A Season of Seduction

by Jennifer Haymore

  Mr. Jennings nodded gravely. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Mrs. Jennings arrived with the key. Becky took it from her and turned away. The three servants followed her, keeping their distance, as she picked her way over the muddy ground back to Seawood, trying not to limp or wince as her travel-weary muscles complained with every step she made.

  The key fit in the lock easily, but it took some joggling before it would turn. She opened the door to musty dimness and the semisweet smell of decay.

  She stared into the dismal, dirty interior. She took several seconds to steel herself—against the despair, against the pain that slammed incessantly through her, against the hopelessness of making this place into a home—then turned back to the two men and the woman hovering behind her.

  “Well, then,” she said briskly. “Looks like we’ve some work to do if we’re to make this place habitable by dinnertime.”

  Becky’s family banded with Jack in a united effort to find her. At first they all assumed she couldn’t have gone far—she’d left with only the coachman and two horses, and a survey of her personal items revealed that she’d taken very little. A woman riding sidesaddle certainly couldn’t travel a great distance.

  It took three full days for Jack, the duke, and Lord Westcliff to scour London for her. To no avail. Nobody had seen her.

  Three full days had also passed before one of the duke’s groomsmen discovered that none of the side-saddles were missing from the duke’s stables. She’d been riding astride.

  On the afternoon of December the third, Calton paced his drawing room, pushing his hand through his hair over and over. Lord and Lady Westcliff were still out roaming the city in search of Becky or anyone who’d seen her. The duchess sat on a nearby sofa with the duke’s aunt, Lady Bertrice, beside her. The duchess gripped the embroidery in her lap but didn’t sew. Lady Bertrice intermittently paced the room and plunked her body heavily beside the duchess and sat still, her lips pinched and her brow furrowed as if she were deep in thought.

  Jack stood stiffly by one of the windows. Strictly on compulsion, he kept glancing out, as if he expected her to come riding down the drive at any moment.

  But he didn’t expect her.

  She knew. It was a sick feeling that churned in his gut. He’d searched the four corners of London for her, damn it. Had poured his soul into the search. But all the while, he’d known they wouldn’t find her.

  She was gone. She knew. She must know. Somehow, she’d learned that he’d betrayed her. She’d read the letter. Or she’d heard him and Stratford talking. Or she’d encountered Tom and the bastard had exposed the entire scheme. Or…

  In the end, he didn’t know how she knew. But she’d trusted him. When she’d looked upon him, he’d seen true affection in her eyes. Only one thing could have destroyed that trust—she’d learned that he’d pursued her for her fortune.

  He’d brought this upon himself. His motives had been rotten from the beginning, and keeping the truth from her made it a hundred times worse. He’d promised her honesty, and he’d misled her. Fed her lies.

  Now, though, God knew his affection for her wasn’t a lie. His need for her wasn’t a lie. And long ago—he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment—his need for her had bled through his skin and now ran in his blood.

  Deep grooves ran in parallel across Calton’s forehead. “Damned if I understand this.”

  Jack didn’t answer.

  “I’ve never fully comprehended Rebecca or her motives, but never, never would I have expected her to do something like this. She was so…” He paused, thinking. “So dedicated to this venture. So determined to go through with it. To have her run away—it is the last thing I expected.”

  What the hell kind of response could Jack give to this? He couldn’t reveal the truth, but he couldn’t pretend not to understand her motivation, either. So he just remained silent, turning to once again look out the window.

  “You’re right,” the duchess said. “Only sheer desperation could have prompted such an action on Becky’s part. She behaved so strangely the night before…”

  “Did she?” the duke asked. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “Well, she made an attempt to show the same pluck and excitement she’d been displaying for the last few days, but something had altered. Did you see it, Mr. Fulton?”

  “No,” Jack said. He should have paid more attention, but he’d been too agitated about that damned letter from Tom. He was disgusted with himself. If only he’d known, he would have done anything to stop her.

  Becky was probably aware of that. That was why she didn’t tell anyone where she was going, or why, and that was how she’d misled them into thinking she’d hidden somewhere in London.

  She wasn’t close. He had no idea where she was, whether she was safe or in trouble. If he didn’t find her soon, he was going to lose his mind.

  Straightening, he turned back to the duke. “I must find her.”

  Calton pierced him with those icy eyes, then gave a brusque nod. “We will find her.”

  “Where are the places outside of Town that she could have gone?”

  The duke glanced at the women.

  “She’d never return to Kenilworth,” the duchess murmured.

  “Calton House,” Lady Bertrice said. “She’s spent most of her life there, and it is the place that is home to her more than anywhere else.”

  Perhaps she did feel at home at Calton House, but Jack wasn’t convinced that she’d choose to go there. “Where else has she been? Are there any other villages or residences she’s familiar with? Where do her friends live?”

  “Tristan’s house is in Yorkshire as well,” the duke said. “To the east of Calton House. She knows she would be welcome there.”

  “When she was a girl, we did not often leave Calton House,” Lady Bertrice said. “Since she was widowed, shehas remained with either me or Garrett at all times. She has never ventured beyond the places she knows.”

  “I’ll leave for Yorkshire immediately,” the duke said. “If she has gone there, I will find her.”

  The places she knows… As Jack stared at her family, the truth crashed into him. Of course they’d assume she’d gone somewhere that was familiar to her. But Becky possessed a tethered spirit that was aching to be set free. She hadn’t gone to Yorkshire.

  “I believe I know where she’s gone,” he said quietly. All of a sudden, he was certain of it. It made perfect sense.

  All eyes turned to him, questioning.

  “She told me she has a house in Cornwall from her mother.”

  Lady Bertrice waved a hand. “Oh, that old place? I’m certain it’s a crumbling ruin by now.”

  “She’s never mentioned it to me,” the duke said.

  Jack met the duchess’s gaze, and the woman gave him a thoughtful nod. They were thinking the same thing. Becky had gone to the one place that belonged to her. The one place that seemed as distant as China, the place that no one had thought of for years. The place she could be alone and independent for the first time in her life.

  Becky had gone to Cornwall. And he was going to find her there.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hard labor made Becky forget. Or at least it made her shove the pain into the background while her muscles burned with fatigue. Guided by the three servants, she washed and cleaned and even hammered when the occasion called for it.

  The morning after her arrival at Seawood, she took some time to write a letter to her brother and Kate, explaining where she was and that she needed to be alone for a while. She sent Sam to the village to mail the letter, and then she went back to work.

  She quickly came to understand why Mr. Jennings spoke so highly of Seawood. It wasn’t a sparkling jewel, but it had stood, stubborn and stout, on the edge of this cliff for two hundred years. A recent gale had blown out the front window and had damaged the roof, but the heart of the house remained, facing the beating of the harsh weather head-on.

  Mr. Jennings had lived here his entire lif
e—his father had served as steward before him. He loved it here, as windblown and forbidding as it was. For him, there could be nowhere in the world to surpass the beauty of this place.

  The house had been a childhood home of Becky’s mother and grandparents, all of whom had died when Becky was very young. Here at Seawood, she found evidence of their humanity: old possessions, clothes, and letters. At Seawood, Becky’s mother’s family started to feel real to her for the first time in her life.

  Fireplaces stood at each of the four corners of the house—a requirement for staying warm on a cold winter’s day in blustery Cornwall. The interior was divided into nine rooms on two floors: five bedrooms, a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen with a small scullery and pantry, and a study. There were three additional rooms in the attic for the servants as well.

  As soon as Becky had entered the house, she’d asked Mr. Jennings to give her a tour, then she’d selected the room she intended to use as her bedchamber. She didn’t choose to sleep in the largest bedroom or the adjoining chamber meant for the master’s wife. Instead, she chose the room Mr. Jennings said had been her mother’s.

  They’d spent the remainder of the day scouring the room, removing the dust from every crevice in the carved bedposts, beating the rugs, and clearing the wardrobe of old clothes.

  The room was painted a light green, and Sam had worked to remove the peeling and bubbling layer of green to reveal a yellow layer underneath, leaving the walls with a spotted effect.

  Becky didn’t care. When spring came, she’d have the house repainted and refurbished. For now, all that mattered was that she had a clean place to sleep. A place to mourn her loss.

  No, she wouldn’t mourn, she thought on the second morning at Seawood as she entered the grease-and-dust-laden kitchen, a dirty rag dangling from her fingers and her pistol comfortingly heavy hidden in the depths of her apron pocket. She hadn’t lost anything. By coming here, she’d gained her freedom from a man who might have caused her more misery than William had. She could only thank God that she’d discovered his treachery before they’d wed.

  She’d won. Either Jack would seduce and marry some other poor rich girl, or both he and the man who’d written the letter—Wortingham, the earl had called him—would have to do without their coveted fortune.

  She didn’t care either way.

  The thought of Jack looking at another woman in the same way he’d looked at her, though… Oh, how it made her skin crawl. Each morning, she woke sick to her stomach and even sicker in her heart. She wished she could warn every woman in London against him. Explain how he’d lie through his teeth—offer promises of love, offer caresses that would make any woman melt… but it was all a deception.

  Yet she couldn’t reveal his treachery—in doing so she would only reveal herself as a besotted, gullible fool. Cecelia had told her that she was mysterious and unpredictable, and this gave her power. Well, she’d wielded that power by disappearing into the night on the eve of her wedding. She’d make her own way now. From now on, her independence would be her power.

  As Sam and Mr. Jennings cleaned the fireplaces and got them in working order, Becky helped Mrs. Jennings with the kitchen. While Mrs. Jennings steeped the silver in soap leys, Becky stared in dismay at layers of years-old grease on the steel grate.

  “Here, ma’am, I’ve boiled you some emery and soap to help with that,” Mrs. Jennings said, handing her a bowl filled with a gritty paste.

  Becky looked from the bowl to the rag to Mrs. Jennings. “What do I do with it?”

  “Why, you’re to scrub it.” Stepping away from the silver, Mrs. Jennings rubbed her chapped hands on her apron, then took her rag and scooped up a bit of the gray paste with it. “There, you see?”

  Becky nodded. “I… think so.” She was to rub the rag over the grease and the paste would help it to come off. She wondered why, with all the books she’d devoured in her life, she’d never read one about housekeeping.

  Mrs. Jennings turned back to the stove, her shoulders slumped. After watching them work yesterday, Becky had realized right away that Mr. and Mrs. Jennings were too aged to accomplish much, for they were quick to tire. It was up to Becky and Sam—whom she should have already sent back to London and her brother but couldn’t bear to say good-bye to quite yet—to undertake most of the work.

  Becky told Mrs. Jennings to rest her plump body at the small round table in the center of the kitchen and direct Becky on how to clean the oven. It was a dirty, nasty job, and by the time she was finished, Becky’s hair hung limply around her face and her arms were covered up to the elbows in grease, but both the stove and the adjacent oven sparkled.

  Just sitting for two hours had exhausted Mrs. Jennings, however, so Becky sent her back to her own cottage for an afternoon rest. Sitting at the rough-hewn kitchen table, Becky ate some bread and cheese without really tasting either, and drank a tankard of country ale. Even though she wasn’t accustomed to the stuff, it satisfied her thirst. And it calmed her. It made her feel that she could face the rest of the day.

  She’d have to hire workers eventually. But for now, she just wanted to work and work and work. She could see nothing in her future but work, and she could wish for nothing more.

  God forbid she become as melancholy as she had been in Kenilworth, when she was married to William and learning that her marriage was a sham. She’d sat listlessly in the parlor for days on end, staring at the blurring pages of books, reading but not really absorbing the words, fear and desperation clawing at her chest, worsening with every hour that passed.

  She would not turn into that woman again. She’d not wile away her days feeling sorry for herself. She’d be productive. She’d make this house her own. She’d learn about the family she’d never known. When those tasks were accomplished… she’d find something else. Something to do that would prove that she was a capable, independent woman.

  This time, she would be strong. Even if that meant shoving her broken heart into the deep recesses of her soul and forgetting about it.

  After she finished her luncheon, she went upstairs toexplore the master’s bedroom. This was where her grandfather, Sir Barnaby Wentworth, had slept. It was a small room, entirely masculine, decorated in dusty browns and deep reds. The bed was ornate, with lavishly carved mahogany posts and heavy velvet bed curtains. Rosewood tables flanked the bed, and matching tall cabinets stood against the opposite wall.

  After a brief survey of the bed and determining that the curtains were moth-eaten and would have to be discarded, Becky went to the cabinets. She opened the doors, finding men’s clothing from a previous age—yellowed linen shirts and braces, drawers, stockings, buckskin breeches, woolen pantaloons, a few waistcoats and tailcoats.

  The drawer below revealed a stack of gloves and old cravats. Buried beneath them was a packet of letters. Moving to the only chair in the room, a stiff-looking wooden piece with a tall back and a brown velvet-padded seat, she untied the string that held the bundle together and saw that they were all letters from her mother to her grandparents.

  She opened the top one. It was dated November 1800, just four years before Becky was born. Becky’s mother had been eighteen when her daughter was born, so she must have been around fourteen years old when she’d written this letter.

  Dear Mama and Papa,

  Please let me come home. School is wretched and I hate it immensely.

  Your miserable daughter,

  Mary

  The next letter, dated six months later, read,

  Dear Mama and Papa,

  I miss you so. I have not seen you in six months. Will you not allow me to come with you to Seawood this summer? Madame Latrisse says I am doing very well with my lessons and I will not fall at all behind if I were to go away for a few weeks.

  The Season has been busy in London, but the weather has been horrid, and I do feel for all the girls who are looking for husbands and run hither and thither in the mud and downpours. I am very glad not to be one of them.

&
nbsp; Your loving daughter,

  Mary

  Becky read on, her hands trembling as she read letters penned by her young mother. Her mother had obviously loved her parents dearly, and she’d missed them terribly, but they’d never allowed her to come home. No wonder all her mother’s belongings in her bedchamber seemed to have belonged to a very young girl. When Becky’s mother had reached a certain age, she had been sent away and never allowed to return.

  Becky’s grandparents, while they’d paid for a genteel lady’s education and, later on, a Season for their daughter, had otherwise neglected and forgotten her. Yet they’d kept all her letters together. It was odd. They’d cared enough to keep her letters close, but had failed to bring her home. They’d kept aloof and distant, ignoring their daughter’s pleas for love, and yet, by the row of portraits of her mother on the mantelpiece, it was clear they never forgot her completely.

  Becky’s heart lurched as she studied the sad look in her mother’s eyes in the portrait at the end of the mantel. It must have been painted when she was eleven or twelve years old. Becky had grown up thinking that her mother’s sadness was her fault, that her mother had been disappointed in her for some reason, but it was clear to her now that her mother’s melancholy had begun long before her birth.

  As she grew older, her mother became more defiant, and her letters began to speak of friends and parties, of noblemen’s daughters and the eligible bachelors of the ton. Then the letters stopped for an entire year. There were two letters after that. The second-to-last letter was very short.

  I hate you both, and I hate him. I don’t care if he is a duke. I shall be miserable forever.

  Becky stared at the letter for a long while. Her father had died two years before her mother had, and she had few memories of him. But a feeling of dread always welled within her when she thought of him, and she knew Garrett possessed no fond memories of him.

  Pressing the letter to her chest, she closed her eyes.Had her mother been like Jack’s Anne Turling? Married to a man she never loved just because he was a peer?