Page 71 of A Countess of Convenience

“So Swindon got the story from his son and decided to fill his coffers with your money by extorting you with the scandal he threatened to raise. And the only way you could think to stop him was by betrothing my daughter to a man over twice her age. She’s a child!” Judith’s anguish overcame her. She needed to rake her nails down the dastard’s face. She lunged again at Lord Downing. “You are a fiend!”

John caught her around the waist, restrained her, and whispered, “My love, cease. Let us go and find Anna at Swindon’s home.” He raised his head to Lord Downing. “I suggest you tell us quickly, and without embellishment, why you allowed Swindon to take Anna.”

“The man wanted an exorbitant amount of money, which I refused to pay. I hoped to save it by putting it in Anna’s name so Swindon could not touch it. But he was too clever by far.” Lord Downing frowned. “He insisted on the betrothal between Anna and his son, so he could then borrow against her assets. My assets.”

Judith stirred, but John hushed her. “And?”

“Last week, Lord Swindon came here. He’d been having difficulties borrowing against the settlement. So he suggested he should take Anna as surety that I did not try to renege on the arrangement, or break the trust. If I’d refused, he would have begun leaking information piece by piece until everyone knew our family’s shame.” At last, he looked away. “So I let him take her.”

“You are without doubt the most heartless human being to walk upon the Earth.” John set Judith aside, peeled off his glove, and threw it in Downing’s face. “You have dishonored my wife and child, sir. Send your seconds round to my house tomorrow to discuss the particulars.”

“John, you can’t do this,” Judith hissed to her husband. The last thing she wanted was to have another husband killed or maimed. Not when she could put a stop to it immediately. “Lord Haxby’s challenge will stand, Lord Downing, unless you renounce your guardianship of Anna.” Judith stepped forward, the beauty of her words resonating in her mind. Downing would do anything not to have to fight John. His wan countenance and trembling frame spoke the truth of that. And if Downing agreed to her terms, John could not protest a scheme that would put Anna’s guardianship back in Judith’s hands.

“Agreed.” The words were out of Downing’s mouth before John could raise an objection.

“Will your wife agree as well?” Judith glanced at the woman behind Downing then took another look. “Is Lady Downing quite well, my lord?”

Downing turned then strode toward his wife’s chair. “Harriet? Harriet?” He peered down at her then nodded. “She’s just swooned. Happens all the time. But yes, she will renounce the guardianship as well. You have my word.”

“Very well.” Sir Reginald seemed to have had an entertaining quarter hour but had apparently had enough Drury Street drama for the evening. “Let us to Swindon’s. Take heart, Lord Haxby, you may have cause to issue another challenge yet tonight. Lord Downing.”

The older gentleman looked up from fanning his wife with the gray wig he’d plucked from his head.

“Once we have Anna reunited with her mother, I will personally supervise the return of your rightful funds to you.” Sir Reginald bowed.

“Much obliged, Sir Reginald.”

Lady Downing moaned, drawing her husband’s attention back to her.

Sir Reginald led them out of the parlor and through the house to the waiting carriage.

“Do you think you can do what you said about Lord Downing’s funds? I don’t want that tainted money to have any part of my daughter’s life.” Judith clasped John’s hand, all at once hopeful that she would indeed get Anna back tonight.

“We shall see, but I have hopes of handing it all over to Chancery and washing my hands of it.” Sir Reginald sounded cheerful at the thought.

John, on the other hand, had seemed rather glum ever since she’d taken the duel out of his hands entirely. “I am sorry to have stopped your duel, my dear. But when the chance to do some good arose, I had to take it.”

“Never you mind, my love.” He patted her arm as the horses started forward. “The night is not yet over, and who knows what other challenges may await? I do, after all, have another glove about me.”

Chapter 28

“Number fourteen, St. James’s Square,” Sir Reginald called to the coachman as they hurried into the carriage.

“You know where Lord Swindon lives?” Astonished, Judith’s respect for the magistrate grew another notch.

“I do, Lady Haxby, but that is hardly surprising. I was a Runner for years before being elevated to magistrate. I’ve been over every part of London, called out to an untold number of noble households to look into burglaries especially.” He grinned. “I will admit, however, I have not been called to Swindon’s address before, but he is a neighbor of my cousin, Lord Manning, who also lives in St. James’s.”

“Well, I am happy to have been befriended by one so learned and influential, Sir Reginald. I seem to require quite a large amount of them.” She took John’s arm and gazed up at him. “Beginning with my husband.”

“You have known each other long?”

“Since she was eight years old, Sir Reginald. She used to run around the park at home playing hide and seek with me and my sister.” John chuckled and lifted Judith’s hand for a kiss.

“We were always good friends, Sir Reginald,” Judith said, not looking at John. “However, these last months, as we have tried to sort out the situation with Anna, he has become dearer to me than anyone has ever been. I simply don’t know what I would do without him.”

“When you share an ordeal where you are tested, sometimes by fire, it brings you closer together than twenty years of marriage would.” Sir Reginald’s grave tone said he spoke from experience.

“Did you know your wife long before you married?” John asked. Judith herself was keen to know more about the gentleman who had helped them so very much in such a short time.