The Guise of a Gentleman (33 page)

After a sleepless and tear-filled night, Elise broke her promise.

When Jared had pled with her not to go to his hanging, she’d had every intention of honoring his request. Furthermore, she had no taste for the macabre, and never read the newspaper accounts which relayed every morbid detail of executions. She’d always been disgusted at her countrymen’s delight in the gruesome stories filling the papers and independent flyers.

Nevertheless, as she packed to return home, she suddenly had to be there for Jared. She couldn’t bear the thought of him dying surrounded only by strangers who believed him an unconscionable pirate.

She glanced at the clock. There was still time. While a footman hailed a hackney, she donned her pelisse and bonnet.

“Mother, where are you going?” Colin asked soberly.

“I have an errand. I’ll return shortly.”

Colin went to her with solemn eyes. He’d seen through her forced cheer as she’d taken him to the various sites of the city.

She gathered him close. “You’re a good boy, Colin. I’m blessed to have you.”

He wrapped his arms around her neck and let her hold him, for once not wriggling away. Very soberly he said, “They’re hanging a group of pirates today, Mother.”

“I know, my love.” Her voice quivered.

“Pirates are bad people and they do bad things. But I feel sad when I hear someone is going to die.”

Elise shuddered. “I do, too.”

“Do you think their families cry when they die?”

“Yes.” She choked. “I’m sure they do—those who have families.” She wiped an errant tear, released him, and stood. “I’ll return shortly and then we’ll go home.”

Colin nodded. “I don’t like London so well.”

“It’s not always so dreary.”

The hackney arrived and the footman handed her in. She sat rigidly with clenched fists as the coach wound slowly through the crowded streets.

The square was packed. Much of England viewed a hanging as a sort of holiday. Spectators came from far and wide, and bought food and drink and whatever else the street vendors sold. Merchants sold their wares in some of their most profitable days all year.

Elise ground her teeth, never more ashamed to be English than at that moment.

“This is as close as I kin git ye, m’lady,” the jarvey called back to her as he pulled the hackney to a stop.

“This will do, thank you.” Elise paid him and began walking.

She hated every one of the revelers who’d come to watch the death of the man she loved. Her stomach clenched each time someone laughed. She glared at those who’d brought children. Rudely, she pushed her way through the throng to the square.

A group hanging was already in progress. The condemned stood on the gallows platform, each taking a moment to say his final words. With her heart hammering, she searched their faces. Jared wasn’t among them.

She pushed closer, ignoring the others around her. There was a sickening drop and the crowd collectively gasped. Elise refused to look at the gallows until after they’d removed the bodies. When she drew close enough to be satisfied Jared could see her if he looked to her for strength, she stopped and waited.

Jared walked out in the next group. He strode with head high, his shoulders straight, moving with his usual athletic grace.

Her heart dropped. Until now, she’d held on to an insane wish he’d somehow be spared and had almost dared hope he would not be here.

“Elise. What are you doing here?” Christian threaded through the crowd to her.

She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I had to be here. For him.”

Christian nodded, his expression filled with compassion and haunting misery. Dark shadows lay under his eyes. “I know. You couldn’t not be here.” He put a protective arm around her to keep back the jostling crowd.

There was a hush as the crowd pressed forward to hear the final words of the notorious pirate Black Jack.

Jared looked over the mob, his aquamarine eyes lifted to the horizon. “I lived my life, not as a spectator, but as an active participant. I have no regrets.”

They waited. But he said nothing more. At that moment, he looked nobler than any king.

The executioner approached. Elise’s blood chilled.

The scene took on a surreal cast; sound fading, color dimming, joy evaporating into a faint memory.

Jared looked down and met Elise’s gaze. His eyes widened, first in despair and then in gratitude. His gaze moved to Christian, and something akin to relief overcame his features.

Brothers exchanged a meaningful glance. Jared’s eyes flicked to Elise. Christian’s mouth tightened and he nodded once. Elise knew without words, Jared had just asked Christian to watch over her.

How like Jared to worry over her when his own life was in imminent peril.

A sob tried to claw its way out of her but she fought it back. She had to be strong for him.

Some of the other condemned men gave farewell speeches, some remained silent. They wore expressions ranging from fear to insolence. Only Jared stood in quiet dignity.

The executioner lowered the hood over Jared’s face and placed the noose around his neck. Slow horror crept over Elise, leaving her profoundly cold. She leaned heavily against Christian who tightened his arm around her.

Jared stood tall and straight while the hangman moved to the other condemned.

“Oh, God, please save him,” Christian moaned.

The fervency of his prayer was so strong Elise half expected to see a legion of angels descending from heaven to free his brother.

Despite the chill air, sweat trickled down the side of Christian’s suddenly pale face. Elise put an arm around his waist in an attempt to be comforting, though her own heart crumbled. Christian looked down at her with desperately anguished eyes.

The executioner came back down the line and made a final adjustment to the nooses. Then he pulled the lever.

Elise’s knees crumpled.

Christian caught her to prevent her from falling. She turned and buried her face in his coat. Disbelief and despair plunged her into absolute darkness. He held her in a brotherly embrace while she sobbed.

A moment later, he leaned down and said into her ear, “It’s over. Let’s go.”

Light-headed and shivering, Elise glanced up as the executioner cut Jared down. Another man helped dump the lifeless form onto a waiting wagon. Jared’s body landed on the wagon with a thud.

Her stomach hit the ground and she let out a low moan.

The second man snapped the reins and drove through a cleared path. The hangman returned to the others, cutting down the other bodies and dumping them in wagons.

Elise pressed her hand over her mouth, cold clear down to her soul.

Christian half-carried her through the crowd and hailed a hackney. Elise remembered nothing of the ride home, only Christian close by, grim and stunned.

Jared.

She relived their first encounter, his playful grin, his sensual kiss. She remembered his thoughtful gesture when he’d given her a pearl of sentimental value. She recalled that moment of vulnerability in Lily’s garden revealing a deeper man underneath. Memories flowed over her; his playfulness with Colin, his tenderness, his passion, the times he’d truly needed her.

How would she ever find joy without him in her life?

How could she ever feel anything again?

Christian saw her safely to the Greymore’s house. At the stairs leading to the front door, her knees gave way and she crumpled. Christian silently swung her into his arms and carried her inside.

Emptiness engulfed her. Voices swelled through a haze, Christian’s and Charlotte’s, among others. Christian carried her to her room and laid her on the bed. Without resistance, Elise drank the laudanum-laced brandy Charlotte gave her. She floated in a world of half reality, sometimes in sweet dreams, sometimes recoiling from horrifying nightmares.

The nightmares were real. Jared was dead.

She’d never again see his beautiful aquamarine eyes gleaming with roguish charm or his unabashed grin. She’d never feel his arms around her, never enjoy his sultry, passionate kisses. She’d never feel that sense of home and belonging as she watched him play with Colin.

She’d never love again.

Somewhere through the fog of grief and pain, Colin climbed into bed with her. She pulled his small body in close and finally drifted to unfeeling darkness.

“Elise.”

She tried to climb into consciousness, but failed.

“Elise. Christian Amesbury is here to see you.”

Fearful of her waking reality, Elise turned from the light and sank back into the shadows.

A cool hand rested on her brow. “Elise.” Charlotte’s voice cut through the mist.

Elise opened hot, gritty eyes. Sunlight streamed through the gap in the draperies over the window. Colin had gone, leaving her bed cold and empty.

The memory of Jared standing on the scaffold drew a groan from the depths of her soul.

“Elise. The Amesburys have sent for you. You need to get up.”

Elise pressed a hand over her eyes as tears squeezed through her lashes. “No. No.”

“Wake up, sister-in-law-to-be, there’s someone demanding to see you,” called an urgent, yet strangely cheerful voice.

“Mr. Amesbury! You shouldn’t be in her room,” scolded Charlotte.

Christian leaned over her. “Come. Don’t keep Jared waiting.”

Keep Jared waiting?

“I’m dreaming,” Elise moaned.

Gently, Christian took her hand. “He’s alive.”

Elise blinked. “You’re mad. I watched them hang him.”

“Yes. Then they revived him.” Christian’s eyes were earnest, ringed by the shadows of a sleepless, tortured night. The horror of seeing his brother hang still clung to him, giving him a haunted look. Yet he smiled, and his eyes were alight.

Elise pushed herself up, looking to Charlotte as confusion and faint hope mingled in her heart.

Charlotte offered a teary smile and nodded. “It’s true.”

Looking haggard, Charles Greymore hovered in the doorway. When Elise met his gaze, he said, “He’s had a tough go of it, but he regained consciousness a few minutes ago.”

They left her in the care of her maid, Morrison. Numb with disbelief, Elise struggled to wash and dress. Fortunately, Morrison’s hands were steadier than hers or she never would have managed.

As she tied her bonnet under her chin, Elise asked, “Where’s Colin?”

“Two of the Greymore’s maids and a footman took him to the park,” Morrison assured her.

Moments later, they climbed into the coach. She glanced from Christian to Greymore and back again, searching for an explanation. Greymore appeared bone-deep weary. Christian looked as though he’d barely survived a war and come home wounded.

“Tell me,” she insisted.

Mr. Greymore rubbed his eyes. The poor man probably would go home and sleep for a week when this was all over. “The Secret Service came through for us. Unofficially, of course.”

Elise stared, hardly daring to believe.

Mr. Greymore shot Christian a wry, albeit tired smile. “The youngest Mr. Amesbury has friends in high places, apparently.”

Christian took a shuddering breath. “I thought I’d failed. They gave me no hope when I appealed to them.”

“Apparently whomever Christian spoke with bullied the Secret Service. They arranged to have the hangman switched at the last minute with one with whom Grant is acquainted. This executioner knows how to tie knots a certain way to prevent the victim from dying immediately. The victims strangulate more slowly, and it’s painful, but this allows them to lose consciousness rather than die immediately.”

Elise shivered at the thought of Jared suffering, but did not interrupt.

“When Jared appeared dead, the executioner cut him down. They took him to a tavern around the corner which was empty and ready. The Service had a man inside who is expert at reviving the nearly-dead.”

“It sounds terribly risky,” Elise said.

“It is. Many die anyway. Sometimes their windpipe is crushed. Sometimes they go without air too long. Sometimes their hearts stop and cannot be restarted.”

Horrified, Elise shook her head slowly. “And they were willing to take the risk he would die?”

“Actually, I’m surprised they helped as much as they did.” Mr. Greymore glanced at Christian in admiration.

“Is that why you didn’t tell me? In case you couldn’t revive him?” she asked.

“There wasn’t time. The final arrangements were made less than an hour before the hangings were to take place. But, yes, even if I’d known, I wouldn’t have told you. It would have been cruel to raise your hopes. If something had gone wrong ….” He rubbed his hands over his face. His unshaven whiskers made a scraping noise against his hands.

She leaned back, absorbing all she’d been told. She tried to decide how she felt. Shocked. Numb.

It still seemed unreal that she’d seen Jared die. It seemed even less real that he now lived. Tentative hope mingled with a fear that this was all an elaborate hoax, but for what purpose, she could not guess.

Christian squeezed her hand briefly, his eyes intense. “I know this is difficult to believe, but all is well. Truly. Jared asked for you the moment he awoke.”

The carriage stopped near a park in front of a stately townhouse with a tastefully elegant
façade
. With Grecian flavor, the entry boasted sweeping staircases and marble floors. It managed to be lavish without appearing ostentatious. Elise barely saw it all as Christian led them immediately upstairs.

Her pulse quickened, not in excitement, but in fear. Fear this would prove to be a cruel joke. Fear she would only be led to Jared’s lifeless body. Fear she’d never feel anything but this utter desolation.

Steeling herself, she followed Christian slowly. At the doorway, she hung back, terrified at what she’d find inside.

Christian reappeared, his face revealing first puzzlement, then compassion. He took her hand gently, looking into her eyes with a sincerity she could not refuse. “I could hardly believe it
, either. But he’s alive and well. Come.”

Elise let him pull her inside.

The room had a masculine feel, with rich, dark fabrics. The draperies had been thrown back from the windows, letting in London’s intermittent light. The bed on the far end loomed, but Elise could not bring herself to look at it.

Lady Tarrington arose from a chair next to the bed and took Elise’s hands, drawing her near. “Jared. She’s here.”

Trembling, Elise swallowed and finally made herself look inside the canopied bed. In the bed, half-inclined on pillows, lay Jared. Alive.

His face was pale, and horrible open wounds, surrounded by purple bruises, ringed his neck. He turned his head and the brilliance of his blue-green eyes flared. One corner of his mouth lifted as he held a hand out to her.

With a cry, Elise ran the last few steps and threw herself against him. She inhaled his scent. Under her cheek, his heart beat in his solid, warm chest, assuring her he indeed lived. He wrapped his arms around her.

He was alive.

Great, shoulder-shaking sobs seized her. He pulled her in tighter until she lay next to the full length of him. Enfolded in his arms, she released all her grief, her terror, her despair.

Without speaking, he rubbed circles on her back and stroked her hair, occasionally kissing her brow. Her sobs died down until she rested quietly against him. He was real. Solid. Whole. Alive.

And she would live again.

Only then did she realize the others had left and closed the door. Their lack of concern over propriety surprised her. They probably assumed after being kidnapped by pirates, her sullied reputation would suffer no worse by leaving her alone with Jared.

Grateful for the privacy so she could, without embarrassment, improperly enjoy her reunion with him, she kicked off her slippers and draped a knee over his leg.

She burrowed her face into his shoulder. “I hope you still mean to marry me, Jared Amesbury. After what you just put me through, you’ll need a lifetime to make it up to me.”

He let out his breath in a weak laugh. “Yes, ma’am,” he whispered roughly.

She heaved a shuddering breath. “Is it really over? Will anyone else wish you dead? Because I truly couldn’t bear seeing you in a noose a third time.”

In a hoarse voice he said, “The pirate Black Jack is legally and officially dead. The only one who might wish Jared Amesbury dead would be one of your jilted suitors.”

Elise smiled in spite of herself. “I doubt either of them feel strongly enough about me to wish to challenge you.”

She heard him exhale a smile. Tears of gratitude and relief coursed silently down her cheeks. She’d never laughed or cried so much until she met this man. How numb and unemotional she’d been before him!

His breathing deepened, grew more regular. She held him as he slept. Elise anticipated Colin’s reaction when he learned the man he’d grown to admire so quickly would be his new father. She wondered how much they’d tell him when he was old enough to understand.

She’d leave it to Jared. It was his story to tell. But she’d demand a full explanation herself.

She wanted no more secrets between them.

As she snuggled against him, she suspected Jared had also tired of secrets.