The Marquess Who Kissed Me: (The Valiant Love Regency Romance) (A Historical Romance Book)

by Deborah Wilson

  Once Leo started something, he tended to finish it.

  “I’ve figured out a few of the families,” Leo said. “I’ve identified some that were opposite of Dunst’s side, meaning they are potential allies to Cassius.”

  “Excellent,” Oliver said.

  “There is just one problem I’m having,” Leo said.

  Oliver dropped himself into a chair. “And what is that?”

  Leo held his eyes. “Many of the people on the chessboard are dead because you killed them on Gregory’s behalf.”

  “What a shame.” Oliver took note to think about what that implied. Had Dunst been working with Gregory? He couldn’t remember the two ever being in the same room. “I suppose you’ve decided they don’t matter.”

  “Yes, I did… at first, but then I had a feeling there was more to the story.” Leo narrowed his eyes. “You want people to think you’re a sheep, but you’re not. You’re a marquess and people forget that. You wouldn’t even bend to Father though he repeatedly tried to break you.”

  “Get to the point.” Oliver didn’t like speaking about his father.

  “Oliver.” Leo placed his hands on his hips. “Is there anything you’d like to confess?”

  There were moments when Leo looked like the man he’d been named after. Their father. This was one of those moments. The condescending tone and expression were enough to curdle Oliver’s blood.

  Leo was analyzing him. The brothers all had the Childs’ Inkling. The brothers often had premonitions based on little facts.

  When Oliver didn’t answer, Leo went on, “I began to dig further into the good families. I started to wonder if they were actually dead. But them being dead would mean you were a monster and that idea has never sat well with me though you allow Nick and me to believe so.”

  “Surely, we’re hovering closer to the point of this discussion,” Oliver growled.

  Leo sat across from him and smiled. “As you know, I’ve been traveling around the country and I did some investigating. Strange fires. Empty tombstones. People who went out to sea and never came back. Do you know what they all had in common?”

  “What?”

  “No bodies for burial.” Leo narrowed his eyes. “You kept Gregory’s enemies alive, didn’t you?”

  Oliver had been waiting a long time to reveal this. He’d had to wait that first year to make sure Gregory’s Black Plague didn’t surface. Yet a year had finally passed. He could share it with someone now.

  “Read me the names and I’ll tell you who still lives.”

  Leo’s eyes widened. He rushed back to the desk for his paper and then returned to his seat.

  From the list he held, every man and every family still lived.

  “Where?” Leo asked. “How—”

  “Some are on Ben Nevis. I knew Gregory would never find them there. He’d needed someone like me to go after the few who had hidden up there to begin with.”

  “But not everyone could have made such a journey,” Leo said. “Some of these people are old.”

  This, Oliver found even harder to share. “I’ve a few people on my land.” It was one of the major reasons he was very private about it and why he frequently went home.

  “Where?”

  “There’s a cave. A rather large one actually—”

  “A cave?” Leo’s eyes widened. “When did you discover this?”

  “Years ago,” Oliver said. “After you and Nicholas left, I started digging. I intended to construct another lake on the property, but that ceased when the cave was discovered. Light shines through. There are falls with pure water. It was the perfect place to keep them. It stretches for some miles. There were two entrances at first, but I sealed one off after I began to harbor people. The only entrance that remains is by the ocean.”

  Leo remained silent in his shock. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Gregory had a plan that would terrorize London for the entire year after his death should he have died of anything but his ailment. As a precaution, and fearing one of them might be the catalyst to start what Gregory called The Black Plague, I’ve kept them hidden all this time. However, it’s time for them to return to the surface. Those who have been in hiding will rejoin Society for the next session in February if they wish.” He hoped England was ready for the missing to return. Undoubtedly, many people would be shocked.

  “I want to meet them, speak to them,” Leo said.

  “In time.” Oliver stood. “At the moment, I still have an order that anyone seen who doesn’t belong shall be restrained should they wander too close the beach.” The only person he’d forbidden his men from touching was Belle. “That includes you and Nick.” He took no chances with their lives. He knew his brothers wouldn’t betray him. He simply hadn’t wanted any unnecessary incidents.

  It was more for the protection of the people in the caves than anything else.

  “A challenge,” Leo declared with a bright expression. “Excellent.”

  “Don’t step foot on my land,” Oliver warned.

  “I’ve been on your land a few times,” Leo admitted. “It seemed as haunted as people said. Now I know why the locals fear it.”

  Oliver started out.

  “I don’t usually get into your affairs,” Leo said. “But have you told Belle?”

  Oliver looked at Leo. “I’ll tell her eventually.” He’d have to.

  Leo’s eyes widened. “You’ve allowed her to feel guilty all these years for nothing?”

  “I still killed people.”

  “But not any of Gregory’s innocent victims.” Leo waved the paper in the air. “They all still live.”

  Oliver said nothing, because Leo was right. “I’ll tell her.”

  Leo crossed his arms. “But surely, you’ve had good reason for keeping it from her.”

  “What would be the point in sharing?”

  Leo leaned forward. “Why don’t you allow anyone to think you a hero?”

  “Because I’m not.” He was his father’s son. A menace’s blood flowed through him, faster and stronger than both Nick and Leo.

  “You protected Nick,” Leo said. “You couldn’t stand me for good reasons. Even I hate the fact that I was named after our father.”

  “I don’t hate you.” Oliver ran a hand through his hair. Conversations with Leo always grew tense. “But neither could I protect you. Not when you were always leaving.”

  Leo changed the subject. “Poor Belle. She believes she created a menace. I never thought you cruel, Oliver, but this is cruel.”

  “Goodbye.” He said nothing more as he left.

  Leo didn’t know him. Leo hadn’t stayed around long enough to know him. Everything Oliver did was for the best.

  Yet as he thought it, the Childs’ Inkling said he could be wrong.

  ∫ ∫ ∫

  1 9

  * * *

  Belle stared into Dunst’s eyes across the cell. She felt no pleasure as she took him in. His mouth had been covered with some sort of contraption that prevented him from speaking. His hands were chained to the ground and yet the only thing she felt was relief.

  He watched her just as intently as she watched him.

  Was he waiting for her to jeer and mock? Belle had thought she might. She’d thought of a hundred things she’d wanted to say to him.

  Yet as she stared into his eyes, she not only saw Dunst but all the other men who’d abused her over the years. Many of them were gone, dying of natural causes, at the hand of the assassins—which included Oliver—or in the war that Cass had waged in the last year.

  Dunst being locked away likely spared many other girls.

  That made her glad.

  She decided she couldn’t leave without saying something. “I had decided long ago I would die a spinster. Yet in spite of the circumstances that brought us together, I had planned to be good to you. Before I understood exactly what it was you wanted from me, I had planned to be a good wife, because I could tell you were lonely.”

 
Dunst looked away then.

  Belle’s heart raced. Even behind bars, his sudden movement had frightened her. She pressed on. “Yes, I would have wanted my way with most things, but I also thought of your happiness. I would have tried to make you happy.”

  When he didn’t look back up, she said, “Others will be happy now that you are here. Many innocent lives will be spared. I want you to think of that while you are here. Think of all the pain you’ll never be able to cause and draw comfort from the fact that it is one less stain on your conscious.”

  He looked up then with wide eyes, and she turned away.

  Oliver was right there and took her elbow to assist her from the room.

  The cells had been dark, but the rest of the prison was painted a bright white that illuminated in the daylight.

  “I can’t believe you’d offer him pleasant words after what he tried to do to you,” Oliver said.

  “He’s in there. There’s nothing he can do to me anymore.” She looked at him. “Now, he can only hurt himself if he chooses not to ask God for forgiveness.”

  Oliver frowned. “There have to be some sins God will not forgive.”

  Belle smiled. “Well, I don’t know all the rules, but let us be glad it is not man who makes them.”

  Oliver grunted and they kept walking.

  Since their discussion in the small saloon, Oliver had been distant, which made Belle wonder if he’d actually believed what she’d said the other day. He’d said he did, but now he was unable to hold her gaze for long.

  At breakfast, he’d informed her that they’d be heading to the mines at a certain hour and then retreated with a plate full of the offering from the buffet table. She knew where he’d gone to eat. Outside.

  Was he avoiding her? And for what reason?

  Even now, he didn’t look at her as he spoke. “What made you desert the idea of marriage? I know you received many proposals.”

  She shrugged. “I simply decided the benefits did not outweigh the stakes. Many things could have gone wrong.”

  “Like what Dunst planned to do to you?”

  She shivered. “Not even that had crossed my mind before. No, I’d been more concerned about other things.”

  “Like?”

  “Betrayal.” And there was the fact that she’d wanted love. She’d loved none of the men who’d proposed to her. She’d only loved Oliver and he hated her. There had been no point in marriage after that.

  “You’ve been in the wrong company too long,” Oliver said. “Not everyone wants everyone dead.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean that sort of betrayal. I meant the kind that breaks the heart.”

  “You’re speaking of love.”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Oliver said no more. He took her to the foyer where Shepard waited.

  Milly’s voice carried from an open door. She was holding a meeting about the future for the mines.

  Oliver walked her outside. “Shall I accompany you back to the house?”

  Belle shook her head. She had Shepard. Also, she needed time away from Oliver. “I’ll be all right.” She climbed into the carriage and Shephard climbed in afterward.

  Oliver gave the soldier a hard look before stepping away and allowing the carriage to go.

  “If you wish to dismiss me in favor of Lord Venmont, do not hesitate to do so, Lady Cebele. I’ll not be offended.”

  She laughed. “Oh, no. I much prefer you. Thank you.”

  He nodded and then looked out the window.

  When Belle arrived at the Gavellorp mansion, she walked into the foyer and gasped at the sight of Oliver. “I left you at the mines.”

  “I rode ahead and looked for the dangers that could be lurking.”

  She walked up to him. “I told you that I didn’t need you to accompany me. I’m all right.” In a lower voice, she said, “Husher has the contract and he isn’t going to kill me.”

  “We can never be sure. There’s no second chance.”

  “I know.” There was no second chance. Not in death and not for them either.

  Her belly tightened, and she moved past him.

  Behind her, she heard Oliver speak to Shepard as she walked into the back. There wasn’t much of a garden. It was mostly a gated area with grass. A few vines climbed the iron, but they’d long since died. She was certain it looked very pretty in spring.

  Past the gate, a field stretched out before her. A mountain was in the distance. Between them were wheat crops. Men were out there planting the new seeds that would take root and be ready for harvest come the next year.

  She leaned over the dying vines on the gate and stared down at the workers. The sun was bright in the sky, and she wished she’d brought her parasol.

  She was not surprised when Oliver appeared a moment later. Shepard did not, which meant they were alone. She was surprised when he spoke.

  “We need to talk.”

  Belle felt panic spread through her blood, but she schooled her features before she turned to look up at Oliver. She had to squint to see him. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “The past.”

  The panic flared again. “What about it?”

  He turned his body to face her. “I’ll be right back.”

  He returned far too quickly for Belle’s liking with a parasol in hand. It wasn’t hers, but it would do.

  “Thank you.” But their height difference made it hard for her to use it and still see him. She laughed as she fiddled with it for a bit.

  “Give it to me.” Oliver took it and held it over both of them.

  She looked from the parasol to the giant lord who held it and couldn’t help but laugh again. “It matches your hair.”

  Oliver grinned. “You think so, do you?” He leaned forward and whispered, “Keep laughing and it’ll match your bottom by the time I’m through with you.”

  She gasped.

  His face shifted into remorse.

  She laughed again. “Oliver, I know it was a joke. You’d never actually do something to cause me pain.” He was no Dunst.

  He calmed and then scoffed. “You drive me crazy, Belle.”

  Her heart skipped. “I do.”

  He looked at again. “Why do you think I shout at you so much?”

  She licked her lip. “I don’t know. Perhaps because you hate me.”

  He gave a great sigh and said, “Yes, well, I intend to change that.”

  “Oh?”

  He nodded. “I don’t want to hate you, Belle. I want to find a way to move past what happened.”

  Her stomach felt as though it were filled with a dozen wild butterflies. “I want nothing more than that. Tell me what I must do to make that easier for you.”

  Oliver wrapped a hand around one of the fence posts. “I don’t know if there is anything you can do, Belle. It’s likely something I have to do on my own.”

  That was disheartening, but she still clung to hope that one day, maybe soon, he’d no longer loathe her.

  “Well, let me know if there is anything…” Her voice trailed off. “I want nothing more than for us to be…”

  “Friends,” he finished. His brows furrowed. “I would like for us to be friends again.”

  Friends.

  She could live with that.

  It would halfway kill her, but she could tolerate it far more than she could his constant anger.

  She had to ask, “What changed your mind? Knowing that I’ve not had as many lovers as you assumed?” If that were the reason…

  He shook his head. “You called me a coward and you were right. I feared to let you back in.”

  Her heart raced.

  He went on, “But you’re a beautiful person. I always knew you had a good heart, but listening to you speak to Dunst and after… I have no right to look down on you, and I feel honored that you’ve tolerated me all these years.”

  She’d more than tolerated him, and she’d had no right to call him a coward considering how much she was o
ne herself. She’d not asked about the kiss because she feared the answer.

  But it was too late to bring it up. The past was the past. Oliver wanted friendship, and she would not ruin that.

  “Can you forgive me?” he asked. “For every look, every foul word or accusation. Could you ever—”

  She reached out and took his hand. “I forgive you.”

  His eyes widened and then he exhaled and grinned. “Thank you.”

  ∫ ∫ ∫

  2 0

  * * *

  Belle was an amazing woman. Oliver couldn’t stop staring at her from across the saloon as everyone waited for the call to dinner. Every now and again, she would look away from whomever she was speaking to and grin at him far more covertly than he was being.

  Cass had invited other guests this evening. His allies from the area had come in. Milly planned to alert them to what was happening at the mines and wished them to keep an eye on anyone who seemed suspicious lurking around. Every precaution was being taken to ensure the prisoners by the mines would stay at the mines.

  A hush fell over the crowd as the final guest arrived.

  Husher walked in and immediately sought out the duke. “Your Grace. I would like to thank you for this invitation and the chance to have an audience with you. I— ”

  “Grab him,” Cass said.

  Two soldiers grabbed Husher’s arms while another grabbed the man by the hair and yanked him back.

  Raven was blocked when he tried to step forward.

  Husher didn’t fight, but by instinct, he was primed for a fight. He held Cass’ gaze and breathed hard.

  The men close to Cassius had known this would take place. The women were surprised. The allies were as well, though they kept their expressions neutral.

  “Are you going to kill me?” Husher asked.

  “Have you done something that should call for such an act?” Cass asked.

  “No,” Husher said soundly.

  “Then I won’t be killing you.” He turned to a soldier at his side and took the blade the man offered him.