The Secret Love of a Gentleman (51 page)

It was madness, though, because if he was caught duelling, Rob would have to flee the country or he’d end up in a real gaol.

…So he would not be caught.

“That child…” Kilbride stated.

Rob looked up as the insult echoed about the hall. Harry was looking at him not Kilbride, but Rob focused his attention on “
the monste
r”. Kilbride stood on the first-floor landing looking down.

“Why have you come?” His hand skimmed along the banister as he began walking down.

That hand had hit Caro many times.

“I will speak when we’re in private.”

“What can you have to say to me in private that might not be said before my servants?”

“You will discover that.”

Kilbride stepped from the bottom stair. He was shorter than Rob by inches, but broader by inches too.

A footman, who had followed Kilbride down, crossed the hall and opened a door. “This way, then. Is that other boy joining us” He flicked a hand at Harry, who grew an extra inch with anger.

Harry had never tolerated mocking. If anyone had said that at school, they would have been on the floor with Harry astride them and a fist in their face.

Rob gripped Harry’s coat sleeve for an instant as they walked towards the open door. He wished this to be played on his terms. He did not want Harry’s temper flying.

Rob entered the room behind Kilbride, Harry followed, and then behind them the door shut. Rob glanced about the room. The walls were lined with books and in the centre of the room was a round table with a large globe upon it.

Behind Kilbride, above the mantel, was a painting of Venice. Of course, like John and Drew, Kilbride would have done the grand tour.

“Have you come to ask me to play a game with you?”

Rob’s temper soared, but he would not allow it to control him. “You might call it that, if you like to play games with pistols. You have set your men on me, beaten Caroline and kicked your defenceless children out of her, and yet you look down on me. I think that strange when you have not been man enough to face me and fight.”

Kilbride looked lost for words.

“I am challenging you to a duel.”

“That is illegal.”

“Who cares? I do not. Are you a coward, then? I am offering you a chance to stand on a field with me and take aim at me. In return I ask you to allow me to do the same. Are you man enough for that?”

Kilbride had stilled; there was no bravado in his expression now. He was racing though his options. Reject the duel and he would look weak, accept and he might die. Did he have the courage? The look in his eyes changed, as though he was weighing up the likelihood of his death, or rather the potential skill of his shot.

“Very well.”

Rob wished to yell for joy. He had not wholly believed Kilbride would take the challenge. He’d believed the man a coward. “Then we will meet in the fields before Windsor, on the edge of the river. Tomorrow. At dawn. Turn off the road at the White Swan Inn. We will duel at sunrise.”

Rob turned away. There was nothing more to say. Harry pulled the door open himself and they both walked out.

The porter opened the front door.

As they descended the steps outside, Rob almost achieved a jog.

Harry slung an arm about Rob’s shoulders, with brotherly pride, before they climbed into the hackney.

Rob glanced at him. “You know this will not be easy. I do not know how good a shot he is, or whether he will simply bring the runners, or whether he will instead send a dozen men to beat us both.”

“Then we will take a dozen loaded guns.” Harry winked.

Rob laughed.

“And if he brings the runners, we will take one of Uncle Robert’s dogs and claim we were merely there for a walk and Kilbride is mad.”

“You are mad,” Rob answered.

“And I would guess the Marquis of Kilbride has far too much pride not to come himself and alone, so he might do the deed now the challenge has been set. He would know himself a lesser man than the one he calls a child if he does not accept your offer.”

“Thank you for coming with me. Your sense of humour and your blind stupidity are just what I need. Anyone else in our family would be telling me to cease this foolish notion.”

“Not me,” Harry laughed.

Chapter 46

Caro lay in the bed looking pale and weak. She’d woken while Rob had been out and asked after him.

“Have you felt our daughter kick again?” he asked as he walked across the room.

“Your mother said you went out.”

Rob looked at his mother, who sat on the far side of the bed. She rose as he looked back down at Caro. “Not for long. I wished to arrange things for tomorrow.”

“Will tomorrow happen now?”

“Have you bled any more?”

“No.”

“Then we will see what tomorrow brings. I have asked the doctor to call early so he might advise on how we may take you to the church. Perhaps in a bath chair.”

A choked sound of humour slipped from her lips and she held her stomach. “Do not make me laugh, it jolts me.” Her eyes widened. “She kicked.”

“You have decided it is a girl, then” his mother said. She must have been reading aloud to Caro—she held a book with her thumb marking a page.

Caro looked at her. “Rob has decided, and if it is a boy, when it is born, he will hold it against him that his father called him a girl.”

Rob laughed, glad to hear her speak of the child living. She held out a hand to him. When he took it he leant to kiss her forehead. “Hello.”

“Hello.”

“Did you bring me medicine? Your Mama said you went to fetch some.”

“I did, a maid will bring it.” It was a herbal tea he’d purchased so he might not return empty-handed. “He hoped neither woman said anything to the doctor.” Lord, he had turned from an intensely moral man into a man who was entirely immoral—he would lie to her—and today he had threatened to kill a man. But it was a violent man.

He sat down next to her and pressed the back of her fingers to his lips.

“I will leave you alone.” His mother smiled.

“I missed you when I woke.” Caro said after the door had closed.

He stroked the hair from her brow. “Sorry.”

“I wish to marry you tomorrow.”

“I wish to marry you too. I am sorry this has happened at all, but I am even more sorry it has happened now.”

Her fingers separated and then wove between his as she smiled at him. “I am sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Caro. Do not apologise for what is not your fault.”

He leant his elbows on the bed and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. The doctor had said he might lose her. He would not allow it to happen.

His free hand lay on top of the covers over her stomach. “Is she kicking now?”

“She has not since I laughed.”

He was tired, he’d gone to bed late and risen early.

“Would you read to me for a little while? I feel better then. It stops me thinking. I would guess your mother left the book she was reading next door.”

“I’ll fetch it.” He rose, but when he walked into the other room he was besieged by emotions he’d subdued all day: fear, shock, sadness. Tears ran as he walked across the room. He could not stop walking because she would be listening to his footfalls. He wiped the tears away with the cuff of his morning coat, then stripped that off to give himself more time to regain his composure. The book was on a table by a chair. He picked it up.
Frankenstein
. It was an odd choice.

He walked back into the bed chamber. “Why this?”

“It is absorbing, it is filling my mind with other things than my own sorrow.”

Then he should read it and let it absorb his thoughts too.

“She is kicking.” Caro held her hand out for his.

When he reached her, she took his hand and lay it flat over her stomach. He felt the jolt. “Yes, I feel it.” The reassurance slipped through his soul.

“I have sung to her at night, so she knows my voice, but she will not know yours.”

“She will learn it now as I read, although I would have picked a less gruesome topic for the first story I read to my daughter.”

Caro laughed. “I love you.”

“And I love you. Now lie silent and still so our daughter has space to kick, and a chance to hear my voice.”

She smiled. Rob felt as if his heart was weeping as he read. He could not bear to lose her. Or their child.

When Drew and Mary came to say goodnight to Caro, Drew’s hand settled on Rob’s shoulder before Rob had chance to stand. “How are you?”

“Tired and beleaguered. But Caro is happier now we have felt the child move frequently.”

Drew smiled. “There is no denying you are good for her.” He turned to Caro as she held out a hand to him.

Rob rose and moved out of the way. “Caro, I will go back to my uncle’s.”

He glanced at Drew. “The doctor is to call at nine to assess if Caro is well enough to come to the church and, if so, how best to transport her safely. We wish to be married, but neither of us would risk the child. I will leave that situation for you to solve. Send word to me if she is unable to reach the church and I will come here.” He turned to Caro. “But if you are well enough I will see you at eleven at the church.”

She nodded.

He leant past Drew and kissed Caro on the lips. Her hand reached to the back of his head and her fingers ran through his hair when he pulled away. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.

Chapter 47

Rob smiled when Harry opened the door of Pembroke House, but it was a nervous smile. It was still dark and Rob had not gone near the door but waited, seated on his curricle, at the corner of the square.

The servants would know that Harry had crept out, but none of them would question it. No antics were beyond Harry.

Harry ran across the square at a slow jog, then gripped the bar by the steps and leapt up with the energetic ease Rob had known until a few months ago. “Are you ready to slay the dragon?”

“I am indeed.”

He’d not slept much last night. His thoughts had been of Caro. She was oblivious to the fact that she might be at risk, and he would not tell her, but for half the night a prayer had run through his head that both Caro and his daughter would live.

He flicked the straps.

As they travelled out of London and the sky began to turn from a very dark blue to a lighter shade. Harry spoke of their cousins and the things they had all got up to in the last few days since they’d been in town for the wedding—mostly racing, drinking heavily and attending brothels.

It was probably the first time Rob had been glad to hear of their nonsense, but Harry’s tales of lechery kept Rob’s mind from the task, until he turned off the road and drove out into the flat meadows by the wide, meandering river.

Kilbride’s carriage was there, emblazoned with his coat of arms, shouting Rob’s folly to the world. If they were found out Rob would be thrown into gaol, but Kilbride would probably find some way to pay someone and walk free. Again it was that mark of rich against poor.

Yet oddly Rob was relying on the one thing that had been his former sin. Pride. He hoped Kilbride would continue with the duel honestly because his pride would shame him if he did not stand up to the challenge of a younger man, and that afterwards, when Rob had won, Kilbride’s pride would hold him silent because he would not wish to admit to anyone that a younger man had beaten him.

“Hold fast,” Harry said when Rob flicked the straps. “Do not rush. Make him wait. Make him sweat.”

Rob glanced sideways and smiled at him. Harry was the right companion for this task.

When Rob pulled his curricle up, the sky was a sapphire blue.

Kilbride stood on the far side of his carriage. He looked as though he had been practising with his pistol, warming the gun up. Of course, he would not have warmed up both pistols.

Harry leapt down easily as Rob set the brake and tied off the straps. He climbed down then, forcing his leg to look as normal in movement as he could manage.

The birds sang in the trees near the river. It was a raucous sound of hundreds of high- pitched trills.

“Two boys come out for a game of pistols!” Kilbride called.

The truth hit Rob in the face as Kilbride handled the pistol he’d already selected. The man might have tampered with his guns, or he might even simply be a bloody good shot. If either thing was true then Rob might be dead within the hour. Caro would not thank him.

This was reckless.

Last night he’d shed tears for fear that he might lose her and lose his child, and today he had come to the meadows before the sunrise, on his wedding day, to offer up his own life like a fool.

Yet someone had to teach Kilbride a lesson, and if anyone was to avenge Caro it ought to be Rob. He did not have armies of servants or thousands of pounds to force Kilbride into submission, but he did have himself and his strength of will.

Sunlight spread across the sky from the east.

The only person Kilbride had brought with him was a groom.

“May I see the pistols?” As the man who’d been challenged, according to the old custom, it was Kilbride’s right to choose the weapons, but Rob had taken a set of duelling pistols from John’s last night and they were stowed beneath his seat on the curricle, in case Kilbride tried to play him false.

The groom opened the lid of a wooden box and offered Rob the gun, which laid on a bed of velvet.

“Thank you.” Rob took it and held it up, looking down the barrel and then he opened the mechanism and scanned it, looking for any sign that the metal had been filed to put the shot off. He handed it to Harry who checked it too.

“May I see the other?” He would not lose his life through lack of care.

Kilbride handed it over with a smirk, pulling at his lips. “You do not trust me?”

“You beat a woman black and blue and murder your unborn children and have men attack me from behind in the dark. No I do not trust you.”

If it kicked Kilbride when Rob mentioned the children Kilbride had wanted and lost, he did not show it. But there was a tightness in his jaw, which inferred some emotion. Perhaps he’d never considered the fact that his beatings might have killed the children he wanted. But then he had his son now and perhaps he’d never cared for a child, only an heir.