“The dude is completely nuts.” I think we all agreed with Brody’s assessment of Henry.
“He didn’t try to kill Ms. Madison or burn down her shop,” Emmaline said with conviction. She shouldn’t have spoken, because it drew William’s attention to her.
He marched to where she was and loomed over her. His nose was nearly touching hers. “Get out!” It wasn’t shouted, but it was threatening in a way that gave us all chills.
His mother took a couple of steps back from him. “He wanted her to stay in New York. He didn’t touch her shop. He wouldn’t have had anyone hurt her. Americans love money more than anything. He offered her what he had, so you wouldn’t get hurt.”
“I said get out!” It was louder the second time and made Emmaline jump.
“He’d never physically hurt her. He was so sure she was just like Hilary. He didn’t think he’d need to give her anything more than money. We thought he’d succeeded, when the money was taken. The cheques were cashed, William, and she was gone. We were sure she’d left and gone on a little vacation. He didn’t touch her then, and he didn’t start the fire at her shop. That’s my granddaughter you’re putting at risk by barking up the wrong tree!” She seemed to pull her courage together.
“You told him where we were!” he accused.
“He’d been following Camille and her friends for days. He’d known about the inquires for a flight to Kirkwall. He knew you’d be married a day or two after Camille’s arrival.”
“Who’s Hilary?” Camille asked, interrupting her mother.
“Your father’s first wife, his first love was an American woman who ruined him. She broke his heart and took him for everything he had. All she’d wanted was money and his title. She made a laughing stock of him. She was a whore and completely ruined his reputation and his life at the time. He’d lost everything, his heart hardened, but he fought back.
“She’s where his talent for extortion and bribery came from. The only way to get back into society’s good graces was to blackmail a few key players. Of course, it’d be pointless if Hilary was still around. Their divorce was messy, but the men she’d cheated on him with were not shy and loved to rub it in Henry’s face. Proving her infidelity was simple. What money Henry had left that she hadn’t squandered away was split between them.
“Once they were divorced, Henry followed her and had her charged with a crime, so she’d be deported. Before her plane even touched down in the U.S., he’d presented some of her men with envelopes containing incriminating evidence against them. The blackmailing has never stopped. He loved her, William, and he was so sure she’d truly loved him in return. He was just scared you were making the same mistakes he had, that you were blinded like he’d been by a beautiful American.”
“I thought you were dad’s first love?” Camille looked confused.
“No, I was a power move, but I’d known him before he’d met Hilary, and I was sure he’d get better and fall in love with me once he got over her.”
“A power move?” William sounded disgusted.
“It was for my family’s benefit as well. I agreed to it, because we’d grown up together, and I’d always cared for him. I know you don’t see it, but he’s a good man. He was just scared for you,” his mother insisted.
“Who I marry has always been my choice. My mistakes are my own, not his. He had no right to try and interfere.”
“We’ve always meant well. The girls we’ve introduced you to were-”
“Money grubbing socialites looking to up their status, how very thoughtful, Mother.”
“They were women who’d have something to lose if they crossed you, William. Your father secured information on each one, be it on them or family members they’d want to protect, before you were introduced to them.”
“You were going to blackmail them into marrying me?”
“No, your father just wanted to make sure they couldn’t cross you or hurt you. Essentially, they’d be at a disadvantage if they tried to do anything wrong or hurtful that’d jeopardize your marriage or status with the peerage.”
“I’ve told you both hundreds of times that I want nothing to do with the royal peerage!”
“You say that now, but don’t be so hasty to close the door on it. You may not want to be a part of parliament, but the contacts you can make would be beneficial to your work, not to mention you don’t know the feelings of your daughter or any other future children. You may not want to take part, but your children may have a different view of things. Don’t shut out the opportunities-”
“My daughter and any children I have will be U.S. citizens. They’ll have no right to my title. I won’t expose them to that mess.”
“You must see reason, William.” I was shocked when she turned and looked at me. “He has a-”
“Don’t speak to her. You’ve done nothing but disrespect my wife! You have no right to even look at her!” William was pressing forward, and I was afraid he might knock his mother over.
“Emmaline, maybe you should go to your room for a bit.” I took a few steps in her direction. Her eyes darted between me and my husband, but she thankfully took my advice. She rushed out of the room. My husband needed some time to cool down.
A few sharp clacks of heels caught everyone’s attention. The woman, Brittney, was trying to make her way to the door quietly, but she’d failed. William stalked toward Brittney, and she started to run for the door. William grabbed her before she could reach it. “Please, William, I wanted no part in this.” Her eyes settled on me. “I’m not his lover. I’ve never been his lover, and I’m not pregnant with his baby. I swear it.”
“Whose baby is it, then?” Brody asked.
“I’m not pregnant at all. He had a doctor’s record written up. I don’t know how, but he did. Please, I wanted no part in this. He has…” she looked up at William’s eyes, “You know how your father works. He has videos…William, please. I didn’t have a choice.”
He let go of her arm. She looked over at me again, the remorse clear in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright-” I started, but was interrupted by Brody.
“Are you insane, Hannah? Nothing about this is alright! His family is completely nuts. No wonder your dad went off the deep end trying to keep him from you.”
William was about to pounce on Brody, but I intervened. “Settle down, William. It’s over already. We’re married, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. This is our honeymoon, and I don’t want you ruining it by holding a grudge. Come on, we need to go take care of our daughter.”
William glared down at me. I think we both agreed that he was perfectly justified in holding a grudge, but I knew it’d taint the rest of our time in Scotland.
“Stay with Penelope. I’m going to go find my father,” he ordered, before he stormed out of the room. I collapsed into a chair, utterly exhausted. I knew there was no point in going after him. I went to find our daughter and was surprised to find Emmaline pacing the hall outside of her room.
“Hannah, please understand-”
“There’s nothing to understand. You don’t think I’m good enough for your son, so you and your husband have done everything in your power to get rid of me.”
“No, that’s not true. I may not be pleased with his choice of a wife, but I never tried to stop him, only protect him. You would’ve done the same for your daughter. We only want them safe.”
I was stepping around her, when she stopped me. “Henry didn’t start that fire, Hannah. Someone else did that, and I’m worried for the safety of my son and granddaughter. You must make William see reason. He has it in his mind that my husband orchestrated it, but he didn’t. Someone else is involved, and we don’t know the reason. Henry began investigating it as soon as we found out. He’s cleared all your close friends, and your father. There has to be someone left, someone we don’t know about. If you want this case solved and your family protected, it’s in your best interest to work with us.”
; “Henry doesn’t have the contacts in the U.S. like he does in England. I doubt he can do anything to help,” I said, trying to dismiss her.
“He can present you with the evidence he has, though,” she countered.
“I don’t believe he wasn’t involved in some way.”
“I can prove it. He planned on stopping your marriage with every intention of sending you home. Now, you don’t have a home to go to, and the only residence available is William’s in England. He doesn’t want you in England, because he’s afraid you’ll hurt William, and it’ll be splashed across the papers. If you cross William, if you make a fool of him, it could ruin his connections with his investors. It could cause him to lose his job.
“There are a lot of people who’d jump at the chance of getting revenge on my husband, and they wouldn’t think twice about using his son to exact it on him. Not only that, it’d bring Henry’s old mistakes to the forefront and risk Camille’s chances of finding a suitable husband. Your presence puts my family in a very vulnerable state.”
“It doesn’t justify his actions,” I stated plainly and opened the door to my daughter’s room. I quickly closed it behind me, blocking Emmaline from coming in and kept her out of sight of Penelope.
Once my daughter saw me, she ran into my arms. “Mommy, what’s going on? Why did that man say daddy was married to someone else? Who was that lady?”
“It was no one, and that man will go to jail for lying. Don’t worry, Penny, daddy is taking care of everything. We’re still a family, everything will be fine.” I led her to the chair in the corner and pulled her into my lap to snuggle.
It was a while later that William came into the room. His posture was stiff. It was clear he was still very upset.
“Daddy?” Penelope whimpered.
The change in William was instant. He went to our daughter’s side, kneeling down on her level. It was obvious he was trying to reign in his anger.
“Poppet, I’m so sorry.”
“Did you fix everything? Is that man gone?”
William looked to me for an explanation.
“She was worried we weren’t really married.”
“He’s gone, Poppet. The police have taken him to jail, so he won’t be bothering us again.”
I think we all were shocked, when Emmaline rushed into the room. She looked panicked and worried. “William, you must listen to me. He wasn’t involved in the fire. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go back to the states. Please, at least listen to me and stay in England until the arsonist is found.”
“You need to leave.”
“I know he went about it the wrong way, but your father was just trying to look out for you...”
“I don’t want her to be my grandma, Daddy!” Penelope cried and hid her face in William’s shirt. William glared over at his mother. She looked devastated.
Camille stepped forward, taking Emmaline’s arm and gently pulled her out of the room.
Penelope snuggled deeper into William’s chest.
“I’m sorry, Poppet. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Are we moving to England, Mommy?” she asked.
“I don’t know, honey, that’s something me and daddy need to talk about.”
William looked at me confused. I was sure he didn’t expect me to ever consider staying in England.
The stress had worn Penelope out, and she fell asleep, taking a late nap. I knew I’d regret letting her sleep later, but I needed to talk to William alone.
We left Lisa and Ophelia to look after her and went to our room.
“We’re not moving to England,” were the first words out of William’s mouth.
I just nodded in agreement, realizing he wouldn’t budge on the topic. “Fine, but we need to see what your father’s found out about the fire. Emmaline said he was investigating it.”
“I’m still not fully convinced he wasn’t behind it. It’d make absolute sense for him to burn it down. It’d put you in a precarious financial situation, making it more likely for you to accept another bribe.”
I hadn’t thought of that, but it was a good point. There was only one little flaw in his theory. “He never approached me with another bribe, William. He never once sent his minions to make an offer, either.”
“Hannah,” he sighed.
“We should at least look at what he has. It won’t hurt anything. Emmaline seems pretty adamant about keeping Penelope safe. I don’t think she’d let anything happen to her. I’m sure if we asked her for the files, she’d get them for us.”
“I don’t want to have anything to do with my mother.”
I got why he wanted to cut them out, but he needed to put his daughter first. If there was someone trying to hurt us, we needed to put our differences aside and catch them. “I’ll talk to her.”
“No, you won’t.”
“William, you may be pissed and not thinking clearly, but I’m not taking the risk of not knowing something, when your father may have had the clue all along. Your pride isn’t stopping me from keeping our daughter safe.”
“You can’t trust anything…”
“I know, but that still doesn’t mean there isn’t some sort of clue in his file. We need it.”
His jaw was back to flexing. I flopped back on the bed, frustrated. I covered my face. “Your family is messed up, but they love you in their own twisted way. Your mother’s offered her help, and I’m taking it.” I heard him growl, and I peeked at him from behind my hands. His hands were clenched into tight fists. “Please don’t fight me on this,” I begged.
“You don’t know my parents like I do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“My mother is just trying to manipulate you, Hannah. She wants to be around Penelope. She wants to groom her for her role in the peerage, and I’ll have no part of that!” William had never shouted at me before.
I went to the bathroom to gather myself. The tub was big and inviting, so I started to fill it. After a few moments, William came in. He didn’t look angry anymore, just frustrated. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to him. It wasn’t alright. I didn’t want him to yell at me every time he lost his temper. I started to undress, and he came up behind me, cupping my breasts.
“Please don’t yell at me again,” I whispered.
He hid his face in my neck and wrapped his arms around me tightly. “I’m sorry I got so upset. None of this is your fault.” He helped me out of my pants and into the tub. “Can I join you?”
He looked repentant.
“You can disagree with me, and not be happy about me talking with your mother, but I’m still going to do it.” I slid down into the tub. “If you can handle that, you can come in.” My heart clenched, worried he’d walk out. “Please,” I begged.
He squeezed my hand, before he let it go to undress. When he finally climbed in behind me, I snuggled up to him. “I’m sorry this is so hard on you. I promise to be careful. I just need to be sure, William. If anything happened…” I didn’t even want to think about it.
“Just be careful, and don’t speak to anyone but her. If she wants you to speak to someone else, I want to be present for it.”
I leaned up, kissing his lips. “Thank you.”
He deepened the kiss and turned me to straddle his lap. It didn’t take long for us to get back to trying for another baby. I wondered if we should put it off until the mess was settled, but judging by William’s actions, he didn’t think it’d be necessary. There was a good chance I was already pregnant, anyways. We’d know for sure by the end of the week.
I lay spent on his chest, and he kissed my shoulder. “Just promise you’ll be careful.”
That was one thing we could agree on.
“I plan on it.”
Chapter 24 – Guarding the Castle
WILLIAM
I didn’t like that we needed to work with my mother, but Hannah was right. If they could offer us any information on the arsonist, we’d take it.
I still wasn’t completely convinced that my father wasn’t involved. I really didn’t want to move back to England, but Hannah had made the point that we needed a place to stay for the moment. We were on our honeymoon, though, and I wanted to focus on that. I’d worry about my father’s conviction and the fire later.
It was a little difficult to get used to the extended days. The twenty hours of sunlight made it hard to keep track of the time of day. It did make for easy sightseeing, however. I had no idea how much history was in just this little corner of the world. There was so much to see, the Tombs, Skara Brae, Corrigall farm museum, the Earl’s palace, the ancient stone circles, the fossil and heritage center, and the Skaill house. Hannah had marked off so many places to visit, it seemed like we wouldn’t have time to see them all. We were definitely going to have to come here again next summer to squeeze in some more sights and Viking history. I’d be packing a night mask, though.
On our last day in Scotland, the fire marshal back in the states called to let us know they’d been able to make out a silhouette from a security camera across the street. It was a woman about five feet seven inches tall, medium build with puffy hair. The news left us all stumped. Hannah had no idea who it could’ve been. I wondered if my father’s files would give a clue.
“You don’t think it was just some random crime, do you?” she asked me.
“No, it wouldn’t make sense. Your building is in the middle of the block, they’d most likely go for a corner shop if they were just vandalizing things.”
“Maybe your father will have a lead for us to follow.”
My father was the lead I planned to follow.
We flew into London the next morning. I hired a car to take us to my flat, so we could rest a bit, before we went to my parents’ home.
“Who lives here?” Penelope asked, curiously looking around. My place was very contemporary and sterile. I’d bought it with no intention of ever having a family.
“We do, for the time being. It’s daddy’s place,” Hannah answered her.
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