Chapter 24

CHAPTER24

“There is no evidence, Your Grace,” the constable said, his voice growing harsh.

“No evidence!?” Daniel spluttered.

He hadn’t slept a wink all night. His clothes were wrinkled, his manner a mess, as he marched around the breakfast room. He’d called on the constable in the middle of the night and ordered him to go question Lord Repington at once.

“I told you that Lord Repington admitted it to me. He said I’d have to watch her burn,” he muttered in horror.

“Lord Repington denies it.” The constable shook his head. “I have the witness statements of four footmen and a butler, who claim you barged your way into Lord Repington’s house and accused their master of nonsensical things. They had to drag you out. They’re calling for you to be sent to Bedlam.”

“This is nonsense.” Daniel shook his head and turned away, frustrated to be getting nowhere in his search.

That morning, he’d sent footmen to search Lord Repington’s known haunts, including his gentlemen’s club and the one brewery that he now owned. Only one footman had returned from the gentlemen’s club so far, and he had nothing to report.

I am running out of places to look for her. I cannot lose her!

“You are blinded,” Daniel said to the constable. “Lord Repington threatened the life of my wife, and now you believe the words of that madman.”

“It is your word against five others, Your Grace.” The constable abruptly seemed to remember whom he was talking to and bowed his head. “I am sorry, but without more evidence, there is nothing I can do. I shall continue to search the streets for your wife today. I will report back to you if I find anything.”

He bowed fully, then turned and left the room, almost bumping into someone who was standing there listening attentively.

“Anne.” Daniel looked at his sister, his whole body weak.

“Daniel? Look at you.” Anne glanced back, seemingly making sure the constable was truly gone, then she ran forward, reaching for her brother’s hand. “You’re a mess.”

“Little wonder why. Lord Repington has threatened to kill Rachel, to see her—” He broke off, unable to utter the word burn again. “You see, this is the true depravity of the world. This is what men are capable of.” He threw his hands up in despair.

“I know.” Anne sighed deeply and went to the table to pour out a cup of coffee. “It’s why I always thought we should take the reasons to smile where we can.”

“I beg your pardon?” Daniel said distractedly, startled when Anne pressed the coffee cup into his hands.

“Can I tell you a secret? I wondered once if you would abandon your vow not to have children,” she whispered, smiling sadly. “No matter what you think of the world, Daniel, there are reasons to smile. Children are one of them.”

He sighed heavily and looked down into the coffee cup. This wasn’t the time to say it, but he knew in his heart the vow he had once made was becoming less and less important. As he’d waited up all night for some news of Rachel’s whereabouts, he’d imagined again what it would be like for them to have children.

There is much I would say to her now if she was here.

“Rachel was a reason to smile.” The words slipped from his lips. He drank the coffee and sat heavily down on the windowsill, not bothering to return to a chair at the table.

“So I see.” Anne sighed and sat beside him, perching on the edge of the seat. “I do not think I realized before just how devoted to her you are. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you love her, Daniel.”

I love Rachel. Of course, I love her!

The thought struck him like a bolt of lightning.

“I do love her,” he whispered. He sniffled, holding back his tears. “I can’t lose her, Anne. Not now. She… she changed so much.” He saw the way Rachel had made him smile so often in this house, the way she had soothed his jaded edges to the point that he was practically no longer having nightmares. “I would do anything to have her back, Anne, but I do not know what more I can do now. The constable won’t believe me.” He sniffled again. “The only person who could tell me where she is would be Lord Repington, and he will hardly tell me.”

“Perhaps not, but what if he would tell another?” Anne sat taller.

“What?”

“I have an idea, a mad one,” she said, her words escaping her fast. “Yet first, tell me this. Why is Lord Repington doing this?”

“Revenge,” Daniel said simply.

He’d checked his father’s papers on the original accident at the brewery in the middle of the night and found a letter from the Duke of Gainsborough that had been tucked away.

“When the brewery that his father and our father ran together burnt down, the Duke of Gainsborough was livid. I remember our father saying once that the man had gambled away his living, so could not afford to rebuild the brewery. And I found a letter last night.”

He explained everything in the letter to his sister, from how the Duke of Gainsborough had revealed the true extent of his debt to how he had accused their father of burning the brewery down on purpose to make him destitute.

“All a mad lie, though it seems to be what he believes. I have the original reports on the fire and a witness statement from one of the workers who saw the fire start. It was faulty equipment, not arson.”

“So, Lord Repington believes his father’s tale?” Anne asked, her voice hushed in alarm. “And he longs to take revenge on you for what he believes our father did?”

“So it would seem.” Daniel stood, downed his coffee, and returned the cup to the breakfast table. “He talked of them watching the thing that mattered most to them burning, and now I must do the same. Horrific,” he muttered in a disgusted tone, thinking of Rachel. “I cannot see her hurt, Anne.”

“Then my plan might just work.” Anne stood and followed him to the table, pulling on his arm. “What if I was to offer Lord Repington everything he wanted, complete revenge on you, and the brewery back in his control?”

“What did you say?” Daniel looked so sharply at his sister, he cricked his neck and raised a hand to rub the sore spot.

“If he believes he has an ally, someone to help him finally get complete revenge on this family and take back the brewery, then he might just tell that ally where Rachel is.” She laid a hand on her own chest.

“You want to offer yourself up as his ally? Anne, that’s absurd.”

“Why?” She laughed. “He’s a handsome man. The idea of women throwing themselves at him will hardly be a surprise to him, will it?”

“It worries me you know that” Daniel said darkly. “Though I thought your affections were elsewhere.”

“This is not the time to speak of Ashleigh.”

“Ashleigh?” Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Since when did you start calling him by his Christian name?”

“Brother, focus.” She flicked her fingers in front of him. “This might just work. All we need is for me to persuade Lord Repington I can be his perfect ally.”

“This is mad. Completely insane.”

Daniel walked away, looking out of the window and to the grounds beyond. The heat had become humid today, and the clouds gathered overhead. A storm wasn’t far away.

“Is it not worth a try? Even if it doesn’t work, we’ll lose nothing, but we could find out where Rachel is.”

The possibility was too much to refuse. Daniel looked back at his sister and nodded. “But I’m watching you in that house. There is no way I am letting someone I care about near that man again without some sort of protection.”

“The soldier coming out in you, Brother?” she teased.

“No. The protector.”

Daniel remembered what his aunt had said, how he was a father in the making. He pushed the thought away.

* * *

Daniel crept around Lord Repington’s house, walking into rose bushes and ending up with thorns in his fingers. Angered, he cursed, then stumbled back from the bushes and nearly walked straight into the sitting room window. Seeing shadows moving inside that room, he dropped down, hiding below the window so no one inside could see him.

In the heat of the day, the window had been opened, so he could hear everything that was going on inside.

“My lord, there is a young woman to see you at the door,” the butler announced to Lord Repington.

“Another?” Lord Repington said with a laugh and plain disinterest. “Who is it this time?”

“She says her name is Lady Anne, sister of the Duke of Elbridge.”

There was a rustle of papers suggesting that Lord Repington had put down whatever he had been reading.

“Show her in at once.”

At the kerfuffle inside and the commotion of Anne being let in, Daniel shifted on the ground, masking himself completely behind the rose bushes in case a gardener appeared. The thorns pricked him again, and he inwardly cursed, trying his best not to make a sound.

“Lady Anne.” Lord Repington’s voice was deep. “This is a surprise. I suppose you have come to persuade me to reveal your sister-in-law’s location to your brother?”

“No, you are quite wrong.” Anne adopted a tone that Daniel hadn’t heard before.

So startled by the transformation, the Duke shifted where he was kneeling and peered over the window frame, trying to see something of what was happening inside.

Anne looked stoic, almost unaffected by the world around her.

“May I be completely honest with you, my lord? Forgive me for it, I know we have not been introduced formally before, but desperate times call for desperate measures, as they say, and seeing what is happening before us now, I had to take the opportunity to speak to you when I could.”

Lord Repington had his back to the window and was facing Anne. He gestured toward the nearest chair, and his expression must have been an encouraging one, for Anne thanked him and sat down.

“What is it you have come to say?” he asked, not sitting down but walking across the room. When he turned around, Daniel dived down again, hiding himself, fearful of discovery.

“I have come to make amends for my family’s sins.”

Anne’s words startled the Marquess, for the floorboards no longer creaked under his weight. He must have fallen still.

“What did you say?”

“Old sins cast long shadows, just as cruelty does.”

The sadness in Anne’s voice caught Daniel’s attention. He peered over the window frame again, noting that Lord Repington was equally interested. The Marquess had turned back to face her.

“My father was no friend to me, my lord. Not a loving man at all, in truth.”

She is a good actress.

Daniel held himself still, stunned at his sister’s skill. Their father may not have been the kindest of men, but he had loved them and had certainly extended more kindness to the two of them than he had to any other in his life.

“What sort of father was he?” Lord Repington asked, his voice wary.

“Some men reprimand their daughters with words, others with canes,” Anne said sharply, fidgeting, feigning discomfort at revealing this to him. “My father… well, sinner more than saint, as they say.”

Lord Repington was clearly hooked. He sat down on a footstool in front of her. “Dear God, I knew it. I am so sorry, Lady Anne. I always knew what sort of man he was. The cruelest of them all. Just as he treated my family as dust beneath his boots, he treated his own daughter with equal disregard.” He cursed again and shook his head. “This is awful news.”

“My brother never wanted to believe it. He turned his back on what had been happening for so long. I just…” Anne shuddered, the movement making Lord Repington reach toward her. He took her hand and held it in both of his own, clearly in support. “Thank you for your kindness,” she said in a sweet tone.

When did she get so good at this?

Daniel was so struck by her skill that he wondered exactly how many times he’d taken her to the theatre when she had been young. Clearly too many times if she could act so well now.

“My brother is a blind man. I cannot stay under his roof anymore.” Her voice grew strong. “It is why I have come to see you, my lord.”

“You wish for my help?” Lord Repington asked.

“You have had the confidence to take your vengeance, and I wish to assist you.” She leaned forward eagerly. “I have a way for you to get the brewery back again, the one you lost to my father.”

“You could do that?” Lord Repington turned a little, the side of his face now visible to Daniel. The relief and hope were plain, his eyes never blinking, not once. “It is all I have dreamed of. The chance to take everything back from the Duke of Elbridge, for good.”

“Then I can give it to you,” Anne said hurriedly. “What if you were to marry me, my lord?”

“Marry you?”

Daniel reeled and hid himself down beneath the window again. He’d asked on their mad carriage ride here just how she intended to persuade Lord Repington to trust her enough to reveal Rachel’s whereabouts, but she’d said she had it all in hand. Now he understood why she had been evasive. If he had known her plan, he never would have let her go in there.

Yet, it is a good plan. It could be the one thing that would persuade Lord Repington enough to trust Anne.

“I would have a claim to the brewery, would I not?” she asked, her voice lilting high. Daniel lifted himself above the window enough to see Anne smiling at Lord Repington. “I could ensure we get it, my lord. We could work toward that goal together.”

“What fortune this is.” Lord Repington laughed and held tighter to her hand. “My father always said that some days, the cards fall right. With his gambling ways, he was convinced that someday, the cards would come up with the greatest hand, and today, Lady Anne, you have given me that good hand. Yes, if we marry, then we could get our hands on the brewery. Especially if something were to happen to your brother.”

“Yes, just so.” There was only a twitch in Anne’s cheek, a sign of her shock.

Daniel reeled again and reached out to the bush behind him, regretting it at once as the thorns dug into his palms.

“We must work fast, though,” Anne said, leaning forward. “The quicker we can announce a betrothal, the more certain we are that my brother won’t be able to stop it.”

“Yes, that is an excellent plan, indeed. We must make arrangements, at once. I could arrange a special license too.”

“That is wonderful.” The excitement in Anne’s voice drew Daniel’s attention.

She’s too convincing.

He cursed, deciding he would have words to her after this if everything worked out well…

“My brother should be distracted for the next few days. After all, he’s a mess as he hunts for his wife. He has no idea where to find her.”

“Well, I have hidden her well.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Anne said with a heavy sigh of relief. “Is she in this house? Goodness, we do not want him coming here to look for her again. He might find me here!”

“Worry not.” Lord Repington squeezed her hand comfortingly. “She’s in the hunting lodge on the outskirts of the forest, where the brewery our fathers once owned together sits. There seemed to be something quite fitting to me, a poetic air, about returning to that place.”

“What a good plan.” Anne raised her other hand and patted their joint hands.

That’s it!

Daniel had to hold himself down, to make sure he didn’t leap up at once and reveal himself, now that he knew where to find Rachel.

“Shall we toast our union, my lord?” Anne said with a smile. “Perhaps a bottle of champagne?”

“How perfect. I quite like you, Lady Anne. You seem to have a heart much like my own.” Lord Repington lifted her hand and kissed it, then hurried toward the door.

Daniel bent down, avoiding discovery and holding back a wave of nausea at the sight of the Marquess kissing his sister’s hand. When the door closed behind Lord Repington, he stood up.

Anne sprinted toward the window. He thrust it up higher, creating a space so she could climb out.

“It worked!” she whispered excitedly.

“A little too well. You had him wrapped around your finger.” Daniel offered a hand and helped her climb out, her skirts getting caught in the rose bushes beside him. “Where did you learn to act like that?”

“The theatre, Brother. It is an educating place.”

“Not that sort of acting. That was seduction!”

“Is it?” Anne looked quite pleased about the fact.

“Don’t get any ideas. I don’t want you working such charms on anyone else.”

“Lady Anne?” Lord Repington called from inside the room.

Daniel looked around, just as Anne did, into the sitting room. Lord Repington stood there with two glasses and a bottle of champagne.

The Marquess realized at once he had been duped as his face hardened and his eyes shot toward Daniel. “You will not get your wife!” he boomed, his voice echoing off the walls.

Daniel dragged Anne away from the window and darted through the garden toward the carriage that awaited them both. “I have to get there, fast.”

“What do you think he will do now?” Anne asked as she scrambled into the carriage.

“I shudder to think.”

Yet, Daniel’s mind was full of Lord Repington’s threats of burning. He glanced at the front of the carriage and the two horses as an idea came upon him.

“I have a plan.”