His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) (12 page)

He doubted that, but wouldn't be so
cruel as to tell her so. “Thank you, Mother. If you'll just see to
it that Amelia is properly attired until something more permanent
can be arranged, I'd greatly appreciate it.”

“
Very well.”

Elijah waited for his mother to walk
off then slipped in the side door. Amelia would probably prefer him
not to be around while discussing her wardrobe and now that he
didn't have to seek out Alex, he could try to puzzle out the coded
missive he'd received along with Henry's missive
yesterday.

Only because Caroline was hosting one
of her nearly unbearable house parties, filled with games of pall
mall, charades, and the most excruciatingly boring game of them
all: lawn chess, Elijah would be able to spend time in the library
without being interrupted by Alex who likely spent as much time in
the library studying scientific tomes thick enough to injure a man
were he to drop one on his foot as he did in his wife's bedroom. It
was to Alex's good fortune indeed that his wife had the same
unnatural interests. Elijah shuddered at the thought. How fortunate
he was that Amelia had normal interests.

Elijah pushed open the door to the
large room that was three walls of solid books and one wall of
floor to ceiling windows that flooded the room with plenty of
sunshine.

He reached into his breast pocket and
removed the folded parchment that he'd hidden in this coat
yesterday when he'd first visited the cabin after sending Amelia
off to spend time with Caroline and the other ladies. He fell into
a chair behind the oak table and unfolded the note.

Where I be

There I pray

That He be
there

Right beside

Thy maiden fair

What the blazes did that
mean?
Mindlessly, he drummed his
fingertips along the top of the table and stared out the window.
Sometimes—like right now—he wished he'd have never met that rugged
stranger down by the shipyards. If he hadn't he wouldn't be in this
mess. Or the one created by this mess.

He sighed and turned his eyes back to
the words scrolled across the paper. He hated cryptic messages.
Especially those of the poetic variety. Like Henry, he'd always
preferred it when given an anonymous tip written out in simple
English. Riddles and rhymes were for those in the nursery, not
grown men of seven-and-twenty.

Unfortunately, the fellow who'd been
sending them anonymous tips about the prostitution ring he'd been
investigating felt different and sent all of his correspondence in
the form of senseless riddles.

The hair on the back of Elijah's neck
stood on end. Soft almost inaudible footfalls were coming down the
hall. Slowly, he folded the missive and tucked it back into his
breast pocket just as the door to the library creaked
open.

“
Oh, it's just you,” Elijah muttered when his eyes collided
with his twin.

“
Indeed.” Henry said nothing more as he walked across the room
and fell into the black chair opposite Elijah. “What's your
plan?”

Elijah frowned. “I don't have one
yet.”

“
I wasn't talking about your evening with Lady Amelia,” he
said with a quick grin.

“
Just Amelia,” Elijah corrected.

Henry's blue eyes danced with
laughter. “Oh, I didn't realize she'd given up her courtesy title.”
At Elijah's silence, Henry added, “Or are you just expecting her
to?”

Elijah threw his hands into the air.
“I have no idea what that blasted female plans to do.”

“
You mean besides torture you?”

“
Exactly.”

Henry crossed his ankles and leaned
back in his chair. “Does she know?”

Elijah studied his
brother. “I'm sure she knows
something
.”

“
I see,” Henry said slowly. “And would that something be that
you're not the dashing prince she'd always thought you to be but an
arse instead?”

“
No, I believe she's always reserved those particular feelings
for you. And rightfully so.”

Henry shook his head. “I still don't
understand why.”

“
Because you were always the one being impolite.”

Henry knit his brows. “Pardon me? What
did you just say?”

“
I said you were always the one who was impolite to
her.”

“
No, I wasn't.” Henry scoffed. “In my recollection, it seems
to always have been you who was impolite. Why just this morning,
you said—”

“
Forget what I said this morning,” Elijah snapped. “You
tricked me into saying it.”

“
No, I didn't. You allowed yourself to get
distracted.”

Elijah snorted. “Yes, and Alex never
meant to let Sir Wallace best him at chess, he just got
distracted.”

Henry grinned ruefully. “I still can't
believe it. And probably wouldn't had I not seen that with my own
eyes. But that was bound to happen eventually. As Alex used to tell
us when he bested us, nobody can win all the time.” He shifted in
his chair. “But Alex's win at chess isn't what we're discussing. I
want to know why you think it's me who's always been impolite to
Amelia when it's you who used to run away from her, dismiss her
foolish claims of being in love with you, and now you've gone so
far as to humiliate her—”

“
That was unintentional,” Elijah interrupted. “Had I known she
was still behind me, I would have chosen my words with a little
more care.”

Henry looked doubtful. “As I said, you
were distracted. But why?”

Elijah ducked his head. He might have
perfected the stoic expression, complete with a clamped jaw and
cold eyes, but Henry knew him too well to believe Elijah was
unaffected by his words. “I am married now,” he said at last. “It
would stand to reason that I'd be distracted from time to
time.”

“
But you weren't always married.”

Elijah bridled at his remark and its
intended reminder of the hash he'd made of things the night before
he married Amelia. “Did you happen to see the missive?”

“
I did,” Henry said, frowning. “What's your plan?”

“
I don't have one.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because I haven't had long enough to puzzle out the clue yet
to know what my plan should be.”

“
You haven't?” Henry burst out.

“
No.”

“
But you said this morning that you got it.”

“
And I did. When we passed the hunting cabin coming in
yesterday, I saw that the window in the common room was open so I
sent Amelia to spend time with the ladies so I could go retrieve
the missive.” Elijah pulled the missive from his breast pocket and
tossed it on the table.

Henry groaned. “You've been spending
far too much time with Alex. Any more and you just might best him
at being the most obtuse gentleman in existence.” He raked his hand
through his hair. “What I meant was did you solve it, not retrieve
it.”

“
Then you should have said that,” Elijah retorted.

“
I didn't think I had to,” Henry grumbled. “But not to worry,
from now on when I use a word that has more than one meaning, I'll
be sure to clarify which meaning I intend.”

“
See to it that you do.” He scowled. “However, I did get—both
definitions—your other missive. The one about the fellow I
apprehended in Brighton escaping.”

“
I haven't many other details on that. I'm to meet with a
runner tomorrow to see what else he's learned.”

Elijah sighed. “Back to where we were
before, I suppose.”

“
Or further back,” Henry commented. “Now, they know someone's
looking for them.”

Elijah's heart twisted. That just
meant Amelia was more vulnerable than he'd originally
thought.

Henry reached for the paper he'd left
in the cabin for Elijah yesterday and unfolded it. “I spent three
hours yesterday trying to solve this damn riddle.”

“
I'd spent an entire three minutes trying to solve it before
you had to interrupt.”

“
Perhaps you'd have had more time if you hadn't spent your
time dreaming of Amelia,” Henry said with a chuckle.

Scowling, Elijah grabbed the paper
from his brother's hands and turned it around so he could read it.
“It isn't what you think.”

“
I'm pretty sure that it is.”

Elijah lowered the left corner of the
paper a fraction. “Damn,” he muttered, meeting his twin's
eyes.

“
Have you told her?”

“
No, on both accounts.”

“
On both accounts?” he echoed, knitting his brows. A moment
later his eyes flared wide, then returned to normal; the color in
his cheeks heightening, presumably at just being informed that not
only had Elijah not told Amelia the truth about himself but that
he'd been unsuccessful in bedding her, revealing to her the truth
about herself. “I see.”

“
I doubt you do.” Elijah sighed and dropped the paper he held
to the table. “I can't tell her one without revealing the
other.”

“
So then...”

“
I just need to do my duty and bed her as soon as
possible.”

“
Yes, well, I don't need
those
details, thank you.”

Elijah straightened his silver
cufflink. “Then we're in agreement because I hadn't planned to
share them.”

“
Have you been putting it off on purpose?”

“
Bedding her?”

Henry nodded. “She is our childhood
friend. I can see where it might be difficult
to...er...perform.”

Elijah twisted his lips and crossed
his arms. Had it been anyone else—even Alex—who'd just insulted his
abilities, Elijah would have laid him out. “As it would happen,
contrary to what you're implying, I have no reservations about
consummating the marriage. She does.”

“
Perhaps she doesn't fancy the idea of sleeping with
you
.”

“
I've already guessed as much,” he muttered. “For as much as
she used to claim she loved me before we reached our majority, she
sure has no interest in me now.”

“
Oh?”

“
I thought you didn't want details,” Elijah reminded him,
forcing a grin.

“
That depends. Details about you deflowering Amelia I could do
without. Details about how Amelia denies you sound most
interesting.”

Elijah snorted. “You would be the one
interested.”

“
Anyone would.” He flashed Elijah a grin. “Especially if they
knew the details of your past together.”

“
Yes, well, her fascination for me is no more, I'm afraid.” He
turned his head a fraction to the side and idly scratched his
cheek. “No matter what I do, she pushes me away.”

“
She does?”

“
She does.” Elijah put his elbow on the table and then leaned
his cheek against his palm. “Whenever I try to kiss her, she turns
as cold as those marbles we saw in Venice. When I touch her, she
jerks and moves away. Or pushes me away,” he added, thinking at how
she'd shoved him away earlier this morning when he'd touched her.
“It's almost as if I repulse her.”

“
Perhaps you do.”

Elijah did his best attempt at a
snarl. “She can't possibly find me repulsive. She was about to
marry Lord Friar, for pity's sake.”

“
That doesn't say much about you then, does it?”

“
No. I suppose it doesn't.”

“
Perhaps that's for the best.”

“
For the best that my wife has more interest in winning boons
and eating cake than wanting to be intimate with me?”

The left corner of Henry's lips tilted
up. “Is that so?”

“
Never mind that. The fact is, I've married an Ice Queen, and
short of hell itself, nothing seems to warm her up.”

“
Now
that
could certainly be a point in your favor. At least she'll
never take a lover.”

“
Indeed,” Elijah forced himself to say. He hated the way his
agreement to such a stupid statement felt on his tongue. She might
not love him, but she'd positively devastate him if she took a
lover. He sighed and picked up the paper he'd set down a few
moments before. “Now about this...”