Chapter 9 #2
“I have heard you were deep in debt, and to The Spaniard no less, Granville. That man will not forgive a debt, especially one of over one hundred thousand. I am confused; did you think that man would accept half of what you owe him?” Richard asked.
“Half! I heard that she…” Another blow landed.
“Lady Elizabeth to you,” Johns hissed after he withdrew his fist.
“I was told Lady Elizabeth’s dowry was over one hundred thousand.” Granville dropped all pretence.
“Unlike you, I care about others and have donated half of my dowry to charity. Even if you had succeeded, I would never have married you,” Elizabeth informed the shocked man, her voice dripping in heavy disdain.
“Firstly, her dowry would only be released if both my brother and her birth father approved of the man prior to his proposing. Secondly, if you had compromised her, you would have done my cousin Darcy and my sister a favour; they would have married right away. You would be in the same position, about to lose your family homes to a debt collector. Notwithstanding that, you will answer to the law for attempting to assault my sister, who you may remember is a favourite of the King and Queen.” Richard demolished weeks of Granville’s delusional plans in but minutes.
“Wes, will you accompany two of the footmen to the runners to deposit that with them?” he pointed at Granville with derision.
“With pleasure. It will be an honour to assist in ridding society of the cancer that is Granville,” Wes agreed cheerfully.
One of the two footmen who had walked ahead of Lady Elizabeth removed a length of rope from the curricle.
Granville was led away, head down, trussed up like a common criminal, while the rest moved in the direction of Matlock House.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“I did not expect you back from your walk so soon, Lizzy,” her mother exclaimed as her daughter walked into the drawing room accompanied by her son, his lady, and Aggie, who was looking most pleased with herself.
“My walk was cut short by an unscrupulous earl who believed my dowry was over one hundred thousand—the amount he needed to satisfy his creditors,” Elizabeth informed her mother, Andrew, and Marie.
“Granville! I will kill the basta…Sorry ladies, I should have regulated my words, but I will kill him! What did he do to you, Lizzy?” a seething Andrew asked, not understanding why his brother and sister looked so complacent.
“He never laid a hand on my person, brother; you can relax. For that, we have our heroine Aggie to thank. She had taken off chasing a small animal, but she must have been close enough to perceive the man was a threat because as he was about to grab my dress, Aggie came flying out of nowhere, and the man was on his back with my dog growling in his face. If he had tried anything further to harm me, he would have discovered just how powerful her jaws are,” Elizabeth explained, as she scratched Aggie behind the ears.
“Good girl, Aggie!” Elaine exclaimed, “Your father knew she would always protect Lizzy just as she did today.” Aggie revelled in all the attention and petting that she received.
“She will have a steak for dinner,” Marie commanded.
“What of Granville?” Andrew asked; his pique had calmed once he knew his sister was unharmed.
“On his way to the runners, escorted by my brother,” Loretta stated.
“The Spaniard will own his properties within days,” Andrew opined. “That man cares nothing for rank; if you owe, you pay, or he claims your collateral. Gambling is a fool’s game.”
“He frittered away generations of accumulated wealth in the matter of a few years, and then he looked to our Lizzy to save himself. The man we knew at Cambridge is long dead. He is lucky that he did not manage to lay a hand on Lizzy. I was ready to lay into him and would have, had even his finger touched our sister,” Richard told the group.
Granville would have had a lot more than his dignity hurt if Richard had been required to act.
“Will is going to want to gallop to the gaol and call the man out when he finds out,” Andrew verbalised what any who knew Will was thinking.
“Why would I want to do that?” came from the doorway. “Did something happen to Lizzy?” Will asked, feeling his fury mount at the possibility until he saw she was well and smiling at him.
The morning’s adventure was explained to him, and like Andrew had stated, Will did want to jump onto Zeus and find the man and rip him end from end. “Will, I am completely well,” Elizabeth assured him.
“What a good dog you are, Aggie,” Will lavished her with praise and kneeled down and scratched her chest when she rolled onto her back, her hind leg kicking the air as she was scratched in the place she loved best.
“If there is even a whiff of scandal that Lizzy was compromised, then I will hie to the Archbishop’s offices, acquire a special licence, and we will marry as soon as may be!” Will stated firmly.
“In that event, which I doubt will happen, then yes, that will be an acceptable solution, as long as Lizzy is agreeable to it,” Andrew allowed.
“If need be, and you and Father Bennet give your consent, I will marry Will earlier than planned. In that respect, Granville would end up doing me a favour,” Elizabeth said as she looked at Will lovingly.
“Yes, he would be very useful in that respect,” Will winked at her.
“There was no one near to witness his cowardly attempt other than us, Wes, and our employees, so if the attempted attack is spoken of when Granville is tried, we will be able to control the narrative. It has long been that no one in the Ton gives credence to anything that waste of a man says,” Richard reminded everyone.
“I know in this case that you two,” he looked at his sister and cousin, “would prefer there was a reason to advance the date of your marriage, but I am confident you will be disappointed.”
As they talked about the possibility, or lack thereof, of an early wedding, Wes de Melville entered the drawing room. “Granville is gone,” he said simply.
“How?” Will, Andrew, and Richard asked simultaneously.
“One of the footmen was leading him by the rope that secured him. When we were close to Bow Street, a carriage was approaching at speed. Granville ran into the footman, causing him to drop the rope, and took the coward’s way out by throwing himself under the carriage wheels.
The driver attempted to halt the team, but it was too late.
By the time we reached him, he was no more,” Wes related.
“No early wedding, Lizzy,” her mother said with evidently false sadness, thereby lightening the news. She knew it was only months away, but that was better than a few days.
“I wager he could not live with the shame of losing his family’s legacy.
A small mercy is he had no blood relatives alive.
As he never married and sired an heir, the Granville line is at an end and shall only be remembered for the ignominy of his actions, and Lizzy’s name will never be aligned with him.
If anyone asks, we will let it be known that he attempted to rob a gentleman and was being arrested when he took the cowardly option,” Andrew stated.
All present agreed that what Andrew said made sense.
There would be no one to mourn the last Earl of Granville.
When London woke up to the news of his death the next morning, The Spaniard filed the paperwork to take possession of the man’s property.
Within days the estate and townhouse were on the market as The Spaniard wanted cash, not property.
There were none in society who cared enough about Granville to enquire about the circumstances of his final downfall, so the story about an attempted robbery was not needed.
To Elizabeth and Will’s chagrin, there was no reason to marry right away.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
At dinner that night at Bennet House, the Bennets and Darcys were informed of the day’s events, and then the name Granville was never mentioned again.
Preparations were made for Elizabeth’s and Georgiana’s birthday and for the betrothal all knew would happen as soon as Will walked to Matlock House the morning of the fifth of March.