His words deflated her. Her arms dropped back to her sides, and she moved out of his path. She did not follow him when he passed her. She felt too defeated. Those past several days, she’d kept telling herself that eventually he would start to feel better.
And now with this news… she didn’t know if he ever would.
Chapter 36
Lord Henry Rivers, the Earl of Radingley
He was surrounded by letters, and he’d been staring at them for so long that they’d stopped looking like letters at all. Instead, they looked like fallen men after a battle.
Henry was sitting on the floor in his bedroom, wearing his dressing gown. The letters were strewn around him. He’d read them all a hundred times after Jeremy had left. Jeremy had tried to talk to him, but Henry hadn’t been able to muster a response.
Henry had huge purple rings under his eyes, and he’d lost weight because he hadn’t eaten. His heart felt like this shriveled pit in his chest. A vacant hole that was achy and raw. He didn’t feel like himself anymore, and time didn’t seem to be helping.
The letters were branded into him now, making whatever chance of recovery he’d had feel nonexistent.
I’m frightened for you, Jeremy, a cousin of Jeremy’s had written.
You mustn’t see him until the investigation has reached its end. Until we can all be assured that it’s safe, another had written.
I heard that he went out in his carriage that night, alone, and went to the port.
Henry knew that gossip spread quickly among their class, but he’d never known a rumor to spread so rapidly and vastly as this.
He heard a knock and looked up at his door. He didn’t ask them to come inside, but looked back down at the letters. He’d asked Jeremy to leave them with him, which he’d done with obvious reluctance.
The door creaked open, but he didn’t look up to see who it was.
“Henry…” came a soft murmur.
Maggie.
Henry closed his eyes. He hadn’t seen Maggie since his return. It had been hard to look at anyone. He’d been too raw and fragile, and he’d been afraid that seeing Maggie – who always made him feel the most extreme and intense emotions – would break him apart entirely.
But now, hearing her voice, he saw how foolish that was. He didn’t look up at her. He didn’t open his eyes. On his knees, hunched over the letters, he started weeping the moment she stepped inside. He hadn’t wept at all since he’d seen the body carried out. He’d felt incapable of it. The pain had been too pure. But now it came in torrential floods.
“Oh, my darling.”
She came towards him, and her arms were a haven. He crumpled into them, and she held him tightly as he poured out his grief.
***
Miss Magdalene Riley, Daughter of the Baron of Brambleheath
Maggie held Henry for hours, until he stopped crying. And when he was silent and still in her arms, she held him for hours more. She held his head in her lap and hummed as she stroked his hair, and though none of their problems were fixed… she was happier than she’d been in days.
This was what she needed. To preserve her connection with Henry. While that connection lived, she had hope.
“They think I did it,” he whispered, in a quivering voice. He had his head in her lap and was staring up at her, but it was like his eyes weren’t truly seeing. “They all do. Jeremy thinks there will be an investigation.”
“Shhh…” she hushed him gently. “We’ll face that,” he murmured. “Together.”
At last, his gaze focused. “You don’t believe them.”
Maggie smiled tenderly. “I know you, Henry.”
He almost smiled when she said that.
In the morning, Henry left Maggie in his bed and went to his study, which was where she found him. She was still rubbing at her eyes when she stepped inside to see him there, looking like himself again. Though he still appeared exhausted, he didn’t have that distant look anymore. He was writing a letter.
“Who are you writing to?” Maggie wondered, as she took the seat opposite him.
“A bow runner,” Henry answered. “He’s the best in the region. I’m asking him to investigate the case.”
‘The case’. She understood that it was easier for him to call it that than recognize it for what it was. His wife’s murder. Over the coming days, Henry met regularly with the bow runner, who went by the name of Mr. Thomas. He was a tall fellow with a thick, black beard and keen green eyes. He looked like a normal man, but it was evident in the way his face moved, and his eyes twinkled, that he was extremely clever. He reminded her of a fox.
The house developed a cold and bleak feeling about it, which made Maggie feel trapped inside of it. She wanted to go to town and to take Henry with her, but he forbid her from leaving the grounds. He worried about the rumors, and Maggie didn’t want to cause him any more stress by arguing.
So, although it drove her stir crazy, she stayed at Radingley. She watched as, with every day that passed, more of the servants decided to leave.
“You should go too, Alfred,” she heard Henry say when Alfred brought them breakfast. “You don’t want to get caught up in this.”
“With respect, my Lord, I will stay.”
Henry looked like he was about to argue, but Maggie stopped him with a soft look.
While they waited on word from the bow runner, Jeremy visited again with more news. “I’m afraid it’s not good,” he said, as they stood in the drawing room.
“How much worse could it be?” Henry asked, in a sharp voice. He was wired and shaky all the time now, and could only be soothed by the occasional touch from Maggie.
Jeremy looked at Maggie, while Henry opened the new letters he’d brought. “These are about Maggie…” he said, with a deep frown. He read on, while Maggie felt her belly flip with nervousness.
“What do they say?” Maggie asked.
Jeremy answered on Henry’s behalf. “People are speculating that you both plotted Amelia’s death together… so that you could marry.”
Maggie heard paper tear. She looked at Henry, who was tearing the letters in half and tossing them into the fire. His face was reddening, and his hands were shaking more than ever. “How can they say this?” He said, breathily. “How dare they?”
“Henry,” Maggie murmured. She went towards him and put her hands on his arms, stroking them softly. “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter what they think.”
Henry closed his eyes and tried to calm himself, but it was clear that he couldn’t put it out of his mind. “I need to write to the runner,” he said, before leaving the room.
Maggie watched him go, with a wrinkle between her brows. Then she looked at Jeremy and tried to smile. “I’m sorry that your visits have been so fraught with tension,” she said. “I do hope it will get better soon.”
“I am certain it will,” he said, with a comforting smile.
“Before all this started… it had been a while since you’d visited,” she noted. “I hope that wasn’t my doing.”
Jeremy shook his head. “Once I realized that Henry loved you, I thought it best to stay away.”
Maggie blinked. Those words replayed in her head, like an echo in a cave. “He…. He said that?”
Jeremy’s smile widened. A sincere smile. It felt like forever since anyone had smiled sincerely in this house. “He didn’t need to tell me. I know Henry.”
With those words lingering in the space between them, he bowed and bid her a good day.
***
Lord Henry Rivers, the Earl of Radingley
That evening, having written a frantic letter to the runner intimating an increased sense of urgency, Henry asked Alfred to bring Maggie’s brother to his study. There were some things that needed to be said.
When Joseph came inside, Henry was sitting at his desk. “Take a seat,” he said, gesturing to the seat opposite him. With clear wariness, Joseph took a seat.
“As you know, many of the other household staff have
left.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“But you have stayed. Why?”
Joseph arched an eyebrow. “I have many reasons.”
“Would you care to name a few?”
“You have done us a kindness. It wouldn’t show much integrity if I were to leave now, in the midst of a scandal. Nor would it benefit me to do so. I’ve appeased the debt collectors in part by proof of employment. If they don’t feel assured that I have the means to repay the debt, they will not be so lenient with me.”
“Is that all?” Henry replied.
Joseph hesitated before answering, then said, “I did not believe my sister would leave, and I have no intention of leaving her.”
Henry nodded slowly. He knew that even if Joseph were in a financial position to leave and find other work, he wouldn’t leave Maggie behind. Henry respected him for that. “You’ve warned her against me,” he noted.
Joseph’s steady countenance vanished, and he looked momentarily caught off guard. It took him a moment to gather himself. Then, with surprising strength of character, he was honest. “I have. I know that Lord Crawley has expressed an interest in her, and I believe that his affections pose the least risk.”
“Risk?” Henry tried not to take it as an insult, but it was difficult not to.
Joseph seemed to steel himself before speaking again. “I’ve heard how you are with women, my Lord. I don’t blame you for it. I just don’t want my sister to be a part of it.” It was a daring thing to say.
With a tight jaw, Henry leaned back in his seat. “Your sister is not like other women,” Henry replied. Then he looked away, out the window, because it was hard to say what he needed Joseph to hear. “I want you to take her away. I can’t have her here, getting caught up in this scandal. I’ll pay for it all.”
Joseph was silent for a long time. When Henry finally looked at him, he saw the astonishment on his face. “You want me to take her away?”
Henry nodded.
Another moment of silence, before Joseph murmured, “Perhaps I was wrong for warning her against you.” With these words, Joseph stood. “I won’t take her away, my Lord. It would break her heart if I were to do so. And if your affections for her are as real as they seem, they will keep her impervious to any scandal. We aren’t leaving.”
Henry knew that he could order Joseph, but coming to this decision had been hard enough without needing to face resistance. Suddenly, his resolve wavered.
“I think you’re a good man, my Lord. And I think that you deserve my sister. You should be together during this time.”
Henry didn’t know how to answer that at first. He couldn’t muster words. After several moments, he nodded. Taking this as a dismissal, Joseph inclined his head and left the room.
Chapter 37
Miss Magdalene Riley, Daughter of the Baron of Brambleheath
The wait was terrible, and it felt endless. Another week came and went, during which time Henry lost almost his entire staff, with the exception of Alfred, Joseph and a couple of kitchen staff. Everything in the house seemed to grind to a halt, making Radingley feel more like a crypt than a home.
“Have you heard anything at all?” Maggie asked Henry during breakfast one morning. She’d started taking all their meals together, and no one questioned it. With all the chaos around them, their relationship was the least cause for concern.
Henry shook his head. He was pushing his food around his plate. “Nothing at all,” he murmured.
Maggie stared at her plate, then put her cutlery down.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
She shook her head.
Maggie felt Henry’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t look up at him. She’d never felt so desolate and hopeless before, and the feeling grew with every day that passed. Henry reached across the table and picked up her hand. He brought it to his face and kissed her knuckles. “We just need to hold out a little longer.”
“How do you know?”
He expelled a shaky breath against her knuckles. “In truth, I don’t. But we have to believe it.”
“My Lord,” Alfred said, from the doorway of the dining room. “Mr. Thomas is here.”
“He’s here?” Henry stood abruptly, abandoning his plate and heading for the foyer. Maggie was close behind him. When they saw the bow runner standing in the hallway, her heart fluttered in her chest.
“Do you have word?” She asked.
“Come into the drawing room,” Henry suggested, ushering Mr. Thomas quickly out of the hallway. Mr. Thomas took a seat in the drawing room, but Maggie and Henry continued to stand. They felt too restless to sit. “Well? What news?”
“I have been in America,” the runner said, in an even voice. “Speaking to people who might have had correspondence with Lady Rivers prior to her return to England.”
“And?” Henry pressed, with obvious impatience.
“And I found one such woman – a friend of your wife’s – who received this letter.” Mr. Thomas took the letter from his jacket as he spoke. Henry practically snatched it from him and opened it, his eyes scanning it rapidly.
For Maggie’s sake, the runner went on. “The letter was sent by Lady Rivers. It reveals her concern that her lover was sharing physical intimacies with the maids.”
Maggie frowned. “But why does this help us?”
“Because it also says something else about the maids,” Henry murmured, as he looked up from the letters.
The runner nodded slowly. “Lady Rivers indicated that she has heard strange sounds coming from the kitchens in her lover’s estate.”
“Strange sounds?” Maggie echoed, her frown deepening.
“Screaming,” Henry said. He looked at the runner. “You think that her lover may have been responsible?”
“But I can’t prove it. It’s just speculation at this time.”
Maggie’s head was spinning. “Wait… so Lady Rivers heard screaming? Coming from the kitchens specifically?”
Both men looked at her. “That’s right.”
“This is…” Her words drifted off.
“What is it, Maggie?” Henry asked, with a furrow between his brows.
“My maid, Sarah Marrow, wrote to me when I first arrived at Radingley. She’d gone to live with some of her family in America after my parents died, and had secured a job with an English duke. A peculiar fellow who’d left England rather abruptly a year ago. Henry, do you remember when I asked for the advance?”
Henry nodded, but didn’t seem to be following.
“That was for Sarah. She’d written that the duke was abusing maids in the kitchens. She escaped with one of the victims, who fled to New York, and begged for us to send her some money so that she could return to her family in England.”
“You think it might be the same duke?” Henry replied, his eyes widening.
“It seems like too much of a coincidence not to be, doesn’t it?”
“Did she give you the duke’s name?” The runner asked.
Maggie shook her head. “She wouldn’t give me the name. She was too afraid. But she arrived a few weeks ago, I believe. I could write to her?”
Everything happened very quickly after that. The runner supervised her as she wrote the letter, and Joseph was called into the room. He’d had contact with Sarah since her arrival in England and knew where she was staying. He’d been planning to visit her when next he could. “You are to go immediately,” Henry said to Joseph. “And deliver this letter by hand. You are to express to her the necessity of her cooperation and persuade her to give us the duke’s name.”
Joseph was reluctant at first. He’d always loved Sarah, though she’d been beneath his station, and he didn’t want to give her any cause for fear. The runner assured him that she’d be safe, and Joseph agreed. He left immediately.
When everyone had gone, and Henry and Maggie were left alone, they just stared at each other for a long moment. Maggie felt hope blooming inside her, and she could see it in him too. This could clear both
their names. They could start their lives over again, with all this mess behind them.
Henry expelled a breath, like a balloon deflating, and strode towards her. He took her into his arms and gripped her tight. “This will all be over soon,” he whispered into the nest of her hair.
She only hoped he was right.
***
The Sinful Secret 0f A Broken Earl (Historical Regency Romance) Page 26
