Joan Wolf (38 page)

“No.” His mouth twisted wryly. “But it was the boating accident that gave me the idea that I might resolve my problem by doing away with Stephen.” For a fleeting moment his eyes held mine. “I never intended to harm Giles, Annabelle. Please believe me when I tell you that.”

I nodded and dropped my eyes away from his.

“None of this is your fault,” I heard his voice assuring me. “I never would have done it for you alone. I was primarily trying to save Papa. And myself, of course. I didn’t want to lose all the good things Papa’s embezzled money had brought me.”

Adam gave a small sound indicative of the purest agony, and my heart wrenched.

I tilted my head back so I could look up at Stephen. “We don’t want any arrests, do we, Stephen?”

“No,” he said. “There will be no arrests.”

Uncle Adam sagged in his chair, as if a hundred-pound weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Annabelle and I have talked,” Stephen went on, “and we think it will be best, Adam, if you take Aunt Fanny and Nell and go to live upon the Northamptonshire estate you have purchased.”

“You ... you are going to allow me to keep it? “ Adam said incredulously.

“That is what Annabelle wants,” Stephen said.

“My dear, my dear,” Adam said.

“I do not consider that you were well treated by your family, Uncle Adam,” I said. “And I do not want to see Aunt Fanny or Nell hurt.”

“And what ... of Jasper? “ his father asked fearfully.

Stephen said, “As part of my inheritance from my mother, I own a plantation in Virginia. I am prepared to deed it over to Jasper, together with an adequate sum of money to start a new life in America.”

Jasper stared above my head into Stephen’s face.

Stephen said to him, “I freed all of the slaves as soon as I came into the inheritance, and you must promise me that you will run the plantation using only hired labor. I am hoping that if other owners see that a plantation can be run profitably without slaves, they will be inclined to follow your lead.”

Jasper’s level brows rose a quarter of an inch. “You expect me to be successful, then?”

“I know you will be successful,” Stephen returned.

The two men looked at each other for a moment longer in silence. Then Jasper said soberly, “I will do my best, Stephen.”

He lowered his gaze from Stephen’s face to mine, and the plea for forgiveness that he could not voice was vividly present in his eyes.

“ Annabelle? “ he said softly.

I thought of all the happy childhood hours that we had shared. I thought of all the letters I had written to him while he was in Spain. I thought of all the prayers I had said for his safety.

His gray gaze begged me for forgiveness.

I thought that he had tried to kill Stephen.

“I never want to see you again,” I said.

And I meant it.

Chapter Twenty-six

I left the library to the men and climbed the stairs to the nursery to tell Giles that we had found Stephen’s enemy. I thought it was extremely important for my son to know that his world was safe once more.

Giles listened to me with wide-eyed attention. His first question after I had finished speaking was, “Did Jasper want to kill me too, Mama?”*

I said firmly, “No, darling, he did not.”

He sat for a few moments, drumming his heels against the bottom rung of his chair. Neither Eugenia nor I corrected him. “What about the boat, Mama?” he said at last. “And the time he shot at me in the woods? “

“It seems that the boat incident really was an accident, Giles,” I assured him. “Jasper said he had nothing to do with that. And he didn’t shoot at you; he shot at Uncle Stephen. The only reason he didn’t shoot again that day in the woods was that he didn’t want to risk hitting you.”

Giles was actually silent. He looked as if he were thinking.

“Where is Captain Grandville now?” Eugenia asked quietly.

I turned to her. “Jack is going to take him to Southampton and book his passage on a ship to America. Stephen is allowing him to take over a Virginia plantation that once belonged to Stephen’s mother’s family.” I sighed. “It is a solution that has the dual advantages of getting Jasper out of
the country as well as saving the family from a scandal that nobody wants,”

Eugenia nodded gravely.

We were all sitting around the table in the schoolroom with Giles’s letter books spread out before us. I
had interrupted Eugenia’s lesson when I came in.

I looked at my son. “Did you hear that, Giles? Uncle Stephen is sending Jasper away to America, so there is no chance that he will try to hurt any of us again. There is no murderer hiding in Weston Park, darling. It is perfectly safe for you to go out.”

“I heard you, Mama,” Giles replied, but his brow was puckered and he did not look reassured. “Did Jasper say
why
he wanted to kill Uncle Stephen?”

My immediate impulse was not to tell Giles about Adam. I did not want my son to feel as if he couldn’t trust any of the members of his own family. “He was jealous of Uncle Stephen, Giles.”

“Why would he be jealous of Uncle Stephen?” Giles asked in amazement. “Jasper was a soldier, Mama! He fought in the war!”

Obviously, in Giles’s eyes a soldier rated far above whatever it was he thought Stephen might be.

I bit my lip, not knowing how to answer him without involving Adam.

“Was Jasper jealous because you liked Uncle Stephen more than you liked him? “ Giles asked.

I looked into his bright eyes. I hesitated.

“He was!” Giles said triumphantly.

“Perhaps a little,” I said cautiously.

“Poor Mr. and Mrs. Grandville,” Eugenia said. “How distressed they must have been to discover this dreadful thing about their son.”

“Yes,” I said, seizing on the opening she had given me. “They are so distressed, in fact, that they have decided they can no longer remain here at Weston. They are going to go to live upon Mr. Grandville’s estate in Northamptonshire.”

“I don’t want Nell to go away from Weston,” Giles said peremptorily. “I like Nell. She plays with me.”

“Nell has to go with her mama and papa, Giles,” I said. “They will need her very much now that Jasper is going away.”

After a few more protests, Giles conceded reluctantly that this was so, and I was successfully able to introduce a new topic of conversation.

I took my lunch in the schoolroom with Eugenia and Giles and then went back downstairs, hoping to find Stephen. Hodges told me that he had gone out with Uncle Adam, so I repaired to the morning room with the dogs. The French doors had been opened to let in the morning sunlight, but the sky had grown more clouded as the day progressed and the room was growing a little chilly. I went to close the doors, and when I turned back into the room I saw Aunt Fanny coming in the door from the passageway.

For as long as I live I will never forget the look on her face that afternoon. She was white as a ghost, and her bones looked as if they were in danger of protruding through her skin. I had a sudden, horrible premonition that this was how she would look when she was dead.

Well, it had to have been a little death to her to have discovered the truth about her beloved husband and son.

I moved forward, lifting my hands, ready to take her in my arms and offer her comfort, but her face stopped me after I had taken just one step. I said, “I know this has been as much a shock to you as it has been to me, Aunt Fanny. Please believe that I will do anything I can to help you and Nell.”

She answered in a cold, formal voice that didn’t sound as if it belonged to Aunt Fanny at all. “Thank you, Annabelle. I was wondering if I might take a few pieces of bedroom furniture from the Dower House—just until we can get settled. Adam tells me that the house in Northamptonshire is very sparsely furnished. I will return them to you as soon as I have made my own purchases.”

“You may take—and keep—anything you wish,” I said.

“You are very kind.” She turned to leave.

“Aunt Fanny!” I cried in bewilderment. “Why are you behaving like this? Surely you don’t think I blame
you.”

She spun around to face me, and at the sight of her glittering eyes my voice died away.
“You
blame
me?”
she said. “I should think not. It is rather I who should blame you, Annabelle!”

I stared at her stupidly. “I d-don’t understand you,” I stuttered.

“Jasper would never, never have done such a thing if he hadn’t been so desperately in love with you,” Aunt Fanny said fiercely.

I was speechless.

She took a step in my direction, staring at me in the way I fancy Hecuba must have stared at Helen when they chanced to meet in one of the palace rooms at Troy. Truth to tell, it was rather frightening.

I gathered my wits and spoke up in my own defense. “I never encouraged Jasper to love me. I never regarded him as anything other than a good friend. Good God, Aunt Fanny, I was a married woman until six months ago!”

“It was Gerald’s death that encouraged Jasper to think he might have a chance with you,” she said. Her voice changed, hardened. “Then Stephen came home.”

I felt as if I were talking to a stranger. “Aunt Fanny,” I said, “do you realize that Jasper twice tried to
murder
Stephen?”

She said, “You and Stephen have ruined the lives of both my children.”

I was appalled. “That’s not true!”

She swept on as if I had not spoken. “The biggest mistake I ever made was allowing Adam to remain here at Weston for all those years. Neither Weston nor Gerald ever appreciated him. They never gave a thought to the fact that the salary they paid to him was insufficient for a gentleman who had a wife and two children to provide for.”

I said in a tone I tried to make reasonable. “Did Uncle
Adam ever talk to Gerald or his father about increasing his salary? “

Aunt Fanny said, “They forced him to embezzle that money.”

I wasn’t quite prepared to agree with that conclusion, so I simply said, “I certainly do not wish to see him punished.”

“That is charitable of you, my dear,” Aunt Fanny said.

Her tone of voice was an insult. I could feel the color flame into my cheeks. I waited a moment until I had my temper under control, and then I said, “I am sorry you feel this way, Aunt Fanny. Is there anything else?”

“No.” She turned her back on me and started out of the room.

I waited until she was opening the door, and then I said, “If ever you feel that you can forgive me, please don’t hesitate to come to visit.”

I saw her falter, as if she would turn around. But then she merely nodded, opened the door, and walked out into the passageway.

I sat down on the pretty flowered sofa and began to shake. The spaniels must have sensed my distress, because they came over to sit at my feet. Merlin nudged my hand, and I bent over to pet him. The feel of his silky black coat under my fingers was soothing, and my heart gradually began to slow its beat. The sun came back out from under the clouds that had been covering it and fell on my back with welcome warmth.

I was still sitting there, with the spaniels curled at my feet, when the door that Aunt Fanny had closed behind her opened again and Stephen came in. He saw my distress instantly.

“Is it just Jasper or has something else happened?” he asked as he sat beside me on the sofa. I felt his shoulder touch mine, but I didn’t turn toward him. Instead I gripped my hands together in my lap and stared at them as I told him about my interview with Aunt Fanny.

“As you can see, it has rather overset me, Stephen,” I
concluded carefully, still not looking at him. “It is very painful to discover that someone whom you thought cared about you doesn’t really like you at all.”

“Aunt Fanny does care about you, Annabelle,” he said firmly. “It is just that at the moment she is very upset about Adam and Jasper. She knows they were wrong, but she feels obliged to defend them. And the only way she can defend them is by pushing the blame off on someone else. In the case of Adam, the guilty parties are Gerald and my father. In the case of Jasper, the guilty party is you.”

I continued to stare at my hands with mesmerized fascination. “Jack thinks it was my fault,” I said.

Stephen’s hands gripped mine, and he turned me so that I was forced to face him. “Annabelle, nothing that has happened here at Weston is your fault.”

I shook my head and looked at his neckcloth, still evading his eyes, knowing that what he said was untrue.

“I think Aunt Fanny hates me,” I said, and my voice cracked.

At that, Stephen gathered me into his arms. “She doesn’t hate you, love,” he said. I could feel his chin resting against the top of my head. “It is just that Fanny is a mother, and her children must always come first with her. Once she has reconciled herself to Jasper’s departure she will be friends with you again. You’ll see.”

I had never come first with
my
mother, but I had never minded. I had always known I came first with Stephen.

It’s you and me, Annabelle. Just you and me.

My whole life had been built on that foundation. When it had been taken away, I had crumbled.

My face was pressed against his neck, and I breathed in the familiar, beloved scent that was so unmistakably Stephen. I shut my eyes and said in a muffled voice, “Stephen, why did you send a note to Jem that night and not send one to me?”

I felt the shock that went through him at my question. He didn’t ask me to clarify which night I meant. I lifted my head so that I might see his face.

He wouldn’t look at me. “When did you learn that I sent a note to Jem?”

“The day that you were thrown from Magpie.”

“Ah,” he said, “I see.” He drew a deep, uneven breath and tried to speak normally. “Well, if you have learned that I sent a note to Jem, then you must also have learned why I acted as I did.”

I said, “Stephen, I have always known that you took Jem’s place that night. I never for one moment thought that you were involved with smugglers.”

I saw a muscle jump in his cheek.

I went on relentlessly. “But what I have never known is why you left for Jamaica without one single word to me.”