Chapter 29
Everyone gathered in the hall when Greg and Hermy arrived to pick up Arnold, Hannah, and their children.
“I’m so sorry I can’t come.” Fave gave Greg a warm hug, as if he was going to miss his brother’s wedding.
Gustav hooked arms with Eve. “Nagy froze our accounts. The Klonimuses, too.”
“That’s why we need to go now and end the nonsense,” Greg said.
Hermy nodded. “As Earl, Greg can have more sway in parliament and finally guarantee equality.”
“There’s no true equality,” Eve said. “Can you imagine if Jewish men obtained a vote?”
“Or women!” Lizzie sputtered a laugh and then grimaced as the tears rolled down her cheeks. “But we wish you all the best, Greg.” Her voice wobbled, and Caleb wrapped his around her.
“No proverbs for me today?” Greg asked as Lizzie wiped a tear from her face.
“May your road be smooth and your burden light.” She wiped another tear from her rosy cheeks.
“Thank you, Lizzie.” Greg’s voice cracked, too. “Thank you all for everything you’ve done.”
“It’s not enough, son. We shouldn’t leave you alone now,” Gustav said.
Eve produced a small embroidered handkerchief from her sleeve and patted her cheeks. “I will never forgive myself if I miss your wedding. But if haste requires you to seek a local clergyman, know that my heart is with you.”
“We’ll be there.” Hannah shifted little Izaac from her left arm to the right.
Arnold had Elke in his arms, wrapped in a quilted blanket.
***
About four hours later, Willowby Park came into view.
People emerged from the front and side doors, walking along the cobblestone path toward the carriage.
“Who’s that?” Arnold asked.
“The butler.” Hermy leaned out of the window.
The man cast her a piercing look as if he could brandish her with a curse, pushed his felt hat lower over his forehead, and walked past the carriage.
Hermy was in shock. “That’s the footman, and my lady’s maid. Johanna!”
“Lady Ellsworth.” Johanna stopped and set her bag on the grass next to the cobblestone path. “How c?—”
“Let’s go.” The second footman, Charles, picked up her bag and pulled her away. He saw Hermy but turned away as if the butler had branded her as unworthy.
The kitchen maid, the stable boys, the cook, and even the coachman followed them. “They’re all leaving.”
“And they are upset.” Greg signaled to the other carriage, where Arnold nodded.
“Something’s terribly wrong.” Hermy folded her hands then unfolded them, looked out the window, then retreated and pressed her back against the carriage backrest.
Inside,the solicitor held a ledger and took notes with Hermy’s father’s onyx fountain pen that he’d kept in a mahogany box.
“This is a collectible piece, not an item for daily use.” Hermy barely contained the outrage threatening to spill forth.
Someone spoke from the adjoining study. “Make sure to note the ivory sculpture on the mantel and the Chinese porcelain—oh!”
“List?” Greg said.
Arnold stepped in and set his son, Izaac, down.
“What a grand staircase!” The little boy ran up and then down on the other side. “It has two sides!”
Hermy wanted to welcome her friends and show them her home, but it was under siege. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Inventory.” List turned to the solicitor. “I counted fifty-four chandeliers, where are the other two?”
“There are pairs over each of the smaller bedrooms, did you count them as one?” the solicitor said.
“Are you here for the pickup?” a tall man asked, seemingly busy dissolving the estate.
The other manwho came out of the study was impeccably dressed and about ten years older than Greg.
“Who are you?” Hermy asked.
“Lord David Chanteroy.”
Hermy stiffened.
“And you are?”
“Lady Hermione Ellsworth.”
“If you’ve come for your dowry, it’s been entailed,” List said.
“I beg your pardon?” Hermy blinked.
“You’re here to claim the title, are you not?” David asked.
“He is,” List went to David’s side and gave him a strong pat on the back, then massaged his shoulder.
The young man flinched and stepped aside. “I’ve come for the title, but not that of the Earl.” His eyes locked with List.
“I heard that Lady Hermy’s guardian is Baron Gregory Stone.”
“That’s me,” Greg said.
“The Black Knight,” the man said in awe. “I’ve long waited for a chance to play you.”
“Play me?”
“You see, the young gentleman here has gambled away his rights,” List said with a self-indulgent grin. “To me.”
“Which rights?”
“The inheritance. His claim to the Earldom and the heiress.”
“Did you sidestep English law to get to me, List?” Greg asked.
List’s icy blue eyes lightened even further, making his face look hollow as his pupils shrank to tiny dots of black. But there was no hiding his dark soul. “Or did you lose to him and this is your revanche?” List wasn’t merely trying to stop Hermy and Greg’s union, he wanted the earldom for himself. And Sofia was ready to spread the word that she’d be a Duchess then. It all made sense now and why she’d informed the newspapers.
“Must I remind you that conspiring against a Peer of the Realm is an offense?” Greg said.
“You need not remind me, it’s none of my concern. His fortune has nothing to do with me,” List spoke in a stronger German accent than usual. He was nervous.
“And yet, you swooped right in to seize the only man with a claim on an Earldom?” Arnold took a wide stance next to Greg.
List shrugged.
“At the ideal and opportune moment,” Arnold added. “When Greg’s engagement announcement was in all the newspapers in Town.”
List tilted his head.
“Why the inventory then?” Hermy ventured.
“I lost it to him,” David said.
“You don’t even have it yet. The laws of abeyance set it aside until I marry,” Hermy said as she took the paper from the solicitor.
“The deadline ends tomorrow,” List sputtered. “But now that you’re here, there won’t be time to manage a wedding before the Fristende… I just cannot remember the correct word for it in English.”
Arnold narrowed his eyes. “You set a trap.” The residency complication had been a decoy to lure Greg and Hermy away from the Archbishop, so it would take longer to marry and List had time to secure his alleged claim to the earldom. Ever the cunning strategist, List had thought of everything.
“You are all the same, baptized Jews or not. I hung a piece of cheese out and the vermin storm the fortress.”
David nodded. “He did predict you’d follow, like the Pied Piper.”
“Who did you call a rat?” Greg shouted, balling a fist.
“Nobody, Baron. It was you who felt addressed by the insult.” List smiled venomously.
“It’s his Jewish blood; it’ll soil his line forever,” David said. “You were right, it’s best to split the earldom from the heiress.”
Arnold seethed in the background, but Greg stepped forward before Arnold could speak. “How dare you insult me and my friends in my fiancée’s home?”
“It’s not her home anymore,” the solicitor said. “A woman like her has no claim.”
“How noble, Baron, to try to marry your mistress. I heard you’d make such an attempt, but I’ve made other arrangements,” List said.
“What arrangements?” Hermy took a wide stance but crossed her arms and hugged herself. She stood far from Greg, and he saw her as a deer cornered on a dog hunt.
“I suggested sending her to a convent. They say ice baths and daily lessons in propriety shall cure her soul,” David said.
“What?” Arnold stepped forward. “I’m her appointed guardian, and I won’t allow it.”
Hermy cast him a hopeful look.
“She comes with the Earldom, but I want to marry another,” David said. “And it’s another title I want.”
“So another has to step in.” List snapped like a hungry dog catching a treat in the air.
Hermy moved her lips as if to speak but no words came out.
“You want to marry another and have her ladyship declared an imbecile so that you can take over the Earldom?” Greg asked David.
“No, I—” but David didn’t finish.
“He’s lost it all to me already,” List said. “But you can keep the girl, I have my baroness already.”