“Yes, it’s your fault,” she agreed. “And yet you want me to go live with Andrew.Andrew, of all people. I’ll go to Baltimore, but only in return for a favor.”
Clyde tensed, and even Jedidiah looked up from his pipe, waiting expectantly.
“I want you to get Luke Delacroix out of jail. I want all the charges dropped, and I want—”
“Forget it,” Clyde interrupted.
“ButIwas the one who gave those studies to Luke.Iwas the one who spied. We all know that.”
“I’m not going to put you in jail, Marianne.”
“Thank you, because I’d rather not go to jail. But Luke doesn’t belong there, and I want him out.”
“And if I get him out, you’ll go to Baltimore?”
“I will.”
“Not good enough. I want the two of you separated permanently. Forever.”
A weight landed in her stomach. She’d always known that choosing Luke would mean her family would cast her out. They’d done it to Aunt Stella, and they would do it to her. If she fled to Luke, her father would continue his quest to ruin the entire Delacroix family.
It would be better to engineer a cease-fire. Luke’s freedom was worth it, and she could ensure her father lived up to his word.
“I promise I will leave and never contact him again,” she said, her heart splitting as she spoke, but she had to stay strong while forging this deal.
A calculating gleam lit Clyde’s gaze. “You won’t return his messages or let him see you either?”
“I have no control over what Luke does. His own family can’t control him, so how can I? But I can promise to leave Washington and never contact him again. Papa, we have each other over a barrel. If Luke somehow lands back in jail, our deal is off. I’ll come back to Washington and get the warden to marry us in a prison ceremony. I’ll share his jail cell if I have to.”
“You wouldn’t,” Clyde said.
“I would,” she vowed. “And I have contacts in Washington who will be watching to ensure you live up to your end of the bargain. If Luke gets arrested forlittering, you’d better see that he gets out of jail before nightfall.”
Her father’s eyes narrowed as he parsed her words. He clenched and unclenched his fists, a crafty look on his face as he considered the implications. The only sound that could be heard was the ticking clock from his desk.
“We have a deal,” he finally said, and Marianne didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.
Things moved quickly after that. Over the next few days her father called on Congressman Dern and various attorneys to undo the legal quagmire he initiated when he set the wheels in motion to accuse Luke of spying.
Clyde’s preoccupation gave Marianne the freedom to solve the longest mystery of her life.
What happened to Aunt Stella?
The only person to have contact with Stella after she was banished was Esther Magruder, Jedidiah’s wife and Stella’s mother. They carried on a secret correspondence for years, and Marianne remembered glimpsing those letters, always written in Stella’s distinctive purple ink. There had been a short-lived scandal after Esther died when it was discovered the old woman had hired an attorney to create a bequest for her daughter. Esther foresaw Jedidiah’s opposition and set funds aside to posthumously battle her husband in court in order to pay her daughter that bequest. She lost. Stella was never even notified of her mother’s attempt to remember her in her will.
Marianne snuck into her father’s office in search of clues as to where Stella had gone. Letters? Her grandmother’s will? Perhaps Clyde had Stella’s address secreted somewhere in case he wished to contact her about important family matters.
After an hour of searching, Marianne finally struck gold. Clyde kept a file of legal papers documenting Esther’s failed attempt to leave her daughter a bequest. One of the papers contained Stella’s last known address in Carson City, Nevada.
Marianne retreated to her room with the prized address and pulled out her copy ofDon Quixote.Was she as foolish as Don Quixote, seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses and fighting for impossible causes? Just because Aunt Stella wrotewith purple ink and dared to elope with the man of her dreams didn’t mean she was some sort of heroine, but Marianne still liked to hope she was. She hoped Stella found happiness with her dashing husband in the wilds of Nevada, where they built a perfect kingdom of their own.
Near the end of the week, her father came to her room.
“I have a deal with Congressman Dern,” he said in a clipped voice. “Lawyers are preparing an agreement. Delacroix will be released tomorrow afternoon. I have notified Andrew to expect you on the eleven o’clock train to Baltimore tomorrow morning.”
Relief trickled through her along with a wallop of dread. This was suddenly all very real. She had known it was coming, but it was still hard.
“I shall be ready.”
