‘I thought we were eloping,’ she said, seating herself elegantly in the nearest chair before her knees gave way. ‘It was the night of Lady Houghley’s masquerade ball and I knew I would not be missed for hours. He took me to some squalid ale house just across the Thames where he was obviously known, given the number of drunken oafs who greeted him. He dragged me up to a repellent bedroom and said that if I didn’t let him do what he wanted then he would invite all his friends in too. So I did. He was getting drunk by then, and afterwards he drank more and passed out.
‘I tied him to the bedposts with his cravat and my stockings and took a pink silk ribbon from my chemise and tied it in a pretty bow around his – ’ She waved a hand, searching for the right word.
‘Prick?’ Flynn suggested.
‘Exactly. Prick. It was about the size of a bodkin by then so that is exactly the right word.’ Cal gave a snort of laughter and Jonathan went scarlet. ‘Then I crept downstairs and discovered that I was close to the river. A waterman took me across, then I found a hackney carriage and I was back at the ball just before the unmasking. No-one ever knew I was missing.’ She risked a glance at Cal’s profile and found he was smiling, albeit grimly. ‘Jonathan vanished from London and I didn’t see him again until before we came here. He is trying to blackmail me.’
‘Is he now?’ Cal linked his fingers and cracked his knuckles ominously. ‘So he is a liar, a rapist and an extortionist.’
‘You can’t challenge him,’ Hunt observed. ‘He is not a gentleman.’
‘No. Pity.’
‘I am not the first,’ Sophie said. Her legs had stopped shaking so she got up and fetched Tanner’s letter from the broken wreckage of her dressing case and handed it to Cal. ‘I had him investigated.’
His gaze flickered from the letter heading to her face, then back down to the letter. ‘He has a taste for sheep, it would appear.’
‘That’s not true! That bloody parson – ’
‘But everything else is accurate, isn’t it? Come now, Ransome, you may as well admit it. I might be squeamish about facing you on a field of honour, but I have no objection to beating a confession out of you.’
‘All right, I admit it. All of it.’
‘Even the sheep?’ Flynn asked and got a murderous glare in response.
‘But you can’t say anything, not and keep her name out of it.’ He jerked his head at Sophie and Cal growled, deep in his chest.
‘Is that American friend of yours still docked in Bristol, Jared?’
‘Oh yes, he’ll be there for a week or so getting stocked up for his voyage to the East Indies. Are you thinking what I think you are? Hand over this fine, hardworking crew member to him?’
‘You can’t do that!’ Jonathan made a dive for the door. Cal caught him by the collar and lifted him, gasping and struggling.
‘Do you the world of good. Captain Lucas runs a tight ship, lots of invigorating work and the lash for shirkers. Very colourful area, you’ll enjoy it. Head-hunters, an entire text book of tropical diseases, typhoons, pirates. Big rough, very frustrated sailors who will welcome a beautiful young shipmate with open arms.’ He dumped Jonathan on the floor and left him scrabbling at his neckcloth in an effort to breathe. ‘Flynn, take him and lock him in his room and tell the servants that he is unwell and must not be disturbed. I’d tie him to the bed if I were you. Oh, and take a loaded pistol with you. Jared – can you get him to Bristol tomorrow, early? You’d best take Flynn along. Ask Wilkins in the stables to sort you out a carriage and some grooms who’ll keep their mouths shut.’
Cal waited until Flynn and Hunt dragged the struggling and protesting Jonathan through the door then closed it behind them. ‘Aren’t you going to beg for mercy for him? He was your first lover, after all.’
So, he was angry with her. Sophie thought she could hardly blame him. ‘No. he is a menace to women, condemned out of his own mouth. If this came to court he would go to prison for years, as it is, he has a chance. If he works hard for that captain he might be able to start a new life in the East.’
‘But you couldn’t trust me with this, could you, Sophie? You took a chance on telling me half the story, that you were not a virgin, and you judged rightly that it made no difference to me. But you kept the rest from me, you lied to me on Ludgate Hill, you had no faith that you could let me help and protect you. I wasn’t looking for love in this match, you know that. But I was hoping for honesty.’
Chapter Twenty - Where Sophie Keeps Her Pearls On
So Jonathan has won after all. I love this man who doesn’t want my love and I could not trust him when trust was what he needed. But she had to try.
‘I thought that if I told you, you would kill him in a duel. You are the Lost Duke, with gossip swirling around you from that long absence. Probably you would not be hanged for killing a man in a duel, but how could I be certain? And then, when I discovered that someone was trying to kill you, how did I know they would not take advantage of such a situation, fabricate evidence, perhaps, to condemn you?’
‘In other words, you were protecting me?’ Cal enquired, looking every inch the duke, from the scorn in his voice to the rigid lines of his face.
‘It was my error in the first place, my lack of judgment. It was for me to deal with.’