Dark Angel (47 page)

"Of course, love. I'm sorry, I do go on so." But the gleam in her dark eyes told Caroline that Dolly had every intention of continuing to interfere. She might have said more but the door opened suddenly to reveal John, the Wellstones' mansevant, and behind him Lord Sheriton.

Dolly gave a squeal of delight. "Sherry, how lovely to see you." She picked up her reticule and turned to Caroline. "I really must go. Don't come down with me, your man will see me out." She embraced Caroline and whispered, "Caro, do be sensible." On these words she left the room, leaving behind a sense of unfilled space.

Wondering whether Dolly referred to Talbot's revelations or Sherry's arrival, Caroline asked her new visitor to sit down and for a few minutes they spoke about the dinner at Granby House. Caroline held up her end of the conversation with effort. Her mind was filled with things she mustn't talk about— the scene in the salon after Sherry had left the house, her night with Adam, Adam's meeting at the Foreign Office.

Sherry too seemed distracted. He sat on a hard-backed chair too small for his large frame, his hands locked between his legs, his eyes fixed on her in an intent gaze. "I've come at a bad time," he said.

"No, no." Caroline spoke out of politeness. She liked Sherry's company, but she wished he would go away. "It's only that I'm a little tired," she added, hoping that this statement would be enough to make him do so.

Sherry unclasped his hands and placed them on his thighs, as though he was going to rise, but he did not do so. Instead he leaned forward, all traces of good humor wiped from his face. "I'm sorry you're not feeling well. But there's something I've got to say or I'll burst. You need taking care of, Caroline. I wish you would let me do it. I want you to be my wife."

Caroline's breath caught in her throat. "A declaration?" she said, trying to make the moment light.

"It's too early, isn't it? I knew it would be, or I would have spoken the day I met you on the
Sea Horse.
I've been in love with you forever."

"Sherry, don't. You mustn't. I can't." Caroline was startled by the obvious strength of his feelings. Then she saw the hurt look in his eyes and knew she owed him the truth. "I can't marry you, Sherry. I'm going to marry Adam Durward."

Sherry stared at her in astonishment. Whatever excuse he had expected from her, she could see he had not expected this. "You'll think me the greatest fool," he said, jumping to his feet as though the little chair could not contain him. "I hadn't realized..."

Caroline wanted to be kind. "I've known Adam nearly all my life."

"Yes. Yes, of course. I hope you'll be very happy." He took a turn or two about the room and came to rest standing before her.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then Caroline said, "Sherry, there's something you should know." She didn't want to tell him about Emily, but Talbot was Sherry's friend and Talbot had malice enough to spread the story about, no matter what Dolly said. If Sherry had to hear it, he should hear it from her.

"It's about Emily," Caroline continued. "She's not Jared's daughter."

"Not—" Sherry colored. "Oh. I see." He sat down abruptly. "You didn't have to tell me that."

"Talbot knew. He told the family last night, after you'd left. He wanted them to know how matters stood. He particularly wanted Lord Anandale to know."

Sherry looked more shocked than she had ever seen him. Then his hands clenched and a red flush suffused his face. "I wouldn't have believed it of Talbot. That's not the act of a gentleman."

Caroline could have laughed. If Sherry only knew what kind of a man Talbot was. If he only knew what Talbot had tried to do to her in Spain.

"Does Durward know?" Sherry asked.

"He does. It makes no difference."

"It would have made no difference to me."

Caroline felt a great wave of warmth for the man who sat opposite her. "Thank you, Sherry."

"It was no one's business but your own."

"It was Jared's too. He knew and he accepted her."

"Jared knew he'd treated you badly. He may not always have shown it, but he had great affection for you. But Talbot." Sherry pounded one hand against the other. "I'm damned if I know why he wanted to speak ill of you. Forgive my language, Caroline, but it makes me so angry. I'm sorry we ever listened to him about the damn foundry."

Caroline pushed aside the welter of feelings Sherry's visit had aroused. She still needed to learn more about Talbot. "How did that come about?" she asked. "How did Talbot ever think of a foundry, let alone find that man Bell?"

"I don't think it was Talbot's idea to begin with."

Caroline started. If not Talbot, who else had been involved? "Go on."

Sherry was calm now, trying to recall the past. "Do you remember Silbury?"

"I'm not sure. The name sounds familiar."

"Eldest son of Lord Camden. I knew him slightly, but his passion was cards. And though I was foolish enough in those days, I wasn't going down that road. But he and Talbot were thick as three in a bed. I think it was Silbury who told Talbot about Bell. Talbot leaped at the idea. He'd leap at anything that smelled of money. I ran into them one night at the club and heard them talking about it. Excited as a couple of pigs with a trough of swill." A sudden furrow appeared between Sherry's eyes. "I always expected Silbury to come into it too. He had enough of the ready. I don't know why he didn't."

Caroline felt a frisson of excitement. "Where is Silbury now?"

Sherry frowned. "America, I think. His father has some relatives there. I think Silbury's gambling got out of hand—cheating or something like that—and his father wanted him out of the country."

Silbury. Silbury. He might be the key to the whole story of Talbot's involvement with the foundry. There'd been nothing about him in Jared's papers that they'd seen so far. Jared might have talked of him, but he'd talked of so many people and she hadn't always listened. But there was her journal. She might have noted it in her journal. Caroline smiled at Sherry and in a few minutes brought their interview to a close. As he said goodbye he held her hand tightly. "Caroline, you know how I feel about you. If you ever need a friend..."

"Thank you, Sherry." She urged him toward the door and saw him go down the stairs. Then she ran up to her bedchamber and looked at the pile of books stacked in a corner of the room. Her journals. She'd been keeping them since she was thirteen. How far back should she go? Jared's fraud had been discovered in 1808. Two years at least before that. She picked up her journals for 1806 and 1807 and settled on the bed.

An hour later she had relived two years of a life she had almost forgot and she had found two references to Viscount Silbury. In June of 1806 Jared had gone out for the evening with Talbot and Lord Camden's son, Silbury. In October of that year Caroline had gone looking for her husband at a reception and found him in the cardroom. He was losing money, as usual, but Talbot was losing even more. The winner that evening was Lord Silbury. Caroline had noted it in her journal because Talbot had been so very angry and upset.

If Talbot had been in debt to Silbury, he would have been eager for any chance to make money. If Silbury was anxious to be paid, he might seek a way to use Talbot's position in the Ordnance Office. Perhaps...

Caroline's reflections were interrupted by a light scratching at the door. It was Elena, looking distressed and uncertain. Caroline, remembering how Elena had spoken the night before, was sure it had something to do with Hawkins. Ashamed that her preoccupation with her own problems had caused her to forget all about the other woman, Caroline set down her journals quickly and asked Elena to join her on the bed, then leaned back against the pillows and waited for her to speak.

Elena did not seem sure how to began. She looked down at her lap, twisting her hands together. They were beautiful hands, well-shaped with long oval nails, ornamented only by a gold ring that had been given her by her husband. The small gold circle was a symbol of respectability, like Caroline's own wedding band which she had not put on again after leaving Adam's bed the night before.

The sun coming through the window made a bright streak of gold on Elena's hair. She lifted her chin and looked at Caroline. "I am in what I think you call a dilemma."

"I'm sorry. Can I help?"

Elena threw her arms wide in an expansive gesture. "Can anyone help? I do not know. Listen to me, Caroline, perhaps that will be enough." She sighed and leaned back against the bedpost. "I think I may be with child."

Caroline was startled, though she knew it was no cause for wonder. She pushed herself across the bed and clasped Elena's hand.

Elena turned and looked into Caroline's eyes. "I am careful, you understand, but that night when you came back to Lisbon I was so happy to see my Hawkins I did not think about anything but lying in his arms."

"Of course." It had been much the same with Caroline, though it had been danger and fear that had driven her into Adam's arms after her near drowning in the Carrión. "Have you told him?"

"How can I?"

Caroline drew back. "But he wants children. He told me so himself. I think he wants to marry you."

Elena looked at her a long moment, her deep blue eyes inexpressibly sad. "Not any more. When we were in Lisbon, he was ardent and eager. He frightened me. I don't want to lose another husband. But now he is as cold as the cucumbers. He will not push me, he says. He knows I am not ready. What he means is that he is no longer ready."

"I don't believe that. Elena, you share his bed."

Elena gave her a long look. "You are not stupid, Caroline. You know that means nothing." She sighed and turned away. "One is hungry, one eats. But that does not tell you how to live. That does not make the problems go away."

No, it did not. Caroline knew that all too well. For all her hunger for Adam and his for her, it had taken Emily to bring them together. They knew all each other's weaknesses. Still, they had made the compromises that they must. Elena must do so as well. "Can you go back to Galicia?" Caroline asked.

Elena gave a wry smile. "If any of my family are still alive, they will not welcome me. They did not like my choice of husband. He fought with the French, and they supported the
guerrilleros."
She turned suddenly toward Caroline with a look of utter despair. "What am I to do? I have no money. I live only by the charity of Adam and Hawkins. I cannot impose on Mrs. Wellstone forever. I would ask her to help me find work, but how can I work when I have a child?"

"You must tell Hawkins," Caroline said. "No, listen to me, Elena. It's not fair for you to keep it from him. You must tell him and you must marry him, for your child's sake."

"No. That is easy for you to say, but I cannot do it."

"You can. I thought I could not, but I am going to. I'm going to marry Adam. I'm going to marry him because Emily needs a father." Caroline looked down at her lap and carefully unclenched her hands. "Emily is Adam's child," she said softly. Even now it was hard to admit it.

Elena gave a gasp of surprise. "My dear Caroline."

"I didn't tell him, not till we were on the ship, and then only because it slipped out without my meaning to." Caroline raised her eyes and met the other woman's gaze. "He was furious. He said I didn't think him fit to be a father. That I didn't think him fit to be a husband." Caroline lowered her eyes.

"It was a stupid quarrel," Elena said. "But he will get over it. He loves you. Any fool can see that."

"Perhaps. Perhaps love is not enough. There was more, Elena, than what passed between us on the
Sea Horse.
Much more. Adam and I have hurt each other badly through the years. Emily was conceived in a moment of great bitterness. Even now, neither of us can completely forget."

"Yet you marry anyway."

Caroline smiled. "We marry anyway. We take what is good between us and try to ignore the rest." She looked at Elena. "The one thing I have wanted to do with my life is to protect Emily. Jared knew she was not his, but he accepted her. I didn't want her to grow up having the world proclaim her a bastard. My cousin Talbot knew the truth, though thank God he does not know who her father is. Last night he told Jared's family that Emily is not Jared's child and in those few words wiped away all that I had done to protect her. I had hurt Adam once more, and it was all for nothing. Nothing."

The last word came out as a sob. Elena reached for Caroline and pulled her into her arms. "So we are two of a kind."

Caroline, her face muffled against Elena's shoulder, managed to nod. "So," Elena said. "I must tell my pigheaded Hawkins, and if he wants me I must marry him, and once more I will have a husband who leaves me to go into danger. Oh, Caroline, God must be very angry with women. He plays dice with us, and I think perhaps He laughs."

The two women clung to each other for a long time. When they pulled apart, they were both laughing, though their faces were wet with tears. "If you marry Adam," Elena said, "and I marry Hawkins, then I think we will be alone together."

Caroline smiled. "And Emily will have a little brother or sister."