His Wicked Secret

by Lauren Smith

  Daniel’s demeanor changed, and his heart lifted. He let go of the dark, secretive part of himself that he had to be when he was with Hugo. Only one woman ever came to visit him.

  He shrugged out of his coat and hat and handed them to a servant. Then he headed down the hall and entered the drawing room. The room was lit by firelight and candles, accenting the sparse furnishings, but the woman by the fire had never minded his meager bachelor residence. Her blonde hair was pulled up in an elegant coiffure, and the dark blue satin gown she wore hinted at the body he knew he would soon be taking to bed.

  “Melanie,” he whispered, and she slowly turned to face him. Lord, she was beautiful. And for tonight, at any rate, she was his.

  “You are late, Daniel. We agreed to meet at midnight.” She opened her arms to him, and he embraced her.

  “Work, my darling. I was unavoidably delayed.”

  “We don’t have many opportunities like this,” Melanie said. “Not without making Hugo suspicious.”

  Daniel shut out the thoughts of Waverly. Melanie may have been Hugo’s wife, but she had stopped sharing his bed more than two years ago, just after she gave birth to her first child.

  You may own her body, but I own her heart. Daniel kissed Melanie, letting go of the tension that was coiled tight inside him. For so long he’d been torn about his deception against the man who had taught him everything. But love defied logic, defied reason, defied even the strongest loyalties. He had bedded many women at Hugo’s insistence to gain information, but there had only ever been one woman who was in his heart and mind.

  “You smell of gunpowder,” Melanie whispered as she curled her arms around his neck.

  He chuckled as she bit his ear and pleasure shot through him. “Do I?”

  “Yes, that’s what I love about you. You’re so unlike him. You’re real, not a shadow. I married Hugo thinking he was mysterious and charming. But I was never allowed to see behind his mask. Not like with you.” She tilted her face up to him, and he leaned down to kiss her again, losing himself in the building tension in his body, but this was a good tension.

  “You’re the only woman who’s ever known the man I truly am,” he assured her. Many thought Melanie vain, and perhaps she had been, years ago. But time and a lonely marriage had led her down a different path, one he’d watched from afar until he could stand it no longer. From that time on, she had owned his heart. He’d done many things in the name of king and country. Horrible things. Things that had to be done. But if there was one thing in his life that he could say he did that was good, it was to love this woman, even if it was forbidden. She was his only hope for redemption.

  “I need to be inside you, love,” he growled.

  She smiled and pulled him toward the couch. There would be no more talking tonight, not until they had sated their hungers. He would worry tomorrow about Audrey Sheridan.

  5

  When Jonathan rose from bed just before dawn, Audrey was already awake. It was typical for her to rise early, but the mad escape from the hellfire club had sent a current of unease flowing through her that had left her more alert than she otherwise would have been. She blamed that unease for her body moving toward Jonathan throughout the night, until she ended up almost curled around his body as he slept. She’d woken to his scent and the warm press of his skin to hers. He’d managed to curl one arm around her, holding her to him, and she’d been unwilling to push away because it had felt too wonderful.

  But now, with the cold absence of his body, she found the strength to scramble from the bed and dress. She rang for a maid, who helped her do up her corset and the buttons on her gown. She could still hear Jonathan moving about in the other room, and she took a moment to hastily scrawl a note to him.

  “Keep your end of the agreement. Our lessons must begin soon.”

  Then she went in search of Archimedes downstairs. When she’d seen the cat fighting off those villains last night, she’d recalled a story about the famous Greek mathematician Archimedes and how he’d created a claw weapon that could be swung out from a metal arm and dropped onto a ship, shattering its decks and sinking it. The name seemed to fit the cat perfectly.

  Archimedes had charmed the household staff the previous evening, and Audrey found him playing under the feather duster of one of the maids. The girl was laughing as the cat eagerly batted the feathers about.

  “Oh! Begging your pardon, miss.” The maid withdrew the toy and curtseyed at Audrey when she realized she was being watched.

  “It’s quite all right. I just came to find him. It’s time we go.” She scooped up the cat and hugged him close before she found the butler and had him summon a coach for her. She’d lost her reticule the previous evening and wondered if the coach driver would allow her to pay him upon reaching her destination.

  “Here, miss.” The butler held out a pouch of coins. “The master said you might wish to leave early and you would need this.”

  Audrey eyed the coin purse.

  “I…” She had to accept, but she could send a boy over with money to pay him back. She removed enough to cover the coach ride, then handed the pouch back to the butler.

  “Thank you. Tell Mr. St. Laurent I’ll send a boy around later to pay him back.”

  The servant nodded, but he seemed shocked at her desire not to accept a gift. But that was entirely the point. She did not want Jonathan’s charity, nor did she wish to be indebted to him.

  He will teach me to fight, and then I shall not need anyone. I shall truly be independent.

  Her dreams of love and marriage were fading now that she had other desires. As she lay in bed with Jonathan, tasting what she’d always longed for, she realized something had changed within her. The silly young girl she’d been a year before, the one who’d wanted to marry and be a mother, was gone. The need to do something greater now burned inside her like a beacon.

  Lady Society had been an idle pastime at first, meant in part to aid in matchmaking her friends based on the gossip she heard. But over the years her ideals had changed. Her articles had grown from mere society columns to calls for equality, even essays on political issues and challenging Parliament. All of it had been done with the flourish and flair of a clever woman using society itself as her weapon. But Lady Society was just the beginning in Audrey’s desire to change England.

  While she still wished to be a wife and mother, she feared she could never have that, not when she needed to prove to herself that she could do something greater. Not in a world where men had no inclination to give women that chance. It should have been a relief that Jonathan didn’t want her for a wife, because it had given her time to realize that she had a different destiny.

  She thanked the butler for the coach when it arrived and then left Jonathan’s townhouse. She didn’t look back, no matter how much she wanted to. That beautiful house would not be her home, no matter how much she might’ve wished it to be.

  Two years ago, when she’d debuted as the toast of London, she could have had any man she desired—all except the one man she truly wanted. If he could be so cavalier and mercenary, then so could she. She would take his lessons, and then she would leave England and become a spy.

  In recent months she’d taken to speaking with Evangeline Mirabeau, a French courtesan and formidable woman in her own right, and she believed Audrey could do well in France. Gossip and intrigue ruled the French royal court, and those were two of Audrey’s specialties. Those who knew how to navigate those waters could go far.

  By the time she reached the Sheridan townhouse, dawn was cresting the tops of the buildings. Hopefully anyone who had noticed she’d been missing would not think to tell her brother upon his return. Most of the staff knew her well enough to be discreet, but it was never a certainty. Audrey carried Archimedes inside and ignored the worried looks of two footmen as she passed them.

  One of the footmen offered her a note. “There’s a letter for you, miss.”

  “Thank you.” She tucked it into a pocket in
her ruined dress and went upstairs to her bedchamber.

  She set Archimedes on her bed. Muff was already there on the pillows, lounging in the early-morning sunlight. She raised her head and stared hard at Archimedes. The newcomer stared back, his tail twitching, and for a moment, Audrey worried the pair would get into a spat. After a moment Muff stood, stretched leisurely, and then hopped off the bed and walked away, her tail like a black plume in the air, waving defiantly as she turned the corner and vanished into the corridor.

  Audrey took out the note and broke the seal, reading the lines scrawled hastily on the page. It seemed Gillian had suffered a slight head wound, and James had insisted on her staying at his house for the night since he had a doctor on staff treating his mother. Well, that was a small mercy. At least she was safe and cared for.

  Audrey moved to her armoire and had only just turned the handle when the bedchamber door opened and Gillian peered inside.

  “You’re safe!” her maid exclaimed and rushed to hug her.

  “Of course! And you? I saw you leave with James Fordyce last night.” Audrey hugged her friend back.

  “Quite fine.” Gillian blushed, then winced when she looked at Audrey’s dress. “Oh dear, it was new!”

  Audrey sighed, plucking at the gown. “Yes, the gown is ruined, but thankfully it was the only victim last night.”

  “Let me help you out of it. I’ve just had a bath drawn and was coming to check on you. I didn’t realize you hadn’t returned yet.” Gillian assisted her out of her clothes, and Audrey headed to the large copper tub in her dressing room. The water was warm, and she sighed in heavy delight as she settled back into the tub.

  “Shoo!” Gillian’s sharp reprimand made Audrey bolt up from her hot bath, splashing water over the lip of the tub. Gillian held the ruined red gown hanging from her hands. She was chasing after Archimedes with it, who darted about the dressing room, leaping from the washstand to the open closet to the stack of bathing cloths.

  “Gillian, what the devil are you doing?”

  “Devil indeed! He was just sitting there. Watching you. He ought to be in the kitchens chasing rats.” The cat streaked past the tub, sliding on the water and darting into the bedroom. The maid finally closed the cat out of the washroom and leaned back against the door as though she were defending the room against a massive beast. “Where on earth did you find him?”

  Audrey rubbed soap along her skin. “He’s from the hellfire club, remember? The poor cat they claimed was the devil.”

  Gillian walked over to a chair and collapsed into it. “I thought I had dreamed that part of last night.” She tucked her head and winced. “Clearly I did not.”

  “You’ll get used to him. Archimedes is simply delightful.”

  “Archimedes? Lord…” Gillian picked up a few cloths for washing and brought them over to Audrey. “I’ll have some breakfast brought up for you.”

  “Thank you, Gillian.” Audrey met the gaze of her friend for a long moment, hoping the other woman would hear the deeper message beneath her words. She didn’t deserve a loyal, kind, and brave friend like her.

  Gillian’s face reddened. “Of course.” She smiled and slipped out of the dressing room.

  Audrey took her time bathing, and she giggled as she thought back to the battle in the dining room last night. Had she really whacked a man’s leg with the candelabra and hit another man’s private regions with a fire poker?

  Yes I did. And you can be assured I will write all about it in the next Lady Society column.

  Writing such articles always gave her a jolt of excitement. When she wasn’t trying to tease her older brother and his roguish friends into matrimony, she was doing her best to right the wrongs of society, or at least put them on display for all to see. It was Lady Society’s influence that had given her the idea to pursue being a spy. She’d talked with Avery last year about it, and he’d seen the potential in her career in espionage, just as Evangeline had. He’d even seen fit to give her some basic lessons in disguise and how to ferret out information from people without them realizing what she was doing.

  After her bath, Audrey dressed in a pale green day gown with silver slippers, then settled down on her bed with a fresh quill and paper. Archimedes, who seemed to feel at home no matter where he was, jumped up on the bed beside her and purred, rubbing his cheeks on her shoulder. Gillian bustled around the room, tidying it up, but paused when she once again noticed the cat.

  “I think you’ve gone mad,” Gillian announced.

  Audrey scratched out a line of her column and moved the feather quill away from the cat as he batted at it.

  “Hmm?”

  “I said, I think you’ve gone mad, my lady.”

  Audrey glanced up, and she tilted her head. “Mad because I’m writing an exposé on the Unholy Sinners of Hell, or mad that I brought home Archimedes?”

  Her maid glared at the cat. “Both, I should think.”

  “Nonsense. We unmasked nearly all the men during the fight last night, and I recognized at least a dozen of them. It’s time we let the ton know who among them are not in fact gentlemen.”

  Gillian grunted softly in a tone Audrey recognized as disapproval. “And what does Mittens think of Archimedes?”

  At the mention of the older cat, Audrey looked at her new feline. “Mittens? Oh, she sulked a bit at first, but I believe she’ll come around. He’s a bit like Muff, don’t you think?”

  She didn’t really mean that, however. Muff and Mittens had been littermates given to her when she was ten years old by her brother. Muff had been killed last Christmas by a wretched man who had wanted to hurt her brother and had used Muff to send a message. It had broken her heart to lose her dear old pet in such a way, and not even the handsome Archimedes could replace him.

  “Muff looked sweet,” Gillian said.

  “Archimedes is sweet,” Audrey insisted and smiled as the cat rubbed his face on her hand, purring again.

  “I highly doubt that. Why did you name him Archimedes? I should think Lucifer would be more appropriate.”

  Acting shocked, Audrey covered the feline’s ears as though to prevent him from overhearing the discussion.

  “Just because he was presiding over a devil’s feast doesn’t mean he’s a wicked cat. He might’ve been lured in as we were, under false pretenses.”

  Gillian giggled. “Lured under false pretenses? He’s a cat. They probably snatched him from some alley in the street.”

  “Nonsense.” Audrey cuddled Archimedes to her. “Cats never go anywhere they don’t choose to. During the fight, he actually attacked one of the men, Lord Augersley, before I grabbed him from under the table. Yet he didn’t fight me at all, did you?” She scratched behind Archimedes’s ears.

  “Good Lord.” Gillian groaned and started for the door. Audrey sensed something deeper was going on with her maid. She’d been quieter this morning. Usually Gillian was talkative, at least to her. Audrey had her suspicions as to what made her friend so pensive. If she hadn’t wanted to be bothered, she would have tidied up and left Audrey’s chambers, yet she had lingered, as though wishing for Audrey to ask what was bothering her.

  “We’re really not going to talk about it?” she asked gently, which made Gillian pause as she reached the door.

  Gillian finally spoke, her voice soft. “About?”

  “Last night. I came home this morning. You didn’t come back until early this morning either. The messenger who brought the note said you’d been injured and that James had taken you to his townhouse.”

  Her maid flinched. Audrey studied her closely, trying to read every little expression on her face in order to puzzle out what had happened.

  “Gillian,” she whispered, “I know you have a tendre for him. It’s not something to be ashamed of.”

  “Isn’t it?” Gillian’s swallowed hard, and Audrey could see she was fighting back sobs. “I’m not now and never will be suitable for someone like him. I’m a maid, my lady. He is an earl. I’d be lucky
to be his mistress.”

  If there was one thing Audrey hated, it was when society made women like Gillian feel worthless. She was the daughter of an earl, though an illegitimate one. That made no difference to Audrey. Yes, she was the daughter to a viscount and now a sister to one, but in her eyes a person’s title said nothing of his or her character. Deeds and character mattered, not circumstances of birth. And if one was born into more privileged trappings, then in her eyes it was doubly important to be deserving of it. Of course, that was a view she could never share openly, unless it was through the anonymity of Lady Society.

  “James has never taken any mistresses.” Audrey got out of her bed and made Archimedes leave her pages alone. “Gilly, we must talk about you and James.” She kept her tone gentle, determined to hide her excitement and determination. If anyone was going to have a lovely wedding and a happy marriage, by God, it was going to be Gillian.

  Her friend’s face fell. “Having or not having mistresses is beside the point. He and I could never—” Gillian closed her mouth, trembling slightly, and Audrey saw the glitter of tears in her eyes that she barely held at bay as her face reddened.

  Audrey bit her lip, her heart aching for her friend. The bond between them was like that of sisters, and it was killing her to see her friend hurt so. She enveloped Gillian in a hug, and Gillian suddenly burst into tears.

  “Have a good cry. I always feel better afterward. Men simply don’t understand the power of a good cry.” Lord knows Jonathan had made her shed tears many times.

  Gillian sniffed and laughed nervously. “There are far too many things men don’t understand.”

  “That is certainly the truth.” Audrey laughed and let go of Gillian, but she sobered again as she came up with an idea. “Let me ask you something, and I want an honest answer, even if it pains you greatly.”

  When her friend nodded, she continued.

  “If you were a lady and James was an ordinary gentleman and there was no issue of risk of social standing and such nonsense, would you want to be with him?” She waited, watching her friend’s face as she took the time to answer. Gillian squared her shoulders and raised her chin bravely.