Pleasures of a Tempted Lady (39 page)

An hour later, they were all sitting in the common room. Serena and Jonathan; Olivia and Max; Phoebe and Sebastian; Jessica and Mr. Briggs, who seemed to be doing their best not to look at each other. Thomas and Jake played with wooden wagons on the floor, and Meg and Will sat closely together as Meg recounted the story of what had happened to her after she and Jake had left Sebastian’s house in Prescot.

Her story was followed by Will’s, who told them how he’d predicted that Caversham would have taken Meg and Jake to sea. He told them how he’d first seen Meg floating in the water by the sun reflecting off something in her hand.

He turned to her, frowning. “What was that, anyhow?”

“I found a smashed mirror in the bilge where Caversham’s men kept me. I took a shard, meaning to use it to protect Jake and me.” She cringed. “I failed to use it in that respect, but when the whistle didn’t work to capture the
Endeavor
’s attention, I pulled it from my pocket and tried to make the sun reflect from it. But I was so cold and so tired…”

He slipped his arm around her, and she leaned into him, uncaring that her entire family was watching.

“I found you just in time,” he said, his voice breaking. “I jumped into the water… you had just started going under. I thought—I thought I’d lost you.”

“But you didn’t!” Jessica said brightly.

The darkness in Will’s face disappeared, and he turned to look at Jessica. “No. I didn’t.”

“So,” Jonathan said, “Caversham is gone.”

Will nodded.

“But the Marquis of Millbridge isn’t,” Serena said darkly. She sat in a small armchair across from them, her arms draped protectively over her growing abdomen.

“And he’s as much a part of this conspiracy as Caversham was,” Mr. Briggs said. He was the only one of them who hadn’t taken a seat. He stood, his hands clasped behind his back and his feet spaced apart, in a stiff, military posture. “In fact, I believe he was the mastermind.”

“The mastermind of what, though?” Sebastian asked.

Briggs turned to Will. “We discovered a large cache of weapons in a druid cave not far from here. We have confirmed that Caversham wasn’t only smuggling rum, but weapons as well.”

“For what purpose?” Will asked.

“That’s what we don’t know.”

“I know!”

Everyone’s attention jerked to Jake. Meg hadn’t even been aware that he was listening.

She slid off the couch and knelt beside him on the floor. “Jake, darling, do you know why your papa was collecting all those weapons?”

“He’s not my papa anymore,” Jake said, his expression blank. “He’s dead now, so he can’t be my papa.”

Thank God, Meg thought. She didn’t look at her family, but she could sense their distress. What a horrible thing for a child to say. And yet, Caversham had never, ever been a
father
to Jake.

Jake looked down at his wagon again and began to roll it on the carpet.

“Jake,” Meg asked softly. “What was it that Mr. Caversham planned to do with all those weapons?”

Jake spoke flatly, concentrating on his wagon. “He’s going to blow Princess Victoria to bits.” He looked up at Meg. “But he’s dead now, so he won’t do that, will he? Princess Victoria is eleven, two times my age minus one. I don’t want her blown to bits.”

Chapter Twenty-four

T
he room went silent. Ten adults stared at the six-year-old boy sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Finally, Meg spoke. In a quiet voice, she asked, “Jake, this is very serious. Are you sure?”

Frowning, he looked up from the wagon he’d gone back to rolling on the wood floor. “Yes.”

“When?” Max asked in a choked voice.

Jake shrugged and adjusted one of the wheels on the toy wagon, apparently finished with this conversation.

Meg looked up at her brother-in-law. “I think I might be able to answer the ‘when.’ Caversham said he needed to be in Oxfordshire by the end of the month. Perhaps it will be then?”

“In Oxfordshire?” asked Phoebe. “Why Oxfordshire?”

Jonathan made a low noise of distress in his throat. “The princess and her mother have just left London for a tour of the midlands. They’ll certainly pass through the area.”

“Damn,” Max murmured under his breath. Everyone looked at him in shock—it wasn’t like Max to curse in front of the ladies. He looked at them all, his dark eyes bleak. “The Marquis of Millbridge’s seat, Barkwood Abbey, is in Abingdon… in Oxfordshire.”

“It would make sense,” Jonathan said, “for the marquis to invite Victoria and her mother to his country home.”

Serena’s hand moved from her belly to cover her mouth. “Do you truly believe he’ll attempt to murder Princess Victoria in his own home?”

“But why would the Marquis of Millbridge and Caversham wish to murder an innocent child to begin with?” Phoebe asked.

David Briggs cleared his throat. “I might be able to answer that.”

Everyone turned to him. “Go on, man,” Will urged. “Tell us.”

“When we first arrived, Miss Jessica and I found that the man who’d given me information on my previous visit to Penzance was… ah…” He paused to look down at the boys. “No longer with us,” he finished.

He paused again, allowing the implications of that to sink in. Meg’s stomach hurt. How many innocents had Caversham killed over the years? How many had she seen him kill? And he’d planned to murder a princess of England. Why hadn’t she tried to stop him sooner?

“Though the elder fisherman was… er… indisposed, his son was forthcoming with information,” Mr. Briggs continued. “He told us about how Caversham was against the Catholic Emancipation Bill Wellington passed last year.”

Meg nodded. She remembered that well. Caversham had been furious when the bill had passed. It hadn’t
helped that Sarah was dying. She’d tried to keep Jake as far from him as possible during that time, lest he took his frustration out on his son.

“The Marquis of Millbridge lobbied extensively against that bill,” Jonathan murmured.

“As did the Duke of Cumberland,” Mr. Briggs said, “the king’s younger brother.”

“What are you getting at, Briggs?” Will asked.

“I think he wants to raise Cumberland to the throne once the king dies. And as we all know, the king is very ill. It could be any day.”

“Impossible!” Serena exclaimed. “There are two people to prevent Cumberland’s accession—William, the Duke of Clarence, is his older brother, and then there is Princess Victoria.”

“But as the boy said, he has plans to assassinate Victoria. Perhaps he has plans to eliminate William, too,” Mr. Briggs said.

“William?” Jake looked up from his wagon. “Captain Will?”

“No,” Meg murmured soothingly. “This is a different William. This man is a duke, not a captain.”

Jake looked at her, his blue eyes like saucers. He blew out a big relieved breath, his cheeks puffing. “That’s good. Because Papa told me he was going to blow that William and Victoria
both
to bits.” He shuddered. “And he said I could visit my uncle, the marquis, and that we would all watch it together. You won’t make me watch them being blown to bits, will you, Meg?”

Everything went quickly from there. Mr. Briggs had set up spies at the cave he’d gone to with Jessica, and that day,
they reported that a group of men had come with two covered wagons, into which they’d transferred the weapons and headed in the direction of Abingdon.

Upon hearing this news, Max had presented the evidence they’d accumulated to the local authorities. The magistrates rode out and stopped the small caravan that very night. They took the men involved in for questioning, and though they admitted an association to Caversham and that they’d been hired to transport the wagons—one to Abingdon and one to Bushy House, the home of the Duke of Clarence—they swore they didn’t know what the weapons were to be used for.

Meg and her family rushed back to London, leaving Mr. Briggs with the
Freedom
and instructions to sail the ship to London, and Mr. Halliday with the
Endeavor
and orders to return to Liverpool.

In London, Will and her brothers-in-law presented the evidence they’d gathered to the Metropolitan Police, who commandeered the explosives in the warehouse at the London docks and sent officers to Barkwood Abbey and Bushy House on the last day of May. William, the Duke of Clarence and his wife, Adelaide, were in residence at Bushy House, but there was no sign of any intruders—the magistrates had stopped the intended attack back in Penzance.

However, the authorities found the princess, her mother, and the Marquis of Millbridge all in residence at Barkwood Abbey. The house was raided under a search warrant. The princess, her mother, and the duke were held in a safe place and Millbridge was questioned.

As Meg waited nervously with her sisters in London, the authorities found a hidden safe containing damning
evidence in the form of receipts for contraband goods, the money for which Millbridge and Caversham had used to purchase the explosives and weapons.

It all came together in a clear story of conspiracy: Millbridge and Caversham had indeed intended to assassinate both Victoria and William, leaving the Duke of Cumberland as heir to a throne that would likely be vacant in a matter of weeks. They’d intended to burn Bushy House while the duke and duchess were in residence, and at Barkwood Abbey, Millbridge and Caversham had planned to “take a walk on the grounds” with their families as firebombs fell upon the marquis’s house, destroying it and everyone—including Princess Victoria—inside.

Later, under questioning, the ten men arrested back in Penzance—all Irish Protestants recruited by Caversham two years ago—admitted that Caversham had paid them a thousand pounds each to destroy Barkwood Abbey and Bushy House. Their job was to ensure everyone inside was dead—most importantly the princess and the Duke of Clarence—then hide themselves and their weapons in a safe house in Oxford. The men were ex-Navy sailors. Now, instead of blowing an enemy ship apart in order to sink it, they intended to blow the houses apart and then burn them to the ground, while two snipers would keep an eye on each house, ensuring that the targets didn’t escape alive.

No evidence was ever found that the Duke of Cumberland had been involved in the conspiracy to raise him to the throne. While he’d been acquainted with the marquis and had agreed with him on a political level, the duke had always believed the marquis to be overly fanatical about the Protestant/Catholic situation.

The Marquis of Millbridge held on to his claims of innocence until the end, blaming his brother Caversham for the entire conspiracy. He only broke when he was finally convicted of treason.

He said it had been worth it. He’d given everything for the cause. Now he only hoped that others would follow him.

He was hung for treason that autumn.

On a crisp morning in November, the Donovan sisters gathered in Serena’s bedroom at Stratford House in Sussex. The sisters had all arrived at Stratford House last month for the birth of Serena’s son, William. Upon learning the baby’s name, most of society assumed he was named after the current king, for William IV, the old Duke of Clarence, who had taken the throne after the king died in late June. The family knew differently, though—Serena and Jonathan’s baby was named after Captain William Langley.

It seemed right to Meg to have her wedding here, at the small chapel where her sister and Jonathan had been married two years ago.

The four of them—her, Will, Serena, and Jonathan—had decided that Serena would keep the name “Meg” and Meg would be “Serena” henceforth, to everyone but family. It would be just too difficult to explain all that had happened with the switch in their identities to everyone they encountered. It would be best for all if they kept their twisted stories a secret to the outside world.

There was still an element in both Serena and Meg that wanted to preserve their mother’s reputation, as well. It was the final proof to both of them that there had
always been something in their mother worth protecting, even as misguided as she’d been in forcing Serena to “become” Meg.

Meg’s gown was simple but elegant—beautifully embroidered white lace over a white satin under dress, low-cut at the bosom with off-the-shoulder sleeves. Narrow around the waist, its two flounces made it wide at the bottom. She wore an emerald-encrusted bandeau about her head with a matching necklace, bracelet, and earrings—the jewelry had been a gift from her married sisters and their husbands.

“There,” Olivia said softly. She’d just pinned the garland of white roses to Meg’s embroidered lace veil, which fell almost to the floor. “Now it’s Jess’s turn.”

“Please hurry,” Jessica said. “We’re going to be late.”

“We are not!” Phoebe exclaimed. “We’ve loads of time.”

Meg grinned. “Jess has been overanxious for this moment ever since Mr. Briggs returned to London on the
Freedom
and formally asked us for her hand.”

Mr. Briggs, not knowing who to formally address for Jessica’s hand, had asked the entire family, including Will, who was formally betrothed to Meg by this time, to meet him in Max’s London drawing room. He’d faced them all and, in a shaking voice, had asked them all for the honor of marrying Miss Jessica Donovan. His nervousness alone had won Meg’s heart—though she couldn’t rightly blame him for it. She’d have been equally nervous facing so many potentially hostile Donovans.

No one had said no to Mr. Briggs, though the men had put him through some rather vigorous questioning.

“Do you intend to take her to sea?” Max had asked.

“If she wishes it,” came Mr. Briggs’s ready answer.

“How will you support her?” Sebastian had asked. That had been the primary concern when he’d married Phoebe.

“I have gone into partnership with Captain Langley. As the company grows, I shall continue to invest in it, and in other endeavors I believe will be profitable.”

All three of Meg’s brothers-in-law had great respect for Will’s shipping business, so that had satisfied them.

“Where will you live?” Jonathan asked.

“I have a small house in London, but I’ve the funds to purchase another. I know Miss Jessica wishes to remain as close to her sisters as possible, so we’ll decide together where we’ll live.”