"It's very admirable of you to want to come to her rescue, but I feel it incumbent upon me to remind you of precisely what marriage entails. It's not something to be entered into lightly. I would have you experience wedded bliss, rather than Hell on earth."
Clifford stared at the older man, startled.
Dr. Gold gave him a weary smile. "Forgive me for being so blunt. I count you as a true friend and wish to pass on the benefit of my wisdom, gleaned through bitter experience. My own marriage was a desperate failure, tied as I was to a woman I could neither respect nor admire when my heart longed for another. By the time my wife died a miserable woman old before her time, my first love was also dead and gone."
"I'm sorry, John."
"Or if my example is not enough to make you pay heed to my warning, just remember Joseph Marchant's poor wife, married against her will when she loved another. She could not help herself, gave way to her passion in a moment of weakness, and ended up in a cold pauper's grave for her tiny indiscretion. Can you promise me that you're not simply pursuing the girl for her fortune?"
Malcolm handed Clifford a basin of warm water to bathe Vanessa's face. The tall blond man sought to maintain his composure as he considered the doctor's warning.
"I won't lie and say the money does not sway me, for it would indeed tempt a saint. As you well know, I am no saint. For my own part, I've never been in love. Nor have I had any physical relationship or even so much as a dalliance with any woman for quite some time. Not since the Pearson widow set her cap at me with her flirtation and very nearly succeeded in ruining us both."
"I remember, old friend. You had a lucky escape there," Malcolm said with a wry twist of his refined mouth.
"Indeed. I was sure I was ruined, until everyone found out she'd been having an intrigue with Edmund Cavendish all along. In the end I was merely seen as a trusting fool. Edmund was deemed the victim of a much older woman's wiles, though he has proven himself a lewd profligate in the interim.
"The widow and I did not have an affaire, though everyone believes we did. She was inviting enough, but too scheming for my tastes. I'm glad I discovered her true nature before I took any irrevocable steps and then found myself saddled with her forever, along with a child of uncertain parentage. Not that I would have blamed the child, of course."
"No, of course not," both the doctor and Malcolm put in indignantly.
Clifford nodded. "I do not know if Vanessa is heart-whole. I give you my word, I will speak to her reasonably when she is feeling better. If she tells me she's in love with another, I shall do my utmost to help secure her happiness.
"On the other hand, if she has no suitor in mind, I shall wed her at once rather than permit her to remain in Gerald's clutches. If he is willing to gamble her hand, what else is he willing to do with her for his own benefit?"
"But think, Clifford. Marriage. To a virtual stranger," Malcolm urged now.
Clifford sighed and put his hand on his heart. "I give you my word, both of you, that I shall do my best to make her happy. I have always admired and esteemed her. I can't think she has changed so much in the past few years that she would disgust me, or have become a woman I could not respect. Quite the contrary. I find her even more comely and appealing than she was as a younger woman," he confessed, lifting one auburn curl from the table pensively. "Many good marriages have been founded on far more shaky ground."
"That's true," Dr. Gold said, his eyes shadowed with the painful recollections of his difficult past. "But a far more solid ground that a card game could perhaps be found?"
Clifford gave a tight smile. "Indeed. But we're running out of time if we wish to protect her. If I could see a way out of this, I would try to delay. But I fear any attempt to postpone the nuptials will only place her in more danger."
Malcolm moved over to the window and gazed out uneasily. "She could stay with us, or the Jeromes."
"And we would all say what, exactly? That we really don't think it's safe for her at either her aunt's or her own home? What would people think of that?" Clifford asked impatiently.
Malcolm gave a reluctant shrug. "I don't know. I just don't like the thought of any woman being bundled into wedlock involuntarily. It's bad enough when it happens to man," he added, with a sympathetic look at the doctor.
"How true," John concurred in a vehement tone.
"Yes, but it's all a matter of expectations. And, dare I say it, civilized behavior. Vanessa can come into my house, and eventually into my bed, of her own free will, in her own time.
"I am not a rutting stag, nor a high-handed man intent upon asserting conjugal rights upon an unwilling young woman. In any event, I'm not quite ready to set up my nursery yet. Giving each other time to become attracted to each other, for respect and love to grow, is all I have in mind at this stage. Ours will not be a grand passion, but I hope it shall be a marriage of friends and equals."
Even as he said the words, he gazed at her lovely face and told himself what a liar he was. He had always been fascinated by her beauty. She had been so breathtaking as a girl. She was spectacular as a woman.
Dr. Gold nodded at length, satisfied with Clifford's candid reply. "Very well, I can see you are acting in the girl's best interests. You are welcome to help nurse her back to health. If you give me your word as a gentleman that you will let her go if she demands it, then I will allow you and Henry and the Jerome girls to come and go as you please in order to help Vanessa get well again. I also swear on my honor that I shall say nothing to anyone about this whole dreadful business."
Clifford stated, "I give you my word. If she wishes to be free of me, I shall let her go."
CHAPTER TEN
Dr. Gold looked satisfied at Clifford's reassurance that he would not insist upon marriage with Vanessa if she found the idea truly objectionable even given the fact that she had been gambled away by her own half-brother and had thus been exposed to all manner of gossip.
"Very well then. I can see she's in good hands, in every respect. Keep bathing her temples and throat, and I shall just go get some hot water to make a tisane."
"I can go," Malcolm offered, and disappeared out of the room and down the hall.
Dr. Gold began to examine Vanessa thoroughly.
"Well," Clifford asked impatiently after a time. "It is what I think it is? Cyanide?"
"Goodness me, what manner of man would try to poison his own sister?" Dr. Gold tisked as he listened to her heart and lungs.
"A man so lost to all reason that he would gamble his sister to pay all his debts. He must have realized that what he received for her last night was nothing compared to what she was actually worth. No doubt he plans to take advantage of the confusion over her Aunt Agatha's will to press a claim of his own, though since the connection was on her mother's side, it has naught to do with Gerald."
"Except if he asserted himself as Vanessa's heir."
"Aye, that thought had occurred to me too."
Dr. Gold shook his head. "No, it's monstrous. He's rough around the edges all right, for all the advantages he has had. But to commit murder?"
"I know it sounds insane, but he just have a very bad feeling about all of this."
"Are you sure it is nothing to do with the lady herself? She is after all reputed to be most, er, unusual," Dr. Gold said as gently as possible.
Clifford threw his hands wide in despair. "Murder or suicide. Either way this is a beastly affair."
"Unless of course you take the far more reasonable and sensible view," John said in a mild tone. "That it is a simple case of bad oysters, and have done with it. If anyone else consumed the food, and there was more than one spoiled in the batch, you will have found your culprit, without tumbling into the realms of Gothic melodrama."
Clifford sighed and gave a small smile. "I know I must sound as mad as the two of them are reputed to be, but the reason it's called coincidence is that two events coincide. She comes here, and is now looking for all the world like she's at death's door. So either
she was so appalled at the idea of being gambled away to a stranger, and took matters into her own hands in a desperate or irrational way, or Gerald, whom we all know was desperate last night, has committed a most barbaric act."
"I still think it's the oysters, myself. Any almond smell could be something as simple as hand cream or one of her other toiletries. Really, Clifford, do please pull yourself together, or I will think you are becoming as irrational as she."
"That's another thing. Everyone around here says she was mad as a child. But I recall her being as sane and intelligent as Henry or I, just very shy and timid. Also ill at ease, as if she were always afraid of doing wrong, or being scolded. Gerald has always had a bit of a wild streak, not she."
"Yet if there were any strenuous objections to the young man, I am sure her aunt would have made other provision for Vanessa, rather than have her come back here to live with her half-brother.
"Please, Clifford, I know you detest him. He most certainly makes no bones about disliking you. But do not let a word of your suppositions leave this house. This whole affair of the card game is scandalous enough as it is without adding suicide or murder to the lurid tale."
Clifford nodded, and said contritely, "I'm sorry. I overreacted. I suppose it was the shock of finding her thus. And do please check her head for injury. My team nearly trammeled her when she ran out into the road."
The doctor looked up from the mortar and pestle he was using to prepare a dose of medicine.
"Not exactly the act of a rational woman."
"Perhaps not, but she was most certainly ill and losing her coherence by the time I got her into the carriage. Please, you told me not to let my imagination run away with me regarding Gerald. Let us both agree to not do that so far as Vanessa is concerned either."
"Agreed. Many maladies of the body can affect the mind. And who could blame her for being distraught over the death of her aunt? Maybe she did dose herself with something purely by accident. It could have been a badly labeled bottle, or a larger quantity of some sort of medicament than is her wont. But I still say it was the insidious oysters."
Clifford paced up and down uneasily, wanting to discuss it further, but also not wishing to alienate Dr. Gold by seeming too intent on laying blame upon Gerald. After all, he had no idea when her brother had last been home, or what had taken place between the siblings. Perhaps he had not told her the news about the card game yet? Mayhap he was trying to find another solution to his financial difficulties?
He sighed. He only wished that were the case. He knew his neighbor of old. Gerald was nothing if not selfish. And he was certainly always one to take the easy way out. He would use Vanessa as a pawn, a tool, without an ounce of compunction, he felt sure.
Malcolm returned with the hot water, and there was no more conversation upon that or any other subject as they sought to make Vanessa as comfortable as possible.
When the clock on the wall struck ten, the doctor pulled out his fob watch, corrected it, and declared, "She is doing as well as can be expected with a violent case of food poisoning. I'm sorry to leave you, but I really must go see how Esther Hancock is faring. It's her first baby, and she will no doubt be quite concerned. It's taken her so long to beget a child, her husband has been quite beside himself. I fear he will cast her off if it's not a son and heir."
"Ridiculous," Clifford blurted out. "A woman can be just as good an heir as a man. If not better," he added with a long look at Vanessa.
"I do agree with your Radical sentiments, Clifford, but many men would not. Even a large proportion of women would argue in favor of maintaining the status quo and having all matters of property reside with the male line."
"I for one should not care if the child were male or female so long as it were healthy. Worrying the poor woman with threats of being divorced over something she cannot control will only give her sick fancies. I shall speak to her husband Stephen in no uncertain terms should he do anything rash.
"Esther's family have been amongst our oldest friends for many years, though their wealth has declined much recently with the war against the French. But that does not mean to say she is without supporters. You tell her everything will be fine, and if she needs anything at all, to send her maid Tilly to our house."
Dr. Gold gathered up his bag and greatcoat once more. "I shall tell her, Clifford. Thank you."
He strode out of the room, leaving the two friends alone with their charge. Vanessa seemed to be sleeping, albeit restlessly, tossing and turning every so often. She had indeed heard snippets of what the two men had been discussing before Malcolm had returned, though her pain made the words wash over her for the most part.
As the hours passed, Clifford soothed her with reassuring words and a cold compress on her brow, and she would once again subside into a peaceful state. The deep, reassuring tones reminded her of her father, though they did not command the same awed respect and tenderness. The touch too was different, causing the most unusual flutterings in her chest and the pit of her belly, which were delightful compared to the previous roilings of her stomach.
Clifford placed his head against her chest every so often to listen to her heart and lungs as the doctor had taught him, but apart from the sound of her slow but steady heartbeat, with an occasional racing or two, he could hear nothing which caused him alarm.
Vanessa lay there entranced as she was enveloped by his arms and felt his head nestle upon the top of her breast so intimately. She caught a glimpse of her companion's gleaming blond hair, the color of flax, and inhaled deeply his rich masculine scent. It was good leather and wool, with a hint of citrus. Certainly not the reek of alcohol and tobacco which filled the room whenever her brother was near.
Nor of her father, she recalled, though it had not always been so. When her mother had been alive, he had smelled rich and clean, with a rich aroma of bay rum and boot polish.
She wondered distantly why smells seemed so important to her now. It seemed an odd thing to recall. But then ever since she had returned to Somerset, she had begun to recall things that seemed strange to even think about. She only wished she had someone in whom she could confide, but...
Clifford watched her pass over into a much more deep, relaxed sleep. For a moment he had been alarmed, feeling the whole change in her body from head to toe as she had surged up against his ear, arching her back. Then she had relaxed back down onto the table, and he stood up straight to look at her.
Her patrician beauty was marred only by a slight frown between her elegantly arched brows. Apart from that she was gorgeous. Many women went through an awkward phase in their early adolescence, with spots on their faces, prominent teeth, gangling limbs. Vanessa had always been lovely and serene.
He had not thought it possible for her to grow more gorgeous than she had been that last time he had seen her, though she had been clad in black, topped with a hideous bonnet which would have scared a crow. Mayhap it had been the contrast between the awful mourning garb and her natural pulchritude which had made her appear so breathtaking. Which had caused her to leave such an indelible impression on his mind, though he was certain he had not consciously thought of her for years, not until she had returned to Millcote earlier in the month.
Now as he gazed down at her he saw that she had surpassed herself, looking even more refined, though once again her life had been marred by grievous loss. She had retained her youthful slenderness, but had rounded nicely in all the right feminine places. Were she not reputed to be a bluestocking, or at worst mad, he could well imagine her giving every other woman in the Marriage Mart a run for their money. Her fortune in itself would be enough to recommend her. But with her looks she could easily capture a lofty member of the upper class without any difficulty whatsoever.
He thought of his dearest friend Thomas, the Duke of Ellesmere, with a pang. He had tried to send a note to him that morning, asking him to come visit so he could explain. And so he could even enlist his aid in assisting Vanessa. He had been disappointed to fin
d he had gone up to Oxford to see their friend Jonathan. There had been some talk of them going together to visit their old college, but that was before the Duke had taken umbrage at the card game and left Stone Court.
Now Clifford was glad he had not asked for Thomas's help. The thought of the two of them meeting, taking a fancy to one another, was more than he could bear. Thomas was a Radical; her fortune would be of no interest to him, but her intelligence certainly would be.
And her madness? Clifford asked himself, feeling his heart go into his mouth at the thought. No, surely not. Though what anyone else would have said had they seen her cast herself onto the road in her tattered undergarments did not bear thinking about.
He knew Malcolm and Henry could be relied upon to exercise the utmost discretion, but he really needed to have a word with his coach driver about not recounting the night's events to a living soul. If Vanessa was going to have to try to settle down here, the last thing she needed was more fuel for the fire of scandal. The card game was bad enough, her own past foibles worse.
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 1 Page 9
