Wicked Deception (9 page)

Obviously staying in the same house as
the one he had with her so long ago was out of the question. He
shrugged, not wanting to add to the man’s grief this day. He tipped
the bottle and handed it to him as they discussed all he learned
from Rudd.

“
I’m encouraged to know he
plans to kill me after he gets the list back,” Nicholas said coldly
as he looked around the shambles in his study with a sigh. “Now is
the time to worry, for he will do whatever he can to get it back.
Don’t think I haven’t thought this well in advance.”

“
I see Chumley tomorrow to
see about forging a list that will more than satisfy Rudd. We will
hire guards if we have to,” Gabriel said quietly and took the
bottle when Nicholas gave it back. “Don’t worry, he believed me.
Now you just have to act like you’re my friend again. Do you think
you can do it for others benefits?”

“
I’m doing it right
now.”

Nicholas chuckled and took the bottle
from him. Their discussion turned to Dunleavy’s successes in recent
months. Nicholas informed him of how Jaime’s stable was producing
some of the most coveted stock of horses in the country.

Gabriel was obviously pleased his
ward’s holding was recovering after being bankrupted by Thomas
Sullivan. The estate was thriving through Gabriel’s investment and
Brian O’Neil’s love of the place.

Nicholas was depressed as he looked
around. He’d known the nobles would be infuriated enough to have
his house searched. He stepped over to his safe and painstakingly
leafed through the contents to make sure everything was in
order.

He smiled when he withdrew the old
bible he found there. A quick check of it revealed the contents
were still intact, sewed inside the lining. He placed that with the
other items back and shut it.

“
We can’t stay here; you’re
right.” Nicholas looked around, feeling himself tense at the
thought of taking Gabriel up on his offer of the other residence.
He hoped Catherine didn’t feel awkward doing it. “We will take your
other residence in the meantime, and you’ll be revered as our
savior by loaning it to us. That’s an effective ice-breaker, is it
not?” He looked displeased with accepting the house, but knowing he
had a wife and five children to house, he could hardly refuse. “Is
there room for all of us?”

“
I’ll solve the matter by
taking my wards with me for now if Catherine doesn’t
object?”Gabriel offered as he saw his expression and knew it was
only his wife’s comfort that made him accept. “I’ll send Maggie and
the others over to make it ready for you.”

Nicholas nodded and Gabriel walked out
of his study to seek out his housekeeper to do just that, glad to
help them in light of how destroyed their home was.

~ ~ ~

Nicholas was writing out a lengthy note
when he returned, Gabriel saw. He busied himself walking about to
inspect the damage. He spied Brionne right away. She was up to her
adorable backside into something.

He approached the child and snatched
her up, making her squeal with such giggling he felt himself
smiling. He looked down at the child, seeing her blue eyes so like
her father’s and stiffened. The little girl reached up and touched
his hair, speaking to him with jumbled words, her face a miniature
of Nicholas’s.

He was furious but didn’t let the child
know as he balanced her on his arm. He fought the desire to go
after Nicholas and demand to know how he could foist one of his
obvious bastards off on Catherine.

He glared as he looked about, knowing
it wasn’t his place to disclose such obvious deceit. Nicholas was
no saint. It was obvious the child they adopted six months before
was from one of his other liaisons. His eyes filled with pained
regret as she struggled to get down. He put her down after he
ruffled her silky ebony curls and watched her toddle off to find
some other mischief.

The chaos in the house allowed him to
get himself under control before he said things he would regret.
Clearly Catherine had no knowledge of Nicholas’s deceit. She took
the child in unknowing of her background, he was told. Clearly she
didn’t have eyes in her head to avoid seeing the child was
Nicholas’s mirror image.

He wanted to take her aside and explain
the obvious when she appeared a short time later, looking sheepish
and obviously looking for her missing daughter. He smiled stiffly
as he approached. The sudden coolness in his gaze hadn’t escaped
her. Before she could question him, he departed with
excuses.

She heard a crash somewhere in the
salon, sighing with relief as she found her daughter amidst the
throw pillows on the floor. She bit her lip wondering how long she
dare hide the child’s paternity from Gabriel.

Nicholas left the handling of telling
Gabriel about Giles sister to her. Out of fear, she’d not seen fit
to address it. Guilt ate at her for it, but she still wept over
being separated from their son. He was being stubborn by keeping
the boy, even if it was his right.

She picked the three year-old up and
lectured her sternly as she came around the corner, spying her
husband writing intently. In this mess, he was probably drawing a
map to find anything.

~ ~ ~

Gabriel was angry as his driver moved
away from the house. Discovering Nicholas’s bastard under
Catherine’s nose was a blow. He dared not stay a moment longer or
he would have ruined what little peace he had with his best friend.
His jaw tightened as he thought of the adorable moppet, near his
son’s same age. He paused in his anger to reflect he had no right
to interfere.

Whatever secrets Nicholas kept from
Catherine now were not his business. He refused to use such
information to his own benefit. It was beneath him. He lost her and
had to concede that defeat or it would eat him alive.

It had no place in what they did now.
Nicholas needed him to get to the Duke and the others. He had to
try and focus upon that, not how her green eyes lit up at the sight
of him when he arrived.

Had he just wanted to imagine how the
flush that filled her face was for him? He cursed his weakness for
her. Never in his life had he ever loved another as much as he did
her. He would endure seeing her so happy with Nicholas, just to
spend what little time he could with her.

He was appalled to know he would use a
child to get to her heart. He grimaced, knowing it was wrong. She
would never leave her children or her husband for him. In his
heart, he knew the situation was more impossible now than when
Lillianne was alive.

Still, knowing she was meant to be his
from the time of her birth haunted him, made him see them destined
together, despite the odds that kept them apart. He stubbornly
refused to believe she could forget the love they once
shared.

Gabriel felt like an ogre in her eyes
at that moment, despite all his best intentions and reasonable
excuses. He was withholding her son because he couldn’t have her.
He continued it because he still wanted her. He looked moodily out
the window on the ride home. When would it ever stop? He felt the
tightness in his chest growing. He sat alone for a long time with
his door shut when the coach stopped at Iverleigh Manor, his eyes
wounded and lost. When would he ever be free of her?

~ ~ ~

Nicholas was helping load the wagons
with their household things with Tulley in preparation of moving
into Gabriel’s old residence. Catherine closed her eyes in anguish.
She knew her and Gabriel made love in every room in the house. She
wondered how she would escape those memories while she stayed here.
She packed her children’s things with a slight frown, remembering
the tight look on Gabriel’s face when he left. Something bothered
him before he left.

Catherine was aware of his anger even
though he’d not said anything to her. She attributed it to the
willful destruction he was looking at. She knew him well, too well.
She sat on the edge of Brionne’s bed and dropped her face in her
hands.

She quaked with a sudden desolation she
couldn’t explain. Her eyes began to blur with tears. She knew going
to stay at the house was a mistake. Telling her husband that would
only give him cause to suspect it would bother her. She knew she
didn’t dare allow herself a moment’s reflection the minute they
entered the house or she would see him everywhere she
looked.

She flushed when she thought of how
adventurous they were to enjoy each other back then. She began to
weep for it now; for it was lost. She remembered how she used to
read to him in the quiet of his room while he toyed with her hair
or how he always seemed to want to help her dress. He liked
brushing her hair as well and had always buried his face in it. She
bit her hand to keep from crying out as she was beset with the
memory of being his.

She had no right to the feelings that
made her hide in the children’s room now. She wiped away the tears
with a sniff of despair. Why could she not just let him go at last?
She loved Nicholas. Here she was blubbering like one of their
children over a man she could never have. Perhaps that was why, a
voice taunted.

Not ever being able to have Gabriel for
her own had made her want him more than anything in her life. Even
if she made her choice over a year ago, she’d not meant it in her
heart. She bit her lip, deciding she didn’t like her thoughts at
all, didn’t like the person she was to feel these things. She rose
and left the room.

~ ~ ~

Dartmouth joined his brother-in-law in
his spacious study and looked around appreciatively. Rudd’s wealth
was obvious and he had great taste. Rudd’s money helped his
dwindling fortunes after his marriage to his sister
Eunice.

He was glad Rudd never pressed the
issue to see his little sister, or he would find he’d erred and
gotten drunk one night and killed her in a fit of sadistic lust. It
was nearly five years since he wed Eunice. He was amused none
questioned his never being seen with his wife since. He’d learned
her secret when he wed her.

Her brother Francis was twenty years
older than her. When she was six years old he was taking her to his
bed. It thrilled and sickened Dartmouth as she sobbed on their
wedding night why she wasn’t chaste.

He’d begun to loathe Rudd for pawning
his despoiled little sister on him. He was married a year when he
came home from Clarice’s, the night he spied on Iverleigh and
Catherine through the peephole of the blue room.

His lust was such that he lost control
and killed his wife. Waking up to find her face bashed in had not
been pleasant. He knew Rudd would kill him if he knew the truth.
For that, he was glad he encouraged his wife to distance herself
from her brother after she confessed her secret. Eunice went as far
as writing a letter telling Francis she never wished to see him
again or she would tell all what he’d done to her. Rudd stayed away
and it kept his secret.

The ruse of sending her to Wales was
pure genius on his part. He used it as an excuse to explain his
absence when he was in the country with Lilly. He kept only a few
ignorant servants there. None ever wondered why Lady Dartmouth was
never in residence. Had it not been acceptable to live separate
lives as most nobles did in their marriages, he would have been
caught long ago.

“
Did you hear me,
Dartmouth?” Francis snapped as he realized he wasn’t listening to
him. “I was telling you that Iverleigh hasn’t seen what Van Ryker
found in Thornton’s office. He was given only the journal. I told
you killing him wouldn’t be necessary. Your promises to our dear
Countess are no longer an issue. He promised to find all of what we
seek. All he wants is his mistress back. What luck.”

“
How can you be sure he
didn’t lie? Iverleigh is no fool,” Dartmouth protested, worrying if
Lilly discovered Rudd wasn’t fulfilling her desire to see her
husband dead. It would complicate matters further.

“
The man’s been bedding her
since she came back, Dartmouth. He assures me she wants to leave
Van Ryker. It was all he could talk of. Do you think if he knew
what Van Ryker held in his possession he would not go to the
authorities by now? He’s much like his sire in his bloody honor. He
wants the woman back so badly; he doesn’t see straight. He’s
besotted; it’s rather obvious. This news should cheer you and the
others. It would’ve been far more difficult to cover Iverleigh’s
death than Seaton’s.”

“
Seaton claims he told
Iverleigh what we did. I tell you he lies!”Dartmouth persisted,
still refusing to believe what he heard.

“
He says Seaton claimed
Clarice held debts on you both, nothing else,” Francis said
irately, his face flushed with anger. “It’s obvious to me your
damned accomplice told you that so you wouldn’t kill him after poor
Nan went missing, and for no other reason. Iverleigh would have
gone to the magistrate if he knew you killed the whore, and you
know it. He knows nothing, not even what goes on in his own
brothel. I know the reason why we have so few toys to play with.
Herbert was found dead. That is why there have been no more
deliveries.”

Dartmouth glared at Lord Rudd, but had
to admit what he told him had merit. Lilly was always going on and
on about how disgustingly noble Gabriel was. He was still not
convinced, despite Rudd’s words. It wasn’t his neck that would be
stretched if he was wrong.