The Handmaiden's Necklace (20 page)

“Thank you, Your Grace.”

“I’m trusting your word, Robert, as they did, trusting that you are telling me the truth. If you are, I’ll do everything in my power to help you. If you are not, you will likely find yourself swinging from the end of a rope.”

Biting back a hiss of pain, McKay shoved unsteadily to his feet, then leaned against the wall for support. “Every word I have spoken is true.”

Rafe said nothing.

“I am in your debt, Your Grace. I shall never forget you or your lady wife for what you have done.”

“Since I am the man who ordered your arrest, which resulted in the beating you received, you might wish to amend that.”

In the faint light, he thought that he caught the edge of a smile.

“I’ll see you soon, Robert.”

“I won’t disappoint you, Your Grace.”

Rafe left the prison trying to decide if all of them had been duped or if the man was telling the truth. If he was, Robert McKay was the true Earl of Leighton.

Proving it, however, was an entirely different matter. Rafe couldn’t help wondering, should the man, by some miracle of fate, actually became a powerful earl, a high-ranking member of the aristocracy, what would happen to Caroline Loon?

D
ani sat in front of the dresser in her bedchamber while Caro perched on the gold velvet bench at the foot of the four-poster bed. For the past half hour, they had been discussing Robert McKay.

“But the duke is certain that Robert will soon be released from prison?” Caro asked, not for the first time.

“He thought that it might take a day or two, but, yes, Rafael has promised to see it done. He didn’t want to press the matter too hard for fear it might alert someone in authority.”

“But you said Robert is injured. If that is so, he needs someone to take care of him, see that his wounds are tended.”

Dani straightened on the stool, where she had been sitting while Caro put the finishing touches on her upswept red hair. Tonight, she and Rafe were going to a comic opera in Drury Lane called
Virginia.
Afterward, they would be stopping by a soirée being held in honor of the mayor’s birthday. Her life as the wife of a duke had finally begun and Dani was determined to fulfill her duties.

“Listen to me, Caro. I know you are worried, but we must proceed with caution. Rafe says Robert’s injuries are not life threatening, and he will be out of prison very soon.”

But Robert had also told a wild tale of being the true Earl of Leighton, the only portion of the story Danielle had not revealed to her friend. She had left that bit of news for Robert to tell, unsure, should it prove true, how it would affect their relationship.

At present, Robert’s biggest problem was proving his innocence. Until that happened, he would remain in very grave danger. Of course, she didn’t say that to Caro.

A familiar knock sounded, and recognizing it as belonging to Rafael, Dani quickly checked her appearance in the mirror.

“Oh, dear, I forgot the pearls.” Turning, she hurried over to the dresser, pulled the red satin pouch out of her jewelry box and spilled the necklace into her hand.

She turned to her friend as she hurried to open the door. “You mustn’t worry, dearest. In a couple of days you’ll see your Robert again.”

Caro nodded and Dani caught the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “You and the duke have been so very kind to both of us.”

“Nonsense!” said a deep voice from the doorway. “You are a cherished friend, Caro. People help their friends.”

Rafe walked into the room and Dani went over and kissed his cheek, seeing, as she often did now, traces of the old Rafael, who had always been so kind to others. Caro quietly slipped out of the bedchamber, and Dani handed the pearls to Rafe.

“Would you mind helping me put these on?”

Rafe smiled as he took the pearls, draped them around her neck and fastened the diamond clasp. He stepped back to survey the effect. “The pearls are magnificent and so are you.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

“I’ve never told you about them. Would you like to hear the story?”

“Oh, yes.” She could feel the comforting weight of the pearls, the way they seemed to fit so perfectly around her neck, just as they had when she had worn them all those weeks ago. “I should love to hear the tale.”

“I warn you, it is not for the squeamish.”

One of her eyebrows arched up. “Now you have piqued my curiosity.”

Rafe reached up and briefly touched the pearls. “As I told you, the necklace was designed in medieval times, commissioned by the powerful Lord Fallon. The earl chose each diamond and pearl himself. It was a wedding gift for his bride, the lady Ariana of Merrick. She was wearing the necklace that day as she waited for her groom to arrive at Castle Merrick. As the story goes, it was a love match unparalleled by any other in its day. Unfortunately, on his way to the castle, the earl and his men were set upon by brigands and murdered to a man.”

“Oh, dear God.”

“When Lady Ariana heard the news, she was so distraught she climbed to the top of the castle parapet and jumped to her death, still wearing the pearls. It was later discovered that she was carrying Lord Fallon’s child.”

A lump rose in Dani’s throat. She reached up and touched the pearls, which seemed to warm beneath her fingers. The Bride’s Necklace, it was called, and now she understood why.

She thought of the young mother who lost her true love and the child she would have born him. She tried not to think of the child she and Rafe would never have, but the thought hovered there in her heart.

She didn’t realize she was crying until Rafe reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek.

“If I had thought it would upset you, I never would have told you.”

She tried to smile. “It is just so terribly sad.”

“It happened a long time ago, love.”

Her fingers ran over the pearls, testing the smoothness, the shape of each perfectly faceted diamond. “I knew there was something special about it, but I…” She looked up at him. “I won’t let anything happen to it again. I’ll keep it safe for her.”

He bent his head and brushed her mouth with a kiss. “I know you will.”

She took a deep breath and glanced toward the door. “I suppose we should go.” But she didn’t really want to leave. She was Rafael’s wife, but there were those who had yet to believe in her innocence, some who believed instead that she had somehow duped him into marriage.

Rafe took her hand. “We don’t want to keep Cord and the others waiting.”

“No, of course not.” But as she left the bedchamber on Rafael’s arm, she couldn’t stop thinking of the pearls and the tragic tale of Ariana and her beloved, and the child who had died with them. It haunted her well into the evening.

A determined rain beat down on the mullioned windows outside the yellow Cotswold stone of Leighton Hall. The
rolling fields of the two-thousand-acre country estate turned muddy, and a harsh wind howled over the low stone fences.

In his wood-paneled study, Clifford Nash, fifth Earl of Leighton, lounged in an expensive leather chair in front of the hearth. He was a man of forty-two, with dark hair and dark brown eyes. Handsome, he had always thought himself, though the years had rounded him a bit.

And now that he was rich as Croesus, there was nothing Clifford wanted that he could not have.

Across from him, his estate manager, Burton Webster, sat forward in his seat. “So what do you think we should do?” Web had arrived at the house half an hour ago, barging in unannounced, obviously worried.

Clifford swirled the brandy in his glass. “How can you be sure the man is McKay?”

“I tell you it’s him. He was in Evesham with his cousin, Stephen Lawrence. Surely you remember. Lawrence was the chap who started nosing about for information a year or so after the old earl’s death. He was bound and determined to prove McKay innocent of the crime.”

“Yes, yes, I recall the fellow. Came up with nothing, I also recall. Since that was over a year ago, I thought we’d heard the last of him.” They were drinking Clifford’s finest brandy and smoking expensive cigars, but Webster was too nervous to enjoy them. Damnable waste of money.

“I’m not quite sure what happened with Lawrence,” Web continued. “All I know is that the lass, Molly Jameson, sent me a note that McKay was back in England. Apparently, she received a message from him. McKay wanted to talk to her about the rendezvous they were supposed to have had that night at the inn.”

“Did she see him?”

“No. He didn’t show up for the meeting. But she believes McKay left the country after the murder, just as we thought. She says he is back in England, and Evesham is likely where he would go. She is the one who mentioned the cousin, Stephen Lawrence.”

“So go to Evesham and take care of McKay.”

Web sighed. He was a big man, muscularly built, with thick fingers and a nose that had been broken more than once. He had been in Nash’s employ for the past five years. He was loyal to a fault, and in those years had become nearly indispensable to Clifford.

“I’m afraid that’s the rub. I’ve been to Evesham. McKay is no longer there.”

“Did you speak to the cousin?”

“Lawrence is gone, as well. According to the neighbors, his mother fell ill and he traveled north to take care of her.”

Clifford puffed on the cigar and released the smoke into the air, giving himself time to think. “Start with Lawrence. Find out where he went and go after him, make him tell you the truth about McKay and find out where he is.”

“If I find him, what should I do?”

“In the beginning, hanging for Leighton’s murder would have neatly tied things up, but now I don’t want the whole affair needlessly stirred up again. Just make him disappear.”

“Kill him?”

Webster was valuable in many ways, but there were times Clifford wondered about the size of his brain. “Yes, kill him—or, if you prefer, hire it done as you did before. I just want him gone for good.”

“Yes, my lord.”

At least the fool had remembered to use Clifford’s title, though it had taken him longer than it should have to get used to it. Clifford got up from his chair and Web did the same.

“Keep me posted on your progress.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The burly man left the study and Clifford sat back down to enjoy the rest of his cigar. He wasn’t really worried. McKay was a wanted man. If Webster failed to deal with him, Clifford would simply call in the authorities. It would be far more trouble, but the result would be the same.

Either way, Robert McKay was a dead man.

As soon as the production of
Virginia
was over, Danielle and Rafe left for the mayor’s birthday party. Grace and Ethan were traveling with them in the duke’s impressive black coach-and-four with the fancy ducal crest emblazoned in gold on the doors. Cord and Victoria followed in the earl’s sleek black carriage pulled by a pair of high-stepping bays.

The soirée was well in progress by the time the three couples arrived. The party was being held at the Duke of Tarrington’s palatial home, which Cord and Victoria seemed particularly fond of.

“Quite a place the old boy has here,” Cord drawled, casting what could only be called a lascivious glance at his wife. “It brings back some very fond memories.”

Victoria blushed, but her husband just smiled. “Perhaps later,” he said to her softly, “we might revisit some of those times.”

Tory’s blush deepened, but she couldn’t stop a grin. “I believe I may hold you to that, my lord.”

Cord laughed, but there was a wicked gleam in his unusual golden-brown eyes.

“I’m afraid to guess what that was about,” Rafe whispered in Dani’s ear. “God knows when it comes to his wife, the man is insatiable.”

Dani smiled. “And you, Your Grace?”

He looked at her, and his eyes turned the scorching shade of blue that signaled where his thoughts had gone.

“Touché,”
he said, adding, “though I hope I’ve enough strength of will to wait until we get home.”

Danielle thought of the iron control he so prized and she so hated, and vowed that sometime in the very near future, she would take that as a challenge.

Not tonight, however. She had just begun to enter into society as the Duchess of Sheffield and she refused to do anything that might arouse the slightest gossip. Instead, she let Rafael lead her among the guests, making polite greetings to one after another, the Marquess of This and the Earl of That, the Baroness Something-or-other. There were several Sir Someones and their wives, and enough viscounts and viscountesses that she soon lost track.

The music floated toward them. There was dancing in one of the larger drawing rooms and Rafe urged her in that direction. The orchestra played a country dance and Rafe partnered her, then, when the dance was over, led her to the edge of the dance floor.

“I suppose I shall have to let you dance with some of these other fellows,” he grumbled.

“If you don’t, they might think you are jealous of my attentions. You certainly wouldn’t want that.”

“I
am
jealous of your attentions. But on that score, I’ve
learned my lesson.” He surveyed the crowded room, the crush of people gowned in satins and silks, and Dani caught his frown.

“What is it?”

“Carlton Baker is here.”

Her stomach knotted as she remembered their awful encounter aboard ship. “Baker? I would have thought by now he would be on his way back to Philadelphia.”

But instead, he walked toward them, tall and attractive, his dark hair, lightly silvered at the temples, cut short and combed forward in the popular Brutus style.

“Well, Duke, we meet again.” Baker smiled, but there wasn’t the least bit of warmth in his eyes. “I figured we would run into each other eventually.”

“Yes, more’s the pity.”

Baker’s mouth tightened. “Just so you know…I haven’t forgotten the beating you handed me for no good reason, nor do I intend to.”

“I had every reason, and you know it. Furthermore, if you ever bother my wife again, you will think the pounding I gave you that night was child’s play.”

Baker’s whole body went rigid. “You dare to threaten me?”

Rafe shrugged his shoulders. “It is merely a warning.”

“Then I have a warning for you. What goes around, comes around, Duke. You’ve had your turn. Sooner or later, I’ll have mine.”

As Baker walked away, Rafe unconsciously clenched his fists.

“You made a fool of him, is all,” Dani said. “Now he is trying to salve his wounded pride.”

Rafe’s tension seemed to ease. “You’re right. The man is a fool, but he isn’t completely insane.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, should Baker step out of line, I will gladly take up where I left off that night, and I think Baker knows it.”

Dani didn’t say more. Rafe was protective of her as no man ever had been. If Carlton Baker so much as looked at her wrong… She shivered, thinking of what had happened to Oliver Randall and hoping Carlton Baker would soon be returning to America.

The evening progressed. All three couples wandered into the gaming room and Cord sat down at one of the green baize tables to try his hand at whist. Rafe and Ethan soon joined in the play, and the women used the time for a trip to the ladies’ retiring room.

They were on their way to rejoin the men when a woman’s voice rang from behind them.