Page 9 of With Good Grace
‘But his feelings for you ran deeper?’
‘Yes. By the time I came out, Marcus had made a success of Rupert’s business and taken out his share of the profits, leaving Rupert to run it alone. I did not realise it at the time but Marcus craved risk and excitement, and had only stuck with Rupert until he made enough money to take those risks for himself.’
‘He became involved with theatre?’
‘Yes. He was acquainted with Madame Céleste, the manager of the Adelphi Theatre. He learned that she had been prevented from staging some excellent productions through lack of funding and saw an opportunity. Naturally it worked. Most of Marcus’s ideas did because he thought them through and made certain what he was getting himself into before he committed. He understood that the popularity of the theatre brought with it the need for innovative, affordable productions that would appeal to all classes of society.’
‘And from there he went on to represent the interests of certain actors and actresses?’
‘Yes. He and Hubert argued about that. Hubert is terribly self-aware and thought it demeaning for any Grantley to become embroiled with those who tread the boards.’
‘He failed to take into account the breakdown of social barriers.’ Jake flexed a brow. ‘Where have we encountered similar prejudices in the recent past?’
Olivia smiled, acutely aware of Jake absently coiling and uncoiling one of her ringlets around his forefinger. ‘As a result of the Radicals’ case we now have your friend Lord Willard on the point of marrying my friend Amelia Armitage, the daughter of a middle-class merchant, for no reason other than that he adores her. And we have Armitage’s brother about to marry one of his factory worker’s daughters.’ She chuckled. ‘Poor Hubert. Perhaps knowledge of such presumption on the part of the lower classes has made him take himself off to Timbuktu.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘One can but hope.’
‘You were telling me about Sir Hubert’s reaction to his brother’s enterprise.’
‘What Hubert failed to take into account was that he had been left with a title, a large house and very little cash to run it on. It’s all very well setting oneself above the hoi polloi, until one is unable to pay the bills.’
‘Which is when he decided to get his own hands dirty and involve himself with Marcus’s theatrical business, I imagine.’
‘Yes. He and Hubert were very close, but Marcus had much the sharper brain. He refused to grant Hubert equal partnership rights, something Hubert appeared to think should be his by right. There was never any suggestion of him ploughing any capital into Marcus’s venture, mainly because he didn’t have any to spare. I supposed Marcus’s decision to exclude Hubert. It was Marcus’s money that made the enterprise a success in the first place. He was the one who took all the risks and could have lost everything. Anyway, he gave his brother work to do, using his charm to keep demanding actresses and potential investors happy, and he paid him a salary. When Marcus died I think Hubert imagined he would be able to take over everything.’
‘You ensured he did not.’
‘I owed him nothing,’ Olivia said, wishing that she didn’t sound so defensive. ‘He did nothing to help me in my hour of need. Had it not been for you then I…’ Her voice caught but the reassuring pressure of Jake’s long fingers caressing the back of her neck gave her the strength to continue. ‘Anyway, Marcus’s lawyers knew of a person who would be interested in purchasing his business and I sold it to Mr Barber. Hubert and I have not seen or spoken to one another since that day, shortly after my acquittal, when he came to me in our house in Belgravia, seeming to think he could step into Marcus’s shoes—in all respects.’
‘I think we would be best served if we allowed the blaggard to remain lost,’ Jake said in a disgruntled tone. ‘And I would do so, but for the fact that your late husband obviously owned something that someone will go to any lengths to get their hands on. I don’t wish to alarm you, my dear, but it stands to reason that they will eventually try and look for it here.’
‘They are certainly welcome to try!’ she replied belligerently.
‘What went wrong between you and Marcus, if it is not an indelicate question? You obviously married him because you were comfortable with his society and because he had the good sense to want you, not minding about your lack of dowry.’
‘Actually, considerable pressure was put on me to marry him,’ Olivia replied. ‘I liked him well enough but he was more than ten years my senior and I had never thought of him as husband material. Besides, I had grown attached to the idea of marrying for love.’ She gave a wistful little sigh, thinking how disobliging it had been of Jake not to have been on the prowl for a wife at the time. She had noticed him immediately, despite the excitement and confusion of a first season, in the midst of all those well-heeled gentlemen and had felt a connection to him even then. ‘However, my first season was almost at an end, and no other eligible offers had been forthcoming. My mother and brothers said I was in danger of being left on the shelf.’ Jake made a scoffing sound at the back of his throat. ‘Anyway, they wore me down and so I did what my family wanted me to do.’
‘And yet you were not happy?’
‘For the first few months it was a novelty and I thought I would be content. But it soon became apparent that Marcus was incapable of fidelity. It is a family trait. Hubert is similarly afflicted. Margaret is willing to turn a blind eye, provided he is discreet. I was not, and challenged Marcus when he came home in the early hours reeking of cheap perfume.’ She sighed. ‘He hit me for the first time when we had been married for less than a year. Then he repeatedly raped me, telling me to do as I was told and never question his activities again.’
‘The bastard!’ Jake’s face was puce with rage. ‘I would like to bring him alive again, just so that I could have the satisfaction of killing him myself.’
Olivia touched Jake’s hand, reassured by his anger. ‘He clearly did not understand the character of the lady he had married,’ she said. ‘It is not in my nature to be passive and not ask questions. And I am nothing like Margaret, who only cares about appearances.’
‘That is certainly true.’ Jake touched her face; an intimate gesture that rendered words of reassurance unnecessary. ‘No wonder you were so anxious to help Eva avoid returning to her brutal husband. If I had realised how similar your own past was to hers then I never would have asked you to become involved.’
‘Nonsense!’ Olivia flapped a hand is casual dismissal of Jake’s concerns. ‘Eva and I were both married to men who sought to control us; that much is true. Butmycharacter is very different from Eva’s. Eva was prepared to endure her lot but after Marcus behaved worse than an animal, I lost all respect for the handsome charmer I had married. I was not about to be violated by him for a second time.’ Olivia closed her eyes, threw back her head and emitted a prolonged sigh. ‘Marcus did not treat me as a possession, or attempt to control my activities; I will say that much for him. Nor did he care whom I consorted with, just so long as I was to hand if he needed me at his side to lend respectability to his activities. Even so, I did not trust him not to hurt me again and so I engaged a private tutor to teach me how to defend myself against a stronger male opponent.’
‘Ah, I have often wondered how you came by that particular skill,’ Jake replied with the ghost of a smile. ‘After teaching you the rudiments of fencing, and how to shoot straight, I suggested, if you recall, that lessons in hand-to-hand combat might be beneficial.’
Olivia chuckled. ‘At which point I landed you on your backside. I never did apologise for that.’
‘You were too busy laughing, if memory serves.’
‘Well anyway, suffice it to say that the next time Marcus attempted to force himself upon me whilst in a drunken stupor, he realised that he had badly miscalculated the extent of my unwillingness to entertain him. We reached an agreement at that point, and led more or less separate lives. Even so, Marcus badly wanted a son and I could not ignore my duty in that regard. And so he visited my room at regular intervals and I have the blessing of Tom to show for those unpleasant but mercifully brief couplings.’ Olivia’s smile was wide and uncontrived. ‘My son is the one good thing to come out of my unhappy marriage.’
‘And a credit to you.’
Olivia chuckled. ‘Most of the time.’
