Fall From Grace

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘I depend upon it.’

  Olivia laughed and sent him a wicked smile over her shoulder as she rang the bell. He shook his head at her in frustrated resignation. Olivia was well aware of the power she wielded over him and was unafraid to deploy it.

  ‘Until tomorrow,’ she said when Green appeared with Jake’s outdoor garments.

  ‘I count the hours,’ he replied, kissing her fingers.

  ***

  Olivia’s shopping expedition the following morning was delayed when she had the pleasure of receiving an unexpected visit from her good friend, Eva Arnold.

  ‘I came as soon as I heard about the change of venue,’ she said.

  ‘The jungle drums are working well,’ Olivia replied after she had embraced her friend. ‘Jake only told me of his intention last night and is posting the announcement to the newspapers this morning. It will not appear until tomorrow.’

  ‘He sent a note to Isaac last night, otherwise I would only have found out myself when the newspapers came,’ Eva replied on a note of mild censure.

  ‘Sorry. I did intend to write today, but‒’

  Eva flapped a hand, dismissing Olivia’s apology. ‘I am so very happy for you,’ she said, her radiant expression supporting her words. ‘It is beyond time that you and Jake formalised your relationship.’ Eva frowned. ‘What is it, my love? You don’t look as ecstatic as you ought, given that you have snatched the most sought after gentlemen within the ranks of London’s aristocracy from beneath the noses of rivals who I’m certain think themselves more worthy.’

  Olivia’s maid delivered refreshments. ‘Oh, Eva, am I doing the right thing?’ Olivia asked after the maid put the tray down and quietly withdrew. ‘It is all happening so quickly and I feel as though I have been caught up in a whirlwind over which I have no control.’

  ‘Wedding day nerves. That’s only natural.’

  ‘I didn’t feel nervous when I married Marcus. Just resigned.’

  ‘You didn’t love Marcus.’

  Olivia pursed her lips and conceded the point with a nod. ‘True.’

  ‘But you do love Jake.’ Eva shook her head. ‘Don’t pretend that is not the case because I know better.’

  ‘Loving him has caused my dilemma. I love him too much to diminish his name.’ Olivia propped her elbow on the low table and rested her chin on her clenched fist, her expression glum. ‘I didn’t kill Marcus, but a lot of people still think I did. Suspicion will always attach to my name and now the gossips will say that Jake was in league with me because we wanted Marcus out of the way.’

  ‘Nonsense! You and Jake would have married the moment you were out of mourning if that had been the case.’

  Olivia pulled a face. ‘True, but since when has common sense stopped the gossips?’

  ‘Since when did you care what rot the gossip mill churns out?’

  ‘I don’t—not for myself at least.’

  ‘And nor does Jake. If he doesn’t give two figs for society’s opinion, I fail to see why you should. Besides, you will soon be the Countess of Torbay. Not only that but you will be rich beyond most people’s imagining, which is bound to ensure society overlooks any defects in your reputation.’

  Both ladies laughed. ‘Yes, there is that, I suppose,’ Olivia conceded.

  ‘If you feel it’s happening too quickly, delay and have a spring wedding. Jake will wait, I am sure.’

  ‘Well, I would do that, but…’ Olivia placed a hand over her stomach and grinned.

  ‘Oh my goodness!’ Eva threw her arms around Olivia. ‘Then you must commend Jake for wanting all of society to see you exchange your vows. That way, no one will think he has been coerced when your first child arrives impossibly prematurely.’

  ‘That is what Jake himself implied.’ Olivia laughed. ‘You are so good for me, Eva. I am very glad you called.’

  ‘Isaac was due to come up to London for a case he is defending, I thought you might have need of my services, which clearly you do, so I accompanied him.’

  ‘Another destitute unjustly accused, I would imagine.’

  Eva nodded. ‘Indeed.’

  ‘Good for Isaac,’ Olivia said with satisfaction.

  Isaac Arnold was the younger son of the Marquess of Hereford. In helping Jake to reunite Eva with her daughter Grace, he had fallen helplessly in love with the then Lady Eva Woodstock. Her husband had devised a daring plot to seal the Koh-i-Noor diamond from the Great Exhibition. He and Isaac fought a duel which left Woodstock dead and Isaac free to marry the woman who had stolen his heart. The couple wondered what to do with Woodstock’s fortune, which had been amassed by criminal means. Isaac decided that it would give him the freedom to practise law according to his conscience, offering a robust defence to those that most needed it and could not afford to pay for his services.

  ‘I imagine your husband is still the scourge of the Old Bailey, frowned upon by those who think he has betrayed his own class?’

  ‘Naturally,’ Eva replied with a sunny smile. ‘And I have never seen him happier than when he manages to save someone who has been wrongly accused from the gallows. He has found his true calling and a good use for William’s accursed brass.’

  ‘He provides a more diligent defence for clients who cannot pay him than the man who represented me planned to mount on my behalf, despite his exorbitant fees. I am perfectly sure that if I had come to trial,’ Olivia added with a shudder, ‘he would have been next to useless. He didn’t believe in my innocence and clearly disapproved of me when I had the temerity to repel his advances.’

  Eva shook her head. ‘That is all behind you now and you must think of it no more. I came up to London to enjoy your company. Gracie and Joshua are in the country with Mary,’ she added, referring to the young daughter from her first marriage and the son she had borne Isaac two months previously.

  ‘How is my godson?’

  ‘Thriving.’ Eva’s smile was wide and uncontrived. ‘And Gracie adores him. Anyway, Isaac is seeing Jake this afternoon and I said I would meet him at Grosvenor Square. In the meantime, I am entirely at your disposal. I am sure there are many arrangements to be made if the wedding is to happen so soon. What do you need me to do?’

  ‘Jake is taking care of everything. Presumably he doesn’t trust me to get the details right.’

  ‘Or wishes to spare you the trouble.’

  Olivia slanted her eyes. ‘Possibly.’ She stood and linked her arm through Eva’s. ‘All I require of you is to accompany me to the shops.’

  Eva laughed. ‘That is one occupation at which I excel.’

  Chapter Two

  Jake and his secretary, Bartlett, spent much of the day working through a number of outstanding matters, many of them relating to the arrangements for the wedding breakfast.

  ‘Lord Charles to see you.’

  Parker, Jake’s butler, gatekeeper and so much more besides, appeared in the doorway midway through the afternoon and casually made the announcement.

  ‘Hadley?’ Jake’s brows shot up. ‘Good God, I thought he was still overseas, doing his diplomatic stuff for Queen and Empire.’ Jake pushed aside the final report awaiting his attention, glad of any excuse to delay reading his steward’s long-winded recommendations for new barns in the lower acres on his Torbay estate. ‘Show him in, Parker.’

  Jake dismissed Bartlett, who gathered up a mountain of papers and staggered from the room beneath their weight.

  ‘Oh, Bartlett,’ he said, causing his secretary pause in the doorway and almost lose his grip on the papers as he turned to face his master.

  ‘My lord?’

  ‘Make an appointment for my tailor to call sometime tomorrow. I shall need a new suit of clothes for the wedding.’

  ‘I shall attend to the matter immediately, my lord.’

  Jake sat back as he waited for Charles Hadley to join him. His concentration had been patchy all day and he’d twice almost issued Bartlett with conflicting instructions. His thoughts kept returning to Olivia’s unsettled
mood and his hope that Isaac had persuaded Eva to leave her children for a few days and accompany him to town. Olivia was in a state of considerable turmoil at the prospect of their forthcoming nuptials, convinced that becoming his countess would somehow denigrate the Torbay name.

  What moonshine! For such a lovely, outwardly confident woman she could be charmingly naïve at times. Her family was middle-classed, it was true, but she would not be the first to make a successful transition to the ranks of the aristocracy. Olivia would make a charming and individual addition to that rarefied circle. She was educated, well-informed and delightful company—if a little too outspoken on occasion.

  Olivia didn’t know it but she needed the company of a close friend in whom to confide her doubts…one who would understand her turmoil because she had once found herself in a similar position. Eva had been titled even before she married Isaac, but she was also the wife of a disgraced middle-class ne’er-do-well—a man who had come within a hair’s breadth of wrecking the Great Exhibition by robbing it of its central attraction, spoiling Prince Albert’s determination to make a mark in his own right along with it. If anyone could allay Olivia’s fears, surely it was Eva?

  Olivia had enjoyed the company of a large circle of friends during the course of her first marriage. But those friends had turned their collective backs on her when she was suspected of Grantley’s murder. Worse yet, the gossips had almost destroyed her with their whispering campaign. Jake had always suspected that was why she was at such pains to cultivate her reputation for notoriety and pretend she didn’t care what was being said about her.

  Many of her friends and most of her family had tried to re-cultivate her friendship, especially now that it was generally known ahead of the official announcement that she would become Jake’s countess and that her pockets would be bulging. As his wife she would not be able to ignore the demands of society altogether any more than he could, but would be assured of acceptance everywhere with him at her side. Be that as it may, Olivia’s low opinion of the ruling classes she was about to join endured. She was still scarred by her experiences, was slow to trust and would never form close associations with those who had sought to destroy her.

  Lord Charles Hadley strode through the door, bringing Jake’s mental perambulations to an end. He was the younger son of the Marquess Hadley and, at thirty-two, five years Jake’s junior. Tall, with a curly thatch of red hair, piercing green eyes and a sociable disposition, he was universally popular and had been a foremost target for the matchmakers for many years. Only his escape into diplomatic service, Jake suspected, had enabled him to evade their tenacious clutches for as long as he had.

  ‘Charles!’ Jake stood and shook the hand of the man who had been one of his vigilantes before duty took him to other parts of the Empire. ‘It’s been too long. I had not heard that you were back. When did you return?’

  ‘A week ago. Congratulations upon the forthcoming nuptials. Not before time.’ Charles laughed good-naturedly at Jake’s raised-eyebrow response. ‘I know the announcement has not been made yet but you cannot be so wrapped up with your own affairs that you fail to realise it’s the talk of the town.’

  ‘What are people saying?’

  Charles shrugged. ‘What do people always say? The men are jealous and the ladies are convinced that your head’s been turned by a pretty face.’ Charles barked out a laugh. ‘I, of course, know better. It is clear to me that you heard I was on the way home and had the good sense to snap Olivia up before I could snatch her from beneath your nose.’

  Some of the tension left Jake’s body in the face of Charles’s light-hearted reaction. Of course he knew that the gossips would have a field day. He just hoped that the precise nature of their speculations—which were alarmingly close to her own predictions the previous evening—didn’t reach Olivia’s ears. If they did she might decide upon a grand gesture—the female equivalent of falling on her sword—in a misguided attempt to save his reputation.

  ‘For reasons that escape me, she always did enjoy your company,’ Jake conceded languidly. Charles had been instrumental in helping Jake to prove…if not her innocence then at least enough doubt about her guilt to prevent charges from being brought. ‘I am glad to tell you that we finally got to the bottom of things a few weeks ago. It was Grantley’s brother who commissioned the deed. He wanted his brother’s wealth, his business and his wife, not necessarily in that order.’

  ‘Good God! What a bounder. He wanted Olivia but, when it came to it, was prepared to let her hang in his place.’

  ‘That’s because she turned down his offer of a helping hand.’

  ‘Even if she had not, I can’t imagine him owning up to the crime in order to save her.’

  ‘Most likely not.’

  Charles harrumphed. ‘Where is he now?’

  ‘He’s taken to his heels.’ Jake stood to pour whisky for them both, handed a glass to Charles and they took the chairs on opposite sides of the fire. ‘Your good health.’ Jake raised his glass in a salute to his old friend. ‘And welcome home.’

  ‘And yours.’

  ‘There’s a warrant out for his arrest,’ Jake said, returning to the subject of Grantley. ‘He won’t risk stepping foot on these shores again if he has any sense, but he doesn’t have much brass to support himself and the perfidious harlot he took with him.’ Jake grimaced at the thought of Olivia’s maid and the shameless manner in which Grantley had charmed her into betraying her mistress. ‘Not as satisfactory as seeing him hang, but nearly as rewarding.’

  ‘I heard nothing about this in India, but then I would have been travelling home so the news must have missed me.’

  ‘It’s not generally known. Olivia doesn’t want it to be.’

  ‘Why the devil not? It would clear her reputation.’

  Jake sighed. ‘It’s her decision. Besides, she thinks—and I tend to agree with her—that society would be reluctant to admit they made a mistake about her.’ He settled into a more comfortable position. ‘The arrest warrant for Grantley has not been made common knowledge, although you can wager its existence is known about. But the gossips who so ruthlessly shredded Olivia’s character won’t be willing give up their assassination of her. Women can be ruthless when they feel threatened by another female, but they’ve obviously decided there’s not nearly so much sport to be had in dissecting Grantley’s actions, despite the fact that he killed his own brother. Apart from anything else, it would require them to admit they were wrong about Olivia.’

  ‘Not much has changed during my absence then,’ Charles replied with a wry smile.

  ‘Not so you’d notice. Anyway, to what do I owe the honour? If you have only been home for a week, your family will require your company at Hadley Hall, I would imagine.’

  Charles shuddered. ‘Two days and Mother was already lining up females for me to look over.’

  ‘As you say, nothing has changed,’ Jake replied with a smile of sympathy.

  ‘Be that as it may, I might have permitted Mother to play her games for a little longer, but for the fact that I have a particular and pressing reason for calling. I realise you have your mind on other matters but a situation has arisen and I need your advice.’

  Jake put his glass aside and spread his hands. ‘I am yours to command.’

  ‘You heard about Luke Cantrell?’

  Jake nodded. ‘I was sorry to read about it. The details were sketchy. What happened?’

  ‘A very good question.’ Charles frowned. ‘A hunt that went awry. I wasn’t a part of it. Indeed, I wasn’t anywhere near Goa when it occurred.’

  ‘Luke was a Company man?’ Jake was referring to the powerful British East India Company.

  ‘That’s the official version.’

  ‘Ah, I had forgotten. He had a dalliance with an actress, did he not, that he conducted with his usual flamboyance and total lack of discretion. It resulted in an argument with his father and his eventual fall from grace.’

  ‘A case of double standards,
if you ask me,’ Charles replied derisively. ‘Luke’s father ran through half the whores in Covent Garden when he still had the stamina. He was a common sight there. And he damned near ruined the family with his gambling too.’

  ‘I was not aware of that,’ Jake said, raising a brow. ‘They did a good job of maintaining appearances.’

  ‘Nothing is more important to Luke’s hag of a mother and his pretentious sister. Anyway he died, the old man that is, not two months after Luke left England and without the dispute between them ever being resolved. The cause of death has never been explained but Luke told me he’d suspected before he left English shores that the old earl was suffering from a severe case of syphilis that had affected his brain. His behaviour had become increasingly bizarre.’

  ‘Explaining the son’s disinclination to return for his father’s funeral and to claim his coronet.’

  ‘He’d sent Luke away as a punishment, so there was bad feeling.’

  Jake nodded. ‘Even so, I can’t help feeling old Cantrell had a point. Luke was never keen to shoulder his responsibilities. His father’s example was hardly shining, but still…’

  ‘I agree with your assessment of our impulsive friend’s character. Even so, it’s him his mother and sister have to thank for the fact that they still have an estate. Luke had a quick brain and an eye for an opportunity, when he could be bothered to apply himself. And believe me, with the new trading links between all parts of the Empire there are plenty of opportunities available to those in the know who are willing to take risks.’ Jake nodded. He’d taken a few himself and had prospered. ‘Luke took those risks and saved the family from financial ruin.’ Charles flashed a wry smile. ‘Whether through luck or good judgement, I’ve not yet decided. Be that as it may, the moment his father died his mother wrote regularly, pressuring him to return home. She had been against his banishment all along, apparently.’

  ‘He was the earl’s only son and heir. I hate to agree with Lady Cantrell but his place was back in England, taking responsibility for his estate. He could send an agent to represent his interests in India. That is what most gentlemen with responsibilities on home soil do. Why did he resist?’