The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone (Lords of Disgrace 4)

‘I advanced you your own money. It is of no matter. Let us eat and think how best to handle the situation. I came because I was uneasy that your father might search here for Lady Caroline. We’re mired in a tangle of deceptions: I’m pretending to own this place, you are pretending you do not know it is now yours again and that your sister is hiding from her own father and posing as the housekeeper. I just hope you are a good actor, Anthony, because you are going to have to face your father and play the role of the disappointed son well enough to convince him that you are pining for Springbourne. And you’re a poor liar, I’ve noticed.’

‘I’m a good actor, though,’ Anthony said, reaching for a slice of cold beef. ‘I’ve acted at school and got some pretty enthusiastic reviews. And this is important, really important. It isn’t as though it is some little white lie I might forget about. I’ll sulk a bit and keep out of Father’s way, that’s what he’d expect.’

‘And what about you, Mrs Crabtree?’ He seemed to find the name as amusing as Anthony did.

‘I never answer the front door, of course. If my father does come, then I will leave by the back and hide in the woods. He could search for a year and not find me there.’

‘I suppose it will have to do.’ Gabriel looked unsatisfied, although it did not seem to be impairing his appetite.

Caroline wondered whether to ring and tell Cook to send up the apple pie along with the cheese. She helped herself to the game pie before the two hungry males demolished it. ‘It gives me bad dreams, imagining he has found me,’ she confessed. ‘But I really do not think it is a serious risk. He is very self-centred and I don’t believe he thinks much about other people’s motives.’

As she spoke the doorbell rang, followed by the thump of the knocker. ‘Who now? Really, after weeks of perfect peace the place is like the White Horse Cellar when the mails come in!’

Then there was the sound of William opening the door and the voice of the caller and the footman’s agitated protests. Caroline dropped her knife with a clatter on her plate and Anthony jumped to his feet as the door swung open.

‘So you are here, boy, you impudent whelp.’

Chapter Fourteen

Her father strode into the room, brushing past her as she froze, her back to the door. ‘I thought you were too meek when I told you about this place so I decided I had better check that you hadn’t sneaked off here. What in Hades do you think you’re doing? And who the devil are you?’ He moved closer to Gabriel, who stood up with leisurely, dangerous grace. Caroline edged her chair backwards. A few more inches and she could slide from her seat and tiptoe out.

She stood, turned, and came face to face with Lucas.

‘Caroline!’

‘What?’ Her father swung round his face choleric with a mixture of surprise, temper and triumph. ‘You are both here? You plotted the whole thing, you disobedient little slut. What is Edenbridge going to do when he finds the pair of you skulking here?’

Gabriel moved to stand between him and Caroline. ‘If you use language of that kind to Lady Caroline again I’ll floor you, Knighton, even if you are old enough to be my father.’

‘Edenbridge.’ Her father finally recognised who was standing in front of him. ‘What the blazes do you think you are playing at?’ His gaze swung back and forth between the three of them and then fixed back on Gabriel with dawning recognition. ‘You. You’re the hermit. Lucas, tell me I’m right. It’s that cursed Welsh hermit.’

Lucas pushed past Caroline to stand at his father’s shoulder. ‘Yes, you are right. Take away that beard and change the voice and it’s the same man. But what is going on?’

It was a nightmare, and when Gabriel swung round and cursed Anthony, it seemed to Caroline simply part of it.

‘You stupid brat, coming here with your idiotic pleas for her to go home. You led them here.’ He grabbed Anthony by the neckcloth and began to shake him, his face pressed close to the boy’s.

Suddenly Anthony began to fight back. ‘I knew I had to when I found her here! It isn’t right, what you are doing, of course she should come home with me.’

Gabriel made a sound of disgust and pushed him into his father’s arms. ‘Have the little prig. He turns up here whining that he wants just one more look at the place, finds us and reads us a fine sermon.’

‘You were trying to make her come back?’ Her father held Anthony away from him so he could look into his face.

‘Yes, sir. Of course. I was upset about the estate, and I shouldn’t have come here, but Caroline and that man...’

He really can act, she thought. And Gabriel has saved him from total disgrace with my father and a beating, thank Heavens. But what am I going to do? Lucas had moved to block the door and it was too far to reach the window and scramble through, even if Gabriel held back her father and brother. They were two to his one and if they attacked him she knew she could never leave him and run. He might overcome them—he was strong and courageous—but her father always carried a knife in his boot and she knew he’d use it without scruple.

‘Good boy,’ he said now, pushing Anthony towards Lucas. ‘And as for you, my girl, I’ll have to sweeten the pot now to get Woodruffe to take you, damn it. Used goods.’

‘I will not warn you again, Knighton,’ Gabriel said. ‘I am marrying Lady Caroline and

no one threatens or abuses my fiancée.’

‘Marry her? You? Her reputation will be in the dirt after this.’

Marry me?

‘Mine is not that wonderful,’ Gabriel said with a smile that was guaranteed to infuriate. ‘But as I will procure a special licence from my cousin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that should help. Even better if he’ll marry us. I believe he’s at Lambeth Palace at the moment, which is convenient.’