Persuasion (33 page)

She stared miserably at the urn and sighed. “He is an Earl.”

“That is something, at least,” her mama replied gently. “Is he . . . is he a

good man?”

“I thought he was.”

“That is not so good. What is his name, dearest?”

“I can't tell you mama. You'll tell Devlin and he'll ride hotfoot to London and

challenge him. I love him, mama. I don't want him to be hurt.”

“I'm sure you do love him, my sweet! Indeed, I doubt you would have gifted

him with so precious a gift if you hadn't!” Julia hesitated. “Do you care to

know a secret, darling?” At Lily's slight nod, her lips twitched slightly. "Your father and I . . . we were rather precipitous of our wedding vows. It was

quite fortunate that Devlin . . . well, it was quite fortunate that he arrived

later than he should have.”

Despite her misery, laughter escaped Lily's lips. “Papa was your soul mate

though, mama. And father had at least proposed! I have no such promise

and, in fairness, I did not ask it of him.” Lily's smile disappeared, and, for a

moment, she hesitated over whether or not to inform her mama of the

reasons behind her folly and decided not to. Her mama was quite obviously

recuperating from her grief and Lily did not want to give her another reason

to mourn. Rather than reveal the entire truth, she settled on a kinder

version of events. "I fell for him as he . . . he was still mourning his wife's

death. There was a poignancy about him that struck me. I did not realize

until later that it was not a grief for her death but for what might have been.

She had betrayed him.”

“They say that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at

all, but it is a statement I quite often ponder and question. I was quite

fortunate. Your father was a wonderful man and not once, did he force me to

question whether he loved me and whether I could or should trust him. But

not many spouses are so fortunate. Perhaps, with time, he could come

around?”

“I am sure that he would, but there is a deadline, is there not?” she

murmured with a cold laugh. “I cannot regret this babe, mama. I will not.”

“I did not ask you to, my love. I am thinking. That is all.”

“I am simply glad that you do not hate me, mama. I had feared that you

would.”

“How could I hate my little girl?” Julia asked quietly. “Many a mama might,

but not this one. We have always been an odd family, always out of touch

with the ton and I can't help but believe that is a good thing.” She sighed

and silence reigned between them for a moment or two. The only sounds

came from the flickering fire and ticking of the clock. “Come,” Julia

whispered. “You need to rest. You have had a long journey, and, if your

early days are anything as mine were, you will be in need of some sleep!”

With a faint smile, Lily climbed to her feet and helped her mother to a

standing position. Together, they clasped arms and walked to the opposite

end of the house and to Lily's chambers.

****

Where was she?

Damn her hide!

She came to him, unsure of whether or not she was pregnant, didn't have

the decency to try and force him to legalize their union and then simply

vanished?

He gritted his teeth and slammed down the book he'd been reading.

Well, he conceded, she had hardly vanished. He had a good idea where she

was and he wasn't best pleased about having to hotfoot it to Grantlake and

face her brother with the unpleasant truth.

Grimacing at the thought, he shrugged his shoulders. He was no weakling,

had no fear for Devlin's retribution, but he rather liked his nose in the

position it was and the least he deserved was a broken appendage for

despoiling Devlin's little sis.

Knowing that he would have to rush after her had had him in bad spirits this

last week. At first, he'd contemplated drink but had swiftly realized that it

would not ease the ache that Lily had left behind. And quickly after he had

come to that realization, he had pondered her words, assimilated their

meaning and come to conclusions that had frustrated him all the more!

The first task he had undertaken upon realizing that Lily had disappeared

was to send for Hague. Together they had deduced that a recently employed

footman by the name of Geoffrey was the likely culprit who had gifted Lily's

blackmailer with a key to the house. And who had also enabled Lily to gain

entrance.

When the man had been interviewed and had broken down with guilt, he

had confessed that William Wright had employed him to infiltrate Dorian's

household. Not that Dorian had needed that confirmation. He'd known,

instinctively, that this was William's work, and, had he had his wits about

him when Lily had come to him with this news, he would have instantly put

two and two together.

Rather than dismissing Geoffrey, who, according to Hague, had been a good

worker, Dorian had decided to keep him on. On pains that were anything like

this to ever occur again, Geoffrey would be out on his hide faster than the

speed of light! The footman had been relieved beyond word and Dorian knew

that he had a loyal servant for life! He had thus sent him around to seek

William and invite him around for dinner.

Unfortunately for Dorian's temper, William had traveled up to his hunting

box and Dorian was still impatiently waiting for him to return.

The second had been to hire an investigator to look into William's spending

habits . . . . He'd known that the way to hurt William was through his pocket

and Dorian had not been wrong.

He knew damned well that he had to find Lily, that he had to make her his

wife and legalize the child she could very well be carrying, but he also knew

that there was a score to settle with William, if not with fists, then simply so

that he could understand.

William had always been jealous. Not a moment had passed throughout the

duration of their lives, when Will hadn't been envious of something that

Dorian had. It had only worsened, when he'd inherited the title and William

had become his heir.

Why he hadn't remembered that, William's bitterness, when his cousin had

been slandering Lily, Dorian didn't know. It infuriated him that his mind had

been quite willing to allow William to defame Lily and that he'd simply

accepted it angered him all the more.

Why hadn't he defended her? Why had he believed the nonsense that

William had been spouting? When he knew for a fact that it was William with

whom Camille had betrayed him?

Staring into the fire, Dorian sighed heavily. He had spent an angry few days

stomping around and it had only worsened as he'd had Geoffrey on the

prowl for William's whereabouts. When ultimately, his cousin had been

'found', it had soothed his temper somewhat.

The only thing that had remained was to ascertain how William would be

punished.

Dorian had pondered the prospect and had finally discovered the best way to

rid the world, well if not the world, the country of William's presence and he

was glad to have come to the right conclusion. While he would have loved to

kill the bastard, his morals would not allow him. The punishment he had

thought up was quite befitting and the end result rested on William's own

shoulders.

He smirked into the flames then stalked over to the drinks table. He poured

a short glass of ratafia and sunk it back. It tasted foul, but then, so did the

majority of liqueurs upon this table! It did the job though. Sent fire shooting

through his belly and with the upcoming . . . argument with William, it

merely spurned him on.

Dorian retreated to an armchair and sat there to wait for his cousin to finally

appear. It was a moment he was most looking forward to, indeed had been

playing out the scene in his mind for the last few days.

It would be with relish that he destroyed William's life, the same relish that

William would have felt when he had attempted to do the same with

Dorian's.

It was a shame, but he could almost forgive William for his blunder with

Camille but not with Lily.

A part of him wondered why and then another part, demanded that he never

question it. That it simply was. And that was that.

It had not taken much for her to get through to him, for her to penetrate his

walls, his shields. And when she had walked into his office, he had worked

so hard to remain calm and to swat away her words, a part of him wanting

to believe William's word regardless of his cousin's earlier betrayal. For the

most part, William had succeeded and then Dorian had seen her fall. A slight

stumble and that was it.

His heart had leapt into his chest and he'd known that even if William had

been speaking the truth, she loved him. His belief had only been confirmed,

when she'd told him to be careful. To investigate who the blackmailer was

and as she had spoken, her words had been filled with such sadness, such

sorrow that they had pierced the organ that had begun to beat solely for

her.

He lifted a hand to comb through his hair and then, sat forward. A sense of

urgency rushed through him and he felt a burst of energy run alongside it. It

wasn't nervous energy, but exhilaration. He wanted to punish William,

wanted to do so, so badly that it was a force to be reckoned with.

Dorian jumped upwards and stalked over to his desk once again. He fiddled

with the papers that lay atop the surface and smiled to himself as he did. As

he stared down at the letters, his head shot up as the door opened.

“Cuz,” he declared warmly.

“Dorian,” William replied with a startled smile. “One of my staff said that you

wished to speak with me?”

“Indeed.” He paused. “You were quite right by the way.”

“I was? About what, Dorian?”

“Lily Mercer. Her funds have dried up. She came to me with a very tall tale.

As I said, you were right.”

“I'm glad I warned you,” William replied. He walked over to the drinks table

and poured himself a brandy.

As he did so, Dorian watched him carefully. As William took a large sip of the

liqueur, he perched himself on the edge of his desk and continued to watch

him. “Like you warned me about Camille?” he asked quietly.

“Yes. And I was correct then, wasn't I? She didn't have enough fire for you,

Dorian. Don't get me wrong, I'm sorry that she died and that your babe also

perished, but . . . .” William tilted his head to the side as though considering

his words. “At least the child wasn't a boy. The waste would have been much

worse.”

If William hadn't deserved every ounce of what was coming to him that very

night, then those words would have sealed his fate. “Was she easy to

manipulate?” Dorian asked quietly.

“Who?” his cousin asked around a sip of brandy.

“Camille, of course.” He smiled. “Didn't you know that I knew, William?”

“Knew what?”

“That she was fucking you.”

William stilled. “Are we discussing the same Camille?”

“Indeed we are. I've no doubt that you have long thought me a fool, William,

but was it not a tad crass to use the same technique with Lily?” he asked

coldly and cocked a brow at William's convincing look of dismay.

“I don't know what you're talking about, Dorian. Speak sense, man!”

“Oh I am, for the first time in a long while. I'm quite certain that you believe

you've managed to manipulate the situation to your own end, but this time,

my dear cuz, you are quite wrong.”

“I am, am I?” he asked with a querying look.

At that moment, William so obviously understood where he was leading this

particular conversation that Dorian had to withhold a laugh.

“Yes, indeed.”

“I don't know about that, Dorian. After all, this is the second woman you

love whom I've taken from you. She won't have you now that you've

branded her a whore. And, just think, perhaps she is carrying your child and

you'll never see it, never be able to hold it . . . . I'm sure that that will cause

you a great deal of pain,” he commented with relish. “Not that she was

supposed to come to you, the little witch. I strictly forbade her. But then,

when do women listen? Camille was just as bad.

“I must admit, it was rather a disappointment to walk through the door

tonight and see you were still living. I'd quite hoped you had sliced your

wrists in an attempt to end it all. I was quite certain that a second betrayal

would finish you off. Che sarà sarà,” he quoted wryly.

“Yes, indeed, and, unfortunately for you, I believed her. So I shall be rearing

my child and I shall be seeing her . . . quite shortly . . . . After I've dealt

with this nasty business, that is,” he commented with a smile.

“Ah, so she hooked you, did she? Foolish man.”

“Perhaps, perhaps. Although, I would call you the fool, William.”

“You would?”

“Yes. Greed was always and will always be your downfall . . . as it is now.”

“What do you mean?” For the first time, William looked confused.

“Rather foolish, wasn't it to use your inheritance from my death as security

for loans?”

“How do you know about that?” William asked furiously.

“I hired someone who explained every little detail of the trouble you're in.