Seduced At Sunset (24 page)

He stepped into view as well, and Adelaide immediately
went to greet him. “How lovely to see you, Mr. Torrington. Please come in.
Allow me to introduce my...” She paused. “This is my fiancé, Dr. William
Thomas. William, this is Mr. Drake Torrington, the gentleman who came to
Charlotte’s rescue when she was attacked by the thief a few weeks ago.”

Charlotte laughed out loud. “Fiancé?”

Adelaide smiled and nodded. “Yes.”

“Oh, Mother, that is wonderful news!” Charlotte hugged
her.

Meanwhile, Mr. Torrington was slowly moving into the
library, frowning at William, who regarded him with astonishment. Neither made
a move to shake hands.

Charlotte and Adelaide exchanged uneasy glances.

“Do you two know each other?” Charlotte asked.

Mr. Torrington raked a hand through his hair. “Yes, I am
afraid we do.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Charlotte laid a hand on Drake’s sleeve. “Is something
wrong?”

He shook his head in disbelief. Then he frowned at her.
“Is this the successful result of your matchmaking?”

She stammered slightly. “I... I am not sure. It appears
so.” She turned to William. “You two are really getting married?”

“Yes,” he said.

Charlotte hurried to hug him. “I am so happy for you both.
Congratulations.”

“Wait a minute,” Drake said. “Before you all run off to
celebrate, I will have you know that I just spent the past hour consoling my
mother, who was, a short time ago, jilted by this man without any explanation
whatsoever. So this is what you have been up to, is it?” he said to William.
“Carrying on liaisons with two women at once? Do you have any idea the hurt you
have caused?”

Charlotte looked down at Drake’s fists clenching and
flexing, and felt a sickening dread roll over her.

“I don’t understand what you are implying,” Charlotte
said. “Do you mean to suggest that the woman Dr. Thomas has been courting was
your mother
?”

His angry gaze shot to hers. “Yes.”

Charlotte backed away from Drake, then looked up at
William, the man who was her real father
and
her
mother’s lifelong love. As she recalled Mrs. Torrington’s cruelty earlier that
day, she simply could not think of herself. “Well,” she said decisively, “if he
has extricated himself from that relationship, I can only say
bravo.
”

“I beg your pardon?” Drake replied.

She squared her shoulders. “Allow me to explain. Today I
had the pleasure of meeting your mother. Did she not tell you? I paid a call,
you see, hoping to learn why you ignored my letter and did not wish for me to
join you on the river this morning. But that is beside the point. What matters
is that your mother was grossly disrespectful to me.”

“How so?” he asked.

“She informed me that you had not come home to take part
in a... what was the word she used? Oh yes, a ‘torrid
’
affair. She called me a desperate spinster and told me to go back to the
country and spare myself any further humiliation where you are concerned.”

Drake’s lips pressed together in an angry grimace.

William’s head drew back in surprise. “She said that to
you? Are we speaking of the same woman? Dorothea Torrington?”

“Yes,” Charlotte replied. “She treated me like dirt on the
underside of her boot. And
you
...” She turned to
Drake again. “You left me humiliated indeed! I waited until seven o’clock this
morning, but clearly you preferred to row alone.”

No one said anything for a full ten seconds. The fire
snapped noisily in the grate and an explosion of sparks discharged up the
chimney.

Then Garrett appeared in the doorway. “What the devil is
going on in here?” he asked. “I heard shouting.”

“No one is shouting,” Adelaide replied, holding out her
hands to push down the tension in the room. “There has just been a
misunderstanding. That is all.”

Garrett turned his narrowed gaze toward Drake. “Good
evening, sir,” he said in a rather threatening tone that caused Charlotte to
glance down at Drake’s hands again. He was still flexing and squeezing those
big brawny fists.

“Good evening,” Drake replied. Then, without waiting for
an introduction, he strode out of the library, shouldering his way past
Garrett. He walked out of the house and slammed the door violently behind him.

Charlotte ran to follow, but Garrett grabbed hold of her
arm and held her back. “Let him go,” he said.

“But you don’t understand! You don’t know what has
happened.”

“I saw the look in his eye,” Garrett said. “He was fit to
be tied. Is that the boxer?”

“The retired boxer,” she clarified. “And yes, that was Mr.
Torrington.”

Gone now. Walked out of her life—probably for good.

Garrett turned to Adelaide. He glanced at her left hand.
“Good Lord, is that a boulder on your finger?”

Charlotte turned to look as well, and despite everything,
felt a deep stirring of happiness when her mother lifted her hand.

“William gave it to me tonight,” she said. “He has
proposed, and I have accepted.”

Charlotte and Garrett moved together across the carpet,
their footsteps perfectly in sync, and embraced their parents.

“I am so happy for you,” Charlotte said. “This is the most
wonderful news I could ever hope for.”

No more was said about the awkward confrontation with Mr.
Torrington, for no one wanted to spoil a precious event that was a long time
coming and deserved to be celebrated to the fullest.

Drake burst through the front door of his house and
dashed up the stairs.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With a tight fist, he pounded on his mother’s door until
it rattled on the hinges. “Open up, Mother!” he shouted. “I must speak with
you.”

He heard the sounds of the bed creaking and the shuffling
of her footsteps across the floor. The door swung open.

“Where have you been?” she asked, her eyes puffy and red.

“I was out seeking answers,” Drake replied. “I went to
confront Dr. Thomas, only to find him in the company of another woman. Did you
know about that?”

She regarded him with a furrowed brow. “I suspected as
much and should have known better. He is a dishonorable philanderer, just like
your father.”

“But what do you know about the other woman?” Drake
pressed as he followed her into the room. “Was there an agreement between you
and Doctor Thomas? Did he actually propose?”

His mother glared at him with derision. “No. But all the
signs were there. He led me to believe—”

“You believed what you
wanted
to
believe, Mother. If there was no proposal, there was no promise of anything.
Yet you wrote to me in America and asked me to come home to arrange for your
future as a married woman. If anyone misled anyone, it was
you
.
But that is not the worst of it. I saw Lady Charlotte tonight, and I know it is
her
mother, the Dowager Duchess of Pembroke, who has
stolen your alleged fiancé away from you. Charlotte told me what you said to
her when she paid a call here this afternoon. Do you know what I am referring
to?”

Eyes as wide as saucers, his mother stared at him
intensely, then hobbled to the chair before the fire and collapsed into it.
“She was the duchess’s daughter. I didn’t want you to see her anymore.”

“Why not?”

She swung her gaze up at him. “Because her mother was my
rival! For two years, the dowager remained in the country, and William began to
forget her. I like to believe I helped him to finally give her up, but then
Lady Charlotte took a stroll down our street and fell victim to a purse thief.
If not for that incident, they would not have stayed in London. Fate is cruel
beast, Drake!
You,
my only son
,
are the reason the dowager got in my way. What were the odds? Everyone knows
Lady Charlotte is as reclusive as you are, living under the pretense of being a
writer.”

“There is no pretense,” he told her, for he could not
stomach the inaccuracy. “Lady Charlotte’s work has been published. And very
successfully.” He would leave it at that.

“Oh, what does it matter?” his mother said. “It is over
now. William has cut me from his heart and his life, and I must accept it. I
should have known I could never be so fortunate as to have a man like him for a
husband. I had such high hopes though. I thought there might be happiness in my
future, but my whole existence has been a tragedy from start to finish. Why do
I keep hoping?”

Drake’s temper cooled and grew quiet as he watched his
mother stare miserably into the dancing flames of the hearth.

He had never felt close to her in the past, for his father
was always the dominant figure in the house. He overshadowed any affection that
could have existed. Drake had been too busy defending himself from beatings,
and later, simply withdrawing to the extent of a transatlantic crossing.

But what about his mother, who had remained here at her
post, living through the loss of her two daughters and the appalling violent
boxing career of her only living son? Drake remembered how he came home night
after night—in a wretched state, barely able to stand, spitting blood, his
face swollen and bruised, his ribs broken. Mrs. March had always tended to his
wounds. The footmen, occasionally, had been required to carry him upstairs to
bed.

No wonder his mother had been happy to see him leave the
country, knowing he would give up the sport. If one could call boxing a sport
in his case.

Yet he had always resented her. Was it time for change?

Slowly, he moved forward and crouched down at her feet. He
took both her hands in his and spoke gently. “I am sorry your relationship
ended badly. But I need to know... What did you say to Lady Charlotte today?
You must tell me.”

Her mournful eyes lifted. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help
myself. It was selfish of me. I won’t deny it. I just wanted her to disappear.”

He took a few deep breaths. “Did she send a letter? Did
you keep it from me?”

She looked down at her lap. “Yes. I burned it.”

Drake imagined how pleased he would have been to receive
such a letter from Charlotte, a request to join him on the river that morning.
He would have been there to pick her up at precisely six o’clock. He would not
have been a single moment late.

“She told me you said some unpleasant things to her. Is
that true?”

His mother nodded, then bowed her head. “I am ashamed. You
should go back to America now and never speak to me again, Drake. I wouldn’t
blame you for it. God knows I deserve it.”

He squeezed her hands. “Your life hasn’t been easy, and
you deserve happiness, Mother, as we all do. I don’t want to leave you, but I
do
want you to do something for me. Can you get dressed?”

Her weary eyes met his, and she cupped his cheek in her
hand. “I will do anything for you, Drake, for you are my only son. All I want
is your forgiveness. Not just for today, but for all of it. You know what I am
talking about.”

Yes, he knew.

He kissed her hand. “Of course I will forgive you, Mother,
if you will forgive me as well for deserting you and for staying away so long.
But please... I need you to get up and come with me now. Will you do that?”

She nodded and rose to her feet.

Two hours later, Charlotte was slouching low on the sofa
in the drawing room, sipping her third glass of Scottish whisky.

Adelaide, William, and Garrett had done their best to
cheer her up by inviting her to play cards, but she had no interest in table
games, for she just watched the man she loved walk out of her house in a
terrible temper with a look of absolute loathing in his eyes.

‘You shouldn’t meddle in other people’s love affairs,’ he
had once said to her. Little did he know it was his own mother she was scheming
against, working to break up the courtship that had no doubt been at the summit
of all his mother’s hopes and dreams. How could Charlotte blame Mrs.
Torrington? William was a handsome and extraordinary man. She must have been
madly in love with him.