Page 91 of Miss Determined
“We feared you dead,” Mama said, hugging him tightly. “That strutting viper told us nothing and lied about making efforts to find you. All of Crosspatch has missed you, and I daresay you have stories to tell. All that matters—”
Gavin shook his head. “Not all. Purvis led me to believe you ladies were having a fine time, racketing from London to Bath to Crosspatch to Lyme—thus he graciously agreed to serve as my post boy—and buying out the shops wherever you went. Had I known… Had I known that he begrudged you even adequate pin money, I would have come home in a week flat.”
The only thing that kept Lissa from whacking Purvis stoutly across the cheek was Trevor’s grip on her hand.
“Giles Purvis,” she said, wishing she’d thought to bring a parasol, “you wrong everybody foolish enough to trust you. You steal every groat left unguarded in your presence. If Lord Tavistock says you will return the funds you stole from his tenants, then you will make that reparation. You can never repay my family or his lordship’s for the harm you’ve inflicted, but you can at least return the coin you’ve purloined.”
“Or we can,” Trevor said, “send you to Newgate. Those are your choices. You will not pollute the Continent with your crooked presence. You will stay on home shores and suffer the brunt of the public opinion you were so eager to turn against people who meant you no harm.”
Purvis looked from Trevor to Kettering, who’d rolled up Jerome’s file and was slapping it against his palm.
“I will not be hanged,” Purvis said.
“A pity,” Phillip murmured. “You deserve at least that.” He bowed to the company, walked away, and climbed into Miss Brompton’s coach, which wheeled away from the square at a dignified pace.
“Purvis,” Trevor said, “you will go with Kettering and attend a discreet meeting with the bankers. My funds are being transferred to the Wentworth institution, where you will be forbidden to set foot after today. You will execute bank drafts repaying the tenants before sunset. I’ve made arrangements for each one to be delivered by express.”
Purvis nodded once. Sycamore, Casriel, and Kettering formed an escort on either side and behind him, and he was more or less marched off to another coach.
Mama linked her arm through Gavin’s. “You are coming with me, prodigal prodigy. A career on the stage, of all things. I blame those blasted pageants. You always did fancy playing the hero.”
“I am not the hero today,” Gavin said. “Tavistock tracked me down. My troupe was playing a circuit in East Anglia—scenes from the Scottish play—when his letter found me. I nearly killed my horse getting to Town.”
“You nearly killed me with your mad scheme,” Mama said. “Come along. Lissa and her marquess will doubtless want to share an ice where all can remark their foolishness.”
Mama and Gavin trundled off just as the clerk from Purvis’s office marched up, bearing an ice. “Beg pardon, my lord, Miss DeWitt. Have you seen Mr. Purvis?”
“Yes,” Lissa said, “and thank the merciful powers and my darling intended, I will never have to see him again.”
Jones considered a bowl of melting sweetness. “One applauds your good fortune, Miss DeWitt. Tell me, will I have to encounter Mr. Purvis again?”
“Not likely,” Trevor answered. “He’s resigning from the practice of law effective today. Kettering will assist with any adjustments the firm needs to make going forward.”
“WorthKettering?”
“The very one.”
Jones sank onto the bench. “Thank you, sir. Thank you most… most sincerely.”
They left him sitting in the spring sunshine, smiling dazedly and nibbling on his ice.
ChapterTwenty
“How did you find Gavin?” Amaryllis posed the question as Trevor led her up the steps to the Tavistock town house.
“You gave me all the relevant clues.” He bowed her through the door, nervous to at long last welcome her into a place where they might soon dwell together. “Gavin loved telling stories, loved playing the hero, loved to get the elders yarning on. He decamped for the north, where the provincial theater troupes are more likely to take on new talent. Shrewd of him. Showed patience and planning.”
“Those were clues?”
“He also retreated from the very obligations that you, my dearest, took on so courageously. Where better to hide than in plain sight?” Perhaps in plain sight on the Continent?
Amaryllis took Trevor’s top hat and set it on the sideboard. She lifted her chin, indicating that Trevor was to have the honor of untying her bonnet ribbons. The courtesies were mundane, but they stirred in Trevor a sense of sweetness and joy.
“Gavin shirked duties, such as swanning about Town?” Amaryllis asked as Trevor carefully removed her millinery. “Doing the genteel bit, trying to ignore all the whispers about the smell of tallow and the reek of trade?”
“Those duties,” Trevor said as a surprised butler ascended the steps from below. “Feeney, a tray in my sitting room, if you please, and I am not home to any callers save family.”
The butler looked a trifle confused, and too late, Trevor realized what he’d said. “Lord Phillip, assorted Dornings, various DeWitts, Sir Orion and his lot, our dear Miss Brompton if she takes a notion to drop by, Kettering… anybody hailing from Crosspatch Corners.Family.”
