Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lizzy had appeared at the Aston townhouse that afternoon with yet another new gown in hand for Charlotte to wear to the Wylde dinner.
She insisted that this had already been purchased with the other gowns and thus did not violate her “no gifts” rule.
And Charlotte did not fight her on it. She could not bring herself to care overmuch even if Benjamin was flouting her stipulations.
She had been in a dreamy daze since returning from Eton a day ago.
It was the first time since feeling the first pinch of financial strain that Charlotte had felt like someone other than a shrewish estate steward.
In fact, she felt like a woman—not a bluestocking—not a spinster; a woman. It was elating.
Lizzy had helped her dress, and Charlotte fought the urge to preen as she watched the maroon silk swish and sway in the lantern light of her room.
It had been embarrassing to let Lizzy in to see the faded glory of her family home.
The night she and Amelia had gone to Elysium, Lizzy had been at the countess’s home, ready to help her prepare.
But the young woman had simply smiled and gone about her business, never once mentioning the sorry state of Charlotte’s nearly worn-through bedspread.
Judging by the stories she had told Charlotte of her family, it was likely Lizzy had lived in much worse conditions.
It was rather self-centred of Charlotte to worry about such appearances when she knew of the real suffering in the world.
And thanks to the patronage of Benjamin Scarsdale, neither she nor Lizzy would have to worry about falling into squalor for a long time to come.
“What’s this, my lady?” Lizzy pulled the small embossed card from the frame of the mirror where Charlotte had sentimentally tucked it.
It was the note that had come with the emerald dress and, silly as it might be, it warmed her heart to see the scrawled message.
Though she did not know what it meant, she cherished the thought that Benjamin had taken time from his day to write down the line on top of commissioning such a dazzling gown.
It was fanciful in a way she would not have expected from a man so hardened by the world and reminded her of the soft spots she kept teasing out the more she got to know him.
“Oh, that is nothing.” She took the card from Lizzy’s hand, but her blush gave her away anyway.
Lizzy’s face broke open in a grin. “Ah, I see. Sending you love notes already, is he? Well, ‘tis as he should.”
“It is hardly a love note. Just a short missive.” She tried to tamp down the girlish glee that Lizzy’s waggling eyebrows stoked up.
“No, no. I know that look. You two are right smitten.”
“Ah!” The mock outrage was completely undermined by the high pitch of her voice.
Charlotte cleared her throat and strove for equanimity.
“That is enough of that. Such ridiculous talk will only lead to trouble. Now, if you are done with my hair, I will make my way down to the carriage. I do not want to be late to the Wylde home.”
Lizzy pressed her lips together and mimed turning a key and tossing it over her shoulder. The woman’s knowing smile was only made worse by a cheeky wink in the mirror before turning to pack the dress’s wrapping back into the box.
Thanking Lizzy for her help, Charlotte slipped the card into her reticule and made her way downstairs to the waiting carriage.
∞∞∞
“How is your neck, Elkington?” Wells, Elkington, and Benjamin were sequestered in the Wylde family library, enjoying a pre-dinner sherry and awaiting the rest of the family to come down before the guests arrived.
“Feeling a little close around the collar as the noose slips tighter and tighter?” Wells rubbed his own neck in mock discomfort, only for Elkington to snort at his antics and give him a good-natured salute with his glass.
“Not at all. I would not expect you to understand, what with your utter phobia of matchmaking mamas, but the prospect of being tied for life to a woman like Elsie is enough to make a man giddy.” He leaned back and crossed his long legs, sinking further into his soon-to-be father-in-law’s rich leather upholstery.
“It was not long ago, you shared the phobia,” Wells grumbled.
“Then consider me cured. Maybe someday you will stumble upon a woman to relieve you of such an ailment.”
“I stumble upon plenty of women who provide ample relief for my ailments. None of them need involve the church and state and irreversible mistakes.”
“Bold of you to claim none of them were irreversible mistakes.”
Wells and Elkington both chuckled at that.
“Scarsdale? Are you with us?” Elkington spoke to Benjamin, who was standing at the window that overlooked the square.
Benjamin gave a noncommittal grunt.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“Or is it a rather more feminine beast?” Wells eyed him keenly.
“Neither.” It was not entirely true; his thoughts had been straying to Charlotte—when she would arrive, how she would look in the maroon silk, how her eyes would flash at his continued flouting of the gift rule.
But those gowns, made for her brilliance and enough to steal his breath away every time, were more a gift to him than anyone else.
But the real draw of his thoughts was an uncharacteristically risky plan he had set into motion today.
He had spent the last decade, ever since his rise from the streets, collecting every bit of useful information he could on the Deering family, most specifically the baron himself.
The discovery he had made with Bell was the tipping point.
He had the chip of information he had needed and was biding his time until the day he could wager the Deering empire into dust. He had not planned for that day to be today.
“Does this have something to do with the bruisers being sent out?” Wells posed the question casually, but when Benjamin turned on him, his face was carefully observant, catching every nuance of his reaction.
There was no point in denying it. “How did you know about that?”
“Stopped by the club this afternoon. Young Boyd could not keep his mouth shut for all the meat pies in Covent Garden.”
“You have taken to interrogating my staff now?” Benjamin never felt defensive about his business decisions. He knew well enough to trust the instinct that had delivered him this far.
“Our staff,” Wells corrected, gesturing at himself and Elkington as well as Benjamin, “have no reason to hide anything from me. Besides, I am far more pleasant to talk to.”
“You are a duke; they feel obligated to indulge your loneliness.”
Wells scowled at that, and Benjamin knew the jab had struck a chord.
“Boys, boys.” Elkington raised his hands to corral them. It was still easy for them to fall into their boyhood bickering despite all the years that had passed between them. “We still do not know why Benjamin is so wrapped up in the matter that necessitated the bruisers.”
Benjamin turned back to the window, still a bit piqued.
“The Earl of Elford has somehow racked up even more debts.
And Deering bought them all. He has the leverage to force the young fool into pretty much anything to keep him from debtors' prison.” Benjamin shuddered at the thought of Charlotte having to visit her brother in such squalor.
“Again?” Benjamin could hear the frustrated sigh as Wells’ reflection in the window rubbed a hand over his face. “I thought you already solved that problem?”
Benjamin sighed too. “So did I. Of course, I did not account for the fact that the boy is categorically stupid. I should have made more of an effort to track him down and talk some sense into him. Barring him from his favourite haunts clearly did not do the trick.”
His friends only grumbled behind him, clearly waiting for the rest of the story.
“Not long ago, Bell and I stumbled upon…a key bit of evidence against Deering.” He did not articulate just how key their bill of landing discovery had been.
Like he had hoped, it had taken only the slightest hint to the port control officer on duty about the unfinished manifest report for him to discover there had been four unregistered passengers on the Deering ship, the Lilla, on the night in question.
It had taken only a menacing look more to discover the extra passengers had each paid healthy fees for the officer to overlook their illegible, water-logged documents.
“With the leverage Deering has fabricated against the earl, he is angling for a marriage contract. With Charlotte.” He forced the words past the bile crawling up his throat.
“The key bit of evidence in question would be enough to get Deering locked up. So it was no surprise that, when Clarence and Full arrived at his townhouse this afternoon, he relinquished all claims he had on the Elford fortune and promised to discontinue any association he had with the family.”
That confession was met with stunned silence.
Benjamin refused to turn to read their reactions.
He did not need to justify his choices to them.
His skill in business had nearly doubled both of their fortunes.
It had been a disproportionate trade—he knew that.
The information he had bartered with was beyond a simple warding off of an unwanted suitor.
It was the tipping point in the quest he had dedicated his life to. Still, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Benjamin was forced to turn, if only to exit the library at the telltale sounds of the Wylde sisters descending upon the party.
What met him was wholly and completely unexpected. Elkington was grinning so wide, Benjamin was not sure he would not injure himself. Though always more reserved than their well-dispositioned friend, Wells also wore a look of clear amusement—some may even have called it a smile.
“What?” Benjamin demanded sharply.
“Nothing.” Elkington could barely get the word out right. Wells pressed his lips together in a suspiciously tight line.