Her Sudden Groom (Groom Series, BOOK 1)

by Rose Gordon

  He folded the garment back and tried to put it back in the package as neatly as he could. Before he could even suggest she put that on, he needed to think of what to say to her. She didn’t strike him as the type who could be seduced into giving forgiveness. She was too smart for that. Nor was his sin small and trivial; it was enormous and had caused her great pain.

  Collapsing into the only chair in the room, he sat alone with nothing but his thoughts as the clock ticked, the candles melted, and his mind raced.

  Chapter 23

  Caroline sank down into the plush red settee in the drawing room, exhausted. She’d spent the early afternoon observing some of Alex’s new blooms then came inside to record her findings. Just as she’d finished that, Regina invited her to tea then Edwina asked her to help reorganize part of the library. Then it was time for dinner, which, though she didn’t feel inclined to eat, she still attended. And now it was time for her to find a quiet corner of an often unused drawing room and sit in peace for a few minutes. She loved Alex and his family, and would do anything for them, of course, but just now she needed a little time alone.

  She closed her eyes to block out any and all distractions when suddenly one in the form of a light scratching came from the direction of the door.

  “Yes?” she greeted, peeking her head out the door.

  “A letter arrived for you today, my lady.” Johnson held out an piece of tattered and wrinkled parchment.

  Caroline plucked it from his fingers and closed the door before turning the folded paper over in her hands. Her brow knit. The writing looked familiar... Almost like...

  Her left hand squeezed the paper tighter as the trembling fingers of her right hand worked to break the sloppy wax seal that held the missive closed. On her fourth attempt, she was able to break the seal and willed her trembling hands to unfold the paper. They obeyed. She didn’t know how or why, but somehow she managed to unfold the letter.

  Her skin grew warm and her heart raced as her eyes skimmed over the carelessly penned words.

  You owe me! I should think ten thousand is a fair amount. I’ll be by to collect on the morrow.

  Caroline’s hands tightened around the unaddressed and unsigned note, anger bubbling inside her. Though the sender hadn’t been polite enough to properly style the letter, Caroline knew exactly who it was from and who its intended recipient was.

  “Caroline?”

  Carline jumped nearly a foot in the air. She turned her head to meet the warm, concerned gazed of her mother-in-law. When had she come in?

  “Is something wrong?”

  Unable to so much as think of anything to say, Caroline dropped her eyes down to the paper that was now rattling in her shaky grasp.

  Regina placed a tender, yet firm, hold on Caroline’s right wrist and pulled the paper free from her tight grip. Regina’s lips curled into a sneer as her eyes passed over the words. “Don’t you mind this,” she said, refolding the missive. She threw it on the floor, forgotten.

  Caroline nearly fell over trying to bend down to pick up the paper. Don’t mind this? Was Regina mad? She had to mind this. This was too important not to mind.

  “Caroline.” Regina’s soft voice gave her pause. “He’s not coming. Stop worrying. He’s just trying to scare you.”

  “It’s working,” Caroline whispered, her fingers closing around the edge of paper.

  “It shouldn’t.”

  Caroline shook her head. Regina didn’t understand.

  Regina’s gentle hand descended onto Caroline’s shoulders, gently squeezing. “Look at me. I know you’re distraught right now, but you must realize you’re worrying for nothing. No self-respecting man would show up and demand a bride price for a woman he didn’t even have the power to give into marriage.”

  Her words shocked Caroline to core. “You’re right,” she breathed. Biologically, he was her father, but legally speaking, he wasn’t. He’d given that claim up years ago when Uncle Joseph had somehow gotten her father to relinquish his legal claim and adopted Caroline.

  “He’s just trying to scare you,” Regina repeated.

  Caroline shivered. That vile man had somehow managed to scare her her whole life, why should now be any different? “What should I do, then?”

  “What do you want to do?” Regina countered, giving Caroline’s shoulders another affectionate squeeze.

  “Burn that blasted letter,” she answered with a shaky laugh.

  Regina marched across the room and came back with a three candle candelabra. She set it down on the table then moved the teapot and cups off the silver tea tray that rested in the middle of the table. “Burn it.”

  Caroline hadn’t been serious, but now... She looked down at that dratted piece of paper that only served to taunt her. To remind her who she’d once been; what she came from; where she’d once been destined to go. Logic gave way to emotions and she extended the paper forward, letting the hot flame lick at the edge of the paper until a flame consumed the bottom half inch. She dropped it to the tea tray and stood motionlessly beside her mother-in-law as the paper became consumed by flames and shriveled to a little black mess.

  “Do you feel better now?”

  “A little.”

  Regina pulled on Caroline’s hand. “Sit with me.”

  Caroline sat.

  Regina wet her lips, her eyes held a serious gleam. “Caroline, I think it’s time we had a long overdue talk.”

  “I think so, too,” Caroline agreed, remembering what Alex’s father had said to her to day after she married Alex. It was time to know the truth about her mother. And Regina was the only one who would know.

  “How about this, you tell me what you know, then I’ll tell you what I know, then we’ll see if together we can fill in the missing details?” Regina flashed her a mischievous smile. “That’s how scientists would approach this, isn’t it?”

  A watery smile tugged on Caroline’s lips. It was very apparent Regina had spent the last thirty or more years in the company of a lover of science. She took a deep breath and rubbed her sweaty hands on her black bombazine skirt. “I don’t know much,” she admitted. “My aunt told me my mother was carrying on an affair with my―my―” she waved a hand in the air, unable to say the word― “and when she found out she was expecting she was forced to quit school and marry him.” She lowered her eyes to study the wooden floor.

  “Is that all you know?” Regina’s soothing voice did nothing to calm Caroline’s sudden onslaught of nerves.

  She nodded. What else was there to tell?

  Regina fidgeted beside her. “I’m not sure how to word this, so I’m just going to blurt it. I don’t think affair is correct term in this circumstance,” she said with a gulp. “I may have only been her roommate for two months, but it was just long enough to―” She broke off and exhaled. “Caroline, your mother did nothing either she or you should be ashamed of.”

  Caroline lost interest in the floor and searched her mother-in-law’s eyes, looking for some sort of clue. What the clue would reveal she didn’t know, but curiosity pressed her to discover it. “What happened?”

  “Not long before your mother came to Sloan’s, she’d gone with her family to a house party held by some close friends of your uncle’s. She was only fifteen at the time, far too young to be there, but for some reason she’d attended. While there, she’d met Rupert Griffin. She told me he’d tried to pursue her, but she wasn’t interested.”

  A sense of unease settled over Caroline. Call it an inkling, suspicion, premonition, or whatever you’d like, but for some reason Caroline had a feeling she wouldn’t like where this story was about to go.

  “He was relentless in his pursuit of her, so her brother decided it was in her best interest to send her to a school in London where she’d be away from him.” Regina twisted her lips. “But he wasn’t put off so easily. He plagued her with an endless stream of letters and even tried to pay call on her under the guise of being sent by her brother and even once claimed to be her be
trothed.

  “She agreed to see him once and told him she wasn’t interested in his suit, but he kept coming back. A few weeks later we had a small social to which our families were invited to come.” A wistful expression crossed her face for a moment. She cleared her throat and her face grew serious again. “During the social, your mother disappeared for a while. When we found her, she was sobbing so hard we couldn’t understand what she was saying. She went home with your uncle that day and never came back.”

  Silence filled the air. Both women knew why she never went back.

  “Did he give her no choice?” Caroline didn’t really know why she’d asked Regina that, likely Regina didn’t know the workings of her uncle’s mind than Caroline did.

  “I assume you’re asking if Joseph forced the match. Truthfully, I don’t know. I never asked. But my heart tells me no. I’ve spent a lot of time at Ridge Water during my marriage to Edward and know that your uncle would have declared war on anyone brave enough to cut your mother.” She sighed. “But I also knew your mother. She was a kind soul who was always thinking about others. I know it’s just speculation, but I think she married him by her own will because she was afraid of the shame it would bring on your uncle and his family, not to mention her unborn child.”

  Caroline closed her eyes. She could understand that. She couldn’t imagine Uncle Joseph forcing a match under such conditions. And though her mother had been gone so long, what Caroline remembered of her mirrored what Regina had just suggested. It wasn’t for any great love for the man she’d married him, but to protect her family from scorn and scandal.

  But why did her father want to marry her mother if he’d already―

  Caroline’s blood boiled in her veins. Money. Of course. Caroline’s mother was from a wealthy, well-connected family who had money. He wasn’t a fool. He must have known if he married Caroline’s mother and started a family, her brother would give them money. And the more children they had, the more money he’d give them. Bile burned in the back of Caroline’s throat. That’s why her mother was always increasing, even after being told she shouldn’t try for more children.

  Her mother had been expecting more than nine times as far as Caroline knew, including the miscarriage she’d suffered not long after marrying Caroline’s father. Eight of those nine pregnancies ended in either a miscarriage or stillborn. The last had resulted in death of mother and child.

  Numbly, Caroline tried to stand. She had to leave the room. She needed to be alone. She needed to sort this out. She’d learned so much about both her mother and father in such a short time. Nothing was what she’d expected.

  Regina’s warm fingers clasped Caroline’s wrist. Caroline shook her off, thankful for the gesture, but too consumed with her thoughts to welcome it. Her head spun with the facts―both said and implied―she’d learned in the past fifteen minutes. It was too much. All too much at a time like this.

  She swiped at the steady tears coursing down her cheeks and wearily climbed the stairs. Her feet took her to the room she shared with Alex. He hadn’t come down for dinner tonight, but he’d join her in their room later. She couldn’t burden him with everything she’d learned about her mother and father right now with his own father’s death so fresh. She’d wait a while longer to let him grieve his father before telling him what she’d discovered about her mother and the fact that her father was not only an addict, but in turn a murderer, too.

  Caroline’s unsteady hand fumbled with the doorknob. She would have breathed a sigh of relief when it turned if sobs hadn’t decided to start wracking her body at that very moment.

  ***

  Alex sat alone with his thoughts in that chair until the last candle melted. Then the door finally opened and just as quickly closed with a noise louder than a clap of thunder.

  “Caroline, dear,” came Mother’s muffled voice through the door no more than two minutes later. “I know you’re upset. Would you like to talk about it?”

  “No,” Caroline answered, sniffling.

  There was a long pause before Mother spoke again. “Caroline, my intent was not to upset you more.”

  “You didn’t,” Caroline said tersely. “He did. I wish I’d never set eyes on that blasted piece of paper. I hate him!” She’d put so much emphasis on her words “he” and “hate,” Alex winced. She may never forgive him. The knowledge he’d broken her heart broke his.

  “Would you like me to go get Alex?”

  “No,” Caroline replied, choking on a sob. “He’ll be up soon enough.”

  Mother didn’t respond, not that he would have heard her if she had. Caroline’s sobs continued to pour out as she shakily lit the lanterns he left out for her each night.

  A low light lit the room and he sat frozen in his chair, which was blessedly cloaked in the shadows. He sat quietly and watched her kick off her slippers and peel off her stockings before climbing into bed, gown and all. Crying females had never been his forte. He’d have better luck approaching her in the conservatory tomorrow. All he had to do was slip out and wait elsewhere until after breakfast tomorrow.

  He waited until her crying stopped and he was sure she was asleep before attempting to leave his chair. As light-footed as he could, he walked across the room and to the door. He stopped a moment to gaze down at the woman he loved above all others. His heart thudded in his chest. He had to do something to make this right. What, he didn’t know. But he’d think of something.

  Not daring to kiss her goodnight like he longed to do, he reached his hand out to the door and turned the handle. The second the lock clicked, her eyes snapped open. He paused. Her eyes shut again and he slowly pulled the door open, praying it wouldn’t creak.

  “Alex,” she said when he was halfway across the threshold.

  His first thought was to run. He couldn’t face her with nothing to say. No words of apology. No words of explanation that would be anywhere near satisfactory. “Yes?”

  She sat up and smoothed back her hair. “Go on and sit down. I’ll be right back as soon as I order your bath.”

  “Pardon?” he asked, bewildered.

  Her voice was normal as always. She didn’t sound at all as if only an hour earlier she’d cried herself to sleep.

  She stood up and looked for her slippers. “I...uh...I fell asleep and forgot to send for your bath. It won’t be but just a few minutes. Go on and sit down.”

  He closed the door and did as instructed. “You don’t have to order me a bath, Caro.”

  “Of course I do. I always do. It will just take a few minutes.” She pulled her slippers on and tugged the bell pull.

  He watched her move around and ready things for his bath. Besides the red rims around her eyes, it was nearly impossible to tell she’d been crying. “You fell asleep in your gown,” he pointed out inanely.

  She looked down. “Yes. Yes, I did.” She went to the wardrobe and grabbed one of her white virginal nightrails before going behind the screen to change.

  His bath arrived, and as usual, she sat by the tub and helped him wash his hair and back. She even kissed his cheeks and made a jest while she scrubbed the soap in his hair. To an outsider, nothing appeared out of place. To Alex, everything seemed out of place. Why was she pretending not to be angry with him when not two hours ago she’d claimed to hate him? Something wasn’t right.

  She helped dry him off and walked with him to the bed. She climbed in first, and just like every other night, he followed.

  He got settled and she rested her head on his chest, their hands meeting under the covers. He bent his head and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry, Caro,” he whispered.

  “Did your mother tell you I was upset?” she asked, not looking up at him.

  “No. She didn’t have to. I can tell you’ve been crying.”

  She let go of his hand and brushed a tear way from her eye. “I don’t wish to talk about it, Alex. Please, let’s just leave it alone.”

  “All right.” He rubbed her back soothingly. One hot t
ear fell on his chest and his heart crumbled all over again. “Caro, how can I fix this?”

  “You can’t. I just want to forget all about it and move forward. Can we do that, please?”

  He swallowed. “If that’s what you really want.” He didn’t know why she was letting everything go so easily, nor was he going to question it. He may have been granted a reprieve this time, but that didn’t mean he’d count on it in the future. From today on, he’d treat her right. He’d show her how much he loved her every single day, never leaving a doubt in her mind how dearly she was loved. He’d never be a fool again.

  Emotion overtook him and he rolled her over onto her back. “I want you, Caro,” he said raggedly, kissing her cheeks, her neck, her chest. He reached his hands down to the bottom of her nightrail and grabbed a big handful, lifting the hem high above her waist. “Sit up, Caro. Let me get this off.”

  “No, Alex,” she said, bracing her hands on his arms. “I’m sorry. But I just can’t tonight.”

  He blinked at her. She couldn’t be on her courses; she wasn’t wearing drawers. “Do you have a headache from crying?” he asked, understanding her disinterest a little better. “I can think of a perfect remedy. The best remedy,” he added huskily, reaching for her nightrail again.

  “No. It’s not a headache. I just don’t feel like it tonight.”

  “Hmm.” He dropped his head to the crook of her neck and kissed the spot where she’d always been most responsive to him. He sucked the skin into his mouth and nipped it with his teeth, then soothed it with his tongue in the way that typically got her excited. “How about now?” he murmured against her neck. He skimmed his hands up and down her sides. She was as responsive to him as a log. He pulled back. “What’s wrong?”