Her lips parted. “Roger?”
“It seems their fight over the inheritance of the title was not yet finished.”
She covered her mouth with both hands. “Oh God,” she murmured through them. “When Toby died, their battle was terrible, yes, and they nearly came to blows several times during the legal proceedings that determined who was born first. But I never would have thought…”
“Apparently neither would Ambrose,” Stenfax said softly.
“Then are we…safe?” she asked, a tiny flare of hope in her chest. She was embarrassed by it, that a man’s death would inspire relief. Even a man she despised.
“Not exactly,” he said. “Ambrose had found Kirkford’s book.”
She stared. “He found it?”
Stenfax’s face grew even more grim. “And Roger took it.”
She leapt to her feet. “No! No, that cannot be. So the secrets are out? We are lost?”
“No.” He stood and moved toward her, catching her and pulling her into his embrace. He smoothed her hair, tried to stay her trembling. But she couldn’t stop, no matter how much his warmth pierced her and surrounded her.
“How could we not be?” she asked when she could find her words. “Roger is as cruel as his cousins ever were. In fact, he is a cold and calculated cruelty, not as wild as Toby and Ambrose were. Much more dangerous.”
He winced at that assessment, but drew her back and looked down at her. “There was a page left behind in the struggle and it turns out Toby’s book was encoded. Right now we don’t believe Roger has a way to break the code. So that gives us some time.”
She wrinkled her brow. “Coded?”
He nodded. “Yes. It seems your late husband wanted to protect the secrets he collected.”
She bent her head. “So what do we do now?”
He smoothed a hand across her cheek. “The same thing we planned in the first place. You and I will marry, and we will look for the book. Roger is under suspicion for the murder of a duke. He’ll be on the run. But we’ll find him, and we’ll find the book and destroy it. Nothing has changed.”
She let out a shuddering sigh. “It doesn’t feel like it. This whole day has been shifting sands beneath our feet. One enemy becomes another, truth becomes lies. Will we ever feel safe again?”
Suddenly his mouth was on hers. At first the kiss was gentle, but as she wound her arms around his neck, it grew more heated, more passionate. She sank into it, sank into him, and sighed as his tongue slid across hers. She felt the evidence of his desire for her, pressing firmly to her stomach, and wanted nothing more than to give in to it, give in to him.
After all, there was little she knew when it came to this man, but that they could connect so passionately, so sweetly, was one fact that had never changed.
He pulled away, and it was like he’d read her mind when he whispered, “There is nothing I’d like more than to lay you down on the settee and forget the madness of today. But it is getting late and we have somewhere to be.”
She tilted her head. “Where?”
“My mother’s. We’ll go in the guise of telling her of our engagement. But while we’re there, Gray and I will need to tell Felicity about the death of the Duke of Kirkford.”
Elise shuddered. “She will be devastated.”
“That’s why I’m glad you’ll be there to help,” he said, holding her gaze steadily. “Now go up and change. Gray managed to convince the guard that we should take your clothing as we planned.”
She blinked. He was offering her a little trust by asking her for her help with Felicity. She saw that. And though it was just a beginning, she would take it. Cling to it with both hands.
And pray she could one day manage to parlay it into a happy future.
Chapter Nineteen
Lucien looked at Elise as she shifted in her seat, staring at the door where Felicity and his mother would soon join them and Gray and Rosalinde. The other couple was standing by the fire, their heads close together in private conversation.
Stenfax reached out and took Elise’s hand, squeezing gently. “It’s fine,” he whispered.
Her already pale face drained further of color. “How can it be fine? Your mother must hate me as much as you and your siblings did.”
Lucien frowned at her observation. She had lived in the shadow of his family’s disdain for so long, now that she had been drawn out into the light it was like she didn’t know what to do. That was his fault, he supposed. After all, she felt the walls between them.
He wanted so much to bring them down, but it wasn’t so simple as that.
“Mama is an uncomplicated person,” he said softly. “Will she be…confused by this change of events? I suppose she will. After all, I didn’t hide my grief over losing you well, but she isn’t the kind to turn away anyone. I assure you. Especially if Gray and Felicity show their support for the match.”
The mention of his sister made Elise’s face fall further. “Oh, how will Felicity take this news?” she whispered.
He tensed at the thought, but was happy to share his worries with someone who understood. “I’ll have to draw her aside to tell her, and I admit I don’t look forward to that moment.”
“I’ll help you as best I can,” Elise said softly as she threaded her fingers through his. He looked down at her, soaking in the succor of her support, feeling the glow of his love for her in return.
Felicity entered the room and he drew away from Elise, rising to his feet as he faced his sister and his mother. Lady Stenfax smiled, but the expression slowly fell as she realized Elise was standing in her parlor.
“I—” she began. “Good Lord, Your Grace, I had no idea you would be joining the family for supper tonight.”
“Lady Stenfax,” Elise said, holding out a shaking hand toward his mother. “I hope my being here doesn’t put you out overly much.”
His mother blinked, and for a brief moment Stenfax though she might, indeed, refuse Elise. But then she put out her hand and caught Elise’s gently. “Of course not, my dear. We will add another plate for supper. It has been…” She shot Stenfax a side glance. “…a very long time since we last saw you.”
Stenfax cleared his throat as he sidled up to Elise and gently slipped an arm around her waist. He felt her lean into him a fraction and stroked his fingers against her side in some form of comfort. “Mama, I have news for you.”
Lady Stenfax’s eyes widened even further as she stared at the two of them. “I see that you do. What is going on?”
“Elise and I will wed,” he said softly. “In Caraway Court, in two weeks’ time.”
It seemed the room held its collective breath as they awaited Lady Stenfax’s reaction, but none more than Elise. He supposed he understood why. After all, she’d always liked his family, and since her own parents had both died during her marriage to Kirkford, she was quite alone in the world. He could imagine she would welcome the gentle presence of his mother.
“That’s wonderful,” Lady Stenfax said at last, and moved toward the couple to first kiss her son’s cheek and then catch Elise’s hands. “My dear, we have very much missed you in the company of our family. I only wish your parents were here to see this day. I know they wished for it.”
Elise blinked in surprise. “You stayed in touch with my parents…after?”
Lady Stenfax wrinkled her brow. “Of course I did. I hope you got my note when they passed.”
Elise swallowed hard. “I did, my lady. I am sorry I didn’t write back—my grief was too much, I fear.” She glanced at Stenfax with a soft smile. “But I did appreciate your kind words.”
She was so lovely in that moment that it took everything in Stenfax not to grab her, sweep her over his shoulder and take her back to his home to lay claim to her right then and there. But he had one final unpleasant duty that night and it had to do with Felicity.
Lady Stenfax looked around the room with a shake of her head. “I can see that I am
the last one to hear this news, am I? How did you all keep it a secret?”
Gray laughed. “Don’t worry, Mama, it only just happened. You weren’t kept in the dark long.”
Elise cleared her throat. “I hate to bring up the obvious, but soon this news will spread far and wide. We cannot ignore the scandal it will create. So I would like to take a moment to apologize to you all for the trouble I may bring to your family.”
Lady Stenfax stared at her and then slowly moved forward. “Elise, my dear, I have watched my son in the years since your engagement was broken and I know he suffered greatly for your loss. Now I look at him and I see…there is his spark again. His joy.”
Stenfax shifted as Elise and his mother both looked at him. “Come now, Mama, don’t make Elise think I was sitting in a pit of despair for three years.”
Lady Stenfax blushed and said, “Perhaps not a pit, but I’m glad to see the light in your eyes again. If Elise has given that to you through her return to your life, why would we care one whit what anyone says about it? If one person dares question your union, I shall give them a harsh set down myself.”
Stenfax bent his head with a slight chuckle, inspiring a glare from his mother. “I’m sorry, Mama, I just have a hard time picturing you handing out set downs.”
“You think it’s not in my nature,” she said. “You forget what a disciplinarian I was to you all when you were children.”
Now Gray and Felicity were laughing as well, and their mother turned toward them with an arched brow.
“Come, Mama,” Gray said, reaching out to take her arm. “Let’s go into supper and you can tell Rosalinde all about how you punished us so harshly as children. I think Felicity and Stenfax and Elise will join us momentarily.”
Stenfax sent his brother a briefly grateful look as Felicity’s face fell. Once they were alone, she stepped toward Elise and Stenfax. “Something has happened?”
Stenfax shifted as he took his sister’s hands. They were cold and shook in his, and his heart sank. How he hated doing this. How he hated all of it.
His face must have looked stricken, for Elise slipped a hand in to cover both his and Felicity’s. She gave him a gentle look and then said, “Felicity, dearest, there has been a development. Stenfax, may I?”
He nodded slowly, staring in wonder as she drew his sister to the settee and quietly told her about the new Duke of Kirkford’s murder and how the book had likely been found by his cousin.
“It is in code?” Felicity said at last, her face drawn and pale.
Stenfax moved forward, shooting Elise a look of gratitude that she had taken over this duty. “Yes. Gray and I already delivered it to one of John Dane’s allies in the War Department. They are working on it and will make sure Dane has a copy, as well, when he joins us in Caraway Court.”
Felicity bent her head. “Well, then we must just wait, mustn’t we? Until we can regroup and consider our options, it seems we are in a bind.”
“I’m sorry, Felicity,” Stenfax whispered.
She looked at him, her brow wrinkled. “It isn’t your fault, Lucien. But I need a moment. Will you have Mama begin supper? I’ll join everyone shortly.”
She squeezed Elise’s hand, then got up and slipped from the parlor. Once she was gone, Elise slowly rose and moved over to stand with Stenfax. “She took it as well as could be expected,” she murmured.
He shook his head. “Thanks to you. If I had given her the news, I would have said too much. Or not enough. How did you know I needed your help?”
She turned slowly and lifted her gaze to his. “It was just a sense I had. I’m glad I was of assistance, Lucien. I know I’ve blown apart your life, and it will blow apart more once the scandal sheets get word of Kirkford’s murder and our engagement. The least I can do is try to make myself useful. Perhaps if I do, then you won’t end up utterly regretting this decision you’ve made to wed me.”
He cupped her cheek, smoothing a thumb over silky skin. Her lips parted slightly at the action and her pupils dilated. Touching her inspired the same physical reaction in him. But it was more than that. Being with her did exactly as his mother had observed a few moments earlier.
It brought back joy he hadn’t realized he lost. Anticipation for his future that had been torn away when she left him.
“I don’t feel regret,” he said, unwilling and almost unable to say more.
So he spoke with his body. He leaned in and kissed her, and she lifted up on her tiptoes to sink into his embrace. After a moment, he reluctantly pulled away.
“We probably shouldn’t start something we can’t finish,” he murmured, sliding his lips across her cheek, letting his hand trail to the smooth skin on her upper arm.
She shivered. “Probably not,” she agreed, even as she nuzzled the spot where his neck and shoulder met.
“Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Let’s bring an end to this extremely long day.”
She nodded as she let him take her to the dining room, but as they joined the others and he made an excuse for Felicity, he had a stark realization. Although this had been a long day, he wasn’t actually all that eager for it to end. For all the bad of it, for all the horror, it was also the day Elise had been returned to him.
Now he just had to figure out how to overcome all that had separated them. Not the years, but the real things that kept the wall up between them. Because he wanted a life with her.
He just had to figure out how.
Chapter Twenty
It was almost another week until Elise found herself sitting in a carriage with Felicity and Stenfax, winding their way down the final miles to Caraway Court. She glanced down in her lap and scowled at what she saw there.
When she did so, Felicity let out a sigh and snatched the paper resting there. “Stop reading this tripe!”
She held it up, shaking the Scandal Sheet with one hand. It was a special paper, delivered once a week, that only detailed the scandals in Society. The paper that had been delivered the previous day, before the family left London, featured the murder of the Duke of Kirkford and a huge article about Elise and Lucien’s engagement.
It was meant to be “blind”, their names not used in the description of their scandalous past and reunion, but since the author had linked it to strongly to the murder, which was not blind, there was no doubt to whom the paper referred.
Not that London had been silent on the subject even before the article. Word of their engagement had gotten out almost immediately, and Elise had been receiving nearly constant calls from the curious and the judgmental for days.
She was exhausted, both mentally and physically. And it wasn’t just the strain of the rumors that did it. Stenfax had been increasingly withdrawn in their remaining time in London. Oh, he had spoken to her, yes. But always in the company of others. And since that last searing kiss at his mother’s home, he hadn’t touched her except to escort her from one room to another.
Sometimes she caught him watching her…rather like he was watching her at the moment from his place across from her in the carriage. She felt like he was trying to decide something and she rather feared what that something was.
“How can I ignore it when the Scandal Sheet is the most popular paper in London that no one admits to reading?”
“Felicity is right,” Stenfax said, taking the sheet and balling it up before he opened the carriage window and tossed it out. “Whatever is being said changes nothing of our plans. We’ll be in Caraway Court a while for the wedding and then working on whatever plans we make for dealing with Roger. By the time we return, much of the gossip will have faded.”
Elise wasn’t so certain of that, but at present she was more troubled by Lucien’s withdrawn demeanor than the tales being told. Why did he pull away? And how could she ever bring him back after everything that had happened?
The carriage slowed as they turned up the final winding drive to the estate. Elise looked out as the big house rose up i
n her view, as beautiful as she remembered it all those years ago. She had once loved it here and now all that love rushed back, and tears leapt into her eyes at the joy of returning when she’d never thought it possible.
“Here come Celia and John Dane,” Felicity said, reaching out to wave.
Elise straightened, trying to see the famous Celia Dane. The woman who had once almost been the Countess of Stenfax. As the vehicle slowed, it turned, and she caught nothing more than a glimpse of dark hair.
She pursed her lips as the carriage stopped and the footmen rushed to free them. They helped Felicity down first and she heard her friend say Celia’s name. Lucien went next and he turned back to help her down himself.
She smiled at him and he returned a rather distracted expression of his own before he drew her forward. Gray and Rosalinde were pulling up behind in their carriage, which also included Stenfax’s mother, but he didn’t wait as he faced Elise to the couple on the drive.
Elise stared. She’d seen this woman before, but only from a distance. Up close, there was no denying how beautiful Celia Dane was. She had coloring similar to her sister, dark hair with bright blue eyes and porcelain skin. She had a more mischievous look to her, though, a sparkle and a light.
Elise swallowed hard in the face of it. No wonder Stenfax had chosen her.
“Mr. and Mrs. Dane, may I present the Duchess of Kirkford,” Stenfax said. “Soon to be the Countess of Stenfax.”
Somehow Elise found her voice and extended her hand first to John Dane. “Elise,” she said, her words faint. “The rest is too complicated and with the help you are offering us, I don’t think it right to stand on such ceremony.”
Dane took her hand and shook it. She’d hardly noticed him in her focused attention on Celia, but he was a handsome man with longish dark blond hair and a neatly trimmed beard.
“My lady,” he said.
When he released her, she turned to Celia. The other woman was smiling faintly, but there was an expression on her face that let Elise know she was being watched, analyzed.
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