Authors: Cheryl Howe
“Go ahead. Eat.
”
Darien nodded at the food Jacobson stared at without touching
.
Jacobson tore into the humble offering of food as if it were his last meal
.
Ivy brought a bottle of whiskey and two glasses to the table, then sat beside Darien
.
He took her hand and she squeezed his in return
.
After a few minutes, Jacobson paused from stuffing cheese and bread into his mouth to slug back the whiskey Darien had poured.
“Explain yourself.”
“I sent the note, Darien
.
The first one before I left England
.
The second after I heard about the earl’s plans to wed Maddox’s daughter.”
“Why?”
“Because Philip was murdered!
”
Jacobson suddenly grew red in the face.
“What happened?
”
Darien asked, remaining surprisingly calm.
Jacobson swallowed hard and glanced at Ivy
.
“It’s not proper talk for a lady.”
Ivy stood
.
“I’ll go check on Melody.”
Darien gripped her hand
.
“Please sit
.
This concerns you, too
.
You can speak openly in front of Ivy.”
“But can I speak openly in front of you, my lord
?
Philip and I had a special friendship.”
Darien nodded
.
“Go on.”
Jacobson pushed the food away and brought his drink closer.
“I wanted to tell you more in the letters but I feared for my life
.
I didn’t want any of them to come looking for me.”
“Who
do you speak of
?”
Jacobson shrugged
.
“Maddox
.
Your father.”
“Are you saying my father murdered Philip?
”
Darien balled his fists on the table
.
Ivy laid her hand gently on top of his, forcing him to relax.
“I don’t know.
”
Jacobson shook his head and slumped
.
“But I know he’s dead and it wasn’t a hunting accident.”
“Then what happened?
”
Ivy laid her hand on Darien’s tense shoulder.
“Philip wanted us to be together
.
Like you and Ivy
.
We loved each other
.
I’m sorry, my lady.
”
Jacobson lowered his head and stared into his glass.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Ivy said, gently
.
“We want the truth above all else
.
What happened to Philip
?
How do you know he was murdered?”
Jacobson sighed heavily, as if he couldn’t go on.
“Tell me everything you know
.
From the beginning.
”
Darien’s harsh voice was more threatening than coaxing
.
Ivy picked up the whiskey bottle and leaned across the table to fill Jacobson’s glass.
“Philip and I met in London.
”
He nodded his thank you to Ivy
.
“I was racing my best horse and winning like mad
.
You know how Philip liked a winner
.
”
A grin tugged at his tired mouth every time Collin Jacobson mentioned Philip
.
Merely saying his name seemed to bring a little bit of Philip back into his dreary life.
Darien nodded, his jaw tight
.
Well, we carried on a bit
.
In secret, of course
.
But then Philip realized he could not go through with the wedding to the Maddox girl
.
Not this one, but her older sister
.
Philip claimed he fell in love with me.”
Darien’s face was a stony mask
.
“What did you do?”
“Something I shouldn’t have
.
I had been wildly successful and had a farm in the highlands
.
My horses were fast and I thought I was unstoppable
.
I encouraged him to come live with me
.
We could be ourselves, live together without lies
.
Have a life like other people have.”
“And Philip agreed.”
“He did
.
He said it was the happiest he had been in his life.”
“Then what happened?”
“I did not want to leave until I sold my stock
.
I was selling more horses
than
I could breed and I wanted to accumulate a few more orders for the coming years
.
We were going mad sneaking around
.
Philip suggested we take a holiday at his family’s estate in the country
.
Everyone else was in London, so he thought we would have some privacy.”
“But my father was here.”
“No, he came later
.
With Maddox
.
I know Maddox was the one who told him about us.”
“That man knows everything,” said Ivy bitterly
.
She wished she felt surprised that Maddox loomed at the heart of this mischief, but she wasn’t
.
“He and Philip were lovers before I came along
.
Maddox had been the one to suggest his daughter as a bride
.
Philip warned me Maddox would not like being cast aside.”
“Are you sure?
”
Darien’s calm question only wanted confirmation
.
He did not seem shocked in the least.
“Very, though Philip did not take their relationship seriously
.
I sensed even then, Maddox did.”
“So my father arrived.”
“Yes, and caught us in an awkward position
.
The servants were asleep and
—
”
Darien held up his hand for Jacobson to stop
.
“I understand
.
And apparently my father did, too.”
“He was livid
.
Called Philip all sorts of horrible names
.
Said he was not his son
.
I wanted Philip to leave with me right then and there
,
but he said he could not
,
and he’d meet me later
.
He thought his father would calm down.”
“What did Maddox do?”
“The bastard smirked behind the earl’s back
.
Pretended to be offended on behalf of his daughter
.
Made all kinds of threats if the betrothal contract was broken
.
Philip was furious because he had already told Maddox there would be no wedding.”
Darien flexed his fists
.
“So you think Henry Maddox killed my brother?”
Jacobson shook his head
.
“I wish I knew for sure.”
“But you tried to shoot him?
”
Darien said.
“I was aiming for either of them
.
He or your dad
.
One of them did it.”
Darien lunged for the man across the table, grabbed the lapels of his jacket before the other man could properly react
.
Ivy stood, getting out of their way
.
“If you ever get near my father again, I swear, I’ll kill you.”
Ivy touched Darien’s shoulder
.
“Not in here, Darien
.
You’ll frighten Melody.”
Jacobson remained limp
.
“Easy, brother
.
The whole thing was a mistake
.
I never would have done more than watched if Maddox hadn’t hit you
.
I’ll never try anything like that again.
”
Darien released Jacobson with enough force to send him stumbling back into his chair
.
“Don’t call me that.”
Jacobson straightened his twisted coat
.
“I thought by the way you acted all these years that you felt the same way about the old man as me
.
Philip never saw what a manipulating bastard he was
.
Worshiped the ground he walked on
.
Wanted to be just like him, with a dove in every tree
.
Course he’d be longing for the boys.”
“All I ever wanted was the truth.
”
Darien remained standing, his stance ready for a fight
.
“What do you want, Jacobson?”
“I want the bastard who stole Philip’s life to realize what he took.”
Darien nodded
.
“Then we agree on that
.
We’ll confront my father together.”
“Are you mad?
”
Jacobson stood, glancing toward the kitchen door for an escape route
.
“They’ll kill me
.
I’m nothing but a pox to them
.
If they could murder Philip, they won’t think twice about shooting me down in cold blood.
“Not while I’m there.
”
Darien picked up his musket.
Ivy blocked Darien’s exit, afraid to let him go.
He must have recognized the fear in her desperate frown.
“Fetch our daughter
.
Robert will want to see you. My sister will keep you safe.
”
He touched her cheek
.
“I can’t leave without knowing the truth, Ivy
.
Please
.
It will help both of us to put the past behind us.”
“I do want to see Robert.
”
Ivy tried to smile
.
“Give me a moment to dress Melody.”
Ivy headed up the stairs knowing that she could not run away without facing Darien’s family with her daughter in tow
.
She just wished the idea did not churn her stomach with anxiety
.
Things would never be the same
.
When would she learn that life had no happy ending
s
and your one true love rarely turned out to be true no matter how hard he might try
?
She was a fool to hope otherwise.
***
Darien stood outside his father’s suite of rooms
.
Collin Jacobson remained silent
.
He glanced down the long, empty hallway from which they came
.
No one had said a word to Darien as he
’d
marched through the manor’s marble entryway, toting a musket and herding a tall, dirty Scotsman
.
Even the family’s longtime butler made himself scarce, whisking Ivy and Melody to Robert’s sickroom
.
Thankfully, there was no sign of Henry Maddox.
Instead of knocking, wondering if the butler had warned his father, Darien swung the door open
.
Westhaven sat in an overstuffed chair that had been pulled
close to
a roaring fire
.
Doctor Shipley hunched over him, his wig askew
.
All the
windows were open
and the drapes flung wide. The setting sun made room for the
damp evening
that
crept into the shadowed study lit only by the furiously dancing flames
.
“Just in time.
”
The doctor turned with a bowl in his hand
.
He blinked in obvious confusion when he spotted Darien and Jacobson
.
“Lord Blackmore. I thought you were the footman.”
Darien grabbed Jacobson’s coat and
dragged
him toward his father’s chair
.
Shipley stared at the musket in Darien’s hand and backed away
.
His father turned to see what had disturbed Shipley
.
He shook his head when he spotted Darien, then settled back into his chair
.
“If you’ve come to shoot me, you’ll be wasting perfectly good ammunition
.
I’m sure Doctor Shipley is slowly killing me.
”
He father held his arm over another small bowl where a cut had been made to bleed slowly into a dish.