Rogue's Reward (23 page)

Eleanor was shown into a small study and she composed herself to wait.

If Sir Robert thought he had a monopoly on Mr. Campbell’s secret, he was wrong. She wasn’t sure how that could help, but it might be worth something. In the meantime, he might still hold evidence about Manton Barnes, and that was another weapon he could hold over everyone. Perhaps if she could convince him that Mr. Campbell intended to go away, he would give it up. It didn’t really make sense.

Her palms were becoming clammy. Lady Eleanor Acton had barged in once again with no clear plan of action.

A voice echoed from the hallway.

“By all means go ahead, sir,” the major said. “But I think there is nothing else to discuss. I have agreed to your terms. Indeed, I am gratified by your generosity. Pray, wait in the study while I secure the papers. I shan’t be a moment.”

The door opened and Eleanor stood up to face him.

It was not the major who entered. It was Lee Campbell.

“Well, well,” he said with a lift of the brow. “It’s the stalwart, chivalrous scion of the house of Acton, girded, accoutered, and armed in steel. Prepared once again to do battle on the side of the angels, no doubt. Do you bring cannon this time, brown hen?”

She collapsed back into the chair. He propped himself carelessly on the corner of the major’s desk, his long legs stretched in front of him, and grinned at her.

“You are in league with him?” she said faintly. “All along you were accomplices?”

He gave her a genuine smile and her heart turned over. There was no anger there at all, even at such an outrageous accusation.

“So you know that Major Crabtree is our original blackmailer. It wasn’t too hard to figure out, was it, brown hen, although it took me an unconscionable length of time. And to think I pride myself on my powers of reasoning! I was as blind as the proverbial bat. But no, we are not accomplices.”

“Sir Robert found out Manton Barnes’s secret from Blanche Harrison, didn’t he?” Eleanor said. “After that night at Vauxhall when they were caught in the rain. Miss Harrison confided in Manton’s uncle, thinking he’d be sympathetic, but the major only used the information to destroy his own nephew, because that’s when he began to blackmail him.”

“Indeed. And when your mother and Major Crabtree became friends, Barnes found out about it from his uncle and guessed she’d be the next victim. Yet how could he warn her? They had never met. Instead, he tried to warn me, though it was too late by then.”

“And for twenty years he’s been draining Lady Augusta, too. It’s horrid! Why has he decided to stop that now?”

The door opened quietly. Major Sir Robert St. John Crabtree stood smiling at them beneath his splendid mustaches.

“Because Leander Campbell has the oddest ideas of family loyalty, Lady Eleanor. So he is being kind enough to pay me, instead.”

She spun to face him. “Then you don’t deny it?”

“Dear lady, why should I? But pray don’t share the glory of my enterprise with Mr. Campbell. He has never been anything but a victim, I assure you.”

“Then why is he here?” Eleanor asked.

“Mr. Campbell brings papers for our final arrangement. He signs over to me all title to his book collection. I have already been the beneficiary of some most welcome funds from the advance sale of some choicer volumes. Now, I shall have the whole.”

“I don’t understand.” She turned to Leander Campbell. He seemed completely relaxed. “Your books? I thought you said you loved them? Is that all that love means to you? Something to enjoy while it’s there, and to dispose of when it’s convenient? Why are you paying this monster?”

“Surely it’s obvious enough? I told you we made a bargain.”

“You pay him to keep silent about your birth? Is that why the demands on Lady Augusta have stopped? Your funds replace hers? And this bargain is why the charges against you were dropped?”

Mr. Campbell inclined his head.

“Don’t you think he owes me something?” the major asked. “Thanks to his interference, my lovely little scheme with Lady Acton came to naught almost before it began.”

“It’s the most despicable thing I can think of, to so use my mother,” Eleanor said indignantly.

“On the contrary, it amused her. As for Lady Augusta, Hawksley is drained anyway,” the major added complacently. “The proceeds from the sale of the bulk of Mr. Campbell’s collection will keep me in sufficient comfort for a long time, and there are a couple of volumes I have coveted for years, especially those ancient law books. So fascinating! Yet my needs are really quite modest. Such old-fashioned sensibility is so rare anymore, but Mr. Campbell wishes to protect his stepmother and his sister from my avaricious grip. I believe that’s how you put it, isn’t it, sir?”

“Something like that,” Mr. Campbell replied.

The major laughed. “The source of my income matters not to me. Mr. Campbell’s gold is as good as Lady Augusta’s. But what an odd fellow, to be sure! I had been so confident that he would seize his inheritance, if the truth ever came out. But there you are!”

“You even victimized your own nephew,” Eleanor said. “How do you justify that?”

“I don’t,” the major said. “Though it’s deeply moving, isn’t it, how our gentleman friend here cared for poor Manton Barnes, when he shared nothing of the fellow’s sadly illegal predilections. I am most distressed myself, of course, that my nephew met such a sad end. Nothing could have been further from my intentions, but he was a weak reed.”

“How can you give up your books to a Judas like him?” Eleanor asked Mr. Campbell.

“Does it surprise you to learn that I love Diana a great deal more than the books?” He smiled with warm reassurance. “It wasn’t hard. What use would such volumes be to me in India?”

Eleanor turned once again to the major. “You must have known that Manton Barnes committed suicide and why. It was your fault. What sense did it make to bring charges of murder against Mr. Campbell?”

“Simple, Lady Eleanor! I am surprised you have not guessed it. As soon as Mr. Campbell knew that I was the entrepreneur who had inconvenienced poor Barnes, he realized what a delightful weapon the possession of the marriage lines must have been to hold over Lady Augusta. Mr. Campbell was then impetuous enough to tear Deerfield apart. He eventually found all the evidence he required: papers pertaining to my nephew’s lovers; records of my receipts from Lady Augusta. Your mother’s letters, of course, he discovered some time ago, and returned them to her. Yet while he was so busy, my butler sent me a warning. I thought Mr. Campbell would slay me on his return to London, so I had him thrown in jail. But I have never understood the intricacies of his fertile brain. He only wanted to pay me, instead. Touching, isn’t it? If I hadn’t been so suspicious, we could have made our little agreement much sooner and saved all that business of the trial.”

“And deprived the town of so much entertainment?” Mr. Campbell asked with deliberate irony. “I couldn’t wait to see you with a cudgel, Major.”

Sir Robert ignored him. “Now I can hardly believe we have anything more to say to one another, Lady Eleanor. No doubt Mr. Campbell will see you home. Good day!”

The major bowed himself out.

Eleanor turned to face Leander Campbell. “Did you suspect him at Deerfield?”

“I don’t know what I suspected. I wondered if he knew about Manton Barnes’s lovers, of course. That’s why I came to Norfolk in the first place. They hadn’t been close, yet Manton had no nearer male relative left alive, and it was possible that he had confided in his uncle. I’m not sure why, but I felt that Sir Robert was holding something back from me. I tried to get him to give himself away more than once.”

Eleanor closed her eyes for a moment. She could still picture that careless and magnificent horsemanship. If she and Diana had not arrived when they had, would he have achieved his goal then?

“Like after the attack on the practice grounds?” she said.

“Which achieved very little in the end. But I could never find a shred of evidence and I was reluctant to believe it, I suppose.”

“He rescued you from the nuns with the white sails. Yes, I know. But only because when he saw the papers that came with you, he knew they represented a fortune.”

His smile was more sad than bitter. “At first I even believed his explanation about why your mother’s letters were hidden at Deerfield.”

“That’s where you found them?”

“I came back that night to look for anything that might cast light on poor Barnes. Instead, I found you examining the paneling, and learned about Lady Acton’s letters. They were hidden in another of those little cupboards. But when I confronted him, Sir Robert told me he had himself recovered them from the blackmailer. Then he tried to cast suspicion on Walter, of all people.”

“But when my mother said that he had known Blanche Harrison, you knew for sure, didn’t you?”

“As if the proverbial scales had fallen, brown hen.”

“Why don’t you fight a duel with him?”

“Because I would kill him, and nothing would be achieved by his death. Do you think I should take it upon myself to be judge, jury, and executioner of the man who taught me to shoot? He gave in to this nasty temptation and innocent people have suffered for it, but he has also given years of his life in service to his country. I loved him dearly as a boy. I thought him Hector and Sir Bevis all rolled into one. Nothing can bring Manton Barnes back to life, and he had many causes for despair besides the blackmail. Sir Robert certainly never wished him dead. He appears callous about it, but in fact I believe the suicide shocked him very deeply. He has now returned to me all the rest of the evidence he had concerning the other men involved, and I have destroyed it. Those men are safe. Your mother is safe. Only Lady Augusta can still be harmed, and I have made sure that her secret will never be told.”

“And you achieved all this by signing over your books? I thought you swore revenge? A lead ball would do that for you, wouldn’t it?”

“Which is why I can’t use it, brown hen. And now you will give me your solemn oath that you will forget all about me and my sordid affairs.”

“I can’t,” Eleanor said.

“Nevertheless, you will.”

Tears pricked behind her lids. “Because if I don’t, you will make me?”

“Because you know it’s the right thing to do, Lady Eleanor.”

“But it’s not! You think you are trapped and you’re nobly going to make this sacrifice for Diana and your stepmother. But who knows what the future may bring? The major might have an attack of the apoplexy. Lady Augusta could die of a fit of the pique. And Diana refuses to marry Walter under the circumstances. She says it would all be a sham. She’d rather you were earl. And so would my brother.”

“Richard would rather I died fighting with Wellington, than so betray my sister and stepmother.”

“Then do whatever you must! You’ve left your sister in an impossible quandary. You care so much for your own precious honor, yet you give no thought to hers? She says it would be a falsehood to marry Walter without telling him all this, but you have made her swear never to do so. I am such a sorry creature that I break my word as often as I break a dinner roll, but Diana never will. You’re the most stubborn, opinionated, arrogant man I ever met.”

“Had you not taken it upon yourself to meddle,” he said quietly, “Diana would know nothing of this. But I am confident that she’ll change her mind once she sees that I’m a hopeless case. She longs for Walter and he for her. She’ll give in and marry him soon enough, and I guarantee they’ll be very happy. But now that you have made up your mind as to my character, perhaps you will do me the favor of staying out of my affairs?”

“I regret bitterly that I ever became involved in them, sir.”

The violet eyes were unfathomable. “Save your regret. I am removing myself from the scene. I leave for Brussels tomorrow. Now, let me escort you back to your remarkable mother, before it is surmised that you have been abducted like Persephone.”

And lost in the Underworld.

* * *

Eleanor walked into Acton House in a rare discomposure, only to be greeted by her father. The Earl of Acton was beaming.

“Come with me into the study for a moment, Eleanor. I have remarkable news.”

“Yes, Papa?”

“A most eligible match, my dear. Well done! A triumph in your very first Season. I gave my consent at once, of course.”

She was genuinely puzzled. “A match, sir? With whom?”

“Why, Lord Ranking asked for my permission to pay you his addresses only an hour since.”

Eleanor broke into peals of laughter, sadly aware that there was a slightly hysterical edge to her merriment—which could only throw her father into complete confusion. Wasn’t she always the sensible one?

“What, miss? What’s this? Laughter is hardly a prudent or considered response.”

She recovered herself with an effort. “Oh, Papa! Surely you’re not serious? Lord Ranking?”

“What’s afoot now?” the countess asked in cool tones from the doorway.

“Your daughter, madam! Ranking has asked for her hand and she has the effrontery to laugh about it. There’ll not be a better offer. When old Maybury pops off, the lad will be a duke. Maybury Castle, think about it!”

“I am thinking about it, and the very idea gives me the vapors.”

“Don’t tell me you’ll take Eleanor’s part in some silly schoolgirl fancy, Lady Acton!”

“I think our daughter is neither silly nor a schoolgirl any longer, Acton. She will marry Ranking over my dead body.”

“Thank you, Mama,” Eleanor said.

Before any more could be said, she slipped from the room. The sound of her father’s raised voice followed her up the stairs.

Once in her room, she sat down and took a deep breath. She dismissed the news about Lord Ranking. All her thoughts were for Leander Campbell:
Lee
.

How did you face yourself when you had just made the only man you would ever love feel nothing for you but contempt? Of course he couldn’t lay claim to his inheritance under the circumstances, and of course Diana would quickly give in and marry Walter.

Meanwhile, he would take ship for Belgium to join Wellington in the final battle with Napoleon. She knew with certainty that it would be a terrible slaughter. In spite of all the years of war, the two great generals had never met face-to-face on a battlefield. How many deaths would result when they did?