“We will discuss it more over dinner, Primrose. I think when it comes to conversations about the threat he poses, we should be as circumspect as possible.”
“But you said no one was in town—”
“I said most were not in town. There are always outliers and those are typically the men who prefer the debauched entertainments that can only be found in the city. Those same gentlemen are the ones Lord Samford would be most likely to associate with… I can’t stress the importance of not antagonizing him further.”
“Further? I never antagonized him at all! He nearly ran us down with his horse and then managed to put two and two together to determine that Rowan was likely his son! Then he tried to murder us! We are the innocents here!”
“Yes,” Cornelius replied, “you are. And I want to protect you both from him. Your very existence, and Rowan’s, is antagonizing to him… not because you have done anything wrong, Primrose, but because he has. No man likes to be reminded of his misdeeds. He is unhinged. We should both remember that when considering how to deal with him.”
His words seemed to have some effect on her. The jut of her chin lessened, the tension in her seemed to dissipate to some degree.
“I apologize for being so quick of temper.” Her words were uttered stiffly, a clear sign that she was not someone used to apologizing. “I have grown weary in my life of those who would victimize someone and then blame that very victim for their misfortune.”
“To be entirely clear, I hold you blameless in everything. I should have been more vigilant and less narrow in my thinking when it came to Samford and the depths to which he would sink.” He said nothing further. The carriage had halted entirely and he could hear the driver as he jumped down from the box. Within minutes the carriage door was open, the steps were in place and he was climbing out onto the pavers before his home. Turning back, he offered his hand to Primrose to assist her. She took it, her fingers cool against his hand as she accepted his help.
The door opened as they climbed the steps and the butler he employed for town appeared. “My lord, we did not expect you.”
Cornelius’ eyebrow shot up. “It was an impromptu journey, Headley. I’m afraid we’ve had a bit of an accident and my betrothed was injured. The journey has quite exhausted her.”
“Betrothed?” the butler repeated, his tone clearly uncertain.
“Yes, Miss Primrose Collier and I are to be married posthaste. In the meantime, you’ll have a room prepared for her and a hot bath drawn, as well.”
The butler made no movement. He simply stood there and blinked at the pair of them.
His own temper flaring then, Cornelius asked, “Is that a problem, Headley?”
The butler cleared his throat and stepped back, no longer blocking the entrance. “Of course not, my lord. I’ll see to it once. We will endeavor to make Miss Collier as comfortable as possible during her stay here.”
Cornelius stepped aside and allowed Prim to enter before him. He gestured to one of the footmen. “See Miss Collier to my study and have a fire laid there. We shall have tea while the appropriate preparations are being made.”
When Prim was out of sight, he turned back to the butler. “Her tenure, Headley, not her stay.” Cornelius corrected. “She is not a guest in this house. This will be her home. And in two short days, she will be mistress here. It might be something to think on before you insult her further.”
The butler’s sour face pinched even further. “It was not my intent to give offense, my lord. I most humbly apologize. It was only the shock.”
“That I was betrothed or that I was betrothed to a woman whose standing is not my own?”
Headley turned to face him then, his posture stiff and unrelenting. “If I may speak freely, my lord?”
“Please do!”
“It was a shock to see you announcing your betrothal to a woman who came and went freely from you own father’s bedchamber!”
“That was not Primrose, Headley. It was her mother.”
“That is more than a family resemblance, my lord. No two people could be so alike unless they were twins!”
Cornelius sighed. “My father has been dead for seven years, Headley. And he had not been involved with the woman you are remembering at that time for more than five years. Which would have made Primrose Collier roughly eight years old at the time. Think on it.”
Abashed, the butler’s head jerked toward the study door. “You mean to marry the daughter of your father’s mistress?”
“I mean to marry that woman who has raised one of my father’s illegitimate children at great cost to herself. Miss Collier’s siblings, the elder Miss Collier, Hyacinth, young Rowan and Miss Lila—my own half-sister—will arrive within a day or two. I expect all of them to be treated with the same dignity and respect you would show Prinny himself. Is that understood?”
“Yes, my lord,” the butler replied, but his tone was clipped and it was clear that he still held his poor opinion of Primrose firmly.
“I’ve tolerated your insolence in the past, Headley, because you worked for my father and tolerated his proclivities. This is not an instance where such tendencies will be indulged or ignored. Do as I’ve said or leave the service of this house.” With those parting words, Cornelius turned and stalked away, leaving the servant gaping after him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kitty stepped down from the sedan chair with the porter’s assistance. She had her cane, but with the uneven cobblestones, it was still a relief to have someone there. Most times, she didn’t require assistance, but her leg had been paining her as of late.
“There you are, Miss,” the porter said. “Shall I wait for you?”
“I’ll be in the book shop for some time and then I must go to the milliner. If you’ve another fare, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on it. I should be done with all of my shopping by two if you wish to return,” she said.
He was a younger man, but pleasant and never forward on any of the occasions when he’d transported her. For that reason alone, Kitty wanted to reward him.
“I’ll be here, Miss. Thank you,” he said and was off.
Kitty turned to face the row of shops and the impatiently waiting Sally and her maid. Judith was supposed to have met them, as well, but the younger woman was nowhere to be seen.
“Where has the silly wretch gotten off to?” Kitty asked.
Sally rolled her eyes. “Heaven knows. A man might have smiled at her on the street and sent her into a dead faint. Perhaps, she fell into the Avon and he had to enact a dashing rescue?”
“I certainly hope she did not,” Kitty snapped. “It’s freezing. He might catch his death.”
Sally laughed. “We shouldn’t be so mean. I do love Judith dearly. She’s just so man crazed that I sometimes question her good sense.”
“Well, I want to be crazed for Udolpho. I’ve heard they are at Treadway’s,” she said, referencing the book shop they often frequented. “My father found my last copy and tossed it in the fire.”
Sally’s eyes widened. “So how far did you get? It’s very salacious!”
“I hadn’t gotten to anything resembling salacious,” Kitty admitted forlornly. “Is it terribly wicked?”
“Yes… and delightful,” Sally said. “Come, we’ll get you a copy. And we’ll buy some boring treatise on how to preserve botanical specimens.”
Kitty frowned. “If I wanted a book like that there are plenty in the library already!”
“You don’t want the book, silly! You want the cover. There is a clerk at Treadway’s who will, for a half-pence, switch the book covers. You can read all about wicked Udolpho and no one will be the wiser.”
Kitty grinned. “Unless they ask me how to preserve a botanical specimen. Then I’m afraid I’d be caught out entirely. But it’s worth the risk!”
The two of them were still giggling as they entered the bookseller’s and selected their items. They had taken them to the counter to pay when Judith stumbled in. Her cheeks w
ere flushed and her eyes bright.
“Who have you been flirting with?” Sally asked sharply.
“No one. I was running to get here because I was late,” the other girl replied. It was clearly a lie.
“Never mind,” Kitty said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m certain he was imminently unsuitable and that you will come to your senses once we’ve got some food in you. There’s that tea shop a few doors down with those lovely cakes!”
Sally groaned. “I’ll take the tea. But I cannot have the cakes. My gowns are already too tight. Papa has refused to let me take a sedan chair anymore. He insists that I walk everywhere now as I’ve become too plump and he refuses to buy me anymore new gowns when I’ve failed, yet again, to land a husband.”
“Which one is the clerk who’ll switch the book covers?” Kitty asked.
Sally frowned. “He’s not here. I wonder if he was sacked for his transgressions.”
Kitty placed the copy of Udolpho on the counter before the shopkeeper. “I suppose I’ll just have to take my chances.”
With her purchases wrapped, they left the bookshop and made for the tea room. Judith kept glancing nervously over her shoulder.
“Do you think we’re being followed or are you simply hoping for it?” Sally asked her.
Judith turned her head sharply to face forward. “I was only looking because I thought I saw someone I know. Must you be so suspicious, Sally?”
Kitty frowned. Judith was behaving oddly, even by the standards they held for Judith which were somewhat more lax than they might otherwise have been. “Are you well, Judith? You seem unusually distracted. Perhaps today is not a good day for our weekly outing.”
Wallflowers, spinsters, bluestockings. They were called dozens of equally unappealing names. At the end of the day, it meant their social calendars were very bare. They attended balls in the evenings, though most never even noticed their presence, but few people called on them during the day. It was one of the many reasons that they’d taken to having weekly visits in one another’s homes and shopping excursions such as their current one.
“I was reluctant to say anything, Kitty, but I’m not feeling just the thing. The idea of tea and cakes is making me rather ill. Do you think we might stroll down by the river first? Some crisp bracing air might be just the thing!” Judith said.
“Of course!” Kitty agreed instantly. “Of course, we can. Are you certain you wouldn’t rather return home?”
“Oh, no!” Judith said quickly. “I had a terrible row with my stepmother before I left the house. That’s likely why I don’t feel well now. Going home would not improve the matter at all.”
Kitty nodded while behind them Sally rolled her eyes. Sally and Judith were forever sniping at one another. Kitty loved them both, though at times she could have gleefully knocked both their heads together. But they all did have one thing in common—difficulties with their respective families. Unwed. Unwanted. Quickly approaching an age of being utterly unmarriageable. The three of them were embarrassments.
Keeping an arm around Judith, they walked toward the busy area before the baths and the abbey, where they could look down at the weir. As they neared Pulteney Bridge, Kitty became aware of the surreptitious glances that Judith kept making toward the road.
Judith was many things, but an accomplished liar was not one of them. While her friend might very well have had a row with her stepmother, Kitty was almost certain that was not why she was acting so strangely at the moment. On the verge of asking her friend what was actually going on, the sound of an approaching carriage startled her. It was close. Far closer than it should have been. With the head of her cane draped over her wrist and her other arm looped through Judith’s, she was stuck, unable to make a speedy retreat. But the carriage did not run her down, as she’d feared. Instead, it halted near enough that when the door opened, a pair of strong hands emerged from within and grabbed at her.
Kitty fought, slapping at the grasping man who hauled her into the vehicle, but hindered as she was by her limp, by Judith and the heavy and cumbersome weight of her cane, her efforts were ineffectual at best. Hauled into the hired carriage, sprawled on the dirty floor, it took her a moment to get her bearings. It was so dark inside, that her eyes were having difficulty adjusting. But as she did, she turned and caught sight of an all too familiar face.
“What have you done?” she demanded.
Fredrick Hamilton, Lord Samford, smiled though no warmth from that expression ever reached his eyes. “I’m ensuring that our match can continue, Katherine.”
“Kitty,” she corrected. “I despise being called Katherine. Though under the circumstances, I think you should probably continue to address me as Miss Wyverne.”
“I don’t think that I will. You see, this carriage is bound for Gretna Green. I mean for us to be married, Kitty.”
Kidnapped. She’d heard stories of such things happening to other young women, especially those upon whom a fortune rested in the balance of their matrimonial state. But they were beautiful girls, typically, or so young and meek that to abduct them would not be a challenging task. Somehow, she’d always believed herself immune to such threats. Clearly, she had been mistaken.
“I’ll refuse!” she uttered vehemently. While she’d already made her decision about Lord Samford, his current behavior hardened her resolve. He was a scoundrel through and through.
His smile faded, hardened into something ugly and dark. He leaned forward, and grasped her face in his hand, tugging her toward him. It wasn’t a gentle gesture. Each of his fingers dug painfully into her flesh. The grip, hard and bruising, was inescapable. When they were eye to eye, only inches separating them, he spoke again. “No, Kitty, you will not. You will comply or it will go very badly for you. As it stands, I’m willing to let you remain chaste until our wedding night. Truth be told, I am not so eager to bed you. But I will. And if I must do so before bestowing the honor of my name upon you, I shall. I will ruin you so thoroughly no other man will ever have you, fortune or no. So cooperate and spare us both that indignity.”
He let her go abruptly so that she fell backward onto her bottom, her back striking the edge of the carriage seat. Kitty’s lips parted with shock and her gasp of pain. Had he truly just threatened rape as a means of securing her hand in marriage? “You are a monster,” she whispered. He wasn’t a scoundrel at all. He was something infinitely worse, something that in her sheltered existence she did not have a name for.
“If necessary,” he said. “I can be kind. I can be pleasant, as well. But mark me, Kitty, I am willing and perfectly capable of being the antithesis of those things. What you get from me, Kitty, is determined by what you give. Cooperation and compliance will ensure that this is pleasant for both of us. Rebellion and obstinance will make things very uncomfortable for us both. More so for you than me, I’d wager, however.”
“Or you could just marry someone who actually wanted you! Like that girl at the Assembly Rooms,” she snapped.
“She’s a twit. And a penniless one. I need your fortune, Kitty. And I mean to have it. I’ll do whatever is necessary and inflict any torment upon you that I must to get it. Think about that before you test me further,” he warned.
If she’d been able to run, if her leg had not been such a hindrance, she could have jumped free of the carriage and sought help from the crowds. But he’d been smart about that, much smarter than she’d ever given him credit for.
Judith.
Judas was more like. Her friend had betrayed her for him. The girl she had trusted and welcomed into her home so many times had intentionally led her to that place so that he might abduct her and force her into marriage.
“What did you do to Judith to sway her to your cause?”
Samford smiled. “I did nothing. I offered her a smile. I told her she was pretty. I told her what a shame it was that you’d wind up old and alone… but that if you were my wife, and she was your friend, I would feel honor bound to help her secure a worthy husband. Loyalt
y often wavers in the face of such pathetic desperation.”
Had it truly been that easy? Had one of her best friends sold her out for the promise of matchmaking? Kitty didn’t want to believe it, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling Lord Samford had been more honest with her in the last few moments inside that carriage than in all the weeks she had known him.
With every passing second, they moved further and further away from anyone who might be able to help her. She had no hope of outrunning him. She had no hope of being able to propel herself far enough from the carriage to be able to successfully extricate herself from his kidnapping scheme. Physically, she was at a loss. But Kitty did not let that deter her. She would escape him, but she would do it by being smart and keeping her wits about her.
The one thing she was certain of was that she would rather die than become Lady Samford.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Standing before the mirror in Madame Le Faye’s shop, wearing a dress that had quite obviously been made for another woman and that was being hastily pinned so that it might be altered to fit her, Prim felt rather lost. She wanted her sister with her. Never had she felt the need for Hyacinth’s gentle guidance more so than in those moments. Surrounded by lovely and oh-so-very-costly things, she felt terribly out of her element.
“It’s a lovely gown on you,” Madame said. “Pale colors are fashionable but they flatter few women truly. But with your eyes and your hair, which seems to be every color all at once, it is good.”
Madame’s French accent was a terrible imitation. Prim was fairly certain that she knew more French than Madame Le Faye did. But the woman was kind and very accommodating.
“Thank you, Madame Le Faye.”
The woman smiled, and made one circuit around the small dais that Prim stood on for the fitting. “Yes. And this gown fits your figure to perfection. The woman it was originally made for, she did not come back for it… I think her family took her away to Bath to try and catch a husband for her there. I believe there is less competition. It would never have done for her, anyway.”
The Awakening of Lord Ambrose (The Lost Lords Book 6) Page 16
