A Scandalous Past (Regency Romance, Book 4) (31 page)

Brendan glowered at her brother, but spoke
very softly to her, “Allow me to show you to your suite of rooms,
love. We can talk there. Alone.”

She felt sick. Whatever this was, it was
truly awful. She nodded, clutching his arm tighter, wishing they’d
never left Scotland, wishing the real world hadn’t come crashing
back in on them. Her family. Brendan’s sister. Whatever
this
was.

Her mind was numb, searching for possible
scenarios, as he escorted her down the corridor, around a corner,
and up a flight of stairs. She had no idea where she was going and
doubted she’d remember her way back at the end of this. Jaw
clenched, Brendan said nothing, and she had the feeling he was
trying to find the best way to tell her something dreadful. All of
it making her much more anxious.

Finally they stopped in front of a large oak
door and Brendan pushed it open. “Mrs. Webb has apparently been
working tirelessly on getting your rooms in order ever since my
instructions arrived.”

She took no note of the room other than the
fact that it was yellow, as she was too upset to focus on anything
in particular. “Mrs. Webb?”

He smiled sadly. “Our housekeeper. I’m sorry
my plans fell apart at the seams. I’d intended for you to meet the
staff, tour the estate, but…”

“My family,” she responded quietly. Glad as
she was to see Tristan, she wished none of them had come. “Brendan,
what is going on between you and Greg? The two of you looked ready
to tear each other apart. That is not like my brother at all.”

“I’m afraid Lord Avery and I see many things
differently.” He then grumbled something that sounded like, “And he
seems to make a habit of taking my wives away from me.”

Though she must have misheard him. “You’re
not making any sense, Brendan.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed the
top of her head. “I don’t want to lose you.”

There was no danger of that. They were
married. Their marriage was well and thoroughly consummated. They
couldn’t even get an annulment if they wanted it—which she
wholeheartedly did not. “My place is with you. What has you so
upset?”

His hold tightened around her and he his
voice shook, “I’m at a loss as to how to tell you this. Which is
ridiculous. I had the entire trip to Scotland to do so. I just
didn’t think it would turn out like this.”

It was worse than she thought. He’d never
shied away from telling her anything. Cordie pulled back and looked
him in the eyes. His twilight gaze was more intense than she could
ever remember. “Please, you’re worrying me.”

“I’ve never spoken these words aloud,
Cordie. Give me a minute.”

She looked around her room and spotted two
chintz chairs near a large window. “Perhaps we should sit.”

He nodded and followed her to the chairs,
sinking into his after she took her seat. “I’ve been… Well, my
mother… Marina found…”

“Brendan, you know
my
darkest secret.
You’re my husband. You can tell me anything.”

He sat forward in his seat, grasping her
hands in his, a desperate look across his face. “You do believe I
love you?”

She nodded. “And I love you, too.”

Brendan closed his eyes. “After my mother
died, Marina went through her belongings…”

Cordie patiently waited for more. This had
to do with his mother and Marina, but not them. Whatever it was,
they’d find a way to sort it out.

“It was stupid, foolish of me.
I
should have done the chore.”

“I’m sure you were grieving.”

“I’ve grieved a lot more over the last seven
years,” he grumbled.

“Why?” she asked quietly.

He pierced her with a pained look. “Mother
was a traitor, Cordie. A spy for the French. I didn’t know. Marina
found some letters, correspondence she’d saved from her contacts in
Paris. What they wanted from her. Thanking her for supplying other
information. Things of that nature.”

Cordie couldn’t stop her mouth from falling
open. A traitor? A spy for the French? She couldn’t imagine such a
thing. Not after the countless soldiers who’d died fighting on the
continent. Not after the thousands who’d been injured. Not after
Russell and Tristan had both risked their lives in the war. This
was why Greg thought she’d want to leave her husband.

Though apparently, her oldest brother didn’t
know her well at all.  She’d never just abandon her husband.
Especially as he’d done nothing wrong.

Brendan wasn’t a spy. He didn’t even have to
tell her, for her to know the truth. She knew him. He was
honorable, noble. “You’re innocent.”

He rubbed his brow. “
I
took her to
France, Cordie. Her and my sisters, time and again, to visit
family. In the eyes of the crown, I’d be just as culpable.”

That was ridiculous. He couldn’t be
responsible for something he didn’t know about. She shook her head.
“Don’t say that.”

“It’s with a heavy heart that I do so. I am
so sorry to have attached your name to mine—”

“How dare you?” Cordie interrupted. “Brendan
Reese, I am happy to be your wife, and I would not want it any
other way. I can’t believe that you do.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” He stood
and began to pace the room. “I’d just hoped to have this resolved
before we married, or shortly thereafter.”

What did their marriage have to do with any
of this? “How so?” she asked with a frown.

Brendan stopped mid-pace, his twilight eyes
boring into hers. For the longest time, she thought he wouldn’t
speak at all. Then he took a deep breath. “I believe your family is
in possession of the letters. I think Marina hid them somewhere at
Rufford Hall.”

Cordie gaped at him. “Rufford Hall?” Her
stomach dropped and she felt the room start to spin. “That’s why
you courted me,” she whispered, realization setting in. “That’s why
you married me.”

“No!” he hissed, rushing to her side. “You
can’t believe that. Tell me you don’t.”

She didn’t want to believe that. But somehow
it made sense. Why he’d suddenly been interested in her. Why he’d
insisted on courting her, even when she fought him every step of
the way.

Brendan knelt at her feet. “Cordie, tell me
you don’t believe that.”

She shook her head, unable to find her
voice.

He squeezed her hands, begging her with his
eyes. “I fell in love with you, Cordie. With your spirit and love
of life. Your blind loyalty and devotion to those you love. Your
beguiling green eyes and sharp tongue. You take my breath away
every time I look at you. From the very first, you captured my
heart. Please tell me you know that.”

She didn’t realize she was crying until
Brendan brushed away her tears.  “Why do you think my family
has the letters?” she asked so softly she could barely hear
herself.

Brendan wrapped his arms around her. “Forget
the letters, Cordie. We’ll deal with them later. Do you know that I
love you?”

Ten minutes ago she did, and she wanted to
believe him now. A memory of him smoothly lying to her mother about
looking for a book on Scandinavia flashed in her mind. At the time,
she’d been astounded that he could recover so deftly from their
kiss and innocently converse with her mother.

He loved his family fiercely. She’d seen
that first hand with Lady Rosamund this afternoon. Certainly he
wouldn’t hesitate to marry her in order to protect the ones he
loved.

It would be in his best interest for her to
believe he loved her. If he wanted his letters, he would need her
support in dealing with her family. Especially as Greg didn’t seem
willing to give them to him. Well, that was ridiculous. They
belonged to him. Greg shouldn’t withhold them. “Brendan, please let
me go.”

His arms fell from her, and he looked as if
she’d punched him. “Cordie.”

She stepped around him. “If you need your
letters, I’ll make sure Greg gives them to you.” Focusing on the
task at hand would keep her mind off her breaking heart.

He called out just as she reached the door,
“Wait!”

Cordie’s heart leapt and she turned to face
him. “Yes?”

“He doesn’t think he has them. He doesn’t
know what’s in them.”

Cordie closed her eyes, willing her heart
not to ache. “We’ll have to tell him, Brendan. With the animosity
between the two of you, if he finds them, he’ll read them anyway. I
don’t believe he’ll want to hurt me anymore than I already am. Greg
can be trusted.”

Her husband snorted at that.

“Despite his distance, my brother does love
me. He wouldn’t do anything with your letters, because it would
reflect badly on me. I suppose your choice of wife was wise after
all.”

Before he could utter a protest, she quit
the room.

Cordie smoothed her skirts back in place,
hoping that none of her brothers noticed how upset she was. Over
the years she’d had lots of practice in disguising her feelings,
this was just more of the same.  She stepped inside Bayhurst
Court’s blue parlor with a fraudulent smile plastered across her
face.

Russell and Tristan were involved in some
deep conversation, barely noticing her arrival, but Gregory’s brow
was furrowed and his green eyes followed her into the room. Cordie
swallowed, gathering her strength. “Greg, may I have a word with
you?”

She didn’t particularly want to have this
conversation in front of Russell and Tristan. It didn’t seem wise
to discuss her late mother-in-law’s treasonous activities in front
of soldiers who’d recently returned from the front lines, brothers
or not. Though Tris would forgive her anything, she’d really rather
not put him in that position.

Gregory inclined his head. “Of course.”

He followed her out to the corridor and
Cordie wished she knew the layout of her house. “How long have you
been here?”

“A few days. Are you all right? Do you want
me to take you back to Rufford Hall?”

She shook her head. “Do you have any idea
where another parlor is? I’m sadly unfamiliar with my own
home.”

“This isn’t your home, Cordie,” he said with
a frown as he led her down the corridor into an empty room, done
mostly in white. He shut the door behind them. “Did he tell you the
truth about these letters he’s after?”

Cordie nodded. “I need you to find them,
Greg. Clayworth believes they’re at Rufford Hall for whatever
reason. It is imperative.”

“Whatever it is he’s done, you don’t have to
stay here. I may not be as well connected as the earl, but—”

She held up her hand, silencing her brother.
“He’s my husband, Greg, no matter how we arrived at this point. And
as my brother, I need your help. I don’t know why Marina would hide
these letters at Rufford Hall, or even where—but retrieving them is
most urgent.”

“Why? After all these years?”

Cordie choked back a sob. “He’s been looking
for them all this time. If someone gets their hands on them—”

“Then what?” her brother demanded.

“Please keep in mind if anything hurts
Clayworth, it will affect me as well. I may never recover from
this.”

“That thought has been foremost in my mind,
Cordie. Now, tell me what is so damned important.”

“Promise not to tell Russell or Tris,” she
whispered.

Greg shrugged. “I promise.”

Cordie leaned in closer to her brother on
the off chance someone in the hall could hear them. “Clayworth’s
mother was French,” she began quietly, searching Greg’s face for a
reaction of any sort. When he nodded for her to continue, she did.
“Well, apparently her loyalties always remained with her home
country. For years, it seems, she was spying for the French and
passing off sensitive information on trips to visit family. I’m
not—”

“And Clayworth?” Greg asked with a
frown.

“Is innocent,” she defended. “But the
letters detail his mother’s traitorous acts. If they’re found out…”
Her voice trailed off. What would happen in that event? She hadn’t
thought that far ahead. It wouldn’t be good, but—

“He’ll he be sent to the gallows,” Greg
finished for her. His face went white. “Dear God, that’s what she
had planned,” he whispered just loud enough for Cordie to hear.

She blinked at her brother, not
understanding at all what he meant. “Greg?”

He shook his head. “She said she had a plan
to leave him so she’d be free.”
           
“Marina?” she asked quietly.

“I couldn’t imagine what she meant by that.
She was the man’s wife. She’d never be free of him. But if she was
a widow…”

Prickly chills raced up Cordie’s spine at
the thought and she shivered. She didn’t want to envision Brendan
in any state except alive. Marina had planned to have him executed?
She thought she might be sick, so she dropped into a chair. “That’s
awful.”

“She was very unhappy.”

That was not new information. Cordie shook
her head. “
I
have no desire to be a widow, Greg. You need to
scour Rufford Hall.”

“You’ll come with me. I don’t want to leave
you here with him. The way he went about all of this…”

Her heart ached at the truth of her
brother’s words, but she smiled as brightly as she was able.
“Despite everything, I’m his wife and I do love him, even if he
doesn’t return the sentiment.”

Greg’s face fell. “God, Cordie. I should
have been more attentive to you. None of this would have happened
if—”

Cordie wrapped her arms around his neck and
he held her tightly. “Just help me now, Greg.”

***

Brendan took a relieved breath as the Avery
coach finally started down his drive, taking his wife’s mother and
all three brothers away from Bayhurst Court. Thank God!

The night before had been one of the most
uncomfortable he’d spent in his thirty-five years. Lord Avery
glowered at him the entire time. The two officers constantly
bickered with each other over one inane reason or another. His
mother-in-law pouted non-stop. Rose was oblivious to her
surroundings, wearing a look of exuberance, while Thomas quietly
kept to himself. All of that was bearable, or would have been if
his wife had been able to look him in the eyes. She hadn’t, and his
heart still ached.