The Unscrupulous Uncle (21 page)

She had been too distraught to attend its reading, having learned of Peter’s death only that morning. She knew the provisions, of course. Uncle Henry had explained them a month later. After grants to several servants, the remainder went to the next baron – not that there was much to leave.

Why would Damon obtain a copy? There was nothing unusual about the document. Peter had died two days before their father, so his own will would not have affected the estate.

She scanned it, frowning over the arcane language solicitors seemed to love, but found nothing odd. A dowry was mentioned, but the money would have come from general funds. If those had been lost, her dowry would also have disappeared. Everything was exactly as she had expected.

Turning to the last page, she gasped, for it was a codicil dated two days after Peter and Damon had left to join their regiment. As she read the words, she could see her father furiously pacing the floor, anger and pain harshening his voice. For the entire two months before his own death he had ranted at Peter’s ingratitude, his stubbornness, and his disregard of duty and common sense. The thirteenth baron could not forgive Peter’s figurative slap in the face. Putting his life on the line was irresponsible, unfilial, and disrespectful, for Lord Braxton had already forbidden it.

The codicil made those points again, in excruciating detail, then declared his punishment. I hereby bequeath the estate known as Ridgway House, along with its contents and attached farms, the London house at number 17 Curzon Street, and the sum of one hundred thousand pounds to my daughter, Catherine Anne Braxton, to be held in trust until the advent of her marriage. Here he included a diatribe belittling the ability of women to understand financial affairs, citing the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope as a prime example of the stupidity of allowing females any control of their fortunes. The trust would be administered by his solicitor, Mr. Adams, and by his brother, Henry Braxton. Her father concluded, if Catherine remains unwed at the age of five-and-twenty, the trust will revert to the fourteenth Baron Braxton.

Catherine stared at the paper as the truth dawned. Mr. Adams had died shortly after reading the will, thus Uncle Henry would have been the sole administrator. He had been right to claim that he had inherited little from his brother. The financial difficulties they had been suffering were real. But if he prevented her from marrying until she turned five-and-twenty, a fortune would be his – a simple matter if she were removed from society.

Shame engulfed her – shame that her uncle could treat her so shabbily; shame that she had been so easily manipulated; but most of all, shame that Damon should discover her family so lacking in honor.

Damon.

Shame immediately converted to rage. She had been naïve indeed to believe that he had married her to rescue her. No wonder he had been in such a hurry. They had wed the day before her birthday. Thus he now controlled Ridgway House and a vast fortune.

It was exactly the wrong time for him to return home.

* * * *

Damon strode furiously up the stairs. Every time he thought he had Catherine’s trust straightened out, he discovered new misdeeds, and today had been no exception. Braxton had sold the Curzon Street house soon after acceding to the title, but the trust records were so confused that it had been difficult to trace the proceeds. Damon had now proven that the baron had diverted the money to his own use.

At least thirty thousand pounds had been missing even before this latest discovery, much of it openly paid to Braxton under the guise of exorbitant trustee’s fees. Adams was lucky he was already dead. If he had lived, Damon might have strangled him for accepting such a sloppily constructed trust. Even if he knew that the codicil was only an angry gesture that would soon be abandoned, his dereliction to duty was inexcusable. Normally a trust would be administered by at least three men, with clearly stated provisions for replacing them. Braxton’s heir should have been excluded from consideration. And all records should have been kept by an experienced man of business.

But it was too late to repine. Catherine would be lucky to recoup half of her inheritance. He had already noted the mismanagement that had allowed Ridgway to slide into disrepair. It would take years of effort and a considerable infusion of cash before full productivity was restored.

He slammed into the library and stopped dead. Catherine was sitting at his desk, the codicil held in shaking hands.

“What a despicable blackguard you are,” she spat.

“What?” Caught by surprise, he could hardly believe his ears.

“I despise fortune hunters.”

“What are you talking about?” He dropped a packet of papers onto the desk before turning puzzled eyes to his wife.

“I am not stupid, Damon.” Her voice rose. “You had no interest in marrying me until you discovered Father’s will. But a fortune this large is hard to resist, isn’t it?”

“It wasn’t that way at all,” he protested, thrown off balance by the charge. “Yes, we had to wed before that codicil expired, but only to protect you. Your uncle has been cheating you for years – nearly half of your legacy is missing – and I could not allow him to get away with it all.”

“Of course not,” she agreed scathingly, standing to glare at him across the desktop. “It was better to take it for yourself.”

“Nonsense! I have no need of your fortune. My own is far bigger. But I cannot stand cheats.”

“Considering that you didn’t bother to tell me anything, I can only believe that you are also a cheat.” She whirled away to look out the window.

“Don’t you know me better than that?”

She glanced over her shoulder, tears visible in her eyes. “I don’t know you at all, Damon. You’ve changed, and not for the better. The boy I played with and the idealistic young man you grew into would never have behaved so selfishly. It was bad enough knowing that you only married me because of some idiotic promise you made to Peter. But even that did not inspire you to the altar until you discovered that I was also an heiress.”

She might as well have kicked him in the stomach. “Devil take it, Cat, you are becoming hysterical. Enough of this fustian. We will talk when you are calmer.” His own temper near the explosion point, he turned his back, busying himself with lining up books on a shelf.

“I am not hysterical,” she countered. “Postponing the truth will not change it.”

“What truth? I never promised Peter to marry you.”

“So you are a liar as well as a cheat,” she sneered, circling in front of him so he had to look at her. “You admitted your vow to Colonel Caldwell.”

“If you have been eavesdropping on my private conversations, then you should also know how guilty I feel for not checking up on you years ago.”

“Why should I? I don’t eavesdrop, as you would know if you remember anything about me. I only heard that one comment. If you are going to reveal secrets, you should not shout.”

He took a turn about the room. It was only to be expected that she was upset. He had planned to discuss the trust with her as soon as he knew the full extent of her uncle’s defalcations, but this was not the way he had pictured the disclosure.

“You are making a mountain out of a molehill,” he said soothingly. “I would have told you sooner, but I have been too busy trying to find out how much your uncle stole.”

“I am sure you have,” she agreed, crossing her arms, her icy eyes freezing his thoughts. “What a shame if you gave up the marriage you wanted only to discover that the fortune you wed me for was gone.”

“What?” His mind was again reeling. Surely she could not know about his courtship of Hermione.

“Did you think that people would protect me from your perfidy?” Her incredulity taunted him, for he had believed just that. “Any number of them, starting with Lady Hermione herself, have been eager to tell me about it. Your behavior is unworthy of the great war hero, Damon. I always believed that you were honorable. It is chilling to discover that you could discard even that in pursuit of a fortune.”

“How dare you?” he snapped, grabbing her arm as his temper shattered. “How dare you impugn my honor?”

“So self-righteous!” She batted his hand aside, glaring into his eyes. “I do not hang on your every word like my idiot cousins. Nor can I ignore facts. You made a vow to Peter, yet did nothing to carry it out. You were often back in England, yet made no attempt to see me. You courted another, leading all of society to expect a betrothal until you discovered that I am an heiress. Then you jilted her to rush me into marriage, promptly abandoning me to dance attendance on her again. Don’t you dare speak to me of honor and good intentions when any imbecile can see the truth!”

“I do dare, Cat!” he spat, holding her in place when she tried to turn away. Tears were streaming down her face, but he ignored them. “You have concocted a pretty tale out of half-truths and ignorance. Shall I judge you the same way? What am I to believe when the town buzzes with tales of your own dishonor?” Fury made his voice shake.

“How quick you are to believe spiteful insinuations, my lord,” she observed coldly. “Is that how you justify your behavior?”

“Are they spite?” he asked softly. “You manage to create scandal every time you leave this house.”

“I have done nothing of which I need be ashamed. Can you say the same?”

“I have to live in this town,” he reminded her, ignoring the question. “That will be difficult if my wife is not received. Your only chance of improving your credit is to embrace propriety, starting with cutting all connection to Rathbone.”

Twisting from his grasp, she whirled out of reach. “How dare you! I’ll not cut one of the few people trying to help me.”

“Help you? Into his bed, perhaps. The man is incorrigible, as you would know if you had any sense. And Lord James is no better. He does not care a whit for you. His attentions are merely a ploy to embarrass me. Quit making a cake of yourself and threatening both of us.”

“Stop it, Damon!” Her foot stomped.

“Now you sound like a spoiled child,” he charged. “I refuse to continue this discussion until you come to your senses.”

“Isn’t that too bad! You should have thought a little harder before you chose money over affection. After everything you have done to me, what you want is irrelevant.”

“Think, Catherine! Once your reputation is gone, you will never recover it.”

“Listen to the omnipotent lord! The great, infallible earl! You might consider your own advice, Damon. I’m not the only one who notices how you drool over Lady Hermione.” She turned to leave, but his voice stopped her before she could escape.

“Hermione at least is a lady. What am I to call you? More than one person saw you emerge from the Dark Walk that night.” Icy contempt dripped from every word.

She had no idea who had seen her, but she was too furious to hold her tongue. “I suppose Hermione was there and immediately ran to you with the tale. And you believed her embellishments, as usual. It never occurred to you to wonder how I fared after you abandoned me to fate. But then listening to her malice is so much easier than thinking for yourself. Too bad you didn’t stay with your original plans, Damon. Frankly, you deserve each other, for you are two of a kind – secretive, manipulative, and totally selfish. Neither of you cares a jot for anyone, and you revel in hurting people! You have done more to destroy me than Sidney and Hermione combined.” Tears brimmed over and she stumbled from the room, slamming the door behind her.

Damon poured a generous glass of brandy and tossed it down. Things could not possibly get any worse.
Promise me … look after Catherine
. His honor had taken such a beating he doubted it could recover. She was half right. He had hurt her more than the Braxtons had. And he had harmed Hermione almost as much.

Where had he gone wrong?

He poured another drink. What a stupid question! Every decision since Vimeiro had been bad. He had not checked on her welfare after the accident despite being in England a score of times – for several months, he had been a courier between Wellington and the government. He shuddered at the memory of how he had coerced her into marriage. She had been exhausted, frightened, and cold. He had picked her up – as he had done so often in her childhood – dusted her off, soothed her fears, and demanded that she marry him. When she hesitated, he had pushed harder, lying instead of explaining. Before she had even had a chance to think, the deed had been done.

He should at least have prepared her for town. London dowagers were ruthless. And they loved scandal. Of course they would have informed Catherine about his courtship. He had been in the army too long to remember that.

But what could he have told her?
I am marrying you despite leading another lady to expect my offer last week.
The facts were too damning. And his treatment of Hermione was dishonorable. Knowing that, Catherine would never believe his protestations that her fortune was unimportant. He intended to put the bulk of it in trust for her, but there was little he could do to convince her that it had been his intention from the first.

Sighing, he downed another brandy and wearily massaged his temples. What had she been doing in the Dark Walk? She blamed it on him and claimed Rathbone was helping her. Neither assertion made sense, but Cat never embellished the truth. There must be something he didn’t know.

Sidney Braxton frowned at the letter in his hand. It was from his mother, which was bad enough, for the woman always sent very long missives crammed with complaints and admonitions. This one was so thick she must be furious.

He broke the seal and moved closer to the lamp, trying to decipher her crabbed writing. As his eye skipped down the page, curses filled the air.

Codicil … Ridgway House to Catherine … must come home immediately … father disappeared … Devlin demanding we retire to Braxton Manor … do something, Sidney… She continued through four crossed and recrossed pages, but he gave up squinting to make out her words. The disaster was worse than he had imagined.

Damn Catherine!

Chapter Fourteen