If He’s Wicked

by Hannah Howell

Julian barely finished nodding before Leo had turned and continued on his way to his office. It was tempting to follow the man and demand to know what was weighing so heavily on his mind, but he suspected Leo would not tell him unless it was directly related to his own troubles. The man was a very good spy for England. He was also as good a friend to Julian as Edgar was, so he decided to just leave the man to his work and not pester to know things he was not supposed to know.

  Instead, he thought, and grinned, he was going to go and pester Chloe. Now that Anthony’s survival had been revealed to the world, life could grow very hectic. And very dangerous, Julian thought, his good humor fading a little.

  For a moment Julian’s confidence in the plan he and Leo had contrived wavered badly. Had he put his son in danger? Far more than the boy was in already? He quickly shook that doubt away. There was no choice. As a secret Anthony was a lot easier to dispose of than if the whole world knew of his existence. What he had told Chloe, that being widely known about and of great interest because of the tales being told, it would be very hard for Arthur or Beatrice to do anything to the boy without attracting suspicion to themselves, was absolutely true. At least that was the plan, and it was a good one, he told himself firmly as he entered Chloe’s bedchamber.

  He grinned when he found Chloe had already stripped to her shift and let down her hair. Even as she eyed him with suspicion, he shut the door behind him and latched it. They had just spent several hours in each other’s company without being able to even touch in any way other than the most fleeting and proper. He had risked gossip when he had simply held her hand for a moment and kissed it. Julian realized that he now ached to make up for the enforced distance.

  “Julian, it is the middle of the day,” she said as he approached her with an easily recognizable gleam in his eye.

  “Passion knows no time restrictions,” he said as he pulled her into his arms.

  “How very convenient for you.”

  “It is, is it not?” He laughed and carried her to their bed.

  Our bed. Julian found he savored the words, that they felt right in his mouth. For the first time he understood some of what his parents had shared. As he had grown into an adolescent, he had realized that his parents slept together all the time. He had suffered the occasional twinge of embarrassment over the fact that his parents shared a bedchamber, as if there were not enough rooms in Colinsmoor to house all of them. He had even worried that his friends would find out. Then, as a man, when Beatrice stoutly demanded her own bedchamber, he had accepted that, assuming his parents had just been a little eccentric.

  Now he understood them. Sharing a bed with your spouse ensured a continued closeness, and not just the one that came from a shared passion. They talked, were completely private for perhaps the only time during the day, and could share memories or news or even secrets. Waking to your spouse every morning only strengthened the bond. This time, he thought as he lowered Chloe to the bed, he would have a real marriage, a strong one, one where he and his wife actually shared a life.

  “You suddenly look very serious,” Chloe said as he dropped down beside her and pulled her into his arms. “Changed your mind?”

  “Not at all.” He proved his words by kissing her with all the desire that was already rushing through him. “I was just wondering on the sleeping habits of married couples.”

  “Ah, so it is a nap you are after. Well, I am feeling a mite tired myself.”

  “You can take a nap—after.”

  Chloe soon lost herself to the passion he could stir within her. She even forgot that it was the middle of the day and the sun was shining brightly into the bedchamber. Julian’s kisses and caresses wiped all rational thought from her mind and made her a creature of need, of heat, of blind desire. She cried out in welcome when he entered her. Their lovemaking became fast and furious after that, both of them greedily reaching for that sublime culmination. She called out his name when her release swept over her with such force she bowed up in his arms. Julian quickly joined her, thrusting home so hard that she bumped her head against the carved headboard of the bed. When he slumped into her arms with a groan, she closed her eyes and savored the weight of his body for a few moments.

  As her mind began to clear of the haze of spent passion, Chloe opened her eyes and gasped. The bed was aglow with the rays of the sun shining through the window. She shoved a still limp Julian off her and yanked up the blanket to cover herself. When she looked at him, at how he was sprawled on his back unabashedly naked, she threw part of the blanket over his groin. It was a very handsome groin, even with his manhood lying as limp as its master in a thatch of curls still damp from their lovemaking, but she still covered it up. It was too distracting and she had no intention of spending the rest of the day in bed.

  Julian glanced down at the blanket draped over his groin and then looked at Chloe. She was clutching the blanket to her as if she feared some crowd would walk by at any moment and peer in the window. Her face was covered in a blush. It might have been too soon to make love in the broad light of the afternoon. Chloe was still very modest. Then he turned on his side and kissed her on the cheek. She would lose some of that modesty as time passed, but he decided he liked it. It never interfered with their lovemaking or dimmed her passion.

  “I feel much better now,” he said. “Thank you.”

  Chloe frowned at him. “You were feeling badly?” Although she was concerned about him, Chloe was deeply flattered that making love with her could make him feel better no matter what was troubling him. A little voice in her head whispered that it could be that any man would feel better after making love to a woman, but she ignored it.

  “I was doubting my plans.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her against his chest. “I fear for Anthony. I am furious that Arthur and Beatrice are still walking about free, that my word is not enough to bring them to justice simply because they are of the gentry. Leo’s people could grab Arthur simply on his word alone and question him hard, but they do not wish the taint of treason to touch the Kenwoods. It is frustrating.”

  “Very.” She lightly kissed his chest and then rested her cheek against it, listening contentedly to the sound of his heart beating.

  “The event at Mother’s on the morrow should finish spreading the news of Anthony’s existence.” He smiled when Chloe groaned. “There is something else I must consider.”

  She lifted her head to look at him. “You sound so serious. What is it?”

  “Divorce.”

  Chloe winced. Divorce was rare. It was difficult to get, and the scandal it caused could result in near banishment from society. The gossip surrounding the discovery of an heir to Colinsmoor would seem like no more than irritating whispers compared to what a divorce would stir up.

  “You probably have more than enough to get that. It is not an easy thing to get and you might find that marrying again is difficult.”

  “I will look into that. I cannot remain married to Beatrice, and I want to marry you. The only other choice to gain freedom from her is her death, and although she makes my blood run cold and I think she is well deserving of the ultimate punishment, I cannot bring myself to wish for her death.”

  “Of course not. No matter how badly she treated you and Anthony and all the other wrongs she has done, she was your wife. You exchanged vows before God. She was the one who chose not to honor them. You will find a way. You just have to be patient.”

  He took her chin in his hand and kissed her. “Patience is becoming very hard to hold on to. I do not like the secrecy you and I must hold fast to.”

  “I am not very fond of it, either, but there is no choice.”

  “No, sad to say, there is not.” He glanced at the clock on the mantel and then stretched. “I must go. Leo wishes to meet with me in an hour and I have some papers I need to look over.” He kissed her again and got out of bed.

  Chloe remained huddled beneath the blanket and watched him dress. The man was not shackled by modesty, she
thought, and almost smiled. It was both pleasant and strange to share a room with a man, to watch him dress and shave and all the other things men did. It made her feel close to him.

  Of course, now she wanted and needed far more than this compatibility they seemed to share. She wanted Julian to love her. The thought almost made her laugh. He was so far above her touch, a man of title and wealth as well as a man many women wanted. Chloe doubted a little, unimportant, passably pretty woman like her could win the heart of a man like him. She had his passion and his trust, and she knew he liked her. Somehow she would have to learn to make that enough. She would also have to learn not to grieve over the fact that the man she loved did not love her.

  Julian entered Leo’s office and almost grinned. The man had papers and books scattered all over the place. Leo was an intelligent man, possibly the most intelligent man he had ever met, but he obviously did not know anything about organization. Julian walked up to the desk, carefully removed a large book from the chair facing Leo, and then sat down.

  “Here I am as ordered, sir,” he drawled.

  “How terribly amusing.” Leo dragged his hand through his hair, which had long ago escaped its tidy queue.

  The look on Leo’s face made Julian immediately grow more serious. “What is the trouble? Not that we do not already have enough.”

  “No real added troubles. I am just sick to death of playing these games with Arthur. I know the man has betrayed his country, know for a fact that he has killed people, and know for a fact that he plans to kill all the heirs to your earldom and take the title for himself. Yet I cannot get the man in gaol or hanged. We need proof, the fools in power keep saying. Even the men I answer to, who also know for certain that Arthur is guilty of all we accuse him of, hesitate.”

  “It is because my uncle is gentry, born to a name that has long been loyal and helpful to the crown. And there is that little matter of treason that we are all trying to keep secret. It is much the same with Beatrice. She was no more than a soldier’s daughter when I met her, but the soldier came from a very important family. The younger son of a younger son. We also battle the fact that both Arthur and Beatrice have recruited a lot of important allies. It will happen, though. We will get them and we will get them soon.”

  “Did Chloe see that?”

  “No. I just look at the odds. They are losing their aces one after another. They have to fall soon. And now that I have sobered up enough to kick them out of my homes, we are free to search for that irrefutable proof that is being asked of us.”

  “Well, my men have not found anything yet, but it is early days. You do not think Arthur is clever enough to have destroyed all evidence of his crimes, do you?”

  “He would try, but the way he is so fond of blackmailing people into working on his behalf would require that he have some proof of something. Not everyone is going to do as he says just because he threatens them. And that is another tool we are robbing him of. The more that gossip and rumor tarnish him, the less power he has to destroy people.”

  Leo sat back in his chair and scratched his chin. “True. But that is not really what I wished to talk to you about.”

  Julian nodded. “You wish to talk about Chloe.”

  “About how to free you of Beatrice, actually. It looks as if the only way, aside from her conveniently skipping off to her Maker, is divorce, and if we think catching Arthur at his sins is hard, getting a divorce will make it look like a stroll in the park.”

  “I know. There is time yet to come up with a solution.”

  “Uh, there should be, but, well, are you being cautious in your times with Chloe?”

  “What do you mean? I am taking great care not to stir up any rumor about our relationship. Do you think I should move out? Return to my own place?”

  Leo shook his head. “Nay. And as far as rumor and gossip goes, there has always been some about me and Chloe. She is my cousin and I claim myself her guardian, but we are not so far apart in age. Cousins is not a close enough relationship to give her an immediate gleam of respectability. I was referring more to, well, are you being careful not to breed a child.”

  Julian stared at Leo. “Well, no, for we are to be married and for all our difficulties in bringing my enemies to justice, I feel sure it will happen soon. As I said, the odds are in our favor. I will not hesitate to marry Chloe once I am free of Beatrice. Even if that does not happen for a few months, there is no desperate concern. There is little chance Chloe would get with child too quickly.”

  “Actually, there is. A very good chance.” Leo cleared his throat. “The Wherlockes and Vaughns may have trouble holding their marriages together, but they breed well.”

  “They breed well?”

  “Like rabbits.”

  “Bugger.”

  Chapter 13

  “Must we go?”

  Julian grinned down at Chloe, who was buried so deeply beneath the bedcovers that he had barely understood what she had said. It had been a week since they had first made love, and Chloe had still not once left his bed to sleep in her own. The more he had thought about the sharing of a bed, the more he realized that Beatrice had always kept to her own bed, not out of propriety but because she enjoyed the way he had had to come to her like some supplicant. He knew he would no longer enjoy being in a bed all by himself, and that had nothing to do with making love. Having Chloe at his side all through the night suited him just fine.

  “We have to,” he said and slapped her on the bottom, knowing she would feel very little beneath all those covers. “Get up.”

  “I know we have to go, but that does not mean I have to like it,” she grumbled as she sat up, careful to keep the covers tucked up over her breasts. When she looked at the clock on the mantel, she gasped. “I cannot believe I have slept so late.” When she saw the arrogant, very male look upon Julian’s face, she stared at him with eyes narrowed in warning. “Say nothing.”

  “You are no fun.”

  “I am a lot of fun. Just not in the morning.”

  “It is already afternoon.”

  “Go away.”

  “This is my bedchamber.” He laughed at the look she gave him, dropped a kiss on her mouth, and started toward the door. “We leave in two hours. Mother has already collected Anthony. She wanted a short visit with him before all her guests began to arrive.”

  Chloe sighed, took one last longing look at the bed she sat in, and then got up. After donning her nightgown, which had somehow ended up dangling from the tall bedpost, she slipped through the dressing room that connected her bedchamber to Julian’s. When he had first arrived, the door on her side of the little room had remained firmly and securely locked. Now it was rarely even closed. In many ways they were already acting like a married couple.

  Surprised to find her bath already set out, Chloe rang for Maude. Julian must have seen to having her bath prepared, she decided as she stripped off her nightgown and climbed in. Maude arrived to help her, laying out what Chloe should wear as she finished her bath. The smell of the food Maude had brought in with her kept tempting Chloe despite how much she liked to linger in her bath until the water grew cool. She finally gave in to that temptation and she was soon partly dressed and eating while Maude arranged her hair in an appropriate style for a late-afternoon visit with a dowager countess. It was going to be a long day, and Chloe knew she would need the strength a good meal would bring her.

  Once she was ready and Maude had left to tell Julian that Chloe would be down in a few moments, Chloe studied herself in the mirror. She had spent a lot of time dressed in her finery with her hair tortured into some elaborate style since Julian had let the world see that he was alive. It was, she realized, only a small taste of what she would have to endure as a countess. There would always be some ball, musicale, tea, or salon she would have to attend simply because it was expected of her to do so. Chloe wondered if Julian had given much thought to that part of the marriage he wanted them to enter into. Her own poor background plus the rumors abo
ut the Wherlockes and the Vaughns could make taking on the duties of a countess a little difficult. There might not be as many invitations as Julian expected or needed to maintain his place in the gentry.

  Sighing because even that fear was not enough to make her step away from marrying Julian, Chloe made her way down the stairs. Julian had given his word that he would marry her and, on that word, had taken her innocence. Knowing him as she did, Chloe knew nothing would keep him from exchanging wedding vows with her. At least she did not have to worry about his mother accepting her into the family. Lady Evelyn had made Chloe’s welcome clear and, even though they had not told the woman about their betrothal, Chloe had the feeling she already knew, or suspected, there was one.

  “You look beautiful,” Julian said as he met Chloe at the foot of the stairway and took her hand in his to escort her to the carriage.

  She blushed and he nearly grinned. Chloe always looked a little flustered when he complimented her. It was an endearing trait but he feared it meant that she did not completely believe in his flattery. If he did nothing else for Chloe, Julian was determined to make her see that she was a beautiful woman, in face, in form, and in soul. He would do it because she deserved that confidence, had earned it, and because he knew she would never suffer from vanity. Chloe was too sensible and fair-minded to succumb to that sin.

  “I am still not certain I fully understand why we are having this gathering, although I would never deny your mother the pleasure she seems to feel about it,” said Chloe as she got into the carriage. “We have already told a lot of people about Anthony. He does not really need what feels very much like a formal introduction to society. He is just three years old.” Knowing it would wrinkle her gown, which could cause a few unwelcome remarks, Chloe resisted the urge to snuggle up against Julian when he sat down beside her.

  “True, it is unusual,” Julian said as he signaled the driver to start on their way. “Yet is it not also unusual for an earl’s heir, one thought dead at birth, to suddenly appear?”