Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)

by Carole Mortimer

  Alys looked at him quizzically. “Now you are the one that is frowning.”

  Devil turned so that Alys lay back against her own pillows and he leaned up on his elbow. “There is something I need to ask you.”

  Her expression became teasing. “I do not remember you doing any asking these past five days.”

  Devil’s expression remained somber. “When I first arrived at Newcomb Manor, you asked me why I was there.”

  She nodded. “You told me it was because you were invited.”

  His mouth twisted. “I believe we both know now why your brother invited me.”

  Alys eyed him warily. “But not why you accepted…”

  Devil breathed deeply. “Before I tell you the reason for that, I want you to know that these last five days of being married to you have been the most enjoyable time of my life.”

  The statement echoed Aly’s feelings completely. And yet she sensed there was more to come from Sebastian, his words having a finality to them which filled her with apprehension. “Go on,” she invited cautiously.

  “Alys—”

  “I said go on, Sebastian.” She threw back the bedcovers and stood up before crossing the room to pick up and put on her robe, waiting until the belt was securely tied about her waist before looking up at Sebastian as he now lay propped up against the pillows. “I am waiting.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You are being aggressive.”

  “I am preparing myself to hear something unpleasant.”

  He winced. “As you know, I have a friendship with the Prince Regent.”

  Alys nodded. “That is the reason we were able to get a Special Marriage License so quickly.”

  “I was, during the war, and I still am an agent for the Crown. All The Sinners are.”

  She eyed him warily. “I am not married to all The Sinners, only you.”

  “Nevertheless, all The Sinners are involved in what I am about to tell you.”

  Alys sat down abruptly in the chair beside the window, knowing from the grimness of Sebastian’s expression that whatever he was going to say next was very serious indeed.

  He sighed. “It was discovered in the last few months that there is a spy for Napoleon in Society, one moreover who was instrumental in helping him to escape Elba. A female spy, to be exact. A lady who mixes in Society and then passes information on to her contacts, who in turn passes it on to their own contacts, until the information reaches the ear of Napoleon himself.”

  She frowned her puzzlement. “What does that have to do with you accepting an invitation to visit Newcomb Manor? Good God.” Her brow cleared, eyes wide as she stared across the room at Sebastian. “You suspect me of being that spy?”

  “Alys—”

  “Answer me!”

  Devil’s mouth thinned at her strident tone. He had known this was not going to be an easy subject to discuss, but he had hoped they had become close enough these past five days and nights that they could talk without arguing. The accusing expression on Alys’s face told him that was not the case.

  Devil threw back the bedclothes and got out of bed. Unlike Alys, he did not feel the need to pull on a robe. The two of them were totally familiar with each other now, and he did not see the necessity to cover his nakedness when in her presence.

  But before he could go to Alys, he heard a knock on the door of the adjoining bedchamber. A bedchamber Alys used only for changing her clothes. She had spent all her nights with Devil in his bed. “Ignore it,” he instructed; they needed to finish this conversation before they spoke to anyone else.

  There was another knock on the door. “Miss Alys— Er, your ladyship?” a tentative voice queried when that knock received no response.

  “It is Meg. My maid,” Alys explained as Sebastian shot her an impatient and questioning glance. “She has returned from— She is newly arrived from Newcomb,” she corrected.

  Ordinarily, Alys knew Meg would have knocked and entered the bedchamber, but obviously, Alys’s newly married status required Meg be a little more circumspect. Perhaps that was as well when Sebastian was completely naked.

  “This conversation is not over,” Alys warned him as she hurried through to the adjoining bedchamber and closed the door behind her.

  Whatever Meg had to tell her, she did not want Sebastian to hear it yet.

  Bad enough that the only reason Sebastian had come back into her life was to investigate the possibility of her being a spy for Napoleon.

  Chapter 14

  “You wish to go where?” Devil stared at Alys incredulously across the desk in his study as she stood opposite.

  “Newcomb Manor,” she repeated, confirming he had heard her correctly the first time.

  Devil had been going through the estate accounts when Alys knocked briefly on the door before quietly entering the room.

  He had bathed and dressed after Alys left his bedchamber earlier, but when he knocked on the adjoining door with the intention of continuing their conversation, he found the room was empty of both Alys and her maid. According to his butler, Alys and the maid had gone out for a walk.

  The relief Devil had briefly felt at having Alys come to him rather than his having to seek her out very quickly dissipated in the face of her request to take one of his carriages and travel to Newcomb Manor.

  His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  She met his gaze unwaveringly. “I wish to visit my brother.”

  “Why?”

  “Really, Sebastian, I believed you capable of more interesting conversation than this!”

  He refused to be drawn in by her derision. “The word ‘why’ covers all that I wish to know on any subject.”

  She sighed her impatience. “Teddy and I did not part on good terms.”

  Devil gave a snort. That was an understatement. As to Alys admitting she believed her brother engineered his own shooting… “And you now wish to try to heal that breach?” He eyed her skeptically.

  “Yes.”

  He gave a wry laugh. “You are a terrible liar.”

  Alys did not appreciate being laughed at. “I will have you know my years as a spy for Napoleon have made me an expert liar.”

  Sebastian stood up, his size instantly dwarfing the room. “Do not joke about such things.”

  “Why not?” she challenged. “You insinuated yourself into my home under false pretenses, proceeded to seduce me, as good as forced me into marrying you, and now you have accused me of being a spy against my own country.”

  “You forgot to add I have kept you a prisoner in my bed these past five nights, doing unspeakable things to your body,” he drawled.

  “Do not dare to laugh at me, you—you bastard!” It was the worst word she could think of to call him. Having remained calm, and having been determined to do so, she now found all her previous anger coming to the fore. It would serve him right if she were to make a fist and punch him—

  “Are you leaving me?”

  “I— What?” Alys stared at Sebastian blankly.

  “I am asking if this trip into Worcestershire is merely an excuse to put an end to our marriage,” he bit out tautly.

  “I— You— I had not thought that far ahead.” End her marriage? Leave Sebastian for good? Merely thinking of it made her stomach turn and her chest tighten.

  “You have merely taken it into your head that visiting your brother, only five days after escaping both him and Newcomb Manor, is a good idea?” Sebastian scorned.

  “Yes.”

  “I do not believe you.”

  “After the insult you have paid me this morning, I do not care whether or not your believe me.”

  “I was set a task—”

  “And you carried it out with no thought as to how I might feel about being falsely accused of treason.”

  “That is not true.”

  “I do not believe you.”

  “Then it would seem there is nothing more to be said on the subject.” He appeared every inch the Marquis of Deveril as he looked down the long le
ngth of his nose at her. “My answer is no.”

  “No?”

  He nodded. “No, you may not use one of the carriages to travel to Worcestershire.”

  It had not occurred to Alys that Sebastian might refuse her request. Now what did she do? Meg’s arrival, the information her maid had carried with her, the gentleman waiting for her at the village inn, all necessitated Alys speak to her brother urgently. But it was too far for her to travel by horseback to Newcomb Manor. Something Sebastian knew only too well.

  Her chin rose. “I asked you only as a courtesy. I am mistress here, and as such, it is my right to use any of the carriages whenever I wish. I wish to use one now so that I might call on my brother.”

  “I will give my permission if I am allowed to accompany you.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Devil studied Alys closely, noting the pallor of her cheeks and the dark blue of her eyes. Usually signs she was either upset or angry. Or both. “What did your maid tell you that you now need to see your brother so urgently?” he prompted shrewdly.

  “Meg— My maid relayed only village gossip.”

  “Which is?”

  Alys glared at him. “Really, Sebastian, I am sure you have no interest in the baker’s wife giving birth to twins. Or that Mr. Soames’s hens have stopped laying in the hot weather. Or that the governess to the Squire’s children was caught stealing a necklace. Or—”

  “Such a lot to happen in a small village in such a short time,” Devil drawled. “How much of that was true?” he demanded harshly.

  “Village life is far more hustle and bustle than people realize—”

  “Alys!”

  She gave a pained frown. “It is all true. It is only— It did not all happen in the last five days,” she admitted.

  “More lies.”

  “I do not think I like your tone of voice.”

  Devil stepped closer and was relieved when she did not step back. Nevertheless, the intimacy of their lovemaking this morning was noticeably absent from this conversation and their behavior toward each other. “And I do not like being lied to. I was a major in the army, Alys, and I assure you soldiers are the experts at prevarication. Consequently, I know when someone is lying or avoiding telling me the whole truth.”

  Alys studied Sebastian’s face for several long seconds, noting the coldness in those dark eyes, the grim set to his mouth, and knew he was not to be gainsaid on this subject. He would not allow her to travel without him.

  Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Meg has not been visiting with relatives in Newcomb, but traveled to London on my behalf. While there, she talked to the other servants at Newcomb House and visited with my father’s lawyer for the purpose of giving him a letter from me.”

  “Your father’s lawyer, not your brother’s?”

  She nodded. “Teddy dismissed him shortly after Papa died.”

  Sebastian’s nostrils flared. “What was in the letter?”

  Alys closed her eyes briefly. “I requested a copy of my father’s will.”

  “Did this gentleman supply you with one?”

  “He did better than that,” she acknowledged. “Mr. Wilcox accompanied Meg to Herefordshire and is currently eating his lunch at the village inn. I visited him there with Meg a short time ago,” she added uncomfortably.

  Sebastian’s brows rose. “It appears, without my knowledge, you have been exceedingly busy.”

  “I—” She broke off abruptly as Sebastian raised a silencing hand.

  He strode across the room to stand in front of the window, hands tightly gripped together behind his back. “I kept information from you because I did not want it to be true. I married you knowing you might be a spy for Napoleon.”

  Once Alys’s anger had lessened earlier, she had realized that was exactly what Sebastian had done. But she had no idea why he might have done so when it would involve him in her scandal if it should transpire she was, after all, guilty of treason.

  “But this”—Sebastian turned back to face her, his eyes colder still, his jaw tight—“the information you have kept from me, what you intended doing with that information without so much as telling me of your reason for traveling to Worcestershire, speaks volumes for the future of our marriage.”

  Alys again felt that plummeting of her stomach and that tightening in her chest. “I—”

  “We will speak no more of it,” he bit out harshly. “If you will permit me a few minutes so that Riley might pack me a bag, I will accompany you and Mr. Wilcox into Worcestershire. The two of you may inform me on the way as to the reason for our journey.”

  The haughty disdain in Sebastian’s expression cautioned Alys against protesting further. Against saying anything further, in fact.

  It was a warning she heeded.

  Devil stared unseeingly out the window of his carriage as it rolled purposefully along the road leading to Newcomb Manor

  The presence of two other people in the carriage—the lawyer, Mr. Wilcox, and Alys’s maid—prevented the two of them from having any private conversation.

  For which Devil felt only gratitude.

  He was so angry with Alys right now, he would only have said things to her which could never be unsaid. Not that it mattered when the outcome of today seemed certain. If all went as it should, Alys would be the mistress of Newcomb Manor by the end of the day and Teddy Newcomb would be safely locked in a prison cell, awaiting his trial.

  Having now heard all the facts, Devil had no doubt as to the outcome of that trial. Newcomb would hang. After all the misery the younger man had caused, Devil intended to make sure of it.

  In the meantime, the estrangement between himself and Alys only deepened with each mile traveled. A distance Devil had no idea how to even begin to breach. They had both lied, each to the other, if only by omission. Only one thing could breach such a chasm of distrust between them.

  Love.

  They had desire, and despite everything, Devil also believed they had respect for each other. But love? Alys might have thought she loved him three years ago, but she had made no mention of the emotion since, not even during their most passionate moments together.

  “How much longer shall we be, Seb—Deveril?” Alys corrected, aware of the others in the carriage with them.

  The only reason the explanation to Sebastian had not proved more devastating than it had was because Mr. Wilcox and Meg were already privy to that information.

  Alys now believed Teddy was a murderer as well as a thief.

  “Half an hour or so,” he answered dismissively, hardly sparing her a glance as he continued to look out the carriage window, his expression remote.

  How Sebastian must now regret marrying into a family such as hers. A brother-in-law who was a murderer and a thief. A wife who might or might not have behaved treasonably toward the English Crown.

  The latter still smarted, Alys admitted, but it was nevertheless true that Sebastian had married her still suspecting that.

  Why had he?

  He could merely be protecting her, of course, out of the friendship and affection he had felt for her dead father.

  Or could he have acted out of love for her?

  Alys studied him unobserved, as she had done many times these past five days and nights of being his wife. Sebastian was all she could ever have wished for in a husband: handsome, kind, a pleasure to be with, generous to a fault, and man who could be relied upon.

  He had suspected her of treason!

  Yes, he had, and he still had no proof she was not guilty. Nor had she actually denied that guilt; they had been interrupted before she had a chance to do so. And yet here he was, in the carriage with her as she traveled to Newcomb Manor to confront her brother with the truth.

  Once this situation with Teddy was settled, the two of them would need to talk to each other. To decide whether or not their marriage really had come to an end.

  She had loved Sebastian three years ago, and she loved him still. She was in love with him. No on
e, and nothing that had happened since, had ever changed that.

  Alys had every intention of fighting for her husband and her marriage.

  As soon as matters were settled with Teddy.

  Chapter 15

  “To what do I owe this pleasure?” Teddy sneered from where he lay prostrate in his bed. His fevered gaze moved from Alys to Sebastian. “Have you tired of her already, Deveril, and now expect me to take her back? If so, I should warn you I have no intention of giving back the twenty thousand pounds you paid for her.”

  “He is not worth it, Sebastian.” Alys placed a restraining hand on his arm as he would have stepped closer to the bed, a nerve pulsing in the tightness of his jaw, his hands clenched at his sides.

  They had arrived a short time ago to learn all the guests had departed several days ago. The local doctor was the only person in attendance, although he had not been called in again until this morning, Teddy having refused his help before then. To his detriment.

  The bedchamber reeked of illness and decay. Because Teddy was dying. The doctor had left Teddy’s bedchamber to inform them of that before Alys and Sebastian went in to see him. Left unattended, Teddy’s wound had become infected, and that infection had now spread to the rest of his body. The doctor believed the end was perhaps a day away, or possibly two at the most.

  In some ways, Alys felt relieved it was to end this way. But the part of her that still remembered Teddy as her protective older brother when they were both young children inwardly cried at the cruel youth and totally corrupt and immoral man he had become.

  “Then perhaps you have come to gloat?” Teddy challenged scornfully. “Come to watch as this damned wound eats me up before killing me.”

  Alys moistened her lips before speaking. “I believe you might find this death preferable to a hangman’s noose.”