Page 25 of Needs Must
‘My neighbours more or less took me under their collective wing. I suppose they felt sorry for me and so invited me to parties and local dances. Jonathan attended one and took my breath away. He was quite the most sophisticated gentleman I had ever encountered.’ She sighed. ‘Of course, I realise now how sheltered my upbringing had actually been. I was dazzled by the attention, you see. Miriam saw through him immediately and advised me against accepting his proposal, but I was in love.’ Donna gave a self-deprecating little shrug. ‘Or so I thought, and I would not be told.’
‘How old were you?’
‘This was five years ago, when I was nineteen. I had seen nothing of the world and thought that Jonathan and I were intellectual equals with modern views.’ She threw back her head and laughed. ‘Ha! How wrong I was. My guardians agreed to the match and so it went ahead. Jonathan was not a gentleman in the true sense of the word, as Miriam never lost the opportunity to remind me before we exchanged vows, but since I had no interest in the absurdities of theton,I did not hold the fact that he had made his fortune through his own endeavours against him. In fact, I respected him for it.’
She paused and fixed the earl with a penetrating look. She had never spoken about this to anyone before but found him surprisingly easy to confide in.
Perhaps a little too easy.
‘Only after I was married did I realise that he didn’t actually have a fortune and that mine was his sole reason for bombarding me with attention.’
‘I am persuaded that cannot have been the only reason.’
‘Then you would be quite wrong. A young woman with no one on hand to protect her interests and who was in possession of a fortune … Well, I can quite see now what a temptation I must have presented, and I blush when I think how easily he won me over.’
‘Do you know what happened to his money?’
Donna sent the earl a surprised look. It was the last question she had been expecting from him.
‘He was responsible for building a lot of new housing on the outskirts of Chichester and did very well out of it. Then, in an effort to improve his situation, he invested in a scheme that went haywire. I am not familiar with the circumstances. He went into a rage whenever anyone mentioned it.’
‘Was your marriage a happy one?’
‘What marriage ever is?’ She gave a little sigh. ‘How naïve I was back then.’
‘May I ask why your circumstances are so reduced? Your husband cannot have left you destitute. One imagines that he did well enough in the Indies.’
‘Oh, he did. Jonathan was always one to take advantage of any situation. He ran a card school in Jamaica and seldom lost. But he had a younger brother who clung to his coat tails. While Jonathan was smart, Ian was a dullard who seemed to think that his looks and superficial charm would compensate for his myriad shortcomings. He swaggered about the place as though he owned it, and frankly he made my skin crawl whenever he looked at me.’
‘He absconded with your husband’s fortune?’
‘He did worse than that. I cannot prove it, but I am fairly certain that he smothered Jonathan.’
The earl half rose from his chair. ‘He did what?’
‘You heard me. I told you that I nursed him, and his health had improved. He was able to sit up and was lucid, and he appeared well on the road to recovery. His doctor was flabbergasted. Anyway, I left Jonathan with Ian for a short time and when I returned he was dead. No one could prove that Ian had done away with him, of course, but I knew.’
‘Did you confront him?’
‘I didn’t get an opportunity. I made the arrangements to bury Jonathan, but of course ladies are not permitted to attend funerals. I waited for Ian to return from it, which is when I intended to thrash the matter out with him, but Ian did not come back. I never saw him again. That is when I spoke with Jonathan’s solicitor in Jamaica. He told me that Ian had produced instructions from Jonathan to give him access to his funds. Needless to say, they had disappeared by the time I found this out, and so too had Ian. I had only the money that was kept in our lodgings, a few odds and ends and the jewellery that I had brought with me to the marriage. Jewellery that had belonged to my mother, and her mother before her, and that I had never intended to sell.’ Donna drew in a sharp breath. ‘But there was no help for it.’
‘I am so sorry,’ the earl said softly, reaching across to touch her hand.
‘Why?’ She snatched her hand back, aware of how ungracious she must sound but unable to help herself. ‘None of this is your fault.’
‘Even so.’ He paused, looking away from her at something that had attracted his attention outside the window. Donna followed his gaze and noticed a bedraggled dog shivering in the gardens.
‘Oh, the poor thing!’
Donna leapt from her seat, opened the door and called to the mutt. To her surprise, it approached her immediately, giving a cautious flap of its tail. She crouched down and offered it her hand, which the little dog licked.
‘It’s starving,’ she said, scooping it into her arms without a care for her attire. ‘Is there anything in here for it to eat?’
‘Are you always so compassionate?’ he asked, scratching the dog’s head.
‘I cannot abide cruelty,’ she replied as she reached for her cloak and wrapped the trembling dog in it. It seemed content enough when she resumed her seat with the dog still in her arms. She smoothed its soggy head, which gradually dried out, and made up her mind that she would take it back to the tavern with her and ask Mrs Cooper for some scraps. ‘I shall keep him, at least until his owner can be found. He is not afraid of people, so he must belong to someone. And when I find that person I shall give him a trimming for neglecting the poor thing. Look,’ she added, outraged, ‘he’s skin and bone.’
The earl’s expression softened as he watched her fussing over the dog, but it was impossible for her to interpret the nature of his thoughts. Presumably he had no time for dogs that were not of the finest pedigree, which this one clearly was not, but she didn’t give two figs for his opinion.
