Her husband had that privilege.
Did Nik regret last night so deeply, he had not even wished to say goodbye to her before he left?
It would appear that was the case.
She should remain in Kent, Angelique knew. A dutiful and obedient wife would wait here for Nik to return.
If he returned.
And that, the fact that Nik might not come back to Kent at all, was the reason she had no intention of being a dutiful or obedient wife. Ten minutes later found her descending the stairs with the bag she had packed yesterday, having already instructed Foster to have her carriage brought to the front of the house, ready for her departure.
If Nik did not intend coming to her, then Angelique intended going to him.
Whether he wished her to do so or not.
Enough was enough, and Angelique was tired of trying to second-guess her husband or his motives. She wanted answers, and only Nik could give them to her.
Except Nik was not at Stonewell House when Angelique arrived at their London home long and tiring hours later.
Strangely, neither was her mother.
Nor, the butler informed her, had either His Grace or Lady Jacqueline been to the house in the past week.
Angelique had no real interest in where her mother might be, but she was at a complete loss as to where her husband could have gone once he reached London.
Unless, filled with guilt over what he had done, he had gone straight from Angelique’s bed to that of his mistress.
“Her Grace is upstairs in her private sitting room,” Gulliver informed Nik as the elderly man helped him off with his cloak and hat.
Nik was far from in the best of humors. He’d spent most of yesterday poring over Romney’s report and then being persuaded to spend the night at Romney House by Lady Prudence once she realized he did not intend going to Stonewell House. Nik had felt decidedly out of place as he dined with the soon-to-be-married couple. Even more so this morning when he left Romney’s house in order to change, no longer having an excuse not to attend the couple’s wedding later this morning.
He now scowled at his butler. “Don’t you mean Lady Jacqueline is?”
“No, Your Grace.”
Nik’s scowl turned to a perplexed frown. “Are you saying the duchess is in residence?”
Gulliver nodded, his expression stoically unreadable. “She arrived yesterday evening.”
What the hell?
Angelique was here, at Stonewell House?
Nik’s mouth thinned at the possible reason for Angelique having hot-footed it back to London the moment his back was turned.
The hours he, Romney, and Lady Prudence had yesterday spent poring over the report had not been the success Nik had hoped it would. Indeed, the report, along with the French spy’s claim the Duchess of Stonewell was his informant, had only seemed to make the evidence against Angelique more damning.
There was, as Romney had already told him, no one else but Angelique who could possibly be the traitor.
Nik nodded to his butler. “See that the two of us are not disturbed. For any reason,” he instructed before taking the stairs two at a time to where his wife’s private sitting room was situated on the first floor.
It was time, past time, that Angelique told him the truth.
Chapter 10
“What the hell do you mean by coming to London without my permission?”
Angelique had been staring out the window of her private parlor when Nik rode into the cobbled stable area at the back of Stonewell House. She had stepped back so she wouldn’t be seen as he glanced toward the house, his expression grim, dark stubble emphasizing the arrogance of his jaw. He looked extremely tired, cheeks hollow, mouth unsmiling, as if he had slept very little the night before.
Her mouth thinned as to the possible reason for that lack of sleep. Nik’s creased and disheveled clothing certainly seemed to indicate they might be the same clothes he had worn for traveling yesterday. “You left Kent without so much as saying goodbye,” she returned.
A flush appeared along the sharpness of his cheekbones. “I thought it best, under the circumstances.”
Angelique raised a cool brow as she continued to stand in front of the window. “And what circumstances might they be?”
“We— I—” His nostrils flared. “What are you doing here, Angelique?”
“I saw no reason to remain in Kent when both my mother and husband are in London.”
“Except your mother is not here.”
She nodded. “So Gulliver informed me when I arrived yesterday. Do you know where she is?”
“With Holmes, I am presuming.”
Her mother’s outrageous and scandalous behavior had long been a source of embarrassment to Angelique. But she could not bring herself to feel in the least roused by it at this moment. “Where have you been, Nik?”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“You certainly did not sleep in your bedchamber here last night.”
Nik bristled at the accusation he could hear in his wife’s tone. That Angelique was here at all was stressful enough, but for her to turn these accusations back on him was beyond bearing.
She looked stunning beautiful in a gown of pale green silk, and her hair was fashionably styled. Whereas Nik wore the same clothes as yesterday, dark stubble on his jaw testament to his needing to shave. Romney had earlier offered him the use of some of his clothes, as well as the attention of his valet, but Nik had just wanted to leave as soon as possible this morning, well aware it was Romney’s wedding day.
“Exactly what are you accusing me of?” Nik now demanded.
Angelique continued to eye him coolly. “I do not believe I accused you of anything.”
“Your tone did that for you.”
“Or perhaps it was your own guilty conscience?” she challenged.
Nik could feel the frustrated anger building inside him. He had spent the last twenty-four hours trying to prove Angelique’s innocence, and this was how she treated him, with suspicion and accusations? “If anyone should have a guilty conscience, then it is you, madam,” he stated icily.
Her eyes widened. “I have nothing to feel guilty about.”
He gave an impatient snort. “Let us cease this game, Angelique. I know what you have done. I know, damn it!” His hands clenched at his sides.
“What I have—” She broke off as the door opened.
“Lady Prudence Germaine and Viscount Romney, Your Grace,” Gulliver announced.
Nik’s eyes widened incredulously as, having made the announcement, Gulliver barely had time to step aside before an imperious and obviously animated Lady Prudence burst into the room. Romney gave Nik an apologetic grimace as he entered closely behind his betrothed. Having announced the unexpected guests, Gulliver wisely beat a hasty retreat.
“You have all been wrong.” Lady Prudence waved several sheets of paper under Nik’s nose. “So very wrong. I— Oh, good morning, Your Grace,” she greeted Angelique, color blooming in her cheeks as she gave a brief curtsey. “I did not see you standing there near the window.”
“Lady Prudence,” Angelique returned cautiously. “Should the two of you even be together this morning? Are you not to be married later today?”
“We are, yes.” Romney’s wince was pained.
“Superstitious nonsense,” his betrothed dismissed with a snort.
“I apologize for the interruption.” The viscount sighed. “I had no choice but to accompany Pru when she came to Romney House, after you had left this morning, Nik, and insisted on dragging me here. As you can see,” Romney continued dryly. “Once Pru gets an idea into her head, it is impossible to deter her from seeing it through.”
“Nik needed to know about this as soon possible,” that lady insisted. “Before this situation becomes any more fraught than it already is.”
“It is only supposition on your part—our part, as yet,” Romney corrected at a narrowed-eyed glare from his fiancée.
&
nbsp; “Nonsense,” Lady Prudence snapped. “It is as plain as—well, as the nose on your handsome face.” She gave her betrothed an affectionate smile before turning back to Nik. “You may cease your fretting and worrying, because the duchess is not guilty,” she assured him warmly.
Nik sat down before he fell down. He had not slept at all these past two nights, having spent the first night making love to Angelique and the second pacing a bedroom at Romney House. He had ridden up to London post haste in between. The thought—the relief that Angelique might be innocent after all was just too much.
“Brandy, Titus,” Lady Prudence instructed briskly as she moved quickly to Nik’s side. “There, there, Your Grace.” She patted Nik’s shoulder reassuringly as he took the glass of brandy Romney had poured for him and downed the fiery alcohol in one swallow. “You will see, we shall get this matter cleared up forthwith and your duchess cleared of all blame.”
Angelique felt as if she were a bystander to something momentous. Quite what she was an observer of she had no idea as yet. Recalling Nik’s accusations and his most recent comment, it pained her immeasurably that he seemed to have involved the betrothed couple in their marital problems.
She also now had her answer as to where Nik had spent the night. He had been at Romney House with Titus, and obviously confiding things to his friend he had no proof or justification for, let alone confide to another gentleman.
Angelique stepped into the center of the room. “I do not appreciate your having repeated your slanderous accusations of my adultery to third parties,” she told her husband icily. “Even if one of them is your close friend.”
“Adultery?” Lady Prudence looked taken aback. “Nik, you did not say anything about—”
“My wife is under the misapprehension that my accusations were in regard to her having taken a lover,” Nik explained.
Angelique felt the warmth in her cheeks. “It was not a mistake. You were the one who said as much.”
“Not initially.”
She gave an impatient shake of her head. “Am I to take it you were accusing me of something else before the notion of adultery occurred to you?”
Nik shifted uncomfortably. “Let us hear what Lady Prudence has to say on the matter.”
“No.” Angelique was so angry, she was shaking. “You shall be the one to tell me what this is all about.” Once he had done so, Angelique would decide whether or not she wished to hear anything further from her husband. She had a feeling not.
“Angelique.” Romney stepped forward to take both her hands in his. “Nik is not the only one who thought… We all believed you must be guilty too,” he admitted ruefully as Angelique pulled her hands free of his hold.
“Titus, you are making matters worse, not better,” Prudence Germaine scolded impatiently before turning to smile at Angelique. “We have each of us ladies been thought guilty in turn,” she attempted to soothe. “And we have all forgiven and decided to marry the gentlemen given the task of investigating us,” she added ruefully. “Wolferton, Huntley, Deveril, Carlton, Wessex, and my darling Titus.”
Angelique was so filled with confusion and anger, she could no longer even look at Nik. All the gentlemen Lady Prudence had named were Nik’s closest friends, the Sinners, and all, apart from Romney, had also been married within the past six months.
To women they had believed guilty of having committed the same crime as it seemed Nik did her?
She frowned. “Guilty of what?”
“Treason,” Lady Prudence dismissed briskly.
Treason?
Nik believed she had not only betrayed him and everything he stood for as a spymaster for the Crown, but also England and the soldiers who had fought and died while ousting the Corsican usurper?
Nik watched as the emotions of shock, horror, and then anger passed over his wife’s face.
His innocent wife’s face?
Lady Prudence seemed to think so, and he already knew her well enough to know she was a young lady it would be unwise to doubt or question.
In the way he had doubted and disbelieved Angelique?
Well…yes. But it was because of those feelings of doubt that he had returned to London yesterday and Lady Prudence now believed she had found the evidence that might prove Angelique’s innocence.
Semantics, Nik knew.
He had gone to Kent believing he had no choice but to accept Angelique’s guilt.
As he had also treated her abominably these past six months, believing the same thing.
His behavior toward her in Kent had initially been so barbaric, it actually made him cringe to think of it.
If Lady Prudence’s claim should prove correct, that she had indeed discovered the proof they had all failed to find in regard to Angelique’s innocence during these past six months or yesterday, then Nik was the one who would need to ask his wife’s forgiveness for having ever doubted her.
The coldness of Angelique’s gaze as she continued to stare at him told Nik that forgiveness would not be forthcoming anytime soon, if at all.
But if innocent, Angelique would live, perhaps not with him or as his wife, but she would live rather than dangle at the end of the hangman’s rope.
Nik straightened and turned to Lady Prudence. “Tell me what we all missed.”
“It is not so much what you missed as what you did not see,” that lady answered with satisfaction. “I failed to see it too when we were studying the file yesterday, but now that I have, it is so obvious.” She gave a dismissive laugh. “I was thinking about the situation again this morning over breakfast, and the answer suddenly came to me. There were eight ladies originally under suspicion of treason—”
“We know that part, my love,” Romney chided.
“Her Grace does not.”
“Stop being dramatic, darling, and get to the point,” he encouraged his future wife gently.
Prudence gave him an exasperated glare before continuing. “There were eight ladies under investigation when there should have been nine,” she explained to Nik. “Because one of those ladies was always, always, accompanied by another.”
“I do not… You are referring to my mother-in-law, Lady Jacqueline Kingston?” Nik realized incredulously.
Was it possible Lady Jacqueline was the traitor?
Of course it bloody well was.
Nik already knew his mother-in-law had few scruples and would do anything for money. She was also thoroughly outrageous in her behavior and someone most people in Society avoided or tried to forget.
As they had all forgotten she always accompanied Angelique to every social occasion? Balls and soirees at which the Sinners knew the traitor had passed on vital information to the French.
“You are now accusing my mother of treason?” Angelique spoke impatiently. “Who next? My maid? The housekeeper here? Or perhaps my seamstress?” she added in disgust.
“None of those women were present at the six specific Society events where we know information was passed along to the French,” Nik said quietly.
Green eyes glittered with anger. “That is the reason you came to suspect these eight ladies, myself included?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You are all quite insane. None of the other seven ladies was found guilty, and nor am I. As for my mother, she would never… She would never…”
Nik watched as the doubt slowly overshadowed his wife’s beautiful face and she came to a faltering halt, quickly followed by the shimmer of tears in her eyes as she obviously faced the possibility that her mother would.
Chapter 11
To say Angelique felt numbed as she once again gazed out the window into the stable yard below was an understatement. To first learn that the reason she had suffered all these months of Nik’s coldness had been because he suspected her of having committed treason, and to now realize the traitor he and the other Sinners sought might possibly be her own mother was almost beyond comprehension.
Almost.
Angelique accep
ted that the other seven ladies under suspicion had been found innocent beyond a doubt. The Sinners would not have married them otherwise. She also knew she wasn’t guilty. But, despite her denial, Angelique in no way felt as sure of her mother’s innocence now that she was aware Lady Jacqueline had demanded twenty thousand pounds from Nik before their wedding. She no longer knew what her mother was capable of doing for her own selfish ends.
But treason? Could Lady Jacqueline really be guilty of that?
Yes, she really could, Angelique accepted heavily, no longer under any illusion as to what her mother was capable of.
Lady Jacqueline had often complained to her, and anyone else who would listen, of the shortage of gentlemen at balls and such, with so many of them away fighting the war against Napoleon. Lady Jacqueline had also bemoaned the inconvenience of not being able to acquire perfumes, lace, and other materials from France, as they used to do.
Angelique had chosen to ignore those complaints, putting it down to more of her mother’s innate silliness.
But what if Lady Jacqueline had merely used that silliness as a way of hiding her acts of treason?
Angelique slowly turned to face the other three people in the room. Lady Prudence’s expression was one of sympathy and apology, and Romney’s regretful. Angelique had no idea what Nik was feeling, because she refused to look at him. She could not look at him for fear of what she might see in him and what he might see in her.
She had become aware of Nik’s work for the Crown within months of their marriage, along with the seven of his friends known as the Sinners. It wasn’t something that Angelique had ever attempted to discuss with Nik because she knew he was not allowed to do so. But living together, she had known about his actions nonetheless, and respected and admired him all the more for it.
To now know that Nik and all the other Sinners, gentlemen who had often sat at her dinner table, had for some months believed her guilty of treason was more painful than Angelique wanted to dwell on just now. There were far more important things to deal with than her hurt feelings. Primarily, where her mother was now, and how soon Lady Jacqueline could be arrested and questioned regarding these acts of treason.
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