The Vengeful Bridegroom

by Kit Donner

  Madelene shook her head and knelt to pick up her dog. “You certainly have been a good little one on our journey. Perhaps the cook will have a tidbit for you in the kitchen.”

  Falstaff jumped out of her arms and trotted down the corridor, presumably acquainted with the location of the kitchen.

  She rose and looked at her husband. “I daresay I found it strange you requested Falstaff to come with us. But I’m sure you have your reasons.”

  Her gloved hand in his, Gabriel said to Madelene, “Let us go to the front parlor. We can talk better there, and I can explain.”

  She handed Styers her cloak, gloves, and bonnet and followed Gabriel into the front parlor, which overlooked Mayfair’s Park Lane. The palest of rose and green decorated the warm and welcoming room. Gabriel ushered her onto a mint green brocaded chaise longue and sat next to her, gathering her hands in his. Only four days had passed since the soiree, but the time seemed longer.

  Madelene stared into his handsome face, aching for him to hold her and assure her George was safe and this whole horrible affair was over. But she could see, those were words he couldn’t give her.

  His intense look encompassed her entirely, as if to memorize her features or to see how she fared from her journey. He needn’t look too closely to see the tiredness in her eyes and the quivering of her lips.

  His hand reached over to stroke her cheek. “Madelene, are you well? Your face has lost some of its color. Are Fanny and Mrs. Lavishtock looking after you?” His genuine concern mirrored in tone and look.

  “I, I have been unable to eat. I have been so very worried.”

  Madelene did not hide her great anxiety from her husband. She did believe in him and trust him that he could make everything right. But would he hurt her brother by doing so?

  “I wish I could give you the news we both desperately seek, but I’ve not heard from your brother. We’re searching all parts of Town for any sign of him and George. I’m sure your brother is seeing to George’s needs and will soon send him back to us.”

  He thought to be reassuring, but Madelene could only imagine George crying because he was hungry or scared in a dark place somewhere in London. The pain she felt at her baby’s welfare was akin to the pain she felt at losing her father.

  She couldn’t bear the thought of losing George, too. And what about Matthew? How could she help him? She knew she had to be strong and reserve all her energy to do something. But what, exactly?

  Finding her voice, she told him, “I know you’re right. We will find George and Matthew.” She gave him a cockeyed smile. “I just need something to eat, and I’ll help you any way I can. Was Millie able to provide any information at our town house in Bloomsbury?”

  Gabriel stood, placed his hands in his pockets, and walked over to move the rose-and-green drapes aside to look out onto the street. “No, Millie has not seen or heard from your brother. I have a Mr. Oberstein, a private investigator, working for me, who has checked your old home and is following other avenues of your brother’s acquaintances.”

  “And Millie, how is she faring?”

  “From Oberstein’s accounts, she is well and handling the household matters.” He gazed across the room at her. “I do expect Colgate will send a note to us shortly, informing us where and when to meet him with the diamonds.”

  “And the diamonds. Where are they? Do you have them here?”

  Gabriel returned to the chaise and leaned over the back. “I will show you later. You’ll be surprised. You’ve had them with you all the time.”

  The journey must have knocked some sense from her because she couldn’t think to what he referred. Why would the diamonds be in her possession?

  At the look she gave him, he told her, “Do not worry, I don’t intend for you to remain long in the dark. First, food. I find myself, like Falstaff, needing a bit of nourishment.”

  At the door, she forestalled him with a hand on his arm. “Gabriel, whatever shall we do about Matthew?”

  His mouth tightened when she mentioned his name.

  Afraid of what he might say, she implored him, “Gabriel, I know Matthew won’t hurt George. If he returns George to us, and we give him the diamonds, then Matthew can give the diamonds to the count and everything can go back to the way it was.”

  His eyebrows arched at her question, but with no hesitation, he told her what she feared most. “Madelene, it cannot be. Everything has changed.” He seemed to choose his next words carefully. “I’ve contacted the magistrate, Mr. Thomaskin, whom I saw the last time I was in Town. He had to know about the diamonds.”

  She could only stare at her husband and shake her head. “You would send Matthew to the magistrate, then to King’s Bench Prison? I’ve heard only terrible things about the prison.” Madelene took a few steps away from her husband to examine the enormity of his words.

  She pressed a hand to her lips. “That was how all this started. Our marriage to win the wager, to pay his debts, to save him,” she whispered.

  He walked over to her. “Madelene, the count does not own the diamonds. They have to be returned to the countess. But I will see if I can use my influence to prevent your brother from seeing the inside of a gaol. Come, let’s go to the dining room.”

  Madelene shook her head. “Please have Styers show me to my bedchamber. I need to lie down. Perhaps if you could have Fanny bring some tea.” She opened the door to the parlor and stood in the foyer, awaiting her husband.

  After he pulled the bell for Styers, he followed her. In mere moments, Styers with his whiskered face and jolly blue eyes appeared.

  Gabriel watched his butler escort his wife up the main staircase, disheartened he could not give Madelene the peace of mind she sought.

  “Duckins, I promise, it shall only be for a short time,” Colgate told his acquaintance.

  The bachelor Duckins lived in a comfortable town house, near Covent Gardens, which he had purchased with his winnings from the wager. Arnold looked over at Alec, bouncing a baby in her arms, and another man who stood slightly behind Colgate.

  “I don’t know. How can we keep it quiet? As soon as that baby starts to wail, my neighbors will suspect something.”

  Colgate clapped him on the back and pushed Duckins back into his neat but plain foyer. “Have I misled you before? I’ve told you, it’s for a short time. We need a place to wait while I make arrangements.”

  Arnold smelled the untruth. “What arrangements? I know you have a house in Bloomsbury. Why can’t you all wait there?” Not ready to have trouble sitting on his doorstep, Duckins was rather anxious for the little group to leave.

  “The town house is being renovated. No place for a baby. By week’s end, we’ll vacate your house.” He paused. “You owe me.”

  Duckins sighed. He thought his debt had been paid. But it was only four days.

  Colgate must have sensed his surrender because he motioned for Brelford and Alec to follow him into a nearby parlor. “Four days.” He pointed his finger at the young woman called Alec, who for some strange reason dressed in boy’s clothing. “You, you make sure the babe keeps quiet, or you’ll be on the street.”

  Duckins followed them to the door, watching as Brelford and Colgate sat on the new dark green settee and bent their heads together. He noticed the strange young woman chose a comfortable wing chair by the window for herself and the babe.

  Strange, the last time he had seen Colgate, he was more chipper and relaxed. Something had changed him. This new Matthew looked desperate and lean. Duckins, who had befriended the young baronet many years ago, found himself actually afraid of him.

  Shaking his head, he left them to it. He wanted nothing to do with a babe or the nefarious plan he caught in Colgate’s eye. The look did not bode well.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Madelene paced her blue-and-gold-striped bedchamber, determined to find George and save her brother. But first, she had to learn where Gabriel hid the diamonds. The next step would be to get word to Millie that Madelene wou
ld meet Matthew at the house in Bloomsbury tomorrow night with the diamonds. The timing would be late, when everyone slept and few people traveled the streets.

  The person she trusted most to deliver the note to Millie was Fanny. She’d send her lady’s maid to her old home tomorrow morning. Her arrangements were simple enough, except for one caveat: If Matthew was not at their home, how would Millie know how and where to send the message? She shrugged away obstacles to her plan. Millie had to have some knowledge of how to contact her brother.

  Madelene stayed up later than usual, finding herself unable to sleep. Her thoughts jumbled, she could find no uncomplicated answer. She wanted to tell Gabriel, but he seemed determined to send Matthew to prison. Would her husband ever forgive her if she helped Matthew escape to the Continent? In her heart, she realized sadly that whatever the outcome, she might never see Matthew again.

  His predicament reminded her of another time, several years ago. Her brother could have only been about fifteen, and she a few years younger. Youthful and reckless, he met up with a trio of ne’er-do-wells, fresh off their ship at a tavern in Covent Garden. They convinced Matthew to join him on a lark. A handsome sum would be shared among all of them, and the motley crew convinced him no one would be hurt.

  As Madelene recalled, the story did have a happy ending. The man they kidnapped was the Earl of Bevondard, and the person behind the deed, none other than his soon-to-be-wife, Lady Evangeline Buchanan. Lady Buchanan astonished the haut ton by her unique type of courting, Madelene hazily remembered her father telling her. Luckily, the Lord Bevondard thought it high enterprise and paid the handsome sum to all for their assistance in bringing the betrothed couple together.

  Their father, Sir Colgate, was most displeased with his firstborn and withheld his allowance for one month. If only her dear father were here. He could talk to Matthew, convince him to return George and give up the hunt for the diamonds. Her father could make everything right.

  She walked over to one of the two windows facing the small yard behind the house, adjacent to the stables. Lost in thought, Madelene moved the pale blue drapes to the side and found Gabriel sitting outside her window. Precariously, it seemed.

  Thankfully, it wasn’t raining.

  “Gabriel! Whatever are you doing outside my window? Are you confused about where you are? We are not at Westcott Close and there is no tree.”

  Her husband, who sat on a narrow shelf outside her window, leaned back against the side of the house, showing no fear of falling. He smiled and bent his knee, bracing his arm across it.

  “Nice evening, isn’t it?” he said, referring to the warm early summer night. “If I closed my eyes and listened to the stars and not the carriages and voices from the street, I could imagine I’m home.”

  Madelene pushed the curtains to the side and perched on the inner opposite side of the window. “This does seem a strange place to hold a conversation, but I should be accustomed to your choices for conversation and other things in odd places.” She was reminded of a night not too long in the past, when they both sat in a tree.

  “Ah, yes, unfortunately, there are no trees close to the house, and we wouldn’t have the privacy we savored at our home in the country.”

  He looked at her keenly and shrugged his shoulders. “We appear to be at a stalemate. I must either remain outside your window this night or you can invite me in.”

  While Gabriel offered his dilemma, Madelene drew up her knees, braced her arms on them, and rested her chin on her arms. Her periwinkle blue dressing gown pooled around her bare feet. She cocked her head and thought. And then did some more thinking.

  She wanted to keep him wondering what her answer would be. She loved him. Oh goodness, she actually thought of that word again. She was in serious trouble. She loved a man who wanted to harm her brother. Well, maybe that wasn’t exactly right. But how could they forge this abyss between them?

  To interrupt or hurry her consideration, Gabriel pretended to start to fall. It was a puerile, amateur move at best, which could fool no one. He couldn’t hurt himself by falling more than a floor, the distance not great to the ground.

  But there he was, clinging to her ledge.

  She took pity on him. When Madelene grabbed his hand to help pull him over the ledge, he swung his feet up and over and easily hoisted himself into her bedroom. He stood there staring at her, probably wondering what she planned to do next.

  Madelene backed away from the window, then deliberately headed around the bed, then to the sitting room door. At the door, she turned around and found him lying on her bed. He looked very comfortable, as if he planned to spend the whole night there.

  “Gabriel, I think it would be best if we—” she began.

  “I concur wholeheartedly. Come join me here. We shall both be more content than sleeping separately.” He held his hand up as an invitation.

  An invitation to her bed. Honestly. If he thought for one moment they’d do more than sleep—

  “Madelene, come, lie here with me.” He closed his eyes, continuing to talk. “I find I can rest better with you beside me. I have no intentions on your body tonight.” He opened one eye, probably to gain her reaction.

  His voice did sound soothing and inviting, and she did want to lie beside him. She did miss him. She missed his even breathing, the way he’d pull her to him and sleep with his arm over her hip, possessively, lovingly. She wondered if he loved her. Could he love her as much as she loved him?

  All these complications. Nothing mattered but getting George back and making sure Matthew was safe. She had to remember that.

  Madelene slipped off her nightrobe and, dressed in only her thin blue night rail, tentatively climbed into bed. Wanting him but afraid to want him.

  He reached over and pulled her against him. Like he had always done. As if this was the only place in the world for her. Next to him. She stiffened, waiting for that moment when he would brush her hair aside and kiss her shoulder, then her neck, then—

  “This is quite pleasant, isn’t it? I know it must seem strange to appear outside your window, but I wanted to look in on you without bothering you, in the event you were asleep,” he murmured into her shoulder. His arm tightened around her waist. “I miss her.”

  Madelene lay on her side and wondered to whom did he refer? Perhaps he had drifted off to sleep, dreaming.

  But he hadn’t. He stroked her arm as he spoke. “I wish you had known Lucinda. Did you ever meet her at an assembly or country dance?”

  Starting to relax, yet feeling the unanswered heat between them, Madelene had to think hard to follow his questioning. “Lucinda? I believe I saw her at a few dances. I remembered thinking how petite she was, almost like a china doll with light brown hair.”

  “Yes, that’s a fair description. She was rather small for her age. They say our mother was also of short stature.” He rolled away from her and onto his back, leaving her backside cold. Before she could decide what to do, Gabriel used his right arm to pull her to his side, so she could rest her head on his shoulder. He still had his shirt and pantaloons on, having removed his boots earlier.

  “I look for her sometimes.”

  Madelene frowned into his shoulder.

  Gabriel sighed deeply. “When you lose someone who has always been in your life, I sometimes wonder if you don’t spend the rest of your life, or part of your life, looking for them.”

  She thought of her father and knew what he meant.

  “When I’ve walked to the lake to fish, I look for her sitting on a blanket reading the latest book from the lending library. There’s something about my memory of her that won’t let go. It’s difficult to explain. It’s as if there was a piece of my heart cut out when she left me.

  “I’ll never be the same. I want to go back to the way it was, but I can’t. Sometimes, I wish I could see her one more time, tell her I will raise her son to be a fine man. Tell her I forgive her all those times she told Aunt Adelphia I ate the blueberries out of the blueb
erry pies.”

  Madelene settled more firmly into his side, listening to his calm tenor voice as he told her stories about Lucinda.

  It was too soon. He had only lost Lucinda seven months ago. It had been over a year and a half since her father. Gabriel had such strength in him, and she felt so weak. Whenever she thought of her father, her heart pained her, like it was broken and wouldn’t work again. It couldn’t be repaired, like a clock with the little hand missing.

  She shared thoughts about her father, told him things she had never told anyone because they wouldn’t understand. Hadn’t even told Matthew. If he felt the loss of their father, she had never seen evidence of it. She was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, since she knew everyone had their own ways of grieving.

  In a faltering voice, she told Gabriel, “I’ve looked for my father, too. When I walk past White’s Club and remember how he enjoyed a game of whist with his friends, I imagine he’s in there at that moment. It somehow brings me comfort.

  “I remember him describing the Sleeping Mermaid tavern near the docks. He said they served the best liver and onions anywhere in Town. And a very good beer.” She smiled to herself but couldn’t separate the happy memories from the loss of his death.

  She braced a hand on Gabriel’s chest and pushed herself up, looking down into his brown eyes. “How do we ever become whole again?”

  Gabriel brought her gently down to his chest again and pulled her even closer. “I wish I had a good answer for you. We owe it to your father and my sister to build a life together. They would want to know we are happy.”

  Madelene wanted a better reason, but knew none could be had. She asked him, emotion caught in her throat, “How can we be happy, when it was my brother, who, who—”

  Her husband kissed her forehead. “I cannot be content unless I forgive him.”

  “Can you?” she whispered.

  “I have because he brought you to me.”

  They fell asleep soon after, finding contentment in each other’s nearness.