After Forever, A Whisper of Scandal Novel

by Julie Johnstone

  Barrows’s brow furrowed. “You’re in business with Mr. Sutherland?”

  “He will be,” Lady Davenport answered for him. “They are going to be partners in Mr. Sutherland’s shipping company. Isn’t it grand? Just think how England is changing when a man can go from street orphan to shipping tycoon.”

  She patted Nash on the arm and smiled at him. He happened to know Lady Davenport took perverse pleasure in ruffling the feathers of those she considered too snobby. It was one of the reasons Nash had liked her as soon as he’d met her.

  “England will never change that much,” Barrows retorted, spearing Nash with a hostile look. “There are still lines of distinction in the classes that cannot be erased by money.”

  “I certainly hope not,” Nash replied lazily, thinking of Maggie. But one glance at Barrows’s flared nostrils and Nash knew the man thought he’d meant Julianna. Nash didn’t bother to correct his misconception. It served him right for being such a stiff arse.

  Julianna gave her brother-in-law a tight smile before offering Nash a sympathetic one that made his heart twinge oddly.

  “If that’s the majority opinion then I am happily in the minority,” she announced. “Now, David, please do take me home. My head aches terribly.”

  Grumbling, Barrows nodded and bid Lady Davenport a courteous good evening and Nash a humorously, rigid one. Nash didn’t care about the man’s departure; it was the lady he hated to see go.

  As Julianna was leaving, she looked back and met his gaze. “It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope all turns out well for you.” With that, she disappeared like a vision. A very tempting one, with lush swaying hips. He would almost believe he’d imagined her, but her sweet fragrance lingered in the air. He turned to find Lady Davenport studying him, her brows drawn together.

  “What did you do to her?”

  He grinned at the blunt question. There were not many women in the ton who spoke their minds, but he’d learned quickly that Davenport’s wife was one of them. “Nothing. I didn’t touch her, I swear it.”

  She swatted him on the arm. “That is not what I meant. I’m not worried that you’ll lead Julianna into a liaison. One could only hope for such a miracle. The thing is, she was smiling. Do you know, Mr. Wolverton, I have not seen my friend truly smile since her husband died.”

  An insatiable curiosity made him speak. “Tell me about her husband.”

  Lady Davenport frowned. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I’m interested what sort of man she was married to. She’s very different than any lady I’ve met so far.”

  “Let me give you a piece of advice, Mr. Wolverton, since I know you are looking for a wife to open ton doors for you. Julianna would prove incredibly challenging to tempt into marriage.”

  He wanted to respond to both statements, so he started with the first. “Please don’t mistake my character, Lady Davenport. I would care less if your expensive ton doors stayed slammed in my face forever, but for my daughter, I desire them to open.”

  “Yes, yes. That’s what I meant. Believe me, I’ve been around you enough times now to comprehend you are your own man.” She leaned in a bit as if to tell him a secret. “Which, by the way, is why I do so admire you and am glad my husband counts you as a good friend. And for the record, though I told you that you would need to acquire a bit of polish for most ladies of the ton to consider you a true gentleman worthy of their time, let me clarify that I think most ladies of the ton are priggishly proper and boring. Except my friends. But unfortunately, they are all married.”

  “Your friend Julianna isn’t.”

  What the devil had made him say that? Stupid fool. Lady Davenport’s gaze suddenly seemed probing. They stood in silence for a minute before she spoke. “Julianna is married to a ghost, and I’m afraid she always will be.”

  Nash rubbed at the sudden tension in the back of his neck. He needed to put Julianna out of his mind. She didn’t want to be married ever again, and he had to marry a proper lady for his daughter’s sake. Julianna’s smiling face danced across his mind, teasing him. He caught Lady Davenport’s eye once again. “Do you think ghost can be banished?”

  Lady Davenport sighed. “Not easily,” she mused. “The right gentleman would have to steal her heart. Are you a thief?”

  He thought about how Julianna seemed to have loved her husband with all her heart. He knew better than to expect that for himself. Eliciting desire in women was one thing, but he’d never elicited love. Well, except for Esther, but that was love born out of a need to survive.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I’m simply a man looking for a good mother for my daughter. Life taught me better than to expect more than that.”

  Lady Davenport linked her arm through his. “I’m going to make it my personal mission to help you meet a lady that will teach you otherwise.”

  He chuckled, recalling a few of the stories her husband had told him about his wife’s cracked matchmaking schemes. “No matchmaking. I’m capable of finding a wife on my own.”

  “Why do men always seem to think they must do everything on their own?” Lady Davenport grumbled. “Never mind that I have lived my life in the ton amongst the women you will be picking from. I suppose you know all the secrets they may be hiding.” Her lips came together in lovely pout he was sure she used on her husband regularly to bend him to her will.

  He felt himself giving in to her. “There is a way you can help me.”

  She clapped her hands together and grinned. “Excellent. What do you need?”

  “I need help finding a lady willing to tutor me and my daughter in etiquette. I have the money to capture a bride of the ton, and I now have the connections since I’m going into the shipping business with Sutherland. What I know I lack is the correct manners. Are you aware of anyone who could fill this position? So far, I’ve not had good responses to my inquiries. The problem is finding a lady who is willing to come to Norfolk and live in the house while teaching us. Ladies don’t want to do that.”

  “Norfolk, you say? How odd. I didn’t realize your country house was there. We have a sea cottage in Yarmouth, but we never get there.”

  “My house is in Yarmouth, as well. How funny.”

  “I’ll put my mind to trying to come up with a lady who’d be willing to take a position as a tutor to you and your daughter. It won’t be easy. Most women of the ton don’t need employment, nor do they want it.”

  “Believe me, I know. I appreciate whatever help you can give me.”

  She winked at him. “Just remember that! My plans often take on lives of their own.”

  “Duly warned,” he said with a chuckle as they exited the library.

  Julianna made her way to the breakfast room the next morning with a sense of determination. She had wanted to question her brother-in-law last night about his insinuation that Henry had once had an issue with gambling, but David’s wife had appeared in the hall as they had exited the library. Julianna had held her tongue, afraid David would not speak freely about the topic in front of Helena. He treated Helena as if she were a fragile piece of china, when in reality, her sister-in-law was made of hardy stock.

  Surely, if Henry had been a frequent visitor to the gaming hells she would have known. Julianna’s stomach clenched. It wasn’t that she was naive and thought men didn’t gamble and imbibe a bit. Her father, God rest his soul, had done both. What bothered her was that if Henry had done those things, he had purposely kept it from her. She paused at the bottom of the stairs. That simply could not be possible. They had not had secrets from each other, or at least she had shared everything with Henry. If he’d felt the need to keep part of his life hidden from her, it begged the question…why? She simply had to talk to David and get some answers.

  She hurried toward the breakfast room, hoping to catch David alone. Helena was usually up much later than the two of them. As she neared the room, the distinctive sound of two voices, David’s and Helena’s, came from within. Frustration filled Julianna. David
would never talk freely now. She started to push the door open but paused. Maybe she’d go visit Liza first and break her fast after. She started to turn away but stopped when she caught her name in their conversation. Eavesdropping on others’ conversations was terribly wrong, but―

  Did Helena sound irritated with her? Julianna leaned close without touching the door, so as not to disturb it.

  “Last night was a disaster,” Helena huffed. “What are we going to do? David, you simply must tell Julianna the truth.”

  “Yes, I know,” David said on a long sigh.

  Julianna blinked. Did David sound weary? The truth about what?

  “I had hoped she would pull out of her melancholy once she came back into Society,” David said.

  A chair scraped across the wood floor, followed by the tap of light footsteps―Helena’s? Then another screech of wood and then a feminine sigh. “I hate to do this to her as much as you do, David. Likely more. I’m a woman, after all, and can understand her pain of losing her husband better than you ever could, but Julianna is sensible and reasonable, and she will see that marrying again, quickly, is her only choice.”

  Julianna’s stomach plummeted. Something was terribly wrong. She knew they loved her and would never ask her to remarry unless there simply wasn’t a choice. Slowly, she pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Helena’s eyes widened and David turned to gape at her, his ears turning a deep crimson at the edges, just as Henry’s used to do when embarrassed.

  David tugged a hand through his hair as he stared. “How long have you been listening?”

  Heat warmed Julianna’s face. “Long enough to know you wish me to marry and are fearful I’m going to muck up my chances.” She strode across the room on trembling legs and sat beside David. “I think perhaps you ought to tell me what the trouble is.”

  “The trouble is money,” David said solemnly. “We don’t have terribly much of it, I’m afraid, and Helena is expecting.”

  “Helena, that’s wonderful!” True joy mingled with a sharp pang of regret for the second child she and Henry would never conceive.

  Helena smiled at her, but her lips quivered.

  “Julianna, I feel just awful to even expect you to remarry, but I―” Helena glanced swiftly at her husband before looking back at Julianna “―that is, we, don’t see a choice what with the babe coming and our coffers so tight and you with no other relatives to turn to.”

  Julianna pressed her fingertips to her aching temples. “I don’t understand.” She knew all the property was entailed, and since all the money came from the property, there had been little income Henry could leave for her and Liza, but she had assumed the property still earned a good deal of money and that David would not mind her and Liza staying on. “Is the income down for the property?”

  She did not miss the subtle look David and Helena exchanged.

  David shifted in his chair, tight lines forming around his mouth. “The land is not bringing in near as much money as it once was, and I had to use some of the reserve money to pay off the debt Henry had accumulated.”

  Julianna blinked. “Debt? What debt?”

  David glanced down at his hands, but Helena’s gaze strayed to Julianna’s neck and seemed to fasten on the large ruby-and-diamond necklace that Henry had given her for her birthday right before he had fallen ill. Julianna’s hand fluttered to the heart-shaped necklace. Why was Helena staring at it? Or was it simply Julianna’s imagination? The room grew silent, except for the ticking of a clock and the low whistle of wind against the window that faced the garden.

  A hard knot developed in Julianna’s stomach. She swallowed, struggling to put to words the awful suspicion in her mind. “Did Henry have a gambling problem?”

  “No,” David cried, but at the same instant, Helena said, “yes.”

  Julianna sucked in an unsteady breath. “Which is it? No or yes?”

  Helena opened her mouth to speak, but David waved his wife to silence and speared Julianna with his earnest blue gaze. “Henry did not gamble regularly, Julianna.”

  Julianna didn’t exhale with relief. She could feel the but hanging in the air. “Go on,” she said, barely above a whisper.

  “Henry was never a patient man. Surely you know that?”

  She smiled, despite the tight knots in her shoulders that seemed to be spreading down her back. Henry had asked her to marry him one week after meeting her, and one day after they had been married, he had declared they needed to start their family because he wanted at least six Julianna replicas running around the house. “Yes, I know. But I did so love his impetuousness.”

  David patted her hand. “We all did, dearest, but he wasn’t practical. The estate has been losing money for a while. I tried to talk to him and tell him what investments to make, but he chose to invest money in schemes he thought would turn a profit faster. The outcome was that he lost a great deal of money.”

  Those knots pulsed within her body. “When? He never said a word to me.”

  David’s gaze grew solemn. “Things got very tight more than six months before he died.”

  She clasped the cold stone lying against her chest. Suddenly, it felt heavy. Too heavy. “He bought me this for my birthday.” She held the dazzling necklace out. “How could he have purchased this if money was so scarce? Why would he have? I wouldn’t have cared if he didn’t buy me anything. All I cared about was him.”

  “Shh, dearest.” Helena patted her shoulder.

  Julianna gazed up at her sister-in-law, unsure when she had gotten up or why she was telling her to hush. Had she been shrill? She pressed a hand to her cheek, the skin sticky and warm, almost feverish, but she was not sick. Not physically, anyway. “I’m all right. Please, David, do you know how he could have possibly bought me this necklace if we had no money?”

  “I know,” a deep voice replied from behind her.

  She twisted in her seat to meet the dark gaze of Lord Cameron Trevelle, who brushed past the pinch-faced butler whose tense mouth showed his displeasure at being circumvented in his duties of announcing the guest. Julianna stared at the man who had been Henry’s closest friend. “Lord Cameron, if you know you must tell me.”

  “He wanted to buy you an expensive gift for your birthday, and when he told me he didn’t have the funds to do so, I suggested he try to win it at the tables. I’m afraid he got a taste of winning and kept going back. Except after he won the money for the necklace, he kept losing.” Lord Cameron’s gaze locked on her. He offered her a sad smile. “I feel awful for ever suggesting he gamble. It was a foolish thing to do.” Lord Cameron inclined his head toward David. “Barrows has told me how much debt Henry left, and the strain it has left him in, not to mention the precarious position it has left you in, and I’m here to make it right.”

  Julianna’s thoughts felt slow, and all the words came at her entirely too fast. She wanted to understand, but she didn’t, and the room was unbearably hot. She shoved her chair back and walked to the window, which thankfully was open. Gulping in a deep breath of air, she tried to calm herself. She gripped the windowpane, staring blindly into the garden. Henry had left his brother in debt and without enough money to keep his own growing family afloat, especially not with the added burden of feeding and clothing her and Liza. She was suddenly an encumbrance in a home that had once been hers. Either she needed to find employment or a husband. She shoved her hand to her mouth to stop from crying out. She had no qualifications, and the idea of marrying ever again was unfathomable. She tried to picture kissing another man, lying with another man, and her stomach turned to one hard, burning knot.

  Falling to pieces was not going to help her, though the idea of curling up in a ball, squeezing her eyes shut, and pretending this was not happening was very tempting indeed. She turned to face Lord Cameron and hoped she didn’t look as wretched as she felt. “Unless you are here to offer me employment, I don’t see how you can help me.”

  “I’m here to offer you marriage,” Lord Cameron said, o
r at least what Julianna thought he’d said.

  A horribly loud, high-pitched noise suddenly filled her ears.

  “Marriage?” The word felt ripped from her throat.

  He nodded. “Henry was my best friend. It’s my fault he ever gambled in the first place, and I promised him on his deathbed I would make sure you and Liza were cared for. I would like you to be my wife.”

  The room was doing that awful spinning thing again, as it had done last night. She gripped the windowpane behind her again and perched on the edge of it. “I cannot marry you. I don’t love you.”

  “Julianna, don’t be ridiculous,” David scolded, coming to stand by Lord Cameron and clamping him on the back. “The ton is filled with marriages of convenience. This is the perfect solution.”

  Suddenly, Helena was beside David and nodding at Julianna. She darted her gaze around the room, wanting to shout at them all that she could never marry again. She’d given all of her heart to Henry. When he’d died, he’d taken with him her desire to open up herself to that much love or pain again. She had not wanted to get up and go on living, but she had for Liza, because Liza already had Julianna’s love. There was nothing she could do to change that, but she’d protect herself against ever loving a man again, not that she was worried. She had no doubt that even if she wanted to, she could never love a man in the consuming way she’d loved Henry.

  She’d trusted him implicitly. So much so, she had never questioned anything, never thought for a moment he would do something so silly as to gamble to buy her a gift she had not really needed. Poor Henry. Why had her darling fool thought she needed any gift greater than his love? The idea that he’d perhaps used his dying breath to beg his best friend to take care of her made her feel ill.

  She couldn’t be here now. The room was so small and her sadness so great. She could barely catch her breath, but she forced herself to say words she thought would placate everyone for now. “I can’t think about remarrying yet.” Not ever, really, but there was no need to worry Helena and David that she would be a continued burden to them. She would have to come up with something.