Brilliance was nearly vibrating with excitement, unable to keep from pacing the drawing room and watching out the front window as the big hand of the mantel clock drew closer to one. To her great dismay, even when the small hand was at half past, Vincent still had not shown.
An hour later, she wrote a hurried message and sent it by footman directly to his home. Oddly, the response came from his butler.
My Lady,
Seeing how you shall soon be the Viscount Hewitt’s wife, I do not think I am speaking out of turn when I inform you that his lordship has been taken by the constable at noon today to Scotland Yard, Whitehall Place.
Her heart began to race as she finished reading.
Lord Hewitt has been charged with assault upon the person of Mr. Castern.
Regards,
Mr. Chamber
Butler to the Viscount Hewitt
Sweet Mary!“Mother,” she called out, rushing from the room.
Lady Diamond was upstairs in her private salon, awaiting the arrival of Lord Hewitt with increasing impatience. However, after Brilliance explained the awful circumstances that had unfolded outside Vincent’s home leading to the violence, her mother surprised her.
“I think your father should accompany you to give a statement. Men with their notions of honor and duty, especially a nobleman of your father’s stature, can often solve such things better than an irate woman. Therefore, let us find Diamond and see if he is free to go to the jail.”
All-over agitated, Brilliance paced whilst her mother sent out notes by their footman until her father was located. Geoffrey Diamond came striding through the door with all due concern and confidence. After sweeping up his wife for a passionate kiss, he let her speak.
She explained any details which she’d left out of her note.
“Yes,” he said. “I am sure I can get him released.”
Brilliance’s mother appeared serene. “Dearest husband, has there ever been a situation that you could not handle to your satisfaction?”
He grinned. “I managed to marry you when all were against us. Everything after that has been easy.”
They kissed again, and Brilliance cleared her throat.
Both of them turned to her with dreamy gazes.How she adored her happy, loving parents, but it was not the moment for kissing!
“Please, Father, make haste.”
The earl nodded. “Let us retrieve that fiancé of yours.”
“Bring him home for dinner,” Lady Diamond said.
Vincent could not believethe ignominious state of being held at Scotland Yard. Nor could he comprehend that Ambrose would do something so fiendish. Surely stealing his fiancée and his compositions was enough, but pressing charges against him seemed beyond the pale.
And then he heard footsteps.
“Come this way, my lord,” said the sergeant who had first led him, almost apologetically, to the holding cell.
Vincent followed the man to the front of London’s central police station. If he weren’t the one being charged, he would have found it interesting to see inside Scotland Yard.
The sergeant ushered him through a doorway, and there she was.His angel!What’s more, Brilliance didn’t appear distraught at his incarceration. Perhaps that was because beside her was the Earl Diamond. And next to him was the constable who had arrested him, seemingly now chums with his lordship.
“All a misunderstanding,” Lord Diamond was saying.
Vincent heard no more because Brilliance had launched herself into his arms. Looking over her head at her father’s piercing gaze, he tried to push her away, but she kept stepping close again — all wriggling, good smelling warmth and curves which were pressing against him until he wrapped his arms around her back.
He patted it as tepidly as possible before once again trying to push her away.
