Truly Yours

Chapter Thirty-one

Amanda was packing. She wondered who could help sell some of her jewelry without becoming implicated in her escape.

Rex was pacing, going over lists of every place searched, every suspect questioned.

Harry and Dimm and Daniel were pursuing every lead or hint or purchased bit of information.

Lord and Lady Royce were planning their futures, together.

One day went by. Two.

Rex was feeling better, enough that he set himself up as a target in the park at dusk. No one bothered him, except Daniel, who was forced to stay behind, since such a large man did not skulk well. Harry did, of course, disguised as the old man again.

Three.

Amanda was in a panic. Would Rex really go with her? How would she live alone, without him?

Rex was in a quandary. How could he leave England, never to return, giving up his new work with Dimm, his family, his estate? He did care about the earldom after all, it seemed, now that he might lose it. And where could he go to keep Amanda safe?

His parents were in the conservatory, with the door locked.

Four days.

Rex decided to take Amanda to the theater, with her relations, Sir Edwin and his sister. Daniel refused the invitation, as did the Hawleys' aunt Hermione. The earl and the countess attend as chaperons, and simply their presence together diverted some of the attention from Amanda, but not much, not with the way she was dressed. She did wear a gray gown, the color of which was suitable for mourning, but in watered silk that shimmered-what there was of it. She decided to wear her mother's diamonds, proper or not, to fill in part of the low décolletage. She no longer cared what anyone in the audience thought, and she might have to sell the glittering necklace and matching bracelet tomorrow. Besides, the matching sparkle in Rex's eyes was worth the raised brows and clucking tongues.

Her stepsister wore severe black, with no jewelry. She complained throughout the first act of looking like a crow, especially next to Amanda. Then her beau Martin arrived at the intermission. He thought she looked beautiful.

"He really does, you know. He's not simply being polite," Rex whispered in Amanda's ear, ruffling the black feather that curled down her cheek from a black velvet headband, tickling her skin. Or was that his warm breath that had her tingling, or simply his nearness? Amanda touched the necklace and turned away, knowing both the diamonds and her happiness were to be sacrificed soon.

Five days.

"You're free, darling!" He swung her up in his arms and around in a circle, laughing.

"You can put her down now, Harry," Rex said dryly, but he was grinning, too.

"I am free? You found Brusseau?"

Daniel stooped over and kissed her cheek. "It is true! Not the way we planned, but true."

Daniel and Harry took turns explaining the recent events, interrupting each other constantly. As near as Amanda could understand, Sir Frederick's deranged sister, Miss Hermione Hawley, never left the house, watched so carefully by her niece and nephew. So Rex took it upon himself to see what she would do if given free rein. What she did, sure enough, was creep out of the house while they were all at the theater, telling the servants, who were now on Rex's payroll, besides young Edwin Hawley's, that she was taking a donation to the nearest orphanage.

"I told you, didn't I?" Daniel crowed. "That friend of my sister's who eloped did the same thing. Charity, my arse, and especially at night. Sorry, my dear. If you see a trunk full of clothes being loaded on a hackney, worry."

Amanda's satchels were already hidden, one by one, behind the garden shed. At least she was not claiming to be giving her wardrobe away.

Rex was furious. "Why did no one send for me?"

Daniel looked at Harry, who looked back. "The sawbones said you shouldn't do anything strenuous for another week."

Amanda said, "I did not know that!" then blushed.

Rex said what he thought of the surgeon's edict, in one short word that made her blush deepen. "You should have sent for me!" he insisted.

Harry shrugged. "The family hope, don't you know."

"Do not protect me, not ever again, either one of you, do you hear?"

Amanda liked that the others watched out for Rex. "Do you want to argue or do you want to know what happened next?"

Rex conceded. "Go on."

"Our men followed the hackney and sent messages back," Harry continued the story. "Your guess was a good one, Rex," he added to appease the viscount. "And paying the Hawley servants was a downy notion, too. Some of them took off after the hackney, also."

"She did not go to any orphanage, did she?" Amanda wanted to know.

"Of course not," Daniel said with a snort.

Rex guessed she went to Sir Nigel's house.

"Exactly." Daniel admitted he was all for barging into the barrister's residence, but Harry said no, Miss Hawley and Sir Nigel were not doing anything wrong that anyone knew. Perhaps they were lovers, having a tryst.

Daniel made another rude noise. "Harry never met the aunt."

Then both of them got in the same hackney, with one of Sir Nigel's servants.

"Brusseau?" Amanda asked. "The other brother, Jean, the real valet?"

"Exactly!"

"Did you arrest them then?"

"No, we decided to see where they went." Daniel told how he and Harry followed behind on horses, with a coach full of Bow Street Runners coming after the Hawley servants' coach. They all went to Grave's End, where Sir Nigel anchored his private yacht, which was under watch by the Royal Navy and the Revenuers, again at Rex's urging.

"You arrested them before they boarded the yacht, didn't you?"

"Not exactly."

"Explain."

Neither Harry nor Daniel wanted to relate the next part. Finally Harry spoke up while Daniel poured them all glasses of wine. Inspector Dimm, it seemed, as the officer in charge of the murder investigation, ordered the suspects to halt as soon as they left the coach at the dock area. They did not. Sir Nigel and Brusseau ran for a rowboat that could take them to the yacht, with Hermione Hawley screeching behind them. Daniel and Harry and some of the Bow Street Runners ran after them. So did the Hawley servants who were promised part of the reward.

Sir Nigel leaped for the boat. Daniel leaped for Brusseau, who could not go as fast because of a bandaged leg, and dragged him back to the dock. He had his hands on Brusseau's neck. "Say it." He did not have to spell out what he wanted; he did tighten his grip on the valet's throat.

"I… I killed Sir Frederick."

"And Lord Rexford?"

"I hit him with the brick. If the cursed chien hadn't been hanging on my leg, I'd have killed him, too, and we could have gotten away."

Everyone heard him, right before they heard Sir Nigel shoot him from the rowboat. The barrister threw his empty gun aside and leaped into the water. Harry was stuck holding Hermione Hawley from leaping after. He pushed her into the arms of some of her former servants and jumped into the boat.

The crew of Sir Nigel's yacht sent a boat out to haul their master aboard. One of the Revenue officers sent out a skiff. They started shooting at each other. Then another ship, a merchantman in the distance, weighed anchor, set sail, and surprised them all by sending a broadside at the navy cutter. The merchantman, they later learned, was one of Johnston's traders. He'd been hiding out, ready to make his getaway too, as soon as Sir Nigel paid him his share. The harbor was all smoke and sails and shouts and small boats colliding, oarsmen falling overboard, servants screaming. The cutter tried to come about to stop the merchantman before it reached open waters. No one got to Sir Nigel in time.

"He got away?"

"He drowned. We fished him out. The navy boarded Johnston's ship and found Breverton-with the money from the bank! And Thibidoux, too. We got them all! Neither turncoat nor tuppence got to France to finance Bonaparte and his plan to conquer England and the world. All the ships were confiscated, the crews arrested, several fortunes rescued. The War Office is delighted, the navy and the Excise officers are fighting over the prizes, and we are all heroes!"

Amanda was happy for them, of course, but still worried about her own future. "But if Brusseau is dead, how will I prove my innocence? The others were traitors who sought to buy titles and lands at the expense of their own country, but the charges against me are not a matter of the nation's welfare."

Daniel and Harry reassured her. Scores of people heard Jean's confession, and his twin brother confirmed everything when he realized he was an accomplice to a huge failed plot. Claude confessed his part, and his brother's, in front of Dimm and his superiors. There was no hint of coercion, no chance of a lie.

As Rex and his parents expected, Sir Nigel was behind it all. Sir Frederick never had the wit to think up the false investment scheme, only lofty ambitions and greed. He followed Sir Nigel's plan, but then he was going to cut Sir Nigel out of the profits, to use Thibidoux and Johnston to get to France. He'd been a problem from the first, scrimping on his payments, which cut down on Sir Nigel's influence with the French, and leaving too many trails back to the barrister. He had to be eliminated. Jean Brusseau carried out Sir Nigel's orders while Claude was seen in a pub, then switched places with his twin. Claude could deny everything without perjury. Jean left the gun to point the blame toward one of the investors, all of whom had good motives.

Harry concluded: "Amanda's appearance merely stirred up Sir Nigel's ill will toward Lord Royce and gave him a way to revenge himself on the countess and further discredit the family. He had his own obsessions, beyond money and foreign titles."

Daniel finished: "Everything is neatly tied, with no loose ends. Unlike Rex's neckcloth."

While Rex hastily repaired his cravat, Harry told Amanda, "You are free to go, free to stay. Free to live the rest of your life any way you want."

Daniel handed them each a glass and raised his in a toast. "To Amanda and her future."

Amanda kissed him. Then she kissed Harry.

"What about me?" Rex asked. "It was my idea that Miss Hawley would lead us to Sir Nigel, and I was the one who ordered a watch on his yacht."

So Amanda kissed him, too.

Daniel and Harry left-Amanda and Rex did not notice-and went to inform the earl and the countess, who kissed them both, too, then each other. With Sir Nigel not only dead but a proven traitor, no one would doubt the earl. They had another toast to a better future.

Daniel and Harry went to Lydia Burton's bordello to celebrate the present, and their new partnership in saving the country.

Amanda and Rex chose a more private celebration.

Amanda put her hand over Rex's heart so she could feel it beating. "What do you think will happen to Aunt Hermione?"

Rex pulled a blanket over them both, then lay back against the pillows. "I suppose she might be released to her nephew's care. After all, everyone thought she was insane to start with. He might have to swear to lock her up, but Dimm can ask for clemency. I don't know that she actually did anything wrong."

"And what about the money? The government took all of it, even what you took from Sir Frederick for Edwin and me."

"And the Crown hates to part with a shilling, but they'll have to. It will take a Solomon to figure out who gets what, the bank customers, the swindled investors, the relatives, and the men who made the arrests."

"Your father could distribute it justly."

He kissed the top of her head. "Excellent idea. I will get Harry working on that. He can see it done. Father will see that you get your fair share. You deserve it for the treatment they gave you." He kissed her again, then turned to look into her brown eyes, tenderly cradling her cheek in his palm. "But will you still marry me, angel, when you get the gold? You can do whatever you wish now-stay with my mother or help your stepbrother plan his sister's wedding. You can travel, you can set up your own establishment with a paid companion. You can marry Ashway."

She placed two fingers over his mouth. "You can be quiet now. I know what I can do, and what I want to do. I told you I love you. But what about you? You are done with me and my woes, so what do you want?"

He kissed her fingers, then took them into his mouth. "I want to be doing what we are doing right now."

"No, after that."

"Oh, I thought we could do it again. I will never be done."

"Rex, I am serious. You can go back to the army, or work with Bow Street. Your father might take up his career as a justice, so you could help him. Or you could mind the family estates while he is in Town. You could have any female in London. Or every one, while you are free."

"Every female in London? My, you do think a lot of my stamina. But I want only one woman for the rest of my life, one who will help me decide what to do, where to live. This one, the one I love."

"What color do you see?"

"True-blue, my love, true-blue."