Unmasking Sin, page 23
“Is that a proposal of marriage, Mr. Dunne?
“It is, Lady Cornish. Will you consider it?”
“Yes.” She waited the three beats of the waltz—one, two, three. “I’ve considered, and I accept.”
A smile broke out on his face and on hers as they danced, oblivious among the other dancers.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The following morning, at nine of the clock, Rebecca’s town carriage deposited her and Ludovic Dunne at the home of Mr. Aloitius Rawlston.
“Good morning, Jones,” Rebecca said briskly, taking the butler by surprise by walking straight past him. “Is Mr. Rawlston in the breakfast parlor?”
“Why, yes, my lady,” Jones said, flustered and trotting after her, as though to prevent her going any further. “But is he expecting you? He is with Mr. Constantine, and I believe he is expecting another early caller…”
“We have come instead of the other caller,” Rebecca said, presuming they were awaiting Dauncy with the news that she was dead.
From the back of the hall, a footman came barreling up, clearly meaning to block Rebecca’s path. He was the man who had once accompanied the uncles to snatch Tom, and he was both large and threatening. But Ludovic stepped in front of him, saying softly, “Really?”
And the man’s aggression melted like butter in the sun.
Rebecca sailed past, opened the door on the left, and walked into the breakfast parlor. She knew, without looking, that Ludovic was directly behind her.
The uncles were alone at the table, clearly deep in a conversation, and they broke off immediately to stare expectantly at the opening door. In other circumstances, their expressions would have been highly amusing. Dropped jaws, consternation, annoyance, and then a visible struggle to maintain politeness as Constantine leapt to his feet, followed more slowly by Aloitius.
“Surprised, gentlemen?” Rebecca asked.
“Good morning, Rebecca,” Aloitius said, recovering. “Were there no servants to announce you?”
“Yes, but I wished to see your reaction for myself. Mr. Dunne.” Without invitation, Rebecca sat in the armchair by the window.
Both brothers gawped at Ludovic as he walked toward them.
“What the devil are you doing here?” Aloitius demanded. “You were dismissed.”
“And I’m sure your solicitor, the estimable Mr. Archibald, has informed you that I now represent Lady Cornish. Sit down, gentlemen.”
“Ring the bell,” Aloitius flung at his brother.
“Please do,” Ludovic said, apparently amused. “If you wish us to leave, we shall be more than happy to do so. Though you should know that we are the only warning you are likely to receive, and you really do need to get your affairs in order.”
“What are you talking about?” Constantine demanded, although he made no effort to reach for the bell pull.
“It may interest you to know that Captain Peveril Dauncy was arrested last night and will be charged with the attempted murder of Lady Cornish. Among other charges, including treason. You made a poor choice in your assassin, though you can hardly have expected him to be a man of honor.”
The brothers exchanged glances.
“We have no idea what you are blabbering about,” Aloitius said disdainfully. “Please leave us to enjoy our breakfast in peace.”
“Very well. Dauncy won’t be breakfasting, after all. In fact, about now, I imagine he is desperately spilling into the magistrate’s ear every little detail of his agreement with you gentlemen. He has a history of wriggling out of trouble by casting the blame elsewhere. In this case, of course, it won’t do him any good.” Ludovic smiled at the uncles. “It won’t do you any good either. Besides the charges of fraud, embezzlement, and theft we will bring against you, you will be lucky to be merely transported. You really should sit, you know.”
From his document case, he brought a large, fat sheaf of papers. “You have been stealing money held in trust for your great-nephew. The evidence is clear and easily followed, for you made no effort to cover it up. Then there is the matter of slander against Lady Cornish—and yes, there is evidence of that, too. Your sister has also been happily misappropriating funds and misusing property she has no right even to be living in.”
The uncles sat.
“You are ruined,” Ludovic told them tonelessly.
“But…but you cannot do this!” Constantine exclaimed. “We have family, children…”
“Lady Cornish has a child,” Ludovic reminded him coldly, “whose interests you were charged to care for. Yet you tried to ruin her reputation simply to obtain sole control of the child from whom you were systematically stealing. And when she began to look into your mishandling of her son’s estate, you paid a known traitor to murder her.”
Blood had suffused Constantine’s face. Aloitius had turned white. For once, neither had anything to say.
“Not very gentlemanly behavior,” Ludovic remarked. “Dishonorable. Despicable. Wicked.”
“It is not your place to judge,” Aloitius said, low.
“No. Others will do that. But in the face of this evidence, do you really think anyone, even your own children, are likely to come to a different judgment? And that is before you even reach the courts.”
In the silence, Rebecca could see the world falling in on Theo’s uncles as they began to comprehend the ruin of their lives, not simply their stolen wealth.
“You would do this to our wives, our children?” Aloitius asked in a whisper.
Ludovic shrugged. “Your wives and children were happy enough to live off what you stole.”
“The scandal will reach Rebecca, too,” Constantine pointed out.
Rebecca laughed. “You think I am not used to scandal?”
“But it will put off your noble suitor,” Constantine sneered.
“My noble…?”
“Dearham won’t marry you if we are disgraced,” Aloitius said with a very mild return of his old force, which quickly vanished as Rebecca laughed again with genuine amusement.
“Dearham has no intention of marrying me and never did. But somehow, he is a friend and will stand by me. Even if he doesn’t, I shall live with that, too.”
“On the other hand,” Ludovic said, producing yet more papers from his case, “her ladyship will not tarnish her son with that brush unless she has to. So, here is an alternative. You immediately sign over your guardianship to solicitors appointed by her ladyship. You will sell this house, and Mr. Constantine Rawlston will sell his, the funds to replace what was stolen from Sir Thomas Cornish.”
They stared at him in horror. “But where will we live?”
“I really don’t care. Abroad might be best, given the charges relating to Dauncy. And the farther, the better. Australia, voluntarily, is better than transportation. And I’m told there are opportunities in the Americas.”
Ludovic pushed the required documents in front of each. “Resign the guardianship, and after that, you will never see Lady Cornish or her son again.”
“My sister is his grandmother!” Aloitius said feebly.
“And she will be treated as such. Once she vacates Redpath Hall. That is between the two Lady Cornishes and nothing to do with you.”
Inevitably, the uncles signed, as did the butler and the first footman as witnesses. And then Ludovic and Rebecca walked out of the house together.
Outside the carriage, she paused and drew in a lungful of air that seemed fresher than normal for London.
“I feel…free,” she said, almost with surprise.
“And what would you like to do with that freedom? For the next few hours.”
“I believe…I would like to walk with you. If you have time,” she added diffidently.
“I have time.”
She dismissed the carriage, and he offered her his arm.
“I missed you last night,” she admitted. “After Maida.”
“I thought of trying to entice you to my rooms instead of dropping you at home.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He was silent for a few paces. “Because I wanted you to have the night to yourself after all the excitement. To have time to decide if what we said in the heat of emotion is true.”
She cast him a fleeting glance. “That I love you? Or that you love me?”
She heard the smile in his voice. “Oh, I know I love you. I know I want to marry you. But you will be marrying down. And you have Tom to think of.”
“Tom adores you. As for marrying down, you seem rather a large step up. My family is merely country gentry, you know. Which is why the Bowden match must have seemed irresistible to them. But I don’t want to think of Bowden, not today.”
“I will keep my practice,” he said. “Both the bread-and-butter work and the other investigations. I won’t live off you or Tom.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. But I don’t think you are a poor man.”
“My charges can be steep,” he admitted. “And my brother invests it well. But I work from the city, and I travel a good deal. And I know you would rather live in the country.”
“These are trivial matters,” she said with sudden impatience. “You said you wished to marry me.”
“I do, with all my heart.” His low voice seemed to vibrate through her body.
“Then we will find a way.” She glanced up at him to find him smiling down at her. “What?”
“I never expected, never looked for, such happiness in my life.”
“Neither did I. It’s almost as if all the other trials—Bowden, Theo’s unfaithfulness, my isolation—were just to make me strong enough, worthy enough for you.”
Ludovic looked startled. “Rebecca, the boot is quite on the other foot.”
“Well, let us argue as we walk,” she said contentedly.
They did not argue, but they talked of possibilities, of Tom, of Renwick, even beaming at the unexpected return of his rubies as he tore up Theo’s old debts. It was sometimes serious, sometimes bantering, but always comfortable. Until Rebecca realized they had walked almost to St. Paul’s, and Ludovic’s office was but a few minutes away.
Now, words fled. The constant physical awareness of him moving close beside her, occupied every sense, leaving nothing else to say or think.
He said gently, “Shall I find you a hackney?”
“No,” she said at once, her hand tightening on his arm, for foolish alarm was fast disintegrating into new, exciting happiness. “Since we are so close to your rooms, I would appreciate a cup of tea.”
And so they turned the corner toward his office building. He bowed her through the front door, and she walked ahead of him up the stairs, past the landing with his name plaque, and on to the door to his living quarters.
Her heart thundered as he unlocked the door and ushered her inside. He took her bonnet and pelisse and hung them on a gracious hall stand before leading her into the sitting room she had been before. But he had no servant, so she followed him to the kitchen, watching with fresh amazement as he quietly and efficiently heated water and made a pot of tea, which he set on a tray with a jug of fresh milk and a bowl containing several lumps of sugar. By then, she had found cups and saucers in his neat if sparse cupboards and they took the lot back to the sitting room.
It was not quite the comfortable chatter of their walk. She was far too aware, and she thought that he was, too. He rarely took his gaze off her face, and something about his breathing made her think his heart beat as quickly as hers. And yet, she knew that this time, he would not ask. They would be married as soon as they legally could be, but he would make no assumptions until then, just because need had driven them together before. For one night. Had either of them ever truly meant that to be just one night?
She set down her teacup and regarded his hand in his lap. She covered it with hers, and he smiled. She smiled back and rose, tugging him with her.
“I don’t know where your bedchamber is,” she said. “You will have to show me.”
He did, leading her by the hand to another too-tidy chamber, dominated by a large, carved bed, whose saving grace was that it smelled faintly, delightfully, of Ludovic.
There, he finally took her in his arms and led her on quite a different journey through sensual delights to ultimate, mutual ecstasy. And then, when they lay, sated in each other’s arms, he did it all again.
“I have to go home,” she said reluctantly at last. “I should have tea with Tom.”
“I’ll come with you if you like.”
She smiled. “I do like. Ludovic?”
“Yes?”
“I look forward to being your wife.”
“And I to being your husband.” His fingers trailed down her spine as she began to rise from the bed, making her shiver all over again. “Then we can do this whenever we like. I should warn you, I will like it a lot.”
She cast a mischievous glance over her naked shoulder. “Good.”
“Rebecca?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
For that declaration, she had to come back and kiss him and be kissed in return. And then they helped each other dress and went to have tea with Tom, and to enjoy the rest of their lives together.
Epilogue
Autumn chills were turning to winter frosts when Mr. and Mrs. Dunne’s traveling carriage drew up to the front of Redpath Hall.
With the first feeling of dread she had experienced since her marriage to Ludovic, Rebecca climbed the front steps to Redpath Hall—and smiled to see Dawson and Mrs. Arnott waiting in welcome.
Not only that, but the entrance hall had been redecorated in light, bright colors. The worn, old carpets had been removed and the floor tiled to make a gracious, sweeping space.
“Welcome home, my lady,” Dawson beamed.
Behind him, James and Mark were trying not to smile, and behind them, new servants she had to meet and greet. Ludovic, who had been carrying Tom on his shoulders, swung the child down beside his mother to play his role of master of the house, which he did by dancing up and down the line of servants and hugging the legs of those he knew. He had clearly forgotten the two maids and the groom, who were the only members of the previous staff left behind. But Rebecca had not forgotten and gave them a particularly gracious smile.
Two weeks before their marriage, she and Ludovic had come here together. He had offered to give Lady Cornish the ultimatum, but Rebecca had discovered she needed to face the woman herself. And so, while Ludovic stood quietly behind her, she had faced her disdainful mother-in-law and told her she was to vacate the house forthwith, taking with her her own personal belongings and whichever servants wished to go.
Lady Cornish’s lips had curled. “And so, at last, we see the true Rebecca Kingswood, vindictive and grasping and—”
“Madam, if I were so grasping, I would be asking you to pay back all you have been busy stealing from your grandson,” Rebecca said sharply. “And be warned, I still might if you do anything that might endanger Tom’s future, material or otherwise. But I have borne my last lecture from you and my last insult. Had you ever shown me the remotest kindness or even respect, I would happily have shared this house with you. But I will not have my son brought up surrounded by your bile and bitterness. Therefore, you will leave here within the month and thereafter may return only by invitation until Tom reaches his majority and can make his own decisions. Goodbye, Lady Cornish.”
And with that, she had turned and walked out. And it had felt good, like a huge weight she had never acknowledged, drifting up from her shoulders.
And now she was back, it felt even better. She had visited only once, since that day, just before they embarked on the wedding journey, to give orders for refurbishment; and now it was done, Redpath Hall felt like a different place. Or, no, it felt as if it was now the home it should always have been, bright and welcoming, with Tom’s excited laughter echoing through the house and the cheerful chatter of the servants going about their business.
After climbing the staircase and admiring the gracious drawing room, the cozy library, and the comfortable dining room, they moved on to the bedchambers, and Rebecca took Ludovic’s hand with a hint of desperation. For this was the most personal of spaces, and redolent, surely with Theo and disappointment, illness and death.
But she had chosen different rooms for her and Ludovic, and they, too, had been aired and redecorated. They walked through them, hand in hand, and Rebecca struggled to reach a new insight.
“I don’t mind that I was here with Theo,” she said in wonder. “It’s all part of who I am, and you love me. Everything is right because you love me. Home is with you and with Tom. We will be happy here.” She rested her head against his shoulder as she gazed out of the window and smiled. “But then, I will be happy anywhere with you.”
His arm slid around her waist. “I shall insist upon it.” With his other hand, he pointed over the woods to another house in the distance. “Do you know that property?”
“Ashley House. Mr. Ashley died, and his children planned to sell it.”
“They did. I bought it just before we began our wedding journey.”
Rebecca burrowed closer to him as heat spread beneath her skin. For during her wedding journey, she had become seriously addicted to her husband’s physical love. She had never dreamed of the infinitely varied forms of passion, tenderness, and joy, all centered in the wondrous, eternally intriguing person of Ludovic.
With an effort, she focused on what he had said rather than on the wedding journey. “Why did you buy it?”
He shrugged slightly. “You admired it when we passed it once. And it struck me that if you were not happy here, we could live there and still be close enough to manage Tom’s land, too. And then, when Tom is ready to be independent, we can remove there, distant enough to give him the freedom he will need, but close enough to see him often.”
She raised her head and gazed at him. “You really do think ahead, don’t you?”
