if hes wicked (23 page)

although she makes my blood run cold and I think she is wel 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 al 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 wil 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 al 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 wel 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 al over the place. Leo was an intel igent man, possibly

the most intel igent man he had ever met, but he obviously did not know anything about organization. Julian walked up to the desk, careful y 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 kil ed people, and know for a fact that he plans to kil al 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 al 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 al 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 al ies. It wil happen, though. We wil get them and we wil 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 fal 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.”

“Wel , my men have not found anything yet, but it is early days. You do not think Arthur is clever enough to have destroyed al 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 real y what I wished to talk to you about.”

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

“About how to free you of Beatrice, actual y. 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 wil make it look like a strol in the park.”

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

“Uh, there should be, but, wel , 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, wel , are you being careful not to breed a child.”

Julian stared at Leo. “Wel , no, for we are to be married and for al our difficulties in bringing my enemies to justice, I feel sure it wil happen soon.

As I said, the odds are in our favor. I wil 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.”

“Actual y, there is. A very good chance.” Leo cleared his throat. “The Wherlockes and Vaughns may have trouble holding their marriages together,

but they breed wel .”

“They breed wel ?”

“Like rabbits.”

“Bugger.”

“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 stil 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 al by himself, and that had nothing to do with making love. Having Chloe at his side al

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 al 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 col ected Anthony. She wanted a short visit with him before al 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 tal 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 smel 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 final y 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 tel 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 smal taste of what she would have to endure as a countess. There would always be some bal , 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 about 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 stil not certain I ful y 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 real y 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?”

“There is that,” she murmured and idly fiddled with the ties at the neck of her cape. “Your mother said she felt al the speculation and gossip this is

causing is best dealt within one clean slash rather than a slow, torturous bloodletting.”

“I had never realized that my mother could be so gruesome,” he drawled and laughed when her smal elbow nudged him in the side. “She is right.

That is the best way to do it. Truly. It is why I had that notice with its short explanation posted in the papers and then paraded my son and myself al around the park.”

“Stopping to speak to nearly everyone there and introduce him.”

“Exactly. Mother’s gathering this afternoon wil be very busy as everyone and their mother comes to look at this
rescued
child of an earl. The fact that he looks so much like me only adds to the al ure of the tale. Mother has even hung the portrait of me done at that age in a very prominent place, God

save me.”

Chloe laughed. “Did you have pretty hair, too?”

“Hush, impudent wench. It is the lacy child’s clothes that trouble me more.” He grinned when she laughed again. “The announcement in the paper,

signed by three lords of the realm and two wel -respected solicitors, should be enough to quiet most of the gossip that could rise concerning his

legitimacy, but a good look at the boy and my mother’s adamant belief in his right to be cal ed my heir should quiet the rest. Considering who poor

Anthony has been cursed with as a mother, it is best to make certain that there are no other slurs that might be used against him.”

“Do you think he wil always suffer for Beatrice’s crimes?”

“Most wil forget, and once the whole truth is out they wil know that she had nothing to do with him, so could not have tainted him with any of her

ways. But there are always some who like to sniff out a person’s weaknesses so that they might make themselves feel more important. Anthony wil have

to learn how to deal with such people. They are always about, I fear. I believe that when he is of an age to ful y understand what she did, he wil have a

harder time learning that it had nothing to do with who he is.”

“Aye, I fear you may be right. It wil be a hard blow when it comes, no matter what his life has been until then.” Chloe sighed as they pul ed to a halt

before the large townhouse his mother and sisters cal ed home. “I just hope I can hold to the tales already told. Everything within me wishes to tel

everyone what truly happened, not just hint at it. I want everyone to know what monsters Beatrice and Arthur are.”