‘Did you ever see his…his, whatever I should describe her as? Is she pretty? What does she look like? How many children are there?’
‘Two, I think. Don’t torture yourself with such questions,’ Rachel replied, squeezing Brione’s shoulder. ‘It serves no purpose.’
‘I suppose not. But still, I wonder now about the true state of Evan’s father’s business. I always thought he encouraged Evan to pursue me, but perhaps that was because he had a yen to combine the two enterprises—his and Papa’s. Well, he got his wish and at least I get to inherit the lot. I don’t know what provision Evan made for his family and how they now manage, but that is not my concern.’
‘Certainly it is not.’
‘I didn’t have a clue,’ Brione said after a short pause. ‘Well, in such cases, they do say that the wife is always the last one to know. I expect everyone has been laughing at me behind my back. Either that or sympathising with me. I am not sure which prospect horrifies me more. Does the duke know? Do all the men who are here and served with Evan? Is that why I have been receiving so many speculative looks?’
‘I imagine the looks were born of incomprehension. None of them could understand why Even could possibly favour someone else over you.’
‘Ha! About the duke, does he know?’
‘I expect he does,’ Rachel said softly.
‘Then my humiliation is complete.’ Brione slumped in her chair, feeling foolish and utterly defeated. ‘I came here, all but shouting my love for a man who did not return my affections, determined to prove that he was no traitor.’ She glanced up at Rachel. ‘I am no longer so sure if that is the case.’ She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. ‘How can I be when I clearly didn’t know the man himself half as well as I thought I did? He was certainly a traitor to me. To our marriage. If he could fool me then I’m sure he could deceive others.’
‘Don’t blame yourself, my love.’
‘Oh, I do not! Believe me, I know where the blame lies.’ Brione ground her jaw, anguish conducting full scale warfare with her growing anger. ‘He had a second family to support, and he didn’t use our joint funds for that purpose, at least as far as I am aware, so the money had to come from somewhere.’
‘You are overwrought, which is hardly surprising, and you are not thinking coherently. Evan was many things, most of which I won’t offend your ears by putting a name to, but it doesn’t follow that he wasn’t a fierce patriot.’
‘You didn’t really like him, did you, Rachel? I thought I detected a slight reserve on your part whenever your paths crossed.’
‘He was a little too handsome and sure of himself for my taste. He felt duty-bound to charm every woman in a room the moment he walked into it.’ She smiled. ‘I would like to take the credit for seeing right through him, but even I didn’t suspect him of being quite as devious as he actually was. Anyway, try to sleep. Everything will seem better in the morning. Things always do.’
Brione shook her head, but exhaustion overcame her and she allowed Rachel to help her into bed, as though she was a small child worried about having nightmares. Ha! No dream could be worse than the reality she had been required to face. She settled back against the pillows, convinced that she wouldn’t sleep a wink, and thanked Rachel as she quietly left the room.
Troy noticed Brione slip away, at which point the evening lost its sparkle. He forced himself to endure another half-hour of mindless conversation, evading the less than subtle tactics employed by some of the more determined females, Miss Frazer at their forefront, to lure him into the dancing.
‘Problem?’ Kensley asked, joining Troy in his library moments after he retreated to his private domain.
‘You can have too much of a good thing.’
Kensley laughed as he accepted the glass of whisky that Troy handed to him. ‘Mrs Gilliard doesn’t lose any time, I’ll give her that. She’s already managed to corner all three of our suspects. I assume you devised a way to discuss her findings with her.’
Troy snorted. ‘She seemed to think that if she smiled at Frazer or Craig then one of them would succumb to her charms and reveal something astounding. The woman is a danger to herself, and I don’t have the first idea how to rein her in.’
‘Ha!’
‘Don’t be an ass,’ Troy said moodily. ‘She is now hatching some hare-brained scheme that involves implying knowledge that she doesn’t actually possess.’
‘She wants to suggest that she knows something, or possesses some sort of evidence?’ Kensley hitched a brow, looking impressed. ‘That just might get results.’
‘It’s more likely to get her killed,’ Troy groused. ‘I’ve forbidden it, of course.’
‘And you think she will obey your every command, do you?’ A slow smile spread across Kensley’s face as he shook his head. ‘You have underestimated her determination, in that case. Your Mrs Gilliard has a mind of her own and pressing personal reasons for wanting to draw the traitor out.’
‘That is what worries me. She is so set on her purpose that she doesn’t realise how ruthless the individual in question must be.’
‘Well, by all means try and talk her out of it in the morning,’ Kensley replied, ‘but I don’t hold out much hope of your succeeding. The lady is a law unto herself and sets little stock by her own safety.’
‘That is something else that worries me.’
‘Sleep on it.’ Kensley drained his glass and slapped Troy’s shoulder. ‘I dare say a solution will occur to you. But bear in mind you will need to employ coercion, rather than dishing out orders that she’ll ignore.’
Troy retired with Kensley’s words ringing in his ears. Brione didn’t appear to be the most patient of people and would no doubt do something rash, despite his warnings, in the hope of making something happen. Hal could sense her steely resolve. He tossed and turned, surprised by the degree of his determination to keep her safe from her own impulsiveness. She was set upon delving into a dark world, the workings of which she’d not experienced before. Troy frequently lost his way in that world, even though it was known to him, given that he had acted for the government’s spymasters since the very start of the conflict with Napoleon.
Troy recalled their dance in the moonlight and her instinctive reaction to him. He was sure that she felt the gravitational pull every bit as much as he did. But they were both fighting against it. He couldn’t compete with a ghost. She still wasn’t completely sure that Troy himself wasn’t the traitor, and Troy felt the same way about Gilliard. Any man who could lead two women on in the blatant manner that Gilliard had managed to achieve didn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. And there was the added concern that the leak of secrets had died at the same time as Gilliard.
Troy felt great sympathy for Brione’s plight, but he knew she would resent his sympathy. Actions spoke louder than words, but the actions that he’d been unable to resist taking when he had her alone by the lake had not been appropriate. Even so, Troy wasn’t made of stone and groaned as he relived the feel of her lithe body beneath his hands as he held her too close, dancing with every nerve ending in his body on fire and a heady onslaught of desire flooding his bloodstream.
‘Damn it, why did she have to come here?’ he asked the canopy.
Troy woke early from a restless sleep, still frustrated. He broke his fast before the sun rose and had dictated letters to his secretary and dealt with outstanding estate matters before the rest of the gentlemen stirred. When someone tapped at the door, he assumed it was Kensley and bade him enter.
But it wasn’t his right hand man. Troy half rose from the chair behind his desk, hiding his surprise with difficulty when Brione marched into the room with the light of battle glistening in her remarkable eyes.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked ungraciously.
‘Did you know?’ she demanded at the same time.
He looked at her in confusion, seeing the shadows beneath her eyes, her deathly pallor and unkempt appearance. She had clearly slept as badly as h
im and dressed quickly, without the services of a maid, sparing no thought for the figure she presented. Dishevelled and distracted, she still looked like perfection.
‘What is it?’ he asked softly, rounding his desk, leading her to a chair and forcing her into it. Shadow lifted his head from his prone position in front of the fire and flapped his tail. It was a disturbing measure of her distress that she barely seemed to notice the hound and made no effort to touch him. Shadow sighed and returned to his slumbers. ‘Who has dared to overset you?’
‘Just tell me if you were aware of Evan’s other family,’ she said, turning her head away from him, sounding weary and close to tears.
‘Who told you?’
‘Do you always answer questions with more questions?’ she asked, an edge to her voice.
Troy crouched in front of her and took one of her hands in his. She tried to snatch it away but he held on firmly and rubbed circles on her palm with the pad of his thumb. ‘Yes, I knew,’ he said softly.
‘And you didn’t think to tell me?’ A tear trickled from the corner of one eye and she brushed it aside impatiently, looking wounded and betrayed. ‘You let me come here, make a complete fool of myself, and all the time you and your comrades were laughing behind my back, thinking Evan a fine fellow for deceiving me.’ Violent energy smouldered in her bitter gaze. ‘I would have hoped for better from you,’ she added, so softly that Troy barely caught the words. He didn’t need to hear her reprimand to feel as though he had let her down somehow, even though it had not been his secret to tell.
‘I can assure you that no one has been laughing, least of all me. Gilliard was a blind fool and didn’t deserve you.’ He could see that she was fighting to hold back tears. Anger and disillusionment held them at bay. Judging by her red eyes, she had spent the night crying for a lost cause. A man who had not been worthy of her. Now her despair had given way to blind fury.
She inhaled deeply and let her breath out again in a slow, controlled manner, clearly attempting to master her emotions. ‘You still could have told me. You were his commanding officer, which makes you responsible.’
‘If I had known in advance that you planned to come here, then perhaps that is what I would have done, once I had gauged your reaction to your husband’s death. But, in fairness, I have known you but a few days, and met you under circumstances that were a long way from ordinary. You took me by surprise, and when—’
‘And when you realised that I continued to mourn a dishonest man who had never loved me, you couldn’t find it in yourself to put me straight on the matter.’ She sent him a resigned look that tore at his heartstrings. ‘My husband is not the only one to have let me down, your grace.’
‘Last night you called me Troy.’
‘Last night I thought I could trust you,’ she shot back at him.
‘Ouch!’
She snatched her hand back and folded her arms across her torso. ‘Rachel was also aware, and kept it from me, but at least she did so in an effort to protect my feelings.’ She eyed him with disdain. ‘What is your excuse, your grace?’
‘Trust me, you would not believe me if I told you.’ And she would not, Troy knew. She would never accept that he was mindful of her finer feelings too and that he saw no reason to tell her about a situation that couldn’t be altered. Sometimes ignorance was bliss.
‘Tell me about Evan’s other family,’ she said with a weary sigh. ‘I gather they followed the drum so I assume you were acquainted with her.’ Brione paused. ‘And his children.’ She closed her eyes for an expressive moment and Troy sensed that it was the existence of her husband’s children that hurt her the most.
‘I saw her once or twice, but she was not invited to regimental social gatherings.’
‘Ha! I assume she is beautiful.’
‘Why torture yourself with such questions?’ Troy asked, reclaiming her hand and gently sliding his fingers down the length of hers. ‘You are the lady whom he married. Not that he deserved you.’
‘But I am not the one that he loved, it seems.’
‘Her name is Ana deSouza. As you will be aware, Gilliard did some undercover work for the government in Spain and Portugal.’
‘He canvassed those areas for his father before the war broke out, finding markets for their silk, and spoke both languages fluently, which is probably what brought him to the attention of the government’s spymasters. He enjoyed his clandestine activities far more than he enjoyed selling silk. That much he did tell me. One assumes he met the love of his life on one such assignment.’
‘Ana worked for us as well,’ Troy told her, finding the conversation excruciatingly embarrassing but understanding her need for an explanation. ‘I was not a party to their individual assignments, since they occurred before war broke out.’
‘That long?’ Brione breathed. ‘He has been leading a double life for all that time. Well, that seems plausible, given that she has two children.’
‘One assumes they were required to work together on occasion, perhaps posing as man and wife.’
Brione flashed a cynical smile. ‘How very convenient.’
‘When Gilliard told me he planned to marry, I just assumed—’
‘That he would marry his heart’s desire.’ Brione snatched her hand from his and paced the length of the room, her earlier pathos giving way to a very obvious fulminating anger. ‘Rachel thinks that religious differences would have made that impossible. One assumes that Ana would not renounce her Catholicism and Evan would never have changed his own beliefs.’ She paused and glanced over her shoulder at Troy, her expression one of mild surprise. ‘He could be very dogmatic. I hadn’t thought about or accepted that before now. He was always in the right, but he never lost his temper if I disagreed with him and always managed to change my mind with reasoned argument. Isn’t it odd how we overlook the faults in the ones we love?’
‘I am so very sorry that you are having to face—’
‘Don’t you dare feel sorry for me!’ Her eyes blazed with renewed anger. ‘I don’t want your sympathy. I want answers.’
‘I wish I could give you them.’
‘Where is Ana now?’
Troy lifted a shoulder. ‘In Portugal, one assumes, with her children.’
‘I wonder how she has explained away the children, given that she is such a devout Catholic and presumably possesses a family who will disapprove of intimacy outside of marriage.’ She frowned. ‘I hope the children are not suffering as a consequence. It is not as though they are to blame for the circumstances of their birth.’
‘That you think of their plight at such a time is typical of your compassion.’
Brione shrugged off the compliment. ‘Does she still work for our government?’
‘Probably. It’s not possible to resign from the Foreign Department.’ Troy rolled his eyes. ‘Take it from one who knows.’
‘If there is need for a spy in her part of the world, she will be called upon, one assumes. And if she cannot afford to feed her children, she will have to take the risk.’
‘You sound sorry for her.’
‘I suppose I am in a way. We were both taken in by an unconscionable rogue without a moral bone in his body.’ She let out a long sigh. ‘And I suspect we are now both aware of it. I assume she knew of my existence and accepted it. I wonder if she continued to follow the drum because she still loved Evan or because it was useful cover for her clandestine work. I don’t suppose I shall ever know the answer to that particular question.’
Troy nodded, aware that in intense situations, a person under strain often focused on inconsequential details. ‘Why do you think Gilliard married you?’
He was aware of the sensitive nature of the question, but equally aware that she wanted to discuss the matter pragmatically and needed an outlet for her anger. He was happy to be of service in that regard. The sooner she stopped thinking of the man as a saint, the sooner her shattered heart and disillusioned mind would mend. He wondered how long it would take a pers
on to recover from such a deep deception, and if it was even possible to do so. Never having been in love himself, he had no experience to fall back on.
A lot of men in uniform took up with women abroad; some even married them in clandestine yet sometimes genuine ceremonies. When facing near certain death, a man could be excused for thinking about pleasures of the flesh. Some went through such ceremonies despite already having wives waiting at home. Gilliard was the only one whom Troy had known to marry in England and continue to openly support a family in war-torn Europe. It had been the talk of the regiment.
He watched Brione as she considered her response to his question, unsurprised when she didn’t take exception to it.
‘His father pushed him to pursue me, I think. I was my father’s heir and Gilliard dreamed of their two silk merchandising businesses combining. Evan wasn’t enthusiastic about the business and I know his father tried to persuade him not to purchase a commission. I suppose, though, that if Evan was already answerable to our government, it made sense for him to take up arms. It gave him a legitimate reason to be in dangerous territories and do whatever it is that government agents are paid to do.’
‘You do yourself a disservice by implying that Gilliard married you as a means to an end. He would be a blind fool to look away.’
‘And yet that is precisely what he did.’
‘Then he was definitely a fool,’ Troy said.
She rewarded him with the suggestion of a smile. It lacked warmth and highlighted the misery in her eyes, but at least she had smiled.
‘I didn’t think for a single moment that Evan could be the traitor,’ she said, confliction in her tone. ‘Whatever else he may have been—and I am sure I don’t know it all by any means—I always thought him fiercely loyal to king and country.’ She spread her hands in supplication. ‘Now I no longer know what to think.’
‘You need time to come to terms with what you have learned.’
‘Time is the last thing that I need. I have no desire to dwell upon my gullibility. What I need is to get to the truth. Being betrayed is one thing, but if I was taken in by a disloyal man then I will never trust my judgement again. Papa wanted me to marry Evan, it is true, and he lived long enough to see us united, but I would not have married him unless I had loved him and believed that he returned my regard, not even to please Papa.’
To Desire a Duke: Dangerous Dukes Vol 8 Page 15
