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  Once Upon a Scandal

  Julie LeMense

  Avon, Massachusetts

  Copyright © 2015 by Julianne LeMense Crispin.

  All rights reserved.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

  Published by

  Crimson Romance

  an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.

  10151 Carver Road, Suite 200

  Blue Ash, OH 45242. U.S.A.

  www.crimsonromance.com

  ISBN 10: 1-4405-8664-0

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-8664-4

  eISBN 10: 1-4405-8665-9

  eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-8665-1

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art © 123RF/jovannig; iStockphoto.com/captblack76.

  After the debut of my first novel, Once Upon A Wager, I was surprised and thrilled to receive letters asking for Jane’s story. And Benjamin’s story. Or best of all, a story that found the two of them together. So, to everyone who wrote, emailed, sent a note through social media, or left a message on my web page, thank you so much! This book is for you.

  Acknowledgments

  This is one of those books where you have to suspend your disbelief and hop along for the ride, hopefully an enjoyable one! Thanks to my wonderful editor, Julie Sturgeon, for not laughing out loud when I first proposed the plot. To my husband and family for suffering through late nights, cranky moods, and a complete absence of home cooking as my deadline approached. To my son Benjamin, who wanted to be in my first book but was a bit dismayed to find himself the hero in my second (since kissing was bound to happen). To Sophia Grimsley, for letting Aunt Sophia show up again. To Jessica Oakley, because she liked Wager so much, I wanted to put her in Scandal. And lastly, to Miss Violet Coates, who doesn’t get to read this for another decade at least.

  A side note … As with Once Upon A Wager, the majority of the secondary characters and settings in Once Upon A Scandal are drawn from Regency-era history. The people, of course, have passed, but many of the settings remain.

  Next time I’m in England, I’m going to Painshill Park!

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  More from This Author

  Also Available

  Chapter 1

  London, England

  June 16, 1813

  One young lady, going astray, will subject her relations to such discredit and distress as the united good conduct of all her brothers and sisters.

  —Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women

  It was a miserable day by anyone’s measure, unseasonably cold, with rain just beginning to fall and thunder rolling across a darkening sky. As Jane burrowed deeper into her black, woolen cloak, a sigh escaping the tight line of her lips, she decided the weather was well-suited to the occasion. That was her father, after all, boxed up in a casket and being lowered into the ground. At least her veil hid the fact that she wasn’t crying.

  Not that anyone was there to notice. Despite having passed only two days ago, Lord Reginald Fitzsimmons had been dead to the world these past nine months, an outcast in Society, a scandal. The wages of sin and all of that. When you maligned a war hero and tried to compromise the girl he loved in the process, you were not well-liked. And his passing had made him all the more shameful. He’d died in a pool of his own blood outside London’s most hardened gaming hell, either murdered for his winnings or set upon for sport. The Bow Street Runners hadn’t even mounted an investigation. As if she’d needed a reminder he would not be missed.

  Nor would she be, if some unfortunate accident happened to befall her. She was all but invisible now, just like her father, a pariah in the Society that had once prized her. Such a paragon she’d been, no less than the founding patron of The Ladies Auxiliary to Improve Manners and Morals. How amusing to remember a time when friends did not cross to the opposite side of a street as she neared.

  She shook her head to clear it. She was not only being maudlin, but also unfair. Not all of them crossed the street. Nor was she entirely alone. Sir Aldus Rempley, Father’s only remaining friend, was here at the graveyard too, a small act of kindness, even if he was a good distance away. Beside another grave entirely, as a matter of fact. Far enough away that no one would see him offering his last respects to a rogue.

  Just yesterday, he’d sent a note promising to call, along with a bank draft to settle the burial’s expenses. She should have refused it, of course, but she could no longer afford her pride. The reading of Father’s will had made that abundantly clear. He’d gambled away almost everything in the long, final months of his disgrace.

  A cough sounded, recalling her attention to the two men waiting with shovels nearby, the grave diggers, clearly restless. Waiting for the minister to finish, so they too could finish, covering Father’s casket with the dirt piled beside it. Returning him to the earth, and ultimately to dust.

  She wished the cleric would get on with it. What was the point of praying for absolution when there was none to be had? Besides, the rain was starting to come down in earnest now, pooling in the dirt, sending streams of muddy water into the pit where Father lay. She could feel it seeping into her cloak and through the leather of her serviceable boots. How she envied the enclosed carriage that had just stopped at the edge of the graveyard. The walk home would be interminable. Perhaps the loneliest she’d ever undertaken.

  With a dull sense of detachment, she watched as a postilion jumped down, umbrella in hand, to open the carriage door. A man with a multi-tiered greatcoat stepped out, though she couldn’t make out his features at this distance. He took the umbrella and turned towards her, coming forward with long strides, moving like a shadow through the descending darkness.

  Was he here for someone else? She looked behind her, but even Sir Aldus had departed now. Turning back, she lifted her veil, the better to see the stranger’s approach, and her breath caught. How quickly he had come upon her. Benjamin Alden, the Viscount Marworth. It made no sense he was here.

  “I am sorry I did not arrive for the start, Miss Fitzsimmons,” he said, his voice hushed. “Please accept my sympathies for your loss.”

  For a moment, she didn’t know what to say. He had come here, in the pouring rain, to pay his respects when they were only acquaintances. She ought to be touched—moved even—but instead, she was suspicious. Because Marworth was one of those other people, the kind who’d been born under a perfect al
ignment of the stars. Parties in Society weren’t counted a success until his arrival. When he wore a new style of waistcoat, men raced to their tailors for the same. And he was almost painfully handsome—blond, with the bluest of eyes and classically sculpted, symmetrical features. The man moved seamlessly through life, encased in a nimbus of perfection. Even the minister had stopped his droning, struck no doubt by the appearance of a seemingly celestial being.

  “Thank you for coming, Lord Marworth, and for the protection of your umbrella. A moment later, and I would have turned my back on this whole sorry affair and swum my way home.”

  And what incredibly poor taste she had, to jest at a funeral, to disrespect the dead. She felt so far away now from the woman she’d been just nine months ago. Was that why he’d come? For a moment’s amusement, to see a lesser being laid low? To marvel at the depths to which mere mortals could plummet? Didn’t he have a party to attend or an innocent to seduce? According to rumor, he excelled at that, too.

  But he merely gave her a sad smile and said, “I am sure it is the rain that has kept others away.”

  “I am sure it is not, but how polite you are to say so.”

  The minister cleared his throat then, apparently freed from his Marworth-induced bemusement. “May he rest in peace,” he said, before ducking away and heading for cover. Determined to move quickly, the gravediggers punched their shovels into the dirt—thick mud now—slopping it into the pit, her father’s final resting place, where she doubted there was any peace to be had. Marworth clasped her gently by the elbow, perhaps to move her from the sad scene and towards the carriage.

  “You needn’t witness this.”

  But she would not move till it was done. She stood firm until he released his hold. Then she reached down and took a fistful of the mud, and then another, throwing them onto the simple pine casket, which was rapidly vanishing beneath the muck. “My father left me alone to clean up the mess he made of things,” she said, hearing the bitterness in her voice. “This is as good a place as any to start.”

  • • •

  Much later, Jane was once more in the home that was no longer to be hers. Gerard, her cousin and Father’s heir, had sent a note that his family would be moving into the house on Curzon Street by the month’s end. Supposedly, little Violet, his daughter, loved the view from Jane’s bedroom window, with its small, enclosed garden filled with roses. So, quite simply, she would have it, along with the bedroom Jane had slept in since she was a child. They would tolerate her as a guest, but not for long. It was the way of things. No matter how unfair.

  The house felt so empty now. When they’d been consigned here together, Father had at least been company, despite his misery. She was eternally grateful to Thompson, their longstanding butler, for staying on despite the fact that his wages were overdue. And also to his wife, Bess, who served as cook and housekeeper. Jane was struck again by the irony of it. She was gently bred, of course, but as poor now—if not poorer—than the pair of them. If anything, she should be the one cooking and cleaning. But it was not the way of things, so they would not hear of it.

  Really, there was so little she was suited for now. She was more than well-enough educated to be a governess, but who in Society would hire her? And while she could probably give a lecture on Britain’s parliamentary system, having learned it at her father’s knee, she had no other discernible talents. She painted watercolors insipidly, desecrated any tune, and couldn’t stitch a straight line, despite her best efforts. She’d never be hired at a dressmaker’s, that much was certain. The one thing she excelled at was being a lady in the strictest sense. But that did not feed you. And how she loathed her self-pity, even though she couldn’t seem to suppress it.

  All of a sudden, however, a solution presented itself. Thompson entered Father’s study and announced a visitor. Sir Aldus Rempley.

  Willing away the indigestion the announcement prompted, she took several calming breaths. Because there could only be one reason he was here. She’d turned down his previous proposals of marriage, but she no longer had the luxury of choice. And really, she should be thankful for his offer. He’d come to rescue her from a fate unknown—and likely terrifying.

  She ran quickly to her bedroom via the backstairs and rinsed her mouth out with a brush and powder. After a glance in her bedside mirror, where she smoothed her hair and pinched her cheeks, she descended the front stairs with as much dignity as she could muster, to find him waiting, hat in hand, in the drawing room. With a smile at Thompson, indicating they would be fine alone, she sat upon Mother’s favorite settee and waited for her future to unfold.

  “May we speak privately, Miss Fitzsimmons, or if I may call you so, Jane?”

  “Of course,” she said, even though her smile was forced. Didn’t he realize they were already alone? Their union would be truly tedious if he hadn’t wits enough to discern that. It was unkind to think it, but he was grey-haired and paunchy, when she’d once hoped for so much more. This would likely be the man to bestow her first kiss. To introduce her to the intimacies of the marriage bed. A remarkably depressing thought.

  “You are looking unwell, my dear. Understandably so, given the shock you have suffered, but you owe it to your looks to take better care.”

  “Burying one’s father in a storm does make appearances difficult to maintain. Wouldn’t you agree, Sir Aldus?” Dear Lord, had she really voiced it aloud? When had she become so flippant? Surely, he expected better manners in a would-be wife. Even in the face of a comment bordering on the obnoxious.

  He flushed an unbecoming shade, embarrassed perhaps. “One does not wish to speak ill of the dead,” he continued, “but your father has left you in a vulnerable position. Alone and without the funds to support yourself.”

  Really, had it been necessary to remind her? Did an intelligent person ever have to state the obvious? According to Father, Sir Aldus was a man entrusted with state secrets, for goodness’ sake. A bit of subtlety should come naturally. But she held her tongue. The one that suddenly wanted to run away with her mouth, contravening their longstanding peace. “May I thank you for your help with his funeral and for your attendance? It was an affirmation of the friendship the two of you shared, and I am sincerely grateful.”

  “It was but a small thing, the first of many I hope to do for you, Jane,” he replied, his gaze disconcerting. “Can you guess why I am here?

  “I think so,” she said, with what she hoped was becoming modesty, even as her stomach roiled. She could do this. She knew she could. She had no other choice.

  “I have a very personal question to ask, an offer to make,” he said, smiling intently, looking quite old and oily. Old, she’d reconciled herself to, but oily was another matter. She decided to be bold, though, because the quicker this was settled, the better.

  “My answer is yes, Sir Aldus.”

  She’d expected a smile and a small expression of affection. That dreaded kiss, perhaps. Instead, there was only a look that struck her as sly, lascivious even.

  “Do you know what you are saying yes to?”

  “I was foolish to refuse your proposals of marriage before. I can see that now,” she said, as discomfort settled upon her. “However, I know we will deal well together. Our lives intertwined will be happy ones.”

  “Jane, you do understand I no longer offer marriage? Your reduced circumstances and reputation don’t support that possibility.”

  Over on the mantel, the clock struck, its clang a dull thud echoing in the room. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Could you please repeat yourself? I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Even though she suspected she did.

  “If only you’d not spurned my last proposal, when I was still willing to protect you from all this.” His eyes were harder now. “But I can offer carte blanche. A small home of your own, a carriage at your disposal, a lady’s maid, a butler, and a modest clothing allowance. I’d prefer a bit more color on your person, however, and necklines that showcase your assets.”


  She was dizzy with mortification, and for the briefest of moments, she wondered what the members of The Ladies Auxiliary to Improve Manners and Morals would do in this situation. Politely decline? Offer tea and a tract on the unfortunate diseases associated with indiscriminate sexual congress? If only she could be Shakespeare’s Ophelia in this moment and get herself to a nunnery, sidestepping the need to reply at all. Although, wasn’t a nunnery actually a brothel in the Elizabethan era? She’d read that somewhere. Perhaps a brothel was more appropriate after all.

  All the while, he sat watching her, that sly smile on his face, hat in hand, oozing expectancy. He had a bulbous lower lip. If she pulled on it hard enough, could it be swept up over his face and secured at the back of his head with a spike? How tempted she was to try. “Is this how you repay my father’s friendship to you, Sir Aldus?” she asked, ice in her veins and voice. “By shaming his daughter?”

  “I should think you’d be honored by my willingness to see you set up in a house of your own. I understand you won’t long be welcomed in this one.”

  “You do me no honor. When have I led you to believe such an offer would be welcome? I’ve been raised as a lady, and despite my reduced circumstances, a lady I will remain.”

  “Always so proud, Jane. On the contrary, I do you a great honor. You have your mother’s beauty, which I greatly admired, but none of her zest. It’s unfortunate she died so young. She might have loosened you up a bit.”

  This was all so hideous it couldn’t possibly be happening. And how dare he mention her mother, who’d died when she was only twelve.

  “I insist that you leave.”

  “There are things I can show you, Jane, and pleasures to be had. Better me than a stranger on the street.”

  “You are a disgusting individual.” It would serve the man right if she vomited upon him, for she was distinctly nauseous now. He’d donned his hat and eyed her up and down in the most outrageously insulting fashion.

  “I will give you a week to understand just how desperate your situation has become, and then I will return. I sincerely hope we can come to the point that very day, so to speak, because it’s better for you to know how it will go on between us, don’t you think?”