Kelly was leaning against the door frame, staring out at the storm, which had only seemed to get worse in the last few minutes.
“He’s taken off on horseback. I think I grazed him,” Kelly said. “But he won’t get far. Not in this storm. Not with his injuries.”
Kelly turned to look at Amanda, then quickly wrapped her up in a tight hug. Both men were soaking wet and being held by them made her own clothes damp.
“Will he come back?” Amanda asked, nervously gazing out at the storm.
“Not a chance,” Kelly said. “He’ll keep riding until he can’t anymore, but with the law after him now, there will be no place to hide. He is too well known.”
Amanda nodded, still very shaken. “Come…come and dry off by the fire before you get ill.”
“We informed the constabulary before we came here. They should be here soon. It seems that the rain has slowed them down somewhat. We will tell them everything. Wait out the storm and then return to London as soon as possible.” Joseph said as they walked back to the large room.
The men stood before the fire as Amanda asked questions.
“How did you know that something was wrong?” she asked.
Joseph removed his sodden overcoat and draped it over the back of a chair. His white shirt clung to his body so that Amanda felt she must look away.
Joseph told her the story of Luise. Amanda listened with wide eyes.
“You mean all that time that I lived with you at Ethelred Manor, I was living and working with someone who knew me as a child?” Amanda asked in disbelief.
“It seems so. She is terribly sorry that she didn’t recognize you. I think she blames herself now, for what has happened. She feels that if she had recognized you, she would have been able to warn you about Lord Pemperose.”
“Of course, it isn’t her fault,” Amanda scoffed gently.
“I told her the same, but I think she may need to hear it from you when we get home.”
Home.
The thought of it made her heart warm and her tension begin to melt away. She moved to sit on the floor before the fire, letting the warmth seep into her bones. She rested her head in her hands.
“My head is spinning. So much has happened.”
“It’s over now,” Kelly said, coming nearer to her and placing his large hand warmly on the center of his back.
“This portrait…” Joseph said a few quiet minutes later, “is it…?”
“It’s my mother,” Amanda confirmed. “See the necklaces she is holding?”
Joseph eyed the portrait then, lifting his arms over his head, he lifted it from its post on the wall and lowered it gently to the floor, propping it up against the wall.
“It belongs with you. We will bring her home as well.”
Amanda wiped away a tear and nodded.
The three of them were huddled quite close when, at last, the authorities arrived. Kelly did most of the talking, explaining what had happened and that Lord Pemperose had ridden into the night.
“He won’t make it far in this rain,” the constable said.
“I thought the same. That’s why I didn’t bother to follow him.”
“We will begin the search tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we can offer you a carriage back to London.”
They arrived back at the Dowager Marchioness’s London estate well past midnight. The rain had finally begun to slow, and exhaustion softened the shock that still gripped Amanda. She rested her head on Joseph’s shoulder, and he held her against his warm body. She was asleep when the carriage stopped, but she woke up to go inside.
“Kelly!” Lady Brubrun cried when they came into the drawing room. The Dowager Marchioness had been asleep by the fire, but she startled awake and looked at them all with bleary eyes.
Lady Brubrun ran into his arms and he spun her around. “And the bad man?” Lady Brubrun asked when he placed her back down. “Is he…?”
“We will find out soon,” Kelly said.
In that warm drawing room, Joseph and Kelly gave the other ladies a shortened version of events and, when the commotion had died down, everyone went gratefully to bed.
Amanda did not see the point in even pretending to sleep in a different room from Joseph. She was too tired to care about what the Dowager Marchioness would think, and she climbed into Joseph’s bed with no plans to sneak back across the hall before sunrise.
Joseph didn’t argue. He pulled her against his side and did not let go of her all night.
* * *
Joseph awoke the following morning with a bit of a fever. His shoulders ached and his jaw hurt. Likely from clenching it as he rode through the storm on horseback the night before. He sneezed.
Amanda’s eyes fluttered open and she sat up next to him, placing her hand on his forehead.
“You’re sick,” she said.
“It’s nothing. Just a touch of a cold. From last night.”
She smiled warmly, tenderly touching his cheek. “My savior,” she said. “You really rode through that storm for me?”
“I imagine Kelly is feeling worse for wear this morning as well,” Joseph said as Amanda got up from the bed and returned with a basin of cool water. She wrung out a cloth in it and draped it across his forehead.
“After what you’ve been through, it seems wrong for you to be taking care of me,” he said, smiling.
Down at the breakfast table, Kelly also was sneezing into his handkerchief.
“I told you it was folly to ride out in that weather,” the Dowager Marchioness said.
The men laughed. “A small price to pay considering the alternative,” Joseph said, glancing at Amanda.
A butler came into the breakfast parlor and introduced a tall constable, who held his hat in his hands as he came in.
“Well?” the Dowager Marchioness said.
The man cleared his throat. “I’ve come to inform you that the search for Lord Pemperose came to an end this morning. It appears that his horse got spooked, likely from the lightning, and the man was thrown. He was found lying on the side of the road.”
“Dead?” the Dowager Marchioness asked in that blunt way of hers. Her shrewd eyes fixed on the constable.
“Y…yes, My Lady.”
“Good riddance,” the grand old lady said, slapping her hand on the table. “I never liked him. You all heard me say it. I never liked the man.”
“Yes. Well. It seems that nature was merely fulfilling the duty of the law. His butler, Mister Tibbs, has been informing the authorities of everything that Lord Pemperose had got up to. He confirmed the story about the arson death of Lord and Lady Donovan.”
“Mister Tibbs…” Amanda whispered. Her heart ached for the old man who was, by all accounts, as helpless against Lord Pemperose as she had been. “And what of the coachman?” she asked.
“He’s been arrested for aiding in a kidnapping. Thanks to Mister Tibbs’ testimony.”
Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. “So, it’s all over now.”
“It’s all over now, My Lady,” the constable confirmed.
Joseph reached over and squeezed her hand. She gazed across at him, at the slight rosiness of his cheeks from the cold he’d gotten by saving her. He’d never looked more beautiful.
“Let’s go home,” she said softly.
Joseph smiled and leaned in to kiss her gently.
The Dowager Marchioness slapped the table again. “Now, quit that nonsense or you’ll have her sick too.” Joseph laughed and apologized, but Amanda patted his hand and smiled as though she didn’t mind in the slightest if she caught his cold.
Chapter 38
When they arrived back at Ethelred Manor, the ground was still soft from the rainfall, but the sun was high in a blue sky. Amanda gazed out at the sunny landscape and she felt lighter than she ever had felt before. Despite the trauma of the last few days, she felt fresh. She felt like her life was opening out before her like a blank page.
At the house, Luise Green was at the door to greet the
m. When she saw Amanda alight from the carriage, the housekeeper broke into tears, running out to meet her.
Amanda threw her arms wide and embraced the housekeeper.
“I'm so sorry,” Miss Green cried. “Now that I look at you, I don't know how I didn't recognize you. I was so sure that you had perished that it never even crossed my mind that you might be...oh, Miss Amanda.”
Amanda chuckled, squeezing the woman. “Of course, you didn't know. The coincidence is so extraordinary; you'd have been thought mad to have suspected it. I'm sorry as well, that I don't remember you. I don't remember anything, still. But look—”
Amanda turned around to look back at Joseph as he climbed out of the carriage. He lifted the oil portrait out of the carriage as well.
“Miss Donovan!” Miss Green cried out. “Oh, wasn't she just stunning?”
Amanda smiled. “Yes. I am so glad now that I can know what she looked like. Let's hang this in the dining room, don't you think?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. Let's do it right away,” Miss Green said.
As they were hanging the portrait, Heather appeared, skipping into the room with a doll dangling from her hand.
“There you are!” the girl exclaimed indignantly. “Miss Green wouldn't tell me a thing. What happened?” She looked up at the portrait. “Who's that?”
“That's Amanda's mother,” Joseph said, lifting Heather up onto his hip. The girl got a closer look at the portrait, squinting at the fine brush strokes.
“Where did you find it?” she asked. “What happened?”
Amanda looked at Joseph, then at Heather. “It's a bit of a grown-up story. I will tell you someday. But for now it's enough for you to know that Lord Pemperose wasn't who he said he was. He's gone now.”
“Gone? You mean—?”
“Yes, gone for good,” Joseph answered.
“Did you kill him, Father?” Heather asked with astounded eyes.
“Good Lord. Of course not,” Joseph said, setting her down. “I merely...shall we say...I merely helped him along.”
The awe and pride in the little girl’s eyes were almost comical as she gazed up at her father.
“Well, that's enough of that,” Amanda laughed. “Your father tells me that you have been working up plans to redecorate the house?”
“Oh, yes!” Heather said, apparently snapping out of a trance. “I have been making up a portfolio of sketches. Come and look at them,” she said, tugging on Amanda's arm.
* * *
They planned the wedding as a small, intimate affair to take place three months later, thinking that would give them time to prepare and make sure that the O’Neils would be able to come from Dublin. But Amanda and Joseph soon realized the terrible difficulty of living under one roof together, in love, but not married. Each time Amanda tiptoed into Joseph's room at night, or the other way around, they ended up moving the wedding date a week closer out of pure amorous impatience.
During the day, Amanda was able to distract her thoughts from her impending wedding night by throwing herself headlong into wedding plans and renovations.
Many of Heather's plans were too fantastical to become a reality. Her sketches of a grand water fountain in the front foyer, for example, was simply not practical. But her imagination helped to furnish ideas that would more smoothly merge the older and newer parts of the house together.
No longer would there be a wing done up fashionably in carpets and wallpapers while the opposite wing looked more like a medieval dungeon. It took ingenuity and cleverness, but in time the house began to take on a more harmonious look. Old and new came together in a compromise that more accurately reflected the tastes of everyone who lived there.
No longer was Joseph locked away in the cold, stony corridors and small rooms far away from the nursery and warmer rooms. The new master bedroom was closer to the center of the house, far enough away from the nursery to be private, but close enough that Heather wasn't made to feel like she was in an entirely separate house at night.
By the time the day of the wedding came around, the house was looking rather bedraggled in the midst of renovations. It was happy chaos, though, with jaunty wallpaper samples strewn about and paintings leaning against walls as they thought about where to hang things.
The morning of her wedding, Amanda sat cross-legged on the floor of her room to look into the mirror, as it had not yet been hung and was instead propped up against the back of a chair. Carefully, she curled a strand of hair with her fingers and pinned it in place.
Heather bounded about the room in her new dress and feathered bonnet.
“Wait till you see Father,” she was saying in a sing-song voice as she skipped about. “He looks ever so handsome this morning. He got a new jacket and everything.”
“Did he?” Amanda asked. She wasn't aware of any new jacket.
“Oh, yes. Wait till you see it. You will be shocked.”
Amanda looked over her shoulder at the exuberant child. “Shocked? What is shocking about the jacket?”
“You'll see!” Heather said teasingly.
“Well then, in that case,” Amanda slid one last pin into her hair and rose to her feet, careful not to tread on the gauzy fabric of her wedding gown. “I think I am ready now.”
“You look lovely, dear,” Miss Green said. She had been in the dressing room for the purpose of reining in the energy of young Heather, though she had been less than successful.
The three women walked together to the church, which was a ways away, but the weather was so nice. Amanda, personally, welcomed the chance to expend a bit of her nervous energy before the ceremony. Heather seemed to feel the same way, as she dashed this way and that, zig-zagging across the road.
As they walked, Miss Green began to cry, dabbing at her wet eyes with a handkerchief.
“What's the matter?” Amanda asked gently.
Miss Green sniffed. “You don't know what this means to me, My Lady. All these years, I thought you were gone. I never dreamed that I would be able to see you on your wedding day. It's a dream come true. And, oh, you look so much like your mother. If she could only see you now.”
Amanda stopped and hugged the weeping housekeeper. She chuckled softly at the woman's tears.
“You are too kind-hearted, Miss Green. I am so glad that I get to share this day with you. All those years ago, Mother must have been in heaven sending you to Lord Ethelred. She must have known that I would come here and that I would need you to look after me. If not for you, I shudder to think of what might have happened to me. Really, this day is thanks to you.”
The woman wept harder. Amanda laughed gently and patted her back.
“Come now, you don't want to be all puffy and red when we get there, do you? Let's look our best.”
The woman nodded, giving a great sniff before tucking her handkerchief back into the front of her bodice.
The modest country parish was done up with flowers, and the hedges that lined the drive were in bloom. The white church looked every bit like any young girl’s dream for her wedding. From inside, Amanda could hear the gentle commotion of people waiting for her. At the door, Amanda took a deep breath, steadying her nerves.
When the door was opened, and she looked into the church, which was filled with many familiar faces, Amanda saw at once what Heather had been teasing her about in regard to Joseph's appearance that morning.
His jacket was blue. It would be a minor thing to anyone else, but for Joseph, who had worn nothing but black since she had known him, the change was marked. He smiled nervously at her from where he stood near the altar, his hands clasped behind him. The softer color of his jacket, in contrast to the starkness of his normal black, made his skin seem slightly more olive and less pale. His black hair gleamed in the bright sunlight that fell in slanted columns from the high windows of the church.
He seemed to glow with health and vitality and his smile when he saw her was so full of love and admiration that Amanda blushed. She could hardly believe that th
is was the same man who had so frightened her on her first nights at Ethelred Manor. The taciturn man who dressed like an undertaker in the words of his daughter. Now, he seemed like someone different altogether.
Kelly, who stood behind Joseph, beamed at her. Amanda grinned back at him. She'd never dreamed that she would have a brother attend her wedding.
The man who had raised her since she was found wandering the streets of Dublin, Patrick O'Neil, came to her side and offered her his arm. She took it, smiling gratefully at him as he walked her slowly down the aisle. Siobhan, who had been like a mother to Amanda, was there as well, seated next to the Dowager Marchioness and nearly dwarfed by that older Lady's fashionable dress and bonnet.
Seducing The Perfectly Enchanting Marquess (Steamy Historical Regency Romance) Page 26
