Page 23 of A Hint of Scandal (The Mismatched Lovers #2)

M ax encountered Elsie, the sometime parlor maid who had been elevated to a new position as Serafina’s maid, walking away from the Blue Bedroom carrying a jug of used water. He slowed his pace and waited for her to descend the stairs and vanish from view. Then he knocked on the door of the bedroom.

“Come in,” came Serafina’s voice. She probably assumed Elsie had forgotten something.

Oh well, they were to be married in just over a week, so what did it matter if he entered her bedroom and put her in a compromising position? Not that he intended any compromising behavior. She’d made it all too clear she wouldn’t welcome that, even after they were married. He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

She was sitting up in bed with a shawl about her shoulders, reading a book by the light of one of Julian’s new Carcel lamps, which he’d introduced a few years ago due to his love of reading when he couldn’t sleep at nights. Her dark hair had been confined by Elsie in a long braid that right now rested on her left shoulder and breast. Something rather beguiling clung to her in this tranquil situation.

She looked up as Max closed the door behind himself and just for the briefest of moments, alarm flashed across her face. One hand went to the high neck of her nightgown.

Max remained by the door. “You are quite safe. I’ve not come to see you with anything in mind other than obtaining your advice. I have no one else I can turn to on a matter my brother has thrust before me. And you are the most level-headed person I know.”

Her expression softened. “If that is so, improper as your arrival is, you had better fetch that chair over and set it beside the bed. I shall endeavor to live up to your expectations.” She laid her book down on the bed covers and linked her fingers together.

Max did as he was told, setting the chair a good six feet back from the bed, in case she should feel intimidated. He was a big man, after all, and she was just a slip of a girl already in her night attire. That she was brave enough not to send him off with a scolding and his tail between his legs impressed him. This couldn’t wait until the morning, not with the 14 th and the promised arrival of this interloping woman so close.

Where to begin, though? Perhaps with the letter. He took it out of his pocket and passed it over to her, having to rise in order to do so. Then he retook his seat and crossed his legs. “My brother showed me this letter this evening and has asked me to help him with the problem it entails. It arrived earlier today and he confessed to me that he didn’t know how to deal with it until I arrived home. Lucky for him that I did.”

By the bright light of the Carcel lamp, she read it through, then, like him not so long ago, she read it a second time. She looked up, those lovely gray eyes wide with shock. “Oh my goodness.”

He nodded. “You see my predicament. Julian’s predicament. He could not have dealt with this himself, and I’m heartily glad he hasn’t been forced to ask Rumbold, his valet, to do so. He is a good valet, but describing him as heavy-handed is a gross underestimation.”

She nodded in return. “I have yet to encounter the estimable Rumbold. I take it the letter is true?”

Max shrugged. “As far as we know. Julian has admitted to marrying the girl. They were together only six months when he was twenty-one, before parting unamicably and she vanished from his life. He admitted to me that he lied to her in order to abandon her. He says he assumed she’d disappeared, or even died.”

“Until now.”

“So he tells me.” He paused. “I have no reason not to believe him on that, dishonest as he has been with poor Maria, and dishonest also with this poor young woman. He married Maria when he was twenty-eight, having heard nothing from this Abigail in the previous seven years. I suppose one could say it was reasonable of him to have assumed she had died, or emigrated to the Americas or some such place and that he would never see her again.”

“Nevertheless, emigration would not have rendered the marriage invalid. He would still have been committing bigamy.”

Max nodded. “He would, but it would never have come out.”

She pressed her lips together. “And you have come to me for advice?” Her brows rose.

Max bit his lip. “I have.” Feeling more than a little despondent, he shook his head. “I have so little time. She says she’s coming here on the 14 th . That’s only in three days’ time. I have no one else to go to but you. I can’t tell my mother. She has enough to worry about with Julian’s declining health. Maria is busy in London with Arabella—who, if she succeeds in making a worthy match, will no doubt be spurned the moment this comes out. I have to act quickly and discover if this woman is who she says she is. And deal with it.” He paused. “I would very much value your help in this matter.”

A small smile lit her face, combining with the glow of the lamplight to render her almost pretty. “I am very flattered that you have turned to me. And if, as you say, time is of the utmost importance, we must make a plan of action.” Her eyes glittered for a moment with something else he didn’t recognize, but he’d have to think about that later.

For now, relief that he wasn’t alone in this fix flooded over Max. He might have been a commissioned officer in his regiment, but he was not used to having to work out a puzzle of this sort. And doing so with the help of someone else, even if it was a woman, was a boon. He had to admire her staunch commonsense. Any other woman would have had a fit of the vapors at such a scandal about to materialize in the family she was marrying into and perhaps run a mile. Not Serafina.

He managed a wary smile. “What do you suggest we do first?”

Serafina leaned forward, her eyes now alight with something that might have been possible to construe as excitement. Was she enjoying this? “First of all, we need to find, if we can, where the letter was delivered from and where this woman is at present.”

Max reached for the letter and turned it over in his hands to reveal the reverse. “Sent from London according to the markings. So I’d assume she must live there.”

Serafina nodded. “So she has a good distance to travel to be here in three days’ time. If this letter came by mailcoach then it could have been sent barely a day since.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “And what of her son? How old would this boy be now if she had him perhaps a year after her marriage to your brother?”

Max frowned as he did the maths in his head. “Fully grown by now. At least twenty-five, I’d say.”

“What we need to do is look for information about his birth, and find out if there are papers recording any marriage between your brother and this woman. She can only claim this marriage if there is a record of it.”

“He says he did marry her. He doesn’t deny that.”

“Nevertheless, we need to check all the facts are correct. Starting with discovering which church they were married in. Did he tell you that?”

Max shook his head, more than ever in admiration of her cool-headedness in the face of what seemed to him to be insurmountable obstacles. “He’s sleeping now. His illness makes him very tired. I’ll have to ask him in the morning. But I do know it must have been in Oxford.” Then he recalled what else his brother had said. Perhaps he’d better let Serafina know her wedding was being brought forward by two weeks. She had a right to know something as vital as that.

Her eyes widened at the news, but he detected no displeasure in them. “You seem to be in a great hurry to marry. I thought you had until your thirtieth birthday.”

Now came the crunch. He needed to tell her why. “You understand that my brother is ill, don’t you?”

She nodded. “A congestion of the lungs, I suspected. He seems to have great difficulty in breathing.”

Max bit his lip. “He suffers from an insufficiency of the heart, which his doctor says affects his lungs. The same thing my father had. Died from.” He shot her a quick look. “It runs in our family so perhaps you might wish to reconsider my offer now you know this.”

She smiled and shook her head. “You look perfectly healthy to me, and besides, were you to die, I should be left a wealthy widow, would I not?” She dimpled, making her look far younger than her twenty-three years, and he found himself smiling back at her.

“I shall endeavor not to succumb to the same affliction, if only to deprive you of a spendthrift widowhood.”

She chuckled. “It would please me if you could manage that. But why does this mean that we must marry in such haste?”

“I fear he’s dying. Well, nearer to dying than my mother and Maria will admit. It seems very unfair that this woman has raised her head in what might well be the last few weeks of my brother’s life. If she knows he’s ill, she can have no consideration for his comfort. I noticed today how much worse he’s become since I last saw him so short a time ago. I assume it can only be because of this letter. I owe it to him to set his mind at rest before he dies, and reassure him that Freddie will inherit his title. And also to marry and secure my own inheritance, as he’s long wanted. He wishes us to marry in the estate chapel so that he might attend. It is allowed, as it is consecrated, of course. Some of our tenants have married there in the past.”

She gave a slow nod. “You wish us to marry before he dies.”

“Yes. I know you’re probably thinking that his behavior shows him to be a cad of the worst kind, a man who left one wife after telling her a lie, because she wasn’t good enough for him, then conveniently forgot about her and took another. A man who has fooled that second wife into thinking herself lawfully married and her children legitimate. A man too weak to admit he was already married, who should first have tried to annul that prior contract.” He paused. “I’m thinking all this myself, I can assure you, but he’s my brother, and I love him. He has many other qualities that outweigh his shameful behavior, and I still admire him for those.”

Serafina shook her head. “No. That’s what you’re thinking. I’m not. I’m thinking he was a very young man as foolish as many an heiress in her first London Season. He was lured into marriage by a seductress who recognized in him a way to better herself. I’m just surprised she allowed him to escape her clutches. What puzzles me is that she must have known he was an earl’s son. He would have had some sort of title as the heir, wouldn’t he?”

“Viscount Lavington, as Freddie does.”

She nodded. “So she would have been a viscountess. And she would have known, as I said, that her husband was due to inherit an earldom with all that entails. So why did she allow him to get away like that? I find that very odd indeed. She just went off and abandoned life as a potential countess? Without a single glance back?” She waved her hand at the room. “She gave up life here at this enormous house surrounded by its enormous park and farmlands?”

Now she’d put it like that, Max could see she had a point. “Perhaps she didn’t want all of this?”

Serafina gave an unladylike snort. “You think? And now, twenty-five years later, she’s decided she does want it all? She’s decided she wants this life, and the earldom, for her son? The son she’s deprived of this life for twenty-five years. I’m not so sure about that. And think of this. She’s only sent this letter to your brother when he’s on the point of death. She must know. It can’t be a coincidence. That in itself is strange. I can’t work out why she should leave it so long, but I’m certain it’s significant. There’s a mystery here, Max, and I think it will be a pleasure to solve it.”

Of course there was. Why hadn’t he seen it beforehand and why hadn’t Julian? Because they’d been blinded by such a shocking revelation. He’d been right to coopt Serafina—she had the luxury of looking at this from the outside, whereas they were firmly on the inside, with all the problems that would lead to.

Serafina seemed suddenly to recall the wedding. “I believe you will have to obtain a Common License if you wish us to marry sooner.”

He nodded. “Correct. I’m sending for one in the morning. But, at the risk of appearing insensitive to your needs, I feel that’s of the least importance right now. This other matter pushes it aside.”

“I won’t argue with you about that. I think that tomorrow, we will need to go to Oxford and find that church and look at the records.”

“We?”

“You don’t think I’ll let you go alone, do you?” She chuckled. “You probably wouldn’t find them on your own. And now I have a maid, courtesy of your family, we shall be quite respectable. We’ll take Elsie with us.” She glanced at the door. “And now, if you don’t mind, I need to go to sleep, if we are to set off bright and early tomorrow morning to Oxford. I have no idea how far it is from here, nor how long it will take to get there.”

Max rose to his feet. “A good thirty miles, I’d say. But we’ll take the fastest vehicle and the fastest horses. My brother maintains an excellent stable of horseflesh, despite being unable to use it himself.” He poked his good-for-nothing arm. “However, due to my blasted arm, we’ll have to take Badger as well.”

She chuckled again. “We’ll be quite a party. You, me, Elsie and Badger. I look forward to it.”

He was by the door now, and as he opened it, he looked back at her. “Thank you for this, Serafina. You’ve no idea how much I appreciate your help.”

All she did was smile in return, and pick up her discarded book. Curiously deflated, but with no idea why, Max let himself out of her room and headed for his own chamber.