She hated to think that if Aldric was hanged, Charlene would one day find herself with no remaining family as well. Not even a brother and a niece to comfort herself with.
She would truly have no one. She would end up in a worse position than Helene herself had been in.
Bitterness welled up inside of her. As much as she had wanted more for her niece, it seemed certain that the girl’s life would end in only a worse heartache than the one that Helene had had to contend with. What else could she do now, though?
If there was any way in Helene’s power to save her brother, she would have done it by now. There was nothing that she could do. There was no way for her to spare Charlene from this fate.
Chapter 17
Lord Eric Cumberland, Duke of Havenport
If only focusing on his dukedom could keep Eric’s mind off Charlene! He felt as though he’d barely been able to stop thinking about her since she had asked for his help at that first ball.
Yet everyone, including his mother, seemed certain that Eric ought to be thinking about Lady Annabelle instead.
“She would make such a lovely bride,” his mother sighed over her tea. “And your children!”
Eric fought the urge to roll his eyes. His mother hadn’t been subtle, these past couple years, about the fact that she was desperate for grandchildren.
She had been somewhat more subdued in the aftermath of her husband’s death, but he had been sure that the subject would come up when she wrote him a letter informing him that she would be visiting London shortly to formally come out of her mourning period.
He had half a mind to suggest that she find herself a new husband and try for children of her own, but he bit his tongue.
He couldn’t help feeling short of temper lately. There was still no new information pertaining to Dr. Ellington’s case, and not only had Eric not had any contact with Charlene, he hadn’t even seen her at any of the social functions around London.
He wondered if she had gone back to Bath, but he dismissed that idea quickly. No, her aunt would never allow her to go back to Bath on her own, not in the middle of a scandal like this.
Especially not by herself. He wondered how she was handling the gossip. They still hadn’t tired of calling her vicious names, and Eric imagined she must be upset.
He wanted to be there for her. But he wasn’t sure how to approach her without putting both of them, and her father, in danger. Lord Ambrose was known to be a ruthless man, and Eric didn’t want to anger him while so much hung in the balance.
He sighed, and his mother’s gaze grew sharp. “I do wish that you could feign at least the tiniest amount of interest in Lady Annabelle,” she said.
“She would make a good match for you. She could help you with the dukedom. The people would love her.” She paused. “Not only that, but an alliance with her family could make us quite rich.”
“We’re already rich, Mother,” Eric pointed out. He knew that no amount of reasoning would convince her that he shouldn’t marry Annabelle, though.
Nor was he going to tell her about the real reason why Annabelle and the other women didn’t stand a chance. All because there was a wild-woman with sure and steady hands who had won Eric’s heart instead.
It was his mother’s turn to sigh, as though she could read Eric’s thoughts. They hadn’t talked about the scandal surrounding Charlene and him, but he had a feeling that her return to London had been a little too coincidental in timing.
She was here to look out for him. To make sure that he married the right woman.
Oh, he had no doubt that his mother wished for him to be happy. She had made that clear from the time he was a young boy.
She had always doted on him, spoiling him practically rotten but making sure that his manners were learned as well. She would give him the world, if she could.
But there was a certain amount of responsibility on his shoulders, especially now that he was the Duke of Havenport. He couldn’t ignore that, and she was simply here to remind him of it.
Not that he truly needed reminding.
“Well, at least be sure to save a dance for Annabelle tonight at the ball,” his mother said finally.
Eric snorted. “You know as well as I do that she won’t let me out of her sights for the whole night,” he reminded his mother.
“She certainly is persistent,” his mother said, giving him a smile. “That’s an admirable quality in itself.”
Eric snorted. “Oh come, Mother. The way that she’s been throwing herself at me is unseemly. I’m surprised that I have to remind you of that.”
He paused. “I understand that you think that she would make a good match for me, but let’s not pretend like the way that she is handling things is the way that they’re supposed to be.”
His mother’s lips tightened together into a thin line. “Perhaps it’s not the way that things are normally done,” she finally conceded.
“But it says to me that Lady Annabelle would be a great help to you with the dukedom. You wouldn’t need to supervise her every move. Perhaps you could delegate some tasks to her. Or to one of her brothers. She comes from a good family.”
“I don’t need to delegate my work,” Eric grumbled. “I’ve been doing a fine enough job of it myself.”
Even as he said it, he knew that it wasn’t entirely true. No doubt yet another reason that his mother was here to supervise him. He had been too distracted of late, and it showed in how he did his work.
Oh, his tenants and their holdings were still flourishing, but he couldn’t help noticing that each time he stepped in to settle a disagreement, they seemed less pleased to see him.
He wondered if they were regretting the fact that he had taken over in the wake of his father’s death. Perhaps they didn’t like that he didn’t do things the exact way that his father had.
“You’ve been doing wonderfully,” his mother agreed, inclining her head towards him. “I can see how it wears on you, however.” She grinned crookedly at him. “What good is it being a duke if you have to work just as hard as everyone else?”
Eric snorted. “I’m doing just fine,” he assured his mother. “I don’t need a wife or her brothers to help me out.”
His mother pursed her lips once more, but finally, she let the matter drop.
“Well,” she said, setting aside her teacup, “I do need to be getting ready for tonight’s ball.” She winked at him. “It’s not every day that a mother gets such a handsome escort to bring her on his arm.”
Eric laughed. “I’m sure you’ll look beautiful, like you always do,” he said. “As for myself, I’ll make sure to look my absolute handsomest.”
Michael came in just after his mother had exited, clearing his throat nervously.
“There’s a man here to see you,” he said. “One of your investigators. I didn’t think you would want your mother to know that you were, um, looking into the matter of Dr. Ellington’s death.”
Eric smiled gratefully at the servant. “You guessed correctly,” he said. “Has he been waiting long?”
“Not too long,” Michael said, shaking his head. “I had a feeling that the Lady would be heading to ready herself for the ball soon. Otherwise, I would have told him to come back some other time.”
“Excellent,” Eric said, nodding approvingly. “Well, send him in.” Eric wiped his palms down his trousers, suddenly nervous. It had been so long now since he had first requested information about what had really happened to Lord Henrich.
So long, without any promising news. What if this was the news that he had been waiting for all along?
Or, what if the man came bearing news that Dr. Ellington truly was to be hanged? That his time had run out, and that there was nothing more that they could do to save the man?
That thought was like a stab to his heart. He could only imagine Charlene’s disappointment in him if that was truly the case. He had promised her that she wouldn’t have to marry Lord Ambrose.
He hated the thoug
ht of her having to marry Lord Ambrose.
Fortunately, when the investigator told him his information, Eric’s heart soared. Not only would Dr. Ellington not be sent to the gallows just yet, the man had come with a piece of information that could change everything.
“The apothecary’s apprentice was barred from medical practice years ago,” the investigator said gleefully.
“At the time, he was going under a different name, but we’ve managed to ascertain that Harvey Parsons was in fact born Harvey Blake, who was once Dr. Ellington’s apprentice.”
Eric stared at the man. “Why was he barred from practicing medicine?” he immediately asked the investigator. That was huge. If it was anything to do with the doctor, then perhaps this Harvey Parsons had some motive for framing the doctor.
But the investigator was shaking his head. “That information, I can’t find,” he admitted. “I’m sure that there is a record of it somewhere, but the medical college is hardly going to hand over that information to me.”
“What if they were to receive a sizeable amount of money with the request?” Eric mused.
The investigator shook his head. “They might be more amenable to that,” he allowed. “But I’m afraid that the money, and the request, would have to come directly from you.
“Of all the corruption in this realm, they seem to be the least like to be coerced. I’m sure it has something to do with their oaths, and the type of person who becomes a doctor in the first place.”
“Indeed,” Eric said, unable to help feeling amused by the investigator’s clear disdain for ‘the type of person who becomes a doctor in the first place’.
He thought about Charlene and Dr. Ellington. They probably wouldn’t have freely handed out Harvey Parsons’ private information either.
The trouble was that if he went to the college with that request and a bribe of his own, it would be only too easy for Harvey Parsons to realize that he was after the man.
And for everyone else in London and beyond to realize that Eric was looking into Dr. Ellington’s case on Charlene’s behalf.
He knew that his mother would have a fit if his name was tangled up in any of this messiness.
At the same time, he had given Charlene his word that he would do whatever he could to prove her father innocent. This was the closest that he had had to a lead in all this while. He needed to follow through on investigating it.
Then again, the other trouble was the fact that he had other responsibilities with the dukedom that needed seeing to. It was tithing season, and that meant that he needed to be there to supervise the hauling of harvests and more.
He couldn’t devote the effort to finding a contact in the medical college and tracking down Harvey Parsons’ records.
He suddenly wished that he had already followed his mother’s earlier advice to delegate more. It would have freed him up to actually look into this. As it was, he was going to have to do some careful juggling to figure things out.
For tonight, though, there was nothing that he could do. He had promised his mother that he would take her to the latest in the season’s balls. It was one of her first social gatherings since his father had died, and he wasn’t going to ruin it for her.
Besides, what could he really do in a night? He needed to discover who in the college might be amenable to his request. That would take some time and research.
He hated the idea of going to the ball tonight and dancing with Lady Annabelle, when he knew that Charlene was probably closed up in her aunt’s home worrying about her father.
He would much rather be there to soothe her, or if that was impossible, then he would at least rather be able to look into her father’s case to stop the woman’s heartache.
What could he do, though? There were certain things that were expected of him, given his position, and there was really nothing that he could do.
True to his expectations, Lady Annabelle was upon him the moment he turned his mother over to her friends.
“Dance with me,” she commanded in an undertone, and Eric had no choice to comply. What was he to do, turn her down in the middle of the crowded ballroom? He couldn’t do that.
As he finally made his way over to Lord Dalton and Lord Percy, though, their snickers were too much for him to bear. “It looks like you’ll be engaged within the week,” Dalton said seriously.
“Forget that – she’ll be with child within the week if she has her way,” Percy said. “I give it a day until you’re married. She’s probably planning a secret ceremony as we speak.”
“An elopement,” Dalton agreed, nodding with mock seriousness.
“I believe this is the first time in history that a lady’s hands have been more suggestive than the man’s in this here court,” Percy teased.
“Oh, would the two of you please stop it?” Eric finally broke in, unable to stand this any longer. He knew that the ribbing was only good-natured, but he already had to listen to his mother talk on and on about Lady Annabelle’s good attributes.
The last thing he needed was for his friends to be likewise obnoxious in pushing him towards her.
He just wasn’t interested in her.
Percy looked shocked at his outburst, and Dalton looked hurt. Eric immediately felt guilty for his outburst.
Not as guilty as I feel about my inability to do anything productive about Dr. Ellington’s case, though, was the immediate following thought.
“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I’m sick of everyone acting as though Lady Annabelle and I are already engaged. We aren’t, and if I have my way, then we will never be.”
Silence followed his proclamation. Eric immediately grimaced. He probably shouldn’t have admitted that to the two of them, but that was just how frustrated he was with the whole thing by this point.
He didn’t want to marry Lady Annabelle, even though he knew that he should. That was just the truth of the matter.
“If you have your way?” Dalton finally asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
Eric sighed. “I love Miss Ellington,” he admitted, even though he knew that that was an even deeper secret that he shouldn’t have put words to.
“I understand that given my position and hers, there’s no chance that I could ever marry her, but I can’t help my feelings for her.”
The ball seemed to have gone unnaturally quiet. Eric glanced around, but no one else was in earshot. No one else would have heard him voice the words that could ruin him forever.
Dalton and Percy were both staring at the young duke as though he had grown a second head. Eric could imagine how they felt. He knew how he would have likely felt, if their positions were reversed.
A duke couldn’t just take someone like Charlene as a bride. She was a spinster, and she was too wilful to make a good and willing wife. Eric had responsibilities.
Besides, at the moment, all anyone could talk about were Charlene’s supposed faults. Everyone in court seemed to have made up their minds to despise her.
Eric could talk until he was blue in the face, but he wasn’t going to be able to convince Percy and Dalton that she wasn’t as terrible as everyone seemed to think that she was. He wouldn’t be able to convince them that she was more than worthy of his attention.
They were both silent, not saying anything, and in a way, that was almost worse.
In spite of Eric’s conviction that Dr. Ellington was innocent and that Charlene would make more than a wonderful wife, he couldn’t help but feel vaguely ashamed of himself.
This wasn’t the way that a duke was meant to act.
Before anyone could say anything else, Lady Annabelle was there at the duke’s elbow again, simpering at him as she demanded another dance.
Chapter 18
Miss Charlene Ellington
Charlene was shocked to be summoned to the receiving room to see Lord Ambrose. She had never given Helene a final response about a meeting with the man. Had her aunt taken it upon herself to arrange a meeting regardless?
It cert
ainly looked that way. But as Charlene entered the room, she saw the drawn and exhausted look that her aunt was sporting. Even if Helene had arranged this meeting against Charlene’s will, the young woman knew the reasons for it.
Her aunt was exhausted with worry about her dear brother, and Charlene was only dragging things on.
If she but said the word, then she would be betrothed to Lord Ambrose and this whole matter of the death of Lord Henrich would go away.
The longer she waited, the more terror she put her aunt through.
A Wicked Scandal For The Bluestocking (Steamy Historical Regency) Page 13
