Page 7 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman (The Marlow Family Secrets #3)

The knocker struck on the cottage door with four firm raps.

Caro rose from her chair, fear gripping her chest. No one had cause to knock here.

She stood as Beth hurried through from the kitchen. Beth was making bread, she had stripped off her pinafore so quickly the flour had transferred to her dress.

‘Caroline,’ Beth whispered, asking what she should do. Her eyes were as wide with fear as Caro imagined her own were.

Caro’s heart tried to pound its way out of her chest. ‘Can you see who it is through the window?’ she whispered back. Caro could not look in case she gave her presence away.

Beth leaned against the wall near the window, twisting to try and see who was outside. ‘They are standing too close to the door. I cannot see.’

Beth had been buying a newspaper every day so Caro could check if Albert had published anything. To date, there had been no word of her disappearance.

‘Should I open the door?’ Beth whispered.

Caro felt frozen in ice, her heart pulsing so hard the sound throbbed in her ears. Her foolish head longed for Albert, for someone to turn to and say, what should I do?

She missed none of her finery but she missed him, the man who felt like her protector long ago. The man who touched her gently at night as though he loved her. A part of her heart longed to open the door and see him standing there. But not the man who beat her.

‘Ask who it is,’ Caro whispered.

‘Who is there?’ Beth called towards the door.

‘It is your sister-in-law,’ a woman said quietly from the other side. ‘Your brother sent me because he could not come himself.’

Caro looked at Beth. ‘Something is wrong, if my brother has sent his wife.’

But they had separated. Why would she come?

Anxiety skittered through Caro’s nerves. Her mind’s eye pictured Drew beaten or dead.

Could she trust his wife? Yes. Mary came from a family who were renowned for their high morals. Surely, she would not entrap Caro. Mary would not bring Albert here.

‘Open the door,’ Caro said.

Beth slid back the first bolt.

As Beth opened the second bolt, panic solidified in Caro’s stomach. A fear that she was wrong. Beth lifted the door latch and pulled the door open a crack.

‘May I come in?’ the woman asked.

Caro had never been introduced to Mary. She nodded towards Beth and walked closer, looking around the door as Beth opened it wider.

Mary held out a letter, addressed in Drew’s handwriting. ‘Andrew wrote this to you, so you would know I am telling you the truth. ’

The letter trembled as Caro accepted it and unfolded the paper.

Drew’s bold letters stretched across the page.

My dearest Caro,

It is with sorry news that I write to you, but you must not fret.

Your husband has accused the two of us of an incestuous affair.

I will stand against the charge; however, the magistrate wants to speak to you too.

I refused to let them take you to London.

But Mary and I are reconciled and her family offered for you to live with her brother, and for the magistrate to speak to you there.

John, the Duke of Pembroke, has sworn he will keep you safe.

His estate is vast, you will be well protected.

Please go with Mary and her brother, they will keep you safe, and you may tell Mrs Martin to maintain the cottage.

She should remain there. She is not really a widow but another runaway, that is why I trusted you to her care…

Caro looked up, she had read all she needed to read.

Mary’s half-brother, the Duke, walked forward.

‘My husband has accused Drew of being my lover. I never thought… Oh God .’ Her hand rested against her chest. Then she realised Mary was dressed in the fashion of the capital, in the finery no one in this village would wear, and the Duke’s status oozed from his clothing and manner.

‘Come in. Before someone sees you.’ She stepped back.

‘You are too well dressed to visit a simple woman.’

Mary crossed the threshold first, her gaze spinning around the humble room.

The Duke had to remove his hat and bow his head to pass beneath the low lintel. ‘Your Grace,’ she said. His tall build robbed the dark cottage of even more light. ‘You must sit.’ He could not even stand up straight in the room because of the low ceiling.

‘Drew must regret helping me.’

‘Ma’am, sit down before you fall down.’ Beth urged Caro into the only other armchair.

The hands that lay in her lap were white, and the room took a turn.

‘I shall make a pot of tea,’ Beth told her and disappeared.

‘Helping you is the one thing I know Andrew would never regret,’ Mary said, turning a chair from the table so she could sit too.

The letter quivered in Caro’s pale hand.

‘I promised your brother I would protect you in his stead,’ John said.

‘You will be safe at Pembroke Place. No one can come within a mile of the house without being seen. We will be there to keep you company. Of course, the house and grounds will be at your disposal to use as you wish, you may avoid us all if you choose. But it need not be confinement as this must feel, and you need not live in fear.’

‘Why would you help me?’

‘Because you are my sister now,’ Mary said.

‘You are together?’ she asked. Drew said they had reconciled in the letter.

‘Yes.’

‘He deserves to be happy.’

‘I think so too.’

‘He is a good man. I owe him so much.’ She hoped their reconciliation was a permanent thing.

‘Will you come with us?’ John asked.

Caro nodded. ‘I will.’ She had no choice now they had come here. Their visit would be the talk of Maidstone .

‘Then we should go directly.’ Mary stood. ‘John can send a cart back for your possessions.’

‘I have only one bag, Lady Framlington.’

A drowning, overwhelming sensation swallowed Caro whole, stealing her breath.

She had not stepped outdoors for days, let alone with people she did not know.

‘You must call me Mary. You are my sister.’

Caro took a deep breath, fighting against the threat of panic. Yet Drew would not have asked her to do this if he did not think it right.