To Tempt An Angel (Book 1 Douglas series) (36 page)

Angelica settled herself in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Her husband remained standing, his arms folded across his chest. Keeping her face expressionless, she looked at the duke and waited.

“Usually, I refrain from interfering in other people’s marriages,” Duke Magnus said. “However, you are carrying the Campbell heir.”

“I’m positive Venetia engineered this whole situation,” Aunt Roxie interjected. “Whatever this situation is.”

“I would like to know what the problem is,” Duke Magnus said. He smiled at her. “Four heads are better than two, my dear.”

“With all due respect, Your Grace, my problem is of a personal nature,” Angelica replied. “You could do nothing to solve it.”

“The fault lies with me,” Robert spoke up.

Angelica snapped her gaze to her husband. His admission surprised her.

Duke Magnus inclined his head, acquiescing to their wish for privacy. “For the sake of my grandchild, will you stay here and try to work out your problems after the rest of us leave for Scotland? If you still want a divorce later—” He let his words hang in the air.

“Yes, of course.” Angelica rose from her chair and left the study. Robert walked directly behind her and touched her shoulder once the study door had closed behind them.

When she turned around, Robert said, “Thank you for not telling my father the truth.”

“You are welcome,” Angelica replied, and then continued walking down the corridor.

Angelica didn’t speak to Robert for three days, and there was a hole in her world where he had once stood. Though the entire household was aware of the rift between them, no one mentioned it, only watched them ignoring each other.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, Angelica sat alone in the gazebo. She plucked the strings of her harp in a melancholy tune and watched her husband and her stepdaughter in the distance. Robert had purchased a pony for Daisy and at the moment, led her around the lawn near the mansion. Colin sat on top of his own pony, the reins being held by Alexander Emerson. James Armstrong and Adam St. Aubyn stood watching them calling occasional encouragements to both children.

Too bad her husband hadn’t really been Robert Roy instead of a Campbell, Angelica thought. She would have been happy living with him in her modest cottage.

She loved him and had overreacted to Venetia’s revelation. After all, he had made that mistake before he even knew she existed. But how could she reconcile with him? Could she plead her condition as overemotional? That would be untrue. Perhaps the duke was correct; when the others left for grouse hunting—

“How do you feel?”

Angelica focused on the owner of that voice, Venetia Emerson Campbell. Without bothering to reply, she looked down at her harp and began plucking its strings again.

“May I speak with you?” Venetia asked.

“Why?” Angelica asked, raising her gaze “Shall we compare our experiences with my husband?”

The brunette blushed. “I—I want to apologize for causing problems for you.”

“I find that impossible to believe,” Angelica remarked.

“Please?” Venetia asked again. “Let’s take a walk through the woodland.”

Angelica shifted her gaze to Robert, who had paused and now watched them. She inclined her head and, setting the harp aside, rose from her seat, saying, “Very well, Venetia. Lead the way.”

The two women started down the well-worn path that led to the waterfall and pool. The afternoon was warm, and the tree-shaded path offered more cooling comfort than the gazebo had.

“What did you wish to speak about?” Angelica asked.

“I prefer to wait until we get to the river,” Venetia said over her shoulder.

At the river, Venetia began to walk in the direction of the waterfall. Angelica fell in beside her.

“I would like us to be friends,” Venetia began.

“Isn’t it a little late for that?” Angelica asked.

“We are in the same family now,” Venetia said. “Please set your anger toward Robert aside. Think of your child.”

Leaning against the solid trunk of an oak, Angelica wondered why the brunette was suddenly concerned for her and her child. When she did not reply, Venetia turned away and walked toward the edge of the rocks at the top of the waterfall.

“This is where my sister—” Venetia broke off, raised her hand to her face, and began to weep softly.

Sorry for her loss, Angelica pushed away from the tree and walked over to her. She placed a hand on the other woman’s shoulder in an effort to offer comfort. Without warning, Angelica felt a hand on the small of her back, pushing her forward.

Caught off balance, Angelica went over the edge of the thirty-foot waterfall. Instead of panicking, she wrenched her body forward in order to miss hitting the boulders and kept her body vertical, feet first and squeezed together.

Clenching her buttocks against the shock of the impact, Angelica dropped her hands to her stomach to protect her baby. She hit the water, but ignored the sharp pain she felt in her ankle. Trying to keep from plunging to the bottom of the pool, she spread her arms and legs wide and moved them back and forth.

Within seconds, Angelica surfaced and heard the brunette’s shout as if from a great distance, “Help! Help, there’s been an accident.”

Thankful that her dress was light Angelica swam to shore. She dragged herself onto the grass and lay still, trying to catch her breath.

Venetia tried to kill me
, Angelica thought
Venetia murdered Louisa, her own sister.

Angelica put her hand under her dress and felt between her legs. No blood meant the babe was well. She tried to stand then, but her left ankle wouldn’t hold her. Slowly, she lowered herself to the grass and closed her eyes, praying that help would come soon.

 “She slipped,” a sobbing woman said. “I tried to grab her, but—”

Venetia
.

“There she is!” That voice sounded like Alexander Emerson.

“Help, I’ve hurt my ankle,” Angelica called.

“She’s alive,” her husband said, his voice closer than the others’. A moment later, he crouched down beside her and examined her leg and ankle, saying, “I don’t think it’s broken, probably just a bad sprain.”

“Venetia pushed me off the edge,” Angelica told him, her voice strong and clear.

“That’s a lie.” Alexander Emerson leapt to his sister’s defense. “She slipped and—”

“Venetia murdered Louisa the same way,” Angelica interrupted the brunette.

“My sister would never have murdered her own—”

“I’m not your sister,” Venetia snapped, her hatred for her brother apparent. She looked at her father, asking, “How long must we keep up this charade?”

“You stupid chit,” Charles Emerson shouted at her. “Keep your mouth shut.”

“I was the eldest,” Venetia protested. “I should have been the duchess. I would have been the duchess if this one hadn’t shown up.”

“You were the mother of the Campbell heir,” Emerson told her.

“I want to be the duchess,” Venetia shrieked and stamped her foot.

“You’re not my sister?” Alexander echoed, his shock apparent in his voice and expression. “What do you mean?”

“Louisa and you are bastards,” Emerson told him. “What else could it mean?”

Alexander Emerson stepped back as if he’d been struck. “I am your heir, Father.”

“I suffered you calling me that name for twenty odd years,” Charles Emerson said, an unholy hatred shining in his eyes. “I thought when I hired those—” He broke off, realizing what he had almost said.

“Whom did you hire?” Alexander asked.

“I hired men to rid myself of you,” Emerson answered.

“Are they the same men you hired to get rid of me?” Robert asked, standing to face the elder Emerson.

Charles Emerson clamped his lips shut, but Venetia shrieked, “How could you do that, Father? You knew I wanted to marry him and become the Duchess of Inverary.”

“Would you have awaited my father’s death or rid yourself of him, too?” Robert asked. Without waiting for a reply, he sent his friends a pointed look.

James Armstrong positioned himself beside the elder Emerson. Adam St. Aubyn inched closer to Venetia.

“I’ll see both of you hanged at Tyburn,” Robert told them.

“Nobody is going to hang,” Duke Magnus announced, surprising them. “We do not need a scandal.”

Robert flicked a glance at Angelica. “Venetia tried to kill my pregnant wife,” he said to his father. “Charles tried to kill Alex and me. Will you allow them to go free?”

“If he wants to live, Charles will sign his estate and title over to Alexander,” Duke Magnus said. “Then we will transport him and Venetia to Australia on board one of the Campbell ships.”

“I want them hanged,” Robert insisted.

“Be reasonable, son,” the duke said, touching his shoulder. “No good can come from creating a scandal.”

Robert finally nodded. He gestured to his friends to escort the two Emersons back to his mansion.

“Wait,” Alexander Emerson said. He stood in front of Charles and in an anguished voice, asked, “If you’re not my father, then who is?”

“You’ll need to discover that for yourself,” Charles Emerson sneered.

 Alexander’s expression crumpled. It was then Angelica realized there were worse things in life than having one’s father lose his fortune to a swindler.

“You can’t tell me?” Alexander asked. “Or you won’t tell me?”

“Both,” came the reply.

With his fist clenched, Alexander struck the older man, who toppled to the ground. “That was for Louisa,” he said in a voice filled with contempt. He turned away but stopped in front of Robert to apologize, “I’m sorry I tried to ruin your businesses.”

“Did you pirate
The Tempest?
” Robert asked.

“No, that wasn’t me,” Alexander answered, and then walked away.

“Take them back to the mansion,” Duke Magnus ordered James and Adam. “Be sure to lock them in separate chambers.”

“I’m sorry I endangered your life,” Robert said, lifting Angelica into his arms. “I don’t know what I would have done if—” He broke off, unwilling to complete the thought. “If you still want a—”

“I don’t want a divorce,” Angelica told him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I love you.”

“I love you more,” Robert vowed, and poured all his love into a single kiss.

“My ankle hurts,” Angelica whispered against his lips. “Can we go home now?”

Robert smiled.

“Are you smiling because my ankle hurts?” she asked.

His smile grew into a broad grin. “No, angel, I was thinking of how much bed rest you’ll need to recover.”

“Will you keep me company?” Angelica asked in a seductive voice.

Robert laughed out loud. Echoing her own words, he answered, “Whoever said the Douglases weren’t perceptive?”

*    *    *

Summer died in a flourish of color, making way for autumn’s Michaelmas daisies and riotous orange, red, and gold leaves. All too soon nature slept beneath a powdery blanket of snow that melted into spring’s herald, the courageous crocus.

Content with life, Angelica watched the seasons passing from the gardens tended lovingly by her husband. At first she looked for signs of her husband in his nephew, but that passed away. She couldn’t love Colin any more if he were her own flesh and blood, and the boy found an attentive mother in her.

The Campbell heir arrived on the first day of spring, and his father named him Douglas, in honor of the family that had given him his wife. Surprising the entire household, Douglas’s sister arrived thirty minutes later, and her mother named her Amber Louise for her reddish gold hair and the unfortunate young woman who had died by her own sister’s hand.

The following afternoon Robert and Angelica remained closeted in their bedchamber and watched their babies sleeping. Angelica sat up in bed and held her daughter in her arms, while Robert leaned against the headboard beside her and cradled his son, the future Duke of Inverary and Campbell laird.

“I’m going to remove all of the portraits of the Campbell lairds from my father’s house,” Robert said, without taking his gaze off his son.

“Why?”

“I know from personal experience how daunting the sight can be to a small boy,” he answered.

“You might not have grown into such a prince of a man without those illustrious ancestors keeping you on your best behavior,” Angelica told him.

“Thank you, angel.”

A knock on the door drew their attention.

“Come in,” Angelica called.

“Hello,” a familiar voice shrieked as the door opened to admit their relations.

“That damned bird,” Robert muttered.

“Jasper is part of this family, too,” Angelica reminded him.

Duke Magnus, Aunt Roxie, and Victoria walked into the chamber behind Daisy and Colin. “
Sacred sevens
,” the little girl exclaimed. “I see two babies.”

“Do you like your brother and sister?” Angelica asked.

Daisy nodded.

“What about you, Colin?”

The little boy shrugged. “Can they do anything?” he asked.

Robert smiled. “Your cousins eat, sleep, cry and poop.”

Colin appeared wholly disgusted. “You mean they don’t do anything?”

“Great grunting shit,” the macaw shrieked. “Drink, drink, drink.”

“Lady Angelica, Jasper said a bad word,” Daisy whispered.

“He doesn’t know any better,” Angelica told her.

“Your parents would be so proud,” Aunt Roxie said, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.

The thought of her parents brought a well of tears to Angelica’s eyes, and a lump of aching emotion formed in her throat. She managed to regain her composure within seconds.

“What do you think, Tory?” she asked.

“I think they are the most beautiful babies I’ve ever seen,” her sister answered. “I only hope they haven’t inherited my reading ability.”

“I wish Samantha was here,” Angelica said.

“How divinely romantic to be abducted by a prince,” Victoria gushed.

“Ruined by a prince, you mean,” Aunt Roxie said. “Between the prince and her limp, we’ll never find her a husband.”

“Don’t worry, Roxanne,” Duke Magnus said. “My investigators will find them, and then we’ll see them wed. Your niece will be a princess.”