A Lord Rotheby's Holiday Bundle (119 page)

This marriage would not be as cold and
lonely as his first, by God.

Jane still hadn’t moved; she stood
staring up at him, with much the same expression she had worn since
they returned to the ball. The poor thing was surely in shock. Her
entire life had changed in a moment.

Mama and Sophie returned to the hall,
still aglow from the jubilation of the soiree. He caught Sophie’s
gaze and gestured toward his betrothed.

A single nod followed. “Come along,
Jane. Up to your chamber we go.” Sophie took Jane’s hand and led
her away, leaving him alone with his mother.

They watched in silence as the two
climbed the stairs.

After they had gone, Mama leveled her
discerning gaze upon him. “You didn’t want this.”

A statement—not a question.

“
No.”

She studied him for a moment, then
reached up and pulled his hand from where it was absentmindedly
stroking his chin. “Was it...?”

The question floated in the air,
hovering over the scent of newly extinguished flames and wilting
flowers before falling between them.

“
Utley, again.” His own
voice sounded strange to his ears—strangled, almost.

Her jaw dropped. “Again?
Mary?”

Peter nodded gravely. “Mama, if I
hadn’t followed her. If I hadn’t caught him when I did—“

“
Hush.” She drew him over
to a nearby chaise and pulled him down beside her. “You did. You
got to her in time. She’s safe, and you’ll marry her.”

“
I will.” Whatever it took
to keep her safe, he would do.

Mama squeezed his hand. “You’re a good
man, Peter. You make me very proud.”

So why did he feel the need to punch
his fist through something hard? His hand shook, even as Mama held
it.

“
Promise me one thing,” she
said, looking down at her small hand in his much larger
hand.

“
If I can.”

“
You can. Promise me you’ll
try to love her. Promise me you’ll make more of an effort than you
did with Mary.”

“
Mama...”

“
You can. All you have to
do is try.”

She made it sound so bloody
easy. He
had
tried
before, with Mary, and had failed. But Jane? Lust he could
accomplish.

Love was an entirely different
beast.

“
I know she deserves to be
loved—”

“
This isn’t about her,
Peter. This is about you. Try to love her, because you’ll be a much
happier man if you do. I told you that you are a good man, but you
are far from happy. I want you to be happy.”

“
And you believe Jane can
make me happy?”

Several beats passed without response.
“No,” she said, her voice weighty. “No one can make you happy but
yourself. But if you’re willing to try, she can make you love.”
Mama stood and kissed him on the forehead. “Good night. Will you be
off to Doctor’s Commons in the morning?”

“
Yes. I’ll take Sinclaire
with me.” He hoped the Bishop of Canterbury wouldn’t delay with
granting the special license. The sooner he could marry Jane, the
better chance he had of avoiding scandal. Lady Plumridge could only
be held off for so long.

Mama nodded and climbed the stairs,
leaving him to his own ruminations.

He doubted he’d sleep that night.
There was far too much to be done. First and foremost, he needed to
talk to Forrester and arrange for him to travel to Carreg Mawr. It
was high time he took matters there in hand.

There was no time to waste. Utley
could already be on his way there after his quick eviction from
Hardwicke House. No reason to allow him to reach his brother there
first.

Peter sighed before turning to his
library, calling out for Spenser and Forrester on the way. Haste
was in order. And he needed a drink.

~ * ~

“
I can’t marry
him.”

Jane sat across from Sophie on the
foot of her bed, both exhausted. They were clad in their nightrails
and wrappers after the ordeal of her come-out ball.

Sophie impaled her with deep blue eyes
and frowned. “Why not?”

“
You’re supposed to be on
my side, Sophie! You’re supposed to help me figure a way out of
this mess, not ask me why I can’t marry him. I can’t marry him
because...because I can’t.”

“
And you should answer my
questions and not skirt the subject.”

Jane fiddled with the brush in her
hands, looking at it to avoid her friend’s imploring
gaze.

“
Answer me. I won’t sit
here waiting all night, you know. I need my rest if you’re getting
married tomorrow. Otherwise my skin will look a fright.”

“
I’m
not
getting married tomorrow,” Jane
said.

“
Well, you oughtn’t to have
agreed to it in the first place, then.” Sophie reached across and
took the brush from her hands, using it on Jane’s riotous curls.
“Now the whole
ton
is expecting a wedding between you and Peter. You simply can’t
break off the engagement.”

“
I didn’t agree to it. And
I can, too.”

“
You also didn’t deny it in
front of everyone at your ball when Mama and Peter announced it.”
Sophie’s brush strokes were less forgiving than Meg’s. “There were
a good two hundred people here tonight. Maybe more.”

“
You aren’t helping
anything.” Jane winced when her friend pulled through a
particularly bad knot in her hair without pausing to ease the
discomfort. “What am I going to do now? You know as well as I do
that your brother doesn’t want to be married to me any more than I
want to be married to him.”

Sophie kept brushing, perhaps even
more forcefully than before. “I know no such thing. In fact, I
think you’re only trying to convince yourself of that.”

“
Now that’s a piece of
rubbish, for certain.”

“
What’s certain,” said
Sophie, “is you’re behaving like an utter dolt. It would be not
only lamentable, but also ludicrous, for you to reject Peter now.”
She walked to the vanity and lay the brush down, then turned back
to Jane with something of a pleading look in her eyes. “He’s a good
man, you know. He’ll care for you well.”

“
I don’t doubt that,
but—“

“
But what?” She threw up
her hands and spun around to face Jane. “Is this about your shop?
Because you can’t possibly attempt to lie to me again and tell me
you don’t love my brother. It’s as clear as the dawn to me how you
feel. You’re only fooling yourself if you deny it.”

“
Of course I love him!”
Drat. Jane’s eyes widened to the point she thought they might fall
out.

Did she really? She couldn’t possibly.
Could she?

“
Of course you do. So
what’s the problem?” Sophie took a seat facing Jane in the
high-backed chair before the vanity.

“
He doesn’t love me.” Oh
good Lord, were these words really coming from her mouth? “He
doesn’t love me now, and I don’t think he will ever be capable of
it. Sophie...he’s only doing this because of Lord Utley. And he
already married a woman he never loved before. I can’t allow him to
do that again. I will not subject myself to a lifetime married to a
man who wants anything other than to be married to me.”

Sophie slid back into place beside her
and pulled her into a hug, carefully wiping the tears away from
Jane’s eyes. Double drat, now she was crying—and all because of
him. She wanted to plant him a facer now because of it. If only he
was sitting there where she could reach him, she would.

“
All right. Enough of this
crying. Tears won’t solve your problem, will they?”

She was beginning to think that
nothing could solve her problem. Still, Jane straightened herself
and dried her eyes.

“
I suppose we’ll just have
to sneak you out of the house again, then, won’t we?” Sophie asked.
“You finalized your plans earlier with Mr. Selwood, didn’t
you?”

“
Yes. The building is ready
for me to use.”

“
I think it’s time we set
up your shop, then. You did say earlier that there’s an apartment
above stairs, didn’t you? Somewhere you could sleep?”

Jane nodded.

“
Excellent. Then we’ll just
wait until Peter leaves for Doctor’s Commons in the morning and
move you in to your new shop.”

Her new
shop
. She was going to be a business
owner—independent. She hoped.

“
Do you think anyone will
come to me after this? I mean, if I jilt your brother?”

Sophie laughed, a deep,
musical sound. “Why, Jane, you’ll be the talk of the
ton
tomorrow. You’ll have
a larger customer base in a few days’ time than you could serve in
a month.”

She hoped her friend was right. If her
modiste shop failed, Jane would have no option of staying in
London. Not after breaking her betrothal to Peter, at least. She
would have to return to her parents, and Mother would be terribly
disappointed in her, to say the least.

“
You’re still planning to
help me, then, even if I hurt your brother in this way?”

Sophie took her hand and squeezed it.
“If you’re right about him—that he doesn’t love you and never
could—then this won’t hurt him. He should be relieved.”

“
And if I’m wrong?” Not
that she could possibly be wrong. Not about that.

“
If you’re wrong, then
Peter will take care of it.”

Jane didn’t know if that was a promise
or a threat.

Chapter
Sixteen

After Mama and the girls went up to
bed, Peter summoned Forrester and Spenser to join him in his
library. Neil and Sinclaire were talking in hushed tones outside
his library when he and his servants arrived, so he called them in
as well.

When they were all inside and the
doors were closed firmly behind them, Peter turned to Sinclaire and
Neil, then sat behind his desk. “Utley?” Somehow, he couldn’t get
out any more than that. Even the one word had his voice
breaking.

“
He left down the servants’
stairs and out the back door,” Neil said. “In a hired hack. I
followed him until it stopped at his bachelor lodgings. He went
in…but I didn’t get the impression that he intends to stay there
long. I think he’s planning to make an escape tonight.”

Sinclaire cursed beneath his breath.
“Where is he heading?”

“
My guess would be Wales,”
Peter said.

They all turned to stare at
him.

“
Phineas Turnpenny has been
siphoning funds from Carreg Mawr for months. I finally sorted it
all out recently. I asked Forrester to plant a spy there as a
footman to confirm my suspicions.”

“
Indeed, Your Grace.”
Forrester nodded with a frown. “Martin’s latest report details how
he caught Mr. Turnpenny adjusting the ledgers right after sending a
suspicious looking package through the post to London. To his
knowledge, Turnpenny is still unaware of his true function at the
castle.”

“
So he’s pilfering from you
and sending it to his brother?” Neil said. “Isn’t taking your money
enough for Utley?”

“
Clearly not,” Peter
responded dryly. Neil didn’t know the half of it, but it was better
that way.

“
Now what?” Sinclaire
asked. “He’s headed there now, but—”

“
But I can’t very well
leave Town, since I have to marry Jane with all due haste,” Peter
said, interrupting him.

Neil stood and moved near the hearth,
cracking his knuckles. “I’ll go. I can travel faster than he can,
since he’s injured. If I leave immediately, I can get there before
him and have the magistrate waiting when he arrives.”

Peter sighed. Neil was right, and his
plan was probably for the best…but a part of Peter still wanted to
be the one to settle matters with Utley, once and for all. For that
matter, he wanted to handle things with Phinny. But the crown would
have to handle Utley, and the magistrate could see to it that it
happened—and he could lock Turnpenny up.

He nodded. “See to it.”

Before Peter could change his mind,
Neil was gone. Devil take it, how did his brother move so fast when
he wanted to? Clearly, he was spoiling for an adventure. Town life
had never really agreed with Neil. It gave him too much time to
waste, so waste it he did.

Peter then sent Spenser and Sinclaire
to gather up what servants could be found and to search the house
for those who were missing.

They were found locked inside an
unused drawing room on the third floor. Mrs. Pratt, several maids,
and a number of Peter’s footmen, after being rescued from their
confinement, all confirmed that Lord Utley was responsible for the
deed. He’d brought a pistol into Hardwicke House, so what choice
did they have? Thank God they were all unharmed—however frightened
they might be.