‘Terence Cummings is the murderer... You all have it wrong. He was the one who killed Clive Sherborne and tried to kidnap a young child. He is a smuggler who makes money out of others’ misfortunes and it was him who paid men to attack the Earl of Douglas on this terrace and in Kew Gardens. I swear this is true on the hope of my soul in Heaven.’
Lucien Howard and Gabriel Wesley had the men in hand and their presence added to her truths. Sally Cummings was crying profusely but in a softer tone now and she made no effort to refute the accusation.
‘We’ll take him to Bow Street.’ Lucien said this and a murmur ran through the onlookers. She saw a quick communication go between him and Francis.
For so many years her husband had fought alone, managed alone, lived alone. Well, no longer. She would make certain he was seen by others in exactly the same way she saw him. Honourable and solid.
Without thought she faced the Duke of Winbury. ‘Perhaps, Your Grace, you should be more careful about whom you associate with in the future. Your cousin appears to be everything you say he is not and we have the witnesses to prove it. He is a murderer, a kidnapper and a thief.’ Her words were easily heard and she did not falter as she caught the face of her mother. Elizabeth looked shocked and pale. ‘My husband and I will wait to receive your apology, Richard. I hope it will be forthcoming.’
With that she simply stepped back and threaded her arm through Francis’ and without a backward glance they made their way from the terrace, through the colourful crowded ballroom, past the silent watchful musicians and out into the night. Hailing the waiting Douglas carriage, they quickly got in.
‘It is over, Francis.’ Sephora saw that he shook and the pallor of his skin was white.
‘God’ was his only reply and she laughed then, a way to relieve the tension she was to think later, a way to find a pathway through everything that had happened. He had given her breath beneath the bridge all those weeks ago and she was giving him some back right now. A space. A time to regather.
The small and utter truth of love.
This came without reflection or thought. It was the wholeness of them together, two halves that were perfectly melded and undeniably linked.
This was what marriage should be like. A formidable team who would fight everyone who tried to harm them and would be balanced and equal and honest. No one side dominant, no other side weakened. She would never let him down as certainly as she knew he would not disappoint her either.
‘I love you, Francis,’ she said and meant it. ‘You are my heart.’
When he smiled back she placed her hand across his and watched as his bloodied and shaking fingers wound about her own.
* * *
Gabriel Hughes, Daniel Wylde and Lucien Howard came to the town house an hour and a half after they had arrived home and they were jubilant.
‘Those who Cummings had employed to rough you up, Francis, were only too pleased to tell the truth of their part in the proceedings in order to escape heavier penalties. Sally Cummings herself provided the rest of the proof by promising to produce papers implicating her husband in the sale of illicit liquor across many outlets in the city. She said he needed to be locked up for good as he was a threat to each and every one of the upstanding citizens of London town.’
‘Comprehensive, I’d say.’ Francis was astonished. ‘Why did she do it, do you think?’
‘Oh, she told us that and in a voice that most of the ton would have been party to. She’d been bullied by him for far too long, she said. Her father had warned her of the nature of the man, but she had not listened. The Duke of Winbury looked nothing but furious at such aspersions towards his family.’
‘Miss Julia Bingham made short shrift of the night I noticed.’ Lucien Howard said this as he helped himself to a glass of Francis’s best brandy. ‘Your parents too, Sephora, were less than impressed by Winbury’s defence of a man who was so patently lying. Your mother was crying, but this time I think it was at the realisation of her own foolishness in believing in the lies about your husband and the dispersing crowd itself felt much the same, Francis. I think you have been exonerated.’
‘Out of great evil comes a goodness.’ Gabriel Hughes muttered this and they all laughed, the relief of the evening’s tension unfolding in a way they could never have truly predicted.
Sephora took her husband’s hand in her own. If she ever lost him... She stopped herself. Once she had worried about things from dawn to dusk, but now with Francis at her side anything and everything was possible. She could breathe again, easily.
Chapter Fifteen
Two days later they were finally at Colmeade House and everything was back in place. Anna had been overjoyed at being home again and, after sitting down and reassuring her that all her worries were over, had easily settled to sleep that night.
‘Mrs Billinghurst looked the prettiest I have ever seen her appear,’ Sephora said softly as Francis and she lay in bed later that night, the curtains pulled back and the wide summer sky about them.
‘Her husband died a long while ago and left her largely penniless. She is probably as relieved to have a home as Anna is. Timothy seemed well too, and Hopeful looks fatter than when we left him.’
‘Mrs Wilson feeds him the best scraps from the kitchen. I’ve seen her do it. You are beset by a houseful of strays, Francis, who are all thriving here. Myself included.’
He laughed at that, the lines at the sides of his eyes creasing into humour. ‘A houseful of family,’ he amended, ‘and I should never wish to change it.’
‘What will happen to Terence Cummings do you think? And Sally?’
‘Cummings will stand trial for the murder of Clive Sherborne and his wife will undoubtedly return to her family with a much better understanding of what she needs in a husband. She is still young and wealthy. Let’s hope she chooses a man next time who is honourable.’
‘My parents sent a note to ask if they might come down to visit when we are settled in again. It arrived today.’
‘I’d like that.’
She sat up and looked at him directly. ‘Would you? Even after all that has happened with them?’
‘They were trying to protect you from difficulty and who is to say that I won’t act the same when Anna brings home a suitor and he is not everything I’d hoped for her.’
‘I wish I had known your parents and your sister. I wish they were here too, with us.’
‘Perhaps they are. If I ever lost you, Sephora, I know that you would sit here right next to my heart. You would never be gone from inside me. I swear it.’
‘You see that is why I love you, Francis. You do not parrot the words that mean nothing. You only ever give me a truth and after all the lies I am so thankful for it.’
‘The truth?’ His voice was hesitant, a tone in it so unlike the certainty she usually heard she felt a shift of worry. ‘Can I tell you something, Sephora? Something that sounds...strange?’
He sat up now too, and leaned against the headboard, bringing her in beside him and tucking her there close.
‘When you fell into the water I heard my sister’s voice as clear as day, and as certain as I hear yours now beside me.’
‘What did she say?’
‘She said, “Save her, Francis, and save yourself.” I heard her plainly and that has never happened to me before or since. And she was right.’
‘Right?’
‘We saved each other.’
She nodded. ‘I’ve been writing poems in the book you gave to me. Can I read one to you?’
When he said he would like that she leaned over to the bedside table and opened the small top drawer, extracting her diary from it.
‘It’s not very good and you might think...’
He placed a finger over the words. ‘Go on.’
Clearing her throat she began, though she felt as nervous as she had ever been before.
‘“You brought me from the darkness; And the cold of below; Up into the light of laughter and love; And breath that was mine to live in...”’
‘Breath,’ he whispered when she had finished the next few verses and took her hand into his own. ‘We gave each other breath, and what more from life could you want than that?’
‘I love you, Francis, with all my heart.’
As his hands threaded through her hair he sealed her lips with his, pushing forward to find all that it was he offered.
He was her heart just as she was his. They had both been lost and were now found, the loneliness and uncertainty swept away in a wave of truth.
She had crossed a threshold and everything she had known was changed for finally she was home.
* * * * *