Page 146 of A Story of Love

He sat without any demur. “I wish you’d not left The King’s Purse and disappeared that day.”

“Oddly enough I didn’t want to wait for you to come back once I’d read about your betrothal in the newspaper.”

He looked hurt, rather than angry. “It’s too bad you didn’t wait, because then you might have learned the truth, Lorelei.”

“Which is?”

“Demelza and I never planned to marry. The only reason I agreed to the betrothal was to help her.”

Lori crossed her arms and stared.

He sighed. “She is in love with another man—a clerk in her father’s counting house. But her father wanted a peer for a son-in-law and refused to approve the marriage. Moreland had already asked Pascoefor permission to court her; if I didn’t help her, her father would have applied unpleasant pressure on her to marry the earl. We—Demelza and I—decided to fake a betrothal just long enough to distract her father. Ever since she confessed her love for his employee, he had kept her imprisoned. She was sure that he would relax his guard if he believed that she’d fallen into line with his wishes.” He paused and gave her a questioning look.

“Go on, I’m still here.”

“I gave her money, because she had none even though she is a great heiress, and Gregg helped her sneak away when she was supposed to be getting fitted for her trousseau. He took her to where her lover—who is now her husband—waited for her, and the two took off to Scotland. When Pascoe was forced to admit that his daughter had absconded, I shamed the truth out of him—that she had only agreed to marry me because he had forced her.” He gave a tiny but smug smile. “I wish you could have seen me, Lorelei. I was quite impressive in my rage. I told him he should be ashamed for trying to auction off his daughter when he knew that she was in love with another man. I ranted about how I would be humiliated if the truth were known. Finally, once my anger began to cool, I said I would spare her—and Pascoe himself—any embarrassment and admit that the betrothal had ended amicably. But I only agreed to do so on one condition. I told him he had to forgive his daughter as I didn’t want to be the cause of a family breach, and I babbled a great deal of claptrap about how I’d been embroiled in a fracas with my own grandfather for two decades.” He cut her a sheepish look. “And I also promised to put his name up for membership at one of the clubs I belong to. I suspect it was really that last thing that persuaded him to forgive her.”

Hope had been fluttering wildly in her chest for at least a minute, but she brutally quashed it. “You expect me to believe that story?”

“Demelza said you’d probably not believe a word of it, so she gave me this.” He reached into his coat and took out a folded sheet of paper, which he held out to her.

Lori snatched it from his fingers and unfolded it.

It was brief:

Dear Miss Fontenot,

I would like to apologize for any trouble my deception caused you. You have been kindness itself to me on the few occasions we’ve met this past Season, and I’d hate to think I hurt you by any of my actions. When Lord Severn told me at the Countess of Mansfield’s house party that he had no intention of offering marriage to me—that he had already given his heart to you—I felt terrible about using him as my means of escape. But he insisted you would understand completely. Neither of us expected my father to make that announcement at his dinner party. In fact, Lord Severn had asked Papa to keep the matter in strictest confidence until he spoke to the Marquess of Grandon about the betrothal—which he never would have done, of course. But my father is a law unto himself and contrived that awkward announcement, making sure it was announced in the newspapers.

Lord Severn told me how you’d read of the betrothal and I can’t imagine how hurt and horrified you must have been! I cannot apologize enough. If I had not begged his lordship to keep our agreement in complete secrecy—for I knew my father had his spies everywhere—then he might have confided the truth in you and you would not have been hurt. Please forgive me and know that Lord Severn has only ever been a gentleman, friend, and savior to me.

Regards,

Demelza Lions, née Pascoe

Lori carefully refolded the letter, her emotions churning.

She felt movement and looked up to find that Fast had taken the chair next to her.

He scooted it closer and took her hand. “Am I forgiven?”

“Why did you wait so long to come here and tell me this?”

He snorted. “Not out of choice, I assure you. It’s… well, yet another long, convoluted story.”

She pulled her hand from his and crossed her arms again. “I’m listening.”

***

Lorelei hadn’t yet forgiven him yet, but she was rapidly thawing.

“Before I answer your question about why it took so long, let me go back in time to last year—just after I left here on my final voyage as the Vixen’s captain.”

She nodded.

“I was in a small port town in Venezuela when I encountered a mutineer from the Sea Ranger.”

“You have told me this before—remember? Although you didn’t say how many mutineers. You picked up only one?”