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16. November 14, 1826

16

NOVEMBER 14, 1826

NUMBER FIVE GROSVENOR STREET

D ouble Wedding Day

Cassandra Collins had arranged a great many meals in her years overseeing the Grosvenor Street households of the Earl of Framlingwood’s mistresses. However, nothing could have prepared her for the grand wedding breakfast currently in full swing in the formal dining room at Number Five. Thank God for the pocket doors between this room and the drawing room next door or she never would have been able to accommodate the crush of people enjoying Nathaniel Charpentier’s lush buffet of masterful culinary offerings. Then again, it was not every day an earl’s former mistress and her lady’s maid married two gentlemen drapers in a double wedding.

The ceremony had taken place not two hours past in the downstairs parlor by special license, actually two special licenses. The wedding had been brief and to the point, with only the two happy couples, the vicar, and a few witnesses in attendance. The earl had given Margot away, and, in a surprising turn of events, Gabrielle’s brother had given her away. She suspected the earl’s visit to said brother had something to do with that particular detail. However, with the Duke and Duchess of Chelmsford as witnesses there could be no complaint as to the propriety of the marriages. Cassandra and Lady Camilla had attended as well.

“My dear Mrs. Collins, do take a moment to sit down and eat something,” Lady Camilla said as she sidled next to Cassandra. “You have done a magnificent job on short notice, and if you do not eat something poor Nathaniel shall be heartbroken.” She handed her a Wedgewood china plate with a selection of delicacies from the buffet and a silk serviette.

“We can’t have that,” Cassandra murmured as she and Lady Camilla settled into the comfortable chintz armchairs before the crackling fire. “Are these his famous lobster patties?” She bit into one of the dainties in question and closed her eyes as the delicious combination of lobster, herbs, and garlic butter melted in her mouth.

“The very same,” Lady Camilla replied. “The very ones responsible for me having to summon my modiste to let out every gown I own.”

“I should be as big as a house if I had Mr. Charpentier living with me.” Cassandra gazed across the room where Gabrielle and Will were conversing with Margot and John and Derek…his lordship.

“I am well on my way.” Lady Camilla waved across the room at her nephew, Lionel, and Nathaniel, the chef in question. They stood laughing and joking with Mister Forsythe and his wife, Lady Jane, and Archer Colwyn and his wife, Charlotte.

Cassandra assumed they were all smiles because Mister Colwyn, one of Bow Street’s finest, had finely run the Earl of Framlingwood’s blackmailer to ground and arrested him. She quickly perused the room to see Adrienne and her husband, Obadiah with Lily and Ari, her husband, and Saida and Hamish, her husband. Sophia and her husband, Joshua, had wandered over to join the two newly married couples. All of the earl’s mistresses were safe now from the blackmailer’s threats. They were happy and married. And the secret of their close friendships with each other all of these years was finally out. She was glad of it for the thing she had hated most was lying to the earl for so long. He’d taken the revelation with good grace, as was his wont. He and the other men in this room were some of the few truly good and kind gentlemen she’d ever met in her life.

“I still cannot believe Framlingwood refused to agree to my hosting this breakfast or to at least having it in his residence on St. James Square.” Lady Camilla patted Cassandra’s knee in that comforting way she had. “You have done an admirable job here, but I cannot begin to imagine the work you have had to do these few days to prepare.”

“I suspect he worried that having one of his mistresses and her lady’s maid marry in his home might be too scandalous an affair even for him,” Cassandra said.

“The cove ’ad five mistresses living next to each other for years. He’s been seen in brawls in two Seven Dials taverns, found the bodies of two dead wenches, and has kept company with Sally Big’Uns. ’ow scandalous could a bloody double wedding be?” Dickie Jones, dressed in the wedding finery he hated, sat on the arm of Lady Camilla’s chair and filched a raspberry tart from her plate.

“The lad has a point,” the Duke of Chelmsford said, as he subsided onto the chaise across from them. “Sit down, Mrs. Collins. You know far too much about my private life to have to pop out of your chair every time I come near.” He looked around the room. “You’ve done an admirable job here. This is quite one of the more enjoyable wedding breakfasts I’ve ever attended.”

“I ’spect the company ’ere has summat to do with it, Yer Grace. This lot may be ladies and gentleman with some lightskirts in the mix, but they don’t put on airs and prance about like they’re too good to congregate with us common folk. These coves,” he said as he gestured with the half-eaten tart. “Knows ’ows to have a bit of fun.”

They all smiled at that. Dickie Jones seldom got things wrong when it came to calling people as he saw them.

“I don’t see Captain Atherton and Lady Honoria,” the duke mused as he gazed about the room once more. “I thought surely they would attend.”

“Baby’s colicky,” Dickie said. “No sleep in going on three nights.” Cassandra caught most of what he said as his mouth was full of the remainder of the raspberry tart. Lady Camilla handed him her serviette and reproving look for good measure.

The duke shuddered. “Poor Atherton. I don’t think I could manage that on my best day.”

Dickie waved in the direction of Will and Gabrielle and Margot and John who were crossing the room in the direction of the fireplace. “Those four won’t ’ave to worry about that now, will they? No babies coming from those pairings.” He reached for one of Cassandra’s lobster patties, and she slapped his hand away. The duke offered up his plate. “Ta, Yer Grace.” He helped himself and then stuck his tongue out at Cassandra who laughed out loud.

“Dickie,” Lady Camilla warned.

“Everyone knows who’ll be sleeping in whose bed with those four,” Dickie said. “Shame they ’ave to ’ide it’s all I’m saying. Not fair.”

“Unfortunately, life is frequently unfair, Mister Jones,” Chelmsford said. “Pain in the arse, isn’t it?”

“Not when you have a duke in your corner,” Will said as he and Gabrielle made their bows to Captain El’s husband. “We cannot begin to thank you for your gift, Your Grace.”

“Indeed, Your Grace,” John said. “Your generosity has overwhelmed us.”

“Nonsense,” the duke replied. “You are doing me a favor. The estate was just sitting there and has been sorely in need of someone to restore and care for it. Everyone needs a retreat of their own where they might withdraw and be themselves, yes?” For a few moments no one said a word. Cassandra had been amazed when she heard His Grace had gifted the two couples with one of his unentailed estates as a wedding gift, a place where they might go and be the loving couples they were born to be rather than the couples society expected them to be.

“Yes, Your Grace,” Margot said. “But not everyone in London is as understanding and generous as you are.” She bent down and kissed his cheek. “We shall be forever in your debt.”

The duke blushed bright red. “Good. When my wife decides to redecorate one of our houses, I expect a good price for all of the work she shall have you do.”

“Done and done,” Gabrielle said with one of her bright smiles.

Dickie stood abruptly, his attention drawn to someone at the doors to the dining room, a young boy in dirty clothes with a thin and anxious face. He whispered something to Lady Camilla and strode casually across the room.

“Do we want to know what that was about?” Margot asked.

“Likely not,” the duke and Will and John said at the same time.

The conversation turned to the estate and the plans the two couples had for it. Thank heavens Mister Forsythe had drawn up paperwork to ensure the girls’ dowries were their own to do with as they pleased. He had also drawn up documents to solidify Will and John’s business partnership that included their new wives so that no matter what happened the drapery and decorating business would remain in all of their hands should something happen to one of them. Gabrielle and Margot were looking forward to working with their new husbands in the business, and Cassandra knew they would do well.

Gabrielle’s brother, a rather fierce Nordic-warrior-looking man, stood talking to Adrienne and Obadiah. She was glad of it for he had looked most uncomfortable during the wedding ceremony. The brother’s involvement with the East India Company was no doubt the topic of conversation as Obadiah had served as Captain El’s sailing master for many years.

Speaking of Captain El, Cassandra noticed her in deep conversation with Dickie Jones who clutched what appeared to be a letter in his hand. Cassandra swiped at the hair on the back of her neck which stood on end. She looked immediately to Derek, still laughing and joking with Forsythe, Colwyn, and their wives. She walked in measured steps across the Aubusson to join them.

“What I want to know,” Lady Jane said. “Is what on earth made you think five women living next to each other would not gossip about their situations and discover they were all mistress to the same man?”

“Hubris, my dear Mrs. Forsythe. Unchecked male hubris. Right, Mrs. Collins?” Derek turned to her and smiled, that secret knowing smile they shared when he knew she had bested him.

“I would not presume to address the quality of your hubris, my lord,” she said and inclined her head. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Captain El and Dickie approaching.

“Well played,” Colwyn’s wife, Charlotte, the brilliant chess mistress, said.

“What I want to know is how you managed to persuade Miss Gabrielle’s brother to reconcile with her marrying our friend Will and to give her away this morning,” Colwyn said.

“I merely mentioned I have friends in the East India Company too,” Derek replied. “He discovered my friends quite trumped his.” He shrugged as they all laughed. “Gabrielle wanted him there, and I felt it was the least I could do.”

“Besides giving Margot this house as a wedding present?” Saida’s husband Hamish said as he and Saida joined them. “Just as you gave my wife the house next door. Thank you again, by the way, your lordship.”

A flash of pink colored Derek’s cheeks. He had given each of the mistresses their houses as wedding gifts. Still taking care of them to the end. Cassandra hoped he would finally realize his duty was done and he could get on with his life. His ladies were all safely married to men who would protect them with their very lives.

Get on with his life. Even if that meant he would one day marry and never be hers, Cassandra wished that for him. He deserved some happiness after all he had been through in his life, especially this last year with the blackmailer’s cruelty and threats.

“Rutherford,” Derek called to the young footman filling glasses of champagne at one of the sideboards. “I think we are almost ready for a last toast to the happy couples can be on their way. See that everyone has a glass, will you?”

“Right away, my lord,” Young Rutherford replied as he and two of his brothers set to passing amongst the guests with trays of glasses of Derek’s favorite beverage.

“This just came,” Dickie announced as he and Captain El joined them. The noise of the other guests in conversation continued, but where Cassandra and Derek stood silence fell like a curtain at the end of a play. He handed the earl a sealed letter. Not a crumpled note, but a sealed letter on expensive paper addressed in a precise and educated hand.

The Earl of Framlingwood

For your immediate attention

He opened the letter. Read it quickly. His face paled ever so slightly, so slightly, Cassandra was likely the only one who noticed. He handed the letter to Mister Colwyn.

“Fuck,” the Runner muttered. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Captain El snatched the letter. Mister Forsythe read over her shoulder. The duchess let the letter slip from her fingers. Cassandra stopped to retrieve the single page of highest quality paper.

You are harboring a murderess.

One of the women in your Grosvenor Street harem is a proven murderess.

You will deliver her to me by Christmas Eve or they will all die, as whores like them should.

You shall receive further instructions from me, no more incompetent hirelings.

Derek stepped away to watch the room of happy wedding guests. Cassandra slipped her arm through his. He covered her hand on his arm and squeezed. Save for their small group, everyone had gathered around Lady Camilla and the duke as they held court from their seats before the fire. Each of them had a glass of champagne in hand. They were all smiling at Gabrielle and Will and Margot and John, dressed in their finest and looking so free and so happy. Their arrangement was not perfect, but their lives would be safe and happy and what they all wanted for the most part.

Saida and Jane had snatched the letter up. They came to Derek with the rest of the small group.

“This letter bears the scent of some unusual spices, my lord,” Saida said.

“She’s right,” Jane agreed. “We think we can discover their origins. The West Indies, perhaps.”

“Will that help?” Derek said, his voice suddenly so weary and tired Cassandra wanted to weep.

“It’s a start,” Colwyn said. “I found her minion. I’ll find her.”

“Her?” Cassandra could not quite take everything in and her blood began to run cold.

“This is a woman’s hand,” Colwyn said. “I knew his employer was a woman. I never dreamed that—”

“She would keep coming after Shell was arrested?” Captain El asked. “How long have you known me, Colwyn? Never underestimate a woman’s desire for revenge.”

“Revenge for what?” Forsythe asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Derek said. He drew himself up and waved Rutherford over with his tray of champagne. “Ladies, set yourselves to discovering where these spices came from. Col, find this woman.” He took a glass of champagne in each hand and downed one of them in a single draught.

“Derek?” Cassandra clutched his arm. “What are you going to do?”

“We,” Mister Forsythe said. “What are we going to do?”

“Today, we are going to toast Margot and Gabrielle and their husbands. We are going to see them off to the estate Captain El’s husband has given them. And tomorrow, we are going to make certain my ladies are all safe until this is over.” He gazed down at Cassandra and then at the others gathered around them. “Agreed?” Without waiting for them to answer, he removed her arm from his and strode into the middle of the room, his glass held high.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Margot and John and Gabrielle and Will. May your unions be long and happy ones. And may the family we have created with the people in this room ever protect and defend each other. Come what may.”

Glasses clinked. The two couples smiled and gazed at each other, their bonds not as people would have them, but strong and built on love. Cassandra exchanged a glance with Captain El. Never had she ever seen the infamous Pirate Queen so uncertain, but so determined. When Derek met her gaze once more, his eyes blazed with the unholy light that reminded her of an avenging angel. Whom he loved he loved fiercely, but he loved his sense of duty to those he loved even more.

“Come what may,” she murmured as she touched her glass to his.

“Come what may,” he replied.

An hour later, the two couples stood in the foyer of Number Five whilst the duke’s large travel carriage and the earl’s equally commodious travel carriage were loaded down with trunks and portmanteaus. Gabrielle and Margot hugged and kissed Derek.

“Are you well, my lord?” Margot asked.

“Of course I am,” he replied. “Be happy together, yes?”

“We will,” Gabrielle replied.

“Take care of them,” Cassandra said as she adjusted the wool scarf around Will’s neck and then the one around John’s. “And take care of each other, please.”

John nodded toward Derek who was still talking to the girls. “Take care of him, Mrs. Collins. He strikes me as someone who needs some care.”

In a thrice each couple was in a carriage and waving madly as the coachmen urged the horses into motion.

“Be happy,” Cassandra called after them as she waved.

“Will they be?” Derek asked as he escorted her back inside Number Five.

“Yes,” she replied. “They will be. They have each other and you will discover, my lord, sometimes that is all a person needs.”

- THE END -

Thank you, dear readers for choosing to read A Pearl Enraptured . If you want to know how the Earl of Framlingwood deals with the continuing threat hanging over his head, as well as how he and Mrs. Collins find their own happy ending, you can preorder An Earl Conquered here: An Earl Conquered

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Loss freezes the heart of a reclusive earl and clouds his judgment whilst his seductive housekeeper manages his bevy of mistresses and holds everyone’s secrets, especially her own.

Widowed and alone on the island of Jamaica, eighteen-year-old Cassandra Collins sees her position as housekeeper to a viscount’s brother as her salvation. Salvation turns to nightmare when she is forced to commit an irreparable act to save a child’s life. In fear of the consequences, she flees to England with the help of Captain El Goodrum who, after several years of hiding Cassandra, finds her the perfect position as head housekeeper over the five homes of an earl’s five mistresses. Her need to remain anonymous and her steady demeanor make her the perfect person upon whom he can rely. The handsome and somewhat aloof earl soon comes to depend on her for far more than order. Being his confidante and advisor is no real trial until she realizes the terrible temptation the man is every minute she’s with him.

What starts as friendship soon sparks a searing desire. But when sharing their bodies leads to sharing their secrets, will desire turn to disdain?

Derek Welkirk, Earl of Framlingwood, learned two hard lessons when he was orphaned at the age of twelve and forced to take on the burdens of an earldom. Loving deeply only causes pain. And caring for people is best expressed by keeping them safe. These lessons are only reinforced when he fails at both which results in the death of his mistress and nearly destroys him. He has kept all succeeding mistresses so safe, he’s accumulated five of them, each in their own house and completely unaware of each other (or so he thinks). Thanks to his incredibly efficient housekeeper, Mrs. Collins, his eccentric life rolls along quite smoothly until a blackmailer announces that one of said mistresses is a murderess. He hopes to discover who she is, but only to protect her from the blackmailer. Fortunately, his lovely housekeeper is easy to confide in, and he trusts her implicitly. She’s become his closest friend…and his most frequent erotic fantasy.

In the quest to thwart a blackmailer growing bolder and more violent by the day, Derek and Cassandra discover their admiration for each other has grown from friendship to love. The only thing more heated than the mystery of the murderess is the searing flames of the passion between them. The race is on with the blackmailer’s efforts to end their lives and the truth of the secrets between them set to end their love story forever.

Can he dare to love her when she doesn’t need him to keep her safe? Will he ever open his heart to her after he discovers everything between them has been a lie? Grab your pre-order today so you don’t miss this high-stakes finale to the “5 Pearls for the Earl” Series.

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