Chapter Five

W orth was in trouble. Jennifer Ward had fascinated him from the moment he clapped eyes on her back in Bristol and charmed him more and more as he watched her interactions with her mother and his grandmother.

With the former, she was respectful, firm, kind, and loving. He could imagine her as a mother. He could, all too easily, imagine her with his children. A boy, perhaps, who had her coppery brown hair, and a little girl with her mother's dauntless spirit, determined to keep up with her older brother.

Once they were home again and Jen had gone up to bed, he sat in the library with a brandy, considering his next steps. To have that marvelous spirit at his side for his whole life. Mistress? No, never. Worth wanted Jen as his wife. His countess. She would be a magnificent countess. The problem was that he had given her no reason to look on him with favor. He had been horrid to her. Arrogant. Suspicious. Unpleasant. Unfriendly, as Mrs. Bartley had noticed.

He knew it was because he had been trying to keep his distance. Jen didn't.

At least he had apologized. He had started tonight to make up for it. But would it be enough? Well, if it wasn't, he would have to try harder, for he knew to the depths of his soul that she was his match. He could no more walk away from her than from his own arm.

Should he send flowers? Even though they were living in the same house? And that was another thing. Should he leave the house and stay at his club? It hadn't mattered when the whole of Society thought he resented her. But once it was known he was courting her, the pair of them being under the same roof might be a problem. He didn't want people gossiping about Jen. Not any more than they were because of her mysterious origins.

What a meal they'd make of it if they knew where Aunt Eloisa had found her, and under what circumstances! As for Worth, he no longer cared. She should be proud of all she achieved under very adverse circumstances. Looking after her mother. Retaining her integrity. Learning the skills of a lady.

"Frome. You are still up." There she was. The woman he had been thinking about, all but her face, hands, and feet modestly covered by a large shawl. Which didn't keep his imagination from picturing her in the night rail that was probably beneath the shawl, or better still, in nothing at all.

He grunted, all he was capable of as he fought his response.

"Are you upset with me, Frome?" she asked.

"Worth." See? He could still produce words. He proved it by managing a few more. "Call me ‘Worth'. Like my grandmother does. After all, we are friends now, are we not?" He found himself holding his breath as he waited for her answer.

"If you call me Jen," she offered, blushing.

"Not Jenny?" he asked, prompting a somewhat wistful smile.

"No one has ever called me Jenny." The blush deepened. "You can if you like, Worth."

If he did not change the tenor of the conversation, he would kiss her. Which would probably frighten or anger her. Even if it didn't, it would be the act of a cad to take advantage of her when they were living under the same roof. Or at all. "Did you come down for a book? May I hold a candle for you?"

"Thank you. I wanted the next volume of The Modern Griselda . Here it is. Thank you."

She was almost burbling. Jenny never burbled. Worth felt a surge of pride and lust at her reaction to him. "I am about to go up to bed myself," he improvised. "May I light you up?" And kiss her at her door. No! That would be wrong .

"Thank you," she said again, and he had to be stern with his lust, which was certain her words were an answer to his thoughts.

He said a polite good night but found his feet unwilling to move him away after she had closed the door with him on the other side. Had he been farther away, he might not have heard the muffled sounds from inside the room. A shout, which shut off after the first yelp. Breaking glass or china.

Worth looked around for a weapon. Continued noises had him picturing a struggle, and the jangle of a key in the lock meant he was out of time. He turned the handle and hurled himself against the door. Someone on the other side pushed back, but the door gave, so it was not locked.

"Worth!" shouted Jenny. Worth's fear and anger gave him strength. He barged the door with his shoulder and pushed his way in. Jenny was struggling in the arms of a villain near the window, but most of his attention had to go to the younger villain who had given up the lost battle for the door and was on the attack.

Worth ducked under the club that was descending towards his head and managed a solid punch to the man's chin that knocked him backward. He snatched at the man's wrist. Jenny yelled again, this time a wordless protest, and again it sent a surge of energy into Worth's attack. He swung the man by the wrist, and the man hit the door and collapsed, unconscious.

Worth faced the other villain. The one who held Jenny with one arm around her waist holding her arms trapped and one hand over her mouth.

"Let her go," Worth demanded, taking a step towards them.

"Come any closer, and I shall break her neck," said the villain, "and neither of us want that."

Worth certainly didn't. He stopped where he was, looking helplessly at the woman he loved. Yes, loved, and wasn't this a bad time to realize it?

"What do you want?" he demanded. Anything. Anything at all, for she was worth everything to him.

"My lucky lamp," growled the villain, and gave Jenny a shake. "She took it and I want it back."

Jenny tried to speak but it came out muffled.

"If I take my hand away, you'll not shout out," the villain said. "I have a gun, and I'll shoot yon earl if you speak too loud." He dropped Jen and stepped back several steps, one hand darting into his coat and reappearing and holding a gun.

"It was not yours," Jenny told him. "It had been thrown away in the cellar."

"It was too mine. Looked everywhere for it, didn't I, after Freddie died. It was his, and it brought him luck. Everything he had came to me, so it is mine. Come on, Jen. Hand it over. Besides, anything you found is mine by rights, to pay me back for keeping you and your Ma after Freddie died."

Jenny scoffed. "Ma and I kept ourselves. She sewed and I did the books at the inn and then several other places."

"You lived under my roof," argued the villain, who must be the nefarious uncle who'd kidnapped Grandmother.

"And kept your house clean and put meals on your table," Jenny replied.

She had been moving away from Worth as she spoke, and the uncle was so focused on her that he had forgotten about Worth. Worth took two steps to the side so that he was completely out of the man's view, then began to inch towards him.

"Stop arguing, girl, and give me the lamp. Here, is that it?" He pointed at the silver oil lamp Jenny had brought with her. "You've polished it. It's right pretty!"

Jenny put out a hand as if to stop him from stepping forward, and said, "It isn't yours, Uncle Edgar. Don't touch it." The clever girl was giving Worth his opportunity.

Worth was right next to the fire irons on the hearth. In one move, he picked up the poker and hit Uncle Edgar on the head, dropping him in his tracks.

He scooped up the gun and wrapped his arms around Jenny. "My love," he said. "Are you well? I have never been so scared in my life as when I saw you in his clutches."

"Your love , Worth?" asked Jenny, her eyes wide.

Greatly daring, since she had accepted his embrace and even snuggled into him, Worth dropped a soft kiss on her lips. "Indeed. It is why I was so grumpy. I was falling in love with you, and I was not prepared for it. May I court you, Jenny? Will you allow me to convince you I can make you happy?"

"Courtship would be nice," Jenny allowed. "I suppose I should tell you, though, that I am already in love with you, and very cross about it. I was, too, thinking you would never feel the same way about me. But Worth, you cannot have thought. I am not at all suitable to be your countess."

At that moment, the first villain groaned. "The only requirement is being married to an earl," Worth explained. "Besides, I think you will make a wonderful countess, but we had better tie these two up before we discuss the matter."

*

In the morning, after far too little sleep, Worth and Jenny met at breakfast. Aunt Eloisa, Mrs. Bartley, and Mammi were delighted to learn that Worth and Jen were betrothed. "Will you wear a new dress, Jen?" Mammi asked. Jen chatted to her about dresses, shoes, and bonnets, all of which seemed to Mammi to be an essential part of a wedding. It kept Mammi occupied while Worth told Aunt Eloisa and Mrs. Bartley about their nighttime visitors.

"I haven't questioned the leader yet," Worth said. "I didn't think he was worth losing sleep over. I had the footmen lock the pair of them in the cellar. They were both conscious and complaining."

"Leave questioning them to the constables," Aunt Eloisa demanded.

But Worth explained that the leader was Jen's Uncle Edgar, and he did not want anything said to constables or magistrates that might touch her reputation.

Aunt Eloisa agreed immediately. "Of course. We do not want a scandal. You question the horrid man. See if you can find out who Jen's real people are."

Jen would like to know the answer to that question. She suggested coming down to the cellars with Worth but was not surprised when the obstinate man refused outright. He was going to have to learn his protective instincts could cause problems between them.

Perhaps he already knew, because he attempted an explanation. "He thinks he knows you, Jenny, and will try to bully you, and then I will have to punch him again, and we won't get any sense out of him. Besides, it upsets me to see you in the same room as that man. It makes me remember you were in his power for most of your life, and I can't bear it."

Given Worth's nature, Jen could see his point. "Very well then, darling. As long as you promise to tell me everything, good or bad. I want to know who I am, Worth, and how Mammi ended up married to Freddie."

He checked to see their elders were busy chatting and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I will tell you everything," he promised.

Worth was gone for a long time. Jen tried to busy herself with the ledgers he had asked her to review. She was going back through the records the crooked factor had presented to the previous earl over the last four years of his life, to see if he had been stealing then, and if so, how much.

She found it hard to concentrate this morning. Not only did the older ladies keep interrupting to ask her opinion about their plans for her wedding and her trousseau, but she kept wondering what Uncle Edgar was saying to Worth.

At last, Worth returned to the drawing room. He immediately crossed to where Jen was sitting and dropped to his haunches so he could hold her hands. "Jenny, the old villain told me an incredible tale, but I think the essence of it is true." He looked over his shoulders to Aunt Eloisa. "Grandmother, the villain in the cellar has told me how Jen and her mother came to live with him but claims not to remember any names. I suspect we need your knowledge of the London ton to make sense of it."

It was, indeed, an incredible tale. "Many years ago," Worth told them, "an earl married one of the loveliest debutantes of the season. He was a man in his late thirties, so the marriage came as a great disappointment to his younger brother. The marriage was brief. Some six months after the wedding, the earl was attacked in the street and died.

"The brother immediately claimed to be earl, but the widow's father, who had swooped on the grieving household and taken his daughter home, announced that the widow was with child. Some four months later, the news came out that she had given birth to the new earl.

"For several years, the widow and the baby earl remained at her father's country estate, well-guarded. But eventually, she accompanied her father to London, and the uncle took his opportunity. He hired three villains, half-brothers, to steal the baby away.

"They entered from the roof, using a rope ladder to get down to the nursery, and picked the lock of the barred gate that kept children from falling out of the window.

"Things went wrong almost immediately. They made it inside but found two railed beds, each with a child in it. As they frantically discussed whether to take both children, the mother interrupted them. She managed to scream once before Freddie, one of the brothers, clapped a hand over her mouth.

"With servants likely to arrive at any second, Freddie dragged the mother to the window by which they had entered and the two remaining brothers went for a child each. But only one brother, Edgar, exited the window with a child. The other, Bill, was shot by the guard posted by the mother's father to protect his household; he was the first servant through the door.

"Freddie pressed the mother's face into his chest until her struggles ceased. Edgar thanked his lucky stars that the infant he carried did not wake. With two inert victims presenting little challenge to their climbing ability, they soon escaped across the roofs and away.

"The hue and cry set up by the grandfather's household consumed the streets. They hid in a garden, Freddie keeping his hand over the mother's mouth and nose, so she did not make a noise. The baby continued to sleep.

"It was some time before they were able to make their escape. Edgar wanted to leave the mother, who was nearly dead from suffocation, but Freddie refused. Back among their own, they found the child they had was a girl. Also, Bill, who had survived being shot, had named his accomplices.

"Figuring that London was too hot for them, they left for Bristol, and Freddie insisted on taking the mother and the little girl with him, for he would not leave them unprotected in the wild part of London they called home, and they could not risk taking them back to their own part of London.

"And in Bristol, the mother and child lived until the day I met Jenny helping my grandmother to escape from her Uncle Edgar."

Aunt Eloisa looked at Jen with wide eyes. "I remember the kidnapping. The lost countess and her little daughter. The little earl left behind. Jen, darling, you are Lady Jennifer Sheffield, twin to the Earl of Brinkley. Oh, my goodness. That means your mother is Madeleine, Lady Brinkley."

"Maddie," said Mammi, in a dreamy tone. "Pretty Lady Maddie." Her voice deepened and her tone changed to a kind of gleeful sneer. "Poor Lady Maddie, such a pity. So young to be a widow." She blinked a couple of times. "I should sew. I need to sew." She picked up the embroidery that lay neglected in her lap and focused solely on that, ignoring Jen when she tried to speak to her.

"Mammi? Maddie? What do you remember?"

But Mammi would not reply.

"My locket!" Jen exclaimed. "It has pictures in it. Two infants. I always thought they were both me. Wait! I shall get it."

And when Lady Eloisa and Worth saw the locket, they both agreed.

"This crest on the back?" Worth commented. "It is the family crest of the Earls of Brinkley. I know the current Brinkley. Your brother. A good man. Shall I send him a message, Jenny? Do you want him to know?"

Jen shuddered to think of the baby left behind. At least she had had Mammi, even if a much-diminished Mammi with erratic memories and her intellectual abilities largely erased. "He should know, do you not think? He must have also spent a lifetime wondering what had happened to his family."

"His first name is Christopher," Aunt Eloisa said, helpfully.