by Lucy Monroe
“In a moment.”
“Why—“ Her words were cut off as his mouth claimed hers in a bruising kiss.
She was breathing in short pants and pressed tightly against him when Drake eventually pulled his lips away from hers.
“You took a huge risk.” Anger kindled in her husband’s dark molasses gaze.
“It would have been an even bigger one to go with him.”
The anger drained as quickly as it came and Drake shuddered against her, his eyes going a bleak shade of brown. “Never again.”
She kissed his chin. “Never again.”
His arms tightened around her until she could not breathe and she squeaked out a protest. He loosened his hold, but only enough to lift her to her feet.
Emerson stood in front of a barely conscious Barton. “I trusted you and you betrayed my trust.”
Barton merely glared, his expression showing no remorse.
“Take him away,” Drake ordered the Bow Street Runners. “We’ll be along to make formal charges later.” He turned to Hansen. “Go with them. I don’t want there to be any chance of him escaping. Do you understand me?”
Hansen nodded, his face set in determined lines. “You can count on me, sir.”
The Runners half dragged, half-carried a resentfully silent Barton from the room.
Drake turned to Emerson. “Explain.”
The other man grimaced. “I’m not sure I can explain everything, but I’m starting to see what happened. Why don’t you and Mrs. Drake take a seat?”
Drake did as Emerson suggested, but instead of putting Thea in her own chair, pulled her into his lap. She didn’t even think of demurring. Her husband’s big body was still trembling from her near miss and she wanted to give comfort as much as she needed to receive it.
Emerson poured a whiskey for himself and Drake and a glass of sherry for her before sitting down at his desk. She sipped at the dry wine while her husband swallowed the entire glass of whiskey in one gulp.
She gasped, but he just shrugged. “I needed it. I’m overset.”
She would have laughed, but he so clearly spoke the truth.
She snuggled closer and turned her attention to Emerson. “What was this plan you were telling us about?”
“Uncle Ashby and Lady Upworth both despaired of ever convincing you to journey to England.” He paused to take a sip of his whiskey.
She considered her adopted uncle’s motives and conceded he had been right. She had planned to travel to England one day, to keep her promise to her mother, but there had always been a reason to put the trip off.
“He lit on the idea of making it look like there was a thief in the shipping office here. He knew you would come to investigate yourself, rather than allow him to make a trip so dangerous to his health.”
“That was very clever of Uncle Ashby.” He’d been quite right and Thea had come.
“You say Lady Upworth knew of these plans.”
“Yes, Mr. Drake.”
“But how did Mr. Barton become involved?” Thea asked.
Emerson drew a wax sealer from his desk drawer. It was identical to Uncle Ashby’s.
“He must have broken the seal on the letters, read them and then replaced it with this.”
Thea nodded. “But what did he hope to gain?”
“Money.”
“How?”
Emerson rolled his shoulders. “I have just this week become aware of missing inventory from the secret warehouse. Expensive inventory. I now believe Barton was stealing from that warehouse hoping to blame me for the thefts.”
“Surely he must have realized from reading the letters that Uncle Ashby would have cleared you.”
“By then, he would have been far from England.” Drake’s voice vibrated in his chest against the hand she had placed there. “Remember, he stole the letters as well.”
“You think he planned to run?”
“I’m sure of it. Hansen caught him trying to leave town, if you remember.”
She did remember. “And he tried to get out of coming to confront Emerson.”
He’d said he was afraid of facing his employer’s temper, but Drake had insisted on him coming along.
Her husband nodded. “Yes.”
Emerson took another sip of his whiskey, still looking rather shaken. “I trusted him completely. I will naturally resign my position. My judgment is clearly not sound.”
“Nonsense. Anyone can be taken in by an imposter.” She thought of her mother’s mistaken belief that Langley loved her in the beginning of their marriage and thanked God for sending a man like Drake into her own life. “In fact, I think we need to discuss the possibility of partnership. I cannot take such an active role in business now that I’m married, you know.”
She had no intention of significantly curtailing her activities, but Emerson would need help now that Barton was gone and making him a partner seemed the right thing to do after almost sending him to gaol.
Emerson’s expression turned hopeful. “You cannot mean it.”
“I do.” She smiled. “You will be married soon. I’m sure your wife will be pleased at your change in circumstance.”
He actually blushed. “She’s a wonderful woman. Her family is very well off. She could have married almost anyone, but she accepted my proposal.”
Thea remembered the rumors of a mistress and was absolutely certain they were no longer founded in reality. Emerson was clearly besotted by the girl he planned to marry.
“I believe we will make the partnership a wedding gift. I know Uncle Ashby will approve.” She turned her face up to meet her husband’s eyes. “What do you think?”
“I think any man who is partly responsible for our meeting deserves a considerable reward.”
The comment sent warmth throughout her body while Emerson beamed with an astonished happiness that he made no effort to hide.
******
Thea curled into Drake’s side, satiated from his loving. He’d brought her home after stopping to press formal charges against Barton and had taken her straight to bed.
“It’s hard to believe it’s all over,” she murmured.
“If we had not been watching Barton along with Emerson, we would never have known he was responsible for the attack on your life.” Drake’s voice sounded strained.
She rubbed his chest in a soothing motion, but the knowledge the villain had hired someone to spy on her with instructions to see she met with a fatal accident when she made arrangements to come to England made her shiver. Apparently the spy had overheard her talking to Whiskey Jim and inquiring about his next run to England.
“He thought nothing of killing me simply to protect himself and the few thousand pounds he had stolen from the company.”
“There are men that will kill for a glass of whiskey.”
But her husband was not one of them. He had made his own fortune and had never stooped to nefarious means to get it.
She kissed his flat male nipple and smiled when he groaned. “I think it’s time for me to keep my second promise to my mother.”
Drake’s hand gently cupped her shoulder. “Do you want me to send word inviting Jared to join us here?”
She leaned back and looked into the rich depths his eyes. “No. I want to go to Langley’s townhouse.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I’m sure.”
“When?”
“My aunt told me that they are going to have dinner en famile tonight. She has invited us to come afterwards. You will come with me, won’t you?”
His hold on her tightened. “How can you doubt it?”
******
Thea dressed in one of her new gowns for the confrontation with her father. Its deep blue muslin brought out the blue of her eyes and contrasted nicely with her dark hair. At least that’s what Melly said. The high waist accentuated her womanly curves and Drake’s eyes darkened with appreciation when he saw her.
“You look lovely, Thea.”
&nbs
p; “Thank you.” He looked pretty wonderful himself in his black evening clothes and she told him so.
He helped her into her cloak and led her out to the carriage. The ride to the Langley townhouse was too short for her to brood much over the coming confrontation. It seemed like one moment the carriage had started and the next they were stopped before her father’s house.
The butler showed them into the drawing room without announcing them when she told him that Lady Upworth expected them. Drake put a protective arm around her waist as they entered the room and she leaned into his body for comfort.
A woman of middle years, who must be Jacqueline, sat on a chair by the fireplace, tatting lace.
The other occupants of the room sat around a small table playing cards. Lady Upworth faced the door, opposite a tall man with dark, almost black hair. Jared. Irisa sat to her aunt’s right and Langley sat opposite his daughter.
Lady Upworth raised her gaze from her cards when they entered and gave them a warm smile of greeting. “Thea. Mr. Drake. How lovely that you decided to join us. Now we are truly en famile.”
Langley’s head shot up and his gaze locked on Thea and Drake. Irisa also set her cards down to peer at the new arrivals. Her smile was every bit as warm as their aunt’s.
Langley’s eyes widened with recognition and he turned to his aunt. “You did not tell me that you had invited Mr. and Mrs. Drake to join us.”
Lady Upworth shrugged, apparently unconcerned by the censure in his voice. “I wasn’t sure they would come. I did not wish to set your hopes up.”
Not waiting for her nephew to reply she turned her attention to Irisa and Jared. “Children, I would like you to meet your sister. Thea Drake, nee Selwyn.”
Jacqueline’s voice rose from her place by the fire. “Geoffrey, you mustn’t allow this woman to make false claims. Have her thrown out at once,” she exclaimed.
Thea wanted to throttle her aunt for her bluntness and yet, the truth was out now. She let her gaze shift to the woman who had taken her mother’s place in society. Thea felt pity for her. The future held unhappy revelations.
Langley shook his head at his wife. “We can’t hide the truth any longer. My aunt is determined to expose all.”
As her father’s words registered, she realized that he had already revealed the truth to his wife. At least part of it.
Jared stood and turned around to face Thea. The scar that marked his face posed as a reminder of all the things they had missed in one another’s lives. His eyes were filled with wariness. His gaze slid past her and met that of her husband.
She felt Drake stiffen beside her.
She wished she knew what Jared was thinking. She had been waiting for this moment for her entire life. Did he want to know her? Would he ever want to know her?
She lifted the books she held in her arms toward him. “These are our mother’s journals. I promised her as she lay dying that I would bring them to you. She wanted you to know how much she loved you.”
Jared made no move to take the leather volumes. “My mother died soon after my birth.”
Thea’s eyes filled with tears.
“No. She didn’t. Your father,” she looked at Langley knowing the accusation she felt was in her eyes, “our father took you from her and told her that she would never see you again. He didn’t know about me and she feared that once he did, he would steal me away too. She fled with me to the West Indies where she died.”
Jared’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Langley. “Is she speaking the truth?”
Langley’s face had turned the color of parchment. “Yes.”
Thea moved forward until she stood a foot from her brother. The next words out of her mouth surprised her.
They were not what she had intended to say. “May I touch you?”
Jared’s eyes widened a fraction, but other than that his expression did not change.
“I have seen many sketches of you. I often wondered what you were thinking, what you were doing. I need to know you are real.” She reached out her hand and when he did not move away, placed it over the scar on his cheek. Her fingertips tingled when they came into contact with the puckered flesh. “I had a dream. A nightmare. When this happened.”
He didn’t speak and she let her hand fall away. She laid the journals on the table. “One day you will want to read them. You will want to know her. Perhaps, one day you will even want to know me.”
She turned to go, her promise to Mama fulfilled.
His hand snaked out and grasped her arm. “I do know you.” He pulled her back around to face him. “I’ve dreamt about you many times. Once I dreamt that you cried uncontrollably and I was desperate to comfort you, but you were just an image from my dreams. Not real.”
A small, strangled sound emanated from her throat. She threw herself against him and proceeded to dampen his shirt with her tears. He let his arms close around her awkwardly and then patted her back.
Suddenly everyone in the room was talking at once. Jacqueline’s strident tones mixed with Lady Upworth’s no nonsense statements. Langley’s voice talked over Irisa’s and Drake overrode them all with a demand for quiet.
Jared let her go and Drake pulled her back into his side. Irisa demanded an explanation and Thea attempted to give it amidst several impatient interruptions from her sister.
When she was done Irisa turned toward her father. “Papa, why didn’t you go after Thea’s mother?”
Thea’s heart beat a wild rhythm as she waited for the answer to a question she had longed to ask herself.
Langley moved to stand near Jacqueline and laid his hand on her shoulder. Thea could appreciate his show of support for his second wife. She couldn’t be finding it easy to hear her husband’s sordid past.
“Papa?” Irisa prompted.
“At first I believed she’d run off with Estcott.” Thea gasped in outrage and he sighed. “She left Town at the same time. She had rejected me completely by then and I thought she had come to the conclusion that she’d married the wrong man. We both courted her, you see. When he returned to Town, his reputation in tatters from what had happened in the country, I realized that Anna had never been with him. That I had been wrong about everything.”
“Why didn’t you search then?” The words were torn from Thea.
Her father met her gaze, his filled with sorrow. “I was too proud to beg. I thought if she held any affection for me or her son, she would have returned.”
“She was too afraid of losing me as well.”
Drake squeezed her as if to remind her of their conversation regarding her mother’s joy and willing sacrifice in keeping her.
Langley nodded, seeming to age before her eyes. “I realize that now.”
Irisa cocked her head and looked at her father as if he were a butterfly on a pin. “I think that if I loved someone I would beg.”
Langley’s said nothing.
Jacqueline put her hand out to take his. Thea wondered if perhaps true affection existed between the two. She hoped so. Or their marriage would not survive her final revelation.
Following the previous pattern, she had set, Irisa precipitated the final unveiling as well. “When did your mother die?”
Thea took a deep breath and let it out. She met her aunt’s gaze and saw the hunger for truth there. “Ten years ago.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
I received a letter from Lady Upworth today. It contained a sketch of Jared. He looks so much like a man. My heart aches to think that I might not recognize my own child should I see him face to face, but there is little chance of that. I look for him in Thea, hoping that he resembles her in ability to love. She is so generous with her affection. I must teach her to protect her heart as she is so eager to open it to others. I worry there is little time left to do so.
November 23, 1809 Journal of Anna Selwyn, Countess of Langley
Irisa stared at her, then shifted her gaze to her parents, then back to Thea again. “But I’m sixteen.”
Thea no
dded. “Yes.”
The silence in the room pressed in on her and she turned to Drake, seeking some of his strength for the final confrontation.
He brushed her cheek with gentle fingers, his eyes full of warm emotion. “The truth frees us, Thea, no matter how difficult to utter.”
She nodded and turned back to her family. “When Mama learned of Langley’s final perfidy, she was devastated. I think Lady Upworth kept it from her as long as she could, but Uncle Ashby planned a trip to London. Mama intended to accompany him. She wanted to see Jared. Lady Upworth realized the trip would be a disaster and wrote Mama with the truth.”
Jared’s face lost all color and the pink flesh of his scar stood out against the pale skin of his cheek.
He turned to Langley, accusation blazing in his eyes. “You married Jacqueline while my mother was still living.”
When Langley did not respond, Jared turned back to Thea. She desperately wanted to comfort him. The betrayal and pain she saw in his eyes broke her heart.
“Mama cancelled her trip to England, horrified at the scandal you would be forced to endure if the truth became known. It wasn’t until later that she hit upon the idea of using Langley’s behavior as a source of blackmail.”
“She was going to blackmail him?” Jared asked.
“She was going to force him to let her see you.”
“But she never came. I never met her.”
Thea sighed and shook her head. “No. You never saw her. She contracted the fever two weeks before our ship was to sail. Although she recovered somewhat, she never again had enough strength to make the voyage. Eventually a second bout of the fever killed her.”
Now that the entire truth had been told, exhaustion overwhelmed Thea. She wanted to go home with Drake and let him hold her until she fell asleep, safe in his arms. She also wanted to reach out and comfort her brother, but she did not have the right. They were practically strangers.
Langley stared at Jared, who looked at him as if he had turned into the devil himself.
Langley erupted into speech. “You must understand. I convinced myself that your mother truly was dead or she would have come back to me, to you. Then there was Jacqueline. She carried Irisa and I could not let my child go through life with the stigma of being illegitimate.”
