Rowena opened the door and looked in anxiously. The room was uninhabited and she stepped inside, closing the door sharply behind her. Despite her determination to move quickly, she paused for a moment, once again overwhelmed by the beauty of the gallery’s furnishings. The jewel-like tones of portraits shone at her from the walls, and the lovely sculptures glowed in the muted light that came through the large casement windows. Rowena had never seen the space in daylight, and it was as enchanting as it had been at night. She took a moment to walk around the room, gazing once again in awe at Alaric’s collection. He was a man of exquisite taste. How could anyone ever think him a killer?
She stopped at the couch on which Alaric had made love to her, and touched it with gentle fingers, remembering the wonderful feeling of his skin against hers. Her husband was so strong and understanding. Surely he would recognize that her motivations were innocent when she explained them to him. There was no reason to be fearful of him.
Taking a deep breath, she walked to the far wall and looked up at the Van Dyke portrait. The young woman in it smiled down at her gently, and it seemed to Rowena that she was approving of her goal. Swiftly she lifted the painting off the wall and placed it carefully on the ground. Then she pulled the scrap of paper that Alaric had given her the night before from her bodice and began to manipulate the tumbler. Within a few moments she heard the reassuring sound of the lock releasing, and she gently eased the safe open, peering into it anxiously. At the very front of it rested the blue velvet box that she knew contained her rubies. She moved it gently to one side, and looked further into the safe. Carefully, she removed the contents one by one. There were several leather document cases that held a wide variety of papers relating, as near as she could tell, to Alaric’s estates in southern England. Behind them were a number of small boxes, and she reached for them with trembling fingers. What if she was wrong and there was a giant pearl in one of them? What if Malcolm was right and she was married to a murderer?
Rowena removed each box and opened it meticulously, her heart in her throat. There was a leather case containing a lovely opal necklace that shimmered like moonlight, and behind it a box that held a quantity of unset gemstones. The jewels twinkled up at her accusingly and she shut the lid with a snap. Next there was a long velvet box, which opened to reveal two exquisite miniature portraits of a man and a woman, painted in minute detail and framed in gold set with twinkling diamonds. After a moment’s thought Rowena recognized the subjects as being Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria. She closed the case carefully and reached for a tiny box, made of rich blue leather. It was almost square, about three inches on all sides. She looked down at it as it rested in her hand and her heart began to beat harder. It was almost exactly the size a box would be that would hold the pearl. She took a deep breath and gingerly lifted the lid, peeking in apprehensively. With an incredible sense of relief her eye fell on a golden charm in the shape of a heart, lavishly decorated with sapphires, nestling in the satin interior of the box.
She closed the box, willing her breathing to steady, and looked deep into the safe. It was empty now, and her heart soared as she realized that now she could go to Malcolm and tell him that his beliefs were unfounded. Alaric was no more guilty of murder than her brother was. Surely the two men could be convinced to work together now. She hastily began to restore the boxes to the safe, being careful to put them back exactly where she had found them.
"Have you seen enough?"
Rowena started violently and gave a scream at the sound of the harsh male voice. The leather case containing the necklace fell from her nerveless fingers and the pearls tumbled out onto the floor, the row of milky stones trailing over one of her delicate slippers. A man’s hand reached down and picked it up, and Rowena stared up, paralyzed, into her husband’s face.
"You didn’t answer me."
"What are you doing here? I thought you had gone out." The words came out in a gasp, before Rowena could consider what she was saying.
"Was my absence necessary? Aren’t you going to tell me you were simply in here to fetch the rubies?" Rowena winced at the cynical edge in Alaric’s voice.
"How long have you been here?" Rowena’s voice was very soft.
"I was here when you entered. I watched you as you searched my safe. Why might you have been doing that, Rowena?"
"Mere curiosity," she said promptly, striving to regain her composure. "I suppose I should not have done it, but it was irresistible."
"You are blushing, Rowena. That means you are lying. But I knew you were lying anyway, because I know why you are here. You didn’t find the pearl, did you? Malcolm will be so disappointed."
Rowena gaped up at him. "What are you saying?"
"I’m saying that you will have to report to your brother that you cannot prove me to be a murderer today. Perhaps I shouldn’t have interrupted you. Perhaps I should have waited to see to what lengths you would go to find the pearl. Would you have searched my bedroom? Would you have waited until we travelled to my estates and searched them? Perhaps I would find you rapping the walls one night, looking for hidden compartments. But I stopped you out of pity, Rowena. There is no pearl to be found in my possession. I don’t have it."
"I know that," snapped Rowena. "I was only doing this to prove you are innocent."
Alaric raised his eyebrows. "You were searching my safe to prove me innocent? I was not aware that was the normal procedure in these cases. I rather thought the safes of men who were presumed to be guilty were searched."
"I believed you were innocent, but it was necessary that I do this in order to have proof that you don’t have the Pearl of Sirsi in your possession," she said urgently. "Surely you can understand that."
"And who were you going to prove it to?" asked Alaric quietly.
Rowena hesitated. He had already mentioned Malcolm once, but she had no idea how much he actually knew. If she told him her brother was in London, that might cause more problems than it solved.
"Your brother, perhaps?" asked Alaric silkily. His green eyes glittered as he watched Rowena’s face. He saw a number of emotions light her eyes, from alarm to fear to annoyance.
"Come, my dear, you can tell me. I am your husband, after all. I thought that honesty was important between a married couple."
Rowena cringed at the words. She remembered clearly her berating of Alaric for his failure to tell her the whole truth.
"I wished to prove to Malcolm that you are innocent," she tried to explain. "He still believes you to be guilty of killing Ingram."
"And how long have you been in touch with Malcolm?" Alaric’s voice was very quiet, but Rowena could hear the anger behind it. "Since before we were married?"
"Of course not! He arrived in London only recently. I saw him last night for the first time."
"In the garden...." Alaric’s voice trailed off. "So you lied when you said you were alone."
"I didn’t want to upset you," said Rowena desperately. "I knew you would be furious."
"So that is another untruth," murmured Alaric, seeming not to hear her. "How can I believe anything you tell me, Rowena, when I catch you in lie after lie? How do I know that you haven’t been plotting this with Malcolm for months, or even years? Perhaps it was not I who seduced you, but you who seduced me."
"That is ridiculous," snapped Rowena. "I saw Malcolm for the first time in twelve years last night. I didn’t even know he was alive until recently. He asked me to help him and I told him that I would prove your innocence to him. I hoped that the two of you could work together to clear your names."
"What a charmingly naive proposal." Alaric’s voice cut at Rowena like a knife. "I cannot think how you might have imagined that I would wish to ever see your foolish brother again. Have I not made it sufficiently clear how I feel about him? And now you expect me to believe that you are searching my safe in order to prove my innocence to a man who thinks I am the devil? No, it will not do, Rowena. You will have to think of a more plausible explanation.
"
"It is the truth!" Rowena clenched her hands into fists of frustration. "He may be anything you say, but he is still my brother! I wish you to be reconciled, and I thought that if Malcolm could be convinced, then you could be as well. I know you are not always so inflexible, Alaric."
"And how did you mean to convince me? In the same way you convinced me to give you the combination to the safe? Did you mean to manipulate me with your body again and again until I gave you everything you wanted?" Alaric leaned towards her, and Rowena took a step backwards, frightened by the harshness in his face.
"Of course not! I would never do that to you! I made no conditions last night when I asked you for the combination." Rowena wondered frantically how she could convince Alaric of her good intentions. He seemed determined to misunderstand her every action.
"No, you made no conditions. But you waited until I was...satisfied and at ease before you wheedled what you needed from me. You must have laughed to see me so easily manipulated."
"No, it wasn’t like that. I only meant to prove to Malcolm that you needed to work together to find Ingram’s killer. I meant to ask you earlier, but you...stopped me." Her voice trailed off as she realized how weak her arguments must sound.
"I stopped you? You came to me, Rowena, and you very cleverly seduced me. I am amazed I didn’t see it before now. This has all been an act to you, hasn’t it? You meant to prove me a murderer, and the only way to do it was to marry me. I hope your brother appreciates you sacrificing your body in his cause."
"You must believe me, Alaric. I am telling you the truth," pleaded Rowena. "When I married you I had never talked to Malcolm. Later I was afraid that if I told you he was in London you would do something rash. I meant only to bring us all together. Can you not understand that I wish to reunite my family?" She reached out and tried to touch his arm, but he snatched it away with a muttered oath.
"You betrayed me like this in order to help me?" Alaric gave a sour chuckle. "I am not a young man, Rowena, and I am not stupid. I have dealt with much more sophisticated conspirators than you. But I was never so blind before, and now I am paying for it. I married you, God help me."
Rowena hung her head. "What can I do to convince you that I am telling the truth?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
Rowena shook her head in despair. "How did you know I would be here? You were waiting for me, weren’t you?"
Alaric took a piece of paper from his pocket and Rowena recognized it as the one he had been holding when she had entered his room the night before. Rowena looked at in in surprise.
"This was waiting for me last night when we returned home. It is from Marguerite. She informed me that Malcolm was in London and that the two of you had been plotting against me for years. She said Malcolm had boasted to her of his intention to have me hung, and that you were planning to help him by finding the Pearl of Sirsi in my safe to use as evidence."
"It is a lie!" said Rowena.
"When I read the note all my old imaginings returned to me. But when you came into my room last night I couldn’t believe that you were not sincere, that you could lie so sweetly in my arms one night and turn on me the next day. I told myself that Lady Bingham was simply a malicious woman intent on ruining my marriage."
"You were right," said Rowena urgently. "You must not believe her. Have you not told me yourself that Lady Bingham is a mischief maker who will stop at nothing to ruin our marriage?"
"But then you asked me for the combination to my safe." Alaric’s voice was very sad. "There was no reason for you ask for it except to search the safe, as Marguerite said you meant to. You were discovered by another woman as deceitful as you are, Rowena. And she could not resist the chance to let me know she was aware of my humiliation. You are not as clever as you thought you were."
"I didn’t think I was being clever," declared Rowena. "I was only attempting to prevent the very things that are happening now. Alaric, you must trust me. It is important that you believe me. I meant only to help."
"You meant to help Malcolm, certainly. But now you have done neither. Your brother cannot prove that I killed Ingram, and our marriage is ruined. I have only to decide now what it is I will do about that."
"About our marriage?" asked Rowena.
"Exactly." Alaric’s eyes raked over her, contempt in their depths. "You cannot be gotten rid of as easily as a painting I have grown tired of. We are married, Rowena, and I expect you to remember that. You will not run off to Malcolm’s protection. You are mine and will remain so, at least until I have a child from you."
Rowena shivered at the icy look in Alaric’s eyes. He had never looked at her like that before, as though she was no more than a nuisance he needed to dispose of. "You cannot mean that!"
"I mean exactly what I say. Now get out of here. And do not try to contact your brother. You will not be able to go to him."
"Please Alaric, you must listen to me--"
"I told you to leave. You had best listen to me from now on, Rowena. You will no longer wrap me around your little finger."
Rowena took one last look at his harsh face and realized that there was no reasoning with him now. Slowly she turned away and walked to the door, hoping that perhaps with a little time to think he would realize that she would never deliberately hurt him. She paused in the doorway and looked back over her shoulder, hoping to see some softening in his stance. Surely he could not mean what he had said, she thought. There must be some way she could convince him of the truth. Alaric’s face was expressionless as he stood there, the rope of pearls still clasped in his hand.
"I forgot something," he said abruptly. Rowena took a step towards him, hope rising in her heart.
"I bought these pearls for you yesterday. I meant to give them to you on the one-month anniversary of our wedding. You might as well have them now. I would not want anybody to say the Countess of Brayleigh was not suitably ornamented."
He reached out abruptly and seized her arm, thrusting the necklace into her hand. Her fingers closed over them automatically, feeling the cool silkiness of them against her skin.
"Now get out." The words were steely.
Chapter 28
Rowena walked slowly out of the gallery, but when she reached the hall she raced blindly for the bedroom and threw herself onto the lacy coverlet, finally breaking into the great sobs that had been threatening her since Alaric had first discovered her in the gallery. She cried for a long time, until she was completely exhausted. Then she rolled over onto her back and stared up at the canopy arching over her head. She realized with a pang of disgust that the pearls were still clutched in her hand. She threw them angrily across the room, listening with satisfaction to the tiny crash they made as they hit the wall and fell to the floor.
She wondered frantically what she could do to repair the damage she had caused. Alaric had not only caught her searching his safe, but Lady Bingham had convinced him that she had been plotting to do this since before she had met him. There had to be some way to convince him that she had meant well, that she had never thought he was guilty. The situation was in more of a tangle than ever, because Malcolm would surely be furious if she didn’t show up the next day to meet him. Rowena could only imagine what he might decide to do about that.
Hours passed as Rowena tried to unravel the knot her life had become. The small hope she had that Alaric might come to talk to her died as the afternoon passed, and when Lawson came to dress her for dinner, she told the maid to tell Lord Brayleigh she was unwell. The evening stretched into night and still Rowena had no solution to her problem. Her thoughts ran in a wretched circle; it was necessary to convince Alaric that she had never thought he was guilty, and therefore it was necessary to bring him together with Malcolm. But the two hated each other, and Lady Bingham would surely find a way to twist events against her. It seemed to be an utterly hopeless case.
When it was very late she finally rose and, without ringing for Lawson, dr
essed herself in her nightgown and climbed into the huge bed. She knew she would be unable to sleep, but also that she couldn’t sit on the bed all night in her morning dress. She burrowed down into the covers, hoping for some relief from the tormenting thoughts that continued to race through her brain.
She sat up with a start when she heard the door to Alaric’s bedroom open. In the dim light his figure was silhouetted against the doorway, and she watched in amazement as he walked calmly over to her bed and stood looking down at her, a brooding expression on his face. He was dressed only in his black silk dressing gown and, despite her anxiety, Rowena couldn’t help admiring the breadth of his shoulders and the strength of his thighs beneath the flowing material. He was so beautiful, she thought miserably. She had given her heart up to him so quickly, and now she had destroyed everything.
"Alaric?" she said tentatively.
He continued to stare at her, one hand rising to knife through his dark hair. She wondered what he was thinking, for his eyes betrayed no emotions, only glittering at her enigmatically from under their heavy lids.
"Did you want to talk?" she asked.
Alaric gave a harsh laugh. "Not at all. There is no need for any discussion tonight."
Rowena looked perplexed. "What do you mean?"
Alaric took off his robe, revealing his naked body. As always, Rowena was awed by the sight. The firelight made the fine dark hair that covered his muscular chest shine, and she noted with surprise that he was already aroused.
"Alaric?"
He did not say anything, but sat on the edge of the bed next to her and took her into his arms. His lips locked onto hers in a fierce, demanding kiss that held nothing of gentleness in it. Rowena pulled away, startled.
"Alaric, what are you doing? Surely you cannot mean to make love to me tonight." She paused as a flicker of hope flared in her. "Or have you forgiven me? Do you believe what I told you earlier?"
Alaric stared at her. "I have not grown more stupid in the last hours, Rowena. And no, I do not think ‘making love’ is the correct term for what we will do tonight. You may have married me only to betray me, but I own you, and you will still give me a son. Now be quiet."
A Collector's Item: Rowena's After Dark Regency Romance (The Arlingbys Book 1) Page 25
