All About Seduction(128)

After what seemed like hours, Mrs. Goode finally emerged. She descended the steps and started toward town.

“Mrs. Goode,” called Jack, half skipping to try and catch her. “Is Caro—Mrs. Broadhurst all right?”

Mrs. Goode swiveled and stared at him. “Do you know what you’re doing, Jack?”

Agony cut through him. “Is the baby . . . ?”

“The baby is fine. Mrs. Broadhurst is fine, except having some sort of hysterics that made her light-headed. For all she is claiming pain in her belly, she isn’t cramping or bleeding or showing any signs of a problem.”

Jack nearly collapsed on the drive.

Mrs. Goode walked faster. “Her husband never left her side.”

Ignoring the pain in his bad leg, Jack hurried to keep up.

“I don’t suppose you know anything about the bruise on her face.” Mrs. Goode looked over her shoulder.

Dear God, had Broadhurst hit her? He never should have hit her.

“Jack, keep walking with me,” said Mrs. Goode in a low undertone.

He looked behind him and could see no reason for her alarm. The house looked the same as ever, imposing, proclaiming wealth beyond what he could imagine.

“She wanted me to warn you that he knows.”

Jack cringed. He shouldn’t have been so selfish as to allow her to come to him. He should have been content waiting until she was free, even if it took a hundred years. He shouldn’t have even been here to risk temptation. He should have been in London making himself worthy of her.

“Do you know what happened to his first two wives?” asked the midwife.

“I suspect they didn’t actually both kill themselves,” said Jack.

“Maybe his first wife did. I don’t know,” said Mrs. Goode. “She was miserable she didn’t conceive. But within a week of her death, he was engaged to the daughter of the richest man in these parts. I suppose compared to what he has now, she wasn’t that well off.”

Jack watched Mrs. Goode’s wrinkled face.

“Less than a year after he married her, her entire family perished in a fire while visiting. She only got out by jumping from a window. He was working late at the mill. There were those who said the fire was too fast to have been an accident. He built his mansion on the spot, even though she begged him to move elsewhere.”

“I know he brought home the current Mrs. Broadhurst a few weeks after his second wife died.”

“Got too old, she did. Was going through the change. But was happy as a lark. She liked being rich, didn’t like children. No one ever believed she would have hanged herself. He was working late at the mill then too.”

A chill went through him. How much danger was Caroline in?

“Don’t fancy my shop and house being burned down. You’ll have to find somewhere else to stay.”

Where the hell was he supposed to go? And how the hell could he leave Caroline with that madman?

Jack turned to go back to the mansion.

Mrs. Goode grabbed his arm and tugged. He ended up sprawled on the packed gravel of the drive.

“Sorry, but you’re not going back there if I have to stand on you.”

Caroline stared in the looking glass. All the purple and redness of the bruise on her cheek was gone. The tiny remaining yellow smudge was almost completely faded and would be unnoticeable to most. She needed to return to work today.

She’d already spent a fortnight at home, pretending to recover from her imaginary almost miscarriage, but really waiting for the bruise to fade.

Her maid opened her door and carried a breakfast tray to the small table near the window where the sun was just peeking in. “Begging your pardon, ma’am. There’s another.”

“Who is it this time?” sighed Caroline. Her family had swarmed on her like a horde of locusts. They’d taken one look at her face and burrowed in around her. She had no idea how her family knew to come, but she was grateful for their presence. But each time she asked why they had shown up, they said Robert had sent them. She hoped that meant Jack had gotten to Robert and was safe with him.

First, her mother arrived insisting that she must be with her daughter through the birth of her grandchild. Why she felt the need to attend this grandchild’s birth, when she hadn’t bothered with the last six grandchildren’s births, didn’t make sense. Then dragging their husbands with them, the twins showed up within minutes of each other, finishing each other’s sentences and insisting Caroline needed to take the air sandwiched between them on an hourly basis. Next, Amelia popped in and insisted they would all have to take an extended shopping trip because “babies needed so many things.” Marshaling for battle, Sarah sailed in a few days later.