Page 74 of The Lady’s No Angel

The lid was stiff and reluctant but opened with an indignant squeak. Inside, whatever it contained was covered with a mouldering piece of thick red brocade. Angel reached for it with hands that trembled, aware that everyone had gathered to stand behind her, gazing over her shoulder as she tugged it away.

A collective gasp ran through the assembled witnesses and Angel’s heart leapt to her throat as her gaze took in the gleam of gold. Coins from different nations lay cheek by jowl: Spanish doubloons, Portuguese escudos, and French Louis d’or, and scattered among them was the glitter of jewels. Rings and bracelets, necklaces and earbobs, the glitter of rubies and emeralds, many simply lying loose among the coins, winked at them alongside dozens of pearls, some of them the biggest Angel had ever seen.

“Good heavens!” exclaimed Leo’s grandmother with a bark of laughter. “Hart, my dear, you’ve found yourself an heiress. This might make your father look upon Miss Everdene with a little less revulsion.”

“To the devil with Father,” Leo growled. “This is Angel’s. Her grandfather left it to her, and her alone, and so it shall be.”

Angel glanced up at him, such a swell of emotion filling her chest that she did not know how to contain it.

“What else is in there, love?” he asked her with an encouraging smile.

Hardly able to breathe, Angel peered inside and found a thick blue velvet pouch embroidered with a gold J. “Oh, look!” she said, holding it up to show Leo.

Understanding gleamed in his eyes. “A gift for his sweetheart, Jenny.”

Blinking back tears, Angel carefully undid the drawstring and tipped the contents into her palm. There was a stunned silence from everyone except Milly, who shouted, “Lawks!”

Angel stared at the huge sapphire, glinting as if she held the essence of the Mediterranean Sea in her palm. For a moment she couldn’t take it in, and then she laughed. She laughed and laughed until she couldn’t breathe, until everyone was gazing at her in wonder.

“Pops said—” she began breathlessly but struggled to get the words out. “P-Pops said, his t-true love only had one eye. One sparkling blue eye!”

Her fingers curled around the sapphire and for a moment, she held it against her heart and closed her eyes. Thank you, Pops. Thank you for everything, for teaching me all your dreadful tricks, and how not to be afraid of life. I miss you.

In the back of her mind she heard his wicked laughter, harsh and raucous, and she smiled.

Chapter 19

Home is where the Hart is

Little Valentine, East Sussex, 25th June 1816

“Oh, how strange it seems to be back here. Like a dream.”

Angel glanced at her mama, reclining against the luxurious seats of the Dowager Duchess of Langley’s carriage as it drew them back to the small town she had left so many weeks ago.

“Indeed,” Angel replied with a wry smile, wondering what her mama would say if she knew just how dreamlike Angel was finding her own life.

At the dowager’s insistence, her mother had been sent for so that propriety was served and any hint of scandal could be squashed. The official story was that Angel and her mama had fallen in with Lord Hartwell on the road after a mishap with their carriage.

Though they had not lingered long at Ealdor Palace, for no one was eager to spend much time in the duke’s company, they had continued to London with Leo, his grandmother, and his sisters. Angel had enjoyed a marvellous time with the two girls, who were lively and funny, and had also renewed her friendship with Lady Della. It had gone a long way to establishing her in society, and the rumour that she was an heiress—put carefully about by the Dowager Duchess of Hawkney—had done nothing to hurt her popularity.

Leo had borne it all with remarkable grace and fortitude, but in the past weeks they were both finding their patience fraying. Angel adored her new sisters, who seemed to have adopted her as one of their own, but between them, Leo’s grandmother, and her own mother, she never had a moment alone with Leo and the date for their upcoming nuptials seemed to drag ever onwards, always just out of reach.

Yet, finally, they were coming home. The arrangements for the wedding were all in place, the dress was ready, and in five days they would be man and wife.

“Your father is beside himself, judging from his last letter,” Mama said, meeting Angel’s eyes, her expression frank. “I hope you have told Lord Hartwell that he is not to pay your father’s bills. If he thinks there is an endless supply of funds—well, you know as well as I do how that will go.”

Angel reached over and patted her mother’s hands. “Leo has been wonderful, Mama. He has arranged everything. I believe he wanted to explain it to you all once the marriage settlements were all in order, but as Papa didn’t sign them until yesterday, there hasn’t been time. Just so you know, he will give Papa a generous allowance, which even he ought to find sufficient, but he has also made it plain that he won’t get a farthing over and above that, so he can resign himself to debtor’s prison if he thinks to take advantage.”

Mama sighed, relief smoothing out the worry lines around her eyes. “I’m glad. It’s the only way to deal with the man, I’m afraid, to put it all out in black and white. Subtlety simply doesn’t work.”

Angel repressed a sigh, wishing that her mother had not had to endure such troubles for so long. But no more. “Mama, Hart has done the same for you too. So whatever Papa wishes, you may go home and live comfortably and never have to worry again about money. You’ll have your own allowance, one Papa cannot touch.”

Her mother’s eyes widened, and for a moment she just stared at Angel. She gave a choked little laugh and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, Angel. Oh, my dear.”

Angel squeezed her mother’s fingers. “I wish that you and Papa could have been happier, but now he shall have his fun, and you can live the life you have wanted, oh, for such a long time. I hope that makes up for… for a little of the unhappiness you’ve endured in the past.”

“Angel,” her mother said, her voice choked. “Oh, sweet girl. The only unhappiness I ever had was with your father, with the fear of running out of money, but it was never a love match and I had no illusions. Never think I would have changed a thing. Not if it meant never having you in my life, child. You… You have always been a joy and a delight to me, and… and when you ran away, I was so, so terribly—”