Chapter Four
The whirlwind moved through Julia again. She started to unravel, watching him stride away down the beach. All the carefully stitched together pieces of her began to loosen and fray.
She retreated to sit on the spill of boulders that lay near the bottom of the stairs. As she watched Sax leave, her traitorous heart whispered. What if he is right? What if the wrongs of the past can be made right? What if we could be together again?
It was a huge risk, indulging such a prospect. She hadn’t exaggerated. She feared losing him again would cause her incredible pain and real harm. But if it were true? Oh, the incandescent joy of imagining it. To be safe, and full, and complete after so many months of empty aching?
Sax had reached the track that led up to the cliff tops and the coastal path. Watching him climb, she let herself feel his passion again, his tenderness, and his wistful anticipation—and she knew she was going to take the risk.
He disappeared at the top of the path, and she knew he would have paused to take in the view of the surf and sky framed between the two boulders there. Anyone with an ounce of artistic appreciation always did.
She caught her breath, though, when she spotted him stepping out from between the boulders and right up to the edge.
She had to huff out a low laugh. Sax had always pushed such boundaries. How many times had she held her breath while he clung to a branch that could barely support him? Or teetered along a narrow bridge railing? He was drawn to—
Julia choked and leapt to her feet when Sax’s distant figure suddenly contorted. He gave a shout as his shoulders abruptly rounded and his arms flew out. His feet danced along the edge as she yelled out his name and set off at a run.
She drew up a little and breathed easier when he caught his balance. Oh saints, but that burst of fear felt familiar. Those catlike feet of his! They had been her undoing more than once in their knightly battles.
She watched him whirl around. Did he call out again as he faced inland a moment? She couldn’t tell, but he stepped back between the boulders and out of sight.
Julia picked up her pace again, holding her skirts high as she tried to hurry up the trail, but when she erupted out at the top, there was no one there.
“Sax?” She took the few steps to the boulders, but the space between and beyond them was empty, too. Bracing herself between the two behemoths, she leaned out to stare down the coastline. Several figures showed in the distance, but they were too far away to tell if one of them was Sax.
He must have moved at top speed to get so far. Had he seen someone?
Stepping back toward the path, she nearly tripped over something. Crouching, she picked up a stick, surprised at the length of it stretching in the shadow of the boulder.
A shiver went through her. The image of Sax’s sudden movement flashed in her head again. Had someone pushed him? Prodded him off balance?
The thought set her back up, made her want to follow him along the path to Shoring. But to what end? To bound up and demand to know if someone had tried to push him off a cliff, just when they might have found a second chance?
She stood a moment, undecided, before shaking her head and turning back toward home. She’d reached the beach again before she remembered.
That conversation! The one she’d overheard. Sax’s sudden arrival had pushed it right out of her head. But what if they had speaking of him?
I told you, he will never back down. We must move on to the next idea.
Your husband will be the challenge in this.
I just wish he was dead already.
Surely not? Julia stared at the incoming tide. It could not have been Sax’s wife and her lover, plotting against him? It was her overactive imagination, unable to reconcile the loss of obstacles to their happiness. It must be.
But what if it was not?
She had to know.
She sorted through ideas and strategies while the wind tried to loosen more of her hair. At last, she had a kernel of a plan—and she knew just whom to ask for help.
*
A couple of hours later, Julia was tidied and dressed for formal visiting.
“Where are you off to?” Merritt asked, coming out of her office.
“Into Shoring. I thought I would visit Edie and Hilde, and perhaps answer any questions about the school.”
Merritt nodded. She did not ask questions, but she gave Julia a look that said she knew there was more afoot. “That is kind of you. Take Havers with you, for propriety’s sake.” She glanced back at her maid. “There are a great many new people about this week.”
“Very well.”
“Belmont is in town, as well. He’s meeting with the committee about expanding the spa rooms. You can meet him at Mr. Chesil’s offices after you are finished and ride back in the carriage.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you.”
“Julia?” Merritt said softly.
Julia turned back.
“You deserve to be happy, my dear. And we will support you in whichever path you take to get there.”
“I know, and I am grateful. I must…” She shrugged. “I just have to figure some things out.”
A while later, she and her sister’s maid strode into Maywood’s Grande Hotel.
“Well now,” Havers said with a raised brow. “They’ve done this place up right, haven’t they?”
“Miss Hollidge!” The hotel manager came rushing over. Julia had met him several times at dinners held here and at town events. “How may I help you?”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Holden. I’ve come to visit with the young sisters to the Duke of Riverton.”
“I believe Lady Hildegard is taking tea with some other guests in one of our private drawing rooms. I’ll escort you, shall I?”
They followed him to the first floor, with Havers still making small, approving noises over the lush carpets and fine sconces.
The drawing room was done in good taste as well, and Julia was happy to find Hilde seated with two other young ladies, their mothers gathered in a knot at other end of the room.
“Oh, it’s all down to our father’s pride in our forebears,” Hilde was explaining.
“We’ve all been given traditional Saxon names.
Edith got off lightly. I admit Hildegarde is a trial, but I believe my brother bears the greater burden.
” She stopped as Julia stepped into the room, then stood. “Oh! Julia! How glad I am to see you!”
“Good afternoon.” Julia gave greetings all around. “Apologies, ladies, but I was hoping for a private word, Hilde?”
“Of course!” Hilde excused herself from the young ladies and approached. “There is a very pretty little garden past the hotel terrace. Shall we walk there?”
“That sounds perfect.”
Havers settled onto a bench as Julia admired the spot, with its blooming trees and small fountain. She was trying to decide how to begin when Hilde clutched her arm and pulled her away down the garden path.
“I know what you did, Julia.”
“What I did?” Julia frowned, searching, before she realized…
“You and Sax. I know what you sacrificed,” Hilde whispered. Her complexion had gone red. “I was so mortified, so very sorry, and yet I am so grateful!” Tears spilled. “Dr. Russell’s program saved me, but I don’t know how I will ever repay you.”
“You never need to. You already have,” Julia said warmly. “Just look at you.”
“You were my friend. Practically my sister! And to be used as a weapon against you?” Hilde looked sick. “I am so grateful to be well again, and yet I feel so conflicted when—”
“Do not,” Julia said firmly. “You had no part in it.” She paused. “How did you—?”
“Father told me himself. I sat up with him at night sometimes when he was ill. At the end, he knew he wouldn’t recover and he confessed.
He wanted me to tell Sax that he realized he’d made a mistake.
” Hilde swallowed. “Good heavens, I was so angry. And so touched, at the same time, by what you had done. And it explained so much. I never could understand…” She shrugged.
“In any case, even Father understood what a mistake it was, especially after he saw how Eva appeared to be trying to make Sax miserable.”
“On purpose?” Julia asked. “Not just as a result of… everything?”
“It was deliberate,” Hilde stated. “It was easy to see after a while. Eva would demand Sax’s attention, brush it off when he made an effort, then decry him for neglecting her when he backed away.
She would say one thing, do another, then deny she’d ever spoken at all.
She was critical. Insulting, even. She accused him of flirting with other women, and when we would defend him—for of course he did not—she would accuse us all of aligning against her. ”
Julia’s temper was rising with each word.
“I told Edie I actually thought she was trying to goad him into hitting her, at several points.”
“Perhaps she was,” Julia said grimly.
“But why?”
“To paint herself as a neglected or mistreated wife? To gain sympathy? To try to establish an excuse for unorthodox behavior of her own?”
Hilde blushed. “We know about Eva and the butler. Both Edie and I know. They tried to hide it from us, but we knew where to listen, how to overhear the servants.”
“Then you know Eva and this man gravely wronged Sax,” Julia said. “But do you think that his wife would actively try to harm him?”
“I don’t know. Do you believe she would?” Hilde’s eyes widened. “If it’s true, then we cannot come to the school. We cannot leave Sax if he is in danger!”
Julia knew she had to proceed carefully.
Hilde didn’t seem to know about the annulment or the previous marriage, and it was not her place to tell such tales.
Heaving a sigh, she clasped her hands in front of her.
“Hilde, I’m going to share something, and you can tell me whether I’m raving mad to let it frighten me. ”
Horror bloomed in the girl’s face as she listened to what Julia had overheard the day before and what Julia suspected had happened today.
“No. Surely not?” She frowned. “But Sax did look unsettled when he returned, earlier. I thought it was because he likely bumped into you.” Her lips pursed as she thought it out.
“If Eva was with child, and Sax died… If the child was a boy… then—”
“Eva would remain the Duchess of Riverton until the child was grown.”
“She wouldn’t be able to marry the butler!”
“No.” Julia couldn’t say more. And it was essentially true. The pair would have to keep their marriage secret.
“But they could live together while she kept her title, her position, the money, and Riverton House.” Hilde considered. “She doesn’t know that Edith and I know they were caught together. She likely thinks all she would have to do is dismiss a few more servants.”
And cover up the evidence of her earlier marriage, Julia thought. But with her father’s money… “We need to discover if it is true, or if I am worrying over nothing.”
“How?”
“If someone tried to push Sax, they must have followed him out to Cliffstone House. They took the opportunity that presented itself. Surely they will continue to trail him, hoping for another chance? So, we shall watch for the watchers,” Julia declared. “Where is Sax now?”
“A courier arrived with some letters from his solicitors. He’s going over the papers in his room now, but I heard him tell the man to get a meal and a pint at the pub, and he would bring a return packet to him once he was finished.”
“Then we shall tuck ourselves away until Sax heads out. We’ll watch to see if someone follows him.”
“What if they do?” asked Hilde, worried.
“Then we will see if you recognize them. If you do, we will know. And if you do not, then at least we will have a description for the authorities.”
Hilde drew a deep breath, then nodded.
“Shall we fetch Edie, and include her?”
The girl colored again. “I never told her what Father confessed to me. I was too ashamed. And you know how deeply she feels things. Perhaps we should wait until we can tell her everything at once?”
Julia shrugged. “You know her best. But let’s get inside and into position. I don’t want to miss our chance.”