Authors: Hannah Howell
Julian was just climbing back into bed when someone rapped on the door. Assuming that it was either Todd or Wynn with his breakfast, he bid
them enter as he settled himself more comfortably in bed. He was surprised when Chloe walked in, especial y when he saw that there were two plates on
the tray she carried.
“You mean to join me for breakfast?” he asked.
“Wel , you need to eat and so do I,” she answered. “Leo is out, Anthony is walking in the park with Dilys, and I need to talk to you about something
we discovered whilst at the Paxtons’. Do you wish to have your meal here or in the bed?”
“At the table,” he replied as he climbed out of bed.
Chloe watched as he walked over to the table. His steps were a little slow, but steady, and a vast improvement over the day before. He was
improving rapidly. She found her gaze fixed upon his bare feet, long, slender feet with surprisingly long toes. The sight made her al too aware of the fact that beneath the heavy wool robe he wore Julian was probably naked. At best he wore no more than a thin linen nightshirt. The mere thought of how much
more of him she would see if she slipped off his robe made Chloe suddenly feel very warm. Since she had never before been interested in what a man
looked like without his clothes, she was puzzled by her reaction. She forced her thoughts to sitting down at the table so that he would also sit and began to set out their food.
“So, what did you discover at the Paxtons’?” Julian asked after a few moments had passed while they both ate, devouring the food that tasted
better when hot.
“Aside from bad conversation and even worse food?” she murmured as she spread a thick coat of honey over her bread.
“That was no great discovery. The Paxtons are wel known for both.”
“And yet they continue to have gatherings and a lot of people continue to attend.”
“One must be seen.”
“Of course. Wel , a great many were
seen
at the Paxtons last night. So many that I felt a need to get away from them al . When a room is fil ed to
bursting with people, not only does one become very warm, but one quickly discovers how few people bathe with any regularity.”
Julian laughed and nodded. “A lot of people stil consider regular bathing bad for one’s health. Now, tel me why you are hesitating to tel me what
you have discovered. That is why you are sharing this meal with me, is it not? To tel me what you discovered? Or have you changed your mind?”
Chloe found it a little disturbing that he could so easily guess that she was avoiding something. She real y dreaded tel ing him even more news
that revealed the betrayal and treachery of his wife and his uncle. Julian had accepted the truth about them, but that did not mean he was ready to hear
more ugliness. She wished she had left this discussion to Leo, but he was busy trying to thwart Arthur’s newest plot and she had agreed to be the one to
tel Julian this latest news. It was time to cease being so cowardly and just spit it out.
She clasped her hands in her lap and recited every word she had overheard and how she had come to be where she was when she overheard the
conversation. In fact, she related the events of the evening from the moment she had walked away from Lord Tennant and his boasts about how many
birds he had shot out of the Scottish sky to the moment Leo had found her in the Paxtons’ library. Chloe was relieved that Julian just kept eating as she
talked and hoped that meant he was not taking this latest news too hard.
“Did Leo find out who this Conrad is?” asked Julian when she was done. “I have a few suspects, but I am curious as to who he thinks it might be.”
“He did not tel me who he thought it was. Leo is always very reluctant to voice any suspicion he has. He left me here last evening and immediately
disappeared with Edgar. I saw him briefly about two hours ago. He said he would speak to you later. He hopes later wil be at the noon meal. Who do you
think it is?”
“Sir Conrad Bartleby.” Julian took a sip of the rich coffee the Wherlockes served and decided he might be growing to like the brew a little too
much. “This talk of a lover cal ed George does not seem right, however.”
“
Young
George,” she muttered, stil troubled by that repeated designation.
“The implications of that seem even less right concerning the man I am thinking of. He is a much-respected doctor.” Julian sighed. “Unfortunately,
a lot of things Conrad does could make people readily believe Arthur’s slander. Yet, if Conrad has nothing to hide, why would he do what Arthur asked of
him?”
“Because until now, Conrad could not think of anything worse than the truth becoming common knowledge.”
The sound of Leo’s voice startled Chloe, for she had not heard him enter the room. She was pleased to see that Julian looked equal y surprised.
“Whatever could be worse than being thought of as a man who abuses young boys?” she asked as Leo stole her empty cup and poured himself some
coffee from the pot on the table.
“Not much, actual y. He was stil trying to think of some way to escape the noose Arthur had slipped around his neck when Arthur tightened it.
When I started out for Conrad’s home this morning, Conrad was already deciding that he could no longer keep the secret, not if it meant betraying al he
believed in and being marked as a lover of young boys.”
“Leo, what is the secret?” Chloe demanded a little impatiently.
“This can go no further,” Leo said and both Chloe and Julian nodded. “Young George is Conrad’s sister’s bastard. His sister was only thirteen
when she was raped by her own uncle, by Conrad’s uncle. Fortunately, the man is not blood related, only an uncle through marriage. His sister went to
Ireland to stay with an aunt while she carried the babe that resulted from the rape. She has since married and begun a family there. She does not even
want to see George.”
“How sad for the boy,” whispered Chloe. “Yet I do not understand why Conrad would hold fast to the secret of a bastard child at the risk of his own
honor and life. And just how did you find this out so quickly?”
“As I said, Conrad had already decided he had to do something, and even as I was leaving to go see him, he was coming to see me. We met
within a few steps of the house and returned here to my office. Together we have devised a plausible explanation for George, one that wil cause only a
faint and fleeting
tsk, tsk.
In truth, Conrad had already prepared most of the story that wil be told.”
“Which wil enrage Arthur,” said Julian. “He does not like to lose.”
“That is why Conrad is, at this very moment, preparing himself and George for a long visit to my estates in Yorkshire,” said Leo.
“Just what did Arthur want him to do?”
“Conrad works for the Home Office, which is but one of the reasons why he thought of coming to me with his troubles. It is only occasional work,
but he holds a place of trust. Arthur wanted him to get him some information. It appears that your uncle may wel be actively dabbling in treason yet again.”
Julian cursed, and then absently mumbled an apology to Chloe. “Considering the il wind blowing through France at the moment, I am sure there
wil soon be al manner of opportunities for the man.”
“The opportunities are always there, my good man. Every government col ects as much information as they can on every other government.”
“On that cheerful thought, I wil leave you gentlemen to hammer out this latest tangle,” said Chloe as she stood, placed al the plates back on the
tray, and asked, “More coffee? I could have some sent up to you.”
“Nay, we are fine,” Leo replied after exchanging a glance with Julian. The moment Chloe left, Leo took her seat. “As I said, Conrad is wel
respected at the Home Office, and his medical skil s have given him access to some very private information on some very important people.”
“And my uncle wanted some of that private information so that he could sink his talons into yet another poor fool.” Julian cursed a little more clearly
and freely now that Chloe was not in the room. “Has Arthur smeared Conrad’s good name yet?”
“Nay, and he wil not be able to do so now. Word is already spreading, in the form of a delicious tidbit of gossip, that Conrad has taken George to
the country and that the boy is Conrad’s own bastard child.”
“Wil that not cause him trouble with his newly betrothed bride?”
“Conrad has already spoken with the woman and—would you believe?—she was the one who told him to claim the child as his own. She told him
that whispers of some indiscretion he had years ago would not trouble or shame her and that the tragedy that had befal en his sister had to be kept quiet.
She told him that what little embarrassment she might suffer, what little gossip she might hear, was nothing in comparison to what his sister had already
suffered and would suffer al over again if the truth were known. A good woman.”
“It would seem so.”
Julian could not ful y hide his doubt that such a creature existed, yet he could find no gain in such a solution for the woman. Then he thought of
Chloe, of al she had done for him and his son without asking anything in return, and felt some of his bitter mistrust of women shake a little on its
foundation. He knew it was grossly unfair to think al women were like Beatrice once one dug beneath their outer softness and beauty, but that knowledge
did not do much to dim the mistrust that had lodged itself so deeply into his heart. It was easier to think of Chloe as some miraculous exception to the rule.
“Did Conrad say what else he had been forced to do for Arthur? From what Chloe overheard, there was the strong implication that he had done
other things.”
“He had been forced to do a few things, but he found ways to work around that. The man was truly stunned by Arthur’s threats and by his requests.
Conrad did his best to do as he was told, yet not do it. One thing asked of him was to dose your aunt so that your uncle could begin a rumor that she was
weak in her mind.” Leo smiled. “Conrad and my kinsmen have done just enough to make Arthur believe his plan for your aunt is going forward. As he told
me, the moment he realized who the footmen at your aunt’s were, he knew I was on watch. That was another reason why he chose to seek me out today.
Conrad is not a man who lies wel or has a mind for deceit, so it took him some time to plot an escape from Arthur’s grasp, one that would hurt the least
number of people.”
“He wil be safe at your estate?”
“Very. He wil also make a very good witness for us when and if the time comes that we need one. Even better he knows when to be silent.”
“Thank God. At last we make a step forward.” Julian suddenly realized how those words might sound like criticism to a man who had spent the last
three years trying to catch Arthur Kenwood in his own web of lies. “I beg your pardon. You have worked so hard for me, for a man you did not even know,
and I—”
“Have spoken naught but the truth.
Finally
we have a witness, one who wil talk and one who wil be believed.” Leo shrugged. “Such work as I do is
often very slow and sometimes very dul .”
“But that work helps our country. And that work led us here.”
“True, and now I pray that work, and al we struggle to achieve now, wil put an end to your uncle’s treason as wel as his plots against you.”
Chloe smiled at the young man who tossed a bal for Anthony. Her cousin Modred did not leave his ducal seat very often. It was both a pleasure
and a surprise to see him in London. Since she rarely managed a trip to the family seat in Elderwood, their visits were too few. After Dilys took Anthony
inside for his afternoon rest, Chloe patted the open space on the bench she sat on, and Modred did not hesitate to accept her silent invitation.
“It is so good to see you,” she said. “Are you staying in London long?”
“Nay. You know that I can only bear it for a few days. This is my last day here and then I return to the shelter and peace of Elderwood.”
“It was better this time, though. Was it not?”
“You mean, did I end up curled in a corner and weeping? Nay.” He laughed softly when Chloe lightly punched him on the arm. “It slowly, ever so
slowly, grows better. Dob’s lessons are helping. It takes a great deal of strength to keep my wal s up and strong, but I am gaining that strength. I do not believe that even if I learn how to completely shut out the world, I wil ever like this place, however.”
“I am not so very fond of it myself.” Chloe grimaced. “The noise and the smel can wear upon one’s spirit.” She studied Modred for a moment,
thinking yet again what an extraordinarily beautiful man he was and yet how terribly lonely his gift made him. “I doubt I shal ever return here once this
trouble with the Kenwoods is settled.”
“Because when it is settled, you wil lose that little boy.”
That hard truth felt like a stab to the heart, and her eyes stung with the tears she refused to shed. “He was never mine to keep, Modred.”
Modred put his arm around her and Chloe leaned against him. She tried to find comfort in his silent sympathy, but there was little to be found.
Every step closer to making Arthur and Beatrice pay for their many crimes was one step closer to losing Anthony. That knowledge caused a hurt she
doubted she would ever be free of.
“Lord Kenwood has named Leo and me Anthony’s godparents,” she said. “I wil stil be able to see the boy from time to time, stil have some part
in his life.”
“And you wil see Lord Kenwood as wel . Wil that not be difficult for you?”
Chloe pul ed back a little and scowled at her cousin. “I thought you said you could not hear my thoughts or feel what I feel. You said I had a very