Lady Guinevere and the Rogue with a Brogue - Julie Johnstone Page 0,110

a great plot to ensure you would not end up with Lady Guinevere, whom, to my utter shock, he had nurtured hopes of wedding since they were much younger. I fear I may have worsened an already intolerable situation for the lady when I met her quite by accident in Town and tried to make amends for my part in her current predicament as the on-dit of the Season. I apologized for your pursuing her to spite me.

Asher winced, though Guinevere had told him of that meeting already.

In my defense, I had not yet discovered your brother’s plot to come between the two of you, the details of which I feel at this juncture cannot possibly matter, for one player, Elizabeth, is deceased and the other player, Lord Kilgore, is paying handsomely for his transgressions against you. Once I did discover it, though, I forbade your brother from pursuing Lady Guinevere with the threat of cutting him off completely from my funds.

That explained why Pierce had not attempted to do so until their father had died.

I did write all of this in my letters to you, each of which you returned unopened. Mr. Benedict has them now if you ever wish to read them. I have instructed him to keep them safe for you.

Guilt struck Asher in the chest that he’d never forgiven his father.

I did what I could with my will to ensure you end up with Lady Guinevere and to make amends for what has happened to you. Between myself and Mr. Benedict, we chose candidates for your wife that we knew were not truly candidates. And I did what I could in Scotland to ensure that you were motivated to swallow your pride and come to London so that I might right some wrongs for you, as I never had the chance to do in life.

He’d done what he could in Scotland? Was his father the cause of the troubles with his distilleries? He’d had contracts that people had unexplainably backed out of. Competitors that had come into huge amounts of money that enabled them to win bids he’d tried to win. The list went on, but in that long list was all the reasons he’d been forced to sell shares of his company.

Yes, Asher, I was the cause of your troubles.

It was as if the man were here speaking to him.

It pained me, but it had to be done, and it was nothing permanent. If you failed to wed, Benedict was instructed to give you the shares of your company that I had anonymously purchased from you, as well as a large sum of money for you to use as you saw fit. He was also instructed to tell you none of this. I am hoping you are thanking me now.

So his father had involved Mr. Benedict in his scheme? Asher made a note to give Mr. Benedict a hefty bonus.

I have become as certain as I can be that you cared greatly for Lady Guinevere, as she did for you. My investigator tells me you have not had dealings with another lady since Elizabeth died, and I can only imagine what your marriage to her was like. Probably like my marriage to my second wife—cold and barely tolerable.

I know from Lady Guinevere’s father that she has turned down several respectable offers of marriage, and I concluded, as did her father, that the two of you are simply waiting, without realizing it, for the time you shall be together.

Asher stared at those words in shock. His father and Guinevere’s had colluded to bring them together?

And now you are. You’re welcome.

That made him laugh. That was more like his father. Pompous, but as fate would have it, he’d had a heart.

I love you, Son. I only wish I’d been able to say it when I was alive.

A knot formed in Asher’s throat. He hated that feeling, but he hated the regret that pressed against him even more. He’d thrown away the chance to know his father, and he could not get that back. He could not tell him he forgave him, even though now he did.

Guinevere. God’s blood, Guinevere. He had just about destroyed his chance with her, too. He hoped she was all right. He had to find her. But where to even look? He’d start by getting help from Beckford, and—

A pounding at the front door broke his train of thought, and he opened it as the footman rushed into the room. He scowled at