A Little Deception (36 page)

Arabella gasped. ‘I don’t believe you!’

‘Oh, Bella, you’re such a romantic.’ Rose gave a short,
pained laugh. ‘You didn’t really think this was a match made in heaven? That we
both fell in love with one another, despite the inauspicious beginning?’

‘Then you don’t love him?’

Trailing over to the window Rose stared miserably across the
sweeping lawns. ‘Would it make you feel better if I said I didn’t?’ she asked.
‘He gave me a thousand pounds to go away. With a thousand pounds I can make
huge improvements to the plantation … and to tell you the truth, there is no
other place that I would rather be just now.’ Seeing that Beth was now securing
her trunk she picked up her reticule and went to the doorway. ‘Send my regards
to my mother-inlaw. You might remind Rampton that I was ever the obedient
wife. Rawlings is waiting with the carriage. Rampton apparently ordered it so
I’ll at least go in comfort.’

Arabella tried to bar her way. ‘This is nonsense, Rose. I
don’t believe it. You’re acting with too much haste. You must at least
challenge Rampton.’

Rose pushed past her. ‘If Helena has decided Rampton is the
only man who can make her happy I don’t stand a chance.’

‘No, Rose-’

‘And if Rampton is so easily lured, then I don’t want him,
anyway!’

***

A deep scowl blackened Sir
Hector’s already bronzed complexion, causing the captain of the Mariah to
wonder whether his esteemed client considered he’d been cheated.

‘The goods arrived in prime
condition, I assure you, Sir Hector—’

‘Excuse
me!’ Elbowing his way out of the saloon of the Pelican with uncharacteristic
lack of courtesy, Sir Hector bore his portly form down the front steps with the
agility of a man half his age.

‘Miss
Rose! I say!’

Rose
turned, quelling the urge to hurl herself into her old friend’s arms.

Rising from his bow, Sir Hector cast a puzzled look at her
trunk, which several porters had set down while they waited, then at the tall-masted
ship towards which Rose was clearly headed.

‘I’m sailing on the Mariah,’ said Rose, swallowing past the
lump in her throat.

‘Since it will be some hours before the tides favour her
departure might I request the pleasure of your company, Miss Rose?’

It was indeed a pleasure to enjoy the company of a man not
disposed to judge her harshly. After a bottle of Madeira had washed down a
hearty meal of jugged hare and pigeon pie Rose was ready to pour out her heart
for a sympathetic hearing.

Sir Hector, however, was more sceptical than sympathetic.

‘Dispatched you by letter?’ Lacing his hands over his
stomach, he shook his head. ‘Sounds deuced queer, if you ask me. Not at all
Lord Rampton’s usual modus operandi, surely?’

Rose wiped her eyes as the servant cleared the table.

‘So you love this fellow you’ve led such a dance, eh?’

‘As I’ve never loved anyone,’ Rose replied with a sniff,
before explaining the circumstances that had given rise to her scandalous
behaviour, followed by her suspicions regarding Helena and Rampton.

‘I might have known Helena was behind the trouble,’ Sir
Hector harrumphed. ‘Always eyeing out the advantage.’

‘And now she’s cast Rampton a lure he couldn’t resist and
that’s why he’s sent me away.’

She looked indignant as Sir Hector chortled at the apparent
ludicrousness of her deepest fears. ‘Maybe she did, but it’s Mr Albright she’s
carrying on with. I happened upon them by chance in the Serpentine Walk at
Vauxhall Gardens on Thursday last and it would appear she’s as susceptible to
his charms now as she was when he swept her off her feet six years ago.’

Rose nearly fell out of her chair. ‘Helena and Geoffrey
Albright!?’

Nodding, Sir Hector rose. ‘I’d be investigating this letter
a little more closely before I did anything hasty, Miss Rose. Now, my dear,’ he
stooped to kiss her forehead, ‘there’s nothing more I’d love than to see you
safely back to town but I have urgent business to attend to and you have your
maid. Besides which, I’d hate to intrude on the fond reconciliation.’ With a
heartening squeeze of her hand he sent her on her way, adding, ‘If I wasn’t so
sure you’ll find nothing more than a simple misunderstanding and a vengeful
sister-in-law behind your troubles I’d be first to step into the role of
gallant hero. But Miss Rose, your gallant hero awaits. Go to him now and see
what he thinks about what I’ve said.’

Emboldened by her resolve to confront Rampton directly,
Rose, on Sir Hector’s arm, swept out of the inn and commanded that her trunk be
retrieved and her passage cancelled. What had she been thinking? A week in the
country with Rampton’s brooding, critical mother had sapped her of her normal
fight. Without Rampton’s belief in her she’d found herself longing for the
familiarity of her island home. But is that where she wanted to be?

Sir Hector had quizzed her directly on the subject and it
was only then that she’d realised with utter conviction that she wanted Rampton
to love her and that it was up to her to get him back.

***

Rampton poured himself another brandy and stared at his
wife’s portrait. There was the hint of amusement in her eyes. Her mouth looked
ready to break into a smile. As if she were secretly laughing at him behind the
composed expression.

Was that what she was doing now? Laughing at him as she
sailed into the sunset with Geoffrey Albright? Crumpling the cold-hearted
missive she’d sent him into a ball, he hurled it at the wall.

‘Rampton, I thought at least you’d be with your wife if you
hadn’t the courtesy to dine with your mother.’ The dowager looked grim. ‘I
dined alone since Arabella was indisposed, also.’

Rampton, who had left for a dawn ride, had come back to find
the house in an uproar. One of the servants was tending to Arabella who had
fallen gravely ill shortly after the warm milk Beth had brought her in her
bedchamber.

Apparently she’d been distressed, though Rampton hadn’t
enquired. To be told she was still pining for Yarrowby would have been too
galling, not to mention uncomfortable.

Rampton had immediately gone in search of Rose, only to be informed
she was visiting a friend in the village. Fortunately Arabella’s condition had
improved but it was just before dinner than he’d found Rose’s letter, tucked
beneath the turn-down of his bed.

‘Rose is … resting. What can I do for you, Mother?’ His tone
was as frosty as hers.

‘I’m looking for my emerald necklace. I lent it to Rose for Mr
and Mrs Lake’s dinner last week.’

‘Have you asked her maid?’

‘No one seems to have seen her. And if Rose is as indisposed
as she would have one believe I felt it discourteous to knock and disturb her.’

‘Well, I don’t have it, Mother,’ said Rampton, irritably
while his thoughts revolved around Rose’s no-doubt dreadful legacy. As he
watched his mother depart he felt dismay spurt its poison into the fibres of
his being.

Trying to compose an inventory of the family jewels, Rampton
made his way to the dowager’s dressing-room and set upon the task of uncovering
the full extent of his runaway wife’s misdemeanours.

***

The closer to London Rose travelled, the brighter her
spirits. By contrast Beth looked increasingly long-mouthed until Rose asked in
exasperation, ‘Were you hoping to set sail with me to the West Indies, Beth,
and never see your family again?’

‘It’s just I were to meet someone at the docks, m’lady and
now I dunno how I’ll be paid.’

Rose looked at her curiously. ‘You’ll be paid as you always
are. By me, at the end of the month.’

‘You’re going back to London, m’lady?’

‘That’s right.’ Rose envisaged, with a surprising degree of
relish, the confrontation that lay in store. ‘I’m very much looking forward to
my chat with Lady Chesterfield.’

The way she said it appeared to frighten the girl. ‘You’re
going to see Lady Chesterfield?’ Beth gasped. ‘Oh no, ma’am, you ain’t takin’
me with yer.’

Rose stared at her maid. Beth’s normally dull brown eyes
gleamed in her sallow face. Fear lent her bovine features rare animation. Like
a mirage taking shape and substance, suddenly everything made sense.

For a moment shock rendered her silent. Helena had recruited
Beth to help blacken Rose’s reputation in her husband’s eyes. All the time Beth
had pretended to serve her she had in fact been acting for Helena.

Rose’s hands shook and she tried to school her features into
impassive lines as she sought for a motive.

Why?

Another insidious thought intruded. She’d believed Rampton
had sent her away so he could be with Helena. If she’d believed he was being
untrue, what other lies must he have been fed to think the same of her?

Oh, God, she thought, shivering with fear and dismay. The
sooner she could be at her husband’s side the sooner they could sort out this
tangled web of lies.

But first she must find Helena.

The carriage bumped uncomfortably over the rutted roads.
London would soon be reached. So, too, she desperately hoped, would a
reconciliation between her and her husband, once Helena’s part in the
conspiracy to part Rose from Rampton had been explained. In the meantime she needed
to find out from Beth as much as she could. She took a deep breath and strove
for icy calm. ‘So Lady Chesterfield paid you to place the letter on my
dressing-table yesterday morning?’

Beth looked mutinous. ‘I ain’t saying nuffink.’

‘And Lady Chesterfield intends running away with that ne’er
do well, Mr Albright?’

‘Dunno, ma’am, only I don’t want to never see Lady
Chesterfield again if she knows that you knows everyfink, now. Please,’ begged
the girl, ‘if you’re not going on that boat just take me back to Lord Rampton’s
’ouse so I can get me fings and do a runner.’

Rose pounced. ‘Lady Chesterfield is not at Bruton Street?
Has she gone already?’ Fear that Helena might have neatly slipped away without
being called to account for the damage she had caused Rose made her grip Beth’s
arms and shake her. ‘Where is Lady Chesterfield going? What do you know of her
plans?’

‘I dunno, m’lady.’ Beth looked close to tears. ‘Only that
she’s bin visiting Mr Albright at a ’ouse in Marylebone. Aitken Street –
number nine, I reckon - so you go and sort it out wiv ’er but leave me out of
it for I don’t know nuffink!’

Before Rose could stop her Beth had thrust open the carriage
door and thrown herself on to the road. They were not travelling fast and as
Rose pulled back the curtain she saw that the girl had regained her footing
without apparent injury and was covering the adjacent cornfield with surprising
speed.

RAMPTON
CONTEMPLATED THE unsavoury truth. Rose had known what she was about. Just like
the necklace she’d pawned, the family heirlooms were valuable stones in
unremarkable settings. Having dismissed Fanshawe, Rampton was dressed only in
his silk banyan when Arabella and Felix burst in upon the briefest of knocks.

‘Most men find more honourable methods of disposing of their
wives when they tire of them!’

The angry blaze in his brother’s eye was so at odds with his
normally placid demeanour that Rampton was momentarily speechless. Felix
advanced a few steps and, to Rampton’s incredulity, put up his fists, saying,
‘If you weren’t my brother I’d have no compunction in dropping you this
instant!’

‘Welcome home, Felix. I’m glad that brotherly love
prevails.’ To his further surprise, Arabella, who looked pale and wan, appeared
fully to endorse Felix’s threat of violence. ‘Would you mind,’ he asked, ‘explaining
to me the reason for this uncharacteristic, and certainly unwarranted, attack?’

‘Unwarranted?’ Felix made a noise of disgust. ‘Unwarranted?
Because my sympathies lie with my sister-in-law rather than my brother?’

Rampton blinked. ‘I’d have thought I was particularly
deserving of your sympathies at this moment. You are, I assume, aware that my
wife has left me?’

It was the first time he had said the words. How remote from
reality they sounded.

‘Left you! Why, you sent her away with as much compunction
as you would discard an old coat that no longer pleased you. Like so many of
your mistresses.’

‘I would like you to find one of my former mistresses who
considers herself discarded in such an uncaring fashion,’ Rampton was stung
into defending himself. ‘But I find the charge as regards my wife a bit rich
since she has just run off with Albright … taking, I might add, a king’s
ransom’s worth of our mother’s jewellery.’

He felt only transitory satisfaction at the shocked dismay
and confusion that replaced their anger.

‘It can’t be true!’ Arabella was the first to break the
silence. ‘She has left Larchwood yes, but only because you sent her away. Back
to the West Indies!’

‘I did no such thing!’ Rampton glared at Arabella. ‘What
else did Rose tell you? That I am an unfeeling, nay, violent husband? That she
can no longer tolerate my mistresses? That I have refused her every comfort?
Failed to indulge her at every turn?’ With superhuman effort he reined in his
temper. ‘I have not so much as looked at another woman since I married your
sister!’