Chapter Twenty-Three
Gabriel had not entered the ballroom yet; he wanted to prepare the words in his mind. He’d never been the sort to feel nervous before a crowd before, but he’d no fear for himself. It was all for Caroline now; everything was for Caroline.
He wanted her to appear on display to the crowd that had ignored her for so long; he wanted the city to spread itself out at her feet and acknowledge her as one of its new rulers.
To do that, he needed the perfect speech. As Gabriel was more a man of action than words, it required some forethought.
“Thank you all for coming this evening,” he murmured, staring at himself in a mirror as he adjusted the last little details. Not a hair could be out of place, nor could a button be undone. Caroline deserved perfection, and she would have it. “I’ve had the greatest fortune of my life this Season. It has been my pleasure to make the acquaintance of a truly superior woman.”
“Alas, if only that were true,” his mother said as she came up behind him. The dowager countess’s face appeared behind him, her expression all but frosting over the glass. Gabriel swallowed his irritation.
“I understand you don’t care for Miss Devereux, Mamma. But she’s all in this world that makes me truly happy.” He readjusted his cravat, since the damned thing never seemed to fold properly. “Though I’m aware that I’ve never been your favorite son, I trust you care enough for me to care about my happiness.”
“I do, in fact, care a great deal for you.” The dowager countess finally lost her icy composure. Indeed, she looked rather pleased. That was always a dangerous sign. “That is why you no longer need to marry to suit anyone but yourself.”
Gabriel had long thought that his mother was like a great wind blowing out of the Arctic north. She was forceful, frigid, and there was no real defense against her. All you could do was make yourself safe and pray she didn’t blow the house down around your ears.
If she’d set herself in motion against Caroline, nothing good would come of it.
“What have you done?” He turned slowly to face the woman. Gabriel ordered himself not to snap.
“You speak as though I were a villain. I’ve neutralized the threat Miss Devereux presented. Indeed, you helped in that regard.”
In the animal part of his gut, he knew at once what she was saying. But Gabriel needed to draw the whole sordid tale out of her lips before he’d allow himself to believe.
“How could you neutralize her?” he asked, jaw clenched. “And how did I help?”
“By allowing the chit to debauch herself. Mary, one of the scullery maids, saw the girl leave your rooms in the early hours. She spread the gossip below stairs, and my maid brought it helpfully to my attention. I simply took tea with Lady Borham and informed her of the scandalous goings-on beneath my own roof.”
“The gossip has spread?” His voice was hoarse, his mind a whirl. The thought of Caroline alone before the whole of London society facing their quiet fury was as much a terror to him as any grisly scene in any novel.
“Fatally, I’m afraid.” His mother smiled. “The fact that the tale came from me and involved you, well, that makes it beyond reproach as far as facts go. Miss Devereux is quite ruined now. She can never show her face in town again.”
All the wonderful plans he’d envisioned for Caroline, all the celebrations, all the deference she’d be shown, it had all been washed away as by a rogue wave.
If the person before him had been anyone other than his mother, he would have shouted the walls down about her ears. After a lifetime of running and smashing things up, Gabriel had finally found a life he wanted to build, and a woman for whom he wished to build it. And with a few poisonous words, his mother had eradicated everything. If his mother had been literally anyone else, he bloody well might have thrown her through a wall.
“You’ve ruined her?” he said through gritted teeth. That didn’t faze the dowager at all. “You’ve also made me a rake and a laughingstock, you do know that? Can’t you at least care about that?”
“You are the wealthiest earl in England with a reputation for roguery. The gossip will do you no harm.”
“And it will look to Caroline as though I’ve betrayed her trust!” Gabriel thundered.
His mother appeared befuddled. “Why should that matter?”
It was like arguing with a statue. He could not get these words through her head no matter how frequently he uttered them. But Gabriel tried once more.
“It matters because I am in love with her, damn it all! Have you not listened to a word I’ve said? Or do you consider yourself to be the only person who can be trusted to know their own mind?” Gabriel paced away from his mother, thoughts reeling.
He’d hoped to make Caroline the most admired woman in London tonight, and now any engagement announced between them would only look like covering up a mistake. His plans for her were in tatters, and all because of his own mother.
“I don’t care if you love the girl or not.” The dowager countess straightened her spine, choosing to make herself look as tall and serene as possible. The angrier his mother became, the more gracious her expressions and disinterested her tone. Right now, his mother behaved as though this was all beneath her notice. “The simple fact remains that she attempted to bring shame to our family. Real shame.”
“Shame upon you , don’t you mean?” Gabriel snapped. “Caroline would have made you look a fool before the ton and you could never forgive her for that.”
“None of what your father wrote in that letter was true.” His mother glared at him. “Your Caroline would have dragged an innocent woman’s name through the muck of public opinion.”
“As you’ve now done to her!”
“She’s not innocent. She’s a fallen woman and a blackmailer. She’s still holding onto that letter from your father!”
“No.” Gabriel sneered. “She gave it back to me.”
At least that gave the dowager the first expression of surprise he’d yet witnessed.
“I beg pardon?”
“That is why she was in my room that night. She came to return the letter and to tell me that I was free to make my own decisions. She said she couldn’t do such a dreadful thing to me. And if you’d bothered to learn about her in the least, you would know the sort of life she’s had to live!” Gabriel’s fury could not be contained. He would not let the finest, most original woman he’d ever known be torn apart by such petty machinations. “That woman has taken nothing but scorn and neglect for years on end. She’s put up with ridicule from our society, worked to make money to support her miserable father, and all without losing her kindly nature. Sending me that blackmail letter was the most terrifying thing she’s ever done, and in the end she couldn’t go through with it. She’s too noble to do such a thing. But you, Mother, you with ancient bloodlines and relatives who fought at Hastings and Agincourt, you don’t know the first bloody thing about nobility!”
The dowager countess was no longer returning his barbed words. She looked a bit confused now; Lady Rockford had always been the type to sort someone into their proper place, to form an opinion and have it be the truth forever onward.
She’d decided Caroline must be a devious little harlot, and now she learned she’d misjudged her.
It would have been satisfying if it hadn’t cost the woman Gabriel loved so dearly.
“What’s done is done.” The words were certain, but the dowager countess sounded uneasy for the first time, which was a victory in itself. “If you still wish to marry the girl, that is your choice.”
“It is my choice to marry her. It’s my wish, my most painful desire, and now I must go out there and convince those hyenas to stop cackling at her. This should have been the greatest night of my life, Mother, and you have taken that possibility away. Shame on you.”
The dowager’s lips pressed together until they were white.
“No one ever placed shame on your father, you know.” She shook her head. “He whored and gambled and drank, and I was the one who had to smile and bear it in front of the world. I worked to make certain he didn’t put us into debt. I made certain the tenants on our estate were taken care of when he neglected his duty. No one ever thanked me for that, and all I ever got were looks ranging from pitying to spiteful. I’m tired of seeing my family made vulnerable at the whims of a greedy, selfish person.”
Gabriel knew his mother was right. He knew his father had been a brute and a bully, and that he had let his countess suffer the pain of humiliation in public. Gabriel shut his eyes.
“That part’s my fault. I shouldn’t have left you to travel the world. I should have stayed and fought him, helped protect you and Philip. For that, I’m sorry,” Gabriel said. “But what’s past is past. Now I’ve a duty to protect Caroline. This time, I won’t be a failure.”
The door opened.
Caroline and her very angry-looking brother entered.
When she caught sight of him, a momentary expression of happiness crossed her face. But then she retreated inside herself, looking at him with wariness. The sight broke Gabriel’s heart. She could no longer be certain of him.
“Caro. I didn’t know,” Gabriel whispered.
“How dare you call her that!” Edmund Devereux looked as if he might actually burst with fury. He strode forward to return Gabriel glare for glare.
For the first time since meeting the young man, Gabriel admired him.
But Edmund and Lady Rockford vanished when he saw how hurt and frightened Caroline was. She looked at him as if she believed he might be capable of shaming her.
He’d fix this. He’d right any wrong that crossed her path. When Gabriel took a step toward her and Caroline hesitated, it nearly destroyed him.
“Has it been beastly out there?” he muttered.
“So. You know what’s happened.” She sounded resigned.
“Only because I’ve just now learned of all this myself!”
To Gabriel’s surprise, Lady Rockford spoke up in agreement. “Miss Devereux, this has nothing to do with my son. He was ignorant of the gossip I spread. He’s now quite angry with me.”
“You spread the tale? So that is the truth?” Caroline looked as if she was about to burst into tears. Gabriel hoped they were of relief.
“It’s going to be all right,” Gabriel said. “I’ve been preparing to make a formal declaration before all the assembly. I want to let all London know that we’re engaged.” He was able to touch her face then, and the merest touch of her skin erased all the pain and all the fury he’d ever felt in his life. So long as she looked at him with those shining gray eyes, so long as she was near him, Gabriel had the strength for anything. “Caroline, I want them to know that I love you.”
“They’ll think you’re doing this out of pity,” she whispered. “Because you feel an obligation.”
“We have the rest of our lives to prove to them how deep and abiding our love is.”
Even with the tears, she smiled a bit at his words.
“Yes. It is love, isn’t it?” she whispered.
“Do you ever doubt it for an instant?” Gabriel held her close in his arms, felt the way she trembled in sheer relief. “I’ll protect you, Caro. I swear, none of those bastards out there will ever dare make you feel small again. Can you trust me? Just one last time.”
“I know I can trust you.” She held him tight, and he felt himself melding into her. He wanted them to be like this always. Well, except the crying. “It’s strange, really. Even when I thought you might have started the rumors, I knew somewhere inside that you wouldn’t do such a thing.”
“I will never do anything to hurt you, Caroline,” he whispered. He felt her shiver as his tongue caressed her name, as he clutched her tighter to his chest. “My life is yours.”
“All right. My lord, if we could please go to the ballroom. I want this marriage announced as soon as possible,” Edmund said. The young man was still pink about the ears, but he’d calmed down. Sensible.
“You’ll be at my side.” Gabriel took Caroline’s hand, kissed it. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t let you fall.”
“I don’t think I can go back out there.” She shook her head, and her grip trembled in his. “I’ve always prided myself on defying convention, but I’ve never seen people look as though they hated me before. I don’t want to see their faces.”
“Very well. Stay here and rest. Her Ladyship wishes to beg your forgiveness, anyway.” Gabriel glared at his mother in warning. To her credit, the dowager did not look haughty. This might have been the first he ever saw her ashamed.
“Let’s go, Rockford. I want this done now and my sister safe.” Edmund was not going to let this rest. Exactly as it should be.
Gabriel took one last glimpse of Caroline before he left. She appeared shaky still, but already color had returned to her cheeks. She was his strength, and now he needed to be strong for her. A few minutes, a few words, and all would be well. He’d see to it.
Gabriel would spend the rest of his life as the perfect earl, the perfect man of society, if it meant Caroline would receive all that she deserved.
He strode down the hall, Edmund close at his heels.
The servants opened the doors to the ballroom, and Gabriel entered. All his guests’ eyes turned to him, and they greeted him with the warmth and respect his position naturally commanded. The young ladies still made eyes at him and fluttered fans; the mothers still ogled him as an excellent prize.
The fact they’d been so abominably rude to Caroline made him want to throw the lot of them out, but first he needed to say a few words. He could begin wringing necks afterward. Gabriel raised a hand, and the musicians stopped playing.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to receive all of you this evening,” Gabriel began. “In fact, this is a rather special night. As such, I’m delighted to have you all in attendance.”
And that was as far as he got. A man came out of the crowd and slapped Gabriel hard across the face.
“Papa!” Edmund cried.
Baron Devereux was absolutely bristling. He was a short man but held himself to the full nearly-five-foot-seven of his height. The baron held a white glove in one hand, shaking it in Gabriel’s face as he spoke.
“How dare you, sir. You think it all right to insult a young lady? To spread the most contemptible lies about her throughout the ton ? To let her attend your ball only to face ridicule?”
Shit . Why would the baron pick now to become a decent man? He’d been doing so well at being an abominable parent! Gabriel rubbed his stinging cheek.
“My lord, I assure you, all will be well,” Gabriel hissed.
“First, I demand that you admit your falseness before this assembly.” Lord Devereux puffed himself up. He seemed to be rather enjoying his turn to being an upstanding, moral man. “My Caroline would never dare sully herself with a man like you. Isn’t that right? She detests you more than anyone else in the ton . She’s told me herself many times!”
“Papa. Please.” Edmund looked desperate. Gabriel sensed the crowd was quickly turning against the Devereuxes. After all, the baron was regarded as a man who would sell anything to keep himself out of debtors’ prison. They might all think he’d orchestrated something like this in order to gain sympathy from the ton .
“I call you out to a duel, sir. I will do whatever it takes to secure my daughter’s good name. One which you have so grievously attempted to besmirch!”
Gabriel knew he could simply have the man taken aside, ignore the challenge, and continue announcing his engagement. But he also knew that if he did so, he would be condemning Caroline to a lifetime of humiliation.
Now it really would look like he was marrying her to cover up a blemish on his good name. It would humiliate the Devereuxes and earn them the ton ’s condemnation for causing a scene. Caroline would forever be soiled. She might be accepted in drawing rooms and greeted while on promenade, but for the rest of her life everyone would whisper and laugh behind her back. There was no way to restore her good name. No way to save her.
Except perhaps one way.
Gabriel should have known there could be no happy ending for him, not in this world. He’d been too much of a rogue and a cheat in his life, and now he had to pay the damned bill.
“You can’t blame me, can you?” Gabriel smirked, allowing the rogue to return once again and parade himself before London. “For God’s sake, it was just a bit of fun. I’d no idea my mother would think I was serious when I mentioned my little ‘indiscretion.’ Pah. As if your frigid daughter would ever allow such a liberty.”
A gasp traveled around the ballroom. Baron Devereux’s face turned from mauve to red and back again. He was both irate and confused.
“You admit to such a thing, sir?” the man choked
“I confess I’ve attempted a kiss or two these past weeks. Your daughter’s a natural vixen, sir. But she’s such a modest young miss. Surely a fellow’s entitled to some compensation during courtship, especially if he might eventually offer the girl marriage?”
Now some horrified cries echoed out. Mothers looked upon him with disdain, clearly imagining their own daughters in similar perilous circumstances.
“That poor Miss Devereux.”
“I knew there was nothing to it, nothing at all.”
“What a beast he is.”
Gabriel caught all those words, and he felt a flood of relief. No matter if they hated him, no matter if the Rockford name was tarnished for all time. So long as Caroline was happy and safe, that was all that mattered.
“Lord Rockford. You are a fiend!” Baron Devereux looked as if he needed to sit down.
“As I’ve always been, sir. I fail to see what about this is a surprise to anyone present.” Smirking, Gabriel elbowed past the baron. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve a ball to attend.”
“I called you out and I meant it, sir!” Lord Devereux shrieked.
Perhaps the man was enjoying his theatrics just a bit too much. Gabriel turned, not intending to do anything so foolish as consent to a duel, particularly in front of all London.
“And he who gets slapped has the right of refusal. I decline to fight you, my lord. Kindly look to your family and let mine alone.” Gabriel even made a mock bow.
He did not expect Lord Devereux to produce a pistol out of his coat pocket. He froze, and all around them gasped in horror.
Damn, Gabriel had just about wrestled the crowd’s sympathies toward the Devereux family and now the old fool was trying his best to wrench them back!
“My daughter’s a pearl.” The baron seemed to mean it, even. He was not acting out of cowardly impulse now, or anything like self-preservation. Gabriel realized in amazement that he was doing this out of genuine love and protection for his daughter. He was doing absolutely the wrong thing, but for the right reasons.
“Listen to me,” Gabriel said. He charged forward and went to take the gun quickly. The baron should not be too difficult to disarm.
Unfortunately, as Gabriel reached him and yanked the man’s wrist down, the baron, who was unused to handling weapons, had his finger on the trigger. One should never do such a thing, of course, unless one was just about to shoot. A minor mistake, but one with major consequences.
The gun went off to the terror of the entire room. It did not, thankfully, lodge itself in Gabriel’s heart, stomach, or even his kneecap. The bullet did, however, go right through his left foot.
With all of London watching in shock and awe, Gabriel fell to the floor with a great shout and a mighty swear.