The Unexpected Wife

by Jess Michaels

  “What a club to be a part of,” Abigail said with a gentle smile.

  In that moment, Celeste stopped holding the breath it felt like she’d been keeping in for days. She’d been unable to picture how this meeting would go, if it ever happened. But instead of being horrible or filled with accusation, she found herself welcomed. Almost as if this were a sisterhood. One formed in pain, yes, but she felt no accusation between the women. She felt no cruelty.

  She glanced back at Owen and found him smiling at her, encouraging with just that look. He was trying to tell her she could trust these women.

  She wanted to do just that.

  “Indeed, it is something,” Celeste said.

  Abigail glanced at the other gentlemen. “Let me introduce you to our other guests.” She caught Celeste’s arm and guided her further into the room. “This is the Earl of Leighton, our...brother-in-law.” The earl flinched slightly and his gaze flitted from Celeste to Abigail and finally settled on Pippa before he darted it away. “And a rather decent fellow despite his attachment to the scoundrel who created this situation.”

  Celeste nearly choked at that description and at the fact that this handsome man who now extended a hand toward her shared Erasmus’s pale blue eyes. Only on his face they looked kind, and it made her realize how distant and cruel Erasmus’s expression had been in comparison. By the time she’d met him, he’d already been lost. She wondered if he’d always been that way. What had driven him to such a course of action that had altered all their lives?

  “My lord,” she said. “I am so very sorry that I have caused any—”

  He held up a hand to stop her. “You have caused nothing, madam, I assure you of that. My brother was the villain who created this farce. It is I who should apologize to you for his role in this horror.”

  Her lips parted. That was not the response she had expected. But none of this was what was expected. This should have been a room full of sharks, bent on devouring her if they so much as scented blood.

  Only it wasn’t.

  “And this is the architect of our destruction,” Abigail continued as she motioned toward the other man standing before the settee. “The Duke of Gilmore.”

  The duke didn’t look at Celeste, he simply kept his gaze on Abigail for one beat, two. His lips were thin, his eyes narrowed on her in severe scrutiny. But then he glanced away and looked at Celeste with far less intensity.

  “Madam,” he said. “I do regret that my investigation has caused any of you ladies grief. Though I do not regret, nor will I ever regret, seeking to protect my own sister.”

  “Of course you don’t,” Abigail muttered, and turned her back on him. “And now you gentlemen have seen the last of our number. We stand before you, the Three Mrs. Montgomerys.” She linked arms with Celeste and did the same with Pippa on the other side. “So here we are. Take it in, and then I will ask you two and Mr. Gregory to leave us.”

  Owen had only been observing the interaction, but now he stepped forward, his lips parted. “I had thought to escort Mrs. Mont—Miss Hendr—Celeste to her intended home during her stay.”

  “I made arrangements,” the Duke of Gilmore said softly. “I promise the accommodations will be of good quality and—”

  Abigail shook her head. “That will not do. I will host Celeste here, just as I am hosting Phillipa.”

  Celeste gasped as she jerked her gaze toward Abigail, but the lady looked anything but uncertain of this decision. She met Celeste’s stare with a quick nod.

  “Mrs. Montgomery,” the duke intoned, stepping closer to Abigail as she pulled from the linked arms of Celeste and Pippa. “Are you certain that is wise? The news of this terrible thing is already circulating through Town. If the ladies are staying with you—”

  “Then the world will know we do not blame each other for our fate but place it firmly where it belongs, on Mr. Montgomery. Why should we be at each other’s throats? We are the victims here, Your Grace. And we will stand together.”

  His mouth twitched. “As you wish.”

  “A fine sentiment,” the earl said as the duke stalked away to the fire. “And I do not deny that it will be a powerful one. But I do think we all have much to discuss. There are many matters to resolve if any of us have any hope of escaping this scandal.”

  “And determining the murderer of Mr. Montgomery,” Owen added softly.

  Celeste glanced at him. He was watching the earl, and she realized with a start that Owen suspected him. But of course he would. Probably he suspected everyone in the room. One of them could very well be the killer and yet she felt no fear. If someone in this room had murdered Erasmus, well…they’d certainly had their good reasons.

  “Yes, there is that,” the earl murmured. Celeste couldn’t help but mark the way his head bent. There was something guilty in his demeanor. Guilt over this terrible state of affairs? Or something deeper?

  Abigail shrugged. “And we will resolve all of that. But not tonight. Celeste must be exhausted from her journey, and all of us need time to stare each other in the face and see what this sisterhood of the Mrs. Montgomerys will look like as we move forward. And none of you men are invited.”

  She gave a playful smile to the gentlemen before she settled into one of the seats before the fire. The Duke of Gilmore shot her a look. “I don’t know how you can be so flippant about such a serious subject, Mrs. Montgomery.”

  “Which one of us are you speaking to, Your Grace?” Abigail asked.

  Celeste’s eyes went wide. The two of them were almost at each other’s throats, even if they were oh-so-very polite about it. She would hate to see what would happen if the knives really came out.

  She stepped forward to diffuse the situation before the vein that was pulsing in the duke’s forehead popped. “I admit I am tired. It’s been a very long few days. Perhaps a quiet night would be good for all of us. And then we will, of course, discuss all those important matters.” Celeste shifted her focus to Owen. When he met her gaze, she found a fraction more calm on the violent seas. “Owen—Mr. Gregory, what do you think?”

  “I think another night won’t matter in the scheme of things,” he said softly. “And that it makes sense that you ladies would wish to get to know each other.”

  “It seems it has been decided,” the duke said with a shake of his head. “Then I will depart. We will meet again tomorrow then. Good afternoon.”

  He nodded to the group as a whole and then strode from the room. Once he was gone, Abigail pursed her lips and then spat, “I don’t know why he must be involved in all this. He got his way, didn’t he? He set in motion a destruction of us all and protected his family. Why can he not just leave us to the consequences?”

  The Earl of Leighton let out a long sigh. “He truly isn’t the beast you make him out to be, Abigail. And he’s a powerful man, so don’t completely disregard that his influence might make this easier. If you don’t chase him off entirely by your obvious disdain.” When Abigail shrugged, the earl smiled. “Good afternoon, ladies. Mr. Gregory.” He once again gave a quick glance toward Pippa, but said nothing more as he left the room.

  Owen was all that was left, and he met Celeste’s gaze and held there as he said, “We will have much to discuss tomorrow, ladies. But I hope your peace will do you all good. Celeste, I will make certain all your things are taken from the carriage.”

  “I’ll join you,” she said. “I left a book in the carriage and I think it might have slipped between the cushions. I’ll find it easier.”

  He didn’t argue, even though they both knew her book had been safely placed into her reticule. She smiled back at Abigail and Phillipa before she followed him from the parlor and out to where his carriage was still waiting. Footmen had unloaded it already, making her think that Abigail had always intended to take her in.

  She and Owen stopped next to the open carriage door, and she stared up at him. “You’ll be fine,” he said softly.

  She blinked. “Did I look worried?”

&nb
sp; He nodded. “Since the first moment I saw you. But the other two wives seem like decent women. Your welcome was genuine, and I think you’ll find them good allies for what is to come.”

  “Even if you’re not certain if one of them is a murderer. Nor the earl. Nor the duke?”

  His brows lifted and a hint of a smile tilted his lips. “You saw all that, did you?”

  She shrugged. “It doesn’t take too sharp a mind to deduce it, but yes. I saw you watching them all with more interest than just a casual observation. You still have a long road to walk to determine who snuffed out Erasmus’s life.”

  “And I’ll walk it,” he assured her. “Carefully and prudently and hopefully with success.”

  She shifted because when they were standing like this, face to face, she couldn’t help but think of when they’d kissed. That stolen moment played over in her mind whenever he looked at her like he was right now. Like he wished they could repeat it, even though he was the one who had turned away.

  “Must you walk that road…alone?” she asked.

  His eyes went wide. “Are you offering to walk it with me?”

  “It might be foolish—I have not the experience you do in such things. But I want to help. Otherwise I’m just a victim of this and I don’t want to be. Not only that.”

  He was quiet for what felt like a lifetime, searching her face with those bright brown eyes that seemed to see so much. Then he nodded. “If you want to help, then watch. Listen. You’ll have access to far more honesty than I probably will. Make note of anything interesting and we can discuss it later.”

  “You’d do that?” she said in surprise.

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you won’t…keep things from me? Try to protect me or think that I can’t handle this?”

  His brow wrinkled. “I believe you can handle anything, Celeste. And if I cannot tell you something, I promise to be honest about that. I won’t keep you in the dark.”

  The relief that moved through her was far more powerful than it should have been. So many people had underestimated her, lied to her to manipulate her to their way. That he vowed not to do so meant a great deal. More, perhaps, than it should.

  She reached out and touched his arm. “Thank you.”

  His pupils dilated and his gaze moved from her eyes to her lips. He wanted to kiss her, just as she wished to do the same.

  Instead he cleared his throat and handed over her reticule from the carriage seat before he stepped away toward his horse, which the footmen had just brought around for him. “Good afternoon, Celeste.”

  “Good afternoon,” she whispered, then turned away to the house where the ladies awaited her. Where an unexpected future was beginning to bloom.

  Chapter 7

  As Celeste returned to the parlor, she caught her breath. While she’d been outside with Owen, Abigail had apparently called for a full tea to be spread out on the table by the window. There were sandwiches and biscuits and tea. Celeste’s stomach rumbled even as she forced a smile for the two women.

  Pippa returned it immediately. “Abigail and I thought that it’s going to be awkward, so we said we might as well eat like queens.”

  “My cook is divine,” Abigail said with a light laugh as she motioned for Celeste to sit between them. “Everything she makes is heaven on a plate.”

  Celeste took her place and watched as Pippa and Abigail heaped her plate with all the delicacies that had been prepared for them. Once it was brimming and the tea had been poured, Abigail lifted her cup. “To us. The Three Mrs. Montgomerys.”

  Celeste clinked her cup to theirs. “I’m shocked you two can joke so easily about it. I’m still reeling.”

  “Well, you haven’t known as long, I suppose,” Pippa said. “I was in London and so was Abigail. But it took longer for word to reach you in Twiddleport.”

  “Aside from that, I think Pippa and I decided over the last few days that we can laugh or cry, and laughing makes my eyes swell less,” Abigail added.

  Celeste shook her head. “But you must have felt some pain over the realization about what Erasmus had done.”

  At that both women’s expressions fell. “Of course,” Pippa began. “I shall never forget when Lord Leighton and Mr. Gregory arrived at the room I was letting. I was so thrilled to meet my husband’s family after two years of being kept from them. And then…the world crashed down.”

  “Did you not live in London?” Celeste asked.

  “No,” Pippa said. “I don’t think Erasmus would have been capable of managing us all in the same place. He met me in Bath, where my father owned an assembly room, and he was happy to leave me there after the first six months of our marriage.”

  “The first six months?” Celeste repeated. “He stayed with you so long?”

  “Yes, though he traveled, and now I realize he must have been coming home to Abigail all that time.”

  Abigail frowned. “Home or somewhere else, it seems. How long did he stay with you, Celeste?”

  Celeste shifted. “We married a little over a year ago. He stayed with me just days and returned only three times.”

  Pippa reached out and caught her hand. “I can see you are blaming yourself for something or questioning why he might have stayed longer with me. Trust that it isn’t you, it’s him. He was a rambler and a scoundrel, and not in the romantic sense. He must have been getting more desperate as time went on and he never cared about anyone but himself.”

  “Why would he be desperate?” Celeste asked, marking the flash of bright rage in Pippa’s expression. “I know so little of him. He was not my choice and he made it clear very quickly that only my money was his.”

  Abigail nodded. “Then we’ll start at the beginning. I have been married to the late Mr. Montgomery for almost five years. And I have reason to believe that for the first three, I was the only one to carry that name.”

  “How did you meet?”

  “As you do,” Abigail said with a shake of her head. “My father is the second son of the Earl of Middleton, and he and Ras’s father were cronies. They encouraged the match, but I desired it regardless of their machinations. I thought he did too.”

  There was a faraway sadness to Abigail’s expression a moment before she blinked it away. “Courtship was followed by marriage, and for a while we were happy. He strayed, of course. He had more than one mistress, and it always came back to me. The first time it hurt me, but I convinced myself that was what men did. That I could be happy regardless, for he was affectionate enough when he was with me.”

  Celeste flinched. “I’m so sorry. To hear what happened with Pippa and with me must have caused you so much pain. To offer us such kindness speaks to highly of you.”

  Abigail smiled. “My dear, I might not have known he was strutting across the country, marrying young ladies, but by the time he began that foolishness, I was long out of love with him. He changed over time, you see. Became harder, sometimes even more cruel. He despised me for not providing him with a child, especially a son whose existence might allow him to demand his father give him more money. And when his brother inherited the title, it only got worse.”

  “How so?”

  It was Pippa who answered rather than Abigail. “They’re half-blood, you see. Erasmus grumbled ceaselessly about his brother and how he was so big for his britches after inheriting. But having met Lord Leighton now, I see that the real trouble was that they are such different men. Leighton is genuine and serious. Erasmus was…well, he made a bed his brother wouldn’t abide by. He cut him off a year before he married me.”

  Celeste’s lips parted. “Is that why he started marrying all of us?”

  Abigail nodded. “That is what Pippa and I theorize. He’d already run through my dowry, but Pippa’s was generous. I assume yours was the same?”

  “My parents threw money at their problem, and their problem was me,” Celeste admitted, because at this point they were all so vulnerable she felt no reason not to carry that through. “And one c
an only assume that the Duke of Gilmore’s younger sister would be the biggest prize of all.”

  “But that was where he made his mistake,” Abigail said. “He had chosen you two because your families lived in the country and neither of your fathers had powerful connections to London or the Upper Ten Thousand. But Gilmore was too big a fish for Ras to land.”

  “Why do you think he did it?” Celeste asked.

  “Desperation?” Pippa suggested. “Hubris? Who knows? I long ago gave up on trying to read his mind. Though I did chase him to London, so that tells you something about me, doesn’t it?”

  “I think it completely rational that you would seek him out when he’d been unresponsive to your letters for months,” Abigail reassured her. “It says you are a decent person, nothing more or less.”

  Celeste leaned back in her chair and observed the two women. It was impossible not to like them, but she couldn’t help but think of Owen’s suspicions when it came to them. He’d said for her to watch and listen. This was an opening for both options.

  “Who do you think…killed him?” she asked, then took a sip of her tea so she could watch the pair surreptitiously over the edge of her cup.

  Pippa flinched, but Abigail didn’t move at all. For a moment the room was silent and then Abigail sighed. “There is no shortage of suspects, I suppose. His brother, all of us, probably untold others…all had a motive for the killing.”

  “And the Duke of Gilmore,” Pippa added.

  At that Abigail did react, her gaze darting to Pippa swiftly. “I suppose him, too. Mr. Gregory seems driven to uncover the truth. And he comes off clever enough to do it.” She leaned in and met Celeste’s eyes evenly. “You spent a few days with the man, much longer than either of us. What do you think of him?”

  Celeste sucked in a breath at the direct question she should have expected but somehow hadn’t. She’d been trying to obtain information, but here she was being asked for it. “He is…he was kind about his revelations,” she began slowly.