by Cheryl Holt
“After she birthed your daughter, what did you think happened to Clara? Obviously, Roxanne didn’t retain custody. Did you imagine she was sent to an orphanage? Were you told she was put out for adoption? What?”
“I have no idea who or what you mean.”
“It’s too late to lie,” Jacob said. “Your secrets have been exposed. I realize you assume you chased Miss James away in a panic, and I have to admit, you were adept at terrorizing her, but she’s safe and fine, so you must explain yourself to me.”
“As with your London accountants,” Kit blustered, “if Miss James has spewed falsehoods about me, you should produce her at once. Let me question her. We’ll find out how brave she is when she’s staring me in the eye.”
“I wouldn’t force her to endure your awful company ever again.”
Jacob’s expression was incredibly condemning, and it was gradually dawning on Kit that he was in a great deal of trouble. He’d merely planned to scare Joanna James, to be sure she’d leave, but apparently, he should have been a little more violent with her. If she was dead, she wouldn’t be sitting in a hidden location and tattling.
“Jacob”—Kit’s tone was soothing and conspiratorial—“you can’t believe her over me, can you? I don’t carry the surname of Ralston, but I’m a member of the family. Your mother adored me.”
Caleb Ralston snickered. “Don’t drag that shrew into this mess. Not if you hope to make any headway with your groveling.”
Kit kept his gaze locked on Jacob. “We were raised together, Jacob. We grew up like brothers! You always said so.”
“No, you always said so.” Jacob gestured to Mr. Ralston. “I have two brothers: Caleb and Blake Ralston. You were never included in that group.”
“What a perfectly horrid remark.” Kit started to tremble and sweat copiously. He pulled out a kerchief and mopped his fevered brow. “You’ve yanked away my job and my home, and now, you’re glaring as if I’m some sort of . . . of . . . felon.”
Caleb Ralston said, “It’s a good label for you.”
Kit turned his furious attention to Mr. Ralston. “Sir, I am having a private discussion with Jacob. Would you depart the room so he and I can talk without you constantly interrupting?”
“I won’t depart. I’m having too much fun, listening to your absurd alibis.”
Jacob piped in with, “I’m having you arrested.”
Kit’s innards clenched. “Arrested! For what?”
“You’ll be charged with arson, destruction of property, embezzlement, and . . . attempted murder.”
“Who have I tried to murder?”
“Focus Kit. It was Miss James and Clara—who is your daughter.”
“Her niece is not my daughter, and I didn’t try to murder anyone.”
“There’s no use denying it,” Jacob said. “You lit their house on fire while they were asleep. We’re lucky it was only an attempt at murder. If you’d been more cunning, it would have been a full-on homicide.”
Kit quailed with dismay. “You’re joking, aren’t you? Is this some kind of game? Some kind of trick? What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that my family has given you every single thing you’ve ever had, and you were never grateful for any of it.”
“I’ve worked hard for you!”
“I suppose I could line up the servants and ask their opinions.”
“The servants love and respect me.”
Both brothers laughed at that, and Jacob said, “What about you and Roxanne? Stop pretending you never had intimate relations with her.”
“I can’t win this argument. It’s a lie, disseminated by Miss James to ruin me. If I refute it, you’ll ignore my protestations of innocence.”
“Roxanne has already confessed, so there’s no reason to keep up the ruse.”
Jacob’s comment fell between them like a death knell, and Kit seethed, “The bitch confessed? I warned her to shut her mouth.”
“I figured that was your plan, but I’d like you to be honest with me. Once in your sorry life, admit your folly.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I expect this will be the last time you and I ever speak to one another, and since this will be our final conversation, I’d like to hear the truth.”
It suddenly occurred to Kit that he’d always taken their friendship for granted. Now, with Jacob claiming it revoked, he was sick with regret and wondering how he’d carry on without Jacob.
Jacob couldn’t intend to sever ties, and Kit needed to get them back on firmer ground. Perhaps he should beg for mercy. Jacob was demanding candor. It Kit supplied it, would it help?
“We were children,” he said. “She was fifteen, and I was but a few years older, so you shouldn’t judge us. It was just one of those unfortunate scandals that engulfs young people.”
“As I told Roxanne, I don’t judge you for the affair. I judge you for your conduct afterward. I judge you for keeping the situation a secret. I judge you—and I condemn you—for letting me proceed to an engagement with Roxanne, while you snickered and bit your tongue.”
“We didn’t mean any harm.”
“You had a daughter with my fiancée! You hid the information for over a decade, and you didn’t mean any harm?”
“Your mother arranged the betrothal without apprising me. What was I supposed to do? When Roxanne waltzed in the door, should I have tossed her out?” Kit leaned toward Jacob, hoping he appeared sincere. “We were protecting you! We recognized how the facts would wound you, so we agreed to bury them. We did it for you!”
Caleb Ralston snorted with disgust. “That is the most self-serving, ridiculous excuse ever uttered.”
“You were protecting me?” Jacob’s skepticism was alarming. “And when you threw that torch through Miss James’s window, when you could have killed her and your daughter, how would you describe your actions then? After Clara was born, you still haven’t clarified what you presumed happened to her. Did you think Clara was smothered after the delivery? Did you assume she was given to the fairies to raise?”
Kit’s cheeks heated. “Roxanne told me she was adopted.”
“When you realized she was at Ralston, what then? You didn’t kill her when she was a baby, so you decided to kill her now?”
“I simply wanted to scare them,” he vehemently insisted. “Roxanne and I thought they should leave the area, but Miss James is such an imperious shrew that we didn’t feel she’d go unless she was pushed.”
“That sounds like an admission to me,” Caleb Ralston said, “and I’m a witness.”
“I . . . I . . . am not admitting to anything,” Kit hurried to claim, “but whatever occurred at Miss James’s cottage, it was Roxanne’s idea. She was determined you never discover her past. I yearned to confide in you, but she constantly threatened me. You ought to know too that she was chased out of Italy because two lovers dueled over her, and there’s been gossip that she entertained a hundred different men in Florence. You shouldn’t marry her! It would be a huge mistake.”
Kit sensed he was babbling, but his fever was making him lose track of the issues. He’d expected that the news about Roxanne and Italy would be a welcome revelation, but Jacob and his half-brother glared as if he’d posed a complex riddle.
“I’m delighted that Joanna’s dog attacked you,” Caleb Ralston said. “I wish he’d ripped off your entire leg.”
“Please tell me that vicious animal is dead,” Kit said, when he probably should have remained silent.
Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see that malicious beast leap out of the dark as Kit approached the cottage. The only bright spot of that whole wretched night was how he’d whacked the dog with his ax. He’d been praying ever since that he’d slain the loathsome creature.
“That vicious animal,” Caleb Ralston said, “is alive and healing just fine. But I
’m predicting the bite he inflicted will kill you painfully and slowly. It will save the courts from having to waste energy punishing you.”
Jacob rose to his feet, looking like a judge about to pass sentence. He studied Kit’s deteriorated condition, and he laughed in a cruel way.
“I have been kind to you,” Jacob said. “I have given you a good life, a good job, a good home, and every minute that you were wallowing in my largesse, you were betraying me.”
“I never betrayed you!”
“You embezzled from me. You let my property fall into a state of disrepair that will require years to mend. You nearly allowed me to engage myself to a trollop who wasn’t worthy of being my wife.”
“Will you listen to me? I didn’t know about the engagement in advance! Your mother didn’t inform me.”
“But when you did learn about it, you conspired with Roxanne to hide your sins from me.”
“I can explain.”
“Well, there’s the problem for you, Kit. I don’t care what your explanation might be.” He nodded to his half-brother. “Get him out of my house.”
“Gladly.”
Caleb Ralston marched over and yanked Kit to his feet with such force that it wrenched his injury. He wailed in agony and asked, “What’s happening? Where are you taking me?”
“You must concentrate, Kit,” Jacob said. “You keep becoming confused. You’re under arrest, and there will be a lengthy list of charges. The worst ones will be the arson and the attempted murder.”
Caleb Ralston sneered, “Those are hanging offenses.”
At hearing the word hanging, Kit fainted. When he roused again, he was in a carriage and rumbling down a rough road. He didn’t recollect how he’d arrived there or who had carried him. He was lying on the floor, each bump of the vehicle causing him to bounce and jostle his wound.
He tried to sit up, but he was stunned to find that his wrists and ankles were bound with a rope. He groaned in anguish, and Roxanne appeared in his line of sight, leaned over from the seat above. She was the only other occupant, and she was fettered as well.
“You only had to do one thing, Kit,” she spat. “You had to shut your mouth.”
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“To jail—you bloody fool.”
“I told Jacob this was your fault,” Kit said.
“I told him the same, but apparently, he didn’t believe either of us. He seems to assume we’re accomplices.”
“His half-brother, that Caleb fellow? He said I might be hanged for starting that fire.”
“It’s no more than what you deserve for ruining my life.”
“I ruined your life? I’m quite sure that’s an exaggeration. You were completely capable of ruining it without any help from me.”
Roxanne crushed her foot onto his leg, right on his wound. He howled with outrage, but she simply stared out the window. Despite how he begged, she didn’t raise her foot, didn’t ease the pressure, and he wasn’t strong enough to kick her away.
“Those are the two most despicable people I’ve ever encountered.”
Jacob smirked in agreement. “I’m amazed that I put up with Kit for so many years. I’m even more amazed that I almost wed Roxanne.”
“You definitely dodged a bullet there.”
“You are a master of understatement.”
“Have we handled all your crises?” Caleb asked. “May we head to Barrett now? I’m anxious to marry Caro, but she’ll be thinking I’ve changed my mind and fled.”
“I need to pack a bag, write a quick letter, and speak with two boys so I can have them pack too. Then I’ll be ready.”
“Who are the boys?”
“Their names are Tim and Tom Sanders. Their father is my stable manager, and he’s out of town. I’m watching them while he’s away, so they have to accompany us. Their father would skin me alive if I left without them.”
“I can’t have them slowing us down. Can they ride?”
“Like the wind.”
“Who must you write to?”
“My sister, Margaret. She eloped last week—with their father. It’s why he’s away from the property.”
Caleb laughed. “It sounds as if your side of the family is just as deranged as mine. Did you try to stop them?”
“I thought about it. I even chased them to Scotland, but then, it occurred to me that she’s twenty-eight, and she can decide who she wants as her husband. They stayed on to enjoy a honeymoon, but I’d like them to come to my wedding.”
“You’re awfully certain Joanna will have you.”
“I’m not certain at all. She feels I’m a pompous snob.”
“She’s right, but I suppose you’ll wear her down.”
“I hope I can, or Luke will wring my neck.”
“He won’t have time to notice your misbehavior. He’s too busy, doting on his bride. It’s embarrassing to observe how he fawns over her.”
They were in the driveway, waiting as the dust settled behind the carriage whisking Kit and Roxanne to jail. Caleb gestured to the house and said, “Could we cease our dithering?”
“I’ll hurry.”
“Don’t forget to bring a fancy suit. You have your own wedding to attend—plus two more besides.”
Jacob peered up at the sky and asked, “Do you believe there’s really a Heaven? If so, do you imagine Father is looking down on us?”
“There might be a Heaven, and if there is, he must be up there. I can’t fathom how these three Lost Girls found each other on their own. Someone seems to be guiding their steps.”
“And ours.” Jacob grinned. “Let’s head to Barrett and get married.”
Joanna was in her bedchamber at Barrett. Caro was sitting on a chair over by the window, and Mutt was loafing on a rug by the fire. Joanna was kneeling next to him, checking his stitches.
He was healing nicely, with no sign of infection, and he was able to walk with a slight limp. It would be awhile before he’d run after a rabbit, and he’d probably never be as fast as he once was, but he was much better.
“How is he?” Caro asked, and when he heard them talking about him, he thumped his tail.
“He’s much improved,” Joanna said. “In another day or two, I’ll remove the stitches.”
“I wish I had your nursing skill. It must be satisfying to possess such a useful talent.”
“It’s satisfying, but it can be dangerous too. I can’t ever forget how my mother and I were chased out of England because of her abilities.”
“I don’t think it was her healing ability. I’m quite sure it was her illicit amour with your father.”
“In my Aunt Pru’s version of the story, the romance was all my father’s fault. My mother constantly tried to break it off, but he was like a bad penny. He kept turning up.”
“Do you ever wish you could meet him? What if you have a few half-siblings out there in the world? Wouldn’t it be interesting to speak to them? You’ve always been so alone. What if you approached them and they welcomed you into the family?”
Joanna scoffed. “Or what if they were horrid? I couldn’t bear to get my hopes up only to have them dashed. And what kind of man could my father possibly be? He supposedly loved my mother, yet he wouldn’t intercede to protect her. I realize it will sound silly, but I blame him for the shipwreck and for her dying on our island.”
“That is silly. I blame the weather.”
They chuckled, then Joanna gave Mutt a final pat and went over to the chair beside Caro.
They’d just been to the village church, to check Libby’s wedding preparations. Flowers were being delivered by the wagonload, and a team of housemaids was polishing every inch of wood so the building gleamed. It would be a festive, glorious occasion, and everyone was determined that each tiny detail be perfect.
Libby had aske
d Caro and Caleb to make it a double ceremony, to wed with her and Luke, but Caro had declined. Libby was a national celebrity, and Luke was an earl. Caro wouldn’t dare butt into the middle of their grandeur, and Libby couldn’t change her mind.
The wedding rehearsal would be held the following afternoon, and—since the vicar would be there—Caro and Caleb would have a quiet ceremony after it ended. It meant they’d have two weddings in two days, one very posh and splendid and one very small and private.
Joanna would sit in the front pew at both, and at the pretty notion, she could have burst into tears. Fate was a strange creature. She’d waited twenty years to find Caro and Libby, and they’d crossed paths at exactly the right moment.
“Will Caleb return today?” Joanna inquired. He’d had a problem arise at his gambling club in London, and he’d rushed to town.
“He promised he’d be here,” Caro responded, “and I’m telling myself he will be.”
“He won’t have gotten cold feet, will he?” Joanna teased. “He wouldn’t have boarded a ship and sailed for America?”
“Oh, his feet will be so cold that they’ll be blocks of ice. Those Ralston men are such confirmed bachelors. A woman needs a chain to drag them to the altar, but I have Luke on my side now. He’d wrestle Caleb down the aisle for me.”
They smirked together, then Joanna sighed wistfully. There was so much nuptial cheer in the air, and she was nostalgic for the what-might-have-been she could have pursued with Jacob.
She’d been raised to believe she shouldn’t wed, but she would have loved to be his bride. She wondered where he was and when he’d be back in England. Did he ever think about her? Did he ever regret how they’d parted without a goodbye?
With her being reunited with Libby and Caro, she would be entwined in their lives, and Jacob would be too. He was Caleb’s half-brother, so he would be Caro’s brother-in-law and a member of Caro’s extended family. He was also friends with Luke from their service in the navy, so Joanna would socialize with him in the future.
She was trying to deduce how she felt about that. She was fairly certain he wouldn’t be marrying Roxanne, but he’d eventually marry someone. If he strolled into Barrett Manor while Joanna was there too, if he had a wife with him, how awkward would the encounter be?
