A Little Deception (38 page)

‘And when Rampton discovered the truth – which he
would have in good time – he’d be so beside himself with remorse for
doubting you that you’d want to shower me with gratitude … only I’d be long
gone.’ Helena laughed again, impulsively pulling Rose to her and saying with
apparent sincerity, ‘I’m so glad to see you, though. Now that you put it like that,
I can’t tell you how terribly guilty I feel about what I’ve done-’

‘You don’t know what remorse is, Helena! You wrote the
letter and you were behind the stolen necklace, too, weren’t you?’

‘What stolen necklace?’

‘Lady Barbery’s.’ Rose heaved in a breath as Helena dropped
her hand. ‘You made Rampton think I’d stolen it, didn’t you?’

Helena’s laugh was spontaneous. ‘I thought you were clever
enough to deduce the truth of that long ago.’ She put her head on one side. ‘You
really are very credulous, Rose. Surely it was apparent Lady Barbery was behind
that? Do you recall when the parcel first arrived addressed to Lady
Chesterfield and I naturally assumed it was for me? Do you remember my surprise
when you opened it?’

Rose nodded, her suspicions far from allayed.

‘Well, I recognised it as Lady Barbery’s and of course it
made perfect sense that she would act so maliciously since she was Rampton’s
mistress until you entered the scene. But yes, I suppose I did play on
Rampton’s suspicions.’

Rose drew herself up. ‘So much so that he sent me to
Larchfield.’

‘Well, you obviously didn’t do a very good job defending
yourself.’

Rose felt like throttling her. ‘I didn’t know what I was
defending myself
against
. But worst
of all was the letter. You forged his hand so that I would believe he was
banishing me to the West Indies,’ Rose finished, hotly. ‘Meanwhile, everything
you’ve done is so that you can run away with Geoffrey, isn’t it?’ She threw a
glance at their insalubrious surroundings and added, ‘Though what you think
will sustain you both, when Geoffrey is clearly as impecunious as you, I don’t
know.’

Helena gave a supercilious sniff. ‘Geoffrey’s gone to fetch
a hackney. He’ll be returning any moment to pick me up, only the problem is,’
she sounded remarkably calm as she went on, ‘I’ve changed my mind about eloping
with him since I greatly fear he intends to kill me.’

Rose blinked. Curtailing the heated response she’d intended,
she muttered, ‘It’s a shame you didn’t consider his character before you
embarked upon this bold and wicked course of action, then, isn’t it?’

The blaze in Helena’s eyes was at odds with the calm in her
voice. ‘You think me disloyal and inconstant, but the fact is this isn’t the
first time Geoffrey’s asked me to elope. I refused him when I was seventeen and
I’ve regretted it ever since. Well, until now, that is.’

Rose gripped Helena’s shoulders and put her face close. ‘Do
you know that you will be forever barred from polite society if you go with
Geoffrey? Not to mention that Charles will never get over it. Please, Helena,
if you’ve no further wish to associate with Geoffrey then what choice do you
have but to return with me to confess to Rampton? Charles would forgive you,
for if you come with me now I swear I’ll say nothing about Geoffrey.’

The sound of a hackney carriage pulling up in the street
outside made Helena gasp and pull away. ‘Oh God, I thought I had more time!’
She sounded truly panicked. ‘Now it’s too late! What will we do? Where can we flee?
He’ll hunt me down.’

‘Well, why didn’t you think of that before?’ Rose muttered,
her own palms sweating as for the first time she wondered what involvement
Geoffrey had in Helena’s plans to discredit her. She felt a tug and turned to
see Helena untying the ribbons of her bonnet.

‘Rose! Please, change clothes with me. My cloak, my bonnet.’
Already she was divesting herself of these garments, forcing them into Rose’s
resisting hands. ‘Nobody wants to kill you, do they? You’ll be safe. But hear
me out.’

Untying the ribbons of Rose’s bonnet and whipping it off her
head, she hissed, ‘The reason Geoffrey wants to kill me is he believes I
betrayed him. We were lovers, you see, only we argued and he left. Yes, yes, I
understand you’ll have no great sympathy for me when I tell you that the reason
I was so desperate to marry Sir Hector was because I was going to have
Geoffrey’s child.’

Shock and disgust made Rose drop her hands though she listened
as her sister-in-law went on, ‘Then I heard you’d said terrible things to Sir
Hector to put him off me.’ Bitterness overlaid the panic in her voice. ‘So I
had no choice but to consult Madame Dubrovsky.’

Rose shuddered at the mention of the back-alley abortionist
who had caused the death of many desperate and ignorant women in the
neighbourhood.

Almost ripping Rose’s cloak from her shoulders, Helena
continued, ‘After that I could never have children. That’s why Charles and I
have never …’ she shrugged and gave a short laugh, ‘been blessed. But over the
years I’ve begun to see it as indeed a blessing. I never …’ Her voice broke as
she staggered back against the wall and covered her face with her hands. ‘I
never thought …’ she wept, ‘that having a child, a son, would mean so much to
Geoffrey. I assumed Geoffrey suspected, or even knew the truth, within a short
time of us being together but when I revealed everything that had happened …’
she took another heaving breath, ‘I thought he was going to kill me.’

The sound of Geoffrey’s voice telling the jarvey to wait
came clearly through the partly opened window. Helena was now dressed in Rose’s
hat and cloak, but Rose had refused to tie the ribbons of the bonnet Helena had
placed on her head.

‘Help me, I beg you!’ whispered Helena before, to Rose’s
amazement, she flung herself at her feet to kiss the hem of her skirt. ‘If you
don’t believe me, look at this!’ she cried, twisting her head so that for the
first time the left side of her face came into full view. A large purple bruise
was beginning to form under her eye. On closer inspection Rose saw traces of
blood from a small gash.

‘You are asking me to go with the man who did that to you?’
Rose asked, incredulous, taking Helena’s wrist and pulling her to her feet.
‘Let us both flee from here!’ The last thing Rose wanted was to see Helena jump
into a carriage alone with Geoffrey and escape.

‘There’s no other way out of the house. Geoffrey’s barred
the door and lower window and he paid a man to guard the front to prevent me
getting away. I’m surprised you made it in here at all.’ Helena’s quick deft
fingers tied the ribbons of the thick veiled bonnet beneath Rose’s chin and
buttoned her cloak. ‘All I’m asking is for you to buy me a little time, Rose.
If you love your brother like you say you do, you know that preventing me from
going with Geoffrey is the greatest service you can render him. Truly, I’ve
repented. Geoffrey’s not the man I thought he was and if you go with him now to
put him off the scent I promise to confess all to Rampton and be the meek and
obliging wife Charles has always wanted … but only if you help me now!’

‘You had better be telling the truth, Helena,’ Rose muttered
as her sister-in-law pushed her towards the door. ‘Go to Rampton, now, and tell
him everything. I won’t be long after you. When Geoffrey realises it’s me he’s
eloping with he’ll quickly set me down.’

Geoffrey’s low growl from the other side of the door drowned
out Helena’s reply. The grating sound as he fumbled with the lock echoed the
fear that reverberated through Rose, though she was certain she could handle
Geoffrey if she had to.

She pulled down the veil as Helena seized her by the wrist,
calling out to Geoffrey in a falsely reassuring tone, ‘I’m ready, my love.’

Thrusting a small drawstring bag into Rose’s hand, she pushed
her on to the front step.

***

It was mid afternoon by the time Rampton arrived at his
London townhouse, only to be told that her ladyship was not at home.

Disappointment choked him. He’d allowed himself to be swayed
by Felix’s determined assurance that this was where Rose would be waiting for
him, together with a full accounting of all the misunderstandings and
manufactured evidence his brother claimed lay at the heart of their
estrangement.

‘However her maid came in a short while ago. When I
questioned her she appeared greatly agitated and seemed to have no inkling as
to her mistresses’s whereabouts. Decidedly odd, my lord, and I’m only telling
you since I thought your lordship might be interested.’

‘Very interested, Whibble. I want Beth brought to me
immediately.’

‘Very good, my lord.’

Rampton and Felix were in the library when the girl was
delivered, clearly reluctant.

‘Found her slipping out the back way, sir, and had to run to
apprehend her when she failed to respond to orders.’ Whibble looked with
distaste at the sullen creature. Her mutinous gaze was fixed upon the floor.

‘Where’s Lady Rampton and why did you not obey Whibble when
he called you?’

When Beth mumbled something about being turned off halfway
between Larchfield and London Rampton glanced at his brother. Felix looked
smug, as if Beth’s answer already exonerated Rose, before interjecting
smoothly, ‘Really, Beth, I can’t believe her ladyship would be so unfeeling as
to turn you off in a muddy field, no matter how great her distaste for your
company.’

Beth said nothing, though she squirmed when Rampton said,
‘You must tell us if there’s anything you’re owed. Fortunately you were able to
collect your things.’ He indicated the small bag she carried.

‘Yes, sir. If that’s all, sir?’ Beth half-rose, clutching
the drawstring bag from which protruded a grubby apron. Felix darted a
horrified look at his brother as she sidled towards the door but Rampton had no
intention of allowing her to leave yet.

‘Just one thing, more, Beth.’

Like a frozen rabbit she hesitated on the threshold. ‘Yes,
sir?’

‘I believe my wife entrusted you with some of her jewellery
which may have escaped your attention. Please just ensure it’s not in that bag
of yours.’

Beth’s eyes widened. Slack-jawed she whispered, ‘Here?’

‘You don’t mind, surely?’

She reddened, gripped the door handle, hesitated, then said
in strangled tones, ‘’Twere Lady Chesterfield wot said I must take the pieces.
I never asked for nuffink only she said she’d slice me throat if I didn’t do
what she said and I’d be well rewarded if I did. Wot could I do, sir?’

Felix sounded disarmingly sympathetic as he encouraged Beth
to elaborate on what else Lady Chesterfield had instructed her to do until his
brother cut in.

‘You could have informed Lady Rampton of the evil intended
her. She’d have rewarded you for seeing to her best interests.’ Drily, he added,
‘I wonder what else you may have done to further her best interests. Delivered
an important letter from me, perhaps?’ His tone was at odds with the churning
in his breast: the beginnings of a tremendous tide of self recrimination. For
the moment, though, he had to remain calm and discover everything he could.

Beth clearly decided she’d had enough. Clasping the bag to
her chest she thrust her small frame through the door and bolted down the
passageway.

She collided with Whibble, who was bringing refreshment, so
it wasn’t long before she was back in the library and facing a far less
sympathetic hearing.

‘I think the most pressing questions we need answered are
Lady Rampton’s whereabouts and Miss Helena’s motive in soliciting your help,
Beth.’ Rampton looked up from studying the instep of his shoe. ‘If you’ve
stolen Lady Rampton’s jewellery, Beth,’ he went on, acidly, ‘you could be
looking at the end of a noose. However if you were coerced by somebody you
could expect a great deal of leniency.’

Beth dropped the bag, which made a dull thud as it landed at
her feet. She looked terrified. ‘When Lady Chesterfield told me there were
things that she was happy to pay me to keep an eye out for, there seemed no
harm in it,’ she whispered, staring at the bag. ‘Lady Chesterfield wanted to
know Lady Rampton’s habits and where she liked to go, so what ’arm was there in
tellin’ her that? ’Twere only at the end when that other gennulman got involved
that me nerves started to jitter.’

With a triumphant look at his brother, Felix asked, ‘Which
gentleman was that?’

‘Only met ’im once, and it were enough, handsome and nice
though he seemed at first. Don’t rightly know ’is real name except that maybe Lady
Chesterfield called him Geoffrey Allnight once, if I recall rightly. It were
’im wot said if I failed to do me job right and see that Lady Rampton got the
letter an’ if I didn’t get the jewels he’d slice me neck from the rest o’ me.’
Beth took a step back from the bag and said on a dramatic sob, ‘So there you ’ave
the truth, me lord. If you don’t send me to Newgate it’ll be just the same if I
meet this other feller.’

Rampton scratched his chin in an attempt to cover the extent
of his agitation. How could he have been so blind? God, how utterly he had failed
Rose by believing all these manufactured lies about her. Overlaying his remorse
was his desperation to find her and hold her as he begged her forgiveness. She must
feel utterly abandoned by him.