The Forgiven Duke (A Forgotten Castles Novel) (3 page)

Alex stood at the rail soaking in the lonely scene despite her body’s shivering inside her red cape. They had been at sea a little over a week now, seen the land and the birds slip away into unending wind and water, salt-laden air scented by fish of all shapes and sizes. They traveled northwest toward Iceland’s shore, a journey that could take as much as three weeks, but according to Captain O’Mally would take closer to two if they didn’t run into any trouble.

Thinking of trouble at sea brought a memory to mind. She had been around twelve years old and her parents had been gone for a very long time. Every day she went to the ruins of the monastery, knelt where she imagined the altar had been, and prayed for their safe return. One day a small ship appeared on the horizon. Alex watched it come closer and closer and then, seeing her parents on board, she ran to meet them.

But her mother was gravely ill and her father barely said a word to Alex, so worried about his wife. Alex remembered how he’d picked up her mother and carried her across the beach toward the castle. She’d looked so thin and pale that Alex just stood and stared, more afraid than she’d ever been.

“Alexandria, run ahead and open the door. Mother needs to lie down and then I’m going to need you to run and fetch the doctor.”

Alex shook herself out of her trance, running barefoot and terrified across the pebbled beach to obey. She followed her father inside. “What happened? Is she sick?”

Her father walked up the narrow stairs, turning sideways to make the turn. “Get the doctor, Alexandria. I will tell you what happened after we have done everything we can for your mother.”

The sharp words were so uncommon from her father, and the hollow look in her mother’s eyes so unnatural that tears burned from behind Alex’s eyes.

With a pounding heart, she ran back outside and into the village. They hadn’t a real doctor on the island; he was across the causeway in Beal, and the causeway was only traversable twice a day when the tide went out. She didn’t want to wait that long, so she ran as fast as her bare feet could take her to Margaret Henry’s house, a midwife and known for her herbal remedies. It turned out to be a very good thing as her mother was suffering from a severe inflammation of the lungs. The midwife made an awful-smelling herbal plaster of camphor and stinkweed, then instructed them to keep it on her mother’s chest day and night until her wheezing eased and color came back.

Alex hadn’t known such depths of relief as she felt when her mother slowly recovered. Her father finally told her the story of the shipwreck they’d had coming back from South America where they had been hired to find an ancient Incan silver mine. They’d been rescued at sea by another ship but not before her mother had nearly drowned.

Alex shivered now as she looked at the cold, harsh sea. She would not want to be floating in its icy depths, clinging to a stick of wood and hoping the sharks and all sorts of sea creatures wouldn’t think her toes worthy to nibble on. But her mother hadn’t let the fear of it happening again take hold of her as Alex half hoped she would. No, Katherine and Ian had left again as soon as she recovered, on another mission of missing antiquities. And Alex had prayed again for their safety, alone and bereft but determined not to mind too much. It was a pattern that had repeated itself over and over until now.

Now she was going after them, and what she might say when she found them she didn’t know, but she felt it building and burning in her chest. Like a volcano waking up and stirring to life. She felt she might explode if she found them safe and well and was a little afraid of what was coming.

Dear God, forgive me for my selfishness. I do want to find them safe and well. But why couldn’t they be ordinary people? Why did You put me with them when they don’t even seem to care?

There was no answer to the questions, though she’d asked them many times before. She supposed God wanted her to be thankful for her life and to stop feeling sorry for herself. There were many poor and destitute, the plight of slaves and hungry children, the abused and the sick. She had plenty to be thankful for, but the hole in her heart was there nonetheless and she couldn’t seem to find a way to fill it.

Alex sighed and turned away from the scene. She would go down to the cabin and find John. He always made her laugh.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, JOHN?”
Alex stood inside the cabin, having just opened the door, shock filling her to see John leaning over the room’s small desk, her letters from the duke scattered across it in a picture of frantic disarray.

John reared up and turned toward her. “I, ah, knocked the stack on the floor and was trying to put them back together again.”

It was a blatant lie and they both knew it. Alex had a choice. She could pretend to believe him and brush the issue under the proverbial carpet or continue her interrogation. She found she wasn’t ready to decide quite yet. She walked over to the desk and picked up the letter that was spread open, the one he had been reading.

John backed away with a wary expression. She held it up, noting to herself the date and that it was the first letter she’d received from her guardian. She read aloud in a clipped and angry voice:

10 September 1818

From the office of the Duke of St. Easton, His Grace, Gabriel Ravenwood

Madam,

I deeply regret the cause of our recent introduction and am as surprised as you must be at our ancestral tie. Upon the prince regent’s order, I have spent considerable time investigating the claim of your parents’ deaths and their current estate. (Do not ever put in writing again what you wrote about our most-honored monarch, do you understand me?) I have been astounded on both accounts. Firstly, your parents have had no contact with anyone known to us in nearly a year. Does this not surprise you? You mention your lack of faith that they are deceased, and I am sure it is difficult news to accept, but a year is a very long time to have someone’s relatives come up missing. Please advise if there is something you know that I do not. In the meantime, I think it wise to continue as the regent deems appropriate with my taking charge of your estate and well-being.

This brings me to the other surprise of my brief investigation into the Featherstone affairs. It would appear that your parents have been hiding, hoarding perhaps, a very large fortune. I tell you this only in the vein of protecting you from fortune hunters should the news come out. You, my dear Lady Featherstone, are the sole heir to lands and moneys that I must confess nearly equal my own. And my dear, I am among the wealthiest of Englishmen at this time. Do be careful.

She paused there and looked up at John. “Should I be careful, John?”

His face turned a shade darker in the dim light. “Of course not. But why didn’t you tell me? If we’re to be married, I won’t have you keeping secrets from me.”

“I hadn’t planned to.” Alex arched a brow at him and waited for further explanation.

“Alex, love.” His mouth turned down in a pout. “It’s as I said and innocent. I dropped the pile and then . . . was curious, I admit. Your relationship with your guardian seems a little intimate and I–I was jealous.” He took the necessary steps to reach her and grasped hold of her hands, bringing them to his chest. “Imagine if I had a pile of letters from some rich and powerful duchess. You’d be curious at least, wouldn’t you?”

He traced the curve of her jaw with a gentle caress. Alex breathed in and then expelled it in a rush. He was right. She would want to know what those letters said. “I’m sorry. I thought for a moment you were a fortune hunter like the duke warned me against.” She laughed and leaned into his chest a little, thinking how good he looked and how he made her feel so many new feelings all at once. “But you don’t need my fortune, do you?”

John cupped her cheeks and pressed a light kiss to her lips. “What if I did?” he murmured against her cheek.

Alex reared back. “Are you in financial difficulty? Tell me now if you are. As you say, if we are to be married there shouldn’t be any secrets between us.”

“The truth?” His blond brows rose and the blue of his eyes deepened. “I haven’t told anyone the whole truth of it, not even Uncle Montague.”

“You can tell me.” If her fortune could help the man she loved, then why not? It wasn’t as if she had any idea what to do with so much money.

“Well, it’s a sad story to be sure, but not uncommon. My father hadn’t any knack for estate management and mortgaged the Lemon land to the hilt until he finally had to sell. He left me with the title and a mound of debt, debt I’ve worked hard at trying to pay off. I had a little money from my mother’s side and invested it carefully.” He looked aside and sighed. “It’s been a struggle, I can tell you. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, keeping up appearances so I can travel in the right circles to have the opportunities I need and well, doing whatever I can to maintain a decent living in Dublin. I kept telling myself to marry for money, but I just couldn’t seem to do it.”

He gripped her upper arms and looked hard down at her. “Alex. When I met you I didn’t care if you had two shillings to rub together. You have to believe that. And the way you needed to go to the bank and dip into the duke’s funds, I didn’t think you did! But I knew. I just knew I loved you and wanted you for my wife. The fact that you have this vast fortune? I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t make me happy. It makes me breathe easier for the first time in my life. But
know
.” He shook her just a little and glanced at the ceiling as if for help to explain it. “Never doubt that I loved you and wanted you before I discovered this. I’m
glad
I didn’t know.”

“Oh, John.” Alex wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him to her. In a fierce whisper she added, “I am glad you didn’t know at first, for now I’ll never doubt your love. But I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I suppose we’re rich.”

John chuckled and squeezed her against him.

Alex leaned back against his encircling arms and looked into his eyes. “It comes at such a cost, though. If I think of that money, an inheritance, then I have to think my parents are gone. And you know I cannot believe that. I won’t believe it until I see their faces. I’ll have their graves dug up if they exist. I’ll not accept it until I see them for myself. Do you understand?”

John brought her close again and grasped the back of her head underneath her hair. “Of course. We won’t speak of it again. Just know I love you and I will do anything to make you happy. We’ll find them and God willing, we
will
find them alive.”

It was all she needed to hear. It was the only thing that mattered to her. “Thank you, John.” She didn’t say she loved him. She felt shy about those words, like they were butterflies around her heart, just birthed from their cocoon, still testing and trying their damp wings, still seeing the big, wide world for the first time and trying to make sense out of it all.

A sudden dip and then a jarring motion caused Alex to sway toward the post of the beds. She clung to it, looking at John in alarm. “What was that?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know but it didn’t sound good. Let’s go up and find out.”

They threw on their wraps and made their way to the deck where other passengers where rushing to the lee side of the railing, pointing and babbling at the same time. The chilly wind blew so hard across the deck that a shiver rushed through her body. Alex pushed her way to the front and saw the reason for all the excitement. A huge chunk of bluish white ice floated right next to the hull of the ship. “Did we hit it?” she asked anyone who would answer.

“That we did, miss,” a sailor responded, pointing. “Look at the end there, it’s calving off.” A creaking sound and then a big splash sent a spray of freezing water droplets into their faces.

“Oh, my. Did it damage the ship?”

“Naw. That there is a bergy bit, not a real iceberg. Our ship shook it up good though. It will probably break into pieces and then float off toward warmer waters where it’ll melt. No harm done. It’s pretty, though, don’t you think?”

John had finally wrangled his way to her side and frowned at the sailor speaking to her. Alex nodded. She was able to admire it now that she knew it hadn’t damaged the ship. “It’s so blue. It looks like a crystal from some enchanted land. Isn’t it beautiful, John?”

“It is something to see. But it didn’t seem wise to hit it. I hope this captain knows what he is doing.”

“Oh, he knows sailing. Don’t you be frettin’ over that.” The sailor stood up straighter. “Captain O’Mally has been captaining this brig for ten and some years, and he ain’t never had a shipwreck.”

“That’s a comfort.” Another thing to be thankful for. If there was one thing she was certain of, it was that God was watching out for her on this journey. She looked at John and smiled at him.

Thank You, God, for John.

Chapter Four

B
aylor crossed his arms over his massive chest and clamped his lips down. “That’s all I’m sayin’,” his lips clearly said.

Gabriel motioned the hovering serving girl for another pitcher. “Come now, my good man,” he began in a deceptively soft voice, knowing instinctively that he would gain more from Baylor with honey than vinegar. “We want the same things. For Alexandria to be safe and for her parents to be found. You want those things, don’t you?”

Baylor nodded his big, shaggy head, a worried expression wrinkling his brow. “Aye, but she didn’t want anything to do with you. She said you would take her back to London and then she would never be able to search for her parents.”

Meade wrote the words in the speaking book as fast as he could. They’d both come to understand how a conversation could become stymied if it took too long to keep Gabriel up to speed and respond.

“I understand why she thought that. I do. I had told her in one of my letters that the prince regent had ordered me to fetch her back to London. But she wrote me another letter, asking me to join her cause and disobey the regent. Baylor, that is exactly what I had planned to do once I caught up with her. Imagine it. With my connections and wealth, I could hire men to travel with us, investigators and soldiers. I could keep her safe.”