Three Rogues and Their Ladies - A Regency Trilogy

by G. G. Vandagriff

  “Perhaps you will be so good as to inform us why you have come to visit us unannounced?” Jack asked them.

  “Why, Jack,” his mother said. “Where are your manners?”

  Cousin Freddie cleared his throat. “The count here appeared on my doorstep, quite uninvited as well. He expected you would be at the Manor, Kate. I had the unenviable task of telling him of your marriage. I felt sorry for the fellow, having had such a difficult voyage from Florence, with the blockades. I did not like to see him have to go home without some sort of explanation from you. I thought you had written him, Kate.”

  “I did! Francesco, I told you it would be futile to come. That I would have no fortune if I married you.”

  “You think your fortune is more important to me than you? I have very much money! Catarina! You promise to me that we will marry! How can you marry this large Englishman? You tell me the Englishmen are cold and do not understand the amore!”

  “But, there was Joey, Joseph, my little brother.”

  “Como?”

  In Italian, she explained the complication of Joey and her need to rescue him from Eton. She could hardly have done so in English with her insensitive cousin standing there.

  “English, please,” her husband said, dryly.

  She looked at him pleadingly.

  “This brother! He is more important to you than to marry me?” Francesco’s eyes were angry. “Where is this brother?”

  “He is still at Eton. We travel to get him next week.”

  “So!” Francesco took his gloves from inside his jacket. Stepping forward, he slapped them across Jack’s face.

  Kate’s hands flew to her mouth. “No, Francesco!”

  “I challenge you, my lord. We fight for the hand of the lady. I, Francesco d’ Cortini, shoot very well. I will kill you. Then Catarina, she will come back to Florence with me, as my wife.”

  Jack stood like a statue. “Very well,” he said. “When?”

  Kate chanced a look at her cousin, who was grinning broadly.

  “When did my life descend into a farce? Of course you will not fight, Jack. It is absurd.”

  “I have been challenged. Were you indeed engaged to this trumped up monkey?”

  Francesco seethed. “Como?”

  The dowager came to her feet and stepped between the would-be duelists. “There will be no dueling here.”

  “Mama, pipe down. You have no say in the matter. This is my property.”

  Kate wished there were some language only she and Jack could understand so she could make him see that his suspicions were unfounded.

  Was there ever such a coil?

  “You cannot fight now,” the dowager said. “We have guests coming to dinner. It would be very upsetting for them.”

  The statement’s absurdity broke the tension. It was up to her to take the reins, whatever Jack might think. “Francesco, I wish to speak with you privately. We will go into the drawing room. Please follow me.”

  She was aware of Jack’s eyes on her back as she left the room with her former love. When they reached the red-and-gold room, it was dim, the chandeliers not having been lit and the long red velvet drapes closed over the eight long windows. With impatience, she walked to the windows and drew the draperies back. Francesco stood mute, watching her.

  “Sit down, Francesco,” she said in Italian.

  Instead, he came to her and caressed her cheek with the back of one hand. He began once again to speak with passionate effusion of his love, but she drew away.

  Continuing to speak his language, she said, “You forget yourself, sir. I am a married woman.”

  His eyes lit with anger. “Tomorrow, your husband, he will be dead.”

  “Francesco, I beg of you to withdraw your challenge. I regret to have to tell you this, but I love my husband. It would cause me tremendous grief if you were to kill him. I would not marry you. I would not go back to Florence with you.”

  “But Catarina! What has happened to you? We planned to be married. I have been faithful. You have not.”

  She bade him sit. “It became necessary for me to marry, Francesco.” Slowly and deliberately, she related the tale of her abduction and Jack’s rescue, the ruin of her reputation, and his valiant pledge to marry her. “He saved not only my life but my place in polite society. Had he not married me, I would have been cast out. No one else would have married me. I had no money.”

  “You could have come to me!”

  “Francesco, think! I was alone in the world. I could not have traveled during a war on my own, even if I had the fare for the passage.”

  “So you made a marriage of convenience. Yes, I can understand that,” he said finally. Rising to his feet, he paced the room. “I cannot bear to think of you in that large man’s arms, my delicate Catarina.”

  “He treats me very well, even if he does not love me.”

  “And you love him? How can you be so false?”

  “Francesco, what I felt for you was all the passion of a seventeen-year-old girl who was carried away by the romance of a handsome young man and the glory of Italy. But I have grown up. I am a woman now. What I feel for my husband is a woman’s love.”

  He flushed. “You think I am a boy?”

  “No, no. Calm down, Francesco. Please try to understand.”

  “Your cousin. He told me you were married against your will. This is not true?”

  His words shocked her. But then Freddie was very underhanded. This new evidence of his true nature nearly robbed her of speech. But why should she be so surprised? The Freddie she knew was a petty despot. The Freddie Jack knew was a traitor, however unlikely it seemed.

  Then her thoughts flew to the implications of Francesco’s statement. Her cousin must suspect Jack of rumbling him. Her husband had not deceived him as he had thought. At last, she understood why Freddie had brought Francesco all this way. It was not like him to bestir himself for another. He saw this as an easy way to rid himself of Jack. Either Jack would be killed or he would kill Francesco and have to flee to the Continent.

  Making a quick decision to take Francesco into her confidence, she said, “Please sit down, Francesco. I need your help. I must make you understand something.”

  He sat.

  “My cousin is dishonorable. He is an evil man. He wants you to kill my husband so he will not be forced to do it. What he told you is not true. I was not forced into this marriage against my will. I am very grateful to Jack for rescuing me and my reputation. And I have fallen deeply in love with him.” She rose and walked over to the window, her back to Francesco. She said with a tearful tremor in her voice, “If you or my cousin were to kill him, my heart would break. I would suffer for the rest of my life. If you love me as you say you do, you would not want this.”

  After a few moments, Francesco came up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. His voice was gentle as he said, “No, I do not want it. Tell me please what he has done, this evil man.”

  “He has betrayed our country. My cousin knows that Jack knows this. In England, the penalty for this is hanging.” She turned to face him. “I am frightened for Jack.”

  “Catarina, I would do anything for you. Do you wish me to kill this evil man?”

  “Of course not. You must not kill anyone. It would be very bad for you. You are a citizen of a country occupied by Napoleon. It would be thought that you were a spy. You would be hanged.”

  He paced, his hands behind his back, deep in thought. At last, he said, “I have a plan. It is a very good one.”

  “What is this plan, Francesco? You must not do anything crazy.”

  “For you, my beautiful one, I would do anything. I can help you.”

  “How?”

  “You will talk to your Jack. You will tell him that he is to pretend that we will have the duel. Tomorrow morning. He will ask your cousin to be his second. We will proceed as though we are going to shoot at one another. But I will shoot your cousin instead. We will say it was an accident.”

/>   “Hmm. If we are the only ones there . . . it might work! But, no, that would be murder, Francesco. I cannot be responsible for your murdering someone. Even if he is a traitor. Could you not wound him? Then Jack could arrest him.”

  Francesco frowned. “I love you, Catarina. If this is what you want, then I will do it.”

  “Oh, Francesco,” she said, her heart hurting for him. “I am so sorry.”

  “Do not be sad, Catarina. After I do this service for you, I will go home and marry the woman Mama has chosen, but I will love you all my life. I do not want you to be unhappy.”

  She kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Francesco.”

  “Very touching,” Jack said from the doorway.

  Kate whirled to face him. “Do not make the mistake of misinterpreting what you see. I am thanking Francesco. He has come up with a plan to save your life!”

  “I do not believe that for a moment.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  IN WHICH THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS

  HOLDS A PARTY

  The wiry little Italian drew himself up at this challenge. “What I do, I do for Catarina. I love her.”

  With this gallant-sounding statement, Francesco left him alone with his wife.

  Could this be jealousy he was feeling? “I cannot believe that you have been pining for that little fellow for two years! Has he really taken over your heart? Surely the two of you are confusing life with a bad play. You fully deserve one another.”

  “Jack, listen.” She came to him and gripped his hands in hers. “You are in danger. My cousin was not deceived by your playacting. He lied to Francesco. He told him that you had married me against my will. Freddie brought him to Northbrooke Park because he knew that Francesco intended to kill you.”

  Her brow was furrowed, her eyes pleading. She was in earnest. But the entire scenario was just too farcical. He gave a harsh sounding laugh.

  “Do you not see?” she demanded. “If Francesco killed you, you would no longer be a threat to my cousin. And if you killed Francesco, you would have to decamp to the Continent, thus being unavailable as a witness if he came to trial.”

  “I find I cannot believe your cousin to be as devious as that. He is not clever enough. Or crazy enough. Now, I came to tell you that it is time for you to dress for dinner.”

  “How can you think of dinner at a time like this?”

  “I am very hungry, in addition to the fact that my mother’s guests will be arriving soon. We are the chief item on the menu. Our friends are coming to celebrate our marriage, however mistaken it may have been.”

  Her eyes flashed with anger. “You are impossible! Can you not at least listen to Francesco’s scheme?”

  “Later. Go upstairs and get dressed, Kate.”

  She marched from the room, fury in the set of her neck and shoulders. When they foregathered later in the drawing room, together with their unwanted guests, Cortini and Cleaverings, her appearance took his breath away. She was dressed in silver net over a silver silk underdress. Though chastely cut, the material clung to her figure. Francesco eyed her hungrily, which put Jack immediately out of temper. Popinjay!

  Taking Kate by the elbow, he began introducing her around to all his mother’s guests, neighbors he had known all his life.

  “Kate, allow me to present Caro’s parents, Lord and Lady Jonathan Braithwaite. Lord and Lady Jonathan, this is my wife, the former Lady Kate Derramore. I am certain you have heard much of her from Caro.”

  “Yes, indeed! Is it true that you were held hostage by a French spy?” Caro’s mother said. Her words rang loud in a sudden silence. Blast Caro for a rattlepate! Could she never keep a confidence? He supposed it had been too hard for her to resist relating the story to her parents since it had led to his hasty marriage.

  Kate went white. “I would rather not talk about it, Lady Jonathan. It was quite harrowing.”

  Looking out of the corner of his eye, he saw her cousin, nursing a glass of Madeira in the corner of the room, perk up.

  “Oh! I apologize, my dear. Of course, it is not drawing room conversation.”

  “Tell me,” Kate said. “How is Caro doing?”

  “Oh, I do not think she is very happy. She may be cutting her Season short, actually.”

  “I am dreadfully sorry to hear that. I will be very happy to see her if she does come home, however. Though I’m sure life will be very dull for her away from her aunt and Henry Five, not to mention all the entertainments of the Season.”

  Lord Jonathan spoke up. “Yes, my sister is a wonderful woman. Could have married Devonshire, you know.”

  “I imagine all of London knows, your lordship. It is constantly talked of, and she spends a great deal of time with his family.”

  “Yes, pity that he married Georgie. She is quite drowning in gambling debts,” Lady Jonathan told her in a lowered voice.

  “I think all of London knows that as well,” Kate answered.

  “Well,” Jack said, trying to invest his voice with a heartiness he did not feel, “let me introduce you to our other guests.”

  “It was an honor to meet you,” Kate said before she followed him.

  He made introductions of his bride to all the remaining guests—the Stanfields, the Cuthberts, and the Vicar and his wife. Kate was all that was charming. She did not look once at Francesco. He found a moment to wonder how the devil his mother had explained the Italian’s presence before his own arrival in the drawing room.

  Jack, of course, had to lead his mother into dinner, leaving Kate to be brought in behind him by her cousin, who immediately offered his arm. Jack heard him say, “I am interested in this story of the French spy, my dear.”

  “He was a very ordinary man, Cousin. I knew him socially. He thought he would take me to France and marry me.”

  “However did you escape his dastardly clutches?” he asked, a smile in his voice.

  “A wonderful innkeeper and his wife on the Dover Road. And their son, who had been in the army and was quite ingenious. Now, if you do not mind, Cousin Freddie, I do not wish to talk of this anymore.”

  Brilliant! Inclined to theatrics his wife may be, but she knew how to spin a yarn. Jack thought that with any luck, the man would never connect the incident to him. Then he grimaced as he pulled out the chair for his mother. Of course Cleaverings would have his suspicions.

  “Is anything troubling you, dear?” his mother asked sotto voce as the other guests wandered into the vast dining room.

  “I will tell you later. Keep the conversation sparkling, will you?”

  He went to take his seat at the foot of the table, his bride at his right hand, her cousin next to her. Francesco, fortunately, was seated at the middle of the table several places away.

  Everything went swimmingly until Lady Stanfield, at his left, said, “I have absolutely been dying to know, Jack. Where were you going in such a hurry the other day when you were thrown from that poor horse? I was very glad to assist you, of course, but I felt so sad that it was necessary to put the animal down.”

  Jack felt prickles of alarm all over. For a moment, he could not think.

  Kate intervened, “He had been to see his man of business in London. He was returning to me. I am flattered to know he was in such haste.”

  Lady Stanfield laughed. “Do not be embarrassed, Jack! Your eagerness for your bride is charming.”

  Lord Stanfield chuckled. “I remember those days. Could not stand to be apart from my Rose for longer than a brace of days.”

  His wife was arch. “Do you mean to imply those days are past, my lord?”

  He gave her arm a playful pinch. “Do not put me to the blush, my lady.”

  Somehow, Jack got through the rest of the dinner, was a convivial host during the drinking of port and smoking of cigars with the gentlemen, and then joined the ladies in the drawing room. He maneuvered Kate into a private corner.

  “Something must be done about Cleaverings. I fear he is not as stupid as I thought.”

 
Kate said, “Ask him to be your second in the duel tomorrow. Francesco has pledged to wound him instead of you. There will be no one to say that it was not an accident.”

  “Do you think I am a fool?” he said, anger shooting up inside him. “He has said this to lull you into accepting the idea of this duel!”

  “You did not have to accept the challenge, Jack. Yes, I do think you a fool. I told Francesco that if he killed you, I would not marry him.”

  “I doubt he believes it.”

  “You are not only a fool, Jack, you are blind as well.” She moved off and began to talk with great animation to the Braithwaites.

  What did she mean?

  “I hope you’ll be able to keep her on a rein. Dashed difficult woman, my cousin.” Cleaverings had come up next to him.

  “She certainly is,” Jack agreed.

  “I cannot believe that story she told about your dashing off to join her neck or nothing. Are you sure you weren’t chasing another French spy?”

  “Positive. She may be infuriating, but she is dashed alluring.”

  “Cortini certainly finds her so.”

  “Speaking of whom, would you stand as my second in the morning?”

  The little marquis lifted his eyebrows in amusement. “You are going through with the duel, then?”

  “I think the deuced fellow is determined to get rid of me one way or another.”

  “Jolly bit of bother. He’s that headstrong.”

  “Fix the time and place, will you? There’s plenty of room on the back lawn, and we needn’t worry about being seen.” He gave Kate’s cousin a false smile, and then moved off to talk to the vicar.

  * * *

  Hours later, he was tossing in his father’s bed. Was Cleaverings suspicious? Was Cortini just trying to gull Kate? How could she love that parody of a Romeo? Would he never hold her in his arms again? He went over the details of their day together, beginning with their tender lovemaking.

  Jack had been right about her from the beginning. Her energy was converted into passion in the marriage bed. He had even begun to think she loved him.

  And then there was her manner with the tenants. She had knelt down beside cradles and cooed at newborns. She had tossed a ball for a young boy, promised new doll clothes for a ten-year-old girl. And she had listened. He knew exactly where his tenants needed his help, for they had told Kate. Him they still held in awe.