by Laura Landon
Ben was glad his sisters and Rachael’s sisters were coming to visit this afternoon. It forced his wife to concentrate on entertaining rather than on his demand that they attend Lady Withering’s ball.
That her two friends were coming tomorrow helped even more. Anything to distract her from her irrational fear of facing Julia Bentley and the others who’d shunned her was welcome. And to be honest, he was eager to entertain their first guests.
He watched the street from his study window. He intended to greet his sisters at the door and escort them to the room where Rachael was waiting. Perhaps by the time their guests had ended their visit, she’d be in a better frame of mind. He could only hope so. He hated for her to be so upset over nothing.
The Duke of Townsend’s carriage pulled up in front of their house at the stroke of two, and Ben went to meet his sisters.
“Winnie,” he said, greeting the older of his two sisters. “Anne.”
“Good afternoon, Ben,” they both chorused. “How are you?” Winnie asked.
She was more the mother hen of the two. More the commander in chief. Anne was the flightier of the two. More concerned with the latest fashion and styles, more interested in the latest gossip. Anne was like their mother in that regard. Ben always thought it should be the other way around. That the oldest would have been more influenced by their mother, but Winnie was the more serious of the two. The stronger of the two. Anne the weaker.
“I’m fine,” he answered. “But you no doubt want to see my wife before you come to a judgment.”
“Actually, I wasn’t worried about you in the least,” Winnie said. “We’re both more concerned over Lady Benjamin.”
“You’re as sympathetic as usual, Winnie” Ben said taking both his sister’s elbows and leading them into the room.
“Rachael, half of our guests are here,” he said when they entered the room. “Since my sisters requested we make time to see them, I thought their main reason for coming was because they missed me. But I’ve been informed that they aren’t worried over me at all, but you. Please tell them that I haven’t beaten, starved, or locked you in a room and just now allowed you to come out.”
Rachael rose to her feet and came forward with her arms extended wide. There was a warm smile on her face. “Welcome, Lady Winnifred. Lady Anne. I am indeed doing well. Thank you for your concern.” She hooked her arms through theirs and led them to the sofa that was placed across from her. “And thank you for coming.”
“We’re glad you agreed to see us,” Anne said. “But please, let’s not stand on formalities. We’re family now. Call me Anne. And Winnifred, Winnie.”
“And I insist you call me Rachael.”
“We’d love to,” Winnie said, then turned to face her sister. “Well, Anne. Rachael doesn’t look as if he’s mistreated her too badly yet.”
“What?” Ben wanted to strangle is sister. “I’ve never mistreated anyone in my life. And I certainly wouldn’t abuse my lady wife the first week of our marriage.”
“Don’t believe him,” Winnie said to Rachael as she took the cup and saucer Rachael handed her. “He’s ordered Annie and me about since we were old enough to understand the King’s English. And we were so taken by his charm that we didn’t realize what he was doing until it was too late.” Winnie turned into the commander once again. “Our advice to you is to stand up to him, Rachael. Don’t let him get the upper hand or you won’t have a chance against him. He’s too charming for his own good.”
“Don’t listen to her, Rachael.” Ben pretended as if Winnie had insulted him, but he loved their banter. He always had.
“See what I have to put up with,” Anne said, feigning fatigue. “Those two are so much alike, they’re nearly impossible to tolerate once they get going at each other.”
The gentle teasing stopped when Rachael’s sisters arrived and Henley showed them in.
Rachael nearly ran across the room to greet them, and after introductions were made, they sat down and Rachael served them tea.
The six of them visited for nearly an hour, the talk between the five women never stopping. Little by little Ben saw the tension fade from Rachael’s face. This must have been what she was like before the scandal.
As Ben watched her laugh, and tease both her sisters and his, he wondered why no one had ever noticed her beauty. Why no one had considered her a catch?
He studied her more closely and it struck him that someone had noticed, and had had the good sense to realize she was special. But whoever the bastard was, he’d taken advantage of her. He’d taken her innocence, then left her to bear the burden of what they’d done without his protection.
Even though he’d tried to convince himself that he didn’t care that she’d been compromised, he realized that he did. He wanted to know who had ruined then abandoned her. He wasn’t sure what he’d do when he found out, but the bastard wouldn’t forget it anytime soon.
Ben relaxed his fists and returned from his thoughts to realize his sister Anne had been trying to get his attention.
“I’m sorry, Winnie. What did you say?”
“I said, if you can pull yourself away from whatever you were thinking about, perhaps you’d give me a private tour of your garden. Father says it’s lovely.”
Ben stood. “It is. And I’d be delighted to show it off.” Ben turned to the others. “Would anyone else care to join us?”
“No,” Anne said before anyone had a chance to speak up. “You two go ahead.”
Ben offered his sister his hand and she took it. They went to the French doors off the large drawing room, then out into the bright sunshine. They hadn’t walked far before she spoke.
“I told Anne I’d find an excuse to get you alone to ask if everything was all right.”
Ben smiled. “I know. Your scheme wasn’t very subtle.”
Winnie hooked her arm though his and hugged him. “And I can see it wasn’t necessary. It’s obvious you and Rachael are managing quite nicely.”
“Yes, Winnie. You and Anne don’t need to worry about me. Or about Rachael. We’re adjusting to the match our fathers made.”
“Were you terribly angry with him?”
“Father? Yes, I was furious. I used every argument I could think of to try to get out of this marriage.”
“I know. I heard you and Father argue. More than once we were afraid you might come to blows.”
Ben found Winnie’s comment humorous. “There were times when you would have been correct.”
“I know,” she answered. “You know why he did it, don’t you?”
“Did what?” he asked. “Force me to marry?”
She nodded.
Ben led his sister to a wrought iron bench located beneath a large Linden tree. When she sat, he sat beside her. “Yes. And most of it was my fault. I’d changed into a person even I didn’t like. But at the time, I really didn’t care. Then, fighting the duel was the last straw. I think Father realized if I continued down the path I was on, eventually I’d do something that got me killed.”
“Yes,” Winnie agreed. “There was that. But that wasn’t the only reason he found you a wife.”
Ben turned his gaze to study his sister. “What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I overheard him talking with Gideon one day. He was worried about you. Like you said, he was afraid you were going to get into trouble he couldn’t save you from. And…”
“Go on,” Ben said.
“It’s because of Mother.”
Ben’s blood turned cold. The old hatred came out. But he couldn’t let his sister see his bitterness. Neither Winnie nor Anne knew what their mother had done. Although Ben and Gideon both thought their father should tell them, he’d refused. He thought they were both too young to know the truth. “What about her?”
“I know what she did, Ben.”
Ben turned his gaze to his sister. “What do you know?”
“I know that she killed Father’s first wife, and the doctor who
was treating her. And I know she was poisoning Gideon. I know she wanted him dead.”
“How did you find that out?”
“I overheard Father and Gideon talking. Gideon wanted Father to tell Annie and me, but Father said no. He didn’t want us to know what our mother had done.”
“Does Annie know?”
Winnie shook her head. “She doesn’t know anything. She thinks Mother’s ill and had to go away for her health. She’s sure she’ll get well again and come back.”
Ben reached for his sister’s hand and held it. “Are you all right, Winnie?”
“I wasn’t at first. But I am now. At least I know why she went away. And why she’ll never come back. It’s as if our mother died—but she isn’t really dead.”
Ben put his arm around his sister’s shoulders and pulled her to him. “I know, Winnie. I feel the same.”
“Do you hate her?”
Ben didn’t have an answer for his sister. Finally he responded the only way he could. “I know I should,” he said. “And part of me does. At least I hate what she did. But how do you hate your own mother.”
“I know,” Winnie answered, leaning her head on Ben’s shoulder. “I tell myself I should hate her, but it’s hard. She’s still my mother.”
The two siblings sat in silence for a few moments, then Winnie spoke. “I’m glad Annie doesn’t know. I don’t think she’d be able to survive knowing what our mother did. Her world is too perfect a place for her to allow something this evil to enter.”
Ben shifted his gaze to study his sister. “When did you get so wise?” he asked.
“While you were making a mess of your life,” she answered with a smile on her face. “That’s why Father took the steps he did to save you. That, and he’s afraid it’s only a matter of time until someone discovers what Mother’s done. That’s why he was in such a hurry to see you married. That’s why he intends for Anne and me to have our Seasons next year, even though he was going to make Anne wait one more year. He’s afraid something will happen and he’ll be forced to hand Mother over to the authorities. Then our chances to marry will be gone.”
“Is that what he told Gideon?”
Winnie nodded. “He’s concerned about Mack Wallace and the men of the Bedford Street Brigade. The only reason he prevented Mr. Wallace from going to the authorities was the fact that he sent Mother to northern Scotland. Mr. Wallace knows Father has guards there to make sure she doesn’t escape, but if something were to happen…”
“Damn her,” he said, slashing his hand out in front of him. “How could Mother have done something so horrific? Did she care for us so little?”
Winnie breathed a deep sigh. “No, she just cared for herself that much more. And…” Winnie lifted her gaze to meet his. “She’s sick, Ben. Her mind is very, very sick. And I think Father believes the same thing.”
Ben gave his sister’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“Which is why Father’s goal is to get us all safely married before Society finds out what she did and we’re no longer marriage material.”
Ben realized what Winnie was telling him, and how that realization affected her and Anne. “You and Anne need to trust Father, Winnie. He knows what he’s doing.”
She shook her head against his shoulder. “I’ve already decided what I intend to do. I’m not marrying. It’s not worth the risk that someday the man I marry will discover what Mother did and hate me for it. What kind of marriage would I have then?”
“You can’t mean that.”
“Oh, I do,” she argued. “I’m afraid you and Gideon will just have to face the fact that you’ll have me as a poor relation who will come to live with you for months at a time.”
Ben laughed. “That won’t happen, Winnie. Although you know you’re always welcome to live with Gideon and Eve, or with Rachael and me. Besides, you’ll never be poor relation. I know Father has made sure neither one of you ever lack for the resources to support yourselves.”
“You’re right,” Winnie agreed. “Another reason I don’t need to marry. I don’t need a husband’s financial protection.”
“What about a husband’s love?”
“The scandal Mother involved us in took care of that.”
Winnie didn’t speak for several long seconds. When she did, she spoke softly, as if she didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation. “Have you heard from her?”
“Of course not. She knows she’s not to contact any of us.”
There was another long silence before she spoke again. “I have.”
Ben bolted to his feet. “What? When? Bloody hell,” he said, slapping his fist against his thigh. “What does she want?”
“She wants my help.”
“Your help with what?”
“Coming back. Encouraging Father to let her come back and be with us.”
Ben sat back on the bench and grabbed his sister by the arms and looked at her. “Don’t have anything to do with her, Winnie. Stay as far away from her as you can.”
“She’s desperate, Ben. She says she barely has enough money to live. She says she’s sorry. That she regrets what she did and she wants to make it up to us.”
“No! She doesn’t mean it, Winnie!”
“I know, Ben. But what if she writes Anne? What if she tells Anne that she wants to come back and asks Anne to send her money?”
Ben’s blood turned to ice. Winnie was right. Their mother would write to Anne next, because Anne would listen to her. Anne didn’t know what she’d done. She’d do whatever Mother asked.
“I’ll tell Father to watch for a post to Anne. You keep your eyes open, too. We can’t let her get anything from Mother.”
The look on Winnie’s face tore at his heart. “What if she writes to me again?”
“Winnie,” he said, placing his finger beneath her chin and tipping her face upward. “You saw the pain Gideon went through every time he had one of his seizures. You cried for him, just like Anne and Father and I did. Have you forgotten who caused him to suffer like that? Mother did! Because she didn’t care how much pain she caused him. She wanted him dead!”
Tears spilled from Winnie’s eyes and a sob escaped from deep inside her.
“If you get another letter, Winnie, burn it. Forget you ever received it.”
Winnie nodded, and Ben lowered his head and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
How he wished he could take away her pain. But he couldn’t. This was a secret they all shared. A secret that would haunt them even after their mother was dead.
. . .
Today was the first time her husband had left the house since they’d married. He’d received a message that his father needed to see him on estate matters. This was the first chance she’d had to escape.
The minute he left, she told Henley she needed to get some fresh air and was going for a walk. He offered to send a footman with her, but she insisted she was quite safe with Milly at her side.
They walked in the direction of St. James’ Park, the nearest park to their town house. When they reached the corner and were out of sight from the house, Milly hailed a hackney and they went in the direction of their true destination.
“We’re almost there,” Milly said, watching out the window.
They’d traveled no more than ten minutes, but to Rachael, it seemed like an hour. “Oh, Milly, it’s been so long.”
“Shush, now. It hasn’t been that long.”
The carriage slowed, then stopped, and Milly stepped out. Milly paid the driver while Rachael dismounted and ran to the door of the small, two-story house on King Street. The door opened and Rachael rushed to the person she loved more than life itself.
CHAPTER NINE
It had been one week since Ben had informed her that they would attend the Withering ball, and no matter how desperate she’d been to halt the hands of time, she didn’t possess the power to stop this night from arriving.
Rachael focused on taking air into her lungs, then releasing it as
their carriage traveled over the cobbled streets. She kept her fingers clasped in her lap. It was the only way she could stop them from trembling. She sat with her back rigidly straight. It was the only way she could keep from crumpling to a heap in the corner of the carriage. She kept her eyes focused ahead of her. It was the only way she could avoid looking at how fast the carriage sped past the houses as they made their way to the Withering town house.
It was the only way she could avoid seeing the confusion—or perhaps disappointment—on her husband’s face.
He didn’t understand her fear. But that was because he didn’t know what it had been like to be shunned by Society. He hadn’t lived through the disgrace she’d endured when everyone at Julia Bentley’s house party had gathered in the foyer and turned their backs on her as she fled in disgrace.
He hadn’t heard the whispered comments that called her names she couldn’t repeat in polite Society. Or watched their expressions harden when she came within sight. Or knew what it was like to know she’d never be accepted even if she had married the son of a duke.
He hadn’t suffered through the days and weeks and months following Julia Bentley’s party, when former friends stopped calling. All except Emily and Portence, who’d stood by her even though it had damaged their reputations. Or when invitations, even those to her parents, had slowed to a trickle. When the drawn expression on her mother’s face was the only look she wore. That lifeless glare in her mother’s eyes still haunted her nightmares.
He hadn’t been there to see the change in her father. In the way he treated her, the way he no longer shared his thoughts with her each morning at breakfast.
And most of all, he hadn’t been there when she had no place to turn. No place to go.
No, he hadn’t been there for any of it, so he didn’t know what it would be like when the same people who’d made her life a living hell two years ago had the opportunity to do it all over again.
He mistakenly thought they could walk through the Withering doors and take their place in Society as if nothing had happened. Didn’t he realize that their marriage was the most talked about event of the Season? Didn’t he realize that even the Dowager Countess of Strumper was likely to get off her deathbed to attend tonight’s affair?
