Gerald nodded, but then sighed. “So you really are going all the way to the Caribbean?”
“It won’t be for long. A few weeks and—”
“It’s three or four weeks just to get there.”
She sighed. “Well, I’m going to find a bright side to it—somehow. I’ve never traveled before, other than here in England and to France a few times, so I suppose it will be an interesting trip. And once Richard calms down, he’s easy to get along with.”
“Is he?”
“Yes, very. He’s nothing like the man—well, the boy I used to know and hate. Living abroad for so many years away from his father has changed him dramatically—at least when he isn’t around his father.”
Gerald gave her a curious look. “Are you sure you want a divorce?”
That odd emotion was welling up in her again. All she could think to say was “I’m sure he does.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
No, it didn’t, so she confided sadly, “I can’t deny there were moments when I began to think he actually would be perfect for me. But our way of life just doesn’t match anymore, Papa. He’ll never come back to England, not as long as his father still lives here. But can you imagine me living in the tropics where it’s always so hot I’d be longing for a flake of snow? I can’t imagine it, and—and he doesn’t love me.”
“I see.” Gerald sighed. “This isn’t how I wanted you to get out of this mess I got you into.”
“I know, but at least that damn contract has been satisfied and will never haunt me again.”
“But a divorce is a serious matter. The ton that you hobnob with will consider it a scandalous solution. There will be repercussions that won’t be pleasant, at least in a social sense. You may find yourself not invited to their parties, even snubbed.”
“Are you suggesting—?”
“No, dearest, if this is something you feel you must do, then I will support your decision. And I’ve merely mentioned the worst that could happen, but it may not be so bad as that. Your situation is unique, after all, with a fiancé gone for so many years, and you were even kept waiting for three of them. That may gain you sympathy, or at least understanding for why you couldn’t forgive him.”
With the ton? If they considered something “simply not done,” the reasons wouldn’t matter. She could well lose all her friends over this.
Her father seemed to read her mind and suggested, “Why don’t you contact Carol before you leave and see what she has to say about all this? Arthur told me she hasn’t lived next door since she married, but does she live too far away for a quick visit? I didn’t think to ask when she stopped by the other day to express her delight over my recovery.”
“She and Harry do live at his country estate, but they also have a London house, and with the summer Season of parties under way, she’s probably still in town. That’s an excellent idea, Papa. I would like to see her before I leave for my brief vacation in the Caribbean.”
He chuckled at her choice of words. “If, as you say, Richard’s company doesn’t aggravate you like it used to, then you might as well enjoy the trip. The islands in that area are reputed to be quite beautiful, though perhaps a bit warm at this time of the year.”
“A bit? Richard made it sound a lot hotter than that. But I don’t intend to stay any longer than I have to. I wish you could go with me.”
“That isn’t possible. Even if I were physically fit, one of us still needs to hold down the fort here. But would you like to take Raymond?”
“Good God, no. Then the trip would be nothing but aggravating.”
As soon as she left her father’s room, she wondered if she would have time for everything she needed to do that afternoon. She sent off a message to Carol first, hoping her friend could come to her so they could talk while she was packing. She didn’t want to leave and miss the solicitor, either. And since she hadn’t seen Carol since the Malory ball, they had a lot to catch up on.
But she’d barely sent the footman off with her note when Carol burst into her room while she was laying out clothes on the bed for her maid to pack as soon the extra trunks were brought down.
Obviously, Carol had already been on her way to visit, and her first question was “How did you end up married?”
Amazed that Carol already knew, Julia asked, “How did you find out?”
“Are you joking? Your servants downstairs are talking about nothing else since your maid spread the news. Your butler mentioned it the moment he let me in.”
Julia sighed. She was going to have to give her maid a tongue-lashing. The girl really was too quick to gossip.
But Carol surprised her even more when she added, “But I already knew what you were supposed to be doing at Willow Woods.”
“How?” But then Julia guessed. “Never mind, Father said you paid him a visit while I was gone. I take it he mentioned it?”
“Yes, I came by to see you, but once again you weren’t home—it’s almost laughable how many times you and I must have just missed each other that week. So I visited with your father instead, since I hadn’t seen him since his recovery. But he only mentioned where you’d gone and why because he assumed I already knew. He knows you and I tell each other everything. I was so disappointed that I didn’t hear it from you. Your father didn’t exactly go into detail when he realized I didn’t even know your fiancé was back in town.”
“I told you about him that night at the ball—”
“You did not!”
“Yes, I did—well, indirectly,” Julia said. “Actually, I didn’t know it was Richard yet, either. The Frenchman? You remember now?”
“Him? Oh, my. But didn’t you say he was in love with someone else? A married woman?”
“Georgina Malory.”
Carol gasped. “He has a death wish?”
“No, and I’m sure that was merely an infatuation. He never once appeared melancholy again when she was mentioned. As daring as I now know he is, I don’t doubt he was just enamored of the risk of pursuing her.”
Carol sighed. “But this means you aren’t really married, doesn’t it? You just let your maid think you are for some reason?”
“You should probably sit down,” Julia said, then brought Carol up-to-date.
And after hearing it all, even the more intimate details that Julia would never tell anyone else, Carol said in amazement, “That’s quite a—predicament. No, don’t cry!”
Julia couldn’t help herself. “The irony is, he’s my perfect someone, but I’m not his.”
“Good God, you love him? After all these years of hating him, you actually love him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“But I don’t want to live so far away from everything I know, in a place that sounds so foreign.”
Carol rolled her eyes. “You won’t know that you don’t like it until you’ve actually been there. So what other doubts do you have?”
Julia said in a small voice, “He doesn’t love me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Maybe he’s having some of the same doubts you are?”
Julia bit her lip. “I’m not sure.”
“Then you’ll have to find out, and you’ll work it out. You’ve got a whole ocean to cross before you stand before an official to end a marriage maybe neither of you wants to end. Let Richard know how you feel.”
Chapter Forty-seven
GABRIELLE AND DREW HAD been waiting for Richard to return to London before they set sail for the Caribbean, so making the preparations to depart in the morning wasn’t an inconvenience, Drew assured his friend. Richard was relieved that Gabrielle wasn’t at Boyd’s house when he arrived there because he knew she would insist on a full accounting of what had happened at Willow Woods. His emotions still volatile, Richard wasn’t ready to discuss it. He merely told Drew that it didn’t go well.
What an understatement that was. When he
’d stood in his old bedroom at Willow Woods, watching his father smirk, he’d realized his detestable sire was actually forcing on him something he wanted! The woman he’d been tied to most of his life. Yet getting what he wanted meant his father won, too. That’s what was so bloody unacceptable in his mind.
He didn’t stay at Boyd’s house any longer than to drop his bag in the room he was shown to, which he would share with Ohr for the night. He needed to find a solicitor who would see him today. If anything should happen to him, or to Julia before she got her divorce, he wanted to make damn sure his father couldn’t step in and try to lay claim to any part of the Miller fortune. He wanted a will drawn up that would expressly exclude Milton Allen from anything of his—or his wife’s.
His wife. Good God, that sounded so nice. But Julia didn’t think so, and she was probably right. What did he have to offer her, after all? He wasn’t broke. There was nothing really to spend money on in the Caribbean, so he had a few thousand pounds stashed away, but that was like pocket change compared to what Julia was worth. He owned no property, not even a house of his own. And he was a second son, so no title other than lord came with his name, which he didn’t even use in the islands. Take Julia away from the world of high society she was so accustomed to? From the business empire she’d been running by herself for the last five years? In good conscience, how could he do that?
He had to let her go, and that meant not fighting her decision. He could see no way around it. But he couldn’t bear to do it yet. It had been pure impulse, insisting she come with him, but he was glad now that he’d done it. At least, it would give him a few more weeks with her before they parted for good.
But she might not come.
After he returned to Boyd’s house late that afternoon, it felt as if he were holding his breath until her message was delivered, informing him that she’d meet him at the docks in the morning.
Ohr appeared in the open doorway. Richard hadn’t closed the door after Julia’s message was brought up to him. He was so deep in thought, he only barely realized Ohr was saying something to him.
“What?”
“I said, what happened at Willow Woods?” Ohr repeated.
“Our bluff got called. We’re married.”
Ohr chuckled. “Wasn’t expecting to hear that. Then why are you mooning again?”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were. After recent events, I was sure you’d be done with that.”
Richard didn’t want to discuss Julia yet, so he simply said, “It’s a complex situation.”
“Seems simple to me. Or did it never occur to you that you were enamored of the danger of loving her, simply because of who her husband is?”
Richard choked back a laugh over Ohr’s mistake, tried to interrupt him, but Ohr held up his hand, determined to have his say. “Malory threatened us the very day you met his wife when we dropped Gabby off at their house. He was extremely intimidating, as he tends to be, and that could have influenced you right then. He presented you with a unique challenge. But you’ve finally had a taste of his jealousy, so I have to ask, do you really think you still love her?”
Richard chuckled as he shook his head. He didn’t have to explain the mistake. Ohr wouldn’t pry. So he just said, “No, whatever that was, it’s gone.”
“So you’re mooning over your own wife?” Ohr pried anyway. “How—odd.”
Richard’s mouth tightened. Nothing about that was amusing. “I’ll work it out.”
“Well, if you’d rather talk it out, we have time before the party.”
“What party?”
“Gabby and Drew’s farewell party this evening. We’ve been invited.”
“Invited when we’re already here? Was there any doubt that we would be welcome?”
“Oh, the party isn’t here,” Ohr said with a grin. “It’s at James Malory’s house.”
Richard never imagined he’d actually be invited to James’s house. Malory must not know, he figured. Yet when he and Ohr were shown into the parlor where Andersons and Malorys were gathered, James noticed him and didn’t even raise a brow over his presence.
Gabrielle pounced on him though, the moment he walked in. Ohr had warned Richard that he’d mentioned his marriage to Drew, and Drew had joined his wife earlier at the Malory house.
“I’m so delighted!” Gabrielle told Richard.
“Don’t be. My father won, Gabby.”
“Well, there is that, but you did, too, didn’t you? I saw the way you were looking at Julia on The Maiden George. You could barely take your eyes off of her. And you married her!”
She was too happy for him. Richard didn’t have the heart to tell her about the upcoming divorce, at least not at this party in her honor.
He said simply, “She’s sailing with us.”
“Well, of course she is, why wouldn’t she? Oh, wait, she must have so much to pack, to move to another country. Does she need help? Do we need to delay our departure a day or two?”
“No delays, Gabby, please. I was prepared to find another ship if The Triton couldn’t sail in the morning. I can’t bear to spend another day on the same continent with my father.”
She peered at him closely. “What else happened?”
“Let’s not discuss it tonight. And Julia will manage just fine, she’s probably got more servants to help her than we can count. Go enjoy your party.”
He pushed her toward her husband while he quickly headed across the room to escape any more questions. James’s son, Jeremy, caught his eye and Richard went over to him.
He’d never seen Jeremy’s wife before. She’d probably been at Georgina’s ball, but he wouldn’t have noticed as besotted as he’d been with Georgina. He couldn’t help noticing her now as she turned to face him. He even caught his breath. Danny Malory had an ethereal sort of beauty that was mesmerizing and made even more angelic by her pure white hair, which was so unusual on a young woman. Though cut extremely short, a highly unfashionable style for a lady, on her it was stunning.
Jeremy poked him in the ribs to get Richard’s eyes off his wife. Richard chuckled as he realized he had indeed been staring.
“Sorry,” he told the couple with an abashed grin. “I suppose it happens a lot?”
Jeremy nodded. “She’s lucky I’m not the jealous type.”
“No, I’m just lucky,” Danny said, and gave her husband a loving smile.
Richard was envious—of their happiness. Actually, all of the couples in the room seemed to be blessed with happy marriages.
Jeremy, noticing Richard’s glance about the room, said, “You don’t know everyone here, do you?”
“’Fraid not. Your father would never let me in the house before.”
“Really? That’s interesting. Before he knew you were a lord?”
“No, I just got on his bad side,” Richard said evasively.
“Ah. Well, all must be forgiven if you’re here now,” Jeremy assumed. “So let me introduce you to my side of the family. They aren’t all here, of course, just those who were in town and could come to the party on such short notice. And I’m sure you probably know Drew’s side of the family already.”
Richard had never actually met Drew’s older brother Warren, but since he’d married a Malory, too, Jeremy introduced Warren’s wife, Amy. “A gamine imp” was how Jeremy described this cousin of his, and he warned Richard never to bet with her. She never lost, apparently.
Another of Jeremy’s cousins was present, Regina Eden, who had hosted Georgina’s ball, and her husband, Nicolas. “If you hear my father disparaging Nick, think nothing of it,” Jeremy said with a chuckle. “My father and his brothers all had a hand in raising Reggie after her parents died, so they’re a little overprotective of her and make sure Nick knows it, least my father and Uncle Tony do.”
Also present was Jeremy’s uncle Tony, an exceptionally handsome man whom Jeremy resembled more than his own father! Jeremy laughed when Richard mentioned that.
“Drives m’fa
ther batty, so don’t remark on it where he can hear. It’s this black hair, really. Only a few of us Malorys have it. Everyone else in the family leans toward blond.”
One of Jeremy’s older uncles was there, too, Edward Malory, and his wife, Charlotte, who lived over in Grosvenor Square. Another of Drew’s older brothers, Thomas, was in attendance, too. The eldest Anderson had been in town, but had already sailed.
Of Edward, Jeremy said, “A shame Uncle Eddie won’t have a chance to meet your wife before you hie off with her. He’s the financial genius of the family. Julia doesn’t appear to do too bad in finance herself, so they would have had so much in common to discuss.”
At the mention of Julia, Richard’s mood took a downward swing. But he remembered the lockpicking tools in his pocket and handed them to Jeremy now. “Thank you for lending me these.”
Jeremy handed the tools to his wife, who grinned and said, “You’re welcome. I don’t have any use for them these days. I just keep them as a memento of the friends I made in my youth.”
“They worked like a charm,” Richard assured her.
“Glad to hear it.”
“You’ve monopolized him enough, puppy,” James told his son as he approached them, then said to Richard, “Come along, I’ve a bone to pick with you.”
Richard groaned, but followed James to the unlit fireplace, which was a good distance away from the other guests.
Resting one arm on the mantel, James didn’t actually look at Richard. His eyes were on his wife as he said, “What’s this I hear that you actually came to your senses and did good? Trying to bowl me over before you leave town?”
“Very funny,” Richard replied, unamused.
“Just don’t even think of moving in down the block from me, old boy. Ever.”
“You’ve my word on it, that will never happen.”
James finally glanced at Richard, one golden brow raised. “Not even to visit? I suppose I can make exceptions for visits.”
Richard couldn’t help laughing now. “You’re all heart, Malory.”