“Is he really back? For good?” Kathleen asked behind her. “Without this wedding taking place?”
Vanessa moved to join her mother, who was nervously hanging back from the reunion. “It would seem so—thanks to royal intervention.”
“How did that come about?”
“I haven’t a clue, but it’s ironic that this day has turned out to be such a happy one after all. However, I have a feeling the twins will balk if they don’t have full access to Father now, after all this time. So you might want to invite him to stay at your house for the duration of the Season at least, or they are likely to insist on moving to his house with him.”
“Will you ask him?”
“You wanted him back, Mother. Now he is here. You aren’t afraid of him, are you?”
Vanessa regretted the question immediately, when it was very obvious that Kathleen was experiencing some trepidation. “I just recall the last time we spoke. It was—difficult. And if he is still angry at me I’d prefer that you girls not witness it.”
“Many things have changed in these last years, but he has his life back now—most of it, so he may not feel like fighting with you, may only want to get reacquainted with the twins. But of course, I’ll ask him for you.”
Most of the Rathbans had already moved past them to leave the room. The priest even walked by, but glancing to where she had almost married the wrong man she saw that Daniel hadn’t left. He was standing exactly where she’d left him. And he was staring at her with—confusion? Or was that regret? She cringed inwardly. He wouldn’t be there if she hadn’t poked, prodded, seduced in her fashion, and lied. She had let him think she loved him, all for a good cause, but still, she felt bad about it now.
He did not deserve her pity, as nasty as he’d been about their courtship, so why did she pity him? She walked over to him and said, “I’m sorry. I can’t marry you, but I can do you a good turn to maybe make amends. Your true love gave you a son before she died. Your father has cared for him very well, even made him a member of your family. You both know each other as cousins. Do with that knowledge what you will, but I hope it will lighten your heart, Daniel Rathban.”
She had shocked him, perhaps twice. She hurried away before he recovered sufficiently to question her—and ran into the Prince Regent just outside the music room where her family was waiting for her. He appeared jovial. His meeting with Albert must have gone well! Her father’s wide smile confirmed it.
After she curtsied to him, George said to her, “I’m glad not to be kissing a bride today, ’deed I am. You can thank your champion for my interference, m’dear.”
She stared after the corpulent fellow as he sauntered toward the front door. William put his arm around her waist. “What did he mean by that?”
“I have only a slight idea, so I’m not going to say. Can wepleaseleave this house? And you have been invited to stay at Mother’s house, where you will have access to all three of your daughters. Don’t refuse just because it’s hers and not yours.”
“I believe she and I are still married, on paper at least, which means . . .”
She laughed. “That it’s yours, of course. Howmaleof you, Father.”
Chapter Fifty-one
VANESSA WAS LOOKING FORWilliam later that day and was about to check in the study for him when she heard her mother inside it saying in an accusing tone, “You did it deliberately, didn’t you? Raised her to be exactly what she ought not to be just to spite me!”
“I did nothing of the sort,” William replied. “But I wasn’t going to treat her like a delicate flower in Scotland, and she was so happy doing the same things I did that I didn’t have the heart to stop her and curtail her activities. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give at least one of our girls more options in life than being a wife and a mother. So yes, I raised her differently than you would have, gave her a more thorough education, prepared her for anything that might come her way, and I bloody well won’t apologize for it.”
Vanessa put her hand on the doorknob to interrupt them. Her parents couldn’t even wait a single day before fighting with each other. But she paused when she heard Kathleen say, “I hate to admit it, but she makes me so incredibly proud that she’s mine.”
“Then maybe you should thank me instead of complaining. And why are we rehashing the past?”
“Because you never listened to me when I explained what really happened! Henry set me up, Will. He had everything planned ahead of time, he showed up wherever I went, he made sure people saw us together and heard me laugh at his jokes. He made it appear as if we were already lovers when we weren’t.”
“Is that really your excuse, Kathy? It appeared so, so you might as well make it so? Was that your logic?”
“No, that washislogic, and his blackmail. He threatened to spread the rumor that we were lovers if I didn’t agree to make it so. I did exactly what you did, William. I was willing to make a sacrifice to prevent a scandal. Why is it perfectly fine for you to protect our family that way, but not for me? But you stopped it from happening. It never happened!”
Vanessa wasn’t interruptingthat. She turned about and headed to the little garden behind the house. And stewed. Her parents still weren’t going to tell the twins the whole story. She learned that from her father when she rode home with him on his horse, despite the wedding dress. “Perhaps when they are older. Perhaps never,” William had said. Instead, he was going to give them a few dreadful details about the islands and nature’s vengeance thwarting him again and again, and nothing more—other than the assurance he would never go back to the West Indies because he’d sold the bloody plantation.
She’d dealt with the truth fairly well—no she hadn’t. She’d ended up hating her mother. Did she still hate her, when as Kathleen had just told William, Kathleen was only trying to protect her family from a scandal just as William had done, but in a different fashion? Maybe it was just as well that her parents were getting that fight over with, though she didn’t think it would mend the boat, as it were.
“I heard it went well, that you’re back on the marriage mart.”
She turned about to see Monty approaching her with that heart-stirring smile he seemed to reserve just for her. “Heard from who?”
“George, of course.”
“So you’re my champion?”
