The Secrets of Wiscombe Chase

by Christine Merrill

  ‘Ronald!’ her father said sharply as if he were settling a fight between children. ‘Your sister’s marriage is none of your affair. And I warned you to be careful with Wiscombe,’ he added. ‘No matter what he pretends, he is not the naive young man whom we sent to war.’ Then he smiled at Lily. ‘The way he handled the sable farm was really quite masterful.’

  ‘It was,’ she said, surprised that she could agree with him, even on such a small thing.

  ‘I am so glad that you both approve of him,’ Ronald snapped. ‘But what is to be done about the duel?’

  ‘Done about it?’ Lily said. ‘What can be done? In this case, I do not think a simple apology will be enough. Perhaps you should do as he asked. If you were to reimburse the guests and throw yourself on his mercy...’

  ‘Me? I will not abase myself to that interloper.’

  ‘He is not actually an interloper,’ she said, putting the paint box aside. ‘He is the owner of the house.’

  ‘And you are his wife,’ her father reminded her with a gentle smile. ‘Perhaps if you were to intercede for your brother, we might avoid an unfortunate incident.’

  ‘Perhaps if Ronald had learned to deal from the bottom of the deck instead of hiding cards in his sleeve, he might not have got caught.’

  ‘You were always better at it than he,’ her father agreed.

  ‘That is in no way a compliment,’ she said, remembering that he was part of the problem and turning away from him.

  ‘It is not my technique that needs improvement,’ Ronald announced. ‘It has never been a problem before.’

  ‘You have not gambled against Gerald Wiscombe before,’ Lily said, trying not to smile in triumph.

  ‘Unless we are to count the first gamble that got us the house,’ her father said with a knowing nod. ‘Though it took some time, he won that back from us, as well. Then there was the matter of the sables. And I heard he bested you at billiards the first night he was home.’

  Lily raised her eyebrows, impressed. Ronald was as good at billiards as he was abysmal at cards.

  ‘Well, he will not win this time,’ Ronald said.

  ‘He has won already,’ their father said with a shake of his head. ‘No matter what we might do, I suspect that word of this will get out in London and the same game will not work again. It might be best to decamp quietly and begin again elsewhere.’

  ‘Your best suggestion is that we run away?’ Ronald stared at his father, outraged.

  Lily nodded. ‘I doubt he will follow you, as long as you do not involve him in future ventures, or try to abuse your connection to him.’

  Faced with the only logical choice, Ronald ignored it. ‘Nonsense. You must go to him, Lily, and convince him to retract the challenge.’

  ‘I?’ She laughed. ‘What makes you think I have any control over his actions?’

  He responded with a knowing grin. ‘You have more control over Gerry than you realise. I saw the look on his face yesterday morning. And today, as well. Now that you are sharing his bed, you can lead the man about by the nether parts if you wish to.’

  Years of carefully maintained calm broke in an instant and she slapped him hard across the cheek. She would not let him make the best part of her marriage sound like something vile and sinful. ‘Do not speak to me that way ever again. Even if I could control him, I do not wish to. Especially not for your sake, Ronald. I warned you from the moment he arrived not to underestimate him. You ignored me and made this muddle. I will not turn my marriage into another North family fraud to help you out of it.’

  ‘Now, children—’ her father was giving them the benevolent smile that worked so well on people who didn’t know him ‘—do not fight over this. I am sure Lily would be willing to put in a good word for you with her husband. But you must ask more nicely than that.’

  ‘I will not,’ she said, glaring at her brother.

  ‘You had better,’ Ronald countered. ‘Or I will have the talk with your son that you did not have the nerve to.’

  Her anger turned to ice-cold rage. ‘If you do, I will shoot you myself.’

  ‘Lillian!’ Her father looked more hurt than shocked. ‘Do not talk that way to your brother.’ He turned to Ronald. ‘And what is this nonsense about speaking to Stewart? What does he have to do with any of this?’

  ‘Now that her husband has returned, your precious Lillian pretends to be a devoted wife. But Stewart is proof that she was not always so pure. If she can use her wiles to convince her husband not to throw the little bastard out in the cold, then she can spare some influence for the rest of the family.’

  ‘Lily?’ Her normally glib father could manage nothing more than her name. He was staring at her as if he expected her to deny everything so they might all go back to ignoring the past.

  ‘Do not dare pretend you did not know,’ she said, furious that he could not manage one small moment of honesty, now that the subject had been broached.

  Her father gave a confused shake of his head, refusing to believe. ‘I am not pretending. I do not understand. What Ronald is claiming...’ He shook his head again. ‘I refuse to believe that you would do such a thing.’

  ‘That I...’ It was too much. She had to get away from them and the poison they spewed, using her, ignoring her pain and then coming to her for help when things went wrong. ‘The duel will go on as planned. I will do nothing to stop it.’ She stared at her brother in disgust. ‘Why would I help someone who thinks so little of me and is eager to tell my son that the father he worships is not his?’

  Then she turned to her father. ‘And you, who knows everything that goes on in this house. Do not lie to me like you do to the guests. You put that monster in the room beside mine. I locked the door, but you gave him the key. You sold my honour twice, as if it was no more important than your imaginary ruby mine.’

  For a moment, there was no sign of understanding on his face. But then the truth hit him like a lightning strike. ‘My dear.’ His voice was unsteady and his hands trembled as he reached out to comfort her, as if it were not years too late for that. Or did he expect her to comfort him? ‘I did not know. I swear on your mother’s soul, I did not know.’

  Her vision was blurring, as it sometimes did when she forgot to breathe. Or perhaps it was just the tears. She slapped his hands away, took a deep breath and was relieved to feel her head clearing as the fear receded and anger returned. ‘Then I do not know who I hate more, the man who took advantage of me, or the one who did not even notice it happened.’ She pushed past them both, slamming through the glass doors and out into the hall.

  * * *

  By the time she arrived at her room, her breath was coming in desperate pants. Once she turned the key in the lock, it began to slow to normal. She planted her shoulders square against the wood, adding the weight of her body to the bolt. She was safe, she repeated the word in her mind. Safe.

  But why had she run? There had been no physical threat. Just a few sad truths and some harsh words. Now that they had been spoken, there was no power left in them.

  Gerry was right. She’d used the lock for comfort. She had thought she was locking others out. But if there was nothing on the other side of the door, she had been locking herself in.

  ‘Lily.’

  She jumped. Her husband stood in the connecting doorway, staring at her with concern. One look at her face and he was across the room, pulling her into his arms. ‘What has happened?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she said, breathless. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Liar,’ he said, pulling her away from the door. But he did not question her further, simply held her, his cheek pressed to her temple, offering his strength to her.

  As if by magic, the contact banished the beginning of her headache. She sighed.

  ‘Hmmm?’ He asked all his questions with a single noise.

&nbs
p; ‘Better,’ she admitted. And then added, ‘I was speaking with my father and brother. They upset me.’

  ‘Command me and I will make it right,’ he whispered.

  She shook her head. ‘That is what they wish for me to do. They were badgering me to make you call off the duel. But I will not do it. I will not instruct you, nor will I blame you for your decision,’ she added.

  ‘As you wish,’ he said. ‘But it is not unusual for them to involve you in their plans. Does it always upset you so?’

  ‘This time it was different,’ she admitted. ‘We talked about the past. My brother taunted me with Stewart’s illegitimacy. And my father...’ She swallowed, trying to gain control. ‘My father did not know what had happened to me.’

  ‘You have never talked to him about this?’ he asked and held her even closer.

  She shook her head. ‘All this time, I have hated him for letting it happen to me. And for pretending that there were no problems, letting it go on and on. I was even afraid...’ She choked back a sob and took another breath. ‘I thought he might have planned the whole thing.’

  Gerry swore.

  ‘I blamed him for what happened. But he did not even know,’ she repeated, still baffled.

  ‘We have spoken about you,’ Gerry said. ‘Perhaps he is misguided about some things. But he loves you and would never intentionally hurt you.’

  ‘Do not be a fool.’ She must not forget that her husband was one of the many gulls that her father had tricked. ‘He used me to trap you and it is pure luck that things turned out as well as they did.’

  ‘He persuaded me otherwise,’ Gerry said, sounding almost as bewildered as she felt by this statement. ‘I do not think he would have arranged the marriage if he had not thought we’d make a decent match.’

  ‘He is a liar and a thief,’ she said, exasperated.

  ‘But he is also your father.’ Gerry shook his head. ‘He can lie about many things. But there was something...’ He shrugged. ‘I have not told you much of my own father, have I?’

  ‘I know that he was a hunter,’ she said, thinking of the awful heads that filled the house.

  ‘But I was not,’ Gerry said with a smile. ‘I was a grave disappointment to him. He thought me soft and rather useless.’

  ‘Then I hope he can look down from heaven and see how wrong he was,’ she said, indignant.

  He laughed. ‘I doubt he would be satisfied. I have killed more than my share of men. But I still do not kill animals. Even now, I do not see the point of it.’

  ‘How odd,’ she said, for it was.

  ‘But your father seems to have a very high opinion of me, despite my spoiling his plans. That may change, of course, since I mean to shoot your brother.’

  Was he still trying to gauge her opinion on the duel? She was still not sure she had one. ‘I doubt it,’ she said. ‘Just now, when he was encouraging me to talk you out of it, he spoke well of you. Mostly, he is not happy with Ronald for being stupid enough to be caught.’

  ‘Fathers and sons,’ Gerry said, shaking his head. ‘There are expectations between us that can be difficult to fulfil. But daughters are a different matter entirely. When we talked after the sable incident, he told me repeatedly that he would not have promised you to me if he had not thought that we would make a good match. He described you as a jewel.’

  ‘He said no such things to me,’ she said, trying not to let the bitterness show. But when had he had the chance? She’d been so angry about what had happened that she’d hardly spoken to him since Stewart was born, even though they shared a house.

  ‘When he chose a husband for you, he went out of his way to find you a man that was in no way like himself or your brother,’ Gerry said. ‘Despite what occurred, I think he hoped to give you a future very like the one you will have with me.’

  ‘Then what happened...’

  ‘It was never his plan, if that’s what you feared.’

  ‘But it was still his fault,’ she insisted.

  ‘True,’ Gerry agreed. But there was a silence after that which made her wonder if he thought more than he said.

  ‘Do you expect me to forgive him, just because he was not actively trying to hurt me?’

  She’d meant to be sarcastic, but there was something in his expression that said that was exactly what he wished.

  ‘After all your talk of loyalty, I cannot believe you would take his side in this.’ She pulled away.

  ‘There are no sides,’ he said. It was exactly the opposite of what he’d said when he’d arrived. ‘I would hope that you will forgive him and me, as well. I should not have married you and left you alone. I was as much at fault as he was. I was not here when you needed me.’

  ‘I never blamed you.’ She had been too busy worrying about what would happen when he returned.

  ‘Then I have much to be thankful for,’ he said, kissing her hair. ‘And whatever you feel for him, your father will not be living under this roof much longer. Before he goes, I will speak to him about this and see that you have the apology that you seek.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Burkes had fled before supper.

  Lily could hardly blame them. It must have been a shock to discover that they were not so much friends as a source of income to their hosts. That said, she suspected they must have been rather stupid to have not noticed it earlier. To most guests, even the most charming venue grew tiresome after a week of continual losses at cards and billiards. But the current group had lasted almost a fortnight before Gerry had arrived to destroy their illusions.

  ‘I suspect it was my charming personality that drove them away,’ her husband said, as they walked from the house just before dawn. The previous night’s supper had been a quiet affair, eaten in their rooms, followed by an early bedtime so that he might be rested for the morning.

  ‘Now that you have returned, it is more interesting than usual,’ she admitted. ‘We do not usually have naked men running through the hall or intimate examinations of small animals.’

  ‘Or so many challenges, I hope,’ he added. ‘Two in a week is high, even for me.’

  ‘Two?’ She looked at him in surprise.

  ‘Did I forget to tell you about Sir Chauncey?’ He waved a hand. ‘Later, perhaps. It was another unsuccessful scheme of your brother’s.’

  ‘My family did not have unsuccessful schemes until you arrived,’ she said, secretly rather proud.

  ‘Well, let us hope their string of bad luck continues.’ He turned grave for a moment. ‘But on the off chance it should not, I would rather that you not be here to witness it. A duel is no place for a lady.’ Gerry gave her a stern look, as though that would be enough to scare her away at this point in the proceedings.

  ‘You are quite right, Captain Wiscombe,’ she said with a cross frown. ‘We are only halfway to the clearing where this farce is to take place and the wet grass has ruined my best boots. Even if I turn back now, they are quite beyond repair. I might as well continue.’

  He laughed. ‘You are a surprisingly cold-blooded creature, Mrs Wiscombe.’ He gave her a sidelong glance. ‘In these circumstances, at least.’

  She could not help it. She blushed. Then she touched his arm. ‘If you mean to do this without a second, then someone must be there to call for a surgeon, should my brother be lucky enough to wound you.’

  He gave the hand on his arm a gentle pat. ‘If the earl means to stand for your brother, your father would have to accompany me. That hardly seemed appropriate. And I doubt a surgeon will be necessary. But thank you for your concern.’

  Surely someone would need medical attention. Unless he did not intend to shoot Ronald. Or perhaps he meant to do such a thorough job of it that there would be no point in getting a doctor. But if Gerry were hurt, who would be there to protect him from her brot
her? And who would protect her from the earl? She shivered.

  He glanced at her, then slipped his greatcoat from his shoulders and wrapped it around her. ‘It will be warmer once the sun is full up.’

  ‘Not as warm as it was last summer. The heat then was quite oppressive.’

  ‘Then I am lucky to have missed it.’

  They were talking about the weather. How banal. What if she lost him, after less than a week together? ‘Gerald,’ she said, wetting her lips.

  ‘Lillian?’ He was still smiling, mocking her serious tone.

  ‘Please be careful,’ she said, releasing a sigh.

  ‘Still not going to plead for Ronald’s life?’ he said. Then he grew serious. ‘After today, there is a chance that you will be sharing a bed with the man who murdered your brother.’

  She thought for a moment, searching her mind for the distress that ought to be there at such a time. It saddened her that she could not find it. ‘I knew that it might come to this some day. It is unfair to both of us that you are the one he will meet. But what are you to do, really? What he was doing is wrong. If he refuses to stop cheating, he must be stopped by someone else. I trust that you will be as merciful as possible in your punishment of him.’

  He nodded, satisfied with her answer. ‘And if, as you said before, he gets off a lucky shot?’

  ‘You must not let that happen,’ she said, surprising herself with the vehemence and lack of hesitation.

  ‘Well, well,’ he said, smiling. ‘I have my answer.’

  ‘But be wary. You already know that he cheats,’ she reminded him. ‘Should an opportunity present itself, he will try to trick you. You must remember that my family has no honour, even in circumstances that demand it by their very nature.’

  He stopped walking and stared at her. ‘There is one in your family that is honourable. I am lucky to have married her.’

  ‘Thank you.’ They stared at each other for a moment in silence. But Lily had the strangest feeling that they were still talking and that something very important had been said. Then he turned and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and walked with her the rest of the way to the duelling site.