by Lucy Langton
“Mr Goodayle had a younger sister who upon hearing how her brother died, sought to seek her revenge against the very man that had led to his death,” Lord Lock said as he uncrossed one of his arms and gestured towards Flynt.
“But I didn’t kill him. He was plotting mutiny against the captain and the crew, determined to become a pirate and seek greater riches than the Navy could ever offer him,” Flynt explained.
“Yet, you were his closest friend and the one who told the captain about Mr Goodayle’s plans,” Lord Locke said, stepping closer to Flynt.
“It was either tell the captain and risk one man’s life, or risk the lives of everyone else on board when they decided to attempt the mutiny. I had seen enough bloodshed by that time and couldn’t stand by and watch more men that I cared about die,” Flynt said, his body starting to shake as though he was shivering.
“And when the captain found out, he had Mr Goodayle thrown overboard,” Lord Locke said, explaining the tail. Flynt lowered his head then, feeling the guilt and shame of the whole situation wash over him once more. His mind was begging for a strong drink, something to numb the pain he was feeling all over again. But his desire to see Ada again outweighed everything he was feeling, helping him to look back up at Lord Locke.
“So how does Miss Butler fit into all of this?” he asked.
“She is Mr Goodayle’s younger sister,” Lord Locke explained. “She went by a different name, not wanting to associate with someone who now had a bad reputation. However, she also couldn’t live with the fact that you caused her brother’s death.
“When she came to me and explained her plight, I agreed to help her because I wanted to get back at you. The night of the concert when I had you sign all those documents, the fake wedding license was amongst them. You were in such a hurry to get rid of me that you didn’t even pay attention to what you were signing.”
Flynt relaxed immediately at the news that he indeed had not married Miss Butler in his stupor. His hands unclenched and his shoulders relaxed as he sighed deeply. Lord Peterson slapped him on the back in his excitement, causing Flynt to chuckle a bit in his own relief.
“Miss Butler has threatened to go to the papers with all of this. It will surely ruin me unless you are willing to confess to the entire mess,” Flynt said to Lord Locke. The gentleman shrugged his shoulders in return.
“It depends on what you are willing to pay me for my services,” Lord Locke replied with a sneer on his face. Flynt shook his head, knowing that something like this would more than likely happen.
“Alright then, what are your demands?” Flynt asked.
“I have not decided yet what I would like from you, Lord Statham. But in good time, I’m sure I’ll think of something,” Lord Locke replied with a chuckle. He was clearly enjoying this game of cat and mouse.
“Miss Butler is going to need to be discovered. She needs to tell the truth to my family, and most importantly, my wife,” Flynt said.
“Actually, I have an idea,” Lord Peterson spoke up then. As the three of them discussed the idea that was provided at that moment, Flynt couldn’t help smiling. He was sure that it would lead to him and Ada being reunited once more.
~*~
Ada stood on the beach with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She was watching the water rush in from the sea and then drift slowly back out. She had her arms wrapped around her, hugging the shawl to her body as a cool breeze whipped across the beach. In the distance, she could see rain clouds gathering over the water, a good distance from the beach.
Slowly, she began to walk along the beach, feeling the sand press into her bare feet as she went. When she spotted a seashell, she would ignore it all together. Just seeing them reminded her of Flynt and the many seashells they had collected and brought back to Town for the widowed sisters. Ada felt better now that she was in Brighton, but with so much reminding her of Flynt and the love they had shared together, sometimes it was hard to bear.
What Ada had come to enjoy during her two weeks in Brighton was that she loved to walk the beach. It was normally empty, and she could be truly alone. The water rushing onto shore filled her ears, making it easier to concentrate on the sound of the waves than thinking about the memories she had of this place. She forced everything from the past out of her mind, and instead forced only the positive thoughts of the future.
Every day that passed only confirmed more and more of what Ada suspected to be pregnancy. She was nauseous in the mornings and would start her days pretty slowly. With only herself to care for, she found it pretty easy to maintain the small cottage and herself.
Her meals were small, and her days passed without much responsibility. Therefore, she found herself more often at the beach, contemplating the life she would one day have with her child.
Ada wasn’t sure how hard it would be to birth and raise a child on her own. She would have to discover who the local midwife was and prepare for the birth by making sure she had plenty of clean clothes. As long as she could make it to the market each day for food, she was certain she could survive in the cottage at the beach.
“But what on days when it’s too cold to go out?” Ada asked herself. “And who will help me when I’m not feeling well?” The wind responded with no answers for herself as she walked. She could feel the cold breeze picking up as she looked out at the water. She didn’t have all the answers to her many problems when it came to raising a child, but she figured she still had a few more months to decide upon all of the solutions.
Ada cried out in surprise when a downpour happened suddenly. She looked up for only a moment as water pelted her face, thinking that the clouds still looked pretty far off in the distance. She hurried down the beach, each step feeling as though it was heavier than the last. Her dress was quickly soaked, making her feel as though she was carrying around sacks of potatoes in her arms.
By the time she managed to reach the cottage, she was out of breath and completely exhausted. She shoved the wooden door open and closed it quickly behind her, shutting out the rain even when thunder boomed overhead. She shook from the fright of the thunder, the day turning to quick darkness. She stumbled to the small wooden table and fumbled with lighting the candles. But slowly she brought light back into the small space.
Cursing, Ada stripped out of her wet clothes and pulled dry ones on. Then, she hung her clothes by the fireplace and built up a small fire so that her clothes would dry, and she would be much warmer than what she had felt racing back to the cottage.
Ada knew that she was pretty lucky to still be alive, that she hadn’t slipped on the stone steps leading back up to the cottage. It had only been her bare feet to help her climb the steps and avoid falling all the way back down to the beach, crumbled in a heap and more than likely unable to move at all.
The thought brought tears to Ada’s eyes as she folded her hands together and rested her head in them. She felt such pain from being betrayed by Flynt that she quickly fell back into the feeling of self-pity and despair. She’d been trying ever so hard to rid herself of those feelings, to focus on the happy future she would have raising her own child. But all she felt was completely alone at that moment and unable to console herself.
There was loud knocking on the door all of a sudden, causing Ada to quickly lift her head and stare at it. For a moment, she wondered if she had imagined it, but when the pounding came again, she leaped to her feet and rushed to answer it. She hoped in her heart to see a familiar face, but as she opened the door and the man stepped quickly into the cottage as she shut the door once more, it was a familiar face she was not expecting.
“Lord Peterson, what on earth are you doing in Brighton during a rainstorm?” Ada exclaimed as she eased him down into a chair near the fire.
“I’ve come to Brighton to collect you,” Lord Peterson said as water dripped down from his curly blond hair. He sighed as he did his best to shrug off all the water from his oil-treated riding coat.
“Why would you come for me?” Ada asked
, standing once more to collect the kettle from the small kitchen and return to the fireplace to hang it over the burning fire to heat the water.
“There is much we have discovered about Miss Butler that you must come to learn for yourself,” Lord Peterson said, giving her a kind smile as she sat across from him. Just seeing his face made her yearn for her husband once more despite the pain she felt in her chest.
“Can I get you anything, Lord Peterson?” Ada asked, trying to avoid the nagging feeling that she was a married woman, and he was not a married man, making this meeting rather unorthodox. But she was dying to know for herself what the man had learned about the woman Ada had come to despise.
“A hot cup of tea would be nice, but I see you already have the kettle on the fire. I had just arrived at the local tavern when the rain hit. I didn’t want to wait a second longer after travelling three days from Town to tell you what has been discovered,” Lord Peterson said as he sat up and leaned towards the fire. Ada remained quiet as she allowed Lord Peterson the opportunity to speak freely and not be interrupted.
“I received a letter from Statham, explaining the whole situation. I came to him at once because it was the strangest letter I had ever read. It made completely no sense. We all knew how much Statham was against marriage that it was hard for me to believe that he could do such a thing, even with a belly full of brandy.
“After speaking with him, he came up with the idea to speak to Lord Locke. That perhaps the man would know something concerning the matter because he always knows what is happening with the elite families in Town.
“Yet, it was an even bigger surprise when we went to his place of business and discovered that not only did Lord Locke know about Miss Butler and what she was attempting to do. He was the one who had devised the entire plan.”
Ada gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand, thinking that this was the most maddening thing she’d ever heard. She was then worried about Flynt, knowing that he had been forced to return to a place of such darkness and misery.
“Lord Locke confessed to tricking Statham into signing papers the night of the concert you attended with him. Statham unknowingly signed the fake marriage license. And because Miss Butler was seeking revenge against Statham, and the man owed a lot of money at the time, Lord Locke did this to one day ruin your husband.”
Silence settled between them as Ada turned her eyes to the fire. She was so confused by everything that had been told to her that she was doing her best to wrap her mind around it. A part of her was overjoyed that Flynt wasn’t really married to Miss Butler, but it only left her with so many other questions.
“Why did Miss Butler want revenge against Lord Statham?” Ada asked.
“Because she is really Gerry Goodayle’s sister. When she learned of the manner of her brother’s death, she changed her name and then blamed Statham for his death. She sought her revenge with Lord Locke, who was happy to help considering what state Statham had been in at the time,” Lord Peterson explained.
“This is all so shocking,” Ada admitted. “And to think that all I had to do was believe Flynt, and I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Lady Statham, you cannot beat yourself up over this. It is Miss Butler and Lord Locke who are at fault now. Yet, at least Lord Locke is willing to help make this wrong a right. Miss Butler indeed went to the papers with her fake marriage license, and Statham and his mother and aunt are feeling the brunt of it.”
Ada couldn’t believe the woman had actually gone through with her threat. Miss Butler knew the marriage license was a fake, yet still had the story published when it was a big lie. Ada understood that when Lord Locke confessed what really happened and why, Miss Butler would surely be in a large heap of trouble.
“So, what is to be done now?” Ada asked, thinking that all hope was truly lost.
“Lady Statham, you need first to understand how much your husband dearly loves you. He has been sick with worry about you and if you were well. And if he weren’t so afraid of pushing you away again, he would have come in my stead.”
Ada nodded her head as she looked at him. He was completely soaked but had risked the rain and the weather to deliver this message to her. She felt so foolish for not standing by Flynt’s side and believing him when he had tried to convince her that he had never married before. She was so hurt by the idea that she had allowed this pain to cloud her better judgement and drive her family apart.
“I love him, too. That’s why all of this hurt so much. I had placed such faith in love that it seemed fitting for me to be hurt by it. Having lost everyone that I had ever loved, it was hard to imagine that I would one day find someone to fall in love with and even marry. So, I guess I was always waiting for something to happen that would take Flynt away from me. I was so focused on my own self-pity that I refused to believe in him because I had always waited for some sort of ending,” Ada explained as tears came to her eyes.
“Lady Statham, no one is blaming you for how you felt or what you did. Just know that Flynt dearly wants to be with you again, at the soonest convenience,” Lord Peterson said, his words soft and comforting. Ada nodded, trying to regain her composure. But with emotions running high, she simply did her best to keep from crying so much.
“What is it that you propose then?” Ada asked as she finished drying her eyes with her handkerchief. Lord Peterson smiled as he started detailing the plan that he and Flynt had discussed with Lord Locke. The more Ada listened to the plan, the more excited she became.
Chapter 27
Flynt knew that he needed to keep his anger under control. If things were going to go as planned, then he needed to remain calm. But after reading the several articles written about him and Miss Butler, he felt like taking care of the situation with his own bare hands. Yet, knowing that his thoughts would only lead him down a dark path, he instead placed several drops of peppermint on his cravat to help keep him aware and relaxed.
Flynt stepped into the sitting room of his townhouse to face the woman he’d summoned. It had taken some time to track her down, but after her fake marriage license had been given to all the papers, it was easier to seek her out. Miss Butler had made several terrible mistakes, and instead of unleashing his wrath on her, Flynt reminded himself how important it was to stick to the plan and not let anything disrupt what had already been put into place.
“Miss Butler,” Flynt said as he came into the room and nodded to Miss Butler as she stood by the open windows. With all the rain Town had been receiving lately, the windows had been left open to dry out the house and keep good air flowing through.
As she turned towards him, her green eyes bright with excitement and her red hair pinned and braided down her back, Flynt felt his stomach clench. He wanted nothing to do with this woman, yet he knew he had a role to play.
“Why hello, Lord Statham,” she said with a smirk, coming over to him and stopping just a few feet short of his presence. “I like to assume that you’ve come to your senses.”
“How could I not when every paper in Town has been advertising the deceitful Earl of Vayle? You have thoroughly ruined me with what you’ve done.”
Miss Butler shrugged her shoulders as she began to circle the room, placing her hands on all the fine decorations from porcelain dolls to oriental vases full of flowers. “It seemed like the only way to get your attention, and to let everyone know what type of person you really are,” she said.
“And now that you have my attention, now what do you want?” he asked.
“To take my rightful place as Lady Statham, of course,” Miss Butler said as she turned towards him, a smirk on her lips. He wanted to yell at the top of his lungs that she would never be his wife, but he dug his thumbnail into his palm in order to remain composed.
“I have summoned you here because I cannot deny you any longer. You are free to remain here, but we shall all be travelling to Vayle Manor in a few days. With the weather turning cold and damp, it’s best to return to the country seat,” Flynt e
xplained.
“But I would love to be seen with you in public,” she said in a sing-song voice. She came to him then and looped her arm with his. “I was thinking we could attend the viewing hour at Hyde Park this very afternoon.”
