“I told you,” Giselle added. “This is no scheme, Jon.” Eyes gleaming, she added, “Besides, it is all your fault.”
“Myfault!” Jon sputtered. “How is that? I tried to keep him away from you.”
Giselle laughed at her half brother-in-law. “You should have tried to keep me away fromhim.You were gone to the north when I sought help with my passports, so I had no choice but to turn to Heath. And he, being the gentleman he is, very admirably helped me.”
“For a price,” Scovell drawled.
“One that gained me a family.” Before Jon could protest that heand Tory were her family, she added, “A family I can publicly claim, even if Evan and Kit are only my stepbrothers-in-law.”
“And Zack is your son,” Scovell said.
“Yes,” Giselle and Heathbrook said together.
Not telling his friends the truth had been harder, but they had both agreed it was necessary. For better or worse, Zack was theirs now, and he had managed to keep the secret better than they’d expected.
At that moment, a servant approached to say, “The constable is here. He says he begs your pardon, but this cannot wait. I have put him in the drawing room.”
“Of course. I’ll be there shortly.” Heathbrook turned to his friends. “This is about Vaughan Jones, I’m sure, so you two may wish to join me.” He had told them everything he knew about Jones and his obsession with Sarah Beasley.
“And the wives must join you, too,” Giselle said firmly as Tory nodded. “This involves us as much as it does you three.”
“Very well.”
The four of them followed Heathbrook, all of them probably wondering what had been so urgent that the constable had felt compelled to interrupt a wedding breakfast over it.
As soon as they entered the drawing room, the constable gave a start.
“Forgive me, sir,” Heathbrook said, “but this may concern all of us, so we would all like to be present for your news.”
The constable nodded. He could hardly gainsay the lord of the manor. “I thought I should inform you, my lord, that we found Vaughan Jones this morning. He was living in a lodging house that has been vacant for some months. The owner was abroad and unaware of his presence there until this morning, but it explains why we could not find him before.”
“Do you have him in custody now for assaulting my wife?” Heathbrook asked.
The constable grimaced. “We have his body in custody, yes.”
“Hisbody?” Jon exclaimed.
“It appears he died by his own hand a few weeks ago. The owner found him upon his return, along with this note.”
He handed it to Heathbrook, who read it aloud.
To whom it may concern, I cannot live without my Sarah. In trying to secure her, I have done unspeakable things, and I know that even if I can find her, those acts would prevent her from becoming mine. She is a good person and would never approve. Thus, I take my life in hopes that she will live happily in this world without me.
Sincerely,
Vaughan Jones
“How very odd,” Giselle said. “He did not strike me as a selfless fellow.”
“Not selfless,” Tory pointed out. “He is blatantly blaming his death on Sarah and hoping to make her feel guilty that he took his life to ‘protect’ her.”
“It’s still odd,” Heathbrook said. “He gave up the fight for no reason?”
“We found several letters from her in the place where he was staying,” the constable put in. “In them, she begged him to leave her be. They seem to be quite old, probably dating from when the two of them were in France.”
“Yet he decided to wait two or three years to kill himself over her?” Jon said. “I agree with you, Heathbrook, it’s a bit odd.”
“Then again, from what I knew of him, Joneswasodd, wasn’t he?” Scovell said. “He definitely had a vendetta against Beasley. Perhaps once he realized he could never have his revenge on the man, he gave up.”