Page 46 of What Lies Beneath

“Open up, damn you!” he bellowed, relieved when he finally heard the bolts sliding back. The door opened, and a footman appeared, a man he suspected must be the butler hurrying up behind him whilst tying his dressing gown shut. “Is she here?” Pip demanded, pushing his way inside before anyone could ask him his business.

“Sir!” the butler said, his expression disapproving. “I do not know what brings you here at—”

“Don’t give me that,” Pip snarled. The poor fellow was only doing his job, but he was at the end of his rope. “Is she safe? Just tell me that, for the love of God. Did she arrive here safely?”

He did not doubt he looked and sounded like a wild man, unshaved and travel-stained and on the edge of his sanity, but the sincerity of his concern must have communicated itself, for the man’s expression softened a degree. Before he could speak, a deep voice resonated from the top of the stairs.

“Miss Hamilton is safe and under my protection. Who is it that dares to wake my household at this time of night?”

Pip looked up to see a tall man with a shock of golden-blond hair. He recognised the elegant figure of the marquess; they had met, although he did not know Wrexham at all well. He seemed an honourable fellow, however, despite his appalling sire.

“It’s Ashburton. I have recently had the displeasure of Lord Wendover forcing his way into my house, intent on doing my daughter’s governess harm. Except I now discover she is not Mrs Harris, as I have believed her to be this past five years, but Miss Hamilton. She left before I could assure her I would allow no one to harm her, and I have been at my wits’ end worrying if she reached here safely.”

The innkeeper’s assurances that Mr Davies was a reliable sort had long ago worn thin, and Pip had teased himself endlessly with many horrid scenarios, each more ludicrous than the next. It did not matter that he knew he was overwrought; he could not stop his mind from torturing him.

“She is here,” the marquess replied, walking down the stairs.

Pip breathed a sigh of relief, and then opened his mouth, about to tell the fellow he would come up, afraid that the man’s blindness might cause him difficulties, but he closed it again. The marquess moved with confidence and ease and seemed not in the least uncertain.

“Thank God,” he said, a weight falling from his shoulders as Wrexham led him unerringly into his study. “I have been so terribly afraid for her.”

The butler hurried in to light the lamps, and then left, leaving them alone. The marquess held his tongue until the door closed.

“You have been afraid for her? For what, all of three days? Consider then what I have felt all these years,” Wrexham replied, facing Pip now. “My niece, who ought to have been treated as the greatest prize to be won, who ought to have taken her place among the ton, has been working as your damned servant.” He practically spat the words out, his fury at the fact perfectly audible.

“I understand your anger,” Pip said, for he did entirely, he felt it himself though it had been none of his doing. “I can only assure you that Mrs Harris, as we have known her, has been a valued member of our household since her arrival. She has always been treated with the utmost respect, and my daughter adores her. Poor Tilly is distraught, and I made her a promise I would bring Miss Hamilton back to her.”

“You’ll do no such thing!” Wrexham said at once, incensed.

“I do not mean as a servant,” Pip replied, irritated by the implication. “But Tilly is only eight years old, and one of the people she loves most in the world has just been taken from her in the most frightening manner. I wish her to see that Miss Hamilton is safe and well, and will continue to be her friend.”

Wrexham’s expression softened, and he nodded. “I understand that, and I am sorry that your daughter has been hurt. You are at liberty to bring her here for a visit, but Genevieve is going nowhere.”

“That is not your decision to make,” Pip replied tersely. “You have not spoken to your niece in a very long time, but I can assure you she is a woman of strong opinions, and one who will not meekly do as you bid. Besides which, there is another matter which I wish to discuss with her, and so I must respectfully ask your permission to ask for her hand in marriage.”

Wrexham jolted at Pip’s words, then lunged forward. His movement, sudden and precise, took Pip by surprise. He found himself backed against a wall, Wrexham’s hands at this throat.

“What did you do?” he snarled. “Why are you really here, asking for her hand, now that you discover she is a woman of quality and not the nobody you believed her to be? Did you take advantage of her? For if you did, by God—”

Pip shoved the man back, making him stagger, and having no compunction about doing so. He was bloody furious, and not just because he could not entirely defend himself from the marquess’ accusation.

“I intended to offer for her on the morning she disappeared, still knowing nothing about who she really was,” Pip retorted angrily. “All I knew about her was what she told me, that she was a widow, that her husband had been a Captain Harris who had drowned in a shipwreck. She had no kin, no connections, no money save for what she earned. I’m the Earl of Ashburton, damn you, but I would have married her believing that, because she is dear to me and I have known no one like her in all my life. Because my daughter loves her, and because Goshen Court is her home.”

Wrexham, who had looked as if he fully intended to remove Pip’s head from his shoulders, subsided at this information.

“You swear it? You intended to marry her?”

Pip nodded and then realised the marquess could not see his reaction. “I did.”

Wrexham turned and walked back to the fireplace, moving unerringly, though his fingers grazed the furniture as he passed. “Then why did she run away?”

This was far harder to answer, and Pip hesitated, considering what he wished to say carefully. “I do not believe she understands the depths of my regard for her, and in her usual pigheaded manner, she decided to do what she thought best to limit the scandal brought to my door. I promise you, Wrexham, if you believe your niece has been subjugated all these years, you are very wrong. She has always had the last word, has always made me feel like I must live up to her high expectations. The surprising thing is that I have wished to do so. When she told me she was disappointed in me, those were the most crushing words I have ever heard. And my father is Montagu,” he added dryly.

Wrexham, who had been listening intently, snorted.

“And does my niece wish to marry you?” he asked placidly. “I am not such a fool not to understand the position she is in now. She has been living under your roof as an unmarried woman for over five years. I ought to demand you marry her. After all, the connection is an advantageous one and she would be secure, but I will not force her into a marriage she does not want for the sake of propriety.”

Though it pained him to admit it, Pip had no option but to be honest. “I do not know, but I would like the chance to find out. I believe she has feelings for me. I know without a shadow of a doubt that she loves my daughter like her own, but I do not know her heart. I would only like the chance to find out.”