Pleasures of the Night by Heather Boyd
Chapter 19
Notes could be ignored. Teddy might have pretended not to have received Eugenia’s politely worded summons to meet with her at Lord Wharton’s home that day. It would be impolitic, brazen even, to call on a married woman when he’d had vigorous sex with her in the same house.
Her husband was probably in that house again today!
Teddy sank lower in the carriage. He’d seen the man, her husband, coming and going from Wharton House on his way past, hopelessly confused by the situation he’d found himself in.
Teddy had fallen in love with a married woman—and she’d never know, now.
He couldn’t imagine meeting with her would change anything, but he wanted one last moment alone with her so he could end their affair.
He grimaced at the word: affair.
Adultery.
He’d fallen into the very type of relationship he’d absolutely intended to avoid. Blindly. Completely. He had committed adultery and, to his shame, had enjoyed it.
And Eugenia had said nothing to warn him away. She knew his distaste for scandalous liaisons with married women. He’d specifically told her he would never be an adulterer.
He remembered she’d been pleased with his decision.
And yet…
Teddy’s carriage drew to a halt before Wharton House, and he tightened his fist, determined to see this encounter through to the inevitable end. He handed the waiting butler his card.
“Lord Wharton is not at home, sir.”
“I would like to speak with Miss Hillc— That is to say, Mrs. Bagshaw. She’s expecting me.”
Another footman appeared, nodding his ginger head vigorously. “If you will come with me, Mr. Berringer. I’ll take you to her now.”
Teddy nodded and followed after the servant up the stairs to the same long gallery where Eugenia had tempted him with bold suggestions, soft lips, and a promise not to expect a marriage proposal.
Of course, she couldn’t have married him if he’d even offered or if they’d been found together like that.
So now everything he’d believed about Eugenia was proved false. Eugenia Hillcrest was Mrs. Bagshaw. Mrs. Bagshaw was a wife. And those lovers she’d spoken of…her husband and other adulterers like him, most likely.
He steeled himself for the coming interview with her as the footman announced him.
At the door, he looked up slowly, and her wary gaze met his across the span of the chamber.
But in that moment, too, his heart—his stupid, traitorous heart—yearned for her still. However, she wasn’t alone. Her younger cousin Aurora was at her side.
The footman backed from the room, and Teddy just stood there—frozen with indecision. Was there even anything more to say between them? His lover was a married woman.
Aurora smiled warmly, but Mrs. Bagshaw did not.
She whispered to her cousin, “Could you give us privacy?”
“Of course.” Aurora slipped across the chamber and disappeared behind a connecting door.
His feet unlocked, and he was somehow standing before Eugenia the next moment, staring down into her beloved’s face. “You’re married?”
“It’s not true,” she promised, but then winced. “I mean, I was married, and I am a widow.”
Teddy kept his hands by his sides, wanting to shake her because she would not speak the truth to his face. She had a husband still. He was here, somewhere about most likely. He came to see her every day, and soon, no doubt, she’d go away with him.
In the depths of his soul, he’d held out hope that it was all a grave misunderstanding. That she might yet be the wicked spinster he’d fallen in love with.
But no. Eugenia, the wife, was no one Teddy should have intimate knowledge of. He couldn’t continue with her the same way. Her admission changed everything between them. Forever. They had to stop.
Now.
He took a deep breath, accepting that this was the end of them. But his heart hurt. Every fiber of his being rebelled, even as he inhaled to say what needed to be said. To end things and go. He bowed to her. “Thank you for your time, Mrs. Bagshaw.”
“He’s not my husband,” she promised.
“In the eyes of the law, he is.”
“I do not believe it!” she cried. “He may resemble my lost love in a certain light, but he is not the Robert Bagshaw I married all those years ago.”
He reeled back. Married years, and still not willing to admit it. “Your name is Mrs. Bagshaw. Not Miss Hillcrest, as you have let me believe since our first introduction.”
She gulped. “I can explain.”
He stared at her. It mattered not to him why, but she had lied to him from the beginning. She’d made a fool of him, as well made him an adulterer. He closed his eyes. “There is nothing more I need to know. You are Mrs. Bagshaw.”
“So, what do we do?”
“We say goodbye and make no plans to see each other. I will not bother you.”
“But we will still see each other,” she promised him. “It’s impossible not to.”
“True.” He sighed heavily. He owed her the truth. “A wife with a living, breathing husband is the type of woman I avoid. I will tell you this and go: I have loved every moment of our time together, but now… I have to stay away from you.”
“No!” she cried, attempting to grab hold of his hands and keep them. Eugenia’s were cold against his bare skin. “This changes nothing of how I feel for you.”
His heart squeezed to hear her confession because he felt the same. He did love her. He’d not meant to fall, but he couldn’t ignore the truth. He loved her and still had to let her go. And he was dying inside thinking of her with someone else.
He disengaged from her grip gently. “I will relish every moment I stand in the same room with you, madam, but I will not show it. I will not seek you out, though I will not deliberately try to avoid you either.”
“So, you just expect me to go along with this and become Mrs. Bagshaw? I can’t give you up,” she whispered. “I love you.”
His heart slammed against his chest at her words, but what good would it do to admit the same? He ached with the unfairness of their situation. But she was a married woman and, as such, belonged in someone else’s life, not his. Their hopeless love had nothing to do with her marriage.
He took a pace forward and impulsively pressed a chaste kiss on her brow. One last brush of his lips across her skin, then he drew back even farther. “What you do is not for me to have an opinion on anymore.”
Eugenia whipped around, showing him her back and crossing her arms over her chest. “Go then.”
“Eugenia, please,” he begged. “Don’t be angry with me because I want to do the right thing.”
She wiped her cheeks with an angry brush of her hand. “Just leave. If you don’t believe me, you cannot help me escape my fate, either.”
He shut his eyes, wishing with all his heart that he could do something to soothe the pain in her voice. But she was married to a man clearly still alive and very much determined to be known as her husband.
To remain involved with Eugenia was morally wrong. At least they’d managed to keep their affair a secret from all but Aurora. He was sure she would not tattle to Eugenia’s husband and make her life difficult.
He opened his eyes and then bowed deeply to her, even though Eugenia’s back was still turned. He let himself out of the chamber without another word.
Aurora was in the hall, and she smiled sadly as he passed her on the way to the staircase to leave. But putting his feelings away was not at all easy.
He was a few feet along the entrance of the hall when he heard the voice of a man he did not immediately recognize coming from the dining room.
“Tell me, is this what you normally serve the marquess and my wife?”
“Yes, sir,” another man, probably a servant, answered. “Of course.”
“Very good. Quite good. You may serve me another portion.”
There was a long pause, and then, “More wine, too, Mr. Bagshaw?”
“Indeed, yes,” Bagshaw said. “Then you may go and inform my wife that her husband is growing impatient with her tardiness.”
The husband was a pompous prig to make demands in Lord Wharton’s home.
Clipped footsteps came his way, and one of Wharton’s servants slipped into the hall. The fellow pulled a face at the door he was closing, then noticed Teddy standing a few feet away. The man quickly plastered a polite smile on his face, and when Teddy silently waved him off, he scurried away, carrying a tray stacked high with empty dishes.
Curious about Eugenia’s husband, Teddy moved to the dining room doorway that had failed to close properly and peeked inside.
The short, blubbery-looking fellow who had accosted him on the street outside sat at Wharton’s dining table alone, shoveling food into his mouth as if he were sitting at a pig’s trough. He grasped his wine glass and gulped the lot down in one large swallow.
Clearly, Eugenia hadn’t married a man possessed of any table manners.
Teddy kept watching him. Watching the rival for Eugenia’s affections, and couldn’t see how she would have chosen this man to marry in the first place. He was slovenly, while Eugenia was neat and always elegant in her dark-hued gowns.
Perhaps Bagshaw had changed in the years they were apart.
Or was he as she claimed…an imposter?
The fellow stood, leaned over the table, and grasped a silver candlestick. He pinched out the candle flame and tested the weight in his hand, dripping hot wax on the polished mahogany, then settled it back on the table.
He stood and began to prowl the room, seemingly admiring everything not nailed down.
Wharton would be livid if he saw this himself.
When Bagshaw passed close to the table again, Teddy clearly saw him pocket a dirty silver spoon. He continued to pace the chamber as if he’d not done anything amiss, then went to a window to admire the view of the street.
Teddy drew back in disgust. Eugenia’s husband was not an honest man.
Husband or imposter, it seemed impossible that she could know about his habits…or was that why she had hidden her marriage?
He shook his head. Her life now was none of his business. He would not tattle on Bagshaw to Lord Wharton, but nor would he remain to watch the man take advantage of her connections and profit from them.
Yet at the front door, his feet became stuck to the floor again. He didn’t want to leave Eugenia to be married to that other man and caught unawares. She’d be humiliated and could fall out with her family if Bagshaw continued to steal from the marquess.
He couldn’t leave without at least trying to warn her about what he had just seen, so she could protect herself.
He slipped back upstairs silently, headed back to the long gallery, where he’d left Eugenia. He still cared about her. Too much to utterly abandon her. He cared about protecting her reputation still.
At the door, he overheard Aurora talking to Eugenia again. “He’s become testy with the servants and your delay. Will you even speak with him today?”
He peeked inside in time to watch Eugenia dry her eyes. “No. I’ve nothing to say to the bounder pretending to be my husband.”
His heart yearned to believe her. To comfort her and dry her tears, tell her of his love, even if he might cause them both more pain to say it out loud. They had no future. No chance of happiness, only shame and disgrace.
He hadn’t wanted to end their affair. Except, it hadn’t felt like an affair or scandalous while they’d been together. It had begun to feel right to be with her, any time of the day or night.
“If only he’d not shown us proof of a marriage,” Aurora was saying. “Wharton would have tossed him out long ago. Do you really not have proof of his death?”
“No. The captain said everyone onboard saw him drown and could do nothing to save him. A dozen witnesses onboard saw his body recovered from the sea, lifeless and cold, and put into a skiff to be taken into Dover for burial,” Eugenia whispered. “If there was any proof at all, the captain never gave it to me. I have nothing but my word against his, and that means nothing. Less than nothing, apparently. Not even Thaddeus believes me. I cannot forget the way he looked at me like I was a stranger to him now. Even when I told him of my feelings, he said nothing.”
Teddy closed his eyes. Ashamed that he had hurt her by keeping silent.
“I am sure he cares for you more than he can admit,” Aurora promised. “I saw his face as he was leaving. A more disappointed man there never was.”
Yes!
But there was silence inside, then a sob. Teddy peeked into the room as Aurora comforted her cousin, who was crying against her shoulder because he’d failed to convey what she’d begun to mean to him.
“If we’d known of the marriage from the start, we would have been better prepared.”
“What good would it have done to be so pitied by everyone?” Eugenia spat out, spinning out of Aurora’s arms. “The marriage had barely begun before it was over. He was dead. I had no reason to doubt that. None at all,” Eugenia nearly shrieked as she threw up her arms.
The pain in her voice cut Teddy to the quick.
“It’s not him that I married, though they might seem similar today.”
“Are you sure he did not have a brother or a cousin?”
“Not that I recall.”
Even Teddy knew that not everyone spoke of their family members, especially when they were on the outs. But his own opinion was clouded by suspicion, which wasn’t surprising, since he was being displaced by a rival with a prior claim on Eugenia’s heart.
His only consolation was that she did not sound pleased to have her husband come back to life. She appeared to loathe the man, not love him.
She viewed him with the same suspicion that he did.
Teddy couldn’t stand idly by while Eugenia harbored any doubt about the man’s identity.
He quietly walked back into the chamber without bothering to knock. “There has to be proof that the man downstairs is who he claims to be,” he told the pair.
Eugenia met his gaze, and her whole body seemed to sag. “I have nothing.”
Aurora suddenly snapped her finger. “Is his mother still alive?”
Eugenia’s eyes widened. “The imposter hasn’t mentioned her yet…but Robbie always talked about his mother before we married. I assumed her dead and never thought to inquire when she died. She wasn’t a well woman when I married Robbie.”
Teddy approached Eugenia slowly. If there was a mother still living, he wanted to find her and discover once and for all if Bagshaw was who he claimed to be. Only then could he walk away from the woman he loved. “I can search for her on your behalf, bring her to you if she still lives to prove his identity one way or the other.”
“No. I’ll find her myself,” she insisted. “This is my problem to solve.”
Teddy nodded slowly but his mind raced. “You should go. His mother might not want to talk to someone not immediately connected to her family. Any stranger saying he was acting for a woman claiming to be her dead son’s wife might have a difficult time convincing her. Only you can ask the right questions, and answer hers about her son, and be believed.”
“Bagshaw is not just going to let my cousin traipse halfway across the country to prove him an imposter. He comes every day, waiting for my cousin to show her face so he can threaten to take her away from us again,” Aurora warned.
Although Eugenia shuddered, she shook her head. “He can’t stop me if he doesn’t realize I’m gone. I could slip away tonight with none the wiser.”
Teddy nodded, thinking through an escape plan for Eugenia that would allow speed and safety for her reputation. He could provide the carriage and men guaranteed to hold their tongues. All that was needed was her agreement to let him help her reach Dover, and to decide upon a meeting place. “The fewer people involved, the better.”
Aurora nodded quickly. “And the fewer people who know who might try to stop her going, too.”
“I absolutely cannot confide in Wharton,” Eugenia said, even as he thought the same thing. “Or Sylvia. She’d tell the marchioness, who would worry. Lizzy might demand Wharton fetch me back.”
Aurora was nodding, seemingly committed to supporting her cousin in any endeavor. “But how will you travel so far? Surely not on the mail coach?”
“I can make a carriage and men available to you for a long journey,” he said quickly. “No one would ever suspect my involvement.”
No one would suspect she’d have a personal protector on her journey, either. Aurora wouldn’t need to know he intended to go along with Eugenia, to see this through to the end.
Eugenia exhaled. “Thank you. That is exactly what I needed to hear. A carriage, a team of fast horses, and to slip away.”
“You’d best leave before first light tomorrow. I need some time tonight, to make arrangements for the carriage and men to meet you by then. But they will take you anywhere you wish to go. Protect you and return you to London when you have your proof in hand.”
“I’ll find it,” she declared. “I will not be bound to that man in unholy matrimony.”
He admired her determination as he considered where she should meet the carriage. “First light tomorrow, in Vere Street, which is not far from here.”
“I will be there.”
“I’ll take her myself,” Aurora promised.
Teddy winced. He’d prefer not to involve Aurora more than he had to.
Eugenia approached her cousin and clasped her hand. “And how will you return home without being found out?”
“I’ll take Mr. Bloom into my confidence. He’s been of great assistance with keeping Bagshaw fed and distracted so far. A little dawn walk for me will not be of any great note to anyone else in the house if he’s by my side. I’m sure he’ll want to help you, too. He doesn’t care for Bagshaw in the least.”
Teddy nodded. Carriage, men, and Eugenia safe, as well as her cousin. All that remained was to gain her freedom, if that was possible. “Good. Make your preparations. The carriage will be well-stocked with food and funds for the journey, so only carry essentials. There’ll be quite a fuss kicked up when you’re discovered missing. I suspect everyone in the household will be questioned.”
“I can manage a delay until late afternoon,” Aurora assured him. “No one will know how long she’s really been gone. She’s avoided Bagshaw before and claimed to be unwell, too. Wharton hasn’t minded that she hasn’t shown her face around.”
Eugenia hugged her cousin, then held out her hand to him. “Thank you. You are a kind man.”
He clasped her hand and resisted the urge to pull her into his arms. What remained between them was more than simple kindness or compassion. He feared he might be hers, no matter what they discovered in Dover.
What mattered most to him was her happiness. She was not happy now, but perhaps she could be so again, when her fears were laid to rest.
But first, they had to find the elder Mrs. Bagshaw, if she lived, and discover the truth of her son. And then…
And then?
He did not dare to consider what might come after.
He released Eugenia’s hand, knowing he could not presume there could be more to come for them. Not yet. Not until Bagshaw was unmasked as an imposter.