Titus shot him a long-suffering glance. “Prudence has decided we can leave for the country later today instead.”
Nik looked about the deserted hallway. “Then where the hell is she?”
“Talking to Lady Jacqueline.”
“Why?” Angelique stepped forward before Nik had chance to reprimand the other man.
Romney shrugged. “We learned of Lady Jacqueline’s arrest and lack of cooperation yesterday from some of our wedding guests, and this morning, it occurred to Pru that Lady Kingston might reveal more if she was to talk with another woman. She was partly right.” He glanced at Angelique. “When we arrived, we were told Lady Kingston had asked to speak with her daughter.”
“No—”
“That is the reason I am here,” Angelique cut softly across Nik’s protest.
Romney shook his head. “I am convinced your mother will only try to hurt you.”
“More than she already has?” Angelique choked.
“Much more.” The viscount nodded. “There is a viciousness in Lady Jacqueline I had not seen before today. I partly agree with Pru in that it is best if Lady Kingston talk to a woman who is not emotionally involved,” he added gently.
Angelique did not feel in the least deterred by his logic. “Where are they now?”
“Upstairs in one of the bedchambers. The door is open, and I have placed two of the guards in the hallway outside while I waited for you to arrive,” Romney explained as Stonewell snarled his disapproval. “I would not allow my wife to be alone with her unguarded.”
“Nevertheless, you really need to get your wife under control, Romney,” Nik snapped.
Dark brows rose over mocking blue eyes. “Is that why you brought Angelique here today, because you have her ‘under control’?”
It was neither the time nor the place for humor, and yet Angelique still found herself holding back a smile at Romney’s mockery.
Having Nik come to her bedchamber last night and prostrate himself on the bed for her to restrain and punish had been more…disturbing than Angelique had cared to admit. So much so that she had slept fitfully, her body aroused and feverish, her thoughts constantly going round and round in her head through the haze of that arousal.
She had been surprised by Nik coming to her room at all, so what had followed had seemed slightly surreal.
What had it all meant?
Nik was a proud man, an arrogant one, and for him to have offered himself to her in that way, to do with as she willed, to punish as she wished, was beyond comprehension.
The dark shadows beneath Nik’s eyes this morning, when the two of them met at the breakfast table, indicated he had slept no better than she had.
He had, however, found the time to arrange this visit to the house where her mother was being held, and where she would remain until they had positive proof of her guilt.
“Could we perhaps go upstairs and at least listen to the conversation?” she prompted Nik now. “Then if Lady Prudence needs assistance, I will be able to step in.”
Nik had no desire for Angelique to step in. He did not want her here at all but had felt unable to gainsay her when she was so determined to see her mother. The fact Lady Jacqueline had asked to speak with Angelique did nothing to reassure him. The older woman would no doubt shortly hang for her crimes and so had nothing left to lose.
At the same time, he knew this might be the last time Angelique had opportunity to speak privately with her mother at all.
Although privately was perhaps an understatement when Romney and his wife, and several guards, were also present.
“Lead the way,” he instructed the other man harshly.
Romney gave him a long and searching glance, turning a briefer one on a pale-faced Angelique, before nodding. “It has at least been confirmed by the captain of the ship that Lady Jacqueline had booked passage to France when she was apprehended,” he informed them as they made their way up the staircase.
Nik could hear the murmur of female voices as they walked along the hallway to where two of his own agents stood on armed guard. “Anything?” he prompted in a low voice so that it was not detected by the two women inside the room.
One of the men gave a grimace before answering as softly. “Viscountess Romney has been in there for some time now with little result. She’s a determined one, though, I’ll give her that.” He gave Romney a rueful glance.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” the lady’s husband drawled.
Angelique was no longer listening to the exchange between the men but had moved so that she stood just outside the open doorway but still out of eyesight of the people inside the room where her mother was obviously being held prisoner.
“—intend saying anything until my daughter shows herself,” Lady Jacqueline scorned.
“For what purpose?” Lady Prudence probed.
“Have you met my daughter? Of course you have,” the older woman derided. “She gets her beauty from me, you know.” The preening could be heard in her voice. “Although what good it’s done her is another matter,” she added sourly. “With the right handling, she could have had Stonewell eating out of the palm of her hand, but what did she do? She let him control her! Why, just a few days ago, he had her down on her knees—”
Angelique stepped into the room before either Nik or Romney had opportunity to stop her. Whatever the dynamics of the relationship between herself and Nik, it was their relationship, and the details were not for the ears of his friends or their wives. “You wished to speak with me?”
“Well, well.” Her mother, looking even more disheveled than usual, sat on the side of the bed while the viscountess sat in a chair. “Perhaps you have a backbone after all.”
“Oh, I have that and more,” Angelique assured her in a hard voice. “Perhaps learning one’s mother is a traitor does that to a person,” she added accusingly.
“You have no proof of such.”
“The captain of the ship you were about to board has confirmed it was your intention to sail to France.”
“And?” Lady Jaqueline derided. “Perhaps I felt in need of a little sea trip.”
“The gun used to kill Lord Holmes was found amongst the baggage you intended taking with you,” Lady Prudence interjected softly.
Angelique glanced at the other woman as her mother drew in a sharp and hissing breath. Nik had not mentioned anything about… The way Lady Prudence’s gaze refused to meet her own told Angelique the other woman was bluffing.
“It really is all over, the only question being when you hang not if,” Angelique spoke in a hard voice. “I have to admit to being surprised that you killed Lord Holmes. I always thought you were rather fond of him.”
“He was a useful fool,” Lady Jacqueline dismissed as some of her previous defiance returned to her tone.
“Being foolish seems like a poor reason to shoot and kill a man.”
The older woman gave a snort. “I could forgive him for his foolishness, but he threatened to go to Stonewell and tell him of the…many conversations he knew I’d had with people sympathetic to the French, unless I agreed to give him ten thousand pounds. Giving him that money was the supposed reason for my visit to his lodgings yesterday.”
“Even so, I am not sure I could have shot someone in cold blood…” The shudder could be heard in Lady Prudence’s voice, feigned or otherwise.
Lady Jacqueline gave an unrepentant toss of her head. “He was drunk at the time, as usual, and it was far too easy to enter that appalling house where he lived and shoot him before he knew anything about it.”
Angelique felt a sense of satisfaction. Between the two of them, she and Lady Prudence had now cajoled her mother into admitting her guilt as a murderess and her connection to the French.
“What I do not understand,” the new viscountess continued lightly, “is why you had told the Frenchman who was recently arrested that you are the Duchess of Stonewell.”
Angelique froze, barely able to breathing as she star
ed at the woman she had called mother but now knew she never would again. Lady Jacqueline had claimed to be her? Was that the reason Nik had been given no choice but to finally accept Angelique’s guilt?
Lady Jacqueline gave a harsh laugh. “I wanted to teach that arrogant and superior son-in-law of mine a lesson. He’s overly fond of looking down his haughty nose at me. Of underestimating me. He had no idea that for months, I’ve been breaking into his study and reading the private correspondence locked away in his desk. I knew that claiming I was the Duchess of Stonewell would only confirm his wife’s guilt when it was realized the information had been taken from his own study. I’ve enjoyed watching his emotional struggle these past six months,” she added triumphantly. “Knowing his wife might be the traitor, and then to have it confirmed when Jacques was arrested and named the Duchess of Stonewell as his accomplice.” She gave a gleeful laugh.
Leading Angelique to question as to whether her mother was merely evil or completely mad.
Lady Prudence stared at the older woman. “She might have been hanged in your place as a traitor.”
“And?”
“The duchess is your daughter.”
“And she ruined my life!” Lady Jacqueline snarled.
Angelique frowned. “How did I succeed in doing that?”
“Your existence ruined my life,” the older woman snapped as she began to pace. “If not for you, I could have gone on to have more Seasons rather than just the one I had. I might have married a duke of my own. I would certainly not have been forced to marry the weak and less than wealthy Lord James Kingston.”
“You were with child when you married.” Lady Prudence had realized what was only just becoming clear to Angelique.
“Do you think I would have married at seventeen if I was not?” Lady Jacqueline snorted her disgust. “The real father was a married gentleman with children in the nursery, and the bastard refused to support me in any case. He denied ever bedding me,” she added bitterly. “Leaving my parents no choice but to find a husband for me if we were not all to be shamed in Society. Any husband. Ironic, is it not, that I became with child so easily, and yet Angelique seems unable to conceive?”
“Seems?” Lady Prudence echoed guardedly, Angelique left speechless from what she had already heard.
“Seems,” the older woman taunted. “Three years of trying to give that cold bastard an heir and not once did you realize that I was putting a preventative in your morning tea so that it would never happen.”
Angelique put a supporting hand on the wall beside her as she swayed. Learning her mother had hated her even before she was born was shocking enough, but to now know that same woman had—she had—
“But why would you do such a thing?” Lady Prudence prompted.
“Because being with child would eventually have curtailed Angelique’s social engagements and in turn prevented me from accompanying her, which I needed to do to be able to pass along information. It seemed like a fitting revenge considering how you had ruined my own life,” she sneered at Angelique. “Yes, watching your unhappiness, month after month, as the pregnancy eluded you, has been very pleasurable indeed.”
Angelique gathered up the last of her strength as she stared coldly at her mother. “I sincerely hope that you hang for your crimes at the earliest opportunity.”
“And what about the shame and scandal that would cause you and your snooty husband?” the older woman taunted.
“As I no longer consider I have a mother, I have every confidence Stonewell will arrange things so that we are neither of us inconvenienced by your treachery.”
“My God, you’ve become just like him.” Lady Jacqueline’s eyes glittered with the hatred she had hidden for so many years. “Haughty. Cold. Arrogant. Insolent—”
“At least I am nothing like you.”
“You ungrateful bitch—”
Angelique ignored this continuation of Lady’s Jacqueline vitriol as she swept from the room. By the time she reached the hallway, her legs were shaking so badly, they no longer wished to support her, and she felt herself begin to fall.
Nik caught Angelique in his arms. “We all heard the woman’s confession. Now get her locked up, and inform the Prince Regent as soon as possible,” he told Romney through gritted teeth. “I will be back to question the witch myself once I have Angelique settled.” He lifted his unconscious wife into his arms, cradling Angelique tenderly against his chest as he carried her down the stairs and out to the ducal carriage.
Chapter 16
Angelique felt completely disorientated when she woke, and it took several seconds for her to realize she was lying on the four-poster bed in the bedchamber at the back of the house where she had moved to when she believed her marriage to Nik was over.
Was it still over?
Nik had told her how he had struggled for months hoping to be able to prove her innocence.
Could he not now be excused for having finally accepted her guilt when he had so recently been told by the Frenchman they held in custody that the Duchess of Stonewell was his accomplice?
Angelique’s own mother had deliberately, vindictively, given that as being her name.
It was not the fault of either herself or Nik that they had failed to have a child together. For years her mother had…had…
Hot tears flooded Angelique’s eyes and then cascaded down her cheeks. She’d had no idea how much her mother hated her, or why. But she knew now, and would never, could never, forgive the other woman for the things she had done, to the country and to her own daughter and son-in-law. There was no goodness in Lady Jacqueline at all, only years of a hatred and resentment toward her own child that had warped her emotions. She was not mad, but vindictive and vicious.
As such, Angelique had no doubt that Lady Jacqueline would hang for her admitted crimes of treason and killing Lord Holmes. Nor did Angelique feel any sadness for this loss of the woman who had given birth to her. She wished the older woman could hang for what she had done to Angelique and Nik too, in denying them their child, possibly children, and also causing this terrible rift in their marriage.
Oh God, Nik.
He had heard all the vicious and cruel things her mother had said and done to the two of them these past three years.
What did he now think and feel toward her, Angelique?
What did Angelique feel about herself? She had been so stupid, so trusting, had never so much as suspected her mother of…of…
The door of the bedchamber opened to admit one of the maids, her expression brightening when she saw Angelique sitting up against the pillows. “His Grace will be pleased to know you are feeling better.”
Angelique quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks as the maid crossed the room to stand beside the bed. “Where is my husband?” It would have been too much to hope that when she awoke, Nik would be sitting anxiously beside her bed.
But why would he?
Now knowing the truth of things did not alter the fact he had never loved her.
“His Grace went out immediately after you were made comfortable.” The maid straightened the bedcovers. “He did not say when he would be returning.”
Of course not. Why should he when nothing had really changed between the two of them.
Because Nik does not love me and he never will.
It was a relief to know all the reasons for the recent coldness in their marriage, but it also made little difference to the fact their union had been far from perfect in the first place.
Nik’s behavior was not so different from other married gentlemen of the ton in that his life had changed very little after he became a married man.
He was usually gone from the house before Angelique was out of bed in the morning. Had luncheon at his club as often as not with one or several of the other Sinners, before spending several hours at a boxing salon or the War Office attending to matters as a spymaster for the Crown. His evenings were either spent escorting Angelique to social occasions or having dinner with her
at home before he went out alone for the rest of the evening.
Until six months ago, he had also spent his nights either in her bed or inviting Angelique to join him in his bedchamber.
That had abruptly ended six months ago.
As her marriage had also been irrevocably broken.
Angelique was in love with her husband. Had always been so. Would always be so. It was because she loved him, she knew she was no longer willing or able to accept the few crumbs of consideration or sexual pleasure Nik deigned to give her.
“What are you doing?” Nik demanded when he entered his wife’s bedchamber and saw several open but full trunks and bags about the room.
Angelique continued to place items inside the luggage rather than look at him. “I did tell you it was my intention to return to Kent to prepare for Christmas.”
Yes, she had, but that had been before.
Before they discovered exactly what a scheming bitch his mother-in-law was.
Before that woman’s cruel and hurtful words had explained why Nik had deliberately been given no other choice but to believe Angelique was their traitor.
Before they learned that vindictive witch had also been preventing them from having a child together.
“I apologize for fainting earlier.” Angelique kept her gaze lowered as she now tidied and put away the items she had decided not to take with her.
She had changed out of the clothes she had been wearing earlier and now wore a gown of deep gray, her hair swept up in fashionable curls, her expression perfectly composed despite the pallor of her cheeks.
“Perfectly understandable, in the circumstances,” Nik dismissed abruptly.
She gave a humorless smile. “Who would ever have believed my mother could be so clever and manipulative?”
Nik scowled. “The Prince Regent does, thank God. There will not even be a trial now we have her confession.”
Angelique gave him a quick glance. “She is to hang, then.”
Nik nodded abruptly. “Do you wish to see her before that happens?”
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