Page 39 of How to Court a Rake
‘You’re diplomats?’ Mary tried to follow and couldn’t piece it together.
‘Not per se. We prevent undiplomatic things from happening so that diplomatic things can. Thetonthinks the Four Horsemen are about being rakes. But it’s really about preventing disaster from striking. We stand between destruction like war, death, pestilence, famine.’ He gave her a moment, watching her head nod slowly.
‘That night in Wapping,’ she said slowly, ‘that was for your grandfather?’
‘Yes.’ He reached for her hands again. ‘There was a ship carrying cargo meant for an important military engagement on the Continent.’ He tried to be as specifically non-specific as he could be. Secrets were burdens. ‘There was an attack planned on it. We foiled it.’
‘At the expense of your brother,’ she said softly, squeezing his hands in commiseration. Good Lord, this woman could break him with the simplest of gestures, each of them full of sincerity. Here before him sat agoodperson who would truly care about him if he’d let her. He did not deserve such goodness, should not drag such goodness into his world, tarnish it with the moral ambiguity of a Horseman’s life.
It took him a moment to respond, knowing that his response would shake her world, and his, perhaps to their foundations. ‘There’s more, Mary. It will be hard to hear.’ He felt her hands tighten on his as if he were her anchor. ‘Amesbury is responsible for arranging the attack. Our visit to Prince Baklanov confirmed that the Amesbury family is still in league with an arms supplier named Cabot Roan. They sell arms to any who is buying. They’re rich, successful, powerful and entirely corrupt, devoid of any ethics.’
He could see dread growing in Mary’s grey eyes. ‘Did he think to use my family as social connections?’ Her mind was racing, trying to figure out the last piece.
‘Yes, I have reason to believe Roan wanted Amesbury to be his dealer in England since Roan can’t step foot on English soil. As a duke, Amesbury would have connection and resources in the most powerful nation on the planet. He’d need a bride of your quality and not everyone was interested. The current Duke is from a very thin branch of the Amesbury family tree, not like Harlow who is a direct descendant.’
‘But my father was interested?’ Mary had begun to pale.
‘More than interested. He is involved. Your father is part-owner of the munitions factory and he owes Amesbury a small fortune. His finances are in tatters, Mary.’ He explained the failed attempt to win the arms bid from the Prometheus Club. ‘Being exiled from the club will only further impact your father’s finances negatively. Amesbury is the only thing keeping your father afloat at present.’
Mary began to shake. He hurried to mitigate the damage. ‘All this is true. What I don’t know is what your father knew. Does he know Roan is involved? Does he know the long-standing effects if that shipment had been destroyed? We simply don’t know.’ He hated defending the man, but hewouldbe fair.
‘You have proof?’ Mary asked after a while.
‘Yes. The night of the musicale, I entered your father’s office, found the deed in his safe and tore pages from his ledger. Other sources corroborate the documents and what they indicate.’
‘By other sources, you mean the people here for dinner last night?’ There was an edge to Mary’s voice. She was overwhelmed and anger was a defensive response to feeling that things were beyond one’s control. Caine had dealt with that reaction before, but never with someone who tugged at his heart, someone he didn’twantto hurt, someone he cared for.
‘Yes. I will not lie to you, Mary. We have proof and the dots all connect. Your father is either involved and knows what is going on or he oblivious to the further-reaching implications. If the latter is true, he is in danger because as long as he owes Amesbury money, he can be manipulated. But either way,youare in danger. If Amesbury has you, that is another string that ties your father to him, that ensures Amesbury has the entrée into society he and Roan need.’
‘So I am supposed to wed you in order to put myself beyond the danger?’ Her tone was cold, her grey eyes stormy as waves of realisation crashed in her mind. ‘But who will protect me from you, Caine Parkhurst? That night at the Carfords’ ball, I thought you asked me to dance for the sake of an apology, but that was after Wapping.’ She was running the timeline in her mind and coming to the conclusion Caine did not want her to reach.
‘You bastard. The whole time you were flirting with me, drinking port with me, sending roses, you were investigating my father!’ She let out a yelp of disgust. ‘No wonder you came to my aid at the opera—it was a perfect opportunity for you and you just kept coming. I was so foolish. I kept thinking he’s not as bad as everyone makes him out to be. Society has misjudged him. Beneath this rakish exterior is a romantic, an honourable man.’ She rose from her chair and gave her foot a little stomp of frustration. ‘I cannot believe I was so stupid.’
Caine fought the urge to go to her. She would not want to be touched, not by him. ‘You’re overwhelmed, Mary. Take some time, think through it and you’ll see that is not true. I care for you. I took you away from Amesbury, I saw you to safety.’
Mary held up a hand. ‘Stop. You are not making it better. You are no different than Amesbury, just aggressive in a different way. You both want me to make you look decent. You spirited me away to have me to yourself.’
That stung. ‘Mary, you’re not thinking straight. The scandal is on the other foot now. It’s not me who needsyouto become decent, it’s you who needs me—the Marquess—to redeem yourself in society’s eyes,’ he growled—the comparison to Amesbury had hurt. He was ten times the man Amesbury was. ‘Marry me for your safety, if nothing else, Mary.’
‘Absolutely not. This, this whole proposal, is just Horsemen work and I will not be the next disaster the Four Horsemen avert.’ She grabbed the bow and poche from their resting spots and stormed off, headed for the house as the first clap of thunder rumbled through the sky.
Chapter Twenty-One
She was furious! With Caine certainly, but with herself even more so. She’d been entirely taken in! She’d even been his champion, thinking him maligned by society, and all the whilehe’dbeen dupingher.
Mary shut the door of her chamber behind her and leaned against it, her anger mixed now with sad disbelief. She was in an impossible situation. What did she do now that there was no one to turn to? No one to trust? She was beset on all sides: her family on the brink of ruin, her own freedom traded in marriage to offset familial debt and the one man she’d trusted to see her safe had done so only because he intended to marry her instead.
She couldn’t go home, couldn’t return to her old life. It didn’t exist. Rumours and gossip had seen to that even if her parents would forgive her behaviour. Although, she thought, the need for forgiveness ran both ways. Her father needed to explain himself. She could only go forward, into a new life, with a new name.
Caine has offered you both of those things, her conscience whispered.A new life and a new name as his Marchioness. Surely you can work through your differences, build something together if you forgave him. He can protect you. You might not like what he had to say, but it was truthful and it was not wrong.
He was right. Amesbury would not give up, not if he thought he had access to her. If she meant to go, she had to go now before Amesbury and her father came looking for her, before Caine had a chance to persuade her into a decision she’d regret. Love had to work both ways. She could not be the only one willing to love in her marriage.
Outside, the rain began to fall, drops trickling down her windowpanes. Perhaps that would work in her favour. In the rain, no one would come after her. Maybe they would forgive her for taking a few things with her. She stripped two pillows of their cases. They would work as sacks.
She would take the nightgown, a spare dress and a few of the underclothes. She had her jewellery and she wrapped it carefully in a washcloth. She could sell it piece by piece for passage, for food, for lodging. If she was careful, it would last until she could settle somewhere and do something. That part of the plan was still unclear to her. But Sussex was on the coast. She would make for the closest port town and catch the first packet, the first ship, to anywhere: France, Portugal, even the Americas.
Thunder rumbled. She debated taking a horse. It would make travel faster, but it would also alert people to her absence. Better to walk the two miles to the village and catch a coach from there, although it would be a muddy two miles. With luck, there’d be an evening coach. With even more luck, Caine wouldn’t miss her until after supper when it was too dark to do anything about it. She didn’t relish the idea of Caine storming the inn and attempting to drag her back here in front of the village. Assuming he came at all. Perhaps he’d just let her go. Perhaps he’d decide she wasn’t worth the trouble. At least if he came for her, it meant she mattered just a little.
