25. Chapter 25
Javenia stared at the fire, still unable to find the will to do much more than dress for the day. A knock sounded, and Nessa peeked in.
“You have a visitor.”
She looked up. “Tell them I am not at home to visitors.”
The door pushed open and Livy walked in without invitation, Melior close on her heels. “That is unfortunate.” She turned back to Nessa. “You heard her. If there are any visitors, you must turn them away. Thankfully, we are family.”
Tears filled Javenia’s eyes, spilling over in torrents. She should have known Livy and Melior would not desert her in her time of need.
Melior rushed over and threw her arms around Javenia’s shoulders, holding her from behind. Javenia shook with her sobs, but Melior held her upright. Livy knelt before her and laid a gentle hand over hers.
No one said anything. The two women just waited for Javenia’s tears to run their course.
Finally, after several harsh pain-filled cries, the load she had carried the last four days eased, leaving a welcome weariness.
Better to be exhausted than to feel the world press down on her like an elephant’s foot.
“We came right away when the news reached Maidstone.” Melior sat across from her.
Javenia wrapped her arms about herself. “So it is done, then. All of England knows I am ruined?”
Livy stood. “Nonsense. Now that Lord Roberts is dead, Al will not wait another moment before making you his wife.”
Javenia bolted to her feet. The whole elephant sat on her chest causing an ache so deep she could hardly draw breath. “Lord Roberts is dead?” A new wave of tears, ones filled with blinding guilt, streamed down her cheeks. “I killed Lord Roberts? Algenon is going to hate me.”
Melior intercepted her as she paced, pulling her into her arms. “Javenia, you did no such thing. Lord Roberts has had headaches for years, according to my mother-in-law. It was only a matter of time.”
The news still didn’t calm Javenia’s mind.
She’d once wished the man dead, and now it had happened.
Whether by providence or fate, it seemed cruel.
She burrowed her face into Melior’s shoulder, grateful for her greater height.
Melior tightened her hold, the slight rounding of her middle protruding against Javenia’s stomach.
She pushed away and peered into Melior’s eyes. “You shouldn’t be up. You should be home taking care of yourself, not here consoling me.” She turned to encompass both women. “Both of you should be resting. I know how much you both want these children, and the struggles you’ve had.”
The left side of Livy’s mouth quirked up. “We are not wilting flowers, Javenia. A gentle carriage ride to comfort a friend will not change our fates. Either these babies will be born healthy, or they will not. It is all in God’s hands, as Nate’s mother is wont to say.”
Javenia smiled through her tears. “The Dowager Lady Stanford is a wise woman.”
Melior sat down. “Yes, she is. But do not let her hear you call her dowager. She detests the title. Says it makes her sound old, something she refuses to be even if she’s confined to a bed.
” She shook her head. “I never thought Lord Roberts would go before Mama. It only goes to show what a will of iron she has.”
Javenia tried to return Melior’s smile, but her lips quivered. “He would probably still be alive if Algenon and I had not been caught kissing in a fountain, our clothes drenched like drowned rats. The shock sent him into a fit of apoplexy.”
The fire popped in the grate, and the three women glanced at it. The cold of December had finally swooped in to remind them that winter was underway.
“At least it was not the peak of the season,” Livy said. “There were far fewer people in attendance than would have been in April or May.”
Melior leaned forward in her chair, a sparkle twinkling in her cobalt blue eyes. “But it would have been freezing. You might have caught your death, Javenia. It only seems fair that Al should keep you warm.”
A snicker burst from Livy, and Javenia couldn’t help but smile.
“If only Mrs. Cline and Lady Plum hadn’t led his father and Lord Falcross out to where we were, we might have been able to explain the mishap away.
” She sighed and slumped into her chair.
“Now I am no better than Miss Giles when she tried to trap him into a marriage.”
“You cannot truly believe that,” Livy said. “Algenon has loved you ever since—” she suddenly stopped, her gaze flitting to Melior. Her pert nose scrunched up. “Never mind.”
Javenia sat up straight. “No, tell me. You cannot lead with that and then leave me to wonder.”
Livy cleared her throat. “Since Penwick.” She pointedly raised her eyebrows, her gaze flitting again to Melior.
Javenia searched her memories, trying to think what she might have divulged to Livy without thinking. Perhaps she referred to their courtship only, which most of Society knew about, but her pointed looks and inflections led Javenia to think she knew more than she wanted to say in front of Melior.
Out of the corner of her eye, Melior shifted, her brow furrowed and her gaze flitting between the two of them. “Are you keeping secrets?”
Javenia swallowed hard. What did it matter now? Even without divulging her past, she was ruined.
“What do you know, Livy?” Javenia pinned her with a stare.
Livy tucked her chin and fidgeted with her gloves. “Do you really want to discuss this right now?”
Javenia sucked in a deep breath. Her friend knew everything. How, she did not know. Had Algenon really broken her trust and told Eddie? The one person who had twitted them for years? Her skin prickled and her hands fisted. She’d trusted him, but it seemed her secret wasn’t so secret after all.
She turned to Melior. “Lord Penwick took advantage of my naivety and tried to—” She couldn’t complete the sentence.
A vibration started in her chest growing ever stronger the longer she tried.
She shivered like the room around her was freezing cold, but it wasn’t.
No matter how many times she repeated the story, she didn’t think she could ever say the words outright.
“Force you?” Melior said softly.
Javenia ducked her head. “Yes.” Then she speared Livy with a look. “But I am not sure how you found out. I swore Algenon to secrecy after he saved me. Did he tell Eddie?”
Livy fiercely shook her head. “No, no. Penwick himself was the culprit. He bragged about deflowering ladies and said if it weren’t for Al he’d have had one more to add to his collection. It was not hard to decipher who that one more might be.”
Javenia’s stomach turned over. Swiftly she retrieved a linen and gagged into it, her body trembling. When the nausea had passed, she pinched her gown between her fingers and rubbed the cloth.
“Why would he say…” She paused and stared at Livy, her eyes growing wide as the truth sank in. “Did he try…?” She couldn’t say it. It was too terrible to think about.
“Several times.” Livy quirked an eyebrow. “Poor man. He should know better than to cross a heavily armed female.”
Melior guffawed. “You did not threaten a lord.”
“I did, and I would do it again if the abominable man was still alive. Only this time, I would make certain he could never threaten another woman again. Thankfully, he had the decency to die and leave the rest of us to live our lives in peace.”
Javenia’s fingers relaxed. She was safe. Duncan was gone, but so was Lord Roberts. The turn in her thoughts brought back the pain.
“Either way, I am still ruined. Lord Roberts himself apparently stumbled onto the situation and then used it to keep Algenon from ever offering for me.”
“The selfish widgeon,” Livy muttered.
Melior leaned back and rubbed a hand over her slightly protruding belly. “I agree. Algenon could have easily married you years ago and no one would have been the wiser. As a married woman, the damage to your reputation would have been minimal.”
“Yes, but it would have still caused harm to Lord Roberts’s connections, and by extension Algenon’s. He might have received the cut direct for marrying a fallen woman.”
A snort from Livy surprised them. “Which no one would know if Lord Roberts kept his mouth shut. If he really didn’t want you to marry his son, why not divulge the truth and be done with it?
Algenon had already threatened Lord Penwick with ruin if he told anyone, so he was not a threat.
It seems strange that he would keep a secret that could remove you from Society and his son’s life completely. ”
Javenia ran a hand over the back of her neck, catching a stray curl and winding it about her finger. Lord Roberts could have exposed her at any time, but he hadn’t. Why not?
Melior spoke up. “I don’t think he ever intended to use it.
He is too much a gentleman.” She cleared her throat and dropped her gaze to her lap.
“Or was. It is going to be strange thinking of him in the past tense. But look at the way he cared for his daughters. Why would a man who doted upon them, allowed them any interaction they wish, even with his enemies’ daughters, stoop to ruin a woman’s reputation?
It goes against everything in his nature. ”
“So it was an empty threat?” Javenia asked, but she knew the answer for herself.
Lord Roberts had never intended to ruin her. He only wished to protect his son.
Algenon slipped the black armband around his sleeve and stared at it. It had been a week since his father’s death and he still could not believe it.
He paused.
Not his father. His uncle.
The man who had raised him and had given him every chance at life was not his father. The realization stung.
He’d spent the last few days reading his journals, hardly sleeping and eating only enough to sustain himself.
His mother had been infatuated with Mr. Solomon Roberts since girlhood, so when he’d promised to take her to Scotland and marry her at the house party in Westmoreland, she’d believed him.
Weeks later, Solomon had died, and she was left to fend for herself.
Pages of his uncle’s journals were filled with how much he admired Miss Angela Stone, but she did not see him. Only his brother. So when she’d come to him, frightened for her future and fearful of Algenon’s grandfather’s disbelief or wrath, David had married her.
Algenon picked up his mother’s gold opal ring and slipped it on his pinky. All these years, his uncle had been frightened that someone would find out and he’d not have an heir. No wonder he’d been consumed with having a second son.
First son, Algenon amended.
He was not Lord David Roberts’s son. He was the illegitimate child of Mr. Solomon Roberts. The thought made him sick.
Even worse, Lord Falcross knew, thanks to Lord Roberts getting too deep into his cups while playing cards. Cards always had been his fa—uncle’s downfall.
What now?
According to his uncle’s journals, Lord Falcross had brokered a deal. Algenon would marry his disgraced daughter, and Phillipa would marry Lord Rupert in exchange for his silence.
Phillipa, he could understand. She was pretty and had a decent dowry, but why him? He was a nobody. A risk to Lord Falcross.
He slipped on his two other gold rings and looked at himself in the mirror. The same face with hazel eyes and a sharp jaw stared back. Only now, it felt foreign. Who was he without the title he’d now inherited?
Then his eyes widened, and a bitter tang sat on his tongue.
That was it. Lord Falcross wanted his title.
He could control him with such a secret, determine how he voted in the House of Lords, who he entertained, even how he spent the ample wealth he and his father had amassed. He would simply be a pawn to him.
His jaw tightened and his fingers curled. Algenon had been a pawn his whole life. A placeholder for the son his uncle wished to have. Would he spend the rest of his life being someone else’s plaything?
He hung his head. What else could he do? If he told the world the truth, he’d have nothing. Not even the cottage left to him by his mother’s father. Only legitimate heirs could inherit. As far as the world knew, he was Lord Roberts’s son, and he would go on acting as such.
A knock on his bedroom door announced the arrival of the footman who would carry his trunks to the coach. He bid them enter and left them to their work.
Lady Roberts had not fared well after his uncle’s death, looking far more ill than she had in the weeks before. This morning at breakfast he’d asked to send for the doctor, as he had for days, but she’d insisted again that she’d wait to see their physician in the country.
Her reality had been shattered. He could not blame her for wanting to wait until she could see someone she was comfortable with.
His heart stuttered. He wanted to see someone who comforted him as well. But would she want to see him? He’d ruined everything. Actually, everything had been ruined since the moment of his birth.
However much it hurt, he would tell Javenia the truth.
She deserved to know why he could not offer for her and why he was bound to the contract Lord Falcross had drawn up with his father.
His sisters’ futures hung in the balance.
Without him, who would the title fall to?
He didn’t even know. The next man could be even more terrible than Falcross.
But what of Phillipa? How could he ask her to face such a fate?
He couldn’t. So he prayed his sacrifice would be enough.