Chapter Eighteen
“WHAT A DREADFUL MAN.” Sabrina overheard the duchess’s pronouncement and turned away from the screen.
Her stomach was churning, and it was all she could do not to burst into tears. Lilah stared at her, eyes wide, face white with shock. For one painful instant Sabrina thought her friend was frightened of her, believing Dearborn’s lie that Sabrina was out of her mind.
But then Lilah said in a low voice, “How could he say that? I... We’ve known him all our lives! Oh, Sabrina.” She reached out, taking Sabrina’s hand and squeezing it tightly.
The door opened, startling them, and Alex strode into the room, his forehead creased in concern. “Sabrina?”
Lilah jumped to her feet. “They were lies! Everything Mr. Dearborn said. Sabrina has never had ‘episodes’ or acted daft. I am certain of it—I lived with her at school for three years, and I would have noticed.”
“I know.” Alex smiled faintly at Lilah’s indignant defense of her friend. “That’s clear to anyone who has met Sabrina.”
“I can’t imagine why Mr. Dearborn would act like this. He’s always been such a gentleman.”
“I’m afraid you mistake gentleman for good man, Miss Holcutt,” Con said, strolling into the room after his brother.
Lilah frowned at Con, but after that Sabrina lost track of what the others were doing, for Alex came over to her and took her hands in his. “How are you? I am sorry you heard that. I should have insisted you go up to your room.”
“No. I’m glad I heard it. The last thing I want right now is to be ignorant. There’s already far too much that I don’t know.” She smiled up at him. There was such emotion, such warmth in his eyes that she felt as if her heart might crack.
“I’d like very much to kiss you right now,” he murmured. She could see the truth of it on his face. “I wish my brother and Miss Holcutt were anywhere but here.”
“I... You know we cannot” was all Sabrina could manage in reply. The truly dangerous thing was that she wanted him to do just that. She longed to lay her head against his chest and hear the steady rhythm of his heart beneath her ear, as she had last night in the carriage. She ached to have the strength of his arms around her.
But it was weak and oh, so, wrong of her. Especially now, after what she had just heard and seen—and with the suspicion that was growing in her by the moment. She should tell Alex about the dream she’d had last night.
The words refused to come to her lips. It seemed as if to tell Alex would give them substance. Truth. Instead, she seized upon the other worry that turned her chest to ice. “I should not have come here. I shouldn’t have put your family in this position.”
“Nonsense. I thought we settled this last night. You’re not endangering my family, which is, by the way, quite capable of taking care of itself.”
“Yes, I know you are. You are all wonderful, kind people. But don’t you see? That makes it even more deplorable for me to bring scandal to your name.”
“Pfft.” He made a derisive noise. “Scandal is the last thing we worry about. What I said to Dearborn was the truth. Everyone already thinks we’re eccentrics at best, lunatics at worst. Dearborn’s claims would only be one more tidbit for them to chew on. Besides, he’s not going to create a scandal. It holds far more risk for him than it does for us. You could see the fear in his eyes when Megan was telling him what the press would have to say on the matter. He understands how badly your running away would reflect on him, and he doesn’t want that. Nor, I suspect, does he want newspapers digging into his affairs.”
“But he said he would bring the law down on you. He was horribly angry there at the end. I think he’s capable of doing that.”
Alex shrugged carelessly. “Maybe. But he won’t get anywhere. Trust me, the police aren’t coming to haul you out of here without proof.”
Sabrina wanted to believe him. It was easy to do so when she was looking at him, so strong, so confident. She wanted to simply let go, hand over her problems to him and let him deal with them for her. Given the way Lilah had described her, Sabrina suspected that was what she would have done in the past. But she could not help but believe that Alex was too confident in his family’s name protecting them from any attack. Not even a duke could defy the law.
“I—” Sabrina took a step back. She had to think. “I am rather tired. I should go up to my room and rest a bit.”
“Of course.” He took her hand and bowed over it, pressing his lips against her skin. It was amazing how such a brief, light touch could send shivers running all through her.
She made herself pull back from him and said, “Lilah? I’m going to my room. Would you walk with me?”
“Of course.” Lilah turned with alacrity. Given the irritated set of Con’s mouth and the speed with which Lilah walked away, Sabrina suspected that neither of them was displeased at having their conversation interrupted.
“Rough going with Con?” Sabrina murmured, linking her arm with her friend’s and leaning in as they walked out of the room.
“That man is so full of flattery.”
Sabrina chuckled. “That’s a bad thing?”
“It is when it’s clear he doesn’t mean a word of it. He always has this look in his eyes, as if he’s about to laugh at me.” She waved her hand as if sweeping something aside. “But let’s not waste breath on him. You are the one I’m concerned about. Are you all right? I would never have dreamed Mr. Dearborn would say such things about you.”
“I suspect it’s shaken you more than me, for I have no previous opinion of him.”
“It was true—the part about him being your father’s good friend. All three of them were—my father and the two of them. It’s beyond belief that he should betray your father’s trust in this manner.”
“I’m terribly worried, Lilah.”
“The Morelands will protect you,” Lilah said quickly. “Whatever one might say about Constantine, I know he’s utterly loyal to his twin. Indeed, I got the impression they are all that way. It’s clear that Alex is determined to keep you out of Mr. Dearborn’s clutches.”
“That’s why I’m worried. If he is my guardian, he probably does have the right to demand they let me go. I don’t care how old and aristocratic the Morelands are, they can’t break the law.”
“I’m not really sure this family would care whether it’s legal.”
“Probably not, but I can’t let them get arrested because of me. I can’t make Alex face a decision of whether to give me up or bring trouble to his parents.”
“But what can you do about it? You don’t mean you’re thinking of going back to the Dearborns, do you?”
“No! No, I couldn’t. I don’t know what I could do.”
“You could come home with me. Perhaps Mr. Dearborn would be more reluctant to act against my aunt and me, given his friendship with my father.”
“I wouldn’t want to put you in that position, either.”
“You can’t just go off on your own!”
“Of course not.” Given the shocked look on her friend’s face, Sabrina thought it unwise to say anything else.
They had reached the top of the stairs, where a bow window gave a view of the street below. A comfortably plush window seat filled the curve of the window. Sabrina paused there for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Her posture stiffened, and she leaned forward, staring out the window.
“That’s odd. There’s a man out there in the street.”
“Why is it odd?” Lilah turned to follow Sabrina’s gaze.
“He’s not doing anything, just staring at the front door of this house. If he were here to visit someone in the family, he’d come up to the door, wouldn’t you think?”
“He’s not dressed like someone who would come to the front door,” Lilah pointed out. “More likely a tradesman or someone waiting for one of the maids, perhaps.”
“If he were waiting for one of the servants, he wouldn’t expect them to come out the front door. He’d be watching the kitchen door at the other end on the side street. He can’t even see that door from where he’s standing—the house is in the way.”
“What are you saying? He’s waiting for someone in the family?” Lilah looked at her, her eyes opening wider. “You think he’s watching the house, don’t you? Spying on the Morelands.”
“I think at the least he’s watching to see who comes and goes so he can tell Mr. Dearborn.”
“The Dearborns hired him?”
“They wouldn’t want to loiter on the streets themselves. And I don’t think they believed Alex when he said I was no longer in the house.”
“They intend to snatch you if you walk out of the house? But that’s kidnapping! Surely it’s illegal.”
“Is it? He is my guardian. I fear the law would agree with him.”
“How awful. And unfair.” Lilah frowned. “But he wouldn’t have had time to have gone and hired someone since he left here. It’s only been a few minutes.”
“I think... I think maybe he brought the man with him. He might have thought that if he showed up, I’d escape out another door, and the man could grab me. Since that didn’t happen, maybe he told him to wait and watch, in case I left.”
“I don’t understand,” Lilah said. “Why is Mr. Dearborn so intent on your returning? Why is he pretending you married Peter?”
“Maybe he’s not pretending.” Sabrina sat down on the window seat, tugging her friend down to sit with her. “What if I really am married to Peter?” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring she had brought with her, holding it out on her palm. “I meant to ask you about this earlier, but in all the uproar, I forgot. Do you recognize it? Is this something you’ve seen me wear before?”
Lilah plucked it from Sabrina’s palm, holding it closer to the light coming through the window. “No...” She frowned, turning it over in her fingers. “I don’t recall ever seeing this. But that’s no proof of anything, really.”
“It looks very like a wedding ring, and it must be important to me. It’s one of the few things I brought with me.”
“Yes, it does look like a wedding ring, but it doesn’t have to be one. Or perhaps it’s a keepsake, like your mother’s wedding ring.”
“Do you remember my mother wearing it?”
“No, but, really, Sabrina, I can’t remember your mother’s jewelry. I only visited on occasion, and it’s been years. Besides, it could have been your grandmother’s.”
“Or it could be the obvious—it’s a wedding ring, and I have it because I was wearing it when I escaped.”
“Still, it’s not proof you are married.”
“But it’s such a bold lie for Dearborn to tell. What if I had suddenly recalled everything? I’d know it wasn’t true.”
“Saying you had run mad was a bold thing, too. Any number of people know that you don’t have episodes of insanity.”
“The Morelands wouldn’t. Mr. Dearborn didn’t know that you were here or that you had told us about my past. All he needed was for them to believe it long enough to get me out of their grasp and whisk me home, where they could keep me locked up. Besides, being married to Peter is a necessary part of their plan. I don’t think he would have left that undone.”
“What’s their plan?”
“I don’t know, but clearly it requires Mr. Dearborn having control over me. I presume he must want control of my money, and that will end in only two more weeks. The only way to ensure that he would keep that power is if I’m married to one of them. No one would question my husband and his father handling my estate.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have already had the ceremony. Maybe he just wants to get you alone and convince you to do it. Force you, if he has to.”
“Yes, but...” Sabrina drew a breath. “I had a dream last night. It was very hazy. Not just that the dream is now hazy to me—everything was vague and unclear in the nightmare, as well. That was part of the reason it was so frightening. I felt lost and so confused. I was groggy and hot and nauseous. And I was standing with Peter, beside him, even leaning against him.”
“It would only be natural to dream about him when you’d just seen him.”
“Yes, that’s what I told myself. But it nagged at me, and a while ago, as I was looking through that screen at Peter, I felt it all over again. I saw it. I felt those sensations—the heat and dizziness. It was as if I was remembering, not the dream, but the scene itself. I remembered things that I don’t think were in my dream.”
“Like what?” Lilah’s forehead creased with worry.
“There was another man there.”
“Mr. Dearborn?”
“No, I—I don’t think so. I can’t picture him clearly. I know I must really sound mad now! Everything in the scene is very hazy, and I feel...the way I do when I’m sick. Running a fever. Everything is remote and distorted and...wrong somehow. I’m not explaining this well.”
“I understand. I’ve felt that way with a fever, as if nothing is quite real, and you drift in and out of consciousness. Even when I’m not ill, I’ve had dreams in which I was looking at a person and yet somehow I couldn’t make out his features.”
“Exactly.” Sabrina let out a sigh of relief. “That’s the way it is, and I know there’s a man there with us, and he keeps talking and talking. I don’t know what he was saying, and as you said, I remember it all in just bits and pieces. But he’s standing right in front of us and—Oh, Lilah, he’s wearing a white collar!”
Lilah stared. “You mean...”
“Like a priest,” Sabrina said flatly. “Yes. I think... I’m afraid I’m remembering a wedding ceremony.”