Chapter 28

Over the two days she’d spent as what could only be described as Lena Ridgeway’s prisoner, Poppy had come to a few unpleasant conclusions.

The first of which was that Lena’s dogs—all seven of them—were incredibly well trained, at least as guard dogs, since when they were not on duty, they got into all sorts of mischief, eating everything from unattended food to pieces of the furniture.

The next conclusion revolved around Nigel, who certainly was to blame, at least a bit, for Poppy being abducted in the first place, but who hadn’t seemed to grasp the lengths Lena was willing to go through to get him married off to Poppy. He’d been the one to hold Poppy’s head as she’d tossed up her accounts. But when he’d told Lena they needed to get Poppy back to the Van Rensselaer residence, and then began arguing with Lena after she refused his request, he soon found himself on the wrong end of Lena’s pistol. She’d then set one of her largest and meanest mutts to guard Nigel as the carriage rumbled into motion, telling Nigel in no uncertain terms that she knew best what he needed, which was apparently marriage to Poppy, and that had been that.

Poppy still had no idea why Lena wanted that marriage to take place. But because it turned out that the illness she’d most likely acquired through contact with her grandparents had been highly contagious, and because Lena and Nigel had both turned violently ill the day after she’d been abducted, Poppy had been forced to cool her heels in the locked room she’d been in ever since Lena had spirited her out of the city.

From what little Poppy had overheard as she’d been carted through the night in a carriage stuffed with dogs, Lena’s late husband had kept a cottage somewhere up the Hudson, and that’s where Lena had decided to hold Poppy until she came to her senses.

The whole situation was beyond bewildering, but the one conclusion Poppy couldn’t deny was this—Lena Ridgeway was mentally unstable, which made her a more than dangerous woman and made it more than urgent for Poppy to figure out a way to escape from the madness that now surrounded her.

A key scraping against the lock suddenly drew her attention. A second later, the door opened, revealing Nigel.

He was looking the worse for wear—dark circles under his eyes, face unusually pale, and stubble on his jaw.

“I’ve brought you some soup,” he said, swallowing as he hurried over to a small table and deposited the tray he was holding, backing away quickly, which gave testimony to the idea he was still feeling queasy.

“You might find it encouraging to hear that you won’t be under the weather long,” Poppy said, moving to the table and taking a seat. “I feel remarkably well today, and—”

“Shh . . .” Nigel whispered, cutting her off as he looked over his shoulder. “Don’t let Lena know that. She’s up and about too, apparently having willed herself to get better, and I don’t think it’ll benefit either of us to let her know you’re well. No telling what she’s got planned for us next.”

He jumped the slightest bit when Brutus, the dog that Lena had set to guard him, padded into the room and immediately began growling. Nigel plopped down in one of the two chairs the room offered, drawing his legs to his chest. “Shoo,” he said, which only had Brutus sitting on the floor directly beside the chair, baring his teeth.

Poppy resisted a smile, turning her attention to her soup. She immediately began spooning out chunks of the meat, which she slipped under the table to the two poodles Lena left in Poppy’s room every minute of the day.

“I’m truly sorry about this, Poppy. I had no idea Lena was—”

“Insane?”

“Exactly, although I had begun to realize that she wasn’t normal and that she was taking an unusual interest in my life, but I never imagined she’d go to these lengths to apparently make me happy.” Nigel blew out a breath. “Perhaps it would be easiest if you and I just gave in to Lena’s demands and got married.”

Poppy looked up. “I’m not marrying you, Nigel, nor do I even want to, and you don’t want to marry me either.” She looked to the door that Nigel had left open, a rule Lena had made, claiming that such an action would save Poppy’s reputation. It clearly showed how muddled Lena’s thinking had turned, as a ruined reputation would have certainly given just cause for why a wedding would have to take place—not that Poppy would have agreed to that, but still. After making certain there was no sign of Lena, Poppy lowered her voice and nodded to Nigel. “We’re simply going to have to find a way to escape.”

When he immediately began shaking his head, Poppy dug another piece of meat out of her soup and threw it to Nigel, who only barely managed to catch it. His face turned slightly green at the sight of it. “Don’t think I’m ready for food just yet.”

“It’s not for you. Give it to Brutus.”

“Oh.” Lowering his hand ever so slowly, Nigel looked clammier than ever when Brutus went after the meat, swallowing it whole and licking his chops a second later.

“See? He stopped growling at you.” She turned back to her bowl, but before she could fish out another piece, Lena strolled into the room. She was wearing an unusual day dress of deepest red, paired with a large matching bow in her hair, and, unfortunately, she was looking remarkably healthy.

“Ah, you’re eating, Poppy. Thank goodness. I was afraid you’d waste away to almost nothing, which certainly would leave the dresses you’ve been wearing of mine hanging from your frame, which wouldn’t be a good look for you at all.” She nodded to a wardrobe against the wall. “Do feel free to help yourself. As you’ve evidently noticed, I have a large selection, all of which I’m more than happy to share with you.”

Poppy glanced down at the dress she was wearing today, one that was at least twenty years out of date, what with how much fabric was devoted to the skirt.

She frowned. “I’m surprised you’d store so many dresses at your late husband’s cottage. Hardly seems as if that was convenient for you.”

“This wasn’t actually his cottage, dear. He bought it for me, and this”—she turned in a circle, gesturing around the room—“this is where I was kept when he decided I was suffering from bouts of insanity.” She stopped turning and caught Poppy’s eye. “There’s no need to fret that I’m insane, though. I used to suffer from a wee bit of melancholy—acute melancholy, as numerous doctors called it—but that melancholy all but disappeared after my husband died.” She began gesturing around the room again. “He died right in this very room.”

Poppy’s mouth turned dry. “Did you kill him?”

“Of course not. Simply because I’ve suffered from melancholy frequently over the years doesn’t make me bloodthirsty.”

“Not even when your husband apparently kept you a prisoner here?”

“Oh, I suppose I did think about harming him, but I never followed through on those thoughts. He died from overexerting himself after I was having a touch of a fit when he wouldn’t allow me to add a few more dogs to our family. He decided to throw me over his shoulder to get me back into this room where he was planning on locking me away again. I’m afraid he was far too old at that point to carry me, so he collapsed in the middle of this very floor and . . . that was the end of him.” She moved to Nigel and sent a pointed look to the chair he was sitting in.

Nigel slowly lowered his legs, winced when Brutus growled low in his throat, then rose to his feet and moved to stand on the other side of the room, seeming to want to put as much distance as he could between himself, Lena, and her still-growling dog.

Sitting down in the chair Nigel had just abandoned, Lena pulled her ever-handy pistol from a pocket of her dress, placed it on her lap, and smiled pleasantly at Poppy. “Now then, why don’t you impress me with what you’ve learned from Lord Blackburn about proper conversations? Better yet, why don’t we discuss Lord Blackburn’s blatant dishonesty with you, which might have you putting those pesky feelings you probably still hold for the man aside. And don’t try to convince me you don’t have feelings for him. That was all too obvious to me when he interrupted us the other day and said he was going to be escorting you to the ball, laying waste to the lovely evening I’d been hoping you’d share with Nigel. Why, your expression after he said all that was downright sappy.”

Poppy settled back in the chair and considered Lena for a long moment.

That she’d been furious with Reginald was not in question. It also wasn’t in question that she had feelings for the man, and complicated feelings at that. But she was fairly certain he’d taken her parting words to him as a demand for him to never contact her again, even though she’d simply been desperately ill when Lena had disclosed his duplicity and needed to get away from the ball before she’d gotten ill all over the gleaming marble floor.

But even knowing that he’d been less than honest with her, he wasn’t a cruel man, which made it hard to believe he’d set out to deliberately make sport of her. He’d also come to her rescue time and time again, and had even taken to looking out for her when it looked like someone was trying to sabotage her Season.

That right there is why she’d decided, as she’d been locked away for almost two days, that if she ever escaped from Lena and her madness, she was going to have to seek Reginald out. She needed to hear from him exactly why he’d withheld his true identity from her. That would hopefully allow the anger she still held over his duplicity to fade even more than it already had, and—

A snap of a finger brought Poppy out of her thoughts, a snap that had come from Lena’s direction and had three of her dogs scampering to her side.

“Mooning over the man is not going to help you get over him,” Lena said, smoothing a hand over the head of one of her poodles. She nodded to Nigel. “Why don’t you tell her something about yourself, dear, something that will impress her.”

Nigel arched a brow. “Do you believe it’ll impress her, Lena, if I tell her you want me to marry her so I can get the land deeded to her—land that will finally allow me to proceed with a mining venture I’ve been interested in?”

“Wait, that’s why Lena wants you to marry me?” Poppy asked before Lena could do more than scowl Nigel’s way. “Because of my land?”

Nigel nodded. “I’m afraid so. There’s an enormous coalfield under Garrison Farms, and even though the rumors are true about me being extremely wealthy, I’ve unfortunately found that money doesn’t always get a man what he desires.”

“That’s where I come in,” Lena said, smiling fondly at Nigel even as she wagged a finger at him. “And while I know you’re put out with me for taking control of this situation, you must understand that I’ve only done so because you’ve become the son my late husband would never allow me to have.” Her eyes hardened. “Did I tell the two of you that my parents actually bought my husband for me? Not that I knew it at the time, but that’s exactly what they did.”

When Nigel merely gaped at Lena, Poppy cleared her throat. “You haven’t mentioned that.”

Lena ran a finger along the contours of her pistol. “My parents were always concerned about me, coming to believe there was something dreadfully wrong with me because I occasionally had outbursts of temper, quite like I imagine most children do. However, they decided my outbursts were not normal, which had them dragging me to one doctor after another over the years, as well as having me committed to a few asylums.” She looked up. “They finally realized, what with how they were getting older, that they weren’t going to live forever. My mother, who was actually a dear soul, didn’t want to have to commit me to an asylum for the rest of my days. That’s when my father approached Frank Ridgeway and extended him an offer he simply couldn’t refuse.”

She leaned forward and brushed aside the curtain that covered the one window in the room. “I was so delighted to discover there was a gentleman interested in marrying me, and delighted that my parents had decided it was time for me to be presented to society as well. Being presented wasn’t an extravagant endeavor back then, mind you. I simply put up my hair and attended a formal dinner my parents held. And because I was well behaved at that dinner, they began allowing Frank to escort me to a few society events, which I enjoyed tremendously.”

Lena turned to Poppy. “We were married within three months. I quickly learned, though, that Frank had no intention of sharing a normal marriage with me, nor was he ever going to allow me to have children, not wanting to pass on my . . . affliction, as he called it, to anyone else. When I flew into a rage, I soon found myself locked away in this very room, something that happened frequently during the years we were married.” Her eyes gleamed. “I also became aware of the disturbing fact that once a woman marries, she has no control over anything—not her money, not her property, and certainly not her life. It was at Frank’s complete discretion whether or not to send me off to asylums. He began sending me off more frequently after my parents died and he came into control of all their money.”

Lena smiled sweetly—a smile that was, in actuality, downright terrifying. “I found it so liberating after Frank died, realized I was finally free, especially after I learned that the fortune Frank had left behind was mine to spend however I pleased. It was lovely to be able to travel to my many houses whenever I wanted. I readily admit I was becoming rather lonely, though.” She nodded to Nigel. “I cannot tell you how delighted I was when you arrived at my home in the city to speak with Frank, having no idea he’d died. You were so considerate, taking the time to explain how Frank had invested in a few of your endeavors, and you were so apologetic about how one endeavor was no longer viable since you’d been unable to acquire the land you needed.”

Poppy frowned and turned to Nigel. “You weren’t the one who was responsible for the bank trying to foreclose on my parents, were you?”

Nigel winced. “I’m afraid I was. Not that I’m proud of that.”

“But how did you manage it?”

“Well, when I was attempting to get control of land in Canonsburg because of the coal discovered there, I was also trying to get my hands on Garrison Farms.” He blew out a breath. “I sent a man down there to see if your father was willing to sell, which he wasn’t. So, after I looked into your father’s finances, I learned he’d taken out a large loan to expand his business into Kentucky. I then made a large deposit in that very bank, which then caused the bank manager to call in your father’s loan early when I threatened to pull my money back out.”

“That’s despicable.”

Nigel nodded. “Agreed, but when your grandmother swept in and saved the day, I began to realize that I did need to change my ways, especially after everything went so horribly wrong for me in Pittsburgh.” He shook his head. “I was stunned to find myself ostracized from Pittsburgh society after society members there discovered I’d used rather intimidating and unethical tactics in a failed attempt to acquire farmland down in Canonsburg.”

“You told me your employee was responsible for that.”

Nigel nodded. “Yes, but I only did that because I didn’t want to find myself ostracized from New York society as well, not when I’d just entered it, and—”

“To remind you, dear,” Lena interrupted, “you only got to mingle with high society because of me.”

As Nigel retreated into silence, probably because Lena had gotten a rather wild look on her face, Poppy narrowed her eyes on him.

“I do hope you’re not going to disclose next, Nigel, that you somehow managed to trick Lena into getting you into high society.”

“He did nothing of the sort,” Lena snapped before Nigel could respond. “I told you, he came looking for Frank, and during that visit, I realized that the darling boy might actually need me.” Her gaze drifted back to the window again. “No one has ever needed me before, except my dogs of course, but they’re not really the same thing.” She heaved a sigh. “I’ve always wanted someone to need me, which is why I asked Nigel if he’d be so kind as to join me for a New York Season.” She turned back to Poppy. “I’ve also always wanted to be known as a lady with an eye for matchmaking, and what perfect way for me to finally embrace that notion than to find Nigel a wife? Why, after you launched that snail at him, I thought it was a sign that you were exactly the type of bride he needed.”

“Because I hit him with a snail?”

“No, because you were so charmingly embarrassed afterward, and my Nigel kept smiling at you. That’s when I knew you belonged together.” She shook her head. “I must admit I might have been pushing a bit too hard when I hired those men to steal your reticule, intending for Nigel to impress you when he raced to your rescue again, but this time not having to share the spotlight with another man.”

“You hired men to steal her reticule?” Nigel asked.

“I did, because again, I have only your best interests at heart, darling. But . . .” She grimaced. “They were supposed to ambush you in Central Park, since that’s where you told me you were going to take Poppy to ride that day if she was available.” She released a dramatic sigh. “Good thing I followed you to the Van Rensselaer home, which allowed me, along with the three hired thugs I had in my carriage with me, to see you depart from the Van Rensselaers’ without Poppy.”

“I would have thought that circumstance would have caused you to abandon your plan,” Nigel said slowly.

Lena waved that aside. “I’m not one who enjoys being thwarted, dear. After you rode off, I nipped in to the Van Rensselaer house on the pretense I was paying Viola a call and learned that Poppy had gone to Rutherford & Company for tea. I then deduced that you were probably heading off for Broadway as well, in the hopes that you’d run into her.”

“I wasn’t on Broadway because I’d decided to track Poppy down,” Nigel argued. “I thought to stop in at my barber since I had some unexpected time on my hands.”

“How disappointing,” Lena said before she brightened. “But it all worked out well in the end. I positioned myself and the hired men in an alley directly beside Rutherford & Company, then set those men after Poppy when she finally left that store, telling them to wait until they caught sight of you before wrenching Poppy’s reticule away from her.”

“But I was nowhere to be found,” Nigel pointed out.

“I know, but you did manage to stumble onto the scene at just the right moment. You then retrieved Poppy’s reticule without hesitation, although I am sorry the man smacked you in the face, which was not well done of him, but it proved to me that I was a brilliant strategist and that I would succeed in seeing you married to Poppy sometime in the near future.”

Poppy blinked. “But that was—”

“Brilliant?” Lena finished for her with a nod. “I know.”

“That wasn’t the word I was going to use, because, if you ask me, since Nigel didn’t know about your plan, it was merely a very peculiar circumstance that he just happened to arrive on the scene and give chase to the man who’d stolen my reticule.”

“It was a sign, dear, one I took to mean I was to continue with my matchmaking efforts in regard to you and Nigel.”

Poppy chanced a glance to Nigel, who was rubbing a hand over his face, clearly at a loss for words.

Poppy couldn’t say she blamed him. Shifting in the chair, she stilled when a thought sprang to mind. “Did you hire those men to continue following me? Because one of them tried to abduct me down in Five Points.”

Lena raised a hand to her throat. “How concerning, but no. I imagine that was simply one of those peculiar coincidences as well, probably brought about because you’d put up more of a fight with those men than I’d prepared them for. I told them you were a demure and retiring sort.”

Poppy frowned. “Were you also responsible for the balcony incident, one where I could have very well lost my life?”

“If I’d wanted you dead, child, I wouldn’t have chosen to toss you over a balcony. There would have been no subtlety in that, but no, no one was responsible for that incident except yourself, although it sparked my plan to set Nigel up to save you again.”

“What about the musket balls?”

Lena nodded. “That was me. I got the idea after Miss Adele Tooker tripped you up with that cane at Delmonico’s. She’s a horrid lady, although I can’t help but appreciate her determination to take out the competition to achieve what she wants. That’s why I took a page out of her book after I noticed Lord Lonsdale being far too friendly toward you at your tea. I needed to make him believe you were a clumsy sort, not suitable to become a countess, and I just happened to have those musket balls in my reticule, which was very fortunate indeed.”

“Why would you keep musket balls in your reticule?” Poppy asked.

“One never knows when one might need a musket ball.”

Not bothering to point out how ridiculous that answer was, Poppy shook her head. “Poor Adele. There were many people present at my tea who thought she was responsible for that.”

“Make no mistake about it, Adele would have had no qualms about laying you low if she’d had ready access to musket balls,” Lena said.

Poppy leaned back in the chair. “I still don’t understand how you believe abducting me is going to get that land for Nigel or get me to marry him. You must realize that it’s a plan doomed to fail.”

“It’s not,” Lena snapped, sitting forward. “It’s brilliant, and it won’t fail. You’ll marry Nigel, and he’ll get the land he desires as well as the wife a man of his station in life deserves.”

“But I don’t want to marry her,” Nigel said, speaking up, even though doing so earned him a growl from Brutus.

Lena frowned. “She’s perfect for you. Beautiful, wealthy, and she seems to be enjoying quite the success this Season even with the drama she’s experienced. Why, I heard a few ladies whispering that she’s actually now considered a diamond of the first water, and that, my darling boy, is exactly what you need in a wife.”

“Forgive me, Lena,” Nigel began, shooting Poppy an apologetic look, “but I’m afraid Poppy simply doesn’t appeal to me. Yes, she’s beautiful, but in all honesty, she’s exhausting.”

Lena blinked and considered Nigel for a very long, very uncomfortable moment before she finally nodded. “Fine. You won’t marry her. However”—she leveled her gaze on Poppy—“you will agree here and now to sign over that farm to Nigel. I won’t see him deprived of that.”

Poppy shook her head. “Even though you apparently eavesdropped on my conversation with Murray when I told him my parents had deeded the farm over to me, that’s not accurate information. I insisted my parents change the deed to include my two brothers, so I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to sign anything over to you even if I wanted to—which I don’t, if that’s in question.”

Fury flashed through Lena’s eyes as she sprang to her feet. “Then what good are you to me?” she shrieked right before she raised the pistol, aiming it directly at Poppy’s heart.