A Little Deception (37 page)

He looked witheringly at each distraught face. ‘I wrote a
letter sending her away? Show me! She went of her own volition … to be with her
lover. Here is the letter she wrote to
me
!’
He thrust the crumpled piece of parchment covered in Rose’s handwriting at
Felix.

‘I can’t believe it,’ Felix said, putting a comforting arm
around the now weeping Arabella. ‘Albright? They hardly know one another.’

‘They never met in the West Indies?’ Rampton barked the
question at Arabella.

Arabella looked downcast. ‘But it was Helena, not Rose, who
caught Geoffrey’s fancy.’

‘How would you know? You were only a child, still in the
schoolroom?’

‘I know my sister!’ Arabella cried. ‘She’s incapable of such
deception.’

‘She deceived me into making her my wife.’

They jumped as the clock in the landing chimed the hour.
Rampton went on, ‘Are you now going to tell me she has never been seen in
Geoffrey Albright’s company during the past few weeks? Pray, cast your mind
back to Lady Barbery’s ball. And Lady Chawdrey’s. A little too much champagne
punch and she was throwing herself into his arms. If you don’t believe me, then
read
it!’

Felix held the letter to the light and murmured Rose’s words
of shame and regret at her decision to elope with Geoffrey, adding that she was
taking nothing from Rampton that was not due to her.

‘Nothing, except the family jewels,’ muttered Rampton.

Soberly, Felix handed his brother back the letter. ‘It
doesn’t make sense. To everyone else you appeared the love match of the
season.’

‘It doesn’t make sense, because why would Rose tell me she
loved her husband, despite the fact he was sending her away?’ asked Arabella,
fiercely. ‘I saw the letter you wrote her.’

‘The letter
I
wrote her?’ Rampton harrumphed. ‘Did you read it?’

Arabella bit her lip as she shook her head. ‘Why would Rose
lie about that? And I refuse to believe she wrote that letter to you.’

‘Well, my dear,’ countered Rampton, ‘what do you propose?
That I saddle Chestnut and ride post haste to the docks to fetch my runaway
wife - who has probably already departed - and prove this is all a lie, and that
she is somehow the wronged party?’

‘Yes!’ came the unanimous rejoinder.

‘And I shall follow in the carriage!’ declared Arabella.

‘Before Mother discovers her jewels have gone,’ suggested
Felix.

***

A relentless drizzle made the roads slippery but they
pressed on. Not to the docks but to London following information that a
carriage bearing the Rampton family arms had been sighted on the London road.

It was not until they reached the first post house, where
they procured fresh horses and stopped for a hurried breakfast, that Rampton
and Felix were able to exchange a few words.

‘That little maid of hers went with her. I’ll wager anything
it’s she who’s taken Mother’s jewellery,’ Felix asserted as the publican’s
daughter removed the lid from a platter of calf’s liver and bacon. ‘Probably
wrote the letter, too, to hide her part in it. Which she has conveniently taken
with her.’

Rampton raised his head from his pot of ale and levelled a
long, hard look at his brother. ‘You’re really championing that sister-in-law
of yours, aren’t you?’

Felix met his stare, confidently. ‘You don’t have much faith
in your wife, do you? Or her sister, since you don’t give much credence to what
Arabella says about the state Rose was in when Rose left.’ He shrugged and
added between mouthfuls, ‘Why, she’s mad for you!’

‘Then why has she left?’

Felix shrugged. ‘A woman used to taking charge of her own
life might consider disgrace and ignominy a fair price for her freedom if the
alternative were a loveless marriage.’

The knuckles which held Rampton’s mug handle turned white.
‘A loveless marriage,’ he repeated in a whisper and Felix said hurriedly, ‘I’m
not pretending I know anything about your marriage but—’

‘You obviously know nothing about it, otherwise you would
sympathize with the number of times I’ve been deceived.’ Waving away the
hovering publican’s daughter who had made to remove several finished dishes he
went on, ‘I’m not talking about the kind of love that every greenhorn
experiences half a dozen times in his life; I mean the anguish of loving one
woman, one’s wife … despite everything.’

***

‘What do you mean, she was sighted on the London Road?’

Helena swung round, her skirts frothing at her ankles, her
high heeled shoes clicking across the floorboards of the shabbily furnished
little room as she advanced towards the fireplace. Her voice shook.

Geoffrey snorted. ‘I thought it a ridiculous plan in the
first place and we couldn’t trust that little maid of hers to carry it out
properly.’ His voice sounded bored, disembodied in the gloom of the wing chair
in which he was ensconced. He didn’t even look up from the book he was reading;
merely puffed on his cigarillo with irritating indifference.

‘We needed the attention to be on her rather than on us,’
Helena persisted in defence of the letter she had insisted Geoffrey should
write, copying Rampton’s hand. ‘Rose might well have not questioned that it was
written by her husband, taken the money and sailed away. By the time Rampton
discovers the truth – if he does – we’ll be long gone.’ She forced
a smile. ‘And rich.’

‘But we’d have been a great deal safer if we’d simply taken
the jewels without going to such lengths to black your sister-in-law’s name
into the bargain.’ Geoffrey sighed. ‘If Rose hasn’t gone to the docks then
she’s coming to London to win back her husband.’

‘Not even Rose is that stupid,’ Helena spat, going to the
window and wiping at the grimy pane for despite her bold words she felt a
tendril of discomfort. ‘We’ve covered every contingency.’

‘Well, if she’s smelled a rat and elicits Rampton’s
sympathies we’re in trouble.’ Geoffrey’s head appeared from the wing of the chair.
‘Jeremiah was to have met Beth at the docks to pay her off but if the girl’s
taken everything and fled we’ll have to cut our losses and head for the coast.’

Helena closed the curtains at the window with a violent tug.
‘The coast is where Rose should be at this moment. You’re sure Jeremiah knew
what he was looking for when he reported that she’d turned south on the London
Road? Oh Geoffrey,’ she burst out in sudden agitation, ‘what can we do when we
don’t even know where Rose is headed?’

‘I daresay we should leave.’ Geoffrey rose. He glanced at
the shabbily furnished little room and advanced, gripping Helena by the
shoulders and pulling her against him. She felt his erection straining against
her stomach and, with a grunt of irritation, pushed out of his embrace.

Geoffrey snorted. ‘You never had a sense of occasion, did
you, Helena?’

‘I hardly think now is an appropriate time for what you
appear to have in mind, Geoffrey.’

‘How do you know what I have in mind?’ His hands spanned her
neck before he began caressing it, twining his fingers into her hair. Despite
her anger, Helena shivered as he touched his lips to her ear.

‘You probably mistake the motivation for my desire, also,’
he murmured.

She stilled, silent and suddenly afraid as his hands moved
over her body, caressing her breasts, moulding her buttocks, while she tried to
make sense of his words.

Jerking her against him with sudden violence his voice held
an edge to it she’d not heard before. ‘All those weeks when I forced myself to
withdraw at the pinnacle of the act, only to discover you were barren, Helena,
darling,’ he rasped.

One hand was upon the back of her head while his other
squeezed her buttocks, kneading them roughly.

She tried to use disdain to mask her fear. ‘I thought you’d
be only too delighted not to be saddled with a brood of brats. We’ll enjoy our
gains with no complications. Stop it, Geoffrey!’

His hand was hiking up her skirt and she struggled to pull
away.

‘Not this time, Helena,’ he muttered. ‘For once I’m in
charge-’

Frightened, she ground out, ‘I know where everything is
hidden. The jewels, the money… You need me-’

‘I need a
son
!’
His breath rasped in her ear. ‘Does Charles know what you did? Why you’re
barren? Of course not!’

‘If you want to blame anyone, then blame yourself!’ Helena gasped,
for he was pressing her so hard against the wall she was finding it hard to
breathe. Suddenly she was very frightened. ‘Everything that happened to me was
because of you, Geoffrey!’

‘You sent me packing!’ he snarled. ‘You knew I’d have done
anything for you-’

‘We had an argument. When I looked for you so I could
apologise, you’d gone.’

‘You’ve never apologised to anyone in your life.’

His face, black with anger, was filling her vision. His
breath was hot on her skin, moist now from her growing fear. Raising her knee,
suddenly, she connected with his groin, wriggling out of his arms as he
crumpled to the floor with a howl of agony.

THE
COLD SWEAT of fear made Rose shiver, despite her warm pelisse, as she looked up
at the dark house in the afternoon light. She’d not taken Geoffrey into account
when she’d conceived her plan to force Helena to confess all to Rampton. Yet
surely he must be complicit in Helena’s campaign against Rose? Or was Helena
acting alone? It was possible.

For five years Rose had lived with Helena’s volatile temper.
She knew her sister-in-law’s capacity for vengeance, her spitefulness and her
devious nature, but surely forging the letter purportedly from her husband was
worse than anything she’d done before. Now the time had come for Helena to be
called to account.

Rose’s nerve nearly failed as the hackney drew to a halt and
she heard the jarvey prepare to descend. She closed her eyes while her heart
hammered. How would she approach Helena? How would she make her not only
confess, but come with her to confess to Rampton?

Her thoughts were interrupted when a panicked voice hissed,
‘Rose! I don’t believe it, but thank God you’ve come!’

Before Rose could protest, the carriage door was flung open
and Helena had grasped her by the wrist and was hustling her up the steps and indoors,
crying, ‘Rose, you have to help me!’

In the gloomy passage, Rose took stock. The peeling
wallpaper and dust lent the dwelling an unsavoury aspect and she wrinkled her
nose at the smell of damp. This was not where Rose had expected to find Helena.

 
‘Beth told you
what we’d done, didn’t she? Where is she?’ Helena’s voice was thick with fear.
As she put aside the heavy veil of her black bonnet her eyes glittered in the
small amount of light that filtered in from outside.

‘Gone!’ said Rose, harshly, gaining courage from the
knowledge Helena had set out to ruin her life. ‘And now you’re coming with me
to tell Rampton that you wrote that letter. I put the pieces together after I
realised Beth’s involvement and how you must have been using her to spy on me.’

This was greeted by a gasp, then silence. Snatching her
wrist from Rose’s grasp, Helena stepped backwards. A tinkling laugh escaped
her. ‘You really know nothing, do you?’ She sounded incredulous. ‘Beth isn’t
with you?’

In the gloom Helena’s rapid breathing indicated her
agitation. She sounded as if she were speaking her thoughts aloud. ‘No,
obviously Beth is cleverer than I thought. Or perhaps it’s just her sense of
self-preservation is more well-honed than I’d expected. As for me, if you don’t
help me get out of this house before Geoffrey returns you may as well prepare
my eternity box.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Rose snapped. ‘You’re lucky I’ve said
nothing about this or you’d be so mired in scandal you’d never be received
again. It’s Charles I care about, not you.’

In the dim light Rose saw Helena’s mouth drop open. ‘You
really came alone, Rose, without telling anyone?’ Her surprise seemed genuine.
Gathering her concealing black shawl more tightly around her, she shook her
head.
 
‘You really don’t know what
people are saying?’ she asked, adding under her voice: ‘Fortune favours me,
after all. Now Rose, I know you don’t want me to elope with Geoffrey though
you’ve never thought me good enough for your brother.’ Her smile was one that
Rose knew well. She waited for the inevitable bargaining or wheedling and was
not surprised when Helena said, ‘What would you say if I told you I’ve realized
the error of my ways and I need you to help me?’

‘Help you!’ Rose gave a strangled laugh. ‘You’re asking for
my help after everything you’ve done to damn me in the eyes of my husband? If
you’d had your way I’d be on a boat bound for the West Indies.’

Helena gave a dismissive wave as if this were of no account.
‘Rampton would have intercepted you. You know he would have!’

‘I don’t know anything except you’ve been telling Rampton
lies about me.’