Trial by Desire (16 page)

That harsh voice echoed in the marble entry as Kate entered the manor. She had stared at Champion for a few minutes after her husband had left her, and then, confused and heartsick, had returned home. Now, she paused on the threshold, her eyes still adjusting to the dark of the interior, before she located Harcroft. He stood in the comparative shadow of the hallway, watching her. His expression was shrouded in darkness. Then he walked forward and the light caught his features. A half-mocking smile curved his lips.

Kate’s silk stockings were still damp about her ankles where the grass had brushed her feet. He looked her over; instinctively, she pulled up the black stole that she’d looped around her arms, covering herself.

He had changed into soft slippers and loose trousers. Smoke curled from the pipe he held in one hand—he must have just come in off the verandah—and he put his other hand up and leaned, negligently, against the wall. It would be foolish to draw back in fear, as she wished; it was doubly foolish to wish her husband present, to step between them.

But Ned wasn’t here. He’d walked away from her again.

Kate took a deep breath. Harcroft
couldn’t
know what she was doing. He couldn’t possibly have any idea. She’d do best to keep up her ruse.

“Good heavens, my lord,” she said warmly. “However did you guess? Was it the wet shoes? Or the damp hem of my gown?” She tried to keep her smile friendly; it was like trying to smile at an Egyptian crocodile without noticing the sharpness of its teeth.

Harcroft took a step toward her.

“Perhaps the hour of the day, just before supper.” She reluctantly pulled the stole from her shoulders and folded it; the action gave her an excuse to step away and set the garment down on a table. “Whatever it was, you
must
tell me how it is you figured out that I was just about to change my clothing. I had thought to wear my blue satin tonight. Do you think my mother’s pearl necklace would suit? Now, if you’ll pardon me—”

“Pardon?” He spoke in a low growl. “There is no pardon for what you’ve done.”

She stared at him, feigning blankness. “You feel strongly about the pearls, then.”

“You think yourself very clever, don’t you? All those backhanded comments, every last word spoken in front of the group. I haven’t forgotten a word of them, you witless woman.”

Kate let her eyes widen in shock. “Oh, dear. How inexcusably rude you are being, Harcroft. I know your delicate emotions are overset by recent events, but I must insist that in my own home, you treat me with respect.”

If he heard her, he didn’t acknowledge it. “No doubt you talked to my wife about marital affairs that ought to
stay between husband and wife. No doubt she offered you her own female version of events, calculated in typical feminine fashion to make me appear as awful as possible.” He spat the words
female
and
feminine
as if they were the foulest curses imaginable.

If he thought she’d restricted herself only to
talk,
he really hadn’t the faintest idea what she’d done.

Still, Kate blushed. “Ooh.” She let her eyes drop. “You mean…you knew about that? But how humiliating for you. And no wonder you are rude. All married ladies talk about the marital bed. How else are we to have a point of comparison? Infidelity is gauche. One must rely upon gossip instead.”

“Gossip about the marital bed? But I was speaking of—”

“If you must know,” Kate continued, “it happened years ago. Louisa was curious, and I had questions. We described our respective experiences and asked for advice. When it was Louisa’s turn, it was Lady Moncrieff who made the indelicate comparison to an undersized carrot. I never mentioned it. I
promise
you.”

That froze him in his spot. He licked his lips carefully, and then looked around, as if to ascertain that nobody else had heard. “An—an
undersized
carrot?”

“I would never have participated in such an indelicate conversation, I assure you. A lady should not speak about a gentleman’s vegetables. But you are entirely right to reprimand me, my lord. I sincerely apologize for listening. Sometimes, when ladies get in very large groups, our feminine nature takes over. And we do say some indiscreet things.”

“A
very large
group of ladies had a discussion about…about…”

All his bravado, all that masculine intent, had shriveled up—smaller than carrot size, Kate judged. He looked about the entry wildly, as if expecting a bevy of ladies to leap from the woodwork, all laughing at him.

“Don’t look so abashed. We only spoke of vegetables for a few minutes. I’m positive nobody else recalls the conversation.”

He looked slightly mollified.

“After all,” Kate mused on, “
that
comparison was rather eclipsed by Lady Lannister’s comment about a maid—”

“A
maid!
”

“—beating laundry against a metal washboard.”

He had nothing to say to that. His mouth gaped. He stepped back. “It wasn’t—no—have
all
the ladies been thinking that, all these years, when they see me?”

“Thinking what? About a very tiny root vegetable?” Kate held up her thumb and forefinger, slightly more than an inch apart. Harcroft blanched.

“No,” Kate said, imbuing her voice with all the reassurance she felt. “Not at all.”

He let out a breath.

“There were other descriptions,” she said cheerily. “All equally memorable.”

He stared, appalled, at the inch-and-a-half gap between her fingers. “Well. This is what you’ve done with your…groundless speculation. You helped lay the groundwork for a good woman—an
obedient
woman—to question
her marriage. You raised doubts in her, about her lawful husband. And no doubt it was the uncertainty that
you
engendered that fevered her mind.” This track, apparently, took his mind off vegetables. Once removed from the horrifing thought of his inadequacy, he remembered his tirade. “You women, with your disgusting analogies—
you
caused her to forsake me.”

“Analogies! Oh, not at all, sir! They were more in the nature of metaphors.”

He was still underestimating her, and inside, Kate felt faint with relief. He imagined only that she’d encouraged Louisa’s complaints. If he knew that Kate had planned every step of the journey that had stolen his wife from her home in broad daylight, he would have used a stronger word than
disgusting.

“Stop looking at me, for God’s sake,” he snapped. “That’s just—it’s just
obscene.
”

What was truly obscene was what he’d done to his wife. But Kate couldn’t let Harcroft suspect she was capable of actual cogitation—not that he was likely to attribute such a thing to a woman.

“Harcroft, I know you’re upset. But do try to see reason. I never participated in that conversation. You and I have perhaps not been the best of friends, but I’m Louisa’s friend. I want to help her.” All true; she
hadn’t
participated in the conversation. At the time, she’d been laughing too hard.

He glanced up at her, warily. But before he could respond, footsteps sounded in the hallway behind them.

“Harcroft?” Lord Blakely appeared behind the man. “Good. I’ve been looking for you. In the latest dispatch
from London, there’s some rather interesting news. White has uncovered a woman—a nursemaid—who was hired from her home in Chelsea and spirited away.”

Harcroft looked down at Kate, a confused look on his face. “Chelsea? But I was so sure…” He trailed off. “I thought—well. Never mind.”

Kate couldn’t smile now, or they might wonder. And Kate could hardly disclose that she’d hired a nursemaid and a parlor maid answering to Louisa’s description, to take a paid tour of the Peak district. A nice bit of misdirection; now, if only the men would oblige her by being otherwise directed.

“It’s a very interesting report,” Lord Blakely repeated, “and we must decide what to do about it.” He turned back down the corridor.

Harcroft cast one glance backward at Kate. “I apologize,” Kate said in a low voice. “The laundry maid comparison was most unfair. I should never have repeated it.”

He nodded, jerkily, once. “Apology accepted.”

Kate held her tongue until the two men left, until their steps receded down the polished corridor and a door closed softly on their conference.

“A most unfair comparison,” she said to the empty hall. “After all, a scullery maid beats her laundry for longer than two minutes.”

“W
HAT DO WE DO NOW
? Do Jenny and I go to Chelsea, while you stay here, Harcroft?”

As his cousin spoke, Ned shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The council had convened fifteen minutes prior,
right after Ned had come in from the field. Jenny, Harcroft and Gareth had all taken places at the long wooden table.

Notably missing from the conversation was Ned’s own wife. Harcroft hadn’t spoken of inviting her, and given what Ned now knew, he was happier not to have her present.

Across the table from him, Jenny shifted on her seat, her lips pressing together. She glanced down the table where Harcroft sat. Harcroft was—
had been
—Ned’s friend, not Jenny’s and Gareth’s. Ned had made the introduction. At his request, Harcroft had welcomed Gareth and his new wife into polite society. What might otherwise have been a difficult matter for them had turned into a few months of discomfort, forgotten once the gossip had been eclipsed by the newest scandal. Still, for that, Jenny was
obligated
to Harcroft, and no doubt thought her assistance on this matter would even out that old score.

But it was just obligation.

And perhaps that was why Jenny shook her head. “Gareth,” she said quietly, “it has been several days. If we venture into Chelsea…”

In front of them, papers lay piled. Reports from Gareth’s man of business were stacked neatly to the side of Harcroft’s map, complete with its prickle of straight-pins.

Gareth glanced at her. He had a more rigid sense of duty and obligation, and naturally, the thought that he might shirk either would not sit well with him.

“Someone has to go to Chelsea,” Gareth said. “Someone we can trust.”

Harcroft nodded.

Jenny’s hands played along the tabletop, and she said nothing.

She didn’t need to complete her thoughts—at least, not to Ned. Some women of the
ton
would never balk at leaving their young children to a nursemaid for weeks on end. But Jenny had been abandoned by her own mother, and even a hint of doing the same would doubtless bring up her hackles. A few weeks—with her first child just over a year old—would not have sat well with her.

“I could go on alone,” Gareth offered. He bit his lip. “But making people comfortable enough to divulge details is not precisely one of my strengths.”

If Ned were to talk of honor and obligation—and true affection—a great deal of his lay here. He owed Jenny for her long-ago friendship. He owed Gareth for tugging him out of his own youthful mistakes. And he loved them both, and could not countenance sending them off to chase down wild poultry, when he knew precisely how futile the hunt would be.

“Are we truly worried about a little thing like a few weeks’ absence, when my wife’s well-being might be at stake?” Harcroft demanded.

Jenny looked away once more.

Oh, yes. And there was the fact that Ned couldn’t blurt out the truth with Harcroft close by. He’d gotten his cousin and his wife entangled with the earl; it was his responsibility to untwine them. If he could arrange this, nobody would ever be able to say he was useless again. Least of all himself.

“You’re quite right, Harcroft,” Ned heard himself say.
All three turned to him—Jenny, Gareth and the earl himself. “This matter is too important to bungle. Harcroft,
you
should go to Chelsea.” He turned to his cousin. “The two of you should return to Blakely manor—it’s closer to London, and it’s centrally located. That way, if any new information is discovered, you could easily move on to where you are needed.”

Harcroft paused contemplatively, then shook his head. “No good. I have to stay here, to finish the canvas of the district. If that woman we heard of on that first day turned out to be Louisa, we might lose her trail. I can’t risk that.”

“I spent my summers here when I was younger. I know the residents. And—” Ned felt a little dirty, but under these circumstances, the lie was better than the truth coming out “—you know you can trust me to pursue
all
your interests.”

Jenny’s eyes narrowed as Ned spoke, and he looked away from her to contemplate the pins on the map. He wasn’t any good at lying to Jenny—he never had been. Jenny was damnably observant. And he could
not
have this conversation with her—at least not with Harcroft looking on. But all he had to do was convince Harcroft.

So he added the coup de grâce. “And besides, Harcroft, you know Lady Blakely will be distracted by her own feminine concerns. This matter needs the best attention that you can give.”

Even Gareth raised his head at that phenomenal stinker of a falsehood.

“Ned, are you trying to goad me into acting?” Jenny’s voice had taken on a dangerous note.

“Take me to task later.” He spoke to Jenny, but looked at Harcroft still.

Harcroft met his gaze. One benefit of the man having no sense of humor was that he had little sense of sarcasm, either. He showed no sign that he heard anything amiss in Ned’s treasonous speech. Finally, he gave a short, sharp nod. And like that, there was nothing more to do but divide the tasks, and try not to let the relief he felt show. Gareth left the room to order the packing to start. Jenny sat, stiff and silent, throughout the remainder of the conversation. Ned felt her eyes on him.

“Ha.” Harcroft rubbed his hands bitterly as he watched the man leave.

The room wasn’t cold, but Ned felt a chilling prickle under his collar.

Harcroft leaned close anyway and whispered, “Watch your wife, Ned. I know you don’t want to hear my warnings. But I’ve talked to the servants. She’s gone on walks—long walks—twice in the last week. And before any of us arrived, she spent a night away from the house.”