Adored In Autumn

by Jess Michaels

  And somehow she thrust her shoulders back and found a way to stand up for herself.

  “You and I both know why I’ve come,” she said.

  He arched a brow. “I didn’t question why you were here, my lady. Just why you would be alone when you did it. Those idiots my granddaughters married and your failure of an older brother couldn’t have really thought to send you here unprotected.”

  She pressed her lips together, refusing to rise to his bait. “They do not know I’m here, Mr. Fitzgilbert. I thought perhaps you and I should talk, considering you have something of mine.”

  His smile broadened as he moved farther into the room. He settled himself into a chair, steepling his fingers in his lap as he looked up at her in mocking. “Something of yours, my lady? I don’t think so. You see, it’s mine now. I bought it.”

  “Yes, I realize that,” she said, taking a seat across from him without asking his leave. She leaned forward, forcing herself to hold his stare, gathering strength once more from Asher’s belief in her before she continued, “And I’m sure you have your reasons for doing so.”

  “Your family stole my granddaughters out from under me,” Fitzgilbert said. “My leverage in Society was the value of their hands. You took it and now you’ll pay. That is my reason.”

  She shivered. She’d only known one other man in her life who was so cold. She’d been forced to kill him. Today she had no weapon and she was beginning to question whether she needed one.

  “Let us not discuss my family right now,” she said. “I know that you also have a secret, one you bought alongside mine.”

  “Yes,” he said with another of those smiles. “I do.”

  “I imagine when your daughter left you, when she ran off with a servant, it must have crushed you,” Felicity said. “Rank is clearly of importance to you. And I suppose you must have also worried about her future. You’ve protected that secret a long time, far longer than I’ve protected mine. You’ve fought to keep it from coming out, to Society and also to Celia and Rosalinde. I…” She swallowed, for what she was about to say was distasteful and she couldn’t let that be obvious. “I understand that. I understand the need to protect yourself and those around you. You and I are not so much unalike.”

  His eyes went wide, and then he laughed. It was an ugly sound, born out of anger or suffering rather than true humor or goodness. It was the sound of mocking, not joy.

  “You have never said a truer thing in your life, my lady,” he said at last. “We are alike. But not for the reason you want to think we are.”

  Felicity took a long breath. “How then, Mr. Fitzgilbert?”

  He pushed to his feet and she tensed as he moved toward her, ready for an attack. But it didn’t come. Instead, he walked past her, making her get up and turn to watch him.

  “You come here without Grayson Danford, John Dane and the Earl of Stenfax, and I think you believe that you can appeal to my kindness. Or some deep, hidden love for my family that has kept me protecting my secret all these years. But you don’t understand one vital thing, Lady Barbridge.”

  “And what is that?” she asked, her hopes sinking, her heart breaking, a full understanding of what a monster this man was already clear even before he said whatever vile thing would follow.

  “I never loved my family,” he spat out. “I loved what they could provide for my prowess and my comfort. Those girls, my feckless whore of a daughter and my foolish grandchildren, they all betrayed me. And now I’m going to use you to make them pay.”

  Felicity couldn’t help it—she flinched, even though she knew from bitter experience that the expression of her pain was exactly what made this man happier than anything.

  “You would destroy my entire family just to hurt Celia and Rosalinde?” she whispered.

  He nodded. “Indeed I would, my dear. They cannot be allowed to escape from their duty without paying the cost. And this is the cost. You are the cost.”

  The door flew open behind them and Felicity spun around as Fitzgilbert’s servant rushed in. “Sir, sir, I tried to stop them, but—”

  He didn’t get to finish before Asher came striding through the door with John on his heels. Felicity caught her breath at the cold and furious expression on his face. One that disappeared into shock when he saw her standing there.

  “Felicity?” he said.

  John said nothing. He lunged toward her with a look of horror on his face, but before he could reach her, Felicity felt an arm come around her from behind.

  And the cold steel of a pistol barrel press to her temple as Fitzgilbert drew her back against him with a chuckle.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Asher’s heart all but stopped in his chest as he watched Felicity freeze in Fitzgilbert’s arms. Her face was a mask of pure terror, and he realized in that moment that she must have looked the same way the night she’d been forced to take her husband’s life.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, his tone gentle as he watched only her, connecting with her in the hopes it would reduce her fear even a little.

  She swallowed as her wide eyes held on his, but it was Fitzgilbert who responded.

  “The lady came to bargain,” he said with a sneer as his gaze shifted to Dane. “And look who’s come to treat with me. The Duke of Clairemont. I thought you were dead. Oh, but that’s right, isn’t it? You were never the duke.”

  John tensed beside Asher, but his tone was calm as he asked, “You knew?”

  “No,” Fitzgilbert admitted. “I didn’t. I found out after you’d ‘died’ and my granddaughter almost immediately married a no one named John Dane. No wonder she hid you away in the countryside. I’d be ashamed of you, too, just as I’m ashamed of her.”

  Dane’s nostrils flared. “Don’t test me, old man.”

  “Or what?” Fitzgilbert laughed, pressing the gun harder to Felicity’s head and eliciting a gasp from her that cut through Asher’s very soul. “I have a gun to the girl’s head. Don’t think I won’t use it.”

  “Put it on me,” Dane said. “You want to hurt Celia? I’m the one you shoot, not Felicity.”

  “John,” she whispered.

  “I’m sure that’s true,” Fitzgilbert said with a shrug. “But I have this one and I’m not about to let her go.”

  “What do you want?” Asher asked.

  “And who the hell are you?” Fitzgilbert asked, eyes shifting to him. He examined Asher a moment, then nodded. “Ah, I see it in your eyes. You idiots. Why do you fritter yourselves away on falling in love? Unions should be built on power, anything less is a waste.”

  Asher clenched his jaw. “Perhaps in your world.”

  “In all worlds that matter. So yours must not.”

  Felicity flinched, her gaze meeting Asher’s, and he refocused. “It doesn’t matter who I am or what I feel. What do you want?”

  Fitzgilbert smiled. “If I’m reduced to negotiating with two lower level nothings since the lady’s brothers don’t want to come to her rescue, I suppose there is nothing to it. Once what I wanted was power and influence. It was all I asked of my granddaughters, to marry well and grant me into the inner circles of their husbands. But they refused. I found other ways to gain power, of course, but access is harder.”

  “Access?” Asher said. “We can guarantee it. I have powerful connections, as do Gray and Stenfax, we could—”

  “The nameless pup before me has access?” Fitzgilbert snarled.

  “Asher Seyton,” Asher said sharply. “I’m a solicitor and an old friend to the family you threaten.”

  Fitzgilbert froze and his eyes suddenly went wide. “Asher Seyton. Seyton.”

  “Yes,” Asher said, casting a quick glance toward Dane. Fitzgilbert was just staring at him now, his face pale and his eyes wild. “What of it?”

  “I knew someone by that name once,” Fitzgilbert said. “Someone who stole everything I could have had and could have been.”

  Dane set his jaw. “I think I know exactly who that someone was,
Fitzgilbert.”

  “What are you talking about?” Asher asked, the unease in his stomach only increasing as this strange, unclear conversation passed between the two men.

  Fitzgilbert glared at him. “If you are who I think you are, then this is even better. You see, the only thing I want now is what only I can provide myself. The only thing that will satisfy me now is suffering. I want Stenfax, I want Danford, I want you to know that I will tell the story of how the fine Lady Barbridge is a murderer. I will present the proof. And there is no way out of that now.”

  “No!” Asher said, stepping toward them.

  Fitzgilbert’s grip on Felicity tightened and she made a soft sound of pain. “You want her to die, instead? That will also suit me.”

  “You’ll be transported or hung for doing such a thing,” Dane said, low and dangerous.

  “So then it will be exposure,” Fitzgilbert said. “That’s all the choice you have.”

  “No,” Asher said. “Because we know what you are.”

  Dane edged closer. “A traitor.”

  For a moment, Fitzgilbert’s expression faltered and he actually looked surprised by the revelation. “You don’t know anything.”

  “I’m an agent of the crown, Fitzgilbert,” Dane said softly. “It is why I pretended to be the Duke of Clairemont, for a case. At the time I first met you, I had no idea of what you were involved in, but you brought so much attention to yourself with this book nonsense, with this quest for revenge, that your activities regarding profiteering and collusion came to the fore.”

  Fitzgilbert’s eyes bugged out. “You have no proof.”

  “I do have proof,” Dane said. “You can add a murder charge to all that if you hurt Felicity. But if you don’t and you help us, you may be jailed, but it could be comfortable. It could be easier. You could even be sent somewhere to start over. I could arrange for that.”

  From Dane’s tone of voice, Asher could tell his friend was disgusted by the idea. But to save Felicity, he would bargain. Even with a man he despised.

  “Think about it,” Asher said. “What he’s offering won’t come round again, you know that.”

  Fitzgilbert’s expression was like a fox cornered by dogs. There was nowhere to run now and he saw it. No way to escape and it was everything this bastard feared.

  His hand went lax around Felicity, and she looked at Asher. He saw what she would do just before she threw her elbow back and connected squarely with Fitzgilbert’s ribs.

  The older man buckled and she darted from his arms toward Asher. In the same moment Dane jumped forward and tackled Fitzgilbert. They fell to the ground together with Fitzgilbert’s gun still in his hand. Dane grabbed for it and the two men struggled for purchase.

  Asher pulled his own weapon from his boot as he thrust Felicity behind him and leveled it on Fitzgilbert, but he had no clear shot as Dane still worked to remove the old man’s gun.

  “I will not be caged and my secrets will never be revealed!” Fitzgilbert cried. As he did so, he yanked, pulling the gun away from Dane’s grip. But he didn’t level it on Dane or Felicity or Asher. Instead, he lifted it to his own temple and pulled the trigger.

  Asher grabbed Felicity to turn her away from the scene. She clung to him, trembling in his arms as he smoothed a hand over her hair. Dane crouched down over the now prone Fitzgilbert and then looked up at Asher with a small shake of his head. The man was dead.

  “It’s over,” Asher soothed her. “It’s over now.”

  There was a commotion in the hallway, and the parlor door flew open to reveal Asher’s friend Hendrix and a few other servants. When they saw their master dead on the floor, all of them came to a stop.

  “Lord,” Hendrix said on a low whistle. “Everyone else all right?”

  Asher gave his friend as reassuring a smile as he could. “Yes. Mr. Dane will need someone to fetch assistance in a moment. Would you step out until he’s ready?”

  Hendrix held his gaze for a moment, then nodded as he ushered the others out.

  Dane had been crouched over the body, and now he rose to his feet. When he faced Asher and Felicity, he had pages in his hands. “These were in his pocket.”

  Asher instantly recognized them as pages from the diary, and from Felicity’s gasp, so did she. Asher tensed. “Do they have Felicity’s name on them?”

  “Barbridge,” Dane confirmed as he looked over the pages swiftly.

  Felicity went limp in his arms as she whispered, “Thank God.”

  Dane nodded. “Yes. I’ll call for officials from the War Department, but I’m afraid this entire bundle will just be missing from the book when I return it. I’m certain it has the information we’ve sought.” He moved to exit the room to make his call for assistance, but as he passed Felicity, he stopped. “When this is over, you and I will have a chat about why you put yourself in such danger.”

  She looked up at him, her body still tucked against Asher. “I thought he had a soul,” she whispered. “That no matter what horrible things he’d done, perhaps there was something in him that could be reasoned with. Something worth saving. It’s what I hoped others could see in me.”

  Dane’s expression softened as he leaned in to touch her arm. “You are nothing like that monster, Felicity. Never tell yourself you have anything in common with him.”

  Dane left the room and Asher put his arm around her to guide her toward the exit, as well. As they moved, she let out a great sigh.

  “It’s my fault that Celia and Rosalinde’s grandfather is dead,” she whispered.

  “Don’t take on that burden with the others,” Asher said as they made their way to the foyer. “He killed himself. There was no one to blame but him.”

  In the hall, Hendrix and Dane were talking. Dane shook the other man’s hand and then moved toward them. “My superior, Stalwood, has been sent for. He’ll run the rest of this.”

  Asher tilted his head. “You don’t want to do it yourself, after all the work you did?”

  Dane let out a long, heavy sigh. “No. I’m retired. My life is with Celia and helping Gray with his businesses now. I’m not a spy anymore.”

  “What about the book?” Felicity asked, her voice shaking.

  Dane looked at her. “The War Department has no interest in pursuing a woman who defended herself against an attack three years ago. Especially in a case where it was declared an accidental death. My only final duty is to decode the entire book and return it so that Stalwood can be certain none of the secrets are of national interest. If there are pages missing…” He held up the ones in his hand. “These pages, then he trusts they weren’t ones of interest to the government.”

  “So then it’s over,” Felicity said. Asher expected her to sound relieved, to sound happy even. But her voice was almost…numb. Like she didn’t believe it. Like she couldn’t believe she was free.

  A pair of horses thundered into the drive and a carriage behind it. Dane arched a brow. “That was quick. Stalwood must have been watching Fitzgilbert, himself to be so ready.” Dane stepped away to talk to the men who had arrived.

  Asher turned toward her. “You’re safe.”

  “Yes, I suppose I am,” she said, blinking. “Assuming these pages truly are the ones that contain the truth about Barbridge’s death, then there is no one else who could betray me. The servant who initially shared the story is dead, the others are trustworthy. I am free.”

  Asher smiled at those words, but he also flinched. Her freedom meant their parting in the end.

  “Your family must be worried about you,” he said. “Should we return to them?”

  She caught her breath. “Where did they think I went?”

  “Your mother’s,” he said. “It was best. It gave Dane and me a reason to keep Stenfax and Gray at bay. Had Gray come…”

  “He might have done something that couldn’t be undone,” she said solemnly. “After what this man did to Rosalinde, he wanted him destroyed. He’ll be happy, at least.”

  “He has a
great deal to be happy about,” Asher said. “He and Rosalinde revealed they are having a child.”

  Felicity jerked her face toward him. She was clearly shocked by the news, but there was also something else in her expression. Regret. Loss. Sadness.

  “My God, all I’ve wrought,” she said, shaking her head. “And here they were, trying to start a new life together.”

  Dane walked over to join them. “Stalwood will take care of the rest. I can report to him later. Come, we should go back to your mother’s, Felicity. It’s where the others are gathered.”

  He motioned to Hendrix and the young man called for their horses and her carriage.

  “I’ll ride with Felicity,” Asher said.

  The carriage came and he helped Felicity into it, then turned back to Dane. “Can you make sure my horse makes it back?”

  “Yes,” his friend said. “Of course. Is she…well?”

  Asher glanced up at her, a shadow in the carriage. “She will be.”

  Dane was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded. “I’ll meet you at her mother’s.”

  “Thank you.”

  Before Asher could step up, Dane caught his arm. His friend’s gray eyes were focused and intense as he said, “Don’t let whatever past separated you to keep you from the future, Asher. I almost did that with Celia, and I would have missed out on so much if I had. Don’t walk away, even if it seems like she’s pushing you out the door.”

  Asher glanced back up at her. She was staring out the opposite window, her hands trembling. He had no idea if what Dane was suggesting was even possible. If he could be what she needed.

  The fact was, she still didn’t fully understand why he’d left her in the first place. And when that came out, it would hurt her. He hated to do it. He’d been trying to avoid doing it for weeks.

  “Our story is different than yours,” he said softly.

  “Yes, it is,” Dane admitted. “It’s far less impossible.”

  Asher shook his head as he climbed into the carriage next to Felicity. Dane shut the door, gave him one final small salute, and the vehicle began to move, taking them away from the terrifying events of that day. But toward a foggy future.