The Wedding Night Affair--An Historical Mystery L.C. Sharp (i read books .TXT) 📖

He took their empty dishes and went over to the table to refill them, talking as he did so.

“Silence was married to a neighbor when she was barely sixteen, and you know what happened there. Her husband was cut from the same cloth as our mother, and eventually she had to leave his house. When our mother died, I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

In the fraught silence that followed, he closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I should feel something, shouldn’t I? Grief, relief, something?”

Revolted by his account, she repudiated his guilt. “No. Why should you when she treated you so badly? She has no right to demand anything from you, even in death.”

She had suffered from a lack of attention from her parents, Ash had suffered the opposite. Too much attention of entirely the wrong kind. His mother sounded like a monster.

Abruptly, he began to speak again, without acknowledging what she had said. “I was seventeen when Gregory was born. Our mother called him Abuse-Not. My birth name was Humiliation.”

He gave a small, taut smile. “William, whose name was What-God-Will, ran off to sea. That was by far the most successful outcome of our mother’s persecution of us. He has made captain now, although when he left, he did not tell them his real name, and he completed his first voyage as an ordinary seaman. I bought him a commission, but the navy, unlike the army, doesn’t allow its sailors to buy their way up the ranks. I have a sister who works as a courtesan. My other sister Prudence chose to remain in the country, but she has transformed the house. Little remains of our mother’s reign.”

He paused, bit his lip.

“And a brother who, as you know, betrayed the country by plotting to assassinate the king, or so they said. He would have been executed, except that I worked with our father. We fought his case and won commutation for him.”

“I remember the reports. I didn’t know you were brothers.”

“Few people did,” he said grimly. “If they had, we might not have won. He was still using our mother’s name. She refused to use Ashendon, as, she said, too much sin was associated with the name. Worldly sin, apparently.”

When he was talking about his brother, his voice was infused with emotion. But when he returned to the subject of his mother, his tones flattened, and sounded dead. Juliana listened in horror. Her ordeal had been different, but she understood what he’d been through, what the whole family had been through.

“The devil of it is that Matthew—Sorry-For-Sin—didn’t do what he was accused of. But I only found the evidence when he was on his way to the Colonies. Still, I prepared a case to fight for him and then bring him home. When we heard of his death, I was assembling it, ready to appeal his conviction. My brother was a feckless youth sowing his wild oats, that was all. He had nothing to do with a plot to kill the king.”

Ash pushed himself out of his seat and went to the sideboard. His hand hovered over the trio of decanters there, and he grasped the stopper of one. Then he released it, shook his head and returned to his seat. “That won’t help. But when I think of the waste of a life, regret chokes me.”

More than regret, she thought. He had done all he could, but Juliana didn’t tell him so. That wouldn’t come as any consolation.

Indentured servants in the colonies dropped like flies. Matt had been just another fly, swatted away, no doubt dumped in an unmarked, shallow grave.

And she knew Ash well enough to understand that he felt responsible for his brother’s death. “Who would want him dead?”

“He was a convenience, that is all. They could have chosen any of the bloods he consorted with at that time. When he was convicted, I half believed he’d done it, but then I found the evidence, that he was elsewhere, that he had never been involved. Too late. He’d already left the country.”

He sounded defeated, like she’d never heard him before. More than ever, she wanted to stand by his side, to work with him in his mission to improve justice, to ensure it was done.

“Ash, none of it was your fault.”

“In my heart, I know it. But if I had found the witnesses and documents earlier...” He didn’t have to say the rest. “At any rate, after Matt’s case, I swore I would never let the same fate fall on anyone else. So I keep a staff to do the bulk of the property work, so as to provide for my family, but I prefer to concentrate on the criminal work. It is my passion.”

Had he ever spoken to anyone else like this before? Knowing Ash, he’d kept all his feelings bottled up. But he was telling her now, right down to his bitterness at how the legal system let him and his family down.

And yet instead of running in the opposite direction, Ash had faced his fears head-on. And defeated them. While he couldn’t help his brother, he had the connections and the expertise to ensure other people received their legal dues.

“I see. Thank you for telling me.” She got up, shaking her skirts back out of the folds.

He had risen when she did and now he faced her, standing between her and the door, although she knew he would move aside if she wanted him to. “I told you these things because I am offering you the chance to belong to this family. I will also understand if you decide not to accept my offer.”

“Offer?” She frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. I can’t suddenly become your sister.”

“No, indeed. But you can become my wife in truth.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Her jaw dropped. She was not a fool. Neither was he. Ash knew he was a poor bargain for her, so he’d opened up and