Chapter Twenty-Seven
Adam rode to the entrance of Gifford House and handed his horse to a waiting groom. To his surprise, Brentworth rode in right after him.
“I hope you did not forget to bring the special license,” Brentworth said after dismounting.
“I have no license yet.”
“You can’t get married without one.”
“I am not getting married today.”
“How odd. I received a letter yesterday from the dowager requesting my attendance today to bear witness. Her exact words.”
“Since I came at her request as well, let us go in and see what whimsy drew us here.”
They were brought to the drawing room. The dowager sat there, resplendent in black. Her grandson did too, looking bored. Clara also waited, along with an older woman.
“What is Lady Farnsworth doing here?” Brentworth murmured to Adam.
“Perhaps she will bear witness too. It would be like the dowager countess to find a way to arrange a wedding without my consent.”
After greeting Adam and Brentworth, the dowager turned to Clara. “Are you quite satisfied now?”
“I am.”
Face pursed, the dowager surveyed her company.
“Should you not begin, Countess?” Lady Farnsworth asked.
The dowager glared at her, then composed herself. She looked at Adam, or rather at his crown, not his eyes. “I asked you here, Duke, in order to explain some family matters to you. Why my granddaughter insisted you also attend, Brentworth, is beyond my understanding. As for Lady Farnsworth, that is utterly incomprehensible to me.”
“She wanted witnesses so no one will ever believe your claim that Stratton lied about what you are about to say,” Lady Farnsworth inserted. “Should you ever decide to recast any of it later, that is.”
“Please, Lady Farnsworth,” Clara whispered. “Let us allow my grandmother to do this her own way.”
“That way will take two hours,” Lady Farnsworth muttered.
“Not at all,” the dowager said. “I have no desire to prolong this. I will get right to the heart of it. Stratton, neither of your parents sent that jewelry to France. I did. Not to support that Corsican, I assure you. However, it was not them, but me.”
Adam hoped his expression remained bland, but he suspected not. Such a public admission cleared his father’s name and answered the remaining question in one sentence. Clara rose and came to sit beside him. She smiled at him sweetly, delighted by his relief and astonishment.
“If not to support that army, then why?” Brentworth asked. “If you do not explain that, the world will damn you no matter what the real reason was.”
“She assumes her word will be enough,” Lady Farnsworth said. “Don’t you, Hannah?”
If looks could kill, the swords in the dowager’s sharp glance would slay Lady Farnsworth on the spot. She then closed her eyes, as if to steel herself. “The real reason is embarrassing. I must ask that my grandchildren hear it with generosity in their hearts.” She glanced at the earl, not Clara. Theo no longer appeared bored, but concerned.
“When I was a much younger woman, I formed a tendre for a young man. A Frenchman. This was before all the trouble there. I met him while visiting that country, and I fell in love.”
“But you only went there with Grandfather, so—” Theo caught himself. His expression fell in shock.
“Thank you, Theo, for articulating that which I had hoped might not be said.” She cleared her throat. “Of course, that love was doomed. I returned here, and life went on. That young man survived the revolt in France by straddling the fence as best he could, but in the end, of course, that proved impossible. When the Corsican came to power, he was one of the ones banished for opposing the emperor and sent to a penal colony.”
“You seem to know a lot about what happened to him,” Theo said suspiciously.
“How fortunate we are to have you here, my dear boy, to provide statements of the obvious.” She sighed with strained forbearance. “While love does not last, I kept his memory in my heart. So after Napoleon’s defeat, I sought to release him from that prison by bribing certain government officials in Paris. The jewels were sent with the understanding they would buy his freedom. Regrettably, I was betrayed, and they were used for other purposes.”
“It is understandable you would not want to admit to this when questions started,” Adam said.
Something like gratitude softened the dowager’s face. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. This explanation had humiliated her. It had diminished her, and she felt it clearly.
“I do not understand, however, how you came to have that necklace and diadem,” he said. “I am almost positive the ones in question were owned by my family.”
“Your mother gave them to me. She wore them once, and I admired them, and she made a gift to me of them.”
Lady Farnsworth leaned forward, toward the dowager. Her eyes narrowed. “Tell him why, or I will. Some of us already know this part, after all.”
“I have no idea what you mean, Dorothy.”
“It was not a gift, it was tribute, Hannah,” Lady Farnsworth said. “She made you that gift so you might cease your cruelty. So she might not be cut left and right, and ignored, and she might be received as the duchess she was. She gave them to you so you would take your boot off her neck.”
The dowager’s face turned to stone. She did not look at Adam or anyone else.
“Are we done?” Brentworth asked. “I have heard enough, should any questions ever arise in the future. I will take my leave now.” He bowed to the ladies.
“I will go out with you,” Lady Farnsworth said. “I daresay Stratton will be glad for our absence. He no doubt has much he would like to say in private. I know that I would if I were he.”
The door closed on the two of them.
“Do you have anything you want to say, Adam?” Clara asked quietly.
The dowager still sat straight and tall. Her face showed no emotion. Such a woman would know the cost of what she had just done. She would be the one cut left and right now. Her power was over.
“I have nothing I need to say.”
“Well, I do,” Theo said. “Did Father know about this? He sent that man to France who said it was all Stratton’s doing. Did he lie about that?”
The dowager’s face crumpled. She closed her eyes.
“I think we will never know. If he did, it was to protect his mother, Marwood. I am not sure you or I would have done differently,” Adam said.
Clara took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
“I will leave now, if you do not mind,” the dowager said, rising. “I think that, come autumn, I will retire to the dower house. I have thought for some years that I might like that.”
Adam and Theo stood until she left.
“Please sit, Theo,” Clara said. “I have something more to explain to you. Grandmamma already knows what I am about to say.”
“There is more?” Theo dropped into his chair with dejected exasperation.
“Regrettably, yes. There will be talk, of course. And in the way of talk, some of it will be wrong. Her friends will try to turn it so it sounds less bad. Ambiguities will arise.”
“I assure you I am well aware of the scandal we face.”
“That is the least of my worries. Rather, I cannot have there be any further questions about Adam’s family. None. So the story of this unhappy deception will be published. The accurate story. Everyone will know it is accurate because if it were not, Grandmamma would bring suit for libel. Which she will not.”
This shocked Theo anew. “What gossip sheet do you plan to give it to?”
“Not a gossip sheet. A very respectable journal. One that will permit me to see the text to ensure it is correct. One that will treat Grandmamma as kindly as possible. It will emphasize how her initial motivations in sending the jewels to France were noble and generous.”
“It will kill her. She just said she was retiring from society. Isn’t that enough? And what of our father’s name and memory?”
“I cannot have men insulting my husband, Theo. I will not risk that the day comes again when his hand is forced and there is a duel. And that will happen, you know it and I do, unless this is thoroughly and finally finished because the true story is clearly known by all.”
“She will be finished too. I hope you know that,” Theo snapped.
“She already knows it, Theo. She knew it even while she explained the truth to me.”
Theo slumped more in his chair. Then, distracted and not looking at all a boy anymore, he stood abruptly and left the chamber.
Adam raised Clara’s hand to his mouth and kissed it. He urged her up and sat her on his lap. “Thank you, darling. I am not surprised you were brave enough to do this, but I am still astonished, and very grateful.”
“It is not hard to be brave for you. As for my family, it is always best if the truth wins, I think.”
“How did she come to admit all of this to you?”
She gently stroked his lips. “If I told you that her conscience would not allow her to keep silent any longer, and she wanted to remove the shadow from your father’s name, would you believe me?”
“I would believe anything you told me.” He kissed her, and the light and gratitude in his heart poured through him freely. And the love. Most definitely the love. “What is this respectable journal to which you will provide the story? I don’t know of any that would allow you to control the writing of it as you described to Theo.”
She wound her arms around his neck. She kissed him deeply. Greedily. Erotically. He ceased caring about the day’s revelations or anything at all except having her naked in his arms, beside him, below him . . . One with him.
She looked in his eyes and smiled mysteriously. “Ah, yes, the journal. Explaining that will take a while.”
“Later, then.” He kissed her, savoring the warm clarity in his soul that remained a novelty after five years of shadows. “For now, just let me hold you and love you. There will be time for explanations later.”