Page 59 of An Unbending Lady for the Desperate Earl
Victoria battled to find her voice. “I learned a thing or two from you, Father.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, as you have mentioned, you have been causing quite the upset among the fine folks of Mayfair. Ordinarily, I would not have involved myself in the affairs of high society, but when I heard that young women were being stolen out of their beds… well, that changed things. I decided to do whatever I could to help, especially as the case appeared to be so very intriguing, with none of those other louts having made any progress whatsoever.” Victoria’s stomach twisted in conflict.
He had them stolen out of their beds. Surely, that is beyond the pale of revenge?Truly, she couldn’t help but flit between understanding his reasons and damning them entirely.
“What troubles you?” her father asked, clearly noting the sudden strain upon her features.
“What doesnottrouble me would be a simpler question.” Victoria shook her head, still fighting to come to terms with the fact that her father was not only alive, but he was also the mastermind behind the Mayfair kidnappings. Even if he treated the stolen ladies well, that didn’t negate the initial kidnapping, nor did it sit at all well with Victoria. Regardless of his motives for doing this. Surely, there must have been a different way to gain justice for his sister, and all those other women who were brutalized by that insane Duke?
“Why did you have them taken out of their beds?” Victoria had to ask. “Why did you have men hide in cupboards and wardrobes and beneath the beds of these ladies? Why did you have your men sneak up on them in the most monstrous of manners? Did you really need to frighten the ladies that much, in order to satisfy your thirst for vengeance?”
Her father grimaced. “How my men go about the kidnapping is something I’ve got very little control over. I punish them if I find out that they’ve been too rough, or they’ve been overly familiar, but once they are sent off on their task, it is somewhat out of my hands.ThatI am sorry for, but I won’t apologize for the rest of it. High society needed to be taught a lesson, and they are learning it well, now.”
“At what cost toyou, Father?” she spluttered. “You have lost your family because of this. Mama thinks you are dead.Ithought you were dead. I am still struggling to believe you are really here, sitting in front of me.” She shook her head in despair, feeling lightheaded. “You have missed out on so many years because of this endeavor, and if they find you, you will truly be killed. And I do not know if I have the strength to bury you all over again!”
“Be calm, Victoria.” Her father squeezed her hand gently. “I know all of this is a great shock to you. It was a surprise for me, to see you sitting in that chair. You see, I have only dared to watch you from afar, and even then, I have only done so sparingly. It was safer for you that I stayed away. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t missed you and your mother. And as for me being killed because of this—they cannot kill a man who is already dead.”
“They can, and they will!” Victoria protested. “Give this up and run whilst you still can. Let those women go. Disappear into the woodland and keep going until you reach somewhere you can be safe. Stay there and try to find peace, because if you continue on with this, it will only end one way.”
Her father smiled sadly. “I can’t do that.”
“You can, and you should!” she shot back tearfully.
“Come now, there is no cause for tears.” He leaned further forward and placed a hand upon her arm. “Let’s be at peace, my girl. Let’s talk as we used to, when we went out on cases together. You were always good at telling stories, and I’m still itching to find out how you came to be here, dressed as a lady. That dress alone would be enough to buy food for half of Poplar for a month!”
“I did not choose to wear it,” she muttered, feeling a flutter of guilt. “I wore it because of you. Although, I obviously didn’t know it was you who was responsible for all of this.”
“Go on…” he urged.
“I tried to find out who the culprit of these kidnappings might be, through all the usual routes, but that resulted in nothing but a vague suspicion that the people responsible were somehow close to high society—either staff or members of the ton. Further attempts at luring your men into traps failed to work, so I knew I had to do something more drastic. I posed as a high and mighty lady, and used connections to spread the word about me, in the hopes it would entice your men to capture me. Again, not knowing they wereyourmen, at the time.”
Her father nodded. “You must’ve been masquerading as this Lady Laura that they’ve not been able to shut up about. I know you aren’t Miss Longacre, after all.”
“At least the word reached the right people,” Victoria muttered.
“They were supposed to capture both Miss Longacre and Lady Laura this night, so I should say you were very successful in fooling us.” Her father smiled with strange pride. “Although, Benson and Castell told me they couldn’t seize this ‘Lady Laura’ as her cousin was at home. They only pursued you, while you were pretending to be Miss Longacre, because you departed alone.”
Victoria chuckled drily. “A little showmanship, that is all. You know I have always been an excellent mimic. It wasn’t hard to copy Miss Longacre’s voice, and come up with a ruse that would draw them away, following me instead of searching for the real Miss Longacre. I wanted to protect her, and I wanted to be the one to bring the kidnappers in and free the captive ladies, singlehandedly. I knew I would have to do that from within the base of operations, so I allowed myself to be captured, so I might escape from the inside out.”
She kept her expression open and honest, though there was some falsehood in what she said. She had no desire to take the glory for herself, or do this on her own, but a lingering wariness had prompted her to leave out the part about Christian and Benedict. After all, the moment she brought them into it, her father would surely suspect that they could not be far away… with back up, to take down everything her father had built here.
“You’ve always been a creative thinker, my girl. My goodness, what a rigmarole you’ve put us through!” He grinned. “Though, it sounds like we’ve put you through a fair few challenges, too. Yet you made it here. You succeeded, after a fashion—I just wasn’t the person you were expecting to find. But I hope that won’t make you think ill of me, now you know why I’ve been doing these things.”
Right now, I don’t know what I think about anything…
“There’s more ingenuity and determination in your little finger, than most of the men who work for me have in their entire bodies,” Solomon continued. “And… now that you’ve found me, and you’ve proven just how talented and remarkable you’ve become, I’d like us to join forces again. I’d like us to be a team again. More than that, I’d like us to be a family again—you and me, the way we used to be.”
“What about Mama?” Victoria held his gaze.
He sighed heavily, sinking back in his chair. “Your mother can’t know I’m alive. It would only open up old wounds, and I doubt she’d ever forgive me for staging my own death and putting her through that sort of heartache.”
And you thinkIhave forgiven you?She couldn’t bring herself to say so out loud. So, instead she said nothing.
“You’d have to make up a story of some kind and tell her you wanted to go away for a while. If you did, we could run these operations together, and reset the balance between the wealthy and the poor. We can continue to open orphanages and safehouses, and help families keep a roof over their heads. All without harming a single person. Everyone wins. We can do all of this, together. All you have to do is say you agree.”
“But the captives do not win. They will suffer nightmares for the rest of their days, fearing that someone may creep in their windows and seek to snatch them. They will never be able to open a wardrobe door without thinking there will be something behind. Indeed, they will never be the same again,” Victoria said quietly.
