Dangerous to Love (48 page)

“Serena?” said Julian.

She gave no sign that she heard him. The voices outside the door became more strident. With one last look at Serena, Julian went to answer them.

Tears were clouding her vision when she finally looked at her father. “Jeremy is dead,” she said. Her father seemed to be in a state of shock. She couldn’t think of rights and wrongs at this moment. That would come later. But she knew that whatever happened, whatever came to light, she could never hate her father or her brother.

“Papa, save yourself,” she whispered brokenly. “Go now, through that window, before it’s too late.”

Her words seemed to bring him to his senses. He pressed a hand to his temples. “This has ruined everything. Without me, without Jeremy, the prince will never set foot in England. There can be no uprising now.”

Even now, with his firstborn son lying dead at his feet, he could think of nothing but the Cause. Serena began to weep in earnest. “Forgive me, Jeremy,” she said, and she brought one of his hands to her cheek.

She wasn’t aware when her father quit the room or of how much time had elapsed before Julian returned and kneeled beside her on the bloodstained carpet. His touch on her shoulder was whisper soft. Unsure.

“Your father .  .  . Serena .  .  . I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“He’s dead, isn’t he?”

“He shot himself. He might have escaped. There was a boat, a yacht. When we heard the report of the shot, we .  .  . we found him in the cabin. Serena, I’m sorry.”

She recoiled wildly when he reached for her. “You’re sorry!” The words exploded from her. “Why should you be sorry? This is what you wanted, isn’t it? You wanted to hurt my family. You wanted to pay off old scores.” She
was weeping uncontrollably, in great wrenching sobs. “You plotted this in meticulous detail. And I was your pawn. God help me, I was your pawn. Without me, none of this could have happened. I trusted you! Oh God, I trusted you. I wish we had never met.”

“Serena, you don’t know what you are saying. I love you.”

She screamed at him. “Don’t talk to me of love! You are responsible for this. Deny it if you dare!”

Julian rose to his feet.

“Serena?” Clive stood in the doorway, his face tortured with remorse.

She held out her arms to him, and he quickly crossed to her. As they kneeled together over Jeremy’s body, Julian quietly left the room.

N
ight had almost fallen when the caravan of carriages and riders made the return trip to town. After Serena, Flynn, and Clive were dropped off at Ward House, the other gentlemen repaired to Julian’s gaming club. Harry and Parker diplomatically decided to try their luck at the gaming tables, leaving Julian, Lord Kirkland, and Constable Loukas to talk things over in the privacy of Julian’s bookroom.

“So,” said Julian at one point, “the story is that Sir Jeremy died tragically while cleaning his pistol. As for Sir Robert, it will be as though he were never there. Well, he never was there. I had this from Clive—Sir Robert was known to the few people who saw him as Mr. Smith, the tenant of Riverview.”

“It’s best this w-way,” said Lord Kirkland. “I see no point in revealing the truth, not with Sir Robert d-dead. It would only stir up a great d-deal of unpleasantness for the Wards as well as create disquiet among the general p-population. The less said about the threat of a Jacobite uprising, the better it will be all round.”

“I take it,” said Julian, “that your colleagues at the War Office have agreed to what you propose?”

“They will,” said Lord Kirkland. “They always d-do.”

At this expression of confidence, Julian and Loukas exchanged a quick glance. “And Clive?” said Julian. “What will become of him?”

“Since he was a p-prisoner when we arrived at the house, we must assume that h-he was not part of Sir Robert’s insane plot.”

‘That’s very generous of you,” said Julian.

His lordship shrugged. “He is only a boy, after all, and I think he h-has learned his lesson. As for Jeremy Ward’s accomplices, they did not appear to be Jacobites to m-me.”

“Indeed, no,” said Loukas, “I recognized a few of them. Petty criminals who would sell their own mothers for a shilling.”

Having poured out three glasses of brandy, Julian handed them round. “And now,” he said, seating himself, “would someone please explain to me how I was rescued? And in particular”—he pinned Constable Loukas with a steely eye—”how you allowed Jeremy Ward to carry me off in his carriage?”

Loukas cleared his throat. “To put it bluntly, we were taken off guard. That is to say, while we were waiting in our carriage for the villain to arrive, he had got there before us, only we didn’t know it. He must have been biding his time in another part of the house. And just to complicate matters, who should return to the scene of the crime but Serena and Flynn. It was the last thing we expected.”

“Why did she return? She never explained that to me.”

“Perhaps she left her hatpin behind.”

Julian allowed Loukas’s sarcasm to wash over him and merely smiled.

Loukas took a swallow of brandy. “Lucky for us, and you, Flynn has a very suspicious nature. He was on watch, outside the house, when he heard a carriage and came to investigate. That’s when we grabbed him. You’ll find this hilarious, my boy. Flynn thought that
we
were the villains, can you believe it, and was on the point of yelling ‘murder most foul,’ when the real villains came out the front door.”

“Flynn? Serena said she had sent him home.”

“I expect she was trying to throw her father and brother off the scent.”

Julian let that thought sink into his mind. “So, Flynn was with you all the time?”

“He was.”

“And when the villains came out the front door, you recognized Jeremy Ward?”

“No. All we saw in that fog were three men with what looked to be an equal number of inebriated companions. We might have closed with them then, but my instincts told me to hold off, that there was more to come.”

“Your instincts? A pox on your instincts! We agreed that you would take no chances, that you would pounce on the villain as soon as he showed his face.”

“Did I say that?”

“You know you did.”

Loukas grinned unrepentantly. “If I had not followed my instincts, we would never have caught up with Sir Robert. Think about it.”

Julian did, and took a long swallow of brandy. He was coming to believe that he should have let sleeping dogs lie. He couldn’t tell Loukas that. “You did the right thing,” he said. “Then what happened?”

“After that, we simply followed your carriage. We lost it a time or two, but Flynn was invaluable to us. You see, he recognized the road we were traveling as the road to Riverview. Once he told me that, everything fell into place, that is, everything but Sir Robert. It never occurred to me that he was alive and behind it all.”

Julian addressed Lord Kirkland. “And you, sir? Did you suspect Sir Robert?”

“Lord, n-no! Nor even Jeremy Ward, until the last m-moment.”

“Then, I don’t understand. How did you come to be at Riverview?”

His lordship laughed nervously. “I was determined that this time around, nothing was going to h-happen to you if I c-could prevent it. I’ve had you watched, Julian, for a long time now, yes, even before you went to America. You s-see, I thought you were a Jacobite. No, don’t look so shaken. What w-was I to think when you practically told me, yourself, that you were supplying the m-money for Sir Robert’s pardon?”

“I told you that?” asked Julian blankly.

“You did, don’t you remember, in the reading room downstairs? You asked me if I thought Jeremy Ward would ever be in a position to redeem the vowels you held. I got the impression the s-sum involved was quite s-substantial. What else was I t-to think but that you were lending him the money for his father’s pardon?”

“Yes, now I remember,” said Julian.

“Not only that,” said Kirkland, “but it s-seemed to me, then, that you were trying to use your influence with me to pave the way for Sir Robert’s return to England.”

“Well, I was,” said Julian, “but not for the reasons you think. And supposing me to be a Jacobite, you had me watched?”

“I did. One of my agents was a gardener at your house in Twickenham. It was he who brought me the report that s-soldiers had arrested you. I knew they m-must be impostors, and immediately called out the m-militia to investigate.”

“So that’s why you were so quick off the mark. Because your agent was there when I was arrested.”

His lordship nodded. Julian wondered what else the agent had discovered. Leaving that for the present, he said, “And did you still suspect that I was a Jacobite when I returned to England?”

“Not latterly, no. By this time m-my agent was one of
your trusted familiars. He knew you were s-setting a trap for the men who had abducted you.”

“Who is this agent?” demanded Julian wrathfully.

“Parker,” said his lordship, “though I must say, even I did not recognize him at Bagley.”

“Parker!” exclaimed Julian and Loukas in unison. They looked at each other and began to laugh.

“Y-yes, Parker,” said his lordship, joining in the laughter. “He kept me informed of your comings and goings.”

“So,” said Loukas, “while we were following Jeremy Ward’s coach, you were following ours?”

“I was,” admitted the earl.

“Damn it all—I beg your pardon, your lordship—but Parker was supposed to be watching in case we were followed.”

“And so he did, I think you will find.”

“And the militia?” said Julian. “Where did they come from?”

“The barracks at Gravesend. It’s the last stop before Riverview. Like Loukas, once I recognized the r-road I was traveling, things began to fall into place, and I decided that reinforcements might be a good idea. However, I never s-suspected Sir Robert. That took me completely by surprise.”

After that, they talked in circles, clarifying one point, then another. Presently, Loukas, sensing something unfinished between his companions, took his leave of them.

For some time after this, nothing was said. Then Julian took the bull by the horns. “You know who I am, don’t you, sir?”

The earl’s eyes flickered, but he did not look away. “Oh yes,” he said softly. “You are my sister’s son. When you 1-looked at your mother’s portrait, that day in my office, I knew it then. You loved her very much. I could see it in your face.”

“And you loved her also?” This was more of a statement than a question.

“I would have done anything f-for her. But you know that too.”

“Yes,” said Julian, then very gently, “You wrote the letter betraying your brother and Sir Robert. There
was
a letter. I had that from Sir Robert. And no one but you or my father could have written it. It was you, was it not?”

The earl nodded. “Do you know, it c-comes as a great relief to be able, finally, to confess to it? My g-guardian would never permit me to mention the events of that night to anyone. Oh yes, he knew. But he would not tolerate the scandal that must come to our f-family’s name if my part in it came to light.”

Taking a moment to compose himself, breathing deeply, the earl began. “Everything went wrong that night. Nothing turned out as I m-meant it to. My brother and Sir Robert were supposed to be gone before the soldiers arrived. They decided to stay until the f-fog lifted.”

His voice was very soft, very halting as he began to relate the events that had been the cause of so much hatred, so much heartbreak. He loved his sister, and knew how she feared Sir Robert Ward. William Renney, his tutor, knew it too. He loved Harriet, but would never have aspired to marry her if it had not been for Sir Robert. He could not see her go to a stern, unfeeling man who cared nothing for her happiness. No one had told young James any of this directly. It came to him in servants’ gossip, and snatches of conversation which died whenever he entered a room. But he had eyes to see. His tutor and his sister were deeply in love. He made up his mind to help them.

“I w-watched and waited my chance. The details don’t matter. Suffice it to s-say, I discovered the n-night and
the hour they were to elope. I h-had convinced myself that my one aim was to p-prevent my father putting a stop to it. In retrospect, I see that I was c-carried away by my sense of the d-dramatic. I saw myself as my s-sister’s savior.”

After a long pause, he went on, “It seemed so simple at the t-time. Because my brother, Hugo, was a fugitive, soldiers frequently came by the house to question my f-father. Sometimes he was escorted to the local m-magistrates. I n-never understood, n-never realized how d-dangerous it all was. The s-soldiers were always so respectful. We knew them and they knew us. They were 1-local men. I even knew s-some of them by name. So, without telling anyone, I wrote the 1-letter, and disguised as a stableboy, delivered it to the h-house of our 1-local magistrate. I was sure that they w-would come for my f-father and take him away for questioning. And that’s all I thought w-would happen. By the time he returned, I hoped Harriet and Mr. Renney would have a h-head start.”

Julian said quietly, “What did the letter say?”