Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Dorian sat patiently, waiting for the arrival of Lord Kenbrook.
He was in the lord’s office, located in central London. The building being used was one which featured dozens of offices rented by various merchants and businessmen, a rather expensive rental at that and beyond what Lord Kenbrook should have been able to afford.
It is all for show, the very reason that Lord Kenbrook has chosen such a location as this. If one is to lie through his teeth and trick those he means to go into business with, he best look the part.
Truly, there was a part of Dorian that could not help but be impressed by the lengths through which Lord Kenbrook had gone to in order to complete the ruse and fool just about every lord in the ton. Such effort… and such joy to be found in tearing it all down.
He sat with his legs kicked up on the table, and a smile found his face when he heard footsteps shuffling down the hallway.
Soon, a shadow appeared in the cracks of the door, a key ratting in the lock, a pause because the door was open, then slowly the whining of the hinges as the door was pushed open.
Lord Kenbrook stood in the open doorway, expression one of utmost shock to find Dorian there waiting for him.
“Your Grace…” Lord Kenbrook hesitated, eyes flicking about nervously. “This is… a surprise.”
“A pleasant one, I hope.”
“That depends on the purpose.” He hesitated further before finally stepping into his office.
Dressed in a large coat, he removed and then hung it from the wall, his brow furrowed tight, a fear flashing behind his eyes.
“If you had sent word ahead that you wished to meet, I would have come sooner. And there was no need to break in like this.”
“I thought to do as much,” Dorian said, still with his feet on the table. “But I figured that surprise was necessary. After all…” A smile stretched across his face. “I did not want to give you a chance to run.”
Lord Kenbrook was halfway across the room when he paused. “Run? I am afraid I don’t understand your meaning…”
“I think you do.”
“No, I don’t.” He firmed his posture and crossed the office, putting himself on the opposite side of the table. “Nor do I know what you are doing here. If you mean to threaten me or… or bully me, I am afraid that you have chosen the wrong man.”
“No threats,” Dorian assured him. “That is really more your style than my own. You see, the thing about threats is that they can be undone. Only as good as their promise, when that falls apart, they are as useful as tits on a bull.”
Lord Kenbrook, now resigned to the duke’s presence, narrowed his eyes and attempted to appear brave.
“If this is concerning your sister and my son, I will not have it. I came to you with an offer, one I had hoped you would consider – that you would see the value in. This theatre is unbecoming and –”
“Ah yes, your offer,” Dorian spoke over him, still casual. “How you meant to blackmail me, you mean.”
“I did not such thing. I merely pointed out that it would be within your best interests. What I heard…” He sighed and shook his head. “It is nobody’s business and I hoped to keep it that way. I was doing you a favor.”
Dorian snorted. “Is that how you see it?”
“A favor that we would both stand to benefit from,” the lord continued. “A marriage between our two families would be to great benefit. Where I was hoping to use the weekend to discuss the reasons why, now if you will allow it…” He raised a questioning eyebrow.
Dorian indicated for him to continue.
Lord Kenbrook smiled with relief. “As you no doubt are aware, my fortunes of late have seen a miraculous reversal. A few smart investments, some apt purchases, and I am not the man I was a few years ago.”
“How lucky.”
“For both of us,” Lord Kenbrook assured him. “With a marriage to my son, I was prepared for your sister’s dowry to be made in the form of an investment – one with returns that are, quite frankly, almost unbelievable.”
“And even more than that, I am sure.”
Lord Kenbrook hesitated, his eyes flicking about the office again.
“If you will allow me…” He bit into his lower lip.
“I have the paperwork here for you to look through. And I am sure you will agree that what I suggest is…” He laughed softly.
“I hesitate to use the word robbery, but that is how it might look. You will be a rich man, Your Grace. As will I for that matter.”
“Somehow, I doubt that, Lord Kenbrook.”
“What is your meaning?”
Dorian sighed and kicked his feet off the table. “I wish I could say that it brought me no pleasure to do this, but that would be a lie. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself this much.”
“What…” Lord Kenbrook leaned back. “I don’t understand.”
“Yes, you do.” Slowly, Dorian stood so he was towering over the lord. “Your fortunes. Your recent lucky breaks – your business ventures which have seen you amass vast wealth beyond what should be possible is little more than a lie.” He put his hands flat on the table and stared the man down.
Lord Kenbrook’s eyes widened. “How – how dare you! I do not know what you are playing at but… but if you think that I will stand here and be spoken to like –”
“Like what, exactly?” Dorian growled over him.
“Like a cheat and a liar? Like a fraud? Which is what you are, by the way…” He snarled at the man.
“Do you really think so little of me? Do you really think that I would do business with someone without first doing my own research? Is your opinion of me so low?”
Lord Kenbrook licked his lips as he took a step back. “I don’t know what you… whatever you think you have found, you are mistaken.”
“What I found was a litany of fraud that would make even the most cutthroat of money lenders blush,” Dorian snarled. “Your fortunes. Your business ventures. Everything you have purported about yourself. Lies.”
“How dare –”
“Oh, give it a rest!” Dorian snapped. “You’re only embarrassing yourself at this point.”
“Leave!” Lord Kenbrook pointed at the door. “Leave now, and I will forget this ever happen.”
“Is that right?” Dorian laughed.
“If you don’t, I will…” He glared warningly at Dorian. “You think to accuse me? You think to bully me! Remember, I know things too, Your Grace. And should I be pushed, I will not hesitate to let them known throughout the entire tone.”
“Do it,” Dorian said. “By the time you do, your name will be poison.” A smile then. “For you see, I have already gone to the press, I have notified the gossip columns. This time tomorrow, there will not be a soul in all of England who does not know what you have done.”
His eyes widened. “You… no. I don’t… I don’t believe you.”
Dorian shrugged. “Believe it or not. It is done. As are you, for that matter.”
It was a stroke of luck that had brought Dorian to this juncture.
Initially, he planned on confronting Lord Kenbrook the old fashioned way.
He was going to tell him that he knew about his actions against Barbara and that if he did not promise to keep his mouth shut, then he would shut it for him. So good old-fashioned threat making.
But then Dorian looked a little closer. Dug a little deeper.
Thought more on Lord Kenbrook the man and came to realize that everything he thought he knew about the repugnant lord was a lie.
He had his accountants and lawyers look into Lord Kenbrooks’ book-keeping.
He researched Lord Kenbrook’s business and followed its paper trail.
He learned quickly, and with great relish, that Lord Kenbrook was nothing by a liar and a cheat and a fraud of the highest order.
That was why he was so desperate to marry his son to Barbara.
His plan, or so Dorian assumed, was to use that marriage to pry funds from Dorian’s pockets which he would then use for…
truly, Dorian had no idea. To increase his wealth?
To further invest in his fraudulent accounts?
To pay off money he owed? It didn’t matter.
Lord Kenbrook was not who he said. He had no power. Not a leg to stand on. And his word was good for nothing.
“You were wrong to threaten me…” Dorian stalked around the table, coming for Lord Kenbrook. “You were wrong to threaten my sister.”
Lord Kenbrook attempted to stand tall. “You think you have won? No… I will not be – this is not over!”
“It is.”
He laughed. “If you think this will silence me, you are wrong. Dead wrong! Regardless of what you have done, I will still tell everyone what I know. About you and your wife. About your sister –”
Dorian’s fist snapped out and punched Lord Kenbrook square in the face. He felt the man’s nose break beneath his curled fist, heard him cry out in pain, and felt the floor shake as his body collapsed into the wooden flooring.
“My nose!” Lord Kenbrook squawked from the floor, holding his bloodied nose in his hands. “You broke it!”
“Listen to me…” Dorian stood over Lord Kenbrook, jaw clenched and snarling, fists still curled. He had not meant to rise to anger, finding it undignified. Yet… here he was. “I know about you and my sister.”
Lord Kenbrook’s eyes widened. “What…”
“And believe me when I tell you the pleasure it would give me to take it out on you. To break every bone in your body for every drop of pain and suffering you caused her. Oh, how I would love it.”
Lord Kenbrook scurried back. “No…”
“I won’t,” Dorian said. “On the condition that tomorrow you leave not just London but all of England. Climb aboard the first boat you can find and ride it to the end of the world for all I care. As far from here as it will carry you and beyond. Do that, stay there, make it so that I never hear your name uttered again, and then maybe – maybe!” he snarled and spat.
“I will forget what you did. Do I make myself clear?”
The fear in Lord Kenbrook’s eyes was real. The way his body trembled confirmed it. He did not speak. He did not have to. What he offered instead was an eager nodding of his head, blood still pouring from his nose, a most wretched man finally at the end of his tether.
“Good,” Dorian said. And then, he smiled as if the two had just engaged in a most friendly conversation. “I am glad we had this chat. Good day, Lord Kenbrook. May I never see you again.”
Dorian stepped around the broken lord and walked out the front door, smiling as he did so.
Revenge felt good. Justice felt even better.
But what was to come next, the natural consequence of removing Lord Kenbrook’s influence from his life, was a sensation that was as hard to describe as it was invigorating to feel.
Now, finally, Dorian was free to live his life as he wanted it and as far as he was concerned there was just the one thing he wished for. Her name was Penelope, and he was determined to get her back.
That was assuming, of course, that it wasn’t too late.
Dorian was in remarkably high spirits when he returned home later that same day. With Lord Kenbrook dealt with, there was nothing stopping him from being with Penelope.
There was a small part of him that worried it might have been too late. That sat in the back corner of his mind, refusing to yield as he would have very much liked. But he reasoned that he need not worry as his conscience wished him to. The time for worrying was in the past.
All he needed to do was explain himself to her – for once, being honest with her as he now was with himself.
Tell her the reason he had been so against their marriage in the first place.
Why he fought it, even when he didn’t want to.
Why he pushed and pushed and pushed her away.
And why now, after all this time, he was ready. Why things would finally be different.
She might not believe me right away. I might have to fight for her – prove to her that I have changed. For once, that isn’t going to be a problem. Not anymore.
So it was that he wore a smile as he led his horse onto his estate… or he did do, until he spied the carriage sitting by the entrance. It was not one that he recognized, which was why he sensed already that something was wrong.
Dorian was quick to pull his horse up, leaving it by the stables, and then hurrying inside. His stomach squirmed with the sense of impending doom, battered away because he would not allow himself to succumb to such sorrows. Not anymore.
Inside, he found Albina waiting for him.
She stood in the center of the foyer, hands folded before her, a look on her face that made Dorian’s stomach sink. For how desperate he was to fight back the dread that was steadily building, he now found it next to impossible.
“Albina…” He hesitated by the door, not daring to walk all the way in as if that might keep the bad news at bay. “What… is Penelope with you?”
“Your Grace, I am so sorry…” She looked it too, as if this news was as hard for her as it would be for him. “I have just come from speaking with Penelope and she asked me to… she wanted me to tell you that…”
“What?” Dorian demanded. “What did she say?”
“She thinks it is best if you annul your marriage with her. If you cut ties and go your separate ways.” She grimaced as she gave the news and Dorian stumbled back. “I am so sorry, Your Grace. Truly, I am.”
Dorian did not hear the rest of what she had to say. The world turned and then cracked and then crumbled around him as if it meant to bury him where he stood.
This was not bad news. This news was world-ending. Finally, just when Dorian was ready to fight for what he wanted, the chance was taken away from him. And just as he had feared, he was too late to do anything about it.