Hopes and Brides: Regency and Mail Order Bride Historical Romance Collection

by Joyce Alec

  “You did not seek to take them with you?”

  “I—I had the intention to do so,” Lady Cuthbert replied in answer to Lady Ancrum’s question. “But in the hubbub and hurrying that came with my departure from London, I quite forgot about them. They should still be in the townhouse.” She turned back to Henrietta. “Unless they are not?”

  Henrietta let out a long, slow breath, knowing that it was now her turn to explain what had occurred. “The night you returned to play cards, I went to my bedchamber and thought to prepare for bed. However, I received a note under my bedchamber door—which I now realize must have been Statton, permitted to enter by the servants.”

  Lady Cuthbert’s eyes flared wide. “A note? What did it say?”

  “It said,” Henrietta answered, her throat aching horribly for a moment as she recalled that night, “that you had been taken and that, if I wished to see you again and ensure your safety, I would make my way to the docks and leave your rubies in a specific place by one of the ships.” She did not say anything more but continued to hold her mother’s gaze, seeing how Lady Cuthbert whitened all the more, her hand gripping Henrietta’s with such a fierceness that it betrayed her utter shock and fright.

  Lord Carrick cleared his throat and inclined his head just a little as Lady Cuthbert looked up at him. “This is where I come in,” he told her as Henrietta turned her head to look up into his face, knowing just how blessed she had been to meet someone as kind and as generous as Lord Carrick. “I discovered your daughter quite by chance, Lord and Lady Cuthbert. In finding her to be in a sorrowful state, I immediately took her home and allowed her to recover and rest. It took three days for her to awaken, and I cannot tell you how anxious I was during that time.” He gave her a small but sad smile, clearly remembering those days with some sorrow. “But when she awoke and was recovered, we then set about together trying to understand the mystery that surrounded her.”

  Lady Carrick closed her eyes tightly, took in a shaking breath, and tried to recover herself just a little. “What had happened to you, my dear?” she asked, her voice shaking furiously as she fought to keep her composure. “Dare I ask what he did to you?” She shot an angry glance toward Mr. Statton, who did and said nothing, sitting stoically in his chair.

  Henrietta, not wanting to repeat to her mother what had happened, yet knowing that it would be best to explain all, tried to choose her words with great care. “I was attacked,” she said slowly, seeing how her mother gasped in horror, her free hand pressed against her mouth as she clutched a white handkerchief. “Statton was the one behind it, Mother, for he has already told me so. The rubies I set down where I had been instructed and, believing that you would therefore be returned to the townhouse in safety, I began to hurry back through the docks.” She gave a small shrug and tried to smile. “The next thing I recall, I awoke in Lord Carrick’s home.”

  “Goodness.” Henrietta turned to see her father shaking his head, his face pale and his hands trembling just a little as he held them tightly in his lap. “And no doubt, when you sought to return to our townhouse, you found it locked up tightly.” The pain in his eyes was extraordinary but Henrietta knew she had to be honest with him.

  “Indeed,” she said truthfully. “I did not go myself but was told of it being so. I did not understand why that had occurred.” Fighting tears, she tried to smile at her father. “I believed that you and Mama thought I had behaved indecently and had gone somewhere with a gentleman, or some such thing. I thought you had turned your back on me.” Tears fell from her eyes and landed on her cheeks, but she did not wipe them away, choosing instead just to continue watching her father, seeing his jaw working furiously and the glittering in his eyes that betrayed his own struggling emotions. “Lord Carrick was good enough to ensure that I was not left alone.” She lifted her eyes to her betrothed and saw the tenderness in his gaze. It warmed her heart and gave her comfort. “I was helped in almost every way imaginable, to the point that Mr. Grieves found himself in great danger.”

  “Good gracious,” Lady Cuthbert said shakily, her eyes going to Oliver as he inclined his head, a gentle smile curving his lips. “I can hardly bear to bring myself to ask what occurred, Mr. Grieves, yet I know that I must discover the truth.” The strength of her grip on Henrietta’s hand loosened just a little as everyone turned toward Oliver.

  Oliver appeared a little embarrassed, for his color rose and he cleared his throat rather gruffly, clearly uncertain as to what to say. “I—I must say, it was not of any great significance,” he began, waving away Henrietta’s exclamation of disagreement.

  “That is not true in the least,” Lord Carrick interjected, making Henrietta look up at him in relief. “Miss Preston had been badly hurt and Statton here thought her dead and gone from this world, leaving him with the rubies. However, when he did not find any commotion down at the docks the following day, he knew that she was not dead as he had thought. Therefore, he began to search London for her and did not find her.”

  “Except, unfortunately, someone overheard me mentioning Miss Preston during an evening I spent in White’s,” Oliver added. “My brother, Lord Ancrum, and I had gone there to see if we might hear anything about Miss Preston that might alert us to who else was looking for her and to see if there was any explanation as to why her parents had left London.” He gave Lady Cuthbert a small smile, as though trying to reassure her that he did not think poorly of her. “As I said, I was overheard, taken from White’s as I was trying to depart it, and, thereafter, interrogated in a rather uncomfortable fashion.”

  Henrietta opened her mouth to say that it had been much more than that, only for Oliver to shoot her a warning look, clearly unwilling to disturb her parents any further by going into such detail. She willingly assented and closed her mouth again, seeing Oliver give her a tiny smile. Grateful that he had been so considerate, she lapsed into complete silence, turning to her mother again and seeing how she stared at Mr. Statton, her cheeks beginning to color red. How relieved she was to be back in her mother and father’s company once more. To know that they did not think ill of her, as she had first feared, was a great relief to her heart, and now to see them both sitting in the same room as she, with her mother’s hand still fastened onto hers, brought Henrietta a good deal of joy.

  “Might I ask, Lady Cuthbert, what you believed had happened to Henrietta?” Lord Carrick asked softly, and Lady Cuthbert started slightly, having been drawn out of her own considerations by his voice. “You left London because you thought she was on her way to Scotland, yes?”

  “Yes,” Lady Cuthbert replied, not looking at him but keeping her gaze fixed on Mr. Statton. “When you arrived with your letter, Mr. Grieves, I believe that we told you she was visiting relatives?” She threw Oliver a quick glance, and Henrietta saw him nod. “That was simply because we had not had a letter or a note from Mr. Statton as yet, and therefore we wished to keep her reputation as intact as it could be.” She sighed heavily. “Yes, there would be some scandal with her elopement, but it would be easily forgotten by the time next year’s Season came upon us and I did not even know if Mr. Statton intended on going back to town so soon after his marriage.” Sighing, she waved one hand as though to say it did not matter what she had thought, for it was clear that none of it had come to pass.

  “However, great sorrow was soon to be ours,” Lord Cuthbert interrupted, his voice lower than before and holding a good deal of restrained emotion. “We received a note from Mr. Statton stating that, whilst you had been married over the anvil, you had become dreadfully ill on the way back to his house. You had succumbed to a terrible fever and had already been buried for fear that the malady might spread.” His voice dropped again and he turned his head to glare at Mr. Statton. “We have been lost in sorrow ever since that day,” he finished sadly. “And to think that I was quite prepared to give Mr. Statton the dowry that he expected, even though I believed my daughter gone from this earth!” His voice shook and he looked back at Henrietta, his eyes
an agony of emotion. “I believe that is why he sought you out, Henrietta. He had to ensure that you were truly gone from this earth, so that he might be able to get the dowry in all of its entirety. Were you to show your face, he would have great difficulty in explaining what had occurred.”

  “Blaggard!” Lady Cuthbert exclaimed, shaking her finger in Mr. Statton’s direction. “How could you tell us our daughter had died? How could you throw us into such a pit of grief and despair?”

  “And when you received my note, that must have come as a great shock,” Lady Ancrum suggested quietly, making Lady Cuthbert nod fervently. “I wrote to say that I had only recently seen your newly married daughter here in London and that I had been sorry not to give her an invitation to call upon me at my father’s estate before she had departed town.”

  “It did not make any sense whatsoever,” Lady Cuthbert said, shaking her head. “I was greatly troubled, as was Lord Cuthbert.”

  Henrietta looked towards her father and saw him nodding in agreement.

  “Thereafter, we decided to return to town to speak to you, Lady Ancrum, for we had to know what you meant by such a remark. “Mr. Statton had said my daughter had died, so how could she be in London with him?”

  Lady Ancrum sat forward in her chair and fixed Lady Cuthbert with a firm look. “I am sorry to have caused you confusion and pain,” she said honestly, whilst Lady Cuthbert began to shake her head. “I knew that I was telling you an untruth, but we had no understanding of what had occurred to Henrietta or why her parents had returned home. Henrietta thought the worst and it was the only thing I could do to try and help her.”

  Lady Cuthbert shook her head, rose to her feet, and came towards Lady Ancrum, holding out her hands to her. Lady Ancrum rose at once and took Lady Cuthbert’s hands, evidently seeing the way that Lady Cuthbert was battling her tears.

  “I am not sorry that you wrote to me, Lady Ancrum,” Lady Cuthbert declared, leaning in towards Lady Ancrum as though wanting to reassure her that she had not seen any harm or ill will in what Lady Ancrum had written. “It brought so much confusion that the sorrow I felt was replaced with a small flicker of hope.” She turned her head and looked at Henrietta, who could only smile, feeling tears burn in the corners of her eyes. “Hope that my daughter was alive and that I could see her again, to make amends for the foolishness that I had shown. You cannot know how relieved I was when you told me that Henrietta was not gone from this earth as I had feared.”

  Tears spilled from Henrietta’s eyes as she rose to her feet to embrace her mother, feeling all the pain and the sorrow of the past being washed away in that one moment. Lady Cuthbert let go of Lady Ancrum’s hands and turned to hold Henrietta tightly, her whole body shaking with sobs. Henrietta cried too, letting the tears fall and her emotions show, uncaring as to who else was watching them. In time, her father rose also and came to join them, putting one hand on Henrietta’s shoulder and bending down to kiss her forehead. Henrietta cried yet more tears, but her father merely looked down at her and smiled, his eyes glistening.

  “We are safe together again now,” Lord Cuthbert said eventually, when both Henrietta and Lady Cuthbert had managed to compose themselves once more. “There is nothing that can separate us again.”

  Henrietta looked towards Lord Carrick, seeing how he smiled at her and feeling her heart lift with joy. Everything was being slowly restored to how it had been before. Her parents did not think ill of her as she had first feared but had, in fact, been quite duped by Mr. Statton and his selfish intentions. Somehow, they had all managed to find a way back together again, freed from the agony of separation and confusion—and Henrietta knew such a thing would not have occurred had it not been for those within this room who had come to her aid.

  There would be time to tell her parents of her engagement but it was not now for this moment. Now was a time to come together and let the pain of the past wash away from her. It was as her father said. They were together again, safe and unafraid. Nothing could separate this family, for even when it came time to wed Lord Carrick, Henrietta knew that they would still remain a family. There was no sorrow, no doubt, and no fear any longer. They would not be torn apart, pulled asunder in various directions. Instead, there would be a new happiness, one that would fill their hearts and minds for the rest of their days.

  14

  “Lord Carrick?”

  James turned at once to see none other than Lord Cuthbert pushing open the door to James’ study, which had been left ajar by Lord Ancrum as he had entered only some minutes before.

  “Lord Cuthbert,” he said at once, hurrying towards the gentleman. “Do come in.” He held out his hand and Lord Cuthbert shook it at once, looking around the room and nodding to Lord Ancrum, who bowed.

  “Forgive the intrusion, Lord Carrick,” Lord Cuthbert said quickly, looking a little uncomfortable. “It is only that I have a few questions that I must have answered.” He looked directly into James’ eyes, making James fully aware that this man was both decisive and singular in his determinations.

  “Yes, of course,” James said hurriedly, not wanting the gentleman to feel ill at ease. “There is a seat by the hearth, if you would like to sit there. Can I pour you a brandy?”

  “I should leave you,” Lord Ancrum murmured, making to walk to the door. “We can continue our discussions—”

  Lord Cuthbert cleared his throat, catching their attention. “If you would not mind remaining, Lord Ancrum, I am certain that you are also able to help me with my questions,” he said as Lord Ancrum threw James a quick, questioning look. “It will not take long and certainly shall not be intrusive in any way.”

  Lord Ancrum gave a small, slightly strained laugh.

  “Of course not,” he said, as though this was nothing more than a joke. “I would be glad to remain, of course.” Coming to sit down opposite Lord Cuthbert, he started to get up again to help James pour them all a brandy, but James waved him back down.

  Were he honest with himself, James would admit that he was a little nervous now. Having had Lord and Lady Cuthbert within his house and hearing them reveal their side of the story and what Mr. Statton had done to them had been more than a little revealing. However, he had seen how Henrietta had reacted to their story, how she had understood the reasons for her mother’s hasty departure from London and had grown relieved that it had not been as she had thought. How glad he had been to see that.

  Even as she had cried and held her parents close to her, James had felt his heart swelling with joy and relief that the matter had come to an end. There was no mystery any longer, no uncertainty and certainly no pain. Henrietta’s parents had made everything quite clear, with their explanations and Henrietta’s explanations twining together until they revealed the truth.

  And Statton had said very little, his jaw working and his eyes glittering with malice as he had sat there and watched them all discuss matters. Most likely, he was furious that his intentions had been discovered, angry that he had not been able to work his plans until their completion, and afraid of what would now happen to him. James had left him with Oliver, knowing full well that he was able to trust his brother to not even let Mr. Statton stir from his chair without his explicit agreement.

  “I thank you,” Lord Cuthbert muttered as James handed him a decent measure of brandy. “I am not a man inclined towards liquor, but on occasions such as this, one feels as though it is quite badly needed.”

  “Indeed,” Lord Ancrum agreed with a broad smile. “And today has certainly brought a good deal of surprise and shock with it—although I am glad that Miss Preston has been restored to you.”

  “As am I,” James added fervently, knowing that at some point, he would have to speak to Lord Cuthbert of his intentions toward Henrietta. Yes, they were already engaged, but that had come before he had known whether or not Henrietta’s parents would accept her back again. Now that he knew they were restored to her, he had to ensure that he did things in the correct manner, even though that might
come as something of a shock to Lord Cuthbert, who had already endured a great deal this day already.

  Lord Cuthbert smiled for the first time since he had arrived in James’ house. The smile utterly transformed his features, making him appear a good deal more amiable and lighter in spirit, instead of his dark expression and foreboding look.

  “I thank you both for your endeavors for my daughter,” Lord Cuthbert said, raising his glass. “And to Mr. Grieves also, for he has been most kind to her and endured a great deal.”

  James took a sip of his brandy, quickly praying that Lord Cuthbert would not get the impression that Oliver felt anything more for Henrietta than mere friendship. He was glad, however, that his brother had shown him that he could, in fact, turn away from his liquor and his gambling, and James felt a small stab of shame that he had thought that Oliver would return to such a thing without hesitation. Oliver had not gone back on his promises but had, in fact, endured a great deal for Henrietta’s sake.

  James was quite certain that Oliver would be a devoted brother-in-law.

  “And you, Lord Carrick, have shown my daughter a great deal of kindness and compassion,” Lord Cuthbert continued, as the three men set down their brandy glasses. “Without your willingness to come to her aid, I am quite certain that she would have been in a good deal more difficulty than she was.”

  “And I can assure you that Lord Carrick has behaved with the utmost discretion,” Lord Ancrum added, clearly wanting to reassure Lord Cuthbert that there was nothing to concern himself about as regarded Henrietta’s innocence. “There has always been a maid present or Lady Ancrum herself.”

  Much to James’ surprise, Lord Cuthbert waved one hand as though to dismiss all that Lord Ancrum said.

  “I have no concerns as regards Lord Carrick,” he said, looking directly at James. “From your behavior, Lord Carrick, I can only presume that you are a man of excellent character and for that, I am truly glad. My daughter’s reputation has been shielded and protected as best you could and that has brought me a good deal of relief.”