A Merchant's Extraordinary Lady: A Historical Regency Romance Book

by Aria Norton

  It wasn’t strange for someone to know him, but the look from the driver had sent tingles down his spine.

  A thick hand appeared out of the carriage window seconds later and threw out a piece of paper. It remained in the air for a while, before fluttering down until it was mere feet away from his front door. Carlos stared at it for some time until a barking dog, and his owner passed him, bringing his attention back to the present matter. Aurora! But still, his eyes travelled back to the paper. Ugh, why did he care if the idiot littered? He needed to find Aurora.

  Carlos turned away and took several steps, but something stopped him. That driver had made him uncomfortable, and while littering was not uncommon, people rarely wasted paper. It wasn’t precisely the cheapest of commodities, and that paper had seemed rich in texture. Carlos could identify anything of value even from a distance; he had based his career as a merchant on this skill.

  Torn between running after Aurora and picking up the paper, he let his instincts win and ran to get it. His first impression of the paper had been right. The vellum was folded in half and had his name written in excellent penmanship.

  “This is no commoner’s handwriting.”

  Carlos was almost too afraid to open it. Who would send him a note? Did this have anything to do with Aurora screaming? His gut instinct told him it did. With trembling fingers, Carlos unfolded the paper, his heart beating fast.

  Dearest Nephew,

  I’m afraid that you were rather unwise in assuming that I would never recognise you. Did you think that you could meet your father and expose me? Over twenty-eight years have passed since your mother’s death- why do you seek to bring up old history? I know what your intentions are. I have not come this far to allow you to destroy all of my hard work.

  However, if you are anything like your father (which I assume you are since you so closely resemble him), then simply telling you to stay away is not enough. You have forced my hand, and now I have your wife.

  If you ever wish to see your darling beautiful wife again, I suggest you let go of this nonsensical notion of meeting your father again. If you still want to see him, then I’m afraid your wife will have to suffer for it.

  ***

  Carlos stopped reading at this point. His hand fell loosely to his side as he looked for a place to sit, staggering about like a drunken man. His legs could no longer support him, and if he didn’t sit down, he would collapse in the middle of the road.

  Carlos managed to get to his front door, sinking to the first step. What had he done? Alba knew precisely who Carlos was and what he planned to do, and now Aurora’s life was in danger because of him! Why had he never considered that this could happen? He had foolishly only considered Lydia’s safety, never thinking that Alba would go after his wife.

  “Of course, she would! She thinks nothing of human life. If she can kill her own cousin and attempt to kill a helpless baby, what will stop her from killing my wife?”

  Dropping his head into his hands, Carlos let the note fall to the ground. The thought of Aurora being hurt because of him ripped him apart, exposing the truth in his heart. Why had he not seen it before? Aurora mattered more to him than fulfilling his dreams! So what if he never took back his birthright? Or sought justice for his mother?

  “My mother would want me to be happy, and Aurora makes me happy. Alba will get her comeuppance one day, but it won’t be at my hands.”

  As for reuniting with his father, Carlos had already spent twenty-eight years without him and had not suffered for it. Lydia had been both mother and father to him, and he had lacked nothing. If he wasn’t meant to take his place as the son of Tomas Ortez, then so be it. At least he would have his wife and the woman who had taken care of him like her own son.

  “Why has it taken this terrible situation to realise all these things? My own desires blinded me, and now ...”

  Now Aurora was gone. His head jerked up. No, she didn’t have to be gone forever! He could fix this; he knew he could. Alba had said that if he still wanted to see his father, then Aurora would suffer.

  “There has to be a counter to the threat, a promise of what would happen if I didn’t see my father.”

  Carlos snatched the letter from the ground, searching for anything that would help him get his wife back. There it was, right at the end.

  Send a letter to your father and tell him that you cannot see him. Make up any excuse – I do not care.

  Once I know that he has received it, I will tell my men to take your wife to an abandoned building just outside of London.

  If you hurry, you can have your wife back in your arms by tomorrow evening. Her life is in your hands, Nephew. Choose wisely. If you dare to secretly contact your father, I will have my men take your precious Lydia as well.

  Sincerely,

  Your Dearest Aunt

  She had some cheek calling herself his dearest aunt! This woman had to have been spawned by the Devil himself – no woman could be this evil.

  “She has probably discovered where Lydia lives, but how?”

  How had the woman come by all this information in such a short time? That didn’t matter now, did it? His aunt was clearly a resourceful woman with contacts and eyes everywhere, even here in England. Let Alba keep her position; all Carlos wanted was Aurora back with him and Lydia safe.

  He rushed into the house, surprising the servants polishing the furniture in the hallway. Carlos hardly paid them a glance as he headed to the study to write his father a letter. Once it was sent, he would make arrangements to leave London. He was going to get his wife back.

  Chapter 22

  Alba wanted to scream, but a countess did not resort to such antics. No matter how angry she became, people should never see her as anything but composed.

  “People lose all respect for you the minute you have an outburst. They see it as a weakness.”

  Especially the commoners. They needed to be ruled with a rod of iron, and that meant controlling one’s emotions no matter the situation.

  Alba planted her hands on her hips instead, rolling her head from side to side. Twenty-eight years had passed since she took the first steps to secure the countess position. She had taken risks, but they had paid off.

  “I wanted something, and I went for it. Of course, someone had to die along the way, but it was worth it.”

  Alba had felt no remorse for taking her cousin’s life. She had hated Maria for as long as she could remember, so killing her had come easily.

  “Did anyone stop to think about how I felt living in her shadow? The family praised her like she was a goddess, and men believed her to be Aphrodite in the flesh. If she had not been in my way, Tomas would have met me first and fallen in love, not my cousin.”

  The moment Maria’s betrothal to Tomas had been announced, Alba had wanted to kill her there and then. Once again, her cousin had thwarted all her plans and taken first place without even trying. That was how it had been all their lives, and what had galled Alba the most was Maria’s sweet nature. If her cousin had at least possessed a nasty attitude, Alba might have felt a little better. It would have proven that Maria was not perfect in every way, but that had not been the case, had it?

  “Even her nature had been sweet and cheerful, endearing her to everyone who happened to meet her.”

  While Alba remained in the shadows waiting for someone to notice her as well. She was also beautiful! Even today, people praised her thick lovely hair, large brown eyes, and milky skin. Not many people could compete with her beauty, but it would not have been so if Maria had lived.

  “To date, the poison I put into her milk has been my best plan yet. I would have done it sooner, but I first had to earn her confidence.”

  Foolish Maria had invited Alba into her home, treating her as an honoured guest while Alba had plotted to kill her. Month after month had passed until one day, an opportunity had fallen into her lap.

  “It was fate that made my cousin send her handmaiden to bed. Had Lydia been there, I would h
ave never been able to give Maria the tainted milk.”

  The annoying handmaiden had had a habit of hovering around her mistress, refusing to leave Maria’s side even for a second. If Lydia had been present when Alba had given her cousin the drink, the woman probably would have tasted it first before giving it to her mistress.

  “Sending her handmaiden away had been Maria’s downfall. A countess should never be without her handmaiden.”

  Alba smiled. How she had leapt for joy when her cousin had died! The only fly in her soup had been Maria’s son.

  “I have no notion of how my cousin was able to give birth to a healthy child! The amount of poison present in her milk had been deadly enough to kill her unborn child as well.”

  The baby would have been easy to kill as well if that darned Lydia had not taken him and whisked him away in the dead of night.

  “I had to think on my toes at that point. If Tomas came to know that he had a son, he would have spared nothing in searching for him. That would not have done because I wanted to give him his heir.”

  So she had made up a story about the child dying soon after birth and Lydia throwing herself from the highest floor of the castle due to grief. Tomas had believed her and grieved for both his wife and son.

  “I was right there to comfort him, giving me easy access to him.”

  Drugging him with a sleeping potion had been ridiculously simple, and several weeks later, Alba found out that she was pregnant. Being the honourable man he was, Tomas married her and gave her what she had always wanted: status. But it seemed that her cousin would have the last say.

  “Not if I have anything to do about it.”

  Alba had almost keeled over in shock when she had seen Carlos. Terrified that Tomas would recognise him, she had offered up prayers to whatever god was listening to prevent that.

  “Let a chandelier fall on him, let a stampede crush him, let a jealous lover accidentally shoot him – I had asked for every possible thing to happen to Carlos. It turns out that I needn’t have worried.”

  Men were terrible at seeing something directly in front of them. Tomas had seemed curious about the man, but he had not managed to figure out that the young man standing before him was his son and heir.

  “And he never will. As long as I have Aurora, my secret is safe.”

  Alba had seen that her husband had felt drawn to Carlos, which was why he had invited the couple. The invitation had had less to do with catching up with the baron’s daughter and more to do with getting to know Carlos.

  But what would happen one, two, or three years down the line? Would Carlos try to contact Tomas again?

  “Oh, I cannot think about that right now,” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “I need to focus on making sure that my foolish nephew will come for his wife. Now that he knows that I have located Lydia, he will not dare to come against me so soon.”

  Alba still had some time to think up another plan. If Carlos had been in Spain, she would have had him killed, but it would be trickier in England.

  “I might still get the chance to, but I will have to be careful. He has created quite a name for himself, and is known by many people.”

  Alba had done some digging into Carlos’ life and was begrudgingly impressed by all he had achieved. He called sultans, princes, and pirates friends, and now that he had married Lord Leed’s only daughter, Carlos had secured himself a position among the elite.

  “He has achieved this without the help of status, power, and money. What could Carlos achieve if he ever regained his birthright?”

  Her head on a platter, for starters. The young man had struggled to keep his hatred from showing in his eyes, but Alba had seen it. That had been one of the reasons why she had investigated him. At first, Alba had assumed that the uncanny resemblance between Tomas and Carlos had been mere coincidence, but the raging loathing she had seen in his eyes had alerted her to the impossible.

  “What are the odds of Tomas’ long lost son being at the same event? It would not surprise me if he orchestrated the meeting.”

  Fortunately, in addition to the hatred Alba had witnessed, she had also observed how much Carlos loved his wife. Her nephew had remained by Aurora’s side throughout the evening, giving light touches to her hand, arm, or waist as though he couldn’t keep from touching her for too long. The woman had been oblivious to it, but Alba had caught a few longing stares from Aurora as well.

  “If Carlos did not love his wife, this plan would have backfired. It was my good fortune to discover the perfect leverage against him.”

  Alba would have used Lydia, but it would have taken them too long to get the woman here. Aurora had been her safest bet, and clearly, it had worked.

  “I suppose I can see why my nephew is besotted with his English wife. She is rather beautiful.”

  The woman lay unconscious on the floor, her hands and feet bound. Jeffrey had hit her a little too hard on her head because the woman had not woken up since her kidnapping yesterday. Alba crouched in front of her, a bit jealous of the woman’s youthfulness. No amount of creams and herbal remedies had stopped the advent of wrinkles around Alba’s eyes and mouth, but if she controlled her facial expressions, she could reduce how much of the wrinkles were visible.

  Stroking the woman’s soft cheek, Alba considered ruining it. Just one knick of the knife, and Aurora’s skin would no longer be perfect.

  “Your husband is likely on his way to save you. He has been wonderfully cooperative – you’ll be glad to know that.”

  Alba had underestimated Carlos’ love for his wife. She had been having dinner with Tomas when their footman announced that a letter had arrived for her husband. Alba had held her breath, hoping that it would be from Carlos.

  “My husband was disappointed that you and your husband wouldn’t be joining us, and of course, I had to pretend to be disappointed as well. I’ll have you know that I was leaping for joy on the inside.”

  Tomas had wanted to call on Carlos and Aurora instead, but Alba had quickly dissuaded him from doing that with an excuse she could no longer recall.

  “I lie so much these days that I struggle to keep up with them. Do you know that my youngest daughter is not my husband’s child?” Alba told the unconscious woman.

  No one but herself and her daughter’s father knew of that little secret. After giving birth to four girls, Alba had decided to seduce Tomas’ steward after she found out that the man had fathered six sons. When she had fallen pregnant, she had been so confident that she would have a son, but the babe had been another girl.

  “I lowered myself to the level of a servant just to give my husband a son, only to have another girl.”

  Thankfully, Carmen looked more like her than her father, or there might have been problems.

  “A woman must do what she has to do to secure her position, and a son would have brought me much respect. Unfortunately, not all plans are perfect.”

  Sometimes, Alba wondered if her lack of sons was directly linked to taking her cousin’s life and indirectly exiling her son.

  “Perhaps Maria is cursing me from the grave. That may be, but I am the one who is living and a countess, while she is probably all bones.”

  Alba laughed, a rich, throaty chuckle that echoed in the room. Her laughter eventually died down, wiping her wet eyes with the back of her hand.

  “It was lovely talking to you, Aurora. You truly are a great listener. However, I must speak to my henchman and find out how close your husband is. If he’s smart enough, he will take you away and start a new life elsewhere. Preferably Africa.”