Once and Always (Sequels 1)

“He doesn’t trust men.”

“A wise animal. Ugly though.”

“I think he’s beautiful in a wild, predatory way—” like Jason, she thought, and hastily cast the debilitating recollection aside.

“Before I sent Dorothy off to France, she had already adopted two cats and a sparrow with a broken wing. I didn’t like them either, but at least they didn’t watch me like this animal does. I tell you, he has every happy expectation of eating me. Even now, he’s wondering how I’ll taste.”

“He’s watching you because he thinks he’s guarding you,” Victoria explained, smiling.

“He thinks he’s guarding his next meal! No, no,” she said, raising her hand when Victoria started toward Wolf, intending to put him outside. “Don’t, I beg you, endanger any more of my servants. Besides,” she relented enough to admit, “I haven’t felt this safe in my house since your great-grandfather was alive.”

“You don’t have to worry about prowlers sneaking in,” Victoria agreed, returning to her vigil at the window.

“Sneaking in? My dear, you couldn’t bribe a prowler to enter this room.”

Victoria remained at the window for another minute, then turned .and wandered aimlessly toward a discarded book lying upon a glossy, satinwood table.

“Do sit down, Victoria, and let me pace for a while. There’s no sense in us banging into one another as we traverse the carpet. What could be keeping that handsome devil of yours from our lair?”

“It’s just as well Jason hasn’t come before now,” Victoria said, sinking into a chair and staring at her hands. “It’s taken me this long to calm down.”

The duchess stomped over to the windows and peered out at the drive. “Do you think he loves you?”

“I thought so.”

“Of course he does!” her grace asserted forcefully. “All London is talking about it. The man is besotted with you. Which is undoubtedly why he went along with Atherton’s scheme and kept Andrew’s letter a secret from you. I shall give Atherton the edge of my tongue for that shoddy piece of business. Although,” she added audaciously, still peering out the window, “I probably would have done the same thing in the same circumstances.”

“I can’t believe that.”

“Of course I would. Given a choice between letting you marry some colonial I didn’t know and didn’t have any faith in, versus my own wish to see you married to the premier parti in England!—a man of wealth, title, and looks—I might well have done as Atherton did.”

Victoria forebore to point out that it was exactly that sort of thinking that had caused her mother and Charles Fielding a great deal of misery.

The duchess stiffened imperceptibly. “You’re quite certain you wish to return to Wakefield?”

“I never meant to leave permanently. I suppose I wanted to punish Jason for the way Andrew was forced to learn I was married—Grandmama, if you had seen the look on Andrew’s face you would understand. We were the greatest of friends from the time we were children; Andrew taught me to swim and shoot and play chess. Besides, I was furious with Jason and Charles for using me like a toy—a pawn—an object without feelings of any importance. You can’t believe how utterly alone and miserable I felt for a long time after I thought Andrew had coldly tossed me aside.”

“Well, my dear,” the duchess said thoughtfully, “you are not going to be alone much longer. Wakefield has just arrived—no, wait, he’s sent an emissary! Who is this person?”

Victoria flew to the window. “Why, it’s Captain Farrell— Jason’s oldest friend.”

“Hah!” said the duchess gleefully, banging her cane upon the floor. “Hah! He’s sent in a second. I would never have expected that of Wakefield, but so be it!”

She flapped her hand urgently at Victoria. “Run along into the drawing room and do not show your pretty face in here unless I come for you.”

“What? No, Grandmama!” Victoria burst out stubbornly.

“Yes!” the duchess replied. “At once! If Wakefield wishes to treat this as a duel and send in his second to negotiate terms, then so be it! I shall be your second. I shall grant no quarter,” she said with a gleeful wink.

Victoria reluctantly did as she was bidden and went into the drawing room, but under no circumstances was she actually willing to let Captain Farrell leave here without talking to him. If her great-grandmother didn’t summon her within five minutes, Victoria decided, she would return to the salon and speak to Captain Farrell.

Only three minutes had elapsed before the doors to the drawing room were abruptly pulled open and her great-grandmother stood in the doorway, her face an almost comical mixture of shock, amusement, and horror. “My dear,” she announced, “it seems you have unwittingly brought Wakefield to his knees, after all.”

“Where is Captain Farrell?” Victoria said urgently. “He hasn’t left, has he?”

“No, no, he’s here, I assure you. The abject fellow is reposing upon my sofa at this very moment, awaiting the refreshments that I so generously offered to him. I suspect he thinks me the most heartless creature on earth, for when he told me his news, I was so distracted that I offered him refreshment instead of commiseration.”

“Grandmama! You aren’t making sense. Did Jason send Captain Farrell to ask me to come back? Is that why he’s here?”

“Most assuredly it is not,” her grace averred with raised brows. “Charles Fielding sent him here to bring me the grievous tidings of your untimely demise.”

“My what?”

“You drowned,” the duchess said succinctly. “In the river. Or at least, your white cloak appears to have done so.” She glanced at Wolf. “This mangy beast is presumed to have run off into the woods whence he came before you befriended him. The servants at Wakefield are in mourning, Charles has taken to his bed—deservedly—and your husband has locked himself into his study and will not let anyone near him.”

Shock and horror nearly knocked Victoria to her knees; then she whirled around.

“Victoria!” the dowager called, hurrying as fast as she could in her great-granddaughter’s wake as Victoria raced across the hall and burst into the salon with Wolf at her heels.

“Captain Farrell!”

His head jerked up and he stared at her as if seeing a ghost, then his gaze shot to the other “apparition” that skidded to a four-legged stop and began snarling at him.