Uncle Henry nearly fell upon the man with relief. "Oh, Symes! How clever of you to think of that now. Here you are, Carland." He took the sack from his man of affairs and handed it over. "Seguin was paying the same amount for Elizabeth that you were for Charlotteso it should all be here."
"It had better be," Carland said coldly, pocketing the bag.
"Did I hear my name?"
Charlie turned to find Beth now standing in the entrance. She was dressed in the lavender gown Charlie had packed away in the satchel for her to be married in.
If it had been her sister she had glimpsed dressed as a boy earlier, she must have changed faster than she had ever done before in her life. Still, that didn't startle Charlie nearly as much as the fact that her sister was backed by Mrs. Hartshair and her children. Good Lord! Was everyone here?
"Elizabeth." Uncle Henry breathed the name in honor.
"Elizabeth?" Seguin gaped from her to the veiled woman he had just married.
"Who? Who are"
"I tried to tell you," Bessie wailed.
"So did I," Charlie murmured archly. "Seguin, meet your bride, Bessie my lady's maid. Though, I guess she is a countess now."
"L-lady's maid?" Seguin choked, clutching his upper arm as if it pained him.
"L-lady's maid?"
Finally released from the cruel grasp he had had on her since collecting her from their kidnappers, Bessie ripped the veiled hat from her head, revealing her red hair and powderless face.
"Do not panic," Henry cried earnestly, talking as fast as he was thinking in an effort to get out of this mess. "We can clear this all up. Your marriage to the chit cannot be legal if she signed Beth's name. We can still marry you to Elizabeth."
"Nay. He cannot. I married Elizabeth right here in this room not four days ago,"
Tom announced with satisfaction.
"Aye." The fisherman nodded in verification, then glanced down at the papers both of the newlyweds had signed. "Besides, she signed the name Bessie Roberd.
Is that yer name?" When Bessie nodded miserably, he shrugged. " 'Tis all legal, then. You two are married."
"But I thought she was Elizabeth!" Seguin cried, nibbing his arm faster. "It was under false pretenses."
The fisherman shook his head. "She told ye her name twice or three times ere I commenced the ceremony. I heard her tell ye. There weren't no false nothin'.
'Sides." His eyes narrowed. "Ye had to threaten her to get her to marry ye in the first place, ye'll not be cryin' off now."
"H-Heniy, you b-bastard! This is all your fault." Segin gasped, staggering a couple of steps toward the pale man with murder in his eyes before pain replaced it and he suddenly switched the hand that had been clutching his arm to his chest. Swaying briefly, he growled another curse, then collapsed on his face.
They all stared wide-eyed as Radcliffe stepped forward and rolled the man over.
After bending to press an ear to his chest, he straightened and shook his head.
"Dead."
Carland gave a harsh laugh at the pronouncement. "You are the luckiest bastard I know, Henry."
When the other man merely peered at him blankly, Carland hefted the sack of coins he held. "Now you do not owe him his money back." Pocketing the sack, he turned and sauntered out of the building.
Chapter Eighteen
"Mmmm," Charlie murmured with pleasure as the warm, silky water closed around her body. It felt like days since she had been clean. It had been days, she realized with a sigh, but firmly turned her mind from such thoughts. She did not want to think of her kidnapping, that horrid carriage ride, or the scene in the fisherman's hovel. She had been more than happy to turn her back on Gretna, literally. Charlie had left Gretna Green mounted before Radcliffe on a horse. He had purchased the animal for the return trip at the livery where he had changed horses upon arriving and, much to her relief, had insisted that she ride with him. Aside from her nasty reaction to traveling, there simply had not been enough room in the carriage for everyone. Even with just Tomas, Beth, Bessie, and Mrs. Hartshair and her children inside it had looked terribly crowded.
They had had to travel for nearly the whole day before coming across an inn with enough rooms to accommodate them all.
This inn. She tilted her head back on the rim of the bath and peered around the room. It was sparsely furnished with just a bed and, at present, a tub. The room was small, but it was clean. Besides, next to the carriage that she had spent the past two days in, it resembled a chamber in the finest palace.
The opening of the door made her stiffen and peer about as Beth slipped into the room. She and the others had still been filling themselves on the hearty meal the innkeeper's wife had supplied when Charlie had left the common room.
Her stomach, still tender after the traveling sickness she had suffered, Charlie had managed only a few bites before retiring to their room to take a bath.
"My, that looks lovely," Beth sighed, eyeing the bath a bit enviously as she approached.
"It is," Charlie murmured, then began cleaning herself. "I will hurry, but you shall probably need fresh water when I am through. I really needed this bath."
"Oh, do not worry. There is no need to hurry. I have a bath being prepared for me in our room."
"Our room?" Charlie raised her eyebrows. "Are you not staying in here with me?"
"Nay. Tomas and I have the room next door." She blushed prettily, but Charlie hardly noticed as she frowned.
"But I thoughtI mean, Radcliffe could only hire five rooms here."
"Aye."
"Well, Mrs. Hartshair and her children are in one, are they not?"
"Aye."
"And Bessie has one?"
"Aye."
"Then Tomas and you have one, I have this one, and I presume StokesOh! Radcliffe must be bedding down with Stokes," she realized and relaxed, unaware that Beth had stiffened.
"Charlie?"
"Aye?"
"Radcliffe will not be bedding down with Stokes."
She tilted her head up curiously. "Well, then where is he staying? Oh, surely he has not stuck Stokes in the stables?"
"Nay, Charlie" She hesitated, then plunged on. "He will be staying here with you. You are married now."
She blinked at that. "Married? Nay, Beth, Radcliffe just said that to prevent my having to marry Carland."
Beth shook her head. "You are married."
"But I never married Radcliffe."
"Aye, you did."
"Beth, I think I would recall something like that. I never married Radcliffe."
"Nay," she agreed. "I did in your place."
"What?" She peered at her sister blankly, not quite grasping her words.
"I dressed up as Charles, married him, and copied your signature to the"
"What?" Charlie sat up abruptly in the bath, splashing water everywhere.
"He said the two of you were to marry. That you had made love."
Charlie flushed at that, irritation pulling at her expression. "Radcliffe has a big mouth. Besides, both partners must be in love for it to be lovemaking."
"You do not love him?" Beth asked with concern, and Charlie's frown darkened.
"Of course, I love him. What is not to love? The man is a darling. Sweet, generous, adventurous"
"Adventurous?" Beth gasped, interrupting her. "The man is as stuffy as that carriage we rode here in."
"Nonsense. Just look at the adventures we have had since meeting him."
Beth shook her head with a laugh. "Charlie, you are the one who brings about these adventures."
"Mayhap." She shrugged. "But I could not have done so without Radcliffe."
When Beth looked doubtful, Charlie sighed. "He took us under his wing and brought us to London. If he had not, we would even now be moldering away at Ralphy's."
"Charlie, you will never molder. Besides, he only did that out of a sense of duty." When Charlie shook her head, Beth raised her eyebrows. "Nay?"
"Nay, Beth. All he had to do to soothe his sense of duty was warn us, or even give us a pistol. Or he could have dumped us once he saw us safely to London.
Yet he did not; he took us into his home."
Beth was frowning over that, never having considered it herself. "Mayhap you are right, but I still have trouble seeing Radcliffe as adventurous. Just look at the fuss he made about the puppies. He is stuffy."
"He made a fuss over rescuing Bessie and Mrs. Haitshair as well," Charlie laughed. "But that is just talk, a way to try to hide his true nature. How marry times have I told you, never listen to a person's words, watch their actions to see what is in their heart. A person can say marry things they do not mean. For instance, Jimmy and Freddy who you said were betting on who could win the most girls in the ton; do you not think they said things to those girls that they never meant as they set out to win them?"
"Aye, but"
"There are no buts," Charlie interrupted, then sighed. "All right, look at it this way. Radcliffe made a fuss about Bessie, but when it came down to it, he is the one who announced that she was to be your lady's maid and actually hired her on. Do you think someone like Lady Mowbray would have had her as a lady's maid?"
"Oh, good Lord, no." Beth's eyes were wide. "Bessie had no training. Lady Mowbray would not put out good money for an unskilled servant."
"Exactly. And the same goes for Mrs. Hartshair. Yet Radcliffe hired both of them despite his grumbling. Even taking in Mrs. Hartshair's children. And then there are the puppies. He could have denied me the money to save them and said it was for the best, or even have paid the farmer, insisting he keep them and use the money for their care. But he did not. He speaks like an old curmudgeon, but his actions negate that." She glanced down at the water briefly, then added, "No stuffy old curmudgeon could possess the passion he does, either."
"You do love him," Beth said with relief.
"Aye."
"Then you will not try to contest the marriage?"
She gave a bitter laugh. "How could I? Uncle Henry would just try to force me into marriage with someone else, and Lord knows who he would find this time since I would be ruined."
"You do not sound happy," Beth murmured worriedly.
"Would you be happy to be married to Tom, loving him yet knowing he did not love you?"
"Oh, Charlie, he must love you! How could he not?"
"Spoken like a true sister," Charlie murmured wryly, then admitted, "He told me he did not love me."
"He told you?" she gasped in honor.
"Well, he told Charles," she explained on a sigh. "I asked if he loved hermeand he said, 'I do not' "
"Oh, Charlie." Her sister's eyes filled with sympathetic tears.
Swallowing a sudden lump in her throat, Charlie stiffened her back a bit and glanced away. "You had best get going. Your bath should be ready by now."
Beth hesitated, then seeming to recognize Charlie's need to be alone, she nodded reluctantly and moved slowly toward the door. "Goodnight."
"Good night," Charlie murmured as the door closed, then heaved a sigh and proceeded to wash her hair.
Radcliffe raised his hand to the door, then paused and drew it back, leaving the door unopened. Oddly enough, he was suddenly inexplicably nervous.
This was his wedding night, but it would not be his first night with Charlieso that was not the reason behind this sudden nervousness. Nay. He suspected the source of it was his uncertainty as to how his new bride was reacting to the knowledge that they were now married. He had no idea what to expect. Was she happy about it?
Content? Resentful? She had been silent during the ride from Gretna. And he had been unwilling to ask her thoughts on the subject. Was she angry that Beth had married him in her name? Would she greet him with a shy smile, orwhip something heavy and nasty at his head as soon as he entered the door?
Radcliffe smiled wryly. He doubted that most men suffered such worries on their wedding night, but then, they did not have wives like Charlie. Beautiful, bold, charming Charlie. He suspected that his calm, quiet days in the country were over. Life had suddenly become an adventure. Even going to his bed now carried some element of peril with it.
Did he wish for those serene times back? Radcliffe recalled the harmonious days that had blended into one another ere encountering Charlie and Elizabeth, then each wild escapade he had enjoyed since their arrival in his life. He chuckled softly to himself. He had thought it amusing when Clarissa had hung all over "the boy" like a limpet. Knowing that she had really been a girl made the memory even more amusing. Then he recalled Charles on the farmer's back, fighting for the lives of those puppies, and he marveled at her courage. Then there was the time when she had been tied to the bed at the brothel with the whip-wielding Aggie straddling her He began to chuckle aloud again, then blinked with consternation. Good Lord! He had taken his wife to a brothel he realized with dismay. And that was how his wife found him, standing before the door, his eyes wide, his mouth open in a round "O" of alarm.
Charlie had quickly finished her bath after Beth's departure thenwith the dirty clothes she hadworn for two days as her only other optionhad wrapped the bed linens around herself in the Roman style and moved to sit before the fire to work on drying her long, damp tresses. Her hair had been perhaps half-dried when she had first heard the doorknob jiggle.
Her heart slamming against her chest, she had turned to stare at the door wide-eyed. When nothing had happened and the door had remained closed, she had relaxed slightly and gone back to finger-brushing her hair before the fire, only to pause again a moment later as a soft chuckle had reached her through the door. She'd had no trouble recognizing Radcliffe's distinctive laugh.
Thinking he was talking to someone in the hall, Charlie had continued to work with her hair, but when she'd heard no hint of another person's voice and Radcliffe's laugh came once more, curiosity had got the better of her and she had hurried to open the door. Now she stared at his rather horrified expression and frowned uncertainly.