by Jenna Jaxon
“So why are you concerned with these papers, Duncan?” She smiled, smug in her knowledge. “Is he still spouting lies that I am married to him? He has no claim. You revoked the proxy. It could not be used.”
“Yes, I revoked it, Juliet. Regrettably, until his father received my letter rescinding it, there existed a window of opportunity in which the papers could have been legitimately used. This is what St. Cyr claims happened.” Duncan glanced over at his wife and brother-in-law. His frown deepened.
“You told me the proxy marriage was only valid in France. In England I am not married to him even if the papers are not false.” She raised her chin. On that point, she remained certain.
“True.” Duncan gathered her hands into his. “However, St. Cyr’s attorney brings up an interesting point. For all that the Hardwicke Act states both parties must stand together before a clergyman, it does not specifically state proxy marriages are invalid. The marriage performed in France, in accordance with the laws of that country, is valid and legally binding in that country. He further argues a proxy marriage is a matter of the form of the ceremony, which is not essential to the marriage itself. Kings and princes have availed themselves of proxy ceremonies, so that particular form is not abhorrent to the ideals of a Christian church. Therefore, if a marriage is valid where it is performed, a court might find it a valid marriage here as well.”
Light wavered into darkness and the walls rushed in to crush her. “You cannot mean I may be married to…” She couldn’t breathe. Duncan gripped her hands.
“We know nothing for certain. I have my attorney studying both the marriage certificate and the law statutes.” He sighed. “If there is a way to deny the claim, Grimes will find it. However, if St. Cyr ever got you to France, there would be no question.”
He nodded toward the couple in the corner. “To compound the matter, you have gone and tied yourself to this Captain Dawson.” His frown deepened. “Juliet, what were you thinking?”
Juliet pulled her hands away and met his scornful tone with one of her own. “I was thinking, Duncan, that I had fallen in love with a man who is kind and capable and brave and resourceful. A man who had the presence of mind to save me from St. Cyr, not even knowing who I was or what he had stumbled into.”
Her strength flagged and she slumped in her chair. Too many emotions swirled around her. She couldn’t cope with any more. Duncan must see reason.
“A man who has made me feel as safe as you have, if not safer. I love him Duncan,” she blurted out, tears trickling down her cheeks. “And he loves me. That’s all I’ve ever really wanted, someone who will love me no matter what.”
“Juliet. Calm yourself.” He took her hand and gave a comforting squeeze. “Lord, now he’s looking over here. I smell a challenge brewing.”
She turned in time to see Amiable rise to his feet. It boded well that he would leave Kat to come to her rescue. Katarina’s firm hand hauled him back beside her, but the gesture had been made. She settled down and returned her attention to her brother, whose attitude had not improved.
“He’s a captain in the army, Juliet. Do you intend to follow the drum with him?”
“Of course not, Duncan.” She sniffed into her handkerchief. “He sold out before sailing for England.”
“Ah, so he’s an ex-army captain. How does he intend to support you? I assume he’s a second son to some gentry. Will he now go into law or some such thing?”
The contempt in Duncan’s voice infuriated her. Her tears dried instantly as she leapt to defend her husband.
“Second son, yes. Now only son. His elder brother died earlier this year. That’s the reason he returned to England. That and to find Kat.”
The dark rage in Duncan’s face surfaced immediately. “I will deal with why he sought her out another time. So he’s now in line to inherit a manor house, perhaps? Enough to support you and your children, do you think?”
“I have no idea how big an estate his father has. His town house in London, though, is impressive.”
“Town house in London? When did you see…You went to his house?” She grabbed his arm as he shot up out of the chair.
“Sit down for God’s sake and stop acting like a fool. The day I left town, Glynis and I offered him a ride to his father’s town house. After his gallantry with Philippe, it seemed the least I could do. I saw the outside of the house, dear brother, no more.” She cocked her head at him. “You don’t know who he is?”
“How the devil would I know who he is? I’ve never met the man before.”
“Well, I thought you might recognize the family name. He’s the son, and now heir, of Lord Morley.” Juliet could not keep the triumph out of her voice. Quite a feather in her cap, really. Instead of stunned surprised, Duncan stared at her, a stricken look on his face.
“He claims to be Lord Morley’s son?”
“The younger son, Duncan. The elder one died.”
“Juliet, the baron’s family name is obviously not Dawson. I know of Lord Morley. I knew his son, though not well. Peaceable Morley.” Duncan squeezed her hands until they ached. “If this man says he is Morley’s son but his name is Dawson, he is either lying or illegitimate.” Duncan swore under his breath. “’Sblood, Juliet, just who have you married?”
She searched his eyes, but he wasn’t goading her or playing some hurtful game. With as much poise as she could muster, she answered from her sinking heart. “I married the man I love. I do not care if he a baron’s son or only Captain Dawson. I am sure Amiable will explain if you ask him.” She gripped his hands until hers ached. “I love him. He loves me. We belong together. I beg of you, do not make our marriage an issue.” She stared him in the eyes, willing him to understand her conviction. “Because if I have to choose between the two of you, though I love you dearly, I will choose him.”
“Juliet…”
“I mean it, Duncan.” She narrowed her eyes and released his hands. He would not win in this, no matter what he threatened.
He sighed and leaned back in the chair. “I am not the worst obstacle you have to face, my dear. Have you realized that? I am disturbed, to say the least, by your hasty and ill-considered marriage, although if he somehow turns out to be Morley’s son he would at least be an eligible parti. I will, of course, stand by you regardless.” His gaze softened. “How could I love you and not do so?”
A great weight lifted from her heart. “Thank you, Duncan.” Her throat seized and tears again moistened her eyes. Happy tears this time. She blinked them away. “If you are not the obstacle, though, what is?”
“St. Cyr, of course.”
“Philippe? That spurious marriage contract?” She waved her hand contemptuously.
He shook his head and sighed. “A court could find it valid. So if you were, in fact, already married to the viscount, then your marriage to Dawson is invalid.”
Oh, dear God. A numbing cold spread throughout her body.
He grasped her frozen hands and peered into her face. His eyes reflected her despair. “In that case, the authorities could charge you with bigamy.”
Chapter 18
“Amiable, my dear. How do you come to be here? Married to my sister-in-law?” Katarina glowed, whether from her pregnancy or in delight at seeing him, Amiable couldn’t tell.
“It is a long story, Katarina, that starts, of course, with your letter.” He motioned toward her husband. “Was he the ‘circumstance’ your letter mentioned?”
Katarina blushed but nodded. “Our initial meeting proved less than amicable and I feared he would pursue me. Then I remembered your proposal, which seemed a godsend. So I persuaded Jack to allow me to return to Virginia on the strength of your promise. Though even you might not have welcomed me, considering how I would have looked at the end of the journey. If I had survived it at all.” At his bemused expression she laughed. “I am no kind of sailor at all, Amiable. I was wretchedly ill all the way to London. That is why Duncan and I did not make it t
o Italy. We had to turn back the second or third day out because of my seasickness.”
“My God. If you had come you would have arrived to find me gone to England. Pax died, you see, so I had to return home.”
“My dear, I am so sorry.” She grasped his hand and squeezed.
“Thank you.” He glanced down at her hand on his. Odd he felt nothing but its warmth. “I had left money for your passage with Colonel Weatherington, but you would have had to get back on a ship…”
“No.” She leaned back in her chair and shook her head, lips in a grim line. “I would have located my mother’s family in the Pennsylvania colony. I know I would not have survived an immediate journey back. However, fate, by the name of the Marquess of Dalbury, had other plans for me.” She spoke his name as though caressing him. Amiable sighed and disengaged their hands. Once he would have given anything for her to speak his name thus.
“I wondered, from your letter, what had happened to you when those villains attacked your carriage. I suspected you had…been compromised.” He looked deeply into her eyes. “You know I would have married you, Katarina? Without question or need for explanation?”
She flashed him a brilliant smile. “Yes, I knew. I told Jack as much. You have always had the instinct to protect. It’s what you do best. My flight to you, however, was a near thing in the end. I had actually boarded the ship bound for Virginia.”
“What happened?”
“Duncan bought the ship.”
Amiable stared at her. “He bought the ship?”
“To keep it from sailing, yes. It’s the same one we took to Italy.”
“Is he quite mad?”
Katarina laughed. “I thought so at the time. But no, just very determined.”
Amiable nodded, his gaze straying to his wife. “It runs in the family.” Then very quietly. “He knows what happened to you?”
Katarina leaned forward. “He was there, Amiable.”
“What?” His throat closed off as though a phantom hand had squeezed it shut. “He watched you being assaulted and did nothing?”
The thin line of Kat’s lips betrayed her displeasure. “Oh, he did plenty.”
“He came to your rescue in the carriage?”
Katarina blew out a breath. She seemed annoyed with him. He must have missed something because he kept being distracted from his own conversation and drawn to the one between Juliet and her brother. He could not hear what they were saying, but Juliet looked stricken.
“Let me start at the beginning, Amiable.” Her words startled him back to their tête-à-tête.
Damn, was Juliet crying? He rose from his seat, but Katarina pulled him back. “Give them time to sort this out. Let me divert you with a tale that can scarce be believed.”
She managed to distract him with her story of near ravishment and betrayal, of animosity and jealousy, keeping him engaged for at least ten minutes. By the end of her tale, Amiable’s jaw ached so much from clenching it he could barely spit out the words. “So you married the man who compromised you, Katarina? Jack did not challenge him?”
“God knows, he tried, but I made him see sense. It was not his place.”
“Not his place?” She made no sense. “Then whose place was it, by Christ?” He wanted to go challenge the blackguard himself.
“Mine, of course.”
“Yours? You challenged Dalbury?” Outrageous behavior, even for Katarina. “And he accepted?” Unheard of. The Code Duello forbade women to fight. He shook his head, and his admiration for her rose once more. Leave it to Kat to find a way.
She chuckled. “Oh, he leaped at the chance. No contest, of course, but I felt better to have it rest on my skill rather than Jack’s. He would have fought my brother to the death and I wanted my brother alive.” She sighed and met his eyes. “Believe me, it has turned out amazingly well, Amiable. I love him more than I could ever imagine loving anyone else.”
He nodded with instant understanding. He’d wondered how he would react, seeing Katarina again. His desire for her, however, had died with his marriage vows. He would always be protective of her, as he would of any woman, but his life now revolved around Juliet.
“Your heart is engaged, too, I think?” she asked, an eager smile lighting her face.
“That obvious, is it?” Did he look as besotted as he felt?
“And what is wrong with a husband showing he loves his wife?”
Challenging woman, as always.
“I am pleased you have found the woman you love. I would have been grateful for your protection at the time, but I fear there would never have been between us what we both now possess. You needed someone to protect, Amiable. I was never that person.”
He chuckled. “No, my dear, you were not.”
“Indeed, I killed a man to protect Duncan.”
“You killed a man!” He barked, making Katarina jump.
Duncan stood and strode to her side, Juliet trailing in his wake. “Are you telling tales, my dear?” He glanced from one to the other. His gaze settled on Amiable. “I understand you knew my wife well in the colonies?”
“For five years, my lord. I have crossed swords with her a time or two and can well believe Katarina bested a man, especially in defense of another.” Lord knew he didn’t want to antagonize his brother-in-law. Their lives could become awkward if Dalbury chose to oppose the marriage. He couldn’t annul it, nor should he desire to with Juliet increasing, but he could make life difficult for them.
“Oh she bested this one, though at some cost to herself.” He glared at Katarina.
Not an easy man to live with, he’d wager. Kat didn’t seem to mind, though. Even now, with his disapproval obvious, she grinned up at him, an adoring gleam in her eyes.
“She did not, however, kill him.”
“The devil you say, Duncan.” Her brows puckered at this revelation. “I remember Redmond groaning and bleeding on the floor just before you took me out. There was a deal of blood. Are you sure he didn’t die?”
“We thought it best during your convalescence to withhold such information from you, my dear, lest you fret yourself. You are perfectly safe from the brute.”
“Are you sure he’s not dead?”
By God, she sounded disappointed she hadn’t killed the man.
“No. He’s been recovering from his wounds. I understand he is not…ahem.” Dalbury paused, trying to form words. “Mr. Redmond is not quite as fully functional as before your encounter.”
“For God’s sake, Kat, where did you wound him?” Juliet had come to stand beside him, snaking her hand around his waist.
He wanted to grin like a fool at her possessive gesture.
“In the groin.”
Amiable winced in sympathy, while Juliet sputtered with glee.
After his sister’s laughter had subsided, Dalbury fixed him with a stern nod. “Captain Dawson, I wonder if I might have a word with you, sir?”
Juliet tightened her grip on him.
He set her hand aside and dropped a soft kiss on her lips. “It’s all right, love. We have many topics to touch on, I’m sure. Still, I promise not to challenge your brother as long as he behaves himself.” He smiled into her suddenly frantic eyes, then moved over to the fire and sat in the chair Juliet had vacated.
He watched his wife settle beside her sister-in-law, then turned back to deal with her brother. This interview would be a battle, pure and simple. Well, he’d been accustomed to battle for ten years.
“Captain Dawson,” Dalbury said before he even sat down, “you were extremely ill-advised to marry my sister so out of hand, sir. Without my knowledge or consent. She is not of age until she turns one and twenty. Under the circumstances, however, I am willing to acknowledge your marriage…at Gretna Green?”
Amiable nodded.
Dalbury grunted but continued. “I will acknowledge the marriage when I see the papers. I trust you have them available?”
“They
are in the study, Lord Dalbury.” He tried to bite back the acid in his tone. He’d best remember his promise to Juliet. An almost impossible task, given her brother’s obvious animosity. “Shall I fetch them now or at the end of this scolding?”
Dalbury’s eye twitched. “Would you care for a brandy, Dawson? I feel in need of something more substantial than tea at the moment.”
“I would, thank you, my lord.”
Dalbury strode to the sideboard and poured two generous tumblers.
Amiable, who had followed him there, accepted one. Better tactics to remain on his feet. The first sip sent a pleasant fire coursing through him and gave him the impetus to reply more civilly to his brother-in-law. Time for the offense.
“Our marriage was sudden, it is true. During my escort of your sister, it became obvious our affections were engaged. Almost immediately, in fact. You were out of the country and not due to return, according to Juliet, until almost Christmas.” He stared straight into Dalbury’s cool eyes. “We were not inclined to wait so long.”
“It looks as though you were not inclined to wait at all.”
“We anticipated the wedding by less than twenty-four hours.” He kept his voice deathly quiet. “At least I did not attempt to bed your sister in a brothel after buying her for the evening. As, I understand, were your actions toward Katarina.”
“That is none of your affair, sir.” Dalbury’s voice dripped icicles.
“As a very old friend of the family, and her betrothed at the time, I believe it is my affair, my lord.” He itched to challenge the man, outraged at his treatment of Katarina.
“Your betrothed? She accepted you after she met me.”
“Was running to me after you all but ravished her.” Amiable stopped and turned abruptly to the two women not ten feet away. Judging by their faces they had heard every word. “This discussion is better served, perhaps, at another time and place.”
“I believe you are correct, Dawson.” Dalbury too eyed the ladies’ reaction. “I have other matters to discuss with you. The first of which is your name. What is your name, sir?”
