Chapter 26
“Every battle is won before it is ever fought.”
“Edmond!” I cried out, rushing to the edge of the dock. I fell to my knees and peered over the planks to see Edmond swim back up to the surface, sputtering and shaking his hair out of his eyes. He turned around in the water and looked up at me, a brilliant smile stretched across his face.
“You’re not on that ship!” he shouted.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him bobbing in the river. “And if I was? What was your plan exactly?”
“Why, I would swim after it and board it.”
“Like a pirate?”
His smile turned deliciously lopsided. “More like a fearless privateer.”
He swam back to the dock and pulled himself up the ladder. His undershirt and breeches were completely drenched and clung to every inch of him.
“Lord preserve me!” an elderly woman on the dock said as soon as Edmond climbed into view. She pulled out her fan and cooled herself. She was not the only one struggling to avert her gaze.
Edmond stood dripping before me, and I wrapped my arms around my middle, as if that could contain the warring feelings inside me.
Part of me was glad he came after me, but a much larger part was still bleeding from the last time I saw him.
It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since he’d kissed Sybella.
“What are you doing here?” I asked stiffly.
He studied me, his chest rising and falling as water trailed down his face. “I’m here for you.”
I swallowed, my mouth dry. “To say goodbye?”
“Goodbye?” He shook his head. “Helena, I came to stop you from leaving. Cranford came by this morning. He told me your father’s announcement was hasty, that you hadn’t wanted to marry him at all.
But when I went to your home to speak with you—you were gone.
Your father said you decided to leave England for good. ”
A thousand emotions flooded me, but the one that surfaced first was incredulity. “Believe me, it was not my decision.”
“I suspected as much. That’s why I ran here to stop you.” He motioned to the departed ship. “But it seems you didn’t need me to.”
“Wait—you ran here? All the way from Mayfair?”
He shrugged. “I would have run from the Outer Hebrides if I had to.”
A flutter of warmth spread throughout me, but I tamped it down. Edmond had been caught compromising Sybella. He had run into her arms the second he believed he was released from mine. Even the English Channel would have been a smaller obstacle than the gulf Edmond had carved between us.
Mrs. Sweete had suggested there may be another side to this story. But I couldn’t possibly see how, not when I had witnessed Edmond kiss Sybella with my own eyes.
“What are you thinking, coming here like this?” I said. “It’s—it’s not appropriate.”
“Not appropriate?” He looked down at his state of undress, and the tips of his ears went pink. “You’re right. I’ll put on my jacket,” he said, picking it up.
Someone whimpered with disappointment, and I turned to see the same elderly woman not three yards away, peeking at Edmond from behind a pile of fishing nets.
I blew out a frustrated breath and grabbed Edmond’s wrist, pulling him off the dock, away from prying eyes. I led him to an alleyway by a warehouse, then shoved him between two fish crates, pressing him against the brick wall.
“How could you, Edmond?” I said. “With Sybella of all people? Maybe I’m a hypocrite, but at least I never crossed that line with the baron—not once.
In fact, I never held any feelings for him beyond friendship.
But you… you immediately ran off to her of all people!
And, as if things weren’t already bad enough, you were caught!
” My breath came in shallow gasps, Edmond’s betrayal simmering off me like steam.
“I have never been so hurt so much as when I saw you kiss Sybella.”
Edmond was completely still, his lips parted slightly. “Helena—I did not kiss Miss Pratt.”
I scoffed. “Don’t play the coy hand of the rake, Mr. Hawke. You’ve been courting her all season, and I was too blind to see it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mr. Pratt told my father you were enamored with Sybella.”
“I am no more enamored with her than I am with the pests that eat away at my garden.”
“She has double the dowry of any lady in the ton.”
“And I have ten times that. Her money is meaningless to me, Helena.”
I crossed my arms. “You called on her three times.”
“What? No—” He sighed, then looked me straight in the eye. “Listen to me carefully. I despise the Pratts. In fact, I’ve been trying to ruin them ever since I came to London.”
My arms fell to my sides. “What?”
“The real reason I came to London was so I could push Pratt out of the mining business. The Pratts abuse their power, and I want to rid them of it. Do you know how many people under their employ that they have dismissed unjustly?”
I simply shook my head.
“Dozens. And with the slanderous lies the Pratts spew about their workers, few find jobs of sufficient pay. Many end up in workhouses. There’s no relief in places like that. Only abuse and sickness and despair.”
“That’s… awful.” My words were small compared to the horror Edmond was describing.
“Pratt pays no mind to the safety of his mine workers either. When one dies, Pratt strikes the poor man’s name from the record and pretends he never existed in order to avoid fees.
I only visited the Pratts so often because I was trying to persuade him to sell me his mines. He refused me each time.”
I chewed on his words, the picture becoming clearer with every thread. But there was still one undeniable truth.
“Even so,” I said firmly, “I saw you kissing Sybella. Mrs. Sweete did too.”
“I’m telling the truth, Helena. I did not kiss Miss Pratt. She kissed me. And I was the fool who fell for it.” I gave him a dubious look, and he quickly added, “Here, I have proof.”
He scrambled to pull out a folded piece of parchment from his jacket’s inner pocket. He held it out to me, urging me to take it.
“What is this?” I asked.
“A letter. A servant handed it to me yesterday, right before the masquerade. The note said to meet at the gazebo in Marylebone Park right at 10:00pm, or else my relation to Mr. Fletcher would be announced in the next edition of the gossip column. I didn’t tell you about it because I didn’t want it darkening our night, not when I was about to—” He cleared his throat.
“I thought I could take care of it myself before it became an issue. Clearly I was wrong.”
I opened the note and read it quickly. It was exactly as he said. I remembered thinking how strangely Edmond had acted last night at the ball. This was why.
I shoved the note back into his hands. “So, someone was blackmailing you. What does this have to do with Sybella?”
“Because Miss Pratt wrote this letter!” Edmond’s voice was desperate.
“I didn’t know it was her, because there was no signature.
But she was the one who lured me to the gazebo.
She kissed me against my will, and I’d bet everything I own that she arranged for her parents to stumble upon us at just the right moment.
When Mr. Pratt demanded I marry his daughter, I declined.
Vehemently. But Miss Pratt pulled me aside and threatened that if I didn’t marry her, she would ruin me… and you in the process.”
“Me?”
“She knows about your father’s financial woes, and after I declined the marriage, she threatened to add your troubles to the gossip column unless I complied.
” He sighed, rubbing his temple. “She must have figured it out because your fathers are business partners, but I don’t know how on earth she found out about Fletcher. ”
For the span of many heartbeats, all I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears.
I steadied myself on a crate, my legs no longer able to hold my weight.
I recalled Sybella’s ominous words that night at the opera: He is not the man you think he is.
She had known the truth about Edmond all this time, waiting for the perfect time to wield it against me. But how did she know?
The truth clicked into place. The day of the horse riding incident.
Sybella had excused herself to freshen up while the rest of us waited in the parlor.
She must have eavesdropped on Edmond and his butler after Mr. Fletcher had been escorted out.
Whatever she overheard had been enough to condemn Edmond.
I let go of my skirts, not realizing until then that I’d been white-knuckling them. “Then… Sybella does not have your heart?”
Edmond didn’t hesitate even a second. “I would rather remove my heart entirely than give it to her. She will never possess it—nor me. I swear.”
I forced myself to breathe in and out, trying to place all the pieces that Edmond had laid bare before me. “But, if you’re here, then what of her threat? Will she reveal us?”
Edmond sighed. “Miss Pratt has given me until their ball tonight. They threw something together at the last minute to announce our engagement, and they invited half the ton. If I’m not there to accept, then her threats will come to fruition.”
The weight of it all bore down on me. “And all that you’ve built will crumble.”
Edmond took a step closer. “I don’t care what she does to my reputation, Helena. But I cannot let her harm yours. Still, I couldn’t live with myself if you didn’t know the truth.”
I wasn’t sure I had any reputation left to harm. But I deeply appreciated that he was protecting what little I still had.
“Your reputation truly doesn’t matter to you?” I asked. “But you worked so hard to create this life for yourself. You’ve stayed up night after night just to learn how to play silly lawn games, to memorize every dance, every book. Was all of it for—”
“For you, Helena. I did all of that only to be worthy of you. I had to become the kind of man who could withstand the light you radiate.”