The Reluctant Suitor (73 page)

“No, I don’t have it now, but I know where it is.”

“Where?”

“Well . . .” Pandora chewed on a bottom lip, “I’m not sure just where I put it exactly since I’ve been gone for a while. It may take a little searching. It must be in one of my trunks I left with a friend.”

“Reverend Goodfellow said he’d take it to his church in Oxford. Once I locate his church, I’ll ask the

rectors there to search for it, and then have the archbishop determine its legality, just in case it’s a forgery of some kind. He’d certainly be willing to do that for me, considering he signed the license permitting my nuptials to Adriana.”

“Your high and lofty friends won’t be able to undo our marriage, Colton,” Pandora flung caustically. “

You’ll have to face the fact that our marriage is legal and binding. The document will prove that beyond your attempts to deny its validity.”

“Well, if it’s all the same to you, Pandora,” Colton said almost pleasantly, “I’ll proceed as I see fit.”

Canting his head, he gathered his brows in museful reflection. “Which leaves me wondering where I should actually begin my search. I seem to recall a story you told me a few years ago about your brother being so skilled at duplicating certificates that he was able to pass himself off as an Oxford scholar.

Forging a marriage certificate would be fairly simple in comparison. Is your brother also an actor?

Perhaps he did you a favor by performing the part of the good Reverend Goodfellow . . . for my benefit, of course. I shall have to look into that theory, especially if no one can tell me who this Reverend Goodfellow is or where his church is located.”

Pandora’s eyes flared with venom. “If you dare mention this matter to anyone outside your family, Colton, you’ll only see yourself disgraced. ‘Twill soon be bandied about that the woman you’re living with is with child. I’m sure you can imagine the shame she’ll suffer after word gets out that she’s going to bear a child out of wedlock. For her sake, you’d better go no further with this matter. Besides, if you intend to seek out all the rectors at Oxford, you’ll find them busy nowadays, what with the returning soldiers having so much difficulty finding work and food.”

“Too busy to accept a worthy donation for lending their attention to such a matter, an amount that would allow them to help soldiers who can’t find work or food for their starving families? I’m sure they’ll take into consideration what I’ve already done in an effort to ease the hardships of our soldiers and to hire those who can work. Surely, in light of that, a rector of a church would not refuse me. But then, I can understand why you wouldn’t want me to seek their help. If Reverend Goodfellow doesn’t exist, then my investigation will likely lead to your brother’s arrest and, quite possibly, your own.”

Pandora wrung her hands as she paced about the room, feeling unduly pressed by the man’s insistence.

Over the years she had come to know him well enough to realize that he could be damnably persistent when he was inquisitive about a matter or when it came to getting at the truth. Hadn’t her brother warned her about the colonel years ago? He hadn’t ceased his investigation into the disappearance of munitions and gunpowder until those responsible had been hanged for treason for selling large stores of English arms and supplies to the French. The fact that her brother had narrowly escaped with his life and the ragged clothes on his back had thereafter made him wary of trying to dupe the man. Nevertheless, the thought of being able to glean not only revenge but great wealth from the present Marquess of Randwulf had proven a strong incentive.

Laughing softly, Pandora commended herself on her skill as an actress as she deftly turned the subject away from the marriage certificate. “You needn’t go to all that trouble looking for the document, Colton.

If you really want me to remain silent about our marriage, you have only to show some generosity toward me instead of the soldiers. . . .”

Colton cocked a brow above a bland stare. Her offer was no less than what he had been expecting since finding her in his drawing room. “In what form?”

“Well, in a sizable payment that would keep me comfortable for the rest of my life.”

“Extortion, in other words.”

“Hardly that, Colton. I only ask for a little compassion, seeing as how I’m giving up my rightful place as marchioness and entitlement to . . .”—she swept a hand about to indicate everything within sight and much of what was not—“all this.”

He grew pensive. “At the moment, I’m not in favor of accepting your offer, Pandora. It has always been my wont never to relent to the demands of those who try to wrest some gain from tragic or difficult situations, but I must consider others who’ll likely be hurt by scandal. I shall give the matter further consideration. Should I agree to your terms, I’ll need to know where you’ll be staying in case I have to reach you. Or are you on your way back to the theatre?”

“I’m afraid I’m no longer employed there.” Having recently suffered the pangs of bruised pride in her career, Pandora lifted her chin a notch, her feelings smitten by the brutal severing of what had once been a lucrative and, in the world of the theatre, a very prestigious position. “It seems another actress has been found to take my place, someone who’s younger and supposedly more talented—but I’m sure in time they’ll realize their mistake and come crawling after me, begging my forgiveness. But I digress from the pertinent issue. If you must know, I had planned on staying in the area for a time . . . this house, in fact, seeing that I
am
legally your wife.” She elevated her chin in the guise of a suffering martyr, as if sorely wounded by his rejection. “But I can see you don’t desire that now, since you’ve found someone younger to service your needs. Of course, you know your present love is, at best, only your mistress since I am still legally your wife. You won’t be able to change that unless you obtain a divorce, but to do so would involve a lot of difficulty and notoriety.”

As if he hadn’t heard the woman, Colton jounced Genevieve up and down on his lap, educing gleeful shrills, which soon made the actress cringe and clasp her hands over her ears, as if in dire pain.

“Do you have to do that?” Pandora railed. “I fear my hearing will never be the same after today.”

Upon espying Adriana’s smiling face close by, Genie decided she wanted to bestow some loving attention on her and promptly gave her a slobbery wet kiss upon her mouth. Fairly often she had seen the man give the beautiful lady something similar while they were together. If that was not enough, the child sat down rather abruptly on what was left of Adriana’s lap, and then, as if deciding that sitting wasn’t actually what she really wanted, immediately sought to pull herself up by grabbing what was handy.

Adriana almost yelped as the baby’s tiny fist closed over the place where her gown protruded . . . and the vulnerable nipple beneath. A woman’s breast was familiar territory to the youngster, who, upon leaning forward, searched about with an open mouth for the hidden peak.

Laughing at the innocent antics of the tiny girl, Colton took pity on his wife and lifted Genie onto his lap.

As much as Adriana sought to ignore her discomfort, she felt like dissolving in pain. Leaning against her husband, she folded the shawl across the front of her bosom to hide the telltale wetness over her breast and tried to await the ebbing of her discomfort.

“Ah, the joys of parenthood,” Pandora derided and then smirked pointedly toward the woman’s softly rounded belly. “ ‘Twould seem you’re doing your best to supply the Wyndhams with a new heir. Too bad ‘twill be born a bastard.”

Colton felt his wife shudder beneath the actress’s taunt and promptly settled the back of his arm at a slant across her torso, as if to physically shield her from the other woman’s ridicule. Laying a hand alongside her thigh, he snuggled her close against his side. “It’s all right, my love,” he murmured, seeking to ease her fears. “We’ll come through this in good order. That much I promise you.”

His assurances ignited the fires of jealousy in the one who observed his tender nurturing. “Well, you can tell her that if you think it will help, Colton,” Pandora sneered caustically, “but I really don’t know how

you’re going to make good on your pledge, seeing as how the two of you aren’t really married.”

The woman had cause to stumble back as she saw the feral gleam in the gray eyes that turned upon her.

Never had she seen Colton Wyndham in such a rage.

“You leave me no other choice, Pandora,” he retorted coldly. “Be it known that I will now search heaven and hell for proof that the vows you and I exchanged were nothing more than a farce, and if they weren’t, then I shall go before the highest magistrate in this land and plead my innocence of any wrongdoing and my ignorance that you were still alive when I married my wife. I can assure you, I will use every advantage at my disposal, even the fact that I’m a war hero, to gain the right to cast you out of my life forever and to seal my marriage with the only woman I’ve ever loved. Do you understand me?”

“I’ll make you pay if you try to brush me off without a farthing!” the actress railed in ear-shattering tones, wrenching a frightened whimper from the tiny girl. “You won’t be able to keep Genie. I’ll demand my rights as a mother, and I won’t stop until she’s given back to me!”

“Then I’ll just have to prove that she isn’t yours, won’t I?” Colton rejoined snidely. “It may take me a while, but I think I can do that.”

A baleful gleam came into the actress’s eyes. “You hopeless, besotted fool! You don’t know what scandals you’ll be facing if you dare refuse me. Believe me, I’ll get my revenge on you and your child-bride, even if I have to bed down with every magistrate in this country in order to see it done. I can be immensely persuasive when I want to be. I’ll play the victim to the hilt while I scheme and lie and tell all sorts of outlandish tales about you both. Once I’m finished, neither of you will be able to hold your heads up in London, much less around this paltry place you call your country estate.”

Collecting her poise, Pandora assumed a more dignified posture and inclined her head briefly to Adriana and then to Colton. “Thank you for your hospitality, such as it was. . . .”

“One more thing before you leave, Pandora, if you don’t mind,” Colton interjected, his tone pleasant in spite of the threats the woman had just leveled against them.

Having already advanced toward the drawing room door, Pandora halted promptly, certain he had decided to relent. Stepping back to face him, she arched a brow expectantly. “Yes, what is it?”

“Perhaps you can save me the trouble of asking the performers of the theatre where you worked if Alice Cobble did indeed work there and was with child during the latter part of that period. If need be, I’ll explain that you’re trying to claim her child as your own. I’m sure there’ll be those who’ll be eager to negate the idea of your childbearing state as well as your dying performance in your town house the night you supposedly died.

“I’ll also ask them if they know of the substance Alice Cobble used to create the birthmark on Genevieve

’s backside and to touch it up thereafter. It must’ve been some enduring stain to resist my attempts to rub it off that night, and of course, since Alice never saw my birthmark, I must assume that you made a pattern from my own. Did you trace it while I slept?” He laughed shortly. “I must have been pretty exhausted during that event, but then, there were many times when I was so physically and mentally drained from fighting that all I wanted to do was sleep. Perhaps with his forgery skills your talented brother reduced its likeness to an appropriate size for a baby and made different patterns for Alice to use as the child grew. Too bad for you that the crone was so despicable that no one here could abide having her around. Without Alice on hand to reapply it, the mark soon faded.”

His theories stunned Pandora into momentary silence, for she had to wonder how in the world he had thought of everything they had done so precisely. The man was far more clever than even she had

suspected.

Clasping a shaking hand to her throat, she stared at him as if unable to fathom what he was talking about. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

“Before you knew who I was, you told me you were incapable of having children, and in the ensuing years, you never got with child. I’m sure you had other lovers, but I never saw any evidence that you had given birth. It was only after I was proclaimed a hero by the
London Gazette
that you actually learned that I was in line for the marquessate. Once I gained the title, you supposedly bore a child. Convenient for you, yet your barren state throughout our lengthy affair leaves me wondering how you came to have Genie. If Alice got with child while working as a cleaning woman at the theatre, then I’m sure you’d have seen some advantage in bartering a healthy stipend for her babe. Perhaps you might have even given her a purse at the time of your agreement and then promised her a larger one once she delivered into your hands a live newborn. After all, if your scheme worked, you’d become wealthy, and Alice certainly seemed callous enough to comply with that kind of bargain. Of course, that leaves me seriously bemused, how an ugly woman like Alice could bear a child as dainty and pretty as Genie. Yet if her own baby died, she’d have likely gone to great lengths to steal another woman’s newborn in order to obtain the purse you promised her.

“So, again, what if . . .”—Colton lifted his wide shoulders in a casual shrug as he expounded further—“

she stole the babe outright or practiced a bit of midwifery to get her hands on one. Whether boy or girl, it wouldn’t have mattered, just as long as it was alive. Alice could’ve easily told Genie’s real mother that her baby had died and left her own dead infant in her stead.”