"She came to me," Bathwick supplied. "Father has known for a year that our foundry in Wales produced inferior steel prone to brittle fracturing. Steel too high in carbon," he explained to Gwyneth. "Which makes for brittle rather than flexible steel-"

"Lord Bathwick-" Rachel prompted, before he launched into the physics of the steel-making process.

"Father knew the bridge in Scotland would eventually fail, and had hoped to eliminate any trail back to us, thus hoping to prove your company negligent. I believe he possessed some scheme eventually to reclaim Ore Industries. Unfortunately for him, there never was a merger."

"People could have been killed." Rachel's voice was scathing.

"Except John Donally discovered the problem."

"Where is your father now?" Rachel demanded.

Lord Bathwick spared a brief glimpse at Gwyneth. "He came home this morning while she was in the room."

"My sister hit him over the head with a vase." Gwyneth wrung her small hands in her lap. "We shut the door and jammed the desk against it so he couldn't get out."

Having yet to speak, his elbows braced on his knees, Ryan rubbed a hand over his rough jaw. So far, nothing of this potential disaster had made it into the public. "You realize this is a criminal matter."

Lord Bathwick took the seat next to Gwyneth and faced Ryan directly. "In reality, the erupting scandal will only do more harm than good for everyone, and still doesn't solve the problem of my father. He can do irreparable harm in other ways. This doesn't have to become public. No one was killed. At least on that matter I have heard that your brother is improving. You have your records intact. I have set upon the matter of finding any other sites that may be affected by the steel that came from my family's foundry. Finally, when all is said and done, the worst that can happen to my father is a trial by his peers, which though humiliating to him would be far worse to the rest of us."

Lord Bathwick produced a document from inside his jacket pocket. "After a long discussion this morning, my father is willing to negotiate for his freedom. I believe you can still have your justice. You were the one who gave me the idea about a trust with your settlement to Gwyneth."

Rachel leaned over Ryan's shoulder and read the signed confession. Her sleeve whispered against his shoulder. The scent of apples and cinnamon touched him, then spilled into his veins. He turned his face, and her hazel gaze hesitated on his.

"If my father ever sets foot again in England, you have that document," Lord Bathwick said. "And he will never receive another shilling from Gwyneth and me. I wanted to give this to Miss...to your wife, so that she could talk to you."

Ryan moved his gaze to the younger man sitting across from him.

"You didn't misjudge me, Mr. Donally." Bathwick's mouth twisted with grim amusement. "But when I want to fight you it will be on familiar and legal ground."

Chapter 24.

"H ave you read this morning's financials?" Rachel stood with her fists clenched around the broadsheet at the end of Johnny's bed and looked between the faces of his two brothers. "Ryan has stepped down as head of Ore Industries."

"I know, colleen," Johnny said. "He told us."

Her jaw dropped open. "Ryan was here? When?"

Johnny looked at Colin and Christopher, who were sitting next to the bed, cards in hand, the game they were playing paused. "This morning."

"He didn't stay long," Christopher said, laying down a knave on the sheet that covered Johnny to his chest.

Rachel glared at each of his brothers and felt a surge of anger in Ryan's defense, despite the fact that she

had not seen him since he dropped her off at Lord Ravenspur's after leaving Bathwick's three days ago."Did you argue?"Colin shrugged his wide shoulders. "I don't think so. Did we?""Only if ye count that wee discussion he had with Chris about the dog he gave Mary Elizabeth," Johnny said. "I would call that an argument."

"Don't any of you care what he is doing?"

"What can we do, colleen?" Johnny asked, laying down an ace and swiping up the cards. "Ryan sets his

mind on something, and that's the end of it."

"But he doesn't have to do this." How could they not care? "Did he say anything else while he was here?" Rachel looked between them.

"For instance?"

Clamping her jaw, Rachel turned and left the room.

She was leaving in a few hours to catch the train to Holyhead. Ryan had not been at his house this

morning. He had not been at Ore Industries or Donally & Bailey. He had brought Mary Elizabeth here this morning and had not awakened Rachel. Now she had packed, and no one even seemed concerned that she was leaving.

"Maybe I shouldn't leave tonight," Rachel said, when Brianna joined her later on the terrace for tea. She'd listened all morning to the chatter of the ladies gathered around the drawing room, a familiar knottightening in the pit of her stomach as she felt teary-eyed and in need of a nap, as if she hadn't sleptenough these past days.

"Nonsense," Brianna quietly said, as if she understood Rachel's vexation and maddened frustration.

"Memaw is expecting you back. You've already wired her."Brianna was correct, of course. She'd settled her affairs at D&B yesterday. Cleaned out her office andprepared to return to Ireland. She had told everyone she was.

As soon as manners permitted, Rachel excused herself and walked out onto the terrace to find Mary Elizabeth. The afternoon silence drew her gaze around the yard. She walked to the edge of the yard and looked over the iron gate into the park.

"Lady Alexandra took them all to the zoo, mum," Elsie informed her when she'd walked through anempty house and up the stairs to her chambers.Her peridot silk morning gown lay out in repose on her bed."Elsie, I cannot possibly wear this dress to Holyhead.""Oh, but you can, mum." She fretted and wrung her hands. "It's beautiful."Rachel narrowed her eyes, sure that everyone in this house had gone mad."My apologies, mum. But your trunks have already been removed to the carriage. Would you have them brought back?"

Rachel sighed. "No." She fingered the peridot silk.

The dress was too nice for travel. But it was beautiful, and she let Elsie dress her and fret with her hair.

Elsie finished buttoning the row of tiny pearls up her back.

As Rachel slipped her arms into the waist-fitting jacket, she caught sight of Brianna in the mirror. "Thetrain leaves at six o'clock," her sister-in-law said.Rachel didn't bother glancing at the clock. She would get there early at this rate. She left the room and stopped as she met Lord Ravenspur at the top of the stairway. Wearing a nice suit of clothes, he didn't look dressed for taking her to the train station. Upon seeing her, he stopped pacing. One perfect eyebrow rose to peer at his wife, standing behind Rachel.

"Are you ready?" he asked Rachel.

"Does someone want to explain to me what is going on around here?"

"Mum," Elsie stood behind her. "I was told to give this to you."

Rachel looked at the wide velvet box in her hands.

"It's a hat box, mum," Elsie stated the obvious.

"Open it, Rachel." Brianna removed the lid.

Rachel stared at a beautiful wide-brimmed hat with a wondrous concoction of feminine ribbons, feathers,

and flowers for trimming. It was made of pale blue silk, pleated beneath the brim. Elsie withdrew the hatand held it out to her. A long veil of airy Belgian lace cascaded from the back and flowed over Elsie'sforearm as she offered the hat to Rachel. She couldn't move. Her arms remained at her sides. "I-"Rachel shook her head. "I don't understand," she whispered in reverence, afraid to touch the hat.

"He wanted to give you a church wedding," Brianna said. "But he hoped you would settle for this. He has been out all day looking for something special that would make you feel like a bride."

Tears filled her eyes. "He's here?"Brianna took the hat from Elsie's hands and settled it on her head. "He's waiting for you in Johnny'schambers."

Rachel's hands trembled so much that Brianna was left to tie the ribbon into a fluffy bow at her chin.

"Hurry," Rachel whispered.Her defenses had crumbled completely. She rushed to the mirror. The hat didn't match the dress exactly,but she didn't care. From the neck up, she felt like a bride.

Lord Ravenspur snatched her elbow before she could run into Johnny's bedroom. "I would be honored."

He turned her around.

They were standing alone in the corridor."I'm sorry." Rachel laid her palm on his forearm. "It's just that I never had time to think about being abride. The last time I married him, I thought there might be violence. Indeed, there was violence, Isuppose, if you count that David hit Ryan-"

"I believe that happens quite a bit in this family." His rueful smile was white and dashing, and Rachel glimpsed the rogue beneath the ducal facade of her aristocratic brother-in-law.

He walked her down the corridor, through the sitting room, and into Johnny's chambers. Rachel stopped. The entire Donally family was gathered inside. Ryan stood at the back of the room, Christopher next to him.

But her eyes caught on Ryan, and her lungs swelled.

He was standing in front of the fireplace, his hands folded in front of him. From his dark brows, the sweep of his hair across his brow, to his polished shoes, every line of his familiar body emanated the same magnetism that had pulled him into her dreams and kept her awake at night. That had forced her face into the pillow to muffle her tears when she thought she had lost him. His black coat fit his tall, splendid form, the dazzling whiteness of his shirt contrasting with the sensual black of his eyes, and everything about the moment caught inside her.

She felt the brim of tears behind her lids. Then she looked at Mary Elizabeth and young Lord Robert standing excitedly in their church attire beside her. One carried a basket of rose petals. The other a pillow bearing two simple gold rings. She looked at the faces of his family gathered around the furniture, touching each one in turn with her gaze. Christopher's twins stood with their mother. Johnny sat up in bed, his children around him. Colin next to the bedpost with his wife and his children. Rachel looked at each one as if they were her own, realizing that they had always been hers, and they were here for Ryan and for her, and she loved them all.

"Are you ready to begin?" the priest asked.

David wasn't present, she realized. She missed David.

But then her eyes turned to Ryan, the tears had suddenly become too real. She tried to breathe past her corset, past the escalating emotions. Past the panic.

Suddenly, she could no longer contain herself.

"I think...I think I'm going to be sick."

Had she said those words aloud? She must have.

Rachel pressed a fist to her mouth, backed a step, then turned and ran from the room, her feet carrying her down the corridor.

Ryan found her a moment later bent over the basin in her dressing room.

"Mother Mary and Joseph," she heaved. "I feel terrible."

When she was finished, he caught her tenderly in his arms. "You're supposed to walk down the aisle, not run away."

"This is not amusing. I'm so embarrassed."

He tilted her chin, and all she could think about was that she'd ruined her wedding day. Again. "It is rather disconcerting that you cry and throw up at the most inopportune times." His gaze touched her with tender solemnity. "You injure me, Rache."

"I'm going to have a baby, Ryan," she accused him, returning to the basin, miserable. "That does happen on occasion when one engages in the kind of activity in which we are so fond of engaging in carriages,

which is entirely your fault." She groaned and tried to shrug him away. "I can do this myself."

"Ah, Rache." Ryan seemed inordinately pleased by her helplessness. "For once you're going to have to take my help." He held back the veil on her hat.

"We're in this together," he told her, handing her a toothbrush dipped in baking soda when she was finished. "Now, brush your teeth so I can kiss you."

"Are you sure, Ryan?"

"That I want you to brush your teeth?"She let him hold and comfort her, but he knew what she meant. What they were doing today waspermanent and real-and deliberate. "When I arrive with you at Memaw's house, I want no doubt inanyone's mind you belong to me," he said against her hair.

"Ryan-""Look at me, Rache." He brushed her hair from her face and tilted her head back. "Yesterday I wenthome to the country...and thanked God for every precious gift He'd ever given me. I took Mary Elizabeth to the attic, Rachel. I thought it would be harder than it was to say good-bye. But there was only peace.

"Today, there were loose ends I had to tie up before I came here. I wanted to do this right.