“I came here to end this amicably, but in either case, it’s over,” she said.
“Over?”
“Yes. I was willing to honor my end of this detestable bargain, but Richard wasn’t, and he’s quite old enough now to stand by that decision. So I have been stood up at the altar, as it were.”
He snorted. “You haven’t stood at any altar—yet. But in seven months—”
“I’m sorry, but seven more months will be four years too long. So if you can’t produce the groom immediately, I am no longer obligated to wait. I am officially removing myself from the engagement to your son—with my father’s blessing, I might add, since Richard long ago removed himself from it. I came here as a courtesy to tell you that, before it becomes public knowledge.”
“I see,” he said, a distinct iciness entering his tone. “You’re going to let your father suffer the brunt of this when he’s only just recovered simply because you won’t wait a few more months to be married?”
“My father has assured me we’ll weather the storm,” she said stiffly.
The earl steepled his hands before his face for a moment, then suddenly did an about-face that amazed her. In a tone that actually sounded like concern for her, he told her, “You must realize your father tells you what you need to hear because he loves you. But I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you, for your own good, what will really happen if you break your betrothal. It’s not just going to reflect badly on you and your family, the social scandal it will cause and the negative effects it will have on the Miller enterprises will cause your father so much aggravation that it will quite likely upset his recovery. I’d hate to see that happen. Do you really want to be responsible for making your father sick again? I hadn’t realized you were so selfish, girl.”
She drew in her breath sharply. He was masking a threat with his so-called concern. She knew he was a horribly greedy man, but piling guilt on her now to manipulate her?
Furiously, her turquoise eyes blazing, she said, “A few more months based on what?! I’ve already told you I saw Richard last week and he told me to my face that he won’t marry me! What could you possibly have said to him to make him change his mind? And if you don’t tell me, m’lord, then we have nothing more to discuss.”
She was bluffing. He’d made his point well. That damned contract was going to stand for eternity now. She wasn’t about to risk her father’s health over this.
Yet he actually answered her this time. “Saying anything to Richard wouldn’t have worked. He had to be shown the error of his ways. He was due punishment for the debt he deliberately left for me to settle, and for his thefts before he disappeared. That punishment could have been light, a slap on the hand, if he’d been reasonable, but as usual, he wasn’t. Instead he’s going to suffer the most extreme punishment.”
She hadn’t known Richard had committed any crimes, however minor they sounded, but she guessed, “My God, you’ve put your own son in prison?”
“Prison?” The earl gave her a supercilious look. “Our prisons would seem like a vacation compared to the penal colonies in Australia where he is now being transported. You aren’t pleased, hating him as you do?”
The earl smiled mirthlessly as he eyed her closely. Julia fought hard not to show her alarm and to keep an indignant expression on her face.
“I’ve been assured he will beg to come home within weeks,” he continued, shaking his head. “Those convict camps are so harsh. So prepare for your wedding, girl. Richard will be more than willing to meet his obligations here and marry you. Once the conditions of his release are met, I will allow him to come home.”
Chapter Twenty-six
JULIA WAS IN SHOCK for a good portion of the trip back to London. When she began thinking clearly again, she realized that Lord Allen had no legal right to use a British convict colony in the way he’d described. Men weren’t sent there unless they’d been tried first. So the earl had to have pulled strings to bypass a trial, which was something she could do as well. But the only lords she knew who might be capable of that sort of string pulling were Carol’s father and James Malory, and Carol had mentioned her father was out of the country this month.
So she didn’t even go home first before knocking on the door of the Malory town house. She might have shaken off the shock, but she was still frantic. Time was of the absolute essence if Richard had been apprehended when she’d last seen him, more than a week ago, and the earl had been confident that the convict ship was already at sea. She wanted that ship stopped and Richard removed from it before too much damage was done—to him. But if it had sailed soon after he was placed on it, it could be nearly a week in the lead!
She had hoped to find the Malorys alone so she could put forward her request, but as the butler showed her to the parlor, she could already hear other voices, a few with American accents. She hoped James was at least home and not trying to avoid his wife’s relatives.
But then she heard one voice in particular explaining, “I spent the whole week in that part of the country, searching, questioning people. I stopped Richard’s brother from departing on a trip he’d planned with his son so he could thoroughly search their house and he did. Rich isn’t there. I even checked the nearest jails. And I’ve run out of ideas, Gabby. He’s gone, simply vanished.”
Julia recognized the voice as that of Richard’s friend Ohr. She reached the doorway just as he finished. James was there, expressionless as usual. Georgina and Gabrielle were sitting on the sofa, both looking concerned, though Gabrielle actually looked upset. Drew stood behind the sofa with his hand on his wife’s shoulder. Boyd and Ohr sat on the sofa opposite them.
“We know he wouldn’t hie off without giving us word,” Gabrielle said to Ohr. “So he’s here somewhere, we just have to figure out where. You say he hates his father? That’s why he never spoke of him to us?”
“And he hates his fiancée. It’s no wonder he never wanted to come back here.”
Julia flinched. Apparently Ohr had explained something of her relationship with Richard to the group before she’d walked in on the conversation. But she certainly wasn’t expecting to hear him add, “She needs to be questioned. I’ll leave that to you.”
“You can’t really think—?”
Ohr interrupted Gabrielle, “She was in the area that day, and there was evidence of violence, that he was forcibly removed from the inn. And she has threatened to kill him.”
“Oh, good God, I only said that in the heat of the moment,” Julia said in disgust, drawing all eyes to her as she walked into the room. “I wouldn’t actually do it.”
James was the first to recover from her startling revelation. “You’re the other half of the engaged couple? Yes, of course, missing fiancé and all that. What bloody irony.”
Gabrielle recovered next and with a frown asked Julia, “But why did you claim to have only just met him if you’ve been engaged to him all your life?”
“He was wearing a mask at the ball and used a false name when he introduced himself. Jean Paul I think it was,” Julia reminded her.
“Oh, of course,” Gabrielle said, then abruptly asked, “Do you know what’s happened to him?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
“No, there’s no reason to be thankful,” Julia said gravely. “I’ve just returned from the country where I spoke with his father. I went to inform the earl that I would no longer honor the marriage contract because I’d seen Richard, and as adults, we’ve both agreed there will be no marriage. The earl in turn told me that Richard would change his mind in seven months, so I should begin preparing for a wedding. I told him I wouldn’t wait even another month. Then he threatened to ruin my family. I thought he was bluffing about the odd seven months’ time schedule, so I bluffed as well and told him that without hearing a viable reason why Richard would have a sudden change of heart in that time, I wasn’t changing my mind. So he gave me the reason. He mentioned some minor crimes Richard was due to be punished f
or and—”
“The things he did to get his father to disown him?” Ohr interjected incredulously.
“What prison is he in?” Drew asked next. “We’ll get him out.”
“That had been my first thought, too,” Julia admitted. “But his crimes were minor enough to have been forgiven if Richard had buckled under to his father’s will and agreed to marry me. He wouldn’t. So the earl has had him shipped to Australia.”
“But Australia’s only recently been claimed by England,” James pointed out. “There’s nothing there yet except …”
“Exactly,” Julia said.
“Exactly what?” Georgina demanded, looking back and forth between them.
“Convicts, m’dear. When we lost our colonies in America,” James said with a sudden grin, because that particular war had led to their first meeting in a roundabout way, “we needed somewhere new to send our worst criminals. They had it easy in America. Indentured servants were all they became. Not so in Australia. The penal colonies there have only been in operation a few years now but have already earned a reputation for their harshness and deprivation. It’s a wild, untamed land. The convicts are being worked to death to tame it.”
“Well, good God!” Georgina gasped. “Surely Richard’s father didn’t know that when he had him shipped there.”
“He knows,” Julia said in a small voice that actually choked up. What contrary emotion was that? She had to clear her throat to go on, “The earl has done this to break Richard to his will. He’s an unnatural parent. I didn’t think anyone could be that cruel to his own child.”
“Perhaps Richard isn’t his child,” James suggested.
Julia just stared at him, but Georgina raised a brow at her husband. “You mean?”
“Yes. There was a Lady Allen making the rounds during my wild London days.”
“You didn’t!” Georgina gasped.
James chuckled. “No, I most certainly didn’t. She was too easy. I might have only just been beginning my jaded career, but I still preferred a challenge. And rumor was she was deliberately cuckolding her husband out of spite and making sure it became a scandal that would reach his ears. Theirs was an arranged marriage and she despised the man.”
“So she taunted him with a bastard son?”
James shrugged. “I’ve no idea what she did. She had her one promiscuous Season in London, then returned to the country. Don’t recall her ever showing up again. But that was mere speculation, m’dear. It could likely be as Julia said, that Richard’s father is simply an unnatural parent.”
“Richard called him a tyrant and mentioned beatings,” Julia said quietly, adding, “It didn’t stop him from rebelling, though.”
James nodded. “That actually sounds more on the mark. Manford wouldn’t be the first man to demand absolute obedience from his family and administer harsher and harsher punishments if he didn’t get it. Richard escaped his father’s wrath for a good number of years and could escape again, so having got his hands on him, Manford might view this as a last resort. The boy is still keeping him from the fortune he expected, after all. And it doesn’t sound as if he intends to leave him there.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Julia said tightly. “He expects this brutal experience to utterly break Richard’s will. He even implied he wouldn’t arrange for his release until that condition is met.”
After a moment of silence, Ohr stood up abruptly. “I’ll find out when that ship sailed. If it was last week when he disappeared, it may take us weeks to catch up.”
Boyd stood up with him. “No, my horse is out front, I’ll go. I know these docks better than you, and the sooner we have more information, the better.”
Drew said, “One of you stop by The Triton and let my first mate know to round up the crew. We can sail with the evening tide.”
“You won’t be able to get Richard off that ship,” Julia pointed out.
“The hell I won’t,” Drew said with absolute assurance.
She sighed. “Really, you won’t. You’re an American with an American vessel and crew, and Richard is on a British convict ship. You might be able to get it to stop, but the captain would never willingly relinquish one of his prisoners. You’d have to fire on the ship, and Richard could die in that fight.”
“Julia, we can’t just let them take him to a penal colony,” Gabrielle said earnestly.
“I agree,” Julia replied. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to stop them. But the earl pulled lordly strings to get Richard on that ship without a trial. It’s going to take an equally powerful lord to get him off of it.”
Everyone in the room looked immediately at James Malory. His scowl came just as quickly. “No,” he said with flat finality.
Georgina stood up and approached her husband. “James” was all she said.
He turned his scowl on her. “Are you out of your mind, George? Think I don’t know all this concern is for that blighter who lusts after you? I’ll help him to his grave and no further.”
Georgina ignored that and reminded him, “You also have the faster ship.”
“A crewless ship,” he was quick to point out. “It would take days to round—”
“You can have my crew,” Drew cut in. “Gabby and I will go with you, of course, since Richard’s our friend.”
“You’re not captaining my ship, Yank,” James warned his brother-in-law.
“No, of course not.”
But Drew was grinning as he came around the sofa to sit next to his wife. Those two at least considered the matter settled. Julia wasn’t so sure yet. But then she watched Georgina hug her husband.
“You’re a good man,” Georgina said.
James sighed. “No, I’m a good husband. There’s a bloody difference.”
Julia finally said, “Thank you, James. I confess I had my hopes set on you. I don’t know any other lords well enough to have asked for this sort of assistance.”
Georgina hadn’t let go of James yet, so he raised a golden brow at Julia over his wife’s head. “Just explain to me, if you will, why you came here to get help for a man you profess to hate? Bit contradictory, ain’t it?”
She raised a brow back at him. “You think I would prefer that he be brought home broken and willing to marry me when it’s not what he wants a’tall?”
“Good point,” James said. “And since this engagement is apparently all for the sake of money, I’m going to assume you’ve already tried to buy your way out of that contract?”
“My father did, more’n once, but the earl always refused. He wants to gain access to my family’s entire fortune through the marriage.”
“This infamous contract grants him that?”
“No, but he’s a lord and my father isn’t. He’s always assumed that as a relative, he’d more or less have an unlimited supply of funds. And I’ll be damned if I’ll give up centuries of my family’s hard work to one man’s greed. I’d as soon kill him than—”
“You want us to kill him for you?”
James said it with such a serious expression and tone, Julia had a feeling he might not be joking! “No, of course not. I didn’t really mean that. I have a terrible habit of saying things I don’t really mean when I’m angry, and the earl makes me so furious I could scream.”
“Please don’t.”
She grinned at James’s dry tone. “Manford did this terrible thing before he knew of my father’s recovery. There’s never really been any doubt that I would comply with the contract to honor my father’s word—until this week, when my father told me to forget about it. But the earl didn’t know this yet, and if he could get Richard under his control, then Milton obviously thought he’d have it all. Now that my father has recovered, that certainly isn’t going to happen. But in any case, I would like to sail with you, if you don’t mind. Richard and I need to resolve our betrothal and figure out a way to prevent this from ever happening again. And he’s not likely to stick around long enough for us to do that when you bring him back here.”
“Does that really matter now, when you have your father’s blessing to ignore the contract?”
“It does until my father is fully recovered. I’m not going to risk anything disturbing that recovery, including the scandal the earl has promised will result from my not fulfilling the contract.”
James nodded. “As you wish.”
Georgina let go of James and headed for the door. “I’ll go pack our bags.”
“You’ll pack my bag, George,” James said adamantly. “You aren’t going anywhere near that damned pirate again.”
Pirate seemed an odd epithet under the circumstances, Julia thought, even a bit mild coming from James. But no one else there seemed to think so.
Georgina swung around. “You’re going to make me miss what sounds like an exciting trip just because of a little jealousy?”
His golden brow shot up once more. “You had doubts?”
“But—”
“You gained one amazing feat today, George. I agreed to rescue the blighter. Don’t press your luck.”
She nodded reluctantly. He relented enough to add, “You won’t miss anything, m’dear. I’m not going to demand his release without documents to back it up. And I know just who to see to obtain those documents. All aboveboard. Quick. We’ll be back in a few days.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
JULIA HAD BORROWED JAMES Malory’s words to assure her father late that afternoon that she wouldn’t be gone long. She’d stood in quite a big puddle of guilt while she’d confessed to him what she had set in motion—and related what the Earl of Manford had done to Richard and what the earl had predicted would befall the Millers. The scandal and all repercussions from it weren’t going to blow over as her father had thought. The earl would see to that.