Chapter 20

"Are you sure about doing this, Maggie?" Lady Banbury asked as she watched Maggie put on a dark cloak.

"I have to do this, Your Grace. My family reputation is on the line." Maggie sighed, pausing as she fiddled with the clasp. "Although I'm sure it's not going to recover well after it comes out what my brother's been up to."

"You can recover from it. All of you will." The dowager duchess looked nervous. She was sitting on the chaise by the window, the heavy curtains drawn. "But confronting your brother about all this … do you think that will get him to stop?"

Maggie hesitated. She felt really uncomfortable talking about this with Adam's mother, who seemed to know more than Adam realized, but there wasn't really anyone else to talk to about this. Well, there was Adam, but Maggie had been avoiding him all day, unable to be in the same room as him alone. Especially after he held her while she cried. That had just brought all her feelings to the surface.

She still loved him. Even after he pointed the finger at her brother and she found out what Adam had done to put Ben in this position. Never did she think that the man she fell in love with would be the same person who got Ben accused of a crime he never committed. Maggie still didn't know what to think about that. It made her really nervous; her emotions were a mess in her chest.

How could she still love someone who did this, no matter how inadvertently it had been? She felt sick with the awareness that it couldn't happen.

She wanted to cry at the unfairness of it all, but Maggie couldn't do that in front of the dowager countess. Lady Banbury had been incredibly kind to her, and Maggie liked to think they got along, but she wouldn't approve of what they had been up to. Even the dowager countess wouldn't like knowing that her son had been having a dalliance with a servant. That was a step too far.

"I just need to talk to him, and this is the only option." Maggie finished doing up the clasp on her cloak. "If confronting him like this is the only way to do it, that's how it has to be."

"And once he's taken away?"

"I'm going to have to let it happen." Maggie swallowed. "I can't apologize enough for my brother's actions, Your Grace. What he's done …"

"Maggie." Lady Banbury stood up and approached her. She took Maggie's hands and gave her a gentle smile. "You don't need to apologize. You're not in charge of your brother's actions. What he did was his behaviour alone. You're not responsible for it."

"But … Ben's a part of my family …"

"And does that mean you must always apologize for a grown man? Although I feel like I have to apologize for what my son did all those years ago, so I feel a bit like a hypocrite." Lady Banbury shook her head. "My son … he might have had his heart in the right place, but he went about it the wrong way. And not to confess the truth when things happened …"

Maggie stared.

"You knew about the thefts as well?"

"Not until last night when my son came home. He was rather distressed, and I got him to tell me the whole story. Including what he did to get your brother arrested." Lady Banbury didn't look happy with that. "I gave him a massive earful for how he behaved back then. He did something stupid, and he didn't own up to it. There were better ways to go about it, and to know that he got others hurt in the process, even when it wasn't his intention …"

Maggie didn't know what to say to that. She wanted to scream at Adam for what he had done. This should never have happened. If Adam and his friends had owned up to it, they would have got off with a small fine, and that would have been it. Ben and his friends' lives had been turned upside-down, and no one was on their side to help them out. It made her want to cry for the unfairness of it all.

"I don't think his grace can make up for what he's done, though," Maggie said quietly. "He hurt my brother, even if he didn't realize it at the time."

The dowager duchess' expression softened.

"You love him, don't you?"

"What?" Maggie started. "What did you say?"

"I'm not blind, Maggie. I can tell you're in love with my son," Lady Banbury said. "And it's clear that your love is reciprocated. I've noticed how Adam is around you. You don't need to be smart to know that something is going on there."

Oh, no. Now Maggie wanted to sink into the floor. She cleared her throat.

"Your Grace … we never did anything inappropriate. At least … not like that …"

"I'm perfectly aware that it hasn't gone too far. You're not that type of woman, Maggie. Not in my eyes." Lady Banbury peered at her. "At least, I hope that's the case."

"It is, Your Grace!" Maggie said quickly. "We've been perfectly respectable about this."

If you discounted the kiss they had out of sight of everyone, but Maggie wasn't about to tell the other woman this. That would more than likely bring a lot of disapproval. Lady Banbury squeezed her hands.

"Adam was a fool for what he did, and he knows he's the one that started all this. I'm of the mindset that you have to own up for your mistakes, and he's certainly going to be doing that. Give him time, won't you?"

"Why would I give him time?"

"I love my son, but he is pigheaded. And I also know when he falls for someone, it's the real thing and not something anyone can shift. He loves you, and he'll do anything he can to make sure you're in his life. I'm sure you know that."

Maggie was in a daze. How had they started talking about this?

"But … how can you be so calm about this? How can you be like this when we can never be together?"

"Sometimes, the heart wants what the heart wants, and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. You know my views on Society now." Lady Banbury's smile warmed even more, and she stepped back. "You don't need to worry about them. Whatever you decide you want to do, you've got my support. Even if it's you telling me you never want to see Adam again because of what he's done. You'll have me on your side with whatever you think is the right thing to do."

Maggie didn't know what to say to that. This was far too odd. How had this gone from the dowager duchess being worried about her welfare to saying Maggie had her approval to be with her son? Maggie wasn't sure what to think anymore.

"Are you ready?"

Maggie turned. Adam was in the doorway, also dressed in black. He looked solemn as he looked from Maggie to his mother. How much of that had he heard? She didn't know what to say, unable to stop herself from staring at him.

"I … yes." Maggie shook herself and dusted herself down. "I'm ready."

"You don't have to do this …"

"Yes, I do." Maggie turned to face him. "If we can make this as peaceful as possible, I'll do whatever it takes. I doubt you're going to make it a peaceful capture."

Adam's cheeks flushed.

"Do you not trust me?"

"That's not what you should be asking, Adam," Lady Banbury said sharply. "Just let Maggie do what she needs to do."

"I thought you were against this, Mother."

"I am. But I can tell that Maggie will do this regardless of what you say, and who am I to stop her? Her brother isn't going to hurt her."

Adam snorted.

"Have you forgotten that Ben attacked her when she caught him once before? I'm not about to let her get hurt over this."

"And she won't. You have to trust her on this."

"It's not Maggie that I don't trust." Adam swallowed. "That's not the issue here."

Maggie didn't want to continue this. At this rate, Ben would have done something else while they were inside squabbling. She headed towards the door.

"I'll go and wait for him. Knowing how cliche my brother is, he'll be here about midnight."

"Maggie …" Adam hesitated as Maggie passed him, which made her pause. "Just … don't do anything stupid."

He was standing close to her, and Maggie could feel every fibre in her being wanting to lean into him. She might have done that if Lady Banbury hadn't been watching her. She looked up at him, and saw the tension behind his eyes, the worry in his face. Maggie wanted to reach up and rub the tension away on his face to get rid of the frown. But she clenched her hands into fists to stop herself.

Without answering, she left the room and made her way outside. It was so dark that if there hadn't been any light coming from the house, Maggie wouldn't have been able to see anything. And, even then, she could only see as far as the light stretched across the driveway.

Maggie had thought it was pitch black while out in the country at the farm, but at least there were noises from the animals, even in slumber, that made it bearable. Out here, there was nothing. It was like she had lost her hearing.

Panic began to squeeze her chest, but Maggie pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and hurried down the steps. She didn't want to stay out here any longer than she had to. She silently prayed that Ben wouldn't take long; otherwise, she would be jumping at shadows and giving everything away.

Ben couldn't walk away from this. Not this time.

#

Keeping close to the house and the small circle of light coming from the windows, Maggie made her way towards the stables. Ben loved horses, and he had always been riding them growing up. He had said one of the better parts of being in the army was when he was charged with looking after the animals while on campaign. He had already stolen Adam's horse, Jasper, so Maggie guessed that her brother was going to go after him again.

A horse was a status symbol, and Ben knew that all too well.

A bit of noise came from the stables as Maggie approached it, mostly from the snorting horses. They were mostly settling down, but they still made some noise, indicating they were content. At least there was something because Maggie needed some comfort. If she was going to be hiding in the dark, she wanted to hear something to know that she wasn't alone.

But she was alone. She was waiting for her brother to come along and grab the horse. However, Maggie didn't know how he was going to do it when everyone was on high alert. He would have been grabbed immediately if he had tried to get into the stall. That had been Adam's plan.

Maggie had managed to persuade him to try a different tactic, one that would lower Ben's guard and make him think he was getting away with it. Adam hadn't been happy about it, but he agreed to it once Maggie explained her reasoning. She was sure this would work better, and people were less likely to get hurt. More than anyone, Maggie knew what Ben was like when he was backed into a corner.

It was colder than she anticipated, and she tugged her cloak tighter around her. If only she had put on something warmer, but it was summer, so it shouldn't be this cold at night. Maggie hoped that Ben didn't take forever and he turned up soon so she didn't lose her nerve and go back inside.

He had to be here.

After what felt like forever, and Maggie was close to giving up and going back inside, she heard a horse snorting and someone speaking in a low tone. Even though it was mostly a whisper, Maggie recognized the voice. How had he managed to get past her and into the stables already? Unless he had come in from the other side. Maggie pressed herself against the wall and waited.

Horse hooves clopped on the cobbles, and she saw a lantern appear, along with a couple of dark shapes behind it. The larger shape was clearly Jasper, who wasn't too happy about being led away from his warm bed. He was making unhappy noises and tugging at the reins that had been put on him.

"Don't start that again," Maggie heard as the horse's head was tugged back down. "I'm not going to have everyone wake up because you can't behave yourself."

So it was him. While Maggie knew the truth, she had been hoping desperately that it wasn't her brother who was doing this. But it was.

Before she could move, Ben stopped, the horse bumping against his shoulder. He raised the lantern and aimed it in her direction.

"Maggie?" He sounded confused. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to stop you from doing another stupid thing, Ben."

"You think this is stupid?"

He wasn't denying it. Well, he couldn't really since he was leading a horse belonging to Adam behind him. Maggie pushed away from the wall, drawing on her composure from when she faced Lady Phoebe and her abuse. She squared up to Ben.

"Well, you're trying to steal the duke's horse. Again. Do you think that could be classed as anything except stupid?"

Ben scoffed.

"You can't stop me from doing this, Maggie. I'm taking his horse away and not giving it back. Someone will give me a hefty price for this animal, and he won't run away from me this time."

Maggie felt sick hearing all this. She swallowed back the bile in her throat.

"You've done something horrific, Ben. I can't believe you're committing crimes to get back at the duke. How's that going to solve anything?"

"It's making me feel better. I lost what I had going for me when I was accused of a crime he committed. Now I'm going to make sure that he's going to lose what he has."

"How did you find out that he stole things, anyway? You never said."

"My friend was his valet. Shortly after the last duke passed away, he overheard Banbury and one of his friends talking about the docks and what they did. They both expressed remorse over what they did, wishing they had come clean before the last duke died.

When he told me about it, we realized who had got me and my friends into trouble. If they had remorse for their actions, they should have said something then, but they never did." Ben sounded hateful, practically spitting vitriol with his words. "He stole so many years from us, years that we could have had for something else, and he sits there with a title he doesn't deserve? I'm not about to stand for that."

"That's why you stole from him to begin with?" Maggie shot back. "You then went from stealing jewellery to horses and painting accusatory words all over the place?"

"I would have stolen a lot more from inside the house, but my friend was dismissed very quickly, so we had to change tactics. And we all know how much he loved his prized horse." Ben smirked. It wasn't a nice smile. "He doesn't deserve to have anything fancy after what he did."

Maggie didn't recognize the man standing before her anymore. It was her brother, but she didn't think she could see anything that would say this was Ben right now. It was like she was talking to a stranger.

And a dangerous one.

"Ben, please don't do this," Maggie pleaded. "You and I know this will end badly for you. You have to return Jasper and stop doing this. There's already a warrant out for your arrest."

"You won't have to worry about it after tonight, Maggie."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Because once I'm done here, I'm going to Ireland. I'll live out there with a few lads from my regiment. We'll be away from everything else." Ben gestured at the house. "Once I've burned down the duke's fancy house, that is."

Maggie stared. Did she hear him correctly?

"What? What did you say? You're going to burn his house down?"

"I tried doing that before, and that was with help. My friend had a little sweetheart who was angry about him being dismissed, so she was more than happy to help out. Unfortunately, people around here are far too fast." Ben held up the lantern. "I'm just going to throw this through the window so the curtains catch fire. By the time anyone realizes what's going on, it will be too late."

Maggie's heart began to race. She couldn't believe what he was saying. He was actually going to kill people?

"You … but there are children in there!" she cried. "You would willingly kill two innocent girls?"

"They're not exactly innocent, are they? They're related to the Duke of Banbury, and he's a criminal."

"They're children! You would murder children to prove a point? And what about the dowager duchess? She's not done anything to you, either."

"She's still a part of his family. Our family suffered, Maggie, so should his."

"But nobody was murdered in the process!" Maggie snapped. "I can't let you do that, Ben."

Ben shrugged.

"You might think you can stop me because we're related, but I'm not about to let you. They're going to die because their son and brother was too cowardly to admit that truth years ago. Once that's done, I'll be taking this horse with me to Ireland, and we'll start afresh there. I'm not going to delay it any longer, Maggie, so you need to go and pretend you never saw me."

Maggie swallowed.

"You know I can't let you do that."

Ben let go of Jasper's reins and stepped towards her. Even with the lantern, his face was swathed in shadows, making him look terrifying. Maggie tried not to step back; otherwise, she would be bumping into the wall.

"Whatever fancy you have for the duke is going to have to be just that," he growled. "You know that nothing can happen between you, and you'll humiliate our parents by becoming his mistress. That's all you'll be, and you know it. So if you don't want to get hurt yourself, I suggest you leave, and you say that you never saw me. Otherwise …"

"Otherwise what?" Maggie whispered. "You'll hurt me?"

"If it means I can get away without being caught. I have hurt you before, Maggie, and I can do it again."

Maggie felt the tears beginning to build up, and she forced herself not to swipe them away. She couldn't allow this to happen. Ben had turned into someone she didn't recognize anymore, and how he was so cold about it was frightening. How had his rage consumed him like this?

"If you're not going to help me, Maggie, you need to get out of my way." Ben stepped closer to her. "I don't want you to get hurt, but I'll do it again if I have to."

"No."

Ben's eyes narrowed.

"No?"

"Absolutely not. I won't let you do it."

Ben sighed.

"Always so stubborn. That used to be an admirable trait. But not this time."

Maggie saw him move, and she ducked sideways as he went to grab at her. Knocking the lantern aside, she grabbed Jasper's reins and tugged.

"Come on, Jasper! Come on!"

Jasper looked confused, but then he started to go with her, although he was beginning to get agitated. Maggie hoped he would start moving quickly and she wouldn't be alone in handling this huge animal. He looked far too high above her, and Maggie was sure she would get trampled if she wasn't careful.

"Maggie!" Ben lunged for her. "Get back here!"

He grabbed onto her arm, and Maggie screamed. That was when a blur came out of the shadows, tackling Ben to the ground.