If He’s Wicked

by Hannah Howell

  “It is acceptable that I waited here for you then, is it?” she asked as she cuddled up next to his warm body.

  “Very acceptable.” He suddenly realized that her soft touches were not caresses, that she was actually searching for a wound. “I am not hurt. We were attacked and Leo suffered a small wound to his shoulder, but we are both hale.” He told her what happened.

  “Leo is right, that does sound very impetuous, ill thought out and risky. Not at all like your uncle. Or Simone.”

  “Leo has told you about Simone?”

  “He felt the need to warn me about her because he feared she might try to get to him through me. I have seen her once or twice on the arm of a man who should know to be more careful in choosing his lovers. She is stunningly beautiful.”

  “So he said. He believes Beatrice sent the men out to kill us. He also believes that either Arthur or, most certainly, Simone will make her pay dearly for that error in judgment.”

  “You mean they will kill her.”

  “Yes. Leo really believes that she signed her own death warrant with this act.”

  Chloe raised herself up to look at him although it was hard to clearly see his expression in the light of one candle set by the bed. Yet there was something in the tone of his voice that troubled her. She was certain he did not love Beatrice, but he sounded as if the thought of her death bothered him in some way.

  “You are reluctant to see her killed?” she asked.

  “No. Her death does not bother me and, strangely enough, that lack of feeling is what troubles me. S’blood, I was married to the woman.” He gave her a brief kiss to silence her when she began to speak. “I know that I still am, but only on paper. As I have said before, in my heart, and mind, my marriage ended a long time ago. As for someone killing her, well, she chose the path she is walking and the people she is walking it with. In a way, I think she was walking toward her death from the moment she joined forces with my uncle. There is just a small part of me that feels I should warn her in some way, not just sit here knowing someone wants her dead and waiting for the culprit to do the deed.”

  “Could it be that your unease comes from the fact that you wish to be freed of your marriage and her death would do that?”

  Julian stared at her for a moment and then kissed her again, this time with a lot more heat. “I believe that is exactly it.”

  “I have wrestled with the same problem. I saw her death and yet I have made no effort to warn her. It took me a while to see that although I shall benefit from her death, I am not the one planning it and I am not the one who will do it. I also know that, even if I could get to her and warn her, she would not heed any warning of mine. As you have said, Beatrice thinks her beauty will keep her safe from all harm.”

  He slid his hands beneath her nightgown and gently squeezed her nicely rounded, taut bottom. “Nor would she believe me. And when all is said and done, she has a lot of blood on her hands.”

  Chloe could not stop herself from asking, “Your concern is not because you still have feelings for her, is it?”

  “I feel nothing for the woman. Even my rage at her has eased except as concerns what she tried to do to Anthony.” He kissed her throat as he slid his hands up her slender back. “However, I have a few feelings stirring for you right now.”

  She rubbed her thigh against his erection and smiled. “So I have noticed. Are you not too weary?”

  “To share a bit of the passion we have been blessed with? No. I think I will have to be long dead before that happens.”

  “Perhaps you could make no more jests about being dead until this trouble is at an end,” she said as fear briefly clutched at her heart.

  “Worried about me?” he asked.

  “As I should be. Someone wants you dead and has been trying to accomplish that for a long time.”

  Julian was touched by the fear for him he could see in her eyes. He pushed her onto her back and kissed her. When her arms slipped around his neck and she pressed her lithe body against his, all his weariness faded away. He could still feel the thrill of battling for his life rushing through his veins, and that soon turned to pure desire. In a few swift movements he removed her nightgown and tossed it aside. When their bodies were flesh to flesh, he groaned with a mixture of desire and contentment.

  As he made slow, gentle love to her, he forgot all his worries, forgot that his life was still in danger, and just thought about how good she tasted and how soft her skin was. She was a balm for his soul, and he knew he ought to think more on why that was. But then Chloe slid her soft little hand down his belly and curled her fingers around his erection. Her touch pushed the last of his ability to think away. His lovemaking quickly grew fiercer, greedier, but Chloe kept pace with him every step of the way. When he emptied his seed inside her and she cried out in release, he could almost see it taking root and her body rounding with his child.

  This time when Julian washed them both clean, Chloe barely blinked. His lovemaking had again left her boneless with satisfaction. When he returned to the bed, she flopped over onto him with her head against his chest and knew that she would soon be asleep. Listening to his heartbeat was one of the most comforting things she had ever enjoyed.

  “Is it not sad that there are so few ways to prove someone is guilty of a crime?” she asked and barely smothered a yawn.

  “It is, and not just because it can be difficult to make ones like my uncle pay for their crimes, but I fear a lot of innocent people pay as well. If you cannot prove someone is guilty, then how can you prove that someone is innocent?”

  “Oh. That is even sadder. There has to be something, Julian. There just has to be. He will soon know that Anthony is alive, and I want the man gone. Now that he is out of Colinsmoor perhaps there will be something there, proof of some crime that will allow us to safely accuse him and see him hanged.”

  “That is what I am hoping for.” He kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, Chloe. There is a lot we must do in the coming weeks.”

  Julian grinned when her answer was little more than a grunt. After years of seeking out women of style, elegant well-trained ladies conversant in all the various arts of womanhood, he realized that one of the many things he appreciated about Chloe was her lack of artifice. Chloe hid very little about herself, played no coy games, and that made him feel more comfortable in her presence than he had ever felt with any other woman.

  The more time he and Chloe spent together, the more he realized that they made a good match. There was a lot more to them than a passion that was hard to deny, although he was not sure what he would call it. Julian smiled as he closed his eyes. There was no real need to study it all as if it was a great mystery. They would be married soon and that was all that mattered, the fact that he would have Chloe in his bed for the rest of his life.

  Chapter 12

  “Good catch, Anthony,” said Julian, laughing as his son did a strange little hopping dance while still clutching the ball in his hands.

  “Are we going to return to Leo’s now?”

  Julian looked at Chloe, who sat on a nearby bench surveying the park as if she expected an armed man was lurking behind each one. If there was, then Leo’s men were lurking right behind them. He understood her fear, however, for he felt it, too. A week had passed since he and Leo had been attacked, and nothing else had happened. Chloe did not completely agree, but he and Leo felt certain that attack had been an ill-planned lashing out in retaliation for being thrown out of Colinsmoor and all other Kenwood properties owned by the earl. She certainly did not agree that it was time to introduce Anthony to the world, but he and Leo were going ahead with their plans anyway.

  “Not yet,” he replied, but gently, even though it was the tenth time she had asked the question in the two hours they had been at the park. “Just a little longer.”

  Seeing that Leo was now playing with Anthony and teaching him how to kick a ball, Julian sat down next to Chloe. “As soon as Lady Marston meets him, we will all return home. I
swear it. She should be along soon. She always walks her dog here at this time of the day.”

  Chloe wanted to scream. Sitting on the bench while Julian let everyone he met know that Anthony was alive, thus letting Arthur and Beatrice know, was driving her mad. She knew it had to be done. She also knew Leo had placed a near army of his men all around the park. None of that mattered to her fear. All she could think of was that Arthur would soon know he had yet another heir to kill.

  She looked at Anthony kicking a ball around with Leo. The boy had a lot of grace for such a small child and was revealing a skill at the game. The park was lovely, people wandering through it alone, with a companion or a dog, or with children. The sun was shining and it was actually pleasantly warm. On any other day she would be thoroughly enjoying herself in what was a touch of the countryside in the midst of a huge noisy and dirty city. But all she could think about was that Anthony’s time of hiding safely in Leo’s house had come to an end.

  “The announcement about Anthony will be in the paper tomorrow,” she said.

  Julian took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles. “Chloe, I am afraid, too, but it is best if we let as many people as possible know the truth, or as much of it as we are able to tell. It is going to stir up a storm of gossip and interest. That will be a strong shield for Anthony to hide behind. Arthur will know that if anything happens to Anthony, all eyes will start turning in his direction. That is the last thing he wants to happen.”

  “I know,” she whispered and took a deep breath to calm herself. “I truly do know that. It is just that sometimes my fear for Anthony pushes it all out of my mind.”

  What Chloe really wanted to do was throw herself into Julian’s arms and try to soothe her fears with his warmth and his strength. However, despite how they had been acting the married couple at Leo’s house, out in public they had to behave with the utmost propriety. Even his kissing her hand was probably enough to stir up a few whispers. She hated the distance they were forced to impose upon themselves whenever they stepped outside Leo’s door.

  The way she had to constantly fight her need to touch him did not make her very happy, either. She was becoming far too dependent upon him, perhaps even too clinging. It actually hurt a little to be unable to touch him whenever she wished, to lean against him if she felt like it, or even to be completely at ease with him.

  Bloody hell, I am in love with the rogue.

  Chloe was so shocked by that revelation that she nearly fell off the bench. All the time she had been calling it an infatuation, she had been deceiving herself, fighting hard to ignore the truth that was staring her in the face. Why that truth should slap her in the face right now, she did not know. Obviously her mind had simply grown tired of the game. The fact that her gift had not warned her about what she was stepping into when she first kissed him was just another puzzle she had no answer to.

  “Did you just see something again?”

  That already familiar sharp voice pulled Chloe out of her thoughts and she looked up into Lady Marston’s eyes. She had not even noticed that Julian had stood up to greet the woman. Chloe quickly rose to her feet and curtsied to the baroness.

  “Nay, m’lady,” she replied. “I was just thinking.”

  “Ah, not a vision, then. Just a revelation.” Before Chloe could ask what the woman meant by that, Lady Marston turned and stared at Anthony, who was skipping up to greet them “Humph. Where have you been hiding him?” Lady Marston demanded of Julian. “By-blow, eh? Well, your mother will never agree to hiding the lad away like some dirty secret. She will be giving you the sharp side of her tongue, and you deserve it.”

  “Not a by-blow, m’lady,” Julian said as he picked Anthony up in his arms. “My son by Lady Kenwood. Legitimate. All the officials that are needed, and then some, have reviewed the papers I have and have heartily agreed. This is Anthony Peter Chadwick Kenwood, my heir and my miracle. The notice will be in the paper on the morrow.”

  “Who is buried in the family plot, then?”

  “Someone else.”

  Lady Marston stared at Anthony for a moment and then, in a surprisingly gentle move, stroked Anthony’s cheek with her finger. “A handsome lad.”

  “I have pretty hair,” said Anthony and grinned when Lady Marston laughed.

  “That you do, laddie. That you do.” She looked at Julian again. “Letting the world know, eh? What tale are you putting about? The truth or a hint of it?”

  Julian put Anthony back down on the ground and the boy ran back to Leo. “I have given the truth to the authorities, although I have little proof. It is still but my word, and although that is accepted, there is more needed before any punishment can be meted out. Everyone treads cautiously when the gentry are involved.”

  “Annoying. There are far too many who should have been hanged or tossed into the gaol just running about the country.”

  Deciding there was no need to remark upon that opinion, Julian continued, “The world will also be told the truth—that my son was stolen from me and I have only just gotten him back through the aid and the kindness of the Wherlockes.”

  “Well said.” She stared toward Anthony, who was kicking a ball around. “Keep him close. Keep all the heirs close.”

  “Do you know something, Lady Marston?” asked Chloe.

  “I just know what I know. Keep the heirs close together. Safety in numbers.” Lady Marston started walking away, her fat little dog wheezing and panting as it struggled to keep up with her long strides. “And keep that boy’s hair cut. It is too damned pretty.”

  Chloe laughed. Both Leo and Julian glared after the rapidly disappearing Lady Marston as if she had just uttered the foulest of blasphemies. Chloe had no doubt that Lady Marston had known exactly how the two men would react to her parting words.

  “Do you think Lady Marston knows something?” Chloe asked Julian as they all walked back to Leo’s home. “She keeps speaking as if she does. Mayhap she has Wherlocke blood.”

  “You could always check your bloodlines, but the fact is that Lady Marston is from a long line of military men,” he replied. “I think she would have been an excellent officer if she had been born a son. I believe she simply sees the plot against us quickly and clearly, that she has a true skill for deducing who the enemy is.”

  “Military,” Chloe murmured and then nodded. “That explains a lot.”

  “Such as how she speaks her mind so bluntly?”

  “Aye, and especially why no one seems to argue with her when she does.”

  “Beatrice tried once.” Julian grinned when Leo laughed and shook his head in disbelief. “Fortunately that confrontation occurred after I had already begun to see the truth about Beatrice, or I might have tried to defend her and made myself a very bad enemy.”

  Chloe thought about that for a moment. “Nay, I do not think that would have happened. It would have been the loyal thing to do, and Lady Marston admires loyalty. Lady Marston would have simply and bluntly told you to open your eyes and then walked away.”

  “That is probably exactly what she would have done.”

  “Did we accomplish what you intended to today?” she asked as they stepped inside, where Dilys waited for Anthony and quickly took the boy off to be cleaned up for his tea.

  “The word of my son’s tragic disappearance and miraculous return to home and hearth will be spreading far and wide as fast as people can move from one event to another. I doubt there will be many left who have not heard the tale by dinnertime.”

  “Oh, Leo?” she called out to her cousin, who was headed to his office.

  Leo turned and gave her an absent smile, revealing that his mind was already on other things. “Something I can do for you, cousin?”

  “You told Julian that you had men who could attest to the fact that Beatrice was, well, not pure when she married him and that that would allow him make his marriage null and void? Correct?” She knew it was, for Julian himself had told her, but spoke more to spark Leo’s memory than to question wha
t had been said.

  “Aye. It would be embarrassing for Julian, but it would work.”

  “I think it might be more than embarrassing. I think that if the marriage is annulled, then Anthony’s legitimacy is gone as well. I could be wrong, but it might be wise to look into that.”

  Julian cursed and ran his hand through his hair, nearly undoing his queue. “He does not need to look into it. You are right. I cannot get an annulment without making Anthony a bastard. After all, if my marriage is no longer valid, is said to have never been valid, then Anthony’s legitimacy is also no longer valid.”

  “I wonder how I did not know that?” muttered Leo.

  “You probably do not know anyone who has had it done or even considered it. I happen to know a few men who are trapped in abysmal marriages, and they once said that they will stay trapped, for divorce is almost impossible to get and is a scandal one rarely overcomes and annulments make your children bastards. I cannot get an annulment.”

  “How do you know about that?” Leo asked Chloe.

  “Overheard something about it in the lady’s retiring room last evening at the Hinkleys’.”

  “Ah, of course, the place where all the most important information is uncovered.”

  “Do not be so contemptuous.” Chloe started toward the stairs. “You would be surprised what is spoken of in those rooms. A good female spy could find out all sorts of interesting things.”

  Julian watched the way Leo scowled at his cousin until she was out of his sight. “I believe she may be right about that, too. As for the annulment, I suspect whatever solicitor I chose would have quickly informed me of the risk to Anthony.”

  “I do not like not knowing things. Especially things that are such common knowledge they are spoken of in the ladies’ retiring rooms. Meet me in my office in two hours?”