Virginia Heath - The Determined Lord Hadleigh

‘Ah.’ Hadleigh would not mention he had paid more than market worth to buy them back each month. He was going to have stern words with that wily, conniving pawnbroker on the morrow.

‘Ah, indeed. I dread to think how she will react if she ever finds out how Clarissa and I have been quietly interfering.’ Seb let out a long, laboured breath. ‘That’s not true. I know exactly what she’ll do. She’ll feel betrayed and she’ll leave. To go and stand on her own two feet. One lone, proud woman with nothing bar a small child, no money and a past that could come back to bite her at every turn. Believe me, the world is a hard place for a woman like that...’ Seb’s broad shoulders seemed to deflate as he exhaled.

‘Which brings me to my final point, the most sensitive and delicate of all the points, and one which a sad bachelor like yourself will have little experience of—my wife trusted me to find Penny’s mystery benefactor.’ Seb slapped his own chest hard. ‘She trusted me! Knowing that I would sort it quickly and make it right. Put poor Penny’s mind at ease and stop her fleeing out of the sphere of our covert and careful protection. Your actions could destroy months of our good work, a lifelong friendship and ultimately leave Penny vulnerable. So, you see, I have to report it all back to Clarissa tonight. I made a promise.’

Yes, perhaps Hadleigh had unintentionally made a delicate situation worse, but Seb was being overdramatic about it. ‘Surely you don’t have to report everything back to Clarissa? Be selective. Lie if need be. Isn’t that what spies excel at? You lie for a living.’

Seb smiled winsomely, his eyes softening for the first time since he had stormed into the place uninvited. ‘That I do—but I would never lie to my wife. She is my everything.’

Hadleigh wanted to roll his eyes, but didn’t. Seb was newly married and still head over heels in love. It was all a bit bizarre and he didn’t understand it. Apart from his mother growing up, he had managed to sidestep any emotional attachments or strong bonds in his life. Largely because emotions in general made him uncomfortable, especially his own. He kept friends at a polite distance, too, preferring the reassuring company of his work more. He could socialise and enjoy it, he didn’t suffer from a lack of confidence or shyness around people as Seb did, yet he was still always oddly relieved when a gathering came to an end so he could retreat back into his own space again. Even his sporadic and discreet affairs were with women who were wedded to their independence. Getting too close to anyone made him uncomfortable.

He had always been the same. A little detached. Naturally solitary. A typical only child, he supposed. Lonely. Where had that thought come from? Good grief, he needed some proper sleep. ‘Then tell Clarissa the truth and have her lie to her friend. I meant well and I have no intention of taking the money back when she obviously needs it.’ That route would only lead to more tossing and turning and vivid dreams involving soulful blue eyes, when he needed to be on top form till this trial was over.

‘You have placed me in an impossible position.’ His friend raked his hand through his hair in agitation. ‘I’ll be honest and say, I cannot promise Clarissa will not unmask you. She and Penny are very close and Penny is very upset. Ultimately, we will do what is best for Penny and continue to do whatever it takes to keep her close by.’

‘I understand.’ At least he thought he did. Seb didn’t want Lady Penhurst to know he was protecting her. Hadleigh could sleep better knowing that someone was. ‘If you think it would help, I am happy to tell her it was all down to me if it comes to it.’ Which he sincerely hoped it wouldn’t. Her poignant expression and sorrowful eyes outside the pawnshop this morning had haunted all his waking thoughts since. Given the strange hold the woman seemed to have over him, meeting her again, actually conversing with her, was exceedingly unwise.

‘That should keep your own machinations on the lady’s behalf out of it.’ Not ideal, but he could see he had rather put Seb in an awkward and potentially untenable situation. And he didn’t want to be the cause of Lady Penhurst either fleeing the safety of their care or taking menial work which was beneath her. That, certainly, had never been his intention. But then, neither had he intended to ever have to speak to her. A conversation which was bound to be awkward, all things considered. Definitely unprofessional in the extreme. He had prosecuted her husband, for pity’s sake! ‘Perhaps once I explain my actions were borne out of genuine concern, based on irrefutable fact—’ alongside an unhealthy and guilt-fuelled obsession with her ‘—I am hopeful she will see sense and accept the gift in the spirit in which it was intended. Clearly the woman needs help.’

He used reason for a living. If it came to it, once he stated his case, plainly, and backed it with logical evidence, the truth would become apparent. Failing that, he would use the quick wits he had been blessed with and his innate ability to read people to convince her to accept his financial help. She shouldn’t have to struggle alone. Not when he could easily right that wrong at the very least.

‘And clearly, my learned friend, you don’t know much about women if you think that will be the outcome.’ Seb appeared amused as well as appeased as he walked to the door. ‘But I shall pass all this on to Clarissa and see what she thinks. As long as it keeps both of us above suspicion and still allows me to keep a vigilant eye on Penny, I am more than happy for you to suffer all the consequences.’

‘Try not to be nervous. Now that we know who the culprit is and that it was meant well, there really is nothing to worry about.’ Clarissa offered another one of her reassuring smiles of encouragement which Penny returned half-heartedly when the truth was she was still reeling from the revelation hours later.

While it was a relief to know that she wasn’t in any immediate danger, to learn that the man responsible for paying all her debts was the same man who had doggedly pursued her husband through the courts was bizarre. Why would he do that? It made absolutely no sense.

She was nothing to him. Just another face in an ever-changing sea of faces on the busy witness stand of the Old Bailey. Their interactions had been brief and impersonal. Or at least his interactions with her had been impersonal. He never once showed an ounce of human emotion in all the many long hours of the trial. For her, those hours had been deeply personal and life-changing. One minute she had been unhappily married to a brute and the next unwittingly married to a traitor who had been sentenced to death. Now, suddenly, out of the blue, the prosecution lawyer decided he needed to pay all her rent... Why? And more importantly, what the blazes was she supposed to say to him on the subject when he imminently arrived at her small apartment.

‘It is peculiar though...isn’t it? Why would he do it?’ Penny asked. Clarissa had asked the same question at least sixty times since Seb had told her the news just after dawn. What exactly had motivated him to be so unwelcomely generous? Guilt? Penny sincerely hoped not. ‘And what possessed him to set a Bow Street Runner on me to watch my every move?’ Knowing she had been under surveillance when she had assumed she was safe—completely incognito—really bothered her. Aside from the unpalatable fact that it was reminiscent of her years under watch during her awful marriage, if the Runner had easily found her, would the press? Or her horrid husband’s criminal friends? That was the trouble with London. In a vastly overcrowded capital, it was too easy to hide in plain sight. She had become complacent and, in so doing, had stayed far longer than she had originally intended. A situation she needed to quickly remedy for Freddie’s sake.