"My goodness! Why didn't he tell me?"
Jonathan raised his hands and shook his head. "I'm going to have to stop my tale here. The rest of this sorry history is not fully mine to tell. Suffice it to say that you're not the only young woman Paxton tried to ruin. You can thank Thomas that this time, he did not succeed."
"This time?" she echoed. "Oh, good Lord."
"I've said enough," the vicar asserted in clipped tones. "I must go. I have urgent business now that I know Paxton is nearby."
"I will not detain you, except to ask one other thing. Why would Thomas have allowed Paxton to maintain his place in society, to prey upon unsuspecting women, without calling him to account for all his heinous acts?"
He paced up and down as he revealed, "To protect the people that he cared about. Herbert is a dangerous man. But unless he is caught in a criminal act, he cannot be brought to account for his crimes. Thus far Thomas has kept an eye on him. I suspect he could have let you elope, and then caught him red-handed. Paxton's already married, I'm afraid, so he would have gone to prison for bigamy if nothing else, if you had ever even got as far as Gretna Green.
"I doubt you would have, though. Thomas obviously could not bear to see you ruined, and made to suffer the same horrible fate as his sister, so he intervened."
"Bigamy? Horrible fate?"
Jonathan nodded, shooting her a pitying look. "Paxton has married several times before. The women usually meet with a bad end, but again, we can prove nothing. He always makes it look like an accident. A fall from a horse, a carriage accident... You can see how easily it can be accomplished if one is a plausible rogue."
Charlotte stared at him and shuddered. "How monstrous." Her stomach roiled so badly she felt as though she was about to be ill.
But when she saw Jonathan heading for the door she rose and reached for his arm. "One more question, before I let you go. Why did Thomas simply not tell me all this himself? Why did he not warn me?"
"My guess is to protect you. He lied to spare your feelings, you who fancied yourself in love with Herbert. Thomas must have paid Paxton off to get him to leave you alone.
"Now that Herbert has probably spent all the money, he's back. He's discovered you don't know the whole truth about him, or are not willing to believe it because you still have feelings for him. He's trying to get back into your good graces. He would like nothing better than to ruin you and disgrace Thomas's family. You have not seen him willingly, have you? You have not acted imprudently?" Jonathan demanded in an urgent tone.
"No, no! I have told you, I love Thomas. When Herbert came back, I was surprised to find that my former feelings had turned to indifference. When he became more and more importunate, I began to dislike him actively. I told him I never wanted to see him again. I love Thomas. I want no other but he, if he will have me. If it's not too late."
"It's not, I'm certain," he said, patting her on the shoulder in his most reassuring manner. He took the glass from her numb fingers and put it down on the desk with his own. "I must go. Be very careful. Don't let Paxton near you if it can be helped. As he gets more and more desperate and angry, he will lash out."
She held out her hand. "Thank you for telling me at least part of the truth. I shall go to Thomas and ask him to tell me the rest."
He shook her hand and tore out of the study and into the hall. He called for his manservant to bring his carriage around.
Thomas came out of the parlor to see what all of the commotion was about.
"Charlotte has told me everything about your marriage. You should have told me yourself about Paxton."
Thomas blushed. "I know, but-"
"I must go see her. Satisfy myself that they are well."
"They are as well as can be expected," Thomas said promptly. "You know they are well tended. You've been the best of friends. I shouldn't have kept Herbert's presence in the district a secret from you.
"I feared your reaction. I thought if you behaved too rashly, in your terror for their safety, it might only play into his hands. Make things worse. I don't want you to go to prison for my sake."
"Our sake. All of ours, and poor unsuspecting women like Charlotte." He sighed. "I believe you, truly, Thomas, but I cannot be at ease in my own mind until I see them for myself. But please trust me. I won't kill him, much as I'd like to."
The two men shook hands, and then, to Charlotte's surprise, embraced.
"You are my brother in deed, even if never in fact," Thomas whispered.
"As you are mine, Thomas."
"Go safely."
Jonathan nodded. "I shall. I go with God."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
After Jonathan Deveril had charged out of the house on his important errand, Charlotte and Thomas were left alone together in the vicarage hallway.
Her gaze met his in confusion and pain. She felt as though she were looking at him from across a wide chasm.
"He's told you." It was a statement, not a question.
She shook her head slightly. "Not everything. He sought to maintain privacy where your sister Jane is concerned."
Thomas nodded, tight-lipped. "Ah, I see."
She faced him squarely. "What he's told me makes no difference to me in many respects. I told you before that I love you. What he's revealed to me only makes me love you more, Thomas."
He held out his hand. "Then you're willing to forgive the lies I told about our marriage, and the jealous rantings of a foolish man?"
She clasped his hand eagerly. "Not foolish, no. I gave you every cause to mistrust me. I just want to know one thing. Why did you not tell me about Herbert yourself?"
"When you fancied yourself to be so much in love with him?" he said with a resigned shake of the head. "You would never have believed me. And probably would have hated me more. Been goaded into doing something foolish for the sake of the romantic ideal you were led to believe in by a plausible rogue."
She shook her head and gave him a bitter smile. "That may be true. But you gave my feelings and my maturity a bit too much credit, or too little. It did not take me long to realize the difference between a good man, and one who only pretended to be good. Spending time with you and your circle of acquaintance showed me my flaws and errors and vanities far better than any mirror."
He gazed at her as though hardly able to believe what he was hearing.
"Yes, darling, it's true. The more I compared what I had with what I imagined I could have had, the more I realized that fairy tale fantasies are vastly overrated. You were warm, and solid and real." She reached out to take his hand now and squeezed.
"The desire I felt for you the moment I kissed you in the carriage that first night couldn't even compare to what I thought I felt for Herbert. I was confused, embarrassed, ashamed. I wasn't willing to admit I loved you because of my pride. And what you said to me cut me to the quick. I didn't want you to love me for my fortune, but myself."
Thomas stroked her cheek tenderly. "Just as I didn't want you to love me because I was a duke, or because I had rescued you from a terrible fate at the hands of Herbert.
"But I always cared about you, you know. You were so fresh, and young and full of hope and potential. I couldn't let him destroy that.
"And I knew you would make a good wife. The passion that smolders between us, well, just take my word for it, it's a rare thing. Not something I ever thought I would find. Now that I have it, I want to keep it forever, tend the fire, nurture it."
"Oh, Thomas, truly?" She cupped the back of his hand against her face.
He nodded. "I was angry when I discovered you had been seeing Herbert behind my back. I also know that nothing improper took place. Quite the contrary. You've tried to be rid of him forever. But he's trying to blackmail you, is he not? You went to the bank and gave him money to leave us alone."
She nodded miserably.
"The problem with a blackmailer is that he will keep coming back. You'll never be free of him, or the past."
"Unless of course he
's brought to justice for all he has done."
He shook his head. "I fear we have little proof. We can only wait until he makes a mistake."
She stamped her foot impatiently. "At the cost of how many other lives? Jonathan told me what happened during the war. And I don't know what happened to your sister Jane, but I suspect that it was something dreadful. So dreadful that you told me that you had only one sister."
"I don't wish to talk about this now. Enough of our lives have been blighted by Herbert and his misdeeds already. Suffice it to say that Jane, and her daughter by Herbert are alive, and as well as can be expected considering they have had to live in hiding for fear of him getting hold of them to use as pawns against me. The Deverils and Clifford have looked after their welfare for me. I dare not go myself too often for fear of being followed, of leading Herbert and his cronies to them."
"Then he must be stopped."
Thomas shook his head vehemently "I will not have another man's blood on my conscience. I killed enough during the war."
Charlotte sighed. It was just too confusing. She needed time to take it all in.
"We'll find a way, I promise. But for now, I want you to come home with me. You can tell me the whole tale quietly, in your own time."
She reached up to clasp him to her, drawing him into the circle of her arms. He stiffened, but gradually began to relax. She rubbed his back and shoulders, and he began to nuzzle her neck.
"Come, my love, let's go home."
"Yes, Charlotte, home."
They took their leave of a rather confused Sarah Deveril in the parlor, and headed back to Eltham Castle.
All the way home in the carriage, they kissed and caressed tenderly, Thomas barely able to keep his hands from her.
Charlotte was delighted at the warm response, but one part of her mind was still awhirr with all she had discovered.
Another thought occurred to her as they rolled along the darkening lanes. Herbert might be too suspicious of Thomas to ever let him get close enough, but he had no reason to suspect that she had learned of his true nature at last. He was still counting on both she and Thomas doing whatever they could to avoid scandal.
She would do whatever she could to protect Thomas and his family from the debauched fiend. She just had to come up with a plan to exploit his weaknesses and thus entrap him. And do it without Thomas finding out, and trying to stop her...
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
In the end, Herbert took matters into his own hands before Charlotte could come up with any feasible scheme to expose him.
After a quick stop at Clifford's house to tell him what had happened and to be alert now that Herbert was getting more desperate, Thomas and Charlotte drove home together snuggled in one of the seats of the carriage. On the way home, he told her about Jane.
"My sister fell in love with Herbert, and eloped with him when her friends tried to dissuade her from the match. He thought she was the heiress to all of the Eltham estate. At first he was kind to her, but when he found out that I was alive, and her income had been cut off by our solicitors, he beat her, tormented her.
"When he spent all the money she had, he prostituted her on the streets of London. We believe she was pregnant by that time, though we can't be absolutely sure."
"Good Lord."
Thomas continued, "In any case, her daughter was born during the time they were living together. It was only after she was born that she contracted a terrible disease. It's slowly driving her mad, but she was in a bad way after Herbert got through with her in any case. She is lucid about half the time. Then she has seizures and barely knows her own name at times. She's not fit to look after the child all by herself."
"The poor girl. We must do something--"
"Not with Herbert out there desperate to get his hands on her."
"True." She sighed.
"The tragedy of it is that Jonathan was engaged to Jane."
Charlotte stared at her husband in horror. "Oh, no. How terrible. What a cruel loss."
Thomas nodded. "He's been loyal and faithful, even though there can be no hope of them ever being together as man and wife. He made an awful bargain on the battlefield, and Clifford and I being alive is probably cold comfort to a man whose only love is a walking specter."
"Don't say that, darling. He loves you both like brothers. He's happy with his life, the decision he made. The only one to blame for any of this is Herbert. What Jane has suffered at his hands is dreadful. You must expose him for the monster he is."
"If I try, he will drag you down, and anyone else he can take with him," Thomas warned.
She raised her chin defiantly. "Let him damned well try. We're not friendless and alone. You're a Duke, a Radical. If anyone has the courage to brave the storm, it's you."
"If it were just myself to think of it would be one thing, but you, and Elizabeth--"
"Has done nothing wrong. Nor do most women, except believe the lies told by vile seducers. It is harsh and unfair for the world to permit men to act in such a manner, even applaud the rake in society, yet judge harshly women who do the same. What happened to Jane could have happened to me if I had gone with him. Goodness only know what will happen to their baby girl, called ugly names through no fault of her own. Or to poor Agnes if she persists in befriending him in the hope of getting money for her part in their betrayal of me."
Thomas kissed her warmly. "I'm sorry. I should never have let you sit in your room so upset all these weeks. I wanted to be with you, be your husband in every way. I've burned for you night and day from the moment you first kissed me in the coach all those weeks ago.
"But it was for your own good that I held back. And not just to protect your reputation, but to protect you from harm. Keeping yourself out of his way was the best thing you could do.
"It was more than that, though," he confessed, gathering her unresisting body to him so tightly that she could scarcely breathe. "I wanted you to come to care for me, to get over your disappointment that I was not the man of your dreams."
Charlotte gave him a winsome smile. "Ah, but you are, Thomas. If I hadn't been so stubborn, I would have admitted it almost from the first. As for Paxton, I refuse to skulk in corners."
"No, but I fear his desperation."
"Surely I'm safe in my own home?" Charlotte asked in disbelief.
"I've done my best to take steps that you should be so," he admitted. "I have had you under guard pretty much since the night of the thwarted elopement."
"You've been spying on me?" she gasped.
He shook his head. "Not like that. Protecting you."
"So that's why we've never been alone in all these weeks we've been married. The servants, your friends..."
"Yes, but I fear it may still not be enough. You thought him charming and harmless. He fooled us all in the past. We can't let him get close to us ever again. No, listen, Charlotte, I mean it. We cannot underestimate him for one second. Jane was not safe, and she a duke's daughter. When I'm not with you, my love, keep yourself safe. Do not go out, please, or respond to any missives, even if they are supposed to be from me."
"Don't worry, darling," she said as she stroked his cheek tenderly. "I'm not going to let you out of my sight now that I've found you. I meant what I said weeks ago, and I mean it more than ever now that I know the whole truth. I want to be your wife, Thomas. In every way possible."
"My dearest Charlotte." He kissed her hard, his dammed-up emotions flooding out at last.
For a moment the only sounds inside the coach were murmurs of endearment and satisfaction.
Thomas was the first to pull away and sit up.
"Have I done something wrong?" she gasped in disappointment, clutching the gaping top of her gown closed in embarrassed dismay.
"No, not at all," he replied in a voice trembling with raw emotion. "My restraint has been admirable until now, but if you touch me like that again, it shall be completely at an end. I want our first time together to be in a nice comfortable bed, not in
a carriage."
"Our first time? Oh, yes, Thomas, please, hurry."
He groaned and kissed her hard again. His fingers parted the rest of the fastenings at the front of her of her gray frock, peaking her delicate pink crests almost painfully. He rolled each nipple between finger and thumb, before tracing each tiny perfect bud with his tongue while she shivered and moaned, her head thrown back, her legs eagerly parting.
When they arrived home moments later, her feet never touched the ground. Thomas draped her cloak over her bare bosom and swung her up into his arms.
He charged through the front door and foyer, and took the stairs two at a time. He hesitated for a moment, and then brought her into his own room.
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 1 Page 61
