Thus was Clarissa persuaded to provide an open-mouthed and increasingly incredulous Amelia with a highly censored version of the events of the last three days.
Chapter Ten
Once Amelia had fully recovered from the shock of discovering her sister capable of such wantonly reckless behaviour, she predictably took Clarissa’s interventions on her behalf sorely amiss. ‘You spiteful cat, you couldn’t bear to see me happy, could you? You’ve gone and spoiled everything, ruined my only chance of ever being rich. How could you? What am I to do now?’
‘But, Amelia don’t you see, I did it for you, I saved you.’
‘Saved me! Saved me for what, pray tell? For a life with Edward in a horrible little cottage with a dozen brats running round my feet? I’d rather go on the streets!’
‘Amelia! How can you talk so? You don’t know what you’re saying.’ Taking a deep breath, almost relieved to have the confession over with, Clarissa tried to turn her full attention on her sister. ‘My actions have come as a shock to you, I can understand that. But when you’ve had time to reflect, you’ll see it’s for the best. You love Edward, for goodness’ sake, and now there is no real obstacle in the way of your marriage.’
Unfortunately for her peace of mind, this phrase served only to remind Clarissa of the many and insurmountable obstacles she herself had placed in the path of her own, never-to-happen marriage. It took an effort to focus on the problem in hand. ‘You cannot seriously think that wealth is so important, Amelia? It’s not as if Edward will have no money at all—in fact, you’ll probably find that as a married lady you’ll have at least as much to spend as you do at present.’
‘But I don’t have anything to spend at present. I’m sick of eating the poorest cuts of meat. I’m tired of having to make do with only three or four pairs of evening gloves, and living in terror of getting stains on them. I’m fed up having to beg and plead for every new dress I need. And if I have to fashion one more hat from the trimmings of an old one, I’ll scream.’
Clarissa smiled in what she hoped was a winning and reassuring manner. ‘But when you’re married, you won’t need so many clothes, for you won’t be going to so many parties and the like, will you?’
‘Oh, Clarrie, don’t you understand? That’s exactly the point! If I marry Edward, we’ll be cooped up together in our hovel because we won’t be able to afford to go out. I do love him, but I’m neither stupid nor entirely blind to my own character. How long do you think I could endure such a life? How long before I get bored and start to blame poor Edward for it? How long before I start to look for entertainment elsewhere, no matter how dear he is to me?’
Taken aback by Amelia’s unexpected insight, Clarissa could only shake her head sadly.
‘And as for Edward,’ her sister continued despairingly, ‘well, it wouldn’t exactly be a bed of roses for him either. I’d be sure to make his life a misery with my constant nagging about our lack of money. He’d soon get tired of coming home to ruined dinners and a disgruntled wife. I have no idea about cooking, I’ve never placed an order at a butcher or a grocer, I don’t even know which coals to burn or anything at all about running a house. Don’t you see, Clarissa, it would be a disaster?’
Clarissa did see, but she wasn’t about to give up so easily. ‘Surely Edward has some prospects?’
‘He works hard and he seems to be well respected by his employer, but without backing he has little prospect of rapid advancement. Mr Fortescue said that there’s a good opportunity coming up soon for a partnership, but without money to assist him, the post will go elsewhere.’
‘Mr Fortescue?’
‘He’s a partner in Edward’s firm, Fortescue and Browne. Their offices are in the city—Lombard Street, I think. They’re a very prestigious law firm, Edward says, with any number of clients from the ton.’
Fortescue and Browne. That had been the heading on the letter Mama received this morning, now safely tucked away in Clarissa’s reticule. And Edward worked for them. An idea began to form in Clarissa’s mind. Perhaps Edward could be persuaded to find out the name of the man who held Mama’s debt? It wouldn’t be ideal, having to involve a stranger—well, almost a stranger—in their affairs. Edward might prove reluctant to compromise his position too, but since he clearly loved and intended to marry Amelia, surely these were not insurmountable obstacles. What she would do when she had the information she had no idea, but at least it was a step forward.
‘Amelia, do you think you could give Edward a note from me when you see him next?’
Amelia looked suspiciously at her elder sister. After her recent revelations, who knew what subterfuge she was capable of? ‘Why? A note about what?’
‘I need some advice about a trifling legal matter on Mama’s behalf, and he may be able to help, that’s all. Nothing for you to be worried about, I promise. Well, will you do it for me?’
‘I suppose so, I’m seeing him later this evening. Although we had such a disagreeable conversation last night, he may have already decided that he doesn’t love me after all.’ Amelia’s lip trembled. ‘Oh, Clarrie, I do love him. I must marry him, for I can’t marry anyone else. And now you’ve spoiled it all. If you hadn’t gone off with Lord Rasenby, I could have accepted his carte blanche, and maybe by as early as next month I could have been Mrs Edward Brompton. And now you’ve ruined any chance of that. Oh, I do hate you.’
‘Don’t be silly. I’m sure things may still work out for the best, if only you will have patience.’
‘And pray, what difference will patience make?’ Amelia demanded with a stamp of her foot. ‘I need money! Kit Rasenby has plenty of it, and he’s famed as a generous provider into the bargain. Now I’ll be forced to accept an offer from someone else, who like as not won’t be as rich or as generous. So I’ll have to stay with them for longer, and then Edward might not wait for me. Oh, why did you have to meddle in my affairs?’
Once more Clarissa could think of nothing to say. In truth, from Amelia’s point of view, she could see that she had ruined things. It was clear that her dream of Amelia and Edward disappearing into a future of unclouded marital bliss without the funds to provide Amelia with a decent life-style was just that, a ridiculous fantasy. Now she faced the prospect of a future with Mama in prison, Amelia on the streets, and herself a ruined relic teaching someone else’s children their letters. Always assuming she hadn’t already conceived a child of her own—then she really would be ruined. That thought she refused to give house room, having more than enough worries without it!
‘You’re very quiet all of a sudden, Clarrie. What are you thinking?’ Amelia had regained control of her temper. Having mentally reviewed Clarissa’s tale, she was beginning to sense some glaring gaps in her sister’s story. As an accomplished liar herself, she prided herself on having a finely tuned nose for such things, and there were some aspects of the story that just didn’t quite add up. ‘Remind me again, Clarrie, just exactly how you left things with Kit Rasenby.’
‘As I said, he told me he had no intention of getting married and that he had been aware of your plot to entrap him all along,’ Clarissa replied. ‘He also agreed not to offer you a carte blanche since you are in love with someone else.’ It was close enough to the truth, and all Amelia needed to know.
‘And how did you persuade him, in the end? You must have had to work exceeding hard at it, for you were away nigh on three days.’
‘Yes, but I explained that to you. He was not happy at first with my interfering, and insisted that I accompany him to France. While we were on board the Sea Wolf, there was little time for discussion.’
‘So you didn’t really get a chance to persuade him until you returned and spent the night at Thornwood Manor?’
‘Yes, that’s right. Then when I talked to him properly over dinner, he finally saw sense.’ Repeating the story only served to make it seem even more flimsy and unlikely. Clarissa tried to change the subject. ‘There’s no point in going over it again. I’m tired. You’re u
pset. Come, let’s leave matters until tomorrow.’
‘No, let’s discuss it now, sister dear, while it’s still fresh in your mind,’ Amelia said remorselessly. ‘You admit you were alone with Kit Rasenby for three days?’
‘Not alone, precisely. There were servants and the émigrés and—’
‘But you spent last night alone with him, did you not? And then he gave in to your demands without asking for any sort of recompense? Nothing at all, no payment of any sort?’
Amelia’s use of the term payment made Clarissa flush deeply, a fact her sister spotted immediately. ‘He did want something in return, didn’t he? And knowing Kit Rasenby, I bet I know exactly what it was. I’ve said before, you’re really quite pretty, Clarissa, although you pale beside me, of course. Did he kiss you?’
A blush and a shake of the head were not convincing denials but they were all Clarissa could muster.
‘He did kiss you. Well, well, Clarrie. Tell me, did you find it to your liking?’
Again, a blush, deeper this time. ‘Amelia, please, I—’
Amelia continued relentlessly. ‘But what you were asking was really quite a big favour. Giving me up when he was really very taken with me was no small demand, Clarrie, was it? So a kiss probably wouldn’t have sufficed. What else did you give in return for saving me, my virtuous sister? It must have been more than a few kisses?’
‘Amelia, you must not ask. Suffice to say it was not—it was not—well, it was not Kit’s fault in the end, but mine.’
‘Not Kit’s fault in the end? Lord, Clarissa, you make no sense. Why would you—good God!’ Realisation dawned on Amelia just as Clarissa covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. For a few seconds, Amelia was too astonished at the sight of her sister crying to take in the full extent of her confession—but only for a few seconds.
‘He bedded you! Clarissa Warrington, I can’t believe it. Goodness, my holier-than-thou sister deflowered by the most notorious rake in town. Well, well, well!’
Speechless at the full import of what she had learned, Amelia sat down and stared at her sister in a completely new light. A thousand questions came to mind, but for the present she was simply fascinated by the fact that Clarissa had experience of something she hadn’t. A malicious smile marring her beautiful face, Amelia pulled her chair closer. ‘Come then, Clarrie, you must tell me all. Was it as nice as they say? Did he give you pleasure? Was he gentle? Did it hurt? Did he enjoy it?’
‘Amelia, I have no intention of discussing this with you, so you can stop your questions right now. It’s a private matter between Kit and myself.’
Head tilted to one side, Amelia looked closely at Clarissa’s flushed face. She was deeply embarrassed at the revelations, of that there was no doubt. But there was something else. She was different in some way. Despite being so tired, she looked prettier than before. And sort of—glowing. Realising that nothing was to be gained by threats, Amelia tried a different tack. ‘Clarrie, even if you won’t talk about it, won’t you at least tell me—since I’m going to get married soon—did you enjoy the act?’
‘Oh yes. It was wonderful.’ The blush, and the look of sublime fulfillment, took Amelia aback. The final flaw in the story became clear. ‘You’re in love with him, aren’t you? It’s the only explanation. Poor Clarrie, to fall for a rake. It’s true, isn’t it?’
Clarissa’s silence was answer enough.
‘I knew it! In fact, now I come to think of it, you’ve probably been in love with him from the start. You just used me as an excuse, you wanted him for yourself all along. Well, am I right?’
‘No, no,’ Clarissa said hurriedly. ‘I had no such intention, you must believe me. I wanted to save you. My only aim was to buy you some time so that you would realise the depth of your true feelings for Edward. I had no other thought.’
‘Rubbish, I don’t believe you. In any event, you are in love with him now, aren’t you?’
‘I—I—oh, what does it matter, for nothing can become of it, Amelia. He cares naught for me and I must live with that, and what I have done. But he won’t be making you an offer now, and no matter what you feel at present, I’m still glad of that outcome, at least. We’ll find a way for you to marry Edward, if only you will have some patience and a little faith. Kit Rasenby has no place in either of our lives. I don’t want to talk about him, or this, or anything any more. I have the most awful headache. Please, Amelia, I need to be alone.’
Clarissa got abruptly to her feet, grabbed Amelia by the hand, and shunted her unceremoniously out of the room with a final reminder, on pain of death, not to breathe a word to anyone. Locking the door, she threw herself dejectedly on the bed and sobbed as though her heart was breaking. And indeed, indeed, it felt as if it was.
Dinner that evening in the Warrington residence was a very subdued affair, each of the three ladies being preoccupied with their own thoughts. Lady Maria fretted over her gambling debts. Clarissa was trying very hard—and failing—not to think about Kit. She dared not imagine how he had reacted to her sudden flight. She wondered where he was, what he was doing, who he was with. The stab of jealousy at the endless possibilities such speculation led to felt like a physical pain.
The truth, if she but knew it, was that across London Kit was enduring a similarly miserable dinner with his sister and her husband, absorbed in almost identical thoughts.
And Amelia? Had her sister been privy to the plots she was hatching as she chewed her way indifferently through her Hogg’s pudding, she would have thrown up her hands in horror.
After dinner, Clarissa wrote a note to Edward, beseeching him, for Amelia’s sake, to find out the name of her mama’s creditor if he could do so without compromising himself. She sealed it and gave it to Amelia with strict instructions to pass it straight on without reading it herself. Needless to say, the strictures merely served to arouse her sister’s already inflamed curiosity further. Amelia opened the letter as soon as she was out of the house.
When Clarissa finally retreated to the sanctuary of her bedchamber she could scarcely believe she had been home for less than a day. The rescue mission to France and the events at Thornwood House seemed like a lifetime ago, and yet only this very morning she had been lying in another bed encircled by Kit’s strong arms, his warm muscular body pressed against her own receptive flesh. Clarissa tried desperately to conjure the sensations of that moment, the feel of Kit’s skin, the scent of his body, but she was exhausted. Frustrated and lonely, she drifted into a troubled sleep.
The next morning, while Clarissa slept unusually late into the morning, her sister and mama sat together in Lady Maria’s bedchamber, discussing Amelia’s latest scheme to solve all their troubles. Having broken the seal of Clarissa’s letter to Edward, Amelia had made sense enough of it to realise her mama was in dire need of an enormous sum of money. Since she was still determined to find the means of laying her hands on an equivalent sum for her own purposes, she had formulated a plan that would resolve both issues in one fell swoop.
Deciding that the need to enlist Mama’s help in solving their monetary difficulties was of much more import than keeping Clarissa’s confidences, Amelia had no hesitation in disclosing all. ‘Mama, I’m afraid I must tell you something shocking.’ Her version of Clarissa’s story was brief and to the point.
Lady Maria was deeply shocked. ‘Are you saying that your sister, my daughter—our Clarrie—was compromised by Lord Rasenby,’ she uttered shakily.
Amelia impatiently handed her the vinaigrette she had had the foresight to bring along. ‘Yes, Mama, but please don’t go off into one of your swoons at the moment, for I need you to pay attention.’
Taking a sniff strong enough to make her recoil, Lady Maria blinked owlishly. ‘No, no, Amelia, your sister was with Constance, her letter said so.’
‘Mama! For the last time, I tell you she was not. She was with Rasenby. He abducted her and took her to France on his yacht. Then he took her back to his house. And he ravished her!’
It took burnt feathers and a tisane to revive Lady Maria from her swoon, and when she came to, Amelia had to repeat the entire story. ‘So you see, Mama, he seduced her. And now she is in love with him. Do you not think that he should pay for such a dastardly crime?’
‘Pay? What payment can there be to recompense my poor girl for the loss of her innocence?’ demanded Lady Maria, frantically tugging at the strings of her cap, which had become entangled in the chicken-skin gloves she wore to keep her hands soft. ‘The monster! There is nothing too bad for such a man. Nothing! If I were not a poor widow woman, with no one to defend me, he would not have taken such an advantage.’
‘Yes, yes, Mama, indeed he is very wicked. But never mind all that, I have an excellent idea. Lord Rasenby shall pay, but not with his blood. He shall give us something much more useful. Money!’
‘Well, to be sure dear, that would be much more useful, but why would he?’
‘We shall threaten him, of course. And demand recompense for the loss of my sister’s virtue. Then you can pay your gambling debts and I can marry Edward.’
‘How do you know about my gambling debts? And who is Edward?’
‘Edward. I have mentioned him to you, Mama. I’m in love with him.’
‘In love with Edward,’ Lady Maria exclaimed, momentarily distracted. ‘But you barely know the man. Don’t be foolish, Amelia, my head is spinning as it is.’
‘Well, you might as well get used to it, for I’m marrying him, no matter what you say. Once I lay my hands on enough funds to do so, that is. Let us not discuss Edward just now, we have much more pressing matters to see to. We must write a letter to Lord Rasenby. And we must on no account tell Clarissa any of this, for she would be sure to try to stop us.’
‘No, no, dear. Clarrie knows how important it is to settle my debts, though I wish she had not told you about them—she said she would not.’
The Wicked Lord Rasenby Page 18
