Ruined by Moonlight (24 page)

It took a minute or two of deliberation but then her father slowly nodded. “Actually, as confounding as it is to admit it, you are right. Given his propensity for vice I would have guessed the viscount to be the target, but maybe that is not logical.”

“He is off for Essex this morning to see his sister because he is her guardian and most worried about her concern over his unexplained disappearance. He told me if you wished to discuss with him how to explain it all, he would be amenable to a meeting when he returns.”

“Sporting of him, I suppose.”

Then the dreaded moment happened, but she’d been braced for it all along.

“While the different angles of determining why this all happened might be valid, Andrews was still in that room with you for nearly a week. Did he touch you?”

It was unthinkable to have to discuss this delicate subject with her father, but the abduction had irrevocably changed her life. Her face heated in a furious blush but she said emphatically, “I can assure you I am still a virgin.”

Having to defend that was one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.

“And if Lord Colbert wishes confirmation?”

As she had absolutely no idea what he’d just asked her, she merely stared at him.

“A physician,” her father elaborated, his own face turning a slight dusky hue, “to examine you. He might request it. I am not going to try to dance around the
subject. When a fortune and a title hang in the balance, most men wish to make sure both go to their direct heir.”

To examine her? She had a much better idea what that might entail now, but was not about to explain how she learned it.

Elena stood and said with deliberate cool intonation, “If he does not take my word, please inform his lordship I do not wish to marry him.”

Blackstone Hall looked the same—ivy-covered walls and the elegant fifteenth-century façade familiar, mullioned windows shining in the morning sun—and Ran had to admit to a different sense of appreciation as the carriage rolled up the drive. It was one matter to assume that life would move forward in a certain way and another to realize it might not. Privilege had benefits, but no man was immune to circumstance.

Fate had certainly visited him in the form of the memory of days—and nights—with a very beautiful, alluring, passionate young woman who could only ultimately be attained by marriage.

Damnation
.

The vehicle rolled to a halt and when he alighted, properly attired for the first time in days, he stepped out, thanked the footman who rushed over to greet him, and inquired about the whereabouts of his sister.

Lucy was in the garden, sitting on a bench between a rhododendron and a bank of fragrant roses, where he expected she would be on a lovely day like this one. A book was perched pages down on her lap instead of held below her face, as usual. He took in the neat braid in her dark hair and her pensive expression, her gown still childish but not entirely concealing that womanhood was not far away.

It struck him then that the weight of his responsibility had never come home so much as when he’d worried he would not be able to fulfill it.

“Luce.”

His sister turned at the sound of his voice, her head whipping around, and the instant, utter joy in her face humbled him. Her beloved book—all her books were beloved—tumbled to the ground as she jumped to her feet. “Ran!”

He caught her as she hurled herself into his arms, an unprecedented event, noting to himself that while they were not usually so affectionate, maybe they should talk about their relationship more often. Certainly his first worry when he realized he was being held prisoner had been her well-being in his absence, and apparently she had missed him.

This entire experience had given him a slightly different perspective on his life. His throat tightened.

“I wasn’t gone intentionally.” He lifted her chin so they could look at each other. She reminded him poignantly of their mother, even much more so as she matured, with the same slightly curly hair and dark eyes he’d inherited as well. “I’ll explain later, but surely you do realize that I would
never
leave without telling you.”

Like their parents had done. A spontaneous and carefree trip to Bath with friends, the note left with her governess, and then the tragic accident that had cost them their lives when a bridge collapsed during a raging storm and they had drowned. Ran had gotten the letter months later in Spain, his shock complete. Resigning his commission immediately and sailing for home, it still had taken him weeks, his parents long since buried upon his arrival,
and if it hadn’t been for Janet, the situation would have been untenable for a bereft child.

“I hadn’t thought so. I was sure of it, really, but that made it worse.” His sister’s voice sounded shaky but was resolute enough. “Still, when your solicitor took the time to come from London and said you were gone, and we had no idea what to do.…”

Ran gently disengaged her clinging arms and smiled with as much reassurance as possible. “It is over now and I’m here. Where’s Janet?”

“She’s been in town, trying to discover your whereabouts. She just returned last evening. I think she’s in the conservatory with her flowers.” Lucy blinked rapidly, her eyes still liquid. “I would never say she was overwrought because you know she does not believe in dramatic displays of emotion, but she was certainly not very happy. Did you know someone tried to sell her back Father’s watch?”

He did, actually, thanks to Heathton. Ran was fairly sure he’d have eventually gotten both himself and Elena back to London somehow, but having the earl show up so conveniently had been timely and efficient. And a relief. In retrospect, as badly as he’d wanted out of their tower, how the devil would he have protected Elena with no weapon and both of them only half-dressed? She was far too beautiful to be wandering dangerous roads, clad in nothing but flimsy silk, and had something happened he would have never forgiven himself.

He owed Heathton a great deal.

Elena.
Try as he might, he could not stop thinking about her. Oh, she was desirable enough to keep any man’s riveted attention, but that was the least of it. He was used to a much greater level of detachment, and especially
in their case he should be able to walk away as he had so many other times.

In the cold light of day or, in this case, the warmth of a lovely afternoon, he needed to face the truth.

He’d been kidnapped and dragooned.

She’d been just as helpless.

Had he taken advantage of her or had something else happened?

Well, to start, without question he needed to admit he’d seduced her even if her physical innocence was still intact. “I heard about the watch.” He touched Lucy’s face again, as if to ground his world back in the reality of Essex and the estate. “I’m going to go talk to Janet now. I’ll be staying overnight, but then I need to return to London.”

“I’ll tell Cook,” Lucy said, turning in a swirl of simple, soft material, her long braid swinging, the happy gleam of her smile giving him pause. “She’ll be so delighted you’re back she’ll make all your favorites.”

“I assume that means all of
your
favorites,” he countered drily, marveling at how at not quite sixteen she already knew males liked to be indulgent, because she just laughed and ran down the path toward the house.

He found his aunt—they weren’t more than ten years apart so it was difficult to think of her that way at times—among a blooming bank of white blossoms in the glassed addition to the back of house. Her profile was remote, her dark hair gathered as usual into a demure chignon, the gown she wore too severely cut in his opinion, the brown color not in the least bit flattering. The understated approach she took to life might have been due to her unmarried state, but, his father had remarked to Ran once that Janet had never seemed all that interested in suitors.
As close as she was with Lucy, he had wondered before if she hadn’t at least wanted children of her own, but all along she had respected his privacy and so he showed her the same courtesy. Perhaps if she had graying hair and a cane, he might have dared ask, but she hadn’t even yet seen her fortieth year and was poised and elegant, and they had always gotten along on a mutual consensus of paying attention to their own affairs.

Actually,
he
had affairs in a sexual sense, and she didn’t, to his knowledge. Surely a woman her age might have done so or still did…but her past had never been a subject open to discussion and this certainly wasn’t the time.

“Janet.”

“Randolph?” She whirled at the sound of his voice, her face showing relief. One hand went to her throat. “Oh, goodness…I thought it was one of the gardening staff, but it’s you…really you…Oh, my…I can’t tell you…We’ve been so frantic—”

“You weren’t alone,” he interrupted. “It was a rather long five days.”

“I’m
so
glad you’re home.” She did look flatteringly relieved.

He smiled and went over to take her hand. “Thanks in part to you. I owe you more than I can say. Heathton told me you came to see him. Who knew my eclectic taste in liquor would one day do me good? Somehow he managed to trace the trail of the last purchase of the Blaven, but only because
you
mentioned it to him. Very clever.”

“I’m not at all certain what you are talking about.”

“As unlikely as it sounds Heathton tracked down my favorite whiskey and, as a result, found me.”

“He found you
that
way?” Janet took a moment, but then shook her head. “It was accidental, so I hardly deserve any credit. I really only told his wife about the watch. He did get it back for you, by the way.”

“So he told me on our journey back to London last night. I didn’t even know it was missing—well, I knew it was gone, but, then, so was just about everything else. Including my clothes, dignity, and freedom.”

There was a small stone bench by one of the sunny windows and she withdrew her hand and sank down on it. “Randolph, please, don’t be cryptic at a time like this. Where on earth have you been?”

“It sounds a little like a fairy tale of the sort you used to read to Lucy, but I can honestly say I was locked in a tower with a beautiful maiden.”

His aunt looked nonplussed. “I don’t understand. From our conversation with the man who tried to sell back your watch, we gathered already you were abducted in some way, but there was never a request for any ransom. I feared you might have been impressed to service on a foreign ship. One does hear of such horrible things happening.”

“I don’t think money was the objective.” There was a grim note of conviction in his tone because he knew down deep it had never been the motivation.

“Lady Elena, I take it, is the beautiful maiden. I went to see her father first and when he heard your watch was being ransomed, he directed me to Lord Heathton, in case your disappearances were linked together. Heathton’s wife and Lady Elena are cousins.”

A bee droned at one of the white flowers and Ran watched it for a moment, marveling at how the simple act of standing in the conservatory had taken on a magical
quality. He’d always been an outdoorsman, athletic and full of restless energy, and that had certainly been the most difficult part of his captivity. But here he was in his own house, free to leave or to stay or do whatever he wished again.

Elena had, of course, been compensation for that hardship.

Meeting Janet’s gaze squarely he said, “There’s going to be a scandal over this. I don’t see how it can be avoided. The truth sounds too implausible. If we say nothing speculation will be rife anyway, and I can’t think up a convincing lie for our disappearing at the same time and then the mutual reappearance. If her father wishes to keep her return a secret and whisk her away to the country and invent some suitable story at a later time, I will naturally support that plan. But I need to be in London for the next parliamentary vote, not to mention I have business affairs to tend to. I’ll stay here tonight but I am going straight back in the morning.”

“I just returned myself last night because I couldn’t bear to leave Lucy to worry with no one to talk to but the servants, but now that you are returned to us it is different. Her governess is a capable young woman. I think I should accompany you.”

And lend him a much-needed air of respectability. She didn’t need to say it out loud.

“I don’t need your protection.” He was amused even under the circumstances. They’d never discussed his status as one of England’s leading rakes.

“Randolph, I think, blameless or not you are going to have to face one irate father and a disgruntled fiancé, because whatever the truth may be, by your own admission you were alone with an unmarried woman from a
prominent family for five days.” She straightened her spine. “And five nights. I think you need someone from your family to defend your scruples should they come into question. I try to not follow the gossip about your personal life, but naturally I have still heard some of the whispers and none of them involve innocent ladies engaged to other men, so that is to your credit. I am certain you were a complete gentleman and will say so to anyone who insinuates otherwise.”

Ah, the crux of the problem. Claiming total innocence was a falsehood, and though he had his flaws he disliked liars, which was why he wanted Whitbridge to invent the story. He would support it for Elena’s sake—he was starting to think he’d do quite a lot for her sake—but lying was not his forte.

If asked directly if he’d touched her, he was not sure he could in good conscience deny it. Unless
she
asked for him to lie about that particular question, and, curiously, she hadn’t.

Actually, it isn’t curious at all,
he reminded himself as he contemplated that dilemma. Elena would never ask him to lie for her. After all those long, lazy conversations, he knew her in a way that did not involve their lovemaking but a different level, and he had no idea how to feel about it.

In retrospect, Janet’s idea was sound. He nodded. “Come to London with me, then, in the morning. If need be you could talk to Lady Elena, whereas I suspect I would be skewered if I placed a foot on Whitbridge’s property. I have no idea why someone decided to make us the victims of their bizarre joke or who is behind it, but I don’t want her to suffer for this.”