Chapter Seven
“I wish I could catch fish as large as you do,” Reuben told Corin as they headed back to the manor an hour later.
Corin smiled at his brother. “You’re only eight. I’m twenty-four. I can catch larger fish because I’m older. When you’re my age, you’ll probably catch ones larger than I did today.” He glanced down at the two twelve-inch fish he was carrying. “You will probably catch fish that are at least thirteen inches long.”
Reuben’s eyes lit up. “You think so?”
“I know so.” He patted his brother on the shoulder. “You’re going to grow up into a strong gentleman. All of these illnesses you have won’t stop you from that. So don’t concentrate on the times you’re sick. Focus on how good it’ll feel when you’re grown up and can catch fish like this. Or, if you prefer, think of all the things you’ll do when you’re finally in London.”
“Will you be in London with me?”
“Of course, I will. We’ll do many things together.”
“I like being with you. I miss you when you’re not around.”
Corin’s smile faltered. He hadn’t realized that he had spent so much time away from this place…especially from Reuben. How did the time slip away from him so fast? He hadn’t intended to stay away for so long. He hadn’t realized he’d been so wrapped up in all of his business ventures that he’d let everything else slip away from him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come back here last year,” he told Reuben. “I want you to know that I do enjoy our times together.”
“I know. You need to make money, and you can only do that in London.”
Corin’s stomach twisted into a knot, but before he could dwell on his guilt, he noticed the unfamiliar carriage at the entrance of the manor. “I need to see what’s going on.”
Corin gave his brother a quick pat on the shoulder and ran to the stable boy who was feeding the unfamiliar horses. He took a moment to look at the carriage, and his blood froze. No. Not her. Not here. Not now!
He turned to face the stable boy. “What is Lady Hedwrett doing here?”
The stable boy’s eyebrows furrowed. “Lady Hedwrett? The gentlemen said she was your wife, Lady Durrant.”
He gritted his teeth. She would never be Lady Durrant. She would only be Lady Hedwrett. Just as he was about to clarify this point to the lad, another thought occurred to him. A horrible, terrible thought. His mother was probably talking to the lady right now.
With an intake of his breath, he ran up to the front door.
“Corin, what’s wrong?” his brother called out after him.
Ignoring his brother, he ran into the manor, bypassing the surprised footman and the butler as he hurried to the drawing room where he heard his mother’s voice.
He came to a stop when he saw the group assembled together on the chairs. Well, that was except for Candace. She was standing by the window. His mother, however, was sitting and talking to Lord Erandon, the Duke of Lambeth, and… Corin’s jaw dropped. His good friend Anthony was here, too?
His mother rose from her chair, and the other gentlemen followed suit. “This day has been full of surprises,” his mother said as she walked over to him. “Why didn’t you tell me that you got married?”
Good heavens. Just how was he supposed to answer that? First, he’d been sick to his stomach with fear that something horrible had happened to his brother, so he came all the way out here. And now, he was going to have to explain his sordid marriage to his mother?
He stared at his mother, and though he tried to speak, nothing came out. What was he supposed to tell her? That the marriage was all a sham? That he was never going to have an heir, so there was no point to the marriage?
“I told you he doesn’t want to be in this marriage any more than I do,” Candace called out as she hurried over to them. She turned her imploring gaze to his mother. “Now you can understand why I must return to London at once.”
Corin frowned. What right did Candace have in seeking his mother’s sympathy? There she was, with her pleading expression, acting as if she was innocent in all of this.
“It’s because of you that we’re in this situation,” Corin snapped at her.
Corin’s mother shot him a stern look. “You mustn’t be rude to her. I raised you to be a gentleman.”
Lord Erandon stepped between Corin and his mother before Corin could tell his mother what kind of lady Candace really was. “It wouldn’t be wise to speak rashly,” Lord Erandon told him. “I have a missive that you need to read. It will explain everything.”
Ignoring him, Corin turned his attention to Anthony, who was doing his best to act as if he wasn’t in the room. “You’re a part of this?” He stepped around Lord Erandon so he could get to his friend. “You, of all people, should understand that this is the last thing I want. That…that…” He gestured to Candace since he was unable to call her what she really was while his mother was in the room. “She is not welcome here.”
“I know,” Anthony whispered, his face turning white. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“You could have said no,” Corin replied.
“No.” Anthony’s eyes begged him to forgive him. “I couldn’t. Not with all of them and their wives pestering me.”
The Duke of Lambeth approached them. “We should discuss this in another room. We don’t want to say anything that might upset the ladies or the lad.”
Corin followed the duke’s gaze and saw Reuben who had entered the room, his eyes opened wide in surprise. The duke took Corin by the arm and led him toward the door. Drat. If it’d been anyone but Reuben, Corin would have shoved the duke away from him.
“Um, wait,” Lord Erandon said and hurried over to them as fast as his peg leg would allow. He took the fish from Corin. “You won’t be needing these.”
In all the horror, Corin had forgotten all about those fish. Just moments ago, he had been thinking this was one of the best days he’d had in a long time. And now, all he could think of was how horrible everything turned out to be.
Lord Erandon gave the fish to Corin’s mother.
“There’s no point to this,” Candace told the three gentlemen who’d brought her out here. “You’re only wasting your time.” She looked at Anthony. “And you’ll only upset your friend. He probably won’t talk to you after this.”
Anthony winced, but Lord Erandon and the Duke of Lambeth continued to push Corin out of the drawing room. Once they crossed the threshold, Corin shoved the duke and Lord Erandon away from him.
“I’m fully capable of walking myself,” Corin barked.
Corin straightened his shirt and stomped down the hallway. He didn’t look back as he went down another hallway. He didn’t even look back as he went into his den. He went directly to the decanter and poured himself a glass of brandy. He downed all of it in a couple of swallows and then poured himself another glass. He never drank so much at one time unless he was under a great deal of stress, and this was the most stressful thing that had ever happened to him. It was even worse than having to marry Candace. Because now his mother knew. Now his dear little brother knew.
He drank half of the glass, took out his handkerchief, and wiped his mouth. When the others entered the room, he went to the nearest chair and plopped down.
“Why did you bring her here?” he demanded before taking another swallow of the brandy.
“Because the circumstances surrounding your marriage aren’t what you think they are,” Lord Erandon said as he went to the decanter and poured brandy into three more glasses. “I know you thought your wife tricked you into it, but she didn’t. The truth of the matter is, it was my wife and her partner in crime who was responsible for everything, though I don’t quite know exactly what Stephen Bachman did. When I asked him about it, he refused to give me a solid answer. He only laughed and said he made sure you didn’t have to marry Celia so you should be happy.”
Corin rolled his eyes and finished his brandy.
Though the duke and Lord Erandon took their glasses, Anthony refrained. He sat in a chair and let out a long sigh. “Celia is responsible for all of this,” he told Corin. “It’s her fault this whole mess even happened. Your wife was innocent of any wrongdoing. That is the only reason I came.”
“And to prove that Anthony is right, I have Celia’s missive.”
Lord Erandon cleared his throat to get ready to read it when Anthony interrupted, “Don’t bother.” He looked at Corin. “I’ll tell you what she wrote. She paid Stephen Bachman to lure you to the den and then spill a drink on your clothes so you’d have to remove them. She was supposed to go in there and take off her gown so that Stephen could cry scandal. Stephen forced Lady Hedwrett to the den before Celia could get there. You know the rest. Celia is certain Lady Hedwrett is a victim of circumstance.”
“She was,” Lord Erandon insisted. “This whole thing is one big misunderstanding.”
Corin shook his head. “I was there that night. I felt Candace’s hands on my body, groping me in places that she had no right to.” He glanced at Anthony. “I explained all of this to you. Didn’t you tell them about it?” He gestured to Lord Erandon and the Duke of Lambeth. When Anthony shook his head, Corin grunted and turned to them. “Stephen told me that Lady Hedwrett had admired me from afar for a very long time. She noticed that I was alone in the den at Lord Edon’s ball. Then she took the opportunity to take advantage of me.”
For a moment, neither Lord Erandon or the Duke of Lambeth said anything, but then they started to laugh.
“I don’t see what’s so humorous about this,” Corin snapped as he adjusted the sleeves of his shirt. “I was assaulted. The moment the door opened, she threw herself at me. It was the most humiliating experience I’ve ever been through. Her hands were everywhere. Celia, for all her faults, did not arrange for that!”
“We spoke with your wife,” Lord Erandon said when he finally stopped laughing. “We assure you that she had no desire to marry you. Whatever Stephen told you was a lie.”
“That’s true,” the duke hurried to add. “You can’t trust Stephen. He’s my brother-in-law, and he does whatever he can to cause chaos and confusion. I saw how horrified your wife was to be dragged out here. She definitely had not been admiring you from afar.”
Corin went over to the decanter and poured himself another drink. “Then why did she grab me in a very private place? A lady only does that if she wants to be in a gentleman’s bed.”
“Or if she was shoved at you,” the duke replied. “I had a chance to talk to my brother-in-law before we left London, and he admitted that he pushed her at you. He did it to get a scandal going so you two would have to marry.”
“Why didn’t you say that as soon as we came in here?” Anthony asked the duke. “I can see why you wouldn’t mention that in front of the ladies and the lad, but why wait until now to do it here?”
The duke gestured to Corin. “I wanted to hear Lord Durrant’s version of events first.” He turned his gaze to Corin. “This whole thing has been a misunderstanding, and Stephen didn’t help at all by lying to you.”
“I felt her hands on my body,” Corin insisted. “There was no mistaking that.” He waved them to the door. “I won’t listen to this anymore. Nothing you say will convince me that Candace is innocent.”
Lord Erandon and the Duke of Lambeth glanced at each other. With a shrug Lord Erandon put the missive on the desk. “We’ve done our part. What you want to believe or not believe is up to you. I give up. But,” he added with a pointed look at Corin, “you and your wife will stay here for a total of three months. As we speak, we’re making sure all of the wheels on your carriages are removed, so neither you nor your wife can return to London until we come and get you.”
Corin gritted his teeth. “You can’t do that. You have no right to do that!”
“We have every right to do what is in your best interest. In three months, you’ll be thanking us.” Lord Erandon gestured to the Duke of Lambeth, and with one accord, they headed for the door.
“Thanking you?” Corin yelled after them. “You think I’m going to thank you? I’ll hunt you down like the sly foxes you are and haul you way outside of London to leave you to rot. Then you’ll regret the day you did this to me!”
Ignoring him, they proceeded to leave the den.
Corin grunted in frustration. He turned his hard gaze to Anthony who had said very little the entire time. “How could you go along with this? Are you really so weak that you’ll let a couple of ladies and their husbands force you to do what you know isn’t right?”
Anthony opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak, and then he shut it.
“I would never do something like this to you,” Corin said. “If you were the one with the wife you didn’t want, no one could talk me into betraying you.”
He winced. “It’s not my intention to betray you. At the time they were explaining it to me, this really seemed like something that was in your best interest.”
“How? How is having a lady with no morals in this manor in my best interest?”
“No one thinks she’s the immoral lady you do.”
“No one? Does that include you?”
Anthony paused for a moment then nodded. “Yes, it does include me. You knew her before the night of Lord Edon’s ball. You escorted her to dinner at Warren’s dinner party.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. It was shortly after I married Damara. Lord Erandon was called Captain Egan back then. It was the night we decided to invest in the captain’s whaling expedition.”
Corin thought over that evening at Lord Steinbeck’s dinner party. He did remember listening to Lord Erandon go on and on about how excited he was to hunt for whales. Corin had considered most of the evening extremely dull. Whaling wasn’t his thing, and he had no desire to know the details. He had, however, been interested in the potential profits. Because whaling was risky, it came with the possibility of a large return. So, yes, he recalled that part of the evening clearly.
But he hadn’t paid much attention to the ladies because his concern wasn’t in finding a wife. He hadn’t intended to marry anyone for a few more years. Not until he was financially secure. Even with the money he had earned in the last few years, there was still so much more to earn. There was always more to earn. It was a never-ending process—this whole thing of accumulating wealth. While it was a process he enjoyed, there were times it exhausted him. He often spent hours reading through the books he had on the subject. And if he wasn’t reading, he was often discussing it with gentlemen who did much better than him.
“Well, you did escort her to the dinner that evening,” Anthony said. “I don’t think Lady Steinbeck would have invited her if she was the type of lady who went around fondling gentlemen in her spare time.”
“No one would know about it if she was discreet,” Corin pointed out.
Anthony paused as he thought over the response. “That’s true. No one would. And most gentlemen don’t mind a dalliance with an attractive lady, so I wouldn’t expect them to tell others about it.”
“That’s right. They wouldn’t.” At least not at any respectable places. Seedy establishments, probably. But in public where the Ton would find out? Definitely not.
“Even so, I think Lady Steinbeck has better sense than to invite an immoral lady to her dinner party. She’s a sensible lady. She doesn’t associate with anyone who would damage her reputation.”
“Lady Steinbeck might if she didn’t know the lady was immoral.”
Anthony sighed. “I don’t know what the truth is, Corin. All I know is that my wife, my sister, and my sister’s friend all say your wife is a reputable lady. They all believe Stephen Barlow is to blame for the entire thing.”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh well, if your sister said it, then it must be true.”
“Granted, it’s hard to trust Celia after what she did to you, but she’s not the only one saying it. My wife is, too, and she doesn’t manipulate anyone. I also have no reason to distrust Lord Erandon and the Duke of Lambeth.”
Corin supposed he couldn’t blame Anthony. His friend had always been trusting of people. It was why Celia had been able to get away with as much as she had in the past. He ran his fingers through his hair and groaned.
“So you’re really going to keep me trapped here with Candace for three months?” Corin asked.
Anthony hesitated for a moment but then said, “Yes. The others believe this is for the best, and since I’m your friend, I owe it to you to find out. Either way, what have you got to lose? Three months isn’t a long time.”
“It is when it comes to investing. Excellent investing chances don’t come around often.”
“If one comes up, I’ll invest a portion of money in it for you. Then you can pay me back when the profits come in.”
“I suppose that will work.”
“It will. I promise we’ll be back in three months. In the meantime, you’ll get to spend time with your mother and younger brother. It shouldn’t be all bad.”
Yes, there was that. His mother and brother were good people. Decent people. Honorable people. He could only hope Candace wouldn’t ruin them with her influence.
“Since I can’t change anyone’s mind,” Corin began, his voice filled with resolve, “I’ll go along with this idiotic plan.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t expect miracles,” Corin added. “I don’t think it’s going to work. I was there that night in the den with Candace.”
“If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. No one can expect any more than that.”
“No, they can’t, and if they try, I’ll challenge them all to a duel.”
Anthony’s face paled, evidence that he didn’t really expect this whole scheme to work. “In that case, I really hope it works.”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll go to my bedchamber and hide out there for a while.” Ideally, he’d be there for three months, but that wasn’t possible. “I’ll see you when you and the others decide it’s time to release me from my prison.” He headed out of the room, not bothering to wait for Anthony to leave first.