An Unmistakable Rogue (24 page)

The hair rose on Reed’s arms and the back of his neck.

“I waited for you to return, you and your twin. Then I heard you say your brother was dead. I’ve been mourning his loss for days. How could fate be so cruel?”

Reed shuddered. He and Chastity had just made love in the library when they discussed William’s death—the death of his only brother.

“You’re as lusty as your father, do you know that?”

Reed closed his eyes, bile rising in his throat. He had not felt this ill and degraded since— This was the crone who stood over him in his nightmares, no figment of a fevered imagination, but flesh and blood, and pure evil.

“Your father should have married me,” she shouted, “but he lied to me and married your mother, instead.”

Reed released his breath. She was
not
his mother. Thank God.

“I was good enough to be his mistress, but never his wife. You should have been mine!” She slapped his father’s tomb to emphasize each word.

But he was not, praise be.

“I brought you back so you and your twin could follow your father and the bitch he married to hell. I expected you to fight to the death for your father’s title and wealth, but dreams die hard.” Her sigh turned to a hiss. “You’re weak like her. She did not even have the pluck to survive your birth.” Her voice rose with agitation. “Damn her to hell for eternity. And you too, Reed St. Yves.”

Her knife came from nowhere.

Surprise kept Reed rooted.

He dove behind a pew as she raised her arm to strike, but the knife glanced off his shoulder and fell beside him. The warmth of blood spread with his pain.

All was silent. He heard not a breath. When he glanced over, the crone had turned back to his father’s tomb. She spoke of bringing their family together, again.

Chastity stepped from behind the pulpit.

Reed’s heart near-stopped as she approached the crone.

“No!” he shouted as he stood.

Chastity shook her head. “Trust me,” her look said.

What choice did he have? But he now had her knife, which he would use, if he must, to protect Chastity.

“Thea, dear,” Chastity said, her voice gentle. “The children want you to come and play with them.”

Thea? It could not be.

The crone slid her veil off, straightened her spine and the years seemed to drop away from her. Yes, Thea. She opened her arms to embrace Chastity, and Reed shuddered to see Chastity wrapped in evil.

“Where are my pets?” Thea asked.

This evil had lived with them. It seemed more than possible that she caused his accidents as well.

The Reverends Hill and Perkins came up behind Chastity. “Guess you didn’t need us, after all,” one said.

Thea rushed them. “Papa! Clive!” She kissed them, growing younger still. “You’ve come back.” She took the shorter one by the hand and led him over. “I did it Clive, I righted your wrong. I brought Edward’s son back.”

Reed felt light-headed—probably the loss of blood. He had no choice but to sit.

Thea thought the missionaries were her father and brother. It made sense, in a way. They were dressed like men of the cloth ... God’s men. St. Yves took God’s man’s sister ... Thea....

“Sit, dear,” Reverend Hill said. “And tell everyone what you did. I want them to know about your sacrifice. And please introduce me, for I do not know everyone.”

With the manners of an aristocrat, Thea introduced Reed and Chastity to her Dear Papa and her brother Clive, both Vicars.

“Thank you, dear,” Reverend Hill said. “Now tell us everything, please. From the beginning.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Reed could not have moved for the world as she revealed the details of his beginning. How many people re-lived the first horrific moments of their lives? How many can see so clearly into the souls of men writhing in hell?

But Thea did not end her tale with his birth and
rescue
. “I heard a babe cry that night,” she said, “and thought it an omen. If I bore Edward a living son, he would marry me.” She laughed until she wept, and they waited until she recovered. “I bore him four stillborn sons, before I knew he would never marry me. Then I began lacing his wine with Oleander. If the St. Yves line did not continue through me, I would see its end.”

Thea looked up, as if surprised to see them, especially Reverend Hill. She examined the chapel and shook her head. “You’re not dead, Clive? Was it just a dream?”

Reed wanted to roar with fury, to gather Chastity and the children and hold them close. Her Vicar-brother’s interference was horrendous, outrageous. He had his revenge on Barrington, but he scarred and destroyed many other lives in the process, including his own sister’s.

Reed’s life was altered, too, but he might never have met Chastity and the children, otherwise. Put in that light, perhaps the Vicar’s act had been predestined.

Thea’s look centered on him, again. “You there.” She pointed at him. “Your twin did not live for our reunion. Soon you will join him.”

The missionaries increased their hold on her. “I still have arrows left,” she said on a demented laugh.

Chastity’s gasp caught her attention, and the madwoman wailed. “She nursed him back to health! It wasn’t my fault, Clive. I’m sorry I disappointed you, Papa. I try so hard to be what you expect.”

As the clerics gave Thea their forgiveness, Chastity took Reed’s hand, but Thea focused on him again, and he shuddered at the evil that had visited him in the night.

“I tried to end the line before you were born, but your mother would eat nothing from my hand. I thought she was starving, until I found her milking a cow in the middle of the night. She told me she would protect her child, until she breathed her last.”

Thea laughed. “That’s when I had Edward put her in the tower. She was too weak to take all those stairs. But the bitch bore you, anyway. She even bested me from the grave, protecting you in her tomb, the way she protected you in her womb when I sent the angel for you.”

Thea looked about and began to weep. “Poor, sweet angel broke her wing.”

Reed felt the salty warmth of his own tears. The mother he had
hated
, gave her life for his. He looked over at her final resting place and opened himself to a mother’s love for the first time.

The children came timidly in, silent, worried.

Thea screeched and struggled in the Reverend’s hold. “Those brats stole the poisoned food and let it rot!”

Poisoned? Food he had nearly made them eat.

Reed heard a roaring in his head. When he opened his eyes, Chastity was leaning over him, squeezing his hand, and the Reverend Hill was applying pressure to the wound on his shoulder. “Lost a lot of blood,” he said.

Reed allowed them to help him sit, the children hovering. He urged them over. “I am so sorry,” he said. “So bloody sorry about the food. You do not have to forgive me, because I will never forgive myself.”

“We forgive you,” Matt said. “You taught us good that day.” Matt tried to laugh but his gaze was pinned on Reed’s wound. “Chastity that blood’s kind of making me sick.”

“Me too,” Reed said, ruffling Matt’s hair.

Thea was escorted from the chapel by Reverend Perkins. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“Your work here is finished, daughter. You’ve made your Papa proud.”

Thea looked around. “You too Clive? Are you proud?”

“Very,” Hill said, his voice cracking. “You’ve been a good sister and now you deserve to rest.”

“Edward was not nice to me, Papa.”

Reed almost wished he had never gotten Thea’s letter. He might think this the worst experience of his life, but for the joy of his life weeping into his shirt. She and her brigands were the best gift ever, even if he must give them up. “Shh, love, everything is all right now,” he told her.

“Is Kitty all right?” Luke asked.

“She’s fine. She’s just worried because I’m hurt.”

“No,” she wailed, “that’s not it.”

“You’re not worried about me?”

“I am, but— You do not understand. The Vicar played God. He rescued you and ruined you.”

“But I’m fine now.”

“Do you not see?” she said. “His actions were the same as mine.”

“What?”

“As my rescue of the children.”

When they got back to the house, Mr. Sennett was waiting, wide-eyed and silent as they filed in, two clerics with a weeping woman between them, Chastity holding a blood-soaked cloth to Reed’s shoulder. The children’s grisly, disjointed, and sometimes erroneous, explanation turned the solicitor white.

Thea was made comfortable and locked in her room. The missionaries would take turns sitting with her. Only they could calm her. Tomorrow, she would be brought to the magistrate.

Everyone else adjourned to the library.

While Chastity cleaned and bandaged his shoulder, Reed recounted for Sennett Thea’s bizarre chronicle of his birth, including her Vicar brother’s deathbed confession, telling him that Thea had written the notes that brought Reed and Chastity to Sunnyledge.

“Did you realize, Reed?” Chastity said. “That you tossed me Duncan’s note with the weeds?”

“That’s how Kitty knew you were in danger,” Matt said. “The handwriting. She compared it to Thea’s notes and a dead thing—”

“Your mother’s death certificate,” Chastity explained. “The word alleluia is written across it in the same hand.”

“Kitty said, then, that your accidents were not accidents, after all.”

“I knew you were in danger, and the Reverends agreed to help, thank God.” Chastity cast a jaundiced eye on the children. “Our brigands, however, disobeyed my orders to wait in the house.”

Reverend Perkins cleared his throat, and placed his hands behind his back. “The woman’s machinations, though for the worst reasons, seem to have been providential.” He nodded at Reed and Chastity. “You’d never have found each other and the children, otherwise. You’ve obviously become close, else you’d not have worked so hard to make Hill and I dread the thought of taking your brigands.”

Reed was stunned. Sennett laughed. Chastity’s smile was forced.

“Mr. Sennett,” Reed said. “Chastity is convinced you’ll stop her from opening a home for children.”

“I might,” he said. “She’s wise to be concerned. I cannot abide a breach of rules, which she knows.”

“I’ll just go check on our guest, shall I?” Reverend Perkins said, making his way to the door.

“No wait, please,” Chastity said. “I’ve come to a decision. Pray, hear me out.” She gazed at each child with love. “I learned today that interfering in someone’s life, no matter the reason, even if it appears just, can destroy lives, cause turmoil and upheaval.”

She turned to Reed. “In your case, as in the case of your brother, my husband, your lives were altered to such an extent as to make me weep. The Vicar should have left you with your father.”

“Edward St. Yves was cruel and heartless,” Reed said. “He abused the woman who loved him, twisted and tormented her mind. You would have condemned me and William to that?”

Taken aback, Chastity, nevertheless, persevered. “No one has a right to play God.” She turned to her benefactor. “Mr. Sennett, you were right. There is never cause to breach the rules. I am sorry to have disappointed you.”

The solicitor nodded, but said nothing.

Chastity addressed the prelate. “Good Reverend, t’would be best for the children to await their parents with the Missionary Society. I give them into your keeping.”

“T’would be best for them to be loved!” Reed shouted.

Matt launched himself at Chastity. “Don’t send us away, Kitty. Please, don’t.”

She stroked his hair and held him close, her eyes closed, tears coursing down her cheeks.

“Please keep us, Kitty.”

Mark tugged on Matt’s arm. “Don’t be such a baby, Matt. Come on. We don’t need her. We don’t need anybody.”

Luke took Bekah’s hand and came to Reed, which humbled him. Luke’s arms, as they came around him, and Bekah’s about his neck, as he picked her up, brought such a rush of love, Reed feared his knees would buckle.

Matt swallowed convulsively. “You still want us, don’t you, Kitty?”

“Baby!” Mark yelled.

“Of course I want you. I love you. But I was wrong, Matt. Taking you was wrong.”

“You tried to take us the right way, but the Beadle wanted you to do bad things. I heard him. You wouldn’t have needed to take us if he wasn’t low as Lucifer.” Matt regarded Sennett. “Mr. Sennett knows; I told him.”

Chastity took Matt by the shoulders. “But your parents, Matt. You should be in London waiting for them when they come home.”

Matt pulled away and looked at his brothers and sister. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. Mum and Da are not comin’ home. Never.”

“Liar!” Mark shouted. “Take that back.” He threw Matt to the ground.

Reed gave Bekah and Luke over to Chastity. Having once been so inwardly wounded, he knew Matt and Mark needed to beat the tar out of each other, to feel pain and inflict it. But Chastity’s demands that he put a stop to the fracas won out and he pulled them apart.

Matt sported a bloody nose, and though Mark took the worst of the beating, his angry shell remained intact.

“They died,” Matt told Chastity, “both of them. I got the letter upstairs. It came to Aunt Anna and she gave it to me.” He looked at his brothers and sister. “Mum got the fever nursing Da. I didn’t want you to be sad, so I didn’t tell you. Then Aunt Anna died and you had more reason to be sad, so I still didn’t tell you.”

He turned back to Chastity. “Then you found us in Aunt Anna’s cellar, Kitty, and I was afraid you wouldn’t want us, if you knew we needed keeping ‘till we’re grown. It’s gonna be a long time ‘till, you know,‘specially for Bekah. But,” He wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve, “she talks and laughs now and all, so we know she’s happy and—” He threw himself at Chastity and started to cry. “Bekah needs you, Kitty. She needs you, bad.”

“Me too,” Luke said, worming his way into her embrace.”

“Need Weed, too,” Bekah said, regarding him from under her lashes.

Reed’s heart broke. If Chastity didn’t say something soon, he was going to sit right down and bawl with them.

Everyone turned to Mr. Sennett who blustered and sniffed. “No other aunts, uncles, grandparents?” he asked the children.

Matt shook his head and his siblings followed suit.

Mr. Sennett cleared his throat. “Matthew will please give me his letter,” he said, “and I will do the paperwork, and follow the proper channels.” He regarded the children. “My recommendation will not be questioned. If Chastity wants you, you’re hers ‘till you’re grown.”

Chastity stifled a sob. “I want you,” she shouted. “I would not give you up for anything. “I love you, and ... I need you to love me back.”

“Sniveling babies,” Mark shouted. “Keep those sissies, if you want, but I’m leaving first chance I get.”

Chastity and Reed talked through the night, but every conversation ended the same way. If he stayed, they’d be breaking the law, breaking rules, teaching the children the wrong lessons. He loved her. She loved him. No doubt, no qualifications. He wanted Matt, Mark, Luke and Rebekah. He wanted her. He wanted them to have children together.

She wept. So did he. He could not flout the law and marry her; he could not live with her and not touch her.

It could not be.
They
could never be.

They made tender, incredible, exquisite love, then held each other, wakeful, sorrowful, through the longest night of their lives.

The next morning, Chastity and the children stood in a row beside Sennett’s carriage. Reed was leaving with him. “You’re the man in the family, Matt,” Reed said. “You have to keep them out of trouble. No more pilfering, mind. Make sure Luke doesn’t build an ark or something. If you discover two of every animal missing, you find that boy.”

Matt’s smile wobbled. “Yes, Sir.” He threw himself at Reed, who held tight for a minute, firmed his stance, shivered, disentangled himself, and stepped before Mark.

“I don’t need you,” Mark said.

“Then you’re the lucky one, because I need you.”

But Mark turned and walked away.

Reed moved to Luke whose sobs had been consistent since they stepped from the house. “Don’t go.”

Reed knelt, closed his eyes and held the scamp. “The lot of us have broken enough rules and laws to last a lifetime, son. There is just no more room on our list of accounts for even one more breach. Someday you’ll understand.” He pulled back and looked Luke in the eye. “I’m giving you my most important job.”

“What?”

“Braid Bekah’s hair every morning for me, will you?”

“Weed?” Her arms were open and he fell in, getting squeezed so tight, Chastity felt the pressure closing her throat. “Love you,” Bekah said, as if she understood there was nothing more that could be said.

“’Till the day I die,” Reed whispered, clearing his throat, handing her to Chastity, looking now into glistening violet eyes. “’Till the day I die.”

Then he was sitting beside Sennett and the carriage was moving.

Chastity’s heart raced; it withered. She and the children stood unmoving long after the carriage disappeared. Not until she realized that the moisture on her face was rain did she see that the sun had gone with the morning.

* * *

Reed had been gone for days. The children ate little. Nothing seemed to cheer them. Chastity rose to clear off the table. Bekah and Luke helped. Mark and Matt sat beside Zeke’s box petting her babies. Where was Luke?

“Luke?” There was no reason to panic. Thea had left with the missionaries. Chastity went to the bottom of the stairs. “Luke, where are you?”

“Here I am.” His gallop down the stairs matched the beat of her heart, but she was too relieved to be angry. “Kitty, these letters are for you. You were too excited to listen before, but—”