At Long Last

by Shirlee Busbee

Tony stiffened. "She told you about it?" he asked warily, his heart sinking.

  "Yes, and I want you to know that I am forever grateful that you have agreed to be so benevolent," Jeremy said forthrightly, "even if I do not know why you are being so kind and generous to us. As Arabella has no doubt told you, I was criminally foolish to drink so much and to gamble with such known scoundrels as Leyton and Walcott." He flushed. "I do not mean to make excuses for myself. What happened was entirely my fault. Nor do I mean to hide behind my sister's skirts." Awkwardly he added, "If I had known what she planned to do, I would have stopped her. And while I am gratified at the outcome of her interference, I will admit I was appalled when I first learned what she had done." He leaned forward, and said earnestly, "You must realize that I had no idea what she was up to until after she had concluded her dealings with you. I know that a man's word is his bond and you must believe me when I say that I would never have reneged on my vowels."

  "I believe you," Tony said, deciding that Arabella had not told Jeremy the true facts of their bargain. He had been a fool to think that she would. "And I admire your sentiments." He smiled engagingly at Jeremy. "Your sister does seem to have a way of taking the bit between her teeth, doesn't she?" Tony's expression invited Jeremy to share his opinion.

  Torn between loyalty to his sister and Tony's likable ways, Jeremy was uncertain whether to be resentful at Daggett's easy familiarity or grateful that he was being so agreeable about the matter. In fact, he was finding it difficult not to respond to the man's charm—Daggett was nothing like he had expected. He was inclined to believe that Daggett had been greatly maligned.

  Coaxed by the faint smile that lurked at the comer of Daggett's mouth and remembering numerous times when Arabella had done just that, Jeremy abandoned his preconceived notions of Tony's villainy, and said with great feeling, "Indeed, sir, she does."

  Tony laughed. "As her fiancé, I found her shockingly hot-at-hand—as her brother, I would not care to contemplate your fate."

  Ignoring the faint pang of guilt that went through him, Jeremy joined in Tony's amusement, a smile breaking across his face. "Father always claimed that she was a handful from birth. Determined to do things her way."

  "Well, in this case," Tony admitted, "I think she did the right thing. As you stated, a man's word is his bond, and one's honor is a thing to be desired and protected above all else, but you were treated dishonorably by Leyton and Walcott. Your sister's actions may have been embarrassing and unconventional, but she had the correct reading of the situation."

  "If our positions were reversed, would you have allowed your sister to save you?" Jeremy asked, obviously embarrassed.

  "I am not fortunate enough to have a sister, but I would have been greatly honored if I'd one as loyal and caring as yours," Tony said gently, sidestepping the question. "She has only your best interests at heart."

  "I know," Jeremy said, his features softening. "But sometimes, sir, it can be the very devil!"

  They shared a knowing smile, and then Tony said, "But come now, tell me why you are here."

  Jeremy tugged uneasily at his neatly tied stock. "It is about the vowels, sir." He nervously cleared his throat. "Uh, I was wondering when you planned to return them. Arabella was rather vague on that point."

  I rather imagine, she was, Tony thought to himself with amusement. But deciding to put Jeremy out of his misery, Tony rose to his feet and walked to a velvet pull rope in one comer of the elegant room. Giving it a firm yank, he walked back to his seat.

  "I agreed to the return of your vowels, but, er, we decided that I should hold the actual vowels for a period of six months." Gently he added, "It will allow you time to consider just how very ruinous your actions were."

  Jeremy made a face. "I understand, sir. I shouldn't be allowed to escape totally unscathed."

  Billingsley promptly answered Tony's ring and as promptly carried out Tony's request to bring him the folder lying on his desk. When the butler had returned with the folder and departed once more, Tony opened the folder and withdrew a piece of paper.

  Handing the paper to Jeremy, he said, "I believe that this will allow you to sleep easier at night."

  Swiftly Jeremy scanned the document, his expressive face revealing how very relieved he was to know that everything Tony had said was true. It was all there written out, signed and witnessed. On October 17, 1797, Anthony Daggett swore to return all vowels, dated April 16, 1797, by Jeremy Montgomery. If Anthony Daggett should die before the October 17 date, the vowels would immediately revert to Jeremy Montgomery's sole possession. Anthony Daggett was only to hold said vowels and would not taint them in any way.

  His blue eyes shining, Jeremy looked at Tony and stammered, "Th-Thank y-y-you, sir! You do not know how cheered I am by this. It is such a weight lifted from me! I do not know what I would have done if you had not acted so graciously. I can never thank you enough. Never!"

  "If you learn from it," Tony said dryly, "that will be thanks enough."

  Jeremy did not linger. The precious document clutched tightly in his hands, vowing his eternal gratitude and swearing he would never be so foolish again, he soon took his leave. Tony was smiling when he finally waved him good-bye from the front steps of Sweet Acres, but his smile faded as he returned inside.

  Though he hadn't shown it, Jeremy's visit had made him uncomfortable and had pointed out to him, just how base his bargain with Arabella was. Bedeviled by a nagging sense of guilt, he considered calling the whole thing off. It would be, he admitted sourly, the honorable thing to do, and honor was important, vital to Tony. Except where Arabella was concerned, he thought grimly, for her he was willing to seal a bargain that he would have condemned as the act of a blackguard in anyone else. That knowledge stung him, and he grimaced. His problem, and he faced it honestly, was that he wanted Arabella in his arms too badly to turn back now. She had agreed to his terms, and he firmly ignored the whisper in his brain that she had had no choice.

  It wasn't, he told himself almost virtuously, as if she was a young, innocent maid and he a lecherous, fat, old sot. They had been lovers once, and she had been warm and willing and eager in his arms—-he intended that she would be so again. That thought eased his conscience somewhat, not entirely, but enough to let him turn his thoughts to the other problem he was going to face with Arabella.

  She wasn't, he conceded wryly, going to be happy that he had given the letter to Jeremy instead of to her as planned. But dash it all! Jeremy was a grown man and the vowels were his. What else could he have done?

  Chapter 10

  "You could have told him that the agreement was between you and me and that I was to receive the document," Arabella said tartly as they drove toward Natchez the next morning. Tony had explained what had transpired with Jeremy, and Arabella was obviously not pleased.

  She had been even more displeased, when, ignoring their plan of Thursday afternoon, he had boldly ridden up to the front door of Greenleigh to call for her.

  "And that's another thing," she muttered, looking across at him, as he sat beside her in the cart; his horse had been left behind at Greenleigh. "I thought it was understood between us that you were to meet me on the road, not at the house."

  "You understood it to be so. I did not," Tony said amiably. He glanced at her charming profile. "I think I have behaved with great restraint so far, but I feel it only fair to warn you that I do not intend to let you relegate me to the shadows of your life."

  Arabella's bosom swelled with indignation. Her hands tightened on the reins, and she shot him a furious look. "I thought we agreed our liaison was to be secret!"

  "The liaison, yes, but not any other relationship we may have."

  "We do not," she said from between gritted teeth, "have any other relationship."

  "Then how are you going to explain my presence today to Mr. Haight?" Tony asked reasonably, settling his broad shoulders comfortably against the black-leather backrest of the cart.

  "Since," Arabella muttere
d, "I hadn't intended for you to be with me when I went to Mr. Haight's, I didn't have to have an explanation."

  "Ah, now let me see if I understand this correctly," Tony said blandly. "Not only was I not to show my face at Greenleigh this morning—or ever, for that matter—but once we reach Natchez, I am instantly to remove myself from your vicinity until such time as you conclude your business with Haight?" A definite note of sarcasm in his voice, he added, "And then I presume I am to come skulking back like a dog to his mistress's heels? Is that how you envision this morning's events?"

  Arabella opened her mouth to protest, then shut it with a snap. Tony had the correct reading of the situation. Damn him! That was precisely how she had intended for the morning to go, and she was appalled at how cold and unfeeling it sounded.

  Determined to protect her vulnerable heart and to keep him at arm's length for her own sake, she had not considered how her actions would affect him. How he felt shouldn't matter to her, she thought miserably. But it did. Terribly.

  Her golden brown eyes troubled, she looked at him. "Tony, this situation is very difficult for me," she said huskily. "We parted under the worst conditions imaginable, and we are only together now because of the bargain we made." She glanced away. "If we are seen publicly to be on friendly terms, it will cause all sorts of gossip." She flushed. "I do not want to go through that again. A-A-After our engagement ended, you left immediately for England, so you don't know what it was like to be the subject of everyone's speculation, to have conversation stop when you entered a room, or to know that people were staring at you when you walked down the street or drove by." With a wealth of understatement, she added simply, "It was not pleasant."

  He grimaced. How did she do it? he wondered bleakly. He had been prepared for a fight, in fact had looked forward to it, but with only a few words, she had utterly disarmed him and made him feel the greatest villain in nature. And yet she was wrong on one important point; he did know what it was like to be the cynosure of all eyes, to know that everything he did, every deed, small or great, was intimately examined in the hope that it would reveal another source for malicious gossip.

  Wearily, he said, "I think you forget just how most of the inhabitants of Natchez view me. I have been their favorite fodder for gossip almost from my birth." He shot her a keen glance. "I'm sorry for what you had to face, Bella," he said quietly, "and that you had to face it alone."

  She smiled ruefully. "I could have hardly faced it with you at my side, so do not feel sorry for me. In retrospect I can see that your leaving was the best thing that could have happened. If you had remained, it would have only made the situation worse." She took a deep breath. "It was most unpleasant, but it is behind me now, and I hope that I am better for it."

  "How very noble," Tony said dryly. "You did not used to care so much what people said—if you had, you never would have become engaged to me in the first place."

  Keeping her eyes on the road ahead, she said softly, "And we both agree that I made a terrible mistake."

  "No," Tony muttered, "the mistake was mine. I should have known that fate would find a way to destroy my only hope for happiness."

  Arabella could think of nothing to say, nothing that wouldn't lead them closer to disinterring the corpse of their dead love. Her dead love, she reminded herself firmly. Tony's emotions had obviously never been fully engaged. If they had, she never would have found him in bed with Molly Dobson.

  They were preoccupied with their own thoughts for most of the remainder of the journey to Natchez, although a few idle comments did pass between them.

  When they reached the outskirts of Natchez, Tony said abruptly, "You may put me down here. Go see Haight and pick me up in this vicinity in an hour or so. I'm sure I can find some way in which to amuse myself."

  Arabella's fine mouth tightened. "No. That won't be necessary. There was enough truth in what you said earlier to make me realize that I am being silly—and unkind. I will not try to pretend any longer that we have nothing to do with each other. And, of course, you will go with me to Mr. Haight's." Beneath the brim of her saucy straw bonnet, her eyes met his gravely. "Don't read anything into it, Tony. It changes nothing between us."

  Tony would have argued the point with her, but since he had won this round, he saw no reason to push his advantage. His spirits considerably lightened, he merely nodded, and said softly, "Whatever you say, sweetheart. Whatever you say."

  Driving down the wide, tree-lined esplanade near the main plaza, they passed several people known to both of them. And if she hadn't felt so naked and exposed, Arabella might have found humor in the situation. Some of those passersby managed to acknowledge them with only polite nods, but others halted dead in their tracks, expressions of ludicrous astonishment and shock on their faces.

  Pulling her horse to a stop in front of Mr. Haight's office, Arabella said resignedly, "After today I expect that we will be the topic of conversation in every house within ten miles of Natchez."

  "Twenty miles," Tony corrected, a crooked smile curving his lips.

  After he had jumped down and tied the horse to the hitching rail, he turned to help her down from the cart.

  Once on the ground, Arabella shook out the crumpled skirts of her lavender-sprigged muslin gown. Taking a fortifying breath, she said, "Well, shall we go see what else may be mixed in with my deeds?"

  "And Mr. Haight? How do you intend to explain my presence to him?"

  Arabella's chin lifted. "I do not have to offer Mr. Haight any explanation. He is merely my attorney. Not my guardian."

  Tony grinned, his blue eyes dancing, his white teeth flashing. "Ah, Bella! I knew that all that wonderful spirit of yours could not have died entirely—it was what made me fall in love with you in the first place."

  Flustered, Arabella turned away from him and hurried toward the door to Mr. Haight's office as if pursued by demons.

  Mr. Haight hid his displeasure well at seeing Arabella Montgomery and Tony Daggett together once again. And if his manner was a bit cool, Arabella's was equally cool. He obeyed her request for the portfolio and frigidly showed them to a private room.

  Staring hard at Arabella, his hand on the crystal doorknob, Mr. Haight asked, "I trust all is well?"

  "Why, yes, it is." Arabella answered, reminding herself that he had only her best interest at heart.

  Mr. Haight hesitated, then said, "I seem to be seeing a great deal of you Montgomerys of late. Your brother was in early this morning. He had a paper that he said was most important and he wanted to put it in my safe."

  It was obvious that Mr. Haight was fishing, but Arabella merely gave him a sunny smile, and murmured, "If it was important, your safe is obviously the best place for it. I am glad that Jeremy is showing such good sense."

  "It would make me happy if you showed as much good sense," Mr. Haight muttered before he could stop himself.

  Arabella looked at him frostily. "Thank you, Mr. Haight. That will be all."

  His expression grim, Mr. Haight left the room, snapping the door shut behind him.

  "Is it just me," Tony asked, "or is it rather chilly in here?"

  "You know very well that Mr. Haight doesn't like you. He never did," Arabella replied absently, as she opened the portfolio and began to leaf through the papers inside it.

  A minute later, she lifted her eyes to Tony. "There is nothing here that shouldn't be."

  Tony quickly double-checked the contents.

  "You're right," he admitted, puzzled. "It seemed such a logical place for it to be."

  "I know," Arabella agreed, her face troubled. "I was so hoping that our mystery would be solved now, but it appears that it is not." She sighed as she put away the documents and redid the black ribbon around the portfolio. "I still have no idea what Boots was after, and worse, we have eliminated the only logical place it could have been placed—if I had whatever he wanted in the first place!"

  Mr. Haight said nothing when Arabella returned the portfolio to him, but as they
were preparing to leave his office, he asked abruptly, "Have you heard the news about Daniel Leyton?"

  It seemed wiser to Arabella to pretend ignorance about Leyton's fate than to admit she had already heard the news... from Tony. She hoped she looked suitably shocked when Mr. Haight informed her of Leyton's murder.

  "Do they have any idea who could have done it?" she asked, after she had expressed appropriate horror and dismay. "It is terrible to think that there is a murderer wandering among us."

  "No one has been identified as yet. But the authorities think it was someone he knew. Probably another gambler and flagrant womanizer like Leyton himself." Mr. Haight said, his gaze sliding suggestively in Tony's direction.

  Arabella stiffened. Her eyes sparkling with temper, she said crisply, "Gossiping, Mr. Haight? How shocking! Do you think that it is wise for someone in your position? Just think what people might say if it became known that you cannot keep a discreet tongue in your head."

  Mr. Haight glared at her, clearly thwarted. Arabella gave a toss of her head and sailed out of the office, closely followed by an amused Tony.

  A few minutes later they were in the cart, driving out of Natchez. They passed more acquaintances, and this time Arabella was able to take their stares more in stride and be amused at the expressions on several faces. Perhaps it was as well, she told herself, that everyone saw for themselves that she and Tony were not at daggers-drawing with each other. At least this way the wild speculation about what would happen should they meet unexpectedly had been avoided.

  They were just leaving the last buildings of Natchez behind them when they came abreast with a group of gentlemen riding into town. Recognizing them, Arabella's heart sank. Wonderful. Uncle Richard. Tony's most ardent critic.

  Richard Kingsley was not alone, and Arabella wasn't thrilled to see the others either. She was surprised to see Vincent Walcott, Leyton's partner in fleecing Jeremy, with Richard, but then Richard didn't know what Leyton and Walcott had done to his nephew, and Richard did so like to gamble. Alfred Daggett, Tony's uncle and his two sons Franklin and Burgess, and Tony's boon companion, Patrick Blackburne, comprised the rest of the group.