Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

P ercy sat in his study drinking alone when his butler announced the arrival of a guest. “Lady Laura Knight to see you, Your Grace.”

Percy stood sighing. “What does she want now?”

“She did not say, Your Grace.”

“Very well. Show her in, but do not go far.”

“As you wish, Your Grace.” The butler bowed out of the room, then reemerged with Laura Knight in tow.

“That will be all, Mr. Hargraves,” Laura commanded Percy’s butler as if he were her own. To Hargraves’ credit he did not move but looked to Percy for his true orders.

“Do not go far, Mr. Hargraves. Lady Knight will not be staying long,” Percy commanded, giving Laura a reproving glare.

“As you wish, Your Grace.” Hargraves inclined his head in respect then stepped outside of the door but went no further.

“Why do you look so dour, Percival?” Laura used his given name, causing Percy to growl in warning.

“It is Your Grace to you,” he corrected her. He would have no misunderstandings between them. “What are you doing here, Lady Laura? I have made it quite clear that you are not welcome at Greyhall Estate or any other establishment of my possession.”

“Now, now, Percival,” she chastised him as if he were a child, completely ignoring his prior correction regarding his given name. “Why so formal? My name is Laura as you well know. We were almost family once upon a time,” she purred like a demented kitten. “There is no need to follow the strictures of society when we are alone together as we are now.”

Percy shook his head quite emphatically to the negative. “Whether I had wed Francis or not, you and I would never have been family.”

“She was my cousin. Our mothers were sisters. That would have made us family.” Her voice held irritation at his refusal to acknowledge the link between them.

Percy shook his head. “I do not care if the two of you had been sisters, you and I would never be family. One cannot be family with a serpent.”

Laura laughed at the insult as if he had offered her a witty compliment. “Oh, Percival, you do flatter me so.”

Percy attempted to control his temper. “It was not meant as flattery. I meant it as the deepest of insults.” His voice held no kindness in an effort to make his position quite clear. “What do you want, Lady Laura?”

She met Percy’s eyes, her brows arched as if he should have known better than to ask. “I want you, of course.”

“You cannot have me. I have made my feelings, or the lack thereof where you are concerned, quite clear. You dishonored your cousin when you attempted to seduce me while she was on her death bed, and you dishonor yourself in this relentless pursuit of a man who does not want you.”

“You are mine.” Her eyes held his possessively as a viper gauging the actions of its prey.

“I am not yours, nor shall I ever be.”

Laura cocked her eyebrow at him in a coquettish fashion. “You cannot tell me that your heart belongs to another. I know of you and the Gillett girl’s ruse. Your courtship was never real.”

Percy took a step forward in warning. He did not like hearing Madeleine being spoken of by such a terrible person as Laura Knight had shown herself to be. “Do not speak of her. I belong to no one but myself.”

“I will be speaking plenty of her once I tell everyone of how you defiled her in the shrubbery.” Laura laughed in delight as the color drained from Percy’s face then flooded back in a rage.

“You know nothing,” he growled between his teeth. He had never wished to hit a woman in his life until now.

Laura laughed maniacally. “I know everything. I saw everything.” She leveled him with a knowing look. The excitement of her threat glinted in her eyes. She meant every word.

“Get out!” Percy commanded, but Laura did not listen. Instead, she moved further into the room, running her fingers possessively over the back of the settee.

She smiled predatorily at him. “I will inform the entire English ton that you deflowered the lovely Lady Madeleine Gillett, unless you marry me.”

“I will never marry you,” Percy practically spat upon the floor in disgust.

“Why not? I love you. I am the only one who has ever truly loved you. Madeleine Gillett does not love you. It was all a pretense. Francis did not love you as she was in love with someone else. A true scandal that as she was in love with her carriage driver.” Laura laughed in disgust at this last. “You should have seen the way he lovingly carried her out to the carriage, wrapped so warmly in his coat.”

Alarm bells went off inside Percy’s head. “You were there?”

“Of course, I was there. I was always there.” The way she spoke held a sinister tone that made the hairs on Percy’s neck stand up.

“What do you know of her last day? Why was she trying to speak with me when she should not have been out of her bed?”

Laura smiled, crooking a finger at him. “Marry me, and I will tell you.”

Percy took a threatening step forward. He had carried the burden of guilt for Francis’ death in the years that followed, and now before him was the only chance he would ever have to know the truth. He did not appreciate it being offered in the form of extortion. “Tell me now, or you can tell the magistrate why you were attempting to extort a duke of the realm.”

Laura looked at his large bulk standing over her, his hands bundled into fists, and her eyes sparkled in delight at the danger of it. “She was trying to warn you about me.”

Percy stepped back; his brow furrowed in confusion. “What about you? What did you do, Laura?” All sense of propriety was now gone. He needed answers, and he needed them now.

She smiled like a cat who had just eaten a mouse. “She never deserved you. No one deserves you but me.”

Percy closed the distance between them, grabbing her by the arms. “What did you do?”

“I poisoned her.” She said it offhandedly as if it were nothing but another promenade in the park. “Francis discovered the truth and was coming to tell you. Thankfully, she was foolish enough not to tell anyone else but her carriage-driver lover about it. All it took was the compromising of a wheel, and all evidence of my hand in her death was gone, vanished in the blink of an eye.” She paused to laugh at this. “When they found her, her body was too damaged to be able to tell anything about her having been poisoned.”

“Why did the doctor not see it? Surely, he would have noticed.” Percy tried to understand what he was hearing. He had never liked Laura, but he had not thought her capable of something like this.

Laura shook her head. “I was the one in charge of her care. I hired the most inept physician I could find and paid him well. He never suspected a thing.”

Percy had never wanted to harm a woman in his life until now. “All of this time, I believed myself to be cursed. All of this time I believed that her death was my fault.”

“Oh, her death was most certainly your fault,” Laura reassured him. “Had you turned your attentions and affections towards me and broken off the engagement to Francis, I would have spared her life. Sadly, you did not, and I was left without recourse. I will remove any woman who is in my way, and their deaths are upon your head as well.”

“Their?” Percy’s mind raced. “Madeleine!”

“Yes, your dear precious Madeleine is next. She used you for her own aims, and for that, she deserves her fate.”

“What have you done?” Percy shook her, his fury barely held in check. Were she a man, he would have killed her already for her treachery. As it was, he would leave that to the hangman.

Laura smiled, thrilled by his violent vehemence. “You are too late.” She laughed in wild delight. “It is already done. By now, she will be Lady Herbert Mowbray and of no threat to anyone. She will never come between us again.”

Percy shook his head. Releasing her arms, he took a step back away from her. “Madeleine would never agree to such a marriage. She would never agree to marry the likes of Herbert Mowbray.”

Laura’s eyes glowed with malevolent knowing. “She will not be given a choice. Either she weds Mowbray, or I destroy her reputation amongst the ton, informing them of her deflowering. Then, once I have done that, I will kill her too, unless you marry me.”

“I will not allow this! I will not allow you to destroy her!”

Laura shrugged her shoulders. “You are too late. I have already set her demise in motion.”

Percy took off running out of the house and towards the stables, fear for Madeleine gripping his very soul. “Mr. Hargraves, do not let that woman leave, and please send a messenger for the magistrate! Be on your guard! She is a murderess!”

“Yes, Your Grace. Right away.” Mr. Hargraves rushed to do as bidden.

“You are too late,” Laura called after Percy from the door of the house. “You will never make it to them before they reach Gretna Green!”

“Mr. Mowbray, what are you doing here?” Madeleine asked with uncertainty. She looked around the garden but did not see anyone else. This made her even more uncomfortable. “We should not be here alone unchaperoned like this.”

“And yet, you had no issue with it when you thought that it was Percival Hardy, Duke of Greyhall, that was awaiting you here. Is that the difficulty between us? Is it that I am not a duke?” His tone held an angry bitterness that made Madeleine uneasy.

She shook her head, edging back towards the door. “Rank has nothing to do with it. We are simply not suited for one another.”

Herbert shook his head in argument. “Your father disagrees. He believes that we are quite suited for one another.”

“My father does not always know what is best for me.” She had almost made it back to the kitchen door when Mowbray stopped her.

“If you refuse my troth, it is certain that the entirety of the English ton will know that you have been deflowered by Percival Hardy. No other man would consider marrying a dishonored woman, and your family will be plunged into shame. They would never be able to show their faces in polite society again.”

Madeleine frowned at him, anger giving her courage to stand her ground. “I have not been deflowered, and I care not about marriage. I have no desire to wed. My family has nothing to be shamed for.”

Mowbray shook his head in disapproval. “Denial does not suit you, Madeleine. I know the truth, and I know that you would never wish to bring such shame to your family. Please, see reason.”

“My family is strong. You know not of what you speak.”

Mowbray gave her a judgmental look. “Would you ruin them for the sake of your own reluctance to admit to the iniquity of your sins? Would you allow your shame to stain their good name? I am offering to save you. To save them. Refuse me, and the world will know all that you have done. Let me save you all.”

Madeleine shook her head. “You are not our savior. You are threatening to ruin me, to ruin them. For what? So that you can share my bed? The shame is on you.”

Mowbray’s eyes showed surprise at her boldness. “I am not the one who is threatening them. There is another that has made it clear that if I do not follow through and convince you to wed me,” here he paused, shaking his head in distaste, “there is a witness to your deflowering that will tell all.”

This stopped Madeleine in her tracks. “Who claims such a thing?”

“Lady Laura Knight witnessed it all. She saw everything that transpired between you and the Duke of Greyhall in the garden at the ball and has promised to make certain that all know of it unless I can convince you to marry me. I am here to save you, Madeleine, not to ruin you. I know that I am not the most exciting choice, but I am a stable choice. I will provide you with honorability.”

Madeleine was trapped. He was right in that such a scandal would ruin her family. It would bring shame to all within her sphere. It did not matter that she had not been deflowered. Her petals had been a bit ruffled to be certain, but she and Percy had not consummated their relationship. The noble ladies and gentlemen of the ton would not care about the difference. Her family would be ruined regardless.

Mowbray’s eyes turned earnest, the bitter anger draining from him. “I am offering you safety, a way out of this. I suggest that you take it before it is too late. It is not a threat. It is a fact that you must now come to terms with. You must come with me now, before it is too late.”

Madeleine looked back at the house full of all of her family and their guests. If Laura Knight wished to cause a scene, tonight would be the perfect night for it. It would be very easy for her to simply walk in and announce to the gathering that Madeleine was compromised and that she had seen it with her own eyes. With Percy leaving England for the continent, he would not be there to help her overcome the scandal by making her a proposal of marriage.

Madeleine’s mind scrambled for an answer, any answer, that did not result in her spending the rest of her life with the likes of Herbert Mowbray. “I could wed someone else. Hamish MacElroy would be a much better match than you and I would be.”

“There is no one else that could save you in time. If you did wed another man, he would come to know the truth of it on your wedding night, and he would reject you. Your reputation would be in ruins regardless. MacElroy is indeed a good man, but his family would never agree to his wedding a soiled lady.”

“I am intact,” Madeleine spat angrily.

“My dear, we do not have the time to argue this. You do not have the time. Lady Laura only gave me to the end of the dinner party to convince you to marry me. If we are not wed before the dawn, she will expose your ruin. As alluring as you are, that is not enough time for you to extract a proposal and wed another man. I am your only option. I do not expect you to love me, but perhaps in time, you will see me as the man who cared enough for you to save you.”

As much as Madeleine did not wish to admit it, Mowbray was right. She did not have enough time to convince Hamish MacElroy or any other man of worth to marry her. She had spent so much time attempting to avoid the sacrament of marriage, thwarting the efforts of every suitor who had darkened her door, that she had not considered that the day would come when she would be desperate for just such a proposal. The irony was not lost on her.

Madeleine could feel the fight slowly draining from her body as her mind surrendered to the inevitable. “And how do you propose to have us wed before the dawn? There are formalities and practicalities that must be observed. We cannot simply walk into the dinner party and announce that it has been turned into a wedding. The banns would need to be read, a ceremony arranged, contracts to be drawn up betwixt your father and mine concerning my dowry.”

Herbert shook his head. “There is no time for all of that. Come with me to Gretna Green. There are no formalities or practicalities of the law concerning marriage there in Scotland. Our fathers can sort the matter of your dowry afterwards.”

Madeleine shook her head. “To wed with such haste would be to cause a scandal of its own.”

Herbert gave her a reassuring look. “They would believe it to be born of love and would forgive it in time. It is better to be wed than not when it comes to scandal. They need not know that we are wed until a later date if you prefer, as long as Lady Laura is reassured of our marriage having been performed in the timeframe that she has laid out.”

Tears filled Madeleine’s eyes. “My family will notice my absence. The scandal will be unavoidable. The marriage would have to be announced to save my reputation in the long term.”

Mowbray nodded. “I never wished to gain your hand in this manner, but I will not see you destroyed. We will weather the scandal of Gretna Green together. It is far less of a scandal than the one Lady Laura threatens to bring upon you and your family’s heads.”

Taking a deep breath, Madeleine nodded. She knew he was right. Her heart ached for Percy. Marriage to him would have made it all go away, but he was not hers to have. His heart and mind belonged to another. He was leaving England and would not be able to save her this time. Herbert Mowbray, the man that she had sworn to avoid marrying at all costs, in the end, was the only man who could save her and her family from ruin.

“I will go with you,” she whispered, afraid of the reality of the words.

Herbert sighed in relief, giving her a reassuring smile. “We must make haste. It is a long, hard ride to Scotland. You must come with me now. There is no time to delay.” He held out his hand for hers.

Madeleine hesitated, knowing that the moment she placed her hand in his, her future was over. Everything that she had dreamt of for herself would be gone. In the end, it was the sound of her mother’s laughter floating from the house that gave her the final push towards him. She could not be responsible for her family’s ruin. Reaching out her hand, she placed it firmly in his. “Then let us be swift and be done with it.”