John said. ‘Who knows who else might decide to visit you?’ They all knew he meant Lullington.

  Frederica turned away, but the pained expression on her face sliced through his chest like a sword. At that moment he would have much preferred to face the viscount’s blade.

  She was better off without him. He might never clear his name. He’d certainly never be accepted back into society. He forced himself to scramble up the coal heap, holding his breath against the clouds of dust, and pulled himself out into the fresh air.

  Chapter Ten

  Frederica turned back to see his legs disappear through the trapdoor. Tears she hadn’t wanted him to see stung the back of her eyes. Obviously, he couldn’t wait to see her married to Simon. He’d said she belonged here.

  Of course she did.
He was a duke’s son. One step from royalty. Far above her touch.

  And all this time she’d thought him no better than herself. One of the lesser mortals. A man within her reach. How he must have laughed behind his hand at the way she’d fallen for his charm.

  The tears threatened to well over again. To hide them, she picked up the three-cornered hat lying at her feet, then rounded on Maggie who was talking in a low voice to Lord Radthorn. ‘You will do as you promised, won’t you?’ Her voice sounded damp.

  Lady Caldwell’s wide eyes darted a glance at Lord Radthorn before she answered, ‘Robert is not the man for you, my dear. He’s a charming rake, but a rake all the same.’

  Radthorn shook his head. ‘But he’s too much of a gentleman to betray you, Maggie. I’m damned if I’ll let you make him an outlaw.’

  Maggie folded in on herself, her shoulders hunching, her hands twisting at her waist, her pretty face looking years older. ‘I already said I would withdraw the charges. But my husband is going to murder me.’

  Radthorn put an arm around her shoulders. ‘Don’t worry, Lull with think of something.’

  Maggie wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. ‘Yes.’ A tremulous smile curved her lips. ‘He usually does.’

  ‘Of course he does,’ Radthorn said cheerfully. He patted her shoulder.

  She smiled up at him ruefully. ‘I never meant for anyone else to be harmed, John. You know that, don’t you?’

  Such endearing sweetness curved her lips, Frederica could see why Robert had loved her. Her heart squeezed pitifully, but she forced a practical smile. ‘That’s it, then. We are d-done here. I’ll lock the d-door. With luck it will be morning before anyone notices he’s gone.’

  Radthorn nodded. ‘Good idea. You need to get back upstairs, Maggie. I’ve no wish for pistols at dawn if Lull finds you missing and comes looking.’

  Maggie laughed and fluttered her lashes, no doubt cheered by the thought of men fighting a duel over her. She took Lord Radthorn’s arm and the two of them walked out of the cellar.

  All’s well that ends well. Not quite. Maggie would be fine. Robert would be fine. And she was betrothed. Hah. In a pig’s eye.

  She dropped the hat on the floor.