father spent the lad’s rightful inheritance on your mother and I can’t believe that fool was besotted enough to simply hand over all those jewels to her. She knew the Lambury Jewels weren’t even his to give, but she seduced and sulked as only she knew how until she got them out of him. There isn’t a single word of remorse about the boy and his sister in the books and papers Carter handed over.’
‘It would be beneath him to hold back a single letter of hers once he made you that promise,’ Eve argued against Mr Carter holding something over them. Her father’s acute gaze focused on her as if he was trying to read her thoughts and feelings about a man she didn’t even like. Of course she didn’t feel anything for the stiff-necked idiot, how could she? She still felt the need to affirm his honesty for some reason. ‘He wouldn’t keep anything that didn’t belong to him,’ she added.
‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ her father murmured so low she wondered if she was mistaken. ‘Nothing Pamela did should shame you, love,’ he said out loud and with such sadness and concern in his eyes Eve felt guilty about reminding him of those dark days in both their lives, not that she could remember them.
‘Nor you, Papa,’ she said. ‘She did enough damage when she was alive. Please don’t agonise over her sins now she’s dead. The memory of them kept you and darling Chloe apart for years, so don’t fret about things she never felt a second’s worth of unease about now.’
‘Yet if I burn these books I might deprive that boy of the better life and we Winterleys have done enough damage in that quarter already. If there’s any chance those jewels she writes about so gleefully can be found and I destroy a clue to where they are, then I shall be the one in need of a few scruples and not Pamela.’
‘We must find the man Lord Chris’s son must be by now and help him as best we can then. If that’s what it takes to make you forget all the evil Lord Chris and Pamela did between them, we have no choice.’
‘Any gossip now sleeping safely might wake up and bite you if he or his sister come forward, love,’ he warned with a brooding look Eve couldn’t quite read.
‘Don’t you think I’m strong enough to ignore such poisonous gossip by now?’
‘Sometimes I wonder if you’re not too strong, Eve. If I had only worked my way past Pamela and caught your stepmother ten years before I did, you and Verity would have had easier childhoods. I was a fool not to seize the day and your stepmother a lot sooner than I did.’
‘Well, there’s no denying Chloe is perfect for you in every way my mother never was, but Verity and I did very well with one of you each for the ten years you two spent apart. We do even better now you’re together and happy, instead of apart and secretly miserable, but there’s no need to mourn what we didn’t have because you were stubborn as a rock, Papa. We were both very much loved and cared for even before you and Chloe let yourselves be happy together.’
‘I’m glad you know we love you, but are you sure you’re prepared for the old gossip to be stirred up if I find Hancourt and help him search for any remnants of his inheritance that might be lying around unattended?’
Eve had had to prove over and over again how unlike her mother she was when she made her debut in society. The idea of facing that ordeal again was daunting and made her pause for a moment. No, peace wasn’t worth having if it came from playing the coward, she decided. She would have to be more cautious than ever about dark corridors and deserted ladies’ withdrawing rooms, but the sneaky thought that meeting an intriguing and gruff young gentleman at the end of her last adventure made it almost worthwhile was nonsensical, wasn’t it?
‘Even the whisper of a lost fortune could do that anyway, but I don’t see how we can stand in his way, if he’s still alive, of course.’
‘And I suspect he is,’ her father muttered with that odd look on his face again and Eve was tempted to stamp her feet and demand he tell her everything he was keeping back. She was a young lady now and not a harum-scarum miss, so she could not and she knew that look of old. He wouldn’t even tell Chloe what was in his thoughts until he was ready and a show of temper certainly wouldn’t help.
‘Your Mr Carter might be in the Duke of Linaire’s confidence, Eve. You could always ask him to find out what happened to Lord Christopher’s children next time you meet him in Green Park.’
‘How did you know about that?’
‘Luckily Verity doesn’t know it was meant to be a secret.’
‘But it wasn’t. I met the man there by pure chance. I suppose he was taking the air on his way back from delivering my mother’s papers to you.’
‘And yet you spoke with him at length in the sight of all those nursemaids and governesses. Don’t deny it, Eve; I had the tale from more than one source.’
‘I didn’t think you listened to gossip, Papa.’
‘I do when it concerns my daughter. Have a care, my Eve. Carter might be a wounded hero of however many battles of Wellington’s he is old enough to have fought in, but he clearly hasn’t a feather to fly with. He wouldn’t be sorting dusty old books for Linaire at Derneley House if he had.’
‘I never took you for a snob, Papa, and I only met the man two days ago. I am hardly likely to fall in love with such a rude and stiff-necked idiot anyway, even if I had known him since we were in our nurseries.’
‘It doesn’t take long to do that,’ he warned her ruefully. ‘Love can come without an invitation and when we’re least expecting it. Be careful it doesn’t creep up on you in the worst possible circumstances and bludgeon you over the head like it did your unwary papa.’
‘It won’t. I don’t intend to succumb to passion. If I wed at all it will be to a gentleman I have learnt to know and respect after months, if not years, of friendship.’
‘What of mutual attraction and downright lust? I know you’re my daughter and I should be glad you are going to be so sensible about picking a husband, but I don’t want you to miss out the crucial parts of a happy marriage.’
‘Not many fathers encourage their daughters to become besotted with a gentleman they have not even met.’
‘How do you know that if you only intend to wed a not-very-exciting friend? And I only want you to form a passion for the man if he is right for you.’
‘Logic will tell me that, I have no need for the sort of insane urges that ruled my mother’s life.’
‘No, but you should think a little more about your own before you marry a block, love.’
‘If I was really looking for one of those, Mr Carter would fill the bill very nicely.’
‘Believe that and you’ll believe anything,’ her father said darkly and Eve wished she’d picked a better example than the Duke of Linaire’s whatever he was: secretary, librarian, man of business? Possibly only the Duke and Mr Carter knew the answer to that question.
She remembered how it felt to have Mr Carter’s gold-brown eyes focus intently on her when he forgot his false humility. No, he wasn’t a wooden soldier at all. Papa was quite right; there was a sharply intelligent and sensitive man under that quiet exterior and she would do well to remember it if they ever met again, which seemed very unlikely as he was the Duke of Linaire’s clerk and not part of the ton.
‘My one-day marriage and Mr Carter aside, what do you mean to do about the Hancourts, Papa?’
‘When I track them down, I shall make sure they know all I do. I don’t know if that will help much, since I don’t properly understand it myself.’
‘What does she say, then, Papa? You can’t hint at something that might be a clue, then refuse to tell me any more lest you offend my delicate sensibilities.’
Eventually he handed her a list he had copied out, and censored, from entries in Pamela’s diaries where she gloated over the fabulous jewels she had coaxed out