The woman’s hair was up in a bun, her clothes were clearly worn off but not so much people would assume she was too poor. They were dark, though. Her Kathleen always liked bright colors, but that was a long time ago. That woman, was not her Kathleen. As Mr. McAlister said, that was Marie.
Still her daughter, though.
She turned and looked directly at Anne and the older woman’s air left her lungs. It was her daughter, older, wiser and sterner, but her daughter.
Beautiful. Even with the scar on her forehead that not even the haircut could hide, she was still as stunning as ever.
No recognition from her part, it seemed and Anne wanted to cry until she remembered what Mr. McAlister said.
“Kathleen?” she said with a tone just a little louder than a whisper and just like that, Kathleen’s face lit up, and tears started to well up in her big beautiful green eyes.
“Mama!”
And just like that, Anne let her heart open for the first time in five years.
Chapter 35
Miss Selina Clifford
Selina admitted she cried when she saw the reunion between mother and daughter. It was even better when Edward took her hand and she could lean on him, head resting on his shoulder. They moved to the library and the Duchess had yet to let go of her daughter.
“Perhaps we should go,” Selina whispered to Edward. “It is getting late and I bet they want some time alone.”
“You are right,” Edward agreed. With so much going on, no one cared how close they were sitting together and how they were still holding hands.
A knock on the door made them look up. It was Mr. Potter, the butler and he announced, “Lord Reginald Ainsworth, Your Graces, my ladies, and sir.”
Selina’s good mood mostly vanished with the name and she had to move away from her loved one and let his hand go, so that Lord Ainsworth wouldn’t have a thing to say.
Lord Ainsworth had been away on a business trip, thankfully, so he hadn’t tried to spend time with Selina, but she had a feeling it would start to change.
The moment he walked inside the room, he opened his mouth to speak and then he spotted Kathleen and, well, Selina was certain he thought he was seeing a ghost, as everyone thought she was dead.
“Reginald!” The Duke smiled and got up to greet him. “You surprise us! I thought you were coming back in two days. But it matters not. Fate has brought us back our Kathleen. I am sorry, Marie, back,” he said looking back at his daughter, who smiled at him.
“Who is this?” she asked her mother.
“Your cousin, dear,” the Duchess told her and then smiled towards Lord Ainsworth. “She has some sort of amnesia, she can’t remember most of her life, just a few people.”
Still, Lord Ainsworth took a step back and Selina felt Edward getting up to join the Duke into explaining what happened, most likely. “Marie?” he asked. “Why Marie? What is happening? That cannot be Kathleen. She is dead. We all know she is dead!”
Selina never saw Lord Ainsworth act this way before. She looked from him to Kathleen and saw the young woman frozen, eyes wide and watched as her hand start to shake with each word her cousin spoke.
With her mother, she had been overwhelmed with emotion and happiness and she was always looking at her father with adoration in her eyes, and even though she had just met Edward, she clearly liked him already.
Even with Selina, she had been very polite and was genuine about getting to know her future sister-in-law, something her mother gasped about but made Marie chuckle.
She did not react as if she was terrified. Not until she heard his voice.
“And you remembered her from a year ago?” Lord Ainsworth’s voice was loud when he said that.
Selina frowned and went to sit by Marie’s other side and even the Duchess had noticed something was strange.
“Kath- I mean, Marie, dear? What is wrong?” her mother asked.
“The water was so cold,” Marie whispered. “I do not like deep water. I was pushed.”
“I know sweetheart,” the Duchess said as she kissed her temple. “You were a young girl when you fell in that well but now you are safe.”
“Yes, the well.” Marie looked dazed. “But I was not pushed only in the well.”
* * *
Miss Marie Smith/Lady Kathleen Egremont
When she was seven, Kathleen fell in a well. It was horrible. Her little friends were quick to call for help and she was lucky her Papa had taught her how to swim that summer. She had places to hold, then, the walls gave her support.
That experience scarred her for life. She remembered now.
When the Osbournes took her in and they went to the beach, Marie always stayed away, and she understood now it that was because of Kathleen’s fears.
She was innocently pushed while playing and she fell in the well.
She remember that she was pushed from the cliff also when she was seventeen. It was not an accident.
“Marie?” Miss Clifford asked and she looked at her. “What is wrong?”
“His voice,” Marie whispered, her head hurting. “It’s the same voice.”
“Same voice as whom, Marie?” she pressed.
Marie didn’t want to remember, but she saw flashes in her mind. “I was alone. Going home. I… I stopped at my favorite spot to look at the view and that voice… he…” She tried to remember, and her head was throbbing. She looked at one point on the fireplace mantle to focus “He said we should get married. But I… I am in love with someone else? Daniel?”
It was Edward’s voice, then, that asked, “What else, Marie? Can you see his face?”
“I can’t remember his face. He said we are meant to be together, that he was meant to have the title and so do I.” Marie gulped some air before continuing. “I laughed because I saw him as a brother I never had. I wasn’t trying to be mean, I just… I couldn’t see us together. He thought I was mocking him, but I wasn’t. I remember his hands on my shoulders shaking me until… I was falling into the water. Everything was dark and cold.”
“Whose voice was it, Marie?” Edward asked again.
Marie looked away from the spot on the mantle and looked straight to where Reginald was standing, pale as a ghost.
“His.”
* * *
Mr. Edward McAlister
There was complete silence for a few seconds when no one knew what to say or do. The Duke was looking at his daughter in horror, and so were the ladies. Edward, though, Edward knew what Lord Ainsworth was about to do.
It seemed as if everything happened at the same time.
The second Edward moved, so did Lord Ainsworth, and being closer to the door, he managed to get out of the room first. Edward could hear his father call for help of his staff and even tried to follow his son and nephew, but there was no way he would manage to catch up with them.
A desperate man was a dangerous man, Edward knew, but he forgot how quick desperate men could run. In just a few seconds, Lord Ainsworth was already opening the large entrance door and running off the stairs when Edward finally tackled him to the ground.
“You bastard!” Edward yelled, punching the Lord in the face. “You tried to kill her!” And then it dawned on him. “You tried to kill me!”
With no answer to give since there was no defense to what he had done in both counts, Reginald used what he knew would give the advantage.
He freed his hand and punched Edward on his still healing gunshot wound on his shoulder. Not expecting the attack, pain shot through Edward and his grasp on the sly bastard loosened, giving him time to run before Edward managed to get up. When he did, Lord Ainsworth had opened the gate and fled.
“Edward!” he heard his father calling.
“He ran that way.” He pointed to their right. “If we run we might-”
“We will get that bastard I am ashamed to ever call my family, but right now, you are bleeding!” the Duke said and Edward frowned. Bleeding? Did Reginald have a knife on him and Edward didn’t fee
l the stab wound? “Look at your shoulder.”
During the struggle, his jacket opened and he could see some dark red spots on the soft fabric of his shirt. Another shirt destroyed with blood.
“Fantastic. Mrs. Yates will be angry at me again to let one of my shirts get blood all over again in just a couple of weeks,” Edward said.
His father started to lead him back to the house. “I think Mrs. Yates will be glad you are fine rather than complain about shirts.”
Edward snorted. “You clearly do not know Mrs. Yates.” They were in silence for a few seconds. “I can’t believe Lord Ainsworth tried to kill both me and Kathleen.”
“I cannot believe I actually tried to console him at his father’s funeral.” The Duke was furious. “I already asked for the police to be called, but I will do everything in my power to get that man and bring him to justice!” His face was stern and his tone was as angry as it could possibly be. “No one gets away with trying to kill my children. Now, let’s go back inside, son. I am afraid of what Miss Clifford will do to me if I let you be unattended.”
Chapter 36
Inspector John Potter
“Are you sure?” the Duke of Bellford asked the Inspector.
“As sure as I can. I clearly saw Lord Ainsworth get on board of the boat myself, Your Grace,” the Inspector said as he saw the Duke inspect the manifesto of the boat his nephew got in to go to America. “It has been three weeks. He has withdrawn all of his money from the banks and bought a ticket to America and by the records, he went. To me, it makes sense, sir, to be far away from this mess.”
The Duke put the book down and sighed. “Nothing makes sense to me anymore, Inspector. My nephew tried to kill my daughter and we, honest to God, thought we had lost her and five years later, hires a man to do the same to my son.” He looked away. “I all but raised that boy, Inspector, and he turned the way he did.”
“It is not your fault, Your Grace,” Inspector Potter said. “People are what they are. Some change for the better and others for the worst. Just because you have one bad apple, does not mean all of them are. I have spoken to your son and your daughter, and they are both good.”
“I am afraid I cannot take much credit for Edward.” The Duke smiled sadly. “I was not there to see him grow into the man he is today. Kathleen… she was always good and sweet.”
“Take it from someone who knows it.” The inspector got up from the chair with a loud grunting sound. “Every family has someone they are embarrassed of. Maybe not murderers, but there’s always something. In my family? Three. Alcohol, women, and gambling,” he said with a shrug.
The Duke laughed. “If those count, Inspector, I am positive I can find more than that in my family tree.”
“Don’t we all,” Potter laughed. “But I mean it, sir. I think he is gone for good. Unless he is crazier than we thought.”
“Thank you, Inspector.” The Duke offered him his hand and the Inspector shook it. “I feel better knowing Reginald is no longer in this country. Or island, for that matter.”
“I hope the next time we meet is not under these circumstances, Your Grace.”
“May God listen to you.”
* * *
Miss Selina Clifford
Being friends with Kathleen Egremont was a different experience from anything Selina ever did in her life.
Because being friends with Kathleen and being friends with Marie Smith were two completely different things.
For starters, she still wanted to be called Marie, even by her parents and old friends whom have heard about her return from the dead.
Selina was constantly at the Egremont’s house, so both women created a bond. Selina was always there when an old friend stopped by just in case she didn’t react well to the memory or didn’t have them at all.
Some people Kathleen remembered the second they started talking. Others, they could talk for hours and she couldn’t remember a thing.
“They are Kathleen’s friends, not Marie’s.” Marie explained as they walked by the path, Edward following suit a few steps behind. Strolls like this one were common for them now since the doctor told Marie she needed more air and to go to places she used to go to before, to see if some of her memory would return. “Kathleen was bubbly and happy and never had to worry about a thing. Me? I worked hard, Selina, and those girls I used to know are now married, with children and even then, they pass them on to someone else. How can I discuss what I know about the children they have if they don’t even know what they are going through?”
“That is very true.” Selina twined her arm with Marie’s. “I guess you will have to make new friends. Some who will understand both Kathleen and Marie.”
“The question is: who am I? I am not just Kathleen anymore, and Marie is changing as well.”
“I am so sorry you feel that way,” Selina said. “If it is worth anything, I really like you. Not Kathleen, not Marie or whatever other name you have. I like you and I am lucky to have you as a friend.”
“I am honored, Selina,” Marie smiled. “I am glad we like each other. Imagine if we didn’t and we would have to have awkward family dinners when you marry my brother. As long as he doesn’t take too long before asking you,” she said louder so Edward could hear her.
Selina could feel her cheeks burn with the insinuation.
“He is only waiting because it seems appropriate to have a period to let the dust settle after a scandal like someone returning from the dead, and a murderer cousin who wanted to inherit the Dukedom.” Selina didn’t look back, but she could hear the smile in his voice.
Marie looked over her shoulder. “Hey, I did not return from the dead. I was alive this whole time.”
“And about those awkward dinners, I am confident we will have them. You know how well I and your mother get along,” Edward said and Marie giggled.
“It is always entertaining to see you try to be cordial with one another,” Selina said.
“It is,” Marie laughed.
“At least we try,” Edward answered and someone called his name. The three of them looked his way and saw a middle-aged man. “Ah, Mr. Gale. I haven’t seen you since I sold you that beautiful warehouse by the docks.”
“Indeed, Mr. McAlister,” the older man answered.
Edward turned to the ladies and then back to him. “Mr. Gale, may I introduce you to Lady Kathleen Egremont and Miss Selina Clifford.” Even though she didn’t really like to be introduced that way, there was no way around it.
Mr. Gale tipped his hat. “Ladies. Nice meeting you.”
“Likewise,” Selina said. “I feel as if you two are about to start talking business and we do not want to intrude. So Lady Egremont and I are going to buy some sweets a little further ahead and find a bench to sit. Would that be fine?”
“Of course,” Edward nodded. “Just don’t wander off, please.”
“We would never,” Marie pretended to be upset but then left with Selina giggling. “It is nice to have a brother.”
“And you found yourself the very best one there is,” Selina chuckled.
“You might be right,” Marie shrugged.
After paying for their sweets, they started to look for a bench to sit and enjoy their treats while waiting for Edward. The park was almost empty so it would be easy to find a place to sit.
Selina looked to her side, where Marie was and saw something. But by then, it was too late.
Coming from between the trees, there stood Lord Reginald Ainsworth, holding a gun.
“Hello, Kathleen.”
Marie let her sweets fall to the ground.
The usual bright and fun Marie was gone in a second, being substituted by a traumatized young woman who could barely speak or talk whenever she heard his voice. Being pushed off a cliff by said person would do that to anyone.
Even though she was afraid, Selina put herself between Kathleen and Lord Ainsworth. “Go away.”
“I do not want anything to do with you anymore, Miss Clifford. I
wish you all the happiness in the world with that bastard McAlister. Whom I want, and always have wanted, is Kathleen.”
“You have a funny way of showing that, pushing her off a cliff.”
“That was an accident.” Lord Ainsworth’s eyes widened in anger and only then did Selina take a good look at his appearance. His clothes were dirty. His hair, messy. He smelled and it seemed he hadn’t shaved for a while. “I thought I lost her, but now she came back to me.”
A Hidden Duke For The Passionate Lady (Regency Historical Romance) Page 24
