The Worthington Wife Page 38

  The earl stared at Tansy—at her lovely blue-black hair. “Tansy, were you the girl? You aren’t in trouble—you won’t lose your job. I need your help. Desperately.”

  “Yes. I didn’t do anything really naughty, I swear. He used to take me driving.”

  “Where did he used to take you?”

  Tansy tried to explain it, but she didn’t know the surrounding land. Hannah did and she could guess where it was from Tansy’s confused description. When she told the earl, he lifted her hand and kissed it!

  “Thank you. Both of you.” With that, the earl ran to the stairs. He grabbed the banister and took the steps three at a time.

  Tansy tried to stir again, but began to cry. Hannah told her to sit down. As she brewed tea, Eustace came by her. “That was bally good of you, Han—Mrs. Talbot. Protecting Tansy when she was doing something so daft.”

  Hannah looked up in surprise to see Eustace regarding her with a soft, caring look in his eyes. The way he used to look at Tansy. But she was a cook now, happy with her career, and she knew Eustace had been wounded by Tansy’s interest in another man. His attentions to her might be coming from his hurt pride. Anyway, she was quite happy with her future as a cook. She wasn’t ready for a romance. But she prayed everything was all right with the new ladyship. Why was the earl so afraid?

  * * *

  Cal almost crashed into David, who was wheeling his chair down the hall, hands pushing on the rubber wheels.

  “Cal, what’s wrong?” David asked.

  “Julia’s gone. She’s been taken.” It had to be the Duke of Bradstock. Julia had called him James. And Bradstock had wanted Julia. Was that why he took black-haired women? Fear beat like a pulse in Cal’s head.

  David stopped rolling. “Julia got a note—”

  “I know. I saw it. She went with the Duke of Bradstock in his car.” Had Bradstock and Lord John Carstairs been abducting and murdering young women together? “I think he has killed women who looked...” God, his legs went weak with fear. “Like Julia.”

  David’s face whitened. “We’ve got to find her—” He looked down at his artificial legs. “What can I do?”

  “Stay here. I think I know where he’s taken her.” He was praying he was right. If he wasn’t, what else was he going to do? Combing the countryside would take forever. There weren’t many roads, but they covered a hell of a lot of land.

  “I’ll send everyone else out looking that I can, Cal. I’ll call the village police station. That I can do,” David said.

  “Thank you,” Cal said. He gripped his brother’s forearm. There were a lot of things he’d always wanted to say to David. For some reason, he needed to say them. Fast. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get enough money to save our mother. I’m sorry I was too late to save Father. I’m sorry I didn’t keep you out of danger in battle—”

  “None of that is your fault so shut the hell up, Cal. Go and get your wife.”

  Cal ran out to his car. Maybe he wanted to say those things because it was likely he wouldn’t see David again. If he couldn’t save Julia, he was going to kill Bradstock. Or die trying.

  Christ, he had to save her. But his gut was like lead, his heart like ice. He had been too late to save his father. Too late to protect his mother.

  He couldn’t be too late now.

  * * *

  The fields stretched around her. Julia was on her hands and knees, hidden by the wet grass, terrified to make a sound. She heard Bradstock stomp through the grass. Moving away from her.

  What was she going to do? She could double back to the car.

  Cal had told her she was brave. She thought of Ellen Lambert being completely vulnerable, driving an ambulance through shelling. She owed it to all modern women not to be a coward.

  Staying low, Julia ran back to the car. Wincing at the sound, she opened the door and climbed in. He would know where she was as soon as she started the car. As soon as the engine caught, she shoved the pedal to the floor. The engine screamed and the car lurched forward. Almost giddy with hope, she went a few feet, clinging to the wheel with hands that were frozen with fear.

  A sound, sharp and explosive as a gunshot, made her scream. It came from the front of the car. The wheel moved funny. The steering wheel jerked in her hand. She’d hit a hole and buggered up the front of the car. She was moving downhill. The tire was flat, but still turning.

  The lights picked up Bradstock as he reached the edge of the track. Showed the vicious fury on his face as he ran out into the track in front of her.

  To escape she was going to have to run him down.

  If she didn’t, he’d kill her.

  She had to do it. She couldn’t leave him alive to kill anyone else.

  She accelerated—

  No, she couldn’t do it. She took her foot off the accelerator, slammed on the brake. The engine stalled. The car stopped.

  Oh God. She was a fool. She thought of Zelda Fitzgerald’s words. She was an utter fool—a softhearted one. Strangely, she still heard the rumble of an engine. It sounded far away, lost in the rising fog. It couldn’t be her engine.

  Then the sound disappeared. Her imagination?

  Bradstock slammed his hand on the hood of the car. He didn’t seem aware of the low, soft sound of a motorcar—so she must have dreamed it. Rage emanated from him. Slapping his hand along the hood of his car, he prowled toward her.

  She had no weapon. She was more scared than when Ellen’s attacker had come after her. Her hand was still clutched around the key.

  The key—

  Julia pushed the car door open. It was a barricade between her and him as she scrambled out of the car. She ran several feet, then he grabbed her arm and jerked her back. He pulled her with him back to the car. Flung her against the hood. She cried out as she slammed into the metal.

  He was on top of her, trying to force her arms back. She drove her knee at his vulnerable place. He howled. He didn’t let her go, but his grip slackened. She broke her hand free and scratched his face with the key.

  He roared. “Bitch!” His palm cracked against her face.

  “You were the one. The one who tried to take me outside Ellen’s cottage.”

  “You were spending so much time with Worthington. I was so angry with you,” Bradstock snapped. He wrestled to get the key out of her hand. She hung on like a hunting dog. His hand wrapped around her wrist, forced it back. The key fell out of her hand. She looked desperately down the lane—

  There was something there.

  The beams of light illuminated a silver motorcar coming up the track toward them. She yelled, “Help me! He wants to kill me!”

  Bradstock swung around, just at the moment the other car stopped and a large male shape jumped out. The lights picked up golden hair. Then Cal’s face, contorted with a viciousness she’d never seen on it. He lunged for Bradstock. His fist sliced across Bradstock’s face. He punched again, right into the duke’s face. Bone crunched.

  Bradstock hit back. She saw, in the light, silver in the villain’s hand. The blade of a knife. “Cal, look out.”

  Bradstock stabbed wildly at Cal, but Cal blocked his every attempt. Cal fought like a man possessed. Better than a prizefighter.

  She looked for a weapon. Something to use on Bradstock to protect Cal... Heavens, Bradstock would have a shovel in the boot. She could threaten him with that.

  But as she slid along the side of the motor toward the boot, Bradstock let out a roar as Cal snapped his wrist back. The breaking sound echoed across the empty field. The knife glinted as it fell to the ground.

  One more punch to Bradstock’s face sent the fiend reeling back. His huge, broad-shouldered body slumped bonelessly over the hood of his motorcar.

  “Julia.”

  Cal’s arms went around her, engulfing her in warmth, in
safety.

  “How did you get here?” she whispered. “I thought—I was certain I—”

  “Hannah convinced Tansy to tell me she saw you get into Bradstock’s car and where he used to take her. Bradstock used to take her out in his car. I guess because she looks like you.”

  Hannah. Tansy. The women in the kitchen had helped save her life.

  “I was scared I was too late,” he said gruffly. “When I saw the car headlights coming toward me, my heart just about stopped. But when I saw him outlined in them, I knew you’d gotten behind the wheel. You almost saved yourself, you smart, smart girl. But you couldn’t run him down, could you?”

  “No. I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it. It wouldn’t have been right. It wouldn’t have been cricket.”

  Cal laughed huskily, with a catch in his voice. His arms tightened. He laid his cheek against her head. “You even tried to escape a killer in a ladylike manner. What am I going to do with you?”

  “I wasn’t all that ladylike. I scratched his face with his key.”

  He kissed her. His mouth took hers in such a fast, overwhelming passion, she was literally lifted off her feet. When he set her down he said, “You should have gone for his eyes.”

  She shuddered. “Cal, I’m sorry. I’m just not that ruthless.”

  “You don’t have to be. You’re perfect, Julia. Perfect in every way. God, I love you. I love you with all my soul. And thank God, you’re safe.” He hugged her to him. “David telephoned for the police. They should arrive soon. Then I’ll take you home.”

  She could hear the sounds of cars roaring up the path. “Home to Worthington? It is our home, Cal. Truly, it is.”

  24

  America

  For the next month, Julia was treated like a Hollywood movie star. Cal pampered her in every way. He brought her champagne, and asked for the most delectable dishes and desserts for dinner. He took her out riding in the mornings and she loved showing him how the mist rose from the fields and sunlight glistened on dew. They had tea on the lawns under the spreading branches of an oak, while the lawn mowers clacked. In the evenings, they walked through the woods with the estate’s dogs following them. They would return and sit with the terrace doors open to the breeze, drink cocktails, then go up to bed...where the most decadent and naughty things happened. Day by day, Cal healed her from the shock of Bradstock’s attack.

  After all the fear and pain that had come before, it filled her with joy to be building this life with Cal at Worthington.

  Diana wanted to stay longer at Worthington and she fussed over Julia, and seemed happy with her more sedate life and spending time with David. Julia knew they must take Diana away soon. They did not tell Diana, Cassia and Thalia about John. The Duke of Bradstock never went to trial—he hanged himself, taking his own life, and Cal had not told the police about John’s involvement. In the end, he decided justice had been served by John’s death and he didn’t want to hurt his cousins’ futures.

  But the dowager and Cal did not speak to each other. Julia believed the dowager would not hurt Cal by exposing what his mother had done, since Cal had protected John.

  A week after the attack, on a morning Cal went out, knowing she was now safe, Julia visited the ladies she was helping. She saw Mrs. Billings, who lived in a cottage alone, now that Mr. Billings had passed on. They had lost all their sons in the Great War and Julia had suggested that one of her widows, a young woman with three children, share Mrs. Billings’s cottage. Mrs. Billings was delighted to have children around her. Julia had also introduced Mr. Toft to a widow of another farm. They were working their farms together. She hoped that in time a romance might take root.

  She drove to Lilac Farm, knowing that soon the Brands would be leaving it. They now knew what had happened to Sarah. It had broken their hearts, but Brand had insisted there was peace in knowing the truth. They were to move into a cottage on the estate.

  But as she reached the farm, Julia heard a great deal of banging. She followed the sound, and stopped her car on a rise. Below her, men scurried everywhere around all kinds of newfangled equipment. Wood from the sawmill lay in huge stacks. Houses were being built on land that had once been the fields of Lilac Farm.

  She quickly drove home. Heart in her throat, she found Cal in his study. “You are building houses? But what about Lilac Farm? The land is needed for the farm.”

  He shoved back his golden hair. “It’s sold, Julia. It was the best land to begin building and I received a damn good offer for it. For the Brands, the farm is wrapped up in sad memories. I’m going to take care of them.”

  “But...but you never talked to me about this.” She felt numb with shock. “Have you sold more?”

  “Yes.”

  Then he told her what he had sold. Three farms belonging to families no longer able to farm. Nausea rose in her belly. “How could you?”

  He paced on the Aubusson rug in front of the fireplace. “With the money I’ve made on the land, the families are living rent-free in new homes. The children of those families will be sent to school. I’ve seen the squalor of slums. It’s the same here. People live on top of each other while I have acres of underused land.”

  She could see the benefit, but still felt fear over such abrupt change. “But you did not talk to me about it.”

  “You would have said no. The truth is, Julia, I can’t stay here. The dowager can destroy my mother’s name if she wants and I’ve realized I can live with that. What matters is that I can still hear the condescending sneer in the dowager’s voice. It cost my mother her soul to do what she did. It cost her life. Do you look at me now and see only a man with a mother who whored herself because her boy was too late to protect his father, too late to protect her?”

  His words went through her like a blade of ice. The pain in them broke her heart. “I see a man who loved his parents and who would have risked his own life to help them.”

  He looked away from her. She saw that—but he didn’t. How could she make him see?

  “This place will never be a home to me, Julia,” he said harshly. “What matters is us and not Worthington Park. We can be together anywhere. It doesn’t have to be here.”

  Leave and never come back? Then she saw the truth. “Cal, you have to stop running away. You cannot run from your past. You have to heal from it.”

  “We could be happy if we were away from here. I want to build a future for us. Don’t you want that?” His golden brows drew down.

  “Yes, but I feel we do belong here. You’re angry and you are doing rash things—”

  “These changes aren’t rash. My desire to leave here isn’t rash.”

  “But when you proposed, you told me you wouldn’t destroy Worthington.”

  “So it was the damn estate all along. Julia, do you even love me?”

  “Of course I love you.”

  “But if I’d been honest, if I told you that Worthington wasn’t part of the deal, you never would have said yes.”

  “Honest? Do you mean you lied to me?” Shock hit her.

  “Yeah, I lied to you. I made a vow to my mother as she was dying that I would make the Carstairs family pay. How in hell could I ever be lord of this when she had to condemn her soul?” He raked back his hair. “Julia, which do you choose—Worthington or me?”

  “This is ridiculous. It should not have to be a choice.” They were echoing the night he had proposed in Paris and she had only the same answer to give.

  “It is. For me.”

  “Cal, I can’t accept this.” She wanted Cal to find happiness in the same life that she did. And it hurt that he’d lied. Her father had lied to her mother. Mother had found out about all his affairs. His lies had made her desperately unhappy.

  “Julia, damn it, tell me which you choose.” He stalked toward the window, his shoulders stiff a
nd tense. “It’s Worthington, isn’t it? You’ll always love it more than me.”

  How could she trust anything he told her now? She would always worry about what was unsaid. “Why couldn’t you have been honest?”

  He turned. “That night in Paris, would you have said yes if I told you I still wanted to sell Worthington?”

  “I—” She wouldn’t have done.

  “You would have said no. I can see it in your eyes.”

  “I am not to blame for this!” she cried. “Cal, Worthington is my place in the world. It is where I belong. I once thought love was all that mattered in marriage. But you’ve shown me I was wrong. Love is meaningless without one thing—honesty.”

  “Hell—” He broke off. “Julia, I’ve never been honest with you. What Bradstock told you about me was true. He may have been a vicious killer, but he was right about that. That’s what Kerry O’Brien was going to give you. All the rotten details of my past. You’re right—you deserved honesty. And you deserve better than a man like me.”

  Then he was gone. He walked right out of the room, walking past her.

  She shook with pain. He’d lied to her from the very beginning. She didn’t know how to fix this. She didn’t know how to stop feeling sick with betrayal. Or how to stop what he was doing to Worthington.

  For all her training to be a lady and to handle any situation, she felt powerless. Brokenhearted. Afraid.

  * * *

  Cal did not come down for dinner. Nor did he come to her room that night. The next morning, she marched upstairs and pushed open the door to his room. A modern woman would sort this out.

  But the bed was smooth and a sheaf of white paper sat in the middle of it. Her heart stuttered when she saw her name at the top. It was a letter written from Cal.

  I don’t even know how to write this. I’m no good at putting things into words.

  I made a vow, a promise, when my mother died. Mam told me to forgive the old earl. I told her she was worthy of justice. When the dowager looked down on Mam, it made me almost choke in my guilt, so I think I was lying to myself when I thought I sold the land for good reasons. I did it in anger.