The Bartered Virgin (14 page)

“Besides, Papa, this marriage is consummated.” Winn lay back against her pillows, a large satisfied grin on her face. She held her good arm out to him, palm up. “My dowry, please.”

Her father’s face was a black cloud of displeasure. “This was coerced. You’re an invalid and not in your right mind. I won’t give you a cent.”

Winn bristled, hurt and angry that her father still opposed her. “Then give it to David as you promised.”

“I’ll have this dowry situation tied up in court if you want to be a willful, stubborn child. You’ll see that I know what’s right for you.” He shook his finger at her.

“You’re upsetting my wife, Mr. Percy. I won’t have it.” David warned, stepping in front of Zachariah, shielding Winn from her father’s wrath. “Besides, it will do you no good to take it to court. Louise Desjardin’s will is solid. And I suspect you haven’t told your daughter the truth about the conditions under which she receives her inheritance.”

Winn tugged on David’s sleeve. “What truth? What’s going on?”

“In a moment, my love,” he murmured. “Well, Mr. Percy?”

Her father looked cornered, beaten. He glanced from Winn to his new son-in-law. “She was just a child. The trust was for her own good.”

Winn turned a beseeching eye on David. “For goodness’ sake, somebody please tell me what’s going on.”

“The money was yours all the time, dearest. There were no conditions. Were there, Mr. Percy?”

“I did what I thought was right at the time,” her father insisted.

Winn sagged against her pillows. “You mean I could have had the money any time I wanted? To do whatever I pleased? David, how did you find this all out?”

“This,” he held up a single piece of faded paper. “It was sealed inside the back cover of the book. It’s the original codicil leaving everything to Winn and witnessed by Louise Desjardin’s business partner, Daphne LeClerc of
Le Rougemont
. I wired Madame LeClerc myself and received an answer to the effect that she had a duplicate of this codicil locked away in a safe deposit box in New Orleans.”

“All this time,” Winn whispered. She was—and had been—a woman of independent means. Free to indulge in the adventures she and Kitty had talked about for years. Only now she and David would share those adventures and perhaps raise a family in the process. A warm rush spread through her body at the thought of having David’s children. A contentment she had never known until now filled her heart. The money that had made her a pawn and fed her father’s greed easily faded in the face of the future that was now hers.

“And to think I’ve felt guilty about borrowing from you,” Tip added.

Winn chuckled softly. “At least I can pay you back for the shirt I ruined.”

Tip bent down and whispered into her ear. “Show your brother you really love him. Take me with you to England.”

Winn answered him with a mile-wide smile. “Any time.”

David faced her father across the bed. “All this mention of money reminds me of something else. I stopped off for a short visit with my broker on Wall Street yesterday. It seems that a little investment I made a few years ago on the advice of my good friend here—” he nodded his head toward Tip, “—seems to have paid me some quite handsome dividends. I really had no idea Americans were so fond of carbonated cola beverages.”

Tip touched his forehead in mock salute. The men grinned at each other.

“One more delicate matter, if you please, Mr. Percy.”

“What? Father, what have you done?” It was Tip’s turn to be surprised.

“Easy, old boy. I just need a moment with Mr. Percy in private. Nothing for you to be concerned about.” David stood up. He took Winn’s hand and kissed it gently and brushed the hair off her forehead. “I wish to speak to your father outside for a moment. I will be right back. I love you.”

“I love you, David.” She put all of her heart behind those words and promised herself she would tell her husband every day for the rest of their lives.

Tip rolled his eyes and sighed. “Oh, brother. I’m going out for a sarsaparilla.”

David led Zachariah out of Winn’s room and closed the door behind him. He waited until Tip disappeared down the hall. “I’ll be brief, Mr. Percy. You’re on the verge of losing both your children, if that means anything to you.” He paused to let the information sink in. The man lowered his gaze to avoid looking at David until his chin rested on his chest. He was beaten. His shame and guilt were etched in every corner of his face.

David was now sure his father-in-law would listen to what he had to say without any argument. “Judging by the information I received from Miss LeClerc, I know you’ve suffered one loss already. Tell me something. Were you ever going to tell Winn she was adopted?”

The lawyer’s eyes widened. His face whitened. “You’re not going to tell her, are you?” The words came in a broken, rasping whisper.

“No. That duty belongs to you. But I do understand why you didn’t. If it were ever to become known that you replaced your stillborn daughter with the infant child of some unfortunate girl courtesy of Louise Desjardin you’d have to leave New York. Your poor wife has suffered enough already. And I love Winn too much to have you put her through anything else. This information stays between us.”

Zachariah hung his head. “Thank you,” he mumbled. “Whatever you think of me please know that I loved and raised Winn as my own and only tried to do what was best for her. After the death of our baby, Mary had a breakdown and stayed in a private nursing hospital for some weeks. I had to go to New Orleans on business and found that Louise had taken in a poor girl with an unfortunate condition. The baby came while I was there. When I saw it was a little girl I thought I’d found a solution for my poor wife’s health. I brought the baby back and told Mary she was an orphaned child of a respectable New Orleans family who’d perished in a fire. Her mother doesn’t know the truth. I think it would kill her if she found out.”

David accepted the explanation. Someday he’d tell Winn about her past. But not now. Not when she was ill and still reeling from the public scandal and her father’s misdeeds.

“Is there anything else, David? What can I do?”

However wretched the man looked now, David knew he was paying for his sins and would be for years to come. “My advice is to give Winnifred whatever money is left in her dowry. Dr. Mayo says Winn can travel day after tomorrow. I’ve already purchased our fares. I trust there will be no more objections to the marriage. A marriage that you yourself orchestrated.”

When the man said nothing in his defense, David knew he was right. “You can relax, Mr. Percy. I’ll forgive you for being greedy. But I’ll not forgive the pain you caused my wife.”

David didn’t wait for an answer. He turned around and went back into Winn’s room, leaving his father-in-law staring mutely after him.

“You’ve been busy.” Winn was sitting up and reading the handwritten codicil and the telegrams David exchanged with Madame LeClerc. David sat down beside her. She handed the papers back to him. “Is Papa in a lot of trouble?”

“He could be but I think he’s learned his lesson. How’s the shoulder?”

She shifted against the pillows. “Getting better every day.”

“I hope so. We’ll be traveling at the week’s end.”

“Um, David,” she paused and looked up at him. “You knew about your stock earnings before you came back today.”

“Yes. As you say, I’ve been busy.” He saw her chewing on her lower lip. She hesitated a moment longer before continuing.

“So you don’t need me to rescue Knightsbriar.”

“No,” he said softly. “You’re wrong. I need you. Knightsbriar needs you. All those red-haired children Madame Celina says we’ll have, need you.”

Winn continued to pick at the lace on the sleeve of the nightgown Margaret had brought for her. “Is that why you married me today? We could have waited until I was better.”

“Darling, Lady Wolshingham,” he began, addressing her by her new title for the first time. “I married you in haste for two reasons. The first was to bring about an end to the gossip your name and your family might have to endure. The second, and to me the most important, was that for once you weren’t hanging out of a tree. I had you on the ground, immobile, where I wanted you.”

“Tip wants to come with us, you know.”

“Sorry, darling, the honeymoon suite on the ship is large enough for only you and me. Tippy will have to be happy with his own cabin.”

“He’s interested in Cambridge.”

“I know. We talked of many things while you were sleeping. I’ve already taken the liberty of writing an introduction to a professor friend of mine. You know, your brother is a very bright student, in between pranks.”

“That reminds me, where is my book?”

“Ah, yes. The tome that has contributed unwittingly to so much scandal and has delivered us such joy.”

She slapped him. “Get on with it.”

“In my trunk, waiting to be loaded onto the ship. When you’re well enough, we’ll take it out and read it from the very beginning. I hate coming into the middle of stories.”

“Oh, you! Stop. It hurts to laugh.”

“Really, every page. Page by page, side to side, top to bottom. And speaking of positions, did you read about sixty-nine on page sixty-four?”

She swatted him again. “All right, I get the idea. Now, kiss me before Margaret comes back.”

David kissed her lips gently as if she were as fragile as glass. He wanted more but it would have to wait. A shadow outside the door caught his attention and he nudged Winn who looked up and grinned. The silhouette of a small head was pressed against the milky glass window.

David touched his finger to his lips, instructing Winn not to speak. “If you don’t behave, Margaret, I’ll make you share your cabin with Tip.” The shadow promptly disappeared and the maid entered the room.

“Your five minutes are up, boyo. Scoot!”

“What, no honeymoon night?” David tried to sound disappointed.

“Huh, as if ye haven’t had that already. Out, this child needs sleep.”

“Margaret, do you know to whom you are speaking?”

Margaret screwed up her worn, apple-doll face. “You’re right, m’lord. I nearly forgots.” And the room was filled with the snap of her arthritic knees as she attempted to curtsey.

David regarded her with uncertainty. “Never mind the curtseying, Margaret. We’ll get by.”

“I thanks ye, m’lord. And from now on, it’s Maggie. Now move your arse out of here.”

David blew a kiss to his wife and called out as he left her room, “I know when I’ve been beaten.”

He walked down the corridor, smiling courteously at the nurses and nodding to the doctor as he passed. He left the hospital for a small hotel nearby where he would stay until the ship sailed. He strolled down 58
^th
Street, enjoying the sun and, for once, the sound of the never-ending crowds filling the sidewalk around him. He took a page from the native New Yorkers, shoved his hands in his pockets and hummed a tune. Somehow the words formed their own verse in his head.

“Have you seen Bessie in the bustle? She’s really hot for a late night tussle. Page…by page…by page.”

Paris, 1908

Lord Wolshingham stood on the cobblestone sidewalk in front of his newly purchased townhouse at 25, Rue de la Mer. The chauffeur unloaded several suitcases and trunks while Margaret unloaded his wife and children.

The maid assisted Winn out of the rear passenger seat, Lady Wolshingham’s advanced pregnancy being somewhat of a problem.

He felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he listened to Margaret huff and puff her way out of the carriage. “I ain’t gettin’ any younger, m’lady. Sixty-nine on me birthday next. Time you slowed down yourself.”

His wife ignored the oft-repeated chastisement and busied herself by inspecting the wares from a nearby flower-seller’s cart. David motioned to the flower merchant.
“Tout fleurs por ma femme, si’l vous plait!”
Then he pointed to the townhouse. The man acknowledged him with a grateful bow. David snatched a single yellow rose from the vendor and hurried to catch up with Winn whose attention had now turned to the aroma of fresh baked goods from the local bakery.

He never tired of watching her freckled nose twitch when enticed by her never-ending appetite which was caused by their ever growing family.

Winnifred looked around at the ancient, narrow street of her new home, sandwiched in between charming townhouses with overflowing window boxes.

“Isn’t it lovely, Margaret? And a view of the Eiffel Tower!”

David turned and smiled patiently. “Darling, you can see the Tower from almost any street in Paris.”

A dark-haired boy of five dodged around his mother’s skirt, hiding from his four-year-old auburn-haired sister. Winn reached for the back of his coat but missed.

“David, Jr., stop teasing your sister. Oh, now Wolsy.” She started calling her husband Wolsy after David, Jr. was born. “Keep an eye on Catharine. Motorcars fascinate her far too much and Margaret can’t keep up with her.”

The little girl came to stand beside her father for protection and let her brother know by sticking her tongue out at him that she had the plum spot. She received a sharp tug on one of her red sausage curls.

“You have hot dogs all over your head, Miss Kitty.”

The tiny moppet stared up at the house. A pout formed on her rosebud mouth. “Daddy, there’s no trees.”

David sighed. “Yes, isn’t it wonderful.”

“Hey, pop!”

“David, Jr., what have I told you about using slang?”

The lad turned to his mother. “Sorry, Mummy. Uncle Tip says—”

“I don’t care what Uncle Tip says. Speak properly in public.”

“Yes, Mother. Mother?”

“Yes, dear.”

“Are there really two babies in there like Dr. McDonald says?” He pointed at his mother’s protruding stomach.

Winn cast an accusing eye at her husband. “Yes, son.”

Her husband turned a finger on himself and feigned innocence. “Me? What did I do? I only followed the book.”

“What book, pop, er—sorry, Mother—what book, Father?”

David the elder came to stand by his wife and looped his arm through hers. He planted a loving kiss on her cheek. “The book of father’s wishes, my son. Especially when they come true.”