Snowbound With the Notorious Rake (19 page)

It was all over in a minute. Magnus was no match for Lawrence’s superior strength and Rose heard him cry out, ‘Enough, enough!’

Without taking his attention from Magnus, Lawrence jumped to his feet and took the pistol from Rose’s shaking hands.

‘Well, I think the tables are well and truly turned now,’ he ground out. ‘Get up, Emsleigh; it is time we took you to the magistrate.’

Magnus stood up, brushing the dust from his sleeve with rough, angry movements. He glared at Rose.

‘So he has you in thrall, too. Just like my poor sister.’

‘I am under no illusions about Sir Lawrence,’ she retorted. ‘But I would see justice done.’

‘Justice!’ Magnus gave a savage laugh. ‘After all I have done for Mersecombe, providing alms for the poor, supporting your wretched school—’

‘And bankrupting yourself with your excessive spending,’ broke in Lawrence. ‘Not that the people of Mersecombe know anything of that. You confined
your gambling to your trips to Bristol and Bath; I made enquiries there before I came to Mersecombe and found you lost a small fortune in Bath last winter.’

‘As did many others!’ Magnus threw at him.

‘Undoubtedly, but you have been obliged to live on credit since then, have you not? That is why you needed the insurance, to pay your debts.’ Lawrence paused. ‘I am surprised you did not get yourself a rich wife.’

‘I tried,’ he retorted bitterly. ‘A rich widow, in charge of her own fortune, would have solved all my difficulties. There are any number of ’em in Bath, but they were all so damned cautious, wanting to know the state of my finances!’

‘But you had asked me to marry you,’ objected Rose. ‘We were betrothed.’

His lip curled. ‘And what did you have to offer me? A brat of your own and a worthless mine! If I could have secured a woman of sufficient means I would have found some way to break our engagement. But by the time I came back to Mersecombe I had already decided there was only one way to solve my problems. I could still raise enough funds for one last venture, so I loaded the
Sealark
with cargo and took out the insurance. But I needed somewhere to hide the cargo. Hades Mine was the obvious choice. It was an excellent plan.’ His malevolent glance shifted to Rose. ‘Then you decided to postpone our wedding. Not only that, you would not allow me to open up the mine. Damnation, if you had consented, then no one would have thought twice when they saw pack ponies on the road. I could have moved the cargo out months ago and sold it.’

‘I am glad I thwarted you,’ said Rose. ‘Even if it was unwittingly done.’ She shivered. ‘Let us get out of this horrid place. We will take him to Sir Jonas Pullen. He will know what to do.’

Lawrence gestured to Magnus to go first, but even as they began to move, footsteps echoed through the tunnel. A high, nervous voice called out and Rose halted.

‘Sam!’ Her cry was shrill with alarm.

‘Mama, Sir Lawrence? Are you here?’

‘No, no, Sam, go back!’

‘Sam, stop, don’t come any further!’

Rose and Lawrence shouted at the same time, their voices bouncing off the walls, distorting into an unrecognisable cacophony of noise. It drowned out any further footsteps, but even as the echoes died away Sam hurtled around the corner, directly into Magnus’s arms.

Rose watched in horror as Magnus gripped Sam’s shoulders, pinning the boy in front of him like a shield.

‘You should have shot me while you had the chance, Daunton.’ He cursed as Sam squirmed and wriggled to free himself. ‘Be still, Samuel, or it will be the worse for you! Well, Daunton, what do you say now? How good is your aim in this light, with a strange weapon? You have only my head and shoulders to aim for. Will you risk hitting the boy?’

‘You know I won’t,’ said Lawrence, lowering the pistol.

‘Very sensible.’ Magnus began to back along the tunnel. ‘You will both stay where you are. If I see you following us out of the mine, then I will break the boy’s neck, do you understand?’

‘Mama!’

Sam’s distressed cry ripped at her heart

‘It’s all right, my love, I’m—’

‘Get back,’ snapped Magnus as Rose reached out for her son. ‘He will be safe as long as you do as you are told.’

‘Sam, remember what I taught you—about staying safe?’ She heard Lawrence’s voice beside her, calm and reassuring. Sam stopped wriggling. Lawrence said, ‘Do it now, lad. Make it count.’

Sam’s little hands clenched into fists and he jabbed his elbow with all his force into Magnus’s groin. Magnus doubled up, shock and surprise loosening his grip, and Sam jumped away. Almost immediately a shot rang out and Magnus jerked back against the wall of the mine, clutching at his shoulder.

Lawrence gave a grunt of satisfaction. ‘Not bad, even with a strange weapon. How is the boy?’

‘Unharmed, thank heaven.’ Rose had gathered Sam in her arms and was holding him tightly. ‘I think,’ she said unsteadily, ‘I would like to go home now.’

Rose walked around the little sitting room at Bluebell Cottage, trying not to give in to the anxious thoughts and questions that threatened to overwhelm her. It was late, everyone else had gone to bed, but Lawrence had promised to come back once Magnus was safely locked up and she knew he would keep his word.

Before they left the mine, she had bound up Magnus’s shoulder as best she could, then left Lawrence to take him to Sir Jonas Pullen while she took Sam home.
Their arrival had coincided with Mrs Molland’s return from Minehead and it was only to be expected that Sam would want to tell his grandmother all about his adventure.

The tale was recounted and revisited many times over dinner. Mrs Molland exclaimed over Magnus Emsleigh’s villainy and praised Sir Lawrence’s bravery, but she was mildly reproachful of her daughter and grandson for their foolishness in going to Hades Mine at all.

‘But if Mama had not gone, then Sir Lawrence might well have been killed,’ argued Sam, not at all chastened by the gentle rebuke.

Rose had been at pains to make light of her part in the proceedings and she was a little shocked at her young son’s astute grasp of the situation. Her head was still buzzing with all that had occurred and she desperately wanted to be alone, so she was grateful when, soon after they had finished dinner, Mrs Molland declared that she would take Sam up to bed.

‘He is far too excited to sleep,’ she said when she rejoined Rose in the sitting room some time later. ‘I have left Janet with him, and he is telling her of his adventure. He thinks of Sir Lawrence as quite the hero of the hour.’ When Rose did not reply she added, ‘I think we should invite him to call, that we may thank him properly.’

‘We shall see.’

‘You are not minded to receive him?’

‘I do not deny that he was very brave, but it does not alter the fact that he is a libertine.’

‘But perhaps it puts him in a slightly better light.’

‘Mama, Althea Emsleigh is carrying his child!’ Rose spread her hands. ‘What would you have me do?’

Mrs Molland sighed.

‘I do not know, but I admit I am seriously disappointed. I had begun to think that Sir Lawrence was just the man for you.’

She had risen then, and gone to bed, leaving Rose to pace up and down and wait for a knock on the door.

It came just after midnight.

‘I saw your candle in your window.’ Sir Lawrence stepped into the hall. It had started to snow and the shoulders of his jacket sparkled with a frosty dusting. ‘How is Sam?’

‘Sleeping peacefully. He is very resilient. He spotted me on the hill, riding down to Hades Cove, and decided to follow.’

‘And how are you?’

Rose evaded his searching gaze.

‘A little tired.’

She led him into the sitting room, where she had banked up the fire.

‘I did not expect to be so late.’

He removed his hat and Rose looked intently at him for signs of injury. Apart from an angry graze on his temple there was no sign of the wound he had suffered; the cut itself was covered by his thick dark hair.

‘Sir Jonas agreed to put Emsleigh in the lock-up, but insisted upon going back to the mine to see for himself. Abel Wooler was with him when I arrived. He had just
finished making his deposition, so Sir Jonas already knew most of the story.’ He held his hands out to the fire. ‘We replaced the boards across the entrance and he has set a couple of stout fellows to guard it, until the goods can be moved.’

Rose watched him as he gazed silently into the fire. She was looking for similarities with her late husband. Harry had been floridly handsome; there was nothing florid about Lawrence. He was lean and dark with a slow smile that set her pulse racing in a way that Harry’s boyish grin had never done. Harry had been incorrigible. Whenever she had confronted him with his latest transgression, be it heavy losses at the gaming table, or another woman, he would always react in the same way: first the denial, then the apology. Time and again he had promised her that this indiscretion would be his last; time and again she had believed him…

Lawrence straightened and turned to look at her, his eyes sombre.

‘I am sorry, I should have trusted you. I should have told you I was investigating the loss of the
Sealark
.’

‘I thought you had come to Mersecombe to find me.’

‘I gave you my word I would not do that. An old friend asked me to investigate the loss of the
Sealark
, to find out if it really was an accident. He is one of those standing surety for the loss, and very reluctant to pay out if it was a fraud.’ A wry smile twisted his lips. ‘Knowing you were here made me keener to accept.’

‘But for all you knew I might have been married!’ she challenged him.

He shrugged.

‘I knew that, but I needed to know. When I found you had postponed the wedding I thought…I hoped there might be a chance for us…’

Rose put up her hand. She did not want to hear any more of his hopes.

‘That explains your frequent visits to the Woolers—you were questioning Abel.’

‘Yes.’

‘And you befriended Sam to get to me?’

‘No—not exactly. If Sam had not been your son, I would have treated him just the same. He is a fine boy.’ She turned away, unable to meet his gaze. He said quietly, ‘I have changed, Rose. After you left me last Christmas I wanted to prove I could do so—to myself as well as to you. It was not hard to give up the rakehell lifestyle I had been living, but it was harder not to come and find you. When I had an excuse to come back I took it, but returning to Knightscote revived all the memories of those few precious days we shared. It was bad enough in London, constantly thinking of you, wondering what you were doing, if you were happy, but back at Knightscote—I kept opening doors and expecting to see you there. Even riding the moor I am reminded of you—I see your eyes in the blue-grey rocks, hear your laughter in the babbling of the stream.’ He reached out for her. ‘I cannot bear us to be apart any longer, Rose—’

‘Impossible! Please, say no more!’ Tears scalded her eyes, but she would not let them fall. She walked away so that he could not see her trembling lip.

‘Impossible? No, why do you say that?’

Anger at his insouciance made her turn back.

‘What about Althea? Will you still marry her?’

His black brows drew together.

‘I have never had any intention of marrying her! If she expected that little outburst last night to persuade me, then I am sorry for it, but she has been deceiving herself.’

Just like Harry.

Hot, boiling fury erupted inside her. If there had been a knife to hand, she would have plunged it into him.

‘A rake to the last,’ she raged. ‘Get out!’

‘Rose, I have already sworn to you—I have had nothing to do with Althea Emsleigh.’

‘And you expect me to believe that?’

‘Yes! Do you think a woman cannot lie?’

‘A woman could not lie about such a thing.’

‘Perhaps
you
could not, but—’

‘Get out! I never want to see you again. Ever.’

Lawrence stared at the rigid figure before him. She was shaking, her face paper white.

‘Perhaps, in the morning…’

‘No—never,’ she spat at him. She put out her hand to clutch at the back of a nearby chair, breathing deeply so that when she spoke again her voice was low and held barely a quaver. ‘You will not darken my door again and you will not see or speak to my son. We shall be leaving Mersecombe as soon as I can make arrangements, but until that time it shall be as if you never existed. Do you understand me?’

Lawrence straightened, overcome by a dark, despairing anger. It had been a very long day, his body ached
from the blows he had sustained and the cut on his head throbbed painfully. He had successfully concluded his investigation and exposed Magnus Emsleigh for the villain he really was. He shook his head, saying angrily, ‘I did not come here to be rewarded, but to be so summarily dismissed is harsh indeed!’

‘You have brought it upon yourself.’

‘You have made yourself both judge and jury and have found me guilty without giving me any chance to defend myself!’

She shook her head, her hand coming up in a little gesture of denial. Lawrence fought down the angry words that crowded his head. In time she might know that she was wrong, but he had already spent a whole year trying to prove his worth to her. Enough was enough. He scooped up his hat.

‘I cannot make you trust me,’ he said quietly. ‘You have made it perfectly clear tonight that you do not want to try. I know that you have had one bad husband and you came pretty close to taking a second. I understand that. It is enough to make anyone wary, so I shall not trouble you again. But I beg you will remember I am, always have been and always will be your humble servant.’

With a final stiff little bow he turned on his heel and walked out of the house.

R
ose heard the front door slam, then the silence of the sleeping house pressed in around her. She closed her eyes.

‘I was right to send him away.’

She felt the hot tears squeezing out and running down her cheeks. Angrily she brushed them away. She must stop this, she had wasted tears enough. From now on the only man in her life would be her son.

Rose was determined to avoid Lawrence at all costs and when Sir Jonas called upon her the next day she cautiously enquired if she would have to give evidence.

‘No, no, I will take statements from you and your boy and that should suffice. Sir Lawrence doesn’t see any need for you to go all the way to London.’

‘London!’

‘Aye. Emsleigh’s being taken there now. We arrested
Captain Morris this morning, too, and put him in the same coach. Sir Lawrence is helping my men to escort the pair of them.’ He shook his head. ‘A bad business, this. When Abel Wooler came to see me yesterday I was much inclined to dismiss him—after all, it was his word against the captain and the rest of the crew. Not only that, but he was accusing Emsleigh of being behind it, one of our foremost citizens! But then Sir Lawrence turned up, and once I had seen for myself the cargo stashed away in Hades Mine I realised there would be a case to answer.’

‘What will happen to Abel?’ asked Rose, momentarily diverted from her own unhappiness. ‘He signed the original affidavit, did he not, to say that the ship and cargo had been lost?’

Sir Jonas pursed his lips.

‘Aye, he did, but as Sir Lawrence pointed out, Wooler had just lost his brother and was out of his mind with grief at that time. As soon as he came to his senses he realised the error of his ways and came to me to confess. I have been to see him this morning and told him he’d nothing to fear as long as he has told me the truth.’

Rose looked down at her hands.

‘And…will Sir Lawrence be in London for long?’ she asked casually.

‘Oh, most likely. He told me he means to sell Knightscote—seems this business has given him a dislike for the place.’

‘Well, then, that’s settled,’ she murmured, almost to herself.

Rose was slightly shocked to feel so bereft and sought for some occupation to fill her day. In the end she decided to accompany Sam to the stables, where he was to go riding with Evans. She changed into her riding habit and was just stepping out of the door with Sam when Janet returned from the market, her basket piled up with food.

‘Well, here’s a to-do and no mistake,’ she announced as they stepped back to let her come in through the gate. ‘All over the village, it is. Mr Emsleigh taken off to Lunnon to stand trial and Miss Emsleigh—’

‘Yes, Janet, I know.’ Rose hastily interrupted her. ‘I am going to visit Miss Emsleigh now, to offer her any assistance I can.’

Janet stopped and stared at her, frowning.

‘You never are. After what she said—’

‘I was very nearly her sister,’ Rose reminded her. ‘I cannot abandon her in her hour of need.’

‘
Her
need!’ Janet snorted. ‘Why, her maid’s been tellin’—’

‘I will not listen to gossip, Janet, and neither should you. Come along, Sam!’

Rose grabbed her son’s hand and hurried him out into the lane.

‘What is wrong with Miss Emsleigh, Mama?’ Sam turned his innocent eyes up to her.

‘She is being blamed for her brother’s villainy,’ Rose replied, her cheeks flushed with indignation. ‘She has been cruelly used!’

She looked and sounded so fierce when she said this
that Sam dared not say more, and they continued in silence to the stables.

‘I beg your pardon, ma’am,’ exclaimed Evans, surprised. ‘I did not know you were planning to ride out with us and I have not saddled your mare…’

‘I only decided this morning that I should like some exercise.’ She made sure that Sam was out of earshot and continued quietly, ‘I shall have to make arrangements for the pony to be returned to Sir Lawrence, and soon.’

‘Will you, ma’am?’ Evans looked surprised. ‘That’ll break the little man’s heart.’

The knife inside Rose twisted a little further.

‘It cannot be helped. We have imposed upon Sir Lawrence long enough.’

‘But I hear Sir Lawrence is gone to London, ma’am. He won’t be wantin’ the pony sent there.’

‘No, so you must write and ask for instructions.’ She felt a little guilty about leaving such matters to her groom, but told herself it was best for her not to be involved.

‘Very well, ma’am. But until then you’ll let Master Sam ride as usual?’

‘Yes…yes, I suppose so. And there is no need to say anything to Sam just yet,’ she added, quelling another ripple of guilt. ‘No point in making him unhappy for any longer than is necessary.’

She waited patiently for her mare to be saddled, but then declined to ride with Sam and Evans up onto the moor—there was a visit she dreaded, but felt herself obliged to make.

She arrived at Emsleigh House to find the front windows shuttered and the door closed. There was only one nervous-looking groom in the stables and he suggested she should enter the house by the garden door. The butler met her in the hall with the air of one pushed to the limit of his endurance.

‘I beg your pardon, ma’am, but we are constantly being pestered by tradesmen and the mistress insisted we should shut up the house.’ He gestured towards the stairs. ‘Miss Emsleigh is in her boudoir, ma’am. If you wait here, I will announce you—’

A loud hammering on the door interrupted him.

Rose’s kind heart was touched at the thought of Althea’s distress.

‘No need, I will announce myself.’

She picked up the train of her riding habit and looped it over her arm before hurrying up the stairs. She had never been a close friend of Althea, but she recalled being taken to her dressing room on one occasion and hoped she could remember the way. There were signs of disorder everywhere: half-filled trunks stood in doorways, pictures had been removed from the walls and harassed-looking servants were hurrying back and forth.

Rose arrived at Althea’s room and gave a soft knock. A muffled sound that could have been ‘come in’ followed and she entered, closing the door quietly behind her. The room was quite as disordered as the rest of the house, but a number of smashed ornaments in the fireplace suggested that Althea was not in the sunniest of
moods. She was pacing up and down, her blond curls jumping and her colour heightened to make her face an unattractive mottled red and white.

‘Oh, it’s you.’ She barely glanced at Rose as she came in. ‘Have you come to gloat?’

‘Of course not. I came to see if you needed anything.’

‘Nothing that you can provide—unless you have a spare fortune I may use to set myself up abroad?’ Her lip curled. ‘I thought not. I always said it was a mistake for Magnus to offer for you. He could have done much better for himself than an impoverished widow with a brat to look after.’

Rose fought down her anger. Althea was upset and quite possibly frightened.

‘Well, it will not come to that now,’ she said quietly. ‘Will you remain here?’

‘With tradesmen hammering on the door for payment day and night?’ Althea picked up a teacup from her breakfast tray and hurled it at the fireplace. ‘
Damn
Magnus for leaving me in this mess!’

‘Althea, please, this cannot be good for you—’

‘You know nothing of the matter. Magnus has so many debts that everything in this house will have to be sold to pay them.’ She began pacing the floor again. ‘I have some money, but not enough to live in this style. I shall be able to keep only two servants—three at the most. How could Magnus do this to me? I could
scream
with vexation!’

‘My dear, you must try to stay calm,’ Rose urged her. ‘Think of your condition.’

Althea stopped pacing and stared at her.

‘Condition? Oh, that—I am not really breeding.’

‘You…you are not?’

‘Of course not. It was an attempt to force Lawrence to marry me.’ Althea scowled. ‘I doubt he can be persuaded to do so now.’

The room started spinning and Rose put her hand on the wall to steady herself.

‘Althea, I do not understand… You are
not
carrying his child?’

‘No, of course not. Did you really think it was true?’ She gave a scornful laugh. ‘You must be the only one who believed it!’

‘But how could you say such a thing, and say it so publicly?’

Althea shrugged her white shoulders.

‘I never intended to do so, until I saw the way Lawrence looked at you. That put me in such a rage. He had never so much as squeezed my fingers, though I gave him every encouragement. La, I was quite disappointed, for he has such a reputation. I had planned to seduce him at the ball, but I soon realised that would not work, and when I saw he meant to leave I announced I was carrying his child. I thought it would be a sure way to give you a disgust of him and to force him into marriage. Only Magnus would not support me. That was a blow, I can tell you. I see why
now
, of course— Daunton was his enemy—but it put me in a damnable position. And I was so remiss I did not think to warn my maid, so when she went to market yesterday and heard them sniggering behind their hands she lost no time in telling everyone she could find that I could not
be with child because my courses were as regular as a clock and I have never missed one. Heavens, was ever a woman cursed with such a well-meaning wretch.’ She suddenly became aware of Rose’s presence and rounded on her.

‘Are you shocked? Well, Miss Propriety, if you had not been so caught up in your own petty concerns you would have snapped Magnus up last spring, then he would have been able to send all that cargo to market months ago, and none of this would have happened.’

‘Surely you do not condone what he has done?’ asked Rose, appalled. ‘A sailor lost his life when they sunk that ship!’

‘What do I care for that? With the insurance, and the profit from the cargo, we could have settled our accounts and lived very comfortably.’

She continued to rage, sending the saucer and teapot the same way as the cup, and ignoring Rose, who edged towards the door and made her escape. The butler suggested she should slip out through the kitchens to avoid the growing number of tradesman at the front of the house.

Rose followed his advice and collected her horse. She trotted out of the yard and was cantering away down the drive before any of the irate crowd at the front door could accost her. Once out on the road she turned onto one of the many lanes that led up onto the hills, forcing herself to concentrate on pushing the mare on until she was at last on the moor with the icy wind whipping at her cheeks. The occasional drift of snow remained in
a ditch or against a north-facing ridge, in stark contrast to the dull winter browns of the moor.

So, Lawrence had been telling the truth all the time. She turned her face up to the heavens. She had willingly given him her body, so why had she been so afraid to trust him, to believe him? Rose looked around, suddenly restless. She needed to see Lawrence, to beg him to forgive her, but that was impossible. He was miles away by now. But he would come back, wouldn’t he? He would return and she would throw herself on his mercy. She remembered the stony, implacable look on his face when he had left her.

I shall not trouble you again.

The bleak wind cut through her cloak and she shivered. The moor stretched away on all sides, no sign of life in any direction. Even the stunted trees looked black and decayed. Lifeless. Perhaps it was already too late

She turned her horse and headed for home.