The Husband List by Janet Evanovich
“What have we here?” she said.
Annie looked up from her lace. “It looks like a piece of paper to me.”
Caroline unfolded the paper. She drew in an excited breath as she realized that the slightly crooked writing on the stationery was in French. Adele had been writing a friend named Dominique.
“Oh, no,” she said as she read Adele’s confession that she had lied to Bremerton about being an heiress.
“What is it?” Annie asked.
Caroline scanned the rest of the letter, which had never been completed. “This was written by Bremerton’s late wife. She’d lied to him about her wealth. When they arrived at Chesley House, she realized he was in financial straits and had likely married her for her money. She had just confessed to Bremerton when she’d written this. He had become enraged. She was hoping he’d come to love her and forgive her. She felt terrible about her deceit.”
“He killed her, didn’t he?” Annie asked after a stretch of silence.
Caroline hadn’t had time to share with Annie what she’d learned from Cora, so she quickly updated her.
“Money and pride are the two most important things in Bremerton’s life. Adele struck at both of those,” Caroline added. “And if he didn’t kill her, why would he be trying to hide both her life and her death?”
Caroline could feel Adele’s lingering presence so vividly that she understood how Lady Carew might see her. And Caroline felt danger, too. She set aside the letter and rose from the bed. “Is the Colt that Eddie gave me still hidden in the trunk below my corsets?”
“I didn’t move it,” Annie said. “That thing scares me.”
Caroline went to her trunk and carefully uncovered the revolver. It was nearly identical to the Colt Single Action Army her mother had confiscated, only this time Eddie had bought her one with a shorter barrel that he teased her by saying made for a more ladylike weapon. So long as it still shot bullets, it could be as ladylike as it wished. Caroline took those, too, from the trunk. She carefully loaded each chamber and set the hammer in the safety notch. Then she went to her dressing table and dumped all the jewelry from its case, placed the gun inside, and closed the top.
“Is that this season’s new accessory?” Annie asked.
“The most useful yet.” Caroline sorted through the jumble of jewels on the tabletop and selected a sapphire necklace. “This can serve a few purposes, too.”
She held it up for Annie to take. “We’re leaving tonight. I want you to go to the nearest house and bargain for the use of a horse and any type of cart. It doesn’t matter what, so long as it can get us to Arundel. We can’t trust that we’ll be able to get a horse from here.”
Annie shook her head. “I don’t want to leave you here.”
“And I don’t want both of us to be trapped here,” Caroline said. She waggled the necklace. “Take this and get moving.”
Annie did, but not without a worried backward glance.
“Don’t worry,” Caroline said. “I’ll do this as safely as I can.”
* * *
IT HAD all sounded so simple, Jack thought. Take a train to Petworth, find a horse, and ride like the wind to Chesley House. Except the train to Petworth had stopped in every village along its tracks, plus once for sheep across them. He had willed himself to be calm. From Bremerton’s perspective, everything was going just as he’d planned. He had his heiress and he was training her to be biddable. So long as those two facts did not change, Caroline was safe.
Even after Jack had made Petworth, the only horse he’d found was more about passing wind than letting him ride like it. It had been ten and more miles of hard, slow road, but he’d reached Arundel’s outskirts before sundown.
“Excuse me,” he said to a cluster of men lingering outside a pub. “I’m looking for Chesley House. Can you tell me where to find it?”
“Chesley House?” said one. “Never heard of it.”
“Yeah, you have, you fool,” said another. “It’s one of the Duke of Endsleigh’s places.” Except he’d said duke as though it was pronounced like book, which snagged up Jack’s attention.
“Oi,” said a third man, waving a hand Jack’s way. “Did ye not hear my question? Are you a gennleman like the duke?”
Jack grinned. “Not on my very worst day.”
“That being the case, we’ll tell you. You need to stay on this road, south near all the way to Littlehampton,” the second man said. “You won’t miss the place. It’s a big pile o’ stone.”
Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out some coins. “Thank you,” he said as he tossed them to the men. “The next one’s on me.”
And on he rode, near south to Littlehampton, wherever the hell that was.
* * *
THE SUN had been down long enough for the stars to begin to show when Bremerton’s knock sounded at the bedroom door.
“Come in,” Caroline called from her seat at the dressing table. She turned and watched as Bremerton stepped inside.
“Where’s your maid?” he asked.
“You told me to have her sleep in her room, so that’s where she is,” Caroline replied before facing the mirror.
She picked up a diamond earring and held it as though deciding how it would look on her. As she returned it to the dressing table’s surface, she watched the Englishman walk a circle of the bedroom. When he was done, he stopped behind her and put both hands on her shoulders. For the first time, she managed not to shiver at his touch.
“It seems my stableman and maid have come up missing. Might you know anything about that?” he asked.
“No.”
“Interesting. I was certain you would. Mrs. Parker told me it happened just before dinner. You’d been around the house all day, and you have a way of stirring things up.” He paused. “Now Mrs. Parker and the waiter seem to have disappeared, too. Good help is so hard to find.”
Caroline looked away from the mean curve to his smile. “I am sorry to hear that.”
He let his hands slip from her shoulders and bent forward to give a negligent flick at one of the rings that sat in the jewelry she’d been sorting. “So many riches and not enough days in a life to show it off.”
She let her gaze meet his in the mirror. “Should I interpret that as a threat?”
“No, I was merely making a comment on your wealth.” He turned and walked away. Caroline relaxed marginally.
“So you speak French and interpret threats,” Bremerton said. “And I would guess by my missing servants that you now know I once had an interest in things French.”
“If you’re referring to your late wife, yes.”
“I’m sure you have questions,” he said as he settled onto the cowhide couch. “Do ask.”
“I’ve learned that you prefer it when I don’t.”
“As you wish. Then I’ll ask again, where’s your maid? I know she’s not in her room.”
“Then maybe she’s in the kitchen,” she replied, praying that Annie was now outside with their transportation.
He rose. “I am not fond of liars.”
“And I’m not fond of having you in my room,” she said in a calm voice. “You’ve been here, you’ve checked on my welfare, and now I’m asking you to leave.”
“And if I choose to stay? I think at the very least I deserve to see you as the Irishman has.”
Caroline reached into the jewel case as though looking for another piece, but pulled out her gun. She pushed away from the dressing table, turned, and raised it at him.
“My brother Eddie taught me how to shoot and spit,” she said. “Of the two skills, I prefer shooting.”
“Then put it down. There’s no need for drama,” Bremerton said in a smooth voice that Caroline was sure had swayed others, but not her.
“You can loom and threaten, but if I pull this little gun, you call me dramatic. That’s hardly sporting of you,” she said. She paused a moment, trying to decide if that was really the sound of hooves on stone she was hearing outside. Sh
Caroline stood and advanced a step on Bremerton, who held his ground in the middle of the room. “Eddie taught me to always leave the chamber at the firing pin empty so there wouldn’t be any nasty accidents if I dropped the gun. But I was feeling a little distracted when I loaded this tonight, and do you know what silly thing I did? No?” she asked in the face of Bremerton’s continuing silence. “I loaded all six chambers. Let’s hope I don’t drop the gun. But just in case, I’m going to suggest that you stay well back. We both know about those tragic accidents, don’t we, my lord?”
“You have lost your mind.”
“Maybe,” she said cheerfully. “And since I have, I’m going to make some demands. Until Annie arrives with our horse, you are to stay where I can see you, and with your hands in the air.”
“What?”
“As they say in the Wild West of my country, reach for the sky.” She narrowed her gaze. “And I do mean now.”
Bremerton raised his hands.
“Thank you.”
A commotion sounded from someplace downstairs. Annie had to be back. But then Caroline heard a male voice calling her name. She laughed with joy.
“We have a guest,” she said to Bremerton. “It’s the love of my life.”
He didn’t appear very impressed.
“Upstairs, Jack, and grab a candle,” she called. “You’re going to want some light.”
Jack bounded up the stairs two at a time, and the candle he’d just lit smoked and flickered as the air pushed past it.
“Which room are you in?” he called.
“Keep coming this way!”
He was close enough that he could see light spilling from a room on his right. Jack stepped in and froze.
“Hello, Jack,” Caroline said, both her eyes and a gun trained on His Lordship.
“It doesn’t look as though you needed a rescuer,” he said conversationally.
“Appearances can be deceiving. I was actually a little vague on this part of the plan. I’d been expecting Annie, but as you can see, she isn’t here. And sooner or later, I was going to have to either shoot this man or run.”
Jack grinned. “I vote for shoot him.”
“My decision was leaning in that direction,” she replied.
“For what it’s worth, your plan would have worked … more or less. I passed Annie on the lane a way back.” He paused. “Did you know that goats can pull a cart?”
She laughed. “She bartered sapphires for goats?”
“And a very small cart.” He circled Bremerton. “How do you feel about violence?” Jack asked Caroline.
“I seldom condone it.”
“Ah. Too bad.” He moved directly in front of Bremerton and was amused to see Caroline reposition herself so there was nothing between her and her potential target. “Then we’ll do it like this…”
“I’m giving you one shot at me,” he said to Bremerton. “Totally free.”
“Jack…” Caroline said in a hesitant voice.
Jack grinned at the Englishman. “Take it, you git.”
Bremerton swung, but Jack ducked.
“Missed,” he said, right before he broke the bastard’s nose. Jack and Caroline watched as the Englishman crumpled.
“Do you have anything I can tie him up with?” Jack asked.
She stopped aiming at Bremerton long enough to gather a fistful of fat strings from a trunk.
“Corset lacings,” she said. While Jack trussed up the Englishman, Caroline aimed her gun.
“I don’t think he’s getting up,” Jack pointed out.
“I’m just being careful,” she said. “And about the violence, I said I seldom condone it. For him, I would have made an exception. You didn’t need to let him swing first.”
Satisfied with his knotwork, Jack stood. “I knew he couldn’t hit me. Now, how about if you put down that gun so I can propose?”
Her eyes grew wide. She carefully placed the gun on a curio shelf. Jack walked around Bremerton, who was beginning to stir, and took a knee in front of Caroline.
“Caroline, you are my love, my laughter, and the most frustrating woman I’ll ever meet. Would you please do me the honor of being my wife?”
Her eyes were misty, but her smile was bright when she said, “Jack Culhane, what took you so long?”
EPILOGUE
England was well behind them when the Maxwell women, Bernard, and Jack sat down to dinner on the Conqueror two days later.
“I have an announcement to make,” Caroline said to her parents once the champagne was poured. “My husband list is down to one name, and that is Jack’s. We plan to marry this winter, and there will be not a single cherub anywhere in the church. We very much want all of you there, though.”
Her father’s face had turned ruddy with emotion. “I’ve been waiting years to walk you down the aisle, Pumpkin.”
“Bernard,” Mama said before Papa started laughing.
“I know, I know. I can’t call her Pumpkin.”
Mama sighed. “I had so hoped for a duchess in the family, but Bremerton is well off the list.”
Before they had left, Papa had sent a packet to the Duke of Endsleigh with all the information that Caroline and Jack had uncovered on Bremerton. If he ever did inherit, he was likely to be a duke behind prison bars.
“But, you know,” Mama said, “there are so many nice English gentlemen, and Helen and Amelia have yet to marry.…”
“Oh, no,” Helen said. “Don’t even begin looking at me like that. I have no desire to live in England.”
“France, then. Or Italy,” Mama exclaimed. “You’ll make the most beautiful bride!”
Jack placed his hand over Caroline’s where it sat on the tabletop. They smiled at each other. Caroline had found the place she most wanted to be, and that was with Jack. They would have the perfect life and the perfect wedding, complete with chocolate cake.
ALSO BY JANET EVANOVICH
Love in a Nutshell (with Dorien Kelly)
Explosive Eighteen
Smokin’ Seventeen
Sizzling Sixteen
Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
Fearless Fourteen
Lean Mean Thirteen
Twelve Sharp
Eleven on Top
Ten Big Ones
To the Nines
Hard Eight
Seven Up
Hot Six
High Five
Four to Score
Three to Get Deadly
Two for the Dough
One for the Money
BETWEEN-THE-NUMBERS
Plum Spooky
Plum Lucky
Plum Lovin’
Visions of Sugar Plums
Metro Girl
Motor Mouth
Wicked Business
Wicked Appetite
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Janet Evanovich is the #1 bestselling author of the Stephanie Plums novels, Between-the-Numbers novels, Lizzy and Diesel novels, and How I Write. She lives in Florida. Please visit her at www.evanovich.com.
Dorien Kelly lives in Michigan with one or more of her three children, a couple of random and crazy rescue dogs, and a very spoiled West Highland White Terrier who is under the mistaken impression that he runs the whole pack. Please visit her at www.dorienkelly.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE HUSBAND LIST. Copyright © 2012 by The Gus Group. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design and illustration by Phil Pascuzzo
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Evanovich, Janet.
The husband list / Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-65132-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02597-5 (e-book)
1. Young women—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Rich people—Fiction. 4. New York (N.Y.)—History—1865–1898—Fiction. 5. Love stories. I. Kelly, Dorien. II. Title.
PS3555.V2126H87 2013
813’.54—dc23
2012037426
e-ISBN 9781250025975
First Edition: January 2013
Janet Evanovich, The Husband List
(Series: Culhane Family # 2)