He shook his head. “No, I don’t. We are connected, I know that to be true. There is much between us that makes me thinks she could care. But when I forced her to be my bride, she believed herself in love with someone else. So that is one thing.”
Lucas nodded. “I can imagine that would weigh on a man’s heart.”
Hugh sighed. “Worse than that, she has no idea the lengths I went to in order to secure our marriage. The lies I told. Or the connection between Walters and my own sister.”
Diana’s lips parted. “You haven’t told her?”
“At first it was because I knew she wouldn’t believe me,” he explained. “She was determined to think the worst of me. And I didn’t trust her. Lizzie’s secrets are so delicate, I couldn’t tell a stranger, even one who shared my bed and my title and my name. As I grew to know her better, to care for her more, I…was…afraid. I am afraid.”
“That you’ll lose her,” Lucas said.
Hugh nodded. “Yes. The longer I wait, the more I fear that will be true. Lizzie even confessed her past to Amelia, who has become my sister’s champion, but I was not able to tell her that Walters is the man she despises so deeply. Now that we’re back in London, I intend to do so.”
Diana let out her breath. “You should. And sooner rather than later. She may not be happy with you about what you withheld and the lies you told, but it will be better than if she were to discover the truth some other way.”
He bent his head. “I imagine her reaction and it chills me to my very bones.”
Lucas reached out and tangled his fingers with Diana’s. He met Hugh’s gaze evenly. “She may well react poorly. I think she’s earned that, even. But at least you will have given her your whole heart along with the truth. She is your wife, Brighthollow. You’ll have the rest of your life to make it up to her.”
“That is my plan,” Hugh sighed. “To win back her trust and earn her love with every day of the rest of my life.”
“Well, if you love her, it will be worth it,” Lucas said. “It seems you’ve already realized that, though.”
Hugh pictured the past two weeks with Amelia. How she had so easily stepped into his life, changing him for the better with every touch and word and deed. He knew he needed that in his life as much as he needed food or breath.
“At any rate, that leads me to a far less pleasant subject. You sent word that you wanted to see me about Aaron Walters.”
Lucas’s expression hardened and he released Diana’s hand as he got to his feet and paced away from them both. “Yes,” he said. “I spent the time since you wed and left the city looking into this man. I still have contacts in the War Department, and Diana has been a great help.”
Hugh glanced at her in thanks. It was a wonderful thing, really, what good partners his friends were. He longed to find a way to share the same trust and connection with Amelia someday.
“Was there anything to uncover?” he asked.
Lucas set his jaw. “He’s involved in a great many things, I fear. I’ve followed trails that connect him with robbery and moving money from one bad debt to another to keep ahead of prison. But he’s cunning—those trails implicate him, but might not be enough to make him go away. I was digging deeper and I…I found something that could.”
Hugh stared in shock at his friends. He’d seen Walters as merely a mercenary bastard with a collection of bad friends. This was all far more serious, indeed. “What is that?”
Diana leaned closer. “Walters was not always called by that name,” she said. “Three years ago he was called Stephen Monroe and he lived in a rookery in the West End. He was known for his card manipulations. His pickpocketing.”
“And you think that might end him in prison?” Hugh asked.
“No.” Diana’s voice shook. “He married a girl above his station. He probably seduced her the same way he did your sister, the same way he did Amelia. He found her because she was vulnerable, wanted love, and he became what she desired. When they married, it became clear she had less money than he’d thought.”
Hugh gritted his teeth. “Bigamy then, that would be the charge? Since he intended to marry my sister and Amelia when he was still wed?”
“He wasn’t still wed,” Lucas said. “He killed his first wife.”
Hugh pushed to his feet and staggered back in horror. “Killed?”
“Steady.” Diana got up and reached out to catch his hand. “Yes, there is a great deal of evidence that he murdered her when she was no longer of use to him. He was about to be arrested when he disappeared. Soon after that, he became Walters.”
Hugh’s stomach turned as he thought of his sister alone with the bastard for days, in more mortal danger than he had even believed. And Amelia—Amelia who had wished to marry the man. Would he have cut her down eventually too?
“Why would he go so far?” he whispered.
Lucas shook his head. “Because he has no scruples. People are tools to him. They provide what he needs and he discards them. He’s left a trail of associates to pay for their crimes, a large number of broken-hearted women he has seduced and stolen from. And then…this poor young woman.”
“He wanted my sister.” Hugh trembled with every word. “He wanted my wife. For their fortunes. I thwarted him both times. I must protect them, in case he decides to keep his eye on them, or exact some kind of revenge.”
“I agree,” Lucas said. “I am ready to arrange a guard for both women immediately. I have good men for the position. They can be at your home as early as tomorrow morning.”
“Do it,” Hugh said, his mind reeling. “In the meantime, I must go to them. Now, to determine they are safe. And I must tell Amelia the truth. It is about more than my betrayal now. This is about her safety.”
Lucas nodded, and he and Diana followed Hugh to the door. “I’ll come call later tonight,” Lucas said. “I can provide more information if Amelia requires it. And Diana can be a shoulder to lean on if she’s upset.”
“Thank you for your help. I’ll need it all before this is done.”
Hugh tipped his head and then rushed out to his waiting horse. As he thundered through the gate and onto the busy street, his mind reeled and his heart throbbed. After weeks avoiding the pain the truth would cause, now there was even more at stake.
And losing Amelia’s heart was not the worst that could come of it. He only hoped he could find a way to protect her and keep her.
Hugh burst through the front door and called out, “Amelia! Lizzie! Where are you?”
There was no answer, but Masters rushed into the foyer. Hugh’s heart dropped, for the butler’s expression was pale and lined with worry. Something had happened. Hugh knew it like he knew his own name.
“Where are they?” he whispered.
“Lady Elizabeth is in her room,” he began.
Hugh didn’t wait for the rest. He bounded up the stairs two at a time and raced to his sister’s door. He knocked and did not wait for her response to burst inside. Lizzie was seated by the fire, wrapped in a blanket. When he stepped into her room, she looked over at him. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and her eyes were wide and frightened.
“What is it?” he asked, trying to keep his tone gentle when what he wanted to do was catch her by the shoulders and make her tell him everything. “What’s happened?”
Lizzie stared at him, almost unseeing, then mumbled, “In the park.”
Hugh drew a breath and dropped to his knees before her. “In the park? What happened in the park?”
His sister shook her head. “It was fine. It was lovely. Amelia and I were walking, giggling like girls. Meg and Charlotte were on the hill. Amelia stepped away a moment…”
She trailed off and ducked her head.
Hugh cupped her cheeks and gently lifted so she had to look at him. “What happened?”
“I saw h-him,” she sobbed, leaning in to rest her head on his shoulder, where she began to shake. “Aaron Walters was the
re, talking to Amelia like they knew each other. I got upset, I asked why she was talking to him when you told me not to give her his name.”
Hugh’s stomach dropped. “That’s what you asked her?”
When Lizzie nodded against his shoulder, he scrubbed a hand through his hair. That was all. It was over. Amelia had found out the truth in exactly the worst way possible. The way he had hoped she would never know.
“What did she say? What did she do? What did he do?”
“H-he was gone by then,” Lizzie croaked out, lifting her head. “But Amelia went so pale. I thought she might faint. She rushed me to the carriage—we didn’t even say goodbye to Meg and Charlotte. And she kept asking me if it was true. If Aaron Walters was the man who had…hurt me. If you knew. I was so overwrought, all I could do was say yes.”
Hugh was shaking now, and he tried with all his might not to shout at her in his upset. This was not her fault. It was his. Only his. Forever his. For not being honest. For not trusting Amelia, even long after he knew he could.
“Is she here?” he asked. “Is she home?”
“No,” his sister whispered. “She took me here and told them to help me upstairs, then she left in the carriage again. I cried out after her to find out where and she said…she said…”
“Where did she go?”
“To confront him. She said she was going to confront him,” Lizzie sobbed.
Hugh rocked back and fell onto on the floor in front of her. Of course that is what she would do. Amelia had such strength, and she loved his sister quite like her own flesh and blood. She’d been enraged when she discovered Lizzie had been used by some nameless bastard she’d created into a monster in her beautiful head. He’d loved her for that.
But she had no reason to fear Walters. She didn’t know what Hugh did. So she would go to him, face off with him. Give him a set down. Never realizing that it would put her on the trail of a madman who might destroy her to keep her quiet, or to hurt Hugh, or just to please himself.
He pushed to his feet. “Stay here, Elizabeth, you must stay here. Do you understand?”
“Is it my fault?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “No. And I will explain everything to you, I promise you. But you must stay here where I know you will be safe.”
He ran from the room, ignoring how she called after him, and nearly crashed headlong into Masters. The butler straightened his back. “We are all very worried, Your Grace. What can we do?”
“Get a message to the Duke of Willowby straight away,” he said. “Tell him that Amelia has gone to Walters. That is exactly what it must say, and then the address of Aaron Walters’ home here in London. It’s in my book in my desk drawer.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Masters said. “And what about Lady Elizabeth? She has been overwrought.”
“I know. In the same message, ask the Duchess of Willowby to come here and comfort her until we return.”
Masters nodded. “Where are you going, Your Grace?”
“After my wife. Get me a gun.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Amelia glared up at the little townhouse as the driver helped her from the carriage. Her hands shook and her stomach turned as she looked at that façade and knew what awaited her behind it.
Something false. Something untrue.
But then, she could say that about her husband, too. Later. Later, she would say it. Right now she had something else to deal with.
“Your Grace, I do not like leaving you without a chaperone,” the driver said.
She touched his arm gently. “I will be but a moment, I assure you. Please don’t worry yourself.”
He looked less than convinced, but what could he say? She was the Duchess of Brighthollow. His employer. Hugh’s wife. How ridiculous that felt at present, when she reflected on all that had happened.
Hugh had known the connection between Walters and his sister all along. It had been why he came to her. Why he bought her father’s debts, if there had actually been debts to purchase. He’d known all of it and never told her. Kept it from her willfully and well past the point where he should have known he could trust her.
It made Aaron’s words from earlier in the day, cruel as they were, ring with more truth in her ears. He will convince you he cares for you. But he will discard you.
Was that what had happened? Hugh had taken her to hurt the man who had hurt his sister? Pretended to care because it made her more pliable? Because it made it easier? Would he walk away when he recalled that he’d only wed her to thwart Aaron’s plans?
She shook her head, pushing away the thoughts she would confront later, and rang the bell at Walters’ door. In a moment, it opened and Aaron stood there, just as he had the last time she’d come. Now she wondered if he truly had a servant at all, or if that was just another mask he wore: Gentleman.
“Your Grace,” he said, and sounded genuinely surprised to see her. “What are you doing here?”
“I know what you did,” she whispered, hating how her voice broke with emotions she didn’t want to reveal. “I know.”
His lips thinned and he stepped back to usher her into the foyer. “This does not seem the kind of conversation one should have on the doorstep.”
She looked past him into the house and then back at her driver. The other man would come for her if she didn’t return quickly, and she didn’t believe Aaron would hurt her physically. No, the pain he caused was something else entirely.
She moved past him into the house. Even more of the pictures on the walls were gone than the last time she’d been here, and some of the furniture was missing, too. She shook her head as she followed him to the parlor where they’d talked before. It was evident to her now that Walters was selling off the items. They probably weren’t even his, but had come with the property he was letting.
She folded her arms as she moved to stand before the fire that could not penetrate the chill in her entire body. “Are you running out of the money my husband paid you?” she asked. “Have you spent it all already?”
Walters had still had that sweet, boyish expression as he led her inside, but now she watched it shift. Vanish. Harden. There was no more kindness in his eyes now, no more gentleness. Now she saw the true man behind all the lies.
The monster.
Her heart leapt at that sudden, easy shift, and for the first time she wondered if she had made a foolish mistake by coming here.
“I had other plans, Amelia,” he said. “I should have refilled my coffers with your dowry, only that husband of yours ruined everything, didn’t he?”
“I’ve never been so happy that he did so.” She shook her head. “Here you are, practically admitting that you were only after me for my money. Based on everything else I know, I must believe our entire relationship was a cruel machination designed to manipulate me to your side.”
“Indeed,” he said with a little bow. “You have uncovered the truth at last. I’d tell you good show, but you were stupidly convinced of my character for far too long to congratulate you on finally seeing the light.”
“Are you proud of this?” she asked, stunned by his attitude. There was no remorse to him whatsoever.
He smiled. “I am. Why would I not be? I have played the role of a lifetime, many times. Do you know how easy it is to convince silly little girls like you or Elizabeth or…or others that love is right in front of them? Stupid, desperate girls who want love so badly? You wanted a prince. I provided him. That there was a price shouldn’t surprise you—that is the way of our world.”
Amelia flinched, but she couldn’t deny that what he said was true. She had recognized that fundamental truth about herself more and more over the last few weeks. That her past made her crave the kind of belonging Hugh had so easily provided. Only what he offered had been real. Even though he’d lied to her in the beginning, in the end, the feeling between them was true.
She had to have faith in that or else she would col
lapse.
“You bastard,” she said, pulling herself back to the problem at hand. “You exploited the hurt and the naivety of young women who cared for you.”
He shrugged. “Exploit or be exploited, my dear. There is no other option in this ugly world we live in.”
“Of course there is,” she said. “There were a hundred other options than to use me, to harm Lizzie so deeply.”
He nodded slowly. “Ah yes, Lizzie. Sweet, little Lizzie with all her shyness and uncertainty. She was fun. And very lucrative, in the end. His money, the money you came here to confront me about, it gave me the opportunity to look more gentlemanly for the next catch.”
“Me,” she whispered.
“Do you ever wonder why I bedded her and not you?”
She turned her face. “You are disgusting.”
“She was uncertain,” he explained. “And I knew that if I claimed her innocence, she would not run. But you…you were panting for it. That night I proposed, you leaned so far into me, just begging for that kiss, I could hardly breathe. I didn’t have to seduce you—you were aching for a wedding night and would have done anything to get there.”
She pivoted, but like in the park earlier that day, he caught her. His fingers dug in, just as they had then, and terror filled her. Hours ago, she had been in a public place where her screams would have brought assistance.
Here they were alone. She had no idea if her driver would hear her if she cried out, or even if he could get inside.
This had been a terrible, emotional mistake. One she regretted down to her toes.
“How was it in the end?” he asked, his face closer to hers. “To be bedded by a man you despised?”
“I do not despise Hugh,” she spat, yanking at her arm.
He lifted his eyebrows. “You don’t, do you? He must have been very satisfactory, because I’m seeing it all so clearly now. You’ve convinced yourself you’re in love with him, haven’t you?”
“Let me go!” she snapped. “I’m leaving.”
“No, you aren’t,” he insisted, his tone almost bored. Like this attack on her person was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that mattered at all. “You are such a little fool. You’ve traded one liar for another.”
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