A Match Made in Bed (Spinster Heiresses #2)(47)

“On what charge, my lady?” the bailiff asked.

“He stole my inheritance.” That was what Soren had said and she believed him.

That raised eyebrows. “You stole from Lady Dewsberry?” the bailiff asked.

At first, her father did not appear inclined to answer and then words burst out of him. But he didn’t speak to the bailiff, he spoke to her.

“Your inheritance was spent on that ridiculous library of books you were so proud of and on the dresses you wore on your back. You tossed a fortune away just on shoes and hair things. Then there was the silliness of your ‘literary salons.’ Of course there is nothing left.”

Her father had been drinking. The stench of brandy mingled with desperation.

“I had a fortune to spend,” she countered. “At least thirty thousand pounds and you are saying it is all gone? I think not.”

“Then you would be thinking wrong,” her father snapped back.

“What did you do with my inheritance?” she repeated.

“It costs money to live in London,” he said as if pointing out the obvious.

“But Mr. Calder said you received a handsome dowry when you married Mother. You were supposed to be just the guardian of my money.”

“That man knew nothing.”

“He knew enough to make you give Mother’s jewelry to me.” She approached her father. “The cost of gowns and my books would not approach thirty thousand pounds, especially if invested wisely. Where is the money, Father? Did it pay for this house? Your last two coaches? Even then, there should have been a fortune left over. Instead,” she said, pointing a finger upstairs, “you have taken the sapphires and my belongings and done what with them?”

“I sold them.”

She couldn’t believe it. “You act as if you are destitute—” A new thought struck her. “Are you?”

It made sense. Lately, he had been grumbling about money. Then there was his quickness to toddle her off into spinsterhood.

Her mind worked furiously. “You’ve done your best to see that I don’t marry these past two years and more, haven’t you?” Could he truly be that deceitful? “You have turned down offers because you said you wanted a title . . . but what if you just didn’t want anyone to learn that you’d spent my fortune? Especially if it had been supporting you—?”

“Birdie, I was going to earn it all back. I needed time.”

“Earn it back? Are you a gambler?”

Fire came to his eyes. He did not like that charge. Then he would have been like one of the Yorks that he’d always railed against.

In fact, she realized, his insistence on his senseless feud with the Yorks might not have been about pride at all. Perhaps it had been guilt?

“I’m not a gambler. I invested it. I tried to do my best but luck wasn’t with me. I had damned luck. And now, everyone has their hand out. Including you and Helen’s daughters. Can you believe they are asking for money after the dowry I handsomely settled on them—”

“I handsomely paid for their dowries,” she said. “You told me to do it, and I’m not sorry. I would not begrudge my family.”

On her words, the arrogance vanished from his demeanor, to be replaced with wheedling. He took a step close to her. “Then you have to understand, Cassandra, how hard it was to have control over all that money. It was a temptation. It gave me the chance to be important, and I planned to replace it all. Once I’d had a bit of success, I’d have given it back to you. But I was rooked. Several times.” His hands curled into fists. “There are liars out there.”

“What would you have done if Camberly had offered for me? You said that is what you wanted.”

Her father’s answer was a sharp bark of laughter. “He wouldn’t have married you, Cassandra. He has his pick of anyone in London. I was not worried but his interest did open some doors for me.”

Soren came up behind her as if worried by how erratic her father was beginning to sound. He started to say something but she reached back and squeezed his arm, silently asking him for a moment. Something was bubbling beneath the surface of her father’s ranting. She would have it all out in the open.

“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth about the money, Papa?”

“Because you didn’t need to know. Besides, what would people think of me once they learned what I’d done?”

She understood. He was a proud man. She started to tell him as much, but he talked right over her.

“Your grandfather Bingham never gave me any respect. He thought I wasn’t good enough for his daughter. That is why he wrote the will to favor you. But the money should have been mine. A wife’s money goes to her husband. And yet he hired lawyers who knew the tricks and he made a fool of me. He’s lucky I married his daughter. Most men wouldn’t want another’s leavings, especially when she’s carrying his bastard. But I gave you my name and I’ve treated you well. I’ve kept the secret.”

Now the world was not so certain. Or generous.

Breathing became difficult.

She had trouble accepting the words that had come out of her father’s mouth. They didn’t make sense. Was he saying he wasn’t her true father?

Soren placed strong, protective hands upon her shoulders, steadying her. “I believe that is enough, Holwell.”