The Brooding Earl's Proposition

by Laura Martin

  Tomorrow, he promised himself. Tomorrow he would ride at such a pace it would be as if he were flying towards Selina. Tomorrow he would hold her tight in his arms and never let her go again.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Selina felt her heart lift as she looked out of the carriage windows and saw the familiar spires of Cambridge. Nerves had threatened to overcome her throughout the journey, but now she was back in the city where she’d been born and raised she felt a strange calm come over her.

  ‘These buildings on your right are the colleges,’ Selina said, marvelling at the beautiful buildings. When she’d lived here they had become part of the scenery, little noticed, but after a period away she could appreciate their elegance anew. ‘This is St John’s and the next one is Trinity College, founded by Henry VIII.’

  Both girls had their noses pressed up against the windows of the carriage, taking in the bustling little city filled with scholars and townspeople.

  ‘What’s that one?’ Theodosia pointed to the grand façade of King’s College chapel.

  ‘The chapel at King’s College,’ Selina said.

  ‘It’s beautiful here, and big, much bigger than Whitby. Why would you ever want to leave?’

  ‘She didn’t, remember, Thea,’ Priscilla said, shaking her head at her sister.

  They had just reached King’s Parade and soon would be crossing into Trumpington Street and the house where Selina had spent her childhood. Inside her chest her heart begun to flutter and she knew she needed to get herself under control before she confronted her brother. Not for the first time in the last three days she wished she had Matthew there beside her, with a soft word in her ear and a reassuring squeeze of her hand, and she would be ready to storm into her brother’s house and demand to know the truth.

  Quickly she pushed the idea away. It would do no good to dwell on what she’d lost, instead she had to keep moving forward, otherwise she suspected her heart would break entirely and her body cease to function.

  ‘Can we go somewhere else first?’ she called out of the window to the coachman.

  ‘Where would you like to go, miss?’ He was an affable man with a thick Yorkshire accent that Selina found difficult to interpret, but kind eyes and a loud and unabashed laugh.

  ‘There’s a little church in Trumpington I’d like to go to first,’ Selina said, picturing the old stone building. ‘If you carry on down this road out of the city you’ll come to the village of Trumpington.’

  ‘Right you are, miss.’

  Selina sat back on her seat and smiled at the girls as they gave her enquiring looks.

  ‘The church where my mother always said they got married,’ she explained. ‘I went there after my father died and the vicar denied any knowledge of the marriage, he even said he’d checked the register.’

  ‘Do you believe him?’ Priscilla asked.

  ‘He’s a man of God, surely he wouldn’t lie...’

  They all settled in for the ride out of the city. The street soon became much quieter and it wasn’t long before there were more green spaces between the buildings.

  * * *

  After twenty minutes they entered the village of Trumpington and immediately the square tower was visible. The carriage stopped in front of the church and for a moment Selina didn’t move.

  ‘Would you like to wait here, girls?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Definitely not,’ they said at the same time.

  She shrugged, hopping down from the carriage and turning back to help the girls alight. The walk up the path reminded her of the same walk she’d done nearly two years ago after her brother had revealed her parents had never married. Then she’d still been in the first stages of grief, tense with shock and filled with the sensation of loss.

  As they approached the church Selina saw the tall, thin figure dressed in black she’d spoken to before emerging from a side door. His walk was loping and his shoulders hunched as if he were trying to make himself smaller somehow.

  ‘Good afternoon,’ Selina called out, watching the vicar’s face as he turned in surprise. His expression went from mild puzzlement to overt guilt and he even recoiled a few steps as he remembered who she was. ‘I was hoping I might have a few moments of your time.’

  He glanced back over his shoulder as if considering whether he could vault the low wall around the churchyard and make his escape up the High Street, but seemed to think better of it.

  ‘You’d better come into the vicarage,’ he said with a resigned murmur.

  Selina followed him through the little gate at the side of the churchyard into the vicarage garden and up the path to the front door. He opened it and motioned for Selina and the girls to go inside before him, then led them through to a comfortable but small room with a couple of armchairs.

  ‘You remember me,’ Selina prompted him when she sat down.

  ‘You’re Lord Northrop’s daughter.’

  ‘Forgive me, I’ve forgotten your name.’

  ‘Father Whittle,’ he supplied with a watery smile. ‘I had wondered if you would come back and see me again.’

  An older woman bustled into the room, bringing a tray of tea and setting it down on a little table. She smiled warmly at Selina and turned to the girls.

  ‘I’ve got some biscuits fresh out of the oven if you would like to come and test them for me.’

  Theodosia was on her feet immediately, but Priscilla gave Selina a questioning look.

  ‘Go and try them,’ Selina said quietly. ‘I’ll come and fetch you in just a moment.’

  ‘Ever since your last visit I have been plagued with guilt,’ he said quietly once the girls had disappeared into the kitchen. ‘I wronged you and I had no way of putting it right.’

  ‘Wronged me? In what way?’ She felt a flare of hope, but tried to keep it under control. He might mean something else entirely.

  Father Whittle sighed and passed a hand through his thick grey hair.

  ‘I was approached by the new Lord Northrop a few days before your visit,’ he said, not able to look Selina in the eye. ‘He knew some...troubling things about my past and he threatened to reveal them. I would have lost my position here, my livelihood, my home.’

  She forced herself to nod, kept her lips pressed together so she wouldn’t rush him. She needed to hear the story in full in his words, only then would she be able to decide what the truth was.

  ‘He said he would keep quiet, even become my patron in the future, if I did one little favour for him.’ Father Whittle looked up and caught her eye, his expression beseeching. ‘I knew it was wrong, knew I should say no to him, but I was selfish and thought only of myself.’

  ‘What did he ask you to do?’ Her voice was flat, devoid of sympathy for this man who had helped to ruin her life as she knew it.

  ‘He wanted me to deny I had married your parents and to destroy the evidence of their union.’

  ‘So when I came to see you...?’

  ‘I did as he asked, I told you I had not performed the ceremony all those years ago.’

  ‘And the marriage record? Did you destroy it?’

  He looked at her for a moment, then shook her head. ‘Lord Northrop asked me to and I told him I had, but I couldn’t bring myself to destroy that permanent record. I hid the book instead.’

  ‘May I see it?’

  Slowly he rose, his first couple of steps stiff and hesitant, and Selina wondered if he would return when he left the room without a backward glance. Two minutes later he did reappear with a heavy leather-bound book in his arms.

  ‘All of the marriages from 1790 to 1800,’ he said. Selina’s parents would have been married in 1790 or 1791 at the latest, right at the beginning of this particular record book. Hesitantly he passed over the book and with her heart thumping in her chest Selina opened it.

  The entries were in neat bl
ack ink, rows of names of the couples who had married in this church in date order. Halfway down the second page Selina stopped, tears welling in her eyes.

  Alexander Harrow, Viscount Northrop, and Amelia Salinger

  1st July 1790

  ‘They were married,’ Selina whispered. She thought of every unkind word, every curse she’d made against her father and burst into tears. ‘I’m sorry, Papa,’ she whispered. ‘I should never have doubted you.’ It had been so hard being suddenly alone in the world, but perhaps she should have fought a little harder against her brother’s lies.

  ‘I have regretted my decision to lie to you every single day,’ Father Whittle said softly. ‘I wanted to write, to tell you what I had done, but no one I asked knew where you had gone.’

  ‘You truly regret what you did?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Then come with me when I confront my brother. I will need you to show my brother his web of lies has been uncovered.’ The vicar blanched, but eventually nodded, wringing his hands at the thought of tangling with Selina’s brother. ‘We’ll go now. I’ve waited for almost two years, two years of hardship and misery. I will not wait any longer.’

  She stood, only pausing to check he was following on behind, and swept out of the door. In the hall she called out to the girls and they came hurrying out of the kitchen with a little parcel of biscuits.

  As they returned to the carriage both Priscilla and Theodosia were looking at Selina expectantly. It was lovely having them so concerned about her happiness and she felt a pang of deep sadness that Matthew wasn’t here to share the end of the journey with them. Then the sadness was replaced by anger. He could be here, if he’d only shared exactly what had been going on in his mind. Then they could have worked through it together.

  Now was not the time to get all maudlin about Matthew. She had a viscount to confront and she needed her mind on the task in hand.

  ‘Take us back to Trumpington Street,’ she said to the coachman.

  * * *

  ‘Perhaps you should wait outside,’ Selina said as she eyed the house that had once been her safe haven. Now it looked a little sinister in the early evening light.

  ‘No,’ Priscilla said firmly. ‘We’re coming in.’

  ‘I could wait outside,’ Father Whittle said, giving her a nervous smile.

  ‘No, you’re definitely coming in.’ Selina scrutinised Priscilla and Theodosia, wondering what best to do with them. She didn’t like the idea of leaving them unattended in the carriage, but the confrontation inside the house might become heated and that wasn’t the best environment for the children either. She had to hope some of the old servants were still in position, a friendly face to whisk the children off downstairs while she discussed the matter with her brother.

  Selina stepped down from the carriage, ensuring everyone was following her before she opened the black wrought-iron gate and started up the path to the house.

  ‘Selina,’ a voice called out behind her, a voice that made her forget to breathe for almost half a minute.

  Unable to trust her ears, she slowly turned around and blinked a few times at the figure approaching in the semi-darkness.

  ‘Matthew?’ she whispered.

  He didn’t reply, just walked up to her and swept her into his arms.

  ‘I thought you’d left,’ she said. ‘You had left. You disappeared.’

  He grimaced. ‘I was a fool, Selina, forgive me for not telling you where I was going. I felt as though I were collapsing under the guilt and the weight of responsibility after Theodosia’s accident. I needed some time to myself.’ He pulled away a little and surveyed her, stroking his fingers down her cheek. ‘I went to the Wheel and Compass and drank rather too much, I had to sleep it off the next day.’

  Selina’s eyes widened, trying to piece together everything that had happened with his words.

  ‘You never meant to go to India? But you took your maps.’

  ‘To reminisce.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t think I can honestly say it never crossed my mind to run away and hop on a ship back to India. I’m sorry, my love. But as I thought more about it, I realised what I have here is much more important than anything I could ever have over there.’ He looked at her earnestly and Selina felt herself swaying towards him. He was hard to resist with his honesty and the concern in his eyes.

  ‘You disappeared,’ she said. ‘And you considered going. Next time how do I know the lure of India won’t win out?’

  He moved in so they were only inches apart. ‘I promise you,’ he said, his voice low and earnest, ‘and I will not break my vow to you. I will never leave you. We will face everything together.’

  For a long moment she studied him. Her body and her heart were crying out for her to believe him, but her mind just needed a few more seconds.

  ‘I think my heart broke when I thought you’d left.’

  Matthew raised a hand and placed it on her cloak over where her heart was thumping away in her chest.

  ‘Then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to mend it.’

  Selina nodded, closing her eyes for a moment as she felt overcome by relief.

  ‘I’m sorry, too,’ she said quietly. ‘For not trusting in you, for thinking the worst.’

  ‘I understand why you did. Although it was a bit of a shock to get back from the tavern to find my fiancée and nieces had all disappeared.’

  ‘Forgive me?’ She knew now what a mistake she’d made and couldn’t imagine how Matthew had felt coming home to find that she and the girls had disappeared. ‘I was too quick to doubt you.’

  Matthew leaned in. ‘Perhaps we can spend the rest of our lives making it up to one another,’ he said, his words tickling her ear.

  Selina was about to reply when Theodosia launched herself at Matthew. ‘I knew you’d come after us,’ she said as she was swung up into his arms. ‘I told Miss Salinger you wouldn’t leave.’

  ‘Never,’ he said, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

  Priscilla stepped forward, ‘I thought you’d come, too, but much, much quicker.’

  Matthew grinned. ‘I had every intention of catching up with you before you even left Yorkshire, but I was plagued with bad luck. My horse lost a shoe and then everywhere I went there was a shortage of fast mounts to take me on the next leg of my journey.’

  ‘Well, I think it’s perfect,’ Theodosia declared. ‘You’re here just in time to see Miss Salinger shout at her brother.’

  Matthew turned to her. ‘Shout? Well, I am looking forward to this.’

  ‘Not shout,’ Selina corrected them, ‘but I am planning on having harsh words with him. He lied about my parents’ marital status,’ she explained quietly, ‘and I think he lied about the will.’

  ‘I’m right here with you, my love,’ he said, slipping his hand into hers.

  Head high, back straight, shoulders down.

  She knocked on the door, almost breaking out into a wide smile as Mrs Shelby, the motherly housekeeper, opened the door. The older woman’s face lit up at the sight of Selina and she rushed out on to the step to embrace her.

  ‘Excuse me, my dear, I’m just so happy to see you. We’ve been so worried about you. All this time and we had no idea if you were even alive.’

  Selina held Mrs Shelby to her again, feeling transported back to her childhood at the familiar scent and embrace.

  ‘I’m very well, Mrs Shelby, although I’ve missed everyone here sorely.’

  ‘I’m so glad you’re safe, I’ve prayed for you every night since you left, thought about you every day.’

  ‘Is my brother home, Mrs Shelby? I need to speak to him with some urgency.’

  ‘He is. He’s having dinner. If you wait in the drawing room, I’ll let him know you’re here.’

  Selina stepped inside her old home, feeling all the memories
come flooding back. The mirror where her mother would adjust her bonnet every time she left the house, the stairs where Selina would sit and wait for her father to finish working in his study so he could teach her Greek or Latin or tell her about the brave and daring Greek heroes. And the drawing room where she and her mother had sat together, talking about everything and nothing as Selina had grown into a young woman.

  ‘Could you perhaps take the children downstairs?’ Selina asked before Mrs Shelby disappeared. ‘I don’t want them to hear what I have to say.’ She turned to Father Whittle. ‘You go, too. I’ll call for you when you’re needed.’

  ‘Of course, my dear. Why don’t you follow me, girls, I’ll see if we have any dessert left over.’

  Matthew and Selina were left alone in the drawing room and immediately they moved so they were standing side by side. Selina held on to his hand, drawing strength from the man she loved. She wasn’t sure if she would have been able to go through with this without Matthew there by her side. It showed her how much they needed one another.

  ‘Selina.’ Her brother’s flat, nasally voice came through the door before him.

  ‘William.’

  ‘This is a surprise.’ William stopped as he entered the room and saw Matthew standing there beside her. ‘I don’t think we have been introduced.’

  ‘Westcroft,’ Matthew said shortly, not offering his hand to the other man.

  Selina saw her brother stiffen. A man like William didn’t like to be outranked, it meant he couldn’t use the air of superiority so easily.

  ‘What can I do for you, Sister?’ Selina noted he didn’t enquire as to how she’d been these past two years since he’d thrown her out without a penny.

  ‘I want to see Father’s will,’ Selina said.

  ‘Whatever for?’ He was good, Selina had to give him that, but there was a slight flicker before the smooth response.