A Christmas Courtship (18 page)

As she finished, his eyes had become very hard and bright. ‘The cur demanded that of you?’ he breathed.

‘Yes, and I told him to go to perdition. Jonathan, it’s over now, and I wish to forget it ever happened. Besides, it’s no longer important, we have far too much else to deal with.’

‘Maybe it is over, Sis, but he isn’t going to get away with
treating
you like that. I wish you’d remembered my opinion of him, instead of letting him pull the wool over your eyes, but at least you’ve seen the light before it’s too late. When my problems are done with, I intend to call upon Master Antony Mortimer, and when I’ve finished with him, he’ll wish he’d dealt more
honorably
with you.’

‘Just let it be, Jonathan. Please.’

‘Never. You’re my sister and I love you. No one is going to treat you like that and get away with it.’

Mr Amberley had belatedly realized his error in bringing the subject up, and now sought to turn the conversation to other, more immediate, matters. ‘Jonathan, you must look at the note, just to see that Sam Baxter hasn’t hoodwinked us. Bring it, Hannah.’

Hannah went to her work basket in the cupboard and quickly brought the note to Jonathan, who glanced at it with a smile.

‘That’s it, I’d know it anywhere.’

Mr Amberley sat down with relief. ‘I was so afraid that
somehow
we’d been bamboozled. So, we have a vital piece of evidence to place before Colonel Cummings in the morning.’ He looked intently at his son. ‘You do intend to give yourself up at the barracks tomorrow, don’t you?’

Jonathan nodded. ‘Yes, of course. Father, I know I shouldn’t have cut and run, but it all happened so suddenly that I panicked.’

‘You don’t have to explain, my boy, for I understand. I just want you to do all the right things from now on.’

‘I will, I promise.’

Hannah had poured the tea, and now pushed a cup and saucer into his hands. ‘Drink this, Master Jonathan, it’ll warm you up.’

‘Tea? Hannah, haven’t we got anything stronger? Like a drop of cognac?’

Mr Amberley nodded. ‘My sentiments precisely. Go and bring the decanter from the parlor, Hannah.’

But Blanche gestured to Hannah to stay. ‘You sit down and enjoy your tea, Hannah, I’ll go.’

Gathering her skirts, she hurried through into the dark
hallway
and then into the parlor, which was lit by firelight from the hearth. As she picked up the decanter, she heard a carriage driving up the village street, and she went to the window,
holding
the curtain fractionally aside to look out.

The carriage lamps cut through the darkness, illuminating the snowflakes that were still falling. She recognized the vehicle at once, for it was Athena’s. The blinds had been lowered, completely concealing the occupant, and the coachman was driving as swiftly as he could, so that the carriage passed in a moment and then drove through the gates into Amberley Court.

Blanche went back into the kitchen. ‘Lady Hetherington has returned from her day in Gloucester,’ she said, placing the decanter on the table.

‘Lady Hetherington?’ Jonathan turned quickly toward her. ‘Why is she here?’

‘She is to marry Sir Edmund. Why? Do you know her?’

‘Blanche, don’t you know who she is?’ he asked quietly.

She looked at him, feeling suddenly uneasy. ‘I know that she’s a leading light in London society, and that….’

‘Her maiden name is Neville, Sis, and she’s Roderick Neville’s sister.’

There was a stunned silence in the room, and Blanche stared at him in dismay. ‘That can’t be so….’ she breathed.

‘I’m afraid it is.’

She turned weakly away, her head spinning. Athena and
Roderick Neville were brother and sister? Oh, what had she done? By selling the pendant to Sir Edmund, she’d unwittingly dragged him into the affair, causing him to provide the money that had purchased the note from Sam Baxter; the note that was going to be used against his future brother-in-law.

Then something occurred to her, and she turned quickly back again. ‘Jonathan, is Roderick her only brother?’

‘Yes, why?’

‘Well, Sir Edmund told me that she was spending the whole day in Gloucester with her brother, and yet she’s only just returned. Roderick has been on duty for some time now, he has to have been to have ridden from Cheltenham to carry out another search. So, what has Lady Hetherington been doing since she and her brother parted, always assuming that she has been with him today?’

Mr Amberley sighed and sat down. ‘What does it matter what she’s been doing? The fact remains that we have embroiled Sir Edmund in this business, and he isn’t going to be at all amused once he realizes what use we’ve put his money to.’

Jonathan gave a heavy sigh. ‘It can’t be helped now, for it’s a
fait accompli
,’ he said quietly.

Blanche sat by the kitchen table. They were dismissing the matter of Athena’s activities today, and maybe they were right, but somehow she didn’t think so. There was some significance in it, although she couldn’t have said what. Her thoughts moved away from Athena and on to Sir Edmund himself. She wished with all her heart that she hadn’t sold the pendant to him, even though she’d done so in all innocence. But it was done now, and couldn’t be undone. 

No one slept well that night, not even Jonathan, who was in a comfortable bed for the first time in days. As dawn lightened the sky outside, Blanche rose from her bed, dressing in a demure gray woolen dress with long sleeves and a cream lace collar. She combed her hair up into a knot at the back of her head and teased a single long ringlet to tumble down to the nape of her neck. Then she put on a warm cream woolen shawl ready to go downstairs, but first something made her go to the window to look out.

It had long since stopped snowing, and the sky was clear. There was little movement in the village, although fresh smoke curled from chimneys, telling of newly tended fires. A wife drove her goats out to the village green, where she’d already cleared patches of grass for them to graze, then she tethered each goat to a stake in the ground and returned to the warmth of her cottage. Everything seemed very normal and quiet, just as one would have expected on a snowy December dawn just before Christmas.

Pulling her shawl more closely around her, she went
downstairs
, and as she reached the hall, she heard Hannah tending the fireplace in the parlor. She went in and saw the housekeeper kneeling by the hearth, sorting through the embers for any coals that might be used again.

‘Good morning, Hannah.’

‘Why, good morning, Miss Blanche. You’re early.’

‘I didn’t sleep much.’

Hannah sat back on her heels. ‘I doubt if anyone did. Well, maybe after today’s over, we’ll all feel a lot better. Master
Jonathan will take the note to his colonel, and I’m sure that his story will be believed after that.’

‘I hope you’re right, Hannah. I only wish he weren’t traveling there on his own.’

‘Now then, Miss Blanche, it’s up to him how he goes about it. He’s a grown man, an officer and a gentleman, and he won’t want anyone to hold his hand.’

‘But to go on his own….’

‘It’s how he wishes to do it, my dear,’ said Hannah quietly.

‘Yes, I suppose so.’ Blanche sat down on the arm of a chair. ‘Hannah, I’ve been thinking about Sir Edmund.’

‘Yes, I know,’ replied the housekeeper, giving her a shrewd look.

‘What am I going to say to him?’

‘The truth, my dear, for you didn’t know who Lady Hetherington was when you sold him the pendant.’

‘But will he believe me? If Lady Hetherington was with her brother yesterday, she’s bound to have learned about Jonathan – at least, she’ll have learned her brother’s version of the story – and when she returned to the house last night, she’s sure to have told Sir Edmund. I can’t imagine that he’ll believe me when I say that even though Jonathan and Roderick Neville are fellow
officers
and have until recently been close friends, I didn’t know that Lady Hetherington is Mr Neville’s sister.’

Hannah got up, shaking out the sacking apron she always wore when tending the fires. ‘Miss Blanche, it’s the truth, and that’s what counts. If Sir Edmund chooses not to believe you, then it will not be your fault.’

‘I don’t want him to think badly of me.’

‘I know that, too.’ Hannah looked sadly at her. ‘He’s come to mean a great deal to you, hasn’t he?’

Blanche blushed, and nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘In its way, that’s as misplaced as your feelings for that Mortimer insect.’

‘I know.’ Blanche pulled her shawl more closely around her shoulders. ‘Hannah, when Jonathan has left, I intend to go to see Sir Edmund.’

‘If it’s any comfort, you won’t have to face Lady
Hetherington, for she left about an hour ago.’

‘Left?’

‘Her carriage drove past like Beelzebub himself was chasing it, and I saw her inside with just her maid. It was dark, but there were lights in the windows of Harry Turner’s cottage opposite, and I saw their silhouettes as plain as plain. I also saw all the luggage strapped on top of the carriage. It’s my guess that she doesn’t intend to come back, at least not for a while.’

‘But, I’m sure she came to spend Christmas with Sir Edmund, and I do know that she and he are to have dinner tonight with….’ Blanche couldn’t bring herself to mention the other two guests at the Amberley Court dining table.

‘Well, I know what I saw, Miss Blanche, and it was her
ladyship
departing with all her luggage. I doubt very much if she’ll be back tonight, so, as I said, you won’t encounter her if you go to see Sir Edmund.’ Hannah knelt by the hearth again and began to shovel ashes into a bucket.

Blanche gazed toward the window. Athena had gone? But why? What had happened?

She was soon to find out, for only an hour later, before Jonathan had left for Cheltenham, she found herself face to face with Sir Edmund. The letter carrier’s bell had brought her out to the garden gate to collect some mail, and just as she was about to go back inside, she heard hooves coming from the direction of Amberley Court. Turning, she saw Sir Edmund riding swiftly out through the gates. As he saw her, he reined in, then he urged his horse toward her. Amixture of emotions crossed his face, and she knew that he had indeed heard Roderick’s side of the story from Athena.

‘Just one question. Did you need to sell the pendant in order to prepare a case against Lieutenant Neville and Miss Jennings?’

She made herself meet his eyes. ‘Yes,’ she replied unhappily, ‘but I swear I had no idea that the lieutenant was Lady Hetherington’s brother. If I had, I would never have allowed you to persuade me to sell it to you. When I realized, I decided I had to tell you, and I was going to go to Amberley Court later this morning.’

‘Were you?’ he asked dryly.

‘It’s true.’

‘I’d like to believe you, but I find it difficult. Your brother and Roderick Neville are not only in the same regiment, but it turns out that they were until recently close friends as well, so I find it impossible to accept that you did not know the identity of Roderick’s sister!’

She faced him. ‘Sir Edmund, when did you learn about all this?’

‘Late last night, when Lady Hetherington returned from Gloucester.’

‘Where she’d just learned it from her brother’s lips?’

‘Yes.’

She held his gaze. ‘All of it? Including the fact that I not only had a brother, but that he was her brother’s good friend?’

‘Yes. Where is all this leading?’

‘I’m simply asking if it was all new to Lady Hetherington yesterday.’

‘Yes, it was.’

‘And you accept that fact?’

‘If you are suggesting that Lady Hetherington is lying….’

‘No, Sir Edmund, I’m not suggesting that at all. I’m merely pointing out that you apparently find it possible to believe that she knew nothing about my brother, and yet impossible to believe that I knew nothing of hers.’ She looked
im
ploringly into his blue eyes. ‘Please, Sir Edmund, believe me when I say I didn’t know, and that if I had, I most certainly wouldn’t have sold you the pendant.’

A hesitation appeared in his eyes as he studied her. ‘Why wouldn’t you have sold it to me?’ he asked quietly.

‘Because I like you, sir, and I wouldn’t do anything that might compromise you. Please don’t think ill of me, for I do not deserve it.’

He was silent for a moment. ‘What exactly did you need the money for, Blanche?’

‘I-I don’t think I should tell you….’ she began.

‘Even now? Why? Because of Athena?’

She didn’t reply.

‘Look at me, Blanche. Now then, I’m asking you to trust me.

You
do
trust me, don’t you?’

Trust him? She
loved
him!

He smiled a little. ‘Why did you need the money?’ he asked again.

‘To purchase something that will go toward proving my brother’s innocence.’

‘And this “something” is…?’

‘The note that Miss Jennings wrote to him, and which she subsequently denied having sent.’

He looped his horse’s reins over a branch of one of the holly trees by the gate and came closer to her. ‘And which will not only prove that she was lying, but also indicate that Roderick Neville was as well, when he too denied the wretched thing’s existence?’

‘Yes.’

‘And to follow it all to its logical conclusion, once doubts have been raised about their veracity on that point, then suspicion will naturally turn upon them instead of your brother.’

‘I sincerely hope so, for they are guilty, not he.’

‘How did you come by the note?’

She explained everything about Sam Baxter’s visit, and his demand for precisely eight hundred and fifty guineas.

He listened in silence, and then smiled at her, a gentle smile that was also an appeal for forgiveness. ‘I’ve misjudged you this morning, Blanche, and you’ll never know how glad I am now that I was in error. If there is one person in the world I wish to have faith in, that person is you.’

She stared at him.

He looked quickly away, as if aware he’d he spoken almost tenderly. ‘Blanche, I believe you about your brother. He appears to be the victim, not the villain.’

‘You-you believe me?’ she breathed, tears leaping to her eyes.

‘Yes.’

The tears welled down her cheeks, and her voice caught. ‘Thank you, Sir Edmund, thank you so much….’

‘Please don’t cry,’ he said quickly.

‘I-I can’t help it.’

‘Please, for your tears are my fault, and I feel guilty enough
already for behaving so coldly at the beginning of this
conversation
.’

‘You were justified, Sir Edmund.’

‘No, I wasn’t, for I should have known that you wouldn’t…Well, it doesn’t matter now, for I’m convinced that your brother has been the victim of a cruel plot. Where is he now?’‘Show her in, Hannah, and let us discover what she has to say,’ said Blanche, steeling herself for what could only be a very difficult interview.

‘In the cottage.’

‘And Neville didn’t find him?’

‘He has only been here since late last night.’

He looked into her eyes. ‘And where was he before that?’

She didn’t want to answer, and looked away.

He put a gloved hand to her chin and turned her face toward him again. ‘Where was he before that?’ he asked again.

‘First of all at the deserted fishing house, and then in a cave in Red Cliff.’

‘Both of which, if I’m not mistaken, are on my land.’

‘Yes.’

‘How very presumptuous, to be sure.’ A hint of amusement passed through his blue eyes. ‘At last your nocturnal activities are completely explained, are they not?’

‘Yes.’

‘Your brother is very fortunate to have you, Blanche. He must be quite a paragon to have won your heart and loyalty so completely. Will you take me to him?’

‘If you wish.’

‘I’m nothing if not a fair and honorable man, Blanche, and now that I believe he is innocent, it is my wish to assist all I can. A major-general is not without influence in army matters, you know.’

‘Sir Edmund, what of Lady Hetherington?’

‘She and I are no longer betrothed, but even if we were, I’d still do as I’m doing now.’

She stared at him. ‘You and she are no longer betrothed? I-I’m sorry, Sir Edmund.’

‘Don’t be. Now then, shall we go inside to see your brother, or would you prefer to linger out here in the snow?’ He offered her his arm.

A rather uneasy Hannah opened the door to admit them, and
they found Mr Amberley seated alone in the parlor. Of Jonathan there was no sign.

Blanche turned to her father. ‘Where is Jonathan, Father?’ He looked uncertainly at her. ‘Blanche….’ His glance slid to Sir Edmund.

Blanche took her father’s hand. ‘It’s all right, Father. Sir Edmund means to help us, not the opposite.’

‘He is to marry Neville’s sister, my dear.’

‘No, Father, but even if he were, I’d still have invited him in now. He believes Jonathan is innocent, and wishes to assist us.’

‘Indeed?’ Mr Amberley’s eyes moved quizzically toward Sir Edmund.

Sir Edmund faced him. ‘Sir, if you do not wish me to help in any way, you have only to say so.’

‘Please, Father.’ Blanche squeezed her father’s hand.

He nodded, patting her arm. ‘Please be seated, Sir Edmund. Hannah, bring Master Jonathan.’

‘Very well, sir.’ The housekeeper had been waiting in the doorway, and now bobbed a curtsey and hurried through into the kitchen.

A moment later she returned with Jonathan, who was still hastily doing up the front of his uniform. He came to smart attention and saluted Sir Edmund, who nodded at him.

‘At ease, lieutenant.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘Tell me your story.’

Jonathan hesitated, looking at Blanche and his father, and then back at Sir Edmund. ‘With all due respect, sir….’

‘If you’re about to mention my, er, relationship with Lady Hetherington, let me assure you that it no longer exists. The lady and I have gone our separate ways, so any doubts you may nurture concerning my loyalty may be discounted forthwith.’

Jonathan colored. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Sit down, lieutenant, for we may as well all be comfortable while we listen. I wish to hear everything that happened, down to the smallest detail.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Jonathan sat down.

‘Proceed.’

Jonathan told the whole story all over again, and Sir Edmund listened in silence, glancing now and then at Blanche, who was seated on a sofa in the corner of the room.

When Jonathan finished and the note had been produced for examination, Sir Edmund was silent for a moment, then he got up. ‘Lieutenant, it’s clear to me that you are innocent, and that the guilty parties are Lieutenant Neville and Miss Jennings.’ He looked at Blanche, smiling a little. ‘It appears that we have all three been unfortunate in matters of the heart,’ he murmured.

Mr Amberley sat forward. ‘Sir Edmund, Jonathan was about to give himself up to his commanding officer.’

‘Yes, that must be done without delay, for one thing is
uncomfortably
clear, and that is that although Lieutenant Amberley is not guilty of theft or of lying about the note, he is nevertheless guilty of desertion.’

Blanche got up quickly. ‘Sir Edmund, what will they do to him?’

‘It is in his commanding officer’s discretion to interpret events as he thinks best, and the circumstances surrounding your brother’s desertion are extenuating to say the least. Colonel Cummings is known to me, and although he is a strict
disciplinarian
, he is also a just man. Your brother had until these events proved himself to be an excellent officer, and had gained a very coveted promotion, so it is my opinion that the colonel will weigh all this very carefully. If I were he, I would set aside all charges, including that of desertion.’