Page 35 of The Scarred Duchess Deal
Tessa looked down at the letters she had been poring over, the same ones from her brother’s desk as if she were only moments away from finding a hidden something or another among the words she had long ago memorized.
“Not today. I have not the strength to endure it.”
“They are not all from your sweet cousin Sophie,” Leo teased.
Tessa glared at him. “Do not tease. I know very well that they are. Who else would have reason to be writing to me? It is not as if I have an abundance of friends.”
Leo leaned against the edge of the desk that she toiled over and flipped merrily through the letters, looking for one that was not in Sophie’s handwriting. “You know, I think that she must miss you terribly.”
“Whatever could give you that impression?” Tessa laughed.
“Well, she takes the time out of each and every day to write to you. She must miss you, or else she is terribly bored.”
“Then it is most assuredly the latter. Not that she would ever admit to such a thing. I am quite certain that once she finds something or someone else to amuse herself with, she will be right back to ignoring me. Never you mind that.” Tessa sighed and held her hand out in Leo’s direction expectantly as she waited for the letters. If she did not take them, then he was only going to read them to her instead.
“This one is Sophie…. Sophie as well… aha! This one!” Leo plucked it from the bundle and let the others fall to the desk, ignored. He flipped it over, looking for a wax seal but could not find one. “Strange… it just has your name. I cannot say that I recognize the handwriting, but it does seem familiar.”
Tessa took the letter and opened it carefully. There was no date, no signature on the bottom, no heading on the paper that she could see. It seemed for all intents and purposes, a mystery letter from an unknown sender.
“What does it say?” asked Leo.
Tessa felt like crying. “It is addressed to My Dearest Tessie.” She glanced up at Leo. “Only one person has ever called me Tessy in my life…” she continued to read, “I hope that this letter finds you well as I am placing myself at grave risk in order to send it. I know that I have been away for quite some time now, but it was necessary to allow some of the pressure to die down. I feel that it should be safe enough for you and I to be reunited once more in honor of your nuptials. I always hoped for your happiness and am deeply sorrowful that I could not be there with you on your most dreamed-of day. Please come to the wharf to meet me. I have enclosed a small, horribly drawn map for you to follow, just like when we used to play seek and find. Come alone. All my love.”
Tessa clutched the letter to her chest for a long moment, until her hands stopped trembling. There was no stopping the tears that were flowing freely down her cheeks as she savored the moment. Mortimer was alive. She always knew he must be. Of course, he was alive, out there somewhere, waiting for the perfect moment. He always knew when she needed him the most.
“Are you certain that it is from him?” Leo asked cautiously.
“Of course it is! Who else could it possibly be from?” Tessa smoothed the letter out on the desk where the papers from Mortimer’s office lay spread over the surface. “It is not a perfect match for the penmanship, but that is to be expected. Who knows what sort of horrid conditions he has forced himself to live in all of this time? It is hardly surprising that his style might have changed.”
“You cannot seriously be thinking about going on your own?’
“I shall take my maid, of course.”
“I will go with you.”
“The very last thing that my brother needs to see right now is a man to whom he owes money,” Tessa countered.
Leo shook his head. “That is all in the past. I have married his sister. I think that more than settles any sum of money that he owed me in the past. I would like to see my friend as well.”
“I have to do this, Leo.” Tessa placed her hand on her husband’s knee. She would not take no for an answer. “I shall be careful. I have to go to him – he is my brother. I will always do everything that I can in order to help him. If he has truly risked so much to write to me, I cannot betray that trust. Just as you must show you trust me, Leo.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. “I do trust you, but I do not like this.”
“Nothing will happen. Mortimer would never allow anything to happen to me,” Tessa said with absolute, unwavering faith.
Leo glanced at the burns covering half of her body… and he was not so sure he shared her same confidence.
* * *
Blinded by her own optimism, Tessa did not see the error in her actions until it was too late. She had been too quick to assume the best. She had just assumed that it was Mortimer’s handwriting because it must have been. The letter had called her the special nickname that only her brother had ever called her; it referenced their childhood. If it had not been written by Mortimer, he had to have been present when it was written, she had been so certain of that.
When she arrived at the wharf, she pulled her shawl around her to fight the feeling of the crisp air. The sound of gulls overhead was the only thing to greet her.
They knocked out her poor maid first – an innocent woman whose only purpose there was to accompany her mistress. They slipped a black hood over Tessa’s face from behind. Fear was the last thing that she felt before the world tipped on its axis, and then nothing.
* * *
“I never should have allowed her to go. I knew it in my gut. I knew that something terrible would happen.”
