If He’s Wicked

by Hannah Howell

  “Aside from bad conversation and even worse food?” she murmured as she spread a thick coat of honey over her bread.

  “That was no great discovery. The Paxtons are well known for both.”

  “And yet they continue to have gatherings and a lot of people continue to attend.”

  “One must be seen.”

  “Of course. Well, a great many were seen at the Paxtons last night. So many that I felt a need to get away from them all. When a room is filled to bursting with people, not only does one become very warm, but one quickly discovers how few people bathe with any regularity.”

  Julian laughed and nodded. “A lot of people still consider regular bathing bad for one’s health. Now, tell me why you are hesitating to tell me what you have discovered. That is why you are sharing this meal with me, is it not? To tell me what you discovered? Or have you changed your mind?”

  Chloe found it a little disturbing that he could so easily guess that she was avoiding something. She really dreaded telling him even more news that revealed the betrayal and treachery of his wife and his uncle. Julian had accepted the truth about them, but that did not mean he was ready to hear more ugliness. She wished she had left this discussion to Leo, but he was busy trying to thwart Arthur’s newest plot and she had agreed to be the one to tell Julian this latest news. It was time to cease being so cowardly and just spit it out.

  She clasped her hands in her lap and recited every word she had overheard and how she had come to be where she was when she overheard the conversation. In fact, she related the events of the evening from the moment she had walked away from Lord Tennant and his boasts about how many birds he had shot out of the Scottish sky to the moment Leo had found her in the Paxtons’ library. Chloe was relieved that Julian just kept eating as she talked and hoped that meant he was not taking this latest news too hard.

  “Did Leo find out who this Conrad is?” asked Julian when she was done. “I have a few suspects, but I am curious as to who he thinks it might be.”

  “He did not tell me who he thought it was. Leo is always very reluctant to voice any suspicion he has. He left me here last evening and immediately disappeared with Edgar. I saw him briefly about two hours ago. He said he would speak to you later. He hopes later will be at the noon meal. Who do you think it is?”

  “Sir Conrad Bartleby.” Julian took a sip of the rich coffee the Wherlockes served and decided he might be growing to like the brew a little too much. “This talk of a lover called George does not seem right, however.”

  “Young George,” she muttered, still troubled by that repeated designation.

  “The implications of that seem even less right concerning the man I am thinking of. He is a much-respected doctor.” Julian sighed. “Unfortunately, a lot of things Conrad does could make people readily believe Arthur’s slander. Yet, if Conrad has nothing to hide, why would he do what Arthur asked of him?”

  “Because until now, Conrad could not think of anything worse than the truth becoming common knowledge.”

  The sound of Leo’s voice startled Chloe, for she had not heard him enter the room. She was pleased to see that Julian looked equally surprised. “Whatever could be worse than being thought of as a man who abuses young boys?” she asked as Leo stole her empty cup and poured himself some coffee from the pot on the table.

  “Not much, actually. He was still trying to think of some way to escape the noose Arthur had slipped around his neck when Arthur tightened it. When I started out for Conrad’s home this morning, Conrad was already deciding that he could no longer keep the secret, not if it meant betraying all he believed in and being marked as a lover of young boys.”

  “Leo, what is the secret?” Chloe demanded a little impatiently.

  “This can go no further,” Leo said and both Chloe and Julian nodded. “Young George is Conrad’s sister’s bastard. His sister was only thirteen when she was raped by her own uncle, by Conrad’s uncle. Fortunately, the man is not blood related, only an uncle through marriage. His sister went to Ireland to stay with an aunt while she carried the babe that resulted from the rape. She has since married and begun a family there. She does not even want to see George.”

  “How sad for the boy,” whispered Chloe. “Yet I do not understand why Conrad would hold fast to the secret of a bastard child at the risk of his own honor and life. And just how did you find this out so quickly?”

  “As I said, Conrad had already decided he had to do something, and even as I was leaving to go see him, he was coming to see me. We met within a few steps of the house and returned here to my office. Together we have devised a plausible explanation for George, one that will cause only a faint and fleeting tsk, tsk. In truth, Conrad had already prepared most of the story that will be told.”

  “Which will enrage Arthur,” said Julian. “He does not like to lose.”

  “That is why Conrad is, at this very moment, preparing himself and George for a long visit to my estates in Yorkshire,” said Leo.

  “Just what did Arthur want him to do?”

  “Conrad works for the Home Office, which is but one of the reasons why he thought of coming to me with his troubles. It is only occasional work, but he holds a place of trust. Arthur wanted him to get him some information. It appears that your uncle may well be actively dabbling in treason yet again.”

  Julian cursed, and then absently mumbled an apology to Chloe. “Considering the ill wind blowing through France at the moment, I am sure there will soon be all manner of opportunities for the man.”

  “The opportunities are always there, my good man. Every government collects as much information as they can on every other government.”

  “On that cheerful thought, I will leave you gentlemen to hammer out this latest tangle,” said Chloe as she stood, placed all the plates back on the tray, and asked, “More coffee? I could have some sent up to you.”

  “Nay, we are fine,” Leo replied after exchanging a glance with Julian. The moment Chloe left, Leo took her seat. “As I said, Conrad is well respected at the Home Office, and his medical skills have given him access to some very private information on some very important people.”

  “And my uncle wanted some of that private information so that he could sink his talons into yet another poor fool.” Julian cursed a little more clearly and freely now that Chloe was not in the room. “Has Arthur smeared Conrad’s good name yet?”

  “Nay, and he will not be able to do so now. Word is already spreading, in the form of a delicious tidbit of gossip, that Conrad has taken George to the country and that the boy is Conrad’s own bastard child.”

  “Will that not cause him trouble with his newly betrothed bride?”

  “Conrad has already spoken with the woman and—would you believe?—she was the one who told him to claim the child as his own. She told him that whispers of some indiscretion he had years ago would not trouble or shame her and that the tragedy that had befallen his sister had to be kept quiet. She told him that what little embarrassment she might suffer, what little gossip she might hear, was nothing in comparison to what his sister had already suffered and would suffer all over again if the truth were known. A good woman.”

  “It would seem so.”

  Julian could not fully hide his doubt that such a creature existed, yet he could find no gain in such a solution for the woman. Then he thought of Chloe, of all she had done for him and his son without asking anything in return, and felt some of his bitter mistrust of women shake a little on its foundation. He knew it was grossly unfair to think all women were like Beatrice once one dug beneath their outer softness and beauty, but that knowledge did not do much to dim the mistrust that had lodged itself so deeply into his heart. It was easier to think of Chloe as some miraculous exception to the rule.

  “Did Conrad say what else he had been forced to do for Arthur? From what Chloe overheard, there was the strong implication that he had done other things.”

  “He had been forced to do a few things, but he found w
ays to work around that. The man was truly stunned by Arthur’s threats and by his requests. Conrad did his best to do as he was told, yet not do it. One thing asked of him was to dose your aunt so that your uncle could begin a rumor that she was weak in her mind.” Leo smiled. “Conrad and my kinsmen have done just enough to make Arthur believe his plan for your aunt is going forward. As he told me, the moment he realized who the footmen at your aunt’s were, he knew I was on watch. That was another reason why he chose to seek me out today. Conrad is not a man who lies well or has a mind for deceit, so it took him some time to plot an escape from Arthur’s grasp, one that would hurt the least number of people.”

  “He will be safe at your estate?”

  “Very. He will also make a very good witness for us when and if the time comes that we need one. Even better he knows when to be silent.”

  “Thank God. At last we make a step forward.” Julian suddenly realized how those words might sound like criticism to a man who had spent the last three years trying to catch Arthur Kenwood in his own web of lies. “I beg your pardon. You have worked so hard for me, for a man you did not even know, and I—”

  “Have spoken naught but the truth. Finally we have a witness, one who will talk and one who will be believed.” Leo shrugged. “Such work as I do is often very slow and sometimes very dull.”

  “But that work helps our country. And that work led us here.”

  “True, and now I pray that work, and all we struggle to achieve now, will put an end to your uncle’s treason as well as his plots against you.”

  Chloe smiled at the young man who tossed a ball for Anthony. Her cousin Modred did not leave his ducal seat very often. It was both a pleasure and a surprise to see him in London. Since she rarely managed a trip to the family seat in Elderwood, their visits were too few. After Dilys took Anthony inside for his afternoon rest, Chloe patted the open space on the bench she sat on, and Modred did not hesitate to accept her silent invitation.

  “It is so good to see you,” she said. “Are you staying in London long?”

  “Nay. You know that I can only bear it for a few days. This is my last day here and then I return to the shelter and peace of Elderwood.”

  “It was better this time, though. Was it not?”

  “You mean, did I end up curled in a corner and weeping? Nay.” He laughed softly when Chloe lightly punched him on the arm. “It slowly, ever so slowly, grows better. Dob’s lessons are helping. It takes a great deal of strength to keep my walls up and strong, but I am gaining that strength. I do not believe that even if I learn how to completely shut out the world, I will ever like this place, however.”

  “I am not so very fond of it myself.” Chloe grimaced. “The noise and the smell can wear upon one’s spirit.” She studied Modred for a moment, thinking yet again what an extraordinarily beautiful man he was and yet how terribly lonely his gift made him. “I doubt I shall ever return here once this trouble with the Kenwoods is settled.”

  “Because when it is settled, you will lose that little boy.”

  That hard truth felt like a stab to the heart, and her eyes stung with the tears she refused to shed. “He was never mine to keep, Modred.”

  Modred put his arm around her and Chloe leaned against him. She tried to find comfort in his silent sympathy, but there was little to be found. Every step closer to making Arthur and Beatrice pay for their many crimes was one step closer to losing Anthony. That knowledge caused a hurt she doubted she would ever be free of.

  “Lord Kenwood has named Leo and me Anthony’s godparents,” she said. “I will still be able to see the boy from time to time, still have some part in his life.”

  “And you will see Lord Kenwood as well. Will that not be difficult for you?”

  Chloe pulled back a little and scowled at her cousin. “I thought you said you could not hear my thoughts or feel what I feel. You said I had a very thick wall you could not breach.”

  “Sometimes even the thickest walls develop a little crack in them. A passing breach in its defense. You still have a very strong wall, but I do sense that it is not just Anthony whom you will miss when this is over.”

  “Lord Kenwood is too high a reach for me, cousin. I am penniless and have been cast out by my own family.”

  “Not all of us. Just your fool of a mother. That is one thing I meant to speak to you about. She has lost both of your brothers for that cold, heartless action. They were unhappy over the way she treated your sister, but your sister did break all the rules of society and they were torn. They were not torn over what was done with you and demanded your mother take back her harsh command. When she did not, they left her. Sad to say, I am not sure she regrets it, especially since they have left her in that fine house and still support her. I begin to think it is past time our family ceases to house and feed the ones who desert us.”

  Chloe took his hand in hers, knowing he thought of his own mother, who had left him the very day he had first told her what she was thinking, or as near to it as made no difference. Vaughns and Wherlockes were cursed in love, she mused. There were far too few people who could accept their gifts, even fewer who could accept how those gifts traveled through the bloodlines into the children they bore.

  “I do not think Julian fears what Leo and I can do, but neither is he sure he believes in it all. But no matter, for he sees me only as the woman who saved his son, mayhap saved him, and helps him in his fight against his enemies.”

  “Oh? Then why is he standing at his window watching us—do not look—and stinking of anger and jealousy?”

  It was very hard not to look to see if she could see what Modred felt. “Are you certain?”

  “Very. He does not like me sitting here with you, touching you.” Modred frowned. “He does not like feeling jealous, which is what is stirring most of that anger.”

  “Because I am beneath him.”

  “Fool. I suspect it is because he has been so cruelly betrayed by his own wife, a woman he thought himself in love with. That can leave a man wary, mistrustful.”

  “Which is not very encouraging. You can feel all of that? Is he such an open book to you?”

  “Nay, but, as with you, strong emotion can cause a crack in the wall.” Modred smiled faintly. “I suspect Leo just told him who I am, for that crack has been tightly sealed up. What do you plan to do about that insight, small as it is?”

  “I have no idea, but you will be one of the first I tell if I ever come up with a plan.”

  “Oh? And who will be the first?”

  “Me.”

  She laughed with him and then urged him into the house for something to eat and drink before he left. Chloe pushed down the strong urge to rush up to see Julian. There would be time for that later, and she needed to think before she saw him again. What Modred had told her had sparked hope inside her. She needed time to decide if she should nurse it to full life or extinguish it completely.

  Julian moved to look out the window as Leo explained more thoroughly what Arthur’s plans for his wife were and how they could continue to keep those plans from being completed. They had both taken a rest from plots and plans soon after Chloe had left them in the morning, but lunch had brought a new round of them. He was just feeling a swell of pity for his aunt when he saw Chloe sitting on a garden bench with a well-dressed and far too handsome young man. He felt the ugly sting of jealousy slap him when the young man embraced Chloe and she did nothing to push him away. There was a chance that she was not so very different from Beatrice after all, he thought angrily, and the disappointment he felt only made him angrier. So did the jealousy that gnawed at him, for he refused to ever again allow his emotions to get tangled up over a woman. Unfortunately, his emotions did not seem to be paying attention to what he wanted.

  “I think you need to get your cousin a proper chaperone.” Julian inwardly cursed when Leo looked at him with faint surprise, for it was obvious that he had not kept all of his anger out of his voice.

  Leo moved to look
out the window, stared at Chloe and the young man for a moment, and grinned. Julian folded his arms over his chest to dim the urge to shake some sense into the man. He did not think the fact that Chloe was alone in the garden and wrapped in some man’s arms was anything to grin about.

  “That is just our cousin Modred,” said Leo.

  The name startled Julian out of his anger even as the words our cousin began to soothe him. He ignored the little voice that reminded him that cousins could still be lovers. His instincts told him that such things would rarely happen within the Wherlocke clan. If nothing else, he doubted they wanted too many matches where both parents had gifts.

  “Someone actually cursed their son with the name Modred?”

  Leo laughed and nodded. “His mother was a fanciful woman.” He quickly grew very serious as he continued to stare down at Chloe and the young man.

  “I hope he made her pay for that fancy as he grew.”

  “Ah, no chance to do so, I fear. She walked away from him and his father not long after he turned two. That was when her darling boy looked her right in the eye and told her what she was thinking, almost word for word.”

  “You would have me believe that he can read what is inside a person’s mind?”

  Leo shrugged. “Not everyone’s, and not always clearly, but enough so that places like London are a pure torture for him. He rarely visits, keeps himself tucked away in Elderwood. Mostly he feels what people feel, and we both know how ugly some feelings can be.”

  Julian dragged his hand through his hair and stared at Leo. He trusted the man, owed him more than he could ever repay, but he was beginning to think the man was beyond eccentric. Surely no man as intelligent as Leopold could really believe such things?

  “I do not call you a liar, but…” Julian stuttered to a halt when Leo held up his hand, afraid that he had seriously offended the man.

  “Even I found it difficult to believe for a long time, but I fear it is true. Modred’s gift has become the one every Wherlocke and Vaughn dreads. I have no explanation for it, no true understanding of it; I just know that it is. It has been proven to me so many times that I cannot continue to doubt. And it is that curse that makes our Modred a recluse, a man who rarely leaves Elderwood.”