Jo Beverley - [Rogue ] (43 page)

Defeated, he covered his face with tense fingers as she said, "My virginity was taken by force by Lord Stainbridge. He appealed to Nicholas to save my honor. We had never met before our wedding day."

The startled listeners were beginning to understand that this was not to be an easy evening. In the silence Amy reached for her husband's hand. Francis, looking at Nicholas, wondered if he would go on or would abandon the whole thing, but after a moment he drew his fingers from his face and continued in a lower and more strained voice.

"My brother's appeal was somewhat... inopportune, but I had developed the habit early in life of getting him out of awkward situations. Eleanor and I were married, but then I was faced with both wife and mistress needing my attention."

He picked up his wine glass and took a drink. Eleanor couldn't be sure that his hand was steady.

"At first I had hopes of concluding Lord Melcham's business speedily. I had resumed my liaison with Therese, and she seemed to be completely devoted to me. She claimed to be willing to do whatever I wished. I had, I thought, already persuaded her to give up her intrigues and had promised her a healthy amount of money from the British government if she would give them the lists of the leaders of the plot. I confess she was under the impression that we were going to enjoy this money together. I had convinced her my marriage was a formality... To do this I had to spend all my time with her. I found it simplest to simply leave town for a few days to complete my business with her."

He spoke directly to Eleanor. "I couldn't face the thought of coming from my mistress's arms to yours."

She lowered her eyes. There was a glow inside her that needed only a little fanning to burst into loving flame. But not yet.

"This couldn't go on indefinitely, but instead of it all being over Therese began to make difficulties. I had to return home with nothing settled. It was a relief to me, Eleanor, that you seemed happy to accept a distant relationship for a little while. I thought you content, but I think I hurt you more than I ever thought to."

Eleanor looked up and gave him a reassuring smile. His eyes left hers to dwell on the leaping flames in the fireplace. "I look back on all this as a period of madness," he said, shaking his head. "I imagined I had some sort of duty to my country. I thought I could keep everyone dancing to a tune of my playing and pick up the pieces of my marriage whenever it was convenient. Conceited, aren't I?" he remarked, looking back at her.

Eleanor said nothing, but she met his eyes. At least she could show him she was not unduly upset by what he was saying.

"When you started to see your brother," he continued, "I was disturbed. I knew by then he was in the thick of the plot, purely in hope of financial gain, and I was afraid he would embroil you. Our relationship had become so tangled that I didn't know what you might do."

Eleanor spoke sharply. "Now that does hurt."

Before he could respond, Miss Hurstman raised her voice. "I think I for one could make more sense of this if I knew about this plot."

"It was to liberate Napoleon from Elba," said Nicholas, his eyes still on Eleanor, "and restore him to power in France. It was highly sophisticated on the surface, but... Well, more of that later. By the way, Eleanor, that first time you were followed it was by one of Therese's minions."

"I know. He was one of the men who captured us."

"Ah." He nodded. "Thereafter it was one of mine. I did try to protect you, but if I had realized you really were in danger I would have done more. I became careless in the end."

He picked up the story. "I revived a schoolboy clique to provide a little assistance in my activities. I wanted you initiated so you would receive their care. I was as surprised as any of them," he admitted with a reminiscent smile, "to realize you were already a member. I knew how alone you were in the world, and I wanted them to be an honor guard for you.

"You know the end. Therese was supposed to give me the lists, whereupon I would give her the government's money and flee with her. I had no intention of doing so, of course, but as it turned out I had little choice. I thought I was pulling all the strings when, in fact, I was the puppet."

"What do you mean?" asked Peter.

"I hope you all have sense of humor," Nicholas said wryly, "because if so, you'll enjoy this."

He then explained Therese's skillfully contrived bogus plot. "She said, and I have no reason to doubt it, that she had gathered at least one hundred thousand pounds."

He allowed the reverent silence appropriate for such a figure.

Francis whistled. "Good God."

"A most resourceful woman," said Miss Hurstman. "I would like to meet her."

"That's an encounter I would enjoy—as an observer," said Nicholas. "But I wouldn't lay bets on the winner."

"Winner!" snorted Miss Hurstman. "We would doubtless be on the same side. How she must have loved to see you grovel."

Color rushed into his face but he managed a smile. "Quite. Heaven help the world if you two ever do get together."

He took up his explanation. "My involvement in the plot was originally serendipity. Richard Anstable was one of Melcham's men and had got wind of the gathering of monies for Napoleon and of Therese's involvement. He had to die. It was sheer luck for her that I was in Paris and met him. She then conceived the idea of gaining some kind of hold on me. She gave orders he be killed in the way most likely to embroil me.

"But this was not the beginning of her witchery. She foresaw Napoleon's end and was already planning her move to England. She had already decided to seek control over me through my brother. She was responsible for the business leading up to my marriage," he said.

Eleanor gasped.

For the first time he seemed to have trouble finding words, and he looked down at his hands. "At the least, she hoped to have the means to embarrass Kit. At the best, she would have a weapon at my head. Lord Deveril managed the whole thing, with your brother as his tool. Deveril was to have you as his reward. Therese is very economical. It must have annoyed her considerably when you escaped.

"They doubtless assumed you to be dead. It must have given them all a shock when you turned up married to me. I don't know whether Therese was motivated by spite, jealousy, or merely a warped sense of humor, but when she realized the act I was having to put on for her, she decided to ruin my marriage."

He shrugged and looked at Eleanor ruefully. "I wasn't quite a good enough actor, you see. She guessed I cared for you. She demanded all of my time, of course, but her
coup de grace
was the scene at the end, which she hoped would alienate you forever. She overplayed her hand, of course, but she could not know your capacities, your character. Any other woman would have been in hysterics and unable to think clearly..."

Miss Hurstman cleared her throat.

Nicholas looked at her. "Most other women. That's as far as I am willing to bend."

He turned back to Eleanor. "I still don't know how much of the rest was planned or impulse. It was probably my fault for indulging in a little rudeness once the lists were gone and you and Amy were safe. I'd been dancing to her tune for so damned long... When she told me what had really been going on I lost my temper. I probably gave away that I had hopes of a reconciliation, and so they took me with them."

"To Virginia?" Eleanor asked.

"I doubt that's where she went," he said with a shake of his head. "She'd advertised it as her destination, and she would have any number of people from both sides after her. Anyway, they only took me a few miles out to sea and then they put me on a ship to Africa. The new Cape Province of South Africa to be precise. I never did discover whether it was payment, threats, or blind devotion, but the captain—a most disreputable man—was determined to deliver me there despite every persuasion I offered.

"He was reasonably well-disposed towards me, I'll confess, as long as I was quiet and submitted to confinement whenever we were near land. I tried to smuggle off a letter at Bordeaux. The seaman I'd bribed was flogged half to death... It was a long, tedious, and unpleasant voyage.

"The passengers were being sent out to swell the numbers of British there, but they weren't a salubrious lot. They were the scaff and raff, many of them fleeing before the law. There were some young women going out to look for husbands, mostly because they'd already lost their virtue. Some were with child. One in particular caught my attention. We became friends in a way." He looked at Eleanor quickly. "Platonically, I assure you. In helping her after the child was born, I learned something of babies. Mary was more gently bred than the others, so they were unfriendly to her. She was ill after the confinement. If I hadn't cared for the child I think they'd have dropped it overboard."

Eleanor could tell there had been something of her in this woman. She felt no jealousy, just a realization that Mary's fate could well have been her own.

"When we docked in Cape Town," Nicholas continued, "I was dirty, disreputable, and virtually penniless. All I'd had to begin with, after all, was a few items of jewelry and my silver buttons, and the captain had demanded most of that to pay for food and some extra clothing. He was a little generous with me because he was short-handed, and I was willing to play crew when necessary.

"I cleaned up enough to get some clerking work until I got a message to the governor, Lord Charles Somerset. Fortunately, we'd met once, and so I didn't have to prove who I was, but he obviously thought I was a damned queer fish. He lent me some money and arranged passage home for me on a fast frigate. I gave most of the money to Mary for a dowry, to help her find a good husband, and then set sail. That is my story."

"What I don't understand," said Eleanor, "is why Madame Bellaire didn't realize you would come home one day and tell me this."

"She is a different kind of woman, Eleanor, and not, in fact, one who understands the others of her sex. She expected you would refuse to see me. At the best she hoped you would give me up for dead and marry again. I was lucky in knowing Somerset and finding transport home so easily. It could well have taken much longer."

"She also forgot you were a twin," said Eleanor.

Nicholas raised an eyebrow in query and she explained about Lord Stainbridge's lack of anxiety.

"I never thought of that. She probably also didn't take into account that I am the kind of bold soul who would just come down here and walk into your bedroom."

"If we are to act as devil's advocate," broke in Miss Hurstman, "I am forced to say that most of your story could be complete fabrication. We know you have considerable powers of dissimulation. Perhaps you decided to frolic a while longer with your mistress and then finally tired of her. Or perhaps not even that. Perhaps you have returned to sweet-talk your wife and then intend to indulge your addiction to traveling again, rejoining Madame Bellaire at some point on the globe."

Eleanor had stirred in instinctive protest, but Nicholas seemed unmoved. "I know it's virtually impossible to prove what I say. I did, however, take the precaution of obtaining a document from Somerset vouching for my presence."

He went to a desk and took out a paper. He gave it to Eleanor. Eleanor broke the seal and unfolded the document.

Miss Hurstman craned forward. "It certainly looks official enough."

Nicholas took out another, similar document. "So does this." He passed it over. "I obtained that one in London without showing the forger the original."

It was different, but just as impressive.

Eleanor laughed a little shakily. "Really, Nicholas, there are enough prosecutors without you adding your mite. What is Africa like?"

His eyes warmed at her acceptance. "Pleasant enough, but I wanted to be home."

Eleanor looked away. It was going too fast. Perhaps she was succumbing too easily.

A discussion about details flowed around her, but she hardly paid attention. She believed his story, and he couldn't really be blamed for the debacle at the end. He'd spoken the truth, however, when he said those months of pain and confusion that had been their marriage had been the result of his arrogance.

And now he was pleasingly contrite—and so damned confident.

Suddenly she had to pay attention again. Lord Middlethorpe was speaking. "Well, Eleanor, I don't think anything can be added."

She looked around. She could read on their faces, in their relaxation and good humor, that they all thought they knew what she was going to say. A spark of resentment took fire within her.

"Yes, Francis, you're right," she said levelly. "But I need time to consider. My confinement was very recent, and my emotions are still sensitive. Nicholas will understand that, I think." She swallowed and summoned her courage. "I would like him to go away," she said, not addressing or looking at her husband. "For... three weeks." She had in fact meant to say a month, but her nerve failed her.

She could feel the shock from all of them, and a glance at her husband's face revealed a tightening there. His voice was calm, however, when he spoke. "Of course. I should go and see Kit, anyway. I can carry news of his niece."

"As you wish," said Eleanor, feeling unreasonably that he might have protested or tried some of his clever persuasion. As decisions went, this one was hardly a success. It had pleased no one, least of all herself. She was in danger of weeping.