The Last Debutante (32 page)

Tears filled her eyes, but Daria smiled. “Do you know that I’ve not even thought of it recently? Things are so different here, Jamie. Things that I thought were of great importance now seem to have no importance at all.”

“Aye,” he said. “I’ve noticed the same.”

“I’m going home, aren’t I?” she whispered.

She was not asking if the ransom would be paid or if he would release her. She was asking if he would keep her. To love, to cherish.

Jamie swallowed down a lump of bitterness and looked at her hand.

She continued, “If I don’t have the opportunity to thank you before I go—not for kidnapping me; it seems rather ridiculous to thank someone for holding one for ransom. But for being so kind about it—well, I don’t really mean that, either,” she said, frowning. “I realize of course that things could have been much worse than they were, and for not making them worse, I thank you.”

He brought her hand to his lips before she could say
anything else that would destroy him. “Perhaps it is best if you donna speak of it, aye?”

“Right you are,” she muttered. She pulled her hand free from his, as if she intended to walk away, but then suddenly poked him in the chest. “Promise me you will see to it that Peter has someone to talk to. And Duffson. You must keep an eye on him, for he is far too enamored with the young ladies at Dundavie.”

Jamie smiled.

“Well,” she said, squaring her shoulders, “I should get some rest. I suspect a visit to Mamie’s will be grueling. Good night, Jamie.”

“Good night, Daria.” He bowed low and watched her walk away.

She was far braver than he.

He was ready to quit this feast himself and turned about, almost colliding with Geordie.

Geordie held up his slate.
Donna low drea go.

Jamie squinted at it, sounding it out. “Donna low drea go—” He suddenly looked up at his brother. “Donna allow Daria to go,” he said.

Geordie nodded.

But Geordie knew as well as he did that he had no choice.

D
ARIA SPENT ANOTHER
night tossing and turning in anguish, her heart breaking. But she was smiling the next morning as she waited for her horse to be saddled. God help her, she would be brave and courageous. She would not allow anyone to see how her heart had shattered.

Only she, Mackenzie, and Robbie would ride to Mamie’s. Charity had declined to join them. “I refuse to wear trousers,” she said, gazing down at Daria’s.

“They’re really very comfortable.”

Charity shook her head. “I think your parents will arrive today, and I will be here to explain to them that all is not lost. I think I’ve never been so eager to see anyone leave a place as I am to see you leave Dundavie. I fear if you don’t leave soon, you will be shearing sheep.”

Shearing sheep sounded almost idyllic to Daria this morning. She strode out in her pantaloons to ride with the men.

On the way to Mamie’s cottage, she discovered why Charity was taken with Captain Mackenzie. He rode with Daria, chatting easily, complimenting her profusely. She was one of the bonniest women he’d ever met, et cetera, and he’d long thought so. He enumerated the various bachelor gentlemen he had met through Lord Eberlin and assured her that she would be found quite desirable by them. “I can make the necessary introductions, if you’d like, lass.”

“You?” Daria asked laughingly.

“Aye, me,” he said confidently. “You might be amazed, then, how many men have a secret desire to be a sea captain. I am well-regarded company in most circles.”

Daria laughed at him. “How modest you are, Captain!”

“I know my worth, Miss Babcock. Perhaps you are no’ as certain of yours, aye?” he asked jovially, and rode ahead.

His words echoed in Daria’s head as they made their way to Mamie’s cottage.

When they reached the cairns and started their descent into the little glen where Mamie lived, Mackenzie had another piece of advice for Daria. “It is my experience that a man who spends weeks on a ship will do what he must to be free of the sea, aye?”

“The sea?” Daria repeated, confused.

“What I mean, lass, is that your granny might very much like to be free of her sea. Go in there, then, lock the door, and donna let her out until she tells you what she’s hiding, aye? The truth may pain her greatly, but it will set her free of her sea.”

Yes, Daria could see why Charity was taken with Mackenzie.

When they reached Mamie’s cottage, Daria was alarmed
to see the door standing open. The flowers that used to grace the windows were gone. There was no smoke at the chimney. Panic began to spread through her—the cottage looked abandoned.

Daria threw herself off her horse and hurried to the gate.

“We’ve the right cottage, have we no’?” Mackenzie asked.

“Aye,” Robbie said gruffly.

Daria pushed through the gate. “Mamie!” she called out.

“Daria?” Mamie’s voice filtered out from the back room.

Daria strode to the dark room where Jamie had spent a week.

Mamie met her at the door, looking slightly dazed. “Oh dear, is something wrong?” She rubbed her hands on her dirty apron. She was entirely disheveled.

“What are you about, Mamie?” Daria asked, peering past her into the darkened room.

“Just sorting things,” she said absently.

Daria whirled about and went to the front door. She waved to Mackenzie and Robbie, then shut the door and bolted it. When she turned around, Mamie was staring at her warily.

Her grandmother looked so small and so . . .
old
. Daria grabbed her up and held her tightly, burying her face in her neck. “Mamie, what has happened to you?” she asked tearfully.

“I am glad you have come, darling.” She pulled away and tried to smile, but Daria scarcely noticed it. She couldn’t look away from the dark circles beneath Mamie’s eyes.

“I’ll just put the kettle on,” Mamie said, and moved to the hearth.

Daria watched her. Something seemed different about the kitchen. She glanced up at the shelf. “Where are your china plates and the crystal?”

“Only things,” Mamie said, with a dismissive flick of her wrist. “Tell me, darling, how have you been at Dundavie?”

That was Mamie’s way of deflecting questions, Daria realized. The moment Daria asked her something she didn’t want to answer, Mamie would respond with a question for Daria. She wanted the old Mamie back, the grandmother who had taken her for long walks in the garden, and had ladies to tea, and allowed Daria to play dress-up in her silk gowns and pearls. She wanted to tell Mamie about the knots in her belly, the butterflies in her veins. “Actually, I . . . I have come to esteem the laird very much,” she blurted.

Mamie whirled about, her eyes wide, her mouth gaping in shock. “
No,
Daria! No, you mustn’t! God help me, when will my daughter come?” she cried to the ceiling.

“What is wrong?” Daria cried, taken aback. “What have I said?”

Mamie lurched forward and grabbed Daria’s face between her hands. “Daria,
listen
to me! You
must
leave here! You must go to England as soon as you are able, do you understand? You should never have come to Scotland! I don’t care if that man has granted you a kingdom, you will not ruin your life with such talk!”

Daria pushed her grandmother’s hands away from her. “Stop it,” she said angrily. “There was a time when I could speak to you about anything, Mamie.”

With a groan, Mamie sank onto a chair and pressed her
hand to her forehead. “Dear God, I am so weary. I have done all that I could—I swear that I have. But I cannot keep you from ruining it all.”

Daria’s heart began to beat wildly. “You are mad,” she said, her voice shaking. “My parents will be here today or tomorrow and my ransom will be paid, and they must deal with you. For I swear, I cannot bear this a moment longer.”

“Then please, do not bear it,” Mamie said, lifting her head. “Just promise me you will return to England at once. I want your word that you will! I want your word that you will not be charmed by that Scotsman and ruin everything I and your parents have tried to do for you!”

Daria’s heart had been beating so hard that she could scarcely catch a breath, but those words stopped it altogether. “What you and my parents have
done
for me? What have any of you
done
for me, Mamie? I have put
myself
into society! In spite of all of you, I have done all that I could to make a decent match. Even my debut was at the behest of Lady Horncastle, and yet my parents brought me home from London as soon as the debut was made! For what? So that I might spend my days watching my parents create orchids?”

“You cannot imagine how difficult it has been,” Mamie moaned.

“Then
tell
me!” Daria pleaded. “For God’s sake, Mamie, tell me something that is the
truth.
Tell me why you dislike the laird so, or why you would shoot him, or why you didn’t tell me that the man you met in the glen that day was an Englishman! Do you truly expect me to believe you don’t know him? That you hadn’t gone to meet him?”

Mamie burst into tears, covering her face with her
hands. Daria hurried to her side and fell to her knees, her hands on her grandmother’s knees. “Please, Mamie—what is happening?”

Mamie gulped back her tears. Her hands shaking, she wiped the tears from her face. “I have tried to spare you, darling. Oh, how I have tried. But I always knew you would learn the truth one day.”

“The truth,” Daria repeated. “So that man
is
known to you?”

Mamie nodded.

Daria stood and pulled a chair close, sitting directly in front of Mamie. “We will not leave this cottage until you have told me everything, do you understand? Begin with that man. Who is he?”

Mamie drew a deep breath. “It’s quite an involved tale—”

“I don’t care! For God’s sake,
tell
me!”

Her expression pained, Mamie said, “Do you recall when, a few years ago, the old Earl of Ashwood went missing?”

“Yes,” Daria said. “He drowned. But what has that to do—”

“The truth begins there. You recall he’d gone fishing on a swollen river, and he was never seen again. The only things they could find were a mangled fishing pole and his tackle on the shore. His body was never found. Well, the earl didn’t drown. He duped everyone into believing he had, and he escaped to Scotland.

“He had sizable gambling debts that he couldn’t pay without dismantling Ashwood completely. But if he were dead, his gambling debts wouldn’t be pursued. He had no
heirs, and the sort of men to whom he owed money couldn’t legitimately make a claim against Ashwood. So the earl emptied his coffers, staged his death, and disappeared.”

Daria shook her head in disbelief. “Even if that were true—and I can hardly believe that he might have accomplished such trickery—what has that to do with
you
?”

“The earl’s thirst for gambling did not end with his supposed death. He continued to gamble here, and he began to lose more money. When he had lost almost all that he had, he needed someone to bring him more. So he chose us,” Mamie said bitterly.

“ ‘Us’? Who is ‘
us
’?” Daria cried in frustration.

“The Babcocks.”

Daria blinked. Nothing made sense. “What do you mean? How could he choose us from Scotland? And choose us for
what,
pray tell?” She felt exhausted, emotionally drained.

“Because we have the means to bring money to him—”

“Absurd,” Daria said angrily and stood up. “I won’t listen to more of your lies, Mamie. If you won’t tell me the truth, I’ll go—”

“He chose us to do his dirty deeds because he knows our devastating secret.”

Daria threw her arms wide in disbelief. “Yes, of course! If this isn’t
enough
madness, then we’ll add a devastating family secret! What is it, Mamie? What possible secret could we have?”

“Oh, Daria,” Mamie said sadly, and gazed at Daria as if she were about to walk up on the gallows. “I never wanted to tell you this. I—we—had hoped there would never be a need. But as you’ve grown up and wanted more
from life . . . I
told
Beth that this was inevitable, and she wouldn’t listen to me!”

“What?”
Daria snapped. “Say whatever it is now, or I will walk out the door for good. I have been held for ransom because of this secret! You shot an innocent man because of it! You will tell me, or I will walk out the door and you will never see me again.” She angrily swiped at a tear that was sliding down her cheek.

“I am telling you the truth now, Daria.” Mamie slowly gained her feet and reached for Daria’s hand. “Have you ever wondered why your parents came to live in Hadley Green? Why your grandfather and I followed?”

“Mamma said they came to Hadley Green for the air.”

Mamie swallowed. “They came to Hadley Green to escape an awful scandal, and the earl was happy to help them. Your father was a jeweler, did you know? He had helped a broker sell some of the countess’s jewelry for the earl. And when scandal came to your father, the earl offered your parents refuge.”

“Refuge,” Daria repeated.

Mamie swallowed again, as if the words were stuck in her throat. “He knew that your father was married . . .” She looked away. “He was—he
is
—married to someone else.”

It took a moment for Daria to understand what Mamie was implying, and then she gasped. “Good God, have you any idea what you are saying?” She tried to pull her hand free of her grandmother’s, but Mamie tightened her grip.

“Listen to me. I was very unhappy with their relationship, obviously, for he was a married man. I didn’t care that he was trapped in an unhappy union with a wife who refused to agree to a divorce. I cared only that my
daughter—who was younger than you are now—was throwing her life away by courting such a scandal. Oh, but she was stubborn. She said that she loved him.

“But when Richard’s wife found out that he esteemed Beth and had been meeting her privately, she threatened to ruin him. Your grandfather and I wanted to send Beth away, to spare her such a ruinous scandal, but it was too late. She had already conceived you.”