* * *
The hallway became a blur. But she could recall with great clarity Ross’s shock at hearing her honorific. Captain Carstairs gaped in stunned silence, and then stood rigidly and glared at her in accusation. At that moment she knew that he had also recognised her. Then an oblivious Tremley made it all even worse, if such a thing was possible.
‘Your generosity continues to surprise me, Ross. It is so kind of you to let Runcorn’s sister live in this house.’
Pain flashed briefly in his green eyes before they hardened to sharp emeralds. Other than that, his face was a flat mask. ‘Indeed. If you will excuse us for a moment? I need a brief word with Lady Hannah.’
Hannah watched Ross stalk from the hallway to his study and could do nothing but scurry after him, feeling sick to her stomach. She had wanted to tell him the truth this morning, but once she’d realised the time she had not. It had been a cowardly decision, she realised now.
He held the door open stiffly and she trailed into the room behind him. Then he slammed the door shut with more force than was necessary. Anger shimmered off him although he held his body rigid when he finally turned to face her.
‘Lady Hannah? Runcorn’s sister? I think you owe me an explanation.’
‘I know that this looks bad—’ she started, and then shook her head. This was not the time for excuses. ‘This is bad—I realise that—and I have wanted to tell you but I could never seem to find the right words to explain—’
He interrupted her with a snarl, his face inches from her and his breathing heavy as he fought to control his emotions. ‘You have lied to me. Every step of the way you have lied to me. Why, Prim?’
‘You must know that we were desperate. My aunts and I were left with nothing, initially, and I wanted to make everything that George had done right again. I wanted to fix it all. I did not know that you had offered this house back to the family, I swear it.’
There was a hint of hysterical desperation in her voice.
‘The solicitor kept it from me. Why he did that I have yet to find out—but he took it upon himself to inform you that the family did not want the house. Had I known that, I never would have deceived you. I thought that you had taken the house by foul means. I believed all the lies printed about you in the newspapers and I suppose that I hoped you were a villain. It made my brother’s betrayal so much easier to bear.
‘I came here hoping to find some evidence to prove that George had been duped or pressured into handing over the deeds. I was trying to get Barchester Hall back, and perhaps a little piece of my pride as well. You have no idea what it is like to be exiled in the middle of nowhere for something that was a complete lie. Please believe me when I tell you that my opinions began to change rapidly as I got to know you... Everything that has happened between us since—’
‘Stop!’ He turned his back on her and stalked to the window. ‘So you were spying on me? I should have trusted my instincts and thrown you out when I first suspected it.’ Bracing his arms on the frame, he stared unseeingly into the garden. ‘When you accused me of stealing Barchester Hall I should have thrown you out. What did you hope to find, Prim? Evidence of blackmail or fraud? You think so very highly of me?’
She came up behind him and touched his shoulder gently. He snatched his body away as if he had been burned.
‘It started like that, but for a long time I have realised that you are not capable of being that devious. I know that I was mistaken. When I found a letter from my brother’s solicitor I realised that you had tried to give me my home back, even though you did not have to. You had tried to be decent. Had I known that...’
She touched him again and he did not pull away. Emboldened, she slid her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his shoulder.
‘I fell in love with you, Ross. You are the best man I have ever known.’
The taut muscles in his abdomen relaxed a little before they bunched again under his fine lawn shirt. ‘Just to be clear—’ his voice became clipped ‘—you came here to find enough evidence to have me thrown in jail in your attempt to regain Barchester Hall and when you could not find that evidence you simply gave up? Just like that? You expect me to believe that?’
Hannah breathed in his comforting masculine scent and nodded against his back. ‘I stopped looking. As time went on my feelings for you grew.’
Callously he prised her arms from around his waist and stepped out of them. ‘You’re a liar, Prim. And I’m a fool.’
He laughed bitterly and dragged a hand through his black hair in agitation.
‘You expect me to believe that what has happened between us is a coincidence? That it never entered that pretty, scheming little head of yours that you could have more? That there was another way of getting your house back? As my wife you would have complete control over it—and I can afford to keep you in such comfort. You would get your home back and become a wealthy woman overnight. Don’t you think your sudden change of heart is just a little too suspicious to be believed? One minute you sniff and look down your oh-so-proper nose at me—the next you go out of your way to seduce me? It is all just a little too convenient.’
Hannah’s mind was reeling at his reading of the situation. ‘I never tried to seduce you!’ She had not really been averse to it, but she had never gone out of her way actively to pursue him—until now.
‘Of course not!’ His tone was sarcastic. ‘You just happened to wander down to the pond, strip yourself naked and cavort there right in front of me. And like a fool I fell for it. You knew damn well I was watching you.’
‘I have been swimming in that pond since I was little girl and I had no idea you were watching me!’ Hannah could not understand how he was coming to such preposterous conclusions.
‘You suddenly opened your legs for me because you hoped that I would do the right thing by you!’ he bit out cruelly. ‘That was an even better scenario than having the house to yourself. You’d get to benefit from my fortune, knowing I have to spend a great deal of my time in the city on business. How perfect. You would be the lady of the manor again in return for a few well-timed and convincing sexual favours. It’s only a shame that you would have had to have married so far beneath you. But after your own scandal I don’t suppose any self-respecting gentleman would touch you. Better to settle for someone who is not a gentleman but who has a fortune to lavish upon you. No wonder you welcomed my touch so enthusiastically.’
‘What happened between us happened because you instigated it. I am in love with you, Ross—that is why I allowed things to develop the way they did. I wanted you as much as you wanted me. For goodness’ sake, I gave my virginity to you. You have to believe me.’
‘You gave me a false name, wore a disguise, forged your references.’ He counted each of her crimes off on his fingers. ‘You opened my mail, broke into my trunks and accused me of cheating, stealing and of being a drunk. So, no, Lady Hannah, I do not have to believe you!’
He closed the distance between himself and the door in three quick strides and tore it open.
‘I cannot bear to look at you, Prim. You disgust me... I want you to pack your things and go.’
Ross slammed the door behind him, leaving Hannah to stare blankly at it, wondering what had just happened.
It took several moments for the horror of what had transpired to sink in fully. When it did all she could do was slump onto the chesterfield in shock. She had no strength left to do anything else.
Over an hour ticked by as she stared helplessly at the wall. Everything he had accused her of had been true—apart from his dismissal of her feelings for him. Under the circumstances he had every right not to believe her. Viewed through his eyes, her actions must appear callous and calculated: when one plan failed she had simply switched to another. A woman cold like that would think nothing of using her innocence and her body as bait if it got her what she wanted.
The worst part of it was that she had only herself to blame. She should have told him the truth and
fallen on his mercy the very moment she’d found the solicitor’s letter. If she had things might well be very different.
How was she ever going to make this right?
Hannah tried to think of how she should approach Ross again. There was no point in trying while he was so angry, but she had to make him realise that she did love him. Even if he could not bear to look at her again, he had to believe that her feelings for him were true. Perhaps when he was calm he would be more inclined to listen.
Then again, in only a few minutes his clever, strategic brain had created a terrible scenario that was so plausible he had believed it instantly. The longer she left him to stew, the more damage might be done. It was probably best to hunt him down now and beg, plead and reason with him until he had no choice but to listen.
The door opened quietly and Captain Carstairs stepped in. Without acknowledging her presence, he walked stiffly to the bank of cupboards she had had installed and rifled in one of them for something. They were now so well organised that he found what he was seeking almost instantly, then stood and walked towards her, doing very little to conceal the disappointment he felt at her cruel betrayal of his friend. He held out a ribbon-bound document.
‘Ross has instructed me to give you this.’ He thrust the parchment into her hand and she stared at it blankly.
It was the deeds to Barchester Hall.
Hannah had not thought it possible to feel any more wretched. Even now, when he was so convinced of her guilt and manipulations, he was still trying to do the decent thing.
‘I don’t want it,’ she said, her eyes suddenly filling with tears.
A few weeks ago she would have grabbed them with both hands, but now they meant nothing to her. Without Ross she did not want the house. She pushed the deeds back but Carstairs refused to take them.
‘Neither does Ross. You have ruined this house for him.’
The tears fell then. Hannah covered her face with her hands and let them fall.
‘We will ensure that all his personal belongings are removed within the week, Lady Hannah,’ Carstairs continued coldly, indifferent to her tears. ‘After that, you will become responsible for the financial upkeep of Barchester Hall, including paying the wages of the staff. Ross was going to continue doing so until the end of the month, but I cannot in all conscience see his good nature abused like that. You have made enough of a fool of him already. Congratulations, my lady, things could not have turned out better for you.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
The Captain’s words cut through her despair like a blade. Hannah shot to her feet and launched herself like a banshee. He was not expecting her to push him squarely on the chest and stumbled backwards into the chair behind him. She braced both her hands on the arms of the chair, caging him beneath her furious glare.
‘Captain Carstairs, you may say what you want about me. I deserve every one of your petty insults—and probably more—but if you ever refer to Ross as a fool again I will knock every one of those pretty white teeth of yours down your throat. Do I make myself clear?’
He stared at her, dumbfounded, and then his expression turned curious. ‘Interesting...’ he said, tilting his head to one side. ‘Perhaps you are not a dead loss after all.’
Hannah snatched up the deeds. ‘I shall save you the bother of giving these back to Ross—I will do it myself. If he thinks he can just benevolently foist this house on me because he is such a decent, nice and honourable person—and expect me to accept it—he has another think coming.’
She turned on her heel and marched out.
Several minutes later she had searched the entire house and found no sign of Ross. She stalked into the morning room and found Captain Carstairs with Viscount Tremley.
‘Where is he?’
‘He has taken the carriage and gone back to London,’ Carstairs replied. ‘It is a good thing that he kept his bachelor quarters, isn’t it? Although I dare say you would have preferred to see him homeless.’
Hannah sat down heavily at this news. ‘Oh.’ So much for having it out with him here and now. ‘What time will he be returning?’
Carstairs shook his head. ‘He won’t be.’
She should have been upset to hear this, she supposed, but in actual fact the information fed her temper more. What was it about men that they just did things without first listening to her? Her former fiancé had called off their engagement without listening to her, their solicitor had tossed away her home without asking her, her father and brother had never, ever consulted her and now Ross was preventing her from having her say.
How typical of him to avoid confrontation. That appeared to be his stock answer to everything—just walk away and leave all the badness festering until it turned to poison. Hannah was sick and tired of it all.
‘Then I am going to London,’ she declared to the room in general. ‘And he will deal with me there.’
Viscount Tremley smiled. ‘I would be happy to drop you there in my carriage, my lady. We can leave within the hour.’
Carstairs glared at him in warning, but Tremley laughed. ‘Don’t look at me like that, John. If Ross had not intervened in my shambolic life then it would be a mess right now. If he had not won back my marker from Denham then I would be ruined. But he did—and then he made me go home and face my responsibilities while I paid the debt back. Had he not intervened I would still be in London, penniless and feeling sorry for myself. At the time his interference annoyed me, but it did not take long for me to see that what he was doing was for the best. It turns out he was right. There are much more reliable ways of making money than at the gaming tables.
‘Now I have become quite the farmer, thanks to Ross. Of course that first year I had to plough, sow and harvest the crops alongside the few paltry labourers I could afford, because I had less than nothing to my name. Oh, how I hated him then! But the second year I was able to hire a few more hands and plant even more. Three years on and it appears I have a knack for growing the right things and selling them at a profit, just as he showed me. I have not played a game of cards since that night...
‘He might not thank me right away for interfering now, but I saw how upset he was. He obviously has deep feelings for this lady or else he would not have reacted so badly—so if there is even the slightest chance that they can be happy together then I think she deserves to be heard. I quite like the idea of repaying him in kind. It makes me feel almost noble.’
‘Thank you.’ Hannah beamed gratefully at Tremley. ‘I shall gather my things and I will meet you at the front of the house.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Thankfully they were on the road within fifteen minutes.
‘I have something that belongs to you,’ said Hannah as they turned out of the drive, and she handed Tremley the gambling marker she had found. ‘I originally thought that Ross had ruined you—and my idiot brother—but I cannot help thinking there is some link that binds us all together.’
Tremley turned the small, yellowed piece of paper over in his hand and smiled wistfully. ‘Three years ago I was well on the way to completely ruining myself. I lived quite carelessly then, and gambled away far more than I had. I was down to my last few pounds that night, and yet still I did not have the sense to stop. I kept thinking that I could win everything back if only my luck would change—a ridiculous notion, I know, though at the time I believed it sincerely.
‘Viscount Denham actively sought me out and offered me odds that were too good to be true. For a stake of two and a half thousand pounds on my part he would double the pot if I beat him. I should have realised that I did not stand a chance—Denham is never beaten at cards—but I was desperate. Needless to say I was trounced. Denham took my marker and demanded that I meet with him on the morrow to discuss how I would pay it. Ross was there.
‘I did not know it then, but there is bad blood between him and Denham. It goes back years, and Carstairs has suggested that it has something to do with Ross’s sister, but other than that I am n
one the wiser.’
Hannah knew instantly, but kept her own counsel. It was not her secret to tell, but it was clear Viscount Denham must be the vile aristocrat who had paid for his sister.
‘Anyway,’ Tremley continued, ‘Ross wandered over and threw a ridiculous amount of money in front of Denham against my marker. Denham happily accepted, because Ross has a reputation for losing more games than he wins. Much to Denham’s disgust, Ross won every trick. He saved me. If Denham had kept my marker I would have lost everything. That man is completely ruthless and he preys on the foolish, weak and desperate.’
He said this with such venom that it was a surprise when he coloured and apologised.
‘I am sorry, Lady Hannah, I did not mean any offence.’
‘Why on earth would I be offended?’ she asked, genuinely confused.
Tremley regarded her quietly. ‘I thought you knew. Ross only played against your brother that night because it was Viscount Denham who was going to take the house. Ross stepped in and took it instead. There is no way that he actually wanted the house. He just wanted to beat Denham. I know Ross would have wanted to help your brother see the error of his ways, like he did me.’
Hannah felt a rush of love. ‘My brother was indeed foolish, weak and desperate. Had he not been such a pathetic coward then I know Ross would have helped him regain his life just as he did you. But George never gave him the chance to do so—and that is entirely his fault. Not Ross’s.’
* * *
When the carriage pulled up outside her solicitor’s office in the heart of the city, she said her goodbyes to Tremley. He had offered to stay with her on her quest, but she had refused. Whatever happened between her and Ross, she did not want to spoil the friendship the two men had.
Steeling herself for her first confrontation of the afternoon, Hannah marched up the three short steps to the door of Messrs Compton-Lewis and Stroud, Attorneys at Law. Before she faced Ross it was high time she knew the real truth.
That Despicable Rogue Page 21
