Slightly Scandalous b-5

by Mary Balogh

  He spent suppertime circulating among the guests with Freyja, as promised. The only thing that weighed heavily on his heart was the one deception he had perpetrated against everyone. He had even just repeated it-tonight, he had told his friends, was a celebration of his betrothal. But they were not betrothed. Not unless he could persuade her to change her mind about him.

  Yet that seemed hardly fair.

  Chastity touched his arm just as the people crowded into the dining room were beginning to spill back into the ballroom. She looked ghastly pale. She looked as if she were holding herself upright by sheer willpower.

  "Joshua," she said, "will you come to the library? I have asked Mama and Constance and Cousin Calvin and Sir Rees Newton to come too. And Miss Jewell. Freyja, will you come too, please?"

  But Joshua grasped her hand and squeezed tightly. "No, Chass!" he said. "No! Don't do this. It is not necessary."

  "Yes." She looked dully into his eyes as she withdrew her hand and turned away. "It is."

  He closed his eyes briefly and admitted to himself with a deep inward sigh that she was probably right. There was no stopping her now anyway.

  "Are we about to find out," Freyja asked quietly, "what did happen that night?"

  "Let us go and see, shall we?" he asked, offering her his arm.

  CHAPTER XXII

  No one told the truth in the ballroom earlier," Chastity said. She had invited them all to be seated and all of them complied except Joshua, who stood close to the window, his back to it, and Chastity herself, who clung to the end of the desk as if for support. "No one."

  "I realized that, Lady Chastity," Sir Rees Newton said. "I beg you not to distress yourself. Hugh Garnett can be a nasty piece of work when he sets his mind to mischief, and the men who spoke up with him are a pack of unsavory rascals. Do not think I was unaware of their smuggling antics years ago even though I said nothing at the time. As for those who spoke up for Lord Hallmere, well, they perjured themselves as surely as I am sitting here, but they know him and trust his word and had clearly decided that there are several kinds of truth. I am quite prepared to pretend I did nothing but dance and feast and enjoy the company of my neighbors here this evening."

  "Perhaps that is the trouble," the marchioness said, her voice bitter. For once her mask of gentle sweetness was down. "Everyone has always loved Joshua. Everyone has always believed every word he spoke. No one-not even my husband-would press for a further investigation into what happened that night. Albert went to confront Joshua over his blatant immorality and corruption of our servants, and Albert died. Joshua was the last to see him alive. Is that not suspicious enough to put doubt into anyone's mind?"

  "I know everyone was lying," Chastity said, raising her voice and speaking very distinctly even though her eyes were directed at the floor, "because there was no one out that night, either on water or on land, to witness what happened-no one except Joshua and Albert. And me."

  Good Lord! Joshua fixed his startled attention on her, as did everyone else. What was this?

  "I saw what happened," Chastity said. "Only me."

  "And me too, Chastity," Anne Jewell said quietly. "I was with you."

  What the devil?

  Chastity frowned at her but did not contradict her.

  "I walked to the village," Chastity said. "I knew Albert was going to talk to Joshua, and I followed. I went to Miss Jewell's house first, and then the two of us went to Joshua's. But we discovered that they had taken a boat out. We went down onto the harbor to wait for them to return. Clouds had already covered the sky and the wind was getting up. There was no one else about. I had a gun with me."

  "What?"

  The marchioness fell back in her chair, but no one paid her any attention and so she appeared to decide against swooning.

  "We were sheltering from the wind beside one of the boats when we saw Joshua coming back," Chastity said. "He was rowing. At first we thought that Albert was not with him, but then we could see him swimming beside the boat. When they were close to shore, Joshua rowed away again and Albert waded toward the harbor."

  "Thank you, Chass," Joshua said firmly, taking a step forward. "That is all that needs to be said. It confirms what I have said all along. Shall we-"

  Freyja had got up from her chair and come close enough to set a hand on his sleeve.

  "We need to know what happened to Albert, then," Calvin said, "if indeed he came safely to shore at that point."

  "I confronted him," Chastity said. "With the gun. I pointed it at him and would not let him out of the water. I told him he could stay there and freeze until he had promised to go to Papa and confess and until he had promised to leave Penhallow and never return."

  "Oh, Chass," Constance said. She gazed at Anne Jewell, a look of pain on her face. "It was Albert who fathered your son, was it not? I suppose I have always known it. I just did not want to know it, though I never believed it was Joshua."

  "Wicked girl!" the marchioness exclaimed, glaring at Chastity. "I will never believe it. Never! And if this-this whore says it is so, she is a liar. And so is Joshua. But even if it were so, would you threaten your own brother, your own flesh and blood, with death or banishment merely because he had taken his pleasure with a woman who was asking for it, always making sheep's eyes at him and tempting him away from the nursery to see something in the schoolroom. Oh, yes, miss. Do not think I did not notice."

  "There was no bullet hole in the body," Sir Rees said. "Your brother drowned, Lady Chastity."

  "He laughed at me," she said. "He said he did not need to come ashore, that he intended to swim some more because it was such a lovely night. He waded back into the water and swam away." She covered her face with both hands. "If anyone killed him, I did."

  Constance leaped to her feet and hurried across the room to draw her sister into her arms. Chastity sagged against her for a moment, but then she pushed her gently away.

  "It was not just because of Miss Jewell," she said, "though that was bad enough. But Miss Jewell fell prey to Albert only because she deliberately drew him away from the nursery to the schoolroom."

  "Ha!" the marchioness said, describing a large arc with one arm.

  "Chastity," Anne Jewell warned. "Please, my dear."

  "Chass," Joshua said. "Leave it there. Enough has been said now. Leave it."

  "I was glad when I found out he was dead," Chastity said. "I was glad. God help me, I am still glad. Prue was thirteen years old. Thirteen! And his own sister. But he thought that because she had a child's mind and a child's willingness to please and to do whatever she was told, he could get away with doing anything he wished with her. I am . . . I am almost sorry that he did not give me good cause to shoot him."

  The marchioness shrieked and fell back in her chair, and this time Constance took notice of her and hurried toward her to take one of her hands in both her own. Chastity sagged against the desk. Calvin cleared his throat.

  "I am sorry too, Chastity," Freyja said. "I honor you."

  "For what my word is worth," Anne Jewell said, "I corroborate everything Lady Chastity has said."

  Sir Rees Newton rose to his feet. "I have heard enough," he said. "I thank you for inviting me here, Lady Chastity, to hear these dreadful family secrets. I did not doubt Lord Hallmere's story, but your account of what happened has banished any shred of doubt that may have lingered. You are not responsible for your brother's death. As a magistrate I absolve you of all blame. As for the pain surrounding the whole tragedy and its revelation tonight to those who did not know before, well, that is none of my concern. I will leave you all and return to my good wife in the ballroom."

  He bowed and left the room without further ado.

  "That girl, that Prudence," the marchioness said, pushing Constance aside and sitting forward in her chair, "is to be taken from this house and locked up in an asylum where she belongs. This would never have happened if she had not been constantly flaunting herself before Albert-not that I believe he showed her anything
more than a filial affection. He was always a loving boy. I never want to set eyes upon Prudence again. She is to be gone by morning. Cousin Calvin, you will see to it, if you please. You are a clergyman. You must know a suitable place where she can be taken."

  "If Prue goes, Mama," Chastity said, "I go too."

  "Enough now," Joshua said, stepping forward into the middle of the room and speaking with firm authority. "There has been mischief enough here in the past few weeks. I had hoped that the truth might never come out, but perhaps there is something in the old adage that the truth will out no matter what. Perhaps it needed to come out. But it must and will be remembered that Prue is the most innocent of innocent victims in all this. She will remain in this house-in my house-for as long as she wishes, Aunt, and she will always be welcome here even after she has left."

  "Prudence is my daughter," his aunt cried.

  "And my ward," Joshua reminded her. "But we will not wrangle over her as if she were an inanimate object. Prue is a woman, and she has a mind and a will of her own. She is capable of choosing her own future, her own course in life, and in fact she has already chosen. She is going to wed Ben Turner."

  The marchioness stared mutely at him and then got to her feet to confront him, her face pale and distorted with anger.

  "You would wed Lady Prudence Moore to an uncouth fisherman?" she asked him.

  "I will be making the announcement as soon as we have returned to the ballroom, Aunt," he said. "Come with me and smile and look glad. Tomorrow we may discuss all that needs discussing. Tonight we have guests to entertain, and we are neglecting them."

  But his aunt had looked beyond his shoulder and her eyes had narrowed to slits and her lips had thinned.

  "You!" she said, stepping past Joshua to stand toe to toe with Freyja. "This is all your fault! If you had not used your high-and-mighty wiles to seduce Joshua in Bath and snatch him from under Constance's very nose, he would have been betrothed to her by now and we would have been the close, happy family we have always been. And now you have come to invade Penhallow itself and to lord it over all of us with your proud, contemptuous family."

  Freyja raised her eyebrows and regarded the marchioness with cold, silent disdain.

  Joshua watched, appalled, as his aunt raised one hand and slapped her palm hard across Freyja's cheek. He reached out ineffectually with one hand, but he was too late.

  Freyja had drawn back her right arm and punched his aunt in the nose. She went down like a bundle of old rags.

  Calvin cleared his throat. The other ladies looked on as if waiting politely for the next scene of the drama. Joshua noticed that one of his aunt's hair plumes had snapped in two.

  "I was beginning to be very much afraid," Freyja said, "that she would never give me provocation enough to permit me to do that. I am very glad she did."

  By midnight the ball had ended and everyone had returned home, all assuring Joshua as they left that they had never enjoyed a grander evening. The drama with Hugh Garnett in the middle of the ball, Freyja guessed, had only enhanced their delight.

  So had the announcement of the betrothal of Prue and Ben, and the bubbling happiness of both for the rest of the evening had brought even Freyja to the edge of tears a couple of times. She had blinked them away quite firmly each time. Lady Freyja Bedwyn was certainly not given to shedding sentimental tears.

  Incredibly, the marchioness had returned to the ballroom with the rest of her family. Her nose had been rather red for a while-as had one of Freyja's cheeks-and her two remaining hair plumes had had to be rearranged, but she had pulled herself together and smiled her usual sweet martyr's smile.

  Constance had danced the final three sets of the evening, Freyja had noticed with interest, with Joshua's steward, James Saunders, who had not danced at all until then. Constance, usually quiet and dignified and self-contained, suddenly made no secret of the glow of love in her eyes and her cheeks. She really had looked very pretty indeed. After the first five minutes or so, Mr. Saunders was returning look for look.

  "It was a wonderful evening, Joshua," Eve said when a few of them were alone in the empty ballroom. The marchioness and the Reverend Calvin Moore had withdrawn. Chastity and Miss Palmer had taken Prue off to bed. Constance had disappeared somewhere with Mr. Saunders. "We have attended similar such assemblies at the village inn at home, have we not, Aidan? But tonight has made me realize that we must invite everyone to our own home, perhaps for a summer garden party or a Christmas party or-"

  Aidan laughed and set an arm about her waist. "Or both, my love," he said. "Did you know you were to have so many supporters here tonight, Joshua?"

  "Let me just say that I was not surprised," Joshua said with a grin.

  "It was priceless," Alleyne added. "I just wish it had come to fisticuffs, though. I would have liked nothing better than to lay out that grinning Garnett fellow. But I suppose it would not have been quite the thing with so many ladies present, would it?"

  "I at least got to plant the marchioness a facer," Freyja said. "I was never so pleased in my life as I was when she slapped my face."

  "You see?" Morgan threw her hands in the air. "I miss all the fun. You do not tell me anything, Freyja. Whatever happened?"

  "It is a long story," Freyja said, "and not mine to tell."

  "You all came here to give me your support when it seemed I was to be charged with murder," Joshua said. "I believe you have earned the right to know the truth. I know I can count upon your discretion."

  He gave them a brief, bare account of what had been revealed earlier in the library.

  "Oh, Prue," Eve said, closing her eyes when Joshua had finished and setting her arm about Aidan's waist. "My sweet, innocent Prue. But she had Chastity and Miss Jewell and Joshua as her champions, and now she is to have that steady, very nice young man, Ben Turner. She will be happy, I believe. I am ready for bed."

  Aidan kissed the top of her head.

  Freyja gazed at them rather wistfully. She had never seen any public display of affection between them before now.

  "I am not," she said. "I need air and exercise and the wind in my face. Take me down onto the beach, Josh?"

  Alleyne grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows, but no one voiced any comment or-more to the point-any protest. They all went off to bed while Freyja changed hastily into a woolen dress and a warm, hooded cloak, and sturdy shoes. It was a chilly night-she knew that much even though it was a light night too. They would have no need of any lantern to light their way down into the valley and along the river path. Joshua had changed out of his evening finery too, she noticed when she met him in the hall.

  There was a depressing feeling of anticlimax needing to be blown away in the wind. The danger to Joshua was over-after what really had been a wonderfully satisfying scene in the ballroom. All the uncertainties about that night of Albert's death had been put to rest. It was over. There was nothing left to be done.

  Nothing to keep them at Penhallow.

  Nothing to keep them together.

  "Will you stay for Prue's wedding?" she asked.

  "Yes," he told her.

  "A whole month while the banns are read?" she said. "You will endure all that time here, Josh, because you love her?"

  "Yes," he said.

  He was not at all the sort of person she had thought him. The realization had annoyed her just a few days ago. Now she was glad he was not, and she was glad she had been given an opportunity to discover the sort of person he really was.

  "And what then?" she asked. "Everything here will go on as it always has, and you will . . . what? Wander? Enjoy life again?"

  "I have a feeling," he said, "that Constance's marriage will not be long delayed. Her eyes were finally opened to a number of things tonight, I believe. Certainly she was making an almost public acknowledgment of her feelings for Jim Saunders before the evening was over, and he looked as if he was very willing to be persuaded to marry so far above him."

  "The match would have your approval
, then?" she asked. She wondered what Wulf would have to say if she suddenly embarked upon a romance with one of his stewards.

  "It would," he said. "But my approval is supremely unimportant, is it not? Constance is of age and not my ward. And, like Prue, she has a mind of her own and is quite capable of deciding what will give her greatest happiness in life. I cannot think dynastically, Freyja. I was not raised that way."

  "You will stay for that wedding too, then?" They were approaching the end of the valley, and the steep hillside no longer protected them from the fresh west wind, which sent their cloaks billowing out to the side.

  "Yes," he said. "I would like to settle them in the dower house, but I will need to work out a few details first."

  "And so poor Chastity will be left at Penhallow alone with her mother," Freyja said. "But at least she will have her sisters close."

  "My aunt can no longer live at Penhallow," he said, turning his head and looking down at her. "Penhallow is going to be my home."

  "Oh." She looked at him in some surprise. But she could think of nothing else to say. She was feeling a little hurt for some reason she could not yet quite fathom.

  "She will have to live at the dower house herself if no other solution presents itself," he said. "But I am going to do all in my power to find her somewhere else to live. And I daresay she will not want to be in such close proximity to me."

  "Chastity?" she said.

  He sighed. "My ward," he said. "But not my prisoner. I cannot decide what she will do, can I? Perhaps she will choose to go wherever my aunt goes. Perhaps she will go to live with Constance-or remain here. I shall give her the chance of a Season in London if she wants it, though I am not sure how I would go about it. I am the Marquess of Hallmere, though, am I not? A man of importance and influence." He grinned at her.

  They rounded the headland, and the wide flat sands of the beach stretched before them, the towering cliffs to one side, the sea to the other. It was half out or half in-Freyja did not know which. She could hear the rush of the water and see the moonlight sparkling across its surface. It was chillier here, the air damper and saltier. She lifted her face and drew in great lungfuls of it.