A Debt Paid In Marriage

Laura let out a long breath, his humour allowing her to smile. ‘You are Mr Rathbone’s business partner then?’

‘We’re friends. Grew up together. My father worked for his father, seeing to the more practical aspects of the business.’ He nodded at the men by the door. ‘Just as I do. Though not for much longer. I intend to establish myself in a business, once I decide which is the best to pursue.’

‘Then I wish you the greatest success.’

‘As I do you.’ He threw her a wide sideways smile she couldn’t fail to meet with one of her own.

‘Tell me, is Mr Rathbone always so businesslike?’

‘Oh, he’s almost jovial today. You should see how stern he is with clients.’

‘Apparently, I will.’

The door to her mother’s room opened and she and Mr Rathbone stepped through it. His face revealed nothing of their conversation. Her mother, however, beamed, striding in on his arm as though a duchess in Hyde Park. Laura gaped at them, wondering if there would be any end to the surprises in store for her today. She wasn’t sure she could handle too many more.

‘You have nothing to worry about, my dear.’ Her mother patted her shoulder. ‘Now, let’s be off. I see they’ve taken the painting and the desk.’ She looked up at Mr Rathbone. ‘Would you please ask your men to fetch our trunk from the bedroom? Everything else Robert can have.’

‘It would be my pleasure.’ Mr Rathbone motioned to the two remaining men. They hurried past Laura into the bedroom, emerging a moment later with the sad trunk holding what remained of Laura’s and her mother’s possessions.

They were not a foot into the room when another figure staggered into the doorway, the stench of pipe smoke and cheap ale swirling around him.

Uncle Robert.

The air thickened with tension as Mr Rathbone’s men slowly set down the trunk and straightened, dropping their hands to the clubs hanging from their belts. Mr Connor stood behind her uncle, his laughter gone as he shifted back his redingote to reveal the smooth handle of the pistol fastened at his waist. Laura’s hand tightened on her mother’s arm, Mr Rathbone’s warning rushing back to her along with a cutting fear.

‘What’s all this then?’ Robert Townsend demanded, struggling through his stupor to pronounce each word. His eyes fixed on the two men carrying the trunk and his sallow face scrunched with confusion before his bleary look fell on Mr Rathbone. At once, his red-rimmed eyes ignited with anger and he advanced on the moneylender. ‘What’s the meaning of this? I paid my debt to you. I owe you nothing.’

‘My business here today doesn’t concern you, Mr Townsend.’ Philip crossed the room to the older man, preventing him from advancing any further. They were matched in height, but Robert Townsend was wider in the shoulders with a barrel chest made thicker by his large coat. ‘Your niece has agreed to marry me. She and Mrs Townsend are removing to my house.’

‘My business wasn’t enough for you, was it? You had to have everything, you greedy pig.’ Her uncle swayed forward on his feet. ‘Do you know what Moll Topp pays for a virgin like her? It would have cleared all my debts.’

Her mother’s hand tightened in Laura’s the way it used to do when she was small and they would cross a busy street. Laura knew her uncle held no love for them, but she hadn’t thought he’d sink to such sickening depths to save himself. She trembled as the shadow of another possible fate passed over her.

Only the stretching of Philip’s leather glove as his hand tightened at his side revealed his disgust. ‘I ask you to remember we are in the presence of ladies.’

‘Don’t pretend you’re my better.’ Robert stuck one thick and dirty finger in Mr Rathbone’s face. ‘I know your kind, feeding off the backs of men like me until you’ve gained every last shilling from us, then crushing us under your boot heels. Well, I won’t be crushed, not by a coward like you.’

Robert pulled back his arm and rammed it forward. Mr Rathbone dipped, dodging the blow, then he came up fast, his fist catching Robert under the chin. The larger man stumbled back across the room, slamming into a small chair, his weight crushing it beneath him. He sat for a moment, stunned sober, and Laura wanted to rush over and add a few kicks of her own in retribution for all he’d done to her parents. There was no time, as Robert hauled himself to his feet, ready to rush at Mr Rathbone.

Mr Rathbone’s men stepped up behind him, sticks clasped in their hands. Mr Connor pulled out his pistol and levelled it at the drunk man.

‘I wouldn’t do that, sir,’ he warned.

Laura drew her mother back, ready to flee into the bedroom and bar the door, but no one moved. She barely dared to breathe.

Through the thin walls came the muffled voice of the man next door cursing at his wife.

Robert met Laura’s eyes over Mr Rathbone’s shoulder, hate twisting his lips into a sneer and drawing tight the red bruise forming beneath the grey stubble on his chin. ‘You think you’ve got the better of me, ya little wench, but ya haven’t. Neither have you, Mr Rathbone. Your men won’t always be around to protect you. Some day you’ll be alone and I’ll be there.’

He spat at Mr Rathbone’s feet.

Mr Rathbone plucked the hat from the table and settled it over his hair. ‘Good day, Mr Townsend.’

He took Mrs Townsend by the arm and escorted both her and Laura around Robert. Laura eyed the old man acidly. Behind them, Mr Rathbone’s men filed out, two carrying the trunk while the other two stood guard. Mr Connor was the last to leave, still brandishing the pistol.

Her mother leaned heavily on Mr Rathbone as they picked their way slowly down the stairs. It took all Laura’s energy not to sag against the railings as fear pressed down hard on her. As she reached the bottom and stepped out into the chill evening air, she willed herself not to think of her uncle or how horribly true Mr Rathbone’s assessment of him had proven. It no longer mattered.

Mr Rathbone settled her mother in the landau and Laura joined her. The hood was open and with the sun dipping, the air had taken on a chill. She drew the blanket over their knees as Mr Rathbone climbed in across from them.

Laura took one last look at the rickety building as the vehicle started to roll away. Robert stood at the filthy window, his obvious hate as searing as if the spring sun were reflecting off the panes. Laura swallowed hard. She might never see this rotting pile of beams again, but she felt certain this wasn’t the last she’d see of her uncle.

Chapter Three (#ulink_4347981d-8fd8-50ef-9657-3854b9d49e2c)

If events had proceeded with stunning rapidity in their rented rooms, it was a marvel to see how they moved once they arrived at Mr Rathbone’s house. Business pulled him and Mr Connor away, leaving Laura and her mother in the capable hands of his housekeeper, Mrs Palmer. She proved as efficient as her employer, though much more talkative. In a flash she had them fed, their few things arranged in their separate but adjoining rooms, baths drawn and the clean nightclothes Mr Rathbone had procured from a client laid out on the bed.

While Mrs Palmer assisted Laura’s mother, her coarse laugh carrying through the walls at various intervals and joined by her mother’s higher one, Laura pulled on the cotton chemise. She sighed at the sweep of clean linen against her damp skin, revelling in it too much to be irritated by Mr Rathbone’s presumption she would accept his strange suit. When she pulled on the silk banyan lying next to it, she nearly burst into tears. She’d parted with her French one, a Christmas gift from her father, long ago to buy food. She never thought she’d enjoy such a simple luxury again.

If the chemise and banyan felt heavenly, she could only imagine how the clean sheets on the high bed would feel. She touched the turned-back covers, eager to slide between them and give in to the exhaustion heightened by the warm bath, a full stomach and the comfortable night-dress, when the door whispered open behind her.

She turned, expecting to see a maid coming to empty the hip bath. Instead it was a young lady draped in a pale-pink gown, the first small curves of a woman’s body just beginning to fill out the lines of it. Her face was round with the slight fullness of youth, but her chin was well defined and her eyes the same deep blue as Mr Rathbone’s.

‘Good evening, Miss Townsend. I’m Miss Jane Rathbone, Philip’s sister.’ She dipped a curtsy, pulling out the sides of her simple cotton gown before straightening, arms at her sides just as her brother held himself. ‘Philip told me to look in on you and make sure you have everything you need. He also asked me to inform you that you needn’t worry about what time you rise tomorrow.’

The girl spoke like her brother, too, but in a childish voice with the hint of a lisp.

‘Did he?’

She nodded, her dark curls bobbing around her face and neck. ‘You must enjoy it because it will probably be the last time. Philip likes everyone to keep to a schedule.’

‘I don’t doubt he does.’ Nor did she mind. Her parents, with a business to run, had rarely let her dawdle about without purpose. There was always something to do. ‘He’s very practical.’

‘You must be, too, if you agreed to marry him.’

Laura rubbed the soft banyan strings between her thumb and forefinger. ‘In this instance, I’ve proven myself as sensible as your brother.’

‘Then it will be a good match.’

I hope so, she thought, though any future now was better than the one her uncle had planned for her.

‘In the morning, I’ll see to it Mrs Townsend is dressed and has her breakfast. We were speaking earlier and she is eager for me to show her the garden, especially the roses.’

The girl’s efficiency was surprising, yet not wholly unexpected. Laura wondered what her mother made of the strange creature. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of her herself. ‘Thank you, she is very fond of roses.’

‘It’s time for bed now, Jane.’ Mr Rathbone appeared in the doorway behind his sister, his reminder more a firm request than the stern demand of a guardian.

Laura tightened the banyan a touch more about her neck. The chemise beneath stuck to her damp skin, pressing against it with an uncomfortable warmth and making her keenly aware of her undress beneath the silk. It brought to mind how he looked beneath his clothes.

His redingote was gone, revealing a dark jacket woven with a subtle checked pattern paired with tan breeches. Without the bulk of the wool, he seemed leaner, tighter. The well-tailored clothes emphasised his coiled strength, giving a hint of the lithe power he’d revealed when he’d avoided her uncle to land a stunning blow on his chin. Laura hadn’t expected Mr Rathbone to be so physical and she struggled to keep herself steady as his masculinity pounced on her.