Page 97 of Scandalous Heiress
Chapter 17
Ada descended the staircase in her father’s London house and forced a smile at her family assembled there.Her father—a man whom many feared for his business acumen and his ability to make millions—stood at the forefront on the bottom step regarding her with pride.The others—her step-mother Liv, her sister Lily and her husband Julian, her brother Pierce stood behind him, were a phalanx against the bitter winds of fortune.
Killian Hanniford had forgiven her much over the twenty-two years of her bold and carefree life.This marriage, while he knew it necessary to quell whatever scandal she understood brewed beyond the front door, was the most outrageous of all.But then it was also the means to end the rumors that blackened her reputation.
“Tarnished my name?”Killian had been shocked after Victor had brought her home two days ago and she’d expressed her sadness that what had occurred had damaged the Hanniford family perhaps irretrievably.He’d scoffed.“Ada, my girl, the toffs will say whatever they wish.I go on.You will too and with a good man.The blame for this is squarely on the shoulders of Ridgemont.”
He’d taken her in his arms and kissed her forehead.“He’ll pay, my darling daughter.You will not.”
He admired her now as she came to stand before him in her silk and satin finery.White, too.Her modiste, as Ada expected, was a wizard to have sewn the pearl encrusted gown in such a rush.“You’re beautiful, my lovely Ada.The world will come to see you as you truly are.Sweet, kind, popular and right-minded.The new Lady Victor Cole is to enjoy this day.I decree it.”
She laughed at his contagious self-confidence and reached up to kiss his cheek.“I obey, kind sir.”
“Let’s go.You’ve an anxious groom at the church.”
Victor could not wait to leave.His bride—his wife—appeared to be heartily enjoying herself but he did yearn to hurry her away.Here in her home on Piccadilly with her family and a few friends, she shone like the jewel she was.In the ivory gown adorned with pearls, her heavy cinnamon hair caught up in an elaborate chignon, her crystal blue eyes shimmering with joy, she glowed.His first sight of her as she entered St.George’s Chapel yards from his townhome had nearly felled him.This gorgeous creature was his.
He smiled as she laughed with her friend Esmerelda Moore and that lady’s beau, Lord Edgecombe.Ada had helped to make that match a secure one and the gratitude appeared in both Ezzie’s and Edgecombe’s regard of her.
“She’s a charming creature.”Pierce appeared suddenly at his side, a flute of champagne in his hand.“From childhood, mischievous.An imp.Headstrong, but then what woman is interesting without that spark, eh?I trust you to take good care of her.You have so far and we are grateful.”
“I’m honored, Pierce, that she accepted me.”
Neither one mentioned that she had to.Three days and nights alone with him, accompanied only by another man, albeit Victor’s friend Billings, meant she had to marry him.He would work diligently to ensure her decision never became a sorrow for her.But with all the furor of her abduction mixed with the death of Carbury, thetonwas probably full of speculation.To hurry the ceremony, he and she had insisted the ceremony be a small affair.This wedding breakfast included only another sixteen guests who were their unwavering friends.
The past few days, what with a wedding to plan, his house to put in sparkling shape, his parents to notify, he’d pushed any word of scandal to the back of his mind.He’d not read one newspaper.Nor did he have time.Marrying quickly meant that he needed to have that meeting with his man MacIntyre in the City.If his finances for this half year showed less profit than his totals for last year, he’d go to this new union less secure than he wished.No help for it though, he would marry Ada were he a pauper.She, on the other hand, might not adjust well to the step down, but he doubted money meant so much to her.Still, he had to know.When MacIntyre had assured him that Cole and Company had grown in the first five months by four percent over last year, he breathed easily at the positive sign.
Day before yesterday for two hours he’d spent with the inspector from the Metropolitan Police.The man and his sergeant had called upon him and immediately inquired why he’d left town the night Carbury died.Victor’s explanation seemed to satisfy the man.But restating for him the details of his actions the night Carbury died was a sorrowful exercise.Concluding the interview, the inspector told him the coroner had autopsied the earl’s body and concluded he’d died of a broken neck.The fall down the stairs had also resulted in a broken jaw and two broken legs.The jury that did the inquest had declared Carbury’s death an accident.
But the inspector by his own admission suspected that might not be the case.“What do you think, my lord?”
“I cannot tell you more, Inspector.As I told you, my fiancée was missing from her home and I hastened to find her.”
That sparked more interest in the policeman who asked for more details of Ada’s abduction.
When Victor explained he wished no inquiry into the matter, the man balked.“That is a serious crime, my lord.Your brother may be a lord, but we can pursue the matter.”
“I assure you neither my fiancée nor I wish further attention to this.You may interview the lady if you like.But we’d appreciate that you do not.My future wife has suffered enough.Surely you understand society will deal appropriately with my brother.”
“Is that enough for you, my lord?”
“It will be.”
He’d asked Freddie to telegraph his mother the first morning they were at Lady Fallon’s.In summary, he’d told her what Richard had done, how he had rescued Ada from him and that he would soon wed her.
His mother had responded by cable her horror over Richard, but her joy at news of his marriage.Once he and Ada had decided on today as the wedding date, he’d cabled her again.She had promptly packed up, his daughters and Wu-lai included, and boarded a train from Bath to London.He’d visited her and them yesterday at Brentwood House in Upper Brook Street.His girls babbled on, happy to remain with their grandmama while he took his wedding trip.They were agog that he was to marry their favorite Miss Hanniford.That she’d become their mama overjoyed them.That they would, contrary to social customs, attend the marriage and the breakfast, put them over the moon.His mother was equally as delighted for him.
“You deserve happiness, Victor.”She’d dabbed at tears in her eyes as she’d told him.“You’ve had little and much to rise above.Now this with Richard is a hideous blow.Your father wants me to tell you that he will deal harshly with Richard.”
“If Chancery did not protect him because of his rank, he would be arrested for abducting a woman.Drugging her.You must know, Mama, I think I would have killed him if he’d hurt Ada.”
“I would not have blamed you.But you would have paid a hideous price for his crimes.I’m glad you kept your head.”She sniffed and met his gaze boldly.“I do not know how or why we failed to temper him.But we did not.Perhaps because his own mother died while he was so young.But that puts the blame on her and it should be on us.”
He took both her hands then and refuted that with all his might.“He is responsible for his own actions, Mama.He is a grown man and he made poor, very poor decisions.He cannot cast the blame on you and you must not take it.That is not fair.”
The secret that Richard had thrust on him as he carried Ada from the house would be one he’d bury along with the ashes of his first marriage.He was well rid of his brother.
To see his mother now enjoying herself talking with Killian, Julian and Lily made him thankful he’d fallen in love with a woman who had such a supportive family.
