Regency Mistletoe & Marriages: A Countess by Christmas / The Earl's Mistletoe Bride

‘That is simply not true! Aunt Bella was already at loggerheads with both her brothers before she even knew I existed. You see, much to everyone’s surprise, she inherited a substantial fortune when she came of age.’ Helen did not think she was betraying a confidence by telling him this much. It was public knowledge. ‘She decided to use it to set up house on her own, even though both brothers fiercely opposed her bid for independence. If she no longer wished to live with either of them, they maintained, then she should regard it as a dowry and find herself a suitable husband. They insisted it was scandalous behaviour for an unmarried female to remove herself from their sphere of influence. Taking me in and declaring she would raise me as her own was just the last straw. I admit that neither of them have set foot in her house since the day she formally adopted me, but—’

‘She adopted you? You are not, then, her natural daughter?’

‘Good heavens, no! Who told you such a dreadful thing?’

He shook his head. ‘It was implied…’

General Forrest had sidled up to him in the withdrawing room after dinner the night before and begun to drop a series of vague hints. Which, when added together, had left him with the distinct impression that Isabella Forrest had been a wild, ungovernable girl, who had been forcibly evicted from his life because of the advent of Helen into it.

What kind of man deliberately blackened his own sister’s reputation? God knew, he had no great love for either of his, but even as General Forrest had been making those sly innuendoes he had felt revolted by the man’s attitude, knowing he would never disparage anyone so closely related to him to a third party even if what he had implied was true. But Miss Forrest was now telling him a completely different version of events.

‘If you maintain you are not Isabella Forrest’s natural daughter, who exactly are you?’

‘My father,’ she said, tight-lipped with anger, ‘was the Comte de Bois de St Pierre. A penniless French émigré when he met and married my mother, in spite of opposition from her family. They lived a simple but happy life together until their death. At which time I was ten years old. None of my father’s family were left alive to take me in. And none of my mother’s family wanted me. I was passed from one to another for several months before Aunt Bella came to my rescue. Though strictly speaking she is not really my aunt at all. We are only connected through General Forrest’s marriage to one of my mother’s sisters,’ she explained.

‘However, she declared she would be a better guardian to me than any of those more nearly related, since she would not resent my presence in her house. As I have already told you, she was already on poor terms with her brothers, on account of her lifestyle. Taking me in and legally adopting me was only the last straw. I admit they did break with her entirely after that…’

The Earl frowned. ‘I fail to understand why that should be. What business was it of anyone else’s if she chose to take in and raise a child nobody else wanted?’

‘Exactly!’

The Earl was still frowning. ‘What do you mean by “her lifestyle”? What was wrong with it?’

‘Nothing at all!’ Helen flashed. ‘Except for the fact that she refused to marry.’

Helen’s mouth twisted with wry amusement. When she had asked Aunt Bella, not long after first going to live with her, if she had really never wished to marry, she had given one of her contemptuous snorts and said, ‘I had a Season without getting one single proposal. If they did not want me without money, then I certainly was not about to hand it, and myself, over to any of them once I’d got it! Besides,’ she had pointed out astutely, ‘men always think they know best. If I’d had a husband he would never have permitted me to adopt you. And then where would we both be?’

Helen had gone quite cold inside. If Isabella Forrest had been more conventional, and had meekly married to please her family, Helen shuddered to think where she would be. From that moment on she had never questioned the older woman’s decision to remain single again. And as she had grown she had found that she too was rather strong-willed, and would likely find it just as difficult as Aunt Bella to have to defer to a man, whether he was right or wrong, simply because convention decreed it.

‘Aunt Bella said she saw no reason to hand her fortune over into the hands of some man who would fritter it away.’

Instead she had managed to lose it all on her own. Helen blinked and hung her head. Her poor aunt’s humiliation was complete. After a lifetime of striving for independence, she was reduced to begging a man—this man, the head of her extended family—for her daily bread.

‘Did she formally adopt you?’ Lord Bridgemere asked sharply.

Helen nodded.

‘Which is why you go by the name of Forrest now. Although you were born Helen de Bois de St Pierre?’

‘Helène, to be precise,’ she informed him. ‘But, since there is so much prejudice against the French on account of the war, my aunt thought it better to Anglicise me as much as possible.’

He nodded, as though accepting the wisdom of that, and then said casually, ‘Did she by any chance make you her sole heir as well?’

She nodded again.

Well, that explained the General’s antipathy to this young woman. He would still have had hope, whilst his sister remained unmarried, that some part of her fortune might revert to him upon her demise. Until she had adopted Helen and made her the sole beneficiary of her will.

It always came down to money in the end.

A cynical expression swept over his face as he clasped his hands together on the desktop, leaned forward and said, ‘Speaking of which, perhaps now you would be good enough to get to the real reason why you requested this private interview with me?’

Helen frowned. ‘I do not understand.’

He made a gesture of impatience. ‘Do not take me for a fool, Miss Forrest. You all come here each Christmas for one reason and one reason only.’ He got to his feet and strode to the window.

‘I came with my aunt because I felt she needed my support. That is all.’

‘You expect me to believe you want nothing from me?’ he sneered, whirling round.

‘Nothing at all. Except…’

‘Yes, now we come down to it,’ he said, his face a tight mask of fury. ‘Think very carefully before you make your petition known to me. Because once you leave this room you will not get another chance to speak to me in private! I grant each of you one interview and only one.’

It was imperative he put her back with the rest of them. He should never have singled her out for special treatment simply because she had not known who he was when she first came here, and had made the mistake of letting him see her true self.

‘My decision,’ he warned her, ‘whatever it may be, is irrevocable! Do not think you will be able to sway me from it!’

Helen got slowly to her feet. ‘I do not know what suspicions you harbour where I am concerned, but I repeat: the only reason I came to you today was to clear the air between us and beg you to put any animosity you may feel for me to one side when you consider Aunt Bella’s future. Neither of her brothers is likely to show her any mercy after the stand she took against them in her youth. She has nobody but you to depend on now. And if you will not take pity on her—’

‘Do you not want me to take pity on you, too? Is your need not as desperate as hers?’

‘No,’ she replied calmly. ‘My case is not at all desperate. I am young and strong and quite capable of looking after myself.’

‘You expect me to believe you want nothing from me?’

His implication that she was not only dishonest but also incapable of looking after herself was really beginning to grate. ‘Nor any man!’ she flashed. No wonder Aunt Bella had taken the almost unheard of decision never to marry. ‘I repeat: I am quite capable of looking after myself. And even if I were in need of help, why should I apply to you? I have no claim on you. We are not related.’

‘That would not stop most women…’

‘It would stop any woman with an ounce of pride!’ she retorted.

‘Of which I observe you have more than your fair share.’

Without her conscious decision, her hands curled into fists at her sides. At this very moment she wished she were a man, with the freedom to come to fisticuffs with him! Her only recourse as a female was to tell him exactly what she thought of his horrid opinions of women. But she could not do even that! She had come here to mend fences, to smooth the way for her aunt—not to start a completely new family feud.

He could see her battling with her temper. For one moment he had the impression she was about to fling herself at him bodily. He braced himself for the onslaught, imagining himself capturing her wrists as she tried to strike at him. Subduing her by twisting her arms behind her back. Showing her exactly who was in charge here by stopping that saucy mouth with a hard kiss.

He caught his breath. Took a step towards her.

‘Miss Forrest…’ His voice, he realised to his surprise, was hoarse.

She put up one hand, as though to ward him off.

‘Enough!’

‘But—’

‘No,’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘I think I had better leave before one of us says something they will regret.’