Brethen 03 - Temptation & Twilight
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“You told us you had an affair, years ago, with the marquis.”
“And I’m repenting my loose tongue,” she snapped, feeling horribly embarrassed.
“Oh, don’t be. Ours is a sisterhood. Secrets are shared BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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and kept. There’s no worries, Lizzy. But what Isabella and I are getting at is, well, with your blindness, you don’t see what we do.”
“And what is that? My abundance of cleavage spilling from my bodice, which you attribute to the presence of Alynwick, of all people?”
“No, Lizzy, we see the way he looks at you.”
“Oh, yes, with a capricious amusement, and disdain.” Lucy—at least Lizzy believed it was her hand—
stroked her fingers soothingly. “Lizzy, the Marquis of Alynwick is a man very much in love—with you.”
“Nonsense.” Oh, how that one word came out trembling in fear. And, Lord help her, an absolutely absurd sense of hope.
“We want to tell you what he looks like when he’s around you. His eyes never leave you. When he talks to others, his eyes are so dark and cold, but when he sees you they light up, and they linger. They roam over your body, and there’s nothing but the most passionate—
loving —expression in them.”
“Even Black has noticed and commented upon it, Lizzy.”
“No.” She shook her head. “No, he’s such a good liar.
If you could only have been there, seen his eyes, and the lies he hid so well. No, it cannot be true. I won’t believe it.”
Hands squeezed hers. “I have seen the same implacable expression in Black’s eyes when he pursued me, Lizzy. I have seen the same in Sussex’s gaze when he looks upon Lucy. Alynwick has the same look. He will not be deterred. He wants you back. He looks as though he’d die to have you back.”
“No!” Lizzy jumped up and accidentally upset the tea tray. “Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry.” She started fum-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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bling about, but Lucy and Isabella stopped her, hugged her as tears began to scald her eyes.
“You’re our friend and we want your happiness. Trust us to help you, Lizzy.”
“You don’t understand,” she gasped, “He broke me!
I…can’t allow it again.”
“All right,” Lucy whispered, hugging her tightly. “I can see you’re not ready. But we will be here, Lizzy, when you are. And for now, say you’ll trust us enough to believe what we see. The marquis… Well, whatever he was once is not the man he is now.”
“You don’t know the whole story,” Elizabeth whispered, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. “No one does.
Only me. And all I can say is… Well, he took every dream I ever held in life and tore them from me. I’ll never forgive him for that. Never. What I suffered was unbearable.”
“I’ve seen much suffering,” Isabella said as she hugged Lizzy close. “I’ve despaired. Have wanted to give up.
But God doesn’t give us anything we cannot handle, Lizzy. And oftentimes, when it all seems too much, He sends someone to help us through it. Just remember that, hmm?”
“I’ll try, but it’s much easier to hate than to live on false hope. And that’s all Alynwick has ever been able to offer.”
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
“GOOD GOD, abducted and brought to the House of Orpheus?”
Nodding, Sussex didn’t take his gaze off the letter opener he was busy twirling in his hands. “Yes. My future wife did not return home yesterday morning after I sent her with a footman, and after I had made it all very clear as to why I demanded she obey me in this matter.
Apparently, the dead body she witnessed dropped at my doorstep was not enough to induce her to obey her future lord and husband. The infuriating woman decided to disobey me and visit a psychic instead.” Iain couldn’t help but grin at the perturbed duke. No one disobeyed the express edicts of His Grace. But it seemed one waiflike redhead found great pleasure in doing so. “As I said before, Sussex, a curse and a pox on headstrong women who won’t be led by a man.”
“Indeed.” The lines around Sussex’s mouth were grim.
“It seems that she has been to this psychic before, and felt quite safe alone with the woman. She ordered the footman to wait in the carriage for her. When she entered the conveyance after conducting her business, she was grabbed from behind and rendered unconscious by a cloth over her mouth that had been doused with ether.
When she awoke, it was to find herself on a bed in the House of Orpheus.”
Iain was speechless. He could well comprehend the BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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rage that must have ruled Sussex, not only because Lucy had expressly disobeyed him. The terror he must have experienced upon discovering her missing would have been all-consuming. “How did you learn of her whereabouts?” he asked.
“The footman I assigned to her, God bless his determined Cockney soul, traipsed from the scene, where he had been dragged from the carriage and beaten, to Sussex House. He was the one to inform me that he had awakened just in time to witness Lucy being carried inside the Adelphi.”
“He couldn’t identify the kidnapper?” Sussex shook his head.
“Well, at any rate, I hope you rewarded the man for walking a few miles in that state.”
“He’s making his recovery in a guest chamber as we speak. The moment he remains conscious for more than a minute, I shall grant him whatever he wishes. I shudder to think of what might have come out of it if he hadn’t been able to get back and tell me.”
“And how was it, exactly, that you became leg shack-led to the girl?”
Sussex smiled faintly, obviously indulging in a very private memory. “Suffice it to say the matter is a private one.”
The priggish Duke of Sussex, caught in a compromis-ing position? Iain could hardly credit it. He had always thought the duke a passionless man, more concerned with propriety and honour than the baser elements of a gentleman’s makeup.
Knowing he would not get much more out of Sussex in regards to his hasty engagement, he enquired, “Did she see him? This Orpheus?”
“No, she did not. I was hoping you might be able to BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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shed some light on the matter. Did you see Orpheus yourself? You did say you were meeting Lady Larabie last evening at the club.”
Feeling guilty, he glanced away, out the study window to the sun-filled garden. “I sent around a missive with my regrets,” he answered. “My shoulder didn’t seem up to it.” There was no reason for Sussex to learn Iain had decided to forgo a nauseating evening with Georgiana discovering all he could about Orpheus, for one spent trailing the Earl of Sheldon. His Grace had made it perfectly clear that he liked Sheldon, and worst of all, that his sister liked the man, as well.
“I trust you will consider pursuing the matter of Orpheus while I am away on my honeymoon,” Sussex mumbled, drawing Iain from his thoughts. “I know it’s poor timing to leave London with everything going on, and his deuced ability to befuddle us, but I cannot help it. I must leave with Lucy, and hopefully then our hasty marriage and the inevitable scandal that will arise out of it will quiet down, so that when I return in a few weeks the furor will be over and I may take up my place alongside you and Black. I’m afraid by staying in London I risk the chance of being seen by others. We
don’t need questions right now. Plus, I would like to ensure Lucy’s safety, and I think that’s best served at my estate in Yorkshire.”
“Rest assured that I will. And if Black would tear himself away from his wife, and their bed, he might be of assistance, as well.”
Sussex grinned for the first time since they’d sat down to discuss things. “You underestimate the lure of one’s bride, I think.”
Iain groaned. “Et tu, Brute?” Shaking his head, he studied the duke, all lovelorn and distracted. “You’re not going the way of Black, are you? Besotted fool that he is.” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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“I’ve already gone. You know that. I’ve made no secret of desiring a match with Lucy. And now I have it. I won’t let anything stop it. You’ll understand one day, Sinclair, when you allow someone into your heart.” Iain shrugged, knowing that someone already resided deep within the damnable organ. “Perhaps.”
“I do have a favour to ask, Alynwick.” The seriousness of the duke’s voice caused him to look up sharply. “Yes?”
“Elizabeth. She has flatly refused to accompany Lucy and me to Yorkshire. She claims she would be nothing but a burden, and a nuisance to a newlywed couple. She won’t listen to reason, I’m afraid.” Iain had been feeling decidedly melancholy—even angry—since learning of Sussex’s impending nuptials.
Not because he disliked Lady Lucy or the married state, but because he had known that Sussex would take Elizabeth with him, and the thought of her being gone so far away was more than he could bear. Now, discovering that Elizabeth refused to go, Iain found his mood much, much lighter.
“You want me to watch over her.”
“Would you? I know you don’t get on well, but I don’t trust anyone else with her safety. Black is too busy being besotted by his wife, as you say. I need someone with a clear head. Someone who won’t be distracted.” How little Sussex knew of him. One glance at Elizabeth, and he would be completely, thoroughly distracted.
He was distracted from the topic at hand now, just thinking of how he would have every affordable chance to wear her down… To make her see him as he now was.
A man wanting forgiveness, desiring a life with her. A man who would do his damnedest to be worthy of a woman such as her.
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“You may be assured, Sussex, that I will keep Elizabeth safe.”
“I know you will. I worry, however, especially after the murder of Anastasia. I am forced to take Rosie with me. Her whelping time will be soon, and I need the ex-pertise of the breeder at my estate. Elizabeth relies on Rosie, and I rely on the dog’s acute hearing to alert us to any trouble. I can’t help but think how vulnerable Elizabeth will be here alone, with only the servants to keep her safe. They have no real understanding of how dangerous our lives have become.”
“I will keep her safe.” It was a solemn vow.
Sussex must have heard it, too, and glanced up, a mili-tant gleam in his eye. “Keep an eye on Sheldon, as well.
He’s been around two days in a row. I think it rather obvious, his infatuation with her. I don’t know the extent of Elizabeth’s interest, but I would take no risk there. I don’t know him well enough, and despite the fact I rather like him, there is something I cannot quite put my finger on.” Senses alert, Iain straightened in his chair, noting the stiffness in the duke. “What has you questioning the earl?”
Sussex had always possessed a remarkable instinct in regards to duplicity. It amazed Iain that the duke had never guessed at Iain’s, in regards to his sister. That Sussex had never discovered he’d seduced and deflowered the virginal Elizabeth, when he had always believed the sin all but tattooed across his face, left Iain oddly nervous, and guilty.
Sussex waved away Iain’s question and placed the jewelled letter opener on a leather blotter. “As I said, I cannot quite pinpoint it. He seems on the up and up, but there is something there. Intangible as it may be, it is still BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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present. I don’t think I’m wrong here, although I wish to hell I was, if for nothing but Elizabeth’s sake.” Not looking up from his polished boots, Iain mumbled,
“I followed him last night.”
Only then did he dare glance up, to see Sussex’s grey eyes narrowed and fixed firmly upon him. How much like his sister he looked, with the same coloured eyes glaring at him.
“It’s the truth of why I cried off with Georgiana last evening.”
“And what purpose did you have to follow him?”
“You are not the only one possessed of good instincts, Sussex.”
The duke relaxed a bit, settling his large frame in the leather chair, and waited for Iain to share the tale. “Well?
Did you discover anything of worth?”
“Our guts seem infallible, for his activity last evening raised more questions than answers.” Sussex pressed forward again, his expression dark.
“Explain.”
“I followed him to the museum.”
“He’s lived in the East all his life. Perhaps he had a longing to visit a decayed mummy. You know, home sickness and all that.”
Iain did not care for Sussex’s sarcasm. He was wound tightly this afternoon, and was in no mood to humour the duke. “It was well after closing time. What’s more, someone was watching for his approach, because he had hardly rapped upon the doors when they were opened, allowing him entrance.”
“Interesting.”
“He was carrying a canvas satchel.”
“I wonder what was in it?” Sussex said, already know-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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ing that Iain would have discovered the contents of the bag.
“Drawings of elevations, scrolls of them. And what is more, on one of them there was an image of a Templar cross, and beside it, most curiously, was the Cross Lorraine.”
Sussex sat back in his chair, and Iain could almost see the duke’s brain processing the information. “A coincidence, perhaps. The Templar cross is quite common. A romantic symbol that many use.”
“On sketches of elevations? That’s a stretch, isn’t it?” Sussex frowned. “I suppose, but hardly enough to condemn him.”
“There’s more. In his study, housed in a pendulum clock, was a rolled piece of parchment that was hidden beneath a false bottom.”
“You broke into the man’s house!” Iain sent the duke a look of annoyance. “I don’t do things by half measures. You know that. Of course I searched his house. But he returned before I could discover what the paper was. But it was hidden for a purpose.”
“Damn it, Alynwick, you take too many risks!”
“And you don’t? Allowing Elizabeth to be…” God, the word courted would just not form on his tongue “… to be visited by a man we know nothing about. A man whose appearance back in Society leaves me more than suspicious, especially since the arrival of this Orpheus, and all the other inexplicable things that have happened. Damn it, Sussex, admit it, you’ve been blinded by your desire for Lucy, and now things have gone too far.”
“You’re taking things too far, Alynwick.”
“We’ve not been suspicious enough.”
“Your focus should be on Lady Larabie, and getting BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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close to this Orpheus. You’re the one who came up with the damn plan,
who informed us that the lady knew him personally. Orpheus is the key to the whole mystery, and it’s the lady’s assistance we need to get close to him.”
“He isn’t the entire mystery, Sussex. Have you forgotten Nigel Lasseter?”
His friend stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Sutherland was hanging about the theatre yesterday upon my orders. I asked him to watch for Lady Larabie.
I’ve grown suspicious of the witch, and wanted him to discover all he could about her comings and goings. He did not see her, but he did discover Nigel Lasseter going into the theatre, by way of the back alley. Interesting, don’t you think, considering he was the patron who paid for Wendell Knighton’s trek to the Holy City? And now Knighton is dead…. And to enter through the back, as if he owned the place. It was not at night, when the club is in full swing, but during the afternoon….” Releasing an expletive, Sussex wiped his hands over his tired face, then tossed back his head and groaned.
“Another damn puzzle, and yet another piece we are supposed to fit in. You’re right, of course. I’ve lost my per-spective. Damn it! ”
“Love, I suppose, is an immovable force. Even it can supersede Brethren demands and duties. Although I highly doubt our merciless fathers ever allowed the emotion to surpass their love affair with all things Brethren.” Sussex’s gaze flickered to his. There was pain in those grey depths. Naked, haunting pain. Iain couldn’t help but wonder if Sussex saw the same stark misery reflected in his own gaze. “In our fathers’ lives, nothing took precedence. It was always Brethren Guardian duties and honour that came before everything. My pain has made me foolish, so that I don’t think things through as I ought BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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to. I hope my ineptness was not the cause of Anastasia’s death.”
“I doubt you could have prevented it. I’ve sent Sutherland out today to see what he can discover about Nigel Lasseter. I’ve also—” Iain shuddered at the memory
“—sent a missive around to Lady Larabie, who will receive me tonight. Leave it to me, Sussex. Enjoy your new bride for the next few weeks, and when you return I shall have news for you.”