The earl walked to the window, and Noelle and Gavin settled side by side on the settee. Tension twisted her belly sour, and every sound outside the parlor seemed magnified as Noelle waited to confront the horrid woman.
She supposed tearing out Lady Hortense’s hair and gouging out her eyes wasn’t proper behavior. Still, it should be acceptable to tear and gouge if a situation warranted such actions. And at the moment, Noelle wasn’t beyond rolling up her sleeves and giving the woman the pummeling she much deserved.
Click-clicks from rapid footsteps in the hallway brought Noelle’s attention to the door. It didn’t take introductions to know the woman who stepped into the parlor. The sketch had been surprisingly accurate. Though diminutive in size, she carried herself with a queenly bearing, as if all of England was meant to bow at her tiny feet.
Noelle knew she was not yet thirty, yet lines of disapproval and scorn had etched grooves around her mouth and between her brows. Had she lived her life with happiness and laughter, she could have been a rare beauty. Instead, she’d been spoiled and pampered and never made to suffer for her misbehavior, to the point of becoming a shrew.
“Surprise, Wife,” Charles said and turned away from the window. His posture gave the appearance of casual indifference, but his face showed he was anything but calm. A visible undercurrent of anger simmered in him. “Did you miss me?”
Lady Hortense’s dark eyes darted from one face to another, and all the color fled her cheeks. Clearly she possessed the intelligence to know that finding Gavin and a strange woman in her parlor did not bode well for her. Obviously, her evil henchmen had kept her abreast of the goings-on in London. Whether she knew Noelle’s true identity, and how her plot had entangled the highly placed Lady Seymour, remained to be seen.
The countess forced a grim smile. “Charles, darling. Back so soon?” She must have decided to steer away from her husband, and instead crossed toward Gavin. “You must be the American cousin my husband has spoken so much about. His description was apt. I feel like I know you—”
“Stop.” Charles’s voice boomed through the room before she could reach Gavin. She jolted to a wavering halt.
Lady Hortense winced with each slow step as he trod toward her, his eyes pinning her in place. “How could you do what you did and not hide your face in shame?”
She swallowed and her face paled. “How could I do what, My Lord?” She tried to smile but grimaced instead.
“Gavin and Lady Seymour were almost killed because of this sickening game you played to punish me for my indiscretions. How can you stand there and act as if you did nothing wrong?”
Her gaze snapped to Noelle. “Lady Seymour?” she croaked. “You were involved with the necklace?” Evidently, her henchmen had not put Bliss together with Noelle. It was one thing to harass a courtesan; it was quite another to attack a noblewoman.
The countess seemed to shrink inside her well-cut rose gown. Clearly she now realized the seriousness of her situation.
“I want to know, why Bliss?” Charles demanded, and the countess jerked her head around to her husband. “I have had scores of lovers since our marriage. Why this one?”
Noelle watched her expression flash to intense anger. Lady Seabrook might have been surprised by their arrival, and by Noelle’s part in the drama, but she wasn’t done fighting just yet. It didn’t take much to see the feral cat in the countess.
“You want to know why I had Fanny—Freda, as your whore knew her—convince your pretty plaything to steal my necklace?” She rose to her full height and closed her fists. She barely came midchest on her husband. “You called out her name in your sleep—‘Bliss, Bliss’—in our bed. You mooned over her like a calf-eyed puppy.” She paused. “I overheard you speaking to Lord Bennington in the library about your beautiful courtesan. It was clear you were besotted.” Her voice grew shriller with each spewed word. “I know you’ve never loved me, but could you have had the decency not to speak of her to Bennington in our home, and not mutter her name in our bed?”
Her cheeks turned flame red in her rage. Suddenly, Noelle realized that in spite of her husband’s obvious affection for Bliss, and his cavalier attitude about their marriage, the shrew loved him. Everything she’d done, all the deception and dangerous plotting, had been to remove Bliss from his affections.
“I sent Fanny to watch over her, looking for an opportunity to do some harm. That is when the necklace became useful. Fanny saw how enamored the whore was by the piece and encouraged the theft. Fanny knew that once the chit stole the necklace, I could have her arrested and tossed into Newgate. Then you would see her as nothing more than a lowly thief.” Her voice caught in a sob. “You would have had to come home to me.”
Angry tears burned a path down her face. Noelle looked at Gavin, and he was just as enthralled with the drama as she was.
However, it was Charles who appeared most stunned by the confession. Obviously, he’d not been aware of the love, twisted though it was, that his wife felt for him. He’d wedded and bedded her for many years yet was blind to her feelings.
Pity. That was what Noelle felt in that moment. Though Lady Hortense deserved to be whipped for what she’d done to Noelle and Bliss. Noelle’s own mother had suffered the shame of marriage to an openly unfaithful husband. Though theirs had not been a love match either, the humiliation of knowing her husband had loved Eva’s mother must have been a dreadful weight to bear.
Love match or not, realizing one’s husband found passion and joy in another woman had to be a blow to one’s pride. If Noelle was wed to Gavin, and he left her bed to enjoy the pleasures of a mistress, she’d be devastated.
That was why she’d never wanted to wed. The price was too painfully high. Could it still be?
“Why, after the necklace was returned, did your thugs continue to demand the necklace?” Gavin pressed. “And how did they find Bliss?”
The woman averted her eyes. “I promised them a large reward once Bliss was arrested. When that failed, I refused to pay them any more than the initial payment. I cut off contact.” She paused. “Obviously, they saw my necklace as their reward. They couldn’t know Charles had already returned it to me.”
Noelle could see Gavin’s outrage in his trembling body. The duchess had started a dangerous game that she quickly lost control of, leaving her thugs to carry on unfettered. Havoc, pain, and near-fatal consequences followed that fateful decision.
“How did they find Bliss?” Charles asked.
“I don’t know,” the countess said, her voice thin. “After several threats to harm me, I didn’t hear from them again.”
Gavin looked at Charles. “The thugs must have paid the guards to take Bliss in order to force payment from the countess. Noelle was caught in the ambush.”
Lady Hortense stood stock-still in the center of the room. Her crimes clearly weighed on her. “What is to be done with me?” she whimpered.
Charles seemed to struggle inwardly over the right thing to do. He had a wife who didn’t think twice about harming others, yet to have his wife arrested and hanged, leaving his children motherless, would be a dreadful burden.
Gavin stood and walked to his cousin. He clapped a hand on his shoulder and Charles started, as if he’d forgotten others were in the room. Gavin pulled him out of earshot. The two men spoke quietly for a few minutes until Charles nodded, his face bleak. Gavin returned to sit next to Noelle. Though his expression was grave, he winked.
Puzzled, Noelle watched the earl face his wife. “I cannot leave you to your devices, Wife, out of fear you will further endanger others with your spite. If only your father had seen fit to paddle you as a child, we might not be in this dilemma.” He dragged his hands over his head. “Gavin and I have come up with a punishment, if Lady Seymour agrees.” He flicked his glance at Noelle. “Kearney Castle in Scotland is a long-neglected property belonging to our family. It is cold, drafty, and isolated, with only enough staff to keep it from falling into the sea. I think it will be a fitting p
rison for you, for the period of one year.”
“No!” Lady Hortense wobbled and her face crumpled. “You cannot do this to me.”
Charles glared. “Consider yourself lucky. Newgate was my second choice.” He walked over to pour himself a brandy. “You’ll have plenty of time to ponder your sins. Perhaps when you return, you will have a change of temperament.”
“But what of the children?” Lady Hortense begged. “They cannot live in such conditions.”
“The children will stay with me in London.”
“No, please.” She covered her face with her hands.
Charles turned to Noelle. She knew the ultimate decision was hers. To be isolated and removed from her children was a greater punishment than anything, save Newgate, she could come up with. Lady Hortense deserved to suffer for her crimes. She admired Charles for standing up to his wicked wife.
Noelle pulled in a deep breath and faced the countess. She felt powerful for the first time since this ordeal had begun. “You endangered and almost killed me, and set into motion the events that landed me in Newgate. Bliss and I would have been violated by the guards, if not for the intervention of Gavin and your husband. Had that happened, I would have seen you hang.” Noelle paused. The countess’s fate was in her hands. It was the children she considered most, not the countess. A year was a long time without their mother. Unfortunately, there was no other reasonable choice. “I would like nothing more than for you to spend one day, one hour, in Newgate, but I cannot inflict such a punishment.”
“Thank you, My Lady,” Lady Seabrook whispered, but Noelle raised her hand.
“Do not speak,” she snapped. “I do not accept this punishment as fitting for all you have done. However, for your children’s sake, I will not ship you off to a penal colony. I cannot in good conscience allow innocent children to live their lives with the shame and heartbreak of knowing their mother is gone forever, and that I was the one who had sent her away.”
The countess crumpled into a chair and sobbed. Whether she came back from her exile changed or not remained to be seen. But the threat of imprisonment would certainly keep her from ever repeating her crimes. And it was enough for Noelle.
“Exile it is,” Noelle agreed.
“It is settled, then.” Charles downed his drink and nodded. He did not look at his wife but leveled a grateful glance at Noelle. “I will make the arrangements.”
Gavin rose and took Noelle by the hand. He led her from the room. Once they were safely away from the doorway, he stopped.
“You made the right choice.” He took both of her hands and bent to hold her gaze. “She loves her children deeply. The separation will be excruciating.”
She squeezed his fingers. “I almost pity her.” She smiled grimly. She felt the earl was also culpable in this affair. It was unfair that he’d get off without punishment. Still, his wife was ultimately responsible for her actions. “Almost. After what she did to Bliss and me, I still cannot help but wonder if the separation and exile will be sufficient for my own desire for vengeance.”
Gavin chuckled. “I visited the castle once with my father when I was a boy. It is a horrible place. And there are no noble neighbors within a decent day’s drive. For a woman who loves to socialize as Hortense does, that alone will be torture.”
Smiling, Noelle leaned against him and slid her hand into his coat. “Then perhaps we should suggest that she pack books.”
Charles offered to put them up for the evening before they headed back to London. But the piteous weeping from somewhere deep in the upper floors of the house, and the unhappy prospect of spending even one night under the same roof as the countess, fed their desire to be off immediately. Gavin gathered up Noelle and the maid and escorted them toward the coach.
Charles took Noelle’s hand and kissed her gloved knuckles. “I thank you for your understanding in this matter, Lady Seymour. I know the punishment doesn’t cover all her crimes, but I had to consider my children.”
Perhaps he should have considered them when making the choice to humiliate his wife in her own home, Noelle thought, but she knew men of his ilk were seldom faithful. It wasn’t in their breeding, and she couldn’t fight the institution of courtesans and noblemen.
The earl had a spark of fire in his eyes. Noelle had a feeling he was hoping for a changed wife upon her return from exile. Miracles could happen. Maybe he’d even grow to love his shrewish countess.
“Perhaps, then, you should give consideration to allowing her to become a loving and dutiful wife.” Noelle knew she should keep her advice to herself, but she had to speak her feelings. “She loves you, you know. Her happiness rests on a husband who is both loving and faithful.”
His brows went up, and Noelle smiled. A knowing look filled his brown eyes, and he nodded almost imperceptibly. She suspected he’d accepted that his behavior had cost them all so much. Whether he’d take her advice and change, too, was difficult to gauge.
Noelle turned and took Gavin’s hand. He helped her into the coach. The two men spoke briefly before Gavin joined her. He seemed very happy as he settled close and took her hand. Something had happened in the last minute or so to lift his spirits.
“What has brought that grin to your face?” she asked curiously as the coach rolled away from the manor. “You are awfully smug after such a sober occasion.”
Gavin leaned in to keep the maid from overhearing and whispered, “My cousin has decided that if I do not keep you, I should be drawn and quartered for my stupidity.”
Noelle grinned wickedly. “Your cousin is a wise man.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Noelle relaxed back on the cushions. Now, with the thief-master exiled, and Crawford on the trail of the remaining culprits, there wasn’t a reason for Gavin not to return to his life, and she to hers. He had ships to build, and she, well, she had spinsterhood to settle into and her uncle’s household to run in his absence.
The idea left a cold place low in her belly. She’d been ready to risk all and marry Gavin. The last hour had scrambled up that notion. Each time she changed her mind about marriage, something happened to change it back.
“I’m the one who is wise,” Gavin muttered under his breath. “It is I who share your bed.”
“Hush,” Noelle urged. She darted a glance at the maid, Dory, who had resumed her usual position, her head against the window frame and her eyes closed. Noelle wondered if perhaps she wasn’t sleeping at all, but listening for interesting bits of gossip.
If that were the case, she’d learn little during this particular journey. The trip from London had been without interest to a potential gossip. The trip back would be similar. Noelle had no intention of doing anything scandalous with the maid sitting across the way.
Gavin had other ideas. She felt his hand slide from hers and move stealthily to her thigh. Noelle shot the maid a second glance while closing her fingers tightly over his hand to stop him from mischief. Gavin grinned wickedly.
“You must keep your hands to yourself,” Noelle whispered, and felt a bubble of laughter rise up. He was completely shameless. “We have an audience.”
“Not for long.” He didn’t have to explain as the coach turned off the road and stopped before an inn set against a small copse of trees. The building was an unimpressive twostory structure with a thatched roof and had the look of general neglect. Still, it appeared to be sturdy.
They hadn’t traveled more than a mile or two. The maid popped upright when the coach stopped, her face puzzled.
Gavin said, “We have traveled many miles in a short span, and I am tired. If we sleep here tonight, we can resume our journey tomorrow, refreshed.”
Noelle knew fatigue wasn’t the true reason for the stop. Gavin wasn’t looking at her with sleep in his eyes. Truthfully, she didn’t care what his intentions were. She was exhausted. The trip had been very draining. A meal and a bed would both be welcome.
“Will you excuse us?” Gavin asked the maid, and she quickly exited the c
oach. Once the door was closed, he grinned again. “I have instructed the coachman to ask for the rooms: one for the maid, one for the coachman, and one for us to share. There will be a fourth, for appearances, of course. If you have a problem with the arrangement, speak up, for I intend to spend the hours between now and dawn taking full and complete advantage of that lovely body of yours.”
A flash of desire tingled through Noelle. She knew very well that she should protest, loudly. Or share a space with Dory, as it was her reputation he risked. Yet, she couldn’t. The idea of spending a full night with Gavin, without the fear of discovery by sister or servant, was deliriously appealing. And Dory could think what she wanted. Noelle no longer cared.
So she slid her hand down to cup his arousal and leaned close to press her breasts against him. Her nipples tightened in anticipation of his heated mouth.
“The coachman had better hurry.” She pressed a kiss on the side of his jaw. “For if you do not have me naked in the next ten minutes, I shall be terribly put out.”
It took seven, and Noelle was quite pleased.
Noelle awoke to a rooster’s predawn crow and cursed the bird for his lack of a decent clock. Gavin had loved her, and taken her, and shown her a full collection of skills, including several positions one could twist into for optimal pleasure. Noelle didn’t think she could find enjoyment in lovemaking with her ankles near her ears, or on her hands and knees. She was wrong.
“What time is it?” Gavin said sleepily, and reached to pull her close. Noelle snuggled to his side.
“There is no clock.” She looked out the window and saw the slightest hint of daylight breaking the blackened sky. She pressed kisses on his bare chest. “We have an hour or two before we should consider getting out of bed.”
She licked his nipple and rose to straddle his hips. His erection pressed her core. He reached to twist his hands in her tangled hair and attempted to pull her down for a kiss, but Noelle had other ideas. She smiled seductively, guided the tip of his cock inside her, and then swiftly impaled herself with a blissful moan.
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