Temptation & Twilight (23 page)

Knowing he would not get much more out of Sussex in regards to his hasty engagement, he enquired, “Did she see him? This Orpheus?”

“No, she did not. I was hoping you might be able to BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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shed some light on the matter. Did you see Orpheus yourself? You did say you were meeting Lady Larabie last evening at the club.”

Feeling guilty, he glanced away, out the study window to the sun-filled garden. “I sent around a missive with my regrets,” he answered. “My shoulder didn’t seem up to it.” There was no reason for Sussex to learn Iain had decided to forgo a nauseating evening with Georgiana discovering all he could about Orpheus, for one spent trailing the Earl of Sheldon. His Grace had made it perfectly clear that he liked Sheldon, and worst of all, that his sister liked the man, as well.

“I trust you will consider pursuing the matter of Orpheus while I am away on my honeymoon,” Sussex mumbled, drawing Iain from his thoughts. “I know it’s poor timing to leave London with everything going on, and his deuced ability to befuddle us, but I cannot help it. I must leave with Lucy, and hopefully then our hasty marriage and the inevitable scandal that will arise out of it will quiet down, so that when I return in a few weeks the furor will be over and I may take up my place alongside you and Black. I’m afraid by staying in London I risk the chance of being seen by others. We don’t need questions right now. Plus, I would like to ensure Lucy’s safety, and I think that’s best served at my estate in Yorkshire.”

“Rest assured that I will. And if Black would tear himself away from his wife, and their bed, he might be of assistance, as well.”

Sussex grinned for the first time since they’d sat down to discuss things. “You underestimate the lure of one’s bride, I think.”

Iain groaned. “Et tu, Brute?” Shaking his head, he studied the duke, all lovelorn and distracted. “You’re not going the way of Black, are you? Besotted fool that he is.” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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“I’ve already gone. You know that. I’ve made no secret of desiring a match with Lucy. And now I have it. I won’t let anything stop it. You’ll understand one day, Sinclair, when you allow someone into your heart.” Iain shrugged, knowing that someone already resided deep within the damnable organ. “Perhaps.”

“I do have a favour to ask, Alynwick.” The seriousness of the duke’s voice caused him to look up sharply. “Yes?”

“Elizabeth. She has flatly refused to accompany Lucy and me to Yorkshire. She claims she would be nothing but a burden, and a nuisance to a newlywed couple. She won’t listen to reason, I’m afraid.” Iain had been feeling decidedly melancholy—even angry—since learning of Sussex’s impending nuptials.

Not because he disliked Lady Lucy or the married state, but because he had known that Sussex would take Elizabeth with him, and the thought of her being gone so far away was more than he could bear. Now, discovering that Elizabeth refused to go, Iain found his mood much, much lighter.

“You want me to watch over her.”

“Would you? I know you don’t get on well, but I don’t trust anyone else with her safety. Black is too busy being besotted by his wife, as you say. I need someone with a clear head. Someone who won’t be distracted.” How little Sussex knew of him. One glance at Elizabeth, and he would be completely, thoroughly distracted.

He was distracted from the topic at hand now, just thinking of how he would have every affordable chance to wear her down… To make her see him as he now was.

A man wanting forgiveness, desiring a life with her. A man who would do his damnedest to be worthy of a woman such as her.

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“You may be assured, Sussex, that I will keep Elizabeth safe.”

“I know you will. I worry, however, especially after the murder of Anastasia. I am forced to take Rosie with me. Her whelping time will be soon, and I need the ex-pertise of the breeder at my estate. Elizabeth relies on Rosie, and I rely on the dog’s acute hearing to alert us to any trouble. I can’t help but think how vulnerable Elizabeth will be here alone, with only the servants to keep her safe. They have no real understanding of how dangerous our lives have become.”

“I will keep her safe.” It was a solemn vow.

Sussex must have heard it, too, and glanced up, a mili-tant gleam in his eye. “Keep an eye on Sheldon, as well.

He’s been around two days in a row. I think it rather obvious, his infatuation with her. I don’t know the extent of Elizabeth’s interest, but I would take no risk there. I don’t know him well enough, and despite the fact I rather like him, there is something I cannot quite put my finger on.” Senses alert, Iain straightened in his chair, noting the stiffness in the duke. “What has you questioning the earl?”

Sussex had always possessed a remarkable instinct in regards to duplicity. It amazed Iain that the duke had never guessed at Iain’s, in regards to his sister. That Sussex had never discovered he’d seduced and deflowered the virginal Elizabeth, when he had always believed the sin all but tattooed across his face, left Iain oddly nervous, and guilty.

Sussex waved away Iain’s question and placed the jewelled letter opener on a leather blotter. “As I said, I cannot quite pinpoint it. He seems on the up and up, but there is something there. Intangible as it may be, it is still BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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present. I don’t think I’m wrong here, although I wish to hell I was, if for nothing but Elizabeth’s sake.” Not looking up from his polished boots, Iain mumbled,

“I followed him last night.”

Only then did he dare glance up, to see Sussex’s grey eyes narrowed and fixed firmly upon him. How much like his sister he looked, with the same coloured eyes glaring at him.

“It’s the truth of why I cried off with Georgiana last evening.”

“And what purpose did you have to follow him?”

“You are not the only one possessed of good instincts, Sussex.”

The duke relaxed a bit, settling his large frame in the leather chair, and waited for Iain to share the tale. “Well?

Did you discover anything of worth?”

“Our guts seem infallible, for his activity last evening raised more questions than answers.” Sussex pressed forward again, his expression dark.

“Explain.”

“I followed him to the museum.”

“He’s lived in the East all his life. Perhaps he had a longing to visit a decayed mummy. You know, home sickness and all that.”

Iain did not care for Sussex’s sarcasm. He was wound tightly this afternoon, and was in no mood to humour the duke. “It was well after closing time. What’s more, someone was watching for his approach, because he had hardly rapped upon the doors when they were opened, allowing him entrance.”

“Interesting.”

“He was carrying a canvas satchel.”

“I wonder what was in it?” Sussex said, already know-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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ing that Iain would have discovered the contents of the bag.

“Drawings of elevations, scrolls of them. And what is more, on one of them there was an image of a Templar cross, and beside it, most curiously, was the Cross Lorraine.”

Sussex sat back in his chair, and Iain could almost see the duke’s brain processing the information. “A coincidence, perhaps. The Templar cross is quite common. A romantic symbol that many use.”

“On sketches of elevations? That’s a stretch, isn’t it?” Sussex frowned. “I suppose, but hardly enough to condemn him.”

“There’s more. In his study, housed in a pendulum clock, was a rolled piece of parchment that was hidden beneath a false bottom.”

“You broke into the man’s house!” Iain sent the duke a look of annoyance. “I don’t do things by half measures. You know that. Of course I searched his house. But he returned before I could discover what the paper was. But it was hidden for a purpose.”

“Damn it, Alynwick, you take too many risks!”

“And you don’t? Allowing Elizabeth to be…” God, the word
courted
would just not form on his tongue “… to be visited by a man we know nothing about. A man whose appearance back in Society leaves me more than suspicious, especially since the arrival of this Orpheus, and all the other inexplicable things that have happened. Damn it, Sussex, admit it, you’ve been blinded by your desire for Lucy, and now things have gone too far.”

“
You’re
taking things too far, Alynwick.”

“We’ve not been suspicious enough.”

“Your focus should be on Lady Larabie, and getting BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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close to this Orpheus. You’re the one who came up with the damn plan, who informed us that the lady knew him personally. Orpheus is the key to the whole mystery, and it’s the lady’s assistance we need to get close to him.”

“He isn’t the entire mystery, Sussex. Have you forgotten Nigel Lasseter?”

His friend stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“Sutherland was hanging about the theatre yesterday upon my orders. I asked him to watch for Lady Larabie.

I’ve grown suspicious of the witch, and wanted him to discover all he could about her comings and goings. He did not see her, but he did discover Nigel Lasseter going into the theatre, by way of the back alley. Interesting, don’t you think, considering he was the patron who paid for Wendell Knighton’s trek to the Holy City? And now Knighton is dead…. And to enter through the back, as if he owned the place. It was not at night, when the club is in full swing, but during the afternoon….” Releasing an expletive, Sussex wiped his hands over his tired face, then tossed back his head and groaned.

“Another damn puzzle, and yet another piece we are supposed to fit in. You’re right, of course. I’ve lost my per-spective.
Damn it!
”

“Love, I suppose, is an immovable force. Even it can supersede Brethren demands and duties. Although I highly doubt our merciless fathers ever allowed the emotion to surpass their love affair with all things Brethren.” Sussex’s gaze flickered to his. There was pain in those grey depths. Naked, haunting pain. Iain couldn’t help but wonder if Sussex saw the same stark misery reflected in his own gaze. “In our fathers’ lives, nothing took precedence. It was always Brethren Guardian duties and honour that came before everything. My pain has made me foolish, so that I don’t think things through as I ought BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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to. I hope my ineptness was not the cause of Anastasia’s death.”

“I doubt you could have prevented it. I’ve sent Sutherland out today to see what he can discover about Nigel Lasseter. I’ve also—” Iain shuddered at the memory

“—sent a missive around to Lady Larabie, who will receive me tonight. Leave it to me, Sussex. Enjoy your new bride for the next few weeks, and when you return I shall have news for you.”

“You will keep your word in regards to Elizabeth?”

“You have it. I will be her constant shadow. No harm will come to her, I vow it.”

“Adrian!”
a high-pitched, breathless voice called from the hall. “I must see you. This instant.” Ridiculously, Iain felt his heart jolt, then run wild at the sound of Elizabeth’s exclamation. Shifting his weight in the chair, he was suddenly conscious of the velvet pouch hidden in his breast pocket. He’d nearly forgotten about the necklace he’d purchased for her that morning, and the daydreams he had of placing it around her throat. Now they were back, those intimate, sensual images, and he waited, barely breathing, to watch her make her grand entrance.

What a bloody hopeless sap he’d become.

The door opened, and there she was. Iain sucked in his breath at the sight of her, wind in her sails as she breezed into Sussex’s study on the arm of a footman. Panting and waddling, Rosie struggled to keep up with her mistress.

Elizabeth’s cheeks were pink, her pure skin glowing in the sunlight that streamed through the window. Her voluptuous curves were encased in a dark blue, form-fitting coat edged in black bear fur, her delicate hands covered in black kid leather. In one hand she carried a BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012

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book, the oxblood-coloured leather spine of which was cracked and peeling with age.

Atop her head she wore a jaunty little hat with blue and black roses, and a beguiling black veil that only added to the sensual mystique of Elizabeth York. Angel on the outside, succubus on the inside. Damn it, how the demon within him wanted her with a ruthless, dangerous need that completely consumed him.

Before he faced death on Grantham Field, Iain had been able to bury that need. To use the savage control and discipline his father had made him acquire to bury his feelings for Elizabeth where they could never be found, or disturb him. But something had changed that night. Like Pandora’s box, the long-ignored feelings had sprung free from their hiding place, bringing chaos and fury, and a sickness that clung to him. Every thought, every decision was made with a purpose to reunite him with Elizabeth.

For the past few days he’d felt as though every breath he took was for her. Always her.
Only her.

And now here she was, robbing him of breath and speech, and the brutal self-control that hid everything he was. Elizabeth had done this, taken a wild, snarling wolf and turned him into a damnable, drooling lapdog!

Before, the very idea of allowing himself to fall so easily, to be vulnerable to another human being, would have sent him lashing out, reeling against feeling anything. Surprisingly, he did not feel angered by the fact that Elizabeth had softened his hard edges, but rather he was grateful for it. It had been a long time since he’d allowed himself a modicum of truth in regards to his feelings, but in this, he had to be honest. He had never stopped caring about Lizzy and her well-being. Had never stopped desiring her. Had always loved her, knowing she BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012