Page 31 of How to Court a Rake
His conscience was having none of that argument, which prompted another argument: what were his intentions in regard to Mary? Did those intentions stop at protection? What constituted protection?Howwas it achieved? Did he owe her more than that? After all, she’d walked out of a life it would be difficult to return to at best and impossible to return to if Caine’s other suppositions bore out.
The coachman called down, ‘One mile to Sandmore.’ It was time to wake Mary and brace her. She was about to walk into the heart of the Parkhurst legacy and it wasn’t going to be what she thought. Sandmore was not the usual bucolic country house of an earl. It was imposing both in its architecture and its atmosphere. Secrets trod its halls, people arrived at all hours of the day and night with messages for his grandfather. The walls fairly vibrated with intrigue. One could not be at Sandmore and remain oblivious that all was not as it seemed.
Caine leaned over and gently shook her. ‘Mary, we’re nearly there. You’ve slept the night away.’ A sign, perhaps, of how exhausting the evening’s events had been for her that she’d slept so long and so soundly in a rocking carriage. She raised her head, her dark hair falling down from its pins, her eyes drowsy.
She met his news with a soft smile of relief. ‘We’re safe, then. They didn’t give chase.’
Caine only smiled in reassurance, something inside him responding to that small, powerful word ‘we’. But it was a misnomer.Shewas safe. For the moment. But he was never safe. He’d left safe living behind years ago. She’d learn that soon enough at Sandmore.
Caine braced himself as well as they turned on to the long oak-lined drive. He’d never brought a woman to Sandmore to meet his grandfather or to meet his own secrets. He watched Mary’s quick fingers work some feminine magic fashioning a hasty bun for her hair. He reached for her chin in a gentle gesture and turned her cheek towards him, wincing at the bruise left by Amesbury’s palm. ‘That will hurt for a while. I am sorry we didn’t have anything for it.’
She touched it gingerly. ‘Does it look awful? Perhaps we can find some rice powder to cover it up.’
Caine shook his head. ‘You needn’t worry about covering it up. Do not be ashamed. It is your badge of courage. You fought honourably.’
She plucked at her dress. ‘I look a mess. People will wonder what you’ve dragged in.’
‘We’ll take care of you. There will be dresses and hot water and rice powder if you desire it.’ Guinevere would have left gowns here and Grandfather was always well stocked for all nature of emergency. The wheels crunched on gravel and Caine felt protectiveness surge. He ought to warn her. But about what? About himself? Or perhaps she had enough to worry about and a disclosure, did her no favours. How ironic that in his attempt to protect her, he had to risk exposing himself. But not now. Not yet. He said simply, ‘We’re here’, and handed her out into the bright early morning light to meet his grandfather’s piercing gaze.
The Earl of Sandmore stared down at them from the top stair of Sandmore’s front steps, leaning on his walking stick and looking fresh and alert for dawn’s early light—a sharp contrast to how Caine felt in rumpled evening clothes and dark stubble on his chin.
‘You’ve driven all night. My outriders spied you the moment you hit the village.’
Caine nodded. Of course his grandfather knew. Grandfather knew everything, some of it even before it happened. ‘I come with urgent information.’ He ushered Mary up the steps.
Grandfather raised a white brow in correction, ‘You’ve also come seeking sanctuary.’ His gaze indicated he was not entirely pleased.
‘This is Lady Mary Kimber. There’s been developments with Amesbury.’ Caine met his grandfather’s disapproval evenly with his own gaze. Grandfather valued his privacy. Mary was not a welcome guest, but he knew Grandfather wouldn’t turn her away on the power of his word.
Grandfather’s gaze moved to Mary, taking in the bruised cheek, the torn dress. He gave a curt nod. ‘Then you’d best come in. I’ll have my maids lay out something for you. You can wash and rest.’
‘You are too kind, my lord.’ Mary smiled and Caine watched his grandfather soften.
‘I am not kind, Lady Mary, merely practical. I can’t send you away without putting you and other important matters at risk. Grandson, we’ll talk after you’ve had something to eat.’
Caine found his grandfather in his office, the same office in which his grandfather had shared the letters patent a few weeks ago. It seemed a lifetime ago now. He pulled out the papers culled from Carys’s study and put them on Grandfather’s desk. ‘Amesbury is indeed continuing the family business of munitions and Carys is definitely in bed with him. There’s a deed with both of their signatures on it for a munitions factory in Brussels. And Carys owes Amesbury money. There are ledger pages that show some losses, a decrease in income since his expulsion from the Prometheus Club, and two loans from Amesbury for which he likely used the promise of a marriage to Mary as collateral based on the events that transpired last night.’
His grandfather’s eyes were dark. ‘From the look of her, I take it Amesbury’s proposal wasn’t met with resounding joy.’ He picked up the pages and took his time to read them. ‘Tell me what you think, Caine. Your instincts are usually good. What do you think is happening?’
‘IthinkCarys invested with Amesbury under the belief that they’d win the Prometheus Club’s bid for supplying arms to Greece. When they didn’t, Carys ran into money problems. He couldn’t cover some of his debt, hence the first loan from Amesbury. Then, there was the social contretemps between Carys and Cowden and when Amesbury suggested they sabotage the shipment in order to force the Prometheus Club to buy arms from them on the second go round, Carys saw it as a chance to get his money and his pride back. He traded on that, to his detriment.’ A detriment he was likely unaware of. In his desperation, he’d tied himself to an event of political sabotage that could have had far-reaching implications for Greek democracy and he’d tied himself to the potential death of the Earl of Sandmore’s grandson.
His grandfather thought for a moment. ‘Are you of the opinion, then, that Carys doesn’t know how deep Amesbury’s treachery goes?’
Caine had grappled with this very question during the long night. How muchdidCarys know? How much was he a willing party to or an unsuspecting one? ‘I don’t think he knows that the munitions are potentially faulty if the Brussels factory is following the same production as the previous factory here in England did. I don’t think he knows that Amesbury will sell to anyone who has money to buy regardless of what that party is fighting for. And I don’t think he knows or perhaps believes that the Amesbury family could still be connected with the arms dealer, Cabot Roan, who was tried and escaped sentencing a few years back on the power of the Amesbury name.’
That was the connection he didn’t have proof for, it was supposition only, but it made sense. Why would the Amesbury family have manipulated the justice system to get the man off of charges simply to let him disappear? ‘Carys is facing financial ruin. He is a desperate man looking for one big payoff to restore his coffers.’ That he would barter his daughter to get it did not make him likeable. Caine had known plenty of desperate men in his time and they were always dangerous because they had nothing left to lose.
‘Knowingly or unknowingly, Carys has put himself in a horrible position. He is ruined in more ways than finances.’ Grandfather tapped his fingers on the desk’s surface, thinking. ‘Does Lady Mary know any of this?’
‘Only that she’s been promised in marriage in exchange for debt forgiveness. She thinks it’s a social swap. Her connections to pave the way for the new Duke of Amesbury, who hasn’t been out in society, for her father’s financial stability.’
‘She’ll have to be told for her own safety and her own plans.’ Grandfather met his gaze steadily. ‘I do not relish you the task.’ Caine didn’t relish it either. What she knew already was bad enough. Telling her that her father was likely connected to his brother’s disappearance would…well, it would drive a wedge between them. She would feel entirely alone, betrayed even. He’d certainly dragged her into the lion’s den without warning.
‘What are her plans? Does she understand the ramifications of coming here?’ Grandfather asked, then added shrewdly, ‘Do you?’ He gave a short chuckle. ‘I take it that her father’s involvement isn’t all she doesn’t know.’ He gave him a knowing glance. ‘Seems like you will have some explaining to do.’
Caine nodded. ‘I just hope I don’t have to do it all at once.’ And that when he did tell her, she wouldn’t regret her choice.
Chapter Seventeen
