Gerald groaned, utterly defeated by Clifford once again.
"I would have given you an allowance, if only you had asked, or tried to behave decently. You thought your plan was foolproof. You lost to an even more clever man than yourself. The money you got for me should have been enough to satisfy you. But you wanted it all, didn't you? Well, you've ended up with nothing, just as you deserve.
"I have everything now, my estate, and yours, and a happy life at Stone Court with the man I love. Yes, Clifford and I love each other. We're going to be happy together. All you have to look forward to is an unmarked grave in Potter's Field, if that is all I choose to do for you. Even then, that would be more than you deserve."
"Damn you, damn you both to hell," Gerald growled.
She crouched lower to make sure he heard her. "I've already been in hell, those years I lived at Hawkesworth House with you tormenting me at every turn, you and Toby and Peter, if I'm not mistaken. I remember it now. What better revenge for me being born than to have me locked away in a mad house. Except that my aunt took me, loved me. You put me through Hell, and every person unfortunate enough to ever get close to you. It will be heaven for us all now that you're gone."
Upon hearing some halting footsteps approaching on the gravel, Vanessa looked up. She shrank back in horror at the skeletal apparition which emerged from the shrubbery.
It appeared in a flash of lightning, and loomed over her like Death itself. As it came forward, the heavens opened up, drenching Stone Court and everyone on the terrace.
The cadaverous stooped man stepped up to Clifford's prone form, and bending a little further down, spat right in his face. "That's for my wife. And this is for me." He kicked Gerald so hard she could hear her half-brother's ribs crack.
Gerald groaned in a final paroxysm of agony. "A fitting end," he cackled more to himself than anyone present, "and no less than I deserve." The breath rattled in his throat, and he died as he had lived, unloved and comfortless.
Vanessa stared at her half-brother for a moment longer, to be sure he really was gone, that she really was free at last. Then she turned to search the expressions of all those facing her.
The specter swayed, and Malcolm Branson caught him by the elbows and cradled him against his chest.
Vanessa pulled herself together, and swept the sodden auburn hair from out of her eyes as the rain poured down.
"Malcolm, take Mr. Jerome up to a spare room. It was very good of him to come from his sickbed to press charges against my half-brother, but he must be exhausted.
"Captain Jerome, I'm so glad to see you're still alive. We feared the worst for you. I know you will not wish to know me, but I do apologize with all my heart for the wrongs my brother has done you and your family."
"I do not hold his actions against you, Miss, but I will not rest until we catch the other two men," Martin Jerome rasped.
Henry came up and supported the ailing man on his other side. "They've been arrested and are being brought here for you to identify. Please come inside and rest until then."
Clifford had covered Gerald's body with his cloak, and now gave orders for the servants to remove it to an outbuilding until they could decide what was to be done with the remains.
Then he came over to where Vanessa was standing still as a statue, staring out into distance unseeingly.
He put his hand upon her shoulder tentatively. "It's over, my love. It's all over now. You're safe. You need not fear him ever again."
Vanessa shook her head, rain and tears dripping down her face. "It will never be over. People will talk. They will cut me dead in Society. The scandal will be more than any of us could bear if I were selfish enough to ever marry you."
He kissed her cheek and brow tenderly. "I'm the selfish one, Vanessa. Having known the joys of your companionship, I cannot give them up, even if the whole world should censure me for it. I want you more desperately than anything in the world. Nothing you have ever done or could do would make me love you less. I don't know what I would have done without you, my dearest love. All I do know is I never want to find out."
"Clifford--"
He kissed her tenderly on the lips. "We will wed tomorrow as planned. We will start our new life together to show that evil can be defeated, and good can emerge victorious. I love you, Vanessa. Nothing I could discover about Gerald or your past will ever change what I feel for you.
"Besides, the Jeromes will be affected by the scandal as well. You would not leave poor Emma friendless, would you?"
She sniffed. "Having been friendless until you helped me, I would not wish that on anyone. And love. Love is not something to be tossed away lightly."
She stared at him, tracing the raindrops that cascaded down his cheeks. Some of them were warm. Warm and vibrant, like the love they shared.
That simple fact was enough to convince her to relent. Nobility be damned. She could never give him up, not now.
At last she nodded. "No matter what Society says about me, mad or otherwise, I love you, Clifford, and will try to give you in return all the joy you've brought me."
Clifford swung her into his arms and kissed her hard, with a sigh of profound relief. He parted her lips and teasing her with his tongue until she melted into his arms, panting.
"You don't have to try, darling. You always do. And tomorrow I shall be the happiest of men when we wed, and when we're together at last as husband and wife."
CHAPTER FORTY
Henry was the soul of sense and kindness as he helped get everyone comfortably settled inside Stone Court. Clifford was in no condition to play host after what had almost happened to his fiancée. But with the rain pouring down, no one sensible was going anywhere that night.
Tall, lanky, silver-eyed Martin Jerome was so weak after the ordeal that Henry and Malcolm had to carry him to a small sitting room on the ground floor, and lay him on one of the large Drouget-patterned sofas. Henry stared in horror at the livid purple mark around the man's neck from where he had been hung. The horrible bruises every color of the rainbow all over his face and chest. The man had to be tougher than India rubber to have survived such a brutal attack.
But he could see why he had. The quiet, handsome young man who had once studied to be a clergyman burned for revenge.
"The Cavendishes? Have you arrested them yet?" Martin rasped.
"Which ones? There are four."
"The middle two. Charles and James. Those bastards. Only sorry the eldest Edmund wasn't there too. You mark my words, he's in his up to his neck as well."
"We have no proof," Malcolm said with a sigh. He liked none of the Cavendishes except the dark-haired youngest, Gareth, who was away at university and was most likely not even home.
"Then get it. Get Gareth to testify against them all."
Henry shook his head. "He's a good man. He will be justly horrified by what's about to happen, but if we have no concrete proof we can't do anything."
"You know about that poor girl in London that Edmund and Gerald were involved with! And the one here, in Willesden. Everyone talked about it. Now is the chance to-"
Malcolm forced him to sip the wine he pressed to his lips. "There now, Martin, you're overwrought. Dr. Gold will be here soon. Please try to rest."
"Don't humor me as if I'm some bloody child! I want them all to hang, just as they did me. It's no less than they deserve."
"They will, Martin, if you keep your head and tell the truth," Malcolm reassured him. "You only saw three men. If you lie and say that Edmund made four and he comes up with an alibi, they could well dismiss the whole case against you. Mark my words, Edmund Cavendish will pay one day, but not for this crime. All right?"
Vanessa stood outside the door and shivered in horror. Martin Jerome was so beside himself he was like a wild animal in his grief and fury. She thought of his dapper and debonair youngest brother Samuel. Surely he must have been just as gifted and handsome before all this had happened.
Now he was almost foaming at the mouth a
nd muttering the most foul execrations as he raged over the evil Gerald and how his own desire for revenge, and his very life, would only be over when the Cavendishes were dead.
So many lives taken, or ruined. It made her sick to think of it.
She turned to Clifford, who was helping her to stand against the portico. "Please, dearest, will you take me to my room?"
"Of course, my love, anything you need. All you have to do is ask."
He swung her up into his arm and carried his precious burden tenderly up the stairs. He looked in the ruined chambers with a gasp of shocked dismay. The fire damage was terrible to look at, and he shuddered at the thought that it could have been so much worse if Gerald had not been stopped in time.
His stomach lurched and he almost tossed its contents onto the floor. He swallowed hard and laid her down on the bed as gently as a newborn. "Rest for a moment, my love. We'll just get a couple of things for you from here, and put you in another bedroom."
"No, I shall sleep here in the chamber you gave me."
Clifford stared at her as though she had taken leave of her senses. "You can't possibly stay here tonight."
"Why not?"
"The stench, the damage!"
"But this is the room you've given me. Part of the master suite. I'm not going to let Gerald poison things between us. I want to be happy in this house with you."
"You will be once it's all cleaned and repaired."
She shook her head. "I don't want it repaired. I want the damage to serve as a poignant reminder of how easy it is for everything to be won or lost in a split second of fate or chance."
"Oh, darling, don't think like that!"
"But it's true! If he had succeeded in pulling me down with him, we both would have lost everything."
Clifford gripped her shoulders and shook her lightly. "Don't even think it."
Vanessa cupped his cheek, stroking his bottom lip with her thumb. "I have to. I'll never take anything I have for granted ever again. If you hadn't found me, saved me, convinced me of your decency despite all of Gerald's lies, I would have died. Every day of my life, I shall tell you how lucky I am to have found you, and to have won your love."
"As lucky as I am to have found you, and won your heart." He stooped to kiss her, and any lingering doubts about the wisdom of the match fled in the face of their mutual desire.
Her arms looped around his neck and pressed him down to her. Her heart hammered in her chest as his tongue teased her own, deepening the kiss into an act of possession.
Like a hummingbird devouring nectar, he dipped in past her petal-soft lips to taste of her sweetness. It was so addictive, he was left wanting more and more.
She rubbed her breasts against his chest to try to ease the ache in her nipples. He was so handsome, so compelling, she could feel her legs spreading, her hips seeking.
She ran her fingers through his lush blond hair, felt the pulse in his throat. Here was life, love, all for the asking. He had cheated Gerald to win her. She had cheated death to win him. And now they could be together at last.
She could just become his mistress now, to save him the ignominy of being married into a family tainted by such scandal.
But Clifford could sense the edge of desperation in her kisses and fumbling attempts to unbutton his waistcoat and shirt, and finally pulled away, grasping the ends of the two open garments shyly.
"No, love. One more night. I promise."
"And I promise you. We don't have to marry."
"Oh, but we do." He took her hand to kiss it. "You are mine now and always, beloved wife of my heart, companion of my soul. Now and forever. I would never settle for anything less than a complete life with you right by my side. I would also never taint what we have together with uncertainty. Or blight the life of any innocent child with the stigma of bastardy.
"No, Vanessa, I'm afraid there's no help for it. I am a man accustomed to getting what he wants, and I want you as my wife for all time, do you hear me? And I don't give a fig what anyone says. I love you. That will be more than enough to help us weather any storm Gerald's actions may have pitched up."
Vanessa smiled up at him tremulously. "Then who am I to gainsay you? So long as you promise me it's your dearest wish."
"It is, truly, my lovely Vanessa." He kissed her passionately, flooding her with feelings she could scarcely name.
All her reservations melted like snow in sunshine. She tried to tug him back into the bed, but he exercised Herculean self-restraint and tore himself away at last.
"I must say good night, my love. You need to try to get some sleep."
"All right, Clifford," she said with a moue of disappointment which she hoped would be irresistible.
Unfortunately for them both, he resisted. "I can see what you're doing, love, but you won't get round me. You really do need to rest."
"I'll do my best," she agreed with a small sigh. "Good night, darling."
"This time tomorrow, it will be husband."
"Darling husband," she said with a grin. "Or will it be Husband darling?"
"Whatever you like, my sweet, once we've said our vows."
Vanessa was sorry to see him go for more reasons than one. At least if they had been together to chat, she could have probably drifted off to sleep.
As it was she tossed and turned all night, and still could not quite believe that she and Clifford were actually safe, and were about to be married.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The October morning dawned fresh and clear. The tempest the previous night had swept away the clouds and chilliness, and the birds chorused their familiar melody.
Vanessa rose from her bed and performed her ablutions mechanically, staring every so often at the scorched curtains and paper with a pensive frown. She only wished she could be more sorry that her half-brother was dead.
Then she pushed the thought away with a shiver. That was the past. Clifford was her future. She would embrace it with joy. It might be selfish of her to run the risk of the Stone family name being ruined by association with her, but Clifford had sworn he wanted nothing more in this life than to be her husband. Who was she to deny him his fondest wish? Even if no one was at their wedding except Clifford and his brother, she would still consider this a happy day. And the start of a happy new life for her after the suffering she had endured at the hands of her half-brother for so long.
Vanessa donned her pearl gray gown, and placed the blue garter on her calf. She heard the clock strike ten, and hurriedly took up her borrowed lace handkerchief and new silver bouquet holder, and descended the stairs.
Henry and Clifford were waiting below for her in the hall. Vanessa saw the spark of warm desire that lighted Clifford's eyes as he stared at her. Then he took her hand, and her heart soared.
Mr. Grayson was waiting for them in the small parlor. But he was not alone. With him were Josephine and Emma Jerome, and their parents, as well as Claire and Malcolm Branson. Emma actually looked happy, and Vanessa noted the significant looks passing between her and Malcolm.
Claire had eyes only for Mr. Grayson, but shook hands and wished her well. The Jeromes came up to her to shake hands also, and smiled at her indulgently as if she were their own daughter.
Her three cousins were also there, the two eldest looking decidedly nervous, and Paul as candid and open as she had always remembered.
He enfolded her in his arms, and whispered, "This is what you want, isn't it? No one's forcing you?"
"No, not at all."
"And Peter and Toby--"
"Didn't harm me, I swear. They upset me when they came with my aunt to threaten us. Taunted and teased me as a child. I think they might have tried to give me a sleeping draught to make me look as though I was ill, so they could get me to your house, and then try to marry me for my fortune. But they know when they've lost to a better man."
"He lost too. They knew Gerald was committing depredations. They broke a few fences themselves to let some of Clifford's better livestock wand
er onto our land."
"Oh dear. So it wasn't always Gerald."
"No, afraid not. I'm sorry."
Vanessa shrugged. "So long as you give me your word it won't happen again. If it does, I won't hesitate to point the finger, do you hear me?"
Paul kissed her cheek again more warmly. "I give you my word, they won't harass you. I'm sorry. They acted badly against the Stones, I know. Their only excuse can be that believed Gerald's lies that Clifford was an evil man."
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 1 Page 32
