If the Viscount Falls (38 page)

“You
knew
that?” Dom said, startled.

“He told me in one of his rages. And Samuel was always . . .”

“Enamored of you, I know,” Jane said, cradling her cousin's hand in hers. Her voice hardened. “Some men are blackguards.”

The words gave Dom pause. She was thinking of her late father.

Then Jane looked up at him, and her angry expression melted and she gave him a soft smile full of love. “It takes a great deal of time and effort to separate the good ones from the bad ones. But the good ones are out there, if you know where to look.”

Dom's heart swelled. She considered him one of the good ones. Her past really was finally in the past.

“Well,” Nancy said in a small voice, “I don't think I want to look anymore. I'm done with men.”

Something in Nancy's tone made alarm flash in Jane's face. “You said Samuel didn't . . . force you. That was the truth, wasn't it?”

Gulping down tears, Nancy nodded. “But once we reached London, and he got me into that house, I could no longer pretend he was in love with me. It was clear we weren't going to see Papa. We weren't going to see any doctors.”

She screwed up her face as if fighting the urge to cry, and even Dom felt sorry for her.

“Then he explained his whole . . . nasty plan about how my child, or rather,
Meredith's
child could still inherit, and I realized he was quite mad, and I told him so. That's when he got mean and nasty, and locked me up in that room and brought Meredith to . . . to torment me . . .”

She broke into sobs, and Jane held her, soothing her with soft words and sympathy as only Jane could.

A lump lodged in his throat. He was reminded of how Jane had behaved with
him
when he'd told her about Peterloo.

And it finally, really sank in what he'd lost by not having Jane all these years. Because she always knew exactly what to do and say when someone's heart was breaking. She knew how to heal the scars that ran beneath the surface.

If she'd been there with him after Peterloo, would he have spent so many years in pain? Somehow he didn't think so. He had truly been mad to let her go.

Thank God he had come to his senses at last.

Nancy's sobs finally subsided to a few sniffles. Jane was still holding her when Nancy murmured, “What will happen to Samuel?”

It took Dom a second to realize Nancy was speaking to
him
. “He'll be charged with kidnapping, since he carried you away ‘by force or fraud' and kept you against your will. He'll also be charged with certain offenses relating to his attempt to steal my title. You'll get your justice,” he promised her. “I can swear to that.”

And he would get his. There would be no impostor to worry about. George was truly laid to rest.

Dom's past was finally in the past, too.

As he choked down the emotion welling up in his throat, Jane rose to look at him. “Is that all you need to know?”

He nodded. “I'll go see the magistrate so we can discuss what's to be done. I know you want to stay here and comfort your cousin.” Then he headed for the door.

He'd just reached the hall when Jane ran out after him. “Dom, wait.”

He smiled at her. “What is it, sweeting?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

She came up to press a kiss to his cheek. “For letting me question her. For not turning all investigator-like and bellowing questions at her. I know she'll have to face plenty of that at the trial.”

“I'll keep her out of it if I can, but if the choice is sending him to prison or covering up the scandal—”

“You should send him to prison,” she said fiercely. “No question about that.”

He chuckled. “You are far more bloodthirsty than I ever would have guessed.”

“And more hardy, I hope?”

“Definitely.”

Her eyes sparkled at him. “Does this mean you'll make me an honorary Duke's Man, after all?”

“Certainly not,” he said in a falsely stern voice. When she lifted an eyebrow at him, he swept his gaze down her and grinned. “There is nothing remotely manly about you, sweeting. So you'll have to be an honorary Duke's
Lady
.”

She beamed at him. “I'm going to remind you of that when I ask you to teach me how to shoot.”

His grin faltered. “Teach you to what?” he said as she headed back into Nancy's room. “Have you gone mad?”

Her laughter wafted back to him as she closed the door, and he realized with relief that she was joking.

Or was she?

Good God. As a wife, Jane was clearly going to be a joy and a trial, a blessing and a curse. Once they married, she was going to throw all his plans into disarray, and all his careful control right out the window.

He smiled. He couldn't wait to begin.

E
PILOGUE

London

September 8, 1831

T
HE
D
UKE OF
Lyons's drawing room was full to overflowing as Jane came downstairs from nursing her darling Ambrose. Jane had never seen the town house so crowded. Of course, it was rare for them to have all the Duke's Men—and their families—in one place. Usually the Rathmoor Park contingent spent time with the Winborough contingent, while the Cale contingent socialized in London.

But they had all needed to be here for William IV's coronation. Dom, as the Viscount Rathmoor. Zoe, as the designated heir to the Earl of Olivier. Max, as one of the highest dukes in the land, of course. And even Victor, as
cousin
to one of the highest dukes in the land, though he hadn't marched in the procession of peers. He and Isa had taken seats in the special section reserved for those with invitations to the ceremony.

Fortunately, His Majesty, a more practical and frugal king than his late brother, had eschewed the expense of a grand banquet afterward in favor of having a dinner with intimate friends, so Max and Lisette had hit upon the plan of having their own family dinner on coronation night.

Now, as Jane scanned the room for her husband, she was reminded of that evening at Winborough when Dom had warned her to expect chaos. This was chaos times three. Victor and Tristan were in a corner, probably discussing the latest in investigative techniques. Isa sat beside Tristan's father-in-law on the settee, examining his broken pocket watch with a jeweler's magnifying glass.

The children had been allowed to join everyone for a few moments before dinner, so Lisette was trying to explain to three-year-old Eugene why he couldn't drag his one-year-old sister, Claudine, around the room by her feet, even if it did make her giggle. Meanwhile, Victor and Isa's twelve-year-old, Amalie, was dancing with her second cousin Max to a jig being played on the pianoforte by Zoe, as the pages were turned by—

Dom. Jane grinned. Of course. She should have known he'd be at the pianoforte. She reached it just as Zoe finished the piece.

“There you are,” Dom said. “How was Ambrose?”

“Starving, as always. I swear he wants to nurse every two hours.”

Zoe grinned. “It's because he's a boy.” She pulled out some sheet music and began hunting through it
for another selection. “Lisette says that Eugene nearly drove her mad. Even the wet nurse she used when she and Max came up to Winborough complained that she'd never seen a babe so lusty. But Claudine didn't give Lisette a bit of trouble. My little Drina was never a problem, either.”

“Just as I always suspected,” Jane said. “Men are insatiable from birth.”

Dom's eyes twinkled at her. “In some things, anyway.”

Her stomach flipped over. Dr. Worth had only yesterday told her that they could resume marital relations, but in all the chaos of the coronation preparations she hadn't had a chance to tell Dom.

“Oh, look, a waltz!” Zoe said, pulling out a piece of music. “And I do so like the Dettingen Waltz.”

Dom rose. “Shall we dance, sweeting?”

“Absolutely,” she said brightly and took his hand.

The music began, and they attempted to waltz, no small feat in the crowded drawing room. The tune seeped into her brain, sparking a memory. “Do you know that I danced to this with Samuel right before I jilted you at Edwin's?”

Dom blanched. “Good God, I had no idea. I wasn't exactly listening to the music that night. Do you want me to have Zoe play something else?”

“Certainly not.” She smiled at him. “All that is past.”

It was true. She knew Dom top to bottom and inside and out. She trusted him. She
loved
him, and not with the girlish adoration of apparent perfection that she'd
felt in her youth, but with the messy kind of love that could accept a man, flaws and all.

Because his flaws were nothing compared to his fine character. He was good and honorable, with a generous heart and a lively intelligence. He was an excellent manager of his estate and a wonderful father to their son. Compared to all of that, the past was a distant memory.

Dom pulled her closer to press a kiss into her hair. She couldn't wait until later, when she would spring Dr. Worth's news on him.

“Speaking of Samuel,” she said, “Nancy was relieved to hear that he received a sentence of transportation. She was afraid that Edwin would use his influence to get Samuel's sentence commuted, and she couldn't bear the idea that she might one day stumble across Samuel in the street. With Edwin supporting Meredith and her babe, Nancy wasn't sure
what
to expect from him, even though I told her he'd washed his hands of Samuel years ago.”

“Blakeborough has never struck me as the kind of man to overlook criminal behavior, even in his brother.”

“True. He has a strong moral sense, even if he does hide it beneath an equally strong aversion to people.”

He drew back to stare at her. “Forgive me, sweeting, but I cannot imagine you married to him. His melancholy would give you fits within a month.”

“Right,” she teased, “because I'm much better off married to a man who follows plans so slavishly that he stays awake half the night for fear of oversleeping and missing the coronation.”

He arched an eyebrow. “I couldn't sleep for watching you nurse Ambrose. It's been some time since I . . . well . . . saw your charms unveiled in any other capacity. I have to take my pleasures where I may.”

“Aw, my poor dear,” she said in mock concern. Deciding to put him out of his misery, she added, “I ought to say that's what you get for being so unfashionable as to share a bedchamber with your wife, but as it happens, Dr. Worth—”

The music abruptly ended, and the sound of a gong being struck broke into everyone's conversations. They fell silent as Max went to stand at the entrance to the room with Victor and Isabella at his side.

“Attention, everyone!” Max clapped his cousin on the back. “I am proud and pleased to introduce to you the new owner of Manton's Investigations.”

Cheers and applause ensued.

When it died down, Tristan called out, “So the legal machinations are finally done? Dom has actually let go of the thing at last?”

“I signed the papers yesterday,” Dom told his brother. He gazed fondly at Jane. “I decided I'd lost enough of my life to finding other people's families. Now I'd rather spend time with my own.”

“I'll bet that didn't stop you from writing a contract of epic proportions.” Lisette grinned at her husband. “How many stipulations did Dom make before he agreed to complete the sale?”

“Only one, actually,” Max said.

Everyone's jaw dropped, including Jane's. She gaped
at her husband. “Only one? You didn't dictate how Victor is to run the thing and when and where and—”

“As you once said so eloquently, my love, ‘you can set a plan in motion, but as soon as it involves
people,
it will rarely commence exactly as you wish.' There didn't seem much point in setting forth a plan that wouldn't be followed.” Dom smirked at her. “I do heed your trenchant observations, you know. Sometimes I even act on them.”

She was still staring at him incredulously when he shifted his gaze to Victor. “Besides, Victor is a good man. I trust him to uphold the reputation of Manton's Investigations.”

Jane glanced at Victor. “You're not going to change the name to ‘
Cale
Investigations'?”

Victor snorted. “I'd have to be mad. Who wants to start from scratch to build a company's reputation? It's known for excellence as Manton's, and it will always be known as Manton's, as long as I have anything to say about it.”

“So what was the one stipulation that Dom required?” Tristan asked.

Dom scowled. “That it never, in any official capacity, whether in interviews or correspondence or consultation, be referred to as ‘the Duke's Men.' ”

As everyone burst into laughter, Jane stretched up to kiss his cheek. “Now,
that
sounds more like you, my darling.”