Page 45 of The Hidden Duchess

When he made a move to step away, to follow her father and the other men that were exiting the room, Miss Caroline placed a hand upon his forearm to stop him. She needed the duke nearby. His presence at her side had bolstered her strength she found that she could not bear the thought of him leaving. Besides, her leg was aching something fierce and still dripping blood from Lydia’s mistreatment of her.

Marilee’s eyes had once again met with the quiet gentleman who stood at the edge of the room. Caroline nodded and gave her maid permission to go to the man. When she had, Caroline noted that he had placed his hand upon the small of Marilee’s back in a supportive and possessive gesture.

The baron lingered within the doorway, staring at his daughter and the duke. With a solemn nod to the duke her father too made his exit. “I think I should find the doctor,” he said shutting the doors behind him although there were servants who could go for the physician. Caroline wondered at the fact that he had so easily left them alone. It seemed that the duke and the baron had come to some understanding of one another during their acquaintance, a mutual respect.

“What happened?” she turned to face Lord Robert with a thousand questions in her eyes. “How did you come to be here just in time?”

The duke took her hand and noticed her abused calf. “This will have to be stitched again,” he said as he drew her toward the couch so that she could sit. Caroline gave a small groan, but truly, it was a small price to pay. After all, she was alive, and with the duke. He wrapped her leg with his handkerchief with infinite care. “Put pressure right there,” he said, and she nodded, holding the wound. They sat side by side, as he began to explain how he had come to be her rescuer.

“Mr. Crowley is a solicitor,” he said in an even tone that began to calm the unease within her. “We were together at Eton and he is an old friend.” He explained that he had tasked the man with looking into his brother’s affairs. “Nothing seemed out of sorts until he informed me in strict confidence that he was in the process of enforcing substantial debts against Lady Blackwell’s father. He had wanted me to know the truth of her financial situation since we were promised to be wed.” Through their conversations, and the revelation that Lady Blackwell had been having an affair with Lord Edward, it soon became apparent that the money that Lord Edward had been attempting to hide had been funneled through Lady Blackwell’s accounts.

She had been paying her debts in large sums through undisclosed sources.

“The women that they were selling?” Caroline gasped.

The duke nodded. “That and the items sold from a series of robberies of several noblemen.”

“There have been more murders?” she asked in shock.

“Not that we are aware of at this moment,” he revealed. “Or, at least none that we can pin on the group, save my father and his men.”

“That still does not explain how you arrived that the precise moment of my need.”

“I’m getting there.” He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and Caroline found herself pressing her face against his palm. “Your father, Mr. Crowley, and I met the guard at Lord Blackwell’s house only to find that his daughter was out. Your maid happened to pass by in the hall and your father recognized her at once.” Caroline learned that the quiet man beside her father had been that very same Mr. Crowley. In his visits to the Blackwell home to collect the debts he had come to be close enough with Marilee that his suspicions had been raised, although the maid had been just as tight-lipped as Caroline herself. They had pressed the staff with questions and it had not taken long to discover where Lady Blackwell had gone. Under the threat of the law, her own lady’s maid had revealed that Lady Lydia had learned of Lord Edward’s arrest and in a frenzied state gone to pay a visit to the newly recovered Duchess of Manchester. “Your maid told us that she had taken a pistol in her reticule and it was all that we could do to get here in time.”

“You certainly did,” Caroline reveled at their good fortune.

“It is all unraveling,” he informed her. “The servants are talking. My brother’s misdeeds go back several years and stretch well across the city. We were able to discover which rookery you had been taken to, and they were able to bring Madam Mildred in as well. So many of the ladies in her house were drugged and unwilling.”

Caroline closed her eyes against the horror of such thoughts. Was any woman willing to settle for such a life? She wondered. She did not think so, but she did not protest. She felt infinitely tired now that all the excitement had passed, and she leaned against the duke’s very solid and warm shoulder as he told the tale.

He took a deep breath and continued on. “My brother and Lydia had made many promises for when they had taken over the title, my title, but now that their companions could see that was never to happen, they all turned against one another.”

CHAPTER27

Caroline listened with her head drooping. She blinked up at the duke. The evidence was astounding. There would be no way that Lord Edward and Lady Lydia could escape the gallows, or at the very least transportation.

“Then we are safe?” she whispered, afraid to allow herself to hope.

“We’re safe,” he nodded and allowed himself a small smile. “You’re safe. I won’t let anything else happen to you.”

His words were a boon to her heart. All that she had ever wanted was for this nightmare to be over. She had thought that the battle would be long and likely ineffective. With the network of criminals all racing to lay the blame on one another the entire system was about to come crashing down. To add to her ease, Marilee had been recovered and seemed to have found a protector of her own. Caroline could hardly have asked for a better end.

She had been lost in her wonder so much so that she had not even noticed the duke looking down upon her with an overflowing of pain in his eyes.

“What is it?” she asked.

His hands tightened around her arm and his eyes searched her face as if he were unable to believe that she was sitting here beside him. “I did not think we would make it back in time,” he admitted with a trembling breath. “We heard the gunshot from the road and I was certain that you were dead.”

“I was certain that I was dead as well,” she whispered. “In that last moment, when you pulled her off of me, I thought I had died. I did not understand until I opened my eyes and you were there.”

“I might have been a bit rough with her,” he said with a grimace.

Caroline scoffed. She did not care how rough he had treated Lady Lydia. He could have thrown her attacker out the window, and Caroline would not have cared.

“She chose that life, and you saved my life,” Caroline said. As she spoke, she watched the relief pour over his features.

“I was worried that you would be afraid of me,” he said as he looked down upon their hands. Caroline released her grip and moved to cup his chin so that he would be forced to look into her eyes.

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