Wicked Deception (13 page)

“
They are just boys,
Nicholas. They don’t know what they speak of,” Gabriel told him
quietly and saw the look in Nicholas’s eyes and felt a pang of
unease. Those blue eyes met his and something in them made him
realize he suspected the truth.

“
Apparently you don’t give
them enough credit, Gabriel,” Nicholas scoffed and was rigid. “My
wife has been acting like an injured lover for weeks and now I know
why. I think the children see more than we do.”

“
Nicholas, you’re wrong in
what you’re thinking,” Gabriel lied, hating himself all the while.
“I won’t sink this low to even answer to this. It’s beneath us all
for you to let children’s insults get under your skin.”

“
My wife may not know what
she wants anymore, Gabriel. I’ve felt her indecision even if she
tries to hide it,” Nicholas mused softly and met his gaze without
flinching. “She goes through the motions, but she’s not really
there anymore. I think we both know why.”

“
You will work through it.”
Gabriel sounded encouraging despite the tightness in his chest at
his words. “Marriage isn’t easy, Nicholas. The circumstances here
make it necessary for you to allow Catherine a bit of
leeway.”

“
You would say anything for
her, Gabriel. We are alike in that way. I have lied, cheated and
killed for that woman,” Nicholas acknowledged with no bitterness.
“How long has she been coming to your bed?”

Gabriel glared at him. “This is
ridiculous! You’d accuse your wife with a house full of children
and servants running about? Really Nicholas, you must learn to
trust her.”

“
It is as I thought then,”
Nicholas noted with a sad look. “That bloody honor you wore like a
shield once has holes in it now. I don’t need to be told something
has changed. I have felt it for weeks.”

Nicholas said nothing more and took his
leave, not meeting Gabriel’s gaze. Gabriel uttered a curse and
looked out the window. He felt like the worst sort of person for
lying. Catherine was coming to his bed for weeks while the children
napped.

They could hardly keep their hands off
each other and her husband knew something was amiss. She told him
this would happen. He knew his friend had a sixth sense when it
came to Catherine and her emotions.

~ ~ ~

Catherine was nursing her son when
Nicholas arrived to their room. She looked up and smiled in her
chair by the fire, noticing at once the tight set of his jaw. He
took off his coat and tossed it across the chair, his blue eyes
detached as he sat. He eyed his son tenderly and reached out to
stroke his velvety, raven head and met her gaze
directly.

“
Did you think I wouldn’t
know you go to him because you never said it, Catherine?” he asked
softly, his blue eyes meeting hers with such sadness she swallowed
hard, her guilt obvious.

Catherine panicked at that moment,
seeing no anger in his gaze, no accusations, just sorrow there. She
met his look, hers filling with tears and tried to speak. He held
up his hand and closed his eyes.

“
Do not deny it. I have felt
it for weeks. Don’t tell me that I’m wrong,” he said in a tortured
voice as he looked at his wife, his face filled with grief. “You’re
trapped between us both. It was never fair to you at all. I did
this when I married you, before you knew everything.” He stood
then, his back rigid. “I’m leaving you, my wife. I’ll not do this
anymore. If it’s him you want, then go to him.”

“
Nicholas! Please don’t do
this,” she whispered hoarsely, her eyes filling with tears as she
rose to approach him, mindful of their son in her arms. “Don’t do
this. I love you. You’re my husband. We will try harder, my love.
We will work through it; you will see. Don’t leave me! I couldn’t
bear it!”

“
You can’t bear to be
without him either, Catherine. Everyone can see it but you,” he
growled fiercely. “I will not share you with him! I’m ending our
marriage and you’re free to be with him if you wish. I will no
longer fight the man from your past to win you. I will lose, and we
both know it,” he finished sadly and took his leave, shutting the
door behind him, leaving her feeling cold and numb.

~ ~ ~

Catherine watched as the wagons were
loaded taking all of their belongings back to their newly repaired
residence. She tried not to cry knowing her husband wasn’t going.
Nicholas was going to stay here.

She felt as if her heart was shattered
when all the children were sent ahead with Maggie and the nurses.
It was just them two at the doorway of Gabriel’s home. Nicholas
looked at her with a hollow stare filled with coldness.

She knew no amount of pleading would
change his mind. He knew she went to Gabriel’s bed. She didn’t have
to tell him she was having the affair. He didn’t demand it from
her. She felt miserable as she waited for him to say something,
knowing once she walked out the door it was over.

“
When will the matter of
Lord Rudd be finished?” she asked quietly instead, her eyes seeing
how his decision affected him. His eyes had dark rings under them
and he had an over growth of stubble upon his chin. His eyes were
like ice chips as they met hers.

“
Do not concern yourself
with that. Whatever happens changes nothing.”

”
I’m not done discussing
this, Nicholas.”

“
It is done, Catherine. I
won’t fight it anymore. You can keep the children and the house,
and I’m bloody well going back to sea,” he whispered with fury in
his eyes for the first time. “I will provide for you, so you
needn’t worry.”

“
This isn’t over by far!”
she cried and grew angrier at his continued coldness. “I won’t let
you leave me, Nicholas!”

“
You left me when you went
back to him, Catherine,” he reminded her sadly and turned on his
heel and left her at the door. She closed her eyes as she heard the
study door close, felt her breath come out in a gasp, raw pain
lashing at her insides. She went out to the coach, staring back at
the house that brought back her past with such alarming
consequences.

~ ~ ~

Nicholas woke and stretched, groaning
as the pain in his head announced a new day. He opened a bloodshot
blue eye to see the sleep-tussled woman sleeping at his side.
Disgusted to see it wasn’t the prettier of the two ladies he
charmed the night before, he eased out of the bed. He dressed with
lightening speed, determined not to listen to the woman’s shrill
voice with the pain in his head. He tiptoed out of the luxurious
townhouse he couldn’t remember arriving at the night
before.

He felt sick as he hailed a passing
hack. His stomach roiled as he gave the driver directions to his
residence. He’d not seen his wife and children for weeks. He felt
another bout of sadness and pushed it away. It was for the best. He
was tired of being married to a woman who didn’t know what she
wanted, who she wanted, or who she even was anymore.

Moving into Gabriel’s old residence
destroyed his marriage. Knowing she finally succumbed to her
feelings for Gabriel devastated him. He wasn’t angry. He had no
room to talk. He bedded Annabel a scant day after she left him
months ago. He had a different woman every night since he made her
leave with the children.

He told himself he was doing the right
thing. Every time he thought of her, he found himself reaching for
something, liquor, a woman, and lately he even went into the opium
dens to quell her image.

In a week he was to meet Lilly. He
still had not told Gabriel his wife lived. Somehow it seemed
pointless to bring Gabriel into this anymore than he already was.
With him out of the way, Gabriel and Catherine could find their way
back to one another again.

As much as it pained him, it was what
he wanted for her now. He didn’t give a damn what happened to
himself anymore. He would finish off his business with Rudd and his
cronies and he would return to sea.

He arrived back at Gabriel’s old house
and found countless messages from his wife. He tossed them aside
and found one from Tieghan. His friend spent every waking moment
the last six months searching for Elise Sinclair, or Miss Grey,
Catherine’s former maid and the one who shot Thomas
Sullivan.

Tieghan was leaving for a time. His
friend’s terse message informed him he found Elise. He didn’t
explain but said he would be out of the country for a
time.

His lips twisted as he looked out the
window, ignoring his wife’s many, desperate notes. How different it
was now than a year ago when he thought he could make her happy.
What a fool he was to think he could compete with Gabriel where her
heart was concerned. She’d tried to hide the obvious from him.
Nicholas knew in his gut something changed in his wife.

The agony of that truth made him leave
before he sank to a new low and fought over her again. He could not
win her. Gabriel finally got past the veils in her mind, unraveling
his whole world without hardly any effort. He couldn’t summon the
anger he should feel to know she betrayed him. It was inevitable
the moment they returned here. The blame was his for thinking a
woman like her could ever be happy with the likes of
him.

~ ~ ~

Catherine was miserable without
Nicholas. She knew it when she retreated to their newly refurbished
room, feeling him nowhere in the luxury he insisted upon. Her eyes
were lost as she recalled the last time she’d seen him, saying they
would talk more of ending their marriage. That was weeks ago and
she had not seen him since.

She was lonely as she went about her
day. She collected her son, taking him away from Gabriel’s
residence, not wanting to give Nicholas anything to feed off of.
She knew her movements were being watched by the Earl’s neighbors
and gossiped about.

A lot was said about Gabriel and
Nicholas in the gossip papers, she was to learn. Her husband wasn’t
shy about announcing his new status as a free man and was
documented with several different women in the weeks since he left
her.

Her heart broke again when she went to
speak with him and saw a woman fleeing his home in the early hours
of morning. She fled in tearful disillusionment. He was punishing
her for her interlude with Gabriel and she burned with it every day
that passed.

She’d not seen the Earl either,
informed by Higgins that Gabriel wasn’t in residence when she
arrived to collect her son each day. So, he too, felt the guilt. He
avoided her as she did him. This waged havoc on her now.

She spent her tears and had none left.
Her eyes narrowed. If Nicholas wanted her to fight for him, she
would. She was fairly simmering with rage to read of the infamous
bout on that Friday that all would attend.

Lord Dartmouth was commented on as the
sponsor for the Irish prize fighter named Dirty Dev. Catherine knew
she would find her husband there. She was determined to corner him.
If she had to humiliate them both by showing up to the prize fight,
she would.

Friday came quickly. She was excited as
her new maid Jenny pressed and laid out her gown for the evening.
It was a decadent gown of seawater silk, with sparkling under
layers of a paler shade of green. It was the low cut bodice of the
gown that made her swallow hard.

It reminded her of the red dress she’d
worn at Clarice’s so many years ago. Jenny proved to be a godsend
in recreating the way she’d looked that night, biting her lip as
she saw the goddess in front of her when she was done with her
hair.

She wore her mother’s jewelry and the
heart pendant Nicholas gave her and vowed she was ready to battle
her husband at last. She retrieved her gloves, cloak and reticule,
and left the room.

~ ~ ~

Gabriel was irritated with Dartmouth’s
boasting as the throng of gentleman circled the ring where the
prize fight was almost ready to start. It was a packed house at the
boxing saloon. The bets had driven the purse even higher. Dirty Dev
hadn’t arrived yet. His opponent Jack Grant was seen seething in
his corner with his trainer.

Nicholas showed up looking so dissolute
Gabriel bit his tongue to say a thing. His friend was sinking into
the pits of hell and there wasn't a thing he could do. He fished
him out of an opium den only that morning when he learned the list
Lord Rudd sought was delivered that very day.

Nicholas didn’t accuse him again. He
knew what happened between him and Catherine. He gave Gabriel no
more opportunity to lie to him. They didn’t speak of it. His friend
concentrated on the nobles he fought to bring down.

Gabriel glared as he saw his friend
making bets with Dartmouth’s man. He thought privately that
Nicholas was still under the effects of the drugs when he made an
absurd bet on Dirty Dev. He vowed the Irishman would win the bout.
Gabriel approached and glared at him.

“
You’d best take care,
Nicholas. Rudd has his list now. You shouldn’t be here,” he warned
quietly, irritated when Nicholas chuckled and his dazed, dilated
blue eyes met his.

“
I wouldn’t miss this for
anything, Gabriel. I don’t plan to die tonight and make my wife a
widow. I fear you two will have to wait a bit longer to be
together,” he said coolly, his blue eyes angry and wounded. “I mean
to see this through. Rudd will be here, as well as the others. You
can go back to bedding my wife and stay out of it!”