LITMIR.BIZ

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Swan was a coaching inn not more than thirty miles from London and one of the best for accommodation. He’d stayed here often in the past and that had stood him in good stead when he’d turned up the previous evening with an unconscious lady in his arms. His explanation was instantly accepted and a doctor called, the best available bedchambers handed over without a murmur of protest.

      Walking down the landing to the door of the chamber allotted to the mysterious Rosemarie, he stopped and knocked. Invited to enter, he went in cautiously and saw that the patient was propped up against a pile of feather pillows. Her long dark hair spread over her shoulders and her slight body was wrapped in a thick yellow-and-white cotton nightgown that was three times too big for her. A white bedjacket was over her shoulders, showing only the very ends of her fingers. She was perfectly respectable and he saw for the first time rather pretty. At the moment her pale cheeks were flushed with a becoming pink.

      The innkeeper’s daughter Polly curtsied to him and retired to the washstand, fiddling with basins and little pots, clearly under instructions not to leave the room so long as he was in it. Smiling inwardly, Brock approached the bed, his expression serious as he looked at Rosemarie.

      ‘I am glad to see you looking much better, miss,’ he said in what he hoped was an avuncular tone. ‘I am told your name is Rosemarie. Are you willing to tell me why you were lying in the middle of the road last night?’

      He saw her eyelids flutter and knew that she was preparing to lie to him, then, she smiled and he gasped, because her whole face lit up and he saw that she would, in the right circumstances, be beautiful.

      ‘I am told that your name is Major Brockley and that you brought me here, sir, thus saving my life. The innkeeper’s wife told me that I have nothing to fear from you. She thinks you the most honourable man she has met—and I have to thank you for your kindness.’

      ‘Mrs Simpson does me too much honour, but I promise you that she is right to say you have nothing to fear. As for kindness, well, it was the least I could do. Only a heartless rogue would have left you lying in the road. If you are in trouble, you have only to tell me and I shall do all in my power to assist you.’

      ‘How kind of you—but I fear there is little anyone can do now.’

      ‘Forgive me. I think you give up too easily. There is always something one can do—do you not think so?’

      ‘Well, I did,’ she replied in a frank way that surprised him. ‘I thought I could run away to London and find work as a seamstress—but I was robbed, set upon and...’ Her eyes slid away from his gaze. ‘Very nearly abused. I fled to avoid being forced into one hateful relationship and very nearly ended in a worse one. Now I do not know what I can do unless I go home and submit to them.’

      ‘You have been unfortunate, it seems,’ Brock said, a scowl on his face. ‘Give me the name of those who have harmed you and I will seek redress for you.’

      ‘If you do that, they will take me back and force me to marry him,’ she said, and a tear slid from the corner of her right eye. She dashed it away. ‘Everyone believes them and not me. They think he is a kind good man who will care for me—but I know that he wants Papa’s fortune and they want the Manor. I heard them making their wicked bargain. He said they could keep the house and land and he would take the mills. Papa had five, you see, and they are worth a lot of money—and then there are my mother’s jewels. They are worth a king’s ransom alone, I dare say, but they have them locked away in my aunt’s room. I know she covets them for she wears them when they go out and when I protested she said that I was not allowed to have them until I marry...or my fortune.’

      ‘I see.’ Brock’s frown deepened. ‘And you think this man will take everything you own and treat you badly?’

      ‘He says he adores me,’ she said, sighing deeply. ‘I know he wants me, because he will keep touching me, but he makes me shudder and I refused to marry him. My uncle says I have no choice. He is my guardian and this man is his friend, but it is only because he wants my papa’s house and land and my aunt wants the jewels. Sir Montague doesn’t care as long as he gets the mills. They think I am just a pawn to be used as they wish and it is not fair. Papa would never have allowed it.’

      ‘Yes, I see,’ Brock murmured, looking at her speculatively. ‘Do you not have any friends who would assist you? No one to take you in and fight for your rights?’

      ‘There is my old nurse,’ Rosemarie told him, a smile on her lips now. ‘She was sent packing after Papa died, because she was loyal to me. She told me she would write to me, but no letters came. I fear my aunt burned them.’

      ‘You have been the victim of a wicked plot,’ Brock said, not sure if he believed everything she said. ‘Would your old nurse take you in if you could contact her?’

      ‘Yes, of course. Sarah was my friend always. Papa said she loved me as much as any mother could—you see my mother died when I was still very young. I was Papa’s only child.’

      ‘Then, if we could find Sarah, you could stay with her until someone sorts out this mess for you.’

      ‘I would be safe with Sarah, but only if my aunt and uncle did not find me. Sarah has no authority and my uncle is my guardian. He would force me to go back to them—and then I should be made to marry Sir Montague.’

      ‘How old are you?’

      ‘Nineteen, though I know I look younger. My uncle is my guardian for another two years. If I do not sign any papers, they cannot touch Papa’s fortune or sell off his mills—but of course, my aunt has the jewels. Not that I care for that, because I have Mama’s pearls and some small pieces of hers that Papa gave me when I was sixteen. I managed to smuggle them out in my gown when I escaped, and it is as well that I did sew the bag inside my gown—for everything else was stolen when I stayed overnight at an inn.’

      ‘You have been taken advantage of,’ Brock said, deciding that he believed at least a part of her story, though he was sure she was keeping something from him. ‘Will you trust me to help you?’

      She looked at him in a considering fashion. ‘That depends on what you suggest, sir.’

      ‘I have some friends who I am sure will be happy to invite you to stay for a while. You would be quite safe with Amanda and Phipps—and, if you were willing to give me the names of your aunt and uncle, I might be able to discover what they are doing about your disappearance.’

      ‘You wouldn’t tell them where to find me?’

      ‘No, you have my word as a gentleman that I shall keep your secret, Miss...’

      ‘Ross,’ she said. ‘I’m Miss Rose Mary Ross of Ross House in Falmouth, though I have decided that I should like to be called Rosemarie in future—and my aunt and uncle are Lord and Lady Roxbourgh. My uncle is not a wealthy man, because his estate is small. Papa inherited his estate from his father and then increased his fortune. My uncle is related to Papa by marriage through their mother, who married my grandfather first and then, after he died, Lord Roxbourgh’s father. It is a little complicated.’

      ‘Yes, I can see that, but it explains why this gentleman is willing to stoop to wickedness to gain a fortune he covets, but has no right to.’

      ‘Papa left everything to me, because his estate was never entailed—but he trusted his half-brother...’

      ‘And so he made him your guardian. That was unfortunate, but not insurmountable. It is possible to have someone removed as guardian, you know—if we can prove that he is unfit to continue and has abused his position.’

      ‘Yes, but how can it be done, when everyone thinks it is such a good idea? Sir Montague is not terribly old nor is he ugly, and all our friends think it a splendid match for me, because he isn’t even a gambler or terribly in debt.’

      ‘Yes, I quite see how they’ve managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes,’ Brock said. ‘However, at nineteen you are quite old enough to make up your own mind and it is very wrong to force you—or to deny you the

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