Page 58 of The Earl's Forbidden Governess
Mr. Harper released her arm entirely, taking a step back. He seemed to deflate before her eyes, his shoulders sagging with the weight of some unseen burden. “I didn’t kill them,” he said softly, his eyes fixed on the forest floor. “But I might as well have. I let the killers in.”
Catherine’s mind reeled. She took an instinctive step back, leaves crunching under her feet. “What? But why? Why would you...”
“Because I was a fool,” Mr. Harper spat, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “A fool in love with a woman who cared for nothing but power and wealth.”
Slowly, the pieces began to fall into place in Catherine’s mind. Suddenly the conversation she had seen by the carriage came rushing back to her. “Lady Isabella,” she breathed, the name leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. “It was her, wasn’t it?”
Mr. Harper nodded, his eyes haunted. In the fading light, he looked older, more haggard than Catherine had ever seen him. “She came up with the plan. Said it was the only way we could be together. I... I was blinded by my feelings for her. I didn’t realize the monster she truly was until it was too late.”
Catherine’s mind was spinning, trying to process this new information. Part of her wanted to run, to get as far away from Mr. Harper as possible. But a larger part, the part that had driven her investigation this far, needed to know more.
“Tell me everything,” she said, her voice steadier than she felt.
Mr. Harper looked around nervously, as if expecting Isabella to materialize from the shadows. “Not here,” he said. “It’s not safe. Follow me.”
He led Catherine deeper into the forest, to a small clearing where a fallen log provided a makeshift seat. As they settled onto the log, Mr. Harper began his tale, his voice low and pained.
“It started when Lord Wessex began courting Isabella,” he began. “I had been... infatuated with her for some time. To my shock and delight, she seemed to return my affections. We became lovers in secret.”
Catherine felt her cheeks flush at this revelation, but she remained silent, letting Mr. Harper continue his story.
“Isabella was ambitious. She saw Lord Wessex as her ticket to wealth and status. But she didn’t want to wait. She came up with a plan—a horrible, unthinkable plan. We would arrange for Lord and Lady Wessex to be killed. With them gone, Lord Wessex would inherit everything immediately. Isabella believed this would push him to marry sooner rather than later.”
At this, Mr. Harper’s voice broke. He took a shuddering breath before continuing. “The plan was for Isabella to get with child—either by me or by Lord Wessex, it didn’t matter to her. Once a male heir was confirmed, Lord Wessex would meet with an unfortunate ’accident’ as well. Isabella would be left as the grieving widow, with a fortune at her disposal and me as her secret lover.”
Catherine felt sick. The brutality of the plan, the cold calculation behind it, was almost more than she could bear. “And you agreed to this?” she asked, unable to keep the disgust from her voice.
Mr. Harper shook his head vehemently. “No! Well... not exactly. I didn’t want anyone to die. But Isabella... she has a way of twisting things, of making the most horrific acts seem reasonable. She convinced me that it was the only way for us to be together.”
“What do you mean?” Catherine asked, frowning.
“Isabella’s family, while respectable, isn’t as wealthy or well-connected as they pretend to be,” Mr. Harper explained. “She was desperate to secure her position in society. And she saw Lord Wessex as her meal ticket.”
Catherine’s mind was spinning, trying to reconcile this new information with the poised, confident Isabella she had met at the ball. “But... if you didn’t kill Lord and Lady Wessex, who did?”
Mr. Harper’s face contorted with shame. “Isabella hired men—cutthroats from London. My role was simply to let them into the house, to disable the locks. I told myself I wasn’t really responsible, that I wasn’t the one wielding the knife. But...”
“You were complicit,” Catherine finished for him, her voice hard.
He nodded, his face a mask of misery. “Yes. And I’ve lived with that guilt every day since. I stayed at Wessex Manor, partly out of cowardice—I was afraid to leave, afraid Isabella would have me killed if I tried to run. But also... I felt I owed it to the family. To try and protect Lord Wessex and Lady Emily as best I could.”
Catherine’s brow furrowed. “Protect them? From what?”
“From Isabella,” he said grimly. “She’s never given up on her plan. She’s just... adapted it.”
A chill ran down Catherine’s spine. “What do you mean?”
Mr. Harper’s eyes met hers, and a deep blush rose to his cheeks as he spoke, his voice regretful. “Isabella has changed her plan. She wants Emily gone now, too.”
Though she was not wholly surprised, Catherine felt her heart clench at the confirmation of what she had expected. “Emily? But why? She’s just a child!”
“She’s not a child anymore,” Mr. Harper corrected, his voice heavy with regret. “That’s the problem. Before, Emily was young, hardly a threat to Isabella’s ambitions. But now... nowshe’s a young woman. Isabella realized at the Midsummer Ball that Emily has grown up. She saw her dancing with young men, saw how she’s blossoming into a beautiful young lady.”
Understanding dawned on Catherine, horror flooding through her. “And any match Emily might make, any children she might have...”
“Would stand in the way of Isabella and I acquiring Lord Wessex’s fortune,” he finished. “Exactly. Isabella has realized she wasted too much time waiting for Lord Wessex to come back to social life. She wants to accelerate the plan now.”
Catherine felt her knees go weak. She leaned heavily against the log, her mind reeling with the implications of what he was telling her. “So what is her plan?”
