The Pretenders (23 page)

It was a terrible thing to have the words I feared the most spoken out loud.

A heavy silence lay between the three of us. At last I said to Harry, “What happened after that?”

“The rest of our clothes and Reeve’s horse were still on Charles Island, so the two of us rode my horse back over the causeway. Reeve got dressed, jumped on his horse, and took off. I thought he would come back home, considering the fact that he was exhausted, as well as being drenched to the skin, but evidently he has not“

I said somberly, “Thank you, Harry. You saved Reeve’s life.”

Hot anger flared in Harry once more. “God Almighty, it seems as if my whole family has gone mad! My brother has run berserk, my favorite cousin is trying to drown himself … What the bloody hell is going on here?”

I thought of Reeve’s words to me the previous night.
I
never should have married you
.

“Don’t you see?” I said tiredly. ”Reeve thinks that by marrying me he has made me a target for Robert.”

It took Harry a moment to understand, but when he did all of the anger drained from his face.

“He thinks that Robert will want to eliminate you before you can bear a child that will cut him out of the succession,” he said flatly.

“Yes.”

Harry cursed. Then he looked at Mama and apologized.

She shook her head to indicate that she didn’t mind.

“We were all hoping that when Reeve married you he would be able to shake his demons,” Harry said to me. ”It seems, however, that that is not going to be the case.”

I put my hands up, as if to shade my eyes from the sun. “So it seems.”

“You have to do something, Deborah,” Harry said urgently. ”He was serious. I wouldn’t trust him not to try something like this again.”

“I will talk to him, Harry,” I said.

“He seems to listen to you,” Harry said doubtfully.

“I will talk to him,” I repeated. ”I doubt if he planned the episode this morning, you know. I rather think he just seized the moment.”

“Well he sure scared the hell out of me,” Harry said frankly.

“Yes,” I said. ”I can understand that he did.”

Mama and I changed our minds about going into the village, and instead we accompanied Harry back to the house to wait for Reeve. Harry thought that it was fruitless to send men in search of him, as he was quite certain that Reeve had not kept to the roadways but was out somewhere on the Downs, hopefully not doing any harm to himself.

Unfortunately, Mama, Harry, and I met Lord Bradford as soon as we came in the back door of the house. He took one look at our faces, and at Harry’s soaked condition, and demanded to know what had happened.

We all ended up going into the morning room, where Harry once more recounted his tale of what had transpired that morning out on Charles Island.

Predictably, Lord Bradford was furious.

“What is wrong with that boy?” he demanded. He was pacing up and down in front of the rosewood fireplace. ”He has one of the best positions in the entire country. He has a wife he clearly loves. He has everything to live for.” He stopped pacing and swung around to face the three of us, who were grouped in a semicircle around him, like spectators watching a dangerous bear. A muscle clenched along his jaw. ”Obviously he is not nearly as stable as I had hoped he was.”

I stepped forward to defend Reeve, but my mother surprised me by jumping in first.

“You are not being fair, Bernard,” she said gently. ”Reeve is only trying to protect Deborah. He is going about it in the wrong way, of course, but his motivation is honorable.”

Lord Bradford’s steely gray eyes met my mother’s clear blue ones. “Anyone who tries to duck out of his responsibilities by killing himself is a coward, Elizabeth.”

I clenched my fists and opened my mouth to answer him, but my mother shook her head at me. With difficulty, I shut my mouth again.

“Reeve is one of the bravest young men I have ever known,” Mama said quietly but firmly. Her eyes maintained their unflinching contact with Lord Bradford’s. ”Do you realize that until his father died, he burdened Reeve with the full responsibility for his mother’s death?” Mama’s lips thinned with contempt ”Deborah sometimes told me about the things that Lord Cambridge said to Reeve, and I simply could not believe that any father could say such dreadful things to his son. It is nothing short of a miracle that Reeve has turned into the kind and caring young man that he is.”

There was a deep line between Lord Bradford’s level brows. “Reeve was only fifteen when he overturned that coach,” he said gruffly. “It was a tragic accident and nothing more.” His frown deepened. “I have always thought that Helen must have been insane to let him take the reins in the first place.”

“Of course she was,” Mama agreed. ”But that is not what Reeve was made to think. He was made to think that he killed his mother. And now he thinks that he might be responsible for Robert’s killing Deborah.”

Silence fell as my mother and Lord Bradford continued to look at each other.

“I see,” Lord Bradford said at last, “
I
see
.”

“He is not a coward,” Mama said. ”He is desperate.”

I had tears in my eyes. My wonderful, wonderful mother – I had never before realized how well she understood Reeve.

The grim look had come back to Lord Bradford’s face. He turned to me, and said, “It is my son who is the coward, Deborah. I apologize for what I said about Reeve.”

I had such a lump in my throat that I couldn’t talk. I nodded.

“What are we going to do now?” Lord Bradford said. ”We can’t let the boy kill himself!”

He was obviously horrified by the very thought, and it occurred to me that if something should happen to.

Reeve, Lord Bradford would become the Earl of Cambridge. Under such circumstances, there were a lot of men who wouldn’t be so anxious to preserve Reeve’s life.

I cleared my throat and managed to speak at last.

“I will talk to him,” I said. ”But the best protection we can give Reeve is to do something about Robert.”

A shutter came down over Lord Bradford’s face. “There is nothing we can do about Robert. I cannot even cut off his money, as he has an inheritance from his mother.”

I stared at the powerfully built man in front of me. “So he is to be left free to roam the countryside, an obvious danger to Reeve—and to me?”

“Deborah,” Mama said, ”if there were some way to safeguard you from Robert, you can be certain that Bernard would do it“

“We could tie him up and put him on a boat to Australia,” I muttered.

“I do not think that is feasible,” Lord Bradford said with grim disapproval. ”At this moment, we do not even know where he is.”

I knew I was being unreasonable, but I was frightened.

“I am going upstairs,” I said. ”When Reeve finally comes in, I will speak to him.”

I could feel three sets of worried eyes boring into my back as I left the room.

REEVE DID NOT RETURN FOR ANOTHER THREE
hours, during which time I had almost worn a path in the Persian rug from my pacing. He was not expecting to see me when he came in the door of the bedroom, and he stopped in the doorway as if he had walked into glass.

“Oh,” he said, with a feeble attempt at casualness. ”You here, Deb?”

When the door had finally opened I had reached the fireplace in my pacing and I was standing in front of it now, my arms folded across my breast, facing him.

“Yes,” I said. ”I’m here. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“There was no need for you to do that,” he said, trying even harder to sound casual. ”After I left Harry I decided that I would take Monarch for a ride along the Downs.”

“So I heard,” I returned. I took in his wrinkled and disheveled appearance. ”I see that your clothes have dried.”

He left the doorway and came into the room, approaching me as cautiously as one would a not fully tamed animal. “Yes. Did Harry tell you that we went for a swim?”

“Harry told me everything,” I said.

He thrust his hand through his disordered hair. “Don’t pay any attention to him, Deb. He convinced himself that I was on the verge of drowning, but I can assure you that I was perfectly all right. I would have made Fair Haven if he had not interfered.”

He stopped when he had covered half of the distance between the door and the fireplace and we regarded each other now over the patch of luxurious carpet that I had been pacing for the last three hours.

I said grimly, “Harry said you had no breath left. He said you were hardly able to get your arms out of the water.”

“He’s exaggerating,” Reeve said.

“I don’t think he is, Reeve,” I said. ”I think Harry is telling the truth.”

He scowled at me. “I can’t stop you from thinking what you want to think. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to send for Hummond so that I can change my clothes.”

“In a moment,” I said implacably. ”First, you and I are going to talk.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about this morning, Deb.”

I walked behind him to the bedroom door and locked it Then I turned back to face him, my shoulders braced against the heavy, white-painted, oak door. I said, “I’m not leaving, and the only way you are going to get out of this room is by knocking me down.”

He was livid with fury. “You may be my wife, but you’re not my keeper!” he shouted at me. “What I do is my own business, not yours! Now get out of my way!”

I’m not proud of what I did next, but I was desperate. I had to reach him somehow.

I let my eyes fill with tears. They slid slowly down my face, streaking my cheeks with wet.

The room went deadly quiet.

“Don’t do that, Deb,” Reeve said hoarsely. ”Please don’t do that.”

“I can’t help it,” I said in a pitiful voice. ”I love you so much, and you are trying to leave me.”

“No,” he said. ”I’m not. You know I love you, too, Deb.
Please don’t cry
.”

I had always sworn that I would never try to make Reeve feel guilty about anything, but now that my back was to the wall, I played that card for all that it was worth.

“If anything should happen to you, then I wouldn’t want to live,” I said.

The tears were still rolling down my face.

He looked positively anguished.

“I don’t want anything to happen to
you
, Deb,” he said. ”Don’t you see that?”

I sniffled. “I see it very clearly. I see that you still blame yourself for your mother’s death and that you are afraid that by marrying me you have made me a target for Robert and therefore may be responsible for my death.”

He was white around his mouth and nose. He stared at me out of haunted eyes and said nothing.

“You were fifteen years old when you overturned the coach that killed your mother, and the only person who blamed you for what happened was your father,” I said. ”Even Lord Bradford told me today that it was just a tragic accident and that he always thought that your mother must have been insane to allow you to take the reins.”

He wet his lips as if he were going to say something, but I swept on.

“You have to put the accident behind you, Reeve. You can’t continue to let it dictate what you do with your life. It wasn’t your fault! The way your father treated you after the accident was disgraceful. Everyone thinks so.”

He shook his head in disagreement.

“It’s true,” I insisted. ”And in consequence, he made you feel so guilt-ridden and fearful of harming someone you love that you are ready to do something as drastic as making away with yourself, just to ensure my supposed safety.”

A spark of anger had come back to Reeve’s stricken eyes. “I am glad to know that you understand me so well,” he said with an attempt at sarcasm.

“Well, I do,” I replied.

My spurious tears had stopped by now.

“I also think that you are being incredibly stupid about all of this,” I said.

The anger was now more than a spark. “Get away from that door, Deb,” he said. “I’m leaving.”

“Has it ever occurred to you, Reeve, that I am already carrying a child?” I asked.

His chin jerked infinitesimally, as if he had taken a blow.

“After all, you’re the one who said it only took doing it once,” I reminded him.

Silence
.

“That would be a nice situation for me to find myself in, wouldn’t it? To find myself bearing the heir to the earldom, with no husband, and Robert on the loose?”

More
silence.

“Perhaps you ought to wait a few more weeks, Reeve, to find out how things stand with me, before you try to do away with yourself again.”

He stood there in the middle of the floor, his long legs slightly spread, his wrinkled coat and shirt clinging to his strong body. His eyes were black with some emotion, but I did not know what it was.

I figured I had given him enough to think about for a while.

“You can call for Hummond now,” I said. ”I’m going downstairs to take a walk in the garden with Mama.”

When I got back downstairs, however, it was to find that Charlotte and Richard had come to pay a visit. I sent a footman upstairs to tell Reeve that we had guests, and he joined us twenty minutes later, his dress immaculate, his neckcloth perfect, his face unreadable.

The four of us walked in the garden, and Richard told us what he had discovered of my uncle’s perfidy.

For the eighteen years that John Woodly had been in charge of the Lynly estate, he had systematically embezzled money from it to line his own pockets.

“I feel like such a fool,” Richard confided sheepishly. ”It was just that Uncle John had taken care of the estate books ever since I was a small child and somehow it didn’t seem… polite… to ask him any questions.”

Charlotte patted his arm comfortingly. “It’s not your fault, Richard.”

I looked at her attractive, sharp-angled face and wide green eyes, and thought that I liked her very much.

“Did he do serious damage to the estate?” Reeve asked.

Richard sighed. “It will take me a few years to recoup from what he has stolen, but the damage is not irreparable. Fortunately, Charlotte’s father has been very understanding. He is going to advance me the money I need immediately to pay the most recent bills that Uncle John ran up.”

“What a thoroughgoing scoundrel the man is,” Reeve growled. ”When I think of how he left Deb and her mother to struggle for all those years!”

“I know.” Richard turned to me, his face very grave. ”That is the worst part of this whole nightmare, Deborah. The wrong that was done to you.”

I sighed and repeated Charlotte’s words, “It was not your fault, Richard.”

We had come to a stop in front of the fountain, and my brother stood in front of the bronze cherubs, looking down at me, with the sun glinting off his light brown hair and the brass buttons of his riding coat. He said, “Did Reeve tell you that I am prepared to make an annuity to your mother?”

“Yes, he did.” I looked directly back into his clear hazel eyes. ”Can you afford it, Richard?”

He returned grimly, “I consider it my first priority. She was my father’s wife, after all. And I myself have very happy memories of her from my childhood. She was so pretty and so much fun. I never knew my own mother, and I loved yours very much.” His eyes were sad. “I missed her dreadfully when she left. I missed you, too, Deborah. I lost my father, my stepmother, and my little sister all at once.” His well-cut lips tightened. “It was not an easy time.”

I had never thought of how it might have been for him. Difficult as our life had been, I had had Mama. Poor Richard had been left with Uncle John.

Impulsively I reached up and kissed his cheek. “Well now that we have found each other, let’s not lose each other again.”

He gave me a wistful smile. “I would like that.”

Reeve said, in that gruff voice men use when they are embarrassed to express sentiment, “If you run into any further problems, remember that you have a brother-in-law who will always be willing to help.”

“Thank you, Reeve,” Richard said in the same gruff tone that Reeve had used.

Charlotte and I exchanged tender, amused glances that said,
Men
.

There was the sound of feet crunching on the gravel, and we turned to see Harry approaching us from the house. He said that he had been sent to tell us that tea was being served in the morning room. As we walked back to the house, Reeve and Richard went first, deep in conversation with each other. Charlotte walked on Richard’s other side and Harry fell into step next to me.

“Did you talk to him?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes on Reeve’s broad back.

“Yes.”

“And?”

I sighed. “I don’t think he will try to do away with himself again, Harry. At least not for a while. But we simply must do something about Robert!”

“I know,” Harry said gloomily. ”But what? He hasn’t committed a crime.”

I felt like screaming. “But he’s dangerous. We all know he’s dangerous.”

“I agree. But you can’t arrest a man because you think he’s dangerous, Deborah. He has to
do
something.”

“He tried to rape me!”

“Do you really want to drag Robert into court and accuse him of that? Can you imagine what that would do to the family name?”

“The hell with the family name,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low enough so that I would not be overheard by the group in front of me.

“Be realistic, Deborah,” Harry exhorted me. ”Can you imagine Reeve allowing you to stand up in court and tell the world what had happened?”

I thought about it. “No,” I said glumly.

Harry took my arm and slowed our pace so that Richard, Reeve, and Charlotte got farther ahead of us on the path. He said in a low voice, “Deborah, I have been thinking that perhaps you and Reeve ought to skip the summer fair and go directly home to Ambersley. The opportunities for exposure for the both of you at such an event are far too great for safety.”

I have to confess that I had been worrying about the summer fair also. I just knew that Reeve would insist in taking part in the horse race, and perhaps the boat race as well. Hearing Harry voice my concerns out loud made them seem all the more valid.

“Perhaps you are right,” I said.

“Talk to Reeve and see if you can get him to agree to leave Wakefield immediately,” Harry urged.

I made up my mind. “All right,” I said. “I will.”

Richard and Charlotte went home after tea, and Reeve and Harry took guns out to try for some wood pigeons. While I hated to let Reeve out of my sight, I reasoned that he would be safe as long as he was with someone else, and I knew I could rely on Harry not to let him out of his sight.

While they were gone, I sought out Lord Bradford. I eventually found him in the kitchen garden with Mama.