Authors: Cathy Maxwell
“I can understand your reason for using the false name at first, but once you knew we were going to marry, why didn’t you tell me your real name?”
His lips curled derisively. “After you gave me the lecture over what a profligate son I had been? Are you saying now you would have changed your opinion?”
Samantha remembered telling him of her father’s sermon on the prodigal son and her cheeks burned. “Still, you could have told me your real name at half a dozen different opportunities.”
“And would that have made you happy, Sam? Would it have changed anything, or only caused you to distrust me more? I didn’t ask to get sick, or for you to be the one to care for me. It was happenstance, one of the cruel tricks of fate that life plays on us. Before I realized it, it was too late to confess the truth.”
“But you married me under a false name.”
“I wasn’t going to leave you behind to face the
censure of these selfish villagers. You didn’t deserve it. You’d done nothing wrong.” He shot a quick glance at his brother before confessing, “And I didn’t want my family to know I had been here. Perhaps it would have been different if Father had been alive.”
“Why did you come to see Father?” the duke asked with sudden interest.
Yale ignored his question. Instead he took a step toward Samantha. “I wasn’t going to leave you, Sam. I was going to take care of you.”
She shook her head sadly. “But you were still going to leave me behind.”
“In your own house, with your own living.”
But I’d still be alone…
When she didn’t answer, he prodded, “Sam?”
She turned her head away, not wanting to speak of it anymore. She wished she could curl up into a little ball and disappear.
Yale refused to let her be. He crossed the space between them. “Talk to me, Sam. Don’t close up on me.”
She didn’t answer. It hurt too much.
“I’ll make it up to you. I never meant to hurt you.” He reached out, but she jerked away, moving closer to the duke. Tears threatened, but she would not cry. She would never cry over him.
A knock sounded on the door. Yale almost rushed to answer it. In walked Vicar Newell and Squire Biggers.
“What are you doing here?” Ayleborough
said, as irritated as Samantha by the interruption.
“I asked the squire to fetch the vicar,” Yale said. “I need to remarry my wife.”
Samantha’s mouth dropped open, but before she could discover her voice, he launched into a very credible explanation to the vicar for the present state of affairs. Samantha listened in shock as he explained how he’d been surprised that his family had thought him dead and had assumed a false name so that he could tell his family first of his existence and not have them learn of it through gossip.
He made it all sound plausible—innocent, even.
“Unfortunately, I became ill. I was confused by the illness and thought it better to keep my real identity quiet until after I had gotten in touch with my family. You are aware that I was disinherited?”
Squire Biggers and the vicar nodded.
“Then you can understand my concerns,” Yale said. “However, now that I have seen my brother and have received his blessing, I can marry Miss Northrup under my real name. Vicar, will you perform the service?”
“Now, Mr. Browne? I mean, Mr.—ah, er…?” The vicar looked at confusion to Squire Biggers.
“Wait!” Samantha said. She wasn’t about to remarry this man, but no one paid attention to her.
“You will address my brother as ‘Lord Yale,’”
the duke said, his voice overriding hers.
“I don’t want a title,” Yale said abruptly. He nodded to Vicar Newell. “‘Mr. Carderock’ is fine.”
“‘Lord Yale,’” the duke corrected, almost through clenched teeth.
“I was disinherited, remember?”
“I’ve already informed you the disinheritance was a mistake,” his brother said, smiling tightly.
“Nevertheless—”
“Nevertheless, I am reinheriting you.”
Yale faced his brother, the set of his jaw stubborn. “I don’t want to reinherited.”
Ayleborough stared at him a moment before turning to the squire and the vicar. In a pleasant voice, he said, “Would you gentlemen please give us a moment of privacy?”
They didn’t dare disobey him and moved back out the door. The minute the door closed behind them, Ayleborough whirled on his brother. “You don’t contradict the duke of Ayleborough in public.”
“I’ll do whatever I like.”
“This is a family matter, Yale. We don’t air family business to anyone other than family. You
will
accept a title.” He jabbed the air for emphasis. “You have no choice but to depend on me for a living. You have a wife now.”
“I shall take care of my wife
my way
and I have many, many choices.”
Ayleborough straightened, his hands behind
his back. “She is part of the family. She will live in a style befitting a Carderock.”
“Damn you, Wayland. You sound exactly like Father.”
“And you are as headstrong and flighty as your mother!” his brother shot back, his words reverberating in the room.
To Samantha’s surprise, Yale went very still, the color draining from his face. Then she remembered that the two brothers had different mothers. The duke’s mother had been the beloved first wife. Yale’s mother had been the much younger, and very foolish, second wife.
“I want nothing from you,” Yale said.
Ayleborough glared at him. “If that is the way you feel, why did you return?”
Yale walked over to his brother until less than a foot stood between them. “I returned to prove to Father that I wasn’t the scapegrace he thought me.”
The corner of the duke’s mouth lifted in grim amusement. “So, you married the vicar’s penniless daughter under an assumed name and planned to abandon her. Oh, that would have convinced Father.”
Yale pulled back as if his brother had hit him.
Immediately Ayleborough recognized his error. “I shouldn’t have said that. It was wrong of me, but you must see that is how it looks. We have to take care of her, Yale. As a family. Otherwise it doesn’t appear good.”
“And you don’t believe I can?”
The duke’s glance ran over his brother’s homespun outfit. “I feel it best if I help you.”
Yale laughed, the sound without mirth. “You jump to conclusions, brother. I am not as bad as you believe. I have one hundred thousand pounds to my name and own a fleet of ships that ply the trade between here and the Orient. I did that on my own. I don’t need your money. I don’t need
the family.
”
If the duke was surprised by this news, his face didn’t betray him. Instead, he answered quietly, “Father’s dead, Yale. You can’t prove anything to him.”
The anger immediately left Yale. The hardness in his eyes softened. “I should have come back sooner.”
“What? To throw his actions in his face?” Ayleborough placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Yale, I will repeat it and repeat it until you believe me. Father wished he had not acted so rashly. He wanted you back.”
Yale turned and walked to the window. He stood there, but Samantha doubted he saw the view of the hillside beyond the inn. He was lost in his own world.
Something inside Samantha longed to comfort him, but she ruthlessly quashed the emotion. She would have nothing to do with him.
Instead, it was his brother who went up to him. “Come back to the family. Bring your wife and let us make amends for the past. We are your heritage. We’re your children’s heritage.”
“I wish you would stop talking as if I’m part of this plan, Your Grace,” Samantha said. “I’m not going to leave Sproule
or
go anywhere with this man.”
However, he ignored her. Yale flicked a glance in her direction, and then said, “Call in the vicar.”
Ayleborough clapped his hand on his brother’s back. “I knew you would see reason. Welcome back, brother.”
Yale shook his head. “Don’t kill the fatted calf yet, brother. I’m only doing this for Sam.”
“
For me?
” She wanted to scream at the two of them. “Don’t reconcile with your family on my account. I don’t want to marry you,” she told Yale flatly. “I didn’t want to the first time, and I certainly don’t now.”
“Sam,” Yale said reasonably, walking toward her.
She warded him off with her hand. “Samantha is my given name, but I’m
Miss Northrup
to you.”
“You’re my wife to me.”
“Not legally!”
“We are going to rectify that momentarily,” he answered.
“I-don’t-think-so,” Samantha said, speaking carefully so he could understand exactly what she was saying. “I won’t go through with it.”
He shrugged. “You have no choice. The marriage has been consummated. We must make it legal.”
She cast a look at the duke for support, but he
was pretending to study the flames licking a log in the hearth. She drew a deep breath, lifted her chin, and said, “No,
we
don’t.”
Ayleborough gave a sharp bark of laughter. “This is excellent. My brother has finally found someone as stubborn as he is.”
Frowning, Yale went to Samantha’s side and took hold of her arm. She didn’t want him this close. It reminded her of the intimacy they’d shared, the way she’d craved his touch, the way he’d made a fool of her.
She pulled on her arm and he released it, but he did not step back. “Sam, you must marry me. If you don’t, there will be no place for you, not in Sproule. These people are too narrow-minded. The only way I can safely steer you away from the threat of a scandal is if we marry. Otherwise, you will be ostracized. I’ve had that happen to me and I will not let it happen to you.”
She didn’t speak; she couldn’t. She felt as if a heavy weight rested on her chest, making speech impossible.
He placed his hand on her shoulder, his thumb resting on the pulse point between her chin and neck. “Ah, Sam, I’m sorry to drag you through this, but it will work out for the best. I really am a rich man. I can buy you whatever you wish.”
“Whatever I wish?” She almost laughed. “I wish I’d never laid eyes on you. I wish you hadn’t humiliated and embarrassed me. I wish you’d had the decency to tell me the truth from
the beginning! Can you accomplish that now?”
His eyebrows rose. “No.”
She sidled away from him, but still he followed. “What happened to the lass who said she was falling in love with me?”
She shot him an angry glance. How could he use her words against her at this time? The sting of tears burned her eyes. She blinked them back, reminding herself that he wasn’t worth it. “It was lust,” she managed to choke out. “I mistook it for love.”
Her words caught him off guard. The teasing light in his eyes died. “Sam, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“You didn’t mean to be honest with me, either.”
“Touché,” he answered softly.
And so that is it,
she thought sadly. They were done with each other. She hugged her waist and waited for him to leave, refusing to look at him, refusing to think of her future.
He walked across the room to the door. She heard it open and held her breath. In a second, he would be gone from her life forever.
Instead, he said, “Vicar, we are ready for you to perform the ceremony.”
“What?” Samantha said, spinning around.
Yale didn’t even bother to look at her as he answered, “We are going to marry.”
Squire Biggers and Vicar Newell entered the room. Samantha stepped into their path. “Would
you please leave?” Samantha said to them. “There will not be a marriage.”
The two men looked at Yale. “Yes, there will,” he said solemnly. “You see, Miss Northrup doesn’t know what is good for her, so you and I must help her. Otherwise, she will insist on staying in Sproule.”
“She can’t do that,” Vicar Newell said. “I just moved my missus into the vicarage and she’s happy.” He confided to Samantha, “We’re also going to have a wee one in a few months.”
“You don’t have to worry,” Squire Biggers assured his nephew. “She won’t be moving back into the vicarage.”
“Then I’ll stay with Miss Mabel and Miss Hattie!” Samantha exclaimed.
Miss Mabel’s head popped into the doorway. “Did someone say our name?” She entered the room, followed by Miss Hattie, Mr. and Mrs. Sadler, and what seemed to be everyone in the village.
Samantha gasped. She should have known a crowd would gather.
She faced Yale. “I won’t marry you. I won’t answer the questions when asked, or say ‘I do’! Do you hear me? I refuse to speak a word!”
“Aye, I hear you,” Yale said grimly. “But the marriage will go on. And these good people will witness it.”
Samantha could hear the squire explaining to Mrs. Sadler what had transpired. Samantha was surprised he hadn’t already spread the word
while he cooled his heels outside the door. Mrs. Sadler made a soft sound of surprise and then began whispering in Miss Mabel’s ear. Soon the whole village would know of her humiliation.