Betrayed Countess (Books We Love Historical Romance) (29 page)

“I considered at first that it might be preferable if I left you alone,” he said after several more minutes as they trundled along the cliffs, the bay opening up before them in the distance.

“I have no doubt.” Bettina stiffened, her wounds still deep. “You can dismiss me so easily, as insignificant as I have been to you.”

Everett drew a sharp breath. “That’s not true. I realized at once how impossible it is to deny what I feel. You, I … it’s all very complicated.”

“Life is complicated, yes, for we fools that get involved with it. I wish it were easy, and you had no wife—or perhaps just a heart…
.” She swallowed hard. “And I had no one hunting me like a rabbit. I will borrow a pistol from Maddie to carry from now on.”

“Have you ever fired a pistol?” His voice grew harsh.

“I will learn.” She continued to stare at the bay—a dark blue slash into the slate cliffs.

“I’d caution you not to do anything foolish.”

“I believe I have already been a fool.” Bettina glared at him.

Everett’s jaw tightened. His knuckles white around the reins, he ordered the horses to quicken their stride.

The quaintness of Port Isaac now looked grim to Bettina as they descended the steep road in. They pulled up near a row of buildings that faced a harbor crowded with fishing boats. Women rushed back and forth, toting baskets of the day’s catch. The air smelled of fish and salt.

Everett escorted her into one of the squat stone buildings. A tiny room to the right was set aside as an office. A servant asked them to sit there while he summoned Mr. Trethewy.

A short bewigged gentleman of about forty soon walked in. His creased face held a cynical expression. “Ah, Camborne, such an unexpected pleasure. What can I do for you?” he asked in a cool manner. He nodded toward Bettina.

“I’m here to report an assault.” Everett stood, his tone strained. He relayed the facts, his hands clenched behind him. Bettina filled in the details.

The Justice eyed them both, then rubbed a knuckle on his desktop. “Appears to me there was a horse stealing.” He snatched up a file from his desk drawer and sawed it over his nails. “But assault? He didn’t harm the young woman, did he? I’ll have to look into it. A gray gelding you say? I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you. I hope you will.” Bettina fought back a sigh, frustrated by his indifferent air. She rose and turned to leave.

“This man’s behavior warrants an immediate search, assault or not,” Everett said through thinned lips as he slapped his hat on his knee.

“Indeed it might. Oh, Camborne, has that wife of yours ever turned up?” Trethewy scratched under his wig with the end of the file, his sardonic glare scrutinizing the other man.

“No, she hasn’t. I expect your attention on this matter. Good day, sir.” Everett put his hand firm on Bettina’s shoulder. His fingers dug into her flesh, yet his effort to protect her by confronting a man he obviously disliked moved her.

“Before you go, you wouldn’t know anything about that farm boy found dead in the cove?” Trethewy smirked, and Bettina tensed. “One of my tenant farmer’s sons. Stephen Tremayne. Quite beaten up he was, too.”

“No, and why should I? As I said, good day, sir.” Everett steered Bettina back outside.

She blinked at the glare of the sun. Her head began to throb. She looked up into Everett’s disturbed face as they stood in front of the harbor, sheltered by its towering slate cliffs. Seagulls cried out into the breeze. Women’s shouting came from the fish cellars.

“Trethewy isn’t going to be much help, I’m afraid. He never is, unless it benefits him. But he’s the only law in the area.” Everett assisted her into the curricle, his grip on her arm almost painful.

“I must agree.” The Justice bringing up Stephen upset her. But Everett had little reason to kill him and he’d been away, in London
… hadn’t he? She rubbed a hand over her brow as if she could wipe away that thought.

The curricle and horses lurched up the steep grade to the main road. An edgy silence lingered between them. Bettina’s aggravation and confusion over the events boiled over. “I must find my horse. I planned to give him to—”

“You have to be careful from now on. You simply can’t go off unescorted. And never approach that man alone.” Everett snapped the reins and his team tossed their heads. “Trethewy should be reprimanded to do his duty.”

“I am leaving here as soon as I can arrange it, so I will not be a burden to anyone.” She struggled to keep her voice firm and shifted on the hard bench. “I wish that I had never come to Cornwall.”

Everett glared at her. “Don’t start sounding like Miriam.”

“Stop this carriage at once!” Bettina slid from the seat, forcing him to rein in the horses. She jumped down and ran toward the cliffs, not wanting him to see her angry tears.

Everett leapt from the curricle and chased after her. He caught her arm and swung her around to face him. “I didn’t mean that, I'm sorry. You don’t understand everything.”

“I do not understand anything!” She thrashed to free herself, but he wrapped his arms around her and pressed her to his chest. She refused to look at him. “I wanted you to love me.”

He put his lips to her damp cheek. “I do love you, Bettina,” he whispered. “I love you so much, it’s difficult for me. It doesn’t come easily when you’ve endured what I have. And I do possess a heart, if only a trampled one.”

She gasped at his confession, then bristled with her own anguish. “You say it now, but does it solve anything? If you do not consider divorce, how can you possibly love me?”

“I’m fighting my own difficulties, but never doubt again that I love you.” Everett kissed her cheek and the top of her head, his hands caressing her shoulders. “I only regret not being honest with you. And there are matters I must attend to … to clear up.”

“What sort of matters?” Bettina looked up at him through her tears. “Do not lie to me anymore, I—” Her words were smothered when Everett kissed her full on the mouth, holding her so tight she thought she’d shatter.

Chapter Twenty-One

“You’re certain you want to know how to fire this?” Maddie fingered the pistol she’d pulled from a tin box atop a cupboard. Bettina walked with her behind the inn the next morning, the air rising warm. “But I agree, you need protection after what happened.”

“I doubt Mr. Trethewy will pursue this scoundrel since he seems to have released my horse.” Shevall had wandered back to the stable the day following her encounter, while she and Everett were in Port Isaac.

“Weren’t the horse he were after. He wanted to have his way with you, no doubt.” Maddie glanced at her as if waiting for more information. Then she squinted and inspected the pistol. “An’ he come into the taproom a time or so, you say?”

“Yes, he did. I am so confused about it.” Bettina tried to banish the toad’s leering face—and her father’s kind one. She followed Maddie to the far right of the stable into the Hawthorne trees. A family of rooks rustled in the stable eaves when they passed. Bettina pointed to the gun. “Please show me how this works. I have never fired any weapon before.”

“Suppose Father did teach me ’nother skill worth knowing
,” Maddie smirked. “Watch me close now. First, you half cock the pistol, like this. Put the flint flat upwards and clear of the hammer. You wanna push a feather tip into the flash hole to keep it clear. Make sure your powder be dry. Measure and pour it into the barrel.” She reached over for the items Bettina held, taking each one in turn. “Hold this greased calico patch over the muzzle, push your ball down with your thumb. Then ram it in. Check that the cock be safe, prime the pan and close it.”

Maddie aimed and fired at an old tree stump near the hill that sloped up to Bronnmargh. The bang made Bettina flinch. The bullet hit the stump and scattered wood chunks into the air. “Now you give it a try.”

Bettina loaded the pistol with clumsy fingers as Maddie helped her through it. She held it out with both hands. She strained not to, but shut her eyes and fired. Her hands vibrated from the force and she staggered back, a burnt smell rising up her nose. “Did I miss?”

“You need to look at something to hit it.” Maddie laughed and patted her shoulder. They strolled back to the inn. “Just need more practice. An’ this pistol needs a cleanin’
—it’s filthy. Now what about Mr. Camborne? He says he loves you, aye? But don’t believe in no fancy promises. The vicar’s blessin’ be the only true outcome.”

“I agree. He will never have me in his bed again, until he marries me. If I decide that is what I want.” She thought of Everett’s kisses out on the cliff, and his vague response to her questions on the matters he needed to clear up.

“Keep to that. Best stay close to the inn for a while after that jackanapes in the woods, ’cept for your teachin’.” Maddie hugged an arm around her as they entered the kitchen. “Kerra, now she’s spending time with Charlie, but never so late no more. I fretted they’d run off to Gretna Green to marry when she lit out those few days, but then heard Charlie were still about. She won’t speak to me of it. Has she ever told you?”

Bettina picked up a towel draped over a bucket and concentrated on wiping the black powder from her hands. She hated to lie to Maddie again. “She said she was visiting a very sick friend, who insisted on privacy.”

“I think that weren’t the truth.” Maddie’s tone remained casual, but she fixed Bettina with a sharp eye. “Best be wise with your men, both o’ you.”

“We are
… now, I promise you.” Bettina knew she had to settle everything with Everett, and hoped his admission wouldn’t separate them forever.

* * * *

Everett met Bettina at the coach when she next came to Bronnmargh and escorted her inside to the library. At the end of the lesson, he came to see her out again. She appreciated this attention, even if his change of heart and manner left her off balance. She held on to her mistrust and the desire to be selfish and look to her own future.

Everett started to take her in his arms once Frederick hurried off, but she stepped back from him.

“Mr. Slate will be jealous he no longer has the privilege of attending me,” she said, making light of her now guarded emotions. Everett’s gaze turned sad and she glanced away. “And Frederick is unhappy with me. I refused to tell him about what happened in the woods.”

Everett put his hands behind his back. “I told him nothing. But rumors are everywhere, of course. All is remaining quiet for you at the inn, I hope?”

“Yes. I have been obedient in not going anywhere unescorted.” She walked over to the bookshelf and studied a red leather volume. “Have you spoken with the Justice recently?”

“Yesterday. He said there’s nothing much he can do unless this man tries to approach you again. Trethewy won’t be much help, and you can see that he only has hostility toward me.” Everett chuckled dryly.

Bettina turned around. The tenderness on his face made her smile. He stepped close, reached out and clasped her hand.

“Why would a revolutionary be interested in my deceased father?” She returned the pressure, their skin so warm in contact.

“That is a quandary. I wish you would reconsider staying at Bronnmargh, Bettina. I worry about you. This bounder is dangerous.” Everett kissed her forehead, slow and lingering. “I know I deserve your skept—”

“We both know that arrangement will never work.” Bettina quivered and moved away once more, toward the blackened grate. She imagined how long her resolve would last if they spent every evening together. “Have you come any nearer to solving your problem about the divorce?”

“I have made little progress so far. But I’m pursuing several leads. You’re forcing me to do what, to my shame, I’ve put off for far too long.” He came behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder. “Please allow me to make up for the pain I caused you. To prove my love.”

“I want to.” She faced him and fluttered inside at the affection so obvious in his gaze. “I want to believe in you, bu
t … you have much to share with me, so I can understand. Where is your wife? Do you know? How can I be supportive in what you need to do if I have no details?”

“Just to have someone who wants to share everything with me, you don’t realize how important that is.” Everett bent and kissed her lips, his arms slipping around her. His heartbeat rumbled through the hand she placed on his chest; her own heart raced in response.

She broke the kiss. “Then include me in your dilemma.” She laid her cheek against his soft shirt to discourage more, though staying in his arms was so comforting. “I have my own concerns to contend with.”

“I’m aware of that. I pray you won’t travel off to find your mother as yet. I need you beside me.” He stroked her hair, his fingers trailing across her neck. “No, I don’t know where Miriam is. That’s what I’m working on now, locating her.”

Bettina squeezed her eyes shut and hoped this was true. She stepped away from his embrace. “You will keep me informed? I hold up your coachman, I will see you at the next lesson.” As she tied on her straw hat, she mused that now she sounded like the one planning a business transaction. How quickly roles changed. Suppressing her own yearnings, she still had a strong need for him, despite her doubts and her urge to move forward. And she’d never be drawn back in until certain of his devotion and a wedding. She would give him until spring.