Say You Love Me (25 page)

“You took
Jeremy
to such a place? He’s only eighteen years old!”

“Jeremy has been going to such places probably longer than I have, or have you forgotten that he was raised in a tavern before Uncle James found him?”

To that Jason merely glowered, so Derek continued, “As I was saying, I’d had no intention of getting involved, but then I noticed who was bidding on the girl.”

“Who?”

“He’s a man I’ve run into before, a lord, and I’ve witnessed firsthand what he does to the prostitutes he uses. He whips them bloody, so severely that they are permanently disfigured. It’s rumored it’s the only way he can get any pleasure out of sex.”

“Disgusting.”

“I couldn’t agree more. In fact, as a favor to me, Uncle James is looking into a means of putting a stop to the man’s perverted practices.”

“James is? How?”

“I—ah—didn’t bother to ask.”

Jason cleared his throat. “Quite right. Where that particular brother of mine is concerned, it’s better not to know. But, Derek—”

“Father, it really couldn’t have been helped,” Derek cut in. “I couldn’t think of any other way to keep the girl safe, except to buy her myself. And she did turn out to be an innocent, so I’m bloody well glad I kept her out of Ashford’s hands.”

“David Ashford? Good God, I would have thought some woman would have gelded him years ago.”

“You knew about him?”

“I’d heard rumors, back before he’d reached his majority, that he used to torture his female servants. Nothing that was ever proven, of course. Then there was another rumor that someone had brought him up on charges, but it never reached a trial, since the woman in question refused to bear witness against him. They say it cost him most of his family fortune to pay the woman off. As I recall, a cheer went up in my club the night we heard that. At least it was some punishment—if the rumors were true.”

Derek nodded. “I imagine they were true, and he has progressed to worse tortures.”

“And there’s nothing the courts can do without a victim to accuse him.” Jason sighed.

“Oh, he covers himself very well these days,” Derek said. “I found one of his victims, the same one I had come upon him beating.
I’d hoped she would help to bring him to trial. But he not only pays them handsomely, he warns them of what he means to do and gets their agreement first.”

“Smart as well as dreadfully demented. A dangerous combination, that. But you have involved James. Leave it to him. I can almost guarantee he will find a way to keep that man from hurting anyone else.”

“Which was my hope, especially since I just had yet another run-in with the fellow, and he indicated that he feels Kelsey was stolen from him when I outbid him and that he’ll have her back eventually.”

Jason raised a brow. “Are you saying you still have the girl?”

“Well, she was sold as a mistress, and I did pay a great deal of money for her.”

“How
much
money?”

“I’d rather not sa——”

“How much?”

Derek hated that better-fess-up-or-else tone, he really did. “Twenty-five,” he mumbled.

“Twenty-five
hundred
!”

Derek sank a bit lower in his chair before he admitted, “Thousand—pounds.”

Jason choked, sputtered, opened his mouth to say something but snapped it closed again. He dropped into the chair behind his desk. He raked both hands through his golden mane. He finally sighed, then pinned Derek with one of his darkest frowns.

“I must not have heard you correctly. You didn’t say you paid twenty-five
thousand
pounds for a mistress. No—” He held up a hand when Derek started to speak. “I don’t want to hear it. Forget I asked.”

“Fattier, there was no other way to keep Ashford from buying the girl,” Derek reminded him.

“I can think of a half dozen at least, including simply taking her out of there. Who, after all, would have stopped you, when that auction was hardly legal?”

Derek smiled at what was a typical Malory response. “Well, the proprietor, Lonny, might have had a thing or two to say about that, considering the profit I would have been snatching out of his hand.”

“Lonny?” Jason frowned a moment, opened the
London Times
on his desk to the second page, and pointed. “That Lonny, by any chance?”

Derek leaned forward to briefly scan the article, but was so surprised that he went back to read it more thoroughly. It was a report on Lonny Kilpatrick, who had been murdered in a house of ill repute that he had run for a little more than a year and a half. The address was given, and the details of his death. He had apparently been stabbed in the chest repeatedly. There was mention of a great deal of blood. And no clue as to his murderer.

“I’ll be damned,” Derek said, leaning back.

“I take it that’s the same Lonny you dealt with?” Jason asked.

“Indeed.”

“Interesting, though I doubt there is any
connection between the murder and the auction. All that blood on the body, all around it, does, however, remind me of what you said about Ashford and his predilection for blood.”

“He’s a sniveling coward,” Derek scoffed. “He wouldn’t have the guts to kill a man.”

Jason shrugged. “From what you’ve said about him, and from the previous rumors I’d heard myself, that man is deficient up here.” And he pointed at his head. “There is no telling what someone like that is capable of. But I tend to agree. He does sound like a coward who prefers to torment the weak. Besides, for what reason would he kill this Lonny person, when it’s apparently only women he enjoys hurting. It’s likely no more than a coincidence.”

Derek would have agreed, wanted to agree, but blister it, that small bit of doubt had been raised. He was back to worrying again. And he went straight back to James’s house as soon as he left his father, to apprise his uncle of this newest development.

Unfortunately, he forgot all about wanting to ask his father about the mistress he had been keeping all these years. And by the time he returned home again, it was to find a note from Jason reminding him that he was expected at Haverston for the Christmas holidays. His father was already on his way back there himself.

35

Despite Derek’s assurances that she had little to fear
from Lord Ashford now that he was being watched, Kelsey still wouldn’t leave the town house for nearly a week. She sent her footman around to the dressmaker to cancel two fittings—she had fortunately just hired a footman, as well as the rest of the servants she needed, that week.

She also held off returning to that nice little yardage shop that she’d found, where she had purchased the material to sew Derek a few things for Christmas. A monogrammed cravat and handkerchiefs, some silk shirts, several of which she had already finished.

Ironically, she hadn’t been quite as fearful the day they encountered Lord Ashford as she was the next day, after spending the evening with Derek. She had sensed his fear, though he hadn’t said anything more after his warning.

Staying holed up in the house did have its advantages. After three days of agonizing over it, she was able to finally get off a letter to her
Aunt Elizabeth. In it she had explained that her friend had had a new medical opinion that actually offered some hope, and that they had moved to London to be close to the new doctor.

Continuing the lie to her aunt was what was so difficult, that and supplying a return address, which Elizabeth would naturally expect. In the end, Kelsey used her own, since she knew of no others aside from Derek’s, and using his was out of the question.

She had also included a letter to her sister filled with gossip about their hometown, all of it fabrications, of course. Both letters, once finished, made her feel so despicable that she certainly hadn’t been very good company for Derek. He’d noticed, and remarked on it, but she’d put him off with more lies about feeling under the weather and such—and got lots of flowers the next day that made her want to cry.

She finally convinced herself that she was being silly, hiding indoors. The fact that it was a lovely winter day when she did might have helped. At any rate, she took herself straight to the dressmaker for those final fittings, and those were seen to in quick order. And she was only a little bit hesitant in leaving the back of the shop, worrying that she might run into Lady Eden again on the way out.

But the showroom was quite empty that early in the morning, most of the ladies of the
ton
being late risers due to late-night entertainments. There was one exception, however.

Just as she reached for the door to the street, it opened, and in walked her Aunt Elizabeth with her sister, Jean, just a step behind. Jean, of course, shrieked in delight upon seeing Kelsey and threw herself into Kelsey’s arms. Elizabeth was as surprised as Kelsey was, though not unpleasantly, as Kelsey most surely was.

“What are you doing in London?” they both asked at the same instant.

“Didn’t you receive my letter?” Kelsey added.

“No…I…did…not.”

The pauses between those words added a sting to Elizabeth’s reproach, if Kelsey didn’t feel it enough from her expression. She should have written sooner. She knew it. Elizabeth had been expecting a letter. But it was just so
hard
lying to her own family that she’d put it off as long as possible. Now she was going to have to explain again.

“I did write, Aunt Elizabeth, to let you know that I was moving to London with Anne. She’s found a new doctor here, you see, who’s actually given her some hope, so she wanted to be near him.”

“But that’s wonderful news!”

“Yes, it is.”

“Does that mean you will be coming home soon, Kel?” Jean asked hopefully.

“No, sweetheart, Anne is still very sick,” Kelsey said, hugging Jean close.

“Your sister is needed here, Jean,” Elizabeth added gruffly. “Her friend needs her spirits
kept up, and Kelsey is good at that, kindhearted as she is.”

“But what are you doing in London, Aunt?” Kelsey asked again.

Elizabeth humphed. “Our seamstress at home moved away, and without a by-your-leave. Can you imagine that? And I won’t use that French hussy who competed with her. So I decided that as long as Jean and I were going to get a few new dresses for the holidays, we might as well come to the best, and Mrs. Westerbury has been well-recommended by several of my friends.”

“Yes, she is excellent,” Kelsey agreed. “I’ve ordered a few dresses for myself as well, since I didn’t bring too many along with me.”

“Well, if you
are
going to be needed here for much longer, do let me know and I’ll send your trunks to you. You shouldn’t be deprived on this errand of mercy. But, goodness, as long as you are in London, do you realize this is the height of the season? And I have numerous friends here who I’m sure would be delighted to take you in hand and launch you. And I’m sure your friend wouldn’t begrudge you a few hours here and there to keep your own spirits up.”

Aunt Elizabeth was well-meaning, of course, but Kelsey had passed beyond taking advantage of a London social season for marriage prospects. Since she couldn’t mention that, she said simply, “That will have to wait, Aunt Elizabeth. I’d feel so terrible, going off
to enjoy myself while Anne couldn’t, that I wouldn’t enjoy myself a’tall.”

Elizabeth sighed. “I suppose. But you do realize that you
are
at an age to marry? And as soon as you return home, we
will
plan a proper season for you. I will begin working on the arrangements immediately. I owe it to my sister to see you well sponsored.”

Kelsey cringed inwardly. She hated thinking of her aunt’s wasting her time making plans for something that would never come about. But she couldn’t tell her not to bother, not without telling her the truth. And what was she going to tell her six months from then? A year from then? That Anne was
still
lingering? That excuse was going to wear thin as the months passed.

The best she could do was warn, “Don’t make any specific plans yet, Aunt. I really can’t say at this point how long I will be needed here.”

“No, of course not,” Elizabeth concurred. “Speaking of which, I’d like to pay my respects to your friend as long as we are here in London.”

That simple statement threw Kelsey into a complete panic. Her mind went blank. Not a single excuse occurred to her. And worse, she realized that Elizabeth would want to visit her as well while she was in town, and if she did, Anne wouldn’t be there, of course, because
there was no Anne
.

Elizabeth didn’t have the address now, wouldn’t have it until she returned home and
got Kelsey’s letter.
Why
had she put her real address on it? Because she had assumed her aunt wouldn’t be traveling to London. Elizabeth
never
came to London. She hated the congestion. But here she was…and Kelsey didn’t dare give her the address when there was no telling what time of day she might drop by.

With that realization coming to her, thankfully, so did an excuse. “Anne isn’t well enough to receive callers right now. The trip to London took a severe toll on her, and now she has to conserve all her strength just to visit her doctor.”

“Poor girl. She’s still that bad?”

“Well—yes, she
was
at death’s door before she started these new treatments. The doctor said it will take several months before we will even know if it’s going to help her. But I do want to see you both again while you are here. What hotel are you staying in?”

“We’re staying at the Albany. Here, I have the address written down.” She searched in her reticule until she found it and passed it to Kelsey.

“I will be sure to call, then,” Kelsey promised. “I’ve missed you both. But just now, I really must run. I don’t like to leave Anne alone too long.”

“Tomorrow morning, Kelsey,” Elizabeth said, and it might as well have been an order in that tone. “We will be expecting you.”

36

“
Well, it’s about bleedin’ time ’e’s left that coach
behind,” Artie said to his French friend as he reined in the horses on the carriage in which they had been following David Ashford. “I was beginnin’ to think we was never goin’ to find ’im off alone.”