Page 63 of A Countess of Convenience

“My arm…oh, that.” She raised her arm and wiggled her fingers. “I had actually forgotten that they were impaired when I woke up. They are fine now. The problem is the headaches. The only thing I can think that is connected to them is that each time a headache strikes, I remember a piece of the past.”

“A piece of the past?”

“Information someone told me before my accident that I had forgotten. It happened just last night.”

“What did you remember?”

“A conversation I had with my sister-in-law concerning a dancing partner of hers. Random things, really.”

Miles shook his head. “Much is still unknown about the brain, but this certainly seems to be no more than your body trying to recover your memories and in doing so stimulating the brain matter, which causes the headache.” He reached for her hand. “May I?”

She nodded, and he grasped her wrist as he had done countless times.

“I think you are just fine, Judith. You seem healthy, happy.” He released her wrist. “If the headaches persist, drink some willow bark tea and rest.”

“Miles, I cannot thank you enough. You have given me back my life. Despite the recent tragedies, I could not be happier.” She grasped his hands, so very grateful for her life now. “How can I ever repay you?”

His kind eyes cooled. “Well, my dear, I had hoped you’d have repaid me by marrying me.”

Judith snatched her hands back as though they’d been burned. “Really, Miles. If we cannot be cordial about the situation, can we at the least be civil? I told you when I refused you that while my regard for you extended to warm friendship, my feelings for Lord Haxby had deepened significantly from our childhood attachment.” Why did he have to make her defend her choice yet again? “I believed, based on our long association, we would, in the end, suit better.”

“I didn’t believe that then, and I surely don’t believe it now.” Miles sat back, arms crossed over his chest, staring at her with thinly veiled contempt. “I have seen no evidence that your feelings have developed in any way from the slight regard you showed for Haxby in Cambridgeshire.”

“How would you even be able to judge such a thing, my lord?” Indignation caused Judith to raise her voice, be damned who heard her. This rudesby would not disparage her husband while she had breath to defend him. “You have never been in company with us other than the very first days of our reacquaintance. And if I seemed to favor you at that time, I will tell you plainly now, I have no regard for you, Lord Farringdon. Not now, and not at any future time.”

“Perhaps you do have troubles with your memory if you don’t recall how you begged me to use your first name the very day we met. How you perked up each time I came to call. Even when Haxby put in an appearance, I will wager you were drawn to me rather than him.” He shrugged. “I’ve never understood what the man did to make you change your mind and choose him.”

“As you are not capable of the finer qualities of character, I daresay you wouldn’t, my lord.” She sprang to her feet. “I will beg you to leave here now and do not under any circumstances return.”

“I’m afraid I cannot do that, Lady Haxby. I do assume we are no longer on a first name basis.”

Had the man lost his mind? “If I have to summon my servants to have you bodily removed from my home, I will do it, my lord. Do not think that I won’t.”

“Oh, I believe you would, my lady. I was originally attracted to your fiery spirit.” His eyes flickered with a hint of desire that sickened her. “Once your father died, however, I was even more attracted to your bank account.”

Unable to breathe, Judith stared at the monster before her. “You killed my father?”

“No, no, I assure you I did not harm him. On the contrary, I attended to all his needs and withheld no treatment that might have saved his life.” Farringdon seemed adamant enough about that point Judith could breathe again. “Afterward, however, I became acquainted with Mr. Piper, who is rather chatty when he’s had an ale or two. He informed me that you were now quite the heiress, so I hurried away to London to see if I could marry a fortune.” He shook his head. “My uncle’s estate was practically bankrupt when I inherited it. That was the whole reason I continued my physician’s practice in Marholm. It proved my only source of income, but it was not enough. So I set myself to marry an heiress and almost managed it several times. Unfortunately, all of you chose to marry other gentlemen, more’s the pity. I’d have preferred to marry for my money. There are so many other advantages,” his eyes lingered on Judith’s bodice until her skin crawled, “to matrimony. However, as my last prospect just married Viscount Falmer, I’ll have to make my fortune through extortion instead.”

“Extortion?” Miles, for whom she’d had so much trust and affection, was a fortune hunter and now a common criminal bent on thievery. The day became stranger with every passing minute. “How do you plan to extort me? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Of course you haven’t. You are the innocent in all of this.” Farringdon chuckled. “That doesn’t mean you won’t pay me to remain silent about your husband’s exploits.”

“If you think John has done something illegal or immoral, you certainly have been misinformed by someone.” If she made for the door, could she reach it and call for Barr, or would the servants hear her if she just screamed from where she stood?

“Not Haxby, although it would be easy enough to assume he married you in such haste because you were increasing.” His eyebrows rose and his voice became hushed. “I confess I wondered about that at the time, myself.” He waved the thought away. “No, the husband I speak of is Simon Harper.”

Her legs buckled and she dropped back into her chair, all her strength deserting her. Had her devil of a husband reached out from the grave to hurt her yet again?

“Yes, that gentleman had enough scandals in his life to blacken anyone’s name. And thanks to you and your sister-in-law, I know it all. He hit you, causing you to fall into a coma for four months, and God only knows how often he abused you before that.” Farringdon began to tick Simon’s sins off on his fingers. “He ravished at least two of his daughter’s governesses, molested and attacked a third, and according to another source, may have forced himself on a number of young women in the village as well.”

As the litany of depravity went on, Judith wondered if she’d ever realized how horrible Simon was. Or had she, like everyone else in the house, simply looked the other way?

“Then there is the duel in which he participated, challenged for attempting to rape yet another governess. And then disgracing himself yet again by endeavoring to shoot his challenger in the back.” Farringdon shook his head. “I quite frankly think he got his just desserts with Miss Carlton’s blow to the head.”

Funny that Dora, of all people, had expressed the very same sentiment.

The doctor then continued his list of her husband’s transgressions. “Harper’s gambling and whoring, while vices, are common enough to most men in London that they likely will cause no scandal by themselves.” He looked doubtful. “However, when taken with everything else, your husband will be viewed as the blackest-hearted villain who ever lived.”