Page 103 of The Pleasures of Passion
“Doesn’t matter,” Lord Fulkham said. “Thanks to your niece and her fiancé, we have plenty of evidence against you.” As they took Uncle Toby out, Lord Fulkham smiled at her. “A pity that you have no interest in this sort of work, Mrs. Trevor. I could use a woman like you.”
Niall tugged her close. “Over my dead body.”
“I will overlook your impertinences, Margrave,” Lord Fulkham drawled, “since this turned out well. But it could easily have gone wrong, Lady Pensworth’s help notwithstanding.”
“Iknewsomething was up when she arrived,” Brilliana said. “She was behaving very oddly.”
“You can thank Margrave for that,” Lord Fulkham said. “He sent her here to distract Payne and make sure he didn’t harm you, while Margrave and I marshaled our resources.”
She gazed fondly up at Niall. “How very clever of you.”
“Yes, but thanks to his insistence on acting now,” Lord Fulkham grumbled, “we still don’t have the men who did the forgeries for Payne.”
“If I hadn’t acted now,” Niall pointed out, “Payne would have fled. And you know it.”
“Probably. I daresay your father’s losing that one note to you made Payne nervous enough to fear he was on the verge of capture.” Fulkham sighed. “Besides, I’m not sure we evercanapprehend his cohorts, given that they’re likely in France. We’ll have to work with the French authorities on that.”
“What will happen to Papa now?” Brilliana asked.
“Since he had no intent to defraud, I can make a good case for not charging him at all. Especially once I tell the magistrate how you and Niall assisted in your uncle’s capture.”
Papa gaped at her. “You . . . you knew about the counterfeits this whole time?”
She nodded. “Lord Fulkham said that if I wanted to keep you from being hanged, I needed to find out what was really going on. And he enlisted Niall to help me.”
Her father clutched his cane. “You did that for me?”
“I couldn’t see you hanged, Papa,” she said softly.
He digested that a moment, then turned to Lord Fulkham. “Is that what will happen to my brother? Is he going to hang?”
“I’ll do my best to see that he only receives transportation, sir. After all, I owe your daughter for catching him.”
“Don’t spare him onmyaccount,” she said with a sniff. “He tried to frame my father for counterfeiting. I can never forgive him for that.”
Fulkham nodded. “We’ll talk more about it later. But for now, I must go oversee the men who are gathering evidence.”
As he went out, Aunt Agatha pushed her way in.
Brilliana rushed over to hug her. “Oh, Aunt, I do adore you,” she said. “Thank you for being here for me.”
“If something had happened to you, my dear,” Aunt Agatha murmured, “I don’t know what I would have done. You are essential to me. Do you understand?”
“Yes. And I feel the same about you.”
Drawing back to blot her eyes with a handkerchief, Lady Pensworth took a deep, steadying breath. “Enough of that now.” She shot Papa a furtive glance. “I am happy to be theonerelation who hasn’t let you down.”
“To be fair,” Niall broke in, “Sir Oswald wasn’t entirely to blame for brokering Bree’s marriage to Trevor. Payne had a part in that, too.”
“What!” Brilliana and Aunt Agatha exclaimed in unison.
Niall smiled at Brilliana. “Your father asked your uncle to help him pay off the debt to Captain Trevor, so you didn’thaveto marry anyone you didn’t want, but your uncle refused to lift one finger on your behalf. In fact, he urged your father to accept Captain Trevor’s suggestion of an arranged marriage.”
“Why, that . . . that lying weasel!” she cried. “Now Ireallyhope he hangs!”
Her father stepped forward. “Ah, but it wasn’t his fault in the end, daughter. I could have refused the captain’s offer, come hell or high water. Instead, I made you feel you had no choice but to accept it.” He hung his head. “And I have never regretted anything so much in my life. Do you think you can ever forgive me?”
She stared at him, her heart twisting in her chest. She’d never expected to hear such words come from his mouth. He was still a negligent wastrel, but in light of recent revelations, she couldn’t think quite as ill of him as before. Especially after what he’d just attempted to do for her.
