Escape with A Rogue (31 page)

“Father has ridden to the village, Mama. He will return soon. Please come back to—”

“You are lying. I thought he might be in the maze. Meeting her while she pretended to chase the girls. Making love to her. He has betrayed me!”

There was no point in arguing. Her mother waved her fist now, angered by Father’s transgression—which could be real, or a memory, or an assumption. “You are remembering something that’s in the past, Mama,” she said soothingly, but her mother backed away.

“My lady, I would be delighted to escort you to your husband.”

That stopped her mother in her tracks. Mama’s gaze slid over Jack’s handsome face and she dimpled. But then she fiercely stamped her foot. “He said he would send her packing. She thought she would someday be the Countess of Evershire, the insolent slattern. He must tell her to
go
. I won’t lose him.”

Mama must be speaking of Grace. Madeline felt sick, but she said soothingly, “It’s all right.”

“It is
not
.” Her mother pulled away, her eyes wide and fearful. “He is at the age where he will make a fool of himself over a young woman. Some deceitful little tart could make him turn his back on all of us.”

“That won’t happen. You are his wife.”

“What good is that when some blond
whore
can twist him around her finger? She swans about, acting the well-behaved companion. We shall see who will win! I will turn Grace out without a reference.” Her mother gave a triumphant smile. “I will make her pay. I will.”

“Mama, stop this.” Madeline’s stomach tightened with horror. It appeared Jack’s story of her father’s affair was the truth. Her mother had had a motive to kill Grace.

Obviously, her shock showed on her face, for her mother’s smile vanished. “You are going to say it’s my fault,” her mother whispered. “I only went to Riley because Bertram had mistresses and ignored me. Bertram was always so cold. He married me for my father’s wealth, then he resented me when his own schemes failed. Riley made me laugh. He told me that when I smiled at him, it was like seeing the sun rise. But it was such a terrible mistake—”

Madeline slid her arm across her mother’s shoulders. Riley had been the land steward who had fathered her—and she did not want her mother to say anything more. “Mama?” she asked softly. “Did you come to the maze the afternoon Grace died?”

She heard Jack’s sharply drawn breath. Looked at him. He shook his head.
No.

She didn’t know why she had asked the question. She could not take anything Mama said as the truth. Mama stared at her. What would she do if her mother admitted to killing Grace?

Then her mother’s face crumpled. Tears poured down.

Madeline stared helplessly, but Jack placed her mother’s hand on his arm. “His lordship wants me to take you back to the house. To
him
. He is worried. He is thinking of you.”

Mama smiled. “He is?”

To Madeline’s surprise, her mother went obediently to Jack. He tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow.

Though her wits were spinning, Madeline laid her hand on his other arm, marveling at Jack’s calm, his tender care, his concern. He had known just the thing to say to her mother.

They walked back toward the house. Halfway, Jack said gently, as he did to Jupiter when the horse was tempestuous, “What Grace did was very wrong, and someone hurt her for it. The person should be punished.”

Her mother shook her head. “It saved me. What would he have done to me to have her? I was in the maze and I heard her scream and I saw her struggle when the man killed her. He wore a tricorn hat. A battered one, like the one that groom used to wear.”

Madeline’s heart pounded. Her mother had been there, in the maze? She must have gone to confront Grace. “Did you see the man’s face? Did you recognize him?”

Mama shook her head. “Sarah screamed, then Grace ran to help her. When he started to choke Grace, I waited. I knew she had to go. I couldn’t move. He saved me and I don’t know who he was.”

Sarah had screamed, and then Grace went to her. Sarah had been killed first? It made no sense. None at all. Madeline could see the same confusion and shock in Jack’s expression.

Mama had not said a word of any of this, because she had wanted Grace gone. Quiet tears dripped to Madeline’s cheeks. Her mother had truly lost her wits. What was she going to do?

Catherine hastened down the lawn to meet them. She drew Mama from Jack. “You’ve caused us quite a lot of worry, my dear. You need your rest now.”

Madeline gave Catherine a grateful smile. She yearned to talk about this to Jack, but Deverell was coming toward them. He broke into a run and in a heartbeat was at her side, paternally patting her hand.

Jack had no choice but to retreat.

Amelia stood on the terrace, and she wiped her eyes as she saw her mother with Catherine. Madeline shuddered as Deverell tucked her hand under his arm. She had to get rid of him. Then talk to her mother. To her father. To Amelia.

It would be Amelia first. She had to get to the truth, but first, she had to protect Jack.

* * *

Madeline knocked on Amelia’s bedchamber door, then slipped inside. Her sister sat at her vanity mirror, but she stared sadly at the window, her spectacles dangling from her hand.

Amelia hadn’t smiled since Sarah had died. She was so pretty, with her large grey eyes and honey-brown curls, yet her face looked drawn and wan. Madeline hurried forward. “Don’t feel guilty about Mama. She’s escaped from me many times. We must both remember to be more careful and have servants watch her, too.”

Her sister fixed her with a perceptive gaze. “I know you’ve come to talk about Jack Travers, Maddy.” Her voice was soft and shaky. “He is the groom who came to you in the woods. Mr. Oberon said we were to tell him at once if we saw Mr. Travers.”

“Amelia, you’re wrong. The groom isn’t Jack Travers. I would have recognized him.” She fought to sound natural, though she hated lying to her sister.

Disbelief showed plainly on her sister’s delicate features. “I thought he looked like Mr. Travers. And he has only been working here for a few days. Shouldn’t I tell Mr. Oberon? We could be in danger.”

Panic crawled up Madeline’s throat. “It couldn’t have been Jack,” she said quickly.

Amelia’s brows rose.

“I mean Jack Travers. If he escaped prison, he would not have come back here. Escaped convicts usually try to get away from England—they jump on a boat and sail far away.”

“I don’t believe you. I know who that man was.”

Fear was making Madeline nauseous. She crouched before Amelia and clasped her sister’s hands. “Even if Jack were here, he would not harm us. He is an innocent man.”

Then she thought of the poor woman who had helped Beau and Simon, and icy fear rushed through her veins. She was putting Amelia in danger from the Crown by not letting the girl tell Oberon what she had seen. She could not do it.

She had the most awful choice. Betray Jack and know he would be killed, or put Amelia in danger. Was there any way out?

She had to convince Jack to leave.
Now.

“Madeline, you knew the groom was Jack, and now you are trying to protect him. You’re helping him. Why?”

She moved to sit beside Amelia on the bed. She told her sister how Grandfather had known Jack was innocent but let him pay for the crime anyway. “I am helping him now because Grandfather hurt him. Jack Travers could have been wrongfully hanged.”

Amelia’s gray eyes widened. “Do you
love
him?”

Madeline caught her breath. She did not want to think about whether she loved Jack. “He doesn’t deserve to be in prison. No one would listen to me and exonerate him. I will tell him at once he must go away. You must tell the Crown’s men what you saw. I cannot ask you to lie also—”

“No, I won’t tell them.” Amelia tipped up her chin. “I am not a child anymore, Maddy. I can make my own decisions. I do not think Jack Travers should be in prison if he is innocent. I will not reveal him to the Crown’s men.”

Madeline hugged her sister. She would ensure no harm came to Amelia for protecting Jack.

Her mother’s words still rang in her head: that Sarah had been killed first. She realized that Amelia had accepted her explanation of Jack’s innocence but had not once asked Madeline who had murdered her best friend, Sarah. As for the hat—at the time of the murders, Jack had claimed it had disappeared and he assumed someone had taken it. Someone must have done as a disguise.

“Amelia, I’ve learned something that has made me think I have been wrong about what happened that afternoon.”

Was it her imagination, or did she see fear in Amelia’s eyes?

“I learned something that has made me wonder whether Sarah was killed first, then Grace was murdered because she saw the man attack Sarah. Was there anyone who could have wanted to hurt Sarah? I have heard she was arguing with the guests: Deverell, Braxton, and Mayberry. Do you know why?”

“No. No, there is no one who could have wanted to hurt Sarah. No one.”

But Amelia was trembling. Madeline lifted her sister’s chin, but Amelia pulled away. She would not meet Madeline’s gaze. A sure sign she was not telling the truth.

“Amelia, do you know who did it? Please, you must tell me. I believe this person shot at me because I was trying to have Jack Travers freed from prison. If you know something, you could be in danger. Tell me, and we can stop this fiend.”

Amelia squirmed guiltily, but didn’t speak.

“Amelia,” she said sharply, “I know Sarah was your friend, but you must tell what you know. This would give Sarah justice. You aren’t betraying your friendship by telling me.”

“But it—it couldn’t be him, Maddy. It—it’s impossible! And I know it is! Sarah trusted me and I—I betrayed her! And now—it doesn’t matter now, because he is dead.”

Betrayed her? “Who, Amelia?” she asked, but in an instant, she knew. “It was Peregrine Rhodes, the musician, wasn’t it? Was there something between him and Sarah?” Shock filled her voice. Peregrine Rhodes had been skilled on the piano and breathtakingly handsome. He had also been a dozen years older than Sarah and Amelia.

“Sarah was going to elope with him. She was madly in love with him. But I don’t think—I know he was no longer in love with her.” Amelia buried her face in her hands and sobbed. “Oh, go away. I cannot talk about it. I will never forgive myself!”

At first, Madeline had no idea what to do. Then she knew she could not go away, whether Amelia liked it or not.

Amelia had turned away from her and pressed her face to the bed. Madeline lifted her sister, embraced her. “Did you love him too? Perhaps when he told Sarah he did not want to marry her, she became upset, and then he—”

“No!”

“Do you think he wanted to marry her, Amelia?” The most awful, horrible thought leapt into her mind. Could Amelia have wanted to kill Sarah so she could have Peregrine Rhodes? It was impossible, for her sister would not have been strong enough to strangle Grace.

To even think it showed what this hunt was doing to her. It was warping her mind, making her distrust everyone.

Jack wanted her to stop, but she couldn’t. She had to know the truth. Yet she now feared she was going to unearth an awful truth about someone she loved dearly.

It could
not
be Amelia. But her sister was staring so guiltily at Madeline, it was as if she carried the worst secret in the world in her heart.

“Amelia, you must tell me—” she began.

“No! You’ll be angry. You always are. You are always telling me I’m doing wrong! You never sympathize and you never understand!”

The outburst stunned Madeline. Was this truly how her sister viewed her? As someone who could do nothing but berate? She’d had to act like a mother to Amelia instead of a sister, which meant she had to be authoritative. She repeated gently, “Do you think he intended to marry her?”

“Sarah thought he did. The morning before she died, she asked me about Catholic weddings. Whether a Catholic ceremony performed in Spain would be valid in England.”

“He was going to run away with her to Spain?”

“I don’t know. I suppose she thought so.”

“And you knew he was not going to. You knew because you believed he loved you.” She felt fury at the despicable Rhodes, who had toyed with the hearts of young women, but fought to keep her voice soft. Her heart ached for Amelia, it truly did. She knew all about hopeless love.

Miserably, Amelia wrung her hands. “She used to meet him in the woods, but he did not go that day—the day she died. He simply cut her.”

As the supposed wedding date neared, Madeline guessed. “Sarah must have been hurt. She might have confronted him over that—”

“He met me.” Amelia blushed scarlet. “The very day he broke Sarah’s heart, he sent a note to me, asking me to meet him. So when Grace, Sarah, and I were supposed to be playing in the maze, I slipped out. I met Mr. Rhodes behind the lilacs, where we couldn’t be seen. He told me he had loved me since he had first arrived and couldn’t deny his heart any longer. I—I had my first kiss with him. He had just left me and I had gone back into the maze when I heard you scream.” She hung her head. “I betrayed my best friend. I was kissing the man she loved and she was murdered. I can’t forgive myself for that. Not ever.”

Now she knew why her sister had not smiled for two years. She hugged Amelia. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt Sarah. You were in love, and women in love sometimes do things for men they desire that they later regret.”

She winced. She had brought danger to her home in her desire to save Jack.

“I suppose he really didn’t care about me, either.”

“If he did not, it was because he was a selfish fool who was unworthy of you. He was a cad, and it was not your fault. You have to let go of the guilt, Amelia. You deserve to have a good future—to find a handsome man with a good heart and marry him.”

“But I cannot forget what I did.”

“You can. I want you to start thinking of the future.” Holding Amelia tighter, she kissed the top of the girl’s head. But then, doubt crept in. Had Amelia lashed out earlier because she knew Madeline was her half-sister, just as Philip did?