Family Scandals (25 page)

The evenings were peaceful. With the children in bed, the adults spent the time discussing their days, accomplishments, the children, politics and any number of things.

It was during one of these evening discussions Corinna broached the subject of her mother’s family.

Chapter Thirteen

Aunt Marian will be ecstatic! I cannot wait to see her expression when she meets Corinna. Now I know why you thought she looked familiar.

Eliza, Countess of Barrington, to her stepdaughter, Amanda, Countess of Wynton

Seated in the lavender drawing room after dinner, Corinna, Felicia and Eliza were discussing the gossip that had swept through the
ton
following Gregory and Ellen’s marriage, when Eliza mentioned having met her parents at Anna’s wedding.

“Although everyone was aware of the rift in your family, no one expected what happened when Gregory and Ellen married,” Eliza told Corinna. “Needless to say, people were scandalized, and it backfired on them.”

“On who?” Corinna asked.“Gregory and Ellen?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I think people saw it as vindictive without reason,” Eliza answered, then explained. “Step-marriages are often viewed dubiously, but rarely with the hostility your mother seemed to experience from her stepchildren. Often, the reasons are obvious for such a family rift, but in your mother’s case there didn’t seem to be any. Except for the fact that no one knew her background, there was nothing exceptional about her. I remember meeting her briefly at Anna’s wedding, but I don’t remember her very well. You weren’t there, though. I think I would have remembered a small child.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Corinna explained. “I would have been there, but two days before, Diana pushed me into the lake and I caught a chill. So I spent the day in bed with only my governess for company. I was disappointed because I had a new dress just for the occasion and didn’t get to wear it.”

“Why did Diana push you into the lake?” Felicia asked.“You couldn’t have been very old.”

“I was six,” Corinna replied with a shrug. “And Diana didn’t need a reason. That’s why my mother never allowed her to be alone with me. Mama said she was jealous because before I came along she was the youngest.”

“I suppose that could have explained it, but it doesn’t explain why the rest of the family disliked your mother so much,” Eliza replied.

“Viscount Dryden called her an adventuress and said she trapped Papa into marrying her,” Corinna elaborated. “He was just annoyed because Mama told him her grandfather was an earl, but she didn’t know him.”

Felicia laughed at that. “I’m sure he was. He and Lady Dryden are among the worst at claiming connections. If your mother couldn’t name her grandfather, he wouldn’t have had any use for her.”

“You don’t happen to know which earl it was?” Eliza asked.

Corinna shook her head. “No, but I would love to find out. There has to be someone who has heard the story. It’s unusual.”

“Tell us,” Felicia invited. “Between the two of us, we can probably find out.”

Corinna looked from one to the other. “Do you really think so?” she asked cautiously. “I’ve always wondered. But I’m sure he’s dead by now. I’ve wondered if it was possible to meet the current earl. I wouldn’t presume on any connection. I just want to know the story I’ve been told was true.”

“That is, if we don’t already know,” Eliza agreed with Felicia.

Her hopes rising, Corinna told them the story. “My grandmother ran away to marry my grandfather because her father refused to grant permission. He was considered too far beneath her, you see, so her father tried to keep them apart.”

Felicia smiled. “He obviously didn’t succeed.”

“No, but she had to die in order to protect my grandfather.”

“Die?” Eliza asked. “But, if she died, how…?”

“Oh, she didn’t really die,” Corinna interrupted. “She just made it look as if she did. She didn’t want her father to come after them, you see. I don’t know what she did, though, but her mother helped her.”

“Her mother helped?” Eliza asked, wonder in her voice. “So the rest of the family didn’t know she wasn’t really dead?” When Corinna nodded, Eliza clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening suddenly. The excitement that sprang into her eyes was unmistakable. “My word!” she exclaimed. “I don’t believe it.”

“Don’t believe what?” Felicia asked. “If you’ve already figured it out, let us in on the secret.”

Eliza looked at Felicia. “Do you remember what Aunt Marian’s favorite topic of conversation is?”

Felicia nodded and smiled broadly. “Of course. Anyone who spends more than five minutes in her company learns all there is to know about her sister—” She stopped abruptly and turned to stare at Corinna, recognition dawning in her eyes. “Connie,” she finished. Turning back to Eliza, she asked, “Connie wasn’t by any chance short for Constance, was it?”

“It was, why?” Eliza asked.

“Because that’s one of Corinna’s names—after her grandmother.”

“And Trent’s grandmother’s name was Corinna.” A smile blossomed across Eliza’s expressive features. “After all these years,” she said softly. “Aunt Marian will be elated and Cassie will be impossible to live with once she realizes she was right.”

“About what?” Corinna asked.

“You,” Eliza answered. “Cassie said we should give you a season because you
looked
like a Cookeson and we could pass you off as a long-lost cousin,” Eliza answered.

“Cookeson?”

“Cookeson is the family name of the Earls of Barrington. Trent’s father’s youngest sister, Constance, disappeared when she was only nineteen. She supposedly drowned in a boating accident, but her body was never found. Years later after Trent’s grandmother, Corinna, died, the family discovered letters from Constance exposing the subterfuge,” Eliza explained.

“Oh.” Corinna was dumbfounded.

Sitting back on the sofa in a bit of a fog, she couldn’t believe how easy it had been to find out the information she had craved all her life. She had always known her grandmother’s story was unusual, but she had never thought finding out what she wanted to know would be this simple.

The men entered and Eliza looked up at her husband and said gaily, “You’ll never believe what we’ve just discovered.”

Marcus sat beside Corinna. She looked up at him with a broad smile. Words tripped over her tongue and she couldn’t get out a coherent sentence.

“Corinna is your, um, second cousin, I think,” Eliza was telling Trent. “Her grandmother was Aunt Marian’s favorite topic of conversation.”

“You don’t say?” Trent turned questioning gray eyes in her direction and she could feel the blood rising in her face.

Eliza also turned to Corinna to explain. “Trent’s Aunt Marian has been trying to trace her sister for years, but with no success.”

“Oh,” was all Corinna could think to say. She was still trying to absorb the knowledge that she had found her grandmother’s family.

“I wish we had found you sooner,” Eliza said, “but it doesn’t matter now. Aunt Marian will be in alt.” Turning to Marcus, she said, “You’ll have to bring Corinna to London before the season starts to give her a chance to meet the rest of the family.”

Corinna was still awash in wonder as she climbed the staircase to her room sometime later. It just didn’t seem possible that it had been so easy. Her mind was still cataloguing all the details Eliza revealed about the family of the earls of Barrington.

Her grandmother had been the youngest of five children, of which Aunt Marian was the only one still left. Trent’s father, Trevor, had been the oldest, followed by a sister, Susannah, who married a Scottish earl. Griffin had been next, followed by Marian, then Constance.

Three years older than her younger sister, Marian had doted on Constance and was devastated by her apparent death. When the deception had been discovered after their mother’s death, she had immediately tried to find her sister, but had been thwarted by her father. It wasn’t until her father died five years later that she had been able to renew her efforts. By then, the trail, if there had ever been one, was completely lost.

Allowing Irma to help her get ready for bed, Corinna wandered into the sitting room after the maid left to wait for Marcus. Curling up in a chair before the fireplace, she contemplated the empty grate while she wondered when Marcus would join her.

Marcus stared moodily out of the window of the library. He was thinking about the conversation in the drawing room. Douglas and Trent had actually met—once. It was pointless speculation, but he could not help thinking that if Douglas had known, Corinna’s life would have been very different.

Eliza and Trent were open and generous to a fault. If they had known of Corinna’s relationship, they would not have hesitated to take her in after her parents’ deaths. And Trent would have ensured she received not only her season, but whatever her father had left her. She should also have received Douglas’s portion. Having ascertained that Douglas died nearly three weeks after his mother, Marcus knew Corinna was his only heir.

Finishing off the remainder of his brandy, he set down the glass on the sideboard, picked up a book from his desk, and left the room. Striding down the hall toward the master suite, he was aware of a sense of anticipation. Corinna would be waiting for him in the sitting room. It had become their nightly ritual, and she waited every night for him to kiss her goodnight. Unfortunately, that ritual was becoming exceedingly frustrating.

It was not a bad thing to desire one’s wife, but the last week had tested his limits severely. He was making inroads, he knew, as their kisses each night had become more involved and more passionate as the week progressed. He could wait a little longer, he told himself.

Their guests were leaving in another week, then he and Corinna would have the remainder of the summer to get to know each other better before braving London in the fall. He had been initially dreading their first appearance in the city, wondering how her family would react. Now, however, he was looking forward to a confrontation with Gregory. He had the feeling it would not be pleasant, but he admitted to himself that he relished informing Gregory and his uncle that their assessment of Corinna’s mother had been wrong.

He was also sure Corinna’s father had left her a sizeable inheritance and Gregory had misappropriated it. Not that he needed a dowry for her, but she needed to know she hadn’t been forgotten and left to the mercy of a brother her father knew would do nothing for her. She had confided in him she would like to retrieve her mother’s jewelry, some of which, he speculated, had probably come from the Barrington vaults. In particular, there was a spectacular diamond-and-ruby necklace and earring set that had been handed down from her great-grandmother. It would look dazzling on Corinna.

Additionally, he needed to put Douglas’s affairs in order. He knew Douglas’s bank account would still be in existence and it was substantial. His stepfather had treated Douglas as if he were his own son, providing him with a substantial quarterly allowance even while he was in India. Further, empty though it was, Douglas had held a minor title. The baronetcy no longer had lands attached because Camden Chase hadn’t been entailed and Douglas’s father had gambled it away. Douglas had dreamed of buying it back someday, but now that wasn’t to be. Absently he wondered if there was a new Baron Camden out there somewhere or if the title died with Douglas. He would have a solicitor look into it.

Entering his bedroom, he quickly shed his clothes and shrugged into the wine-velvet dressing gown Barnes left out for him. Crossing to the door on the other side of the room, he entered the sitting room, only to be stopped in his tracks at the sight of Corinna asleep in a chair before the fireplace.

He smiled to himself as he took in the slumbering figure swathed in russet silk. Curled up in the depths of a wingbacked chair, he was reminded of how small and defenseless she looked. True, she was taller than she had been that long-ago night, but there was still a vulnerability about her that brought out the protective instincts in him. Eight years ago he had pledged to love, honor, cherish and protect her. He might never love her, but he would honor, cherish and protect her come what may.

Approaching the chair, he bent and lifted her in his arms. Carrying her into her room, thankful she had left the door open, he laid her gently on the bed and pulled the coverlet up over her still form. She sighed and snuggled deeper into the pillow as he did so, and he smiled. Dropping a light kiss on her forehead, he left her to her dreams, closing the door softly behind him as he exited the room.

Chapter Fourteen

The evidence against him was quite real, however, as it had been his Countess who was orchestrating the campaign, through her family in France.

John, Duke of Warringham, in a letter to his son, Bertrand, Marquess of Lofton, October 1861

Alone at last!

Marcus decided he liked the sound of those three little words as he watched the last of the coaches carrying his brother, sister and their families roll down the drive.

One month.

That’s how long he and Corinna had before his sister and sister-in-law expected them to appear at Waring House in London. He would have been happy to remain at St. Ayers, but he knew Corinna was looking forward to her first taste of London. Until then, however, he intended to get to know his wife very well. Starting tonight.