Читать книгу Regency Affairs Part 2: Books 7-12 Of 12 - Ann Lethbridge - Страница 61

Whenever Alec came across Rosalie over the next few days, she was busy organising her small but eager band of soldiers in the garden, or helping Mary with the sewing, or playing with the children. Always she was cheerful and kind to his men, who were coming perilously close to adoring her.

Yet always now she kept her distance from him and jumped if he so much as touched her hand by accident. As well, thought Alec bleakly. He couldn’t forget how she’d melted to his shockingly intimate caresses at his father’s house. And he’d resolved that such a thing must never happen again.

She’d entrusted him utterly with her quest and with the safety of her tragic sister’s child, and Alec was determined not to break that trust.

There were no more direct threats, though his men reported that the underworld reward was still out for her and the child. Alec didn’t tell her this. He just doubled the guard on the house by night as well as day and made his men swear never to let her know that her little team of gardeners had actually been hand-chosen, by him, to protect her.

Nor did he tell her that next on his agenda was a meeting with his brother.

Stephen rose abruptly from his seat when he saw Alec entering the Pall Mall club. Though he hadn’t seen his younger brother since the night of the poetry reading, he still fumed every time he remembered the way Alec had taken the girl from him. Then there was the humiliation of the party he’d planned at his father’s house. And the business of the paintings.

He’d received the message this morning, to meet Alec here tonight. Alec, as he came in, looked tall. Imposing. Well dressed, for once. The doorman bowed as he let him in.

‘Good day to you, Stephen,’ said Alec softly. ‘I thought it was time that you and I got together.’

Stephen had deliberately chosen a quiet corner; now he gestured Alec tensely to a seat. ‘Indeed.’ His voice was already shaky with suppressed anger. ‘But first—damn you, Alec, last week I had a party arranged!’

Alec ordered brandy from a hovering waiter. ‘Ah, you’re talking about my visit to our father’s house. I realised that our father, being absent, must have forgotten to cancel a rather large order for party food. So I took it away.’ His hard eyes fastened on Stephen. ‘To a place where it wouldn’t be wasted.’

Stephen’s face was tense with rage. ‘You interfering ruffian—’

‘And as for those paintings,’ continued Alec as if his brother hadn’t spoken, ‘it was exceedingly kind of you to arrange substitutes, while the real ones were away for cleaning. I take it you’ve got the originals back in time? Our father will be returning any day, I believe.’

Stephen was pale. Yes, and it had cost him a fortune to buy back those paintings.

‘Are they all back?’ repeated Alec softly.

‘Yes. Damn it, yes, they are!’

‘Good. Then I’ll get on to my real business of the night.’ Alec leaned forwards. His voice was knife-edged. ‘Listen, brother mine. Those who stay at Two Crows Castle—all of them—are under my protection. Including the young woman you were trying to take home after the poetry reading.’

‘That slut? I’d forgotten her.’

‘Really? But you took an interest in that same woman a couple of weeks earlier at the Temple of Beauty, didn’t you? She had a sister—is that why you were interested in her, Stephen? A sister who had a child.’

‘What the hell has that to do with me?’

‘I’m hoping you’ll tell me. A threat has been made, on Rosalie Rowland and the child. There’s even an underworld reward out for them.’ Alec leaned back in his seat, but his eyes never, for one second, left Stephen’s face. ‘I do hope it’s nothing to do with you.’

Stephen laughed shakily. ‘You’ve got a wild imagination, brother.’

‘I’m not the imaginative kind,’ said Alec flatly.

‘I could retaliate by asking—why is this Rosalie Rowland of such interest to you? Though she’s a spirited jade, isn’t she, if a little outspoken for a whore.’

Alec’s fist stopped just short of Stephen’s jaw. ‘You’ll never call her such names again. Ever.’

Stephen flinched, then began to sneer. ‘Really? Why not?’

‘Because,’ said Alec softly, ‘I’ll take retaliation if she and that child are in any way harmed.’

‘Is that what you’ve come here to tell me?’

‘I think it is, yes.’

‘Falling for Athena, are you?’ Stephen’s lip curled. ‘Has she submitted to your rugged charms yet? My God, and you’ve still got Susanna hankering after you, too—she’s had enough of me, that’s for sure. Thanks to you.’ His voice was bitter.

Alec caught his breath. ‘Our stepmother pleases no one but herself. I don’t imagine for one minute that I can influence her decisions.’

‘But I heard you were with her at Lord Fanton’s ball.’ Stephen’s voice was rising. ‘And I know that you spoke to her when our father was taken ill, before he went with her to the country. You must have said something, to make her spurn me!’

‘Perhaps it took very little. And keep your voice down, brother. You’re beginning to sound hysterical.’

‘Hysterical! My God!’ Stephen was on his feet. People were looking. He sat heavily back in his chair. ‘I think it would be suitable revenge,’ he ground out, ‘to tell your Rosalie everything about you and Susanna.’

So. The blow Alec had long expected had at last been struck. Family loyalty. Aloud he said nonchalantly, ‘You’ll not win on that one, Stephen. I don’t think for one moment that Mrs Rowland would care.’

‘No? Should I tell her, then?’

‘By all means, if you wish,’ said Alec shortly. ‘It would mean exposing your own sordid secrets, remember.’ He got up to leave. ‘I repeat—Mrs Rowland and the child are under my protection. My warnings, as you’ll know, are not to be taken lightly. You see, unlike you, Stephen, I’ve nothing whatsoever to lose.’

He turned to go. Stephen said, in a voice tinged with venom, ‘So sure of yourself! So confident, damn you! Have you considered, Alec, what would happen if the father of this bastard child actually decided, quite legally, to claim his brat?’

Alec swung round to face him, jaw clenched. ‘Let him just try it, brother mine,’ he breathed. ‘Let him try it.’

After Alec had gone, Stephen ordered another brandy and sat alone. He most definitely could not afford to have any more dirt raked up over his past; he’d been flying too close to the wind anyway because of Susanna and he’d always half-suspected that she only used him to get closer again to damned Alec!

But now this widow, Mrs Rowland, had emerged and things were looking more dangerous by the minute.

Most of the gentry paid for their pleasure from time to time, or kept discreet mistresses. But Linette had been a mighty big mistake, because she had been gently born and a virgin.

The stupid girl had thought Stephen would marry her. Kept pestering him, until he’d paid her off—generously, he’d thought—and by God, he’d taught her a few skills she’d find useful in earning her living keeping other men happy! But he’d not known she’d been pregnant and had gone to her grave lamenting him. If word got around that he’d abandoned her, that she’d died in deep poverty …

He could deny it! But hell’s teeth, there was a child. Damned Alec had clearly worked it all out. And now, Alec had taken both the child and Rosalie Rowland under his wing.

Alec was, unfortunately, pretty unassailable in his fortress-like house that was, not without reason, called a castle. Alec was considered a hero amongst his band of ex-soldier ruffians and didn’t give a damn what society thought of him. But if the child really was Stephen’s, which seemed all too likely—what should he, Stephen, do?

What would a true gentleman do?

Stephen’s lip curled in an unpleasant smile. He would do just what he’d hinted at to his brother. He’d admit, sorrowfully, that he’d sadly lost contact with the mother whom he’d adored, but announce that he was willing to provide for the child. To claim her as his own, in fact.

Oh, how Alec and his pretty little widow from the Temple of Beauty would hate that.

Francis has news, my dear, such surprising news, of your family …

That night while Alec was out, Rosalie received a letter. It had been delivered earlier to Two Crows Castle—Sergeant McGrath had taken it from the post boy, grumbling at the charge—but then McGrath had been called out and forgotten it; it was past nine in the evening when Mary spotted it lying on the kitchen table amongst a heap of bills and brought it to Rosalie.

The letter was from Helen. As Rosalie opened it, another folded-up missive slipped out; she put it aside and started on the first one.

Helen’s letter began with the usual expressions of concern for herself and Katy in that place. Rosalie could almost hear Helen’s disdain. There was news of Toby, who was well, and good news, too, of the church school that Francis had been asked to set up. There were also fervent wishes that Rosalie and Katy would join them in Oxfordshire—in time for Helen and Francis’s marriage!

Rosalie was glad because she felt that Francis was ideal for her old friend. Helen went on to tell her that the first banns had already been read.

But then came the real bombshell.

You know, of course, Rosalie, that Francis has contacts in Paris and lately he received interesting news about the Lavalle family.

Rosalie’s hand tightened on the letter as she remembered how her sister, alone in London, had called herself Linette Lavalle—their mother’s name, before she married.

Francis asked me to enclose another letter for you, Rosalie, from an attorney in Paris … Swiftly Rosalie unfolded the second missive. And felt her world changing, for ever, around her.

When Alec got back to Two Crows Castle half an hour later his men melted away rather hastily at the sight of his brooding expression. Only Ajax came up to nudge sympathetically at his hand.

Garrett pulled the dog away quickly. ‘Think I’ve found ‘im a new home, Captain!’

‘What?’ Alec was looking abstracted.

‘A new home. For Ajax.’

‘You’re getting rid of him?’

‘Thought that was what you wanted, sir.’

Alec shook his head. ‘Oh, no. He might as well stay. After all, he’s doing no harm.’

He didn’t see Garrett’s secret smile of satisfaction, but went straight up to his own room and tugged off his coat. Running his hand through his hair, he went back down the stairs to the kitchen, where Mary was tidying up for the night.

‘Where is Rosalie?’

‘She’s just in the parlour, Captain.’

He went through. Somehow she’d made this little parlour into a different place, tidying it in the indefinable way that women had. Evidence of her quiet feminine touch was everywhere.

But there was also danger everywhere.

She was arranging a bowl of flowers on the window sill, and at first she didn’t see him. He thought that she looked—different somehow. As if she was hiding something, and whether it was good or bad, he could not tell. She was so self-contained, so strikingly lovely, even though she refused to believe it …

And you are no damned good to her, Alec Stewart.

Faint colour tinted her cheeks as she spun round. ‘Captain Stewart …’

‘Mrs Rowland. Have you had a quiet day?’ he enquired.

She nodded. ‘Indeed, but I’ve had a letter, from Helen and Francis. Such good news—they are going to be married, Alec, and the school Francis has set up is going well …’ She hesitated.

‘And they want you to go and join them, I imagine. Is it close to where you used to live?’

‘A few miles or so. I would like to see it all again. My mother is buried there.’

‘Of course.’ His voice was calm. ‘So what will your answer be?’

She met his eyes directly. ‘Some day it would make sense for us to go there, I feel. But—’ she looked up at him ‘—you warned me, Alec, that the person who threatened me might trace us there. Might trace us anywhere.’

He looked around. ‘Do you mind if I sit down? Were you in a hurry to retire?’

She put the flowers aside and sat down herself. ‘No. Not at all.’

He sat opposite her, on the sofa. ‘Rosalie,’ he said, his face shadowed in the candlelight, ‘have you ever considered that the man who seduced your sister might have a legal claim on Katy, as her father?’

She looked absolutely stunned. ‘Oh, no. But— why would he want to make such a claim, when he abandoned both mother and child so cruelly?’

‘He could say that the mother left him of her own will and he didn’t know the child existed.’

‘Yes. Yes, I see …’

Pity for her twisted rawly in Alec’s gut. She took a moment to calm herself before going on, ‘Alec, could this man—would he be allowed to take Katy away from me?’

‘If he’s her father, it’s possible, yes.’

Her hands were clasped tightly in her lap. ‘Would money help?’

‘What money?’ he answered grimly. ‘That’s one commodity neither of us has and for once I’m sorry.’ Stephen, damn him, has enough money to buy up lawyers by the score.

Rosalie nodded, biting her lip. ‘What do you think I should do?’

Alec regarded her steadily. ‘I know you will hate this. But there is one solution. Agree to a betrothal.’

‘A—’ She looked even more stunned.

‘A betrothal. With me.’

Dear God. She looked—horrified. He raked his hand through his hair and tried again. ‘Look. It need only be a temporary arrangement. You and I would always be aware of that. But if this man should try to claim Katy, you do need to assume respectability. I may not be rich, but I am an Earl’s son—and a betrothal to me would strengthen your reputation, Mrs Rowland, in the eyes of the world.’

Rosalie sat very still. Do you really think that you—a courtesan who writes for a gossip rag—would be taken seriously at the magistrates’ court? Those caustic words of Alec’s still seared her. ‘So—you would pretend that you’d asked me to marry you …’

‘Exactly. It’s not going to be so very surprising to anyone, is it? You have, after all, been married before. And people already know that you’re living here.’

Rosalie lifted her head at last. The scent of the flowers on the window sill seemed almost overpowering now. ‘They already assume I’m your mistress?’

‘I’m afraid it’s inevitable.’ He saw the tinge of colour under her fine skin.

‘Is there nothing else I can do?’ she asked quietly. ‘No alternative?’

How she hated the idea. ‘It’s the best way, I fear. We would need to make a formal announcement, of course, in the papers and so on, but I’ll give you the night to think about my proposition. I can see you hate it, so let me remind you that once the danger is over, you can break it off any time you want.’

And he went, not even glancing at her as he left the room. Dimly she heard him in the hallway talking to Garrett, his mind already on other things, no doubt.

She gathered up those letters from Helen that she’d thought of showing him and clutched them to her, feeling quite sick.

She remembered overhearing Garrett saying sourly, ‘So she’s back in town. Dear God, she’s beautiful, but she’s wrecked his life …’

Alec had offered her this betrothal even though clearly he detested the notion. And she must agree to it, for Katy’s sake. But, oh, it was going to be difficult.

She looked again at the letter from France.

It reminded her that her mother was part of the Lavalle family, who’d owned land, châteaux and great vineyards in the Loire region of France, but lost them in the tumult of the Revolution so long ago. Rosalie had always assumed that the wealth of the Lavalles had gone for ever.

But six years ago, this letter told her, her family’s fortune had been restored by the Emperor Napoleon in a deliberate ploy to gain the political backing of France’s foremost aristocratic families. And the letter told her that a portion of that fortune—not vast, but large enough to make a difference to her life—might be hers.

She folded the letter in her fingers and gazed into the dying embers of the fire.

Even if this was true—how could it help her, now? For she had lost her heart to a man who was scarred for ever by a past commitment and who felt nothing but pity for her.

And if he knew all her lies—he wouldn’t be able to bear to have her near him.